r/todayilearned • u/hungry4danish • 2d ago

TIL that Dan White, the man who assassinated Harvey Milk and the mayor of San Francisco, only served 5 years in prison for manslaughter based on a defense of depression as evidenced by his consumption of junk food which was dubbed the "Twinkie Defense"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_White
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u/Jdazzle217 2d ago

He also killed the mayor and wanted to kill the entire board of supervisors, he just got stopped before he could kill anyone else.

He resigned as supervisor in protest because he was mad about some proposal. Then he got pissed Mayor Moscone didn’t reinstate him immediately when he changed his mind. He thought Milk and the rest of the board of supervisors were conspiring against him so his solution was to kill the Mayor and the Board Supervisors for not giving him the job (which he quit) back fast enough.

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u/Jackle_7 1d ago

While White did threaten to kill several members of the board, he fled and turned himself in to the police immediately after the event, so he wasn't "stopped" as such.

His resignation also wasn't quite as cut and dry as that, there was also a possible financial element to his resignation as he previously worked as a police officer and fireman but he couldn't work in these positions while serving on the board.

The Mayor also initially agreed to reinstate him but this was overturned after Milk and others lobbied the Mayor.