Steve Schneider (Branch Davidian)

Steven Emil Schneider (October 16, 1949 – April 19, 1993[1]) was an American Branch Davidian commonly called a "lieutenant" to David Koresh, the leader of the new religious movement.[2][3] He was formally married to Judy Schneider, but in the community Koresh impregnated Judy and she bore a child with him.[4] Steve Schneider was raised in a Seventh-day Adventist household in Wisconsin.[5][6] Schneider studied at Newbold College in the United Kingdom, and eventually worked to receive a Ph.D. in comparative religion at the University of Hawaiʻi.[7][8] In approximately 1986, Schneider encountered Marc Breault, an indigenous Hawaiian Branch Davidian, and converted to Branch Davidianism.

Schneider was supposedly very successful at gaining converts to Branch Davidianism. David Thibodeau, a survivor of the Waco siege and memoirist, converted after meeting Schneider in California.[9] Scholars James Tabor and Eugene Gallagher note that he claimed to have converted twenty people on a trip to England in 1988.[10] Schneider was in the Mount Carmel compound at the beginning of the Waco siege on February 28, 1993. He stayed in or near the compound for the entire siege and died there. Various police agencies believe that Schneider shot Koresh before shooting himself on April 19, 1993.[2][11][12] He was a major character in the 2018 miniseries Waco, played by Paul Sparks.[3]

  1. ^ Waite, Albert A. C.; Osei, Lauren (March 14, 2018). "The British Connection". spectrummagazine.org. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
  2. ^ a b Darlene McCormick, "The price of loyalty: Schneider's body found near Howell's," Waco Tribune-Herald, May 12, 1993.
  3. ^ a b Freedman, Adrianna (April 29, 2020). "Steve Schneider Was David Koresh's Spokesman During the Waco Tragedy". Men's Health. Retrieved July 8, 2022.
  4. ^ "Report to the Deputy Attorney General on the Events at Waco, Texas: Attitudes of Koresh and others in the Compound". www.justice.gov. September 15, 2014. Retrieved July 8, 2022.
  5. ^ "Death of a Branch Davidian Friend and Other Memories". spectrummagazine.org. Retrieved July 8, 2022.
  6. ^ James D. Tabor and Eugene V. Gallagher, Why Waco?: Cults and the Battle for Religious Freedom in America (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1995), 27.
  7. ^ David Thibodeau and Leon Whiteson, A Place Called Waco: A Survivor's Story (New York: PublicAffairs, 1999), 19.
  8. ^ "Waco: Seventh-day Adventists used spies in the battle to halt Koresh's". The Independent. April 24, 1993. Retrieved July 9, 2022.
  9. ^ Thibodeau and Whiteson, A Place Called Waco, 15.
  10. ^ Tabor and Gallagher, Why Waco?, 26.
  11. ^ Lee Hancock, "2nd-in-command killed Koresh, FBI agent says," Dallas Morning News, September 5, 1993, reprinted in The Roanoke Times.
  12. ^ "Aide to Koresh Killed Cult Leader, FBI Spokesman Believes". The Oklahoman. Retrieved July 9, 2022.