Orignal page 276 Jonetown BLANK PAGE Orignal page 277 Jonetown VII MOSCONE, MILK AND MURDER "In a tight race like the ones George (Moscone) or (Joseph) Freitas or (Richard) Hongisto had, forget it without Jones. "[112] -Assemblyman Willie Brown "They are well dressed, polite, and they're also registered to vote. Everybody talks about the labor unions and their power, but Jones turns out the troops".[113] -A Moscone campaign official The Reverend Jim Jones was the predominant force behind the political careers of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk during the last three years of their lives. Their assassinations, coming only nine days after the Jonestown massacre, suggests that Jones had engineered their deaths just as he had helped engineer their ____________________ [112K]ilduff and Javers, p. 46. [113I]bid., p. 45. Orignal page 278 Jonetown lives. This chapter is submitted as evidence that he did. ***************************************************** GEORGE R. MOSCONE Moscone's rise to political power in San Francisco began on April 14, 1975, in a meeting between Lawrence Leguennac, the registrar of voters, and Thomas Mellon, the city's chief administrative officer. At the time, Moscone was the majority leader in the State Senate, but, as he phrased it, "Sacramento is boring as hell and ever since my childhood I've wanted to be the mayor of the world's greatest city." Reportedly, a deal between Moscone and other high-ranking Democrats, had been struck in which several politicians would shift offices to the betterment of all. Moscone needed more than just the assurance of a politician that he would be elected mayor. Help came from Lawrence Leguennac in the form of his revised procedure for voter registration. Under the pretext of a poor voter turn-out in the previous election, Leguennac and Mellon redesigned and relaxed voter requirements for the upcoming 1975 mayoral elections. Under the new system, an unprecedented number of registrars were deputized and issued an even larger number of voter registration books. Each registration had a duplicate yellow copy that was given to the voter to present at the polling places. The yellow copy was supposed to be compared to the original and confiscated at the polls to prevent citizens from voting more than once. Moscone entrusted his campaign to Don Bradley, who had successfully managed the California campaigns of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. Bradley later recalled what happened next. Orignal page 279 Jonetown ...there was a meeting here in my office with Jim Jones, Prokes (Temple aide Michael Prokes), Moscone and myself. We requested help in securing volunteers and they said they could... They did the work in tough areas, fairly rough areas (like) the Tenderloin and south of Market.[114] The marriage of Moscone and Jones produced what may well be the largest voter fraud scheme in California's history. Moscone was one of five candidates in the November election. Some of his opponents, most notably Dianne Feinstein and John Barbagelata, were backed by the city's powerful real estate developers. It was a close race; too close, as no one received a clear majority and a run-off election between the two front-runners, Moscone and Barbagelata, was scheduled for the following month. Temple political propagandist Richard Tropp enlisted his troops to write as many as fifty letters each in support of Moscone and in protest of the need for a run-off election. Despite the efforts of the Peoples Temple, the December election was held on schedule. Everyone in Jones' congregation was registered to vote; it was a requirement. Many had registered at Temple operated communes, indicating that Temple personnel had been deputized as registrars. Over one hundred and sixty Temple volunteers worked at Moscones campaign headquarters. Several hundred more canvassed the Tenderloin, Filmore, South of Market and the Western Addition areas of the city. ____________________ [114K]lineman, Butler and Conn, p. 149. Orignal page 280 Jonetown On the morning of the December election, Jones had over 800 of his followers rounded up and transported to the polls in the Temple's fleet of Greyhound buses. Each had been instructed to vote for Moscone, just as they had been instructed to vote for Moscone, District Attorney Joseph Freitas and Sheriff Richard Hongisto in the regular election a month earlier. On election day, officials at the polling places neglected to confiscate the voters' duplicate yellow registration forms. As John Barbagelata said, lamenting over his loss, "You could have run around to twelve hundred precincts and voted twelve hundred times."[115] And that is_ _ _e_x_a_c_t_l_y what the eight hundred Peoples Temple voters did. Their ballot box stuffing made the differences as Moscone won by only a slim margin, but Jones had miscalculated the voter turn-out for the run-off election and, in the final analysis, there were more votes cast than there were registered voters. Barbagelata claimed voter fraud and called for Moscone to run again in a special midterm election. Jim Jones contributed $500 to the committee opposing the proposal. He also contributed $250 to help pay for Moscone's inaugural expenses. The following month Barbagelata received a box of candy in the mail that concealed a bomb that, by chance, did not explode. After the incident, Jones offered him the protection of Temple bodyguards, but Barbagelata refused. Barbagelata continued to protest the election and, in June of 1976, he chaired a special committee of city supervisors who conducted public allegations of voter fraud. The committee discovered forged and printed signatures, as well as non-existent addresses and other irregularities on vote ____________________ [115I]bid., p. 150. Orignal page 281 Jonetown registration forms, all from the south of Market, Filmore and Western Addition districts where the major influence was the Peoples Temple. Barbagelata never realized the Temple's involvement, only that some major force had masterminded the fraud. His committee submitted their findings to District Attorney Joseph Freitas who formed a special election crimes unit to investigate the allegations. Freitas hired none other than Temple attorney Tim Stoen to head the investigation. He later insisted that he did not know the assistant district attorney from Mendocino County had an affiliation with the Peoples Temple or that the Peoples Temple had played any part in the election fraud. Freitas was quoted as saying, "I didn't know Tim was a member of the Peoples Temple until after he came to work, and anyone who says it was a political pay-off is a liar "[116] a strong statement from a man who was often seen at the services of the Peoples Temple and who owed his political position to the election fixing of Jim Jones. Of course, Tim Stoen found no substantial evidence of voter fraud and the Peoples Temple was never mentioned in his reports. As further evidence of fraud in the 1975 elections, over four hundred voter registration books_ _w_e_r_e issued but never recovered. Those books that were recovered were locked in three vaults in City Hall. In December of 1978, Federal and State agencies requested the files as evidence in their investigation of the Peoples Temple and Tim Stoen. It was then that even the remaining books were discovered missing. Every list of voters in the 1975 elections has vanished without a trace. Jones received his political pay-off only days after the election, when Moscone appointed Temple aide ____________________ [116K]ilduff and Javers, p. 46. Orignal page 282 Jonetown Michael Prokes to the committee that would screen potential candidates for the one hundred commission vacancies in Moscone's new administration. Over the next several months, Prokes succeeded in placing trusted Temple aides in key positions in city government. In March of 1976, Moscone announced he was appointing Jim Jones to the post of Human Rights Commissioner the same title bestowed upon him in Indianapolis, fifteen years earlier. On the day that Jones was to be sworn into office, he slipped, unannounced, through a side door to the mayor's office and, after a fifteen minute meeting with Moscone, emerged to tell the awaiting press that he would not accept the post but would be appointed to a different position. On October 18, 1976, Moscone submitted the name of Jim Jones for a seat on the San Francisco Housing Authority, a $14 million a year agency that manages the city's low income housing units. When it appeared that city supervisors might not approve the appointment, Moscone enlisted the help of Assemblyman Willie Brown, who introduced legislation in Sacramento giving the mayor the power to appoint members of the Housing Authority without confirmation from the Board of Supervisors. Eventually, the supervisors did confirm Jones' appointment as well as that of Temple aide Carolyn Moore Layton, who also received a job with the Housing Authority By January 24, 1977, Moscone had cleared the way for Jones to be elected Chairman of the Housing Authority. As chairman of the city agency that controlled low income housing, Jones was in an excellent position to arrange for government- funded apartments for his congregation. The Peoples Temple Orignal page 283 Jonetown had since shifted its center from Mendocino County to San Francisco, where Jones saw to it that most of his agency's $14 million budget benefitted his followers. Throughout 1976, Mayor Moscone, D.A. Freitas, Sheriff Hongisto and Assemblyman Willie Brown were often seen at Peoples Temple services where they were received as honored guests. On September 25, 1976, Jones hosted his own testimonial, twenty-dollar-a-plate dinner at the Geary Street Temple in San Francisco. Seated at the head table were Moscone, Brown, Freitas, California Lieutenant Governor Mervyn Dymally and State Senator Milton Marks. Also present were the full range of political activists from Eldridge Cleaver and Angela Davis on the left to Walter Heady, chairman of the John Birch Society, on the right. Each took turns to praise the work of Jim Jones and to present their tributes , awards and honors. Senator Marks presented Jones with a plaque bearing a resolution commending the Peoples Temple that he had managed to get passed by the State Senate. Such was Jones' political power in San Francisco. In September, 1976, Rosalyn Carter visited San Francisco to officially open the presidential campaign headquarters of her husband, Jimmy Carter and his running mate, Walter Mondale. Fearing a poor turn-out for the ceremony, Mrs. Carter contacted Jim Jones, who provided six-hundred of the eight hundred who attended her rally. Jones, who shared the speaker's podium, received a roaring ovation from the crowd while Mrs. Carter was received politely but coldly. He was showing off, as was his security staff who followed in the every footstep of Mrs. Carter's Secret Service escorts as they secured the area for her public appearance. Orignal page 284 Jonetown That evening, Jones met privately with Rosalyn Carter in the restaurant of the posh Stanford Hotel in the city's Nob Hill district. Presumably they discussed U.S. relations with Cuba. Ever since his involvement in the Bay of Pigs invasion, Jones had a reputation with the CIA as an expert on Cuba. Days later, Mrs. Carter phoned Jones to thank him for his help and the two began an exchange of written correspondence that continued well into 1977. In the first week of October, less than a month after his meeting with Rosalyn Carter, Jones traveled to Cuba for a meeting with Fidel Castro. Soon after he returned to San Francisco, he was debriefed by Walter Mondale. Mondale was on the campaign trail and not scheduled to visit San Francisco, but apparently his business with Jones was sufficiently important to interrupt his tour, for his chartered jet was diverted to the San Francisco Airport. Mondale never left the airport runway. and few people realized he was even in the city. Jim Jones and Mayor George Moscone were invited to join him in the surveillance-free interior of his jet for a private meeting. Jones later reported they discussed "U.S. relations with Carribean countries," a deliberately vague reference to Cuba. Actually Mondale offered Jones an ambassadorship to Guyana, but later "complications" arose. As soon as Mondale left San Francisco, Jones began to make arrangements for another trip to Cuba where, in December of 1976, he once again met with Fidel Castro. There was definitely something transpiring between the new Carter administration and Castro's Cuba, and Jim Jones provided the conduit for the discussions. If true to form, Jones would not have been content to be just a messenger, but would have wanted to engineer Orignal page 285 Jonetown this new relationship and probably did. One of the first letters the new First Lady wrote on White House stationery was to Jim Jones. April 12, 1977 Dear Jim, Thank you for your letter. I enjoyed being with you during the campaign -- and do hope you can meet Ruth (Carter Stapleton) soon. Your comments about Cuba are helpful. I hope your sugges- tions can be acted on in the near future. Sincerely, Rosalyn Carter As if his political rewards were not sufficient, Jones hosted one last testimonial to himself before he permanently left San Francisco for Jonestown. The occasion was the forty-eighth anniversary of the birth of civil rights advocate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The January 15th event at the Peoples Temple was the largest interracial celebration ever held in the city. To no one's surprise, Jones received the Martin Luther King Humanitarian of the Year Award. Governor Jerry Brown gave a speech, as did Ben Brown, the head of President Carter's transition team. Mayor Moscone also attended, having long since established the relationship with Jim Jones that helped to legitimize both their public careers. Jones was Orignal page 286 Jonetown also named "Humanitarian of the Year by the_ _ _L_o_s_ _ _A_n_g_e_l_e_s _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _H_e_r_a_l_d_ _E_x_a_m_i_n_e_r_. In July 1977,_ _N_e_w_ _W_e_s_t_ _M_a_g_a_z_i_n_e published a damning expose of Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple. Under threat of political siege, Jones retreated to Guyana and his experimental community of Jonestown. Following his departure from the United States, the exposes continued to increase in intensity._ _ _T_h_e_ _S_a_n_ _ _F_r_a_n_c_i_s_c_o_ _ _E_x_a_m_i_n_e_r_, dated August 7, 1977, carried the following front page headline: "Rev. Jones: The Power Broker; Political Maneuvering of a Preacher Man"._ _ _ _T_h_e_ _E_x_a_m_i_n_e_r_'_s political columnist, Bill Barnes, was hot on the trail of Jim Jones when supervisor Quentin Kopp requested that the District Attorney's office conduct an official investigation into the Peoples Temple. Mayor Moscone and D.A. Freitas vetoed all such requests. Freitas later claimed to have opened his own investigation but did not reveal its existence until after the massacre in Jonestown, leading critics to claim he announced his investigation only to cover-up his own complacency in his personal dealings with Jones. On August 2 1977, Jones contacted Mayor Moscone via radio- telephone from Guyana to formally resign his position as Director of San Francisco's Housing Authority. Moscone would continue to publicly defend his friend, even though he suspected, as did everyone else that neither Jones nor his political influence would ever return to San Francisco. Moscone continued out on an ever-thinning limb to support Jones right up to the point he received news of the massacre, when, according to witnesses, he broke down in tears and vomited. Moscone realized he was in serious trouble. The newspapers were full of stories of reported Temple hit squad Jones had sent to San Francisco to kill his enemies. Though Moscone was a Orignal page 287 Jonetown friend, he was still afraid for his life. The incident with Bonnie Theilmann at Ryan's funeral "scared the daylights out of him" and left him alone in the church pew to ponder, not Ryan's fate, but his own. On November 23, 1978, the day after Ryan's funeral the city desk of the_ _ _S_a_n_ _F_r_a_n_c_i_s_c_o_ _C_h_r_o_n_i_c_l_e received an anonymous phone call from a man who said that his brother "was just back from Guyana and that the mayor should be warned to have someone with him at all times."[117] When asked his brother's identity, the caller replied, "If I told you that I wouldn't see tomorrow. Just please tell the mayor to take care of himself."[118] The_ _C_h_r_o_n_i_c_l_e informed the police, who informed Moscone, who reacted to what he considered a serious threat to his life, by employing bodyguards round- the-clock. Late-night, anonymous phone calls to the mayor's home confirmed reports that the Peoples Temple was planning to murder him. Overall Moscone followed Bonnie Theilmann's advice and said little or nothing about Jones or Jonestown. It had been a difficult week for the mayor. It began with the news that his foremost political supporter, confidant and appointee had lured hundreds of San Franciscans to their deaths. Wednesday, he attended the funeral of his friend Congressman Ryan. Thursday, the police informed him of the assassination threat by the Peoples Temple. All week long the San Francisco newspapers brandished headlines about an alleged Temple "hit squad" in California. By Friday, Moscone had been physically, mentally and emotionally drained but, with one last burst of energy, he took a stand on Jonestown. He sent a telegram to President Carter requesting the cost that Washington underwrite of shipping the remains of the Jonestown victims back ____________________ [117"]Killer Held Gun To Their Heads," _S_a_n _F_r_a_n_c_i_s_c_o _C_h_r_o_n_i_c_l_e_, November 30, 1978, p. 1, col. 5. [118I]bid. Orignal page 288 Jonetown to their native California. Little did he know that his telegram, that at least implied some federal responsibility for cleaning up the atrocity, would be his last official act as mayor. "Thank God it's Friday," he must have thought while leaving City Hall for a well-deserved weekend at home. The police and bodyguards, who were just an invasion of privacy earlier in the weak, proved beneficial in keeping the many visitors at Bay. They turned people away at the front door and fielded calls about the Peoples Temple which permitted Moscone to spend a relatively quiet weekend with his family. Early Monday morning, the mayor and his bodyguard arrived at City Hall. About two hours later, Mayor George Moscone was assassinated, as was City Supervisor Harvey Milk. ******************************************************* HARVEY BERNARD MILK Harvey Milk was born May 22, 1930 to a Jewish family living in Woodmere, New York. His grandfather, Morris Milch, had emigrated to the New York City area from Lithuania years earlier and Americanized the family surname. At the time of Harvey Milk's birth , there existed a strong movement for homosexual rights in Germany that had its beginnings in the 1880's. By the time Milk was seven years old, the movement had suffered a major setback when Heinrich Himmler ordered all German homosexuals to be rounded-up, labeled with pink triangles and sent to the level 3 death camps. Over three hundred thousand homosexuals died in the Nazi gas chambers, making their group second only to the Jews in the number of people exterminated in the Holocaust. As a child, Milk had no idea that he would Orignal page 289 Jonetown lead the next movement for gay rights in the Western World; a campaign that, at least for Milk, would end as did its predecessor. Harvey Milk was a clown, inside and out. His nose, ears, and feet were extremely large. Awkward and unattractive, Milk hid his feelings of inadequacy behind a mask of humor. His quick wit would serve him well in his later years in politics, but in high school, it served to hide the fact that Harvey Milk was a homosexual. Milk would later recount only two incidents in his childhood. The first occurred in 1943, when his parents sat him down to explain how the brave jews and homosexuals in Europe resisted the Nazis, against all odds of winning, because something_ _t_h_a_t evil had to be opposed. The second incident happened in August of 1947 following his graduation from high school, when Milk was arrested along with other homosexual men who congregated in Central Park. He was charged with indecent exposure for his bare chested sunbathing. Milk went on to study math and history at the "poor man's Yale", as his classmates called Alban State College. Immediately after his graduation in 1951, Milk followed in the family tradition and enlisted in the Navy. His father had been a submarine crewman during World War II and his mother, Minerva Milk, was one of the first woman to volunteer as a Navy "yeomanette" in 1918. Milk was Chief Petty Office on board the U.S.S. Kittiwake, an aircraft carrier stationed in the Pacific that saw some service in the Korean conflict. He would later tell his voters that the Navy dishonorably discharged him when they discovered his homosexuality but this was not true. Orignal page 290 Jonetown After the Navy, Milk returned to New York, where he met Scott Smith, who would become his companion, lover, business partner, campaign manager and, in the end, executor of his estate. American society's view of homosexuals was undergoing drastic changes at the time. During World War II, U.S. opposition to Nazi Germany prompted an alliance with homosexuals who fled from all around the world to the sanctuaries of New York City and San Francisco. But following the war, the U.S. government, spurred by the McCarthy era witch-hunt, began a systematic persecution of homosexuals that reflected the prejudiced attitudes of Nazi Germany. In only a few years time, the United States was beginning to profess the very ideology they ad gone to war to oppose. Homosexuals were dismissed from the military and various U.S. government agencies by the thousands. So many were fired from the Central Intelligence Agency that they remained as a group, relocated en masse to Sausalito, and occupied a sizable neighborhood in that San Francisco Bay Area community. Eventually, Harvey Milk and Scott Smith moved from New York to the more tolerant San Francisco but found much the same anti-gay sentiment in California, where homosexuality was "an act against nature" and a punishable felony. Even in liberal California, a restaurant or bar could have its liquor license revoked simply for serving a drink to a known homosexual. But all things considered, San Francisco was a far better environment than New York City and the two transplants moved into the city's gay neighborhood of Castro Street, where they established Castro Camera. Their mall shop soon became a focal point in the area and Harvey Milk's involvement in business and civic action Orignal page 291 Jonetown groups earned him the unofficial title of the "Mayor of Castro Street." Aspiring to be the first self-avowed homosexual to be elected to public office, Milk campaigned for a seat on the city's Board of Supervisors in the 1973 election with a promise to shift the control of the city from the powerful real estate developers to neighborhood groups who would have compassion for people and not just a passion for profit. Milk lost the election due to his inexperience, lack of financial resources and shabby, long-haired appearance. His campaign did serve to organize a new gay political force that was well prepared for a more important issue that was developing in the state capitol. San Francisco Assemblyman Willie Brown had been trying for years to strike the 1872 "crimes against nature" statute from the California law books. The legislature had repeatedly defeated his reform bill and then Governor Ronald Reagan had vowed to veto the bill even if it as passed by the Senate and Assembly. But, by 1975, Ronald Reagan was no longer governor and Willie Brown's reform bill was, once again, revived. Brown argued his case before the Assembly while his close Majority Leader George Moscone, political ally, presented the bill to his colleagues in the Senate. Moscone's motives were obvious. He planned to run for mayor of San Francisco in the fall elections and his efforts to reform the laws governing homosexuals would certainly secure the substantial gay vote in the city. The final Senate vote on the issue was a twenty to twenty tie. Moscone convinced the legislators to invokea a rarely-used rule a and sequester the Senate chamber until a decision could be reached. State Lieutenant Governor Mervyn Dymally flew from Denver to Orignal page 292 Jonetown Sacramento to cast the first tie-breaking vote from a lieutenant governor in decades. The reform bill passed and California, as Dymally phrased it, was "one step farther from 1984." Harvey Milk's political supporters contributed to the promotion and eventual passage of the homosexual reform bill. Milk, who had since cut his hair and dressed in a suit he purchased second-hand from a local dry cleaner, was more presentable to the major political figures he encountered during the campaign. Each of the three key men in Sacramento who were largely responsible for the success of the bill, Willie Brown, George Moscone and Mervyn Dymally, had more than Harvey Milk's politics in common; each had a close personal relationship with Jim Jones. State Assembly-man Willie Brown would become one of Jones' foremost proponents. Mayor George Moscone owed his election, later that same year, to the work of Jones. Lieutenant Governor Mervyn Dymally was often seen at the Peoples Temple for both public and private meetings with Jones. Dymally even visited Jonestown on two different occasions. Judging from Harvey Milk's new circle of political friends, it was almost a foregone conclusion that eventually he would encounter Jim Jones. Milk ran for the Board of Supervisors again in the 1975 election. He had expanded his base of power to include an unlikely group of supporters: labor unions. Milk and his campaign manager, Scott Smith , had been very instrumental in organizing gays to march with Cesar Chavez's pro-union farm workers. They also succeeded in persuading local gay bars to ban Coors Beer after the Adolph Coors Company prevented their employees from organizing a labor union and the unions called for a boycott of their product nationwide. Orignal page 293 Jonetown Milk's foremost labor supporter was Stan Smith, the secretary treasurer of the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council. Even with the support of the gays. Milk lost the election, and the labor unions, finishing seventh. All six incumbents were reelected to the board. Following the election, newly-inaugurated Mayor Moscone, impressed with Milk's nearly successful campaign, appointed him to the city's Board of Permit Appeals, the powerful court that had the ultimate say in matters concerning all permits issued by the city. For one who aspired to political office, Milk remained a board commissioner for only a brief five weeks before he defied Moscone, who fired him when he announced he would run in the 1976 election for the post of State Assemblyman from the 16th District. Substantiated reports circulating in the news media described a political deal that had been struck between State Assembly Speaker Leo McCarthy, George Moscone, Willie Brown and other prominent California Democrats a year earlier. The deal was complicated, but basically it involved the shifting of several Democrats from one office to another. Moscone got to be mayor of San Francisco, while his vacant Senate seat was filled by Leo McCarthy's old law partner, John Foran. Foran's vacated Assembly seat was to be filled by McCarthy aide Art Agnos. Milk wanted to be a city supervisor, not an assemblyman, but his resentment of what he considered backroom power brokering politics compelled him to oppose Agnos and the political machine that backed him. "Milk vs. The Machine" was the campaign slogan that threatened the status quo of California Politics. Milk was not opposing Art Agnos but the power brokers Orignal page 294 Jonetown who backed him, and largest of these was the Reverend Jim Jones. Like Moscone, Agnos supported the Peoples Temple and, in turn, they supported him and set out to insure his election to office. Knowing this, Milk was surprised to receive a telephone call from Jim Jones. That was the Reverend Jim Jones on the telephone. He apologized for not knowing I was running and said that he did not mean to back Art Agnos as much as he was doing. He told me that he will make it up to me by sending us some volunteers. An aide asked Milk, "He's helping Agnos and now backing you?" Of course not, Jones_ _i_s_ _b_a_c_k_i_n_g_ _A_g_n_o_s_ _a_n_d_ _g_i_v_i_n_g _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _h_i_m_ _ _a_ _l_o_t_ _o_f_ _w_o_r_k_e_r_s_,_ _b_u_t_ _h_e_ _w_a_n_t_s_ _t_o_ _c_o_v_e_r his ass, so he'll send us some volunteers too...Make sure you're always nice to the Peoples Temple. If they ask you to do something, do it, and then send them a note thanking them for asking you to do it. They're wierd and they're dangerous, and you don't want to be on their bad side.[119] A few days later, Temple aide Sharon Amos phoned Milk to request that he send 30,000 copies of ____________________ [119R]andy Shilts, The Mayor of Castro Street: _T_h_e _L_i_f_e _a_n_d _T_i_m_e_s _o_f _H_a_r_v_e_y _M_i_l_k (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1982), pp. 138-139. Orignal page 295 Jonetown his campaign literature to her office for distribution by the hundreds of Temple workers that Jones had promised. Milk should have suspected a conspiracy to harm his campaign as soon as Amos, who was supposedly offering him workers, required that_ _h_i_s assistants deliver the literature to the Temple. He naively believed Jones' promise to canvass the city in his name and, though 30,000 copies was all he had or could afford, Milk sent all of his printed campaign literature to the Temple. Sharon Amos accepted Peoples the delivery and unceremoniously dumped the entire lot into the trash. The race was close. Early polls' showed Milk in the lead but he was losing ground to Agnos' well-financed campaign. Milk had lost most of his union supporters, retaining only the endorsements of the Laborers, Fire Fighters and Teamsters. He also lost some of his gay supporters, who preferred to elect gay sympathizers rather than gays to public office. State Senator Milton Marks was one of the few politicians to publicly back Milk's bid for the Assembly. As election day drew nearer, Milk received an increasing number of death threats. Naturally these threats concerned him especially since he was opposing "The Machine." In the last days of his campaign, Milk's father died unexpectedly and he returned to New York for the funeral. The expended trip expended what little time, energy, and money he had held in reserve for the final critical days of his campaign. Early election returns gave Milk the lead but the tide turned when late returns were tallied from the Black neighborhood precincts controlled by Jones. Milk lost by 3,600 of the 33,000 votes cast. Art Agnos, "The Machine", and Jim Jones won. Orignal page 296 Jonetown On election day, voters also approved a measure calling for district, not city-wide, election of San Francisco's supervisors in 1977. This was a victory for Harvey Milk, not only because he advocated neighborhood control of City Hall but because the Gay Castro District would certainly elect a gay supervisor to the board and the "Mayor of Castro Street" was the undisputed candidate for the position. The 1977 election was Milk's fourth campaign and third attempt at a seat on the Board of Supervisors. "Make Mine Milk" was the Madison Avenue slogan he copied from the American Dairy Association. Finally, Harvey Milk was elected to San Francisco's Board of Supervisors due, in no small part, to the fact that Jones had fled the country the previous July and exerted little influence on the November elections. Jones' parting statement to the San Francisco press was a rebuttal to recent media criticism in which he listed several dozen prominent supporters of the Peoples Temple. Without his permission and much to his dismay, Harvey Milk's name appeared on the published list. Four campaigns in five years had taken its toll on Milk's personal life. Scott Smith had moved out sometime between races and Milk found a new lover, Jack Lira, who moved into his apartment. Though Milk made an honest attempt to fairly represent his entire constituency, he recognized his responsibility to present a good image as the country's first openly gay elected official. He took every opportunity to encourage homosexuals throughout the U.S. to "come out of their closet" and assert their rights. He worked hard to revive the gay rights movement that Heinrich Himmler had killed in Nazi Germany. Now, in 1978, there was a new fascist threat, Orignal page 297 Jonetown or perhaps just a rebirth of the old. The year saw a rash of anti- gay legislation, introduced nationwide, by born-again Christian fundamentalists. Milk viewed these religious fanatics as the "New Nazis" and the most serious threat to human rights in the United States. In California, Senator John Briggs had succeeded in getting his Proposition 6 (The Briggs Initiative) on the November ballot. The measure called for a ban on the hiring of homosexual teachers in California, a controversial issue that Milk endeavored to defeat. With 6 pending, the annual Gay Proposition Freedom Day Parade took on the critical task of rallying opposition to the measure. As the event drew nearer, Milk, who was slated as a guest speaker, received more death threats in the Castro Camera mail; "You get the first bullet the minute you stand at the microphone.[120] Milk filed the typed postcard with the rest of his death threat collection and left for the Civic Center to address the largest gathering of people San Francisco had seen in a decade. Over 375,000 crowded in the open-air plaza to hear Milk say, My name is Harvey Milk and I want to recruit you. I want to recruit you for the fight to preserve democracy from the John Briggs and Anita Bryants who are trying to constitutionalize bigotry. We are not going to allow that to happen. We are not going to sit back in silence as 300,000 of our gay sisters and brothers did in Nazi Germany. We are not going to allow our rights to be ____________________ [120I]bid., p. 223. Orignal page 298 Jonetown taken away and then march with bowed heads into the gas chamber...[121] To conclude his rather dramatic oration, Milk proposed a gay rights march on Washington, D.C. for July 4th , 1979. Milk worked double-time through the summer and fall, both in City Hall and on the campaign trail to defeat Proposition 6. He publicly debated John Briggs several times. The following is typical of his rebuttals: John Briggs knows that every one of his statements has been repudiated by facts. Yet he never stops making wild inflammatory remarks that, to anyone who knows the facts, sounds as if it were the KKK talking about blacks or Hitler about Jews.[122] Milk spoke the truth. By election day the only notable organizations to publicly endorse Proposition 6 were the Nazi Party, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Los Angeles Deputy Sheriff's Association. Considering that Harvey Milk and Jim Jones were at opposite ends of the political spectrum in San Francisco, it is interesting to note the striking similarities between the two men, their philosophies and rhetoric. Milk, the first self-proclaimed homosexual to be elected to public office, utilized much of his media attention to warn of a Nazi-like take-over in the United States by right-wing, Christian ____________________ [121I]bid p. 224. [122I]bid. , p. 231. Orignal page 299 Jonetown fundamentalists a category that roughly describes Jim Jones. In the privacy of closed Temple meetings, Jones preached that most people were homosexual and that he was the only true heterosexual in the Peoples Temple, but in truth he was bisexual, having had sexual relations with both the men and women in the Temple hierarchy. The rhetoric of Jim Jones was also very much concerned with a Nazi coup in the United States, in which Blacks would be rounded-up and forced into concentration camps as were the Jews and homosexuals in Nazi Germany. According to Jones, the New Nazis were planning to activate the abandoned World War II Japanese detention centers as New-Dachau, New Auschwitz and New Treblinka. His warnings are a grim reminder of what could and did happen in the United States. The basic difference that set the two men at odds was that Milk was exactly what he professed to be but Jones was exactly 180 degrees opposite from his public image. Though both men were prominent advocates of the theory that the Nazis posed a threat to minorities in the United States, Milk was sincere, while Jones, though honest in his presentation of the problem, neglected to tell his congregation that he, himself, was the greatest threat to their well-being. By the fall of 1978, Jim Jones' influence had been absent from San Francisco politics for over a year and Harvey Milk's career blossomed. Part of Milk's popularity stemmed from the national recognition he received for his public debates with Senator John Briggs and his proposed gay rights march on Washington. Art Agnos capsulized Harvey Milk's political potential "He's going to run for mayor. You know what? I think he can win. That guy (Milk) will one day be the mayor of San Francesco."[123] Things had gone well for Milk ____________________ [123I]bid., p. 207. Orignal page 300 Jonetown that fall day and he didn't mind being detained an extra forty-five minutes at City Hall for a committee meeting. He arrived home late at 8 P.M., entered his apartment and called to Jack Lira, but there was no answer, only a puzzle. Starting at the front door there was a trail of voter registration forms that Milk followed through every room in the apartment. The trail grew progressively messier with crumpled anti-Briggs literature and empty Coors beer cans until it ended at a black velvet curtain hung from the rafters of an enclosed back porch. A note pinned to the curtain read, "You've always loved the circus, Harvey. What do you think of my last act?"[124] Behind the curtain hung the lifeless body of Jack Lira. A paperback book, entitled _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _H_o_l_o_c_a_u_s_t_, had been nailed to the beam that secured the rope noose. Milk cut the rope, lowered Lira's body to the floor and ran a few doors down the street to a firehouse, but the rescuers who followed him back to the apartment were unable to revive Lira; he had been dead for about forty-five minutes. The police treated the death as a routine suicide. The story was front page news but short-lived to the relief of Milk. For the next few days, Milk and Scott Smith, who had come to his aid, found notes, presumed to have been written by Lira, hidden throughout the apartment, in drawers, between the pages of books and magazines and even sewn in the seams of Milk's clothes. A large note, taped prominently on the kitchen wall read, "Beware the Ides of November."[125] Milk thought it was a reference to the November elections and the Briggs Initiative. He had no way of knowing that it foretold his own death. Nor did he seem to connect the death threats with Lira's suicide. If Milk suspected foul play in the death of Lira or in ____________________ [124I]bid., p. 233. [125I]bid., p. 234. Orignal page 301 Jonetown the untimely death of his father two years earlier, he did not state so publicly. Milk's City Hall office was deluged with sympathy cards and letters, the most notable was a set of fifty letters from Jonestown. Temple aide Sharon Amos wrote, "I hope you will be able to visit us here in Jonestown. Believe it or not, it is a tremendously sophisticated community, though it is in a Jungle.[126] The remaining forty-nine letters from Jonestown, many identical word-for-word, all expressed the Temples' sorrow at Milk's loss and extended an invitation for him to visit them in Guyana. Jonestown was on a predetermined schedule of self-destruction and Milk was being invited to attend the final days if not_ _t_h_e final day of the community. Milk declined the invitations, and aborted what appears to be an attempt by Jones to lure him to his death along with Congressman Ryan. Two weeks after Lira's funeral, Milk met William Wigardt, a recent arrival on Castro Street who was half Milk's age. The two decided to live together. Suspicious Lira's of death, Milk warned his new lover as he unpacked, "You've got to remember, Bill, you're in the direct line of fire. If I get killed, you can be killed too. Somebody could walk through the door and blow both our brains out.[127] Proposition 6 was defeated and Harvey Milk reveled in his success, at least the two weeks between the elections and the news of the Jonestown tragedy. The reports had a profound effect on Milk, who made no public statements but spent his final nine days unemotionally settling unfinished business in his life He knew he was about to be killed. He revised his taped political will to read, in part, "Let the bullet that rip through my brain smash every closet door in ____________________ [126I]bid., p. 234. [127I]bid., p. 235. Orignal page 302 Jonetown the country."[128] Milk turned in his leased car, he knew he wouldn't need a car where he was going. He placed a sign in the window of Castro Camera, "Going out of business December 1st." He also arranged to borrow several thousand dollars from Carl Carlson (an airline pilot friend of his). The intention was to consolidate his debts. Carlson wanted to discuss Milk's plans to run for mayor of San Francisco in 1979, but Milk would only say, "I'm not going to be around then. Let's talk about today."[129] On the morning of November 27th, 1978, Milk was waiting in his City Hall office for Carl Carlson to escort him to his bank for the agreed loan. Carlson was late and when he did finally arrive, Milk was interrupted by a phone call. Following the call, their departure was further delayed while Carlson used Milk's typewriter to type something, perhaps their loan agreement. They were just about ready to leave when former City Supervisor Dan White leaned into Milk's office and asked to speak with him privately. Milk and White walked to White's former, yet still unoccupied, office across the hall. White closed the door behind them. Carlson was still waiting in Milk's office, when he heard the five shots. He looked out just in time to be the only witness to Dan White leaving the murder scene. He rushed to the door of White's old office where he was joined by Dianne Feinstein. Together they discovered the body of Harvey Milk. That evening over 40,000 mourners marched in a totally silent candle-light procession from Castro Street to City Hall in remembrance of the fallen supervisor. Milk's brother, Robert, flew from New York to San Francisco where he and his wife were guests in the home of Senator Milton Marks. ____________________ [128I]bid., p. 335. [129I]bid., p. 259. Orignal page 303 Jonetown The services were held in the San Francisco Opera House. Robert Milk sat in the front row, flanked by Governor Jerry Brown and Lieutenant Governor Mervyn Dymally on one side and Acting Mayor Dianne Feinstein and a White House representative on the other. The Reverend Bill Barcus presided. "Tradition would expect me to tell you Harvey's gone to heaven. Harvey was going much more interested in going to Washington."[130] A former campaign aid read a poem that Milk had written earlier in the month, just for the occasion: I can be killed with ease I can be cut right down But I cannot fall back into my closet I have grown I am not by myself I am too many I am all of us.[131] Only the governor and lieutenant governor failed to rise for the standing ovation that followed. As per Milk's final instructions, his body was cremated and about two dozen of his closest friends, including Scott Smith, Carl Carlson and William Weigardt gathered on the deck of the "Lady Frie," a 102 foot antique schooner, for the voyage under the Golden Gate Bridge and out to sea for the burial. The small box containing Milk's ashes was wrapped in the comic strip, "Doonesbury," a politically oriented cartoon exemplifying Milk's light hearted treatment of a very serious political world. Enshrining the ashes was a neatly wrapped assortment of bubble bath, representing his homosexuality and_ _ _ _s_e_v_e_r_a_l_ _ _ _p_a_c_k_s_ _ _ _o_f_ _ _ _g_r_a_p_e_ _ _K_o_o_l_-_A_i_d _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _r_e_p_r_e_s_e_n_t_i_n_g_ _h_i_s_ _k_i_l_l_e_r_,_ _J_i_m_ _J_o_n_e_s_. ____________________ [130I]bid., p. 287. [131I]bid., p. 287. Orignal page 304 Jonetown Once out to sea, the whiskey flasks were emptied and the marijuana cigarettes smoked. It was time. The ashes, the bubble bath and the Kool-Aid were spread on the waters of the Pacific Ocean and Harvey Milk was gone. Milk was not a stranger to direct physical threats, but it was this unspoken threat, sparked by the news of the Jonestown tragedy that motivated him to finalize the business of his life. Milk firmly believed that Jim Jones was plotting to murder him. His final statement was not the "No! No!" that he reportedly screamed when he saw Dan White's revolver, but a summation of his actions in the last week of his life. Though his assassin approached from an unexpected angle, Milk's theory that Jones would kill him holds up well under close scrutiny. For months after the assassination, his sentiments were echoed in the predominant graffiti on Castro Street, "Who Killed Harvey Milk?" ******************************************************* Daniel James White Dan White was born into a large Irish Catholic family that moved to an area of San Francisco located about two miles south of the Castro Street District. This ultra-conservative Catholic neighborhood produced most of the City's police and firemen; Dan White would become both. Despite the liberal, even radical, influence of San Francisco, White remained the stereotyped image of a conservative, clean-cut, All-American boy. Fiercely competitive and so serious minded as to totally lack a sense of humor, White would be elected captain of the Woodrow Wilson High School baseball and football teams. According to a probation Orignal page 305 Jonetown report, White used his skill as a Golden Gloves amateur boxer, on at least one occasion, to assault Black teenagers who were integrating the student body of his high school in the early 1960's. Even at this early age, Dan White was a self-appointed spokesman for his race; he had every intention of living up to his surname. Followig his high school graduation White enlisted in the Army on the last day of 1964. As a paratrooper with the 173rd Airborne Division, he was sent to Vietnam in July of 1965. Though he spent much of his tour of duty in the relative peace of Saigon his service in Vietnam earned him a promotion to sergeant and three medals. He was honorably discharged from Fort Bragg, North Carolina in 1967. White returned to San Francisco where, after an unsuccessful short stay at City College he joined the San Francisco Police Department and arranged to be assigned to the Ingleside Station in his old neighborhood. He was a tough police officer who exemplified the rigid behavior pattern that psychiatrists recognize as an occupational hazard of police work, a condition they describe as the "Wyatt Earp Syndrome. Twice, White received a "Captain's Commendation;" in both cases for his capture of suspected felons after a dangerous high-speed car chase. Regardless of his motivations, White often risked his own life in the pursuit of his work, first in the army, then as a policeman, later as a fireman then possibly later still as a politician. White was a policeman's policeman, voted most valuable player in.the 1971 law enforcement softball tournament, coached by his St. Elizabeth grammar schoolmate, homicide inspector Frank Falzon. Falzon and White were also the Orignal page 306 Jonetown shortstop and second baseman respectively on the state championship police baseball team. It was Falzon who would later book White for the murder of Moscone and Milk. Dan White lived more comfortably than his salary should have allowed. He sold his $8,000 Jaguar sports car and purchased a $15,000 Porsche that he drove daily over the Golden Gate Bridge from his new home, a fashionable houseboat in Sausalito. Things had never been better in White's life, which makes the unexplained happenings in 1972 all the more suspicious. White was granted a leave of absence from the police department. He gave up his houseboat, sold his car and even gave away some of his personal possessions to embark on a cross-country hitchhiking trip that since has been referred to as White's "missing year." During 1972, White traveled alone and had little or no communication with his family or friends in San Francisco; no one really knew where he was. There are no records of his trip. He never bought a travel ticket or used a credit card. According to White, he followed in the footsteps of his hero, author Jack London, and visited Alaska where he said he worked for a time as a security guard. He returned to San Francisco but, for some unknown reason, did not resume his position in the police force. Instead he became a fireman assigned to the Moscow Street fire station. Conspiratorialists have theorized that White spent his missing year in an MK ULTRA assassin training school. The project, which was largely under the control of Jim Jones, could have programmed White as it has been accused of programming Lee Harvey Oswald and others. "Programming" is a strong word. Actually, the process might well have been as simple as planting a Orignal page 307 Jonetown hypnotic suggestion, that when triggered by a predetermined code word or phrase, would render the subject in a trance. He would then walk through the assassination, someone else would fire the fatal shot but he would remain as the scapegoat who couldn't honestly remember what had happened during the killing. Certainly, if White was involved in the MK ULTRA project, it will remain a closely guarded secret for decades to come, but it would explain why White, who might have been honed to a hair trigger, could no longer be trusted in uniform with a gun. Six years later, Moscone and Milk would be murdered. Dan White married Mary Ann Burns, a fireman's daughter, and the newlyweds purchased a $70,000 home that they intended to pay for with his salary as a fireman and her salary as a school teacher. A co-worker, Michael Mulesky, later recalled his association with Dan White. "You could always depend on him. He never really got excited or nervous."[132] Mulesky's opinion was unique as every other person who knew Dan White viewed him as impulsive, ill tempered, and childish. Though he often threw embarassing tantrums when he didn't get his way, White's service record in the fire department was unblemished. In 1977, he was cited for heroism after saving two children from a burning house. Four days before Moscone and Milk were killed, White was scheduled to receive a second award for rescuing a mother and child from a high- rise fire but was too busy to attend the presentation. Following White's arrest, Fire Chief Andrew Casper said, "The man still deserves the award and, we'll do it discreetly and as best we can.[133] ____________________ [132"]Closeup Look at Dan White," _S_a_n _F_r_a_n_c_i_s_c_o _C_h_r_o_n_i_c_l_e_, November 29, 1978, p. 5, col. 1. [133W]hite Ran For Office as Crime Fighter," _S_a_n _F_r_a_n_c_i_s_c_o _C_h_r_o_n_i_c_l_e_, November 28, 1978, p. B1, col. 6. Orignal page 308 Jonetown The 1977 elections marked a distinct shift in power from the wealthy real estate developers, who had controlled the city- wide election of supervisors to the neighborhood groups, who could now select local leaders in district elections. Under the new system, the real estate developers were able to maintain a slim majority on the Board of Supervisors but they lost some of their political power base with the election of such local advocates as Harvey Milk. The 1977 elections changed little as the wealthy conservatives still remained in power through their supported candidates like Dianne Feinstein and their puppet, Dan White. "Unite and Fight for Dan White" was the slogan of what might best be termed an angry campaign for a seat on the Board of Supervisors. White's campaign literature best describes his politics: I am not going to be forced out of San Francisco by splinter groups of radicals, social deviates and incorrigibles. You must realize there are thousands upon thousands of frustrated angry people such as yourselves waiting to unleash a fury that can and will eradicate the malignancies which blight our beautiful city.[134] White would later privately confide to board colleague Harvey Milk that his comments on "social deviates and incorrigibles" referred to drug addicts but the voters in his ultra-conservative District 8 took him to mean ____________________ [134S]hilts, p. 162. 135Ibid., pp. 190-191. Orignal page 309 Jonetown the gays who had taken over the Castro Street District, only two miles from their neighborhood. Most of White's campaign supporters were police and fire personnel, who canvassed District 8 door-to-door. White reportedly bullied his opponents in the election, even hiring youth gangs to disrupt their rallies. On one occasion a group of Nazis, in full dress uniform complete with "Unite and Fight for Dan White" buttons, posed a threatening appearance at a district meeting. When White's opponent asked him to have the Nazis removed from the meeting, "Gentle Dan," (as the Nazis called him) refused. White's intimidation tactics were successful. He won the election. During the formal inauguration, each new board member made an introductory statement. White used his time to pay tribute to his Irish grandmother. The impression was that of an athlete, who after scoring the winning goal, looks into the television cameras to say, "Hi Mom!" In Harvey Milk's introduction, he said, "A true function of politics is not just to pass laws, but to give hope." In a harsh response that would set the tone for their political relationship, Supervisor Dianne Feinstein said, "Hope is fine, but you can't live on hope. The name of the game is six votes.[135] Six votes was the majority on the Board of Supervisors and Feinstein quickly established that she and her real estate supporters had control when she was elected Board President by a 6 to 5 vote. White voted for Feinstein, while Milk voted against her. In the coming year, most of the major issues confronting the board were decided by a six to five vote in favor of Feinstein and White. Dianne Feinstein was a product of "old city politics." A conservative with the facade of ____________________ [135I]bid., p. 190-191. Orignal page 310 Jonetown a liberal, she earned a reputation with the press as TAR FIX as a "limousine liberal." Harvey Milk's opinion of Feinstein was not as kind, he called her "The Wicked Witch of the West." Like the other newly elected supervisors, Dan White hosted post-campaign fund-raising dinners to help defray expenses. Labor leader Stan Smith attended one such benefit. A huge American flag hung from a balcony overhead. The theme from "Rocky," a powerfully dramatic piece of music, heralded the appearance of White, who marched in a stiff, military manner back and forth on the balcony. Smith's dinner companion made the comment, I'm not sure whether he thinks he's George Patton or Adolph Hitler, but he sure makes me nervous...There's something wrong with that man. He's wound up too tight. ht. Something is wrong.[136] Her first impression of Dan White was reinforced when she had the opportunity to speak with him personally, "He responded like he was programmed. He was like a spring ready to go off.[137] Intelligence was not one of Dan White's attributes. It has been said that he could be easily manipulated by anyone whose argument included the words, "God" and "country." White was a puppet of the real estate developers who first suggested that he run for office and Dianne Feinstein who secured her sixth vote by befriending the political novice as his mother mentor. White was so naive that he was not aware the city charter prohibited elected officials ____________________ [136I]bid., p. 193. [137I]bid., p. 193. Orignal page 311 Jonetown from holding municipal jobs. Much to his surprise, he was told to resign his $18,000 a year job as a fireman. His wife was pregnant with their first child and not working. White soon realized that he could not support his family on the meager $9,600 a year salary paid a city supervisor. He needed financial help and Dianne Feinstein came to his aid and sealed his fate. Feinstein introduced White to one of her real estate developer friends, Warren Simmons, who was planning a shopping complex on Fisherman's Wharf, the city's most popular tourist attraction. The development, dubbed, "Pier 39," was very controversial from the start. The local news media, in article after article, accused city officials of using their public offices to favor the privately owned development with gifts of city-owned building materials and scandalously low tax assessments. On the Board of Supervisors, it was Dan White who lead the fight for lower business tax assessments in general that, in retrospect, benefitted Pier 39 and Warren Simmons. Press accusations escalated when several city supervisors, commissioners and other officials received lucrative business concessions in the Pier 39 development. Dan White's reward was a small shop that he saw as a way out of his financial difficulties. His new business sold baked potatoes, french fried potatoes, and fried potato skins to the thoosands of tourists that passed by every day. A very popular and conceivably profitable hors d'oeuvre, White's stock in trade prompted him to name his shop, "The Hot Potato" but considering the trouble it got him into with the FBI, he might have more aptly named it, "The Proverbial Hot Potato." In the November 1978 election, the only district in San Francisco to approve Briggs Proposition Orignal page 312 Jonetown 6 was White's conservative District 8. In what would become the ultimate irony, White also supported Briggs' successful Proposition 7 calling for an automatic death penalty for anyone who killed a public official in the course of his duty. Moscone and Milk presented the foremost opposition to the bill but, despite their efforts, it passed into law. The first person tried under the new law would be Dan White. On November 10, 1978, White submitted a letter of resignation to the mayor, citing financial difficulties in supporting his family on a supervisor's salary. His new business needed his attention and, as evidenced by his action, was more profitable than his job at City Hall. Moscone accepted White's resignation effective immediately. On November 15, 1978, the afternoon that Congressman Leo Ran arrived in Georgetown, Guyana on his congressional investigation into Jonestown, Dan White emerged from a meeting with the Police Officers Association and the Coldwell Banker real estate firm to announce that he wanted his job back. He denied reports that the police department had pressured him to reconsider his resignation, but did say, "A few people from real estate firms have talked to me"[138] Mayor Moscone returned White's letter of resignation and told reporters, "As far as I am concerned, Dan White is the supervisor from District 8...A man has a right to"[139] change his mind. Moscone soon reversed his decision to reinstate White. Some say it was due to pressure from Supervisor Harvey Milk, who reminded Moscone that, if a liberal were to be appointed to serve the balance of White's term in office, Dianne Feinstein and the conservatives would lose their majority on the board. The newspapers reported that it ____________________ [138"]White Wants Supervisor's Job Back," _S_a_n _F_r_a_n_c_i_s_c_o _C_h_r_o_n_i_c_l_e_, November 16, 1978, p. 1, col. 1. [139I]bid. Orignal page 313 Jonetown was San Francisco's Chief Deputy Attorney, Tom Toomey, who spearheaded opposition to White's reappointment. Toomey called for a one week delay while his office reviewed the legal question of reinstatement. During that same week delay, San Francisco received news of Jonestown. The death toll increased with each progressive day until the grand total was reached on the same day that Tom Toomey presented the Mayor with twelve page legal report that read, in part, San Francisco city charter does not provide for the withdrawal of a resignation once accomplished. As long as there is a legal uncertainty, we don't think White should vote on the board.[140] Based on the city attorney's report, Mayor Moscone announced to the press, "I want to make it clear I no longer feel duty-bound to appoint Dan White. This will be a three-year appointment and I want someone with roots in District 8."[141]. Moscone also said he would announce his decision the following Monday, November 27, 1978, at 10 A.M. Through it all, the only board member to publicly support White's request for reappointment was Dianne Feinstein. She was trying to was protect her sixth vote. On Sunday evening at about 7:30 P.M., Mary Ann White returned home from an unexplained trip to Nebraska to find her husband brooding about the house. The couple had not spoken in weeks and he had been sleeping on the living room couch. Mary Ann, exhausted from her trip, retired early while Dan watched ____________________ [140"]Legal Report on White's Resignation," _S_a_n _F_r_a_n_c_i_s_c_o _C_h_r_o_n_i_c_l_e_. [141I]bid. Orignal page 314 Jonetown television and ate cupcakes and other sugar-filled snacks until dawn. On Monday morning at abut 7:30 A.M., Mary Ann left the house with their four month old son and drove the family car to the babysitter's and on to her new job at the Hot Potato. Dan White remained at home. At 9 A.M., Cyr Copertini, Mayor Moscone's appointment secretary, arrived at City Hall to find her boss unusually early for work and her office full of Dan White supporters who wanted to present a petition, endorsing White's reappointment, to the mayor. Cyr Copertini took the petition and assured the group that it would be on the mayor's desk within minutes. At about this same time, Moscone phoned Dianne Feinstein at home to inform her that he was going to appoint Don Horanzy, a real estate loan specialist with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, to White's vacated seat. Horanzy had been recommended by Assemblyman Art Agnos, who owed his office to Jim Jones. In his professional capacity, Horanzy, himself, would have had dealings with the city's director of the Housing Authority, who, until just a year earlier had been Jim Jones. As president of the board, it was Feinstein's responsibility to tell White he was no longer a supervisor. Moscone told his secretary to postpone the scheduled 10 A.M. press conference until 11:30 A.M. to give him time for an 11 A.M. appointment with Don Horanzy. The reporters, who had already gathered at City Hall, asked to see Dianne Feinstein. Feinstein, who had just arrived, used the opportunity to deny press allegations that she planned to run for mayor a third time in the 1979 elections. She assured reporters that she did not covet the position and would Orignal page 315 Jonetown not run "next time." Under the city charter's disaster provision, she would become Acting Mayor of San Francisco within the hour. Two weeks earlier, on the day before Ryan arrived in Guyana, John Barbagelata, Ryan Moscone's logical successor, suffered a stroke in his West Portal real estate office. He was ordered to rest and was unavailable for comment. More important than his silence on Jonestown and the death of Moscone, Barbagelata was unfit to contest Feinstein's appointment as mayor. At about 9 AM, Dan White received a phone call from his aide Denise A car who informed him that his supporters had presented their petitions for reinstatement to the mayor. White asked her to pick him up at home and drive him to City Hall. It is not known whether Feinstein or anyone else had informed White of Moscone's decision at this point but before he left home, White went to his basement den to retrieve a .38 caliber, five shot revolver and seventeen hollow-point bullets. The gun had been his since the days when, as a San Francisco policeman assigned to guard then Mayor Joseph h Alioto, White was required to purchase his own firearm. No one knows how he obtained the illegal hollow-point bullets that explode upon impact thus inflicting more damage than standard slugs. Deenise Apcar drove White to City Hall and parked her car in one of two parking spaces reserved for White and his staff on the McAllister Street side of the building. Ordinarily, they would have entered the building through the locked side doors to which supervisors and their staff had been issued keys but apparently they no longer possessed their keys to City Hall. Apcar walked around to the front of the building where she entered through the main doors, the security Orignal page 316 Jonetown checkpoint and the metal detector. She proceeded to room 250, a workroom office for administrative assistants, and remained there. White couldn't enter through the metal detector due to the revolver holstered under the vest of his three-piece suit. Reportedly, he knocked on a basement window. A workman inside recognized him and allowed him to crawl through the window after he explained that he had forgotten his keys. Crawling through the window to Room 62, White told the workman, "I had to get in. My aide was supposed to come down and let me in the side door, but she never showed up."[142] Once inside the City Hall, he went directly to the second floor and the mayor's offices. He did not enter the main lobby of the mayor's suite but through the locked doors of either Room 201 or 202. The accepted theory is that the slow-closing hydraulic hinges gave White sufficient time to enter the room after someone else exited. That someone else was a City Hall workman. In the mayor's formal waiting room that White so skillfully avoided was Assemblyman Willie Brown, who had just stopped by to invite his old friend for a day of Christmas shopping. Also waiting was Don Horanzy, White's replacement. And finally, and most importantly, there was the bodyguard who had been assigned to the position just days earlier after the reported threats to the mayor's life from the Peoples Temple. White took a seat in front of Cyr Copertini's desk and asked to see the mayor. She offered him a newspaper brandishing headlines about Jonestown but he refused. According to one report, she responded, "That's all right. There's nothing in it anyway, unless you want to read about Caroline Kennedy having ____________________ [142S]hilts, p. 266. Orignal page 317 Jonetown turned twenty-one...It's even more amazing when you think that John-John is now eighteen.[143] Moscone soon appeared and invited White into his office. After a few minutes, Copertini overheard a heated conversation inside. Moscone asked White into an inner, less formal office equipped with a bar. He poured two drinks, lit a cigarette and turned to hand White a glass when he was hit by two shots that threw him to the floor. Two additional shots, fired point blank into his brain, ensured an instant death. Though near enough to overhear the argument, Copertini did not recognize the gunshots. It was a group of City Hall workers who found the mayor's body just moments after he was murdered. The half-burnt cigarette was still in his hand. White had since exited through an unmarked door: leading out into the hallway. He reloaded his revolve: as he made his way down the corridor to the supervisors' chambers. As he passed Dianne Feinstein's office, she called to him and he responded, "Well that will have to wait a couple of moments. I have something to do first."[144] White entered Room 237, the anteroom common to the small cubicles assigned to the supervisors. Harvey Milk and Carl Carlson were about to leave for the bank when White arrived and asked to speak privately with Milk in his old office. Soon after, five shots rang out. Carlson and Feinstein discovered the body of Harvey Milk. White proceeded to Room 250, where he demanded the car keys from Denise Apcar. He left City Hall by way of the locked side doors and drove to a phone booth on the corner of O'Farrell and Franklin Streets where he called his wife at the Hot Potato. He said something was wrong and that she should meet him. ____________________ [143I]bid., p. 267. [144I]bid. P. 268. Orignal page 318 Jonetown The deaths occurred between 10:55 and 11 AM. At 11:20 AM, Dianne Feinstein announced that Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Milk had been murdered and that the suspect was Dan White. At 11:25 AM, Dan White, accompanied by his wife, surrendered to the Northern Police Station where he had once worked. His old friend, Frank Falzon, and homicide detective Edward Erdelatz read White his rights and taped his twenty-four minute confession. It has been reported that Falzon was the first policeman at the murder scene. But it has never been established why Falzon left City Hall to return to the Northern Police Station. Not only did they not interrogate White but they interrupted his confession at the most critical times. Falzon's and Erdelatz's unprofessional handling of the confession would later be a major scandal in the case. Dan White claimed that he blacked out while being driven to City Hall and had no recollection of the events that followed. District Attorney Joe Freitas, who (like Mayor Moscone and Assemblyman Agnos) owed his public office to the electioneering efforts of Jim Jones, would prosecute Dan White. Freitas, who was in Washington, D.C. discussing the Jonestown tragedy with federal authorities at the time of the assassinations, flew back to San Francisco to conduct the murder investigation. Reactions to the assassinations were surprisingly consistent in their reference to Jim Jones. At a City Hall memorial service, Acting Mayor Dianne Feinstein read a prepared statement designed to rebuild San Francisco's spirit. Orignal page 319 Jonetown The murders of Mayor George R. e Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk shock and pain us all. In the wake of the tragedies in Guyana, this additional senseless monstrosity seems simply unreal.[145] Marin County Supervisor Gary Giacomini's reaction was typical, "Coming on the heels of Peoples Temple, just how do you explain to your kids what government is all about?[146] But the most interesting of all comments came from former California Governor Ronald Reagan, who was on a tour of European capitals to rally support for his forthcoming presidential campaign. From his hotel suite in Bonn, West Germany, Reagan told interviewers on November 29, 1978, I'll try not to be happy in saying this. He (Jim Jones) supported a number of political figures but seems to be more involved with the Democratic party. I haven't seen anyone in the Republican party having been helped by him or seeking his help.[147] In the same interview, Reagan went on to describe the deaths in Jonestown as, "a horrible thing almost without precedent" and the assassination of Moscone and Milk as "an individual thing." In addition to being a rather callous attempt to capitalize politically on the tragic deaths, Reagan's statements were simply not ____________________ [145"]Feinstein's City Hall Address - Let's Rebuild SF Spirit," _S_a_n _F_r_a_n_c_i_s_c_o _C_h_r_o_n_i_c_l_e_. [146"]Moscone Called Compassionate Political Leader," _S_a_n _F_r_a_n_c_i_s_c_o _C_h_r_o_n_i_c_l_e_, November 28, 1978, P. C, col. 5. [147"]Reagan's View of Jim Jones' Politics," _S_a_n _F_r_a_n_c_i_s_c_o _C_h_r_o_n_i_c_l_e_, _N_o_v_e_m_b_e_r _3_0_, _1_9_7_8_. Orignal page 320 Jonetown true. Jim Jones_ _w_a_s a registered Democrat but only for the last year and a half he lived in the United States. For the balance of his entire adult life, Jones was a registered Republican. He reregistered as a Democrat a few days after he helped Moscone win the mayoral election and then only to facilitate his promised appointment from a Democratic mayor. Reagan's statement that the assassinations were "an individual thing" could not be further from the truth . Jonestown and the assassination of Moscone and Milk are so closely related as to be a part of the same story. Why Reagan felt compelled or sufficiently knowledgeable to make such a statement, remains a mystery. Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this work is its tangential stories and footnotes. On the same day as Reagan's interview, from the same city of Bonn, Hitler's architect, Albert Speer, broke a thirty-three year silence to tell of the Nazis extensive plans, not to destroy, but to take over America. Most political analysts agreed that the liberal cause in San Francisco suffered a twenty year set-back with the assassinations of Moscone and Milk. The conservative real estate developers, who had nearly lost control of the Board of Supervisors, had in the end not only maintained a majority but gained a sympathetic mayor. Assemblyman Willie Brown said of Feinstein, "Dianne as interim mayor makes the best sense from every standpoint." He also added that she would be "obviously a tough candidate to beat next year."[148] She was; she won. After two unsuccessful attempts, Dianne Feinstein was mayor of San Francisco and would remain so for years to come. I n 1984, she as nationally recognized as Walter Mondale s second ____________________ [148"]The Long Term Prospects For Mayor," _S_a_n _F_r_a_n_c_i_s_c_o _C_h_r_o_n_i_c_l_e_, November 29, 1978, p. 4, col. 1. Orignal page 321 Jonetown choice for vice presidential running mate; an appointment that went instead to Geraldine Ferraro. Meanwhile, Dan White was arraigned before Municipal Court Judge Robert Reynolds, on two counts of murder. District Attorney Joe Freitas announced the filing of the charges. Colleagues had tried to convince Freitas to turn the case over to the State Attorney General's office due to his close personal relationship with Moscone, Milk and Jones, but Freitas refused all such advice. Since Proposition 7 had passed into law, Dan White faced a mandatory death sentence if convicted of killing public officials "prevent the performance of their the official duties." Amid predictions that White might receive a life sentence without the possibility of parole, his trial opened and proved to be more outlandish than any speculation. The defense argued, from behind bulletproof glass, that White suffered "diminished capacity" due to political and economic pressures and a chemical imbalance in his body from his gluttonous consumption of junk food. It was dubbed "The Twinkie Defense." Under cross-examination, witness for the prosecution Frank Falzon became the star character witnessfor the defense when he praised his old friend Dan White. (Falzon had lunched with the defense attorney before he testified.) Another character reference came from a court room spectator, a woman described only as "Sister Barbara" who wore a swastika and a medallion inscribed, "Hitler was Right" in Hebrew. Sister Barbara told reporters that after a recent memorial prayer service for "Our Beloved Fuhrer," the local Nazi Party held a prayer meeting for Dan White. "I came to the trial because I care about Dan White. You see, we call him Orignal page 322 Jonetown 'Gentle Dan.' All over the city you see signs that say, 'Free Dan White. He did what he had to do. "[149] The press had long since exhausted appropriate adjectives to describe Dan White's behavior in court. They called him rigid, robot-like, programmed, controlled, automated and zombie-like. The press then shifted their attention to D.A. Freitas but could not agree as to whether he was deliberately throwing the case or just incompetent. White's motives were never stated. The "assassination" word was never mentioned. The testimonies of paid psychiatrists were described as "disgraceful and sad." The jury found Dan White guilty of two counts of voluntary manslaughter -- comparable to a fatal hit-and-run auto accident and extremely lenient for what was obviously two counts of premeditated murder. San Francisco Supervisor Carol Ruth Silver summed up the consensus when she said, "Dan White has gotten away with murder. It's as simple as that."[150] Dan White had gotten away with murder on a plea of "diminished capacity" that was so legally flimsy that soon after his trial, it was outlawed as a defense in California courts. As soon as news of the verdict reached Harvey Milk's old neighborhood, a crowd of angry gays amassed on the corner of Castro and Eighteenth Streets. They chanted: Avenge Harvey Milk Avenge Harvey Milk Dan White Dan White Hit man for the new right ____________________ [149S]hilts P. 309. [150I]bid., P. 326. Orignal page 323 Jonetown Dump Dianne Dump Dianne The crowd numbered 5,000 as it surged up Market Street for City Hall. Unlike the silent, orderly candlelight memorial to Harvey Milk that followed the same Castro Street to City Hall route, this crowd wanted blood. Along the way, they took garbage can lids for shields and pried concrete projectiles from the pavement. The police were ordered to barricade City Hall and hold their ground at the front doors. The crowd numbered 7 000 as it reached those doors for what would be the, worst riot in San Francisco's history. Angry gays ripped the ornamental ironwork from the front of City Hall and used the spear-like pieces as battering rams to pierce the police lines and the front doors. The police responded with tear gas, the rioters with bricks; the police nightsticks and the rioters with fire, setting ablaze several police cars parked around City Hall. The violence escalated. Dianne Feinstein moved into an inner office as not ever her second floor windows were safe from the hurled bricks. Eventually the crowd disbanded but not before inflicting an estimated $1 million damage to City Hall, Twelve police cars were gutted by fire, many literally blew up when the gasoline tanks exploded. Sixty-one police officers were hospitalized as were over one hundred demonstrators. There were very few arrests as the police preferred to deliver their own form of street justice with nightsticks. Miraculously, no one was killed. The May 21st assault on City Hall was first referred to by the press as the "Twinkie Riots" but but the name that endured was the "White Night Riots, Orignal page 324 Jonetown a reference to Dan White and to Jim Jones' "White Night" suicide ritual. From the first day of his incarceration, Dan White received preferential treatment from the police and prison authorities, many of whom reportedly considered him a hero in their right-wing cause. White was segregated from the general prison population and granted every request, short of his release. He had been sentenced to serve a seven year, eight month term at Soledad State Prison. Despite his "diminished capacity" defense, an examining prison psychiatrist determined that White needed neither treatment or therapy. He was even allowed conjugal visits from his wife. The couple spent many weekends in a mobile home parked within the perimeter of Soledad. During one such visit, Mary Ann conceived a child born with Down's Syndrome, a condition that may have been the result of Dan's possible drug-induced chromosome damage. On January 5, 1984, as if to herald the Orwellian Year, White was paroled, having served five years in a "country club" for what, by law, should have been the death sentence. A target for assassination himself, White lived out his year's probation in Los Angeles County in total seclusion, under an assumed name, sporting a new beard and often wearing disguises. He did not work and was supported by the profits from the Hot Potato and a "family support fund set up by friends" soon after his arrest. As soon as his probation ended in January 1985 and White was allowed to leave California, he traveled to his grandmother's native Ireland to finalize plans to relocate his family there far out of the reach of those who might seek revenge. He remained in Ireland until late summer when, in spite of the obvious dangers, he returned to Orignal page 325 Jonetown the family home in San Francisco. Many believe that he had abandoned his plans to leave the country and resigned himself to living in total seclusion in San Francisco but actually White was quietly settling his business and preparing to move his wife and children to Ireland when he was killed. On October 21, 1985, Dan White was found in the garage of his home dead from carbon monoxide poisoning. At the time of the alleged suicide, his wife Mary Ann was teaching at the Treasure Island Navy Base. Following her husband's arrest and conviction, Mary Ann was no longer accepted in the local San Francisco School District so the federal government came to her aid and offered her a position teaching the children of Navy personnel stationed at the nearby base. After examining the body, the garage, the car and the garden hose run from the exhaust pipe through a window, the San Francisco police chief would say only, "Draw your own conclusions." In a prepared statement to the press, Mayor Feinstein said, "This latest tragedy should close a very sad chapter in this city's history." Feinstein's wishful thinking was wrong. White's death, whether murder or suicide, should not close the story as the whole truth about Moscone, Milk, White, Jones and the CIA has yet to be told. Jim Jones was the predominant force behind the success of George Moscone and many failures of Harvey Milk, having supported the former and opposed the latter. The lives of these three men had been closely intertwined for four years and their near concurrent deaths is evidence that Jones had not only engineered their public careers but terminated them as well. The theory is not only possible, but probable, as its most authoritative proponents were Moscone and Milk. Orignal page 326 Jonetown There is absolutely no record of Jim Jones or his Peoples Temple ever having anything to do with Dan White, which is somewhat suspicious in itself , considering the major influence Jones exerted in San Francisco politics. True, White came to the public's attention in mid 1977 as Jones was preparing to leave for Guyana, but the two, did co-exist in the same political arena for some time, yet the Peoples Temple neither supported nor opposed Dan White's campaign. Jones' indifference might have been intentional. It is not a foregone conclusion that White murdered Moscone and Milk. After all, the only eyewitness was Dan White himself and he claimed to have blacked out on the way to City Hall and remembered little that transpired there. He confessed to hearing strange noises as he moved in a daze through the assassinations. "It was like a roaring in my ears," he said. Consider for a moment the possibility that Dan White was hypnotized or brainwashed during his "missing year" by Jim Jones or someone else. Easily swayed, he may have been manipulated into his financial difficulties, his resignation, and subsequent demand for reinstatement. He did not have to be programmed to kill on command, only to fall into a hypnotic trance when someone uttered the code word or phrase that unlocked a subconscious suggestion. Was it chance that a City Hall workman allowed White to crawl through a basement window? Was it chance that other workers allowed him to pass through the locked doors that lead to the mayor's suite? These workers were close enough to the killing to be the first to discover Moscone's body yet none of them reportedly saw or tried to stop Dan White's exit. Who were these unidentified "workmen" and why were they free to pass unannounced in Orignal page 327 Jonetown and out of the mayor's office? It would seem to be a terrible breach of security considering that Moscone felt his life was being threatened by the Peoples Temple. Security, in general, at City Hall was tight since a year and a half earlier when another workman, a plumber named Walter Jones, wandered into Moscone's office with a loaded revolver. He was promptly arrested and sentenced to serve ninety days in jail. The incident, along with the several bomb threats against Feinstein and Barbagelata, prompted the installation of metal detectors and additional guards that, in the end, presented little or no obstacle to Dan White. Was there another "workman" waiting in White's old office? Workmen_ _w_e_r_e_, in his office that morning, at least to remove his name plate from the door. It is possible that Dan White stumbled through the assassinations at City Hall while someone else, perhaps a "workman," actually pulled the trigger that killed Moscone and Milk. It is possible that White told the truth. The first question asked by any homicide detective is, What could possible be the motive for murder? It has been surmised that Dan White's motive was an uncontrollable anger he felt towards Moscone and Milk for conspiring to not reappoint him, but this seems unlikely. Murdering the mayor and supervisor would not get White his job back, a job he cared so little about that he had resigned only a few weeks earlier. Actually, his "diminished capacity" defense was necessary to justify why White thought he had good reason when the facts indicate he did not. The following conclusion is submitted as several more plausible motives for the assassination. Orignal page 328 Jonetown It is highly probable that, at some point in their close political relationship, Moscone learned that Jim Jones was working for the Central Intelligence Agency. This could have happened in the very beginning when Jones was introduced as one with the power to get Moscone elected mayor or it could have happened later in the relationship when Moscone shared private conferences with Jones and the top ranking Washington politicians like then vice presidential hopeful, Walter Mondale. As one of the few outsiders in a position to know Jones' ultimate secret, Moscone would have posed a potential threat to the agency in the aftermath of Jonestown. Appalled by the federal y government's sponsorship of such an atrocity, Moscone might have gone public with the information, even though doing so would probably mean exposing his own involvement in fixing the 1975 election. If Moscone did pose a serious threat to the security of the Jim Jones/CIA connection, he did so for only nine days. Milk could have been killed for similar reasons. Though he was opposed by Jones, Milk's political savvy might well have helped him to identify the true nature of his enemy. He may also have been killed just to disguise the murder of Moscone, shifting the obvious motive from the Peoples Temple to Dan White's political problems. But overall, if the CIA had a reason to kill Harvey Milk, it would have been homosexual in nature as this was the predominant characteristic of Milk's public career. The CIA has always gone to great lengths to explain that they will not employ homosexuals because they are highly susceptible to being blackmailed into working for a foreign country. As is the case with most of the agency's exaggerated rhetoric, the CIA's Orignal page 329 Jonetown statements about homosexuals are exactly opposite the truth. True, homosexuals are blackmailed into service by intelligence agencies but, like any competitive game, the intelligence game is fought with certain rules and techniques common to all players. Actually, the CIA realizes that the agents most vulnerable to blackmail are parents, whose children can be used to coerce them into co-operating. Homosexuals, on the other hand, do not generally foster children, raise families or have more than a distant relationship with members of the family into which they are born. Incidentally, the technique of blackmailing homosexuals into the CIA only works in the United States. Homosexuality does not carry a sufficient stigma in European societies to blackmail a person. The precariousness of the technique might well be the heart of the conflict between the CIA and Harvey Milk. Milk was receiving increasing national media attention as the country's first openly gay politician who advocated that gays nationwide should follow his lead, "come out of their closets" and assert their rights as homosexuals. The focal point of Milk's country- wide campaign his proposed gay rights march would have been on Washington, scheduled for the fourth of July, 1979. If Milk had lived and succeeded in encouraging millions of Americans to step forward and admit they were gay, the effect might have been to alter the national consciousness and eliminate the stigma associated with homosexuality in America. The CIA would then stand to lose its stranglehold on the thousands of agents the have blackmailed into service. This alone is more than sufficient motive for the CIA to kill Harvey Milk. Finally, it might have been the CIA's hometown rival, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, that Orignal page 330 Jonetown prompted the agency to murder Moscone and Milk. At the time of the assassinations, there were no fewer than three separate FBI investigations into the main characters of this story: Moscone, Milk, and White. Moscone was the subject of an ongoing FBI investigation into an illegal $10,000 campaign contribution he received from the Summa Corporation that was considered to be a political pay-off. Summa Corporation is a well known joint venture between Howard Hughes and the CIA and any investigation into the company's illegal support of Moscone would certainly boil down to a question of the CIA's illegal support of Moscone. The investigation, which was receiving an increasing amount of news coverage, might have lead the FBI to uncover yet another agent of the CIA who had given illegal support to Moscone; namely Jim Jones. The FBI investigation into Moscone's association with Summa Corporation ended abruptly with his death. In a separate investigation, the FBI was gathering information on Moscone's and Milk's attempt to obtain federal funding for their proposed gay community center in San Francisco. Milk laughed off the investigation, never considering the FBI to be a direct threat to him, nor did he consider his proposal for government sanction of a gay community center to be a direct threat to the status quo of the CIA. The FBI's third investigation was into the Pier 39 scandal, and Dan White was the prime suspect in what had every appearance of being a political pay-off. The probe, which the FBI files noted "should not be discussed outside the bureau," officially ended when White was arrested for murder. No explanation for closing the case has ever been given; other than that Orignal page 331 Jonetown White then faced more serious charges. It is possible that Dan White had been convinced to resign as supervisor and pursue the more lucrative Hot Potato that Dianne Feinstein had helped him to acquire. After he resigned he was told that the FBI investigation might result in his losing his new business, so he attempted to regain his only other source of income by demanding to be reinstated in his City Hall job. His frustration and anger may have been a result of the realization that he had been manipulated into a no- win situation. Dan White was a notoriously poor loser. The basic premise of this chapter is that Jim Jones, or his superiors at the CIA, ordered the deaths of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk just nine days after Jones ordered the destruction of Jonestown. They had the close association, the opportunity, the ability and more plausible motives than that of the convicted assassin. Though it may never be proven in a court of law, this theory survives close scrutiny. END 07