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Waco: A Survivor’s Story by David Thibodeau

As a tie-in to the upcoming Paramount Network miniseries starring Michael Shannon, Taylor Kitsch, and Melissa Benoist and commemorating the 25th anniversary of the siege at Waco, comes an updated reissue of the critically acclaimed A PLACE CALLED WACO by Branch Davidian survivor, David Thibodeau.

For the first time ever, a survivor of the Waco massacre tells the inside story of Branch Davidians, David Koresh, and what really happened at the religious compound in Texas.

When he first met the man who called himself David Koresh, David Thibodeau was drumming for a rock band that was going nowhere fast. Intrigued and frustrated with a 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 after a 51-day standoff.

In this book, Thibodeau explores why so many people came to believe that Koresh was divinely inspired. We meet the men, women, and children of Mt. Carmel. We get inside the day-to-day life of the community. Thibodeau is brutally honest about himself, Koresh, and the other members, and the result is a revelatory look at life inside a cult.

But 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, and proves conclusively that it was our own government that caused the Waco tragedy, including the fires. The result is a memoir that reads like a thriller, with each page taking us closer to the eventual inferno.

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My Review

5 stars

When I hear the word Waco, I think of a cult compound that was taken by siege from our government and that the leader, David Koresh, was a crazy, power hungry leader. But then I think back and realize that when Waco happened I was fourteen and my parents didn’t really care about it so I have never really spent any time looking into the real story. So, when I was asked to review this book I decided that I was going to take a look at what really happened.

When I think of cults, I think of the crazy Heaven’s Gate people or Jim Jones’ and the kool-aid. But there is so much more to these groups than the ends. David Thidobeau tells his story from the beginning and tells you what kind of person he was, where he was in the world, and what drew him to David Koresh. To understand Waco, you need to understand that people that were there, what drew them to Koresh, and why they stayed.

But there is so much more to this story than the group. What the government did at Waco was to create a nightmare situation. There we so many things that went wrong and many people died that should not have. But the thing that I agree with Thidobeau with is the media. They took what little information they had and twisted it around. That caused so much damage to the true story. Even today when you say the work Waco you think of crazy cult members blindly following a rabid leader.

This book is written by one of the few Davidians that survived the Waco siege. It is well written and very informative. It really opened my eyes to the true, horrible events that happened before, during, and after the siege. I’m glad to see that Paramount is going to create a six part miniseries on this. If you want to learn about real events on the Waco siege, I say look no further.

I received Waco: A Survivor’s Story from Little Bird Publicity for free. This has in no way influenced my opinion of this book.