Victor Houteff died on February 5, 1955. This Bulgarian-born Seventh-Day Adventist leader led a splinter group away from Los Angeles to Waco, Texas in 1935, and founded Mount Carmel Ministries. Here he expected to gather 144,000 followers as the world ended ("the elect", per Revelation 7:3-8).
After Houteff's death in 1955, the group renamed itself the Branch Davidians.
