5 | Bully

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Speaker 8 59-year-old Rex Huerman from Long Island is now charged in the murders of three women.

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Speaker 3 This episode also contains subject matter, including graphic depictions of violence, which may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised.

Speaker 11 Previously, on Crook County.

Speaker 19 After six months, he proposed to me.

Speaker 11 Kenny got engaged, but called it off only a few months later.

Speaker 19 He realized at 19 years old, what am I doing being engaged?

Speaker 11 The cops organized a few phony busts.

Speaker 21 So I took two of those and the girls girls would come with me and, you know, a little party.

Speaker 5 Everybody would be laughing, having a good time.

Speaker 20 And a robbery at the club turned out to be an inside job.

Speaker 21 While Danny was working, he had someone come in and rob the place. So, of course, Dan's got to put up his arms, take the money, and leave.

Speaker 11 Danny had to go. And Kenny was asked to step in.

Speaker 21 Got him in the car and drove him to one of the chop shops, dropped him off there, and whatever I did with him from there, I don't know.

Speaker 11 I'm your host, Kyle Tequila. Welcome to Crook County.

Speaker 23 When we were growing up, dad was the coolest guy in the whole town. Everybody wanted dad as their dad, but they didn't know what was going on at home.

Speaker 23 The games that they played for me and Ken was really bad.

Speaker 22 There was a lot of violence.

Speaker 11 Episode 5

Speaker 20 Bully

Speaker 24 You can begin to listen to that crowd. They know they can tell.
Slowly but surely the 1970s are disappearing.

Speaker 24 The 1980s will be upon us.

Speaker 24 ten, seven, ten, five, four, happy,

Speaker 24 and

Speaker 24 five, five,

Speaker 24 well, it is the first of 1980 in America. We have a brand new decade.

Speaker 24 It's a whole new beginning.

Speaker 24 Everybody, please kiss your loved one. Come on, kiss your loved one.

Speaker 5 Your wife, your husband, your sweetheart, and whoever is next to you. Everybody, let's hear it.
Everybody, sing it out!

Speaker 11 Nixon, Watergate, the end of the Vietnam War, a global recession, gas shortages, rolling blackouts, crime waves, record unemployment, and the ominous shadow of the Cold War.

Speaker 11 The 1970s was a decade steeped in anxiety and uncertainty, and the curtain had been pulled back on the American dream.

Speaker 11 Hell, even Disco was dead.

Speaker 11 History may label this decade the Great Awakening, but for Ken, now in his mid-20s, it felt more like some terrible dream.

Speaker 11 And while the world was racing toward the glimmering promise of the 1980s, Ken stood still, feeling nothing at all. No comfort, no hope.

Speaker 11 He was simply numb.

Speaker 11 After they hit on Danny, the bosses knew they could count on Kenny for heavy work. And when the calls came, it wasn't so much of a question as a demand.

Speaker 11 And Kenny had no choice but to comply.

Speaker 11 As the pressures of his new reality mounted, he withdrew further and turned to cocaine to numb his pain.

Speaker 11 In this world, emotion was a weakness, and sympathy could get you killed.

Speaker 11 If he wanted to stay alive in his new role within the outfit, he would need to dig deep down to the darkest part of his soul and abandon the light forever.

Speaker 21 I could be a pretty nasty person. Anyway, I got, I was recruited into doing some hits, okay?

Speaker 21 So there's another part of that. So not only working and running whorehouses, I'm doing

Speaker 21 occasional hits on the side, all right, ordered hits.

Speaker 5 Our own people that went rogue.

Speaker 11 I asked him what he means by going rogue.

Speaker 21 So what these guys would do, these guys are the guys that would fuck up. They'd steal, they'd rat, they were just bad seats, or they were or they were overly aggressive or they became dangerous.

Speaker 21 They became rogue, meaning

Speaker 21 they lost control of what they were doing. They just started getting violent and, you know, could start bringing the heat down on this particular

Speaker 21 outfit that I worked for. So we wanted to keep the heat away.
So if somebody became rogue, somebody needed to do something about these people.

Speaker 21 My job was to be the heat, be the heat for my particular outfit.

Speaker 21 You know, I got a reputation though after a while where, you know, if they knew I was coming, they were running.

Speaker 11 I remembered something he used to tell my brother and I when we were kids. He would say, when he was young, that he was the bully of the bullies at his school.

Speaker 11 And if we ever saw someone getting bullied at our school, that we should step in and stop it. He was quite proud of this bit of parenting advice.
And to be honest, I was quite proud of him too.

Speaker 11 I always admired him for it. And to this day, I think about those very words.
I even taught that same lesson to my own kid.

Speaker 11 Defend the weak and have the courage to fight against those who would fight against you.

Speaker 11 And now, more than 20 years later, here is my dad telling me that he was hired to apply a version of that logic to the metaphorical bullies of the outfit.

Speaker 11 At least, that's what he's telling me. It is very possible that he's just softening the blow about the kind of people that were in his crosshairs.

Speaker 11 I mean, does it really make me feel any better that the only people he killed were bad guys?

Speaker 11 Honestly, the answer is yes, it does.

Speaker 11 But the simple fact is, I will never really know if any of this stuff is true. All I can do do is take him at his word.

Speaker 21 Whether it was a hit, whether it was a beating, just depend on what the punishment was. Now, I never decided what the punishment was.
I was always given the punishment

Speaker 21 on a little piece of paper by a guy named.

Speaker 21 He always gave me my assignment. Big fat.

Speaker 11 And now, let me introduce you to the next character in our story. A feared boss within the outfit and a man who would make an enormous impact on the life of young Kenny.
Paul Taglia.

Speaker 11 Which, I will remind you, for the safety of everyone involved is not his real name.

Speaker 21 I would get a phone call,

Speaker 21 get on the phone, meet me, and I knew exactly where to meet him.

Speaker 21 And I'd meet him in the parking lot.

Speaker 20 And

Speaker 21 one of the houses were there, one of the whore houses were there. I'd meet him in that parking lot.
I'd walk up to his big

Speaker 21 fucking Cadillac, and he'd roll on his window, hand me a little piece of paper, and then he'd drive away. And on the piece of paper was

Speaker 21 where the person was going to be,

Speaker 21 the type of car he drove, and license plates.

Speaker 21 And that would, and that, what all that did was made me do more work, but it kept them even,

Speaker 21 kept them more, it kept them further away from the hit.

Speaker 21 So, because now I had to do all the legwork. So, I'd have to go look for the car, look for the license plate, wait for the person to get in there, scope them, watch them.

Speaker 21 Okay, that's who I got to hit. I got to hit that guy right there based on the license plate and the car description.
Okay, so I know I got a description of the guy you have to hit.

Speaker 21 And then I would do my due diligence for about two weeks, follow him around, get a pattern.

Speaker 21 And then

Speaker 21 after I figured out how I was going to do it, and I always did it one way,

Speaker 21 I would do it. That's all there was to it.
It didn't happen a lot, but it happened, people. It happened enough where I can,

Speaker 21 where it really bothers me.

Speaker 22 It really bothers me a lot.

Speaker 5 I don't like to talk about this.

Speaker 14 I don't want to talk about that shit, man.

Speaker 21 First of all, I'm trying desperately to forget all this stuff.

Speaker 21 A therapist is probably going to tell me, no, you need to spit it out and then deal with it. Well, I think I've already dealt with it, but I'm still trying to bury it because

Speaker 21 it's not a pleasant thought. It's not something that I'm very proud of at all.

Speaker 13 And I gotta...

Speaker 5 Want to take a quick break? Yeah, I gotta, man, my fucking legs are swollen for some stupid fucking reason.

Speaker 11 We decide to break for the day. He's exhausted, and honestly, so am I.

Speaker 11 There's so much to unpack here, and I don't even know where to begin. I started recording these interviews back in 2017, and it was apparent then that his health was failing him.

Speaker 11 Since then, he's continued to decline, and I honestly don't know how long he has left.

Speaker 11 He recently showed me an entire backpack full of prescriptions he's taken for a dozen or so conditions. He's pale, swollen, shakes uncontrollably.
His legs are covered in red marks and bruises.

Speaker 11 And he has a hard time walking.

Speaker 11 He's about the furthest thing you can get from the fearless mafia heavy of his youth.

Speaker 11 What the hell happened to this man?

Speaker 11 How was he able to do the things he did?

Speaker 11 What kind of person is my father?

Speaker 11 And what kind of person does that make me?

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Speaker 25 Perfect for anyone with kids, pets, or anyone who loves an easy-to-clean, spotless sofa.

Speaker 15 With a modular design and changeable slipcovers, you can customize your sofa to fit any space and style.

Speaker 12 Whether you need a single chair, love seat, or a luxuriously large sectional, Anibay has you covered.

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Speaker 5 Add a little

Speaker 12 to your life.

Speaker 15 Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.

Speaker 30 There's a shimmer in the air and it's coming from Shreve and Company. Diamond stud earrings, tiny stars you can wear.
They don't just catch the light, they whisper stories.

Speaker 30 For the woman who lights up your world, give her something that mirrors her brilliance. From little black dresses to blue jeans and bare feet, diamond studs always say the right thing.

Speaker 30 In Stanford Shopping Center, Palo Alto, Shrieve and Company, extraordinary jewelry and timepieces.

Speaker 31 Abercromie is an official fashion partner of the NFL, and I'm pro wide receiver Amin Ross St. Brown.

Speaker 31 The holidays are crazy for me. I don't have time to pick out fits for every event.
That's why Abercromie has me covered this season.

Speaker 31 Whether I'm with my family or the homies, Abercromie's teas and jeans are my go-tos.

Speaker 31 Abercromi has the holiday season lined up. Shop new arrivals in the app, online, and in-store.

Speaker 19 By the time I hit my 50s, I'd learned a few things. Like how family is precious.
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Speaker 22 Look Look at this guy, man. You, holy shit.

Speaker 13 How you doing, buddy?

Speaker 24 Good to see you. All right.

Speaker 13 It's been way, way too long.

Speaker 11 I'm back in Chicago, visiting my Uncle Rich.

Speaker 11 Ken's twin brother.

Speaker 13 Was that long ago?

Speaker 18 Yeah, I got married and well, I left school in 07 and I moved to Atlanta. And I pretty much came back, like, maybe once.

Speaker 18 And it was too much drama, and so I never came back.

Speaker 5 I left high school, never even looked over my shoulder.

Speaker 23 It's like, fuck you, I'm out.

Speaker 11 It's his birthday.

Speaker 24 That's right. It's your dad's birthday.

Speaker 13 Yeah, you should remember that.

Speaker 18 What?

Speaker 24 It's like in two days, isn't it?

Speaker 13 Oh, it's today.

Speaker 22 Did you wish your father a happy birthday?

Speaker 16 You probably should.

Speaker 5 Oh, my God.

Speaker 5 That's hilarious.

Speaker 11 Nice going, Kyle.

Speaker 23 Boy, you look like your dad.

Speaker 32 God, that look, that look.

Speaker 23 Did I just give you the Ken look? That was a Ken Ken look holy shit is it gonna give you the chills no

Speaker 5 and that's a Ken look too

Speaker 11 holy shit I I am my father's first time that I met your dad we spent some time catching up and cracking jokes about my old man what's the project again so it's a podcast so what's the deal

Speaker 11 I can tell Rich is a bit hesitant to dig up the past like this and I get it from what I've been hearing it's not like they had the happiest childhood.

Speaker 23 My name's Rich. I'm the oldest twin, Ken's fraternal twin brother.

Speaker 22 By how long?

Speaker 23 Six minutes, I believe it is.

Speaker 23 And since I came out first, I've always said that the problems I have with my back and my neck and stuff are your dad's fault because, you know, he was stepping on me that whole time in the womb.

Speaker 11 They were the firstborns of the family, followed by younger brothers Stan and Matt.

Speaker 23 Stan's five years younger than myself and your dad, and then 11 years for Matt.

Speaker 11 He tells me there was a joke in the family that Ken must have had a different father.

Speaker 18 Why is that? Explain that one.

Speaker 23 Because Ken and I are so different.

Speaker 23 We don't look the same.

Speaker 33 We don't act the same.

Speaker 23 I mean, there was nothing about us at that point that was even close to being twin material.

Speaker 23 So, yeah, it always pissed off Ma, though, when we would say that. But it's a family joke.
So she was probably like, wait, do they know?

Speaker 5 How did they know?

Speaker 23 There was, you know, that's kind of funny because, you know, there was some

Speaker 23 kind of half-truth meaning behind our thought process, but yeah, you know.

Speaker 11 That's interesting. If you remember from episode one, Kenny was kicked out of his house by his mom for accusing her of having an affair, which she was.

Speaker 11 And which of course started off this whole chain of events that led to Ken joining the outfit in the first place. I asked Rich what he remembers.

Speaker 5 I was out.

Speaker 23 So when I came home, I walked through, because I would always come in the basement door. And when I walked into the basement door, I heard screaming and yelling from the kitchen.

Speaker 23 So as you walk up the stairs, you walk right into the kitchen.

Speaker 23 On, you know, one end of the kitchen was mom with dad's 45, just screaming bloody murder at him, pointing the gun, just shaking, you know.

Speaker 23 And Ken was in the other corner of the kitchen, just, you know, in the back. I don't remember anything that was said, just a lot of noise and stuff.

Speaker 23 And I walked up to mother, and she's like this.

Speaker 23 I just stepped right in front of her. So now I got a gun pointing right at my chest.
I grabbed her hands, and I lifted them up. So her hands are now over her head.

Speaker 23 And I'm holding her hands on the gun.

Speaker 13 Apparently, Ken said, you should leave. And he left.

Speaker 18 And that was it. And he never came back.

Speaker 22 Wow.

Speaker 5 Wow, wow, wow.

Speaker 11 I loved my grandma, Adele.

Speaker 11 She was the sweetest old woman you could ever meet. She loved science and history and Native American culture.
The stories of her younger years are full of intrigue and adventure.

Speaker 11 She moved out to California in her late late teens and was one of the first women ever to work at NASA. She then took a job in the FBI and was only one of a handful of women there.

Speaker 11 She was a trailblazer and painted beautiful landscapes inspired by all her travels that filled the walls of her home. She taught me how to play piano and to appreciate the wild beauty of nature.

Speaker 11 And to picture this saint of a woman pointing a gun at her teenage son is completely unbelievable to me.

Speaker 11 But if I've learned anything at this point, it's that nobody is exactly who you think they are. And apparently my sweet old grandma wasn't always so sweet.

Speaker 5 She ever tell you the stories about her brawling in Chicago and stuff? The street fights?

Speaker 13 No, tell me everything.

Speaker 22 Never heard about that, huh?

Speaker 5 No.

Speaker 23 Yeah, I remember Ma telling me that her and her friends, pals, whatever, would go off for the street fights and the girls would take towels and they would wrap up their boobs.

Speaker 23 I mean, like tape them down, you know, so that there was nothing hanging out there, nothing to grab onto, nothing to get hurt basically before they went to their street fights.

Speaker 18 You mean the girls are fighting?

Speaker 5 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 18 She was a badass.

Speaker 23 We're talking knives and clubs and all sorts of stuff.

Speaker 21 Grandma Dell.

Speaker 5 You bet. Sweet old grandma.

Speaker 20 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 23 Yeah, sweet my ass. You didn't grow up with her.

Speaker 11 Okay, so if grandma was some sort of fearless knife fighting street pirate, then I guess you can argue that a hot temper is just in our blood and Ken was just a chip off the old block?

Speaker 23 Anything could set him off. Anything.
Blind rage

Speaker 23 out of control could not stop him temper. And until he got past that rage, you couldn't stop him.
It's like he didn't even know what he was doing, practically.

Speaker 11 He tells me a few old stories like Ken punching out a gym teacher in high school or stealing Rich's car at 16 and disappearing for a week, apparently driving it all the way to California.

Speaker 23 And I was gonna have him arrested for car theft, you know, and then showing up like nothing happened.

Speaker 33 He gets out, hey, Rich, what's going on, buddy?

Speaker 5 Everything's fine. I'm like, fucking asshole.
You stole my fucking car.

Speaker 11 And stories of cruel violence.

Speaker 23 He shot me once. He stabbed me once.
That was fun.

Speaker 18 You can't just stop there. You have to tell me the story.

Speaker 23 It was a BB gun, but it was a BB gun that could go halfway through a two by four.

Speaker 23 I still have that BB gun, by the way. It's downstairs.
Do you still have the BB in your flesh?

Speaker 23 No, that we dug out.

Speaker 18 Is that wait? So did the stabbing come because you did?

Speaker 23 That was a different time. No, he stabbed me with a needle.
The needle was probably about eight inches long, And he just,

Speaker 23 you know, in his

Speaker 23 blind rage wisdom, I was walking up the stairs and he just came up behind me and just stabbed me right in the ass. Whack.

Speaker 11 I'm beginning to doubt my dad's bully of the bullies claim.

Speaker 18 The story's always been that he was the bully of the bullies. He would beat up like the bullies at school.

Speaker 18 He's the protector of the innocent at school.

Speaker 23 The protector of the innocent.

Speaker 5 He was a freaking psycho.

Speaker 5 Protector of the innocent.

Speaker 10 Did he tell you that?

Speaker 18 Said he was the bully.

Speaker 5 He was the bully. Yeah, he was a bully.

Speaker 11 Yeah, this one hurt. I know it may sound silly after everything else we've heard, but this one positive character trait was something I held on to my whole life.

Speaker 11 It was foundational to the image I had of my father. And to learn it was complete bullshit is a fucking hard pill to swallow.

Speaker 23 You know, as he got older, I'm sure he he learned how to control that and use it to his advantage. But, you know, as we were growing up, just totally out of control.

Speaker 23 There was a lot of pain and agony, and you know, there was a lot of violence.

Speaker 11 Violence, both physical and emotional, was a constant part of their daily lives. Their father would beat the kids bloody.

Speaker 23 Whap, right across the head

Speaker 23 against the wall. Knock me up.

Speaker 11 And their mother, as we've learned, was just as cruel.

Speaker 23 And she picked up a kitchen chair and she was going to crack me over the head with it.

Speaker 11 They would starve their kids while mom and dad ate a nice meal.

Speaker 23 I remember eating dog food because I was so damn hungry. Or when I'd give the dog a treat, I would bite the ends off and I would eat it before I would give it to the dog.

Speaker 5 I was hungry.

Speaker 11 And at times, do things so horrible, my uncle won't even speak of them.

Speaker 23 You know, some of the torture stuff, I wouldn't.

Speaker 23 I never speak of it, ever.

Speaker 23 Yeah, because I don't really want

Speaker 23 mom and dad to be portrayed as, you know,

Speaker 23 animal child abusers, even though it was kind of like that. You know, we probably would have been taken away,

Speaker 23 you know, in today's day and age. You know, I'm sure we would have been taken away if somebody would have said something.

Speaker 23 But that's not how it was back then.

Speaker 18 I mean, the amazing thing is,

Speaker 18 I don't see you as

Speaker 18 having any of this volatility

Speaker 18 and this violence. And growing up.

Speaker 18 Dad never struck us.

Speaker 23 That's amazing.

Speaker 18 He never struck us.

Speaker 18 And that's another thing that's so bizarre about this. It's like why, again, why we never even, like, you know, I've seen him beat up a guy or two, or three or five.

Speaker 23 Did he tell you about beat the guy up and left him on the hood of his car? Do you know about that one?

Speaker 23 This was when we were working at the bar up in Northbrook at the hotel. Ken and I were both working there.

Speaker 23 You know, they had cops that would come in and they would be the security, you know, part-time job stuff.

Speaker 23 And he was telling me about this call that he had that there was a guy passed out on the hood of his car in the middle of an intersection. And,

Speaker 5 oh, okay, fine.

Speaker 18 Well, the next day, I'm talking to Ken, and he's telling me about this guy who he dragged out of the window of his car, beat the shit out of him, and left him on the hood of his car in the intersection.

Speaker 5 I'm like, oh, that was you.

Speaker 11 What's interesting about this incident is it would have been in those early years after Ken joined the outfit. So it's very possible it was mob related.

Speaker 11 I asked him if he knew what his brother was into at that time.

Speaker 23 I knew that he was definitely dealing drugs. I knew that he was

Speaker 23 working quote unquote in a whorehouse, but I never got into any of those details.

Speaker 23 i really didn't want to know you know it just it wasn't my lifestyle you know it was nothing i really cared about you know if that's what you want to do that's what you do

Speaker 23 you could see why he could be an enforcer because he just had that mentality very violent mentality

Speaker 25 There's nothing like sinking into luxury.

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Speaker 15 Anibay has designed the only fully machine washable sofa from top to bottom.

Speaker 12 The stain-resistant performance fabric slip covers and cloud-like frame duvet can go straight into your wash.

Speaker 15 Perfect for anyone with kids, pets, or anyone who loves an easy-to-clean, spotless sofa. With a modular design and changeable slip covers, you can customize your sofa to fit any space and style.

Speaker 12 Whether you need a single chair, love seat, or a luxuriously large sectional, Anabay has you covered.

Speaker 26 Visit washablesofas.com to upgrade your home.

Speaker 15 Sofas start at just $699 and right now, get early access to Black Friday savings, up to 60% off store-wide, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Speaker 26 Shop now at washablesofas.com.

Speaker 5 Add a little

Speaker 12 to your life.

Speaker 15 Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.

Speaker 30 There's a shimmer in the air and it's coming from Shreve and Company. Diamond stud earrings, tiny stars you can wear.
They don't just catch the light, they whisper stories.

Speaker 30 For the woman who lights up your world, give her something that mirrors her brilliance. From little black dresses to blue jeans and bare feet, diamond studs always say the right thing.

Speaker 30 In Stanford Shopping Center, Palo Alto, Shreve Company, extraordinary jewelry and timepieces.

Speaker 4 I'm T.

Speaker 34 Higgins, pro wide receiver, and Abercomby is an official fashion partner of the NFL. The holidays are crazy for me.
I don't have time to pick out fits for every event.

Speaker 34 That's why Abercrombie has me covered this season. Whether I'm with my family or the homies, Abercrombie Tees and Jeans are my go-tos.

Speaker 34 Abercrombie has the holiday season lineup. Shop new arrivals in the app, online, and in-store.

Speaker 19 By the time I hit my 50s, I'd learned a few things. Like how family is precious.
Work can always wait. And 99% of people over 50 already have the virus that causes shingles.

Speaker 19 Not everyone at risk will develop it, but I did. The painful, blistering rash disrupted my life for weeks.
Don't learn about your shingles risk the hard way.

Speaker 3 Talk to your doctor or pharmacist today.

Speaker 19 Sponsored by GSK.

Speaker 14 I should have bought more new ways to to wear a mask today.

Speaker 5 Oh, hi.

Speaker 18 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 14 Do I need to worry about some contagion? Nice to meet you.

Speaker 14 Nice to meet you. Well, I have met you several times, but you were a child.

Speaker 11 I was a baby, huh?

Speaker 22 Yeah.

Speaker 11 This is Maureen, my dad's high school girlfriend. Thank you for having me and doing this.

Speaker 14 I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know what you're doing here.
Your father wouldn't tell me anything. He was very short and said, I don't have time.
Kyle will tell you everything.

Speaker 18 All right. Well, that's true.
I will tell you everything.

Speaker 11 And hopefully you'll tell me everything.

Speaker 20 Maureen.

Speaker 11 It was a name that would occasionally echo through our childhood home.

Speaker 11 She was like this mythical creature who at the very mention of her accursed name would send my mother into fits of rage and jealousy.

Speaker 14 And I just, I feel so bad that she, I know how much time

Speaker 14 she spent hating me, hating him, thinking, you know, thoughts. I'm a woman.
I know how women think.

Speaker 14 And if there's one regret that I have, it is that I feel bad that your mom thought Kenny and I were having an affair. And we never did.
Never, ever, ever, ever.

Speaker 14 Not since we were high school sweethearts at 16 and 17 years old.

Speaker 14 Tell me about it.

Speaker 14 We were just, we were like the movie Greece, you know? It was like sort of like John Travolta and Olivia Newton Jeb.

Speaker 23 No, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.

Speaker 11 No, I'm not doing this again. First, my dad is John Travolta from Saturday Night Fever.

Speaker 11 Okay, fine. But now you're telling me he's John Travolta from Greece.

Speaker 11 I just, I can't. I'm not going to do it.

Speaker 20 Okay, let's move on.

Speaker 14 He was cool. He was a real cool kid.
He was my first boyfriend.

Speaker 14 And it was fun. We had fun and we had good times.
And of course, we wanted to grow up and get married and have a house full of kids.

Speaker 13 And it just didn't work out that way.

Speaker 11 I have a million questions for Maureen because she has a truly unique perspective in all this. as someone who saw a softer side of Kenny during those formative teenage years.

Speaker 14 I don't think I've ever loved anybody as much as a friend as him. You know, they say that you've got, if you've got five good friends on one hand, you're a lucky person.
And he's one of them.

Speaker 22 He's, he's been a, we've been good friends.

Speaker 11 I asked her about Kenny's fabled hot temper.

Speaker 14 I never saw him with a temper

Speaker 14 or

Speaker 14 being aggressive or anything like that.

Speaker 11 Or if she was aware of the abuse the brothers were victims of at home.

Speaker 14 He didn't want to be be at home. He didn't like being there.
He liked being at our house. My mom would come into my room at 10 or 11 o'clock and say, Warren, someone's in the backyard.

Speaker 14 And first I looked out the front window and I see his car. And I go in the back.
He used to take a tent and tent in our backyard and sleep. Wow, I didn't know that.
Yeah.

Speaker 14 Yeah, my mom said that she had seen it a few times, but it was too late to wake me up.

Speaker 14 And then that was, and I went in there and I was was like what are you doing he said I don't want to go home or if she knew of his ties to the mafia there would be no way Ken would do any of those things

Speaker 14 everybody adored him they loved him they cared about him and they trusted him

Speaker 11 she goes on to say that she only recently heard about it from Kenny's mother Adele When he went over to California, she started calling me and telling me all these things.

Speaker 14 And that's when I found out about the mafia. That's when I found out about

Speaker 14 drugs.

Speaker 14 She said, Well, you know he was a junkie. I said, No, I didn't know that, but now I do, I guess.

Speaker 14 And she also told me that he murdered someone.

Speaker 5 Oh, my god, I can't believe he killed people.

Speaker 5 Oh my god,

Speaker 5 how did he get that way?

Speaker 11 She's She's crying

Speaker 11 and takes a moment to collect herself.

Speaker 11 And then, suddenly, she remembers something from long ago.

Speaker 14 Did he ever tell you the story of Kenny Mendelke, the boy that drowned?

Speaker 22 No.

Speaker 14 It was his best friend.

Speaker 14 They were all set to go scuba diving. There were like five boys,

Speaker 14 and I had to work that day. My parents had to work at the restaurant.
There was no one to watch my four siblings. And I said to Kenny, I said, Would you do me a big favor and watch the kids?

Speaker 14 And he said, I'm already written, signed up to go scuba diving with Mendelke and the rest of the guys.

Speaker 14 And I said, Please, and he said, Okay, I'll do it. So he stayed home.

Speaker 14 The equipment that he was to have used used

Speaker 14 was given to Mendelke, his buddy.

Speaker 14 And Mendelke's equipment failed and he was like, he's dead.

Speaker 14 And it should have been Kenny. That should have been the equipment that he should have used.

Speaker 14 And it was really bad. That was the first time that Kenny had to deal with death.

Speaker 14 of a friend, of a good friend, and also he felt guilty that if he would have gone you know Mendelke would have lived and he and then he took off

Speaker 14 and I think now that I think in hindsight where him taking off he took off in his car and he was gone for like two days after the funeral right after the funeral

Speaker 14 nobody knew where he was Richie went out for like a day looking for him I think he ended up in Iowa or somewhere he just ran he just kept running and running running and running until he probably ran out of money and gas and came back

Speaker 14 and

Speaker 14 probably be the start

Speaker 14 of major issues because that was hard on him. Really, really hard.

Speaker 18 You know, I'm glad you brought up workout martial arts stuff because that's something something I actually completely forgot about.

Speaker 21 But well, how do you think I could have done half the shit I did if I didn't have all that martial arts training?

Speaker 13 Well, that's what I want.

Speaker 21 Talk to mom about that. I had years of martial arts training.
Years of martial arts training. I was a beast.

Speaker 11 It was widely known around the family that Ken was a fourth degree black belt.

Speaker 11 There were legends about his prowess on the map.

Speaker 11 How he even defeated his own master at one point.

Speaker 11 Even the style of martial arts he practiced sounded exotic and dangerous to us as kids.

Speaker 21 It was kung fu. It wasn't hard-formed kata bullshit.
Well, almost like a dance, dance-like movement.

Speaker 11 Chung Mu Kwan.

Speaker 11 I had never heard of it before and never had a reason to look into it. Until, of course, I started down this insane family rabbit hole of mine.

Speaker 11 I wasn't expecting to find anything interesting at all, to be honest. But when I learned the history of this mysterious brand of kung fu, I was absolutely shocked at what I found.

Speaker 35 Many students are attracted to Chung Moo Kwan because the training looks impressive.

Speaker 35 The schools say that by developing a strong mind and body, you not only learn self-defense, but also learn to understand yourself and find true happiness.

Speaker 35 A school brochure says Chung Moo Kwan is an investment in life.

Speaker 11 I found this investigative news report from 1989 about Cheng Mu Kwan. It's fascinating.

Speaker 35 There are 10 Cheng Mukwan schools in the Chicago area and a dozen others across the country.

Speaker 35 They were founded here in the late 1970s by John C. Kim, a former maintenance man who promotes himself as a martial arts master.
His followers say he has supernatural powers.

Speaker 36 His powers were phenomenal. They made him seem like a god to us.

Speaker 35 We talked to dozens of former students and instructors who've been with Chung Moo Kwan over the last 12 years. Most of them asked us to disguise their identities.

Speaker 35 They say they're afraid because the schools they were at thrived on an atmosphere of intimidation and violence.

Speaker 35 Our investigation found that some of the schools have also exploited students to take their money and to take over their minds. That's why experts call it a cult.

Speaker 11 So not only is my dad in the mob, which is bad enough, by the way, he's also in some goddamn kung fu mind control cult. Jesus fucking Christ.
He's either an evil genius or the unluckiest man alive.

Speaker 35 Experts say that some Cheng Mukwan students seem to be subjected to a form of mind control that begins with a martial arts training.

Speaker 35 For example, constantly repeating a movement or holding poses for long periods on orders from their instructor.

Speaker 11 Okay, let's stop there for a second. Now listen to this clip from my dad.

Speaker 7 You would do a form for an hour, hour and a half.

Speaker 21 That's all you would do is a form. A form is just movement.
So constant movement for an hour and a half.

Speaker 36 What happens is that they go into an altered state of consciousness. In that type of altered state,

Speaker 36 they're very susceptible to suggestions. It's the same kind of thing that takes place in a hypnotic trance.

Speaker 11 Now, let's go back to episode one, when my dad talks about mentally preparing himself for a hit.

Speaker 21 I sit in my car and I do what I always do.

Speaker 23 I breathe.

Speaker 21 I make myself aware. I heighten my senses, my sight, my smell, my hearing.

Speaker 21 I don't know how I do it, but I do it.

Speaker 21 As I'm listening to the music, I feel my senses start to kick in

Speaker 21 as they kick in the moment arises the moment always hits me I don't know how it hits me but I know when I'm ready for the moment

Speaker 11 and there it is this whole time I've been struggling to understand just how he could take that enormous leap from doorman to hitman or how he could jump back and forth so easily from mob life to family life without us ever even coming close to knowing.

Speaker 36 What happens is that they go into an altered state of consciousness. It's the same kind of thing that takes place in a hypnotic trance.

Speaker 13 Hypnotic trance. Nautic trance.

Speaker 11 I think it was the perfect storm. Combination of terrible childhood.
Abusive parents, hitting the streets as a kid, no prospects, finding a father father figure who just happens to be in the outfit.

Speaker 11 And then you introduce Chung Moo Kwan and its meditative mind control techniques.

Speaker 21 But if you know, it taught you, you know, all the points, all the all the points that can maim, kill,

Speaker 21 temporarily put somebody out of business. I always had that advantage.

Speaker 21 I had no fear at all, and that really got me through a lot

Speaker 11 next week on Crook County.

Speaker 21 He was fucking up, made guy or not, he was fucking up, man.

Speaker 21 And

Speaker 21 eventually it was going to catch up to him. But I took care of it myself.

Speaker 21 And everybody knows.

Speaker 11 Crook County is is a production of iHeart Podcasts and Tenderfoot TV in association with Common Enemy. All episodes are written, produced, and hosted by me, Kyle Tequila.

Speaker 11 Executive producers are Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay. Original score by Makeup and Vanity Set.
Main title song is called Aloha by the band Starry Eyes.

Speaker 11 End credit song is called No Show, also by the band Starry Eyes. Sound mix by Cooper Skinner.

Speaker 11 Thank you to Oren Rosenbaum and the excellent team at UTA for their support, and to my fearless attorney, Wendy Bench, for her guidance.

Speaker 11 To stay updated on all things Crook County, follow us on all socials at Crook County Podcast, or leave us a voicemail by visiting crookcountypodcast.com.

Speaker 11 For more podcasts like Crook County, search Tenderfoot TV on your favorite podcast app or visit tenderfoot.tv. Thanks for listening.
The story continues next week.

Speaker 11 I'm an awesome man.

Speaker 11 I'm a blessing, John.

Speaker 11 I'm setting fire.

Speaker 11 I will watch you show

Speaker 11 what you

Speaker 11 show.

Speaker 11 what you

Speaker 11 shine.

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