Moscone-Milk assassinations
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The Moscone-Milk Assassinations took place on Monday, November 27, 1978 when San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk were assassinated by former Supervisor Dan White in San Francisco City Hall. White was angry that Moscone was refusing to re-appoint White to White's former Board seat, and angry with Milk for having lobbied against that re-appointment.
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[edit] Preceding events
White had been a San Francisco police officer, and later a firefighter, who was elected to the Board of Supervisors in 1977. As the city charter at the time prevented anyone from holding two city jobs simultaneously, White resigned from his higher-paying job with the fire department to assume seat on the Board.
With regard to business development issues, the 11-member board was roughly split 6-5 in favor of pro-growth advocates, of which White was one, over those who advocated the more neighborhood-oriented approach favored by Moscone. Debate among the Board members was sometimes acrimonious and saw the conservative White verbally sparring with liberal supervisors Harvey Milk and Carol Ruth Silver most often. Much of Moscone's agenda of neighborhood revitalization and increased city support programs was thwarted or modified in favor of the business-oriented agenda supported by the pro-growth majority on the Board.
Further tension between White and the openly homosexual Milk arose with Milk's vote in favor of placing a group home within White's district. White would go on to cast the only vote in opposition to the historic gay rights ordinance, passed by the Board and signed by Moscone in 1978.
Dissatisfied with the workings of city poilitics, and finding himself in financial difficulty due to his failing restaurant business combined with his low salary as a supervisor, White resigned his seat on the Board of Supervisors on November 10, 1978.
White's resignation meant that Moscone would be tasked with appointing White's successor. This alarmed the city's business interests and White's constituents, as it meant Moscone would be able to tip the balance of power on the Board away from its pro-growth stance. They asked White to rescind his resignation and seek to be re-appointed to the Board. Initially hesitant, White soon relented and began to publicly lobby Moscone for re-appointment to his former seat.
Moscone originally indicated that he would be disposed to re-appoint White if White so desired. However, once White's return appeared likely, Moscone was aggressively lobbied not to do so by some of the more progressive city leaders, most notably Milk, Silver and then-California assemblyman Willie Brown.[1][2]
On November 18, news broke of the mass deaths of members of Peoples Temple in Jonestown. Prior to the group's move to Guyana, Peoples Temple had been based in San Francisco, and thus most of the dead were Bay Area residents, including Leo Ryan, the United States Congressman who was murdered in the incident. The city was plunged into mourning, and the issue of White's vacant Board of Supervisors seat was pushed aside for several days.
[edit] The assassinations
[edit] George Moscone
With regard to the idea of re-appointing White, Moscone ultimately decided to reverse course and chose to appoint more progressive federal housing official Don Horanzy. On Monday, November 27, 1978, the day Moscone was set to formally appoint Horanzy to the vacant District 8 seat, White packed his loaded policeman's service revolver and ten extra rounds of ammunition into his coat pocket and had an unsuspecting friend drive him to San Francisco City Hall. Once there, White slipped into City Hall through a basement window that was often left open, thus avoiding the building's metal detectors. He proceeded to the mayor's office, where Moscone was conferring with Brown.
White requested a meeting with the mayor and was allowed to see Moscone as Moscone's meeting with Brown ended. As White entered Moscone's outer office, Brown exited through a different door. Moscone met White in the outer office, with White confronting the mayor about his perceived betrayal. White asked again to be re-appointed to his former seat on the Board of Supervisors. When Moscone declined, their conversation turned into a heated argument over Horanzy's pending appointment.
Wishing to avoid a public scene, Moscone suggested they retire to a private lounge attached to the mayor's office, so they would not be overheard by those waiting outside. Once inside the small room, and realizing his pleas would prove ineffective, White pulled his revolver and shot the mayor twice in the abdomen. White then shot Moscone twice more in the head, killing him. At least one of the shots was administered execution-style.
[edit] Harvey Milk
White reloaded his weapon and hurried out of the mayor's office, observed by an unwitting Dianne Feinstein, herself a supervisor at the time, who attempted to engage him in conversation. Brushing off her attempts at conversation, White made his way to the opposite side of City Hall and down a corridor to Milk's office. There, he asked for a private conference in an adjacent room.
Behind closed doors, White confronted Milk. According to White, the supervisor allegedly smirked at White and told him "too bad" about the Horanzy appointment. As White began to scream at Milk, Milk arose from his seat to face White, causing the agitated assailant to pull his gun and shoot the supervisor multiple times at point blank range; three times in the chest, once in the back and two times again in the head. White fled City Hall unchallenged as chaos reigned inside. Feinstein discovered Milk's body, but attempts to resuscitate him were in vain.
[edit] Aftermath of the shootings
White later turned himself in at the police station where he was formerly an officer. He acknowledged having shot Moscone and Mlik, but even though he had carried a gun, ten extra rounds, reloaded the gun between shootings, and crawled through a window to avoid metal detectors, White denied premeditation.
The same day Moscone and Milk were assassinated, the San Francisco 49ers were scheduled to play on Monday Night Football against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Candlestick Park. There was brief consideration given to postponing the game, but the contest, which kicked off at 6 p.m. local time, went on as scheduled.
Moscone and Milk were both laid in state at San Francisco City Hall, where thousands of San Franciscans filed past to pay their respects. Moscone's funeral at St Mary's Cathedral was attended by 4,500 people. He was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma. Milk was cremated and his ashes were spread across the Pacific Ocean. Dianne Feinstein, as city council president, succeeded to the Mayor's office.
[edit] Trial and its aftermath
White was tried for first degree, special circumstance murder, which carries the death penalty in California. White's defense team claimed that he was depressed and that this was evidenced by his eating of unhealthy foods, including Twinkies. This would give rise to the legal term Twinkie defense. They argued that White's depression led to a state of mental diminished capacity, leaving him unable to have formed the premeditation necessary for first-degree murder. The jury accepted these arguments, and White was found guilty of the lesser charges of voluntary manslaughter.
The verdict proved to be conroversial. In particular, many in the gay community were outraged by the verdict and the resulting reduced prison sentence. Since Milk had been homosexual, many felt that homophobia had been a motivating factor in White's attack upon Milk and/or in the jury's failing to convict White of murder. This groundswell of anger sparked the city's White Night Riots.
The unpopular verdict also ultimately led to a change in California state law which ended the diminished capacity defense.
White was paroled in 1984 and committed suicide less than two years later. In 1998, the San Jose Mercury News and San Francisco magazine reported that Frank Falzon, a homicide detective with the San Francisco police, claimed to have met with White in 1984. Falzon further claimed that at that meeting, White confessed that not only was his killing of Moscone and Milk premeditated, but that he had actually planned to kill Silver and Brown as well. Falzon quoted White as having said, "I was on a mission. I wanted four of them. Carol Ruth Silver, she was the biggest snake . . . and Willie Brown, he was masterminding the whole thing."[2][3]
Falzon, who had been a friend of White's and who had taken White's initial statement at the time White turned himself in, said that he believed White's confession.
[edit] References
- ^ Pogash, Carol. (2003, November 23). "Myth of the 'Twinkie defense'", San Francisco Chronicle
- ^ a b Weiss, Mike. (1998, September 18). "Killer of Moscone, Mlik had Willie Brown on List", San Jose Mercury News, Page A1
- ^ Weiss, Mike. (1998, October). "Dan White's Last Confession", San Francisco
