During a 51-day standoff between the FBI and a radical cult that was holed up in a compound in Waco, Texas in 1993, the group’s charismatic leader, David Koresh, made a video for the FBI negotiators. In the home movie, the 33-year-old is seen presenting several children of the cult, including his 4-year-old daughter, Serenity. He asks what she wants to be when she grows up. “A woman,” the little girl says, drawing laughter from her dad.
She would never get that chance. Thirty years ago, on April 19, 1993, 76 people, including 23 children, perished after a raging fire took hold of the compound belonging to the Branch Davidian sect. It was the catastrophic culmination of what became known as the Waco siege, which began as a…
