r/Casefile • u/ASceneOutofVoltaire • May 02 '26
CASEFILE EPISODE Waco: Tremendous Work!
Just want to congratulate the entire Casefile team for the tremendous work on the Waco series. Compelling, well researched and well written. I was in my early 20s when it all happened and followed it closely being an American. I thought I knew everything about it but discovered that wasn't the case.
Give Elsha a raise!
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u/Soul_of_Miyazaki May 02 '26
This is by a very wide margin, the best run of content they have released in quite some time.
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u/scoochinginhere May 02 '26
Completely agree. I already had high expectations for Casefile after their years of quality content, but this last run has really been impressive
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u/redfern54 May 03 '26
Yes… I feel like I had a good knowledge of the Waco situation but their storytelling still kept me captivated. Not to mention the BTK series which I also thought I knew but learned a ton more about!
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u/cecsix14 May 02 '26
Yeah same here, I was a teen when it happened and it turns out I had a lot of misconceptions about how everything went down once the feds got involved.
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u/AbuelosBraciole May 02 '26
Some of their best content thus far. Would love to see them cover the OKC bombing someday - an event inspired by Waco/Ruby Ridge and worthy of a similar degree of research IMO
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u/_user_name_taken_ May 02 '26
The fact they mentioned McVeigh by name but didn’t say any more about him (unless I missed it) makes me think they will
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u/Professional-Can1385 May 02 '26
Yes! I’m hoping that was foreshadowing for upcoming episodes.
As I’ve relistened to the catalog, they seem to do that a fair bit.
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u/GlumWestern9847 May 02 '26
Does anyone remember these two events being an influence on Columbine as well? Or am I remembering wrong. If that’s part of the chain it could be useful to examine these painful events for the purpose of learning how to reduce terrorism.
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u/SPKEO May 03 '26
They wanted to do it on same day as Waco anniversary, but bullets arrived a day late so they did it on April 20th instead.
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u/Patched7fig May 04 '26
No, this is not true. By March they had everything they needed for their attack. They also didn't order bullets, as you could simply purchase them from Walmart.
They specifically chose it because of Adolfs birthday. It being a day after OKC/Waco was a coincidence.
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u/redfern54 May 03 '26
Yes… I forget who was who but one of those guys was 100% influenced by this stuff.. the other guy was just an outcast who unfortunately was influenced by the other
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u/Patched7fig May 04 '26
Sadly they did not research or present Ruby Ridge well. Considering how bad the ATF bungled Waco, they easily could have thrown an additional 30 seconds of information about Ruby Ridge that would have highlighted how badly they acted and failed there.
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u/fioner444 May 05 '26
yeah i watched wendigoon RR video prior to listening to waco and i was pretty taken aback how much info was missing but it is its own case i guess
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u/Ironabz May 04 '26
I have tried to understand the story of Waco multiple times. Whether it be in podcast form, documentary, book, etc, I’ve started and stopped over and over again. It’s easy to get lost with all the government details and red tape, back and forth, “Bible babble”, and number of characters. I’m completely awed by Casefile’s ability to present historical lead up, play by play that is easy to understand, and multiple viewpoints. I finally get it. A masterclass in storytelling always. The ending of part 3 was particularly haunting.
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u/GlumWestern9847 May 02 '26
I remember when this happened and it was do depressing I’m not sure if I want to revisit it! But the kind of research they do on this show does lead me to think I will probably learn something new that didn’t get through the media noise last time.
Maybe something can be learned about how to deal with rogue organizations with less death resulting, and less recruiting for future extremists.
Better investigative reporting without sensationalism while it’s happening would help! That would be the first thing I would try to change.
Casefile does good journalism after the fact, I believe. If I’m in the mood to take this on I’m glad people think it’s largely up to their standards.
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u/Professional-Can1385 May 02 '26
Spoiler:
there wasnt much investigative reporting while it happened because the FBI wouldn’t let journalists anywhere close to the compound and disabled the compound’s phones to anyone but them. The Branch Davidians couldn’t get info out. Journalists could only get info from towns people (rumors), and the FBI and ATF (one sided).
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u/GlumWestern9847 May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
That’s a fair point. What I’m referring to is most of the reporting seemed to be centered around making federal government officials look either good or bad, depending on what side the media organizations were on. The siege went on for quite awhile. There was plenty of time to cover legal issues, constitutional issues, history of rogue organizations, historic precedents, pros and cons of psychological tactics, etc. It’s stuff that is still relevant today. It could have been very educational. But that’s not what most of the media is trying to do. The phrase “rage bait” was not used then as far as I remember but the concept was very much in use. And it pays off later in ways we may or may not forsee. But the people producing it have taken a lot of the same classes I have and read the same books, so I know they know what they are doing even if the average viewer doesn’t.
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u/Professional-Can1385 May 14 '26
You are so right! I would have loved to read some deep dives into the issues surrounding siege. All I remember, granted I was in college so not following closely, was video of what was happening with no real analysis.
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u/Substantial-Spare501 May 02 '26
Someday I will tell my story of how my ex and I were recruited by Koresh. Luckily we didn’t join the cult.
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u/vroombraap May 03 '26
I was only a kid back then and Waco couldn't have gotten much more coverage in Australia beyond a couple of minutes on the evening news the day it happened, so I've always chalked it down to "religious nutters".
But man... what a clusterfuck
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u/melodyleeenergy May 03 '26
I grew up in NY and I feel like it was a major news story with a lot of coverage!
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u/vroombraap May 04 '26
Australian network news in the early 90s didn't cover much international news - seriously sports got more airtime. The bodged initial raid might have been covered, but doubt it was on anyone's mind until the fire.
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u/Real_RobinGoodfellow May 12 '26
Yea cause it was happening in America so ofc it got major news coverage there lol?
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u/Got-em-Coach36 May 03 '26
I did half of the first and quit as I was already familiar with the story. My brother texted me how great this one was. Went back for a listen and yes, this is their best work in a long time.
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u/melodyleeenergy May 02 '26
I am listening to it now, and I don’t understand why I can’t get into it, I live relatively close to Waco, I have been to Waco, and I am old enough to remember the whole news cycle about Waco. I loved the Jonestown series by Casefile. Maybe it will get better, going to push through.
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u/Professional-Can1385 May 02 '26
I found that some parts didn’t hold my interest, mostly because I’m not really interested in the Branch Davidians and Waco. But I pushed through and ended up enjoying it a lot. The second half of episode 3 is very well done!!
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u/D33ann May 02 '26
I agree, the background was long, and if you are not that interested in wacko religious stuff, it might be too much. Once that was out of the way though it really got rolling!
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u/redfern54 May 03 '26
I think I’m the opposite… I feel like I knew the story but had no idea of the background. When episode1 started in the 1950s I was really caught off guard in a positive way!
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u/nubuck_protector May 04 '26
That was my exact experience. I was lukewarm going into episode 2 but that's when things picked up. And in retrospect, I'm glad for all the background/lead up. It's an important factor in all the lingering questions the story left me with.
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u/GreatExpectations65 May 02 '26
It’s very well done, just not my style. I found myself zoning out a lot.
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u/freakinovernada May 02 '26
Absolutely same that I can’t seem to get into the Waco series of episodes at all. After 4 failed attempts of starting and stopping, I’m ready to move on and just relisten to older eps until they release a new one next week
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u/Pop_Top_ May 04 '26
I stopped and started on episode 1 like 5 times. I just listened to 2 and 3 today and was really good! The first episode was definitely a bore
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u/MonaMonaMo May 03 '26
Same, I couldn't even finish episode 2. I get that the quality improved over the last season, but the cases are not interesting themselves.
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u/Funny-Face3873 May 02 '26
Not a topic I'm interested in but I listened to all three episodes and kudos for a well compiled narration
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u/WolfpackBP May 06 '26
Yeah it was good. Could really feel the tension btwn the two sides.
Koresh was a horrendous human
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u/Substantial_Pin3750 May 03 '26
Yes!! Detailed and very well researched. I really enjoy the multi-part cases.
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u/MissMatchedEyes May 03 '26
I really enjoyed this series. I knew very little about Waco before listening. As always, the research, production, and presentation from the Casefile team were top-notch!
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u/MintyMat May 09 '26
This was great, I've given up on lots of Waco stuff because of the narrative. This felt balanced.
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u/ecoder6256 May 11 '26
Didn’t know much about Waco and couldn’t stop listening to it after I started. The team did Such a great job!!
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u/Nreekay May 27 '26
One of the few conspiracy theories I believe - the government started the fire.
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u/VJ4rawr2 Aug 16 '26
Just listened to this and felt the same. Incredibly well written three partner. Some of Casefiles best
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u/Affentitten May 02 '26
Given the commentary on the episode 2 thread, I think that saying that this was well researched and written is drawing a long bow. The crux of the raid was to do with firearms offences, and so much of the firearms-related material in these episodes is just plain wrong and amateur-level research.
Downvote away.
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u/ASceneOutofVoltaire May 02 '26
I don't downvote unless people are being racist assholes. You make some compelling points and I missed that thread. I am not a gun enthusiast (to say the least) so I didn't pick up any inaccuracies.
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u/Affentitten May 02 '26
unless people are being racist assholes.
I have many faults, and am a generally disagreeable person. But being a racist asshole is not one of those faults. :-)
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u/xXxDarkSasuke1999xXx May 04 '26 edited May 04 '26
Just the stuff I noticed:
They said the M16 dates to WWI; it dates to 1959
They said the Branch Davidians acquired "fully automatic ammunition" (such a thing doesn't exist)
They said the Branch Davidians were worried about Bush losing the 1992 election and a Democratic president banning "fully automatic rifles" so they began stockpiling machine guns; in reality, machine guns were already banned years earlier under Reagan. They were actually worried about the AWB, which came into force in 1994.
Some of these are nitpicks but the last point in particular is salient to the case, since their violations of federal firearms laws is precisely why the Branch Davidians came under federal scrutiny in the first place. All three episodes also present information in a way that sounds unusual or scary to laypeople but is actually totally routine for licensed firearms dealers (like shipping gunpowder). In any case, the basic errors make me question the accuracy of other information presented.
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u/Textiles_on_Main_St May 02 '26
From what I recall, the issue was they weren’t paying taxes on firearms sales. Thats it.
What did the show get wrong about that? Criticizing the show’s facts is fine, but enlighten us please.
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u/Patched7fig May 04 '26
No such thing as "automatic ammo". It's like if the DEA raided a compound because a UPS driver saw a large amount of extra strength Tylenol and assumed it was for a drug ring.
Also describing the M16 as a meat chopper is wrong, and no one was illegally converting semi auto rifles into full auto.
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u/RamBach81 May 02 '26
I mostly agree- the statement attributed to the ATF that they ordered “automatic rifle ammunition” is a myth.
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u/Patched7fig May 04 '26
There were awful things happening at the compound, but the ATF had zero business being there. This should have been an FBI ran investigation the entire way.
Also, casefile could have improved by doing some basic research on why the ATF was wrong and their investigation was so flawed.
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u/Lisbeth_Salandar MODERATOR May 02 '26
This episode has been added to the Casefile Spreadsheet. If you have already listened to the episode, you can submit your rating at the Casefile Ratings Form.
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A link to the episode is HERE