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University To Create Online Exhibit On Branch Davidian Siege
A Texas university has received a $20,000 grant to create an online exhibit about the 1993 shootout and standoff at the Branch Davidian compound outside of Waco.
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(September 5, 2008)—The Wittliff Collections at Texas State University in San Marcos has received a $20,000 grant to create an online exhibit about the 1993 shootout and standoff at the Branch Davidian compound outside of Waco.
The grant was awarded by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Texas State Library and Archives Commission’s TexTreasures grant program, the university said.
The exhibit will be created based on the primary source materials journalist Dick J. Reavis, collected while writing “The Ashes of Waco,” which was published in 1995.
Reavis donated his papers to the Wittliff’s Southwestern Writers Collection and his archive opened for research in 2006, the university said.
Among the items that will be made available are recordings of negotiations between the Branch Davidians and FBI agents, videos recorded by the federal government during the siege, Branch Davidian Bible studies dating back to the 1970s and correspondence between Reavis and surviving Branch Davidians.
The standoff at Mount Carmel started on Feb. 28, 1993 after Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agents launched a massive raid on the compound that left four agents and six Davidians dead.
The shootout stunned the ATF and the FBI moved quickly to take over operations.
It was in charge during the 51-day standoff that captured the attention of the world.
At one point, there were as many as 1,000 media representatives assembled along a rural McLennan County Farm to Market Road in an area that became known as Satellite City.
Analysts later said the intense media scrutiny of the government's handling of the standoff may have contributed to the FBI’s decision to use tear gas in an attempt to break the impasse.
FBI agents in armored vehicles pumped tear gas into the compound in an assault that began early in the morning on April 19, 1993.
Just after noon, fingers of flame began to shoot from one end of the compound.
A strong wind fanned the flames, which quickly engulfed the poorly constructed wood frame building.
As many as 80 died in the fire, including women and children.
Officials later admitted that pyrotechnic teargas devices were also used in the assault, but the government continues to maintain that the Davidians set the fire themselves.
Click Here To Read U.S. Justice Department Review
Critics, however, include the producers of an Academy Award-nominated Documentary, 'Waco:the Rules of Engagement," challenge the official account.
Click Here For More On The Documentary
Eleven surviving Branch Davidians were later tried in federal court in the deaths of the four ATF agents who died in the raid.
All were acquitted of murder, but four were convicted of the lesser offense of voluntary manslaughter.
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Latest Comments
I agree with TJ from West, $20,000 could benefit a lot of children who need financial help in school. Why glorify someone who raped young girls and chose other men's wives to be his own? To address Jerry from Groesbeck, the davidians had ample opportunity to release the children. The government bent over backwards to get as many children out as possible. The davidians are the ones who killed those children. Get your facts straight. Did the government make mistakes, yes they did but they weren't the ones breaking legal and moral laws, it was the davidians.
If the Dividians had nothing to hide, or doing nothing wrong then why didnt they allow the ATF and the FBI search the compound and serve the arrest warrant on David, as for the children, the Dividians had a choice to remove them from danger but instead they elected to keep them and use them, "in my opinion" as shields, it seems to me that I recall some news reports saying that the children were shot prior to burning in the fire, and if that is the case, who would have shot them? As for the adults, they made the choice to open fire on law enforcement, and then not surrender, it was a terrible thing that happened, but at some point they had to put a stop to it.
Why don't we just let this thing rest and be done with it?
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