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Playwright Carol Teegardin (Deadline Detroit photo)
Former veteran Detroit Free Press reporter Carol Teegardin wrote a book in 2011 about Tamara Greene, the stripper known as "Strawberry," who was shot to death on Detroit's west side in 2003.
The book addressed rumors that persisted for years that Greene was stripping at a party at the Manoogian Mansion with then-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and friends in attendance. That was never substantiated, and neither was the rumor that Kilpatrick's wife came home and was so enraged that she beat Greene with a baseball bat. Then, the unsubstantiated rumor was that Greene was killed to prevent her from talking.
The Detroit Police Department recently let it be known that homicide investigators are now actively pursuing the case again after it went cold for a long time.
Detroit Police homicide investigator Ira Todd, who is working the case, recently told Deadline Detroit that some former police officials previously interfered and tried to derail the probe because Kilpatrick's name kept surfacing in the investigation. He said he has no evidence that Kilpatrick, who is serving a 28-year prison sentence in a federal prison in Oklahoma, was involved in anyway with the slaying.
Teegardin has now adapted her two-hour play from her self-published book: "Strawberry: How an Exotic Dancer Toppled Detroit's Hip-Hop Mayor."
In January, the play was performed at the YMCA's Boll Theater, 1401 Broadway, in Detroit.
Now, she going for an encore in a much bigger venue: Adray Auditorium at Henry Ford College, 5101 Evergreen, Dearborn.
The play will be performed Sept. 8-10; Sept. 15-17 and Sept. 22-24. The time on Fridays and Saturdays is 8 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Sunday.
Deadline Detroit spoke with Teegardin about the drama and her plans, which she hopes will include turning the story into a Netflix series.
