George Roden

Who was George Roden?

George Roden, was a leader of the Branch Davidian sect, a Seventh-day Adventist splinter group, and the former husband of Amo Bishop Roden. In 1987, he was evicted from the Mount Carmel Center near Waco, Texas by his rival David Koresh. He was later confined in a Texas mental hospital for a 1989 murder, until his own death.

George Roden was the presumed successor to his mother Lois Roden, who had become president of the Davidians in 1978, when her husband and group leader Benjamin Roden had died. However, Vernon Howell arrived at Mount Carmel and began a sexual relationship with Lois Roden who was then in her seventies. Koresh justified their relationship by claiming that God had chosen him to father a child with her, who would be the Chosen One. George Roden felt that his position of leadership was threatened and was deeply offended by Koresh's relationship with his elderly mother. He would file a lawsuit in federal court alleging that Koresh had raped Lois and brainwashed her into turning against him.

In 1984 Koresh left the compound for Palestine, Texas with the vast majority of the group's followers. Roden renamed Mount Carmel "Rodenville".