Spotswood: ‘Milk’ Misses Key Point on Assassination

Though this column buries the lede, >Dick Spotswood may hold a keen observation:

‘Milk’ is good, but misses the mark on a key point – Marin Independent Journal.

The movie ignored a key fact. The assassinations were primarily about Moscone – not Milk. In the film Moscone was erroneously characterized as a peripheral character. In reality, the murderer’s motivation was a $9,600 part-time job as a district supervisor and a bruised ego. White had impulsively resigned his supervisorial post at a time when his Pier 39 food shop The Hot Potato was failing. Moscone had the duty to appoint his successor.

It was only by chance that Milk was there that morning. White’s murder of Moscone was premeditated, but his murder of Milk was a crime of opportunity. It’s been said that if a few of White’s other adversaries had had the bad luck of being present, they would have found that there was a bullet saved for them as well.