Petrelis Files

Pics: 'Dan White For Pope,'
Hit Squad Buttons

I heard from Jerry Pritikin, who lived in San Francisco in the 1970s and snapped lots of great photos documenting gay life back then, after I shared images the other day of a few items I found in the Randy Shilts collection at the main library. Click here to read Jerry's blog and more about his life and times.

Jerry now resides in Chicago and he has graciously provided me with four of his photos related to Harvey Milk's killer Dan White, the use of rainbows by gay hippies and some of the crazy political buttons in circulation back in the day. He also sent along some text for the captions, explaining the pics, and all photos are credited to Jerry.

Hey, Jerry, thanks for keeping the artifacts and photos all these years, and for showing them to me and my readers. I always enjoy a peak at our colorful and sometimes wacky homo history.

This is where they were passing out the Dan White Hit Squad pin... [Union Square, with the St. Francis Hotel in the background.]

This is a pin handed out before White was released...

The collection of pins... Note the 25 Cent chip... it was good for a Beer in a glass bottle!

Hallinan was the guy who ran against Harvey in 1977, Bubbles is Mark Brown, the Commissioner of the Community Softball League, The P-nut was from
Carter's campaign... and I gave one to Jim Jones to give to Rosalynn Carter.

I quit the 1979 gay day parade committee because they wanted photographers to take a loyalty oath, not to take images of anyone nude or high on drugs! It didn't leave much to photograph!

This image was taken at the Upper Grant Street Fair in 1976... and I asked the fellow holding his painting, what it represented... and he said "THE FUTURE FLAG OF AMERICA!" He was almost right...