Waco: The Real Story of David Koresh

The true-crime phenomenon sweeping through pop culture has revived the most headline-grabbing crimes, characters, and scandal of the past few decades. The Menendez brothers received the full Law & Order treatment. O.J. Simpson and Marcia Clark got an Emmy-winning FX drama. Amanda Knox got a Netflix documentary. And JonBenét Ramsay, at one time last year, had five different television projects devoted to her. So it isn’t terribly surprising that David Koresh—the polygamist and self-proclaimed Messiah at the center of the Waco seige, one of the worst government failures of last century—got a cable close-up as well. What is unique, however, is the way in which Waco creators John Erick and Drew Dowdle (Devil, No Escape) went about recasting the cult leader for the miniseries, which premieres on the Paramount Network Wednesday evening.

Koresh gained infamy in 1993 when the media reported about the manipulative hold he had over his followers, who lived on the Mount Carmel compound in Waco, Texas. He recruited girls as young as 12 as his wives, for instance, and reportedly fathered over a dozen children by them. He insisted male followers remain celibate, and stockpiled an arsenal of automatic assault weapons for what law enforcement believed to be a malicious battle. When authorities raided the compound in February 1993, it resulted in seven deaths and a 51-day standoff that ended when a fire killed more than 70 men, women, and children.

In brainstorming the miniseries, the Dowdles quickly realized that if they wanted audiences to sympathize with the Branch Davidians, who forfeited their outside lives to follow Koresh, they’d have to shed some light on the cult leader’s magnetism—however complex it was.

Waco stars Taylor Kitsch (Friday Night Lights) in the Koresh role, and casts the character, in the first few episodes especially, as a lighthearted leader who pals around with children on the compound. Sympathy for Koresh came courtesy of Waco survivor David Thibodeau, a consultant on the series who is played onscreen by Rory Culkin. (Waco is also partly based on the memoir by Gary Noesner, an FBI negotiator portrayed by Michael Shannon.)

“Thibodeau helped us understand that Koresh had a sense of humor, he played electric guitar, and sang in a local bar,” said John. “He seemed to be a lot lighter-hearted than how he was characterized. At the same time, there were really horrible, dark things he did. He was definitely narcissistic and definitely used an abusive strategy to keep everyone on their toes.”

“He was an abused child — his mom was 14 when she had him—and he created this bizarre world around himself so he could never be abandoned again. Layers and layers of people, all attached to him,” John has said. “We tried to explore David in a way where you’re never quite sure what to make of him. . . to keep digging into who he was.”

“There are some really dark sides with him, and he was guilty of some terrible things,” said Drew. “But at the same time, to the people who knew him, he wasn’t Charles Manson. He had this appeal and was a very personable guy—what you would expect someone who could gather a flock like this and get them to commit their lives to his message would have. But one thing that surprised me is just how knowledgeable he was. A lot of followers first became familiar with David through these bootleg cassette tapes that were being passed around in Biblical circles. They would hear these tapes and say, ‘Wow, this guy’s interpretation of scripture and the book of Revelation in particular is unlike anything I’ve ever heard.’ They had to go to Waco to listen to this guy speak. It was like he was like a Biblical savant.”

The Dowdle brothers, who were in high school and college when the Waco siege unfolded, said that, at the time, they never questioned the media narrative—that the Branch Davidians had been stockpiling weapons for malicious purposes. But after four years of exhaustive research—reading interviews, affidavits, negotiation transcripts, scripture, and autopsy reports—a more complicated portrait emerged.

“You can debate about how bad David Koresh was, but there were another 150 people on that compound that were good people. Hopefully, people will rethink this story and look back and say, maybe they weren’t all just brainwashed,” Eric said of the casualties. “They were human beings who had families and had a commitment to God that we can’t necessarily understand, but it doesn’t make them deserving of what happened to them.”

To prove that the experience on the compound before February 1993 was not entirely negative, the brothers shared an anecdote. On the first day that Thibodeau visited the Mount Carmel set, which was painstakingly recreated to scale from pictures of the compound, his reaction surprised cast and crew.

“He walked in and went straight to the chapel,” said John. “He said, ‘Oh my god, this looks exactly like the chapel.’ Then he looked up on the stage and he said, ‘There’s my drum kit.’ He had tears in his eyes, and got up on the drum kit and just played this ten minute solo.”

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Julie MillerJulie Miller is a Senior Hollywood writer for Vanity Fair’s website.