Detroit – Who killed Donald Goines?
The producers of a documentary about the life of the prisoner turned into a writer of urban fiction novels about violence, drugs and prostitution with which Detroit was surrounded by the answer that the answer has not been lost in time, or in the streets.
More than 50 years have passed since Goines and his wife of customary law, Shirley Sailor, were shot dead on October 21, 1974 on their floor in Highland Park, a small Detroit enclave. Each one had received five times. His two young children were at home at the time of murders.
Goines was 37 years old.
No arrests were made and rumors were increased. Some speculated that the murders had something to do with Goines’s heroin addiction. Others nodded that the fictitious subjects of their novels seemed too similar to real -life scammers, pimps, drug traffickers and men who lined up the streets of the city.
“There has been at least half a dozen, possibly a dozen, elements of speculation about how Mr. Goines and the mother of his children were killed,” said Bill Proctor, a private researcher hired to find the murderer or murderers. “But nobody has presented enough information to accuse responsible people.”
Proctor said that a $ 5,000 reward offered by the producers of the documentary could help “shake the trees” and find “someone who could still be alive or have an understanding” of the facts of the case.
Goines wrote 16 books in a period of several years. Their raw, raw and unclea writings are full of the images of the life of the urban street of the late sixties and early seventies.
“Dopefiend”, was published in 1971. Fifteen more, including “street players”, “Daddy Cool” and “Kenyatta’s Last Hit”, would continue the next three years. The titles and content resonated with many black readers, especially in Detroit, where Goines’ books often had importance at the coffee rooms and shelves of the living room.
“When I read his books, I can visualize, I can imagine what he is writing,” said his daughter, Donna Sailor. “He was so descriptive about what he wrote. This is how it was then. “
Donna Sailor was 2 years old when her parents were killed. She doesn’t remember anything about the shooting or her parents.
“We would see family friends who knew my father and my mother,” said Sailor, 52, The Associated Press on Thursday. “They would say it was a girlfriend, and it was fun and had a big smile.”
However, less information about Goines was offered, he added.
“No one came in great detail about him. They would say it was a good guy, ”said Sailor.
The urban genre Lit dates back to at least 1967And the launch of the “PIMP” memoirs, written by Robert Maupin, who was also in jail when he began writing under the name of Iceberg Slim. Maupin built a great monitoring from mouth and one of his readers was Goines. Generations later, hip-hop stars such as Tupac Shakur were also inspired by books and have referred to Goines and Iceberg Slim in their recordings. Shakur once declared: “Machiavelli was my tutor, Donald Goines, my father figure.”
Goines’ parents had a cleaning of clothes and other business in Detroit and were part of the city’s black middle class. He enlisted in the Air Force and spent time in Korea and Japan during the Korean War. It was there that Goines became addicted to heroin, according to diverse reports In his life.
After his time in the army, Goines returned to Detroit in the mid -1950s. He went to the city’s criminal belly, being imprisoned for several crimes.
Holloway House published Goines novels from 1971 to 2008, according to the current Kensington editor.
Under Kensington, Goines Books has sold around 500,000 printed copies, alone. He is constantly one of Kensington’s best rearrange authors and his books have been “selling at a stronger pace” since he launched a reissue program in 2020, according to the company.
Robert (tape) Bailey and Craig Gore are the driving forces behind the documentary that is expected to be released at the end of the year. Both read Goines’ books while they are imprisoned, separately.
Bailey, 49, was born in Detroit and now lives in Los Angeles. Time spent time in Federal Prison as a young man for possession with the intention of delivering drugs in Ohio.
Goines wrote in detail about the things he had witnessed first hand, Bailey said.
Gore, 51, from Los Angeles, ran into Goines while serving time for theft and robbery. He says that through the $ 5,000 reward, they hope to contribute more precision to the documentary.
“We could find anything. We could solve the murder, ”he said.
