In order to support his addiction, Goines committed crimes including pimping, larceny, robbery, illegal liquor manufacturing and theft.

[1][4] Goines continued to write novels at an accelerated pace in order to support his drug addictions, with some books taking only a month to complete.

[5] The book dealt with an anti-hero character named after Jomo Kenyatta that ran an organization similar to the Black Panthers to clear the ghetto of crime.

On October 21, 1974 Goines and his common-law wife Shirley Sailor were discovered dead in their Highland Park, Michigan apartment.

The police had received an anonymous phone call earlier that evening and responded, discovering Goines in the living room of the apartment and Sailor's body in the kitchen.

In his 1996 song Tradin' War Stories, legendary West Coast rapper 2Pac writes "Machiavelli was my tutor, Donald Goines my father figure".

Knocc Out & Dresta, the latter mentioned the author by rapping "take a good look because you're looking at a crook/my life done been took, right outta Donald Goines' book".

[9] In 1984, a graphic novel adaptation of the book Daddy Cool was released by Melrose Square, a division of Holloway House.