Waco: The Longest Siege

Waco: The Longest Siege uncovers the unexplored stories of those directly involved in the longest stand-off in American history. On the 25th anniversary of the great tragedy, this documentary special for the Smithsonian Channel tells the never-before-heard stories surrounding the rise of 25-year-old self-appointed Messiah, David Koresh from obscurity to prophet, and finally to leader of the Branch Davidian sect in West Texas. Waco: The Longest Siege explores Koresh’s extraordinary –and seldom told-- global recruitment effort to expand his budding Texas-based faith community by mailing his impassioned tape-recorded sermons and making personal visits to evangelical communities around the world. We recount the tales from those persuaded by his message how this charismatic Pied Piper attracted followers from as far afield as Australia, England, and Hawaii, many of them returning to join Koresh in the sect’s primitive encampment in Palestine, Texas –the precursor to the now infamous Mt. Carmel compound—where they lived a spartan life studying the Bible in a few acres of woodland. We hear the stories of 5 early Branch Davidian disciples –3 of whom still maintain their holy allegiance today to the man whose apocalyptic vision lead to the deaths of family and friends—who fell under Koresh’s hypnotic spell, including native-Australian, Clive Doyle, who walked away from fire that consumed the Davidian compound on the 51st and final day of the siege while his 18-year-old daughter, Shari –one of Koresh’s at-least 16 wives– died in the inferno. And Sheila Martin, who escaped the siege with 3 of her young children, but left 4 others and her husband, Wayne inside– only to die in the blaze. We also unpack the story of two former believers –Marc Breault and Australian, Liz Baranyai, two of Koresh’s closest acolytes-- who describe how Koresh’s gradual corruption of the Branch Davidian message and abuse of young girls led them to defect from the group and become enemies of their former prophet.