A cult, the Davidians, whose leader (David Koresh) was a pedophile (at age 19, he conceived a daughter with a 14-year-old girl whom he had gotten pregnant), and who was also the son of a pedophile (his father was 20 and his “wife” 14 when they had him), amassed an arsenal on the property where his “temple” was located, and after a series of events, it all culminated in a police siege against the wooden building and the armed cult members inside.

Here’s the controversy: after everything went to hell, and a shootout began between the officers and the ranch loonies, it all ended in a fire that consumed the entire structure and burned most of the cult members alive (including multiple children), and in which their leader also perished—who (according to the popular narrative) either killed himself or ordered one of his followers to kill him, and who also allegedly gave the order to burn down their hideout as a sort of mass suicide.

The issue here is that many people believe it was the FBI that started the fire, either completely intentionally or “accidentally,” possibly by using tear gas canisters. During the confrontation, tanks were used to break through the walls of “Mount Carmel Center”—the name of the Davidian compound—to spray the interior with the aforementioned tear gas, which could also have been the cause of the fire, if we follow this line of reasoning. There appears to be some evidence to support this, considering that, as you can see, the charred bodies of the children are in a position that seems to indicate they were writhing before they died, possibly because they could not breathe after being gassed.

Furthermore, one thing that has been confirmed is the use of “psychological warfare tactics” by the authorities throughout the unarmed standoff prior to the mass deaths of the Davidians. These “tactics” included such things as using loudspeakers to play the sounds of rabbits being slaughtered and even the song “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’,” by Nancy Sinatra, on a constant loop for hours, as if it were some kind of dark humor joke brought to life.

One final point worth noting is that the cult did not die out with the 76 “lunatics” (21 of whom were just children) after the fire consumed everything; some branches still exist, albeit on a smaller scale and (at least as far as is known) without the same level of extremism.