Waco

Part Three: Rodenville

In 1985, Vernon Howell left Mount Carmel with his followers, bound for destinations unknown. Over the next few years, they would struggle to find a place to build their permanent headquarters as they attempted to try and swell their ranks with new converts. Meanwhile, back in Waco, George Roden's erratic nature left him with a dwindling congregation. So he decided to risk a gambit in order to try and win them back…

Before he had left Mount Carmel and split from the rest of the Branch Davidian organization, Vernon Wayne Howell had spent years living with and among them. He had befriended and grown close with several, dating back to the time before he'd come forward with prophetic visions from God in 1983. Among the individuals he'd grown rather close to was Perry Jones, a longtime Davidian, who had more than ten children living at Mount Carmel.

Perry had become a supporter of Vernon when he came forward with his Serpent's Root Bible studies. He later recalled to the Waco Tribune-Herald:

"We accepted that Vernon Howell had a prophetic message. All of us, except George, that is."

Perry Jones was one of the followers that had gone with Vernon after he had been driven out by George Roden in 1985. But, for good reason. You see, the year prior, Perry Jones had given Vernon permission to marry his fourteen-year-old daughter, Rachel. Shortly thereafter, she'd gotten pregnant.

Just a handful of years removed from having nothing in his life - including purpose - Vernon Howell now had almost everything he'd ever wanted. Purpose. Goals. Family. A wife. And soon, a child. But there was one thing he'd always craved, and never been able to find, save for short bursts.

Stability.

Ever since being evicted from Mount Carmel, Vernon and his followers had been moving around central Texas, trying to find a place to establish themselves. However, they were noncommital about any of them, not knowing what their future in Waco held for them. You see, back there - at Mount Carmel - they'd become a part of the region. They weren't looked upon like vagrant pilgrims or crazy radicals... they had a home. They had been a part of a community there that allowed them to just be themselves.

Now, they had none of that. No security. No home.

Desperate to find some guidance for his newfound family and his followers, Vernon decided to make a trip to Israel, just as his predecessors, Benjamin and Lois Roden, had done before. As recounted by author Jeff Guinn in his amazing book "Waco," Vernon got to see the sites in the Bible that he'd read about his entire life. And, according to Vernon, while in Israel he had an encounter with God that would end up impacting the rest of his life.

Vernon claimed that during his experience, he was gifted with a vision of Cyrus the Great, the King of Persia who was mentioned in the Book of Isaiah. In it, he'd been named a "messiah," or rather, someone designated by God to have a special purpose in life. Cyrus is the only non-Jewish figure in the Bible to revered in this way.

When Vernon's son was born to Rachel months later, in 1985, he decided to bestown upon him the name of Cyrus. Then, he decided to commit to this ideal one step further. He decided to change his own name in honor of Cyrus the Great.

If you recall back to the first episode in this series, I told you about another man that decided to do the same thing a century beforehand. That man, Cyrus Teed, had changed the name he'd been given at birth to Koresh, with "Koresh" being the Hebrew translation of Cyrus.

So Vernon Howell decided to adopt the same name, along with another name, David. This name was chosen because the Kingdom of David was the eventual kingdom that Jesus Christ would supposedly rule over when he returned... the one that Vernon was assured he had been put on Earth to help create.

At this point, Vernon came back from Israel with not just a new name - David Koresh - but with a new level of commitment to his faith. He claimed that he was "The Lamb" from the Book of Revelation, the individual whose role it was to break the seven seals, ushering in the events that would lead to the Apocalypse. As Jeff Guinn notes in his book, "Waco," however, the words that Vernon - David - spoke almost exactly mirrored those of Cyrus Teed from a century beforehand. But it's not like anyone was aware of that at the time.

David Koresh believed that he had been tasked by God to help install the Kingdom of David, which Jesus Christ would himself rule over one day. Those that followed him were emboldened by his newfound confidence, and were increasingly willing to do almost anything he asked.

Back at the Branch Davidian compound in Mount Carmel, near the town of Waco, George Roden took charge for the first time, assured that the land was his rightful inheritance. He continued to argue that he should have assumed control nearly a decade prior, following the death of his father Ben in 1978.

In taking control, however, George openly violated the court order from 1979, which if you recall from the last episode, had forbid him from calling himself the leader of the Branch Davidian church or living at the Mount Carmel compound. But after the death of his mother, Lois Roden, in 1986, George took control of her estate... leading to a murky gray area that would play out in the background over the next couple of years.

Growing increasingly paranoid about Vernon and his followers returning, George Roden decided to do what any reasonable person would at this point in time: he renamed the entire compound "Rodenville," in honor of himself and his family. He also did so to try and remind his followers who their leader was, and which family had overseen the Branch Davidian church since their creation decades beforehand.

However, as the months passed - and his following dwindled - George began to grow more and more unstable. Or, at least, the facade he tapered over his natural self started to peel away in layers. While he had always been known to be impulsive and cruel at times, George's worst qualities were now put on display 24/7 with no one to tell him otherwise. As a result, the Branch Davidians that chose to stay behind at the Mount Carmel Center - or, rather, "Rodenville" - removed themselves from the situation.

Before long, "Rodenville" started to live up to its name. Before long, it was home to only George Roden and his remaining family, along with a few other families. They, too, would start to question their willingness to stay.

With a diminished following, George started renting out the land to unsavory characters. It was later alleged that people involved in drug manufacturing and the porn industry renting out properties on the compound, with George so desperate for revenue that he didn't care what the residents did. Despite this income, however, he continued to become delinquent on bills and tax payments; the latter of which had been piling up for almost two decades now. Local government officials filed for a lien to be placed on the property, but George ignored the issue... more concerned about other threats he perceived on the horizon.

George began constructing barricades around "Rodenville," which he later described to the Waco Tribune-Herald:

"It's to prevent car bombs from blowing up me or any of the people here."

As George Roden struggled to keep "Rodenville" afloat, Vernon Wayne Howell assumed his new identity as David Koresh. While he wouldn't legally change his name for a few years (1990), his followers began using the name regularly, believing in his vision: that he was the reincarnation of the prophet Cyrus who would help build the Kingdom of David. Yet, despite his followers' continued belief in his sermons, David discovered that it was hard to put food on the table and gas in the tank with prophecy alone.

A few months after returning from Israel with his new identity and purpose, David decided to venture out to California. There, he hoped that he and his most ardent supporters would be able to stay with some Branch Davidian practicioners that lived out there, and hopefully start raising some cash along with their profile. Their goal was to build up enough to hopefully build a new home for themselves, similar to the one they'd just recently left behind near Waco.

Splitting their time between Texas and California, the Branch Davidians began to proselytize much more than they had in the past, hoping to swell their ranks with new converts. As the congregation had done before - including back in the Davidian days, when they'd been led by Victor Houteff - they set their sights on Seventh-Day Adventists, who already believed in many of the tenets of the Branch Davidian faith. Most of the Branch Davidians were former-Adventists, and many had been driven out for their adherence to the faith, which went against some modern church philosophies.

During the small group's journeying to California, they came upon a young man from Hawaii named Marc Breault. He was going out to school in California, and was incredibly well-versed in scripture - possibly even moreso than David Koresh himself - but was unsure about his future in the Adventist church. He would later join the Branch Davidians, and became one of David's most avid supporters... for a time, at least (that's a story we'll touch upon in the next episode).

During this time, David would meet another young man named David Thibodeau, who had gone out to Los Angeles to become a rock drummer. He ended up becoming the drummer in David's burgeoning Christian rock band, which also included Marc Breault on keyboards. Through the music, Thibodeau would become involved with the church (although he never quite considered himself a follower).

With a growing network of converts in Texas and California, the Branch Davidians continued to expand outward, toward the places they had familial ties to.

Clive Doyle, for example, was a longtime Branch Davidian that had been born and raised in Australia and had gotten involved in the original incarnation of the church as a child. His mother had joined The Shepherd's Rod organization founded by Victor Houteff, and he later moved to Waco in the mid-1960s as an adult. Over the next two decades, he became one of the most trusted and devoted followers of both Benjamin and Lois Roden, and actually served as the editor for Lois Roden's magazine, Shekhinah. While Lois Roden was alive, many viewed Clive Doyle as her second-in-command.

Now, Doyle was a devoted follower of David Koresh. And knowing that he could help bridge a gap between his prophet and his nation of birth, Doyle began making return trips to Australia to try and find converts. He would then help transport them, or their money, back to Koresh and the rest of the Branch Davidians in Texas.

As members made trips to try and find converts in every corner of the country - and across the globe, really - the Branch Davidians also began to utilize the skills of each member to profit the church. Anyone with prior work in landscaping, for example, would help establish small companies for the other Branch Davidians to work in, with almost all of the proceeds going back to the church (or, rather, David). The same could be said for other skills, such as baking, cleaning, autowork, construction, etc. The entire Branch Davidian following became a growing network of side hustles, with the main focus remaining on David Koresh and his teachings, of course.

But despite this period of newfound momentum and growth, the followers of David Koresh were still missing something: a home.

After wandering around for the better part of a year, David's followers in Texas ended up finding a temporary home in Palestine, Texas, a small town about 100 miles northeast of Waco, located roughly halfway between Austin and Shreveport. There, the living conditions were much more scant than ever before.

According to a 1988 article from the Waco Tribune-Herald, David's followers were living in what follower Perry Jones referred to as a "temporary base," which was really just 5' by 7' buildings made out of plywood that were just large enough to sleep a few people inside. As described by Jones:

"Our heads are warm, but our feet are cold."

There, the men, women, and children lived in pretty desolate conditions, with the children attending school in an abandoned bus, and meetings were held outside, where furniture was gathered around in a haphazard circle. As described by reporters at the time, it looked like a compound fit for some hippies in the 1960s... not really a full religious movement (with dozens of children) two decades later.

It became clear that this type of life was not sustainable for David's followers, who yearned for a place they could call home. Despite it having been several months, many of them still yearned for the creature comforts and stability they'd gotten used to back at Mount Carmel.

In 1987, the year after Lois Roden passed away, tensions were still high between George Roden and David Koresh. Roden feared that Koresh would return to try and harm him and/or take over control of the compound at Mount Carmel. Yet, despite having control of the land, Roden had virtually no following at this point... so he decided to risk a gambit in order to try and win them back.

That year, Roden exhumed the coffin of Anna S. Hughes from the community cemetery at "Rodenville". Hughes, an elderly woman that had died back in 1968, had died two years after her husband, Dane, in 1966. In exhuming her coffin, George issued a challenge to David, claiming that whoever was able to resurrect Anna would be the uncontested leader of the Branch Davidians, their true prophet and the heir to his parents, Benjamin and Lois Roden. He would move Anna's casket into the church at Mount Carmel, placing it upon an altar and adorning it with a flag bearing the Star of David.

It's been reported over the years that George tried numerous times - without success, of course - to try and revive Anna.

Perhaps feeling that this was a trap of some kind, David Koresh refused the challenge. However, in the years beforehand, he had attempted to make nice with local government officials. Now, he attempted to lean on those relationships by reaching out to the local sheriff, letting him know that George Roden had dug up a body, accusing the other man of corpse abuse.

While police never stated whether they believed David or not, we do know that they were... less than inclined to act upon this information. At least, not immediately. Police were well aware of the feud between David and George, with George having made accusations of David brainwashing and raping his mother over several years, between 1983 and 1985. So police likely believed that this was just the next escalation in an ongoing religious feud between two would-be prophets.

It's been said over the years that police suggested to David that he return with evidence that George had illegally dug up the body from the cemetery. Then they'd be able to act upon it in some way.

Yet those back in Palestine felt rather-strongly about the news. Perry Jones, David's father-in-law, and one of his most devoted followers, had an infant son buried in the same cemetery. He now had to wonder if his casket had been similarly dug up by a crazed George Roden. Jones would later recall to reporters with the Waco Tribune-Herald:

"There is a time for those kinds of things. In Daniel 12, God told Daniel that the righteous would be resurrected. But God did not mean in a situation like Rodenville, which we refer to call the Mount Carmel Center."

In the waning days of October 1987, David Koresh sent a letter to George Roden and the remaining residents at Mount Carmel - "Rodenville." This letter, which was notarized by the local county clerk, let them know that George Roden had been removed as trustee of the Branch Davidian church, and had been replaced by David (who was still legally named Vernon Howell at the time). The letter also asked any of the residents there to send any tithes or rents to Howell and his congregation in Palestine, officially labelling George Roden a "trespasser."

This letter was, in all intents and purposes, a declaration of war to George Roden. A week later, he would tell reporters with the Waco Tribune-Herald:

"When they sent that letter out, I knew they were coming. They sent an article removing me as trustee, now they've come to finish the job and remove me from the land."

On November 3rd, 1987, David Koresh and seven of his male followers arrived at Mount Carmel. They were wearing camouflage that they'd purchased from a nearby K-Mart, and were armed with an assortment of firearms: five .223 semi-automatic rifles, two .22-caliber rifles, two 12-gauge shotguns, and approximately 400 rounds of ammunition. They'd also brought with them a map marked with positions for them to find cover, should they need to.

Their stated objective was to photograph the exhumed body of Anna S. Hughes, in order to bring that to local police officials and get George Roden removed from the property. But of all the items they brought with them - camo, guns, ammo - notably absent was a camera.

As they approached the compound's facilities, George Roden became aware of the men drawing close to his "Rodenville" church, so he grabbed an Uzi and ran outside to confront them. Gunfire was exchanged between both sides, with George Roden taking cover behind a tree. The other eight men - David Koresh and his followers - took cover behind a vehicle on the property.

Both sides exchanged shots for approximately twenty minutes, until deputies from the McLennan County Sheriff's Office arrived to quell matters. There, they arrested David and his seven followers: Paul Fatta, Peter Hipsman, Floyd Houtman, David Jones, James Riddle, Gregory Summers, and Stanley Sylvia. They were all charged with attempted murder, believed to have gone to "Rodenville" to assault its current landlord, George Roden. It was also theorized at the time that authorities might persue federal firearms charges, as it appeared like the men had illegally modified their firearms (in an attempt to make them fully automatic).

The tree that George Roden was found hiding behind had eighteen bullet holes in it, which luckily stopped most of them from reaching him. Roden had been injured, but thankfully not seriously. He had been shot in the hand and had some powder burns on his chest, but was thankfully alive, as were the eight other Branch Davidians that had been arrested in the shootout.

Following their arrest, bond for David and his followers was set at $50,000, allowing them to be freed awaiting trial. However, George Roden pushed for the bond to be set at a much higher amount - as high as $1 million for each defendant - claiming that:

"... as soon as they get out, they're coming back out here looking for me."

Despite facing some pretty egregious charges, things looked up for the defendants - nicknamed the "Rodenville Eight" - throughout the pretrial process. They'd thankfully kept to themselves throughout their recent exodus, and hadn't done anything to draw attention to themselves or cause trouble with authorities. This was really the only major issue they'd had since leaving Mount Carmel back in 1985, with Anderson County Chief Deputy Richard Fulford, one of the police officials in charge of their home in Palestine, speaking to reporters:

"We've never really had any problems out here... We've been out there a couple of times with the Department of Human Resources on calls because of the conditions out there. The way they live is a bit primitive... We've never had any weapons calls out there."

Despite their serious firepower raising some eyebrows - after all, the weapons they brought with them to confront George Roden at Mount Carmel were just a fraction of what they had - authorities had no real issue with them having the weapons. They had obtained them legally, and this was the only incident where they'd run afoul of the law... but even then, depending on who the rightful owner of the Mount Carmel compound was, this was more of a murky gray area than of an established illegality.

During the trial in the spring of 1988, prosecutors brought up a significant oversight. They highlighted how David and his followers had reportedly gone out to Mount Carmel, armed to the teeth, in an attempt to capture photos of the corpse and casket of Anna Hughes. But they didn't have a camera on them at the time, the one thing needed to supposedly prove the accusations. Based on that, it was surmised that they had gone out to "Rodenville" in an attempt to attack or kill its current landlord, George Roden.

The defense would then argue that, regardless of that, George Roden had evidently dug up a body. When police had arrived at the compound the prior November, they'd discovered her coffin lying in the church, just as David and his followers alleged. When questioned, George Roden claimed that he'd been in the process of relocating the compound's graveyard and his bulldozer broke down, so he temporarily put the coffin in the church until the bulldozer was replaced and the body could be reburied.

Lawyers for the defendants also argued that George Roden had been living at the compound illegally for several years at this point. If you recall, in the last episode, I told you about Lois Roden's lawsuit against her own son George back in 1979. George had lost the lawsuit, in a decision that took the jury less than fifteen minutes to decide. As a result, he'd received orders to stop associating himself with the church and a restraining order had been filed against him being on the property. Well, him returning to Mount Carmel and naming himself the new leader of the church was in direct violation of both court orders.

The defense argued that these were all signs of George Roden's ongoing mental and emotional disturbances, which had manifested themselves in various ways over the years.

In an attempt to damn the eight men to prison, George Roden had taken the stand, but seemed to snuff out his own case before it ever truly started. During his testimony, George admitted to trying to resurrect Anna Hughes, and also claimed to be the messiah... seeming to validate every allegation that the other Branch Davidians slung his way.

In April of 1988, a decision was handed down by the jury deciding the fate of David and his seven followers. The men that followed him to Mount Carmel were decidedly acquitted by a jury, with jury foreman Randall Toups later telling the Waco Tribune-Herald:

"We didn't really believe they had a murder scheme. If the boys had planned to murder George Roden, he'd be dead. I went right along with them on that. The greatest injustice was that these people were brought to trial. They didn't invade another man's property. George was on their land illegally."

Later, in one of the few songs that he recorded, David Koresh and the small band he assembled at Mount Carmel would record and release a song written about George Roden entitled "Mad Man in Waco" (which many would later mistakenly think he had written about himself in an act of prophetic forethought).

Despite his followers getting acquitted by the jury, David's case was not so clear-cut. The jury was unable to reach a consensus regarding his guilt, and with a split jury, a mistrial was ultimately declared by the judge. Yet, outside of the courtroom - with murder charges still hanging over his head - David expressed jubilance for his followers. He told reporters:

"I don't care if I go to prison. I just didn't want these men to go. If I go, I'll convert the prison. The decision is in God's hands. Who knows the minds of men? I'll wait on God."

Afterward, David invited the jurors and prosecutors out for pizza, beer, and ice cream. The prosecutors declined, but many of the jurors had become sympathetic to the Branch Davidians in the weeks prior. Mostly because of their dislike or disdain for George Roden, but also because of the underdog appeal that the group seemed to have... after all, this was a group of vagabonds that had been searching for a home for a few years now. Their story seemed almost Biblical, at least so far.

In the leadup to the trial, George Roden had gotten into some hot water. In correspondence with the Texas Supreme Court and Waco's 10th Court of Appeals regarding other legal matters, Roden had told justices, as reported by the Associated Press, that:

"... he hopes God infects them with herpes, AIDS and the 'seven last plagues.'"

Then, during the trial of the "Rodenville Eight," it was revealed to the world that George Roden had been acting in violation of a court order from 1979, barring him from calling himself the leader of the Branch Davidians or stepping foot on Mount Carmel. This resulted in his arrest shortly thereafter, and he was ultimately jailed for the better part of a year... during which time, the Branch Davidians returned to Mount Carmel, their home away from home. They had been gone for approximately three years now, and the signs proclaiming it "Rodenville" were almost immediately torn down.

As the trial unfolded, and members began to grow increasingly assured of an acquittal, they had begun using the money raised by the organization to pay back the taxes owed on the Mount Carmel property, which the Branch Davidian Church had been ignoring or putting off for nearly two decades.

Then, with George Roden gone, they were able to return to the compound themselves. They reportedly offered up hospitality to the few remaining tenants, but they all declined and left. This left behind David Koresh and his followers to discover the sad state that George Roden and his tenants had left the property in.

Several of the buildings were in a state of disrepair or decay, but the Davidians seemed to take that on as a challenge. They viewed this as a chance to begin rebuilding the Mount Carmel Center as they saw fit, or rather, as their leader saw fit.

David Koresh was now the unquestioned leader of the Branch Davidian church; not just the following, but the compound itself, established by the original Davidian movement decades prior. David had led his followers through the unknown and brought them back home, arguably in a better state than they'd been in when they'd left. And now, with them returning to Mount Carmel, the local District Attorney in Waco decided not to pursue charges against David for the shootout from November of 1987.

T he movement was poised to continue growing because of their hard work over the past few years. With that momentum, they could begin preparing for the real battle... the one that David had been preaching about in his sermons for some time now.

The ultimate battle between good and evil.

The Branch Davidians versus the evil army of Babylon.

Years later, when government forces from the ATF and FBI began besieging the Branch Davidians at Mount Carmel, El-Hadi Shabazz, the assistant district attorney of MeLennan County that tried the case against David and the rest of the "Rodenville Eight" in 1988, would tell reporters:

"It didn't take any special kind of prophecy to predict that just what's happening now was inevitable. You have a man who is considered the Messiah, who was the guru of this group, and who would do anything he asked them to do. Anything."

After being let out of prison for violating his prior court orders, George Roden chose not to return to Mount Carmel... for obvious reasons. He instead decided to set out on his own, away from Waco, where his parents had lived for most of his life. He relocated to Odessa, a city more than 300 miles west, near the New Mexico border, where he lived in a home previously owned by his parents.

Unable to keep his head down, however, George Roden made headlines the following year for another arrest. This time, though, he was accused of committing an obscene crime: murdering 56-year-old Wayman Dale Adair, another member of the Davidian church, who had been at Mount Carmel just a few weeks earlier.

Dale Adair had reportedly come to Odessa to share his belief that he was the messiah with George Roden, and had rented a room from him before being stabbed to death with a machete. Afterward, Roden had shot the other man's corpse in order to make his death look like self-defense... a tactic that proved unsuccessful in the trial that followed.

George Roden argued that Dale Adair had been sent by David Koresh and the other Branch Davidians to kill him, but there was zero evidence to support that claim. He was later found not guilty by reason of insanity, and spent the rest of his life confined to a mental hospital in Big Spring, Texas.

Over the next handful of years, George would attempt to escape multiple times, managing to leave the hospital grounds at least three times; once in 1993, again in 1995, and once more in 1998. However, in the final incident, which took place on December 8th, 1998, he hadn't made it very far. He escaped confinement, but his body was found on the hospital grounds, the victim of a heart attack.