Unusual Criminal Defenses: Chapter 2: The Twinkie Defense

Once Upon A Crime | True Crime

Esther Ludlow

True Crime, Society & Culture, Crime, Truecrime, Criminology, History, Criminals

4.6 • 5K Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2018

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Supervisor Dan White murders San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978. His defense would claim "diminished capacity" to keep him from being sentenced to death. The media dubbed this "The Twinkie Defense". But, what really caused Dan White to become a double murderer?

From L to R: Supervisor Harvey Milk, Mayor George Moscone, Dan White

Several resources were used in the research for this episode including:

John Geluardi, SF Weekly, "Dan White's motive more about betrayal than homophobia," Jan 30, 2008.

Carol Pogash, SFGate.com, "Myth of the 'Twinkie Defense', Nov 23, 2003.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This podcast details true crime cases.
0:03.0	It contains adult themes and may contain descriptions of violence.
0:07.0	It is not intended for children.
0:09.0	Listener discretion is advised.
0:14.0	Thank you for joining me for today's episode of Once Upon a Crime.
0:18.0	We're in the series, Unusual Criminal Defences.
0:21.0	On today's episode, all detail a case where political rivalry turns into murder.
0:27.0	The murderer would turn himself in right away, confessing to his crime.
0:31.0	His defense attorneys had their work cut out for them to keep their client out of the gas chamber.
0:36.0	The strategy used would be given the colorful name, the Twinkie Defense by the media.
0:41.0	But looking back almost 40 years later, we will see that there is a bit more to this story.
0:47.0	This is chapter 2 of Unusual Criminal Defences, the Twinkie Defense,
0:53.0	the murder of Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.
1:03.0	On November 27, 1978, Daniel James White traveled the short distance from his home
1:10.0	to San Francisco City Hall to see Mayor George Moscone.
1:14.0	Dan White, until two weeks earlier, had been a member of San Francisco's Board of Supervisors,
1:20.0	representing District 8.
1:22.0	White's District was comprised of several San Francisco neighborhoods in the southeastern portion of the city.
1:28.0	They were predominantly middle-class and lower-middle-class neighborhoods.
1:32.0	There was also a large housing project where the elderly and the poor were provided government-substantized residences.
1:39.0	White had been elected in 1977, soon after a ballot measure passed,
1:44.0	that allowed voters to elect their supervisors by district instead of by a city-wide vote.
	...

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