Waco: The Tragedy that Still Haunts America

Factual America

February, 1993. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) has received word that the Branch Davidians, a cult based near Waco, Texas, is stockpiling illegal weapons at their compound. The ATF attempts to storm the base but the cultists know they are coming and force them to retreat. A 51-day siege follows, and it only ends when the compound is consumed by fire. 82 are killed, including 28 children.

In this episode of Factual America, Matthew Sherwood meets Tiller Russell, director and producer of Waco: American Apocalypse, a new Netflix docu-series that features interviews with law enforcement officers and Branch Davidian survivors, as well as previously unseen footage from the siege.

Tiller describes what happened at Waco as an ‘iconic American tragedy’ as it brought together two foundational aspects of American life – God and guns. The fate of so many children at the compound also makes it a very contemporary tragedy. Unsurprisingly, therefore, Tiller calls Waco ‘a ghost story’ that has ‘haunted America’.

The impact of the Waco siege on America and the world was undoubtedly facilitated by the rise of the 24/7 news cycle which, as Matthew notes, happened at around the same time. Despite, or perhaps because of this, Tiller explains that he is ‘a big believer in the passage of time... being a necessity to retell these stories in a way that adds depth and nuance to them.’ Especially if we consume a lot of news, we need time, sometimes a lot of it, to process what has happened. If we are able to do so, we may discover the story at the heart of Waco: American Apocalypse, the one that, as Tiller says, shows it is about ‘the human experience... what it means to be alive and to die and to watch people that you love, die’.

“Nothing like this had ever happened before. So, the FBI had no idea what they were doing. They were in this uncharted territory; the ATF, the people inside the compound, the news media had never seen anything like this.” – Tiller Russell