My City By The Bay

Thirty years ago on November 27, 1978 Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were assassinated at City Hall in San Francisco.    To the surprise of everyone, supervisor Dan White who was an ex police officer and fireman was the one pulling the trigger.  He had slipped into a back door located on Van Ness Avenue and made his way to Mayor Moscone’s office with a loaded gun and extra ammunition.   Dan White had resigned from his post as Supervisor earlier that month and had wanted his job back only to be told that it was no longer available and that the three people who were being considered were Harvey Milk, Carol Ruth Silver and Willie Brown.  This angered White and as a result went to City Hall to presumably talk to the Mayor.  However it’s been reported that he confessed to an officer right before his suicide in 1984 that he planned to kill not only the mayor and Harvey Milk but Silver and Willie Brown as well.

The now Senator Diane Feinstein was the president of the board of supervisors at that time and automatically became Mayor when Moscone was killed.   Dan White was arrested and stood trial.  The famous “Twinkie Defense” came into play when his defense attorneys cited that he had been eating Twinkies beforehand and as a result it diminished his mental capacity.  Now, I know you are all laughing but this is a true story.  Evidently, this ridiculous story worked because White, rather than being convicted of first degree murder which would have been a life sentence for him,  was convicted of the lesser voluntary manslaughter which only held a few years in prison.  He was paroled in 1984, let out of jail and within a few months committed suicide in his home.  

Supervisor Harvey Milk and Dan White were elected as district supervisors in 1977.  Supervisor Milk was the first openly gay person to be elected as a city official.  White was of the conservative religious right background and was against the liberal politics of Milk, Silver or Willie Brown.  To put it simply racist and homophobic.

I at that time was working in a bank on 8th and Market Streets which is  only a few blocks away from City Hall.  Even though it’s been 30 years I vividly remember that day.  In an instant we heard sirens blazing and police cars, ambulances and unmarked vehicles coming at every angle speeding to City Hall.  We had no idea what had happened and thought maybe there was a protest or something going on however this went on for a matter of at least 10 minutes.   We then realized something horrible had happened.   One of our customers walked in and gave us the news and we were shocked and horrified.

A few months after when White was convicted of voluntary manslaughter which was basically a slap on the wrist, the White Night Riots took place.  The gay community came out in force marching down Market Street from Castro to City Hall and beyond, breaking windows, doors and causing damage to all the businesses along that route.  The next morning when we came to work, our bank’s windows were all broken with some damage inside the bank as well.  We were not even allowed to enter the bank until the police were done and the windows were boarded.  While I am all for protests and I can certainly understand how angry these people were at that verdict, we all were, I don’t understand how damaging private property helps. Every year at this time there is a candlelight vigil held in San Francisco in honor of Moscone and Milk.  These were two great men who were taken way too soon at the hands of a racist/homophobic individual who at the end did the right thing and took his own life. 

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