Murder At San Francisco City Hall

Harvey Milk

Who Was Harvey Milk?

Harvey Milk was born May 22, 1930 in Woodmere, Long Island, New York. He became a successful Wall Street investment analyst and supported Barry Goldwater for president. In the late 1960's he got involved in Tom O'Horgan's Broadway production of HAIR through his boyfriend Jack McKinley, the stage manager. Exposure to the counterculture began eroding his conservative values. When HAIR opened in San Francisco in 1969, McKinley became the stage manager, and Harvey soon followed him west and took a job as a financial analyst in the City. Unhappy with the political scene, he decided that he wanted to be Mayor of San Francisco! His new found liberalism, his charisma, weird sense of humor, and belief in politics as theater, set the stage for his San Francisco political career.

Harvey's relationship with Jack soured and he returned to New York and the Broadway scene where he soon met the new love of his life, Joseph Scott Smith. In 1972 they headed west and eventually settled in San Francisco. They opened "Castro Camera" at 575 Castro Street and Harvey soon began making waves on the political scene. He didn't agree with the strategy of the established gay politicians who worked to elect gay-friendly straight politicians. Unable to sway their thinking, Harvey Milk set out on his own to represent the gay community in City Hall. He used the store as his political office.

 
Harvey Milk With Then President Jimmy Carter, and Outside The Castro Camea Store

Castro Camera was simply a desk and chair near the front door, with only the basic essentials in photo supplies. There was a barber chair for the customer to sit comfortably while being treated to Harvey's wit, showmanship, and latest political plans. The rest of the area was more like a living room with several couches and easy chairs. It served as Harvey's political conference room and campaign headquarters. It was mostly Scott's efforts that made the camera store successful. Scott and Harvey lived in the flat above the store.

Harvey ran unsuccessfully for Board of Supervisors in 1973, and later for State Assembly against Art Agnos. He took advantage of every opportunity to make his name known and worked relentlessly for the issues he considered essential to the gay community. His dedication to the people of the Castro earned him the title "Mayor of Castro Street". It is probably true that he coined the phrase himself, but he loved the title and played the role well. He pioneered in new forms of coalition politics, getting support from labor unions in exchange for getting the gay community to boycott Coors beer. He engineered a political alliance between the gay and Chinese communities. He achieved several important victories for the emerging gay political movement by leading the fight against anti-gay attacks from State Senator Briggs and others. But it was his charm, his sparkling eyes, his smile, his goodness and his warmth that endeared him to the people of the Castro and eventually to the entire city. Finally in 1977, he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

 
Images of Harvey Milk

Who Was George Moscone

George Moscone was born in San Francisco on Novemebr 24, 1929 to working class parents. At age eight, his parents divorced and young George was sent to live with his mother. George's father wandered from job to job for some time, and eventually landed in a state hospital as an inmate. Lena Moscone, his mother, worked as a secretary and as a clerk in a liquor store to support them. With her support and the help of the Catholic church, Moscone became a fine young man, attending the University of the Pacific on a basketball scholarship. He went on to graduate from Hastings School of Law.

It was at Hasting where he began to dabble in politics, becoming friends with the young Willie Brown and Margo St. James, founder of the national prostitute's rights movement called COYOTE. After law school, he married childhood friend and sweetheart Gina Bodanza. He and Gina had four children and remained married until his death.

 
George Moscone - Solo and also with Harvey Milk

John Burton, the brother of state assemblyman Phillip Burton, invited Moscone into politics.

Phillip Burton asked Moscone to run for office in a heavily Republican district. Although Moscone lost, he did better in that race than any other Democrat in history. He went on to be a County Supervisor, state Senator and Mayor of San Francisco.

Moscone's working class background and empathy for working class people fueled his interest in civil rights for all people. As Mayor, he stood up for the poor, working class people and many minorities. He unsuccessfully fought against the Yerba Buena Center, a proposed convention center that would have displaced elderly and poor San Franciscans.

The next year, however, he successfully stopped the building of a freeway that would have thrown out African American residents chopped a portion of Golden Gate Park.

One of his greatest successes as a Senator was the passage of a California Gay Rights' Bill. He also fought for school lunch programs, which were enacted by Governor Jerry Brown. Moscone supported the Gay Rights Movement and helped activist Harvey Milk. He continually sought the support of the Board of Supervisors, but was often unable to get it.

George Moscone Pictured Again With Harvey Milk

Who Was Dan White

Dan White was a typical all-American-boy born and raised in San Francisco. He was a policeman and then a fireman and then ran for Supervisor in the heavily conservative Irish-Catholic working class neighborhood known as District 8. He promised to restore traditional values to San Francisco city government. He promised to rid San Francisco of "radicals, social deviates, and incorrigibles".

At that time, Supervisors were considered part-time employees and were paid $9,800 per year. White soon found that he could not support his family on that small salary. and in November 1978, having been in office less than a year, White submitted his resignation to the Mayor. There were 11 members of the Board of Supervisors. Six of them, including White, were conservative, and were able to block many liberal measures. The liberals, especially Harvey Milk, were elated at the news of his resignation. The mayor, a liberal, had the authority to appoint a replacement supervisor.

Dan White - The Epitome of the term "white bread"

On hearing of his resignation, the conservative Police Officers Association and Board of Realtors urged White to change his mind and offered to help him financially. Moscone's first reaction was to allow White to change his mind, but Milk went to his friend the mayor, and reminded him of all his proposals that had been defeated because of the 6-5 conservative majority. Milk also reminded Moscone that White was the only actively anti-gay person on the board and that Moscone was up for re-election the following year. Without the Gay vote, he would have difficulty being re-elected.

Moscone promised to announce his decision on Monday morning, November 27th, but made no effort to keep his decision against White secret. However, he did not bother to contact White at any time during the weekend. By Monday morning White's rage had reached a peak and he loaded his gun and went downtown.
 

   
Some Buttons...

And Finally - What Happened

And so it was that on November 27, 1978, Dan White entered City Hall through an open basement window to avoid the metal detectors at the entrances. He went first to Moscone's office and shot him in the chest and then delivered a bullet to the head at close range as the mayor lay dying on the floor. As he walked down the corridor to the Supervisors' offices on the other end of the building, he reloaded his gun. He asked Harvey for a few minutes in private and led him into his former office where he slew him in the same manner including two bullets to the brain.

Dan White left City Hall without further incident. He then called his wife, Mary Ann, and asked her to meet him at Saint Mary's Cathedral, several blocks from City Hall. Together they walked to Northern Station, where he turned himself in.

San Franciscans were indescribably shocked when Board President Dianne Feinstein announced that the mayor and Milk had been killed and Dan White was the suspect. Feinstein was sworn in as the new mayor as the entire city mourned for leaders Moscone and Milk.

Where White Entered - A Door Today...

On May 21 the following year, White was convicted of voluntary manslaughter. The jury accepted a diminished capacity defense based on testimony that White was suffering from untreated depression.

In doing so, the jury rejected first degree murder charges. The so-called Twinkie defense is a widely accepted misinterpretation of White's diminished capacity argument. Even the San Francisco Chronicle reported that White claimed his mind was fogged by too much sugar on the night of the murders. In reality, White's new found junk food habit was offered as evidence of his depression, not as the cause of it.

Outraged San Franciscans responded to the court's decision to slap White on the wrist for killings (7 year sentence) by rioting at City Hall, the "White Night Riot." White was paroled in 1984 after serving just five years and a little more than a month behind bars at Soledad Prison. In 1985 he returned to San Francisco despite a request by Feinstein for White, the most reviled man in the City's history, to stay away.

Disgraced former supervisor Dan White committed suicide in the garage of this Excelsior District home after a failed attempt to return to a normal life upon his release from prison for the 1978 murders of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. The suicide in 1985 was the final chapter of the tragic assassinations that changed San Francisco forever.

Unable to make a new life for himself nor to escape the impact of his crimes, White attached a garden hose to the exhaust pipe of the family car, a yellow 1970 Buick Le Sabre and took his life on the morning of October 21, 1985. White, who left suicide notes to members of his family, died clutching family photos. An Irish ballad, "The Town I Loved So Well," sounded from a cassette player inside the Le Sabre as White filled the car with carbon monoxide. The body was discovered by White's brother, Tom, at White's 150 Shawnee Avenue residence shortly before 2 p.m. the same day.

House Where Dan White Did Himself In...

One Last Thing
Proof That The Crime Was Premeditated After All
The San Jose Mercury News reports that Dan White also intended to kill Willie Brown, San Francisco's current mayor, and former Supervisor Carol Ruth Silver. The former homicide detective who investigated the case, Frank Falzon, says White confessed to him in 1984, shortly after his parole, that he intended to kill all four city officials.

Falzon, who was White's friend, also took White's statement within hours of the 1978 assassinations.

"I really lost it that day," White reportedly told Falzon as the two sat in a cafe during the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. "I was on a mission. I wanted four of them," he said. White told Falzon he believed Moscone, Milk, Brown and Silver had conspired against his reappointment to the city council after he resigned his seat in a fit of fury.

 
Diane Feinstein and Willie Brown

"Carol Ruth Silver, she was the biggest snake ... and Willie Brown, he was masterminding the whole thing." Falzon told Mercury News writer Mike Weiss he was shocked by White's confession. "I felt like I had been hit by a sledgehammer," Falzon said in an interview. "I found out it was a premeditated murder."

Willie Brown told the Mercury News reporter he had been drinking coffee and talking with his friend the Mayor when Moscone broke off their conversation to meet with White. Brown was leaving Moscone's office by a back door as Moscone was about to admit White by a second door. Minutes later he and Supervisor Milk were dead. Mayor Brown, learning of White's full intentions 20 years after that fateful day, was deeply disturbed by the news. "He missed me by 30 seconds," a shaken Brown told the newspaper.

 
Renderings of the Victims

Click On Me To Email

Back To theNSAisWATCHIN
The Frances Farmers Revenge Web Portal
Google Labs     International Search    Site Translate     Google Advanced     Yahoo! Advanced     Ultimate Email Address Finder