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Speaker 4: Hello.
Speaker 5: Friends, We've come such a long way since we launched
Speaker 5: Krook County, and I want to thank you for sticking
Speaker 5: with me as I tell this story, and for all
Speaker 5: the incredible words of kindness and support showed.
Speaker 2: Me over these past eight weeks. I'd like to show
Speaker 2: that appreciation by having an open and honest conversation with you,
Speaker 2: the listeners, on a bonus episode which will air in
Speaker 2: a couple weeks. So please visit our instagram at Crook
Speaker 2: County Podcast and leave me a comment or an audio
Speaker 2: message with questions about the show or anything that you
Speaker 2: feel is relevant and I will do my very best
Speaker 2: to answer as many of them as I can. Thank
Speaker 2: you so much. Our family is so grateful to know
Speaker 2: that we are not alone in this journey of discovery
Speaker 2: and healing, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Speaker 2: Previously on Crook County, I.
Speaker 6: Really wanted to get back into civilian life. I was
Speaker 6: ready for it.
Speaker 2: Ken leaves the outfit for the Chicago Fire Department.
Speaker 1: Just when you think you're away from all this shit,
Speaker 1: I'm covering up.
Speaker 6: Fucking murders that these cops are doing.
Speaker 2: The cops are just as crooked as the criminals.
Speaker 7: So the brother of the cops, you know, and you're
Speaker 7: so dependent on them that I wouldn't even be here
Speaker 7: today if I hadn't stayed on the right side of that.
Speaker 2: And Kenny learns that putting his past behind him is
Speaker 2: an impossible task.
Speaker 1: And I always had that pendulum swinging over my fucking
Speaker 1: head that I could be called in at any time.
Speaker 2: My name is Kyle Tequila. Welcome to Crook County.
Speaker 1: Just that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, he's a soldier, but he's a higher end soldier.
Speaker 1: I've had experiences with them in the past, and I
Speaker 1: never liked him, never appreciated him, never even wanted to
Speaker 1: recognize him as a human fucking being. And that was
Speaker 1: my mission to snuff the fucking light out of this sky.
Speaker 2: Episode eight, the rear view mirror.
Speaker 1: I can remember heading off to work with the fire
Speaker 1: department still and I'm on the Eisenhower Expressway heading east.
Speaker 6: I see him.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of traffic in the morning, so there's
Speaker 1: stop and go, stop and go. So anyway, I managed
Speaker 1: to warm my way in and stop and go up
Speaker 1: to him. I was on his left, roll down the
Speaker 1: window with my we had electric windows even back then.
Speaker 6: Hey believe it or not, roll.
Speaker 1: Down the window, spit and of course I knew I
Speaker 1: were good as Iri up. He heard it, he saw me,
Speaker 1: He spun out of control, and the race was on.
Speaker 2: The question I asked him was simple. You spent all
Speaker 2: these years running around the streets of Chicago working for
Speaker 2: the outfit, but you are also working these same streets
Speaker 2: as a firefighter and a paramedic. So what happens when
Speaker 2: you inevitably run into somebody anew from your days in
Speaker 2: the mob.
Speaker 6: So we did weaving in and out of traffic.
Speaker 1: On the pull off sections right and left, and people
Speaker 1: actually getting out of the way for two and a
Speaker 1: half miles with this one hundred mile an hour fucking chase.
Speaker 1: So I led the son of a bitch right into
Speaker 1: a kill. We have these concrete embankments in Chicago that
Speaker 1: the left is the exit and the right is where
Speaker 1: you continue traveling. So I led this son of a
Speaker 1: bitch because I knew he was raging.
Speaker 6: It wasn't even thinking properly. I knew it.
Speaker 1: So I led him right the right into the exit.
Speaker 1: I can't remember what street. I led him right into
Speaker 1: the embankment, and I made a quick chop left and
Speaker 1: kept going at about seventy miles per hour. But he
Speaker 1: wasn't fast enough. He hit that concrete embankment and his
Speaker 1: fucking car exploded. I watched it in my rooview mirror,
Speaker 1: so I knew nothing was going to happen with this guy.
Speaker 6: He was just simply dead.
Speaker 1: So now you're going to ask yourself, how does a
Speaker 1: guy working for a fire departm go out and snuff
Speaker 1: out a fucking mobster in front of three hundred people
Speaker 1: and go home the next morning and feel good about himself. Well,
Speaker 1: you got to understand this. People. I'll use civilians out there.
Speaker 1: These people are evil garbage. They deserve to be dead.
Speaker 1: The world is a better place without them. You have
Speaker 1: no idea what these people are capable of doing, and
Speaker 1: have done, and will continue to fucking do, not unless
Speaker 1: their lives are snatched from them. And this particular incident,
Speaker 1: I knew this fuck. I knew his fucking history, and
Speaker 1: I knew I had a snatch the life bier this fuck.
Speaker 1: So did I feel bad, No, not one fucking bit.
Speaker 1: I slept, woke up the next morning, and did whatever
Speaker 1: he had to do without even thinking about it. It
Speaker 1: was just a normal fucking kill, that's all, and my
Speaker 1: mind at that time that needed.
Speaker 2: To be done.
Speaker 1: I actually feel okay about doing it because I really
Speaker 1: believe I did the world of favor because the only
Speaker 1: thing this man could have done was make things worse.
Speaker 1: That's the people. I don't know what else to fucking
Speaker 1: tell you. And if you can't live with that, then.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 6: Grow the fuck.
Speaker 1: Up to the top of the porch, to the top
Speaker 1: of the wall, now, dash away, dash away, dash away.
Speaker 2: Along. It's Christmas Eve in twenty nineteen, So up to.
Speaker 1: The housetop the courses they flew with sleigh full of
Speaker 1: toys and Saint Nicholas too, Santa Santa Santa.
Speaker 6: That's St Nicholas. Saint Nicholas and Santa are the same. Dude,
Speaker 6: do you know that.
Speaker 2: My dad has been staying with us for a few
Speaker 2: days while we recorded these final interviews.
Speaker 6: Ludoffs. No, there's no Rootoff in this No. Yeah, I
Speaker 6: don't think there's a Rudolph in this one. No, there's
Speaker 6: no Rootoff in this one.
Speaker 4: Whoa, they messed up.
Speaker 6: I'll maybe they just forgot on this particular Christmas. That
Speaker 6: doesn't mean he's not gonna be here. It's nice. I
Speaker 6: can almost guarantee he's gonna be here. It's nice.
Speaker 1: He might have been out for this Christmas here though,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe he had a cold.
Speaker 6: Who knows. Let me think.
Speaker 3: I don't see any shiny.
Speaker 1: I don't see it either, But we're not gonna worry
Speaker 1: about that, right.
Speaker 2: It's so strange to see my dad switch from this cold,
Speaker 2: hard killer to the loving grandpa almost instantaneously.
Speaker 1: Look at that beard, say look at us, what's that
Speaker 1: cookies and milk?
Speaker 6: Just like that?
Speaker 1: Right over there?
Speaker 6: Buddy? That what is that carrots? Yeah, that's a carrot?
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're gonna go with that one. That's oh, that's right,
Speaker 1: that's for the reindeer they gotta eat too.
Speaker 6: Yeah, smart guy.
Speaker 2: But it's the perfect example of just how easy it
Speaker 2: was for him to hide this dark double life from
Speaker 2: us for all these years.
Speaker 1: I heard him explain as he drove out of sight,
Speaker 1: Marry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
Speaker 2: As my wife and I sit here by the fire
Speaker 2: watching our five year old son Lincoln reading the Night
Speaker 2: before Christmas with his grandfather, I'm also reminded of just
Speaker 2: how much I loved my dad when I was that age.
Speaker 6: Good Night, Lincoln, I'll see you a morning, lady.
Speaker 2: And even after everything that's happened since, I'll always remember
Speaker 2: the man that he was when I was young. I'm
Speaker 2: back with my dad's old ambulance partner, Mike. I tell
Speaker 2: him what I know about Ken's mafia passed and he
Speaker 2: sits there calmly listening. It's mostly me talking, and I
Speaker 2: can't tell one way or the other if he's heard
Speaker 2: any of this before. He's certainly not telling me. If
Speaker 2: he has, how do you feel in me telling you
Speaker 2: these things about his mom life?
Speaker 4: Well, I'm not surprised.
Speaker 7: You know, none of it's shocking to me because I
Speaker 7: you know, I knew him at the point where he
Speaker 7: was transitioning, you know, that's when I first met him,
Speaker 7: you know, So, I mean I knew he was way
Speaker 7: different than the other people I was working with, you know,
Speaker 7: But I saw all the upside potential of your dad,
Speaker 7: you know, because he was really good at being a
Speaker 7: paramedic and a firefighter.
Speaker 2: Amidst all of the awful things that happened in Ken's life,
Speaker 2: and perhaps maybe even because of it, he threw his
Speaker 2: entire self into his work as a firefighter.
Speaker 7: He had a passion for it, you know, he was
Speaker 7: really good at it, and he loved doing it.
Speaker 2: I dug up some articles from local papers mentioning Ken's
Speaker 2: exploits as a first responder. One article from nineteen ninety
Speaker 2: two interviews Ken, who was fighting for fair pay for
Speaker 2: his fellow medics and in a sort of twist of fate.
Speaker 2: Another article from the Daily Herald in nineteen ninety one
Speaker 2: mentions Ken as the first firefighter on the scene of
Speaker 2: a fatal plane crash at DuPage Airport. Just a little
Speaker 2: over a decade after that, American Airlines crash that inspired
Speaker 2: Ken to join the fire department in the first place.
Speaker 7: You could see that he liked it. You know that
Speaker 7: he appreciated the fact that he had helped somebody.
Speaker 2: There were many occasions over the years where I got
Speaker 2: to see him in action at the station, on ride alongs,
Speaker 2: neighborhood events. I witnessed first hand the respect of his
Speaker 2: peers and his chief. One of my favorite memories of
Speaker 2: all time was probably in third or fourth grade, when
Speaker 2: my dad was invited to speak in front of my
Speaker 2: whole school about fire safety. After the speech, there was
Speaker 2: a Q and A with the students and one smart
Speaker 2: ass kid takes the microphone, points at my dad's pants
Speaker 2: and goes, did you know your fly was open? So
Speaker 2: my dad looks down and sure enough, his zipper has
Speaker 2: been open this entire time. So he just looks at
Speaker 2: this kid right in the eye and he goes, I
Speaker 2: just wanted to make sure you all were paying attention,
Speaker 2: and he zips it back up and the whole place
Speaker 2: just went nuts. I mean, people were crying, laughing, the kids, teachers, everyone.
Speaker 2: One of the funniest things I've ever seen.
Speaker 7: The firefighting thing. He liked that more than I did.
Speaker 7: I mean, sure, you know, it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 7: It's exciting. You know, there's always the thrill of are
Speaker 7: you going to get blown up or not? You know, so,
Speaker 7: I mean it's kind of an adrenaline rush kind of thing.
Speaker 7: But your dad was more, way more into the firefighting
Speaker 7: thing than I ever was. He always wanted to be
Speaker 7: the first guy in, get there and get his airpack on,
Speaker 7: and get in before anybody else could get in there.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 7: He always wanted to be at the front of the
Speaker 7: line for that. I remember a couple times he got
Speaker 7: hurt at fire scenes and I was just like, geez,
Speaker 7: settle down, man, you don't have to be the first
Speaker 7: guy in all the time. And he was like, I
Speaker 7: got to get in there. He had to be the
Speaker 7: first guy in. You know, he really wanted that.
Speaker 2: And then sometime in the late nineties, the guys at
Speaker 2: the station had just finished their dinner when the alarm
Speaker 2: bell sounded and a call came through that would forever
Speaker 2: change Kenny's life and set in motion a disastrous chain
Speaker 2: of events that would eventually destroy our entire family.
Speaker 7: The scariest call I ever did in my life. We
Speaker 7: had a fire at a It was a grocery store,
Speaker 7: but it used to be a bowling alley, so it
Speaker 7: had the bowstring truss roof, you know, the arched roof
Speaker 7: like that, and it was very high roof in the place.
Speaker 7: So they had to get a thirty foot extension ladder
Speaker 7: to get up there. And this thirty foot banger weighs
Speaker 7: a ton. It's like three guys got to carry it,
Speaker 7: you know, And they had one guy healing it, and
Speaker 7: that was your dad. And they had this firefighter and
Speaker 7: full gear in an airpack going up into the scuttle.
Speaker 4: And he was a big guy.
Speaker 7: He was probably a two hundred and sixty pound firefighter
Speaker 7: and you had fifty pounds of gear in an airpack, so
Speaker 7: three hundred and ten pounds you're talking about. He was
Speaker 7: all the way up at the tip of the ladder
Speaker 7: going in the scuttle, and the ladder kicked out and
Speaker 7: it fell on your dad, and the firefighter came down
Speaker 7: and he landed right on top of your dad and
Speaker 7: he is down on the ground and he looked like shit.
Speaker 7: He was gray, and I thought, oh my.
Speaker 4: God, he's really hurt bad, you know.
Speaker 7: And it was probably the worst call I've ever done
Speaker 7: in my life because I was so emotionally invested in
Speaker 7: the call, and everybody's running around and screaming, and people
Speaker 7: are flying back and forth, and I'm telling him slow down.
Speaker 7: They're like running with the stretcher. I didn't want him
Speaker 7: to dump it over and hurt him again, and so
Speaker 7: everything got under control. We got him in the ambulance,
Speaker 7: and my partner Joe, was on the phone to the
Speaker 7: hospital and your Dad's tell him he started coming around
Speaker 7: a bit, and he says, tell him this, tell him that,
Speaker 7: tell him this, And my partner hands the phone to
Speaker 7: your dad and says, do you want to talk to him?
Speaker 4: Or do you want me to talk to Stills? And
Speaker 4: your dad goes, no, go ahead. That's when I knew
Speaker 4: he was going to be okay.
Speaker 7: But it was really scary because I've seen a lot
Speaker 7: of people look like he looked at that time that.
Speaker 4: Have died on us on the way to the hospital.
Speaker 4: So it was really scary.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 7: The doctor even said that, you know, if he hadn't
Speaker 7: been in such good physical condition at the time that.
Speaker 4: He would he would have never survived.
Speaker 8: It.
Speaker 1: Fractured my left hand, fractured my right and left knee,
Speaker 1: some damage to my face and skull, and had some surgeries,
Speaker 1: got a lot of painkillers, and you know, where the
Speaker 1: hell have you been my whole life? You know, it
Speaker 1: took a really liking to that, took a really liking
Speaker 1: the painkillers, and then that's when I started having problems
Speaker 1: with my addiction.
Speaker 6: Was after getting those pain pills, after those surgeries.
Speaker 1: Catalyzed my addiction, and then fueled it after that, after
Speaker 1: it got catalyzed.
Speaker 2: In the years following the accident, the painkillers became a
Speaker 2: constant companion, and as the addiction got worse, Ken gradually
Speaker 2: shrank inward and distanced himself from his family and friends.
Speaker 7: He knew he was struggling with stuff, but I couldn't
Speaker 7: tell what. And I didn't really ask him because I
Speaker 7: felt like he wasn't gonna tell me anyway. You know,
Speaker 7: he likes to play his cards very close to the
Speaker 7: chest when it comes to his personal life and feelings
Speaker 7: and what he's going through.
Speaker 2: When the pills stop being enough to satisfy his addiction,
Speaker 2: he turned to heroin, which isn't as easy to hide.
Speaker 2: You would look at his arms, they were clear as day.
Speaker 2: You could see the veins from his fucking his inner
Speaker 2: elbow all the way down to his wrist and following
Speaker 2: up towards his shoulder.
Speaker 6: They were just gross. He knew something was up.
Speaker 4: You know, it's fucking horrible.
Speaker 2: I don't need to rehash the pain we all went
Speaker 2: through during this period of self destruction. But as the
Speaker 2: years went on and the family fell apart, Holly Corey
Speaker 2: and myself eventually separated ourselves from Ken physically and emotionally.
Speaker 2: After all the pain and abuse, what else could we do.
Speaker 2: I had been a strange from him for nearly five
Speaker 2: years when he finally reached out to me for help
Speaker 2: in twenty thirteen, and I checked him into rehab in California,
Speaker 2: and I always wondered why now, what change had occurred
Speaker 2: to make him suddenly surrender himself to getting clean. I
Speaker 2: think Ken's brother Rich may have the answer.
Speaker 9: Right before he moved out to California, he called me
Speaker 9: up and we were talking and.
Speaker 4: I just knew it.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 9: I don't want to call it a twin thing, because
Speaker 9: we never had that, but there was something about his tone, something,
Speaker 9: And I left work and I went to the apartment
Speaker 9: and I walked in and he was sitting there in
Speaker 9: a chair, and that pistol was sitting right next to him,
Speaker 9: and I looked at him and I said, what are
Speaker 9: you doing. I remember the response, but I said, you
Speaker 9: should probably give me that, and he said, I think
Speaker 9: you're right. So, as far as I'm concerned, I saved
Speaker 9: his life because he was in a really bad place.
Speaker 2: Over the last ten years, as my dad sobered up
Speaker 2: and embarked on the long, painful path to healing, he
Speaker 2: began to open up to me for the first time.
Speaker 2: And even though the truth is so much more fucked
Speaker 2: up than I could have ever imagined, I'm thankful for
Speaker 2: theopportunity to finally see the man I call father for
Speaker 2: who he really is.
Speaker 6: And I just hope that God I get forgiven for this.
Speaker 6: I just hope he could forgive me. I really do,
Speaker 6: because I think about it all the time. Man, regret
Speaker 6: it the second of it.
Speaker 1: Be careful with choices, people, Be careful the choices you make.
Speaker 6: We can come back and haunt your lifetime.
Speaker 2: Throughout this entire process, I have been constantly shocked about
Speaker 2: how I can still be constantly shocked. Whenever I learned
Speaker 2: some new, awful truth about the world my dad lived in.
Speaker 2: My first reaction is how is that even possible? But
Speaker 2: then a second, even more powerful reality hits me that
Speaker 2: I have been completely sheltered from the evil that played
Speaker 2: my dad's entire existence. If his goal to keep this
Speaker 2: world away from us, then he succeeded, and despite everything else,
Speaker 2: I'm grateful to him for that much. I also want
Speaker 2: to express my deep gratitude to the people featured in
Speaker 2: this story who were so gracious and brave to open
Speaker 2: themselves up to me during these difficult interviews. To my
Speaker 2: amazing mom for her strength and perseverance during these last
Speaker 2: twenty years as she watched her life crumble around her.
Speaker 2: To my best friend and my brother Corey, who still
Speaker 2: carries the weight of our father's abuse. To my uncle
Speaker 2: Rich for crawling back into his painful past and shedding
Speaker 2: some light on their own abusive childhood, and of course,
Speaker 2: for saving my dad's life that day in twenty thirteen.
Speaker 2: To Jeff Cohne of the Chicago Tribune for sharing his
Speaker 2: unmatched expertise on all things mafia. And finally to my
Speaker 2: dad's old buddy Mike, who also wanted to share some
Speaker 2: words of gratitude.
Speaker 7: He changed my life just being friends with him. He
Speaker 7: helped me stand up for myself and be more assertive
Speaker 7: in my life and changed my life, you know, forever.
Speaker 7: And when I was going into treatment center and I
Speaker 7: was struggling, I went and sat and talked to your dad.
Speaker 7: He probably doesn't even remember it. It really helped me
Speaker 7: get on the path I needed to be on, you know.
Speaker 7: He really steered me in the right direction, which is
Speaker 7: kind of funny because he was probably messed up at
Speaker 7: the time himself, you know, but put me on the
Speaker 7: path for my recovery. I wish he understood how important
Speaker 7: that he is to me. I'm basically here because of him,
Speaker 7: But he doesn't probably realize that.
Speaker 2: So where does that leave us now? Who the hell knows.
Speaker 2: I suppose it depends on who you ask. My brother
Speaker 2: Corey and my uncle Rich have already made up their minds.
Speaker 9: With everything in consideration. I just I can't, you know,
Speaker 9: be the better man and forgive and forget. I just
Speaker 9: can't do it because there's just too many things for
Speaker 9: too long, you know, just can't do it.
Speaker 2: My mom has a similar take, but focuses on the good.
Speaker 1: I have many video tapes to look back on on
Speaker 1: the happy times. I don't have any tapes of the
Speaker 1: horrible times.
Speaker 6: Thanks.
Speaker 2: This makes me happy. For me, I've come to peace
Speaker 2: with the past. It has tempered me, made me stronger.
Speaker 2: I am not ashamed of it. I do not run
Speaker 2: from it. I look it right in the eyes and
Speaker 2: embrace it. Learn from it, share it with the world,
Speaker 2: And one day, when he's old enough, I will share
Speaker 2: it with my son and he will know how far
Speaker 2: we have come together in spite of it. That is
Speaker 2: the real legacy of my father, and that is what
Speaker 2: I will choose to remember. Crook County is a production
Speaker 2: of iHeart Podcasts and Tenderfoot TV in association with Common Enemy.
Speaker 2: All episodes are produced, written and hosted by Me Kyle Tequila.
Speaker 2: Executive producers are Donald Dolbright and Payne Lindsay. Original score
Speaker 2: by Makeup and Vanity Set. Main title song is called
Speaker 2: Crush by the band Starry Eyes. End credit song is
Speaker 2: called Dying Islands, also by the band Starry Eyes. Sound
Speaker 2: mix by Cooper Skinner. For more podcasts like Crook County,
Speaker 2: search Tenderfoot TV on your favorite podcast app or visit
Speaker 2: Tenderfoot dot TV. Thanks for listening to Season one of
Speaker 2: Crook County. It's been an honor to share this story
Speaker 2: with you. But don't worry. There's more to come.
Speaker 8: Die in islands, fade away, leave in me alone, Nansi,
Speaker 8: my sab it you the show, the deep basbus a
Speaker 8: call and the deepest bes calling me.
Speaker 10: Stops call tonight, indifference.
Speaker 8: Who have everyone leaving? Now? Can't believe.
Speaker 10: Southeast he was to do all the things I've done.
Speaker 10: I lay awake at.
Speaker 8: Night trying to say, here's got some of the first
Speaker 8: bodies that nobody knows. I can't be.
Speaker 10: Alone and tell you that straight away. Leaving me alone,
Speaker 10: that's say my stagger to the shore, the deep basins
Speaker 10: a calling, stap me a contact colin the deep basbooes,
Speaker 10: the collarm.
Speaker 8: Love my Ma, so die a sad way