Dark Sequels

THE CHILDREN SEEMED NORMAL TO LOOK AT, BUT their heart rates averaged 140 beats a minute. Said psychiatrist Bruce Perry, who interviewed most of the 21 minors allowed out of Ranch Apocalypse before it burned: "((They)) were in a persistent state of fear."

Perry's findings were but one of the narratives springing from the central horror tale at Waco. Investigators put the body count for the April 19 inferno at 80. The Texas Rangers scavenged 200 whole guns after the fire. The Justice and Treasury departments began reviews of the roles played by the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. And cult member Stan Sylvia, whose wife and daughters died, brought the first lawsuit against the U.S. government, for $18 million.

In Waco, embattled FBI Director William Sessions, after touring the charred compound, received a standing ovation from the locals. The big news was the discovery that the heads of many of the Waco corpses had bullet holes in them; including leader David Koresh's. A girl selling T shirts nearby didn't believe it: "I think ((Koresh)) got out somehow . . . I think he'll show up in two or three years."

Koresh or someone like him. (See related story on page 54.)