Dianne Feinstein, the long-serving Jewish senator from California who rose to national prominence when she appeared before cameras with her hands stained with the blood of a murdered colleague, died Sept. 28. She was 90 and in failing health. Feinstein served in the Senate for more than three decades as its longest-serving woman.

Feinstein became a national figure in 1978 when she was the president of the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco and found the body of fellow supervisor Harvey Milk. Milk, who was Jewish and the first openly gay elected official in the city’s history, was assassinated by a former colleague, Dan White. White also killed San Francisco Mayor George Moscone.

Feinstein announced the murders while her hands were still stained with Milk’s blood. She soon stepped in to replace Moscone, serving two terms as major. The trauma of the double murder propelled her to become an outspoken advocate for gun control, a cause she took with her into the Senate, when she won a special election in 1992 to replace Sen. Pete Wilson, a Republican.

Feinstein was the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee from 2009 to 2017, and later served as the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, stepping down when her health began to fail. Early in 2023, she announced she would not run again for election in 2024.