1 | Give Me Your F**kin Money

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Listener discretion is advised. Chicago is Chicago is exciting! This is a 1970s-era Board of Tourism advertisement for the city of Chicago.
Chicago is fun! It's overflowing with sunlit cityscapes and joyful smiling faces of young people, families, and tourists, all locked in a state of perpetual 8mm textured happiness and wonder of this city of broad shoulders, this great city by the lake. Look north now to that glittering shopper's paradise proudly dubbed the Magnificent Mile.

It really does look like a wonderful place to live. A place with endless possibilities.
Where anybody, no matter who you are or where you came from, can get a fair shot at the brass ring. Chicago is something you've just got to see for yourself.
But only a few miles from the bright lights of Michigan Avenue is a different stretch of road, a dark corner of the Windy City you won't see in any board of tourism commercial. It's a place where the cops are just as crooked as the criminals, where drugs and prostitution run rampant, and where a young mafia hitman they call The Kid is parked outside of a dark, dilapidated apartment building waiting for just the right moment to make his next move.
It's about 9 p.m. at night.
I'm in an apartment complex in a neighborhood that I really don't know very well. And I'm listening to my song, the song that I always play before I do something sketchy like this, and that's Sympathy for the Devil.
Please allow me to introduce myself. I'm a man of wealth and taste.
It just does something to me. I don't know what it does.
It's just part of my routine. I sit in my car and I do what I always do.

I breathe.

I make myself aware.

I heighten my senses, my sight, my smell, my hearing.

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

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

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. out of my car.
Walk up to the apartment complex. Ring the buzzer.
This asshole comes at a buzzer and announces his name. I said, this is Ken.
I'm coming up for the Coke. Says, fine, come on up.
Buzzer hits. I walk up the stairs.
I reach my right hand behind my belt on my back. Knock on the door with my left hand.
As the door opens up, I pull my arm out with my .22, and I put it right in his forehead. Back it up, I tell him.
He backs it up. His eyes are as big as saucers.
I want to say his name, dude, but I can't. Will you edit his name out of here? Let's kick.
Back it up to the bathroom. He didn't move fast enough, and I wanted him to know I meant fucking business here.

So I beat him.

I hit him twice.

Right cheek, left cheek.

Backed off.

Put the gun back up to his forehead.

Backed him up into the bathroom.

Got to the bathroom.

Get on your knees.

He wouldn't get on his knees fast enough, so I dropped him with my left foot.

I got him right behind his right knee.

That dropped him to his knees.

Pushed him down towards the toilet.

Grabbed the cuffs that were in my left rear pocket and cuffed him right behind the base of the toilet.

There he sat.

I can't remember exactly what I said to him.

I was dead serious what I said, but I really can't remember exactly what I said to him. But I was dead serious what I said, but I really can't remember.
Anyway, I waited, like I was asked to do. Knock at the door comes, and three of my boys come in.
Showed them to the bathroom. I backed out because it wasn't my hit.

It was just my setup. It wasn't my hit.

Went back into the living room, sat and waited.

Heard some commotion, a muffled gunshot.

I know that's the end of the story.

The boys walk out. Where's the dope, Ken?

Ransacked his bedroom, found the dope.

Got about three or four ounces of what was called at the time

I'm sorry. the boys walk out.
Where's the dope, Ken? Ransacked his bedroom, found the dope. Got about three or four ounces of what was called at the time, that was pink cocaine, what the hell did they call it back then? Peruvian, I don't know.
Anyway, it was coke, all right, because that's what everybody was doing back then. Uncuffed him, brought him to the living room, started tearing up the carpet inside the living room, wrapped him up in there, and left him until tomorrow.
What normally happens is, or what was already set up was, not by me, but it was already set up to have a carpeting company come in the next day, put in a new carpet, take him out, put in new carpeting, lay it, and then me leave. Spent the night, waited for the carpeting people in the morning.

They arrived about 9 o'clock.

They took him out, wrapped up in the carpet,

brought up a whole new carpeting and padding,

laid that down.

I left the door unlocked, and I left.

That was the end of him.

That's it.

Story's over. Holy shit.
I'm your host, Kyle Tequila. Welcome to Crook County.
Yeah, Crook County. Yeah, there's no doubt about that.

It's a den of thieves.

Dad was a fucking crazy bastard.

We don't know who he is, really.

People are dying.

Is he doing this every night?

What about retribution from, could it be the mob?

Could it be police?

What's the worry there?

I've done criminal defense now for almost 37 years. It takes one guy out there who's in his late 60s to say, who's that fucking asshole Kyle who thinks he can just get on a goddamn microphone on a podcast and start publicizing this shit? Like I started having flashbacks about his legs being broken when he went out to check them out and I was like, holy shit.
He changed his address to ours. Now these fucking people can, like, find him at our address.

I don't give a shit about Ken.

He did what he did.

And if he's got to pay, he's got to pay.

It destroyed our life.

It destroyed our marriage.

It destroyed my kids.

It really destroyed everything.

This is why I think I'm getting out of this shit.

I'm right fucking back in it.

It's the devil.

It's following me wherever the fuck I go

I can't shake this son of a bitch

He won't fucking leave me alone Me siento muy sola. Me da vergüenza hablar de eso.

¿Cómo ayudaré a mis hijos si no puedo con mi vida?

No recuerdo la vida sin estrés.

No me olvido de estrés.

Cuando tus pensamientos y tus emociones te sobrepasen, pide ayuda.

Estamos aquí para acompañarte.

CalHOPE tiene recursos gratuitos, seguros y confidenciales para cuidar de tu salud mental y la de otras personas.

Encuentra ayuda en calhope.org. brand.
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Episode one, give me your fucking money. You're not going to put my voice on this thing, are you? Yeah.
I'm going to tell the story? Uh-huh. All right.
I'm interviewing Kenny the Kid for the first time. He's a big man in his mid-60s with a full head of jet black hair, combed and styled with only a few strands of gray, wearing a clean white t-shirt and reading glasses with thick black frames.
He's handsome in a rundown sort of way. He kind of reminds me of a down-on-his-luck Clark Kent.
You know, Superman, but fat. Oh, man, I'm not good at this, man.
Just whenever you feel like it,, just start talking. Let your brain go.
What am I, okay. He's not used to having a microphone in his face and seems to be having a little trouble getting comfortable with me.
I know, I'm very confused on this, Kyle, and I'm just going to talk, okay? I'm just going to talk. I really don't, it's just, it's, um, I really kind of don't understand.
It goes on like this for a while, but eventually he starts talking. This is a story.
Well, story, it's not, not a story. It's, it's, this is, this is my story.
Um, basically the experiences I've had, most of them not by choice, that just ended up like I never thought I would end it. I'm surprised I'm sitting here.
Technically, I shouldn't be sitting here. Historically, people don't make it.
They just simply don't make it. But I think I was low level enough and I didn't want to make it a career.
I didn't do the things that the other people did trying to move up in the outfit, trying to get their own crews, trying to make more money. I did fly under the radar and I really didn't want to know what the hell was going on where I became a a trusted member.
You know, we're not going to worry about Kenny.

You know, Kenny does his job.

He keeps his fucking mouth shut.

He doesn't steal any money.

He doesn't do fucking drugs while he's working.

He's not running whores on the side, our whores on the side.

He does what he's supposed to do, and he goes home.

Kenny spent over 20 years working deep inside the legendary Chicago Mafia, also known as

the Southside Gang, or simply the Outfit, which rose to power in the 1920s during Prohibition under Johnny Torrio and Al Capone. They were powerful, ruthless, and violent, with tentacles spreading all the way to Florida and California, a vast criminal empire spanning nearly 100 years, making its fortune off bootleg liquor, illegal gambling, prostitution, extortion, political corruption, labor racketeering, loan sharking, and murder for hire.
Since the days of Capone, the outfit has been led by a who's who of powerful bosses like Frank the Enforcer Nitti, Paul the Waiter Rika,

Anthony Big Tuna Accardo,

and Salvatore Momo Giancano.

When Kenny was there in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s,

the bosses were Joseph Joey Dove Zayuba,

Sam Black Sam Carlesi,

and John Nonos DeFronzo.

It was a period of great prosperity, and they were stronger than ever. Cook County and the Chicago area, okay? Chicago is actually in Cook County, and we worked in the unincorporated areas.
Because the unincorporated areas, you know, we owned the judges, we owned the fucking cops, We owned them so we can work freely. And what did you do? I was a low level.
I ran whorehouses, and I did hits. I was just a low level guy.
And my crew, the money that we made in our crew, worked its way up the ladder to. You know, you're in the fucking trenches, man.
This is low level, in the streets, in the dirt, in your face, the backbone of the fucking outfit. That's where the money came from.
It came from us. And we pushed it up.
All right? We're not the fucking captain sitting back while his troops are in the fucking trenches fighting it out fucking hand-to-hand, knife-to-knife. All right? We are the guys in the fucking trenches hand-to-hand, knife-to-knife.
All right? That's where we are. That's how far down the ladder we were.
All right? We're fucking clipping people and running fucking whores. He takes a long pause and seems to be deep in some old memory.
I just don't want to glorify this, because there's nothing, there's no glory here. I mean, I try to forget these stories, and I've been trying to forget these stories for years and years and years.

You know, my goal wasn't to run whorehouses and fucking kill, you know, people.

You know, I was doing what I had to do to have a normal life and raise a normal family.

Okay, that's all I was doing. I didn't have an education.

I didn't have the opportunity for an education.

I didn't go to college.

I barely got out of fucking high school. You know, I just, survival mode, that's all.
Just really that simple. And I survived.
Look, I don't know much about the mafia. I mean, I guess I know as much as anybody who's seen a movie or TV show about it.
But sitting here with him, listening to him talk,

watching him remember these terrible things,

I feel confused.

I just don't see what you would expect to see

from someone who's had a life like this.

You know, a hardened criminal

with bodies under his belt.

Some kind of monster.

Instead, I see a tired, sad man

genuinely hurt that this was his life.

I have to know,

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

I got recruited into the mob when I was 17 years old.

And completely unbeknownst to me,

it was the last thing on my mind and there's my parents got divorced you know I'm not gonna go into the fucking what was me you know I had a rough childhood bullshit but I got tossed out my parents got divorced I wasn't happy about it I got tossed out of my house at gunpoint by my mother go figure so I mean that'll give me an idea of a kind of family. You know, I grew up with God rest their souls.
Okay. All right.
I love my mother dearly and I love my father dearly who's dead, but you know, they, they just did the best they could with what they had and the culture that they grew up in. Okay.
So I get tossed. 16 years old, I'm living in the backseat of my fucking 68 Camaro for about three or four months.
I need money, all right? I know this fucking clown that's dealing dope, dealing fucking Mexican dirt weed, because back then it was, I don't know, the shit they got now was insane, but it was just straight Mexican dirt weed back then.

And he was, I think he had Placidils and Quaaludes.

So Placidils, Quaalude, Cash, and Mexican fucking dirt weed.

So, and I knew he hung out at the fucking Kmart.

So, you know, I watched him for a while.

I kind of figured out his pattern, you know, and I don't know why he did.

It just made sense to me to just kind of sit back, scope him for a while. so when I hit him, it would be the best time or the best situation, whatever.
Anyway, came up on him and robbed his fucking ass. I had a fucking pencil and came up kind of from the side.
I was, came, just kind of walked on bottom on an angle. I was on the left side.
And came close enough where I didn't seem to be, where it wasn't threatening, but close enough where I could pivot and put the pencil on his back. He had a jacket on, so I used the rubber, you know, the eraser part.
And believe it or not, if you stick that thing in there hard enough, you know, just have somebody do that to you when you're not expecting it.

And, you know, being told that I need your cash and I need your dope and I need it right now.

All right.

And I got a fucking knife stuck in your back.

Reach into your pockets with your left hand and hand me back that shit.

So I get the dope.

I get the money.

Push him forward.

Tell him not to fucking turn around.

And we're on our way.

He goes off in a sprint. I go off, do a round, and come back to my car.
I never really saw him, except for two days later, when I did see him, but I saw him with someone else. And two other guys off in the background.
So these two come up on me. I'm sitting down, and I'm thinking to myself, ah, fuck, here we go.
And I'm completely unprepared, completely. Came up on me, and the bigger guy goes, the older guy goes, is that him? And the kid goes, yeah, that's him.
That's the guy that robbed me, Uncle ***. He ran a fucking crew.
He's a mob dude, all right? You know, we're talking syndicate here. Outfit guy, all right? So he tells me, he goes, are you looking for a job? I go, yeah, I'm looking for a job.
I'm fucking Esa es la forma que me entré en un outfit. Esa es la forma que me entré.
Estaba impresionado. Me siento muy sola.
Me da vergüenza hablar de eso. ¿Cómo ayudaré a mis hijos si no puedo con mi vida? No recuerdo la vida sin estrés.
No recuerdo la vida sin estrés. Cuando tus pensamientos y tus emociones te sobrepasen, pide ayuda.
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Save on family favorites at Safeway.

This week at Safeway, get four to six ounce Yoplait yogurt

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for the member price of just 39 cents each when you buy 10.

Plus get two pound containers of strawberries for the member price of $.97 each also this week at safeway get six to eight ounce lucerne shredded sliced or chunk cheese for a dollar 97 each with digital coupon limit four items visit safeway.com or head in store for more deals. thrown into extraordinary situations.
People suddenly forced to fight for their lives. How the heck did I get here, and how the heck am I going to get out of here? Am I going to be a pile of bones in the Australian outback, or am I going to make it out? I heard the nylon dragging against the ice, so I was going faster and faster.
Zzz, zzz, zzz. And all of a sudden, boom! This is the worst place you can be in a lightning storm.

I didn't know if I'd make it through the night.

If I live until morning, I will live my greatest dreams.

Listen to Real Survival Stories.

Search Real Survival Stories in your podcast app and hit follow for weekly episodes.

A rough childhood.

A tumultuous marriage.

A mother pulling a gun on her own son.

Homelessness.

Desperation.

All leading to one fateful moment. A bad decision that would define a young kid's entire life and the life of his future family.
Yeah, of course I had a family, yeah. I had a wife and I had two children and I wanted to keep them as far away from it as possible.
I wanted them to have every advantage in the world that I didn't have so they had every opportunity to have a good life, you know, raise their own families. I wanted to be a good provider.
I loved my family. I still do, you know, very much.
How much did your family know about your time in the mafia? I mean nobody nobody nobody knew anything. I didn't want anybody to know.
I was kind of embarrassed. My wife, you know, she was purposefully bliss.
You know, money was coming in, and she was secure, and she was raising her kids, and, you know, she had a nice suburban life, you know. So, like all the wives of people that were involved in the outfit,

they were, you know, blind by choice, okay?

How do you keep an entire life of crime away from your friends,

away from your family?

How does your wife not know?

Or your kids?

It seems impossible, but I know it's true.

I know because I was there.

Because Kenny is my father.

And I had no idea about any of this until now. Crook County is a true crime podcast about my father, Kenny the Kid Tequilas, rise through the ranks of one of the most notorious organized crime syndicates in the country, the Chicago Outfit.
We'll explore in great depth my father's life of crime and its profound and lasting impact on my family to this very day. I didn't know he was in the mob until maybe 20 years after you guys were born.

It's crazy to have someone that was so strong in my life

and to be fucking punching him in the face over drugs

because he was destroying our fucking family.

You could see why he could be an enforcer.

A blind rage, out of control, violent person.

You are sitting on a bombshell and you probably didn't realize it. tequila.
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. End credit song is called Crush also by the band Starry Eyes.
Sound mix by Cooper Skinner. Special thanks to my wife Nicole for not leaving me after she found out about all this shit.
And a big thank you to my extended family for sharing their painful memories with me, which no doubt were never meant to see the light of day, not to mention broadcast to the entire world. I hope we can all find some healing through this journey together.
Thank you to Oren Rosenbaum and the excellent team at UTA for their support. And of course, to my fearless attorney, Wendy Benj, who is an absolute badass and a total rock star.
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Outro Music Wounds are cold, slushed and pounded I'll give and turn and all is gone And this day born, there's nothing left but waste

I'll crash, I'll crash and burn Thank you. I'm out.
Dark blue and endless they've won. Thank you for tuning in to Crook County.

New episodes are released weekly, completely free.

But if you're rich and for more, check out Tenderfoot Plus on Apple Podcasts

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Plus, an ad-free experience. Me siento muy sola.
Me da vergüenza hablar de eso. ¿Cómo ayudaré a mis hijos si no puedo con mi vida? No recuerdo la vida sin estrés.
No me olvido de estrés. Cuando tus pensamientos y tus.
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Coming soon to Gilroy. Ever wondered what you would do if you found yourself lost in the wild? In the desert, the jungle, or the mountains? Would you make the right choices to stay alive? Introducing Real Survival Stories, the new podcast from Noisa.
These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations.

People suddenly forced to fight for their lives.

How the heck did I get here, and how the heck am I going to get out of here?

Am I going to be a pile of bones in the Australian outback, or am I going to make it out?

I heard the nylon dragging against the ice, so I was going faster and faster.

Zzz, zzz, zzz.

And all of a sudden, boom!

This is the worst place you can be in a lightning storm.

Thank you. So I was going faster and faster.
Zzz, zzz, zzz. And all of a sudden, boom!

This is the worst place you can be in a lightning storm.

I didn't know if I'd make it through the night.

If I live until morning, I will live my greatest dreams.

Listen to Real Survival Stories.

Search Real Survival Stories in your podcast app and hit follow for weekly episodes.

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