August 1, 2019 • 9 mins
From the same team behind The Ballad of Billy Balls comes Crimetown, Season 2.
This season, Crimetown heads to Detroit, Michigan. From its heyday as the Motor City to its rebirth as the Brooklyn of the Midwest, Detroit’s history reflects a series of issues that strike at the heart of American identity: race, poverty, policing, loss of industry, the war on drugs, and our universal desire for a savior. Detroit’s a tough town, and its residents are even tougher. They’ve weathered riots, a drug epidemic, political scandal, and innumerable other hardships, but they’re still here—and they have stories to tell.
Learn more at www.crimetownshow.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, it's Io. Listen. We're working on a few more
bonus episodes surprise, surprise. But in the meantime, I want
to tell you about what I think is the best
podcast ever. I want to tell you about Crimetown. Crimetown
is essentially the mother podcast of the Ballot of Billy Balls,
because the guys who made Crimetown are the guys behind
(00:23):
this show. Crimetown is part of why I fell in
love with podcasting and what made me realize there was
something beyond just two people sitting in a room with
a microphone. You can have a movie for your ears.
The first season of Crimetown told the story of crime, corruption,
and the intersection of the mob and politics in Providence,
Rhode Island, where they had this wild mayor, Buddy Ciancy,
(00:46):
who beat up a guy he thought was sleeping with
his wife and then he was forced to resign, but
then he got reelected several times. It's insane and it's incredible.
It's truly the best thing I think that's ever been
made in the podcast space, and I'm not bias at all,
why would it be biased. In season two, Crimetown goes
to Detroit, where a new mayor is at the center
(01:07):
of the story, Qualmie Killpatrick. And if you don't know
anything about Kwamie Kilpatrick, give that a little google. It's
really juicy. The Crimetown team talked with Qualmie for hours.
He told the story of his epic rise as this
political star. He was hailed as like the new hope
for a Detroit that had weathered decades of white flight
(01:29):
and the industrialization and the War on drugs. But of
course he also had an epic fall. I'm gonna play
you a clip from Crimetown season two in which Kuami
talks about a rumor that he threw a wild party
at the mayor's mansion and that a stripper at that
party wound up dead. As the rumors grew, Kwami found
(01:54):
himself in a fight for his political life. The second
season of Crimetown is available wherever you get your podcasts.
Make sure you start from the beginning and subscribes so
you can snag the new episodes as they come out.
I hope you love it. I know you will, and
I'll see you soon. I love crime Town, but I
(02:21):
Detroit Mayor Kwamie Kilpatrick hopes he's putting all the rumors
and allegations are wrongdoing to rest. In May two thousand three,
a day after Heather Catalo confronted Kwamie Kilpatrick, the mayor
flew back to Detroit. He called a press conference on
the steps of the Manugian Mansion to address the scandal.
I want to stand here and tell the citizens of
the city of Detroit that Kwamie Kilpatrick has absolutely nothing
(02:44):
to hide about any of these allegations. I think and
feel very strongly that an independent evaluation or investigation needs
to be done on all of these allegations. So the
next time that someone is this runner and starts to
say anything, you all won't take it as true. And
(03:04):
with that, surrounded by family and friends and appointees, the
city's youngest mayor talked about the allegations that have rocked
his administration. The most serious that there was a wild
party at the Manougian Mansion with new dancers and his
wife walked in. It never happened. It never happened. It
never happened, and there are lemmy try it again and
(03:27):
again to dismiss the rumor of a wild party at
the mayor's residence, but it just wouldn't go away, and
not only that right around this time something happened that
was about to make the rumor much much worse. This
was a typical drive by shooting. This is Mike Carlyle,
a Detroit homicide detective. In April two thousand three, a
(03:52):
woman named Tamara Green, who worked as an exotic dancer,
was finishing up her shift at a strip club Tomorrow Agreen,
she is known. Her dancing name or street name was Strawberry.
She had finished dancing the bar clothes at two a m.
After work, Tomary Green went to pick up her boyfriend,
(04:13):
Eric Mitchell, a drug dealer known It's big She picked
him up and was she just driving over to the
city's west side and a little left to four a
on there and sitting in front of one of his houses.
And on the west side of Detroit. She's behind the
steering wheel and big E is sitting in the right
front passengers seat. Big E Eric he looked in front
(04:34):
of him at the corner. He's seen a light color
suv turn and started approaching their vehicle head head on.
The driver put out his left hand while Eric Mitchell,
by his own statement, just try to get down on
the floorboard as the suv got closer the driver this
(04:59):
ver we started firing and apparently emptied the clip of ammunition.
She was struck three times. I believe Eric was struck
twice in the shoulder and the vehicle went down the street.
The STUV rolled past him. Eric Mitchell jumps out of
the car and from there he runs up on a
porch asking neighbors for help, and the police arrived. The
(05:25):
SUV's already gone out of sight. Uh E. M s
gets on the scene. They pulled Themaric Green from the
vehicle and she's she's basically dead at the scene. There
are a lot of shootings in Detroit, but the murder
(05:46):
of Tamarrow Green wouldn't go unnoticed thanks to one particular detail.
The Lieutenant Church of squad Aid had made a remark
the caliber bullets that had a killder or forty caliber bullets,
and he made to remark, well, you know Detroit police
carry black forty caliber weapons. Well here you know. The
media started a frenzy again, claims that strippers went to
(06:11):
the Mayor's mansion for a party for Fammi Killpatrick, that
the mayor's wife showed up and was outraged. Reports she
attacked and assaulted one of the exotic dancers, and that
one of the dancers at the mansion was to Mary Green,
a high press Stripford known as Strawberry. The same woman,
two months later was murdered in the drive by police
now described that as a head wild rumors or true story.
(06:33):
To Mary Green was the person supposed that got beat
up at the party by the mayor's wife. This is
Christine Beatty, Qualmi's chief of staff. Ultimately, she ended up dead.
So then they tried to do this theory of old
She ended up dead because she danced at the mayor's
party when that thing came up and took on its
own life. Again, we had already established it. There was
no party, so now try to tie this random girl's
(06:55):
murder in with you know, the Mayorn administration was to this.
It makes me so angry. I did it was. It
was a horrible time for us. It was a horrible time.
Then after this young lady got killed, I heard that,
(07:16):
oh that was the stripper at the man The news
was chased me down, calling me a murderer. After that,
I'm like, because I'm out of here busting my butt
for this time. I mean, you know, I didn't get it.
Ea sleep, you know, I was waking up in the
middle of the night doing all kinds of stuff. You know,
we just trying to shovel, stoke, cut grass, fixed streets.
All of that work got swallowed up in this kind
(07:39):
of negro urban legend it was called. But it was
more than that. It was a part of the whole
process of really demonizing and uh degrading me. And so yeah,
it definitely hurt. I was depressed and tired and wanted
to get up out of there in Detroit a huge
(08:03):
development in the Minugian mansion scandal involving a stripper who
later wound up that that scandal revolves around in Detroit.
To Mayor Cormie Kilpatrick his wife. When we start coming
up on time to run again, which is two thousand
and five, we had to seriously think about it. I mean,
it was like I want out of here. I mean
(08:24):
I was very like, I'm breaking my neck for what now?
Like hold on? And of course you always come back
to the people, the citizens that your servant. But is
it worth being attacked in this way? And I don't
remember the exact conversations of how we got there. I
know the overall thing was we can't go out like this,
like this can't be the Swan song, like we owe
(08:47):
it to our city and the people that are here
to continue this fight.
Hey, it's Io. Listen. We're working on a few more
bonus episodes surprise, surprise. But in the meantime, I want
to tell you about what I think is the best
podcast ever. I want to tell you about Crimetown. Crimetown
is essentially the mother podcast of the Ballot of Billy Balls,
because the guys who made Crimetown are the guys behind
(00:23):
this show. Crimetown is part of why I fell in
love with podcasting and what made me realize there was
something beyond just two people sitting in a room with
a microphone. You can have a movie for your ears.
The first season of Crimetown told the story of crime, corruption,
and the intersection of the mob and politics in Providence,
Rhode Island, where they had this wild mayor, Buddy Ciancy,
(00:46):
who beat up a guy he thought was sleeping with
his wife and then he was forced to resign, but
then he got reelected several times. It's insane and it's incredible.
It's truly the best thing I think that's ever been
made in the podcast space, and I'm not bias at all,
why would it be biased. In season two, Crimetown goes
to Detroit, where a new mayor is at the center
(01:07):
of the story, Qualmie Killpatrick. And if you don't know
anything about Kwamie Kilpatrick, give that a little google. It's
really juicy. The Crimetown team talked with Qualmie for hours.
He told the story of his epic rise as this
political star. He was hailed as like the new hope
for a Detroit that had weathered decades of white flight
(01:29):
and the industrialization and the War on drugs. But of
course he also had an epic fall. I'm gonna play
you a clip from Crimetown season two in which Kuami
talks about a rumor that he threw a wild party
at the mayor's mansion and that a stripper at that
party wound up dead. As the rumors grew, Kwami found
(01:54):
himself in a fight for his political life. The second
season of Crimetown is available wherever you get your podcasts.
Make sure you start from the beginning and subscribes so
you can snag the new episodes as they come out.
I hope you love it. I know you will, and
I'll see you soon. I love crime Town, but I
(02:21):
Detroit Mayor Kwamie Kilpatrick hopes he's putting all the rumors
and allegations are wrongdoing to rest. In May two thousand three,
a day after Heather Catalo confronted Kwamie Kilpatrick, the mayor
flew back to Detroit. He called a press conference on
the steps of the Manugian Mansion to address the scandal.
I want to stand here and tell the citizens of
the city of Detroit that Kwamie Kilpatrick has absolutely nothing
(02:44):
to hide about any of these allegations. I think and
feel very strongly that an independent evaluation or investigation needs
to be done on all of these allegations. So the
next time that someone is this runner and starts to
say anything, you all won't take it as true. And
(03:04):
with that, surrounded by family and friends and appointees, the
city's youngest mayor talked about the allegations that have rocked
his administration. The most serious that there was a wild
party at the Manougian Mansion with new dancers and his
wife walked in. It never happened. It never happened. It
never happened, and there are lemmy try it again and
(03:27):
again to dismiss the rumor of a wild party at
the mayor's residence, but it just wouldn't go away, and
not only that right around this time something happened that
was about to make the rumor much much worse. This
was a typical drive by shooting. This is Mike Carlyle,
a Detroit homicide detective. In April two thousand three, a
(03:52):
woman named Tamara Green, who worked as an exotic dancer,
was finishing up her shift at a strip club Tomorrow Agreen,
she is known. Her dancing name or street name was Strawberry.
She had finished dancing the bar clothes at two a m.
After work, Tomary Green went to pick up her boyfriend,
(04:13):
Eric Mitchell, a drug dealer known It's big She picked
him up and was she just driving over to the
city's west side and a little left to four a
on there and sitting in front of one of his houses.
And on the west side of Detroit. She's behind the
steering wheel and big E is sitting in the right
front passengers seat. Big E Eric he looked in front
(04:34):
of him at the corner. He's seen a light color
suv turn and started approaching their vehicle head head on.
The driver put out his left hand while Eric Mitchell,
by his own statement, just try to get down on
the floorboard as the suv got closer the driver this
(04:59):
ver we started firing and apparently emptied the clip of ammunition.
She was struck three times. I believe Eric was struck
twice in the shoulder and the vehicle went down the street.
The STUV rolled past him. Eric Mitchell jumps out of
the car and from there he runs up on a
porch asking neighbors for help, and the police arrived. The
(05:25):
SUV's already gone out of sight. Uh E. M s
gets on the scene. They pulled Themaric Green from the
vehicle and she's she's basically dead at the scene. There
are a lot of shootings in Detroit, but the murder
(05:46):
of Tamarrow Green wouldn't go unnoticed thanks to one particular detail.
The Lieutenant Church of squad Aid had made a remark
the caliber bullets that had a killder or forty caliber bullets,
and he made to remark, well, you know Detroit police
carry black forty caliber weapons. Well here you know. The
media started a frenzy again, claims that strippers went to
(06:11):
the Mayor's mansion for a party for Fammi Killpatrick, that
the mayor's wife showed up and was outraged. Reports she
attacked and assaulted one of the exotic dancers, and that
one of the dancers at the mansion was to Mary Green,
a high press Stripford known as Strawberry. The same woman,
two months later was murdered in the drive by police
now described that as a head wild rumors or true story.
(06:33):
To Mary Green was the person supposed that got beat
up at the party by the mayor's wife. This is
Christine Beatty, Qualmi's chief of staff. Ultimately, she ended up dead.
So then they tried to do this theory of old
She ended up dead because she danced at the mayor's
party when that thing came up and took on its
own life. Again, we had already established it. There was
no party, so now try to tie this random girl's
(06:55):
murder in with you know, the Mayorn administration was to this.
It makes me so angry. I did it was. It
was a horrible time for us. It was a horrible time.
Then after this young lady got killed, I heard that,
(07:16):
oh that was the stripper at the man The news
was chased me down, calling me a murderer. After that,
I'm like, because I'm out of here busting my butt
for this time. I mean, you know, I didn't get it.
Ea sleep, you know, I was waking up in the
middle of the night doing all kinds of stuff. You know,
we just trying to shovel, stoke, cut grass, fixed streets.
All of that work got swallowed up in this kind
(07:39):
of negro urban legend it was called. But it was
more than that. It was a part of the whole
process of really demonizing and uh degrading me. And so yeah,
it definitely hurt. I was depressed and tired and wanted
to get up out of there in Detroit a huge
(08:03):
development in the Minugian mansion scandal involving a stripper who
later wound up that that scandal revolves around in Detroit.
To Mayor Cormie Kilpatrick his wife. When we start coming
up on time to run again, which is two thousand
and five, we had to seriously think about it. I mean,
it was like I want out of here. I mean
(08:24):
I was very like, I'm breaking my neck for what now?
Like hold on? And of course you always come back
to the people, the citizens that your servant. But is
it worth being attacked in this way? And I don't
remember the exact conversations of how we got there. I
know the overall thing was we can't go out like this,
like this can't be the Swan song, like we owe
(08:47):
it to our city and the people that are here
to continue this fight.
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