Text Excerpt 10: Waco Holocaust Electronic Museum

			  The Dead Can Speak

    [Note to readers:  Many of the official autopsy reports of the
    Branch Davidians, autopsy photographs, and official diagrams
    showing the locations of body recoveries are available for
    viewing at the Waco Holocaust Electronic Museum website.
    Unfortunately, this documentation cannot be included in a text
    excerpt.]

The dead can speak. Much can be learned from examination of the
corpse. For this purpose the Museum has obtained a set of the autopsy
reports and photographs. They bear remarkable evidence, much of it yet
to be analyzed.

At the center of the public opinion storm around Waco is the fate of
the mothers and children whose remains were found in the
pantry/concrete room that formed the foundation of the four-story
residential tower (see US News & World Report, May 3, 1993, where it
is erroneously labeled "Cinder-block room", Treasury Report, pg. 39,
Linda Thompson photo, and US News & World Report, May 3, 1993). Before
the fire of April 19, this room received no attention. After the fire,
it was invariably called the "bunker," the term that had hitherto been
reserved for the tornado shelters.

It is said that the mothers and children, equipped with gas masks, wet
blankets and sleeping bags, sought shelter there from the CS tear gas;
instead of being sheltered, they died when the structure collapsed on
them.

But the evidence shows that this story was invented. Photographs show
the concrete room did not collapse. The evidence suggests that the
mothers and children died elsewhere under different conditions, and
the bodies were brought into the concrete room after death.

The bodies in this room were variously charred beyond recognition or
slightly charred; some were severely decomposed, some only moderately;
some dismembered and badly mutilated, others were whole. The people
are said to have died variously of smoke inhalation, suffocation,
blunt force trauma, gun shot wounds, or burns.

Joseph Martinez (Mt. Carmel Doe 52) and Crystal Martinez (Mt. Carmel
Doe 57) are recognizable as human forms. Their Autopsy Reports
indicate that the remains were only moderately decomposed, and
suffered little charring.

But the remains of Katherine Andrade (Mt. Carmel Doe 30) and John
McBean (Mt. Carmel Doe 32) were virtually incinerated. This is an
unexpected effect, given that there is little to burn in a concrete
room, and given that the fire lasted only 40 minutes.  Some people
explain the charring of the bodies by suggesting that the room was a
storehouse for ammunition, and the ammunition caught fire. The
plausibility of this explanation will be examined in due course.

Some corpses were so decomposed that the connective tissue between the
bones had disintegrated, causing the bodies to fall apart (the process
is called "disarticulation.") Other corpses were so decomposed that
the internal organs were unrecognizable, had turned to mush, or were
liquefied. From a review of professional literature, we will see that
this degree of decomposition is usually effected over a long period of
time.

Regarding these cases, the rational person is left with a limited
number of explanations:

1. The Autopsy Reports are fictitious
2. Some of the deaths occurred before April 19, 1993 (the date of
   the fire)
3. The severely decomposed remains are not those of Branch
   Davidians
4. A means was used for accelerating the decomposition of some of
   these remains, making any ordinary estimation of the time of
   death meaningless.

Many of the bodies in the concrete room/pantry appear to have been
torn apart, as in the case of Melissa Morrison (Mt. Carmel Doe 74).
Only Melissa's lower legs were found.

In one case, the body parts of eleven (11) people were reformed into
an agglutinated mass, as if kneaded together under the tracks of a
tank or compacted in a press. Several photographs are on
exhibit--photos were obviously taken after the mass had been sectioned
off. (Mt. Carmel Doe 64 A picture, Mt. Carmel Doe 64 B picture,
Mt. Carmel Doe 64 C picture, and Mt. Carmel Doe 64 D
picture). Mt. Carmel Doe 64 E picture).

The human beings said to be represented by this commingled mass:

  1. Koresh's wife Rachel,
  2. Koresh's son, Cyrus,
  3. Koresh's daughter, Star,
  4. Koresh's daughter, Bobbie Lane;
  5. Lorraine Sylvia,
  6. Lorraine Sylvia's daughter, Rachel,
  7. Lorraine Sylvia's daughter, Hollywood,
  8. Paiges Gent (a baby),
  9. an unidentified infant,
 10. an unidentified toddler, and
 11. an unidentified child.

Even more remarkably, the deceased, found compacted like this, were
said to have died variously of smoke inhalation, suffocation, and
gunshot wound. It is obvious that these people died in different
environments, and their remains gathered together after death and
pressed into mounds. No series of circumstances known so far could
have this effect.

Next: Excerpt 11, What Did They Do to the Bodies?
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Entire set of text excerpts from the Museum available with
anonymous ftp from ftp://ftp.public-action.com/wm2-0txt.zip
Excerpted by Carol Valentine. Images omitted. Visit the Museum at
http://www.Public-Action.com/SkyWriter/WacoMuseum.

SkyWriter@Public-Action.com

Copyright 1996-2000 by Carol A. Valentine, on loan to Public Action,
Inc. All commercial rights are reserved. Full statement of terms and
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Library. "Waco Holocaust Electronic Museum," "SkyWriter," and the
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