If you were faced with having a kidney transplant, what would you do while you recuperate? If you are Carol Teegardin, you write a book.
Summoning the skills she
learned over 16 years as an investigative reporter for the Detroit Free Press,
Carol wrote an unbiased account of Tamara Greene, the 27-year old exotic dancer
that was murdered in 2003 after performing at an alleged party thrown by former
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick at the Manoogian Mansion. Her book, “Strawberry: How an Exotic Dancer
Toppled Detroit’s Hip Hop Mayor”, explores all the much publicized twists and
turns of this real life who-done-it thriller that was the start of the decline
of the wildly popular mayor.
The book explores the theory
that Greene was killed after the mayor’s wife, Carlita Kilpatrick, came home to
the mansion unexpectedly to witness the party and then physically attacked the
strippers who were performing there. Investigators later speculated that Greene’s
murder was a "deliberate hit" by a member of the Detroit Police Department,
perhaps to cover up the fact that there even was such a party. But who ordered
the “hit”?
Carol has also written “Strawberry”
into a play and a screenplay is now in the works. If you would like to purchase a copy of the
book, contact the author at ctee123@yahoo.com.
The cost is $10.
Now that she’s back on her
feet, Carol is more active than ever before. When not promoting her book, she’s
a substitute teacher, is acting in a local production of “Hairspray” at Henry Ford
Community College, and is
looking forward to becoming a part of the “Proving Innocence” project, a local
initiative to free innocent men and women wrongfully convicted and imprisoned
for crimes they did not commit. She also is making plans to hike parts of the Appalachian Trail.
