American Militia 2: The Shadow Of Waco (with Ali Keane)

In the second of our American Militia episodes, we examine the horror that was the 1993 Waco Siege. In February of that year, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms bungled a raid on a religious cult, the Branch Davidians, and their leader David Koresh, who were living in a compound in Texas. What resulted was an hours-long shootout, a 51-day siege, a killer fire, and controversies that still rage today: who shot first and who started the fire? Anti-government conspiracy believers still see the Waco siege as evidence that a sinister New World Order seek to control all patriotic free Americans. Join Cian and Ali to help you decide what you think.

Perhaps you see the Branch Davidians as child-abusing, gun-hoarding religious nuts who needed to be stopped for the safety of all concerned, before Waco became another Jonestown. Perhaps they were innocent Americans minding their own business, victims of a tyrannical government who wanted nothing less than to show that they could and would destroy their own citizens just to show their power. Or, just perhaps, the Feds are just as human, just as hubristic, and just as subject to petty, meaningless mistakes as the rest of us – except that when they screw up, they screw up big and people die. This episode of Wide Atlantic Weird will take you to the plains of Texas to find answers in THE SHADOW OF WACO.