Case 339: Waco (Part 1/3)
In 1981, a 20-year-old named Vernon Howell drove more than two hours from his hometown in east Texas to visit a church near Waco that was home to a group known as the Branch Davidians. Vernon would be welcomed into the church’s fold, setting off a course of events that would ultimately end in tragedy and permanently alter the United States of America.
Team:
Anonymous Host - narration
Erin Munro - research, writing
Mike Migas - production, music
Anthony Telfer - audio editing
Comments (42)
This is an interesting one to tackle. I trust Casey to be as thorough explaining the insane government overreach as well as anything else though
Great start to this 3-part podcast series—really well delivered, clear, and concise. It kept me engaged throughout and definitely has me interested in following the rest. Looking forward to the next episodes. You and your team do a great job. Thank you
Not gonna lie, that opener about the book of revelations felt like a writing prompt for someone working through a writer's block. "What would happen if you found a scroll with seven seals" and the writer was like, gotta use 7 a lot.
Really does. It’s like the prophet got a writing assignment with a vague premise, used a bunch of sevens, turned in the paper, and everyone was like, this is… fine… but also don’t think we need any more books, thanks!
This episode is not Australian enough!!!
You guys have come back absolutely swinging!! Every episode so far this year has been 10/10
My name is David and I can play some rock guitar. An angel came to me last night with the second part of this episode and instructed me to tell the Casefile team to release it early. Let God's will be done.
Great one to cover! And a multi-parter! This is going to be good 👏
My dad grew up in Waco before moving to Austin in his early 20's. He's actually pretty shy and doesn't talk a lot about his life unless directly asked, even though every single year of his existence has been filled with things happening to him that are so crazy that most people don't believe me when I tell them. But today, I asked him if he knew about the Branch Dividians when he lived in Waco. My dad, who is also a lifelong stoner who spent many of his formative years on acid staring at rows of canned goods in the supermarket: Nope. My mom worked at a Circle K down the street from them though. (For a while he was a suspect in the Yogurt Shop Murders.)
A rare find: Suicide sauce lore
I wish there was an extra patreon tier when if you pay more you can get all the multiparts at once
Hi Meg, this is a good idea and something we would consider, but the reality is we wouldn't be able to do this in most cases, as the majority of multi parters don't have each episode fully ready to go prior to the release of Part 1. Test A.rtf didn't for example. Also Waco Part 3 still hasn't been finalised yet.
I’ve always been fascinated with Waco but holy moly this is a deep deep dive. Incredible!
That opening was…INTENSE.
I know, like an Aussie Iron Maiden. "LET HIM WHO HAVE UNDERSTANDING RECKON THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST."
Love this
Hey- I’ve got a question (HUGE Casefile fan and it’s the only reason I’m bringing up a question in regard to “fact checking”- because I know Casefile- and fans- value that!)… It was mentioned that the Branch Davidians modified guns… and turned them into M16 assault rifles, like those that were nicknamed the Meat Chopper in WW2- however, the Meat Chopper was the vehicle and not the assault rifle that came out 15-20 years later. Can someone explain if I’m missing something in regard to that? Thank you!
Perhaps they confused the "M16 half-track (M16 MGMC)" vehicle with the M16 weapon?
No matter how much I think I know about a case, you guys provide so much more information! Can't wait to hear the rest of this season!
Holy crap some of you are insufferable, complaining about everything and anything. Main character syndrome I swear man… not everything revolves around what you want or don’t want. Casefile creators - you guys are doing an amazing job. Don’t let the whiners distract you.
Think I saw like 4 people complaining chill on the high horse
Ahh awesome case choice! Looking forward to listening to the deep dive!
Sucks that you've stopped releasing episodes early, I loved listening to 2 episodes each week
This is a week early, as always. And releasing two episodes in a week was always a rarity.
Ok talk about knocking it out of the park this season …. I love the multi-parters!! And the cases 😮💨😮💨 10 years and better than ever!
I love the multiple parts! Keep up the great work!!! I look forward to your posting every week.
Am I the only one incapable of processing readings from the buy-bull?
I grew up in a very religious household where we had to attend Australian-Rules Mass three times a week, so all of this is pretty familiar to me. MY favorite part of Revelation is Star Wormwood: a great, baleful star appears in the sky, and as a man looks up at it, taking a sippah from his Foster's, he suddenly realizes the beer tastes like piss. This isn't surprising to him as Foster's always tastes like piss, but then he goes for a suck from the bubbly and THAT tastes like piss too, and he's like, "crikey! It's the Endies, mate!" (Star wormwood is a real thing in revelations! A lot of other wacky stuff goes on in that book too because the bloke who scribbied it was high on mushrooms.)
Multi parters suck. Almost impossible to get into
I beg to differ! In my opinion, multi-parters are some of the best
Man, you guys will complain about ANYTHING. Jacket's too warm! Ice cream's too cold! In my day we had Unsolved Mysteries and SIGHTINGS and that was IT, and we were grateful for it! Every week I come into the comment section all excited to say funny stuff and troll old people by pretending I'm from Brisbank, and I'm confronted by a bunch of grousing about "aw man, the deep-dive true crime podcast that's won a bunch of awards is doing a deep dive again."
Where's your "funny stuff"? All I see is you complaining about other commenter.. metacomplaining.. sad
Like the case... Hate that it's another multi part episode 😔
Brilliant 👏
Oh man, i didn’t see this one coming. Hell yeah.
Oh this is going to be epic
Cannot wait to listen. I love the multi-part cases.
Y'all picked some cases this season I mean WHEW
I can't wait to listen to this!! you guys are spoiling us
holy shit
Was hoping this week wouldn’t be a multi parter.
Ditto. Happy for multi parters, but I would prefer they were spread out over the season.