A Little History Story

My brother brought up part of this story, and I sat down to spend several hours last night looking over this curious piece of California history.

So, once upon a time.....there was this election for mayor coming up in San Francisco....4 November 1975.

Two individuals running.  Democrat George Moscone (state senator and lawyer).  Republican John Barbagelata (real estate guy and on the city council).

Most people in the summer of 1975...gave Barbagelata the edge.

For some odd reason, never to be explained in public....Moscone went and had some meeting with a guy by the name of Michael Prokes.  He was in his late 20's.....a journalism student for the most part but hooked up to various social groups and in particularly with the People's Temple.

Yeah, that's the Jim Jones crowd....if you were curious.

No one can say for sure what came out of this Moscone and Prokes meeting, but after this....Prokes has a lot of hyped up enthusiasm to get his people....the People's Temple religious crowd....into the canvasing for Moscone.

What most suggest is that the People's Temple crowd did cover a couple of neighborhoods (certainly NOT all of the city), and they were picky about the choice of the neighborhoods.  They just wanted a mass group of people to show up on 4 November from those selected neighborhoods. 

What occurred on 4 November?  Moscone won by 1-percent (4,400 votes roughly). 

The end?  No.  Barbagelata felt that a fair number of votes were simply bused into the city and were not legit.  Proof?  None really.  There is a strong suggestion which came out of a NY Times piece in 1978....that busloads of folks were carried from Redwood Valley.  That's 123 miles outside of the city limits.  But again, it's not substantial proof.  The comment by a Jone's member that Jones directed them on how to vote?  Maybe, but that's not illegal. 

Could you have bussed in 4,400 folks to make the difference?  Well....you figure sixty folks per bus, and the answer ought to be no.  But then they did canvas the neighborhoods and got people to show up and vote. That might have made the difference. 

What happened to Prokes (the guy to arrange this situation)?  Well.....18 November 1978....three years later....he dies in Jonestown. 

Moscone?  Well, this is an interesting twist or two.  He was way ahead on the gay trend business, and really hyped up on liberal agendas. 

Well....eight days prior to the Jonestown business...this odd event occurred in San Francisco.

There was an odd group developing and one of the city council guys was Dan White (former US Army), and tied to a conservative part of town. Over the two years prior, White had gotten into frequent arguments with the developing left-base of the city council (in particular, with Harvey Milk, another city council guy....and gay).

On 10 November 1978, Dan White finally had enough....the trend of the city council was becoming more and more frustrating.  So he resigned. Part of this issue revolved around the fact that he could not work for the city as a fire-fighter/cop....receiving a salary as such....while being a city council guy.  No one states the pay-scale, but I'm guessing that city council duty paid half of what a cop or fire-fighter made.

Four days go by, and Dan now realizes....that was a big mistake to quit as city council member.  He went back to Mayor Moscone and asked to be reappointed.

Well....Moscone says no.

On 27 November 1978....Dan goes into the city hall area and shoots the mayor, and Harvey Milk....dead.

Dan says in his defense....his mental conditions triggered this.  Oddly, the judge says fine....giving him seven years in prison for killing the two guys.  Yep....seven years for killing two guys.  He's paroled in January of 1984....so he doesn't even get the full sentence.  Roughly a year later, he commits suicide. 

Looking back at Mayor Moscone?  Within six to eight years....he would have gone onto running for the US senate, and been in DC.  Somewhere by the late 1980s...he would have run for President, around age 60.  The odds are....instead of Bill Clinton....you would have had President Moscone (my humble guess). 

The Jonestown thing fitting into this?  It's the odd piece and you have to wonder about how this all worked out, and this young guy....Micheal Prokes, if he hadn't died there in Jonestown.