A sequel to 2018’s miniseries Waco, directors John Erick Dowdle and Drew Dowdle have woven together two near-memory events that have shaped American politics, culture and the country’s militia movements more than most people realize. While the rapid increase of these typically anti-government, pro-second amendment groups exploded after the election of Donald Trump, they were also a significant factor in ‘90 politics until the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols on April 19th, 1995.
Focusing on the fallout of the Waco disaster — the trials of the surviving members of the Branch Davidian sect and the rise of homegrown terrorist Timothy McVeigh — the five-episode Waco: The Aftermath provides a broader context for the escalation of the American militia movement, which foreshadows McVeigh’s infamous Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
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Available on Paramount+ in Canada, Waco: The Aftermath provides a fresh take on two of the most significant events in American politics in the last 30 years. Digging into the fallout of the botched ATF/FBI raid on Mount Carmel, which saw 126 Branch Davidians (including 46 children; 82 killed, 35 released, and 9 escape from the fire) have a 51-day standoff that brought the attention of the world on a small Texas town, Waco, its off-the-grid religious sect and their apparent messiah David Koresh, the five-part series traces the anger and growing anti-government sentiment following the governments clash with the Branch Davidians and the disastrous outcome. Many Americans, whether they agreed with Koresh’s beliefs or not felt the raid symbolized the government’s increasing overreach into the lives of its citizens and could indicate the beginning of a concerted effort to curtail gun rights. It was apparent to anyone willing to look that it wasn’t just the hoard of people from across the country who descended onto Waco during the 51-day standoff who were angry, but that an even broader movement was forming underneath both the FBI and ATF radar.
The series also follows the trial of the five Branch Davidians brought up on gun and murder charges. Anchoring this element of the story is the masterful acting of Giovanni Ribisi as attorney Dan Cogdell, who takes the lead in defending the surviving Davidians in a sham of a trial which will have you questioning both government overreach and the validity of the American justice system in Texas. Ribisi’s name should be on a short list for best actor come award season time.
The trial and its flashbacks provide a context first established by Waco: American Apocalypse, the original series starring Taylor Kitsch as the Branch Davidian leader David Koresh and Michael Shannon as Gary Noesner, an FBI hostage negotiator. Shannon reprises his role to lead the investigation into the growing militia movement following the deaths at Waco.
Where other series, both dramatic and documentary have explored some of the connections between Waco and Oklahoma City, this five-part series is the first to emphasize some of the details the government and the FBI would like most people to forget. Shannon's character, along with the real-life informant Carol Howe and the connection between a right-wing Christian White Nationalist compound, Elohim City, played a major role in the whole trajectory of events. While many will be aware of McVeigh’s phone call to Elohim City two weeks before the second biggest terrorist event on American soil as it was part of the public record in both his and Nichols’ trials, most will not know how interconnected many of these events are, what role the Elohim City based midwest bank robbers may have played and how the government undercover program PATCON had foreknowledge of the events leading up to Oklahoma City bombing.
Carol Howe is a key figure in all of this as she was the girlfriend of Richard Lee Guthrie, known as Wild Bill in the series. It was Guthrie who formed the A.R.A. (Aryan Republican Army) with Peter (Donna) Lanagan. The religious and right-wing encampment in Oklahoma was also the home base for some members of the Midwest Bank bandits who were responsible for 22 robberies between 1994 and 1996. Known members of the A.R.A. include Langan, Guthrie, Michael William Brescia, Mark William Thomas, Shawn Kenny, Kevin McCarthy, and Scott Stedeford.
Many experts believe Tim McVeigh participated in a number of bank jobs as he not only matched the appearance of some of the wanted posters, he asked his sister to exchange money he said he got a part in knocking off a bank in a letter he sent her and that the government would use to get her to testify against her brother. Witnesses would also place McVeigh with Brescia in the weeks leading up to the bombing and would also suggest that he looked like the FBI’s infamous John Doe Number Two. Considering the intent of the group was to use the proceeds of crime to fund a right-wing race war, is it that much of a stretch to think some of the money may have been used to fund the events of April 19th, 1995? None of the over 250K the group stole was ever recovered.
The series would also allude to foreknowledge by death row white supremacist Richard Wayne Snell, whose spiritual advisor was Elohim City’s founder Robert Millar and who was subsequently put to death the same day as the Oklahoma City bombing. In fact, the roots of the bombing plot can be traced back to 1983 and a gathering of white supremacists at a meeting at Hayden Lake in which the seeds of today’s problems between the right, leaderless resistance and the government were sown. It was at this same gathering that the Turner Diaries would be suggested as source material for ideas to insight an all-out race war in the United States. The racist book by William Piece under an alias would become McVeigh’s inspiration, the Iraq war vet was known to sell the book at gun shows after he left the army and was keen to talk about the novel while he was deployed.
Twelve years before the federal building in Oklahoma City was bombed, a group of white supremacists with close ties to the Aryan Nations drew up a plan to bomb the same building in much the same way, according to evidence gathered by a federal prosecutor.
If the casting of Tim McVeigh isn’t enough to send chills down your spine, Waco: The Aftermath does a skillful job of establishing the context and political climate that motivated a decorated army vet to turn against his country and murder 168 people as a statement against everything that happened at Waco and Ruby Ridge and his perceived attack on the American people by a government who he saw as having “run amok”.
I explain herein why I bombed the Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City. I explain this not for publicity, nor seeking to win an argument of right or wrong. I explain so that the record is clear as to my thinking and motivations in bombing a government installation.I chose to bomb a federal building because such an action served more purposes than other options. Foremost the bombing was a retaliatory strike; a counterattack for the cumulative raids (and subsequent violence and damage) that federal agents had participated in over the preceding years (including, but not limited to, Waco). From the formation of such units as the FBI's Hostage Rescue and other assault teams amongst federal agencies during the 80s, culminating in the Waco incident, federal actions grew increasingly militaristic and violent, to the point where at Waco, our government - like the Chinese - was deploying tanks against its own citizens.
Knowledge of these multiple and ever-more aggressive raids across the country constituted an identifiable pattern of conduct within and by the federal government and among its various agencies.
For all intents and purposes, federal agents had become soldiers (using military training, tactics, techniques, equipment, language, dress, organisation and mindset) and they were escalating their behaviour.
Therefore this bombing was meant as a pre-emptive (or pro-active) strike against these forces and their command and control centres within the federal building. When an aggressor force continually launches attacks from a particular base of operations, it is sound military strategy to take the fight to the enemy. Additionally, borrowing a page from US foreign policy, I decided to send a message to a government that was becoming increasingly hostile, by bombing a government building and the government employees within that building who represent that government. Bombing the Murrah federal building was morally and strategically equivalent to the US hitting a government building in Serbia, Iraq, or other nations.
Based on observations of the policies of my own government, I viewed this action as an acceptable option.
From this perspective, what occurred in Oklahoma City was no different than what Americans rain on the heads of others all the time, and subsequently, my mindset was and is one of clinical detachment. (The bombing of the Murrah building was not personal, no more than when Air Force, Army, Navy or Marine personnel bomb or launch cruise missiles against government installations and their personnel). I hope that this clarification amply addresses all questions.
Timothy McVeigh in a letter obtained by the Guardian
Navigating the delicate boundaries between drama, conspiracy theory and historical fact can be an unforgiving task. Yet, Waco: The Aftermath achieves this balance. It adeptly weaves together elements of obscured reality into a challenging, yet familiar narrative, all the while maintaining a restraint that prevents it from descending into melodrama. This composition skillfully incorporates murky truths without appearing overly sensationalized, providing an engaging and thought-provoking exploration of a time in American history that can illuminate some of the backgrounds of today’s culture and political battlefields.