Paramount Network Waco mini-series (which is now streaming on Netflix), probably left you with a much of the questions. For example, does David Thibodeau actually survive the deadly 51-day standoff between the Branch Davidians and the FBI in 1993? (Sure did.) David Koresh’s musical retaliation during the siege of the reality? (In fact.) But perhaps the most important question of all: how Koresh feed, clothe, and arm their many devotees without any obvious source of income? As well as claiming to be the last prophet of the Branch Davidians, and taking over as the leader of the sect in the 1980s, Koresh (born Vernon Howell), according to reports, he was a millionaire. The reason: his followers were forced to surrender all of their assets.
According to a 1993 article printed in the Waco Tribune-Heraldformer cult members said that Koresh demanded the control of his followers, ” the property and paychecks. All those who joined david Koresh, he was forced to give up their personal property and homes, and Koresh members are required to tithe not 10 percent of their income (which is the standard for many religions), but 100 percent. Despite the fact that some members had little or no outside income, other cult members were employed and their wages went directly to Koresh’s pocket. Rick Ross, a cult deprogrammer Phoenix, said david Koresh effectively “robbed” the life of the savings of members in order to maintain the cult in the operation.
In spite of this, Koresh and his devotees lived modestly (except for their large cache of machine guns and assault rifles). According to a 1993 Chicago Tribune the article, the sect of the members of the collection of cars, recycled building materials, purchase of bulk food, and relied on food stamps and other forms of public assistance to make ends meet. He also frequently fell behind on property taxes and do not have plumbing in the compound. Why, then, were the members so willing to give up everything to get so little in return? As a former member of the Poia, explained to the Tribune-Herald“That was part of the teaching. We had to give everything.”
A former member of the esteem in which he gave to david Koresh between $30,000 and $40,000 dollars in a period of years, and in return, he only received room, board, and the necessary elements. Another couple said that gave Koresh between $250,000 to $ 500,000, while in the cult. But if the money is not spent on living expenses, what has been spent on? The answer: the weapons. After the devastating 1993 siege, weapons recovered from the compound includes 60 M-16 machine guns, 60 AK-47 assault rifles, about 30 AR-15 assault rifles, and other small guns and without the use of bullets, according to the The Los Angeles Times.
Koresh also had no doubt about that the expenditure in itself. A source close to the cult said to the Tribune-Herald that Koresh drove a Corvette and had $ 30,000 worth of musical equipment. “I have the impression that he had everything he wanted, he needed, when he wanted them,” the former member of the Poia, said the leader, and that certainly seemed to be the case.
