Willie Wilson is quite the character. Growing up dirt poor in Louisiana he has run unsuccessfully for Mayor of Chicago, United States Senate and the President of the United States. From Wikipedia:

Wilson was born the son of a sharecropper in Louisiana.[5]

Wilson completed a seventh grade education.[6][7]

Wilson later received a Doctor of Divinity degree from Mt. Carmel Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Humane Letters from Chicago Baptist Institute International.[8]

Wilson left home at age thirteen, and began his working life earning twenty cents per hour working in cotton and sugar cane fields.[9]

Wilson lived for periods of time in Miami and New York City, before settling in Chicago in 1965.[9]

Wilson worked various jobs once he moved to Chicago, before being hired to mop floors and flip burgers at a McDonald's.[9] He worked his way up, being eventually promoted to manager, and later receiving a loan to become a McDonald's franchisee, thus starting his business career.[9]

He announced he would be giving away 200 thousand dollars in free gas at 10 service stations in Chicago. Poor planning resulted in traffic tie ups for miles. I don't think anyone was shot altought police were directing traffic. He plans to have one in the suburbs soon with more money.

Here is the story from WGN:
A gas giveaway sponsored by Chicago businessman Willie Wilson caused gridlock around the city Thursday morning.

Wilson gave away $200,000 in fuel at 10 different gas stations throughout the city.

Starting at 7 a.m., each vehicle received $50 in gas until $200,000 was exhausted — which ended out being about three hours.

The giveaway was at the following gas stations:

Amstar — 368 E Garfield Blvd.
Citgo —9155 S Stony Island
Marathon — 1839 E 95th St.
Citgo — 1345 N Pulaski Rd.
Gulf — 9901 S Halsted St.
Mobil — 2800 S Kedzie Ave.
Amoco — 7201 N Clark St.
BP — 4359 N Pulaski Rd.
Marathon — 340 S. Sacramento Blvd.
Falcon — 43 N. Homan Ave.
Some vehicles started lining up around 2 a.m. at some locations, eventually causing gridlock.

Traffic was at a standstill near the CITGO gas station at 91st Street and Stony Island Avenue. Northbound Stony Island was a disaster with drivers blocking the road as they attempted to get in the line for gas, causing delays back to the Bishop Ford.

Chicago police were on scene of many of the gas stations to help direct traffic.

Wilson said he would not apologize for doing good and said he helped a lot of people get to work and their kids to child care today.

‘We did this thinking of just one thing, people needed help. We just thought about this last week. I didn’t think about nothing like that,” Wilson said.

The next gas giveaway is scheduled for March 31. Wilson said he’s going to invest more money and expand it to the suburbs.

Read more Chicago News Headlines here
In 2019, Wilson was one of the candidates in the Chicago mayoral election.

As of Tuesday, the average price of gas in Illinois is $4.55.

LINK: https://wgntv.com/news/chicago...re-to-get-free-fuel/

All the time I was reading this, I kept thinking, "I didn't know that about Willie..."

But I thought I was reading about Willie Nelson the country singer.

In all honesty I think he could have spent his money better .... but then I suspect he has a lot more to give away.

Very nice gesture on his part but the money would go farther if he assisted with $2.00 per gallon on each gallon they bought up to a twelve gallon or so limit.

Gene I am going to look you up when I win this Powerball lottery,
I like the way you think
-bebdable