TV Crewman Confirms Chat With Cultist

A TV cameraman confirmed that he had a chance conversation with a Branch Davidian shortly before February’s deadly gunfight at the cult compound, but the TV station’s lawyer denies it amounted to a decisive tip-off.

“I think people have got to get off this idea that there was this so-called tip or one single warning,” said Rick Bostwick, the attorney for KWTX-TV in Waco, Tex. “Everybody is looking for the Holy Grail, but it ain’t there.”

KWTX cameraman Jim Peeler told the Dallas Morning News that he did not know he was talking to a sect member when a man in a private car bearing U.S. Postal Service signs pulled up and began a conversation. That occurred shortly before Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents were about to raid cult leader David Koresh’s compound.

The ATF initially said four agents were killed and 16 were wounded during the Feb. 28 raid because Koresh had been tipped without the agency’s knowledge, destroying the element of surprise. Agents have since said they knew Koresh had been alerted but went ahead with the raid anyway.

Peeler said he got lost on his way to the compound and the cult member offered him directions. He said he did not realize the impact of the conversation until Texas Rangers started interviewing journalists who witnessed the raid.

“They were asking us about different people, and I said, ‘I talked to the postman.’ They said, ‘The postman?’ and that’s where it started,” Peeler said. He declined to talk about the contents of his discussion with Jones.

ATF spokesman Jack Killorin said he would wait for federal investigations to conclude whether Peeler’s chance discussion with sect member David Jones, who also served as a contract postal worker, alerted Koresh.

Jones was one of 85 followers who died with Koresh when a blaze erupted as FBI agents stormed the compound on April 19.