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David Koresh (August 17, 1959 - April 19, 1993) was a self-proclaimed head of the Branch Davidians from 1988 until a raid by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and subsequent siege by the Federal Bureau of Investigation ended with the burning of Branch Davidian ranch, the Mount Carmel Center.

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Vernon Wayne Howell was born on August 17, 1959 in Houston, Texas to a not-quite-15-year-old single mother. He never knew his father and was raised by his grandparents. Koresh described his early childhood as lonely, saying that the other kids teased him and called him "Vernie". As a young boy, he was abused by his stepfather. A poor student because of dyslexia, Vernon dropped out of high school. By 18, he was working as a carpenter.

When he was 20, Howell joined his mother's church, the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He fell in love with a 15-year-old girl who became pregnant, but marriage was forbidden by the girl's father and church elders. Vernon began to challenge the elders on many points of ure and was expelled for being a bad influence on young people.

Shortly thereafter, he went to Hollywood hoping to become a rock and roll guitarist; however, nothing came of this. In 1981 he moved to Waco, Texas where he joined the Branch Davidians, a religious sect which had split from the Seventh-day Adventists. They had established their headquarters at a ranch about 10 miles out of Waco, which they called the Mount Carmel Center (after the Biblical Mount Carmel, Israel), in 1955.

ion of the circumstances surrounding the raid on and siege of Mount Carmel see the Branch Davidian article. This article is concerned solely with the last days and demise of Koresh.

On February 28, 1993, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) raided Mount Carmel. The raid resulted in the deaths of four agents and five Davidians. Shortly after the initial raid, the FBI took command of the federal operation and contact was established with Koresh inside the compound. Communication over the next 51 days included telephone exchanges with various FBI negotiators.

As the standoff continued, Koresh, who was seriously injured by a gunshot, along with his closest male leaders negotiated delays, possibly so he could write religious documents he said he needed to complete before he surrendered. His conversations with the negotiators were dense with biblical imagery. The federal negotiators, for their part, treated the situation as a hostage crisis despite a two hour video tape sent out by the Davidians in which the adults and older childrenteens appeared to explain clearly and confidently why they chose of their own free will to remain with David.

The 51-day siege of Mount Carmel ended when U.S Attorney General Janet Reno approved recommendations of veteran FBI officials to proceed with a final assault in which the Branch Davidians were to be removed from their compound by force. In the course of the assault, the compound caught fire. The cause of the fire was later determined by the Danforth Report, a report commissioned by The Special Counsel, to be the deliberate actions of some of the Davidians inside the compound. However this theory is disputed both by independent media and others.

Barricaded in their building, 85 Branch Davidians, including Koresh, were either unable or unwilling to escape the blaze and died. Seventeen of these victims were children under the age of 12. Koresh died from a gunshot wound to the head, believed to have been fired by his right hand man, Steve Schneider. It is not known why Schneider shot Koresh, if he indeed did so.

Based on verses from Daniel, the Branch Davidians believed that Koresh would someday return to Earth. The date most accepted was based on Daniel 12:12. This date was 1,335 days after his death: December 14, 1996.