Credit: Dangerous Minds / FBI / Newspaper Cuttings

Texas is incomprehensibly huge. It’s an area that hammers home the fact that the states that make up the USA were countries originally. Texas is more of a country than most actual countries, and one of the reasons for this is the vast towns and cities of all shapes and sizes within it. One of them, tucked away to the east of the central part of the state, is Waco.

Now, if you didn’t know about the town’s history, you could be forgiven for thinking this is a cosy little town like any other. The issue is that Waco’s history has a far bigger cultural footprint than anything else it actually produces. If, for one reason or another, you find yourself in this town without knowing anything about what went down between February 28th and April 19th, 1993, trust me, you will. It’s not exactly a point of pride for the city, but you don’t just forget something like the Branch Davidians.

David Koresh’s mob didn’t call Waco home by accident, either. The city was hallowed ground for his bunch of religious extremists. They had called it home for decades by the time of the siege that made them world famous in the early 1990s, with the first headquarters of the Branch Davidians being set up in Waco in 1934. Now, this is a small town in the American South; therefore, it should be accepted that a portion of religious loonies reside there.

Except in the case of Waco, they are far from the only ones to call the place home.

What is it about Waco, Texas?

Ironically, it partially comes from an early attempt to make Waco “the Athens of Texas” and a hotbed of education and learning. A lot of this is built around the presence of Baylor University, a highly respected school in its own right. If you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop however, you’re right to. The other side of the coin was that any education being taught in Waco was strictly Christian, leading to a city culture built around three things, passion, education and religion.

These are the three ingredients you need for indoctrination, and while the Branch Davidians might have made history, they were far from the only cult that called Waco home. North of the city is the Homestead Heritage, a religious community that seeks to live an independent, faith-driven life based around woodwork, crafting and agriculture. Yet many folks who grew up in the community speak of almost ritualized abuse at their hands.

In the nearby town of Wells there’s also the Church of Wells, another religious community seemingly built on abuse and cult-like indoctrination of its younger members that was started by students at the aforementioned Baylor University. Seemingly taking the lessons they learned from the town Baylor University is in and building on them even further for their own nefarious purposes.

The tale is a dark reminder that terrible things like this don’t just happen in a vacuum. Organisations like these are a result of the ecosystem they were born in, and while towns like Waco still let these “communities” flourish, people will still get hurt.