Who is the most infamous person you've met?

[AnotherMcIntosh]

105. (1) Dan White,

Dianne Feinstein, Willie Brown, et al., while working at City Hall in San Francisco.

The back story behind the November 27, 1978 shooting which never seems to have been covered, or be covered, in the MSM was that Dan White took a pay-off to vote in favor of re-zoning Pier 39 in favor of those who wanted to build restaurants and tourist attractions to compete with the nearby Fisherman's Wharf. He was told that he (in his wife's name) would receive the right to open a potato restaurant on Pier 39 if his votes and other votes went the right way. An underground newspaper had a curious reporter who went to the Recorder of Deeds, looked at some of the documents and uncovered the relationship between the future Pier 39 operators and White's wife. An embarrassed Dan White - who had a reputation as a straight arrow (unlike the always happy and smiling Willie Brown) - resigned and was then left jobless.

His Supervisor's pay wasn't very much. The position was a part-time one and the rumor was that the official salary was only in the $8,000 range. (It doesn't sound like much, but at the time you could buy a new car for less than half of that.) Except for George Moscone who was genuinely friendly and honest, and a few others, some of the Supervisors seemed to have friends who could help them with their investments, buy art work created by family members, etc. In the real world, it's called corruption. But the ticket is only good as long as a person held the title of "Supervisor."

When he resigned, it seemed that the future Pier 39 operators changed their mind. While being out of work with a tarnish reputation and with no opportunity to take money from tourists, White was desperate. Since George Moscone could appoint whoever he wanted to the open position, and since Moscone always seemed to be his friend and he had experience as a Supervisor, he somehow thought that he could convince the Mayor to re-appoint him. Bad thinking, probably influenced by good Scotch.

Then he went to City Hall and shot Moscone. Why did he shoot Milk? For one thing, at the Board of Supervisor's meetings, Harvey Milk used to entertain himself and part of the public by mocking Dan White in the meetings. On more than one occasion he would repeat Dan White's words as though they were silly in a mocking voice while smiling and moving his head from side to side. White apparently thought it was a rude thing to do.

I also knew White's attorney. The prosecutor was competent but overlooked what White's attorney was doing while selecting the jury. San Francisco is generally an open and tolerant city. White's attorney was purposely selecting those who did not share such views. The acceptance of the "Twinkie" defense was just a cover, an excuse, for their actions.

(2) A cousin of mine, Richard J. Daley. He started out in his career as a tax attorney, and he convinced me to go to law school and focus on tax law. I made enough money but did not have the political touch. Once, when I lost an election, I got him to laugh. He asked at a family gathering where I could have been embarrassed (or not), "Why did you lose?" Instead of giving a serious answer, I said with a straight face, "Not enough votes, mostly."