How does a bullied high school dropout with severe dyslexia convince people worldwide to abandon their lives and follow him to a dusty Texas compound? This deep dive steps back from the sensational headlines of the 1993 Waco siege to build a chronological biography of the man born Vernon Wayne Howell.

Starting from the beginning and tracing the causal links, it maps the blueprint of how an obscure, marginalized young man engineered a catastrophe.

• His unstable Houston childhood, a family deception about his mother, and early trauma that fueled a need for control.
• His expulsion from a Seventh-day Adventist congregation and arrival at the Branch Davidians' Mount Carmel.
• The violent power struggle with George Roden, an exhumed corpse, a shootout, and a mistrial.
• His legal name change to David Koresh, his seven ...