WacoTrib by J. B. Smith 2/24/2018
On a drizzly February morning 25 years ago, a Waco Tribune-Herald reporter knocked on a door on Double EE Ranch Road, 12 miles east of town.
He was preparing to ask permission to set up to observe “a news story†expected to unfold at a religious commune across the street.
A face appeared in the door, twisted in surprise and anger. The man didn’t let the reporter finish the question.
“Get the f--k out of here,†the man sputtered.
The reporter, Tommy Witherspoon, hurried back to a silver Honda Accord, where a photographer and another reporter waited. The car backed out of the driveway at 9:45 on a Sunday morning, Feb. 28, 1993.
Up to this moment it was possible to believe that this was a local story — newsworthy but not world-shaking. Those in the car that day recall thinking of it as a coda to the big story that had started running the day before.
In a seven-part “Sinful Messiah†series, readers were learning about the Branch Davidians and their messianic leader, who had recently changed his name from Vernon Howell to David Koresh. A slew of ex-members accused him of asserting divine mandate to take at least 15 “wives†and to have sex with young girls.
Witherspoon had a tip that that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms might serve a warrant that morning for the possession of illegal automatic weapons. Witherspoon recalls expecting to see Koresh and a crowd of his followers come out with their hands raised.
Reporters from KWTX had gotten a similar tip and were waiting in cars down the road, but the station management hadn’t staffed up for live coverage and was scheduling the story for the 6 p.m. newscast.
For the moment, everything seemed under control. A moment later, nothing did.
The reporters in the silver Honda noticed two trucks pulling cattle trailers, covered in tarps, speeding down Double EE Ranch Road from Elk Road, followed by a KWTX crew and another Tribune-Herald car.
More:
http://www.wacotrib.com/news/branch_davidians/branch-davidian-tragedy-at-how-the-story-overtook-the-storytellers/article_1c3b98b0-b32d-518f-91f1-ca68ba5fbc4a.html