John Thompson (Photo: "M.L.'s Soul of Detroit")
John Thompson, who for about 25 years owned Honest? Johns, a dive bar in Detroit, passed away last month at age 66. His bar was first on Field Street, off Jefferson Avenue near Belle Isle, before moving to Selden Street in the Cass Corridor where he grew up.
Thompson was a wild man with a big heart, and a keen sense of business. Anyone who knew him had some interesting tales. He often told people his mother was a hooker.
M.L. Elrick held a memorial service last week on his "M.L.'s Soul of Detroit" podcast. Guests were Jim Curran, Andrew and Matt Turnbull, Lynn Kneiss and Deadline Detroit's Allan Lengel, who worked for Thompson while he was on strike at The Detroit News in the mid-1990s.
