Gun Control

The Twinkie Defense

By James Sheridan

Posted on June 10, 2023

On November 27, 1978, San Francisco Supervisor Diane Feinstein returned to City Hall after a three-week illness-related absence. Feinstein, who was serving as president of the Board of Supervisors, had previously announced that she would not seek re-election to the Board. Feinstein’s colleague Dan White had recently quit his position on the Board because he could not afford to live on the low pay.

White quickly changed his mind about leaving and wanted to be appointed back to his own vacancy. However, Mayor George Moscone told Feinstein that morning that he intended to select a more progressive candidate for White’s vacant seat. White went to see Moscone at City Hall. When Moscone informed White of his intentions, White shot and killed the mayor. White then shot and killed Supervisor Harvey Milk.

White thought that Milk had sold him out over the vacancy. Diane Feinstein was first introduced to the nation when she told the press,

“As president of the Board of Supervisors, it’s my duty to make this announcement: Both Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot and killed.”
Diane Feinstein

Dan White stood trial for the murders of Moscone and Milk in 1979. White’s defense attorney argued that former police officer White was mentally and emotionally unstable due to his high consumption of sugar-laden junk food. The defense argued that the junk food caused White to have a diminished mental and emotional capacity and that he was incapable of the “deliberative capacity” to commit first-degree murder.

The jury convicted White of involuntary manslaughter.

Following the manslaughter convictions, thousands of members of San Francisco’s predominantly gay Castro District community held a peaceful march to demonstrate their outrage at the verdict. San Francisco police, some chanting gay slurs and covering their badges with tape, brawled with the marchers. Feinstein went on to serve as mayor of San Francisco and, later, as U.S. Senator from California.

After being released from prison, Dan White committed suicide.

Harvey Milk is remembered as one of the nation’s first openly gay politicians. The riots in the Castro District have become known as the ‘White Night Riots’. White’s defense has come to be known derisively as the ‘Twinkie Defense’.