(WXYZ) — For the first time since going to federal prison, former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is speaking out about his conviction.
“After the guilty verdict, I’m watching the news, and it was people dancing and happy. And 'We finally got him!' Like people, it was people there in the streets… 'We finally got him and now it’s new!' And even the judge’s comments were, 'the era is over.' And I was like 'wow...what happened here,” Kilpatrick told “Crimetown” Podcast Producer/Reporter John White. “And I never seen that kind of viciousness from my city, from the people I call my neighbors and my community people, my countrymen, and it was terribly depressing to me, I went into a depression that I didn’t know that I could have.”
The producers of Gimlet Media’s “Crimetown” podcast have been in Detroit on and off for months, telling the fascinating Detroit’s infamous ex-mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick. They’ve even been interviewing Kilpatrick by phone from federal prison.
From his rise as Detroit’s youngest mayor, to his downfall with the text message scandal and federal racketeering trial, “Crimetown” is re-living it all.
In the latest episode that was just released on February 4, “Crimetown” zeroes in on the Tamara Greene case.
“Then after this young lady got killed, the news is chasing me down calling me a murderer,” said Kilpatrick by phone.
A lawsuit against the city of Detroit alleged that Greene was killed because she had danced for Kilpatrick at a Manoogian Mansion party.
Here’s what retired Detroit EMS Lt. Michael Kearns described to “Crimetown” producers:
“Over her eye was swollen, she had been crying, she was physically upset,” said Kearns.
“And did she tell you her name,” asked Drew Nelles.
“Tammy Green. And She told us she was dancing at a party at the Manoogian,” said Kearns.
“Crimetown” explores the claims of missing emails, vanishing evidence, and theories that a cop killed Greene. But they also interview retried Detroit police detective Mike Carlisle about those allegations; he says most of them were just rumors.
“They were completely false, completely false,” said Carlisle. “If the mayor was involved, I'd gladly have put a pair of handcuffs on that man for what he did to the city of Detroit. But he wasn't.”
Later this month, “Crimetown” will dive into the 6-month federal trial that ultimately put Kilpatrick in prison for 28 years.
WXYZ has provided “Crimetown” with a lot of archival footage from our extensive coverage over the years, so you will hear a lot of familiar voices in the podcast. You can hear the podcast on Spotify.