Gleamie Dean Beasley: The Real 'Mr. Detroit'

DETROIT (WJBK) - Some people call Rep. John Conyers “Mr. Detroit.”

I recently visited a house on the east side of the city owned by the 23-term congressman. Neighbors called me to complain he had let the property go to hell. Trees are growing out of the porch. The windows are shattered. Not only that, he owes back taxes on the joint. They called the congressman. I called. He never answered.

One of Mr. Detroit's neighbors works for the city. She told me about another man, named Gleamie Dean Beasley, who she said had been put out of business because he was a public relations nightmare for Detroit.

I wrote a story about Beasley a few years ago for the Detroit News. Beasley, who supplements his Social Security check by hunting raccoons, humbly refers to himself as the Coon Man. We did a cooking show. We had a laugh. You can watch it here.

I meant the story to be an homage to a man that represents what Detroit is: A blue-collar worker. An outdoorsman. A blues guitarist. Self-sufficient and plain spoken.

What I was trying to say is that despite the city’s problems, we’ve still got some cultured people. We’ve still got some real men.

The story went viral and the media twisted him into an unflattering example of what Detroit had devolved into: a post-apocalyptic moonscape populated by starving men reduced to scrounging for rodents. Local ministers ripped him. Local politicians denied him. But Beasley kept right on living.

I went to Beasley’s house Thursday morning to see if it was true. Had the city shut him down? He was on the porch playing guitar.

“Not yet,” he said. He was aware of the ridicule. He may be the son of an Arkansas sharecropper, but he’s not ignorant. “They said a lot of bad things about me. They said powerful ugly things that ain’t true. I’m 72. I don’t take medication because I eat raccoon and wild game. I don’t eat that steroid meat. Why’s that make me so bad?”

Unlike Conyers' house, Beasley’s Cape Cod is well maintained, the bushes trimmed, cabbage and kale flourishing in the garden. The scent of wood smoke could be made out from the porch.

His taxes are paid. His mortgage up to date. His mortgage is with Bank of America, which just settled an $8.5 billion lawsuit with investors who claimed they were duped by the bank into buying toxic sub-prime mortgages.

This week, a local paper asked whether Dan Gilbert might be the next “Mr. Detroit.” Gilbert, who is buying up property downtown, is the founder of Detroit-based Quicken Loans. The company was the No. 3 sub-prime lender in the metro area until the real estate bubble went bust in 2007, according to federal records. In 2008, Quicken was sued by Wells Fargo bank which claimed Quicken had sold it fraudulent mortgages. Quicken settled the suit later that year.

“I never been to court,” Beasley told me. “I never cheated nobody. I never been fingerprinted. I never even been to jail.”

“He’s the finest neighbor I ever had,” said Miss Julia, who lives next door. Next to her is a weedy lot. Next to the lot is an abandoned house. Someone has been breaking into houses here, stealing hot - water heaters. The neighbors don’t call the police because the police don’t come for hours. They call Beasley, an expert shot.

Detroit is a rough place, but Beasley said he’s going to stay. “Detroit’s been good to me. I want to see it come up. If everybody leaves then the only thing that’s gonna come up is the grass. I guess I’ll go down with it.”

Now tell me: Who’s the real Mr. Detroit?

------

Click on the video player below to watch Beasley play his guitar.