[Part 1 of 3] *** Content warning: Gun violence, sexual abuse, child sexual abuse, child abuse *** In 1981, a 20-year-old named Vernon Howell drove more than two hours from his hometown in east Texas to visit a church near Waco that was home to a group known as the Branch Davidians. Vernon would be welcomed into the church’s fold, setting off a course of events that would ultimately end in tragedy and permanently alter the United States of America.