Dymally, Mervyn: Moscone's assassination
Abstract
Mervyn Dymally: I was in my office around November in the year that he was shot, and he called and said he was sponsoring a luncheon for me as a going away luncheon, and wanted to know if I could call Walter Shorenstein. Walter Shorenstein had boasted that he was a supporter of mine, and I’m one of the few people that ever paid back money that he loaned politicians. I said fine. And as I began to make small-talk with him (George), he said, “Mervyn, I’m sorry I’ve got to go. I have someone outside waiting for me.” I hung up the phone, and in rushes Eric Shea, a staff member, screaming that George Moscone had just been shot. I couldn’t believe it. Now, what’s ironic about this is that during his tenure as Majority Leader of California Senate, I would often go to him and say, “George, why are you being so nice to these critics of yours/ours?” because we were in the same group. He said, “Well, Mervyn they’re my constituents, and even though we disagree, I have an obligation to be of help to them.” So he’s a guy who never said “no”, and the first time he said no he was shot.
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Type
Interview
Date Original
2011-08-26
Relation
The Moscone oral history interviews are part of the George Moscone Collection, MSS 328.
Contributing Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections and Archives, University of the Pacific Library
Recommended Citation
Rubin, Jon and Dymally, Mervyn, "Dymally, Mervyn: Moscone's assassination" (2011). Moscone Oral Histories. 58.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/moscone-oralhistories/58
Rights Information
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