Monday, May. 10, 1993

Thou Shalt Not Steal (My Scotch)

By CHRISTOPHER JOHN FARLEY

DAVID KORESH WASN'T A REAL MESSIAH: HE COULDN'T TURN water into wine, and perhaps that's why he so valued his private stash of Scotch whisky. TIME has learned that three Branch Davidian cultists who left Ranch Apocalypse before the conflagration and surrendered were forced to leave by Koresh for getting into the would-be prophet's Scotch cache. At first Koresh punished the three -- Kevin Whitecliff, Brad Branch and Oliver Gyarfas -- by ordering them to bury a rotting corpse. Finally the Scotch-drinking cult leader had them thrown out. The trio are being held in jail in Waco.