Dan White

Dan White
Member of the
San Francisco Board of Supervisors
from District 8
In office
January 8, 1978 – November 10, 1978
Preceded by District created
Succeeded by Don Horanzy
Personal details
Born Daniel James White
September 2, 1946
Long Beach, California, U.S.
Died October 21, 1985 (aged 39)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Resting place Golden Gate National Cemetery, San Bruno, California
Nationality American
Political party Democratic
Spouse(s) Mary Ann Burns (1976–1985)
Children Charles
Rory
Laura
Residence San Francisco, California
Profession Police officer
firefighter
politician
Religion Roman Catholic
Military service
Allegiance  United States
Service/branch United States Army
Years of service 1965–1971
Rank Sergeant
Unit 101st Airborne Division
Battles/wars Vietnam War

Daniel James "Dan" White (September 2, 1946 – October 21, 1985) was a San Francisco supervisor who assassinated San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, on Monday, November 27, 1978, at City Hall. In a controversial verdict that led to the coining of the legal slang "Twinkie defense," White was convicted of manslaughter rather than murder in the deaths of Milk and Moscone. White served five years of a seven-year prison sentence. Less than two years after his release, he returned to San Francisco and committed suicide. San Francisco Weekly has referred to White as "perhaps the most hated man in San Francisco's history."[1]

Early life

Daniel James White was born in Long Beach, California,[2] the second of nine children. He was raised by working class parents in a Roman Catholic household in the Visitacion Valley neighborhood of San Francisco.[1] He attended Riordan High School until he was expelled in his junior year. He went on to attend Woodrow Wilson High School,[3] where he was valedictorian of his class.

White enlisted in the United States Army in June 1965. He was a sergeant in the 101st Airborne Division in the Vietnam War from 1969 to 1970 and was honorably discharged in 1971.

White worked as a security guard at A. J. Dimond High School in Anchorage, Alaska, in 1972. He returned to San Francisco to work as a police officer. According to a San Francisco Weekly newspaper account, citing no sources but based largely on interviews with two former political allies of White, he quit the force after reporting another officer for beating a handcuffed suspect.[1]

White then joined the San Francisco Fire Department. While on duty, according to the San Francisco Weekly story, White's rescue of a woman and her baby from a seventh-floor apartment in the Geneva Towers was covered by The San Francisco Chronicle.[1] The city's newspapers referred to him as "an all-American boy."[4]

Career

Election as supervisor

In 1977, White was elected as a Democrat to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from District 8, which included several neighborhoods near the southeastern limits of San Francisco. At that time, supervisors were elected by district and not "at-large", as they had been before and then were again in the 1980s and 1990s. He had strong support from the police and firefighter unions. His district was described by The New York Times as "a largely white, middle-class section that is hostile to the growing homosexual community of San Francisco." As a supervisor, White openly saw himself as the board's "defender of the home, the family and religious life against homosexuals, pot smokers and cynics."[5]

Tenure as supervisor

Despite their personal differences, White and Supervisor Harvey Milk initially had several areas of political agreement and they initially worked well together.[1] Harvey Milk was one of three people from the city hall invited to the baptism of White's newborn child shortly after the election.[1] White also persuaded Dianne Feinstein, then president of the board of supervisors, to appoint Milk chairman of the Streets and Transportation Committee.[1]

The Catholic Church in April 1978 proposed a facility, to be operated by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, in White's district for juvenile offenders who had committed murder, arson, rape, and other crimes, according to the same story. The account said White was strongly opposed, while Milk supported the facility, and this difference led to a conflict between the two.[1] White held a mixed record on gay rights, opposing the anti-gay Briggs Initiative, yet voting against an ordinance prohibiting discrimination against gays in housing and employment.[1]

Assassinations

After his disagreement with Milk over the proposed rehab center, White frequently clashed with Milk as well as other members of the board. On November 10, 1978, White resigned his seat as supervisor.[5] The reasons he cited were his dissatisfaction with what he saw as the corrupt inner workings of San Francisco city politics, as well as the difficulty in making a living without a police officer's or firefighter's salary, jobs he could not hold legally while serving as a supervisor. White had opened a baked-potato stand at Pier 39, which failed to become profitable.[6] He reversed his resignation on November 14, 1978 after his supporters lobbied him to seek appointment from George Moscone.

Moscone initially agreed to White's request, but later refused the appointment at the urging of Milk and others. On November 27, 1978, White visited San Francisco City Hall with the later-declared intention of killing not only Moscone and Milk, but also two other San Francisco politicians, California Assembly Speaker and later S.F. mayor Willie Brown, and Supervisor Carol Ruth Silver, both of whom he also blamed for lobbying Moscone not to re-appoint him.[7] He arrived that day by climbing through a first-floor window on the side of City Hall carrying a .38 revolver and 10 rounds of ammunition. By entering the building through the window, White was able to avoid the recently installed metal detectors. After entering Moscone's office, White pleaded to be re-instated as supervisor, but Moscone said no. White then killed Moscone by shooting him in the shoulder and chest, and twice in the head. He then walked to the other side of City Hall to Milk's office, reloaded the gun, and fatally shot Milk five times, the final two shots fired with the gun's barrel touching Milk's skull, according to the medical examiner. White then fled City Hall, turning himself in at the San Francisco's Northern Police Station where he had been a police officer. While being interviewed by investigators, White recorded a tearful confession, stating, "I just shot him."

Trial

Main article: Twinkie defense

At the trial, White's defense team argued that his mental state at the time of the killings was one of diminished capacity due to depression. They argued, therefore, he was not capable of premeditating the killings, and thus was not legally guilty of first-degree murder. Forensic psychiatrist Martin Blinder testified that White was suffering from depression and pointed to several behavioral symptoms of that depression, including the fact that White had gone from being highly health-conscious to consuming sugary foods and drinks. When the prosecution played a recording of White's confession, several jurors wept as they listened to what was described as "a man pushed beyond his endurance." Many people familiar with City Hall claimed that it was common to enter through the window to save time. A police officer friend of White claimed to reporters that several officials carried weapons at this time and speculated that White carried the extra ammunition as a habit that police officers had. The jury found White guilty of voluntary manslaughter rather than first-degree murder. Outrage within San Francisco's gay community over the resulting seven-year sentence sparked the city's White Night Riots; general disdain for the outcome of the court case led to the elimination of California's "diminished capacity" law.[8][9]

Imprisonment and suicide

White's headstone.

White served five years of his seven-year sentence at Soledad State Prison and was paroled on January 7, 1984. Fearing White might be murdered in retaliation for his crimes, California State Corrections Officials secretly transported him to Los Angeles, where he served a year's parole. At the expiration of that year, White sought to return to San Francisco; Mayor Dianne Feinstein issued a public announcement of his plans, and a statement formally asking White not to return. (Joel Wachs, a Los Angeles City Council member, also argued to keep White out of Los Angeles.) White did move back to San Francisco and attempted to rebuild his life with his wife and children, but his marriage soon ended.

On October 21, 1985, less than two years after his release from prison, White committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning in his garage by running a garden hose from the exhaust pipe to the inside of his car. White's body was discovered by his brother, Thomas, shortly before 2:00 pm the same day.[10]

White was buried at Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, California, with a traditional government-furnished headstone issued for war veterans. He was survived by his two sons, an infant daughter, and his ex-wife.[10]

Confession

In 1998, Frank Falzon, the homicide inspector with the San Francisco police to whom White had turned himself in after the killings, said that he met with White in 1984, and that at this meeting White had confessed that he had the intention to kill not only Moscone and Milk, but another supervisor, Carol Ruth Silver, and then-member of the California State Assembly (and future San Francisco Mayor) Willie Brown. 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." Falzon indicated that he believed White, stating, "I felt like I had been hit by a sledge-hammer … I found out it was a premeditated murder."[11]

Factual accounts

The story of the assassinations is told in the Academy Award-winning documentary film The Times of Harvey Milk (1984), which came out a year before White committed suicide.

White was portrayed by Josh Brolin in the 2008 film Milk. The film depicted White from his first meeting with Harvey Milk up to and including the assassination of Harvey Milk.[1][12] Sean Penn won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Milk, and Josh Brolin was nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of White.

White's life, the assassinations, and his trial are covered in the 1984 book Double Play: The San Francisco City Hall Killings by Mike Weiss, which won the Edgar Award as Best True Crime Book of the Year. An expanded second edition, Double Play: The Double Assassination of George Moscone and Harvey Milk, was issued in 2010 and updated White's story to include his life after prison and his suicide. The second edition also includes a DVD with a half-hour video interview of White.

Fictionalised accounts

Execution of Justice, a play by Emily Mann, chronicles the events leading to the assassinations. In 1999, the play was adapted to film for cable network Showtime, with Tim Daly portraying White.

The assassinations were the basis for a scene in the 1987 science fiction movie RoboCop in which a deranged former municipal official holds the Mayor of Detroit and several aides hostage and demands his job back. The situation is defused by the negotiator stalling the hostage taker until RoboCop can get upstairs and overpower him.[13]

The television procedural drama Law & Order's fifth season finale episode entitled Pride was based on the assassinations with actor Daniel Hugh Kelly portraying the Dan White analogous character.

California punk rock band Dead Kennedys released a cover of Sonny Curtis' "I Fought the Law", entitled "I Fought the Law (and I Won)" on their album Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death. The lyrics were rewritten to reference the killing of Moscone and Milk by White. In their version, Jello Biafra sings from White's viewpoint, referencing White's high consumption of sugary products ("Twinkies are the best friend I ever had"), the shooting of both Moscone and Milk ("I blew George and Harvey's brains out with my six gun!"), and White's fellow police officers ("My cop friends think it's fine/You can get away with murder if you got a badge"), before ending the song with "I am the law, so I won".

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Dan White's Motive More About Betrayal Than Homophobia. By John Geluardi. San Francisco Weekly. Published January 29, 2008.
  2. ↑ "California Birth Index", hosted at ancestry. "Daniel James White, born September 2, 1946 Los Angeles County"
  3. ↑ Mike Weiss, Double Play: The Hidden Passions Behind the Double Assassination of George Moscone and Harvey Milk (San Francisco: Vince Emery Productions, 2010) pp. 213-216, 474.
  4. ↑ Ebert, Roger. Milk. The Chicago Sun Times. Published November 24, 2008.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Turner, Wallace (November 28, 1978). "Suspect Sought Job". The New York Times.
  6. ↑ Sides, Josh. Erotic City: Sexual Revolutions and the Making of San Francisco. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2009. p. 164. Available at Google Books.
  7. ↑ Weiss, Mike. (September 18, 1998). "Killer of Moscone, Milk had Willie Brown on List," San Jose Mercury News, Page A1
  8. ↑ Pogash, Carol (November 23, 2003). "Myth of the 'Twinkie defense'". San Francisco Chronicle. p. D-1. Retrieved December 3, 2008.
  9. ↑ "Daniel James White Trial: 1979 – Double Execution". law.jrank.org. Net Industries. Retrieved December 3, 2008.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Robert Lindsey (October 22, 1985). "Dan White, Killer Of San Francisco Mayor, A Suicide". New York Times. Retrieved December 29, 2008.
  11. ↑ Weiss (1998).
  12. ↑ "Edelstein D. 'Milk' Is Much More Than A Martyr Movie". National Public Radio. November 26, 2008. Retrieved January 3, 2009.
  13. ↑ Booker, M. Keith (2006). Alternate Americas: Science Fiction Film and American Culture. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 205. ISBN 0-275-98395-1.

References

  • "Dan White: SFPD Interrogation Audio (November 27, 1978)". Bay Area Radio Museum, Gene D'Accardo/KNBR Collection. 1978. Retrieved January 15, 2008.
  • Weiss, Mike (September 17, 1998). "Dan White wanted to kill Willie Brown on day he murdered San Francisco mayor, Harvey Milk". San Jose Mercury News.
  • Weiss, Mike (2010). Double Play: The Hidden Passions Behind the Double Assassination of George Moscone and Harvey Milk, Vince Emery Productions. ISBN 9780982565056

External links