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This is a special encore presentation of our series on the Standoff in Waco, Texas, which originally aired in 2020.

It's an investigation of a shocking story that sparked a national debate about religious freedom and the power of the federal government. We hope you enjoy.

From Wondery, I'm Lindsey Graham and this is American Scandal.

Today, we wrap up our series on the tragedy in Waco, Texas. The story began in the early 1980s with a man named Vernon Howell, who rose to power in a then little known religious group called the Branch Dividians.

His leadership changed the group and Howell, who eventually took the name David Carech, and began teaching a dark vision of apocalypse.

Carech directed his followers to begin firearms training, fortify their compound in a mass and arsenal. These activities caught the attention of federal authorities and a series of charges were brought against the group, including allegations of weapons violations.

The investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms led to a shootout at Mount Carmel Center, the compound that Branch Dividians called home, 10 miles east of Waco, Texas.

The violence that day with the start of a 51-day standoff that ended on April 19, 1993. On that morning, a fire broke out inside the compound and killed 76 Branch Dividians, including Carech and a number of children.

The fateful events at Waco have been the subject of countless articles, books, and movies, the inspiration for further violence, the subject of intense and partisan congressional investigations, and would forever change America's views about the rights of citizens and government's use of force.

Today I'm speaking with Eric Benson, senior editor at Texas Monthly. In April of 2018, the 25th anniversary of the Waco siege, Benson wrote a series of articles for Texas Monthly that helped shed new light on the tragedy at Mount Carmel Center.

We talk today about how the public viewed the events at Waco at the time, and how the federal government has since been questioned about its role in the tragedy.

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Eric Benson, welcome to American Scandal. Thanks Lindsey.

It's been 27 years since the events at Waco. That's a fairly long time and the nation was different then. So could you give us an idea of where we were and how the public initially viewed the events at Waco?

Yeah, so I think for a few reasons it took the public a little bit of time to catch on to what was going on at the branch to Pity and Compound.

You know, that first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 had happened on February 26th, you know, which was two days before the initial ATF raid on the branch of the in compound.

So most of the media attention and really the law enforcement national law enforcement attention was on that major terrorist attack in New York City.

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