DETROIT The bar he owned is a Detroit institution. Honest John Thompson, the former owner of Honest Johns in Detroit has died at the age of 66 from congestive heart failure. Thompson leaves behind a legacy thats a whole lot bigger than just a bar. He was the most complicated simple man in the world, relative Mike Kiewicz said. He alienated a lot of people, because, you know, he was -- he was a complicated man and that was the complicated part of him, Mike Kiewicz said.