Abstract

Koresh's Children

The author was driving through lush farmland, under the wide sky of central Texas. On one side of the road lies a fallow field that appears to have been burned recently. On the other a chain-link fence encircles a few acres of land. The fence holds flowers placed here during a recent ceremony marking the one-year anniversary of the deadly federal assault on the compound of cult leader David Koresh's religious cult Branch Davidians. Two private security guards hired by the Texas Water Commission patrols the grounds twenty-four hours a day. The area is under quarantine. The state claims that the water is polluted by human waste, rotting food and disease-causing bacteria, and that the ground is contaminated by lead from ammunition that melted during the blaze that destroyed the site. Texas authorities believe the soil was also contaminated when bulldozers razed the compound.