David Koresh

Frustrated musician and future apocalyptic cult leader David Koresh (1959-1993) attended Garland High School in Texas (as Vernon Wayne Howell) before dropping out during his junior year. From his earliest days in elementary school, Koresh was a poor student diagnosed with multiple learning disabilities. However, when it came to the bible, he turned out to be a savant. Indeed, Koresh had a photographic memory and nearly total recall of numerous passages of scripture. In 1981, he joined the Branch Davidians, a Waco, Texas-based religious sect that had broken off from the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1930. Koresh soon became romantically involved with their "prophetess," Lois Roden, a woman in her seventies, but later tried to diminish her standing by proclaiming his own powers as a visionary. After Roden's death and following the commitment of her son, George, to a mental hospital in the late 1980s, Koresh effectively took command of the Branch Davidian faith.

Like Charles Manson, Koresh fancied himself a rock musician, but he was not nearly as prolific a recording artist as his fellow cult leader (who has put out at least two albums of psychotic material). Koresh's best known song is an eerily prophetic composition that he released in 1987 that concerned arch rival, George Roden. The song, entitled Mad Man In Waco, contains the lyrics "There's a mad man living in Waco, praying to the prince of hell..." It was issued on 45 and cassette to local record stores, and according to a biography of Koresh by Brad Riley and Bob Darden, failed miserably. It has, however, served as catchy promo music for the various documentaries that have been produced about the Waco incident.

   
By 1993 Koresh and his adherents who resided at the church's headquarters at the Mount Carmel ranch outside of Waco, had become the focus of the federal authorities because of their activities with firearms. Specifically, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had determined that the Davidians had been converting guns into automatic weapons. After a horribly botched February 28, 1993 ATF raid on the compound (a protracted shootout left four agents and six cult members dead), a 51 day standoff ensued.

During the media-saturated siege, it became known that Koresh had committed numerous statutory rapes of girls he had chosen from his flock to become his "wives." The cult leader reportedly had as many as 19 wives and sired at least 12 children. On April 19th, the FBI breached the Davidian compound with tanks and began shooting tear gas canisters into the building. Several hours later the structure was in flames. By the end of the standoff only a few Davidians had escaped the building with their lives. A total of 74 men, women and children died in the inferno (Koresh and his chief lieutenant, Steve Schneider, were later found to have died from gunshot wounds). All of the official investigations into the siege have determined that--based on audio and visual evidence--the Davidians started the April 19th fire.

In the days following the arrest of Timothy McVeigh (1968-2001) for the April 19, 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, it was revealed that the accused mass murderer had been interviewed by a journalism student near the Davidian compound during the standoff. McVeigh had traveled to Waco to demonstrate his solidarity with the "oppressed" cult members and to sell bumper stickers with phrases such as "Fear the Government that Fears Your Gun," and "A Man With a Gun is a Citizen, A Man Without a Gun is a Subject." McVeigh would later cite the outcome of the Waco siege as the principal source of his hatred of the federal government (and, no doubt, it was also the inspiration for the date that he chose to commit his act of domestic terrorism).

Legacy: McVeigh is interviewed near the Davidian standoff on March 30, 1993

Lynette Alice "Squeaky" Fromme

Lynette Alice "Squeaky" Fromme attended Redondo Union High School in Southern California, but according to the school's archivist (yes, they have an archivist), it is uncertain as to whether she actually graduated. Evidence presented in Jess Bravin's amazing biography, Squeaky: The Life and Times of Lynette Alice Fromme, indicates that she never wore the cap and gown. Indeed, the one and only high school yearbook appearance for the future Manson girl and would-be presidential assassin is found the 1965 edition of The Pilot. Specifically, her junior year portrait and a photo with the Theater Club. According to Bravin, she was also very active with the school's literary magazine, Opus (later re-branded as The Compass). In the 1966 edition of the publication, Ms. Fromme is favorably mentioned in the preface and two of her poems are featured therein.

From 1960 to 1963 Ms. Fromme attended Orville Wright Junior High School in Westchester, California where she befriended future Saturday Night Live star Phil Hartman (who was tragically murdered by his wife in 1998). Hartman and Fromme shared column space in the June 20, 1963 edition of the school's newspaper, The Skyliner. On page 3, under an article entitled "A9's Select Most Popular Seniors," Hartman, in a possible joke or typo, is named "Happy-go-lucky girl" and Fromme shared "Personality Plus" honors with someone named Lisa Wilhoyt.

Even earlier, the talented Ms. Fromme was a member of the Westchester Lariats, a popular dance troupe that performed in a variety of venues including on such national television programs as The Dinah Shore Show, The Lawrence Welk Show and on a program hosted by future Manson antagonist, Art Linkletter.

It was in 1967, on the Venice Beach boardwalk, that Fromme met the man who would soon dub her "Squeaky." Charles Manson's first words to the 18-year-old were "What's the problem?" Fromme has been at Manson's side--at least in spirit--ever since. She did not participate in the infamous Tate-LaBianca murders, but she did become Manson's main cheerleader during the ensuing trial. And, along with other members of The Family, she carved an 'X' in her forehead. After the guilty verdicts she and the other members of the cult shaved their heads.



By 1975 Fromme was sharing an apartment in Sacramento with another Manson girl, Sandra Good. They still worshipped their leader and had taken up his cause on the environment. They had also taken to wearing strange nun-like robes (Good wore the color blue and Fromme wore red). On September 5th of that year Fromme went to Capitol Park with a loaded .45 Colt pistol in a thigh holster under her robe (in the later Newsweek cover shot, she looked like a demented elf). But before she could fire at President Ford, she was restrained by Secret Service agent Larry Buendorf. Seventeen days after the assassination attempt, another woman (Sara Jane Moore) tried to kill the hapless Ford. Fromme was eventually sentenced to life in prison.

In 1987 Fromme made a brief escape from Alderson Federal Prison Camp in Alderson, West Virginia (Sara Jane Moore did this, too) after hearing erroneous news that Manson had testicular cancer. She was recaptured two miles from the prison. She would not see freedom again until her parole from a Fort Worth, Texas prison on August 14, 2009. She had served 34 years.

Fromme, now in her sixties, currently lives with her boyfriend in Marcy, New York. She was portrayed (as a blonde!) by 24's Mary Lynn Rajskub in the 2004 version of Helter Skelter with Jeremy Davies playing a particularly menacing Charles Manson.

"Personality Plus"