Editing David Koresh (section)

==Early life==
Some details of Koresh's life vary among sources, but he was born Vernon Wayne Howell on August 17, 1959, in [[Houston]], Texas, to unmarried<ref>His parents began the marriage process upon learning of the pregnancy, but the ceremony ultimately never took place; each blamed the other for this. See: {{harvnb|Samples|de Castro|Abanes|Lyle|1994|p=18}}.</ref> parents: 20-year-old Bobby Wayne Howell and 14-year-old Bonnie Sue Clark. Two years after the birth, the relationship broke down.<ref name="SMAL 19 20">{{harvnb|Samples|de Castro|Abanes|Lyle|1994|pp=19–20}}.<br>Koresh would not see his father again until he was 17; see: {{Cite news |title= Portrait Of Koresh Full Of Contradictions – Parents Try To Reconcile Memories As Ex-Followers Paint Other Image |url= https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19930302&slug=1688317 |date= March 2, 1993 |newspaper= Dallas Morning News |access-date= March 16, 2024 }}</ref> Bonnie continued to flounder, with an abusive first marriage to a Joe Golden quickly ending in divorce.<ref name="SMAL 19 20"/> After this, around 1962, unable to cope with her situation, Bonnie moved away to Dallas.<ref>{{harvnb|Samples|de Castro|Abanes|Lyle|1994|p=20}}.<br>Bonnie herself said ({{harvnb|Haldeman|2007|pp=10 11}}) she moved to Dallas with Roy Haldeman, her future husband, after meeting him when she began working at a bar he part-owned in Houston.</ref> She placed her son in the care of her mother and an older sister: Bonnie's mother would pretend to be Koresh's mother; Bonnie would pose as an aunt when she occasionally visited him.<ref>{{harvnb|Samples|de Castro|Abanes|Lyle|1994|p=20}}.<br>Bonnie herself said ({{harvnb|Haldeman|2007|p=10}}) that she gave Koresh to her mother while she was married to Golden, to protect him from the spankings her husband inflicted on him.</ref>

With her marriage, in 1964, to merchant marine Roy Winfred Haldeman, however, Bonnie at last felt in a stable enough position to raise her son herself. The truth about who his real mother was was thus revealed to a five-year-old Koresh, an experience he carried with him his whole life.<ref>{{Harvnb|Breault|King|1993|pp=27 8}}.</ref> To make a tumultuous situation still worse, it was at this time that Koresh said he began to be sexually abused by one of his mother's male relatives.<ref>{{harvnb|Samples|de Castro|Abanes|Lyle|1994|p=21}}.<br>Koresh said the abuse, which included rape, lasted four years, until he was nine, but afflicted him his whole life. He said he never revealed who the perpetrator was to avoid upsetting his mother.</ref> In July 1965, not long before Koresh turned six, a half-brother, Rodger Winfred Haldeman, arrived; a few weeks later, the Haldeman family set up home in [[Richardson, Texas]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Haldeman|2007|pp=12–3}}</ref> There developed permanent difficulties between Koresh and his stepfather,<ref>{{harvnb|Samples|de Castro|Abanes|Lyle|1994|p=27}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Haldeman|2007|p=12}}</ref> but the boys got on well.<ref>{{harvnb|Haldeman|2007|pp=14–6}}.</ref>

Koresh described his early childhood as lonely.<ref name="Wilson2000 ???">{{Harvnb|Wilson|2000|p=???}}.</ref> Due to his poor study skills and [[dyslexia]] partially caused by poor eyesight, he was put in [[special education]] classes and bullied by his schoolmates. Matters improved after about the age of 12, when Koresh became interested in sport, which he was good at, and developed his physique.<ref>{{Harvnb|Breault|King|1993|p=31}}.</ref> Despite this turnaround, Koresh dropped out of [[Garland High School]] in his junior year. He tried various jobs, but was either fired from or abandoned each of them.

At the age of 19, Koresh had an [[statutory rape|illegal sexual relationship]] with a 16-year-old girl, who became pregnant. He never saw the resulting daughter: the teenage mother thought him unfit to be a father, so she moved away and refused to see him.<ref>{{Harvnb|Breault|King|1993|p=33}}.</ref> He claimed to have become a [[born-again Christian]] in the [[Southern Baptist Church]] and soon joined his mother's denomination, the [[Seventh-day Adventist Church]]. There, Koresh, then 20, and the pastor's daughter, 15-year-old Sandy Berlin, began a two-year relationship.<ref>{{Cite news |title= The Pop Life |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/25/arts/the-pop-life-201170.html |newspaper= The New York Times |date= March 25, 1994 |access-date= March 20, 2024 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title= 'Recordings for Deviants': interview of Sandy Berlin |url= https://www.vice.com/en/article/david-v13n10/ |newspaper= Vice |date= 1995 |access-date= March 20, 2024 }}</ref> During their courtship, while praying for guidance one day, Koresh allegedly opened his eyes and found the [[Bible]] open at [[Book of Isaiah|Isaiah 34:16]], stating that "none should want for her mate".<ref>{{Harvnb|Breault|King|1993|pp=34–5}}.</ref> Convinced this was a sign from God, Koresh approached the pastor and told him that God wanted him to have his daughter for a wife; the pastor dismissed the suggestion out of hand and forbade him from ever seeing her again, an instruction that Koresh ignored. With the pastor furious at him and the congregation weary of and repulsed by his sex obsession, Koresh was expelled from the church.<ref name="BreKin1993 35">{{Harvnb|Breault|King|1993|p=35}}.</ref>

It was now summer 1981, and Koresh's next move was to [[Waco, Texas]], where he joined the [[Branch Davidians]] (splinter group of [[Shepherd's Rod|Davidian Seventh-Day Adventist]]).<ref>{{Harvnb|Beck|2024|p=36}}.</ref> [[Benjamin Roden]], who died in 1978,<ref name="BreKin1993 38">{{Harvnb|Breault|King|1993|p=38}}.</ref> had originated the Branch group in 1955 with new teachings that were not connected with the original Davidians.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}