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03/11/93
Officials flooded with tips, insights on Koresh, his message
By David McLemore / The Dallas Morning News
WACO-The callers believe that Armageddon is at hand and that they can help federal authorities break the siege at the Branch Davidian compound east of Waco.
The siege by federal and state authorities of more than 100 followers of David Koresh, leader of the Branch Davidian sect, at their compound has prompted a flood of phone calls to authorities offering help in understanding Mr. Koresh's apocalyptic message.
Sociologists say the extensive media coverage of the siege offers people with similar beliefs a relatively painless way to spread their religious message.
For agents of the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, it's a nuisance of monumental scope.
Federal authorities said the calls began coming in the day after the siege began Feb. 28 at the heavily armed fortress compound that Mr. Koresh sometimes referred to as Ranch Apocalypse. And they just kept coming. And coming.
Over the first eight days of the standoff, FBI officials logged more than 2,000 phone calls around the clock, from all over the world, offering Biblical insights and help in understanding Mr. Koresh.
Many came from Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand, according to federal authorities. Many of the followers of Mr. Koresh barricaded behind the compound's fortified walls are believed to be converts he gained during a visit to those countries several years ago.
"It's amazing how many have come out of the woodwork. It's just been mind-boggling,' said one federal agent close to the investigation, who asked not to be named. "We've gotten a lot of calls from self-styled cult experts who say they can get Koresh out of his compound. But mainly, it's religious types who say they're able to give Biblical interpretations from the Old and New Testament of what David Koresh is talking about.'
Most of the callers told authorities they believe that Mr. Koresh is correct in preaching the coming of the end of the world, authorities said.
The messages initially clogged phones at the McLennan County sheriff's office and the Waco Police Department until federal authorities routed callers to the FBI office in San Antonio.
Callers' names and phone numbers were then faxed to FBI and ATF negotiators in Waco for any potential intelligence purposes, federal officials said.
Joe Handley, FBI spokesman for the San Antonio office referred all media calls about the offers to the FBI negotiating team in Waco. An agent answering the FBI command center in Waco declined to comment on the flood of calls from well-meaning evangelicals, as did a spokesman for the ATF.
"The media coverage is a tremendous vehicle to help them spread the word to the world,' said Dr. Russell Curtis, a sociologist at the University of Houston. "It's what we sociologists call the "free rider effect'-the story gives them vicarious recognition and a way to proselytize without pain.'
Dr. Curtis also said that the media coverage helps create a modeling effect among those people who identify with Mr. Koresh or his religious beliefs.
For example, he said, "there's a lot of similarity in the situation in Waco with the well-documented occurrences of many suicides following a highly publicized suicide.'
Dallas radio station KRLD-AM (1080) also has received tips and offers from "every weirdo and wacko in the world,' said station manager Charlie Seraphim.
KRLD was drawn into the standoff early on when Mr. Koresh offered to release children from the compound if the station would broadcast a religious message from him.
Mr. Seraphim says he weeds out "about 99 percent' of the calls. He said he passes any that seem to have substance to the federal agents handling the case.
Mr. Seraphim told of one envelope that arrived at the station addressed to Vernon Howell-Mr. Koresh's former name-in care of the FBI. Where the return address would normally have been were the words "Message from God.' The envelope contained a novel about Vietnam.
One caller to The Dallas Morning News sought Mr. Koresh's date and place of birth (Aug. 17, 1959, in Houston). She explained that she and others interested in astrology wanted to work out Mr. Koresh's astrological chart.
David Oates, founder and president of Reverse Speech International Inc. of Wylie, says that his analysis of Mr. Koresh's 58-minute tape broadcast March 2 on KRLD indicates that the cult leader "wants to be heard and accepted, hopefully as the prophet of God, but at the very least as a sane man who loves God.'
Mr. Oates contacted The News this week and said he has been in touch with federal negotiators near the cult's compound, but he said he didn't know how much credence, if any, negotiators give his analysis. He acknowledged that his process of listening to a person's speech in reverse to detect subconscious messages is a relatively new technique and is not broadly accepted.
Mr. Oates faxed printed passages from Mr. Koresh's tape, along with reversals that he said he found in Mr. Koresh's speech at the same time.
For example, Mr. Oates said, when Mr. Koresh said, " . . . we know he just gave counsel to the seven churches of Asia,' he was also saying in reverse speech, "Let me warn you.'
In that case, the forward and reverse dialogues had a connection.
In others, there is no connection. As an example, he said, when Mr.
Koresh was saying, " . . . dollars cannot tell you. Look at all these courses. They don't know. Again it's found again in Isaish 45,' this unconnected reverse dialogue came through: "I fought no one/Don't want to kill/I feel afraid.'
"Its almost like he has his religious fervor and his humanity, and they are battling,' Mr. Oates said.
Staff writers Victoria Loe and Lowery Metts in Dallas contributed to this report.
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