SECRETS AND LIES

New FBI Files Uncover Harvey Milk’s Financial Scandal And Dan White’s Assassination Plot

The FBI just released a bunch of files about former San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, gay former Supervisor Harvey Milk, and their murderer former Supervisor Dan White. Were Milk and Moscone taking bribes and laundering money? Had Dan White planned their assassination months before he pulled the trigger? And did White’s sloppy-dressing friend have bad phone manners? Let’s look into the files and see…

The files don’t contain tons about the November 27th 1978 murder of Milk and Moscone. But they do say that in 1983 FBI agents met with a man who claimed to have met White in early 1978. During that 1978 meeting he said he heard White say that he would “get rid of three bastards,” meaning Milk, Moscone, and a third mystery person.

That third person turns out to be 68-year-old John Patrick Elia, a guy who agents say “dressed like a bum” and sounded drunk on the phone. Why would Dan White wanna get rid of him?

Two months before Moscone died, the FBI’s Sacramento bureau had been looking into whether he took a $10,000 check from Howard Hughes in order for Hughes’ Trans World Airlines to get preferential treatment during the renovations at the San Francisco International Airport. They also wanted to see whether he took another $10,000 for helping a local McDonald’s obtain speedy permits. Did Moscone like business class and quarter pounders?

On October 16, 1978 U.S. Attorney G. William Hunter gave the FBI the green light to look into a number of allegations against both Moscone and Milk, including an allegation that Moscone had helped Milk form a Pride committee just so Milk could use federal funds as he wished—que escandolo! Milk said that he figured his anti-gay enemies started the rumor.

Apparently the FBI mostly took interest in Moscone because in December 1963 he sponsored a civil rights workshop that included a speech from Frank Wilkinson. Wilkinson ran the L.A.-based Citizens Committee to Preserve American Freedoms, an organization that wanted to abolish McCarthy’s anti-gay House Un-American Activities Commission and “discredit” the FBI. Basically, the feds didn’t like Moscone hanging out with guys who sound like bad-asses.

Anyway, you can read the files for yourself. If you find any incriminating photos, let us know!

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