A Place Called Waco: A Survivor's Story

A Place Called Waco: A Survivor's Story by Whiteson, Leon. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781891620423.

When he first met the man who called himself David Koresh, David Thibodeau--who had never been religious in the slightest--was drumming for a rock band that was going nowhere fast. Intrigued, and frustrated by his stalled music career, Thibodeau gradually became a follower and moved to the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. He remained there until April 19, 1993, when the compound was stormed and burnt to the ground, and 74 people were killed. Thibodeau was one of the nine who survived the attack. None of the survivors has ever told the inside story of life--and death--at Mount Carmel. In this book, Thibodeau explores why so many intelligent people came to believe that Koresh was truly divinely inspired. We meet the men, women and children of Mount Carmel, and experience the day-to-day life of the community. Thibodeau is brutally honest--about himself, Koresh and the other members--and provides a revelatory look both at life at Mount Carmel and at one mans spiritual journey. But A Place Called Waco is just as brutally honest when it comes to dissecting the actions of the United States government. Thibodeau marshals an array of evidence, some of it never previously revealed, to prove that our own government caused the Waco tragedy--including the fires. The result is a memoir that reads like a thriller--each page taking us closer to the eventual inferno--and a compelling eyewitness account of egregious wrong-doing and cover-up on the part of the U.S. government.