Willie Wilson On Past Troubles: 'My Laundry's Out There'
(CBS) -- Political candidates spend time and money trying to dirty-up their opponents.
Mayoral candidate Willie Wilson has done his opponents' work for them, with a revealing autobiography about himself.
Wilson sat down with CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine for a candid conversation about his troubled past and what it says about the future.
Wilson called himself a hustler who gambled, clubbed and chased women. He admits to punching his wife and losing his children. But that was before, he says, he turned his life around.
"I'll always be open with people," he says. "My laundry's out there."
Wilson says it's more important where he is today. He is a multimillionaire who was once a 20-cents-an-hour sharecropper.
It's been a wild ride. From picking cotton in the segregated South, to penthouse power broker, courted by Gov. Bruce Rauner. Wilson says he was wary of Rauner at first because of past experiences.
"I said, 'If you lie to me, you won't be the first white person to lie to me,'" Wilson recalls.
He has said can become uncomfortable meeting some white individuals for the first time.
"Depends on the white person themselves," Wilson says. "I have white friends."
He adds: "I'm assuming, maybe some (white people) are uncomfortable with me, too."
Wilson says he wrote a book seven years ago, long before deciding to run for office. In one incident, he admits punching his wife after she struck him with an iron. He says he apologized for what he characterizes as a reflexive reaction.
"I want people to know everything they can know about me, and then make that decision" about whether he deserves their vote, Wilson says.
He hopes they'll see what McDonalds founder Ray Kroc saw, before offering him a franchise. Wilson parlayed one restaurant into five, and then he began supplying Chinese-made rubber and plastics products to others.
Wilson says he gives most of his money away, to help people -- which he says is also why he wants to be mayor.