Clive Joseph Doyle (24 February 1941 – 8 June 2022)[1] was an Australian leader in the Branch Davidian movement after the Waco siege in 1993. He was a Branch Davidian and a Davidian Seventh-day Adventist before the Waco siege. Doyle was one of nine survivors of the 19 April 1993 fire that destroyed the Mount Carmel Center at the end of the siege. He along with other survivors built a new chapel on the site of the siege in 1999.
Doyle had two daughters with Deborah Doyle (nee Slawson), Shari Elayna Doyle (1 August 1974 – 19 April 1993) and Karen Elizabeth Graham (5 July 1971 – 30 March 2018).[6] Shari died in the 19 April 1993 fire from which her father and sister escaped.[7] Karen was living in a California property owned by the Branch Davidians when the Waco siege began.[6] About three weeks before the 2018 anniversary service, Karen was killed in a car collision with a drunk driver in Pennsylvania.[8] Both of his daughters were "married" to Koresh[9] – Shari was fourteen when they "married".[10]
Joining the Davidian Seventh-day Adventists and Branch Davidians
Doyle was influential in formulating Lois Roden's theology. In 1980, she named him as an editor of SHEkinah, a Branch Davidian periodical used to disseminate ideas to others. Doyle argued, for example, that the Apostle Paul's "unknown God" in Acts 17 was known to over a billion people but the feminine Holy Spirit was known to a select few.[12] Although, in his book he noted that he had to "wrestle" with Roden for him to finally get that the Holy Spirit was a feminine representation of Deity.[13]
In 1990, Doyle worked for the Census Bureau in California taking the 1990 Census. He also reportedly worked in a gardening crew and an educational-video-producing company while with the Branch Davidians.[14]
He was one of the first people to discover Perry Jones, another Branch Davidian, who was among those shot and killed by the ATF. Jones was still alive at the time and informed Doyle that Koresh was also shot. He picked up Jones with the help of Livingston Malcolm and brought him into a room deeper into the compound so that he can avoid getting shot through the walls.[16]
Soon after, he heard that Winston Blake was killed in the fire fight. He heard running water from the room he was in, which was strange since the compound did not have a plumbing system installed. He found Blake in his room with blood flowing on a downward angle and soaking into the carpet. He could not find a pulse on Blake's body and assumed he was dead (he was confirmed dead that day[17]).[18]
Doyle was responsible for an early burial of the four of six Branch Davidians killed on 28 February 1993 (the other two Branch Davidians were killed outside the compound where those inside could not obtain their bodies). He made a makeshift grave for all four in the storm shelter of the compound.[19]
Throughout the siege, Doyle had some contact with FBI negotiators. In his book, he recalled an episode where he was promised a message from his daughter, Karen, who was in California, but instead got an FBI agent telling him "She just wanted to know how you are doing".[20]
At around 6:00 am local time on 19 April 1993, the FBI administered CS gas throughout the building to drive out the Branch Davidians. Doyle retrieved a gas mask and multiple layers to protect his skin, though his hands were uncovered.[21]
Around noon, he heard someone yell out that the building was on fire. He remembered discussing the possibility of being shot by federal agents if he and others left the compound through a hole in a wall at the back of the chapel that a Combat Engineering Vehicle left. Smoke poured into the chapel, and Doyle and the others there ran out of the hole in the wall.[14][22] He felt the coat he was wearing melt on his back, according to his Congressional testimony in 1995 as reported by the New York Times.[23]
In a written statement to the U.S. Congress in 1995, he stated that he was unaware of the cause of the 19 April fire; however, he had previously told Texas Rangers in an interrogation that the fire was started inside the compound by fuel in Coleman lanterns. New York Times reported that Doyle claimed he never actually said that to the Texas Rangers.[23]
In 1998, Doyle and other Branch Davidian survivors attempted to erect a museum on the siege's site but encountered trouble with Amo Bishop Roden and the Christ the World of Truth.[30] In 1999, Doyle, other survivors, and volunteers rebuilt a chapel on the siege site.[31] A young Alex Jones (who later founded Infowars.com)
was among those who volunteered to help rebuild the chapel, reportedly fundraising and rallying others.[32][33][34]
Doyle spoke out against Charles Pace and his claim to represent the Branch Davidian church after returning to Mount Carmel in 1994. Doyle reportedly refused him access to mementos used in the museum he built on the site in the late 1990s and early 2000s.[37]
In 2012, Doyle published a memoir with Catherine Wessinger and Matthew D. Wittmer called A Journey to Waco.[38] Wessinger has produced extensive oral histories from Doyle and other Branch Davidians.[39]
In 1998, New York Times reported that Doyle worked at a store called Waco Natural Foods where he managed the herb displays.[30] In 2011, CNN reported he worked in a thrift store in Waco.[25]
Doyle remained faithful to David Koresh, the Branch Davidian's leader who died in the 19 April fire, even after his death. In 2020, Doyle told Mirror (London) that he believed that God was responsible for the siege and not Koresh or anyone else.[7][42] Doyle believed that Koresh will be resurrected.[10][43][44]
^Doyle, Clive with Catherine Wessinger and Matthew D. Wittmer, A Journey to Waco: Autobiography of a Branch Davidian (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2012), 73 (ebook version).
^ abHannaford, Alex (18 April 2013). "The Standoff in Waco". The Texas Observer. Retrieved 8 August 2022.
^Doyle with Wessinger and Wittmer, A Journey to Waco, 130 (ebook version).
^Doyle with Wessinger and Wittmer, A Journey to Waco, 130–1 (ebook version).
^Doyle, Clive with Catherine Wessinger and Matthew D. Wittmer, A Journey to Waco: Autobiography of a Branch Davidian (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2012).
^Wessinger, Catherine (2005). "Autobiographies of Three Surviving Branch Davidians: An Initial Report". Fieldwork in Religion. 1 (2): 165–197. doi:10.1558/firn.v1i2.165. ISSN1743-0623.