Usually when a family member runs for political office, it’s all hands on board. However, the son of Willie Wilson, a candidate for Chicago mayor, said he’s not supporting his dad because his dad barely supported him.
“I did not believe it. I did not believe it,” said Wilson’s son Mario Shannon.
Mario, 28, said he was stunned when he turned on the news recently and saw his father, Doctor Wilson, running for mayor of Chicago.
“If he can’t take care of someone, how could he run for mayor of Chicago? And I thought I would let the world know he is not the guy you all think he is,” Mario said.
Wilson is a self-made multi-millionaire who built his business empire through the ownership of several McDonald’s franchises. It was at one of those stores three decades ago he met Mario’s mother, Linda Shannon.
“I say he actually got the nerve to run for mayor with the kind of life he’s led? I don’t understand that,” Linda said.
The Shannon’s said they’re angry because after Mario was born, Wilson ended his six-year relationship with Linda and offered only sporadic child support. They said it wasn’t until a court-ordered paternity test proved Mario was his son that Wilson began making steady payments.
“they followed all the money that he had and found out wow, this guy’s loaded. He wants to give you 250 a month. So it went from 250 to 25-hundred dollars a month,” Linda added.
Mario said he only met Wilson face to face once, when he was nine years old. As he grew older, he said he reached out on several occasions to develop a relationship with his dad but was rebuffed.
“I went to high school, I went to Bogan. And when I graduated I called him. And he just told me ‘I don’t want nothing to do with you. Please don’t ever call me again.’ And he hung up the phone on me,” Mario said.
Wilson has donated millions to charity and said he is running for mayor because the Emanuel administration has ignored Chicago’s African-American community.
Wilson’s spokesman acknowledged to FOX 32 that Mario is Wilson’s biological son: “This is a private matter and he fulfilled his legal obligations….Dr. Wilson just wants to leave it at ‘no comment.’”
Wilson’s campaign website says he has four adult children, but Mario would make five. The website is also filled with references to religious scripture.
“How can you be a religious man when you walk out on your kids?” Linda said.
Mario added, “I don’t look for no money towards this or nothing. I just feel that he becomes mayor he needs to make sure his home is okay first.”
Dr. Wilson’s lawyer told FOX 32 News that Wilson doesn’t want to have contact with his son or ex-girlfriend because he feels they tried to extort him early on in the relationship. He said Mario and his mother signed a settlement agreement when he turned 18, which included a financial payout.
Linda said that was nothing more than a lump sum payment for Mario’s final year of child support, and they never signed anything that would prohibit them from talking.
Source: FOX Chicago