Twenty-five years after the tragic events of the bloody Waco showdown, the world is eager to find out more about the religious group that spent almost two months facing off against the FBI, and it’s all thanks to the Paramount Network’s docuseries inspired by the siege. David Thibodeau, one of the few Branch Davidians that survived the showdown, thinks it’s the perfect opportunity to explore the story of Branch Davidians even further.
The Waco Branch Davidians were a branch of Seventh Day Adventists led by David Koresh. Though their compound in Waco was notorious for housing rampant sexual abuse — mostly committed by Koresh — what drew the FBI’s attention was the stockpile of illegal arms allegedly being stored on the campus. The bureau’s investigation led to a violent standoff that lasted for 51 days and resulted in the death of Koresh and 70 of his followers.
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One of the few survivors of the standoff, Thibodeau told TMZ that he hopes the renewed interest in the events of the 1993 faceoff will lead to Netflix producing a documentary about the lives that were lost in the tragedy. Although the Paramount Network series is based on his own memoir A Place Called Waco: A Survivor's Story, Thibodeau believes that there’s still so much of the story that needs to be shared with the world — a documentary parsing out the uncovered details could change the narrative surrounding the Branch Davidians.
The religious group was said to have provoked the FBI during the raid, setting the fire that burned all over Mount Carmel and ultimately killed many of its followers. But Thibodeau still has his doubts about who was truly to blame for what happened in Waco, and a well-researched documentary could bring about the truth.
Recalling the story of the Waco siege is a painful but necessary step for Thibodeau, who lost both his wife and his daughter in the raid. Though many of the Branch Davidians are no longer alive to speak for themselves, their stories need to be told.