A Journey to Waco

Autobiography of a Branch Davidian

By (author) Clive Doyle With Catherine Wessinger, Matthew D. Wittmer

Publication date:

17 August 2012

Length of book:

298 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781442208858

Nearly twenty years after they happened, the ATF and FBI assaults on the Branch Davidian residence near Waco, Texas remain the most deadly law enforcement action on American soil. The raid by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms agents on February 28, 1993, which resulted in the deaths of four ATF agents and six Branch Davidians, precipitated a 51-day siege conducted by the FBI. The FBI tank and gas assault on the residence at Mount Carmel Center on April 19 culminated in a fire that killed 53 adults and 23 children, with only nine survivors. In A Journey to Waco, survivor Clive Doyle not only takes readers inside the tragic fire and its aftermath, but he also tells the larger story of how and why he joined the Branch Davidians, how the Branch Davidian community developed, and the status of survivors.

While the media and official reports painted one picture of the Branch Davidians and the two assaults, A Journey to Waco shares a much more personal account of the ATF raid, the siege, and the final assault that details events unreported by the media. A Journey to Waco presents what the Branch Davidians believed and introduces readers to the community’s members, including David Koresh. A Journey to Waco is a personal account of one man’s journey with the Branch Davidians, through the tragic fire, and beyond.
Right or wrong, for many people the word Waco has become shorthand for massacre. In April 1993, an FBI assault on the Branch Davidian residence in Waco, Texas, resulted in a fire that took 76 lives (nearly half of them children). Doyle, this book’s primary author, is a survivor of the events at Waco—the fire was the final incident in nearly two months of conflict between the Branch Davidians and the FBI—but the book isn’t, as many might expect, a condemnation of the FBI and the American government. Of course, there is criticism and a certain amount of finger-pointing, but, mainly, this is the author’s personal story—a story of his faith, his chosen way of life, and his relationship with David Koresh, the community’s charismatic and controversial leader. The events at Waco, even though they took place two decades ago, haven’t faded into memory yet, and the book should see immediate interest from readers seeking a better understanding of what happened and why.