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Chris Cornell was a rock icon who thrived on contradictions. An innovator who resisted genre labels, he was nonetheless a chief architect of the 90s grunge movement. Frequently ranked as one of the best voices in music history, he successfully maintained his own unique identity over decades as a multi-Grammy award-winning musician and universally acclaimed singer, songwriter and lyricist.

Chris Cornell was born Christopher John Boyle on July 20 1964 in Seattle, Washington. He was the second youngest of six children, and was the son of Karen Cornell, an accountant, and Edward Boyle, a pharmacist. He was of mostly Irish, English, Scottish, and Norwegian ancestry, with many of his mother's ancestors coming from Canada. His parents divorced when Chris was in his early teens, and Chris and his siblings changed their surnames from Boyle to his mother's maiden name. Chris rebelled against his Catholic upbringing and was on the verge of being expelled from the parochial school he attended when his mother pulled him out. As an adolescent, he experimented with drugs and stealing. Among the things he stole were a collection of Beatles records from his neighbour's basement which sparked an interest in songwriting. Though his parents had given him piano lessons from early on, Chris said his mother saved his life when she bought him a snare drum. A week later he bought himself an entire drum kit and thus began his forage into rock n roll.

Cornell dropped out of school at the age of 15 for two reasons: one was because he had problems with authority, the other was that he wanted to work to help his mother support the family. He waited tables and later on became a cook. He honed his skills as a songwriter and musician by playing in bands on the side. He experienced his first bouts of depression during his teens. His condition became so severe he didn't leave his home for almost a year. Fortunately, he was able to check his use of recreational drugs. He later earned his GED.

He formed Soundgarden with Hiro Yamamoto, Kim Thayil and Matt Cameron in the mid-eighties. Yamamoto left the band was replaced by Ben Shepherd. Soundgarden were the first of the Seattle grunge bands to get signed by a major label during the late 80s and would eventually go on to become on of the most successful bands of the 1990s. Soundgarden were a law to themselves, edgy, dark and deeply individual. Their savage soundscapes, coupled with Cornell's incisive lyrics and predatory roar, seduced audiences hungry for musical depth and complexity, while leading trends in street fashion and iconic design. Their sound continued to change and evolve over the course of five pioneering albums.

Chris also enjoyed success with several side projects, among them Temple Of The Dog with Eddie Vedder. Temple had already shown Cornell's more soulful side, and introduced future Pearl Jam frontman Vedder to the world.

Around this time, he married his long-time girlfriend, Alice In Chains manager Susan Silver. Silver, at the request of Cornell's band, had also taken on the management duties of Soundgarden. After achieving multi-platinum status and earning 2 Grammy awards, Soundgarden amicably disbanded in 1997.

Cornell decided to go it alone and released 'Euphoria Morning', a solo album that showed his amazing versatility as a vocalist and songwriter, with its richly melodic and critically acclaimed sound, recognized for its alienation and despair. His songs shocked his grunge fanbase by boldly exploring folk, R&B and melding a variety of genres. 'Euphoria Morning' earned Cornell a Grammy nomination in the category of Best Male Rock Performance. However Cornell was dissatisfied with the commercial performance of his solo album and severely disillusioned by the deaths of several close friends. Plagued for many years by social phobias and alcohol abuse, it all came to head and he plunged into a deep depression. Once again, he began to use drugs.

In June of 2000. Chris and Susan welcomed their first child, a daughter, Lillian Jean. The couple later divorced. In a turn of fortune, 2000 was also the year producer Rick Rubin suggested Cornell jam with the remaining members of Zach de la Rocha's abandoned band, Rage Against The Machine. The collaboration was so successful, Cornell along with guitar virtuoso Tom Morello, innovative bassist Tim Commerford and powerhouse drummer Brad Wilk formed Audioslave, a multi-platinum supergroup which lived to deny its detractors, producing three top-selling albums, touring the world and becoming the first American band to bring rock to Castro's Cuba. They built a reputation as a live act second to none.

Cornell subsequently redefined his sound and vision to encompass new music, new collaborations and new activities. Having contributed solo songs to movie soundtracks from "Great Expectations" to "Mission Impossible II", he became the first American male singer to write the theme song for the James Bond franchise in its most successful film to date, "Casino Royale." His bold and bluesy reinvention of Michael Jackson dance classic "Billie Jean" courted controversy and attracted imitators. And his triumphant 2007 world tour brought together songs from every stage of his career, reinterpreting them for new audiences and blending their original fire with the shock of the new. He also married publicist Vicky Karayiannis, and the couple had two children.

Outside music, Cornell fronted fashion designer John Varvatos's Spring 2006 collection and settled in Paris with his family, where he has helped revive a historic restaurant, the stylish Black Calavados.

Chris Conell died on May 18, 2017 in Detroit, Michigan. Always eclectic, always experimental, he broke rules, made history and challenged expectations.

Levi Stubbs was born on 6 June 1936 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He was an actor, known for Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Captain N: The Game Master (1989) and Queer as Folk (2000). He was married to Clineice Virginia Townsend and Betty Christan. He died on 17 October 2008 in Detroit, Michigan, USA.

Grammy-winning Queen of Soul and the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Aretha Louise Franklin was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to Barbara Vernice (Siggers) and C. L. Franklin, a Baptist minister, who preached at the New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit for over thirty years. Known as the man with the "Million-Dollar Voice", her father was one of the most respected and prominent ministers in the country, and Aretha grew up singing in church, and surrounded by local and national celebrities. She learned how to play piano by ear and soon understood the correct tones and pitches.

Aretha released her first single at the age of eighteen, under Columbia Records, it reached number ten on the BillBoard charts and her first record was released in January of 1961. While working for the label, she managed to score two more R&B hits, Operation Heartbreak and Won't Be Long. However the people at Columbia often felt they didn't understand the direction Aretha wanted to go with her music, and ultimately failed to bring out her potential. In 1966, Aretha signed a contract with Atlantic Records, where she released her first legendary single, Respect, written by The King Of Soul, Otis Redding. With this single, Franklin would trigger a new vocal skill called, "call and response," which would help liven up many of her singles. While signed with Atlantic, she released three additional top ten hits, Baby I Love You, A Natural Women,and Chain Of Fools, and won her first two Grammy awards, and eight consecutive Grammys for best female R&B vocal category.

Franklin had not only achieved her dream of becoming a musical sensation but stood out in the civil rights movement for her single with Otis Redding, Respect. The song helped send a message to Americans about equality, peace, and justice. Franklin continued to release pop hits throughout the decade, such as Think, I Say A Little Prayer, and Ain't No Way. After these amazing hits to many listeners she was seen as The Queen Of Soul. In the 1970s, she started recording gospel hits such as Don't Play That Song, Rocksteady, and Daydreaming. It was foreseeable that Franklin would soon stumble upon a masterpiece which became the best selling gospel album of all time, which she did in 1972 with her album Amazing Grace.

In the mid '70s, even though she was releasing hit songs, she began to lose touch with her soul-pop audiences due to the disco genre making its entrance into mainstream music. In 1979, she released an album in order to gain the audience of disco lovers called, La Diva. La Diva sold less than 50,000 copies and was marked as the lowest point in Franklin's career. On June 10, 1979, her father Clarence was shot by a mugger. This left Clarence in a coma for five years and Aretha decided to move back to Detroit to take care of her father. Clarence Franklin died on July 27, 1984.

In 1980, along with several other musicians such as Ray Charles and James Brown, Aretha Franklin appeared in the hit feature film The Blues Brothers. In 1982, she returned to the R&B top ten charts with her hit album Jump To It, featuring Luther Vandross. It sold more than 600,000 copies and was gold-certified, managing to stay on number one for seven weeks. In 1985, Franklin released an album which featured a unique never before heard element of rock. The album, "Who's Zoomin Who?", and soon went on to receive platinum-certified success. The album also featured a hit song with George Michael called I Know You Were Waiting For Me, and went on to sell more than one million copies. In 1987, Aretha sang the theme song to A Different World, a sitcom created by Bill Cosby, and in 1989, she released a pop album which featured Elton John, James Brown, The Four Tops, Kenny G, and Whitney Houston, called Through The Storm. In 1992, Franklin sang the song Someday We'll All Be Free for the soundtrack to the biopic film Malcolm X (1992). In 1993, Aretha sang at Bill Clinton's inauguration. At a slower rate in the mid-late '90s, she continued to release albums and singles, working with new artists such as BabyFace, Jermaine Dupri, Sean "P Diddy" Combs, and Lauryn Hill along with her label, Arista Records.

In 2003, she had ended the 23 year relationship with Arista and opened her own label, Aretha. Franklin released her first album on the label, A Woman Falling Out Of Love, in 2011. It marked her fifty years in show business.

Aretha Franklin died of advanced pancreatic cancer on August 16, 2018, in Detroit, Michigan. She will be known as one of the most influential singers of all time, and as an activist who spoke of the world through her music, and used music as a tool for truth, justice, and soul.

Gilbert R. Hill was born on 6 November 1931 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. He was an actor, known for Beverly Hills Cop (1984), Beverly Hills Cop II (1987) and Beverly Hills Cop III (1994). He was married to Delores Hooks. He died on 29 February 2016 in Detroit, Michigan, USA.

Proof was born on 2 October 1973 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for The Longest Yard (2005), 8 Mile (2002) and Bad Company (2002). He was married to Sharonda. He died on 11 April 2006 in Detroit, Michigan, USA.

Born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the former Ruth Lee Jones moved with her family to Chicago as a young girl. She considered the Windy City her true home. And it was there in early 1940s that a local nightclub owner provided her first gig - and a new name that she would make famous. By 1959 she had earned a Grammy for her version of the song "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes." In his 2001 biography Q, music legend Quincy Jones vividly describes Washington's style, saying she "could take the melody in her hand, hold it like an egg, crack it open, fry it, let it sizzle, reconstruct it, put the egg back in the box and back in the refrigerator and you would've still understood every single syllable."

But the singer's musical gifts were offset by a wild and extravagant personal life. Married seven times, Washington battled weight problems and raced through her profits buying shoes, furs and cars in an effort to lift her spirits. Washington also tried numerous prescription medications, primarily for dieting and insomnia. A mix of the pills she was taking in 1963 caused her death, which was ruled an accident. Her gift lives on through her rich musical legacy.

Maria Ewing was born on 27 March 1950 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. She was an actress, known for The Marriage of Figaro (1976), Great Performances (1971) and Carmen (1989). She was married to Peter Hall. She died on 9 January 2022 in Detroit, Michigan, USA.

Hank Rolike was born on 20 June 1927 in Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for Rocky (1976), Quantum Leap (1989) and Rocky II (1979). He was married to Rose Watkins. He died on 14 October 2002 in Detroit, Michigan, USA.

Florence Glenda Wilson Ballard was born and grew up in Detroit. By the time she turned 15, her family moved to the Brewster-Douglas housing project, and Florence attended Northeastern High School, where she met and became friends with Mary Wilson. Ballard had always wanted to be a singer and auditioned for the creation of a sister group of The Primes (later known as The Temptations). When she was approved, she recruited Mary, who in turn enlisted a Brewster neighbor, Diana Ross. They began singing and recording as The Primettes in 1959, but when they signed with Motown Records a year later, Florence selected The Supremes as their new name. Eventually Ross became the lead singer and Ballard grew dissatisfied with the group's management, she began drinking and was fired in 1967 for missing recording sessions and performances. She married her boyfriend Thomas Chapman and attempted a solo career with ABC Records. When her Motown settlement money was depleted by her lawyer, ABC also canceled her contract in 1970, after two unsuccessful singles and shelving an album, which was posthumously released in 2001. Ballard filed a lawsuit against Motown in 1971 for additional royalty payments she believed she was due to receive, but the case was dismissed and separated from her husband. She became an alcoholic while raising her three daughters on welfare in Detroit. Around 1974 Mary Wilson helped her to make a comeback. Ballard entered Henry Ford Hospital for rehab treatment and slowly started to recover. In early 1975, Florence received a monetary settlement from her former attorney's insurance company, reconciled with Chapman and decided to return to singing. She performed several times in 1975, but on February 22, 1976 she died from cardiac arrest caused by a coronary thrombosis, at the age of 32.

The great American escape artist and magician Houdini (immortalized by a memorable performance by Tony Curtis in the eponymous 1953 film) was born Erich Weiss on March 24, 1874 in Budapest, Hungary, though he often gave his birthplace as Appleton, Wisconsin, where he was raised. One of five brothers and one daughter born to rabbi Samuel Weiss and his wife Cecilia, the future Houdini was four years old when his parents emigrated to the U.S., where Weiss, as "Harry Houdini", became one of the major celebrities of the first age dominated by the mass media.

His boyhood was spent in poverty and, when he was 17, he conjured up a magic act with his friend Jack Hayman, in order to escape the poverty and anonymity of manual labor which would likely have been his lot in life. Young Erich had been fascinated with magic since he was a young lad, when he was in the audience of a magic show put on by a traveling magician named Dr. Lynch. Billing themselves as the "Houdini Bros." in tribute to French magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, Erich Weiss became an entertainer, though it took him some seven years to catch on.

Weiss and Hayman specialized in the Crate Escape (eventually known as Metamorphosis or The Substitution Trunk), and Houdini's brother Theodore replaced Hayman when he became uninterested in the act. Eventually, Theodore -- billed as Hardeen -- was replaced by Wilhemina Rahner (known as Bess), the woman "Harry Houdini" would eventually marry. The marriage on June 22, 1894 caused a conflict with his Jewish family as Bess was a Roman Catholic. They married in secret, then again at a synagogue and in a Catholic church to please both of their families.

While developing his act, Houdini was not above the old carny trick of posing as a spirit medium, making the rounds of the town clerk's office and nearby cemeteries in order to provide "messages from beyond". In 1896, while visiting a doctor friend in Nova Scotia, he saw his first strait jacket, which gave him the idea of developing an act in which he would escape from it.

Houdini finally hit the big-time when he was 24 years old with his Challenge Act in 1898, while he was making the rounds of vaudeville. Houdini's Challenge Act consisted of him escaping from a pair of handcuffs produced by an audience member. Eventually, this evolved into escapes from strait jackets, boxes, crates, safes, and other instruments and devices (such as his Water Torture Cell), as well as from jail cells. Houdini was also adept at escaping from being "buried alive". Hand-cuffed and strait-jacketed, he could escape while being hung upside down from a crane, or while lowered from a bridge, or even make his escape from padlocked crates lowered into a river.

Houdini also became famous as a debunker of mediums and "experts" of the paranormal, but this was done in hope he could find an actual medium that could communicate with the dead so that he could communicate with his beloved mother Cecilia after she passed away. He became quite famous in the ragtime age of the first quarter of the last century, even appearing in motion pictures produced by his own company.

Harry Houdini, the greatest magician ever produced by America, died in Detroit, Michigan during a national tour. The cause of death officially was peritonitis from a ruptured appendix. His death came nine days after having been punched in the stomach during the Canadian leg of the tour by J. Gordon Whitehead, a McGill University student who was testing Houdini's famed ability to take body blows. Always the trouper, Houdini had soldiered on despite stomach pains. (Early during the tour, he had broken an ankle but did not let it stop him or the tour.) His wife Bess, to whom Houdini left his half-million dollar estate, collected a double indemnity on his life insurance policy, as the blow was considered to have shortened the great magician's life and contributed to his premature death at the age of 52.

The date of his death was October 31, 1926 -- Halloween, one of three days (October 31-November 2) of Samhain, the Celtic New Year, when the veil between the living and the dead allegedly is at its thinnest and the living can make contact with the dead. Annually on Halloween from 1927 to 1937, Bess held a séance to try to contact her departed husband. She did not succeed, though she helped keep the memory of her husband alive in the American consciousness. Even today, magicians worldwide conduct séances on Halloween in an effort to contact the late escapologist.

Born in San Diego, California, the young Robert Clampett was monumentally moved as a child by the film The Lost World (1925), inspiring him to create a sea-serpent sock-puppet that he used in puppet shows to entertain the neighborhood kids. This led him to create a stuffed Mickey Mouse toy, which became a prototype for the first mass-produced Mickey Mouse doll.

Between 1931 and 1947 Clampett was an animator and later director for the legendary Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Brothers Animation) where alongside his one time boss Tex Avery he became known as the wackiest and most archetypally cartoonish of all the directors.

During this time he also developed a test for a animated adaptation of 'John Carter of Mars' however, despite the support of the author Edgar Rice Burroughs it failed to materialize.

Amongst his famous fare was the Dalí inspired Porky in Wackyland (1938), his loving adaption of the Dr. Seuss book Horton Hatches the Egg (1942), the controversial all-black cast musical Snow White parody Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs (1943), the Fantasia (1940) parody A Corny Concerto (1943) and John Kricfalusis's favorite cartoon The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (1946) featuring the acerbic irreverence of Daffy Duck -- easily the most Clampett-esque of all his characters.

Clampett, at the time the longest serving employee at the animation studio, finally left in 1947. After a brief stint at Columbia, and a one-off cartoon at Republic It's a Grand Old Nag (1947) he was inspired by the new innovation of television to resurrect his old sea-serpent puppet, and created the phenomenally successful Time for Beany (1949)_ puppet television show, which was acclaimed by the likes of Albert Einstein and Groucho Marx, and even inspired the AC/DC line "Dirty Deeds, Done Dirt Cheap".

Clampett later returned to animation as a supervising producer on a cartoon series based on the characters of his puppet show Matty's Funnies with Beany and Cecil (1959).

A singer in a class of his own, Mukesh was ranked, along with Mohammad Rafi and Kishore Kumar, as one of the greatest male playback singers in Bollywood history. However, his position was unique - while Rafi was perfection incarnate and Kumar was the astonishing yodeller, Mukesh was that man in a bar who would pour you a drink and would sing you a song for friendships' sake. His voice held a haunting, melancholic quality that could reach into your soul and move you to tears.

He was born Mukesh Chand Mathur on 22 July 1923, into a small middle-class family living in Delhi. He was first heard noticed by an actor and distant relative, Motilal, when he sang a song at his sister's wedding. Deeply impressed, Motilal brought him to his own house in Bombay and had him groomed by the noted singer Pandit Jaganath Prasad. During this time Mukesh tried his hand at acting, but his first acting film, Nirdosh (1942), was a flop. However, he got his big break as a singer with Pahali Nazar (1945) - picturised on Motilal, the song became a success.

Initially, his voice did seem to be imitating K.L. Saigal, but he acquired his own style in Andaz (1949). The film, a passionate love triangle, became a runaway hit and so did all of its songs, especially the Mukesh solos. As well as launching Mukesh's career, it created an association with the renowned Raj Kapoor that would last throughout their lives. Starting with Aag (1948) all the way through to Dharam Karam (1975), Mukesh sang for Raj Kapoor and together they produced some of the greatest film songs in Bollywood history, most notably in Awaara (1951), Shree 420 (1955), _Anadi (1959)_, _Sangam (1964)_ and Mera Naam Joker (1970).

Life was not always that good, however. Encouraged by his success as a singer, he made a few more attempts to make it as an star, and acted in two films - Mashooka (1953) and Anuraag (1956). They sadly sank at the box-office. To make matters worse, when he returned to singing he found that offers had dried up, and his financial affairs became that, unable to afford their school fees, his two children were thrown out of school!

Fortunately, he came back with a bang in Yahudi (1958), and two other hits from 1958 - Madhumati (1958) and Parvarish (1958) - put him back on top as a singer to be reckoned with. Even Sachin Dev Burman, who had not used him for a decade, composed two classic songs for him from the films _Bambai ka Babu (1960)_ and Bandini (1963). He flourished throughout the 1960s and early 1970s with soulful hit songs, most notably from Anand (1971), a classic about a dying man; Rajnigandha (1974), a middle-class love story; and Kabhi Kabhie (1976), a cross-generation romance.

In 27 August 1976, while on a concert tour in the USA, Mukesh suffered a sudden, sharp and fatal heart attack in Detroit. Afterwards, several recorded songs of his came out in films released after his death, the last being for Satyam Shivam Sundaram: Love Sublime (1978), a Raj Kapoor film. He left behind a void that many male singers, including his own son Nitin Mukesh, have tried to fill, but no one has managed to fill the place of such a great singer.

Mukesh was, is and will be the only Bollywood singer to possess a golden voice...

Dorothy Steel was born on 23 February 1926 in Flint, Michigan, USA. She was an actress, known for Black Panther (2018), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) and Jumanji: The Next Level (2019). She was married to Warren Wardell . She died on 15 October 2021 in Detroit, Michigan, USA.

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 - October 24, 2005) was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. The United States Congress has honored her as "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement".

He is an actor, known for Best of the Best (1989) as well as an author. He and Caroline Latham wrote 1989 novel "Dodge Dynasty: The Car and the Family That Rocked Detroit". The last known source he left behind was a three paragraph review of James Armand Clayton's novel "New World Order". He reportedly passed away due to complications of Diabetes sometime in 2013 at his house in California. He was either sixty or sixty-one years of age when he died.

Richard "Maserati Rick" Carter Sr. stood out among the ostentatious, wealthy dealers in Detroit. None could rival Rick's talent for the dramatic, a quality he maintained even after his passing. The conviction of Silvester "Sil" Murray, along with the prominent figures of Y.B.I., presented an opportunity for ambitious young men, like Carter and his childhood friend Demetris Holloway, to ascend as the new generation of Detroit's criminal elite. In a mere three years, Carter and Holloway peacefully controlled Detroit's drug trade alongside other groups such as the Chambers brothers, the remaining members of the weakened Y.B.I., Pony Down, and Johnny Curry, whose wife Cathy was the niece of Detroit's mayor Coleman Young. Federal authorities took notice of Carter and Holloway's frequent trips to Florida and Los Angeles, which they allege were intended to secure a reliable supply source. The Holloway/Carter enterprise flourished, enabling them to lead a lives of luxury and extravagance.

Carter invested millions of dollars into businesses he founded, often focusing on east-side car-washes or hair salons. These endeavors operated as locations for his runners to make pickups or drop-offs. Investigators identified Carter as a "kilo man" in their reports on Detroit's numerous traffickers. This approach to his dealings underscored his affluence and significance, as only the most influential traffickers and wealthy individuals could manage such large inventories without experiencing severe financial strain.

As he rose to prominence, Carter and his group, known as "The Best Friends", according to a law enforcement official, "made enough enemies to fill Tiger Stadium." However, none seemed as determined to take down Carter as Edward "Big Ed" Hanserd, a former friend of Maserati Rick. Their bitter enmity began after a heated dispute over a debt owed to Carter at Hanserd's Unisex Hair Salon in the summer of 1987. Carter and Hanserd frequently engaged in public confrontations, often leading to exchanges of automatic gunfire between them. The conflict drew the attention of the media, who frequently reported on the activities of both men, noting their propensity for violence and their preference for automatic weapons, which posed a serious threat to the general public.

As Hanserd built an organization that began to encroach on the profits of Carter and Holloway, the upstart became a target for elimination, as evidenced by an impromptu meeting that resulted in a violent shootout between Rick Carter, Demetris Holloway, and Big Ed Hanserd. This encounter left Hanserd with a severe scar across his abdomen from a wound he sustained during the confrontation with Carter and Holloway. Maserati Rick made at least three attempts to kill the troublesome Hanserd, all of which were unsuccessful. Carter's failure to eliminate Hanserd would prove to be a fatal mistake, as another conflict on September 10, 1988, outside one of Carter's businesses left Rick hospitalized with bullets in his stomach and Lodrick Parker, one of Hanserd's associates, slightly wounded in the arm. Two days after the initial shooting, an assailant entered room 307 at Mt. Carmel Mercy Hospital and shot Maserati Rick. Carter was pronounced dead at 6:01 p.m.

The following day, the police announced that their primary suspect was Lodrick Parker, who was rapidly gaining a reputation as the most dangerous man on the east side of Detroit. Following his death, the legend of "Maserati Rick" received its final embellishments during an elaborate funeral, where he was laid to rest in a $17,000 silver coffin designed to resemble a Mercedes Benz, complete with spinning tires.

Gunned down within The Broadway department store, a trendy clothier in downtown Detroit, Demetris Holloway (erroneously spelled as "Demetrius" by local newspapers) led an extensive wholesale cocaine operation, moving hundreds of kilograms weekly across the Midwest.

At the time of his murder, the Detroit Police Department deemed him the most influential drug lord during the peak of the crack epidemic, labeling him "Public Enemy No. 1." The FBI was on the brink of issuing indictments against Holloway under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, a U.S. federal law targeting ongoing criminal organizations with severe penalties.

Trained in street affairs on Detroit's east-side by Francis "Big Frank Nitti" Usher and James "Jimmy Red" Freeman of the Murder Row crew (the Black drug and enforcement wing of the Tocco-Zerilli Crime Family), Holloway, after a brief prison term, seized control of Detroit's underworld with childhood friend Richard "Maserati Rick" Carter Sr. and the Brown brothers, known as "The Best Friends."

In contrast to his peers' flashy attire, Holloway wore expensive Italian suits, presenting a more businesslike image than a typical drug kingpin. Living a lavish life with private jets for gambling sprees in Las Vegas, Miami, and Atlantic City, he was also friends with heavyweight boxing champion Tommy Hearns, often accompanying him to fights.

Based at the Chalk & Cue pool lounge on West Seven Mile, Holloway operated a chain of sports apparel stores, potentially worth millions to Foot Locker Retail, Inc. at the time of his death. He also invested in Alabama land and managed Detroit apartment buildings through Renters Paradise, claiming a legal $17,000 monthly income. Despite facing law enforcement scrutiny in the late 1980s, Holloway skillfully managed his finances, portraying himself as a professional gambler on tax returns.

As the 1980s concluded, Holloway faced attacks from law enforcement and three rival organizations. His life took a tragic turn when his lifelong friend and partner, Maserati Rick, was fatally shot in 1988. Fearing his own demise, Holloway orchestrated his abduction, staying away from conflict. He eventually returned to Detroit, married his girlfriend in Las Vegas, but couldn't escape the city's allure.

On October 8, 1990, at 4 pm EST, Lester Milton shot Holloway in the back of the head inside The Broadway store. Holloway, armed with a pistol and $17,000, couldn't defend himself. Lester's brother, Tommy, served as the getaway driver. A decade later, both brothers were convicted of the murder.

Regarded as the king of Motown's cocaine scene in the late 1980s, Holloway's life was documented in the 2010 documentary "Detroit Connection 3: Last Man Standing." His influence endures in Detroit's underworld culture, acknowledged in rap lyrics by local artist "G. Twilight."

Carolyn Franklin was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1944. Her father was the famous Rev. C. L. Franklin. She had two brothers, Cecil and Vaughan, and two sisters, Emma and Aretha. Carolyn recorded for RCA Victor Records and wrote songs for both Erma Franklin ("Don't Catch The Dog's Bone") and Aretha Franklin ("Ain't No Way" "Angel"). Erma recorded the original version of the song, "Piece of My Heart", which was later covered by Janis Joplin.

Carolyn and Erma appeared with Aretha many times, in concert as solo artists and as background singers when they were available. Both of Aretha's sisters had their own careers and traveled extensively.

Allan Forrest was born on 1 September 1885 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Pampered Youth (1925), Melissa of the Hills (1917) and Two Can Play (1926). He was married to Lottie Pickford, Ann Little and Edna. He died on 25 July 1941 in Detroit, Michigan, USA.

Paul Williams was born on 2 July 1939 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. He was an actor, known for The Temptations: Ball of Confusion (Live) (1970), TCB (1968) and The Lloyd Thaxton Show (1961). He was married to Mary. He died on 17 August 1973 in Detroit, Michigan, USA.

He was not born in Detroit as it states. His maternal grandfather delivered him on their kitchen table in Logan, West Virginia in the middle of a thunder storm when the midwife didn't get there. His mother's name was Kathleen. His middle name was Dewey, after his Dad. His family later moved to Detroit.

Ted White was born on 25 March 1931 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He was a composer, known for Bicentennial Man (1999), The Upside (2017) and What Men Want (2019). He was married to Aretha Franklin. He died on 26 October 2020 in Detroit, Michigan, USA.

Martell Lane was an actor, known for Five-O (2016), 2Eleven (2015) and Buffed Up!: The Movie (2019). He died on 15 July 2019 in Detroit, Michigan, USA.

Robert Goines, the African American writer who turned out 16 novels under his own name and his pseudonym "Al C. Clark" in his brief literary career, was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1937. He was sent to Catholic school by his family, who expected young Donald to get his education and eventually work in the family's laundry business. In 1952, Goines enlisted in the US Air Force at the age of 17, lying about his age to enlist. During his three-year stint in USAF blues, he became a heroin addict while stationed in Korea and Japan, a monkey on his back that clung to him when he rejoined civilian life in 1955. Eventually, the monkey was demanding a century-note's worth of junk a day to remain calm and not run his claws through Goines' body and soul.

Unable to get straight, it was hard to fly right with such a burden, even for an ex-air man. Like many addicts, Goines turned to crime to support his jones. In addition to theft and armed robbery, he also engaged in bootlegging, numbers running and pimping. In and out of jail, he was incarcerated for a total of six and one-half of the first 15 years after he left the service. He wrote his first two novels while in stir.

Goines had first, while barred up and reduced to wearing prison stripes, tried his hand at writing Westerns, but he was uninspired by the genre. However, he found his muse when he discovered the writings of the ultra-cool Iceberg Slim, the legendary pimp and raconteur. Iceberg Slim's works such as his seminal "Pimp" inspired Goines to write the semi-autobiographical "Whoreson," a novel about a mack born to his trade as the son of a street-walker. "Whoreson" was brought out in 1972 by Slim's publisher, Holloway House, which specialized in African American works. It was his second published novel, after 1971's "Dopefiend: The Story of a Black Junkie."

Goines was sprung from the joint in 1970. He began writing at a frenzied pace for the four years that were allotted to him in this vale of tears, publishing 16 paperback originals with Holloway House. Still addicted to junk, Goines was disciplined enough to keep to a strict schedule, writing in the morning before giving over the rest of his day to letting the lady run her quick-silvery hands through his being. Writing at a furious pace, he could turn out a novel in as little as a month. His style is unpolished, his syntax rough, and his words liberally dependent on the language of the streets, shot through with black dialect (Ebonics). His novels are peopled by pimps, `hos, thieves, hitters and dope fiends, struggling to survive in a ghetto jungle beset with merciless predators. The books were written for an audience that had lived side-by-side with such creatures and to whom Goines' characters could never be deemed "exotics," readers to whom violence was or had been a part of life, not something wholly fictional.

The novels he published under his own name are about the "lumpenproleteriat," the criminal underclass. Under the name "Al C. Clark," Goines wrote five novels about a black revolutionary cat called Kenyatta. Unlike Goines' gangstas, Kenyatta - named after the great African freedom fighter Jomo Kenyatta - takes an active stance against exploitation and the depredations of inner-city life. He opposes the Establishment and is a sworn enemy of white cops. The head a black militant organization dedicated to the Herculean task of douching out the ghettos of drugs and prostitution, Kenyatta is killed in a shootout in the last book of the series, "Kenyatta's Last Hit" (1975).

Of his oeuvre, Andrew Calcutt and Richard Shepard in "Cult Fiction" (1998) opine, "Donald Goines wrote fiction the way other people package meat. There is little point in picking any of his titles as outstanding, since they are all formulaic. Equally, however, they are outstanding in that they are street-real and avoid the romanticism of many of the films and books about black life in America."

Between five and ten million of Goines books have been sold, though his work did not receive much critical attention until the the hip hop generation, which he influenced, became a cultural phenomenon. Goines' books have inspired gangsta rappers from Tupac Shakur to Noreaga as a new generation of rap-influenced African Americans adopted the long-gone writer as part of their cultural heritage. Goines' works reflect the anger and frustration of African Americans as a people. The hip hop generation was sympathetic and accepting of Goines' rejection of the values of white society.

The rapper DMX adapted Goines 1974 "Never Die Alone" into a movie, the first made from one of his novels. In the film, DMX plays King David, a gangster seeking redemption. The movie, directed by Ernest Dickerson, was financed by Fox/Searchlight Films and DMX's own Bloodline Films. No stranger to legal problems, DMX made the film because he identified with the writer.

Another rapper, Kool G Rap, one of the pioneers of street-hop, identifies himself as Goines' heir. Calling himself the "Donald Goines of Rap" due to his ability as a story-teller, Kool G says, "Before G Rap, they weren't talking about selling drugs in the street, murdering; they weren't doing nothing relating to the streets. They were talking about making new dances. But with Donald Goines, I took what I was seeing and tried to make it visual like him."

While hip hop as an art form cannot be considered a direct descendant of writers like Goines or Iceberg Slim, they did have a major influence on gangsta rappers. Nas and Royce Da 5' 9" both have songs called "Black Girl Lost," which is the title of a Goines book.

Donald Goines and his wife were shot to death on October 21, 1974 under circumstances that remain a mystery. Some people believe they were killed in a drug deal that went wrong. Their grandson, Donald Goines III, was murdered in 1992, part of the destruction of young African American lives that has not abated since long before the founding of the Republic, a country whose Constitution deemed African Americans as 3/5ths of a person for the purpose of establishing the apportionment of Congressional representation but did not give them any legal or social rights.

Thirty years after his death, Donald Goines's novels are as relevant as they were in the early 70s, offering a picture of a lifestyle immersed in violence, sex and drugs. It's a life - often sacrificed to the exigencies of the street - that has since become glamorized and more appealing for a new generation of African Americans and white "wiggah" wannabes due to the mainstream commercialization of gangsta rap by urban media moguls more concerned with Big Buck$ than social justice.

Henry Ford II was born on 4 September 1917 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He was an actor, known for Producers' Showcase (1954), The 24 Hour War (2016) and Quiet Courage (2015). He was married to Anne McDonnell. He died on 29 September 1987 in Detroit, Michigan, USA.