David Koresh

Vernon Wayne Howell (1959 - 1993 CE), later named David Koresh, was an American false prophet who led the Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas from the year 1988 until his death in 1993. He believed he, rather than Jesus, was the Lamb of God from Revelation 5 and that he had been chosen by God to prepare the world for Christ's second coming.

In February 1993, his cult compound was besieged by the American law enforcement agency, the ATF, under suspicions that his followers had acquired illegal weaponry. The siege, which lasted 51 days, led to a violent clash between the cultists and the ATF and resulted in the deaths of 4 law enforcement officers and 82 cult members, 28 of whom were children.

The Branch Davidian cult was an offshoot of the Seventh-Day Adventists.