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Speaker 3: in this podcast are solely those of the individuals participating
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Speaker 1: Previously on Crook County.
Speaker 4: I got recruited into the mob when I was seventeen
Speaker 4: years old.
Speaker 1: Meet Kenny the kid Tequila.
Speaker 5: I became a trusted member.
Speaker 1: I ran whorehouses and I did his an enforcer for
Speaker 1: the Chicago I.
Speaker 5: Wanted him to know I meant fucking business here.
Speaker 6: So I beat him, put the gun back up to
Speaker 6: his forehead, and three of my boys come in.
Speaker 1: He lived a secret double life for over twenty years.
Speaker 4: I had a wife and I had two children. Nobody
Speaker 4: knew anything. I didn't want anybody to know. I was
Speaker 4: kind of embarrassed, and I wanted to keep them as
Speaker 4: far away from it as possible. I wanted them.
Speaker 2: To have a good life.
Speaker 1: How do you keep an entire life of crime away
Speaker 1: from your friends, away from your family. It seems impossible,
Speaker 1: but I know it's true because Kenny is my father,
Speaker 1: and I had no idea about any of this until now.
Speaker 1: My name is Kyle Tequila. Welcome to Crook County.
Speaker 7: I didn't know if he was in the lab until
Speaker 7: maybe twenty years after your days were born.
Speaker 8: He was a fucking crazy bastard and that type of
Speaker 8: lifestyle fits him.
Speaker 1: You cannot control this. It is the devil.
Speaker 6: It lays in wait for you, and it will take
Speaker 6: you out at your weakest moments.
Speaker 1: Episode two, The Ties that bind Us? Family? Has there
Speaker 1: ever been a more loaded word? To some family means
Speaker 1: unconditional love. It means security and support, tradition, values, acceptance, joy,
Speaker 1: and spending the holidays together. It's the very foundation upon
Speaker 1: which you are built. To some people, family means everything,
Speaker 1: But to many others, family is just another four letter
Speaker 1: word filled with pain, grief, and discontent. Family is something
Speaker 1: you need to escape from, to shun, to forget. For
Speaker 1: my father, family meant something else entirely On one hand,
Speaker 1: it was his wife who loved him, his two young
Speaker 1: boys who idolized him. It meant breaking the chain of
Speaker 1: an abusive childhood and starting over to create something new,
Speaker 1: something pure, something good. But on the other hand, family
Speaker 1: meant something far more sinister. His mafia family took him
Speaker 1: in when he was just seventeen alone in the streets
Speaker 1: of Chicago. It gave him a job and a support system.
Speaker 1: It took away the anxieties of running away from home
Speaker 1: with no money and filled that emptiness with purpose, even
Speaker 1: if that purpose was criminal, even if it meant doing
Speaker 1: things you never imagined possible, never in a million years,
Speaker 1: and once you do them, it's all ready too late.
Speaker 1: You're a prisoner to that family forever.
Speaker 5: So my goal was to be a good provider, all right,
Speaker 5: So my kids had every opportunity in the world that
Speaker 5: I didn't have, and my wife could be a wife,
Speaker 5: to be a stay at home mom, to raise the family. Okay,
Speaker 5: that was my goal, all right. I didn't want anybody
Speaker 5: to know.
Speaker 4: I was kind of embarrassed, and I wanted to keep
Speaker 4: them as far away from it as possible. I wanted
Speaker 4: them to have a good life, you know, raise their
Speaker 4: own families.
Speaker 1: And for the most part he succeeded. We never knew
Speaker 1: about my father's second family. We were happy, and I
Speaker 1: always felt lucky to be a part of this family.
Speaker 1: In fact, I have almost exclusively positive memories for my
Speaker 1: first eighteen years, a loving, blue collar, suburban middle class
Speaker 1: home with a Ford Explorer and a convertible Mustang occupying
Speaker 1: the driveway. My dad was a firefighter paramedic and my
Speaker 1: mom left work to raise the kids. Both were supportive
Speaker 1: and enthusiastic parents, encouraging us to pursue our passions and
Speaker 1: follow our dreams. My younger brother, Corey, and I played
Speaker 1: just about every sport imaginable, so trips to play it
Speaker 1: against sports to buy and sell our gently used equipment
Speaker 1: were routine. We didn't have all the latest toys or
Speaker 1: clothes like many of the other kids in the neighborhood,
Speaker 1: but we never really wanted for anything. Running around the
Speaker 1: neighborhood like animals, laughing, building forts, playing tag, walking for
Speaker 1: miles along the railroad tracks like the kids and stand
Speaker 1: by Me minus the dead body, sleepovers, paintball battles, baseball games,
Speaker 1: travel hockey, girlfriends, making out in the basement, breakups, new friends,
Speaker 1: movie nights, punk shows. It was a good life, as
Speaker 1: good as any kid could ask for.
Speaker 7: My kids grew up happy.
Speaker 1: That's my mom, Holly.
Speaker 7: I worked part time, Ken worked as a firefighter paramedic,
Speaker 7: and would have a second job, you know, just to
Speaker 7: make ends meet. But it was, you know, my perfect
Speaker 7: little life. I you know, had a husband, I had
Speaker 7: two beautiful sons. We finally had a beautiful home in
Speaker 7: a nice neighborhood. We eventually made good friends with our
Speaker 7: neighbors and their kids made good friends with you know,
Speaker 7: all the kids in their neighborhood. And you know, it
Speaker 7: was my dream coming true.
Speaker 1: We were lucky, at least that's how it felt back then.
Speaker 1: But today things couldn't be any more different, and we
Speaker 1: couldn't be any further apart. As soon as we could,
Speaker 1: my brother and I moved away from home, me to
Speaker 1: the West Coast and my brother to the East. My
Speaker 1: dad eventually moved away to leaving a trail of destruction
Speaker 1: in his wake, and leaving my poor mom with nothing
Speaker 1: but sadness, anger, and unanswered questions. I don't know why
Speaker 1: I deserve this.
Speaker 7: My life ended.
Speaker 1: I'd like to welcome everyone here to Chicago. With the bears.
Speaker 1: Now for you're continued safety to think, give all them
Speaker 1: folks you're gonna fall on, please remain see with them
Speaker 1: stands and I flew to Chicago to visit my mom.
Speaker 1: It's been years since I've been back, and I'm really
Speaker 1: not looking forward to the conversation I'm about to have
Speaker 1: with her. I don't think she's looking forward to it either.
Speaker 2: Hey, hi, mom, you.
Speaker 9: You look very cuddly.
Speaker 10: A good outfit.
Speaker 2: You are cuddly, that's true.
Speaker 9: Cool.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, Hi, he's not allowed in here.
Speaker 7: You know this is a man freeze out.
Speaker 2: I'll hang out.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, I'll go back to Duncan Donuts. She lives in
Speaker 1: a small house with her friend Kathy. It's old and dated.
Speaker 1: The architecture, the furniture like it was pulled straight from
Speaker 1: a nineteen seventy series catalog.
Speaker 7: The last time was the one and only time other
Speaker 7: than when you was little.
Speaker 10: Was it your mom's ninety.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right?
Speaker 7: When she said she's who introduced me to your father,
Speaker 7: and the two of you went thanks a lot.
Speaker 1: And that's when I said.
Speaker 7: You should be kissing my ask because if there were
Speaker 7: not a me, there would not be a use very true.
Speaker 1: I hold no resentment towards you at all.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: We head up to her room so we can talk.
Speaker 1: It's full of pictures and mementos from the old days,
Speaker 1: the good days.
Speaker 7: I mean, I have tons of pictures and things, and
Speaker 7: all my videotapes are in there and in there.
Speaker 1: And she pulls out a small box from under her bed.
Speaker 7: Oh my god, this is one of my favorites. I've
Speaker 7: watched because I didn't have TV for a long time
Speaker 7: and some of my apartments so I will watch VHS
Speaker 7: videotapes of our family. And I love this one and
Speaker 7: I love this one. I love them all, but this
Speaker 7: is like my favorite. It's like the beginning of our
Speaker 7: normal life.
Speaker 1: We pick out an old VHS tape from our childhood
Speaker 1: and pop it in. What is he found?
Speaker 10: Kind?
Speaker 2: Look around corners stuff.
Speaker 1: It's Easter morning, nineteen eighty nine. My four year old
Speaker 1: self is joyfully running around the house finding candy filled
Speaker 1: eggs and baskets, while my brother Corey, two years old
Speaker 1: at this time, is trying to keep up.
Speaker 9: You'll find a kite.
Speaker 7: Wow.
Speaker 1: My dad is behind the camera narrating ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 9: Here's my son, Kyle. I want you boys to stand back,
Speaker 9: and my wonderful family stand back. Let me look at
Speaker 9: your faces. My beautiful wife like two beautiful boys, and
Speaker 9: look it. See all that candy and stuff there, that's
Speaker 9: your first load. We got part two coming up. I
Speaker 9: want you to think about this. You know what I
Speaker 9: got for Easter. My whole life was one basket with
Speaker 9: socks and underwear.
Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 9: That's all I ever got. Look at my kids. Happy Easter,
Speaker 9: you guys.
Speaker 1: The image jumps till later in the day. Some family
Speaker 1: has come over to celebrate, and my mom now holds
Speaker 1: the camera. There's people everywhere. She pans around to my dad,
Speaker 1: who's standing tall in the chaos.
Speaker 10: Here's Can.
Speaker 2: Oh, you're out of your Easter. Where's your easter bonnet?
Speaker 10: Can?
Speaker 1: He's got long hair, wearing a tight white dress shirt
Speaker 1: with most of the buttons undone, and sporting a huge
Speaker 1: goofy smile on his face.
Speaker 3: Because these eye is taking it.
Speaker 10: That's right.
Speaker 9: So now I'm in a picture.
Speaker 1: He's posing now, showing off his muscles and brimming with
Speaker 1: that unique blend of sarcasm, confidence and charm that endeared
Speaker 1: him to everyone around him.
Speaker 7: Niece, it's jealous, like, right.
Speaker 1: Now, she's thirty five years old. Here my age. Now,
Speaker 1: in those days he was my hero. And I don't
Speaker 1: just mean that figuratively. Only a few months after this
Speaker 1: home video was made, he literally saved my life. Thanks
Speaker 1: for joining me on Crook County for ad free listening
Speaker 1: and exclusive content, dive into tenderfootplus dot com right there
Speaker 1: in the show notes. Tenderfoot plus is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
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Speaker 1: early episodes, upcoming bonus material, the tenderfoot podcast library of
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Speaker 7: You guys were little. Corey was like two, your four
Speaker 7: going on five. Well, our neighbor was a single female
Speaker 7: who had moved into the neighborhood with this big dog
Speaker 7: and a Nikita huge probably one hundred pound dog at least,
Speaker 7: and she had the dog for protection. She also had
Speaker 7: a cat. And one day you and me and Corey
Speaker 7: were out in the front yard just hanging out, and
Speaker 7: her cat was up in our tree. So you went
Speaker 7: next door and knocked on the door and it was summertime,
Speaker 7: and she just had like a screen door. The other
Speaker 7: door was opened, and the dog came up to the
Speaker 7: door when you were standing there and pushed open the
Speaker 7: green door and started chasing after you and tackled you
Speaker 7: and took you down to the ground and started biting
Speaker 7: you on your head from your head all the way
Speaker 7: down to your calves. And you were like four years old,
Speaker 7: forty pounds, and this is like a hundred pound dog
Speaker 7: on top of you, tearing you to shreds. I was
Speaker 7: in the front yard with you, and I made this
Speaker 7: hurdling scream, and thank god Ken was home that day
Speaker 7: because he was usually on twenty four off forty eight,
Speaker 7: and he heard me scream in the front yard and
Speaker 7: he came out running. And by the time he came
Speaker 7: out there, I'm on top of the dog trying to
Speaker 7: get him off of you. You're bleeding everywhere, and I'm
Speaker 7: trying to pull you out of the dog's mouth where
Speaker 7: Kenna's trying to pull the dog off of your body.
Speaker 7: And in the meantime, there's puncture wounds on your legs
Speaker 7: and on your head and on your back. And Ken
Speaker 7: comes here, and you know, I get off and he
Speaker 7: takes the dog and he opens up the dog's mouth
Speaker 7: like really wide and broke the dog's jaw, and I
Speaker 7: pulled you out of the dog's mouth. Finally the ambulance
Speaker 7: came and they took X rays of your head. You
Speaker 7: had two depressed skull fractures from his teeth. It was scary.
Speaker 7: I thought I was going to lose you, and I
Speaker 7: just say thank God, because if Ken wasn't there, you.
Speaker 3: Wouldn't be here.
Speaker 1: After several months of intensive recovery, the scare had passed
Speaker 1: and I was becoming my old self again. So we
Speaker 1: packed up our belongings and moved to the house I
Speaker 1: would forever consider my childhood home in a small, newly
Speaker 1: constructed suburb west of Chicago, the very definition of cookie cutter,
Speaker 1: my mom puts in another tape. It's from the day
Speaker 1: we moved in. My dad is behind the camera again
Speaker 1: while a few of his buddies from the fire department
Speaker 1: are carrying in furniture and goofing off.
Speaker 10: Nice.
Speaker 6: If you.
Speaker 10: Take pictures.
Speaker 9: Warm, there's not warm.
Speaker 7: Don't bother about.
Speaker 1: The neighborhood was so new that none of the landscaping
Speaker 1: had been planted yet, so the entire yard was mud.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of people out here admiring their mud.
Speaker 1: Our house a little blue island in a sea of
Speaker 1: brown sludge.
Speaker 9: How about that?
Speaker 1: That's something Santa, don't you guys?
Speaker 2: Growing up was great. We had a great childhood.
Speaker 1: That's my brother Corey dead.
Speaker 8: He would take us to the firehouse, seeing all the
Speaker 8: fire engines and playing with all the medical supplies and
Speaker 8: the and the paramedic truck and everything. You know, rubber gloves,
Speaker 8: that was like the coolest thing to like wear, you know,
Speaker 8: ship like that.
Speaker 2: And somebody would go on the mic, you know, and
Speaker 2: it would be.
Speaker 8: An intercom throughout the whole the whole building, and be
Speaker 8: like attention. And then I don't know, maybe what Mike
Speaker 8: Eckler or something like that, would just let out a
Speaker 8: big rip on the microphone in his sport throughout the
Speaker 8: whole building, you know, and everybody would crack up. You know,
Speaker 8: this is just fun.
Speaker 1: She pops in another tape, it's my fifth birthday party.
Speaker 1: There's about twenty people at some restaurant. I remember this.
Speaker 11: The kids got to make our own pizzas. It's impossible
Speaker 11: to describe how I feel watching this video and knowing
Speaker 11: now all of the atrocious crimes my father committed in
Speaker 11: the years leading up to it, and worse that they
Speaker 11: were still being committed, beatings, murders, cover ups, will try
Speaker 11: and then coming home to his happy little family and
Speaker 11: lying about everything away.
Speaker 7: Why don't we get here, kid, and.
Speaker 1: All of us completely oblivious, celebrating a joyful birthday with
Speaker 1: the clear heads and hearts of a simple, average American family,
Speaker 1: when in fact we were anything but right here.
Speaker 9: I'll relax, will, Yeah, I haven't an emotion forever in motion?
Speaker 10: All right?
Speaker 9: Lamar stills, Baby, This is.
Speaker 1: The nineties and my poor mother going to bed every
Speaker 1: night next to a man she doesn't even know, a
Speaker 1: man who has blood on his hands, the same hands
Speaker 1: that would comb through my hair the next morning before
Speaker 1: going off to work to possibly have them bloodied again.
Speaker 1: We never suspected a thing, we had no reason to.
Speaker 1: But now looking back, knowing what I know, there were
Speaker 1: in fact signs of a darker side, cracks in his
Speaker 1: been ear.
Speaker 8: I remember being eight or nine, my dad picking me
Speaker 8: up from somewhere. I'm walking out and I see Dad
Speaker 8: kind of just like nonchalantly, like hanging out in his
Speaker 8: Ford Explorer kind of yelling at a guy. You know,
Speaker 8: it looked like there was a confrontation going on, but
Speaker 8: he was super calm, super chill. As I'm walking closer
Speaker 8: and closer to the car, I see this this big
Speaker 8: bald man screaming through the window. Well, Ken, my dad
Speaker 8: was just sitting there, and all of a sudden, he
Speaker 8: fucking just headbuts this guy knocks the guy fucking flat out,
Speaker 8: and I'm like, I didn't, I don't even, I don't
Speaker 8: even I don't even think I brought it up to.
Speaker 2: Him, because I think I was just.
Speaker 8: So stunned, like what the hell just happened, you know,
Speaker 8: you know, just a typical Sunday morning, that fucking knocking
Speaker 8: some guy out through a window in a car.
Speaker 1: With his head and then you just drove away.
Speaker 2: And just like nothing fucking happened.
Speaker 1: I've seen Dad twice. The first time I was really young,
Speaker 1: but I do remember him in a fit of road
Speaker 1: rage pulling a guy out of his car like we're
Speaker 1: behind the car, because you know, he was in front
Speaker 1: of us, pulling the guy out of his driver's side
Speaker 1: door and dragging him to like the back. So now
Speaker 1: I had like a perfect view of this of the crime,
Speaker 1: and just pounding a guy and then leaving him just
Speaker 1: basically knocked out or like half aware, and then getting
Speaker 1: back in the car and then like you know, doing
Speaker 1: a little swerve, drive around and then continueing. I was
Speaker 1: with the day, So that was the first time I
Speaker 1: remember seeing that, and I was so young it almost
Speaker 1: felt like a dream. But then I think it was
Speaker 1: seventh grade and I remember in like one of my
Speaker 1: English classes or something, we were doing like a project,
Speaker 1: you know, you'd like create a scene, like a shoebox scene,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I remember it was sitting
Speaker 1: in my lap because I was up all night working
Speaker 1: on it. And we're driving to school and some guy
Speaker 1: cuts ken off and he chases this dude past the school,
Speaker 1: like we go on a chase. I'm screaming, a hunt,
Speaker 1: And finally we catch the guy a red light and
Speaker 1: he goes and paunches the guy several times through his
Speaker 1: driver's side window. Then gets back in the car, does
Speaker 1: a U turn, drops me off at school, and you're like,
Speaker 1: what do you do? You know, like you just you can't.
Speaker 1: There's nothing to say, nothing to do. He just like
Speaker 1: kind of walk like a zombie through the rest of
Speaker 1: the day, going is that a real thing that just happened.
Speaker 1: When things are going well, it's hard to believe they
Speaker 1: could ever go wrong. And just because my father showed
Speaker 1: a few flashes of violence or said a few questionable
Speaker 1: things doesn't mean there's something sinister or terrible lurking behind
Speaker 1: the curtain. Besides, he was never violent with any of us.
Speaker 1: Life is complex and emotional, and it's human nature to
Speaker 1: see the best in people. But a lie this big
Speaker 1: can't stay hidden forever. Somehow, some way, it will turn
Speaker 1: on you and force its way out.
Speaker 7: One day, I'm cooking dinner in the kitchen and I
Speaker 7: hear a commotion in the garage. So I opened up
Speaker 7: the door to the garage and there's Ken's brother and
Speaker 7: he said, Holly, Ken needs to go to rehab. And
Speaker 7: I said, what what are you talking about? And he says,
Speaker 7: Ken is addicted to heroin. And I was floored. I
Speaker 7: mean I just couldn't believe it, and I was so
Speaker 7: much in denial. So that night I took Ken to
Speaker 7: rehab and they admitted him right away. You know, Ken
Speaker 7: went back and forth through rehab, but the heroine took
Speaker 7: over and he just kept doing it, and I kept
Speaker 7: finding perfernalitia in the house, and his arms are all
Speaker 7: these bruised, and I would find blood splitts on the ceiling.
Speaker 7: And he was so bad where he was going crazy,
Speaker 7: like he would scream at me. He would come at me.
Speaker 7: He looked like he was possessed. He'd be rolling on
Speaker 7: the floor screaming like he looked like he was a
Speaker 7: possessed devil. And I was scared to death. He would
Speaker 7: come at me many times and he would push me
Speaker 7: or and I didn't take it. I would push him back.
Speaker 7: And when I pushed him back, you know, I wouldn't
Speaker 7: either get hit or push against the wall or something.
Speaker 7: I had a sleep in my car, or I would
Speaker 7: sleep at the bottom of the stairs, so I had
Speaker 7: an easy escape. Because he was so crazy, trying to
Speaker 7: wean off the drug, that's all he cared about. He
Speaker 7: alienated his family, he alienated his friends, he alienated his job.
Speaker 7: It destroyed our life, It destroyed our marriage, It destroyed
Speaker 7: my kids, it destroyed friendships, it destroyed.
Speaker 2: It really destroyed everything.
Speaker 1: During those ten years of addiction, I had already left
Speaker 1: home and started my own life in Atlanta, where I
Speaker 1: met my wife, Nicole. We got married in two thousand
Speaker 1: and nine. My wedding was the last time that the
Speaker 1: four of us were together in the same I did
Speaker 1: know my dad was struggling with addiction, and I knew
Speaker 1: that my mom was taking him to treatment and assisting
Speaker 1: in his recovery, but I never knew just how bad
Speaker 1: it really was. And to be honest, during those first
Speaker 1: few years, there were so many fights and so much
Speaker 1: drama between us, all with them becoming the kids and
Speaker 1: me feeling like the parent that I stepped away from them.
Speaker 1: I had never felt this kind of emotional pain before,
Speaker 1: and I didn't know how to deal with it. So
Speaker 1: I ignored it and I hoped it would get better.
Speaker 1: I focused all my energy on building a new family
Speaker 1: with Nicole. My brother, however, wasn't so lucky. He was
Speaker 1: still living at home, watching everything he knew crumble around him.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately for me, I was there when all this went on.
Speaker 8: I first noticed that Dad was on drugs when I
Speaker 8: was sixteen years old. I rummaged through Dad's personal shit
Speaker 8: in his car to find a couple bucks. When I
Speaker 8: opened the globbox, I saw a large freezer bag, and then,
Speaker 8: of course, being sixteen, I looked into it, seeing what
Speaker 8: the fuck it was?
Speaker 2: Smoking pot?
Speaker 8: I figured it would be like some pot or something,
Speaker 8: you know, taking a dug out, you know, not tell.
Speaker 2: But that wasn't the case.
Speaker 8: When I opened the bag, it was a bunch of
Speaker 8: little tinfoil squares.
Speaker 2: That I had no idea what the fuck it was.
Speaker 8: But then I saw a syringe and our fucking.
Speaker 2: Soup spoon from our kitchen.
Speaker 8: It was a yellow handle and a lighter, and I go,
Speaker 8: what the fuck? I mean, I'm no dummy, but I'm
Speaker 8: thinking to myself, what the fuck's going on here?
Speaker 2: Like he's fucking he's shooting heroin and.
Speaker 8: He's cooking fucking heroin on her fucking goddamn soup spoons.
Speaker 8: I was so confused, and so I just didn't know
Speaker 8: what was going on. There's what one incident that I
Speaker 8: remember like it was yesterday.
Speaker 2: I'm twenty one.
Speaker 8: At this time, I needed to come home for a
Speaker 8: little bit and save up some money so I could
Speaker 8: get back out.
Speaker 2: I just needed I needed my family for a minute,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean.
Speaker 8: But I see him on the couch watching the fucking
Speaker 8: History channel, of course, always watching the History channel, War
Speaker 8: War War. He's eating me fucking yo play yogurt and
Speaker 8: some shit I don't know. And what really got me
Speaker 8: is that he was really zonked out. But the spoon,
Speaker 8: the image of him eating it with a spoon brought
Speaker 8: me back to when I first remembered seeing the fucking
Speaker 8: spoon next to a bunch of heroin and needles.
Speaker 2: So I got furious. I walked up to him.
Speaker 8: I slapped the fucking yogurt out of his hand, and
Speaker 8: I go, fuck.
Speaker 2: You, dad, You're useless. And that started.
Speaker 8: Which would be the most intense fight I've ever had
Speaker 8: with my father. He stood up, I pushed him, he
Speaker 8: fell back down on the couch. He got back up,
Speaker 8: and he fucking clocked me. I got to hazing and dizzy.
Speaker 8: But me, I'm a fucking savage.
Speaker 2: I'd attack 'em. I don't.
Speaker 8: I don't stop attacking him, fucking on the floor, beating
Speaker 8: the shit out of each other. Blood's flying everywhere, fists
Speaker 8: are flying everywhere. We ended up into the kitchen, where
Speaker 8: you know, we slam into the cupboards and the and
Speaker 8: the cabinets, the drawers. I remember ripping out a drawer
Speaker 8: and trying to fucking.
Speaker 2: Hit 'em with it. He knocked it out of my hands.
Speaker 8: He pushed me back into the into the the refrigerator,
Speaker 8: and I don't know how.
Speaker 2: The fight stopped. I just remember it was surreal, which is.
Speaker 8: My dad and I are actually fistfighting each other right now,
Speaker 8: black eyes, fucking blood cuts. It's crazy to have, you know,
Speaker 8: someone that was so strong in my life and just
Speaker 8: such a such a man of father figure.
Speaker 2: Every I I looked up to him. He was everything
Speaker 2: to me. So we fucking budged him in the face
Speaker 2: over drugs cause he was destroying fucking family. Fucking horrible.
Speaker 1: Did you ever recover from all that? Like? Do you
Speaker 1: still carry it with you? I?
Speaker 8: I carry it every fucking day, absolutely, And I feel
Speaker 8: like that's how I've become so emotional. Just commercials, fucking movies,
Speaker 8: anything that has to do with a f the sun.
Speaker 2: If I f it fucking destroys me. It's just it's
Speaker 2: so hard.
Speaker 8: I mean I do, I do mask it very well,
Speaker 8: and I try to forget all the time about everything.
Speaker 2: But it's it, It will never go away. It. It
Speaker 2: fucked me up, absolutely fucked me up. Do you wanna
Speaker 2: see him again? I? I I don't know. I mean,
Speaker 2: I love him, That's what's so fucked up. I do.
Speaker 8: I mean, I you can't take back my childhood, which
Speaker 8: was awesome in my eyes, it was perfect. But now
Speaker 8: I don't. I don't know if I can, if I
Speaker 8: can be the bigger man, and.
Speaker 2: And I don't know even talk.
Speaker 8: I I don't know Kyle, honestly, I I just I
Speaker 8: don't even know my reaction or my feelings that would
Speaker 8: come to me if I saw him again.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Eventually, Corey got out and moved to Florida,
Speaker 1: where he started a new career, worked hard and did well.
Speaker 1: And though I know the scars of those traumatic years
Speaker 1: are still raw, I'm impressed by how well he's been
Speaker 1: able to cope with them to move on. But Mom
Speaker 1: was still there, living in this hell until my dad
Speaker 1: either got clean or died trying. And then in twenty thirteen,
Speaker 1: I got a disturbing phone call. It was my dad.
Speaker 1: He was moaning, crying, barely making any sense, but I
Speaker 1: could understand enough he was dying and asking for my help.
Speaker 1: I immediately booked him a flight for the following morning
Speaker 1: and found a rehab facility that would admit him.
Speaker 7: I remember getting ready next morning because I am driving
Speaker 7: him to the airport and He's still screaming at me,
Speaker 7: and the song from Bohemian Rhapsody comes on, Mama just
Speaker 7: killed the many us cut and he goes perfect song.
Speaker 7: JE puts his fingers to my head like it's a gun,
Speaker 7: and he goes, you know what, Hollie, I've killed men,
Speaker 7: I've killed money men. I could kill you too. And
Speaker 7: that was pretty much the last time I saw him.
Speaker 1: When I picked him up from the airport, I barely
Speaker 1: recognized him. He was skinny, disheveled, with dead eyes, and
Speaker 1: he barely spoke a word. I was stunned. I felt
Speaker 1: like throwing up. I drove him straight to rehab and
Speaker 1: dropped him off. On my way home, I pulled the
Speaker 1: car over and I cried for the first time in
Speaker 1: a very long time. I'm still.
Speaker 7: Trying to understand to this day why this happened, Why
Speaker 7: he forfeited a great life and relationship with his children.
Speaker 7: I mean, my god, I don't care about me, but
Speaker 7: how can you not have a relationship with your kids
Speaker 7: and a grandson. I mean, my god, That's what life
Speaker 7: is about, at least in my world, that's what life
Speaker 7: is about.
Speaker 1: I have this old memory of my dad dropping me
Speaker 1: off my first day at college, he looked at me
Speaker 1: in a very strange way and said, when you're old enough,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you everything. No more secrets, no more lies.
Speaker 1: It's time I learned the truth. Next week on Crook County.
Speaker 6: Listen, there are girls in and out there for years
Speaker 6: and years and years and years and years. All right,
Speaker 6: go in there, crap a deal with the client, go
Speaker 6: to work, get out quick, and wait for the next guy.
Speaker 6: These girls were pure, pure business, and they made a
Speaker 6: ton of fucking money.
Speaker 10: Everybody.
Speaker 1: Crook County is a production of iHeart Podcasts and Tenderfoot
Speaker 1: TV in association with Common Enemy. All episodes are written, produced,
Speaker 1: and hosted by Me Kyle Tequila. Executive producers are Donald
Speaker 1: Albright and Payne Lindsay. Original score by Makeup and Vanity Set.
Speaker 1: Main title song is called Crush by the band Starry Eyes.
Speaker 1: End credit song is called No Show, also by the
Speaker 1: band Starry Eyes. Sound mix by Cooper Skinner. Thank you
Speaker 1: to Orrin Rosenbaum and the excellent team at UTA for
Speaker 1: their support, and to my fearless attorney Wendy Bench for
Speaker 1: her guidance to stay updated on all things Crook County.
Speaker 1: Follow us on all socials at Crook County Podcast or
Speaker 1: leave us a voicemail by visiting crookcountypodcast dot com. For
Speaker 1: more podcasts like Crook County. Search Tenderfoot TV on your
Speaker 1: favorite podcast app, or visit Tenderfoot dot tv. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: The story continues next week. Awesome Passage Job.
Speaker 10: Five.
Speaker 5: I want you show no sho.
Speaker 10: S your child.
Speaker 1: Thank you for tuning into Crook County. New episodes are
Speaker 1: released weekly completely free, but if you're riching for more,
Speaker 1: check out tender Foot Plus on Apple Podcasts or visit
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Speaker 1: the full series, plus an ad free experience