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THE ASSASSINATIONS White and Milk were both freshman members of the Board of Supervisors under the new district election system, and they both represented areas of San Francisco whose populations had been historically ignored by the local government. Milk's district included the predominantly gay and Lesbian Castro District, while White represented a west-side district that was predominantly poor white Working Class people. White had previously been a member of the San Francisco Police Department and the San Francisco Fire Department, among other occupations. Milk owned and operated a camera store on Castro Street, which he sold upon election to the Board of Supervisors. Prior to 2003 , members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors were only paid part-time salaries. In 1977 , the annual salary for a Supervisor was less than $12,000. Frustrated with the nature of San Francisco politics, and finding it impossible to support his family on the meager salary, Dan White resigned his seat on the Board of Supervisors in November 1978 , about a week before Thanksgiving . A few days later, after several of his friends and constituents assured him that his efforts had not been in vain and that his voice was still needed on the Board of Supervisors, White approached Mayor George Moscone and asked to be re-appointed to his seat on the Board. (In San Francisco, vacancies on the Board of Supervisors are temporarily filled by the Mayor until the next calendar election day.) On Monday, November 27, 1978, White loaded his gun and went to City Hall. No longer able to bypass the metal detectors at security, he entered through a basement window that had been negligently left open for ventilation. He proceeded to the Mayor's office, where Moscone was conferring with Willie Brown , then Speaker of the California Assembly. Brown left through a back exit and Moscone saw White. White asked Moscone if he would be re-appointed to his seat on the Board of Supervisors. When Moscone said no, White took out his gun and shot the Mayor five times at point blank range. At least one of the shots was administered execution-style. White then re-loaded his gun and went down the corridor to Harvey Milk's office. As Milk arose from his seat to greet White, he, too, was shot multiple times at point blank range. White then fled City Hall and later turned himself in at the police station where he was formerly an officer. There are reports that his old colleagues cheered and applauded him when he arrived to surrender. The news of Milk's assassination prompted an impromptu, peaceful vigil and procession down Market Street, from The Castro to City Hall. THE TWINKIE DEFENSE See main article: Twinkie Defense White's trial in 1979 was famous for inventing the so-called "Twinkie Defense." In a highly emotional confession that had been videotaped and used by the prosecution, White was barely coherent as he explained his reasons for assassinating Moscone and Milk. It has since been learned that he had also planned to assassinate Brown and Supervisor Carol Ruth Silver , but he was unable to locate them before he felt it necessary to flee City Hall. White's defense relied significantly on problems in his home life, especially that he was under a great deal of stress and had been eating an inordinate amount of junk food. The public's perception that White's defense counsel was arguing that White was somehow not responsible for his actions by reason of ingestion of too much sugar, produced the infamous term ''The Twinkie Defense''. In truth however, White's defense never made any such argument. They simply pointed to White's sudden increased consumption of sugary snacks as one of a number of indicators that his overall behavior had become abnormal, since previously White had been known as a staunch health food advocate. In any event, it may not have been any such mitigating factors, so much as the pathetic image White presented on the videotaped confession — possibly combined with feelings of Homophobia toward Milk (though it must be remembered he also assassinated the Heterosexual Moscone) — which led the jury to find him guilty of voluntary Manslaughter instead of First Degree Murder , notwithstanding the signs of his pre-meditation (e.g. going to City Hall with the gun already loaded, deliberately avoiding the metal detector and then stopping to re-load after killing Moscone). The San Francisco Gay Community felt particularly aggrieved by the verdict, denouncing it as being incongruent with the facts of the murders. Initially stunned, another vigil and march dissolved into violence — especially violence against police vehicles in the Civic Center area (because White had previously been a member of the SFPD). The SFPD, in turn, responded with what some called a "full-force invasion" of The Castro District later that evening. Officers entered nightclubs with truncheons bared, Assault ing patrons left and right, most of whom had not taken part in any of the earlier violence. This episode of San Francisco history is known as the White Night Riots . CLOSET HOMOSEXUAL? According to Randy Shilts 's biography of Harvey Milk ("The Mayor of Castro Street"), Milk speculated that Dan White was harboring some repressed homosexual feelings that could have explained his aggressive hostility to the Gay Rights movement, as well as his Depression . IMPRISONMENT AND DEATH White served five years at Soledad State Prison , and was Parole d on January 6 , 1984 . Fearing he might be murdered in retaliation for his crimes, California State Corrections Officials secretly transported White to Los Angeles , where he was to serve a year's Probation . After satisfying the terms of his parole, White indicated he wanted to return to San Francisco, which prompted Mayor Dianne Feinstein to issue a public statement formally asking White ''not'' to return. Nevertheless, he did return. White found it impossible to return to any semblance of a happy life, however. A further child had been born while he was in prison, subsequent to conjugal visits. This child was born with disabilities, and it is thought that White may have believed the affliction was a divine punishment for killing Moscone and Milk. In any case, his marriage was not salvageable, almost no one in San Francisco was particularly happy to see him back, and he became increasingly depressed. On October 21 , 1985 , less than two years after his release from prison, White committed Suicide by Carbon Monoxide poisoning in his wife's garage by running a garden hose from the exhaust pipe to the inside of his car. The body was discovered by White's brother, Tom, shortly before 2 p.m. the same day. CULTURAL REFERENCES
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