Interesting

As a non-American citizen, I didn’t know a lot about the Waco incident. After listening to this audiobook, I listened to a couple of podcasts to learn “the other side”. It was interesting to compare the two and while I would say that the author of this book is definitely bias and perhaps somewhat blind to the realities, he does make some good points about religious freedom and the power of the government.

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An Incredibly One Sided Story

The author basically twisted everything putting the cult in the right and accepts no blame for ANYTHING that happened.
It was hard to listen to due to my feeling that the author is still under the influence of David Koresh. And it’s so obviously a cult that I couldn’t believe the author is anything but deluded still.
The performance was excellent and great reader.

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The other side if the coin

After doing a deep dive into the Waco Seige for a research project I was guided toward this book. Its an improtant first hand account of a horrible government mistake. Ultimately you will still disagree with the actions of some. But this novel will offer you an insight not considered before.

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1 person found this helpful

Wow.

I found this book to be heartbreaking and so sad... Those poor children. Give it a listen.

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The other side of Waco

I found this very informative, and terribly sad. Would be a great book if it wasn’t true. Even though David had a twisted view of what he was able to do in this world and must be held accountable, what happened to everyone in that compound at the hands of the authorities is completely unforgivable and I don’t understand why some of the leading authority officials were not charged for crimes and absolute cruelty to men women and children.

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A very unbalanced account...

**3 stars**
This was a difficult one for me to rate.

David Thibodeau is a survivor of the Waco disaster when 70+ people died in a seige lasting more than a month. This is his (very bias) story of what happened and how he came to join the Branch Davidian cult.

I am personally glad that I read this account before reading an account written by on of the law enforcement officers. Thibodeau writes very articulately and delves into the experience, but I feel like this book was an attempt to lay pure blame at the hands of the American Federal Government and he does not seek to take any of the responsibility for what happened.

David Thibodeau had an experience. It was unique and unlike any other. It was his experience and his life for more than two years. However, his perspective is skewed. It seems to me that Thibodeau has spent many years trying to come to terms with what happened but still cannot remove himself from the situation enough to see that many of the people at Mount Carmel were to blame for what happened on April 19th 1993 and in the ensuring days.

What bothers me is that even some 25 years later (I read the revised version), Thibodeau is still unable to come to terms with the fact that David Koresh was not a good person. He was a criminal, and just because he claimed to be a prophet and spoke the word of good does not undo the horrible things he did. Thibodeau was constantly making excuses for Koresh and completely glossed over the fact that Koresh was a rapist. Koresh willing engaged in sex with girls as young as 12 years old. That is criminal and disgusting. In a closed community, where a man is held up on a pedestal, how can I young girl give informed consent to have sex? She cannot. Thibodeau never condemns this behaviour by Koresh, and in-fact tries to justify it to himself and accuses one girl of being a liar.

Infact, if we really want to get down to the nitty gritty, Thibodeau actually aided Koresh in his rape of young girls by agreeing to marry Michelle- this was a clear attempt to get the authorities to stop looking closely at Michelle and who the father of her three children where. He admitted that the marriage was a sham, therefore, he clearly understood the reasons for his marriage. It was done in order to allow Koresh to keep having sex with Michelle without the authorities getting involved.

Thibodeau does present a few valid points about the siege. The government did a horrific job of addressing the situation. It was badly mishandled, and the government should have taken a good hard long look at their procedures after this event. Most of the victims of the Waco tradgedy were innocent and did not deserve to die- especially in the horrific and terrifying manner that they experienced. The excessive violence and cruel siege tactics that of the ATF was out of line, especially with so many children on the premise. The media was also a bit hasty to condemn the entire compound without really acknowledging that they too were victims of cruelty.

Overall, I look forward to reading more balanced accounts of the siege. My heart goes out to Thibodeau over his experiences, he was , after all is said and done- another victim of David Koresh.

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2 people found this helpful

worth the listen, two sides to every story!

Great book - 10/10..you won't be disappointed, who better to hear it from than someone who was inside the property during the seige!

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