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Speaker 1: Krook County is released weekly and brought to you absolutely free,

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Speaker 1: but if you want to hear the whole season right now,

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Speaker 1: it's available ad free on Tenderfoot Plus. For more information,

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Speaker 1: check out the show notes. Enjoy the episode.

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Speaker 2: You're listening to Krook County. The views and opinions expressed

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Speaker 2: in this podcast are solely those of the individuals participating

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Speaker 2: in the podcast. This episode also contains subject matter, including

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Speaker 2: graphic depictions of violence, which may not be suitable for everyone.

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Speaker 2: Listener discretion is advised.

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Speaker 1: Previously on Cook County, they're.

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Speaker 3: Reporting this afternoon on the worst commercial air disaster in

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Speaker 3: the United States history.

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Speaker 1: A tragic plane crash gave Ken a new direction.

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Speaker 3: That's when I decided wanted to be a paramedic firefighter.

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Speaker 3: I figured that's my career. Now, I'm going to do this.

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Speaker 1: And Ken fell for a club girl named Honey.

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Speaker 4: I'd see that big smile on her. Everything went away,

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Speaker 4: all the bad stuff went away.

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Speaker 1: Ter force broke out across the city.

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Speaker 4: There was a couple of times to take over the clubs. Yeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 4: it was a fucking gun battle that broke out.

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Speaker 1: In amidst all the chaos, Kenny made his exit.

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Speaker 4: So I knew that was my cue, and I took

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Speaker 4: it and I was gone. I was gone.

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Speaker 1: My name is Kyle Tequila. Welcome to Crook County.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, Crook County.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, there's no doubt about that. It's a den of thieves.

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Speaker 6: The administration is a den of thieves.

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Speaker 3: Technically, I'm out of the mob, but I'm still doing

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Speaker 3: shaving ship with the fire department, cover up fucking rugs,

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Speaker 3: and I raised my family doing.

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Speaker 1: That episode seven. The devil won't leave me alone.

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Speaker 3: I really wanted to get back in the civilian life.

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Speaker 3: I was ready for it. I was ready for it. Man,

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Speaker 3: I wanted to get back into civilian life. You have

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Speaker 3: to understand that. No, it's like anything. It was just like,

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Speaker 3: thank God it's here. I got a job and I'm

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Speaker 3: in a fire department.

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Speaker 4: I got a job. I got a W two. You know,

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Speaker 4: I gotta pay taxes on the grid. Yeah, I'm on

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Speaker 4: the grid, baby. You know. I was all excited.

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Speaker 3: I was so I just because I didn't want to

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Speaker 3: expose you guys, said any of that shit man to

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Speaker 3: anywhere near that ship. So no, there was no nothing.

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Speaker 3: I just fell right into it. It was natural. Got

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Speaker 3: back together with your mom, lived together, got married. I said, listen,

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Speaker 3: I I just finally decided, I'm gonna listen, I'm gonna

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Speaker 3: spend the rest of my.

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Speaker 4: Life with this girl. I know she wants to have kids,

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Speaker 4: so let's just get this over with.

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Speaker 3: I'm getting older. I'm with the departments now. Now, now

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Speaker 3: I'm with the departments. Now I'm with fire department. And

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Speaker 3: I said, let's start having a life, start having a

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Speaker 3: normal life.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 7: He had a Friday night wedding, big celebration because people

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Speaker 7: are off of work. You know, it's Friday night. It

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Speaker 7: was a good night to have a wedding. I think

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Speaker 7: everybody's in the party mood. And Kathy was there. She

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Speaker 7: was one of my bridesmaids. And we were having fun, fun, fun.

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Speaker 7: And finally after we were married, and Ken went to

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Speaker 7: Minnesota for his paramedic you know training. He was there

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Speaker 7: night once and then he came back. And when he

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Speaker 7: came back, he says, let's start a family. And that

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Speaker 7: night you were conceived. He was like king bang boom, yeah,

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Speaker 7: and Kyle, my son, Kyle, was conceived. And nine months later,

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Speaker 7: on January twenty ninth, nineteen eighty five, I gave birth

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Speaker 7: to a beautiful baby.

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Speaker 3: Boy, had you life went on for eighteen years or

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Speaker 3: nineteen years, twenty years?

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Speaker 1: And life did go on and it was good. A

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Speaker 1: few years after I was born, we welcomed baby Corey

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Speaker 1: into the family. Mom retired from work to focus on

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Speaker 1: raising the kids, and Dad was full time at the firehouse.

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Speaker 1: It couldn't have been more different from the nightmare Ken

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Speaker 1: was living only a few years prior. Just a regular

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Speaker 1: boring suburban family doing regular boring family shit, exactly how

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Speaker 1: wanted it.

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Speaker 8: I will always say that my childhood was fucking fantastic.

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Speaker 1: You remember my brother Corey, our hockey days.

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Speaker 8: I mean they would travel fucking hundreds of miles, you know,

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Speaker 8: on weekends, get us hotel rooms and you know, we

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Speaker 8: just we at the time, it was bliss.

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Speaker 1: It was perfect, Well, maybe not exactly perfect.

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Speaker 4: Do you remember him beating.

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Speaker 8: The shit out of another dad, an opponent's dad.

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Speaker 1: You know, I couldn't, I couldn't find the specifics though

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Speaker 1: on it.

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Speaker 9: Yeah, he got pissed at one of like the kids

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Speaker 9: on the other team, right right, because he was being

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Speaker 9: like a little shit.

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Speaker 3: Sure.

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Speaker 9: Yeah, and the dad was the dad of that kid,

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Speaker 9: was not happy that Ken because he Ken was coach.

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Speaker 9: Coach Ken, he was the courts of your hockey team.

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Speaker 9: So the dad on this other team was not happy

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Speaker 9: that Ken was calling out his son. So he comes

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Speaker 9: sauntering over to the bench to have borders of Ken,

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Speaker 9: and he tries to dive over the bench. He tries

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Speaker 9: to jump pull himself up over in to the bench

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Speaker 9: like the other guy. Yeah, the dad tried to like

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Speaker 9: jump into the box to go after Ken, and Ken

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Speaker 9: just lay the motherfucker.

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Speaker 1: Now could imagine.

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Speaker 9: And and of course, like the whole place is going

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Speaker 9: like bananas at this point, like it's pure chaos. And

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Speaker 9: then the cops come, when the fire apartment comes and

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Speaker 9: of course walks away.

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Speaker 1: He knows there's witnesses.

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Speaker 9: He's like, he tried to come in my box and

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Speaker 9: protecting my kids, and they let him go and they

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Speaker 9: arrested the other guy assault. It's just so amazing.

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Speaker 1: He's like fucking just out there, man, holy.

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Speaker 4: Shit, a total wild man.

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Speaker 1: There were, of course, those occasional flashes of violence we

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Speaker 1: experienced growing up that were shocking and confusing to us,

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Speaker 1: but other signs, more subtle, yet even more dangerous, remained

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Speaker 1: unknown to us at the time. Even though they were

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Speaker 1: right under our noses.

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Speaker 5: You wanted to keep this away from us?

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Speaker 4: Oh god, yes, that was my primary. Yeah, and so

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Speaker 4: I guess just talk talk about that you wanted to

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Speaker 4: keep this away from us?

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Speaker 1: Where were times where it got close? Because I remember

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Speaker 1: once where you came home and you had a scar

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Speaker 1: on your shoulder, like a fresh scar on.

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Speaker 4: Your shoulder, and.

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Speaker 1: It was very noticeable because you used to just wear

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Speaker 1: Dago t's.

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Speaker 4: All the time. And I was a gunshot.

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Speaker 3: I think I told you I got something removed, like

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Speaker 3: a mole or mole something removed, but I never had

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Speaker 3: a mole there.

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Speaker 7: But it was a gun shot.

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Speaker 4: There was a gun shot. Roight, Yeah, it was a

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Speaker 4: small caliber gunshot.

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Speaker 1: What happened?

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Speaker 4: I got shot?

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Speaker 3: I can't remember what that incident was. I fuck, what

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Speaker 3: was that? I'm gonna have to really think back on this.

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Speaker 3: So I got shot twice, got shot in or left eroe,

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Speaker 3: I got shot on the right shoulder and I got

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Speaker 3: I get him both mixed up.

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Speaker 4: But let me think about this for a minute. That

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Speaker 4: got there, yeah right there, Yeah, came out wow out

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Speaker 4: somewhere over here.

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Speaker 3: They were both small calibers just on all the way

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Speaker 3: through that one because it was buried. One of my

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Speaker 3: shoulders buried had to be dug out.

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Speaker 1: I don't know how you can forget the details of

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Speaker 1: a gunshot wound, let alone two of them. But I

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Speaker 1: guess when you've lived the life that he's lived, a

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Speaker 1: couple shots to the arm don't really mean much. The

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Speaker 1: troubling thing is these bullet wounds happened after I was born,

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Speaker 1: after he had supposedly left the outfit.

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Speaker 4: Well, I kept I was kept.

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Speaker 3: I kept it very much away from my boys, and

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Speaker 3: when I got on the fire department, finally I was

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Speaker 3: bound and determined to get out of it completely. Of course,

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Speaker 3: that never happened. That never really happened.

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Speaker 1: I asked my mom about these gunshot wounds, and here's

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Speaker 1: what she had to say.

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Speaker 7: I just had no idea, And I'm shocked to this

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Speaker 7: day that he let this double life for so long

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Speaker 7: and without us really knowing about it.

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Speaker 1: I just think it's so interesting that his job as

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Speaker 1: a firefighter, you know, the hours are twenty four on

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Speaker 1: and forty eight off, So it's the perfect excuse for

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Speaker 1: him if he had to go do something for the outfit,

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Speaker 1: to say, hey, I'm taking an extra shift and be

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Speaker 1: gone for a day or two and go handle that,

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Speaker 1: and you wouldn't even think twice.

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Speaker 10: About it exactly.

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Speaker 7: Yeah, who knows what he was doing. I have no idea.

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Speaker 7: I mean, it makes me sick to my stomach, especially

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Speaker 7: when you have children. I mean, my god, I mean,

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Speaker 7: you're just you're making it so unsafe for your family

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Speaker 7: being in a world like that and doing things like

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Speaker 7: that and jeopardizing your family and our safety. And because

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Speaker 7: I didn't know this was going on, you know, if

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Speaker 7: I would have known this was going on, I definitely

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Speaker 7: would have said bye bye and got out of there

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Speaker 7: years ago. But this is pretty new to me within

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Speaker 7: the last few years, so I can't take back those years.

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Speaker 7: But I mean, just thank god that nothing ever happened

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Speaker 7: to me and my family because of his responsibilities and

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Speaker 7: his horrible ways of life.

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Speaker 1: So what the hell was happening all that time? Why

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Speaker 1: is my dad getting shot at if he supposedly left

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Speaker 1: the mob.

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Speaker 3: So I'm working as a paramedic firefighter. And just when

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Speaker 3: you think you're away from all this shit, all right,

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Speaker 3: You're done, You're done with all this fucking, this shady lifestyle.

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Speaker 3: I'm covering up fucking murders that these cops are doing.

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Speaker 3: Just why I think I'm getting.

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Speaker 4: Out of his ship. I'm right fucking packing it.

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Speaker 10: Yeah, I just like it.

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Speaker 11: It's it's it's a double it's fucking it's foul me.

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Speaker 4: We're over the fuck I go.

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Speaker 11: I can't shake this out of a bitch. You won't

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Speaker 11: fucking leave me alone.

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Speaker 6: My name's Mike, and I was a partner with your

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Speaker 6: dad at a private ambulance company and at two different

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Speaker 6: fire departments that we worked together at, probably over the

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Speaker 6: course of eighteen years, so it was quite a long

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Speaker 6: time together. Your Dad's the one person I really felt

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Speaker 6: comfortable with, you know that feeling, because you know, sometimes

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Speaker 6: you have a shitty partner and you're on the ambulance

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Speaker 6: and you're thinking, well, I hope, I hope nothing really

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Speaker 6: bad happens today because I'm with this guy, you know.

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Speaker 6: But when I was with your dad on the ambulance,

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Speaker 6: whether it was at the private ambulance company or at

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Speaker 6: the firehouse, I was like, doesn't matter what happens, because

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Speaker 6: we can handle anything that comes down in the post.

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Speaker 1: I remember seeing Mike along when I was a kid.

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Speaker 1: Of all my dad's friends, he was my favorite. Sure,

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Speaker 1: he was big and loud in the perfect picture of

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Speaker 1: an eighties era Chicago firefighter. But I think it's because

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Speaker 1: I've never seen my dad laugh as hard as when

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Speaker 1: he was around his buddy Mike. Plus he rocked the

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Speaker 1: best mustache I've probably ever seen.

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Speaker 6: My earliest memory of you, you were small, like three.

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Speaker 10: You were talking to me.

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Speaker 6: I don't remember what we were talking about, and your

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Speaker 6: dad was being an ass that day.

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Speaker 10: You said something to me and I said.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, that's because daddy's a dick. And you said, Daddy's

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Speaker 6: a dick, and Ken and I could not quit laughing.

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Speaker 6: You kept repeating, Daddy's a dick, Daddy's a dick. Your

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Speaker 6: mom was so mad at us for teaching.

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Speaker 1: He's at Ken had only been a firefighter for a

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Speaker 1: year or so before Mike was hired at the same station,

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Speaker 1: but even that early in his career, he had already

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Speaker 1: made a name for himself.

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Speaker 6: I was brand new EMT they hired me. He wasn't

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Speaker 6: there at the time. He was on a vacation in Arizona,

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Speaker 6: and all these guys were like, Ken is this great guy,

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Speaker 6: and he's a legend, and all of this shit they're

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Speaker 6: telling me. And I was like, Okay, this guy must

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Speaker 6: practically walk.

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Speaker 10: On water, you know.

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Speaker 6: And he came back from Arizona, and he was like

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Speaker 6: telling everybody what to do, and I was just watching,

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Speaker 6: you know.

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Speaker 10: And then one day they paired me up with him.

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Speaker 6: We were working on the ambulance together, and before we

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Speaker 6: went into a place to take care of a patient,

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Speaker 6: he tells me, I do all the talking. I call

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Speaker 6: the hospital, I take care of everything. I'll tell you

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Speaker 6: what to do. You just listen to me and do

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Speaker 6: what I tell you. And I told him, fuck you, man,

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Speaker 6: I know what I'm doing. I'm not one of these

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Speaker 6: mopes that you work with here. I said, I know

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Speaker 6: what's going on. Don't talk to me like that. And

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Speaker 6: we were friends ever since then. Sound was the first

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Speaker 6: person that stood up to him.

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Speaker 1: There. He tells me a story about Ken's first partner

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Speaker 1: before he and Mike became partners.

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Speaker 6: He had a partner who was a very strange person,

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Speaker 6: and he was trying to tell Ken what to do,

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Speaker 6: and Ken was yelling at him, and the guy started

262
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Speaker 6: screaming at him.

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Speaker 10: I know.

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Speaker 6: The guy like lost his mind and started screaming at Ken,

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Speaker 6: and Ken grabbed him by the neck and start choking

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Speaker 6: and the guy's head turned purple and he passed out

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Speaker 6: on the backstep of the ambulance.

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Speaker 10: This was the guy that you worked with.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, he was a paramedics that we worked with, and

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Speaker 6: he just kind of turned his head turned purple and

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Speaker 6: he was kind of slumped over on the ambulance bumper

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Speaker 6: and then he wakes up. You know, your dad like

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Speaker 6: go of his neck, and the guy like woke up

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Speaker 6: right away and he goes you guys saw that. You

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Speaker 6: guys saw that he assaulted me. I was like, I

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Speaker 6: don't see nothing. I'm going home. And all the firemen

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Speaker 6: were like, I didn't see nothing.

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Speaker 10: What happened? We didn't see anything. He was the little

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Speaker 10: mob boss.

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Speaker 3: Huh.

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Speaker 10: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: You know the old saying, you can take the boy

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Speaker 1: out of the mafia, but you can't take the mafia

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Speaker 1: out of the boy.

285
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Speaker 10: You know. Taking it down a notch is not his

286
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Speaker 10: specialty either.

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Speaker 6: Once he gets cranked up, he pretty much doesn't care

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Speaker 6: who's there.

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Speaker 10: He's gonna say his piece.

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Speaker 1: With Ken and Mike now partnered up, they quickly acquired

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Speaker 1: a reputation as bossy and confrontational and probably a little psychotic.

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Speaker 6: They wouldn't let us work together anymore, and the firemen

293
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Speaker 6: were crying. They went to the chief, and the chief

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Speaker 6: made the no more Mike and Ken rule because we

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Speaker 6: weren't allowed to work together on the ambulance anymore.

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Speaker 1: Rule or not, Mike and Ken are gonna do what

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Speaker 1: Mike and Ken are gonna do.

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Speaker 6: We would watch Doctor Who together on Sunday nights, and

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Speaker 6: then it started getting busy on Sunday nights. We were

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Speaker 6: having a hard time watching Doctor Who because we would

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Speaker 6: have to do ambulance calls.

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Speaker 10: So we both decided we weren't going to work.

303
00:16:16,280 --> 00:16:19,280
Speaker 6: Sunday nights anymore because we want to be able to

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Speaker 6: watch Doctor Who uninterrupted.

305
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Speaker 10: So they were mad because we told.

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Speaker 6: Them now, we can't do any more Sunday nights because

307
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Speaker 6: we're missing Doctor Who and it's not right. So we

308
00:16:32,560 --> 00:16:34,920
Speaker 6: made our own Mic and Ken rule for that one.

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Speaker 4: It's about time.

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Speaker 1: As fun as it is to hear these old stories,

311
00:16:43,600 --> 00:16:47,200
Speaker 1: and it really is. It's been an absolute joy catching

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00:16:47,280 --> 00:16:50,520
Speaker 1: up with Mike. I now know that missing Doctor Who

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Speaker 1: on a Sunday night was the least of the problems.

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Speaker 1: And though Ken was no longer in a day to

315
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Speaker 1: day relationship with the outfit, the crime and corruption of police,

316
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Speaker 1: and a fish shows in Cook County would inevitably make

317
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Speaker 1: its way back into his life.

318
00:17:09,920 --> 00:17:14,440
Speaker 3: So a cop would fucking kill somebody, whether by accident

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00:17:14,640 --> 00:17:17,960
Speaker 3: or out of anger, I don't know. Anyway you kill

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Speaker 3: a civilian. But and here's the sick twist here, Man

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Speaker 3: Ken's got to come in as a paramedic, listen to

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Speaker 3: the story that the cops are sticking to, and then

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Speaker 3: I have to take I have to look at the

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00:17:34,080 --> 00:17:38,520
Speaker 3: injuries of the dead guy and tailor their story to

325
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Speaker 3: fit the fucking injuries.

326
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Speaker 4: And I got to document to shit.

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Speaker 3: In a million fucking years that I ever think that

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Speaker 3: was going to happen. I mean, I mean, who even

329
00:17:50,760 --> 00:17:51,760
Speaker 3: thinks the shit like that?

330
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Speaker 9: Was this just a given part of your new career now,

331
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Speaker 9: or like were you getting paid?

332
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Speaker 1: Like no, no, oh no, no.

333
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Speaker 4: This is no this is this is the culture.

334
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Speaker 3: It's the culture that this is the part of my job.

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Speaker 4: That's part that's part of the job.

336
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Speaker 1: I asked, Mike, what do you thinks about this?

337
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Speaker 6: It's kind of, you know, a hard thing to deal with,

338
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Speaker 6: but that's how everything worked at that time.

339
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Speaker 10: One of the ones that stands.

340
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Speaker 6: Out to me was there was a cop and he

341
00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:26,840
Speaker 6: was wasted, and he crashed into a car and he

342
00:18:26,920 --> 00:18:31,000
Speaker 6: hurt the people in their car, real bad and usually,

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Speaker 6: you know, that would result in tickets and and arrest

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Speaker 6: and stuff.

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Speaker 10: And the cops, our cops came over.

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Speaker 6: And told us, don't mention that you smelled alcohol on

347
00:18:43,520 --> 00:18:46,040
Speaker 6: this guy's breast or anything. Don't put it in your report,

348
00:18:46,119 --> 00:18:48,480
Speaker 6: don't mention it to the hospital. We don't want to

349
00:18:48,480 --> 00:18:51,919
Speaker 6: get this guy in trouble. And I was like, he

350
00:18:52,040 --> 00:18:55,840
Speaker 6: hurt people, he's wasted and he hurt people. And they

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Speaker 6: were like, don't do it. And you know, you know,

352
00:18:59,359 --> 00:19:01,800
Speaker 6: they did the wrong thing and no one's going to

353
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Speaker 6: hold him accountable for it.

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Speaker 1: He tells me a few other awful stories of police brutality,

355
00:19:10,160 --> 00:19:14,159
Speaker 1: but this next one was so cruel and vile it

356
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Speaker 1: truly shocked me.

357
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Speaker 10: We had a guy and he was huge.

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Speaker 6: He was like a four hundred pound guy, you know,

359
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Speaker 6: like twenty two to twenty three years old who worked

360
00:19:26,359 --> 00:19:31,320
Speaker 6: in the hospital cafeteria at a hospital in that area.

361
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Speaker 6: And we knew this guy. He was a nice kid,

362
00:19:34,720 --> 00:19:38,400
Speaker 6: you know, he didn't never hurt anybody. And he went

363
00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:42,480
Speaker 6: to the bar one night and these off duty cops

364
00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:47,360
Speaker 6: were harassing them and force feeding them shots. And then

365
00:19:47,400 --> 00:19:49,520
Speaker 6: they strapped a feedbag on him and made him eat

366
00:19:49,520 --> 00:19:52,440
Speaker 6: out of a feedbag and they were forcing food down

367
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Speaker 6: his throat and they were just torturing a kid.

368
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Speaker 10: And then the kid went home.

369
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Speaker 6: And passed out, laid on his back in the kitchen

370
00:20:05,200 --> 00:20:08,720
Speaker 6: and just kept bombiting, so he aspirated and he died.

371
00:20:10,800 --> 00:20:17,240
Speaker 6: And that was another one where they were like, just

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Speaker 6: put the facts into the thing. Leave out you know,

373
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Speaker 6: any hearsay, like you know off duty cops were involved

374
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Speaker 6: or anything.

375
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Speaker 10: Don't even mention that.

376
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Speaker 6: Your dad was furious that they bullied that kid and

377
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Speaker 6: basically killed him. And there was no way to prove it.

378
00:20:44,320 --> 00:20:46,640
Speaker 6: You know, there's nothing we could do to prove it.

379
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Speaker 6: They killed a kid, They killed a young man. They

380
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Speaker 6: ended his life. And he never hurt anybody. That's the thing.

381
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Speaker 6: It's not like he was a terrible person or something.

382
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Speaker 6: He is a nice kid, you know, that never hurt anyone.

383
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Speaker 4: Now I got you know, you know, so Ken's gonna

384
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Speaker 4: die one day.

385
00:21:08,119 --> 00:21:10,879
Speaker 3: So and now Ken's got to talk, you know, sitting

386
00:21:10,880 --> 00:21:12,959
Speaker 3: in front of the big guy and try to explain

387
00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:16,679
Speaker 3: his way out of this one. All right, You know

388
00:21:16,680 --> 00:21:18,919
Speaker 3: where I had every fucking opportunity in the world to

389
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Speaker 3: do the right thing, but I chose not to.

390
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Speaker 7: I mean, it wasn't much of the choice, though it

391
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Speaker 7: was it.

392
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Speaker 3: Oh, I had a family, Kyle, you guys were born

393
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Speaker 3: I you know, I had a family to fucking raise.

394
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Speaker 4: I'm not going to jeopardize my family.

395
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Speaker 1: At first, I didn't understand why covering up murders for

396
00:21:49,200 --> 00:21:51,960
Speaker 1: these cricket cops would be a required part of the job,

397
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Speaker 1: and even more how not doing it could jeopardize our family.

398
00:21:57,320 --> 00:22:01,000
Speaker 1: But Jeff Cohne of the Chicago Tribune isn't surprise and

399
00:22:01,119 --> 00:22:04,840
Speaker 1: shared an interesting perspective on this sad reality.

400
00:22:05,800 --> 00:22:09,680
Speaker 12: There was a significant issue in Chicago where the outfit

401
00:22:09,800 --> 00:22:13,679
Speaker 12: had infiltrated the police department. They had operatives, you know,

402
00:22:13,720 --> 00:22:16,080
Speaker 12: all the way up to you know, there's a guy

403
00:22:16,119 --> 00:22:17,600
Speaker 12: who went down in a case who was the chief

404
00:22:17,640 --> 00:22:19,800
Speaker 12: of detectives who wound up running his own sort of

405
00:22:19,920 --> 00:22:23,040
Speaker 12: jewel theft ring. I mean, they had major, major corruption

406
00:22:23,119 --> 00:22:26,760
Speaker 12: problems related to organized crime, and so they could basically

407
00:22:26,760 --> 00:22:30,439
Speaker 12: operate with impunity more or less. And it got so

408
00:22:30,560 --> 00:22:33,080
Speaker 12: bad in Cook County that you actually had a criminal

409
00:22:33,080 --> 00:22:36,080
Speaker 12: court judge who threw a murder case on a guy

410
00:22:36,119 --> 00:22:37,640
Speaker 12: who was in the outfit.

411
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Speaker 10: So it went all the way to.

412
00:22:39,520 --> 00:22:42,080
Speaker 12: Sort of cross the threshold that a lot of people

413
00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:43,359
Speaker 12: never thought that it could get to.

414
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Speaker 6: Yeah, Crook County, Yeah, there's no doubt about that. It's

415
00:22:49,880 --> 00:22:53,680
Speaker 6: a den of thieves. The administration is a den of thieves.

416
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Speaker 1: But these abuses aren't just a symptom of the Chicago

417
00:22:59,720 --> 00:23:04,760
Speaker 1: crime family's clause within law enforcement, because there's another family

418
00:23:05,119 --> 00:23:08,080
Speaker 1: with their own set of rules that enabled these types

419
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Speaker 1: of injustices to thrive.

420
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Speaker 6: So the brotherhood of the cops, you know, and you're

421
00:23:15,040 --> 00:23:18,240
Speaker 6: so dependent on them. They saved my life a bunch

422
00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:21,119
Speaker 6: of times that I wouldn't even be here today if

423
00:23:21,160 --> 00:23:24,320
Speaker 6: I hadn't stayed on the right side of that, you know,

424
00:23:25,840 --> 00:23:28,160
Speaker 6: because you don't want to be the guy that they're like, oh,

425
00:23:28,200 --> 00:23:31,280
Speaker 6: they know you're working on this ambulance and then you're

426
00:23:31,320 --> 00:23:35,320
Speaker 6: calling for police to come help you and they go

427
00:23:35,480 --> 00:23:39,119
Speaker 6: slow because that could happen. I don't want to be

428
00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:41,560
Speaker 6: the guy that they go slow to save their life,

429
00:23:41,600 --> 00:23:45,520
Speaker 6: you know. So it's really a hard place and it's

430
00:23:45,560 --> 00:23:48,680
Speaker 6: a tough decision to make, and you got to live

431
00:23:48,720 --> 00:23:53,000
Speaker 6: with it. For some people, you know, that don't really

432
00:23:53,040 --> 00:23:55,040
Speaker 6: have them, like a soul or a conscience.

433
00:23:55,160 --> 00:23:59,040
Speaker 10: That's easy. You know, those are hard decisions to live.

434
00:23:58,880 --> 00:24:10,080
Speaker 4: With, you know.

435
00:24:10,160 --> 00:24:11,360
Speaker 9: The other side of this is.

436
00:24:13,760 --> 00:24:15,399
Speaker 1: And I don't know if you know any of this stuff.

437
00:24:15,400 --> 00:24:16,879
Speaker 9: You know, he was a very private guy.

438
00:24:16,760 --> 00:24:19,159
Speaker 1: But did you know of any of his involvement in

439
00:24:19,440 --> 00:24:20,200
Speaker 1: organized crime?

440
00:24:21,080 --> 00:24:25,119
Speaker 6: I know that he was in Cook County jail prior

441
00:24:25,240 --> 00:24:28,680
Speaker 6: to when I met him, because he left his wallet

442
00:24:28,720 --> 00:24:30,800
Speaker 6: on laying on the dresser. He threw his wallet on

443
00:24:30,840 --> 00:24:33,760
Speaker 6: a dresser at the private ambulance company in the room

444
00:24:33,760 --> 00:24:37,720
Speaker 6: where we would sleep, and he had a inmate card,

445
00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:40,920
Speaker 6: you know, for when he was out on parole after

446
00:24:40,960 --> 00:24:45,600
Speaker 6: getting out of jail. And I was like, okay, so

447
00:24:46,800 --> 00:24:50,000
Speaker 6: that's one of the things I asked him about, and

448
00:24:50,600 --> 00:24:53,720
Speaker 6: he gave me very little detail on it. I think

449
00:24:53,760 --> 00:24:58,840
Speaker 6: he said like two sentences and then that story was done.

450
00:24:59,720 --> 00:25:06,359
Speaker 6: He had said something about pimpin for the outfit and

451
00:25:06,440 --> 00:25:09,520
Speaker 6: he wasn't going to do that stuff anymore, and that

452
00:25:09,680 --> 00:25:11,600
Speaker 6: was it. That was the end of the conversation. He

453
00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:14,480
Speaker 6: didn't want to say another word about it, and I

454
00:25:14,520 --> 00:25:17,879
Speaker 6: already knew him well enough to not ask another question

455
00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:20,240
Speaker 6: about it, because I wasn't going to get anything anyway.

456
00:25:20,840 --> 00:25:25,240
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a charge for keeper of a house

457
00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:26,600
Speaker 1: of prostitution, right.

458
00:25:26,960 --> 00:25:30,520
Speaker 6: I actually read about it in the paper, you know,

459
00:25:30,600 --> 00:25:34,000
Speaker 6: when it went down, when they busted the place. But

460
00:25:34,280 --> 00:25:36,359
Speaker 6: you know, and then he told me about it, and

461
00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:39,280
Speaker 6: it didn't click in my mind till like a year later.

462
00:25:40,440 --> 00:25:43,600
Speaker 6: You know that that was probably the same thing, you.

463
00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:46,800
Speaker 1: Know, Mike tells me. There were other hints too that

464
00:25:46,920 --> 00:25:50,840
Speaker 1: Ken was probably connected. One incident in particular took place

465
00:25:50,880 --> 00:25:53,360
Speaker 1: at my parents' wedding, which was right around the time

466
00:25:53,440 --> 00:25:56,080
Speaker 1: Mike and my dad became partners, and a year before

467
00:25:56,119 --> 00:25:56,640
Speaker 1: I was born.

468
00:25:57,240 --> 00:26:01,320
Speaker 6: I actually went to their wedding and the I was

469
00:26:01,320 --> 00:26:04,560
Speaker 6: a little drunk and got in a confrontation with some

470
00:26:05,040 --> 00:26:10,320
Speaker 6: very Italian people there. Oh boy, yeah, And there was

471
00:26:10,359 --> 00:26:13,520
Speaker 6: a guy with the I remember this guy. He was

472
00:26:13,560 --> 00:26:17,240
Speaker 6: a smaller guy, you know, but he had a shiny suit.

473
00:26:18,040 --> 00:26:24,040
Speaker 6: He had a very shiny, silvery suit. And I was

474
00:26:24,119 --> 00:26:26,320
Speaker 6: laughing about it, and I was telling the people at

475
00:26:26,320 --> 00:26:28,359
Speaker 6: my table how he's a thought of Gotti. That's a

476
00:26:28,880 --> 00:26:31,840
Speaker 6: word that my sister and I use for real. Italian

477
00:26:31,840 --> 00:26:34,560
Speaker 6: people would call him fot of Gottis, you know, And

478
00:26:36,200 --> 00:26:40,600
Speaker 6: huh means no. I think it's just a made up word.

479
00:26:41,920 --> 00:26:44,920
Speaker 6: He's a fought of Gotti, you know, so that's what

480
00:26:44,960 --> 00:26:48,800
Speaker 6: we call him. And he heard me say it, and

481
00:26:48,920 --> 00:26:50,679
Speaker 6: he thought I was making fun of him, so he

482
00:26:50,720 --> 00:26:53,080
Speaker 6: came over and got confrontational with me. So I was

483
00:26:53,119 --> 00:26:56,280
Speaker 6: off my chair in a hot second and got confrontational

484
00:26:56,400 --> 00:27:00,000
Speaker 6: right back with him. Then his friends started coming over,

485
00:27:00,400 --> 00:27:02,520
Speaker 6: and the people I was sitting with were getting off

486
00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:06,159
Speaker 6: their chairs. And remember your dad coming over and diffusing

487
00:27:06,200 --> 00:27:12,040
Speaker 6: the whole thing, Yeah, because that was about to get ugly.

488
00:27:12,320 --> 00:27:14,480
Speaker 6: And that's not the thing to do with a wedding reception.

489
00:27:15,640 --> 00:27:19,120
Speaker 6: It happens. It happens more than you would possibly think.

490
00:27:19,160 --> 00:27:22,080
Speaker 6: I've been on that call a bunch of times where

491
00:27:22,240 --> 00:27:25,960
Speaker 6: a wedding reception turned into a brawl or a stabbing.

492
00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:28,800
Speaker 10: And uh, he didn't.

493
00:27:28,880 --> 00:27:31,639
Speaker 6: I don't think he wanted his wedding reception to be that.

494
00:27:31,920 --> 00:27:35,000
Speaker 6: So he came over and intervened. And I don't know

495
00:27:35,040 --> 00:27:37,399
Speaker 6: if he thought he was saving my life or what,

496
00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:38,359
Speaker 6: but you know.

497
00:27:38,800 --> 00:27:40,560
Speaker 1: Those are probably some pretty serious people.

498
00:27:40,800 --> 00:27:43,320
Speaker 6: Yeah, But I was young and strong and good for

499
00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:45,679
Speaker 6: the scrap back in those days, and I was willing

500
00:27:45,680 --> 00:27:46,680
Speaker 6: to get in it too.

501
00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:53,440
Speaker 1: Whether Mike was good for the scrub or not. From

502
00:27:53,440 --> 00:27:56,400
Speaker 1: what I've learned about my father's past, I think Mike

503
00:27:56,520 --> 00:27:59,640
Speaker 1: was right. Ken probably did save his life that day,

504
00:28:00,280 --> 00:28:03,119
Speaker 1: and as close as Mike and Ken were, I'm certain

505
00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:05,880
Speaker 1: that my father did whatever he could to keep that

506
00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:09,400
Speaker 1: dark world away from his friend, just like he kept

507
00:28:09,400 --> 00:28:13,600
Speaker 1: it away from us, even though it was circling right overhead.

508
00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:18,600
Speaker 3: I was working full time as a firefighter, paramedic and

509
00:28:18,680 --> 00:28:21,960
Speaker 3: raising my family, but I was still connected, and I

510
00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:28,199
Speaker 3: always had that pendulum swinging over my fucking head that

511
00:28:28,280 --> 00:28:30,280
Speaker 3: I could be called in at any time. And I

512
00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:34,399
Speaker 3: was called in a couple of times, but I always had.

513
00:28:34,280 --> 00:28:36,560
Speaker 4: To keep that on the do I mean no, it

514
00:28:36,600 --> 00:28:40,840
Speaker 4: could work. Couldn't know, family, couldn't know, nobody could know.

515
00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:46,880
Speaker 3: I can remember heading off to work with the fire

516
00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:50,240
Speaker 3: department still and I'm on the Eisenhower Expressway.

517
00:28:50,440 --> 00:28:53,680
Speaker 1: I see him, that fucking guinea fuck, and I know

518
00:28:53,760 --> 00:28:54,239
Speaker 1: who he is.

519
00:28:55,640 --> 00:28:58,200
Speaker 4: He's a soldier, but he's a higher end soldier.

520
00:28:59,160 --> 00:29:01,480
Speaker 3: I've had experience with them in the past, and I

521
00:29:01,560 --> 00:29:04,960
Speaker 3: never liked him, never appreciated him, never even wanted to

522
00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:09,280
Speaker 3: recognize him as a human fucking being, and that was

523
00:29:09,360 --> 00:29:15,200
Speaker 3: my mission to snuff the fucking light out of this guy.

524
00:29:16,240 --> 00:29:32,160
Speaker 1: Next week on Crook County.

525
00:29:27,400 --> 00:29:30,760
Speaker 3: He saw me, he spun out of control and the

526
00:29:30,960 --> 00:29:35,120
Speaker 3: race was on. That's how simple it can be to

527
00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:36,640
Speaker 3: murder somebody.

528
00:29:36,800 --> 00:29:37,560
Speaker 4: I'm just saying.

529
00:29:40,520 --> 00:29:44,120
Speaker 1: Crook County is a production of iHeart Podcasts and Tenderfoot

530
00:29:44,160 --> 00:29:48,720
Speaker 1: TV in association with Common Enemy. All episodes are written, produced,

531
00:29:48,800 --> 00:29:52,920
Speaker 1: and hosted by Me Kyle Tequila. Executive producers are Donald

532
00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:57,000
Speaker 1: Albright and Payne Lindsay. Original score by Makeup and Vanity Set.

533
00:29:57,360 --> 00:30:00,720
Speaker 1: Main title song is called Crush by the band Stary Eyes.

534
00:30:01,320 --> 00:30:04,800
Speaker 1: End credit song is called Aloha, also by the band

535
00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:08,440
Speaker 1: Starry Eyes. Sound mix by Cooper Skinner. Thank you to

536
00:30:08,560 --> 00:30:12,320
Speaker 1: Orn Rosenbaum and the excellent team at UTA for their support,

537
00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:15,080
Speaker 1: and to my fearless attorney, Wendy Bench for her guidance.

538
00:30:15,800 --> 00:30:18,920
Speaker 1: To stay updated on all things Crook County, follow us

539
00:30:18,960 --> 00:30:22,600
Speaker 1: on all socials at Crook County Podcast, or leave us

540
00:30:22,600 --> 00:30:27,440
Speaker 1: a voicemail by visiting crookcountypodcast dot com. For more podcasts

541
00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:31,280
Speaker 1: like Crook County, search Tenderfoot TV on your favorite podcast app,

542
00:30:31,600 --> 00:30:35,959
Speaker 1: or visit Tenderfoot dot tv. Thanks for listening the story

543
00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:37,400
Speaker 1: continues next week,