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Speaker 1: If you're listening to a tenor foot TV.

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Speaker 2: Podcast, Girls Crook County is released weekly and brought to

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Speaker 2: you absolutely free. But if you want to hear the

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Speaker 2: whole season right now, it's available ad free on tenderfoot Plus.

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Speaker 2: For more information, check out the show notes. Enjoy the episode.

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Speaker 3: You're listening to Crook County. The views and opinions expressed

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Speaker 3: in this podcast are solely those of the individuals participating

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Speaker 3: in the podcast. This episode also contains subject matter, including

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Speaker 3: graphic depictions of violence, which may not be suitable for everyone.

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Speaker 3: Listener discretion is advised.

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Speaker 4: Chicago, Chicago.

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Speaker 2: Exciting. This is a nineteen seventies era Board of Tourism

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Speaker 2: advertisement for the city of Chicago. Fine. It's overflowing with

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Speaker 2: sunlit city scapes and joyful, smiling faces of young people,

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Speaker 2: families and tourists, all locked in a state of perpetual

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Speaker 2: eight millimeter textured happiness and wonder of this city of

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Speaker 2: broad shoulders, this great city by the lake. Look north

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Speaker 2: now that glittering shopper is Paradise, proudly dubbed the Magnificent Mile.

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Speaker 2: It really does look like a wonderful place to live.

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Speaker 2: A place with endless possibilities, or anybody, no matter who

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Speaker 2: you are or where you came from, can get a

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Speaker 2: fair shot at the brass ring.

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Speaker 3: Shot.

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Speaker 2: There is something you've just got to see for yourself.

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Speaker 2: But only a few miles from the bright lights of

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Speaker 2: Michigan Avenue, there's a different stretch of road, the dark

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Speaker 2: corner of the windy City you won't see in any

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Speaker 2: board of tourism commercial. It's a place where the cops

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Speaker 2: are just as crooked as the criminals, where drugs and

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Speaker 2: prostitution run rampant, and where a young mafia hit man

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Speaker 2: they call that kid, is parked outside of a dark,

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Speaker 2: dilapidated apartment building, waiting for just the right moment to

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Speaker 2: make his next move.

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Speaker 1: It's about nine pm at night. I'm in an apartment

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Speaker 1: complex in a neighborhood that I really don't know very well,

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Speaker 1: and I'm listening to my song, the songs that I

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Speaker 1: always play before I do something sketchy like this, and

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Speaker 1: that's sympthy for the double deesus.

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Speaker 5: Needs introduce myself.

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Speaker 2: I'm a mad It.

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Speaker 1: Just does something to me. I don't know what it does.

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Speaker 1: It's just part of my routine. I sit in my

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Speaker 1: car and I do what I always do. I breathe,

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Speaker 1: I make myself aware. I heighten my senses, my sight,

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Speaker 1: my smell, my hearing. I don't know how I do it,

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Speaker 1: but I do it. As I'm listening to the music,

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Speaker 1: I feel my senses start to kick in. As they

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Speaker 1: kick in, the moment arises. The moment always hits me.

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Speaker 1: I don't know how it hits me, but I know

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Speaker 1: when I'm ready for the moment. Out of my car,

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Speaker 1: walk up to the apartment complex, ring the buzzer. This

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Speaker 1: asshole comes to the buzzer, announces his name. I said,

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Speaker 1: this is Ken. I'm coming up for the coke. It says, fine,

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Speaker 1: come on up. Buzzer hits. I walk up the stairs.

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Speaker 1: I reach my right hand behind my belt on my back,

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Speaker 1: knock on the door with my left hand. As the

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Speaker 1: door opens up, I pulled my arm out with my

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Speaker 1: twenty two and I put it right in his forehead.

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Speaker 1: Back it up, I tell him. He backs it up.

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Speaker 1: His eyes were as big as saucers. I want to

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Speaker 1: say his name, dude, but I can't. Will you? Will

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Speaker 1: you added his name out of here? Skick back it

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Speaker 1: up to the bathroom. He didn't move fast enough, and

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Speaker 1: I wanted him to know I meant the fucking business here.

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Speaker 1: So I beat him. I had him twice right cheek,

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Speaker 1: left cheek, backed off, put the gun back up to

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Speaker 1: his forehead, backed him up into the bathroom. Got to

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Speaker 1: the bathroom. Get on your knees. He would have gotten

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Speaker 1: his these fast enough, so I dropped him with my

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Speaker 1: left foot. I got him right behind his right knee.

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Speaker 1: That dropped him to his knees, pushed him down towards

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Speaker 1: the toilet, grabbed the cuffs that were in my left

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Speaker 1: rear pocket and cuffed them right behind the base of

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Speaker 1: the toilet. There he sat. I can't remember exactly what

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Speaker 1: I said to him, but I was dead serious what

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Speaker 1: I said, But I really can't remember. Anyway, I waited

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Speaker 1: like I was asked to do. Knock at the door

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Speaker 1: comes and three of my boys come in. Showed them

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Speaker 1: to the bathroom. I backed out because it wasn't my head,

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Speaker 1: it was just my setup. It wasn't my head. Went

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Speaker 1: back into the living room, sat and waited. Heard some commotion,

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Speaker 1: a muffled gunshot. I know that's the end of the story.

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Speaker 1: The boys walk out. Where's the dope? Can ransacked his bedroom,

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Speaker 1: found the dope, got about three or four honces of

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Speaker 1: what was called at the time, it was pink cocaine.

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Speaker 1: What the hell they call it back then, Peruvian, So

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Speaker 1: I don't know. Anyway, it was coke, all right, because

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Speaker 1: that's what everybody was doing back then. Uncomfortable brought him

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Speaker 1: to the living room, started tearing up the carpet inside

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Speaker 1: the living room, wrapped them up in there, and left

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Speaker 1: them until tomorrow. What normally happens is or what was

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Speaker 1: already set up, was not by me, but it was

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Speaker 1: already set up to have a carpeting company come in

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Speaker 1: the next day, put in a new carpet, take him out,

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Speaker 1: put a new carpeting, lay it, and then me leave.

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Speaker 1: Spent the night waited for the carpeting people. In the morning,

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Speaker 1: they arrived about nine o'clock. They took him out, wrapped

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Speaker 1: up in the carpet, brought up a whole new carpeting

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Speaker 1: and padding, laid that down. I left the door unlocked,

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Speaker 1: and I left. That was the end of him. That's it.

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Speaker 1: Story's over.

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Speaker 2: Holy shit, I'm your host, Kyle Tequila. Welcome to Crook County.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Crook County.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, there's no doubt about that.

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Speaker 1: It's a den of thieves.

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Speaker 6: Dead was a fucking crazy bastard.

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Speaker 1: We don't know who he is really. People are dying.

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Speaker 1: Is he doing this every night? What about retribution from?

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Speaker 1: Could it be the mob? Could it be police? What's

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Speaker 1: the worry there? I've done criminal defense now for almost

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Speaker 1: thirty seven years.

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Speaker 5: It takes one guy.

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Speaker 1: Out there who's in his late to say, who's that fucking.

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Speaker 6: Asshole Kyle who thinks he can just get on.

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Speaker 1: A goddamn microphone on a podcast and start publicizing this shit?

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Speaker 4: Like I started having flashbacks about his legs being broken

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Speaker 4: when he went out to check them out, and I

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Speaker 4: was like, holy shit. He changed his address to hours

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Speaker 4: now these fucking people. Can I find him at our address?

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Speaker 2: I'll give a shit about kat He did what he did,

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Speaker 2: and if he's got to pay, he's got to pay.

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Speaker 1: It destroyed our life, It destroyed our prriage, It destroyed

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Speaker 1: my kids, It really destroyed everything. Just why I think

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Speaker 1: I'm getting out of his ship, I'm right fucking back

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Speaker 1: in it. It's a double It's following me wherever the

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Speaker 1: fuck I go. I can't shake this down of a bitch.

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Speaker 1: He won't leave me alone.

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Speaker 2: Episode one, Give me your fucking money.

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Speaker 1: I'm not gonna put my voice on nothing, are you. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you're guess I'm gonna tell the story. Uh huh.

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Speaker 2: All right, I'm interviewing Kenny the Kid for the first time.

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Speaker 2: He's a big man in his mid sixties, with a

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Speaker 2: full head of jet black hair combed and styled with

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Speaker 2: only a few strands of gray, wearing a clean white

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Speaker 2: T shirt and reading glasses with thick black frames. He's

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Speaker 2: handsome in a rundown sort of way. He kind of

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Speaker 2: reminds me of a down on his luck Clark Kent,

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Speaker 2: you know, Superman, but fat oh.

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Speaker 1: Man, I'm not good at this. Man.

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Speaker 2: Just whenever you feel like it, just start talking.

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Speaker 1: But what am I? Okay?

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Speaker 2: He's not used to having a microphone in his face

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Speaker 2: and seems to be having a little trouble getting comfortable

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Speaker 2: with me.

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Speaker 1: I know, I'm very confused on this, Kyle, and I'm

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Speaker 1: just gonna talk. Okay, I'm just gonna talk. I really don't,

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Speaker 1: it's just it's I really kind of don't understand what.

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Speaker 2: It goes on like this for a while, but eventually

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Speaker 2: he starts talking.

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Speaker 1: This is a story, well story, it's not not a story.

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Speaker 1: It's it's this is this is my story basically the

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Speaker 1: experiences I've had, most of them not by choice, that

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Speaker 1: just ended up like I never thought I what ended.

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Speaker 1: I'm surprised I'm sitting here, you know, I I technically

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Speaker 1: I shouldn't be sitting here. You know, Historically people don't

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Speaker 1: make it, They just simply don't make it. But I

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Speaker 1: think I was low level enough, and I didn't want

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Speaker 1: to make it a career. I you know, I want.

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Speaker 1: I didn't want. I didn't do the things that the

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Speaker 1: other people did, trying to move up in the outfit,

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Speaker 1: you know, trying to get their own crews, trying to

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Speaker 1: make more money. I did fly under the raidar and

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Speaker 1: I really didn't want to know what the hell was

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Speaker 1: going on where I became a trusted member. You know,

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Speaker 1: we're not going to worry about Kenny. You know, Kenny

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Speaker 1: does his job. He keeps his fucking mouth shut, He

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Speaker 1: doesn't steal any money, he doesn't do fucking drugs while

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Speaker 1: he's working. He's not running hors on the side, our horizon,

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Speaker 1: the side. He does what he's supposed to do when

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Speaker 1: he goes home.

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Speaker 2: Kenny spent over twenty years working deep inside the legendary

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Speaker 2: Chicago Mafia, also known as the South Side Gang or

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Speaker 2: simply the Outfit, which rose to power in the nineteen

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Speaker 2: twenties during Prohibition under Torio and Al Capone. They were powerful, ruthless,

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Speaker 2: and violent, with tentacles spreading all the way to Florida

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Speaker 2: and California, a vast criminal empire spanning nearly one hundred years,

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Speaker 2: making its fortune off bootleg liquor, illegal gambling, prostitution, extortion,

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Speaker 2: political corruption, labor racketeering, loan sharking, and murder for hire.

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Speaker 2: Since the days of Capone, the outfit has been led

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Speaker 2: by a who's who of powerful bosses like Frank the Enforcer, Nitti,

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Speaker 2: Paul the Waiter, Rika Anthony Big Tuna Accardo, and Salvator

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Speaker 2: Momo Giancano. When Kenny was there in the seventies, eighties

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Speaker 2: and early nineties, the bosses were Joseph Joey doves A Uga,

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Speaker 2: Sam Black, Sam Carlisi and John No Nos Defranso. It

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Speaker 2: was a period of great prosperity and they were stronger

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Speaker 2: than ever.

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Speaker 1: Cook County in the Chicago area. Okay, Chicago is actually

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Speaker 1: in Cook County, and we worked in the unincorporated areas

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Speaker 1: because the unincorporated areas are you know, we owned you know,

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Speaker 1: we owned the judges. We owned the fucking cops. You know,

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Speaker 1: we owned them, you know, so we can work freely,

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Speaker 1: all right?

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Speaker 3: And what did you do?

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Speaker 1: I was a low level I ran whorehouses and I

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Speaker 1: did them and I did hits. You know. It was

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Speaker 1: just a low level guy and my crew. You know,

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Speaker 1: the money that we made in our crew worked its

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Speaker 1: way up the ladder to the big bosses. You know,

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Speaker 1: you're in the fucking trenches, man, This is low level,

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Speaker 1: in the streets, in the dirt, in your face, the backbone,

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Speaker 1: and the fucking outfit. That's where the money came from.

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Speaker 1: It came from us, and we pushed it up, all right.

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Speaker 1: We're not the fucking captain sitting back while his troops

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Speaker 1: were in the fucking trenches fighting it out, fucking hand

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Speaker 1: to hand to knife, all right. We are the guys

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Speaker 1: in the fucking trenches, hand to hand, knife to knife,

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Speaker 1: all right. That's where we are. That's how down, that's

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Speaker 1: how far down the ladder we were, all right, fucking

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Speaker 1: clipping people and running fucking whoes.

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Speaker 2: He takes a long pause and seems to be deep

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Speaker 2: in some old memory.

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Speaker 1: I just don't want to glorify this because there's nothing.

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Speaker 1: There's no glory here. I mean, I try to forget

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Speaker 1: these stories, and I've been trying to forget these stories

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Speaker 1: for years and years and years. You know, MY goal

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Speaker 1: wasn't to run hornhouses and fucking kill you know people.

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Speaker 1: You know, I was doing what I had to do

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Speaker 1: to have a normal life and raise a normal family. Okay,

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Speaker 1: that's all I was doing. I was I didn't have education,

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Speaker 1: I didn't have the opportunity for an education. I didn't

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Speaker 1: go to college. I barely got out of fucking high school.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 1: I just survival mode. That's all, just really as simple,

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Speaker 1: and I survived.

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Speaker 4: Look.

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Speaker 2: I don't know much about the mafia. I mean, I

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Speaker 2: guess I know as much as anybody who's seen a

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Speaker 2: movie or TV show about it. But sitting here with him,

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Speaker 2: listening to him talk, watching him remember these terrible things,

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Speaker 2: I feel confused. I just don't see what you would

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Speaker 2: expect to see from someone who's had a life like this,

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Speaker 2: you know, a hardened criminal with bodies under his belt,

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Speaker 2: some kind of monster. Instead, I see a tired, sad man,

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Speaker 2: genuinely hurt that this was his life. I have to know,

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Speaker 2: how does someone like that get wrapped up in all this?

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Speaker 1: I got recruited into the mob when I was seventeen

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Speaker 1: years old, and completely unbeknownst to me, I was the

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Speaker 1: last thing on my mind. And there's my parents got divorced.

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Speaker 1: You know, I'm not going to go into the fucking wall.

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Speaker 5: Was me?

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Speaker 1: You know, I had a rough childhood bullshit, but I

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Speaker 1: got tossed out of my parents got divorced. I wasn't

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Speaker 1: happy about it. I got tossed out of my house

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Speaker 1: at gunpoint by my mother. Go figure. So I mean

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Speaker 1: that'll give you an idea of a kind of family.

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Speaker 1: You know, I grew up. God rest their souls. Okay,

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Speaker 1: all right. I love my mother dearly, and I love

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Speaker 1: my father dearly who's dead. But you know, they they

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Speaker 1: just did the best they could with what they had

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Speaker 1: and the culture that they grew up in. Okay, So

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Speaker 1: I get tossed out sixteen years old. I'm living in

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Speaker 1: a backseat of my fucking sixty eight Camaro for about

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Speaker 1: three or four months. I need money, all right. I

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Speaker 1: know this fucking clown, it's dealing dope, dealing fucking Mexican

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Speaker 1: dirt weed. Because back then it was I don't know,

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Speaker 1: the shit they got now is insane, but it was

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Speaker 1: just straight Mexican dirt weed back then, and he was

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Speaker 1: I think you think he had placidos and Quailu's so

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Speaker 1: placid was Quailu cash and Mexican fucking dirt. Weeat so

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Speaker 1: and I knew we hung out at the fucking kmart,

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Speaker 1: So you know, I watched him for a while. I

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Speaker 1: kind of figured out his pattern, you know, And I

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Speaker 1: don't know why did. It just made sense to me

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Speaker 1: to just kind of sit back scope him for a

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Speaker 1: while so when I hit him, it would be the

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Speaker 1: best time or the best situation what anyway, came up

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Speaker 1: on him and rob this fucking ass. I had a

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Speaker 1: fucking pencil and came up kind of from the side

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Speaker 1: I was came because kind of walked on bottom on

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Speaker 1: on an angles. I was on the left side and

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Speaker 1: came close enough where I didn't seem to be where

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Speaker 1: it wasn't threatening, but close enough where I could pivot

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Speaker 1: and put the pencil in his back. He had a

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Speaker 1: jacket out, so I used the rubber you know, you know,

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Speaker 1: the eraser part, and believe it or not, if you

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Speaker 1: stick that thing in there hard enough, you know, just

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Speaker 1: you know, have somebody to do that to you when

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Speaker 1: you're not expecting it, and you know, being told that

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Speaker 1: I need your cash and I need you dope, and

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Speaker 1: I need it right now, all right, And I got

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Speaker 1: a fucking nice stuck in your back, reach into your

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Speaker 1: pockets with your left hand and hand me back that shit.

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Speaker 1: So I get the dope, I get the money, push

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Speaker 1: him forward, tell him not to fucking turn around, and

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Speaker 1: we're on our way. He goes off in a sprint.

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Speaker 1: I go off, do a round and come back to

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Speaker 1: my car. Never really saw him except for two days

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Speaker 1: later when I did see him, But I saw him

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Speaker 1: with someone else and two other guys off in the background.

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Speaker 1: So these two come up on me. I'm sitting down

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Speaker 1: and I'm going I'm thinking to myself, ah fuck, here

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Speaker 1: we go here, and I'm completely unprepared, completely came up

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Speaker 1: on me, and the bigger guy goes, the older guy goes,

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Speaker 1: is that him? And the kid goes, Yeah, that's him.

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Speaker 1: That's the guy that robbed me. Uncle. He marde a

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Speaker 1: fucking crew. He's a mob dude, all right, you know

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Speaker 1: we're talking send to get her. Alphad guy all right,

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Speaker 1: So he tells me, He goes, are you looking for

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Speaker 1: a job? Oh, yeah, I'm looking for a job. I'm

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Speaker 1: just fucking starving her. That's how I got into a

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Speaker 1: fucking outfit. That's what I got. He was impressed.

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Speaker 2: A rough childhood, a tumultuous marriage, a mother pulling a

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Speaker 2: gun on her own son, homelessness, desperation, all leading to

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Speaker 2: one fateful moment, a bad decision that would define a

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Speaker 2: young kid's entire life and the life of his future family.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, of course you had a family. Yeah, I had

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Speaker 1: a wife, and I had two children, and I wanted

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Speaker 1: to keep them as far away from it as possible.

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Speaker 1: I wanted them to have every advantage in the world

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Speaker 1: that I didn't have, so they had every opportunity to

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Speaker 1: have a good life, you know, raise their own families.

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Speaker 1: I wanted to be a good provider. I loved my family.

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Speaker 1: I still do you know very much.

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Speaker 2: How much did your family know about your time in

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Speaker 2: the mafia.

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Speaker 1: I mean, nobody, nobody knew anything. I didn't want anybody

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Speaker 1: to know I was I was kind of embarrassed. My wife,

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Speaker 1: you know, she was purposely bliss you know, money was

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Speaker 1: coming in and she had you know, she was secure

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Speaker 1: and she was raised her kids, and you know we

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Speaker 1: had a nice suburban life. You know, so like all

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Speaker 1: the wives of people that were involved in the outfit

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Speaker 1: or you know, blind by choice.

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Speaker 2: Okay, how do you keep an entire life of crime

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Speaker 2: away from your friends, away from your family? How does

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Speaker 2: your wife not know or your kids? It seems impossible,

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Speaker 2: But I know it's true. I know because I was there,

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Speaker 2: because Kenny is my father, and I had no idea

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Speaker 2: about any of this until now.

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Speaker 5: He's a dark days last him and I'm lost in.

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Speaker 2: Away Crook County is a true crime podcast about my father,

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Speaker 2: Kenny the Kid Tequila's rise through the ranks of one

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Speaker 2: of the most notorious organized crimes in and it gets

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Speaker 2: in the country, the Chicago Outfit. We'll exploring great depth

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Speaker 2: my father's life of crime and it's profound and lasting

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Speaker 2: impact on my family to this very day.

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Speaker 1: I don't know he was in the mob until maybe

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Speaker 1: twenty years after you guys were born.

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Speaker 6: It's crazy to have someone that was so strong in

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Speaker 6: my life and so be fucking bad, dream in the

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Speaker 6: face over drugs because he was destroying our fucking family.

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Speaker 1: You could see why he could be an enforcer.

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Speaker 2: I'm blind, rage, out of control, violent person.

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Speaker 1: You were sitting on a bombshell and you probably didn't

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Speaker 1: realize it.

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Speaker 2: Crook County is a production of iHeart Podcasts and Tenderfoot

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Speaker 2: TV in association with Common Enemy. All episodes are produced,

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Speaker 2: written and hosted by Me Kyle Tequila. Executive producers are

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Speaker 2: Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay. Original score by Makeup and

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Speaker 2: Vanity Set. Main title song is called Aloha by the

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Speaker 2: band Starry Eyes. End credit song is called Crush, also

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Speaker 2: by the band Starry Eyes. Sound mix by Cooper Skinner.

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Speaker 2: Special thanks to my wife Nicole for not leaving me

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Speaker 2: after she found out about all this shit, and a

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Speaker 2: big thank you to my extended family for sharing their

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Speaker 2: painful memories with me, which no doubt we're never meant

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Speaker 2: to see the light of day, not to mention broadcast

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Speaker 2: the entire world. I hope we can all find some

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Speaker 2: healing through this journey together. Thank you to Orrin Rosenbaum

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Speaker 2: and the excellent team at UTA for their support, and

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Speaker 2: of course to my fearless attorney, Wendy Bench, who's an

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Speaker 2: absolute badass and a total rockstar. To stay updated on

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Speaker 2: all things Crook County. Follow us on all socials at

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Speaker 2: Crook County Podcast, or leave us a voicemail by visiting

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00:22:48,040 --> 00:22:52,480
Speaker 2: crookcountypodcast dot com. For more podcasts like Crook County, search

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Speaker 2: Tenderfoot TV on your favorite podcast app, or visit tenderfoot

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Speaker 2: dot tv. Episode two is available now. Subscribe to Tenderfoot

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00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:04,640
Speaker 2: Plus at tenderfootplus dot com to binge the entire season.

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Speaker 7: Time I inst but so tall, sustayes so cold, it's

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Speaker 7: nustand don't do thet that no tests, don't trust.

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Speaker 5: Not trusted, Doc Blue and endless dafe one.

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Speaker 2: Thank you for tuning in too, Crook County. New episodes

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Speaker 2: are released weekly completely free, but if you're riching for more,

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Speaker 2: check out Tenderfoot plus on Apple Podcasts or visit tenderfoot

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Speaker 2: plus dot com to subscribe for early access to the

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Speaker 2: full series, plus an ad free experience