Transcript of 2 | The Ties That Bind Us

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 appearing in each window of our home.

I'm Gabe Leonard's. From Imagine, iHeart Podcasts, and Lenners Entertainment. Listen to Obscure 'Em, Invasion of the Drones, wherever you get your favorite podcast.

Why would you do that to me? Los Angeles, 2021. A friendly neighbor appears out of nowhere and promises to make all my dreams come true. Let's not forget that David Bloom was a professional con artist, so you didn't stand a chance. But my dreams soon turned into a nightmare. I'm Caroline DeMore. Listen as I take down my scammer on Once Upon a Con on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Criminalia podcast. I'm Maria Trimarkey. 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 at 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 Season 3 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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. For more information, check out the show notes. Enjoy the episode.

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

This episode also contains subject matter, including graphic depictions of violence, which may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. Previously on Crook County. I got recruited into the mob when I was 17 years old. Meet Kenny, the Kid Tequila. I became a trusted member. I ran whorehouses and I did hits. An enforcer for the Chicago outfit. I wanted him to know I meant making business here, so I beat him, put the gun back up to his forehead, and three of my boys come in. He lived a secret double life for over 20 years. I had a wife, and I had two children.

Nobody knew anything.

I didn't want anybody to know. I was embarrassed jurors, and I wanted to keep them as far away from it as possible. I wanted them to have a good life. How do you keep an entire life of crime away from your friends, away from your family? 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. My name is Kyle Tequila. Welcome to Crook County. Lost by the way, I'm tired. I'd see 'cause I'm living a lie. Lost in the ways.

Lost in the I didn't know he was in the mob until maybe 20 years after you guys were born.

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

You cannot control this.

It is the devil. It lays in wait for you, and it will take you out at your weakest moments. Episode 2, The Ties That Bind Family. 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. It's the very foundation upon which you are built. To some people, family means everything. 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. 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. It meant breaking the chain of an abusive childhood and starting over to create something new, something pure, something good. 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. It took away the anxieties of running away from home with no money and filled that emptyness with purpose, even if that purpose was criminal, even if it meant doing things you never imagined possible, never in a million years.

And once you do them, it's already too late. You're a prisoner to that family forever. 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? That was my goal. I don't want anybody to know. I was embarrassed. I wanted to keep them as far away from it as possible. I wanted them to have a good life, raise their own families. 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. 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. 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. My younger brother, Cory 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.

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. Running around the neighborhood like animals, laughing, building forts, playing tag, walking for miles along the railroad tracks like the kids in stand by me, minus the dead body, sleepovers, paintball battles, baseball games, travel hockey, girlfriends, making out in the basement, breakups, new friends, movie nights, punk shows. It was a good life, as good as any kid could ask for.

My kids grew up happy.

That's my mom, Holly.

I worked part-time. Ken worked as a fire provider paramedic and would have a second job just to make ends meet. But it was my perfect little life. I had a husband. I had two beautiful sons. We finally had a beautiful home and a nice neighborhood neighborhood. We eventually made good friends with our neighbors, and our kids made good friends with all the kids in the neighborhood. It was my dream coming true.

We were lucky. At least, that's how it felt back then. But today, things couldn't be any more different, and we couldn't be any further apart. As soon as we could, my brother and I moved away from home, me to the West Coast and my brother to the East. 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.

I don't know why I deserve this.

My life ended We'd like to welcome everyone here to Chicago.

I'm with the Paris.

Now, for your continued safety and the safety of all them folks you're going to fall on, please remain to see with them seat belt staff and then seat back at the train tables. 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. I don't think she's looking forward to it either. Hey.

Hey. How are you, Mom?

How are you?

Hey, how are you?

You look good. Thank you. You look very cuddly. I am. It's a good outfit. You are cuddly. That's true. Cool. Where's that? He's not allowed in here. Oh, my God.

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

Okay, I'll just hang out. Unfortunately, Unfortunately. I'll go back to Dunkin' Donuts. I'm just choosing. She lives in a small house with her friend Cathy. It's old and dated. The architecture, the furniture, like it was pulled straight from a 1970s Sears catalog. The last time you saw him was-The one and only time, other than when he was little, was at your mom's 90th.

Yeah. All right. When she said, She's who introduced me to your father. That's right. And the two of you went, Thanks a lot. And that's when I said, You should be kissing my ask because if there were not a me, there would not be a you. This is very true. I hold no resentment towards you at all.

Thank you very much. Well, please. Absolutely, no problem.

Absolutely. No problem.

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

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

She pulls out a small box from under her bed.

Oh, my God. This is one of my favorites. I watched, because I didn't have TV for a long time in some of my apartments, so I would watch VHS videotapes of our family. I love this one, and I love this one. I love this one. I love them all, but this is my favorite. It's like the beginning of our normal life.

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

What is he Look around. Kite. Kite.

Look around, quarter stuff. Here, Cory, that's yours. It's Easter morning, 1989. My four-year-old self is joyfully running around the house finding candy-filled eggs and baskets while my brother Cory two years old at this time, is trying to keep up. You find a kite. Wow. My dad is behind the camera narrating. Ladies and gentlemen, here is my son, Kyle.

I want you boys to stand back and my wonderful family, stand back.

Let me look at your faces. My beautiful wife, Oh, yeah. My two beautiful boys.

And look at, see all that candy and stuff there?

That's her first load. We got part two coming up. I want you to think about this. Why did she keep yours in mind? You know what I got for Easter? My whole life was one basket with socks and underwear in it. That's all I ever got.

Stop using that. Look at my kids.

Happy Easter, you guys. The image jumps to later in the day. Easter Sunday, all right, the tequila residence. 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.

Here's Ken. Oh, you're out of your Easter outfit. Where's your Easter body, Ken?

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. I don't have an Easter body.

Ken's never in the picture because his eye has taken it. That's right. So now I'm in the picture. My best side.

He's posing showing off his muscles and brimming with that unique blend of sarcasm, confidence, and charm that endeared him to everyone around him. My niece is jealous. I wish you had a man like me, right? Oh, God. She's 35 years old here, my age now. 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. Thanks for joining me on Crook County. For ad-free listening and exclusive content, dive into tenderfootplus. Com right there in the show notes. Tenderfoot Plus is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and other podcast players. 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 now at tenderfootplus. Com. 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 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 feel like this drone was targeting you specifically?

Yes, absolutely.

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

Why would you do that to me when I thought we were friends?

We are friends.

Los Angeles, 2021. A friendly neighbor appears out of nowhere and promises to make all my dreams come true. Let's not forget that David Bloom was a professional con artist, so you didn't stand a chance. But my dreams soon turned into a nightmare.

Bloom generally targeted people with money.

And I was not alone.

He took over 100 people for over $15 million. One of the victims was his own grandmother.

I was married to David for almost 10 years. It was insane. I was barely functioning, and I just had this realization that he will not stop until he kills me. Getting a con artist to pay for their crimes isn't easy. Charge David Blue. I'm Caroline DeMore. Listen as I take down my scammer on Once Upon a Con on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Criminalia podcast. I'm Maria Tremarky. 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 discover 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. Be sure to tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in custom-made cocktails and mock tales, in 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.

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 what 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 Real Killer Season 3 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

You guys were little. Cori was like two. You were four going on five. Well, our neighbor was a single female who had moved into the neighborhood with this big dog. In anakeita. Huge, probably 100-pound dog, at least. And she had the dog for protection. She also had a cat. And one day, you and me and Cori were out in the front yard just hanging out and her cat was up in our tree. So you went next door and knocked on the door. And it was summertime and she just had a screen door. 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 100-pound dog on top of you, tearing you to shreds. I was in the front yard with you and I made this hurtling scream. Thank God, Ken was home that day because he was usually on 24 or off 48.

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. You're bleeding everywhere, and I'm trying to pull you out of the dog's mouth where 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 I get off, and he takes the dog, and he opens up the dog's mouth 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. It was scary. I thought I was going to lose you. And I just say, Thank God, because if Ken wasn't there, you wouldn't be here.

After several months of intensive recovery, the scare had passed and I was becoming my old self again. So we packed up our belongings and moved to the house I would forever consider my childhood home. In a small, newly destructed suburb west of Chicago, the very definition of cookie cutter. My mom puts in another tape. It's from the day we moved in. My dad is behind the camera again while a few of his buddies from in the fire department are carrying in furniture and goof off.

Be nice if you help instead of taking pictures. I'm not going to take pictures. The beer is warm. The beer is not warm. The beer is warm. Take pictures. Take pictures. Anything you don't bother us.

The neighborhood was so new that none of the landscaping had been planted yet, so the entire yard was mud. Look at his yard. There's a lot of people out here admiring their mud. Our house, a little blue island in a sea of brown sludge. How about That's something?

Hey, Kyle. Stay in the dirt, you guys.

Growing up was great. We had a great childhood.

At my brother, Cory.

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, rubber gloves. That was the coolest thing to wear, shit like and somebody would go on the mic, and it would be an intercom throughout the whole building. It would be like, attention. 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 fart throughout the whole building, and everybody would crack up. It was just fun.

She pops in another tape.

It's my fifth birthday party.

There's about 20 people at some restaurant. I remember this. The kids got to make our own pizzas.

There's the pizza he made all by himself. Do I need to roll up your sleeves or what? Yeah, roll up your sleeves because the tomato sauce is going to get out.

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

Mama, try a pizza. I will. It looks so good.

Here, here. What did you put on? And then, coming home to his happy little family and lying about everything. Mama.

No way. When we can have cake? Well, enter your paper. One step at a time.

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. Hold on.

Where's your camera?

Where's your camera? It's right here. I'll relax, will I have it in motion. Forever in motion, all right? No more stills, baby. This is the '90s. And my poor mother, going to bed every night next to a man she doesn't even know, a man who has blood on his hands, the same hands that would comb through my hair the next morning before going off to work to possibly have them bloodied again. What do you say, hon? We never suspected a thing. We had no reason to. But now, looking back, knowing what I know, there were, in fact, signs of a darker side. Cracks in his veneer.

I remember being eight or nine, my dad picking me up from somewhere. I'm walking out and I see dad just nonchalantly hanging out in his Ford Explorer, yelling at a guy. It looked like there was a confrontation going on, but he was super calm, super chill. As I'm walking closer and closer to the car, I see this big bald man screaming through the window. Well, Ken, my dad, just sitting there. And all of a sudden, he fucking just headbutts this guy, knocks the guy fucking flat out. I don't even think I brought it up to him because I think I was just so stunned. Like, what the hell just happened? You know? Just a typical Sunday morning. Dad fucking knocking some guy out through a window in a car with his head.

And then he just drove away.

And just like, nothing fucking happened.

I've seen dad twice The first time, I was really young, but I do remember him in a fit of road rage, pulling a guy out of his car. We're behind the car because he was in front of us, pulling the guy his driver's side door, dragging him to the back. So now I have a perfect view of the crime and just pounding a guy and then leaving him just basically knocked out or half aware, and then getting back in the car and then doing a little swerve drive around and then continuing on with the day. That was the first time I remember seeing that. I was so young, it almost felt like a dream. But then I think it was seventh grade, and I remember in one of my English or something, we were doing a project. You know, you have to create a scene, like a shoe box scene. You know what I mean? I remember it was sitting in my lap because I was up all the night working on it. We're driving to school and some guy cuts Ken off. He chases this dude past the school. We go on a chase.

I'm screaming a hunt. 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 what do you do? You can't. There's nothing to say. There's nothing. There's nothing to do. You just walk like a zombie through the rest of the day going, Is that a real thing that just happened? What just happened? When things are going well, it's hard to believe they could ever go wrong. 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. Besides, he was never violent with any of us. 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.

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, Ken needs to go to rehab. And I said, What? What are you talking about? And he says, Ken is addicted to heroin. And I was floored. I mean, I just couldn't believe it. And I was so much in denial. So that night, I took Ken to rehab, and they admitted him right away. Ken went back and forth to rehab, but the heroine took over, and he just kept doing it. I kept finding perfunelia in the house, and his arms I would find my bones are always bruised, and I would find blood splats on the ceiling. He was so bad where he was going crazy. He would scream at me. He would come at me. He looked like he was possessed. He'd be rolling on the floor, screaming. 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, and I didn't take it. I would push him back.

When I pushed him back, I would either get hit or pushed against the wall or something. I had to sleep in my car, or I would I was going to 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. He alienated his friends. He alienated his job. It destroyed our life. It destroyed our marriage. It destroyed my kids. It destroyed friendships. It destroyed everything. It really destroyed everything.

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 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.

Why would you do that to me when I thought we were friends?

We are friends.

Los Angeles, 2021. A friendly neighbor appears out of nowhere and promises to make all my dreams come true. Let's not forget that David was a professional con artist, so you didn't stand a chance. But my dreams soon turned into a nightmare.

Bloom generally targeted people with money.

And I was not alone.

He took over 100 people for over $15 million. One of the victims was his own grandmother.

I was married to David for almost 10 years. It was insane. I was barely functioning, and I just had this realization that he will not stop until he kills me. Getting a con artist to pay for their crimes isn't easy. Charge David Lo. I'm Caroline DeMoy. Listen as I take down my scammer on Once Upon a Con on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Criminalia podcast. I'm Maria Tremarkey. 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 to 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.

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 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. During those 10 years of addiction, I had already left home and started my in Atlanta, where I met my wife, Nicole. We got married in 2009, and my wedding was the last time that the four of us were together in the same room. 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. 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, then I stepped away from them. I had never felt this emotional pain before, and I didn't know how to deal with it, so I ignored it, and I hoped it would get better. I focused all my energy on building a new family with Nicole. My brother, however, wasn't so lucky. He was still living at home, watching everything he knew crumble around him.

Unfortunately for me, I was there when all this went down. I first noticed that dad was on drugs when I was 16 I was 10 years old, I rummaged through dad's personal shit in his car to find a couple of bucks. When I opened the globe box, I saw a large freezer bag. And of course, being 16, I looked into it and seeing what the fuck it was. Smoking pot. I figured it would be like some pot or something. Take a dug out, not tall. But that wasn't the case. When I opened the bag, it was a bunch of little tinfoil squares that I had no idea what the fuck it was. But then I saw a syringe 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 no dummy, but I'm thinking to myself, what the fuck's going on here? He's shooting heroin? He's cooking fucking heroin on our fucking goddamn soups bones? I was so confused. Confused. And so I just didn't know what was going on. There's 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 save up some money so I could get back out. I just needed my family for a minute. You know what I mean? But I see him on the couch watching the fucking History channel, of course. Always watching the History channel. War, war, war. He's eating me fucking Yoplay yoga or some shit. I don't know. And what really got me is that he was really zonked out. But 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. 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. That started which would be the most intense fight I've ever had with my father. He stood up. I pushed him. He fell back down on the couch. He got back up and he fucking clocked me. I got hazy and dizzy. But me, I'm a fucking savage. I attack 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 in the kitchen where 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 the refrigerator. And I don't know how the fight stopped. I just remember it was surreal. My dad and I are actually fist-fighting each other right now. Black eyes, fucking blood cuts. It's crazy to have someone that was so strong in my life and just such a man, a father figure. I looked up to him. He was everything to me. So we fucking punched him in the face over drugs because he was destroying our fucking family. It was a fucking horrible man.

Did you ever recover from all that? Do you still carry it with you?

I carry it every fucking day. Absolutely. I I feel like that's how I become so emotional. Just commercials, fucking movies, anything that has to do with a father and a son. It fucking destroys me. It's so hard. I do mask it very well, and I try to forget all the time about everything, but it will never go away. It fucked me up. Absolutely. He fucked me up.

Do you want to see him again?

I don't know. I mean, I love him. That's what's so fucked up. I do. You can't take back my childhood which was awesome. In my eyes, it was perfect. But now I don't know if I can be the bigger man and I don't know. Even talk. I don't know. Honestly, I just... I don't even know my reaction or my feelings that would come to me if I saw him again. I don't know.

Eventually, Cory got out and moved to Florida, where he started a new career, worked hard, and did well. 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 to move on. But mom was still there, living in this hell until my dad either got cleaned or died trying. And then, in 2013, I got a disturbing phone call. 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. I immediately booked him a flight for the following morning and found a rehab facility that would admit him.

I remember getting ready the next morning because I'm driving him to the airport and he's still screaming at me. The song from Bohemian Rapsody And he comes on. Mama, just killed a man.

Mama, just killed a man.

And he goes, Perfect song. Put a gun against his head. Puts his finger to my head like it's a gun. And he goes, You know what, Holly? I've killed many men. I could kill you, too. That was pretty much the last time I saw him.

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 throwing up. I drove him straight to rehab and dropped him off. On my way home, I pulled the car over and I cried for the first time in a very long time.

I'm still trying to understand to this day why this happened, why he forfeited a great life and relationship with his children. I mean, my God, I don't care about me, but how can you not have a relationship with your kids and a grandson? I mean, my God, that's what life is about. At least in my world, that's what life is about.

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, When you're old enough, I'll tell you everything. No more secrets, no more lies. It's time I learn the truth. Next week on Crook County. Listen, there are girls in and out of there for years and years and years and years and years get out quick and wait for the next guy. These girls were pure business, and they made a ton of money. 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. 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. End credit song is called No Show, also by the band Starry Eyes. Sound mix by Cooper Skinner. Thank you to Oren Rosenbaum and the excellent team at UTA for their support, and to my fearless attorney, Wendy Bench, for her guidance. To stay updated on all things Crook County, follow us on all socials at crookcountypodcast.

Com. 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. Thanks for listening. The story continues next week. I'm an arsonist. I'm a messenger.

I'm setting fire.

I will watch you joke.

I will watch you jump. I will watch you jump. I

will watch you jump.

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. Plus, 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.

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