Who Is David Koresh? His Wife, Children And Everything You Should Know
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Let us ask you this: “Who is David Koresh?” Wait a minute, don’t answer that. We know that you would claim that he is the sinful Messiah. It is practically impossible to talk about David Koresh without describing him as such, but it shouldn’t just end like that, because he was much more.

Born Vernon Wayne Howell, Koresh was the famous leader of the Branch Davidian sect – a splinter branch of the Seventh-day Adventist Church founded by Victor Houteff in 1929. Many people claim that he was mentally retarded, but since this has never been medically or clinically proven, he goes to the garbage.

Who Is David Koresh?

In order to know who David Koresh is, we first have to get to know his early days. He was born Vernon Wayne Howell on August 17, 1959, as the son of Bobby Wayne Howell and his mother Bonnie Sue Clark, who was 14 years old at the time. He never met his father because he had abandoned her before he was born. It is of utmost importance to point out that the first father figure young David Koresh had in his life was a vicious, violent, hot-headed, insane alcoholic. His time with this father figure was short-lived, as he was taken to his grandmother Earline Clark at the age of four.

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As a child, David found it difficult to study, so he had to be placed in a special class. Eventually, he dropped out of high school in his junior year. During his years as a young man, he was plagued with various crimes and atrocities, which he always backed up with reasons, however illogical they might be. A vivid example was when he told the pastor in his mother’s church (Seventh-day Adventist) that God wants him to take his daughter to wife, citing Isaiah 34:16 as the reason why he thinks so. Another example comes in the form of testimony from 21 surviving children of the David cult who claim that David Koresh made them fight each other and if they did not fight hard enough to his satisfaction, they had to face the rod. This time the reason was to prepare them for the last days.

The fruits of David Koresh were planted when he was young, but whatever became of him can be traced back to the year 1982. In 1982 Koresh moved to Waco, Texas, where he joined the Davidian branch. He was very good at singing and often sang in church while playing the guitar. At that time he was still known as Vernon Howell until he filed a petition in 1990 in California Indeed State Superior Court to legally change his name to David Koresh and his petition was granted on August 28, 1990.

Without a doubt, it is obvious that David Koresh was many things: a highly respected religious leader among his followers, an apocalyptic crusader, a father, a son, a singer, a guitarist, but a Messiah.

His Wife And Children

There is much controversy surrounding the religious sect leader’s married life, but it is of the utmost importance to make it clear that his only legal marriage was to Rachel Jones in 1984. She bore him three children named Cyrus Howell, Star Howell, and Bobby Wayne Howell.

Nevertheless, there are several sources that claim that he had several other wives and concubines. As speculated, he urged his followers to celibacy, annulled their marriages, and kept the women to himself. Koresh himself admitted to having fathered 12 children with several wives, but unconfirmed sources claim there could be a little more than 12.

Other Things You Should Know About Koresh

He has been dead since April 19, 1993, but every day there are new revelations about this high-profile religious cult leader that we never knew about. Here are things you should know about David Koresh, the famous leader of the Dravidian branch.

1. He called himself Koresh and meant the Messiah The name was after the biblical Persian king Cyrus the Great, who was known for freeing the Jews during their captivity in Babylon. His first name, David, was taken to symbolize a common lineage with the great King David of the Bible – thus he confessed to being a descendant of David, who was sent to oversee a very important divine order.

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2. The religious leader wrote a 172-page manuscript entitled The Shepherd’s crook, in which he called for a denominational reform and condemned Houteff’s teachings. It became so popular that George Roden rivaled him for leadership, which eventually led to George’s death when they got into a fierce firefight.

3. The accusations leveled against this “Messiah” range from claiming that it was divine for him to take people’s wives, to his boasting that he slept with underage girls and physically abused children. In fact, he is said to have advocated that sex with him is a prerequisite for every woman who wants to go to heaven.

4. Whoever lives by the sword shall eventually die by the sword. This should not change in the case of David Koresh either, since the head of the Dravidian branch died on April 19, 1993. Like the life, he led, his death was shrouded in mystery. He was said to have died in a shootout during a brutal confrontation with the FBI, but the exact circumstances leading to his death remain very unclear to this day. It is known that he died along with 75 other people during the siege of Waco.