2 | The Ties That Bind Us

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Speaker 5 Shocked today after an arrest in the infamous Gilgo Beach murders.

Speaker 6 The morning of July 14th, 2023 is one I'll never forget. The day they finally caught him.
Lisk, the Long Island serial killer.

Speaker 5 59-year-old Rex Huerman from Long Island is now charged in the murders of three women.

Speaker 6 10 years earlier, we had gone on our own hunt for Lisk, and even though we didn't find him, I had no idea how close we came.

Speaker 5 We're learning that Rex Huerman may have called a documentary filmmaker.

Speaker 9 Will you at my house tonight?

Speaker 10 Yes, we're looking for you.

Speaker 6 But as we dug deeper, we discovered the hunt for a serial killer was only half the story.

Speaker 12 There is no other way to describe this except explosive.

Speaker 13 Former Suffolk County Chief of Police James Burke was put in handcuffs.

Speaker 14 Steve, you're still denying the accusations.

Speaker 6 I'm Josh Zeman, and this is Monster, Hunting the Long Island Serial Killer. Available now.
Listen for free on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 15 You're listening to a Tinderfoot TV podcast.

Speaker 8 Crook County is released weekly and brought to you absolutely free. But if you want to hear the whole season right now, it's available ad-free on Tenderfoot Plus.

Speaker 8 For more information, check out the show notes. Enjoy the episode.

Speaker 17 You're listening to Crook County. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the individuals participating in the podcast.

Speaker 17 This episode also contains subject matter, including graphic depictions of violence, which may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised.

Speaker 18 Previously, on Crook County, I got recruited into the mob when I was 17 years old.

Speaker 8 Meet Kenny, the kid, tequila.

Speaker 18 I became a trusted member. I ran whorehouses and I did hits.

Speaker 8 An enforcer for the Chicago outfit.

Speaker 18 I wanted him to know I meant fucking business here. So I beat him.
Put the gun back up to his forehead. And three of my boys come in.

Speaker 8 He lived a secret double life for over 20 years.

Speaker 18 I had a wife, and I had two children. Nobody knew anything.
I didn't want anybody to know.

Speaker 18 I was kind of embarrassed, and I wanted to keep them as far away from it as possible. I wanted them to have a good life.

Speaker 8 How do you keep an entire life of crime away from your friends, away from your family?

Speaker 8 It seems impossible, but I know it's true because Kenny is my father, and I had no idea about any of this until now.

Speaker 8 My name is Kyle Tequila. Welcome to Crook County.

Speaker 8 Just by the way I'm tired.

Speaker 8 I've seen cause I'm living a lie.

Speaker 8 Lost in the waves.

Speaker 8 Lost in the waves.

Speaker 9 I didn't know he was in the lab until maybe 20 years after you guys were born.

Speaker 10 He was a fucking crazy bastard, and that type of lifestyle fits him.

Speaker 19 You cannot control this.

Speaker 18 It is the devil.

Speaker 19 It lays in wait for you, and it will take you out at your weakest moment.

Speaker 8 Episode 2.

Speaker 10 The ties that bind us.

Speaker 10 Family.

Speaker 8 Has there ever been a more loaded word? To some, family means unconditional love. It means security and support, tradition, values, acceptance, joy, and spending the holidays together.

Speaker 8 It's the very foundation upon which you are built. To some people, family means everything.

Speaker 8 But to many others, family is just another four-letter word. filled with pain, grief, and discontent.
Family is something you need to escape from, to shun, to forget.

Speaker 8 For my father, family meant something else entirely. On one hand, it was his wife who loved him, his two young boys who idolized him.

Speaker 8 It meant breaking the chain of an abusive childhood and starting over to create something new, something pure. Something good.

Speaker 8 But on the other hand, family meant something far more sinister. His mafia family took him in when he was just 17, alone in the streets of Chicago.
It gave him a job and a support system.

Speaker 8 It took away the anxieties of running away from home with no money and filled that emptiness with purpose. Even if that purpose was criminal.
Even if it meant doing things you never imagined possible.

Speaker 8 Never in a million years.

Speaker 8 And once you do them, it's already too late. You're a prisoner to that family forever.

Speaker 18 So my goal was to be a good provider. All right.
So my kids had every opportunity in the world that I didn't have, and my wife could be a wife to be a stay-at-home mom, to raise the family, okay?

Speaker 18 That was my goal, all right? I didn't want anybody to know.

Speaker 18 I was kind of embarrassed and I wanted to keep them as far far away from it as possible. I wanted them to have a good life, you know, raise their own families.

Speaker 8 And for the most part, he succeeded. We never knew about my father's second family.
We were happy. And I always felt lucky to be a part of this family.

Speaker 8 In fact, I have almost exclusively positive memories for my first 18 years. A loving, blue-collar, suburban middle-class home with a Ford Explorer and a convertible Mustang occupying the driveway.

Speaker 8 My dad was a firefighter paramedic and my mom left work to raise the kids. Both were supportive and enthusiastic parents, encouraging us to pursue our passions and follow our dreams.

Speaker 8 My younger brother Corey and I played just about every sport imaginable, so trips to play it against sports to buy and sell our gently used equipment were routine.

Speaker 8 We didn't have all the latest toys or clothes like many of the other kids in the neighborhood, but we never really wanted for anything.

Speaker 8 Running around the neighborhood like animals, laughing, building forts, playing tag, walking for miles along the railroad tracks like the kids in Standby Me, minus the dead body.

Speaker 8 Sleepovers, paintball battles, baseball games, travel hockey, girlfriends, making out in the basement, breakups, new friends, movie nights, punk shows.

Speaker 8 It was a good life, as good as any kid could ask for.

Speaker 11 My kids grew up happy.

Speaker 8 That's my mom, Holly.

Speaker 11 I worked part-time. Ken worked as a firefighter paramedic and would have a second job, you know, just to make ends meet.
But it was, you know, my perfect little life.

Speaker 11 I, you know, had a husband. I had two beautiful sons.

Speaker 11 We finally had a beautiful home in a nice neighborhood. We eventually made good friends with our neighbors and our kids made good friends with, you know, all the kids in the neighborhood.

Speaker 11 and, you know, it was my dream coming true.

Speaker 8 We were lucky. At least, that's how it felt back then.
But today, things couldn't be anymore different, and we couldn't be any further apart.

Speaker 8 As soon as we could, my brother and I moved away from home, me to the west coast, and my brother to the east.

Speaker 8 My dad eventually moved away too, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake, and leaving my poor mom with nothing but sadness, anger, and unanswered questions.

Speaker 23 I don't know why I deserve this.

Speaker 23 My life ended.

Speaker 24 We'd like to welcome everyone here to Chicago. I'm the bears.

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Speaker 8 I flew to Chicago to visit my mom. It's been years since I've been back, and I'm really not looking forward to the conversation I'm about to have with her.

Speaker 8 I don't think she's looking forward to it either. Hey.

Speaker 8 Hi mom.

Speaker 11 How are you?

Speaker 9 You look good.

Speaker 9 You look very cuddly. I am a good outfit.
You are cuddly.

Speaker 25 That's true.

Speaker 9 Cool. Where's that?

Speaker 9 Oh my god. Hi.

Speaker 14 He's not allowed in here. You know this is a man-free zone.

Speaker 24 Okay.

Speaker 10 I'll just hang out.

Speaker 26 Unfortunately.

Speaker 20 I'll go back to Dunkin' Donuts.

Speaker 10 I'm just cheesing.

Speaker 8 She lives in a small house with her friend Kathy.

Speaker 10 It's old and dated.

Speaker 8 The architecture, the furniture, like it was pulled straight from a 1970s Sears catalog.

Speaker 23 The last time you saw him was...

Speaker 14 The one and only time other than when he was little was at your mom's 90th.

Speaker 9 Yeah. Oh, right.

Speaker 14 When she said, she's who introduced me to your father.

Speaker 9 And the two of you went, thanks a lot.

Speaker 14 And that's when I said, you should be kissing my ass because if there were not a me, there would not be a you.

Speaker 9 That's very true.

Speaker 20 I hold no resentment towards you at all.

Speaker 9 Thank you very much.

Speaker 8 We head up to her room so we can talk. It's full of pictures and mementos from the old days.
The good days.

Speaker 11 I mean, I have tons of pictures and things, and all my videotapes are in there and in there.

Speaker 8 She pulls out a small box from under her bed.

Speaker 11 Oh my god, this is one of my favorites. I watched, because I didn't have TV

Speaker 11 for a long time in some of my apartments.

Speaker 11 So I would watch VHS videotapes of our family.

Speaker 11 And I love this one, and I love this one. I love them all, but this is like my favorite.
It's like the beginning of our normal life.

Speaker 8 We pick out an old VHS tape from our childhood and pop it in.

Speaker 27 What has he found?

Speaker 27 Coid!

Speaker 25 Look around, Corner stuff. Here, Coit, that's yours.

Speaker 8 It's Easter morning, 1989.

Speaker 8 My four-year-old self is joyfully running around the house, finding candy-filled eggs and baskets, while my brother, Corey, two years old at this time, is trying to keep up.

Speaker 28 You'll find a kite. Wow.

Speaker 8 My dad is behind the camera, narrating.

Speaker 29 Ladies and gentlemen, here is my son, Kyle.

Speaker 27 I want you boys to stand back, and my wonderful family stand back. Let me look at your faces.

Speaker 9 My beautiful wife.

Speaker 27 My two beautiful boys, and look at. See all that candy and stuff there?

Speaker 29 That's your first load. We got part two coming up.
I want you to think about this. Why do you keep using that?

Speaker 27 You know what I got for Easter?

Speaker 29 My whole life was one basket

Speaker 20 with socks and underwear in it.

Speaker 20 That's all I ever got.

Speaker 27 Look at my kids.

Speaker 20 Happy Easter, you guys.

Speaker 8 The image jumps to later in the day.

Speaker 29 Easter Sunday.

Speaker 27 All right, the tequila residence.

Speaker 8 Some family has come over to celebrate, and my mom now holds the camera. There's people everywhere.
She pans around to my dad, who's standing tall in the chaos.

Speaker 25 Here's Ken.

Speaker 25 Oh, you're out of your Easter outfit. Where's your Easter bonnet, Ken?

Speaker 8 He's got long hair, wearing a tight, white dress shirt with most of the buttons undone, and sporting a huge, goofy smile on his face.

Speaker 25 I was never in the picture because Uzai has taken it, so I have to.

Speaker 29 That's right. So now I'm in the picture.
My best side.

Speaker 8 He's posing now, showing off his muscles

Speaker 8 and brimming with that unique blend of sarcasm, confidence, and charm that endeared him to everyone around him.

Speaker 8 He's 35 years old here, my age now.

Speaker 8 In those days, he was my hero. And I don't just mean that figuratively.
Only a few months after this home video was made, he literally saved my life.

Speaker 8 Thanks for joining me on Crook County. For ad-free listening and exclusive content, dive into TenderfootPlus.com, right there in the show notes.

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Speaker 8 You'll unlock access to early episodes, upcoming bonus material, the Tenderfoot Podcast library of over 400 ad-free episodes, as well as subscriber-only specials. Subscribe now at TenderfootPlus.com.

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Speaker 11 You guys were little. Corey was like two, you were four, going on five.

Speaker 11 Well, our neighbor was a single female who had moved into the neighborhood with this big dog and an Akita, huge, probably 100-pound dog at least. And she had the dog for protection.

Speaker 11 She also had a cat. And one day,

Speaker 11 you and me and Corey were out in the front yard just hanging out and her cat was up in our tree.

Speaker 11 So you went next door and knocked on the door and it was summertime and she just had like a screen door.

Speaker 11 The other door was open and the dog came up to the door when you were standing there and pushed open the screen door and started chasing after you and tackled you and took you down to the ground and started biting you on your head from your head all the way down to your calves and you were like four years old 40 pounds and this is like a hundred pound dog on top of you tearing you to shreds i was in the front yard with you and i made this hurtling scream and thank god ken was home that day because he was usually on 24 off 48.

Speaker 11 he heard me scream in the front yard and he came out running And by the time he came out there, I'm on top of the dog trying to get him off of you.

Speaker 11 You're bleeding everywhere, and I'm trying to pull you out of the dog's mouth or Ken is trying to pull the dog off of your body and in the meantime there's puncture wounds on your legs and on your head and on your back and Ken comes here and you know I get off and he takes the dog and he opens up the dog's mouth like

Speaker 11 really wide and broke the dog's jaw and I pulled you out of the dog's mouth. Finally the ambulance came and they took x-rays of your head.
You had two depressed skull fractures from his teeth.

Speaker 11 It was scary. I thought I was going to lose you.

Speaker 11 And I just thank God because if Ken wasn't there, you wouldn't be here.

Speaker 8 After several months of intensive recovery, the scare had passed and I was becoming my old self again.

Speaker 8 So, we packed up our belongings and moved to the house I would forever consider my childhood home in a small, newly constructed suburb west of Chicago. The very definition of cookie cutter.

Speaker 8 My mom puts in another tape.

Speaker 8 It's from the day we moved in.

Speaker 8 My dad is behind the camera again, while a few of his buddies from the fire department are carrying in furniture and goofing off.

Speaker 25 is warm. Take pictures, take pictures.
I think you don't bother us.

Speaker 8 The neighborhood was so new that none of the landscaping had been planted yet, so the entire yard was mud.

Speaker 10 Look at his yard.

Speaker 27 There's a lot of people out here admiring their mud.

Speaker 8 Our house, a little blue island in a sea of brown sludge.

Speaker 27 How about that?

Speaker 29 That's something.

Speaker 29 Hey, Kyle.

Speaker 27 Saying adult, you guys.

Speaker 10 Growing up was

Speaker 10 great. We had a great childhood.

Speaker 8 That's my brother, Corey.

Speaker 10 Dad, he would take us to the firehouse, seeing all the fire engines and playing with all the medical supplies and the paramedic truck and everything, you know, rubber gloves.

Speaker 10 That was like the coolest thing to like wear, you know, shit like that. And somebody would go on the mic, you know, and it would be an intercom throughout the whole, the whole building.

Speaker 10 And it'd be like attention.

Speaker 10 And then, I don't know, maybe what, Mike Eckler or something like that would just let out a big rip on the microphone and just bart throughout the whole building, you know, and everybody would crack up.

Speaker 10 You know, this is just fun.

Speaker 8 She pops in another tape.

Speaker 8 It's my fifth birthday party. There's about 20 people at some restaurant.

Speaker 8 I remember this. The kids got to make our own pizzas.

Speaker 29 Do I need to roll up your sleeves or what?

Speaker 25 Yeah, roll up the sleeves because it's made us off.

Speaker 8 It's impossible to describe how I feel watching this video and knowing now all of the atrocious crimes my father committed in the years leading up to it.

Speaker 8 And worse, that they were still being committed. Beatings, murders, cover-ups.

Speaker 8 And then, coming home to his happy little family and lying about everything.

Speaker 25 In a way, when we can have kicked, we'll execute the peak

Speaker 8 And all of us, completely oblivious, celebrating a joyful birthday with the clear heads and hearts of a simple, average American family, when in fact, we were anything but.

Speaker 8 Hold on, what's more handy?

Speaker 27 Right here, I'll relax, will ya?

Speaker 29 I have it for in motion, forever in motion, all right?

Speaker 27 No more stills, baby. This is the 90s.

Speaker 8 And my poor mother.

Speaker 8 Going to bed every night, next to a man she doesn't even know. A man who has blood on his hands.

Speaker 8 The same hands that would comb through my hair the next morning before going off to work to possibly have them bloodied again.

Speaker 8 We never suspected a thing. We had no reason to.

Speaker 8 But now, looking back, knowing what I know, There were in fact signs of a darker side. Cracks in his veneer.

Speaker 10 I remember remember being eight or nine, my dad picking me up from somewhere.

Speaker 10 I'm walking out and I see dad kind of just like nonchalantly like hanging out in his Ford Explorer, kind of yelling at a guy, you know.

Speaker 10 It looked like there was a confrontation going on, but he was super calm, super chill.

Speaker 10 As I'm walking closer and closer to the car, I see This big bald man screaming through the window. Well, Ken, my dad, is just sitting there.

Speaker 10 And all of a sudden, he fucking just headbutts this guy, knocks the guy fucking flat out.

Speaker 10 And I'm like,

Speaker 10 I don't even think I brought it up to him. Because I think I was so stunned.
Like, what the hell just happened? You know? You know, just a typical Sunday morning.

Speaker 10 Dad fucking knocking some guy out through a window in a car. with his head.

Speaker 16 And then he just drove away.

Speaker 10 And just like nothing fucking happened.

Speaker 16 I've seen dad twice.

Speaker 16 The first time I was really young, but I do remember him in a fit of road rage

Speaker 16 pulling a guy out of his car.

Speaker 16 Like, we're behind the car because he was in front of us.

Speaker 16 Pulling the guy out of his driver's side door.

Speaker 16 dragging him to like the back so now i have like a perfect view of this of the crime and just pounding a guy and then leaving him just basically knocked out or like half half aware uh and then getting back in the car and then like you know doing a little swerve drive around and then continuing on with with the day

Speaker 16 so that that was the first time i remember seeing that and i was so young it almost felt like a dream but then i think it was seventh grade and i remember um

Speaker 16 In like one of my English classes or something, we were doing like a project, you know, you had to like create a scene, like a shoebox scene.

Speaker 10 Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean?

Speaker 16 And I remember it was sitting in my lap because I was up all night working on it. And we're driving to school and some guy cuts Ken off

Speaker 16 and he chases this dude past the school like we go on a chase i'm screaming a hunt

Speaker 16 and finally we catch the guy at a red light and he goes and punches the guy several times through his driver's side window then gets back in the car does a u-turn drops me off at school And you're like, what do you do?

Speaker 16 You know, like, you just, you can't, there's nothing to say. There's nothing.
There's nothing to do.

Speaker 16 You just, like, kind of walk like a zombie through the rest of the day going, is that a real thing that just happened?

Speaker 8 When things are going well, it's hard to believe they could ever go wrong.

Speaker 8 And just because my father showed a few flashes of violence or said a few questionable things doesn't mean there's something sinister or terrible lurking behind the curtain.

Speaker 8 Besides, he was never violent with any of us.

Speaker 8 Life is complex and emotional, and it's human nature to see the best in people. But a lie this big can't stay hidden forever.
Somehow, some way, it will turn on you and force its way out.

Speaker 11 One day I'm cooking dinner in the kitchen, and I hear a commotion in the garage, so I open up the door to the garage, and there's Ken's brother. And he said, Holly,

Speaker 11 Ken needs to go to rehab. And I said, What? What are you talking about? And he says,

Speaker 11 Ken is addicted to heroin.

Speaker 11 And I was floored. I mean, I just couldn't believe it.
And I was so much in denial.

Speaker 11 So

Speaker 11 that night I took Ken to rehab and they admitted him right away.

Speaker 11 You know, Ken went back and forth to rehab.

Speaker 11 But the heroin took over and he just kept doing it and I kept finding paraphernalia in the house and

Speaker 11 his arms were always bruised and I would find blood splats on the ceiling and

Speaker 11 he was so bad where he was going crazy. Like he would scream at me.
He would come at me. He looked like he was possessed.

Speaker 11 He'd be rolling on the floor, screaming, like he looked like he was a possessed devil and I was scared to death. He would come at me many times and he would push me or and I didn't take it.

Speaker 11 I would push him back and when I pushed him back,

Speaker 11 you know, I would either get hit or pushed against the wall or some things.

Speaker 11 I had to sleep in my car or I would sleep at the bottom of the stairs so I had an easy escape because he was so crazy trying to wean off the drug. That's all he cared about.
He alienated his family.

Speaker 11 He alienated his friends. He alienated his job.
It destroyed our life.

Speaker 23 It destroyed our marriage.

Speaker 11 It destroyed my kids. It destroyed friendships.
It destroyed

Speaker 11 everything.

Speaker 23 It really destroyed everything.

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Speaker 8 During those 10 years of addiction, I had already left home and started my own life in Atlanta where I met my wife, Nicole.

Speaker 8 We got married in 2009, and my wedding was the last time that the four of us were together in the same room.

Speaker 8 I did know my dad was struggling with addiction, and I knew that my mom was taking him to treatment and assisting in his recovery. But I never knew just how bad it really was.

Speaker 8 And to be honest, during those first few years, there were so many fights and so much drama between us all, with them becoming the kids and me feeling like the parent, that I stepped away from them.

Speaker 8 I had never felt this kind of emotional pain before, and I didn't know how to deal with it. So I ignored it.
And I hoped it would get better.

Speaker 8 I focused all my energy on building a new family with Nicole.

Speaker 10 My brother, however, wasn't so lucky.

Speaker 8 He was still living at home, watching everything he knew crumble around him.

Speaker 10 Unfortunately for me,

Speaker 10 I was

Speaker 10 there when all this went out.

Speaker 10 I first noticed

Speaker 10 that dad was on drugs when I was 16 years old. I rummaged through dad's personal shit in his car to find a couple bucks.
When I opened the glove box I saw a large freezer bag.

Speaker 8 And of course being 16 I

Speaker 10 looked into it and seeing what the fuck it was. Smoking pot.
I figured it would be like some pot or something, you know, taking a dog out, you know, not telling. But that wasn't the case.

Speaker 10 When I opened the bag There was a bunch of little tinfoil squares that I had no idea what the fuck it was. But then I saw a syringe

Speaker 10 and our fucking soup spoon from our kitchen it was a yellow handle and a lighter and I go what the fuck I mean I'm not I'm no dummy

Speaker 10 but I'm thinking to myself what the fuck's going on here like

Speaker 10 he's fucking he's shooting heroin He's cooking fucking heroin on our fucking goddamn soup spoons.

Speaker 10 I was so confused and so

Speaker 10 I just didn't know what was going on

Speaker 10 there's what one incident that i remember like it was yesterday i'm 21 at this time i need to come home for a little bit and um save up some money so i could get back out i just needed i needed i needed my family for a minute you know what i mean but i see him on the couch watching the history channel of course always watching the history channel war war war he's eating fucking yo play yogurt or some shit i don't know and um what really got me is that that he was really zonked out, but the spoon, the image of him eating it with a spoon brought me back to when I first remembered seeing the fucking spoon next to a bunch of heroin and needles.

Speaker 10 So I got furious. I walked up to him, I slapped the fucking yogurt out of his hand, and I go, fuck you, dad, you're useless.

Speaker 10 That started.

Speaker 10 Which would be the most intense fight I've ever had with my father.

Speaker 10 He stood up. I pushed him.
He fell back down on the couch. He got back up and he fucking clocked me.

Speaker 10 I got hazy and dizzy.

Speaker 10 But me, I'm a fucking savage. I attack him.

Speaker 10 I don't stop attacking him. We're fucking on the floor.
We're beating the shit out of each other. Blood's flying everywhere.
Fists are flying everywhere. We end up into the kitchen where

Speaker 10 You know, We slam into the cupboards and the cabinets, the drawers. I remember ripping out a drawer and trying to fucking hit him with it.
He knocked it out of my hands. He pushed me back into

Speaker 10 the refrigerator. And I don't know how

Speaker 10 the fight stopped.

Speaker 10 I just remember it was

Speaker 10 surreal. Just

Speaker 10 my dad and I are actually fist fighting each other right now. Black eyes, fucking blood, cuts.

Speaker 10 It's crazy to have,

Speaker 10 you know, someone that was so strong in my life and just such

Speaker 10 a man of father figure. Every I looked up to him, he was everything to me.

Speaker 10 So we fucking punch him in the face over drugs because he was destroying

Speaker 10 our fucking family.

Speaker 10 It's fucking horrible, man.

Speaker 24 Did you ever recover from all that?

Speaker 19 Like, do you still carry it with you?

Speaker 10 I carry it every fucking day. Absolutely, and I feel like that's how I become so emotional.

Speaker 10 Just commercials, fucking movies, anything that has to do with

Speaker 10 a father and a son.

Speaker 10 It fucking destroys me.

Speaker 10 It's just, it's so hard. I mean,

Speaker 10 I do,

Speaker 10 I do mask it very well.

Speaker 10 And I try to forget all the time about

Speaker 10 everything, but it's, it will never go away. It fucked me up.
Absolutely fucked me up.

Speaker 16 Do you want to see him again?

Speaker 8 I don't know. I mean,

Speaker 10 I love him.

Speaker 10 That's what's so fucked up. I do.
I mean,

Speaker 10 you can't take back my childhood,

Speaker 10 which was awesome in in my eyes. It was perfect.

Speaker 10 But now

Speaker 10 I don't know if I can

Speaker 10 if I can be the bigger man.

Speaker 10 And I don't know, even talk. I don't know.
Kyla, honestly, I just...

Speaker 10 I don't even know my reaction or my feelings that would come to me if I saw him again. I don't know.

Speaker 8 Eventually, Corey got out and moved to Florida, where he started a new career, worked hard, and did well.

Speaker 8 And though I know the scars of those traumatic years are still raw, I'm impressed by how well he's been able to cope with them.

Speaker 10 To move on.

Speaker 8 But mom was still there, living in this hell until my dad either got clean or died trying.

Speaker 8 And then, in 2013, I got a disturbing phone call.

Speaker 8 It was my dad. He was moaning, crying, barely making any sense.
But I could understand enough. He was dying and asking for my help.

Speaker 8 I immediately booked him a flight for the following morning and found a rehab facility that would admit him.

Speaker 11 I remember getting ready the next morning because I'm driving him to the airport and he's still screaming at me. And the song from Bohemian Rhapsody comes on, Mama,

Speaker 11 just killed a man.

Speaker 11 And he goes, perfect song.

Speaker 11 Puts his fingers to my head like it's a gun. And he goes, you know what, Holly? I've killed men.
I've killed many men. I could kill you too.

Speaker 11 And that was pretty much the last time I saw him.

Speaker 8 When I picked him up from the airport, I barely recognized him. He was skinny, disheveled, with dead eyes, and he barely spoke a word.
I was stunned. I felt like throwing up.

Speaker 8 I drove him straight to rehab and dropped him off.

Speaker 10 On my way home, I pulled the car over and I cried for the first time in a very long time.

Speaker 11 I'm still

Speaker 11 trying to understand

Speaker 11 to this day why

Speaker 11 this happened.

Speaker 11 Why he forfeited

Speaker 11 a great life

Speaker 11 and

Speaker 11 relationship with his children. I mean my God, I don't care about me, but how can you

Speaker 23 not have a relationship with your kids?

Speaker 11 And a grandson.

Speaker 9 I mean, my God.

Speaker 10 That's what life is about.

Speaker 23 At least in my world, that's what life is about.

Speaker 8 I have this old memory of my dad dropping me off my first day at college. He looked at me in a very strange way and said,

Speaker 10 when you're old enough, I'll tell you everything.

Speaker 8 No more secrets. No more lies.
It's time I learned the truth.

Speaker 8 Next week on Crook County.

Speaker 18 Listen, there are girls in and out of there for years and years and years and years and years, all right?

Speaker 18 Go in there, crack a deal with the client, go to work, get out quick, and wait for the next guy. These girls were pure, pure business, and they made a ton of fucking money.

Speaker 8 Crook County 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 8 Executive producers are Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay. Original score by Makeup and Vanity Set.
Main title song is called Crush by the band Starry Eyes.

Speaker 8 End credit song is called No Show, also by the band Starry Eyes. Sound mix by Cooper Skinner.

Speaker 8 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 8 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 8 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 8 I'm an awesome man.

Speaker 8 I'm a blessing, John.

Speaker 8 I'll be setting fire.

Speaker 8 I will watch you show

Speaker 8 I will watch you the shine

Speaker 8 what you

Speaker 8 shine.

Speaker 8 Thank you for tuning in to Crook County. New episodes are released weekly, completely free.

Speaker 8 But if you're itching for more, check out Tenderfoot Plus on Apple Podcasts or visit tenderfootplus.com to subscribe for early access to the full series. Plus, an ad-free experience.

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