Harvey Milk: The Assassination of Hope

Who Was Harvey Milk?

Harvey Milk was born in 1930 in New York. He served in the Navy, worked as a teacher and financial analyst, and eventually moved to San Francisco in the early 1970s.

In San Francisco, Harvey became involved in politics and activism. He was a vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ rights at a time when being openly gay was dangerous. He ran for office multiple times before finally being elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977.

He was the first openly gay elected official in California—and one of the first in the United States.

Harvey used his platform to fight for gay rights, affordable housing, and social justice. He was charismatic, passionate, and hopeful. He famously said, "You gotta give them hope."

But his time in office was cut tragically short.

The Assassination

On November 27, 1978, former San Francisco Supervisor Dan White entered City Hall through a basement window to avoid metal detectors. He was carrying a .38 caliber revolver.

White had resigned from the Board of Supervisors just days earlier, citing financial stress. But he changed his mind and asked Mayor George Moscone to reinstate him. Moscone refused—in part due to pressure from Harvey Milk, who opposed White's conservative politics.

Enraged, Dan White went to City Hall that morning with a plan.

He shot Mayor George Moscone four times, killing him. Then he walked down the hall to Harvey Milk's office and shot him five times, killing him as well.

Harvey Milk was 48 years old.

The Trial and the "Twinkie Defense"

Dan White was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

At trial, White's defense team argued that he was suffering from severe depression at the time of the killings. They pointed to his consumption of junk food—Twinkies, Coca-Cola, and candy—as evidence of his deteriorating mental state.

This became known as the "Twinkie Defense," though the defense never actually claimed that junk food caused White to commit murder. Instead, they argued it was a symptom of his depression.

The jury convicted White of voluntary manslaughter—not murder. He was sentenced to just seven years and eight months in prison.

The lenient verdict sparked outrage. Thousands of people rioted in San Francisco in what became known as the White Night Riots.

Dan White was released from prison in 1984. In 1985, he died by suicide.

TRANSCRIPT:

[00:00:00] Harvey Milk was a trailblazing, politician and activist with a charismatic and fearless personality. In 1977, he became California's first openly gay elected official, and became a powerful voice for marginalized communities. But on the morning of November 27th, 1978, Harvey's life was cut short just one year into his term when he and Mayor George Moscone became the target of a shocking act of violence.

Hey guys, and welcome to the Moms and Mysteries podcast, a True Crime podcast featuring myself, Mandy, and my dear friend Melissa. Hi, Melissa. Hi, Mandy. How are you? I'm hanging in there. I'm hanging in there barely. Mm-hmm. By a thread. I have back problems they just developed overnight. Is that. I hate to tell you, are they gonna go away?

You know, eventually they'll go away, but they'll come back and [00:01:00] then, you know, go away and come back. I, you look amazing, but you're getting older. Wow. And, um. For, I started it with a compliment. I, well, I, that's like the criticism sandwich or whatever they say. I mean, well, I didn't even end it on a positive.

I just said, you're getting older. Um, but aging is a gift, so it's true. So you just woke up and it was Yeah, pretty much. I don't know exactly. I can't pinpoint exactly when it started. All I know, because I didn't. Really take notice that it was like an ongoing thing until it had been ongoing for a couple days.

So now I'm, I think I'm on day three or maybe four, but it's just the weirdest thing. It's just in my upper back. I feel like some, I feel like I, I don't know how to explain it. It feels like the pain is underneath my skin, but then for some reason, the top of my skin also feels bruised, but everything looks totally normal and fine.

Back there. It doesn't look like, mm-hmm. Anything's wrong. It's just very tight and just, I. I don't know. It's really weird, but it almost feels like a burning sensation. But the weirdest thing about this is that, like what has been driving me crazy is [00:02:00] that even wearing clothes, like I can feel. My skin is so sensitive in that one area.

Yeah. And I can feel like my clothes even bother it. And if I, if, I don't know, it's just, it's driving me crazy. If I sit down for too long, it starts to act up. If I stand up for too long, it starts to act up. Yeah. So yeah, this whole week I've just been like up and down, up and down. I've missed a couple of my like very precious morning walks because of this and yeah, it's like been really serious.

So I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what that means for me. Is this. Is this it? You'll figure it out. No, I hope not. I hope things end better for you than that. Well, Mandy, I know your back isn't feeling great, but you know what is gonna be feeling great? What your heart, and it's gonna be so full because this Wednesday, March 19th, if you're in central Florida, we are hosting a private prescreening of the new Nicole Kidman movie, Holland.

It's like a true crime mystery [00:03:00] thriller. So pumped, thriller. Did you? Yeah. The preview actually kind of freaked me out. Like I, I'm so excited. This movie is like right at my alley. This type of totally movie is right at my alley. I am so excited to be a part of this and to be doing it. I know, and yeah, it's definitely something we've never done before, but it's very fun.

Yeah, there's a lot more details about all of that on our Instagram page, but yeah, it's something that we're doing in person here in our local area. So we are going to be at a movie theater watching a pre-release screening of this movie Holland on. Wednesday, November. Nope, not November. You know, where am I going with that?

Wednesday, March 19th. All the information's in our Instagram, but it's a free movie. It's free concessions. The only thing we need from you is your firstborn. No, just kidding. You just sign. The only thing we need from you is to sign up. And so we have all that on our Instagram. If you have questions, just EMS.

But literally when you hear this, it'll be the next day. So you gotta, you gotta do it quickly. There's limited seats, all that, but. Please join [00:04:00] us if you can, but please sign up to join us. Yes, definitely. So we have a seat for you. Perfect. All right. Well, we will get right into the story this week. There's quite a bit to get into here.

This is a really wild story, but I always love when we can get a little bit of a crime story mix with a little bit of a history lesson that always is fascinating to me. Absolutely. So Harvey Bernard Milk was born on May 22nd, 1930 in Woodmere, New York. He was born into a middle class Jewish family that was deeply rooted in community and civic engagement.

In other words, a lot of people in the family were involved in politics. Harvey's Father William was a Lithuanian immigrant who served in the US Navy and his mom Minerva was a World War I Ynet. Which is a woman who served in the Navy during World War I. These were actually the first women to ever enlist in the Navy.

That's pretty cool. Yeah. The Milk family was well known in New York's lit back Jewish community, partly because the family owned a department store there called Milks, which. I don't know [00:05:00] why. I just don't like that as a name for a store. I mean, I guess a dairy store. It's probably a pretty fun brand. I get it.

Obviously their last name is Milk, but like you don't have to use your last name in your store name. Guess what? People knew them because of it, so it worked. That's true. That's true. But that wasn't the only reason that the family was well known. It was also partly because they had founded a local synagogue.

Harvey and his brother Robert worked together in the family business. By the time Harvey was in high school, he knew that he was gay, but he kept it private and he just tried to blend in. Harvey was a popular student with a wide range of interests from opera to playing football and everything in between.

After high school, Harvey went on to the New York State College for teachers where he studied math and history. At the university, he wrote a column for the student newspaper where he tackled issues of diversity and reflected on the lessons to be learned from World War I. In 1951, Harvey [00:06:00] enlisted in the Navy and trained as a diving instructor in San Diego, but his military career was sadly cut short in 1955 when officials started to question Harvey's sexuality.

He eventually resigned at the rank of Lieutenant junior grade. As Harvey transitioned back into civilian life, he bounced between careers. First he taught at a public school on Long Island and worked as a Wall Street stock analyst. And then he also even helped produce Broadway hits like Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar, which I didn't see that one coming.

I didn't, I di I mean, maybe we just didn't get that in the research about. Him having a passion for like theater arts or things like that, but I was, that one kind of threw me for a loop. I was like, where did that come from? That's cool. How did he just get involved? Broadway productions? Mm-hmm. That is really neat.

But the political shifts in the 1960s pulled Harvey in a different direction. He became more and more vocal against the Vietnam War, and he started really making a name for himself as an activist. By late 1972, Harvey was ready for a [00:07:00] change. He packed up and moved to San Francisco and lived in a growing gay community known as The Castro.

He opened a small camera store there, which soon became more than just a business. It was a gathering place, a campaign headquarters, and just really this hub of activism. Harvey quickly and effortlessly became a well-known figure in the neighborhood. Just over a year later, he launched his first campaign for the city's board of supervisors.

He actually lost the race, but things weren't over for him. His humor, boldness, and that unwavering belief in equality for all had really put him on the map, and the locals were starting to take notice. By the mid 1970s, Harvey wasn't just a local activist. He was truly becoming a force in the San Francisco area.

When a few business owners in the Castro tried to block two gay men from opening a shop, Harvey saw an opportunity for the community to come together. He and other business leaders [00:08:00] founded the Castro Village Association, which was the first organization in the US to be made up mostly of LGBT owned businesses.

As a president of the association, Harvey worked to strengthen the community's economic and political power and to prove that the Castro wasn't just a place to live. It was a movement. In 1974, Harvey launched the first ever Castro Street Fair to attract customers to local shops, and it was a hit.

Thousands of visitors actually came and the Castro Village Association took cold. Other cities with growing gay communities started to notice and tried to replicate Hari's model to build their own networks of influence. So at this time, Harvey was determined to take things to the next level, so he actually decided to run for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors again in 1975.

This time he was actually so incredibly close to winning, but he ultimately fell short of the needed votes. His near victory submitted him as the unofficial [00:09:00] spokesperson for the thriving gay community of the Castro. Eventually, Harvey had drawn enough attention to himself and to his mission, and the newly elected mayor George Mascon had noticed.

Mayor Mascon was a strong ally of LGBT rights, and he really liked what he saw in Harvey and wanted him to work for the city. So Harvey was appointed to the City's Board of Permit Appeals, making him the first openly gay city commissioner in the United States. Harvey, however, was not satisfied with being appointed.

He wanted to actually be elected by the people. He soon filed papers to run for the California State Assembly, but that campaign ended with another tough loss. That's when he and his campaign manager, a woman by the name of Anne Cronenberg, really took a hard look at the way the system was set up.

Running a citywide race was really a challenge, but if Harvey could rally the Castro and other progressive neighborhoods, then his chances would greatly improve. Mayor Moscon [00:10:00] supported Harvey in pushing for his district elections, which gave local communities more control over who represented them when the new system went into effect.

Everything changed in 1977 on Harvey's third attempt, he was finally elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. This was a historic win and a deeply personal one for Harvey as it symbolized a breakthrough in LGBT representation. Harvey Milk was inaugurated on January 9th, 1970. He made it clear that he was taking office as his true and authentic self, and he introduced Jack Lyra as quote, my lover, my partner in life News of his win made national and international headlines.

It was the first time that a major American city had chosen an openly gay leader, but Harvey didn't just enter office only to serve the L-G-B-T-Q community. He truly wanted to make life better for all residents of San Francisco. In addition to fighting for civil [00:11:00] rights, he also stood behind working moms and advocated for daycare centers, and he pushed for converting abandoned military sites into affordable housing and for tax reforms that could revive struggling industries and bring jobs back to the city.

Harvey pressured the mayor to invest in safer neighborhoods and better policing, and he expanded library services for the Castro neighborhood. Of course, though he never lost sight of one of his biggest fights, and that was the fight for equality. In 1978, a statewide ballot initiative called Proposition Six threatened to force all gay teachers and their supporters out of California's public schools, and Harvey wasn't going to stand by and idly let that happen.

On June 25th, that year, he took the stage at the San Francisco Freedom Day parade and delivered one of the most powerful speeches of his career. He opened the speech with a call to action for citizens to fight to preserve democracy by rejecting politicians who wanted to constitutional bigotry. [00:12:00] Harvey also challenged and empowered members of the L-G-B-T-Q community to make their voices heard and to come forward and speak out for the sake of the community.

He felt that visibility was really key, and if people saw that it was their friends, family, and neighbors who were gay, it would be harder for them to believe the lies that were fueling this discrimination. With Harvey leading the opposition proposition six was defeated. At the time, there were similar anti-gay laws passing across the country.

So Harvey's victory in California really proved that these types of political attacks on the L-G-B-T-Q community could be fought and could be beaten. But being outspoken came at a price. Harvey started getting more and more threats. Some were through anonymous phone calls, while others came in chilling letters.

Harvey was reminded constantly that people out there wanted him dead and he was well aware of the risk and the target on his back. So Harvey prepared. He recorded [00:13:00] several versions of his will that were to be played only in the event of his assassination. No matter what, he refused to back down. While Harvey had spent his first year in office fighting for the people of San Francisco and pushing forward a vision that extended beyond L-G-B-T-Q rights, not everyone was on board with the change that he represented.

In fact, one of his strongest opponents sat just a few seats away from Harvey on the board of Supervisors, and that was a man by the name of Dan White. Dan and Harvey really couldn't have been more different. Dan was born and raised in San Francisco and it built a life of service, but his approach to leadership was pretty much the opposite of what Harvey envisioned.

Dan was a Vietnam veteran with three medals, and he served as a police officer before taking a break to hitchhike. Around the country. Mandy, does that sound like a thing you'd want to do? No, it does sound like a very like 1960s, seventies thing to do. Absolutely. But it does not sound like a very 20, 25 thing to do.

No, I would agree [00:14:00] with you. So he spent some time in Alaska where he worked as a high school guidance counselor, and then in 1973, he returned to San Francisco and joined the local fire department. In 1977, Dan was elected to the board of supervisors as a staunch conservative. This was around the same time that Harvey was elected.

Dan was supported and heavily backed by the police, fire unions and his district, which consisted primarily of white middle class families. His supporters were deeply resistant to the city's growing gay community, and Dan was very clear with where he stood. He saw himself as the board's defender of what he thought were the traditional values involving home, family, and religious life.

Dan saw Harvey's views on gay rights, the drug culture, and the changing social norms as a threat to these quote unquote traditional values. But Harvey pressed on undeterred and continued pushing the city towards inclusivity and equal rights. He also championed social [00:15:00] programs that benefited the working class.

So as you can imagine, he and Dan often clashed. At the time the board of supervisors had a conservative majority, but with Mayor George Moscon backing Harvey's vision, there was deep frustration on both sides. While Harvey and the mayor were determined to move forward with more progressive reforms, Dan and his allies worked to block many of the mayor's proposed initiatives.

In November of 1978, Dan White made a shocking announcement at a press conference. He spoke about financial struggles that he'd been facing since leaving his job as a firefighter. The pay cut he took on to actually be on the board of supervisors was too steep, and he and his wife were struggling to make ends meet now.

He had started a potato stand at Pier 39 to supplement their income, but the hours were long and it was really starting to take a toll on them. I'm not sure I know what a potato stand is, but it sounds like something I love them more. Like [00:16:00] need to bring back. Yeah. If it's like, imagine if it's just potatoes made in different ways.

I hope that's exactly what it is. I honestly hope that's what it is. In fact, Dan. Kind of described it just that way. He had a quote where he said, my wife and I are forced to work 60 hours a week cutting french fries, and I can't give my constituents the a hundred percent job I'd like to. So while that is wow, unfortunate and sad, I'm still intrigued by the potato stand.

And is it just french fries? Is it, like you said, is it other types of potatoes? Twice baked potatoes? I need to know. Loaded mashed potatoes. Oh my God. Endless. So Mayor Moscone was surprised to hear that Dan was resigning. You know, they had always been at odds when it came to politics, but the mayor still saw Dan as a dedicated public servant and said he was very sorry to see him go.

But now that Dan's seat was vacant, the mayor had the power to appoint a replacement, and he promised to make an announcement on who would take that seat very [00:17:00] soon. After the conference, Dan sent an official resignation letter to Mayor Moscone, stating that he was proud to have represented the people for 10 months, but that he was resigning due to personal responsibilities.

Days later though, on the 14th, Dan had second thoughts and he called the mayor and asked if he could withdraw his resignation and be reinstated on the board of supervisors. Mayor Moscone was surprised, but he was open to the idea. If it were legally possible, he told Dan that he would contact the city attorney to find out more.

The next morning mayor called Dan back with an answer. He would be allowed to return to his seat on the board. So at this point, Dan really feels that he needs to justify his reasons for reversing his decision to resign. And he told the media that his constituents had urged him to stay and said that leaving would harm their district and they didn't want a new representative.

Dan's family had also evidently stepped in to [00:18:00] help with the potato stand, and they offered to even lend him money if it was finances that were the issue for him. The mayor appeared supportive of Dan and told reporters that he had never wanted to see a young man forced out in the first place, and that Dan's district was in good hands with him.

The mayor even said that if any legal issue were to come up, he would simply just reappoint Dan to his old position. But as his legal review began to unfold, things were less certain. On November 16th, the Chief Deputy City attorney publicly cast out on whether the resignation could be undone or if reappointing Dan would even be legal.

He asked that Dan and the mayor give the city attorney's office a week to sort things out and to look into the legalities of it. By the 17th, the decision was made. Dan's resignation would be final. The mayor announced that he legally could not revoke it, though he was still considering reappointing Dan to the seat.

Dan seemed confident that he would be reappointed, and on November [00:19:00] 20th he sent another letter to Mayor Mascon, where he wrote, quote, your stated willingness to reappoint me to my own position if it becomes legally necessary, is much appreciated. But the mayor wrote back and told him that no such promise had been made.

He said, quote, as I told you this past Saturday, I have received a great many communications from the residents of your district, some from your public opponents, other from your past supporters, which have urged me not to reappoint you to the board of supervisors. End quote. But the mayor again said he would take another week to mull it over and review the situation, but he made no commitment to play Dan back on the board.

By the 21st, the battle over Dan's seat was reaching a breaking point. And the pressure was mounting. Behind closed doors. Other board members were pleading with the mayor not to reinstate Dan pointing to his conservative voting record, which had made it difficult to pass progressive legislation. They wanted the mayor to appoint someone with liberal [00:20:00] ideals instead, and that would allow them to shift the balance of power on the board.

They saw this as an opportunity to create change. Eventually, mayor Moscon addressed the press and admitted that he did have some serious reservations and just wasn't sure if it would be the best idea to reappoint Dan White. In the days that followed, the city attorney made a final ruling. Dan's resignation was legally binding and there was no path for which he could return to his seat on the board.

Dan refused to accept this decision and he publicly declared that he rejected this ruling and insisted that he was still the rightful supervisor of District eight. But the mayor stood firm and reassured everyone that Dan's arguments had no legal merit and that a new supervisor would be appointed on Monday, November 27th at a press conference that was scheduled for 11:30 AM Dan still didn't know who was going to be taking his seat.

On the night of Sunday, November 26th, so this is just the day before [00:21:00] sometime between 10 and 11:00 PM he got a call from a reporter who said that she heard from a reliable source that Dan was not going to be reappointed, and she wanted to know if he would give her an interview. Dan had nothing to say to this and he hung up the phone, but unbeknownst to damn white.

The mayor had already chosen to replace him with Dan Ramsey, but history didn't get the chance to play out the way Mayor Moscon hoped. On the morning of November 27th, 1978 offices in City Hall were bustling with activity as staff members prepared for the workday ahead, but outside. Dan White was making his own preparations once that would alter history forever.

And we have so much more to get into with this story and we'll do that after a quick break to hear a word from this week's sponsors. And now back to the episode. Before the break, we were getting into the story of Harvey Milk, who was a pretty well-known and popular activist in California in the 1970s.

And he had a seat [00:22:00] on the board of Supervisors during the time that George Moscone was the mayor. During this time, Harvey and Mayor Moscon weren't really seeing eye to eye with another member of the board of supervisors named Dan White, who had actually recently resigned from his position and wanted to be reinstated back to the board.

Dan fought hard for weeks to try and reclaim his seat on the board of supervisors, but on the morning of November 27th, he finally snapped. Dan loaded his 38 special revolver and slipped it into a holster and took 10 additional bullets with him in his pocket. Then at approximately 10:00 AM he called his aide and asked for a ride to City Hall.

The aide picked Dan up from his home and dropped him off at the front entrance to City Hall, but Dan knew he couldn't go through the front door because there were metal detectors and he was carrying a gun. Dan walked to the basement level entrance that was actually off of another street, but he found that the door [00:23:00] was locked for security reasons, so he just hung out there for a few minutes, contemplating his next move, and then Dan made his decision.

At that point, there was no turning back. He climbed through the window of an engineer's office and snuck into the building undetected. Inside. Dan moved quickly. He passed through a small laboratory room where he was actually spotted by a staff member, but he identified himself as supervisor White and just continued walking as if nothing were out of the ordinary, and like he had every reason and right to be there.

Dan moved up to the first floor and then the second floor where the offices of the mayor and the board of supervisors were located. At around 10:40 AM Dan approached the desk of Mayor Moscow's secretary, anyone who wanted to see the mayor had to go through her first. Of course, Dan didn't have an appointment, but it wasn't uncommon for supervisors to just stop by unannounced at times to see the mayor.

He exchanged small talk with the mayor's [00:24:00] secretary, and then he asked if he would be able to see the mayor. Even though the mayor has this important announcement that he's already scheduled to be making at 1130 via press conference, the mayor agreed to see Dan White. This was a decision that would ultimately cost him his life.

So Dan stepped into the mayor's main office where the conversation quickly became hostile and tense with their voices growing louder and louder until the mayor suggested they move into a quieter, more private office. Mayor Mascon poured two drinks, one for himself and one for Dan. And of course he was doing this in the hopes of easing the tension, but neither of the men would touch their drinks.

As they talked, something shifted in Dan and everything really came to a boiling point. He reached for the revolver that he had brought with him. And just like that, he fired two shots into Mayor Mus Go's body causing him to drop to the floor. Dan then raised the gun and fired two more rounds into the [00:25:00] right side of the mayor's head.

After murdering the mayor in cold blood, Dan quickly headed down the hallway on a mission to find Harvey Milk. When the mayor's deputy noticed the way Dan was hurrying outta the mayor's office, he went in to check on things and found the mayor's lifeless body. Meanwhile, Dan was moving towards the west side of the building where the offices for the board of supervisors were located.

He made his way to Harvey's office and he peeked inside, and Harvey was in there. He was sitting with his volunteer legislative aide. Dan asked Harvey if they could talk for a moment, and Harvey who had no reason to suspect he was in any danger, said, sure. So Dan led Harvey down the hall to his own former office and shut the door behind them.

About 15 seconds later, Harvey could be heard yelling, oh no. Before a series of gunshots rang out. Dan shot Harvey three times in the body, and as he collapsed to the floor, he was shot twice more in the back of the head. [00:26:00] After shooting Harvey, Dan stepped out of his office and rushed down the hallway.

Shortly after 11:00 AM he burst through the door of his AIDS office and shouted for her to give him her car keys. Then he ran out of City Hall and he escaped. After the assassinations, Dan called his wife and asked her to meet him at a cathedral. They walked together in silence to a nearby police station where Dan turned himself in.

Not just to any officer, to a very specific officer that he knew he could trust. The police then seized his revolver and it was later confirmed that the shots that killed both the mayor and Harvey milk were fired from Dan's gun. Shortly after his arrest, Dan was read his Miranda rights and he sat down to give a statement at 12:05 PM.

Investigators asked Dan to explain what had happened and why he murdered two men and then fled the scene only to surrender himself at a police station shortly thereafter. Dan started by explaining the [00:27:00] increasing pressure he'd been feeling and the financial struggles, the stress on his family, and just the weight of losing his seat on the board of supervisors.

Dan described his dedication to the people of District Eight and how he had initially resigned because of these pressures, but later he felt a duty to return. His friends and family had rallied behind him and they wanted to support him however they could. But then the conversation turned to his frustration with the mayor and with Harvey Milk.

Dan said the mayor had been supportive of him at first and had even complimented him as a supervisor and a valuable member of the board. But then he learned that Harvey and others were actually actively working against his reappointment and had been making accusations and really just painting Dan in a negative light in the media.

The police pressed Dan about his meetings with the mayor, and Dan admitted that he actually hadn't spoken to the mayor in over a week at that point. And at the time that they did talk, the mayor told Dan that he had to prove that he still had public [00:28:00] support if he wanted to get his seat on the board back.

I feel like this isn't the way you do that. Yeah, probably not. Yeah, that's not following the advice you were given. So Dan didn't do that probably because he didn't think that was even the real issue. He thought they were trying to just use him as a scapegoat and that they were willing to just hang him out to dry and leave his family in a crisis again.

I don't know why he thought that, but that's what he. As he thought. So Dan said that as the week dragged on, it became clear that the mayor had already chosen someone else for the position. And so of course Dan's upset because in his view the mayor had promised to call him, you know, before making a decision.

He thought him and the mayor were really close, that the mayor would never do something like this to him. So he just felt very betrayed when he found out that he was in fact not getting his seat on the board back. On the 27th, which is the morning that the mayor is supposed to be delivering a press conference announcing who is going to be filling the seat, Dan [00:29:00] decides to just go down to city Hall in person.

He claimed that he didn't have any thought out plan, and he was just going down there to talk to the mayor. But then he was in his home. He went down to the basement and he saw his revolver. And this is the same gun that he used when he was a police officer. Dan said the morning was pretty straightforward.

He left his house and went to City Hall with his gun and tow the aid that drove him, had no idea he was concealing a weapon on his hip. He told her that he was just going to talk to the mayor to find out more about why he wasn't going to reappoint him, but Dan said that the mayor didn't give him the answer he wanted to hear.

Instead, he bluntly stated that Dan would not be reappointed to add insult to injury. The mayor wasn't going to tell Dan this personally. He was going to just announce it at the press conference later that morning. Dan said that the mayor suggested they go back into the room to have a drink and just to talk about everything.

After hearing that so many [00:30:00] people oppose his return to the board, Dan tried to insist that the majority of his district did in fact support him. But it really didn't matter. Dan said that this was a political decision and that was the end of it. When the mayor noticed that Dan was becoming more upset and distraught, he offered him a drink, but at that point, Dan said that nothing was even registering.

He could hear the mayor talking, but it wasn't getting through. Dan explained that he felt like his mind was racing and his ears were roaring. He said his thoughts were somewhere else entirely. He was worried about the mayor going out and telling the press that he wasn't a good supervisor and that the people didn't want him.

Dan said quote, that was it. Then I just shot him. That was it. It was over. So after shooting the mayor, Dan stepped out of the room and happened to see Harvey Milk's aid across the hall, and he said that it was in that moment that his rage shifted. He had planned to flee after killing the mayor, but he remembered what Harvey had tried to do to him [00:31:00] blocking his reappointment.

And he also knew that Harvey had been scheming against him. Dan said he wanted to go talk to Harvey. He said, quote, at least maybe he'll be honest with me, end quote. Dan said that Harvey greeted him with a smile when he came into his office, but that Dan was still highly upset and just wanted Harvey to explain himself.

But then Dan said that Harvey was smirking at him, and he felt like this was just because Harvey knew Dan wasn't getting appointed, and now he was just basically mocking him. Of course, this is Dan's interpretation of these events. Of course. Dan said that he just quote, got all flushed and hot, quote, and that he shot five times at Harvey before fleeing in his a's car.

The officers asked Dan where he went next, and he struggled to answer. He explained that he drove to a diner and then called his wife and he didn't tell her what happened at first. He just asked her to meet him at St. Mary's Cathedral and she then took a cab to meet him there. When his wife arrived, Dan confessed what he had done.[00:32:00] 

He said that his wife kind of just slumped over and really couldn't say anything, but she didn't abandon him. Instead, she got up and walked to the police station with him where he turned himself in. Dan's wife told him she loved him and asked him to please not hurt himself, and she said that she promised to stand by him.

As the interview was wrapping up, Dan was asked if he wanted to add anything else, and he said just that I've always been honest and worked hard. I'm not a crook or anything. I wanted to do a good job, and I saw this city as going kind of downhill and I just couldn't take it anymore, and that's it. Dan said that he wasn't under a doctor's care and wasn't on any medication.

When officers pressed him for more information about the roaring in his ears that he was describing just before the shooting of the mayor, Dan said he had experienced that before when he was under significant pressure at home and had been having trouble sleeping at night. They asked him if carrying a gun was something he did regularly since he [00:33:00] left the police force and becoming a supervisor on the board.

And he said that he had carried a gun in the past due to threats against his life, but he admitted that he had not carried his gun for months. Still. He insisted that when he left home with his gun that morning, he only intended to talk to the mayor. At that point. He said he didn't even know for sure whether or not he would be reappointed, and he just wanted to go down there and talk.

Dan maintained that he never really intended to hurt anyone. The interview concluded at 1230 that afternoon, but that was far from being the end of it. Dan was charged with two counts of murder as well as the use of firearms and being armed with a deadly weapon. He was also charged with interfering with official duties of Mayor Moscon and a supervisor.

Prosecutors were seeking the death penalty against Dan. The city of San Francisco was still expecting this press conference to happen that morning. That one where the mayor was going to announce Dan White's replacement on the board of [00:34:00] supervisors. But instead, the reporters that gathered were met with a visibly shaken Diane Feinstein, who was the president of the Board of Supervisors.

Diane welled up with tears as she spoke to the media and informed the public that Mayor Moscon. Supervisor Harvey Milk had been shot and killed and that the suspect in their murders was Supervisor Dan White. Diane stepped into the role of acting mayor and ordered official days of mourning for the two victims.

When it came time to appoint a new person to fill Harvey Seed on the board, she chose Harry Brit Jr. A gay activist to carry on Harvey's work. A spontaneous crowd of nearly 25,000 people ended up gathering in the Castro to march to City Hall. But instead of filling the air with chance and protest, the group walked in silence and carried candles.

I'm always fascinated by anything that can be done in a group before social media. Oh, in a group. I thought you were gonna say like that. They're both shocking. Yeah. But having that many people get [00:35:00] together back then, yeah. Just. Yeah, yeah. In a, in a sort of spontaneous way. Word. Word. Word of mouth. It's word mouth, but yeah.

Mm-hmm. The assassinations sent shockwaves across the country. People as far as Washington DC were gathering in large crowds in support of gay rights and Channing Harvey milk lives. But as the city of San Francisco mourned the divide between the city's police force. Its liberal community grew deeper.

There was already tension between these two groups. As many local officers resented and rejected the progressive turn that things were taking in the city. And somebody even openly expressed their distaste for Harvey Milk. Now in the wake of his murder, some. Officers actually doubled down on their stance by wearing shirts that said, free Dan White.

Those who knew Dan were stunned and really couldn't believe that he would commit such a brutal crime. He was described as being reliable, someone who really never seemed excitable or nervous, but to others. This actually wasn't that surprising at all. Dan's own assistant told the [00:36:00] media that he was impulsive and did things very quickly.

Another politician said that Dan was an obsessively competitive man who liked all the macho sports, like boxing and football. He said that Dan even had a paratrooper mentality, which, you know, leave a comment if you know what that actually means, right? I haven't heard of that. That tripped me up. I don't know.

Mm-hmm. And so we have more to get into, including the case against Dan White after a quick break to hear a word from this week's sponsors. And now back to the episode. After weeks of fighting to regain his seat on the board of supervisors, Dan White had snapped on November 27th when he went to City Hall Armed and he killed Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, and then fled before turning himself into the police.

By the time Dan's trial began in May of 1979, the city was still reeling from the two assassinations. The question for the jury wasn't whether or not Dan had pulled the trigger. That part was already clear. Instead, the trial would hinge on [00:37:00] why he did it. Prosecutors were prepared to argue that this was a case of first degree premeditated murder, and that Dan had planned these killings and executed them with clear intentions.

He brought a loaded gun, extra bullets, and he also entered city Hall through a basement window to avoid being detected by security. Then he shot the mayor and Harvey milk multiple times. The prosecution was firm in their opinion that this was a calculated murder and not a moment of emotional collapse.

Dan's defense took a different approach. They didn't deny that he was the one who killed the two men, but instead they claim that he was acting under diminished capacity and that his mental state in the moment prevented him from being able to fully control his actions. I. Dan never took the stand himself, but his attorneys painted a picture of him as a man who'd been suffering from undiagnosed mental illness for years.

They alleged that he had severe depression, possibly manic depression, and that it went beyond just ordinary sadness. They [00:38:00] pointed to signs of Dan's depression, including drastic changes in his diet, difficulty sleeping, low energy, withdrawing from work and social life, and episodes of just really bizarre behavior.

The defense claimed that Dan had dealt with these episodes throughout his life, but it had never been recognized for what it was because according to the defense, Dan was a man who just never complained. So that's why no one ever noticed that he was struggling. Dan's attorneys described him as a working class idealist who was deeply committed to traditional values of family, home, honesty and fairness, and they even suggested that he may have been too fair in his politics in San Francisco.

They said Dan just wasn't cut out for the political world where people lied and played dirty to get things done. He was someone who had always trusted people and believed that a man's word was his bond and that. In the end, he was left feeling betrayed, humiliated, and hopeless. Which I just hate that, uh, defense like so much to be like, oh, poor [00:39:00] Dan.

You know? Like he was just betrayed and hurt by, I mean, he murdered these two men. Like it's wild that you know that. That was like the take that his attorneys went with. But on top of that, he resigned. Right? Right. Like he started this ball rolling, right? They were coming after him to take his position. He literally said, I can't do this anymore.

Right? And then said, just kidding. Let me, let me try this again. It's definitely like a. Mess around and find out situation. He didn't like the find out part. No. As a trial unfolded, his defense team worked tirelessly to reshape the narrative. Prosecutors painted Dan as a cold-blooded killer who had planned his actions while the defense painted him.

As a man in crisis, the defense argued that Dan's downward spiral started in the summer of 1978 when he entered a state of severe depression, which resulted from chemical changes linked to an underlying mental illness. These symptoms were sleeplessness, loss of appetite, declining health and stress that [00:40:00] fed into his illness and created this unbreakable cycle.

Dan had always been very health conscious, but. Now he was unraveling with the pressures of his role as a supervisor as well as the financial strain he was under and all the political infighting, and they said he had reached his breaking point. They further argued that his decision to resign on November 10th was fueled by these mental health struggles and not due to financial difficulties as he had claimed.

They said his resignation was impulsive and that he didn't consult with his aides about it, and then his supporters pressured him to stay and so. He felt pressured, so he went to the mayor to ask for his job back. According to Dan, he and the mayor had an agreement that he would reinstate Dan to the board, but then suddenly there was this change of heart, and the mayor turned on him and claimed he never made any such promises to Dan.

This felt like a betrayal, and it was the final push that he said sent him over the edge. They explained that by the time November 26th rolled [00:41:00] around, Dan White was really coming undone. The call he got from the reporter confirming that he would not be reinstated, shook him up so much that he spent the night on the couch, hardly sleeping at all.

The next morning when Dan called his aide, she told him that there were supporters at City Hall urging the mayor to reinstate him, but the mayor wouldn't accept these signatures. Dan allegedly didn't wanna go down to city Hall, but eventually he agreed to go if his aide came and picked him up because his wife had taken their only car to work that morning.

So he actually had no way to get there. Stan's defense team worked to convince the jury that he did not commit premeditated murder, but had instead snapped under the weight of mental illness. They called several friends, acquaintances, and relatives to the stand, and each one painted a picture of a man who had once been honorable and disciplined, but had slowly fallen into this deep depression and his constant state of frustration.

Stan's former aide talked about the changes that she personally saw in him. She said he had [00:42:00] difficulty adjusting to the political process and he became moody and withdrawn. He would cancel meetings and he just generally seemed very depressed a lot of the time. She said that his healthy habits fell by the wayside, and he started swapping his healthy lunches for candy and junk food and sugary drinks.

She said that this was actually very unusual for him. He had always been very physically fit and very health-minded, and so some of these behaviors really shocked her. And one example she gave, which I can see what she means after this example, she said There was a time when Dan had to give a speech to a potentially hostile crowd.

They weren't sure how things were gonna go, but he ended up winning them over and receiving a standing ovation. Stan should have been absolutely thrilled for this win. It was something they had been worried about, but instead of being happy, he looked pale, he looked exhausted, and he ended up asking his aide to run to the store and buy him donuts.

And when she brought them back, she said he ate about five donuts [00:43:00] in a matter of seconds and just seemed like very withdrawn and not all there in the moment. So his aide said she didn't really know what to think. It was just a very shocking thing for her to witness. Other friends of Dan also noticed these changes in his health and appearance, and some said he just wasn't the same guy that they knew before.

Numerous mental health experts were called to testify, including a psychiatrist named Dr. Martin Blinder, and he told the jury that Dan was suffering from depression and overwhelming pressure, and that the stress had impaired his ability to think clearly. Dr. Blinder said he lacked the normal mental process for premeditation, malice and intent.

The doctor testified that Dan had just snapped and he even cited Dan's sugar addiction as a possible significant factor in this violent outburst. This is wild. He used a study where career criminals were taken off of high sugar diets and put on healthier meal plans and. Allegedly, their criminal behavior disappeared, which I [00:44:00] found very interesting.

I wanna know more about this study. Mm-hmm. There's a lot of questions I have about that. Dr. Blinder said, quote, large quantities of junk food high in sugar and preservatives can precipitate, antisocial and even violent behavior in susceptible individuals. Okay. So basically. There is science that shows, like, especially in children, right?

They say like if your child is of course struggling with things like a DHD or you know, things like that, um, having trouble in school focusing, they do say that changing your diet to not include as much sugar, which obviously makes sense of sugar's not good for any of us, right? To just be our brains on sugar nonstop.

So that obviously makes a lot of sense where you can say like, okay, cutting out sugar might improve some impulsive behaviors or certain types of behaviors that go with different things. Especially like I, I'm using kids. As an example, because that's the most common one that you hear people saying, switch your kid's diet, which I'm not saying.

Right. I'm not saying that you should do that. I'm just saying that I get the, like correlation that they're trying to create here with [00:45:00] this, but I don't, you're losing me on sugar addiction will make you murder people. Like that's where I'm like, Hmm. Well then there's a lot more, first of all, murders that would take place.

Right. And uh, I mean I, yeah, I, I don't see this as being the, yeah. The reason. Right, exactly. Mm-hmm. So this doctor though also cited Dan's growing stress levels and his fixation on being reappointed as the only way he'd be able to save himself full stop. That's the only way he'd be able to save himself from all these things that were going on.

So there were also several other experts that testified that Dan was suffering from severe depression and mental illness, and that he did not premeditate or deliberately kill anyone. Prosecutors though much like most of you listening weren't buying this. They had their own psychiatrist testify that Dan was moderately depressed, but not clinically so.

And more importantly, he did have the mental capacity to premeditate a murder. Dr. Levi's assessment was that Dan had acted with [00:46:00] full awareness of his actions. They asked if Dr. Levi was familiar with the junk food theory presented by the defense, and he said that he wasn't aware of any prevailing psychiatric opinion that high sugar and preservative diets are significantly linked to any type of mental illness.

What's being called the twine defense had no scientific basis according to the prosecutors. I know a different Twinkies defense, like if I don't get Twinkies right, I, I could be a real problem around here. Of course at this point, it's up to the jury to decide was Dan guilty of premeditated first degree murder or did he have reduced mental capacity due to an array of circumstances that he was facing?

If they had reasonable doubt that Dan was able to premeditate, deliberate, or reflect on his actions, then they could not convict him of first degree murder. If they had reasonable doubt that he could form malice or intent, then he couldn't be convicted of first or second degree murder. [00:47:00] If the jury found that Dan's actions were the result of impulse caused by mental illness, then they had to consider whether he was truly capable of forming the mental state needed for murder or voluntary manslaughter.

I would be a terrible juror. That's too many rules. That's too many things to think about. I know I need a top two. That's a right. Give two options. Can't do, right. There's, that's too many rules. Alright, so as we were saying, the jury did have a lot of options and they took their time weighing them all.

They deliberated for a total of 36 hours over a period of six days before finally returning with a verdict. Dan White was found not guilty of first degree murder, not guilty of second degree murder, and he was found guilty on two counts of manslaughter with gun enhancements added to both of those charges.

Unreal, absolutely unreal. When the verdict was read, the courtroom was silent, probably because people literally couldn't, I mean. What does, what does there to even say that's crazy. Like I imagine people were just like, what's what's happening [00:48:00] here? Looking for their Twinkies to help them out, right? Yeah. I need one.

The observers just could not believe that Dan had walked right into city Hall and executed two elected officials in broad daylight, and he was only convicted of two counts of manslaughter. The DA was also stunned and disappointed. He said it was the wrong decision and that the jury was just overwhelmed by emotions and did not sufficiently analyze the evidence.

I also feel like those instructions were very confusing and made you like, I would be like, well, I don't know. You know, especially the last one where he said, you know, even if you, if you think he did this out of impulse due to mental illness. Then you have like, I don't know, was he capable? I mean, I get it, but I feel like you're confusing me at that point because it's like, I might think that he's guilty of murder, but now you've confused me into thinking, well, maybe he's not like legally.

So, you know, and I just feel like all of that was unclear. Of course, Stan's defense celebrated the win. They claim that Dan was, you know, filled with remorse and said that he [00:49:00] was actually in a very bad mental condition just due to all these things that were going on. And of course, he is allegedly suffering from depression and mental illness.

Outside the courtroom, the city of San Francisco was absolutely furious and many city officials publicly condemned the verdict. Within one hour of the verdict being announced, the streets of San Francisco erupted with a crowd of 3000 angry protestors who gathered and marched towards city Hall. This time it was not a silent.

Peaceful protests. The light? Mm-hmm. Uh, no. When they got there, the protestors smashed panes of glass and really just thrashed at the front doors until the police eventually got involved and stormed the crowd. There was tear gas being used. There were cars being set on fire, windows being smashed out, sirens wailing everywhere.

Complete chaos in San Francisco, and things still were not even over quite yet because the judge still had to decide exactly what Dan's sentence would be. Under the law, he faced a minimum of five years in prison [00:50:00] and get this a maximum of seven years and eight months. Unreal. We're talking about the murder of two people.

So the judge was taking a look at a few aggravating circumstances and a few mitigating circumstances to help him in making this decision about what the sentence would be. So the aggravating circumstances that they were looking at were that one, the crime involved great violence and bodily harm. Two, Dan was armed with and used a weapon.

And three, the crime involved multiple victims. The mitigating circumstances that the judge was considering were that one, Dan had no prior criminal record. Two, he was suffering from a mental or physical condition that significantly reduced his culpability. And three, he voluntarily acknowledged his wrongdoing before his arrest.

So on July 3rd, 1979, the judge handed down his decision. Dan White would serve the maximum sentence of. Seven years and eight months in state prison. The details of that sentence outraged the city. Even further though, because the judge said that for the killing of [00:51:00] Mayor Moscone Dam was sentenced to four years plus two additional years for using a firearm for killing Harvey Milk.

Dam received just one year, plus an additional eight months for the use of a firearm with parole. Dan would be eligible for release in less than five years. Crazy. Crazy. The judge acknowledged the brutality of the crimes and said they involved maximum violence and admitted that four years for voluntary manslaughter was not an adequate punishment.

Despite receiving such a light sentence, Dan still wasn't satisfied and he appealed his conviction on the grounds that the judge had made legal errors when deciding his sentence. I will never get over people that appeal when they got a sweetheart deal on something. Like, just literally just do your five years and shush.

Be quiet. Yeah. So he claimed that the trial court wrongly used the same fact twice, which was his use of a firearm to justify giving him the maximum term for killing the mayor and for adding firearm enhancements to both of his Senate. I don't see why [00:52:00] they wouldn't do that. Like you used a gun both times, like in both.

Murders. I don't get how right. What, like, there's no grounds for that in my opinion. I would be like, what is this nonsense? Get this off my desk. You also brought 10 bullets, so you, you right. Could have had 10 guns. It didn't really matter. So Dan also argued that the judge didn't properly consider the mitigating factors.

The attorney general argued that Dan had no right to fight back and to appeal because he had the opportunity to object at his sentencing hearing. And he didn't. The Attorney General said if Dan truly felt there was an error, they would've spoken up right then, but now it was too late. In the end, the Appeals Court upheld Dan's sentence, but even still, he wouldn't serve much time.

On January 6th, 1984, after serving just five years, Dan White walked out of prison and began a one year probation sentence. He was required to stay in Los Angeles and report to his parole officer once a week. Dan kept a low profile after his release. [00:53:00] He never expressed public remorse, but he had shattered the city of San Francisco with his actions, but things he had done were eating away at him less than two years after leaving prison.

On October 22nd, 1985, Dan was found dead in the garage of his family home. He had died by suicide at the age of 39, leaving behind several notes, none of which mentioned the assassinations though. It seemed like Dan had taken his secrets all the way to the grave until over a decade later in 1998 when a shocking truth came to light.

Frank Fon, who was the lead detective on the case, revealed that back in 1984, just shortly after Dan was released from prison, he privately confessed to Detective Fon. Stan allegedly told him that he had lied throughout his trial and that the killings were premeditated and he actually intended to kill two other people that day.

Oh my gosh. He was apparently planning [00:54:00] to murder supervisors, Willie Brown and Carol Silver. He blamed them as well as Harvey for convincing the mayor not to reinstate him. And the only reason he said he did not go through with killing those two people is because he ran out of bullets. After Dan confessed this information, the police decided that they would stay silent about it at this point, right?

Dan's already been in the news a lot. He's already gone to trial. He's already served his time. He's being released from prison. So at this time, the police are like, let's not send the city into an uproar by saying that this guy was planning on killing two others. Which also blows my mind that he. That actually shared this.

Four years is the only time for manslaughter. Like, uh, it's wild to me like the all of it, right? Mm-hmm. But of course, there's double jeopardy, so he can't be tried, he can't be charged with anything for, you know, for admitting that this was, that was truly what his plan was. So the full truth had stayed buried for nearly 15 years after these assassinations, and really only came to light after this detective decided to come forward and say, oh, yeah, uh, by the way, this was the [00:55:00] truth, you know, that he said.

Unreal because I would think just that he was planning to kill the other two. They could have charged him with something, uh, something else against them or, or let them know, like, that's what I was gonna say. That's wild. And if they didn't, then I have questions about that. I don't know that they did or did not, but like, yeah, if I was those other two people, those other two supervisors, I would be terrified knowing that this guy got out of prison after five years, like.

He's probably still mad. Absolutely. Yeah. So according to the Milk Foundation, Harvey's inspiring life has been the subject and inspiration for Academy Award-winning films like 1980 fours. The Times of Harvey Milk in 2000 nine's feature film milk, as well as operas, books, plays, music awards, proclamations, and an annual official governmental day of recognition.

In 2009, Harvey Milk posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama. His nephew, Stewart Milk accepted it [00:56:00] on Harvey's behalf. In 2009, Harvey's nephew, Stewart and Harvey's campaign manager and Cronenberg established the Harvey Milk Foundation. The foundation seeks to inspire individuals, communities, and organizations to carry on Harvey's values in a timeless vision for a better world.

Wow. Melissa, what did you think of this story? I. I knew the story, but I did not ever know the result. I did not know somebody only got a couple years. Yeah, that's wild. Fully just my assumption because I'm thinking it was very clearly premeditated murder, but I just assumed that's what had happened. So it's unreal to find out that that's all it was.

And not only that, that he went and confessed later. Right. And said, by the way, BT Dubs, I actually planned this and just ran outta bullets. Yeah, no, honestly, I just. It's wild to me that he only got such a small amount of time, because I guess I just assumed that if you murder a public [00:57:00] official, you're probably gonna have the book thrown at you.

Like, I feel like that, I would've thought that too. Right? Like, so that's also why it was shocking to me. I'm like, this guy killed the mayor. Um mm-hmm. Like that's, it's wild. You would think that. The legal system would like rally together to do everything to get you as much as you can. And then I have questions too, because in other cases I feel like I guess it is all set by the law.

It's all outlined by what you can sentence you can give someone. Sure. But why do I feel like there's been cases where a judge has gone against. Or maybe in some states it's just a recommendation and not like the actual law says, right, that you can only give this much of time, because that's where I'm like, yeah, like a judge.

I feel like I get, I don't know. That's also questionable. Should they have the power to say that this isn't enough for this person in this case. That is why they're a judge. You know? That is what we're trusting them to do. Things like that. To like bring a human element of like common sense to certain things.

Yeah. Which is obviously very hard with legal stuff because it does have to be. There has to be a paper trail. There has to be justification for everything, but I just thought it was wild, like killing the mayor [00:58:00] and somebody on the board of supervisors that it would even be possible that you could walk with manslaughter.

The fact that it was somebody within the board is also wild. I've been watching, like my sister has her local elections. I know everything going on in her room. Room that's, I watch all of her videos. But you see people come up there heated and saying, you know, three minutes. Scary. It is scary. Scary. And like you have to, you know, check, check.

They have to go through security and all that stuff. So for, to be somebody that's like. Quote, unquote on your team or you know, like you guys are all serving together is really like unexpected. And, and I, it's, it's wild. Yeah. So this was really very interesting. A journey for sure. Definitely. Yeah. Alright guys, well thank you for listening.

We will be back next week, same time, same place. New story. Have a great week. [00:59:00] Bye.