Joseph Freitas Jr., 66; S.F. District Attorney in ‘Twinkie Defense’ Case

Joseph Freitas Jr., 66, the San Francisco district attorney who failed to win a murder conviction against a former county supervisor who used the “Twinkie defense” for the 1978 killing of gay Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone, died of lung cancer Tuesday at the American Hospital in Paris.

When Dan White was acquitted of first-degree murder in the City Hall killings, public outrage spilled over to Freitas, who was accused of mishandling the case. Jurors found White guilty of voluntary manslaughter, which led to rioting in San Francisco in 1979. The defense argued that White ate too much junk food that made him depressed and crazy.

In fall 1979, Freitas lost his campaign for reelection to the district attorney’s office. Critics also faulted him for failing to aggressively investigate the Rev. Jim Jones, who moved his People’s Temple cult from San Francisco to Guyana.

Jones and more than 900 followers died in a mass suicide, and others were killed, nine days before the City Hall murders.

Born in Merced, Calif., in 1939, Freitas was raised in rural Atwater, the son of the town postmaster. He earned his law degree from the University of San Francisco in 1967. After leaving politics, he worked as a mediator and arbitrator and had lived in Paris since his French wife died last year.