'Waco Rising' explores how the siege in Waco continues to reverberate 30 years later
Here & Now‘s Robin Young speaks with Kevin Cook, author of the book “Waco Rising: David Koresh, the FBI, and the Birth of America’s Modern Militias.”
Kevin Cook is the author of “Waco Rising.” (Pamela Marin)
Book excerpt: ‘Waco Rising: David Koresh, the FBI, and the Birth of America’s Modern Militias
By Kevin Cook
Wandering Bonehead
Vernon Howell, who would later take the name David Koresh, was born in Houston on a sweltering morning in August 1959. His mother was fourteen years old.
Bonnie Clark told friends she was “sort of engaged” to the baby’s father. Bobby Howell was a high school senior, a good kisser with a pickup truck. Bonnie dropped out of eighth grade to have their baby. The age of consent was seventeen, but a fourteen-year-old Texan could marry with parental consent. “Daddy signed the papers, but Bobby backed out,” she remembered. “God had a plan for my life and Vernon’s life, which didn’t include Bobby.”
Bonnie gave her son his
