Speaker 1: Pushkin. As far as I'm concerned, I'm a dead man
Speaker 1: right now. This is Bob Cooley, or I should say
Speaker 1: this was Bob Cooley when I say I'm dead, Maybe
Speaker 1: not even physically dead, but I'm dead in terms of
Speaker 1: Robert Cooley no longer exists. It all started back in
Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies when Bob was a lawyer in Chicago.
Speaker 1: A powerful mobster asked Bob to fix a case, a
Speaker 1: murder case, so a hitman could get off scott free.
Speaker 1: If you say you can do it and you can't,
Speaker 1: that could be a problem. I know what that means.
Speaker 1: It means you get an extra hole in your head.
Speaker 1: It turns out Bob was really good at fixing cases,
Speaker 1: and he did it for years until one day he
Speaker 1: decided to switch sides, go over to the FBI, and
Speaker 1: betray the mob. The moment I put the wire around
Speaker 1: the first time, my life was over. I couldn't ever
Speaker 1: practice law anymore. I couldn't never stay in the city anymore.
Speaker 1: Bob could give us judges, lawyers, police officers, politicians. He
Speaker 1: could wire up against those people and go be Bob Cooley.
Speaker 1: I would come into the office in the morning and
Speaker 1: if he didn't call me right away. I didn't know
Speaker 1: if he was in a trunk somewhere yet. If it
Speaker 1: ever got out, they would kill me in a heartbeat.
Speaker 1: Or approximately five years, a Chicago lawyer has been a
Speaker 1: government informants, secretly recording conversations with some of this city's
Speaker 1: more than shakers. If you're wondering why would a guy
Speaker 1: like Bob Cooley just decide to flip, well, you're not alone.
Speaker 1: I've wondered the same thing myself, and I've talked to
Speaker 1: FBI agents, federal prosecutors, and former mobsters. Many of them
Speaker 1: are still wondering. Who was Bob Cooley? Really? I wouldn't
Speaker 1: trust that guy. He looks like a little scum, big layer,
Speaker 1: stool bidgi. He looked like what he was or at like,
Speaker 1: is this guy for real? From my perspective, Bob was
Speaker 1: too good to be true. There's got to be something
Speaker 1: wrong with this. I can say with all certainty. I
Speaker 1: think he's a hero because he didn't have to do
Speaker 1: what he did, and he did it anyway. Is he
Speaker 1: a plant? Is he a double agent? What is he?
Speaker 1: I'm Jake Halbern and this is deep Cover Season two,
Speaker 1: mob Land coming January twenty fourth from Pushkin Industries When
Speaker 1: it was fun. Subscribe to Pushkin Plus and you can
Speaker 1: binge the whole season adds free. Find Pushkin Plus on
Speaker 1: the deep Cover show page in Apple Podcasts or at
Speaker 1: pushkin dot fm, slash plus