This monument on the grounds of the old Mt. Carmel Center was erected by the Northeast Texas Regional Militia of Texarkana, Texas.  It reads, "Mount Carmel Center: On February 28, 1993, a church and its members known as the Branch Davidians came under attack by ATF and FBI agents.  For 51 days the Davidians and their leader, David Koresh, stood proudly.  On April 19, 1993, the Davidians and their church were burned to the ground.  82 people perished during the siege.  18 were children 10 years old or younger."  And there follows a list of 82 known dead Davidians.

Introduction

This is a story of bold and systematic destruction of evidence. Reviewing the lessons from earlier chapters:

1.  Fire Exhibit 2: The Amazing Blaze. The evidence at the scene of the crime was erased by a horrific fire that was prepared and contrived months in advance.
2.  Death Exhibit 23: Dismemberment and Agglutination. The bodies were presented for autopsy in a way that destroyed all in situ evidence.
3.  Death Exhibit 7: Plausible Denial - Enter Dr. Nizam Peerwani: An incompetent Medical Examiner was chosen to perform the autopsies. Despite the clearly anomalous condition of the bodies, none of the autopsies includes an estimate of the time of death.
4.  Death Exhibit 9: The Smithsonian Comes to Waco: The Smithsonian Institute's forensic anthropologists, long-time consultants to the FBI, were brought in, lending legitimacy to a murderous cover-up.
5.  False Narratives Were Imposed on the Justice of the Peace to muddle the inquest findings, such as "Probably suffocation due to overlie and burial in structural collapse" (M.C. Does 51, 51A, 53, 55, 57, 59, 61, 63, 67-2, 67-3, 67-6, 70). (See Death Exhibit 15: The Collapsed Bunker That Wasn't a Bunker Didn't Collapse.)

Now, let us consider the layers of deceit and misdirection in the subsequent weeks and years.

6. 

Enlarged detail from Figure W13-3.

April 19, 1993 - Very Little Physical Evidence Survived the Fire. One item that did survive and could have been most useful in the courtroom was the steel-clad front door through which the ATF said the Davidians had showered bullets, attempting to murder the federal agents.
Gunfire from inside the Compound burst through the door. The force of the gunfire was so great that the door bowed outward. (Treasury Report, pg. 96)

However, photographic evidence does not support that narrative (Figures W13-1, W13-2, and W13-3). The door itself would have told the tale, but a U-Haul truck drove onto the site soon after the fire died down, and agents loaded it with a large object. Sgt. David Keys of the Dept. of Public Safety said it was as big as one of the front doors of the Mt. Carmel Center. "It was that big or bigger," he said. Since that time, no one has seen that steel-clad door bearing the critical evidence of who-shot-who during the February 28 raid (The Austin Chronicle, August 18, 2000, "Prying Open the Case of the Missing Door", cached),

7.  April 30, 1993 - The Forensic Bulldozer. A mere 11 days after the fire, federal agents bulldozed the concrete room where the bodies of most of the women and children were found (Dallas Morning News, May 1, 1993, "Remains may be those of Koresh, sheriff says").
8.  May 14, 1993 - The Second Forensic Bulldozer. Less than a month after the fire, the federal agents in charge bulldozed the entire Mt. Carmel site, destroying any remaining evidence (Waco Tribune-Herald, May 13, 1993, "Attorneys visit compound remains: Guided tour given before bulldozers finish destruction").
9.  May-June, 1993 - The County Morgue Refrigerator Failed "weeks after Medical Examiner Nizam Peerwani had performed autopsies on members of the religious sect." Apparently, no one noticed the failure for an extended period, causing the remains of the Davidian casualties to "liquefy" and putrefy beyond any forensic value (Fort Worth Star-Telegram, September 17, 1999, "Lawyers in Waco suit say morgue cooler failed").
10.  August 6, 1993 - Criminal Trial of the Branch Davidians. Many of the surviving Branch Davidians were indicted and tried on the allegations, narrative, and evidence selected by the FBI.
11.  September 1993 - The U.S. Treasury Department Report. Treasury published its official report on the research, preparation, and initial assault on Mt. Carmel, titled: Report of the Department of the Treasury on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Investigation of Vernon Wayne Howell, Also Known as David Koresh ("Treasury Report", cached). That report set in stone the major myths of the raid.
12.  October 8, 1993 - The U.S. Department of Justice Report. The Dept. of Justice published its official report on the incident, titled: Report to the Deputy Attorney General on the Events at Waco, Texas February 28 to April 19, 1993 Redacted Version ("Dept. of Justice Report", cached). Each redaction is a statement that the writers and editors considered sufficiently important to include in the report, but too sensitive for public consumption. It summarized many of the false conclusions of the autopsies but did not comment on the anomalies. That report set in stone the major myths of the siege, final assault, fire, and autopsies.
13.  October 8, 1993 - The Edward S. G. Dennis, Jr. Report. The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania conducted a separate investigation of the events, based entirely on the Dept. of Justice's own information—according to the Introduction to his Report (Evaluation of the Handling of the Branch Davidian Stand-off in Waco, Texas February 28 to April 19, 1993 Redacted Version). Note that the Dennis report was also "redacted." It was republished and marketed as a commercial paperback in 1996. Notably, Dennis did not examine or report on the autopsies.
14.  April 19, 1995 - The OKC Bombing. The Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, was bombed on the anniversary of the burning of Mt. Carmel, killing 168 people. Government agents and their puppets in the media immediately blamed the Davidian sympathizers. And indeed, when McVeigh was eventually arrested, tried, and convicted for the crime, his alleged motive was said to be outrage over the killing of the Branch Davidians. By extension (so ran the propaganda), anyone who sympathized with the Davidians must agree with the bombing of the Murrah building—and maybe plotting to do more of the same.
Timothy McVeigh's hatred of the federal government intensified in 1993 after an armed standoff in Waco, Texas resulted in the deaths of 76 people. McVeigh went to Waco during the standoff and handed out anti-government literature … In the end, the government that McVeigh hated and hoped to topple swiftly captured him and convincingly convicted both him and his co-conspirators. (FBI History: "Oklahoma City Bombing")
The New Republic magazine ran a cover story in May 1995 entitled "The Network that Created a Massacre," explicitly blaming Davidian sympathizers. Featured in the article were Linda Thompson, Carol Valentine (this writer), and a half dozen others who were clamoring for justice over the Waco Holocaust. It asserted that by blaming the government, those people had caused the OKC bombing. The two historical events have been inseparably linked in propaganda, the media, and the histories.
15.  1997: Mike McNulty released a documentary, Waco: The Rules of Engagement, which cost more than $1.4 million to produce, according to Wikipedia. Despite its flawed evidence and muddled conclusions, it won the News&Documentary Emmy Award for "Outstanding Investigative Journalism" and several other awards, while being nominated for an Academy Award for "Best Documentary Feature." In a major false narrative promoted by the video, a crowd of Davidians attempted to escape the fire through an exit in the rear of the Center, but were mowed down machine guns. The script for the documentary is available in Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4.

See Carol Valentin'e review, The Waco Documentary Is A Hoax.

McNulty went on to produce two more videos, Waco: A New Revelation and The F.L.I.R. Project.

16.  1993-2000: The Congressional Hearings. Various Congressional committees held public hearings on the Waco Holocaust and produced reports in 1993, 1995, 1996, and 2000. Reports on those hearings and related issues can be found in the on-line Government Commerce Research Library.

In 1996, the Committee at that time wrote of its members:

All involved in the planning and carrying out of the hearings and the investigation were strong supporters of Federal law enforcement. All believed that through airing and analysis of the Waco events by congressional oversight committees were necessary to the long-term credibility and viability of the Federal law enforcement agencies. (Materials relating to the investigation into the activities of federal law enforcement agencies toward the Branch Davidians / by the Committee on the Judiciary … One Hundred Fourth Congress, second session, pg. 14, cached)

In 2006, Rep. Bob Barr wrote of the hearings:

The hearing was a farce: a virtual lovefest, during which members of the Clinton Administration responded to softball questions from their colleagues in the House with superficial answers, and Republican queries were ignored or glossed over with disdain, if not outright contempt. (FindLaw, February 9, 2006, "NSA Kabuki Theatre: Though Same-Party Oversight Led to Weak Hearings on NSA Wiretapping, Some Important Facts Did Come Through")
17.  November 8, 2000 - John Danforth's Final Report and Critique. Despite all the above, public outcry about the Waco Holocaust did not go away. In 1999, President Clinton appointed John Claggett Danforth to the position of Special Counsel to investigate the issue once again. Claggett was an Episcopal priest who served as the Attorney General of Missouri from 1969 to 1976 and as a United States Senator from 1976 to 1995. After extensive investigation of the FBI's carefully edited report, statements of agents, and the little evidence the FBI had permitted to survive, Danforth concluded that the truth was just what the FBI said it was—based on what the FBI said it was, as he explained in the Introduction to his Final Report to the Deputy Attorney General Concerning the 1993 Confrontation at the Mt. Carmel Complex (cached). He did not address the autopsies or the destruction of evidence. Instead, Danforth began his Report with the "History and Beliefs of the Branch Davidians." And that tells us everything we need to know about his "investigation."
18.  June 19, 2000 - Waco Suits For Waco Suckers. After five years of legal wrangling, the civil suit filed by the surviving Branch Davidians and relatives finally came to trial.

Suppose you were a surviving Branch Davidian or family member and you had voluminous and incontestable evidence that your family and friends were murdered with malice aforethought and their bodies desecrated to cover up the crime.

Would you file a lawsuit claiming your womenfolk and children (a) died by accident, (b) committed suicide, or (c) were murdered by other Davidians?  Would you claim your dead friends and relatives set the Mt. Carmel Center on fire?  Would you demand that the US taxpayers, who took no part in the planning and execution of the murders, pay you money while the real murderers continued to walk free?

That's what the lawyers for those Branch Davidian plaintiffs did. That lawsuit is reviewed in Exhibit 13 Waco Suits For Waco Suckers with Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4.

19.  Are the Waco Survivor Stories True or False? There is nothing like having a victim testify against himself and his friends. The Soviets knew it and staged "show trials." The Americans know the trick. Thus, we have a handful of "Davidian survivors" confessing to all the allegations in the "Sinful Messiah," testifying in court, writing books, and giving interviews. See also:
20.  1993-2025 - Books and Videos about the Waco Holocaust: In the three decades since those awful events, the government, its agents, and the public have produced a relentless outpouring of books, comedian references, magazine and newspaper articles, TV documentaries, interviews, podcasts, and "academic" studies. Not one has given the autopsy reports a serious analysis. Here listed are a few of the books and videos produced.

There have been many attempts to deny or sanitize the Waco Holocaust—a long stream of official and unofficial reports justifying, sanitizing, modifying, and nullifying the crimes our government committed.

Normally, conclusions about the manner, cause, and time of death of the deceased are drawn from autopsies.  As you read these whitewashes of the Waco Holocaust, note that the reviewers give scant attention to the Davidian autopsy reports.  The Davidian autopsy reports give the most damning and irrefutable evidence against those who committed the crimes.  The Death Gallery contains the details.

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