Vernon Howell arrived at Mount Carmel in 1981, a young man with a learning difficulty who had memorised most of the New Testament. He took the property in 1987 after an armed confrontation with George Roden, was tried for attempted murder and acquitted, and changed his name legally in 1990. What he brought that was new was firearms — bought, modified and resold at gun shows, which was a substantial part of the community's income and the proximate reason the ATF took an interest — and the New Light doctrine on marriage. What he did not bring was the theology; the seals, the Sabbath, the diet and the 144,000 were all waiting for him.