Transcript of 1 | Give Me Your F**kin Money

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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 sun-led cityscapes and joyful smiling faces of young people, families, and tourists, all locked in a state of perpetual 8 millimeter 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. 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: 00 PM 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 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 in a buzzer, announces his name. I said, This is Ken. I'm coming up for the coke. He 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. 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, 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, 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. Show 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... It was pink cocaine. What the hell 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 them, brought them to the living room, started tearing up the carpet inside the living room, wrapped them 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 nine 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. The story is 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 He's 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?

I started having flashbacks about his his legs being broken when he went out to check the mail, and I was like, holy shit. He changed his address to ours. Now these fucking people can find him at our address.

I don't give a shit about Kevin.

He did what he did.

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.

Just when 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. Have you ever looked into the night sky and wondered who or what was flying around up there.

We've seen planes, helicopters, hot air balloons, and birds. But what if there's something else, something much more ominous to it appears under the cover of night, silent, unseen, watching. They may be right above your car late one night as you cruise down the road or look like mysterious lights hovering above your home Drones, or are they? We used the word drone because it was comfortable to other people.

One minute was there and one minute it wasn't. Oh, that is beyond creepy. Do you You feel like this drone was targeting you specifically? Yes, absolutely.

Listen to Obscurum, Invasion of the Drones on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

It was big news. I mean, white girl gets murdered, found in a cemetery. Big, big news.

When a young woman is murdered, a desperate search for answers takes investigators to some unexpected places. He believed it could be part of a Satanic cult.

I think there were many individuals present.

I don't know who pulled the trigger. A long investigation stalls until someone changes their story. I saw the whole thing that happened. An arrest trial and conviction soon follow.

He just saw his body just collapsing.

Two decades later, a new team of lawyers says their client is innocent.

He did not kill her. There's no way.

Is the real killer rightly behind bars or still walking free? Are you capable of murder?

I definitely am not.

Did you kill her? Listen to The Real Killer Season 3 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to the Criminalia podcast. I'm Maria Tremarke.

And I'm Holly Frey. Together, we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true crime.

Each season we explore a new theme, everything from poisoners and pirates to art thefts and snake oil products and those who made and sold them.

We uncover the stories and secrets of some of history's most compelling criminal figures, including a man who built a submarine as a getaway vehicle. Yeah, that's a fact.

We also look at what kinds of societal forces were at play at the time of the crime, from legal injustices to the ethics of body snatching, to see what, if anything, might look different through today's perspective.

And be sure to tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in custom-made cocktails and mock tales inspired by the stories. There's one for every story we tell.

Listen to Criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

To have a murder as gruesome as Jade Beazley doesn't happen very often down here.

In Marion, Illinois, an 11-year-old girl brutally stabbed to death. Her father's longtime live-in girlfriend maintaining innocence but charged with her murder.

I am confident that Julie Beverly is guilty.

This case, the more I learned about it, the more I'm scratching my head, something's not right.

I'm Lauren Bright-Pacheco. Murder on Songbird Road dives into the conviction of a mother of four who remains behind bars and the investigation that put her there.

I have not seen this level of corruption anywhere. It sickening. If you step so many, how many times you have blood splatter, where's the change of clothes? She found out she was pregnant in jail. She wasn't treated like she was an innocent human being at all. Which is just horrific. Nobody has gotten justice yet. I And that's what I wish people would understand.

Listen to murder on Songbird Road on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Episode One. Give me your fucking money.

You're not going to put my voice on that thing, are you?

Yeah.

You're going to tell the story? . 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 run-down way. He reminds me of a down-on-his-luck, Clark Kent, 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. But 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 understand what's going on here.

It goes on like this for a while, but eventually, he starts talking.

This is a story. Well, story, it's not a story. This is my story. Basically, the experiences I've had, most of them not by choice, that just 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 trusted member. We're not going to worry about Kenny. 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 horse on the side, our horse 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 South Side Gang, or simply The Outfit, which rose 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, Nitty, Paul, the Waiter, Rica, Anthony, Big Tuna, Ocardo, and Salvatore, Momo, Giancana. When Kenny was there in the '70s, '80s, and early '90s, the bosses were Joseph, Joey Doves, Euba, Sam, Black Sam Carleasi, and John, No Nos, DiFranzo. 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 we owned the judges, we owned the fucking cops. We own them so we can work freely, all right?

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 on our crew, worked its way up the ladder to the big bosses. 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 trench trenches, fighting it out, fucking hand-to-hand, knife-to-knife. We are the guys in the fucking trenches, hand-to-hand, knife-to-knife. That's where we are. That's how far down the ladder we were. The 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 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. My goal wasn't to run whorehouses and fucking kill people. 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. 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. A hardened criminal with bodies under his belt, some 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. My parents got divorced. I'm not going to go into the fucking woe was me. 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. I mean, that'll give you an idea of a family. I grew up in God rest their souls, okay? All right? I love my mother dearly, and I love my father dearly, who's dead. But they did the best they could with what they had and the culture that they grew up in, okay? So I get tossed out. Sixteen years old, I'm living in the back seat of my fucking '68 Camaro for about three or four months. I need money. 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. I think he had Placidyls and Qualus.

So Placidyls, Qualus, Cash, and Mexican fucking dirt weed. And I knew he hung out at the fucking Kmart. So I watched him for a while. I figured out his pattern, and I don't know why It just made sense to me to just sit back scoping 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 and came up from the side. I walked on an angle. I was on the left side and came close enough 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, the eraser part. Believe it or not, if you stick that thing in there hard enough, just have somebody do that to you when you're not expecting it. Being told that, I need of cash, and 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 I'm 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 Bob. He ran a fucking crew. He's a mob dude, all right? 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 starving here. That's how I got in in a fucking outfit. That's how I got in. He was impressed.

Have you ever looked into the night sky and wondered who or what was flying around up there? We've seen planes, helicopters, hot air, balloons, and birds. But what if there's something else, something much more ominous that appears under the cover of night, silent, unseen, watching? They may be right above your car late one night as you cruise down the road or look like mysterious lights hovering above your home. Drones. Or are they? We used the word drone because it was comfortable to other people.

One minute it was there and one minute it wasn't. Oh, that is beyond creepy. Do you feel like this drone was targeting you specifically? Yes, absolutely.

Listen to Obscurum, Invasion of the Drones, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

It was big news. I mean, white girl gets murdered, found in a cemetery. Big, big news.

When a young woman is murdered, a desperate search for answers takes investigators to some unexpected places. He believed it could be part of a Satanic cult.

I think there were many individuals present. I don't know who pulled the trigger.

A long investigation stalls until while someone changes their story. I saw the whole thing to happen. An arrest, trial, and conviction soon follow.

He just saw his body just collapsing.

Two decades later, a new team of lawyers says their client is innocent.

He did not kill her. There's no way.

Is the real killer rightly behind bars or still walking free? Are you capable of murder?

I definitely am not.

Did you kill her? Listen to the Killer, Season 3 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to the Criminalia podcast. I'm Maria Tremarky.

And I'm Holly Frey. Together, we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true crime.

Each season, we explore a new theme, everything from poisoners and pirates to art thefts and snake oil products and those who made and sold them.

We uncover the stories and secrets of some of history country's most compelling criminal figures, including a man who built a submarine as a getaway vehicle. Yeah, that's a fact.

We also look at what kinds of societal forces were at play at the time of the crime, from legal injustices to the ethics of body snatching to see what, if anything, might look different through today's perspective.

And be sure to tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in custom-made cocktails and mock tales inspired by the stories. There's one for every story we tell.

Listen to Criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

To have a murder as gruesome as Jake Beazley doesn't happen very often down here.

In Marion, Illinois, an 11-year-old girl brutally stabbed to death. Her father's longtime live-in girlfriend maintaining innocence but charged with her murder.

I am confident that Julie Bethley is guilty.

This case, the more I learned about it, the more I'm scratching my head, something's not right.

I'm Lauren Bright-Pacheco. Murder on Songbird Road dives into the conviction of a mother of four who remains behind bars and the investigation that put her there.

I have not seen this level of corruption anywhere. It's sickening. If you step so many, how many times you have blood splatter, where's the change of clothes? She found out she was pregnant in jail. She wasn't treated like she was an innocent human at all, which is just horrific. Nobody has gotten justice yet, and that's what I wish people would understand.

Listen to murder on Songbird Road on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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. 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, raise their own families. I wanted to be a good provider. I loved my family. I still do, very much.

How much did your family know about your time in the Mafia?

Nobody knew anything. I didn't want anybody to know. I was embarrassed. My wife, she was purposely bliss. Money was coming in, and she had She was secure, and she was raising her kids, and she had a nice suburban life. So all the wives of people that were involved in the outfit, they were 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. These are dark days. Crook County is a true crime podcast about my father, Kenny the Kid Tequila's, 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 It was 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. I'm blind, rage, out of control, violent person. You are sitting on a bombshell, and you probably didn't realize this.

Crook County is a production of iHeart podcasts and Tenderfoot TV in association with Common enemy. All episodes are produced, written, and hosted by me, Kyle Tequila. Executive producers are Donald Dalbright 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 Rush, 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 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. To stay updated on all things Crook County, follow us on all socials at crookcountypodcast, or leave us a voicemail by visiting crookcountypodcast. Com. For more podcasts like Crook County, search Tenderfoot TV on your favorite podcast app or visit tenderfoot.

Tv. Episode 2 is available now. Subscribe to tenderfoot plus at tenderfootplus. Com to binge the entire season.

Waste your crash, crushed and bound, nothing left like this home. Waste your crash, crushed and bound, up here, and done, and all is gone, and this day, boy, there's nothing left but waste or crashed, I'm crushed and bound. 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 itching for more, check out Tenderfoot Plus on Apple Podcasts, or visit tenderfootplus. Com to subscribe for early access to the full series. Us an ad-free experience.

What would you do if mysterious drones appeared over your hometown? I started asking questions. What do you remember happening on that night of December 16th?

It actually rotated around our house, looking as if it was peering in each window of our home.

I'm Gabe Lenners from Imagine, iHeartPodcasts, and Lenners Entertainment. Listen to Obscura, Invasion of the Drones, wherever you get your favorite podcast.

Welcome to the Criminalia podcast. I'm Maria Tremarke.

And I'm Holly Frey. Together, we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true crime.

Each season, we explore a new theme, from poisoners to art themes.

We uncover the secrets of history's most interesting figures, from legal injustices to body snatching.

And tune in the end of each episode as we indulge in cocktails and mock tales inspired by each story.

Listen to Criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

It was big news. I mean, White Girl gets murdered, found in a cemetery. Big, big news.

A long investigation stalls until someone changes their story. I saw the whole thing that happened. An arrest, trial, and conviction soon follow.

He did not kill her. There's no way.

Is the real killer rightly behind bars or still walking free? Did you kill her? Listen to The Real Killer Season 3 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

To have a murder as gruesome as Jade easilys. It doesn't happen very often down here.

In Marion, Illinois, an 11-year-old girl brutally stabbed to death. Her father's longtime live-in girlfriend maintaining innocence but charged with her murder.

I am confident that Julie Bethley is guilty.

They've never found a weapon. Never made sense. Still doesn't make sense. She found out she was pregnant in jail. The person who did it is still out there.

Listen to murder on Songbird Road on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.