by Ray Black
3301 WAVERLY DRIVE
Apparently displeased with elements of the Tate murders, Manson ordered the same four Family members – as well as Leslie van Houten and Steve Grogan – to carry out another set of murders the following night. This time he went with them to ‘show them how to do it’. After directing them to 3301 Waverly Drive – chosen as it was next door to a house where they had been to a party the previous year – Manson and Watson broke in and tied up the occupants Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, putting pillow cases over their heads. Manson then left, sending van Houten and Krenwinkel in to kill the couple. Watson stabbed Leno in the throat with a chrome-plated bayonet and, hearing a struggle in the bedroom, went in and stabbed Rosemary several times. He then returned to Leno, carving ‘WAR’ on his stomach while van Houten and Krenwinkel stabbed Rosemary with a kitchen knife.
The messages ‘Rise’ and ‘Death to Pigs’ were written on the walls with the blood of the LaBiancas, while ‘Healther Skelter’ (sic) was scrawled on the refrigerator.
The already dead Leno was then stabbed fourteen more times and was left with a carving fork in his stomach and a steak knife in his neck.
BACK TO WHERE HE WANTED TO BE
Amazingly, despite the common denominator of blood-scrawled messages on the walls of all three murder sites, police failed to make any connections between the killings. It wasn’t until Atkins was later arrested for prostitution and boasted about them to her cell mate – during which time, she also revealed plans to kill Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Steve McQueen and Tom Jones – that the authorities made any progress. Manson and his followers were duly arrested and legal proceedings began. Kasabian was granted immunity for testifying against the Family.
On 25 January 1971, Manson, Krenwinkel and Atkins found guilty on seven counts of murder. Leslie Van Houton was found guilty on two counts. All four were sentenced to death, but these were overturned a year later and replaced with life sentences when the US Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional. Manson remains in Corcoran Prison, California where he will spend the rest of his life. Given the fact that he has spent most of his life in custody and his plea to be retained in 1967, many believe that he is exactly where he wants to be.
David Koresh
In an event that bears similarities to those that took place in Jonestown in 1978, cult leader David Koresh and seventy-six of his followers died in controversial circumstances, on 19 April 1993.
The horrifying news footage of the prolonged FBI siege in Waco, Texas, culminating in the burning of the Mount Carmel religious compound, is one of the enduring images of the late twentieth century.
DAVID KORESH
Born Vernon Wayne Howell, he legally changed his name in 1990 to the one that would earn him notoriety three years later. Koresh never met his father, Bobby Howell, who abandoned his fifteen-year-old mother, Bonnie Sue Clark, before the future sect leader was born. Apparently unable to cope, she handed him to her parents to bring up, although at some point she introduced him to the Seventh Day Adventist Church which the Branch Davidians, the organization he would end up leading, had descended from as a result of a schism in the 1930s. His childhood was a difficult one; he was dyslexic and was bullied by his classmates, dropping out of school by the ninth grade. Despite his supposed illiteracy, he was fascinated by the Bible and studied it fervently, memorising large sections of it.
After a failed attempt at becoming a rock star, he joined the Branch Davidians in 1981. Its leader – or ‘prophet’ – at the time was seventy-six-year-old Lois Roden who had assumed control when her husband, Benjamin, died. Howell – as he was still named at this point – seduced her, later claiming that God had ordered that the two conceive a child that would be the ‘Chosen One’. Any attempts there may have been failed, but two years later Howell’s influence on Lois was reflected when she allowed him to preach. This caused friction with Roden’s son, George, and a power struggle ensued.
When his mother died in 1986, George Roden forced Howell and his followers from Mount Carmel at gunpoint. Howell returned a year later in an attempt to rejoin the sect; the episode was both bizarre and violent. Roden had exhumed a corpse which he challenged Howell to bring back to life; seeing an opportunity to remove his opponent, Howell reported Roden to the police but was told that photographic evidence would be required. Howell returned to Mount Carmel with seven of his disciples in tow, where Roden responded by opening fire. Amazingly, nobody was killed. Howell and his seven companions were accused of attempted murder but all eight were acquitted. Roden was soon imprisoned for another offence and was eventually transferred to a mental hospital where he spent the rest of his days.
In 1990, Howell became the leader of the Branch Davidians and changed his name to David Koresh. He apparently chose his first name as he believed himself to be an heir to King David and his second after an ancient Persian King who had allowed Jews to return to their homeland. During the infamous siege, however, he told an FBI negotiator that Koresh also meant ‘death’. Once he had taken control, Koresh announced that he was the only member of the cult who could be married and annulled the marriages of his followers. Although several members left at this point, a number of them clearly accepted his reasoning, as they stayed. He perceived the women – and, allegedly, some of the girls – as his wives, while the men were seen as his guardians.
Koresh wanted to create a divine army and believed that he alone could father these children. The members who had left the cult asserted that Koresh was a hypocrite who seemed immune to his own rules and also made allegations of child abuse against him, reporting that he would beat them until they bled; these claims were investigated but never confirmed. One former Branch Davidian claimed that Koresh had fathered at least fifteen of the children on the compound.
His teachings, meanwhile, began to focus on the concept of martyrdom for the cause. Clearly paranoid, he contended that the Apocalypse would begin when the US Army attacked the Mount Carmel compound. In anticipation of this, he had already begun preparations for a siege. A school bus was buried to act as a bunker while resources such as food and weapons were stockpiled. It was his hoarding of the latter that would arouse suspicion and ultimately result quite literally in an explosive ending for the sect.
THE SIEGE BEGAN
On 28 February 1993, agents belonging to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) raided Mount Carmel – which Koresh had now renamed ‘Ranch Apocalypse’ – in an attempt to arrest and charge the leader for possessing and modifying illegal weapons. This came after rumours about the cult’s weapon stash had gathered pace and, in May 1992, a delivery driver had reported that a package he delivered to the compound had become damaged, revealing grenade casings in the process. It remains unclear as to which side was first to pull the trigger, but gunfire was exchanged. Four ATF agents were killed and a further sixteen of their colleagues were wounded. Six of the Branch Davidians perished and others, including Koresh himself, were injured. Control of the escalating situation was handed to the FBI and a tense fifty-one-day siege ensued. Negotiations began and, initially, it appeared that a peaceful resolution could still be achieved as ten children were released. The FBI’s next move was to surround the perimeter of the compound with armoured vehicles. This incensed Koresh and his anger would only be fuelled when it was discovered that the FBI had diverted the compound’s phone lines so that the Davidians could only dial out to them. Negotiations continued, nevertheless, and Koresh promised to surrender and release his followers if the Bureau arranged for a tape of his teachings to be broadcast on national radio. The tape was duly played on the Christian Broadcasting Network, but Koresh changed his stance, telling negotiators that, during prayer, God had told him to wait.
At some point during the standoff, proceedings took a bizarre twist, as the FBI blasted the compound with a loud and eclectic range of music as well as recordings of Koresh that had been made during telephone negotiations. Koresh responded by relea
sing a video of members talking about why they were there of their own free will and that they would only leave when God told them to. Any rapport that there may have been between the Davidians and the FBI seemed to collapse during the next few days. Koresh refused to surrender and his only statements were threats of violence and long-winded religious proclamations. This breakdown in communications caused the FBI to become concerned that the cult would commit mass suicide rather than surrender. A letter sent by Koresh to the FBI on 9 April did nothing to change this growing fear; when experts analysed its contents they concluded that he had no intention of leaving. Like Jim Jones’ chilling warning to authorities that they would die if they tried to take any of his followers from Jonestown in 1978, Koresh made a similar threat to the FBI the week before the grisly end to the standoff: they would be consumed by fire if they tried to harm him. This threat was echoed by Davidians on the penultimate day of the siege. As tanks pushed aside vehicles from the front of the compound, members held children up at windows as well as a sign that read: ‘Flames Await’.
After the Davidians refused a final ultimatum, the FBI commenced a tear gas attack in the early hours of 19 April. Tanks punched holes in the building’s wooden walls before pumping the gas through the holes, cult members responded with gunfire. At around noon, a fire was spotted at one end of the building and FBI snipers reported witnessing two men starting the blaze. The wooden compound was soon engulfed in flames and a large explosion indicated that its weapon store, the initial cause of the authorities’ concern, had been breached.
Although a handful of cult members escaped as
the fire took its grip, a devastating toll was taken as
the bodies of seventy-seven cult members, including that of Koresh, were recovered. At least twenty of them, including their leader and five children, had died of bullet wounds. The FBI’s heavy-handed management of the situation was roundly criticized and its intervention certainly seems to have confused the issue as to whether the tragedy was a mass suicide or a mass murder. What is clear, however, is that whether deluded or conniving, David Koresh’s hypocrisy and dictatorial manipulation of others had earned him the epitaph of cult killer.
Ervil LeBaron
Many a fanatical cult leader has claimed to have heard the voice of God telling him to carry out – or, more appropriately, execute – orders fundamentally opposed to the very doctrines he should be promoting. Ervil LeBaron, however, surely ranks amongst the most hypocritical, ruthless and deranged.
THE LEBARON FAMILY TRAIT
He remained stone deaf to accusations of expro-priation of property, wealth and power through violent exploitation of family, friends and their offspring, including rape, paedophilia and murder. Conversely, ideas satisfying his lust, greed and urge to manipulate everyone around him were heavenly music to his ears. Unfortunately, nobody on record had the temerity to tell him he should stop talking to himself and try normality for a change. Easier said then done, perhaps, since madness was a definite LeBaron family trait.
Sects generally shut themselves off from the world, which they judge to be evil, heathen and dangerous. Sect leaders present as wise and caring guides to the hordes of followers they attract – or lock in – with promises of paradise in the after-life. Doubtless, these were precisely the guiding principles of Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon Church, who attributed his Book of Mormon to his vision of an angel bearing holy tablets engraved with ancient scriptures. Clearly, his message from God told him to lead an exemplary life away from the wicked world, in his own, ‘pure’ community; and, since the Bible also told of patriarchs taking many wives to fulfil such projects, Smith also embraced polygamy, both literally and figuratively. Small matter that he took more than thirty wives – despite his denials when polygamy, already against the law, was condemned by the Church – his was a holy mission, his lies essential for the greater good. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, however, the pressure of the real world told and the practice of polygamy officially ceased within the Mormon Church … prompting breakaway groups of Mormons to decamp to Mexico, safely removed from evil society, corrupting influences and, most importantly, the law.
CHURCH OF THE FIRSTBORNERS
In 1924, Alma Dayer LeBaron and his family of two wives and eight children also found their way to Mexico, more precisely to Galeana, Chihuahua, where they set up a farm called ‘Colonia LeBaron’. Colony, sect or just plain harem, it provided the ideal setting for the launch of a philandering psychopath the following year. Born 22 February, 1925, Ervil Morrell LeBaron was, nevertheless, unlucky enough to have an elder brother barring his way to leadership of the sect. Joel LeBaron became the leader on his father’s death, in 1951, with Ervil second-in-command. Together they led the so-called Firstborners, from the Church of the Firstborn of the Fullness of Times.
Though lazy and openly self-indulgent, Ervil was smart enough to realize that his encyclopaedic knowledge of the Book of Mormon and the Bible both impressed and intimidated sect followers. Conveniently for the tall, handsome sexual predator, LeBaron claimed God had told him to spread his seed freely. No second bidding required, as he accumulated some thirteen wives and allegedly fathered more than fifty children, never baulking at molesting under-age girls, seducing the young wives of friends and even bedding grateful, older women. Satisfying his voracious sexual appetite was, nevertheless, still not enough to sate his lust for power.
Ervil’s blatant siphoning off of sect funds and desperate attempts to close lucrative but decidedly shady business deals threatened to leave him exposed, not only to critical fellow members of the sect but also to opponents, especially rival sect leaders. Time for another message from God. The latest revelation saw LeBaron reinterpreting the Ten Commandments and reviving the long abandoned Mormon Church concept of Blood Atonement. Originally, Blood Atonement, clearly a means of punishing by death the crimes of Mormons, was also supposed to represent joyous, early entrance to the kingdom of God. Ervil LeBaron’s version, called Civil Law, simply represented vengeance for the wrath of God, requiring the ultimate, human sacrifice: breaking any of the new commandments – in short, doing anything to oppose or upset LeBaron – would inevitably incur death, the more painful and violent the better. Now he could repress and suppress at will, armed with the ultimate sanction, granted by God’s decree.
When Joel demoted the cavalier Ervil, in 1970, he could scarcely have guessed the depths of depravity his younger brother would plumb. Outraged at his humiliation, Ervil soon formed the breakaway Church of the Lamb of God, in San Diego. Then, in 1972, he had Joel eliminated by two of his assassins – Ivan, Joel’s fourteen-year-old son, found his father, shot twice in the head at close range.
Instead of asking Ervil to lead them, the Firstborners of ‘Los Molinos’, in Baja, California, chose his younger brother, Verlan, and publicly accused Ervil of Joel’s murder. Ervil promptly ordered the execution of Verlan, the first of many unsuccessful attempts to kill the second ‘false prophet’ of the family. Nevertheless, two of Verlan’s men perished during Ervil’s unsuccessful assassination raid on ‘Los Molinos’. After Ervil handed himself in, in Mexico, in 1974, he was tried, convicted and sentenced to twelve years imprisonment. After just twelve months he was released. Though many suspected bribery, the verdict was officially overturned on a technicality.
PARANOIA AND WEAPONS
As if psychosis, delusions of grandeur and blood lust were not enough for one man, Ervil LeBaron now began to suffer from paranoia. His failed murder of a second brother left him feeling vulnerable to attacks from vengeful followers of Verlan. Cunningly, he harnessed the condition by passing it onto his followers. Convincing them that they, too, were potential targets, he moved the Church to Utah and armed them with new identities and, more significantly, weapons. From there it was a short step to persuading some of them to kill on his behalf, in the name of the Church.
He also tightened up on security, fearing treach-ery could be his undoing. A chance soon presented it
self for two of his wives to permanently silence an enemy within, namely Noemi Zarate Chynoweth, one of Ervil’s – albeit illegal – mothers-in-law through his marriage to her daughter, Lorna. Noemi, an undercover ‘plant’ at ‘Los Molinos’, had taken fright when Ervil’s attack on Verlan’s headquarters failed. She ill-advisedly let slip that she was unhappy about Ervil’s cruelty and violence and was thinking of exposing him to the police. With total support from Noemi’s husband, Bud, LeBaron sent wives Vonda White and Yolanda Rios to do his dirty work: Vonda drilled her friend, Noemi, full of bullet holes and Yolanda helped Vonda bury the corpse.
Next on the death roll was Robert Hunt Simons, whose business, property and, no doubt, wives, Ervil coveted. A rival, polygamous sect leader, Simons was, it seems, equally deluded about his own God-given mission, reportedly to save the souls of Native Americans by converting them to the Mormon faith. Once again, LeBaron’s assassins did his bidding, leading Simons into an ambush and shooting him in the back of the head, before concealing the body. With business looking up in 1977, LeBaron finally ordered the killing of Rulon C. Allred, rival leader of another group of polygamous Mormon fundamentalists, who had long since bad-mouthed the Firstborners. LeBaron’s thirteenth and last wife, Rena Chynoweth, abetted by Ramona Marston, executed Allred at LeBaron’s behest, but walked free from her trial for murder – to which she confessed in her 1990 memoir, The Blood Covenant.
Vonda White’s second victim, Dean Grover Vest, one of LeBaron’s men who wanted to leave the Church, earned her a life sentence. However, not even the murder of his own, seventeen-year-old, pregnant daughter, Rebecca, who also wished to leave the Church, resulted in conviction for LeBaron. His stepson, Eddie Marston, and brother-in-law, Duane Chynoweth apparently strangled her with a rope, in April 1977.