Waco showdown turns 30, focus of two miniseries

The tragic events at the Branch Davidian religious compound near Waco, Texas, return to national consciousness this week when the 30th anniversary of the fiery conclusion of a 51-day siege is marked on Wednesday.

The real-life drama that involved and ultimately consumed David Koresh and 81 of his followers — including 28 children — as well as four federal agents is also on TV screens this month with dueling series from Showtime and Netflix.

“Waco: American Apocalypse” was released March 22 on Netflix. Drawing on interviews with participants from the Branch Davidian sect, the FBI and media organizations, the series paints a picture of what went on at the group’s Mount Carmel compound in 1993.

Directed by “Night Stalker” filmmaker Tiller Russell, the Netflix series draws on what producers said was “recently unearthed videotapes filmed inside the FBI Crisis Negotiation Unit, as well as raw news footage never released to the American public, and FBI recordings” to take viewers behind the scenes of the event.

“The details of what happened during the 51-day standoff are complex and often ferociously debated, but rather than assigning blame or pointing fingers, we tried to treat it from a deeply humanist perspective — focusing on what it feels like for people on all sides to be caught in the maws of history,” Mr. Russell said in a statement.

At issue is whether the conflagration that burned the compound and resulted in most of the deaths could have been avoided. The Davidians, including member David Thibodeau, maintain the federal agents fired first and set the process in motion.

Law enforcement officials, such as FBI hostage rescue team sniper Chris Whitcomb, believe lives could have been saved if Mr. Koresh, whose real name was Vernon Howell, had been killed during the siege.

The April 19, 1995, massacre at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City — the second anniversary of the Waco siege’s end — was an outgrowth of the Waco siege, federal officials said then. The bombing planned by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, killed 168 and injured more than 680 people.

How McVeigh and Nichols went from being platoon mates in the U.S. Army to convicted terrorists is the subject of “Waco: The Aftermath,” a Showtime miniseries that premiered the first of its five episodes April 14. The series also looks at the court trials of several surviving Davidian members and suggests that the Mount Carmel attack inspired a vein of rebellion against authority.