KORESH

For many, Waco is synonymous with the word "cult" and a fifty-one day siege of the American government on its own people. David Koresh's takeover of the Branch Davidians, his standoff with the AFT and the death of 76 people persists in popular imagination as a story about a group of apocalypse enthusiasts who brought their fate upon themselves.

But the truth about what happened at Waco lies in the splintered memories of perhaps two hundred people, in the poetry and words of David Koresh, and in thousands of pages of government documents. Some of the government's wrongdoing at Waco has been deliberately obscured by the ATF and the FBI; the Branch Davidians and conspiracy theorists on the other side have created their own myths.

A cult sprouting up on the plains of Texas, of all places, one that referred to America as evil and doomed, didn't seem just dangerous or worrying. It seemed otherworldly. The fissures that would later destabilize the country had yet to appear. Most Americans watched the standoff in disbelief that this could be happening in their country. Koresh's legacy is a massive increase in the distrust of the federal government and a new militancy among the disaffected. In the 27 years since the tragedy, the debate about Koresh's true nature still rages. The radical right see him as a martyr to government terror.

But David Koresh was not a run-of-the-mill cult leader. To those who knew the places Koresh had come from, the standoff echoed back through history. Koresh wasn't doing anything his forefathers hadn't done at the Alamo and during skirmishes with Comanche and Apache bands. He isolated himself in a compound that he called a ranch. He hoisted his own flag. He paid good money for a private arsenal and vowed publicly to shoot the person who stepped onto his property. His story is a big, full-color, narrative rooted in family violence and the raw use of power, both Koresh's and the government's. It's not just about a religious fanatic and overeager FBI agents, though both those things play a part. It's a bigger story, and more illustrative of the country and the time in which it unfolded. Like Helter Skelter and Columbine, KORESH will be a tick-tock narrative linked to a larger story about who we are.

Stephan Talty is the award-winning author of Agent Garbo, Empire of Blue Water, and other best-selling works of narrative nonfiction. His books have been made into two films, the Oscar-winning Captain Phillips and Only the Brave. He is also the author of two psychological thrillers, including the New York Times bestseller Black Irish, set in his hometown of Buffalo. He has written for the New York Times Magazine, GQ, and many other publications.