Lives of the tragic believers
NINE MANCUNIANS DIED IN THE WACO FIRE 25 YEARS AGO - NOW A PODCAST TELLS THE VICTIMS’ UNTOLD STORIES...
FOR those old enough to remember, there is a defining image of the Waco siege.
The jarring sight of thick black smoke and fierce flames ripping through a huge white timber building went around the world.
It was the devastating conclusion of a tense 51-day stand-off between US law enforcement and a religious cult – the Branch Davidians, in April 1993.
As the authorities stormed the Texas compound in an attempt to end the siege, believing cult leader David Koresh was stockpiling weapons, three fires broke out in the Mount Carmel compound and spread rapidly.
But while the sight of the raging inferno has become an enduring memory for many, what is less well remembered is that this was far from a purely American tragedy.
Two dozens Britons who had uprooted their lives to follow Koresh to Texas would also die at Waco. And the prelude to the disaster was far closer to home than many people in Manchester might imagine.
It was here in the early 1990s, in an innocuous semi-detached home on a residential street in Cheetham Hill, that Koresh’s right-hand man, Steve Schneider, would preach his message. It was the city’s old coroners court which would eventually host the harrowing inquests of the British victims, and a Manchester detective who led the investigation into their deaths.
Most chillingly of all, 11 Mancunians went to Texas. Only two of them would ever get to come home.
Sam Henry has often spoken out about the catastrophic loss of his entire family. His wife Zila, 56, and five children Diana, 28, Stephen, 26, Pauline, 24, Philip, 22, and Vanessa, 19, all lost their lives, after leaving their home in Coleridge Road, Old Trafford, to go to Texas. But until now, little has been known about the other Mancunians who died in the disaster.
Ricky Bennett also perished, as did Rosemary Morrison. One of the youngest victims was her daughter Melissa, who was just six years old. The question of how ordinary Britons became embroiled in a cult and ended up losing their lives so far from home weighed heavily on the mind of BBC Radio 5 Live journalist Chris Warburton.
Along with producer Ciaran Tracey, he set out to offer a different perspective on the disaster, through speaking in-depth to the families of British victims, survivors and comb- ing through archives. The result is a compelling eight-part podcast, End Of Days, which explores the British involvement with Waco.
“I get messages every day from people saying they enjoyed the podcast, and the follow-up thing they generally always say is ‘how did I not know that there were so many people who had come from Britain?’” says Chris, who spoke to the M.E.N ahead of the global launch of the podcast.
“Particularly as they grew up with the story. I grew up with the story and I remember it being this very American story. We didn’t have the prevalence of American culture in our lives quite to the extent we do now. It’s one of those stories that pops up again every now and then in life, but it’s not something that got returned to very often.
“I think quite a lot of it comes down to the fact that the broad portrayal of them was, ‘oh it’s just these lunatics that have gone out there and they’ve got themselves to blame’ and that’s been the informed view
“There’s a good percentage of our