>> my name is david koresh. >> to his followers, david koresh was a messiah. >> god speaks to me. >> manifestation of god in the flesh. >> we believe this man had the truth. >> but to the u.s. government, david koresh was a threat. >> machine guns and explosive devices. >> in 1993, they went to war in waco. >> this ain't america anymore when the atf has that kind of power. >> it ended in catastrophe. 86 people dead. including at least 24 children. >> there had been nothing like this before. the siege was new and unique in america law enforcement history. >> if you distrust the government, waco is going to be symbolic to a lot of people of what they really fear. >> i'm talking to you, somebody's going to get hurt. >> if he asks god for some kind of sign and god gives it, what does that mean? >> every saturday morning, clive doyle and shelia martin study the bible. >> the lord, god, will come with strong hand and shall rule -- >> they are about all that's left in waco of the branch dafdians. an offshoot of the seventh dayed a adventist church. it issued its own currency during the great depression. david koresh came to the faith and its texas commune in 1981. who was he back then, to you? >> just a bum. >> former branch davidian kathy jones, and her husband, david, had seen religious visionaries come and go. >> god speaks to me. >> this time was different. koresh would preach his way to power. >> i remember in the beginning, everybody was like, oh, he's crazy. he's this and that. i mean, that's all i heard. all of a sudden people were like, well, we're listening to him. he has a message. >> one, two, three, four. ♪ >> the message was a spellbinding account of revelation, the new testament's final book. ♪ revelation 14 his message >> koresh claimed that he, alone, could explain the book's mysterious verses about a final battle between the armies of god almighty and satan. >> there are some things that god has concealed in his written words that are to be brought to due right before the end of time. >> i confronted him, yes. >> branch davidian charles pace says he warned church elders in 1984 that koresh was a disaster waiting to happen. >> are they going to follow god or a man? >> the elders chose koresh. >> so god's the rock of all fence and the stone is stumbling. >> the scriptures just flowed out of his mouth. he just seemed to know so many things and knew how to explain them. >> take it from isaiah, referring to messiah, giving me signs in israel. >> my children learned how to swim in this pool. >> reporter: sheila martin came to the 77-acre compound in 1985. her husband, wayne, was a harvard law graduate. they brought their six children. >> i thought at first it was going to be a sunny day. just walk into the kingdom one day, bring my family, and we'll live forever through eternity, believing in the scriptures and doing the things god wanted. >> when it comes to religious matters, you're always learning. >> clive doyle came to waco on his way from australia to israel. he ultimately stayed to study scripture with david koresh. >> as his message developed, we came to see him as more than just a prophet. >> a messiah. >> right. manifestation of god in the flesh. >> koresh added a twist to his message in 1989, declaring only he could have sex. all the other branch davidian men would be celibate, even married men. koresh, however, could have multiple wives. in this home video that he would later send to federal agents during the siege -- >> i'm not a mean person. >> no, no. >> -- koresh linked his blend of spirituality and sex. >> just know that the rumor is true. >> with the purity of the garden of eden. >> he was showing it in the bible, this passage would say, we were just loaned to each other. >> some beautiful custom work. >> koresh had sex with underage girls. and with his various wives, he fathered at least 13 children. >> she'll have another one in about a month. huh? >> mm-hmm. >> it wasn't so much this is a man who's doing something that we don't approve of. >> this is our little one, holly. >> as much as he was teaching us greater thing. >> you're my love baby, right? is it my great, wonderful looks something that women just can't resist? >> you know, i saw a lot of people around me having -- having babies. i mean, i knew that that meant my time was coming. >> kathy jones' husband, david, was okay with it. kathy was not. and she left. >> if i had stayed there, i would have had children by david koresh. that's when i really, really got scared. >> god's in control. >> over time, koresh attracted a diverse group from as far away as australia, england, jamaica, the philippines, about 130 in all. >> trust god. read your bible. know what you're talking about. what are you doing with your life? what do you do every day with your life? is it something god approves of? >> the branch davidians supported themselves in part by buying guns to resell at gun shows. >> it's not against the law to buy firearms. it's not against the law to buy anything that they sell at a gun show. >> but by 1993, the federal government believed koresh was illegally converting rifles into machine guns. armed with arrests and search warrants, 76 agents piled into two cattle trailers for a surprise raid. it would be the largest armed assault in the history of american law enforcement. [ female announcer ] need help keeping your digestive balance? align can help. only align has bifantis, a pantented probiotic that naturally helps maintain your digestive balance. ♪ ooh baby, (what) can i do for you today? ♪ try align today. ♪ will be giving away cpassafree copiestoday? ♪ of the alcoholism & addiction cure. to get yours, go to ssagesmalibubook.com. 911. what's your emergency? >> february 28, 1993. >> hello? >> this is how the war in waco began. >> yeah, this is lieutenant lynch. can i help you? >> yeah, there's 75 men around our building and they're shooting at us. >> the caller was wayne martin, sheila martin's husband. >> our children were down on the floor. but if we would have been standing up, we would have been hit. >> tell them there are children and women in here and to call it off. >> all right, all right. hello? i hear gunfire. oh, shit. >> it was a raid by the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms. >> hello. >> call it off! >> who is this? >> atf agents trying to arrest david koresh and search the branch davidian compound. the operation that winter morning was the culmination of an eight-month investigation. the feds believed koresh was illegally converting semi-automatic ar-15s like this one into the fully automatic machine guns soldiers use. the federal agents had rented a house across the street, posing as college students, trying to buddy up to koresh. but he never bought the act. >> we knew we were being watched from across the road. we knew there was some kind of government agency -- agents over there. >> atf planned a military-style raid, what they call dynamic entry. it hinged on the element of surprise. hide 76 agents in innocuous looking cattle trailers and strike while the davidian men were outside, away from their guns. >> we practiced for it. they drilled over and over again. >> the pressure for federal agent to act rose when the local newspaper published an expose about koresh's multiple wives and sex with underage girls. with this side bar, the law watches but has done little. >> and so as atf is preparing, the media is finding out and trying to make its own preparations in order to cover the raid. >> on that sunday morning, a local tv station sends a photographer out to the branch davidian compound to stake it out. he gets to this road, about a mile away, and realizes, he's lost. the cameraman sees a mail carrier. explains who he is and asks directions. >> the mailman, very friendly, told the guy how he could find the property and then turned around and went to go ask to talk to david koresh. >> the mailman is branch davidian david jones. and when jones speaks to david koresh, one of the atf college students is right there. >> david and them told him, we know who you are and what's fixing to happen. may god bless you, in effect. >> the atf agent races to the undercover house across the street, warning commanders, the element of surprise was lost. >> he told them, please don't do this. he told them, they know we're coming. call it off. begged them to call it off. >> but instead of calling it off, the atf commanders load up and rush in. >> you come point guns in the direction of my wives and my kids, damn it, i'll meet you at the door any time. >> each side blames the other for firing first. >> i hear the shots. i thought, oh, my god, there's going to be a blood bath. >> top federal officials would later call the decision, tragically wrong. >> let's settle this now before anybody gets hurt. is anybody hurt in there, wayne? >> i don't know! a man's screaming! >> what? >> a man is screaming! >> wayne? >> i'm under fire! >> in the middle of the gun battle, david koresh also calls 911. >> yeah, this is lynch. >> hey, lynch? >> yeah. >> that's kind of a funny name there. listen -- >> now, who am i speaking with. >> this is david koresh. >> okay, david. >> the notorious. >> koresh, calm, wants to talk scripture. >> now there's some things in that bible that have been held as mysteries. >> yes, sir. >> about christ. >> yes, sir. >> now, when it says in revelation 22, behold i come quickly, my reward is with me. the statement is, what reward did christ receive in heaven from his father? he received a book with seven seals. >> let me -- can i interrupt you for a minute? >> sure. >> we can talk theology, but right now -- >> no, this is life. this is life and death. the theology we go with is life and death. >> yes, sir. >> finally, after 90 minutes, a cease-fire. >> i kept hearing that and saying, oh, good, this is over, over. >> inside, koresh and others have been wounded. >> you want to see one of the holes here? here's one of them. >> six branch davidians are dead. outside, atf looks like an army in retreat. more than 20 agents wounded, 4 agents are dead. when you realized that not only were they shooting at you, but now you had dead federal law enforcement officers outside. >> it was a whole different ball game from that point on. we're looking to god to indicate how we play this. >> the war in waco has just begun. oh! 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[ female announcer ] travelocity. get great deals on all kinds of beach vacations. when atf agents raided the branch davidian compound in february 1993, everything that could go wrong did go wrong. >> law enforcement had never dealt with anything like this before. as many bad guys as they take down, they've never been faced with this kind of firepower and people willing to use this kind of firepower. >> with four federal agents dead, emotions are running high. >> many of the agents are wounded want to go back in there and say, let's do it, you know. let's get this thing over with. >> cooler heads prevail. authorities seal off the area. and atf begins negotiating with koresh. the overriding concern, to get the children out of the compound. >> everything's okay. just you and me are talking. and that's the main thing because you care for people and you're sincere and honest. >> heavenly father, thou art in heaven. >> that's right. >> they're worried about another jonestown where 900 members of a religious cult died in a suicide pact in 1978 with cyanide-laced kool-aid. a serious concern when koresh quotes the book of revelations with its prophecy of violence in the final days. >> so here we are in the day of the lord. all the prophets talk about the great and dreadful day of the lord. when god will make inquisition for blood. >> that's not today, david. >> oh, it is. >> trying to find common ground, the agent talks about the davidian's huge stockpiles of meals ready to eat, mres. >> what's your favorite one? i hate one of those yesterday. >> beef stew. >> beef stew? >> that's the only good one there. >> i like the apple sauce they have. >> oh, yeah, that's good. >> that's not bad. >> maple nut cakes. >> yeah. >> surreal considering the bloodshed, but some children are being sent out. including shelia martin's three youngest. >> i said, life is never going to be the same. we are -- this whole situation had changed our whole life. >> meanwhile, in the wake of the atf debacle, the u.s. justice department sends in the fbi. there are two teams. a heavily armed tactical unit with armored personnel carriers and negotiators, armed with a phone and their wits. >> i teach negotiators that the very first thing you have to have is self-control. >> gary nester is the bureau's chief negotiator. when you got there, when you were briefed, what were you dealing with? >> i think in the context of the atf where there clearly was anger, the predominant emotion i was seeing, or behavior, was devastation. almost like walking zombies. >> nester's team wants to understand koresh's personality. >> and this is something this whole nation's going to have to learn. they can learn by being sober and listening or they're going to learn the hard way. >> i believe everything he did, almost throughout the entirety of the ordeal, was ambivalence, was part of me wants to live, part of me wants to die. >> they looked for clues in this tv news report about koresh and branch davidians from australia. >> his tongue is the punabe so how will god talk to me? who's going to bring that book? so, there will be no excuses! >> they were sending agents literally all over the world, trying to scramble and find out anything they could, any former davidian, anybody who knew anything about these people. >> within days, fbi profilers will send this report up the chain of command. koresh has characteristics associated with psychopaths. his followers have low self-esteem, are unable to act or think for themselves, and are easily manipulated. what does that tell you about the fbi? >> they have a low estimation of us. >> sincere in their beliefs, the davidians are looking to god for guidance. tell me, how is god telling you what to do? god says, pack a lunch -- >> we look to david for god to tell us. david was the median through which god spoke to us. >> so you listened to david, believing david was receiving his messages from god? >> correct. >> and david was initially telling -- >> if he didn't think god was talking to him, he wouldn't have been there. >> by the end of day two, negotiators have a breakthrough. koresh promises to lead his disciples out, if the feds put his bible lecture on the radio. nationwide. >> i, david koresh, agree upon the broadcasting of this tape to come out peacefully with all the people. >> clive doyle thinks life for him and his 18-year-old daughter shari, will soon return to normal. >> when they're talking about us coming out, i pack my lunch, tell my daughter, we're going to go out and sit on the grass while they search the building. i'm still thinking a search warrant, i don't know how long it will take, we might get hungry. we'll sit out there. when it's through, we'll come back home. >> what we're trying to present today -- >> at 1:30 p.m., the sermon airs. >> we see that god has a book. >> one hour on the christian broadcasting network. >> and remember, the most fearful warning ever given to man in scripture is the warning found in revelation 22. >> but after the broadcast, the surrender plan changes. koresh says he's gotten a message. >> you know, when you confer with god, you can't turn away from him. >> god says to wait. 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[ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ will be giving away passafree copies helping you do what you do... even better. of the alcoholism & addiction cure. to get yours, go to ssagesmalibubook.com. hello, everyone. i'm don lemon. here are your headlines this hour. chaos in the streets of northern afghanistan today. this anti-american demonstration started calmly, but quickly turned violent. one demonstrator was killed, seven u.s. troops were hurt when demonstrators threw a grenade at a military base. in the meantime, the man who killed two u.s. officers in afghanistan yesterday is still out there. people in afghanistan know who he is and say he worked at the interior ministry. three railway employees were killed today when a passenger train derailed near toronto, canada. another 45 people were injured. the three victims were employed by via rail canada and were riding on the cab of the locomotive. the train carrying 75 passengers was en route from niagara falls to toronto when it went off the tracks. no word on what caused that derailment. now back to the cnn presents special "waco: faith, fear, and fire." i'll see you at 10:00 p.m. eastern. you want to resolve this as much or more so than you do. >> after promising federal negotiators that he would lead his followers out, david koresh says god told him not to. >> my god told me to wait and that's all i'm doing. >> koresh also has an earthly concern, being raped in prison if he surrenders. prison if he surrenders. >> hopefully if i'm notorious they won't but me with no bubbas, huh? a lot of bubbas want to molest you if they think you molest children. >> feeling duped, the fbi commander orders the armored personnel carriers closer to the building to tighten the noose. but it only seems to antagonize koresh. >> your organization in this united states of america is a liar. you're saying peace with your mouth but your words are words of a dragon. >> as a negotiator i would have preferred to go back to koresh again and again, trying to get him to live up to what he had promised to do rather than taking an action that only gave him ammunition to be more angry at us. >> the negotiators are now fighting on two fronts. >> hello? >> trying to calm david koresh -- >> you're just schmoozing me, trying use psychology on me. >> and trying to talk their own bosses out of overreacting. >> sometimes there's this compelling thing we call action imperative where authorities feel they have to do something to be seen as decisive and in charge. and when you're compelled to do that, you often end up doing the wrong thing. >> koresh isn't making it easy. he claims to have weapons that can penetrate the armored personnel carriers, which he calls little buggies. and threatens to blow the government's little buggies to pieces. >> that's when the decision was made by the tactical guys. let's get us a really big tank. they got an m-1 abrams tank. >> the military armor is supposed to protect the tactical guys that are up close. even with the big guns removed, it's a show of strength to intimidate the branch davidians. instead, it strengthens the davidians' faith and intensifies their distrust. >> it's god who is directing david. >> ophelia santoia. >> i believe it. >> what do you think is going t