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Howell joined them in 1984, after he was expelled by a conventional Seventh- day Adventist congregation. Before long he was locked in a power struggle with George Roden, who then headed the sect with his mother Lois. It ended with Howell being driven from the sect at gunpoint. He briefly established his own desolate congregation, living with them in tents and packing crates in nearby Palestine, Texas. But the feud between the two men reached another flashpoint soon after, when Roden disinterred the corpse of a female church member with the intention of bringing her back to life. Contending that Roden had violated the woman's body, Howell and a number of followers returned to the Waco compound to shoot it out with the Roden group.
Though Howell and several followers were charged with attempted murder, a jury acquitted the followers, and the charges against Howell were later dropped. But the trial revealed that the Waco sect was already well armed, with at least a dozen firearms, including shotguns and .22-cal. rifles. Roden, who was judged unable to stand trial in an unrelated slaying, is now in a state mental hospital.
With Roden out of the way, Howell became undisputed leader of the Branch Davidians in Waco, completing their transition from congregation to cult. He and a few select followers began recruiting new members on trips around the U.S., Britain and Australia. In 1990 he changed his name legally to Koresh, Hebrew for Cyrus, the Persian king who allowed the Jews to return to Israel after their captivity in Babylon. His apocalyptic theology converged with secular survivalism, with its programs for hunkering down amid stockpiles of food and ammo to endure a nuclear holocaust or social collapse.
Koresh began to preach that his followers should ready themselves for a final battle with unbelievers. The Waco settlement, once a collection of old cottages scattered around 78 acres of scrub pasture and woods, was consolidated into a compact fort the size of a city block. Having equipped it with an underground bunker and an armory -- adjacent to the chapel -- cult members discussed renaming the place Ranch Apocalypse. Federal agents began tracking frequent shipments of firepower that they say amounted to 8,000 lbs. of ammunition and enough parts to assemble hundreds of automatic and semiautomatic weapons. Some time ago a package addressed to the compound split open before it could be delivered by the United Parcel Service. The contents: hand grenades.