San Fransisco City Hall tragedy still present in many minds 30 years later

Thanksgiving Day marked the 30th anniversary of an almost unbelievable tragedy at San Fransisco City Hall that I remember well from growing up in the Bay Area. I was sixteen years old at the time, and was already a follower of local politics, so this tragedy shocked me while it unfolded.

For those less familiar with the case, a City Councilman (called City Supervisor in San Fransisco) resigned his seat, but then changed his mind. When the Mayor would not reappoint him to his position, he snuck into City Hall through a window, carrying a gun, and went to the Mayor’s office. There, he shot and killed the very popular Mayor Moscone, and then sought out Supervisor (Councilman) Harvey Milk. He then shot and killed Harvey Milk, the city’s first openly-gay councilman.

Later, the killer councilman used a bizarre but successful diminished capacity defense, claiming that too much sugar made him incapable of premeditation and not responsible for his own actions. This was in spite of having slipped through a window with a gun to avoid detection, and prosecutors showing other evidence of premeditation. The killer, named Dan White, got a 7 year sentence, and was paroled in five; but after his release he killed himself in the shame and guilt of it all.

I remember the council in my own suburban bay-area town of Livermore getting jumpy and calling for security in the aftermath of the San Fransisco tragedy when it became apparent that a Livermore councilman had a gun present at a council meeting. It turned out later that he had a right to carry a concealed weapon, but under the circumstances it became an issue for a while.

I also remember when San Fransisco named it’s new Convention Center in honor of the fallen Mayer Moscone. It was a fitting tribute to a popular mayor assassinated at his prime.

However, at the unveiling of an entrance statue in honor of the mayor, the public and critics were aghast that the artist included blazing guns, Twinkies, death images, and other reminders of the tragedy in the pedestal that the mayor’s bust sat upon. This pedestal was removed and replaced, and probably sits in storage somewhere.

This website has a good narative on the tragedy, along with pictures, that illustrate the drama and surface the emotions that Bay Area residents felt thirty years ago.