The Branch Davidians believed they were living in a time when Biblical prophesies and divine judgment was coming were imminent ahead of Christ's second coming. A headquarters was first established near Waco in 1935 and at its height, 900 people moved there awaiting a sign from God. Koresh rose to power as a young man in the 1980s, in part by taking its leader, a woman in her 60s, as a lover. When she died in 1986 at 70, there was a power struggle between her son and Koresh.