Dan White was a baby boomer born in 1946 in Long Beach, California, the second of nine children. Though he was expelled in his junior year of High School for violence, he later transferred to another school and graduated as valedictorian. In 1965, White enlisted in the Army.
White was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division as an NCO and served a year in Vietnam. He left the military in 1971 and became a police officer in San Francisco. He purportedly quit the force after reporting a fellow officer for beating a handcuffed suspect. White then joined the San Francisco Fire Department. His rescue of a woman and her baby from a seventh-floor apartment during a fire was the sort of stuff of which heroes are made.
White parlayed his experience as both a cop and a fireman into a budding political career. In 1977 he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. During his tenure, he served alongside a youthful Dianne Feinstein and Harvey Milk.
The Saga of Harvey Milk
Harvey Bernard Milk was born in New York City in 1930, the son of Lithuanian parents. Milk was known as an outgoing extrovert in school—the class clown. He played football and was an opera enthusiast. He studied mathematics in college and subsequently entered the US Navy.
Milk served as a diving officer assigned to the submarine rescue ship USS Kittiwake. After a stint portside as a diving instructor Milk was removed from the military via an “Other Than Honorable” discharge for homosexuality. Milk then hopped through several jobs and multiple gay relationships in various cities across the country.
Milk eventually settled in San Francisco. He worked for a time for an investment firm before being fired for growing his hair long in protest of US combat operations in Cambodia. After several failed local election attempts Milk was appointed to the city Board of Permit Appeals in 1976 by San Francisco Mayor George Moscone. This appointment made Harvey Milk the first openly gay city commissioner in the United States.
Mayor George Moscone
George Moscone was a San Francisco native of Italian heritage. His dad had been a prison guard at San Quentin. Moscone attended law school, got married, and also served a stint in the Navy. After a term on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Moscone was elected to the California State Senate.
Moscone’s time in the State Senate saw him sponsor a statewide school lunch program as well as the law that legalized abortion in California. Throughout it all, he developed a reputation for championing gay rights. In 1975 he was elected Mayor of San Francisco, beating out conservative John Barbagelata as well as Dianne Feinstein.
The success of Moscone’s campaign turned on a grassroots effort funneled through a variety of local churches. Among them was the People’s Temple, the suicide cult run by charismatic charlatan Jim Jones. You can read more about Jim Jones and the Guyana Massacre here. In recognition of his support, Moscone later appointed Jones as Chairman of the San Francisco Housing Commission.
The Conflict
Dan White and Harvey Milk were initially political allies. Despite their wildly disparate backgrounds, they were both ardent Democrats and enjoyed a compatible ideology. Disagreements over business development issues and ultimately Milk’s placement of a controversial group home in White’s district eventually drove a wedge between them. Their conflict was eventually seen as a bitter proxy fight between traditional family values and gay rights.
White’s supervisor job paid $9,600 per year ($40,200 today). A local ordnance prohibited any one individual from holding two city jobs simultaneously. As a result, White was forced to resign as a firefighter. He tried to start a business selling baked potatoes from a cart, but this endeavor failed. With a wife and three children to support this created a financial burden. Frustrated with his lack of money as well as the labyrinthine machinations of San Francisco politics, Dan White submitted his resignation as Supervisor to Mayor Moscone on November 10, 1978.
The rules were such that the Mayor appointed a temporary successor after a Supervisor resigned. White’s vacancy insured that the Mayor could stack the board with a majority that was warm to his agenda and potentially hostile to local business. Under pressure from his constituents, White approached Moscone and attempted to rescind his resignation.
Mayor Moscone and Harvey Milk saw White’s departure as an opportunity. Milk pressured Moscone not to re-seat White. Moscone subsequently announced that he was appointing Don Horanzy to the position, a farther-Left local politician.
The Killings
A bit more than two weeks after his resignation White had an unsuspecting friend drive him to City Hall. In his pocket, he carried the loaded Smith and Wesson Model 36 .38 Special revolver he had used as a police officer along with ten loose rounds of hollowpoint ammunition. Given the fulminant nature of San Francisco politics, metal detectors had recently been installed at the entrances to the building.
White entered the structure through an unlocked first-story window. Apparently, city officials frequently came to work by this means so as to avoid the waits at the detectors. There’s a message there, but we lack the space to explore it today.
Mayor Moscone was in a meeting with Willie Brown who would himself eventually go on to become Mayor of San Francisco. After Brown departed, White confronted Moscone, again demanding he be given his old job back. Not wishing to make a scene, Moscone invited White into a private lounge attached to the Mayor’s office. Once behind closed doors Moscone lit a cigarette and poured drinks.
Dan White was a trained soldier, a combat veteran, and an experienced police officer. He knew how to run a gun. White drew his revolver and shot Moscone twice, once in the shoulder and again in the chest, perforating the man’s lung. White then shot Moscone twice at close range through the ear, killing him. Bystanders later reported that they took the sound for a car backfiring.
As White left the office Dianne Feinstein recognized him and called his name. White responded with, “I have to do something first.” He then sought out Harvey Milk and caught him in a hallway before inviting him into a private office.
White closed the door, produced his pistol, and opened fire. His first round passed through Milk’s wrist, while the next two struck him in the chest. The fourth hit Milk in the head. As before, White then fired his final shot into Milk’s skull at close range. Feinstein entered the office as White left and discovered Milk’s body.
The Gun
The Smith and Wesson Model 36 is likely the most popular snub-nosed revolver ever produced. The name Chief’s Special spawned from a popular vote conducted at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Convention held in 1950. Barrels could be had in either two or three-inch versions, and the gun carried five rounds onboard.
Serial number 337 was engraved with J. Edgar Hoover’s name and given to him as a gift. An aluminum-framed version was called the Airweight. A variant specifically marketed for female shooters was titled the LadySmith. The gun remains in production today.
The Rest of the Story
Dan White walked out of City Hall unmolested and eventually surrendered to Frank Falzon, a fellow detective from his days with the SFPD. He acknowledged shooting Milk and Moscone but denied having planned the attack. White was charged with murder in the first degree with special circumstances, making him eligible for the death penalty.
White’s legal team claimed that he was caught in the throes of depression and therefore not responsible for his actions. They explained that White, previously a bit of a fitness fanatic, had given himself over to junk food. Subsequent myths perpetuated in the media asserted that his lawyers were alleging that the junk food caused a mental break. This led to the popular term “Twinkie Defense” in the newspapers of the day. In reality, they were just claiming that the junk food addiction was evidence of his altered mental state, not its cause. Regardless, the jury inexplicably bought this bizarre story. If ever you should choose to assassinate your political rivals in cold blood in a public place, apparently you might want to do it in California.
Jurors purportedly wept when his confession was played in the courtroom. White was subsequently convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to seven years in prison. He was paroled after five, lost his family, and killed himself via carbon monoxide poisoning in his garage two years later.
A Point of Personal Privilege
Harvey Milk endured discrimination, served in politics, and was gunned down in cold blood by an unhinged lunatic. In 2009 President Obama awarded Milk a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom. On November 6, 2021, the US Navy launched the USNS Harvey Milk, the second of the John Lewis class of underway replenishment oilers. As martyrs go, I’d say he’s earned his accolades.
Most thinking folks agree that no one should undergo discrimination. However, ours is a cruel, violent species. There has never since the dawn of time been fairness or equality in a human culture to compare with what we enjoy today. The pursuit is a noble goal to be sure. However, it seems to me we should spend more time being thankful for what we’ve accomplished and less screaming at each other about how horrible things are.
I grow weary of our current unhealthy fixation with sexual practices. In my perfect world, people would be judged based upon what they accomplished or how they’ve made the world better, not with whom they slept or what kind of clothes they wore. That’s a pretty shallow way to define one’s self. Sex is a fairly straightforward primal thing, and most people can do it. The details do not reflect any extraordinary accomplishment. Would it be too much to ask if we just treat everybody nicely and focus on something more substantive for a change?
Well, I read Mr. Dabbs’ article all the way through, and then read the comments section, which were informative in their own way. Based on the charges levied against Mr. Dabbs’ in the comments, I reread his article. In summary, I see that Mr. Dabbs followed his usual format of articles in GA, and I did not see any advocacy of any of the characters or their actions , only a straightforward account/contextualizing of he characters in the story. While it is true that the current emphasis from the left regarding sexual freedoms has grown absurdly disproportionate, I did not see any hint of advocacy for this in Mr. Dabbs’ article. I do not see how what a person does with their genitalia impacts their qualifications for any opinions, professional pursuits, eligibility for a position. Nor do I understand the push to vociferously publicly advertise the myriad creative ways that one can demonstrate their sexual desires. Since we are overwhelmingly inundated with stories related to these sexual issues, it is perhaps a general weariness of some readers to reflexively, mistakenly see this advocacy in an article that is simply a telling of the facts of a sordid story.
My advice, albeit unsolicited, for Mr. Dabbs:
Keep up the good work sir.
So you can get tossed out of the Navy under other than honorable conditions and have a ship named after you. Wow. Guess Lee Harvey Oswald should have a Marine base rifle range named after him! Hopefully if the Navy ever has to use “OBAMA “ for a ship it will be a Submarine so we never have to freaking see it again!
Harvey’s last name was Milk ? For reals ?
Dan White was the original “Got Milk” campaign ads I suppose yeah I said it
Again , great story Sir .
On a side note , my late Father worked “ plain clothes “ for
a major central Ohio P.D. His preferred weapon , on duty
as well as personal carry , was the S&W mod. 36 , in 3” bbl.
It was at his side at all times , and he loved the weapon .
Today , the pistol is my Wife’s primary defense weapon ,
and brings fond memories to her , as she loved him as if
he were her own Father.
A great pistol.
Well, based on what I read it is the story of a man who lost his way and mind through financial despair. He has not targetted Mr Milk because he was gay and Mr Moscone because he was pro-gay but rather because he figured they were the cause of his financial despair. Maybe you went a bit far on this Will. Usually you are right to the point in your articles, but this time … a bit less. Once in a while everyone fumbles with something. Keep on your good work.
I haven’t got the time or inclination to pay attention to the letter salad groups. I don’t care who messes around with whom. Leave me and mine alone. I figure what they do will be dealt with eventually. As Will said… the left has used a murder by a nut to advance an agenda. I find that disturbing. Milk didn’t deserve to die in the way he did. No one does! But the agenda part I do take issue with. He was no one special! Leave our kids alone and let them make up their own minds about right and wrong in their future. In my opinion SF is an ever-growing cesspool…heck seriously most left leaning large cities in the US are cesspools. I worked on a FD in a city that has turned into the same thing. Unfortunately, I don’t think it had that far to go after the left started running it
Thanks for the article. I especially was interested in the background info of these three men.
“This whole scene represents the beginning of the end, for San Francisco politics. The city has since fallen on hard times and like many of the democrat run West Coast cities, is a failed business model. Society needs to wake up to the massive failure that is the democrat party…” I concur with the above comment.
I’m 74 and was born and raised in Kalifornia and happy to say I escaped 44 years ago. At one time a great place to live, now a cesspool. The sickness and perversion of the LGBTQIA community is getting worse each day.
I applauded Dan White’s actions and also suspect that he he had help in his death. At the time I said this: “two scumbags down, so many more to go”. Great article Will!
Two things:
#1 – The Navy would never have named that warship after Harvey Milk if he wasn’t gay. Straight up pandering.
#2 – Conservatives want to be seen as “tolerant” of others, not prejudiced in any way. However, what does Scripture say about homosexuality? Nothing good, that’s for sure. See Romans 1:26-27 for example.
As others have noted here, the unmistakable decline in the moral fabric of this once great nation can be traced directly back to the public’s acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle. The Bible warns against this and when a society disregards these warnings, it places itself on the path of its own destruction.
Since it wasn’t exactly a “Twinkies” defense, the story line presented by the defense was not as bizarre as it may seem on the surface. What the defense really was was an application of the theory of “diminished capacity”, a theory that had been discussed for any number of years due to judicial and legal dissatisfaction with the M’Naughten rule or test as to “not guilty by reason of insanity.” Under the M’Naughten rule, a person is legally insane only if the defendant is unable to recognize the nature and wrongfulness of the conduct engaged it. i.e., that you don’t recognize that you are killing someone and that it is wrong to kill. Under this standard, many individuals with serious mental illnesses are guilty. For example, Son of Sam was acting under a compulsion to kill under orders of the Black Dog, orders he was unable to resist. The Aurora theater killer, suffering adult onset paranoid schizophrenia, was told by the voices in his head that the voices would stop if he just killed a bunch of people when he acted, he knew what he was doing and that it was w4rong, so he was not legally insane.
The diminished capacity defense evolved to cover the cases of people such as these, recognizing that they are mentally ill, need treatment in a confined setting, and because of their illness, have a diminished culpability for their crimes, crimes that these people did not want to commit but were compelled to commit by their demons. White was a test case. The California Legislature, however, was not pleased with this test, and by statute eliminated it. I don’t know, but I suspect that most if not all states have followed California’s lead.
I remember seeing a movie about this years and years ago. I think the author makes a great point about how we pay way too much attention to our sexual proclivities. That said it’s sad that these type of people control the entire politics of my home state. California is beautiful and used to have so much promise. Now it’s the state where liberty goes to die in a sea of one party fanatic rule.
Your defense of sexual perversion was unexpected…
Not defending Milk. The point I tried and failed to make was that he had a ship named after him not because he did anything awesome, but just because he was a guy who slept with guys and happened to get killed. It seems we should be using some better criteria than that.
Your comprehension skills are called into question with that statement.
Put your bias aside when reading, then think about what you’ve read, THEN make your mind up.
Honestly, WHY is this so hard for some to grasp?
Being homosexual is not a crime, being a left wing politician should be 🙂
Yes, but conducting homosexual sex acts with a 16 year old boy by the name of Jack McKinley is. Milk should have been rotting away in prison for statutory rape and sodomy, thus saving his life from Dan White’s bullets.
At one time homosexuality was considered a mental disorder. My have we come far ,no? First they wanted to come out of the closet. Then they demanded equal rights in housing,jobs, marriage. Now they are coming for your kids. Lucifers Children have seized control of every branch of Government. Every institution. Hollywood and all its decadent demonic cohort. Now if I object to any of this I will be financially, politically, socially destroyed. Wheres the tolerance and love?
I agree with 0352, other than White using a gun to off a couple of scum bag politicians in modern day Sodom and Gomorrah, what does this have to do with the real issues GA articles normally deal with? It reads like a gay rights piece in the New York Times. Some of the politicians that were there at the time are still harassing us with their gun control idiocy
I’m 82 and was born and raised in Kalifornia and happy to say I escaped ten years ago. At one time a great place to live now a cesspool.
I appreciate this story, even though there was scant gun content, if for no other reason than that it answered some of my questions about H.M. as well as raises some questions about him since his death. I was in a southern California junior high school back when this all played out to the north. So it’s nice to have some gaps filled in. What I still don’t get, is why any of this has been foisted on the Right when it was a sorry sordid event brought to us by the Left?
This whole scene represents the beginning of the end, for San Francisco politics. The city has since fallen on hard times and like many of the democrat run West Coast cities, is a failed business model. Society needs to wake up to the massive failure that is the democrat party…
I appreciate this article as being informative of an historical event. I did not know this before.
Most conservatives I know have a “live and let live” attitude to sexual perversions. There is no hatred or discrimination towards queers (That’s what they call themselves now). What is disgusting and rightfully hated is how rich and powerful people in education, government and Hollywood glorify perverted and freakish behavior in front of innocent kids. This scandalous conspiracy is now wending its way into grade schools throughout the nation. This is what we hate with our whole hearts: the scandal.
Dabbs, you have annoyed me for a few years now. I had picked up a copy of “Surplus Arms” with several of your articles. I could have written an article to correct all your mistakes. Since then I have often chosen not to buy a magazine because it contained multiple articles by you. Subscribed to Small Arms Review for sixteen years, no more. Now this. First, Milk’s murder had nothing to do with his sexual orientation. Second, your final paragraph’s celebrating Milk’s homosexuality ignores the fact that he was a well known child rapist! Milk regularly picked up young teen boys, many runaways and often from YMCAs, (The little known dark side to the Village People song). He was a rapist. Repeat, RAPIST RAPIST PEDOPHILE RAPIST. There is nothing about Harvey Milk to celebrate, and even educated homosexuals do not so. Time for a new side job. Are you still in medicine? I hear there’s good money in teen sex reassignment surgery. Sounds right up your alley.
Oh Harold, NOT everyone is as perfect as you.
Really, just how full of oneself get one be????
You da King, baby!
The article is well written from published facts, but there is a lot of information that was never published, my Dad was in SF city politics and knew and worked with all these people, and was friends with Dan White, as a matter of fact when Dan walked down the hallway between the killings he waved at my Dad in his office. Also the amount of animosity shown Dan from the Moscone machine has been underplayed. As an electrician in SF at the time I was sent to do some work for Dan’s wife at her shop, which sold all things potato, and the city was rumored to have been putting pressure on her to shut her down. Also to rumors there was a lot of speculation in the police community at the time that while it was ruled a suicide, there was some evidence of “help”. Remember SF has always been a small and weird city.
As to why Jim Jones is important, if Moscone hadn’t appointed him to one of the most powerful city positions there probably would not have been the massacre in south America.
I thought it was a good article. The inclusion of some of the other politicians and public figures involved added context. The additional paragraphs were well thought out, since Milk is somehow considered a hero because of his sexual leanings and Moscone is forgotten.
So sad to read the homophonic fear-based comments. In their very simple black-and-white world, anything “gray” or complex, is terrifying. I suspect if they were more intelligent, they could learn their way to a better understanding of what is actually good in life.
Leviticus 18:22 & 20:13
Take it with Jesus. You’ll never win the argument.
Jesus burned them all into ashes as an example to those who after should ungodly in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Genesis chapter 19.
Will you dare call Jesus Christ homophobic? Not a smart move!
So the Guns America censors side with the Leviticus 18:22 20:13 brute beast crowd? Read the King James Bible. Jesus hates them and that will never change!
Milk was a child rapist. Fact. No gray area. His death was due to politics, not his sexuality or even his love of raping teen boys. And yes the world is black and white. As the song goes, “Gray is still Black”.
Yes, most of humanity has evolved a fair amount past our primitive, barbaric and ignorant herd mentality origins. Sadly, as evidenced by the responses here, we still have a long way to go.
There’s a stark difference between being “fixated” with someone’s behavior, or persecuting them for such, and condoning that behavior. I reserve the right to call something what it is… without “fixating” on it. Having said that, I am the FIRST one to admit my own failings as well.
Although this article didn’t have much to do with guns it was an excellent article. It shows what can happen when you let crazy people own a gun. Before you judge anyone for what they do or don’t do take a good look in the fu***ng mirror.
Worst story I’ve ever read on guns America. This is not a platform for gay rights or any other left wingers who would be more than happy to take our rights away. Diane Feinstein used this part of her life to advance her hatred towards the second amendment. That woman is evil. And her city is evil. It’s so bad there they have run off every gun friendly shop in the county. This town is the Sodom and Gomorrah of our times and should be taken as it was in the Bible.
Genesis chapter 19 was the one only example of how the Lord feels about and deals with them sodomites.
The judgement will come no matter how hard we get censored by the left and the fakes who pretend to be of us and of us but side with the left anyway.
This is a baffling story that leaves me wondering why it was even published. Poorly written, ill concieved. Easily the worst article ive read on G.A. Please do better…..
I agree with 0352… a purge is now required because we never properly treated the diseases and inoculated ourselves from further infection.
What on earth did the murder of either of these two left wing politicians by another democrat have to do with anyone’s sexual proclivity? How did Jim Jones fit into it? This is an absolutely absurd story seemingly written out of desperation to meet a deadline and glorify the moral decay of our once great nation. Wha has happened to this author who in the past wrote such well thought out articles? This is absolute garbage!
I figured this would be controversial. You’re missing my point (which means I likely did a poor job of expressing it). I’m not glorifying or denigrating Milk. I just wish we could stop fixating on who sleeps with whom. I edited that last couple of paragraphs about a dozen times. The point I was trying to make is that we made this guy out to be a hero because of his sexual proclivities. It seems to me we should use something more substantive than that.
Thanks for clarifying Will. Your articles are always thought provoking.
Milk is an abomination to the Lord.
“I just wish we could stop fixating on who sleeps with whom.”
Sigh….Will, the political right largely did that years ago, if grudgingly.
What they got in return was in-your-face homosexual marriage, cancellation out of their livelihoods if an incorrect remark was uttered on trans weirdness (witness JK Rowling), the SF Gay Men’s Chorus singing “We’re coming for your children..” backed up by armies of radical LGBT-advocates masquerading as public school teachers, and a growing voice for acceptance of “minor attracted persons” – aka, pedophiles….
I’m a bit lost on this one too.
If Milk hadn’t been a homosexual, the hard left wouldn’t be fawning all over him, bestowing medals, naming ships after him, etc. he would just be another detestable corrupt leftist politician who would be largely forgotten after his fifteen minutes, just like Moscone.
Like others, I object to the practitioners of the ever expanding alphabet soup list of sexual perversions overtly rubbing everyone’s faces in it, demanding not just passive acceptance/ignoring them, but active and public affirmation of their lifestyle choices, even to the extent of indoctrination of preschool children. In Milk’s day in SF, the would not have tolerated drag queen story hours, stripper pole shows, and other public obscenities all directed at children, all recently in the news.
Suggestion box: stick to writing about guns and associated history. Most of your normal audience (blue dog turd excepted), would probably appreciate it.
I used to be a hard core libratarian but now they’re grooming our kids and turning them to self destruction. that brings me almost to the place of sharia law becoming agreeable when dealing with such
I do not believe the author has an understanding of history. US laws against homosexuality, prostitution, and abortion were created because they threaten the family unit, which is the foundation of any society. The FUSA began its precipitous decline with the repeal of these “discriminatory” laws. Ever since the 1960s, we have been descending into the abyss. Moving into the 1970s, the Supremes decided on extremely faulty Constitutional grounds, that women could legally murder their unborn children. Many other laws which preserved the integrity of family and human life were repealed or struck down by courts. Just examine the rapidly declining birth rate and 50 million abortions in the FUSA and explain how we are a better country than in the 1950s. The author can stick his progressive nonsense where the sun doesn’t shine. Continue to extol the virtues of the homosexual Harvey Milk and his kind. I hope the USSHarvey Milk sinks! I’m heretofore done with GunsAmerica!
If only he had taken Dianne out also.
Is it wrong that I wish he shot Feinstein too?
Exactly! Good to fine as swine rubbish!
She would have been replaced by someone as bad or worse….
Hey this guy said it not me, but he’s got a point.