by Ray Black
In 1993 news broke of an incident at Waco, Texas where 81 members of the Branch Davidian sect including leader David Koresh had died in a fire after a 51-day siege with ATF and FBI agencies. This caused Applewhite to panic about his own cause, Heaven’s Gate already felt disassociated from governments and forces, so guns were purchased and stored in preparation for an attack. By 1995 they had built a cement strong hold but a message from Nettles advised Applewhite to abandon such attempts at war. Applewhite believed that their cause was far greater than anything that had gone before it.
HALE-BOPP
Another event happened in 1995 that caused Applewhite to sit up and take note. Two astronomers, who were hundreds of kilometres apart at the time, were looking at the globular cluster M70 when they noticed a fuzzy object come into view. It soon became apparent that they had both fallen upon a previously undiscovered comet within seconds of each other. It was given the name of Hale-Bopp due to the surnames of the two discoverers and was to become the most photographed comet of all time. Hale-Bopp was such an amazing discovery as it was visible to the naked eye for over a month. The comet was estimated to be between 40 and 100 kilometres wide, and was described as a dirty snow ball with an extremely long gassy tail. From the day of its discovery Hale-Bopp became rather a mystical comet and reports started to circulate that there was more to it than science as we know it.
In November 1996, amateur photographer Chuck Shramek took a photo of Hale-Bopp using a 10 inch SC telescope and a CCD camera. In the photo there appeared to be another object following behind the comet’s tail. Shramek described it as a ‘Saturn like object’ due to the ring-like form that seemed to embrace its strangely shaped body. This was all it took for Applewhite to believe that closure of the lower life was imminent. He went on to preach to his crew that the saturn like object travelling behind Hale-Bopp was the spacecraft coming to take the Heaven’s Gate members to the higher level. Applewhite believed that Nettles had contacted him to inform him that Hale-Bopp was the sign that the apocalypse was getting close.
HIGHER LEVELS CALL
At the same time the Heaven’s Gate crew had managed to acquire enough internet skills to set up a company called Higher Source that designed websites for other customers. The money from this enterprise allowed the group to rent a $7,000 a month Spanish style villa just outside of San Diego. The villa was to become the home of 40 members. they would wake up at 3 a.m. to begin prayer, eat two bland meals a day and make themselves as genderless as possible so as not to arouse any form of sexual attraction from other members.
Members began recording video diaries where they happily stated that they were looking forward to leaving the Earth behind to join Ti (Nettles) on the higher level. Applewhite constantly stated that his crew members were allowed to leave at any time, and many of them did, but so powerful and controlling was his mind that it was the weaker crew members who stayed – maybe people who would have had suicidal tendencies even without being in such a cult? One member even wrote a passage on the website stating that even if they were wrong and there wasn’t a higher level, there wasn’t anything to live for on Earth anyway so it was worth a try. People who feel that low about themselves, maybe depressed about how their lives have gone so far, of course will embrace the idea that life on Earth is in fact meaningless and there is something better to come from the ‘next stage’. If an idea is expressed in an interesting enough way it will cause people to think, even if they do not necessarily agree with the statement in question, it will get their mind working – is that all it takes to get inside the mind of another human and completely change their destiny?
Applewhite had made his crew members believe that the only way for them to progress to the next level was through an Older Member, so without Applewhite, they did not stand a chance; they needed him. Therefore the logical process would be to leave this world when Applewhite left.
THE YEAR OF THE SUICIDE
The Heaven’s Gate crew members enjoyed their final year on Earth. They went to a UFO conference and purchased insurance against alien abduction. At the beginning of March all 39 members went on a four day coach trip that took them to Golden Beach, the place where Ti and Do had held one of their first meetings in 1975. They went on day trips to the local zoo and some members went to San Diego Sea World. They ate out every night; pizzas, burgers and steaks were consumed. On March 21, the entire crew went for a final lunch at a Marie Callendar restaurant in Carlsbad where they ordered 39 identical meals of chicken pot pie, cheesecake, and iced tea. That was the last time they were to be out of their villa.
On March 26, 1997, the San Diego Sheriff’s department received an anonymous phone call stating that there had been a mass suicide at the Rancho Santa Fe. The bodies of 39 people were found in the villa just north of San Diego. At first it was believed that they were all men ranging between 18–24 years old. But after a closer look it became clear that there were 18 men and 21 women whose ages ranged from 26–72. The confusion had arisen because all the bodies looked identical and sexless.
The bodies were found in various rooms of the villa, each person was lying on their back with their hands by their sides as if asleep, and all except two had a purple shroud covering their heads. All members were in their regimentary tunics and wearing their Nike™ trainers.
It became apparent that the 39 people had committed suicide in three separate sittings over the course of a few days. Fifteen on the first day, 15 on the following day and the final nine on the third day. The careful way in which each shift had died concluded that it was definitely planned. There were no signs of distress and one of the first officers on the scene even described what he encountered as being rather serene and tranquil.
The suicide was very ritualistic and each person died in the same way they had lived within Heaven’s Gate, in a very ordered fashion.
Some members assisted others with their death, cleaned up, and then went off to take their own lethal cocktail. In each top pocket of the 39 bodies was a five dollar note a few coins and a recipe for death. The recipe said:
Take the little package of pudding or apple sauce, and eat a couple of teaspoons to make room to put the medicine in and stir it. Eat it quickly, drink this vodka mixture and then lay back and rest quietly.
After autopsies it turned out that the ‘medicine’ the recipe referred to was phenobarbital which is an anti-seizure drug that in a high enough dose and mixed with alcohol can cause death. The drug would also make its user extremely drowsy, so plastic bags had been used as part of the ritual to make sure death came either from poisoning or suffocation. The last two bodies to die still had the plastic bags over their heads. All other members had died with plastic bags on their heads, but these had been subsequently removed and replaced with purple shrouds by the remaining members. The last two members alive must have removed the bags from the the other seven in their group and then killed themselves.
FAREWELL
In the house, along with around ten computers, investigators found video tapes that had been made in the weeks prior to the suicide. There was a statement from each of the 39 members. each stating their joy and excitement at leaving their earthly vehicles in order to board the heavenly ship that would take them to the higher level. One such video statement from a crew member known as Stmody stated that:
We watch a lot of Star Trek, a lot of Star Wars, it's just like going on a holodeck...we've been on a holodeck, we've been in an astronaut training program . . . we figured out a day equals one thousand years . . . played it out mathematically . . . it’s roughly 30 minutes . . .we’ve been training on a holodeck for 30 minutes, now it's time to stop and put into practice what we've learned . . . so we take off the virtual reality helmet, we take off the vehicle that we've used for this task. We just set it aside, go back out of the holodeck to reality to be with the other members in the craft, in the heavens.
Each member seemed totally at ease with what they were about to do, in their minds – however the though
t had got there – they were about to take part in a perfectly normal and reasonable act. An act that was much more than suicide, it was departure. Departure on a new journey to a more fulfiling and enlightening place.
Whether the Heaven’s Gate ever reached their destination remains to be seen, but maybe the important thing is that in their minds they were about to succeed and that was contentment enough? On the other hand, had they never met Bo and Peep the 38 crew members would have become wolves instead of sheep and hunted and fought for a decent life on Earth as it was the only one they were going to get.
David Koresh
Sent to Earth by God?
What really happened at Waco?
Vernon Wayne Howell was born on August 17, 1959, in Houston, Texas. The son of an unmarried teenage mother, Vernon never knew his father and was brought up by his grandparents. His childhood was quite a lonely one and often got teased by other children who called him ‘Vernie’.
Whilst at high school he was diagnosed as having dyslexia, but by the ninth grade he had dropped out. Although he had no interest in school Vernon was a keen guitarist, with a great love for women. He was also very interested in Biblical scriptures and although he had no formal religious training apart from what he had learnt at his mother’s Seventh-day Adventist Church, he had the remarkable talent of being able to recite and explain long passages of Biblical scriptures.
In 1979, after getting expelled from the church for being a bad influence on other young members, Vernon moved to Hollywood with the idea of making it as a rock guitarist. By this point in his life he had gained a lot of confidence as well as a theatrical and assertive nature that would be expected of a try hard rock star. But two years later, after realising just how difficult it was to make it in the music industry, he returned to the state of Texas and moved to Waco.
Howell joined the Mount Carmel religious Center and it wasn’t long before other members were taken in by his extraordinary way of being able to teach and explain complex scriptures to them.
It was here that Howell met Lois Roden. Roden was the amiable 67-year-old leader of the Branch Davidian Seventh-day Adventist group – which descended from a schism in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Lois Roden had become leader of the Branch Davidians when her husband, Benjamin Roden had died in 1978. The year before in 1977 Lois Roden claimed to have had a vision in which she saw the Holy Spirit. Roden claims that she had learnt from this vision that the Holy Spirit was a female.
Howell and Roden soon embarked on an intense sexual relationship and eventually moved in together. Howell got deeper and deeper into the thoughts and beliefs of the Branch Davidians and the couple even travelled to Israel on a pilgrimage for their beliefs. It was on this trip, in Jerusalem, that Vernon claimed that he was given a direct revelation about the Seven Seals together with the knowledge and ability to teach it to the world. Vernon was rapidly working himself into a position of influence and had Lois completely on side.
VIRGIN BRIDES
In 1984, at the age of 24, Vernon Howell married a 14-year-old named Rachel Jones and it soon became apparent that he was a womanizing sexual deviant with the need to satisfy physical lust. He may not have stayed faithful to his relationship with Lois Roden but he did stay faithful to her Davidian cause.
When Louis Roden died in 1986, a battle for power began between Vernon and Roden’s son George as to who was to become the new leader of the Davidians. The majority of the Branch Davidians’ members sided with George Roden and at gun point Vernon Howell and his meagre following were forced off the Mount Carmel sight.
By this time Howell had acquired two more wives. In March 1986 13-year-old Karen Doyle became his second wife and then five months later he wed 12-year-old Michelle Jones in secret.
Howell relocated his group in Palestine, Texas as an offshoot of the Davidians with the intent of being a peaceful and religious commune; or so it was thought. That was until 1987 when Vernon and seven of his trusted followers returned to Mount Carmel in full camouflage gear. They had nine guns and 400 rounds of ammunition and by the end of the siege George Roden was left with gunshot wounds to his chest.
Vernon and his group were arrested for attempted murder but at the trial neither he nor his compatriots were convicted.
INSIDE THE MIND OF DAVID KORESH
By 1990, Vernon Howell had become leader of the Branch Davidians and it was in this year that he legally changed his name to David Koresh. On the legal document the reason for his name change was stated as being ‘for publicity and business purposes’. But his main reason was from his belief that he was now the head of the biblical House of David. Koresh came from the Hebrew translation of Cyrus, the name of the Persian king who allowed the Jews held captive in Babylon to return to Israel. David Koresh believed he was the new Messiah sent by God to spread the word.
Once in control of the Branch Davidian Seventh-day Adventist group, Koresh embarked on annulling the marriages of members stating that only he, as leader, could be married. Several members left following this announcement but many followed his orders. Koresh then declared that due to his status he was owed at least 140 wives and was entitled at any time to claim any of the females in the compound young or old. Girls as young as 12 were soon to fall pregnant and forever be in his grasp.
Elizabeth and March Breault broke out of the group at this point as they were not happy with his teaching. They wrote many letters to their friends alerting them that the teachings of the man that called himself David Koresh were false and inaccurate. Their campaign did some good and by the summer of 1990 the majority of all Australian and New Zealand members had broken away from Koresh.
Koresh was seen as a man of many sides, a ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ character, full of contradictions. He could be funny but also extremely serious, he was loved but at the same time feared. His students would see him at times as a loner, deep in communication with God, and then on the flip side part of the crowd taking part in group activities.
PREPARATION FOR THE END?
Control of his students got more and more intense, Koresh even dictated what and when they could eat. He would enforce strict rules, and then moments later break them. He could basically do what he liked as he was a prophet sent by God.
By the the winter of 1990 Koresh had become more and more volatile and aggressive, he started to instruct his followers to watch violent war videos on a regular basis and had begun purchasing firearms. They were accumulating weaponry stock as part of a seemingly legal selling trade, solely for the purpose of making money.
They were also building up an impressive larder of food that could have seen them through a whole year if the need was to arise.
Even though it is believed by many people (apart from the FBI and government) that the weapons were only there as a means of making money, it does seem on the other hand that the Branch Davidians were beginning to obtain a militaristic mentality. According to some ex-members, Koresh wanted to know how far his followers would go in standing up for the faith that they believed in.
Koresh is reported to have said around this time that the Apocalypse would begin when the American army attacked their Mount Carmel compound. They even buried a school bus which was to be used as a bunker if the situation arose.
By 1991 there had been multiple reports made to the local authorities by ex-members of the Branch Davidians who were unhappy with the way life seemed to be going at the compound. Investigations started to take place due to allegations that Koresh was mentally and physically abusing the children in the congregation.
INVESTIGATIONS
In the spring of 1992 two parallel investigations of the Mount Carmel compound began. The first was the Waco Tribune Herald which, with the help of some former Davidian members, began in-depth research into the Davidians with the notion of publishing a seven part article at the beginning of 1993. At the same time The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) launched an investigation into Koresh and his followers.
/> On February, 1993, the Waco Tribune Herald published the first installment of its piece on Koresh and the Davidians. This was the beginning of the mess that was to come over the next 51 days. The newspaper article, built mostly on accusations from the disaffected members, portrayed Koresh as being a potentially aggressive, sexual deviant and his followers as brain-washed and deluded people who had forgotten how to be rational human beings.
It is also declared that three of the people who were interviewed by the paper were also working closely with the ATF, and the paper had also discussed the article with the bureau before going to press.
As the article went out and was read by locals the ATF planned a raid for the following day in order to arrest Koresh on charges of possessing unlicensed firearms and illegal explosives in order to protect the local community from impending danger.
Bizarrely enough, at the end of 1992 Koresh had invited the ATF agents to the Mount Carmel compound in order to examine his weaponry stash and its corresponding paperwork but the ATF had declined this offer.
The bureau were intent on going ahead with their February 28 raid but due to lack of planning and over eagerness, by the time they arrived all 131 Branch Davidians and a couple of local television news crews were already there to greet them. Without thinking through the situation, and without foreseeing what could happen, the ATF stormed straight in, carelessly and unnecessarily.
The major problem was that it was more than just a case of a siege against David Koresh. There were children within the compound, innocent people whose lives should have been made priority over the search warrant on Koresh – but they weren’t.