The Mayor of Castro Street (61 page)

Authors: Randy Shilts

BOOK: The Mayor of Castro Street

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Harvey Milk's Manhattan Years (1956â1972):
Among Harvey's friends who shared their memories about this period in Milk's life were Joe Campbell, Tom O'Horgan, author Eve Merriam, Elmer Kline, Craig Rodwell, Jim Bruton, Ellen Steuart, Tom Eure, Joe Turner, and Scott Smith. Oliver “Billy” Sipple was contacted through his attorney and declined to be interviewed. Jack Galen McKinley had commited suicide by the time primary research began on this book. Bache and Company provided Harvey's personnel file and helped me contact Charles Morgan, Monty Gordon, and George McGeough, Milk's colleagues at the firm.

Early San Francisco Gay History:
Allan Berube of the San Francisco Gay History Project provided the bulk of the information on the impact of World War II on the San Francisco gay community. Among other people interviewed about San Francisco gay history were the late Terry Mangan of the California Historical Society; Jose Sarria; Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, founders of the Daughters of Bilitis; Pat Bond; Dorr Jones, Steve Kellogg and Hal Cal, former presidents of the San Francisco Mattachine Society; Bill May and Larry Littlejohn, early leaders of the Society for Individual Rights; Charles Morris, publisher of
The Sentinel;
Bob Ross, publisher of the
Bay Area Reporter.
Much of the information on gay life in the 1930s and 1940s came from
Bay Area Reporter
columns written by the late Lou Rand.

Harvey Milk's Navy Career:
Determining the truth about Harvey Milk's career in the navy proved the most difficult aspect of this book. On one hand, he freely spread the story that he had been dishonorably discharged. No one who knew Milk before his political career, however, could remember Milk commenting about anything to do with a discharge. Finally, Anne Kronenberg recalled a conversation in which Milk offhandedly mentioned he had made up the story to get votes. Tom Randol also remembered coming across an honorable discharge certificate among Milk's effects after the assassination. The particulars of Milk's ranks came from his 1963 job application with Bache.

San Francisco Gay Politics (1973â1978):
Jim Foster, Jo Daly, Rick Stokes, and Frank Fitch, all past presidents of the Alice B. Toklas Memorial Democratic Club; Elmer Wilhelm, past president, Stonewall Democratic Club; Bill Kraus, Chris Perry, Harry Britt, and Gwenn Craig, past presidents of the San Francisco Gayânow the Harvey Milk GayâDemocratic Club. Les Morgan, George Raya, Ken Maley, Mark Feldman, and Jack Davis also discussed various aspects of this period with me. David B. Goodstein declined to be interviewed.

San Francisco City Politics:
A number of politicians took time to discuss their analyses of the changing San Francisco politics of the 1970s for this book. Among the politicos who agreed to be interviewed on the record were Mayor Dianne Feinstein, District Attorney Arlo Smith, Assemblyman Art Agnos, State Senator Milton Marks, Board of Supervisors President John Molinari, Supervisors Harry Britt, Carol Ruth Silver, and Richard Hongisto, and former Supervisor Gordon Lau.

Harvey Milk's Campaigns (1973â1977):
Michael Wong, Dennis Peron, Tom Randol, Arlo Smith, Rick Nicholls, Medora Payne, John Ryckman, Dick Pabich, Jim Rivaldo, Anne Kronenberg, Wayne Friday, Bob Ross, Walter Caplan, Hank Wilson, Ann Eliaser, and Bill and Tory Hartmann all discussed their roles in Harvey's various campaigns. Among the organized labor leaders interviewed about their support of Milk's campaigns were Stan Smith of the Building and Construction Trades Council, Leon Broschura of the Firefighters Union, George Evankovich of the Laborer's Union, Teamster Allan Baird and Jim Elliot of the Automotive Machinists.

Harvey Milk's Personal Life (1973â1978):
Scott Smith provided the bulk of this information with former Castro Camera employees Danny Nicoletta and Ken Denning and Harvey's friends Frank Robinson, Hector Cacares, Carl Carlson, Tom Randol, Rick Nicholls, Dennis Seely, Ric Puglia, Don Amador, Tony Karnes, and Milk's personal lawyer, John Wahl. Jack Lira had committed suicide by the time research on this book began. Doug Franks, Bob Tuttle, and Bill Wiegardt also candidly discussed their relationships with Harvey.

Michael Wong's Diary:
Many of the dialogues recreated in the book come from Michael Wong's diary. Virtually all the figures mentioned in Wong's meticulous recording of his experiences with Harvey Milk have corroborated the journal's accuracy.

Castro Street:
The information on the history of the Castro neighborhood was drawn from nearly one hundred interviews I have conducted on the area over the years, especially with older Castro residents. Particularly helpful in the primary research for this project, however, were Allan Baird, Rick Slick, Cleve Jones, Steve Lowell, and two past presidents of the Castro Village Association, Ernie Astin and Donn Tatum. The stories about the outbreaks of police brutality in the Castro during 1974 and 1979 came largely from news accounts in the
Bay Area Reporter
and
The Sentinel.

Fundamentalists:
The information and analysis of the fundamentalist movement in the late 1970s is drawn largely from my own travels through Dade County, Wichita, St. Paul, and California during the various gay-rights controversies of that period. All the statements from the ministers and born-again Christians quoted come from this research. The archetypal fundamentalist profiled in Chapter 13, Pat of Central Pomona Baptist Church, was the subject of a television special I produced and anchored in 1978 on the emerging political clout of fundamentalists for KQED-TV. Because the interview was granted for purposes of the television documentary and since she would object to having her name in a book about a major gay figure, I did not use Pat's full name in this account.

Harvey Milk, The Clown:
The paragraphs from
Letting Their Clowns Out
by Ira Kamin, which appeared in the August 20, 1978 issue of
California Living Magazine
of the
San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle,
copyright Â© 1978 by the
San Francisco Examiner,
are excerpted with permission.

The Hillsborough Murder:
The background information on John Cordova, murderer of Robert Hillsborough, came in part from a team investigation conducted for
New West
magazine by Francis Moriarty, Nora Gallagher and Randy Shilts.

Background Information on Dan White:
The information concerning Dan White's life was drawn largely from the trial transcript, the probation report drawn up by the California Adult Authority for use in his sentencing, and interviews with
Chronicle
reporters Warren Hinckle and Maitland Zaine. Details of the FBI investigation of White came from files from the Federal Bureau of Investigation obtained under provisions of the Freedom of Information Act.

The Trial:
Neither Dan White nor his attorney Doug Schmidt responded to interview requests. Prosecuting attorney Tom Norman initially indicated he would be interviewed for this book. He never made himself available for an interview, however, despite repeated attempts to contact him. Many of the details are drawn from contemporary news accounts.

The Assassinations:
The killings were reconstructed from information contained in the Dan White trial transcript and photographs presented as exhibits at the trial. The anatomical aspects of the assassination were verified with a forensic pathologist. The account did not include the sketchy details offered by Dan White during his taped confession, since that statement contains various contradictions which make its truthfulness doubtful.

City Hall:
Bill Roddy, former director of the Mayor's Visitors Assistance Bureau, and Gladys Hanson of the library's San Francisco History Room helped in my research on City Hall.

Journalists:
A number of reporters shared their experiences and memories with me, providing a wealth of background material that made this account much richer. They included
Chronicle
staffers Jerry Burns, Jerry Roberts, Maitland Zane, and Warren Hinckle,
Examiner
reporter Jim Wood,
Bay Area Reporter
editor Paul Lorch and free-lance journalists Francis Moriarty, David Israels, and Mike Weiss.

The following people and news organizations gave me access to video- and audiotapes of Harvey Milk: KQED-TV, KTVU-TV, Jack Davis, Paul Bentley, Tom Randol, Elmer Wilhelm, George Osterkamp, Walter Caplan, and N.A. Diaman of the Queer Blue Light Collective.

Index

The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

Achilles, Nancy

Adler, Kurt Herbert

Adrian, Rev. Ron

AFL-CIO

Agnos, Art

Albany State College

Alcohol Beverage Control Commission (ABC)

Alfred, Randy

Alice B. Toklas Memorial Democratic Club

Alioto, Joseph

Amador, Don

American Psychiatric Association