February 11, 2025 • 24 mins
Meet Kenny “The Kid”, a Chicago mafia soldier and hitman for nearly 25 years. After hearing a brutal firsthand account of a mafia hit, we learn how and why Kenny was recruited as 17 year old kid, explore the history of the legendary Chicago Outfit, and reveal a devastating truth that reverberates to this very day.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
If you're listening to a tenor foot TV.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Podcast, Girls 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.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
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.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Chicago, Chicago.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Exciting. This is a nineteen seventies era Board of Tourism
advertisement for the city of Chicago. Fine. It's overflowing with
sunlit city scapes and joyful, smiling faces of young people,
families and tourists, all locked in a state of perpetual
eight millimeter textured happiness and wonder of this city of
(01:24):
broad shoulders, this great city by the lake. Look north
now that glittering shopper is Paradise, proudly dubbed the Magnificent Mile.
It really does look like a wonderful place to live.
A place with endless possibilities, or anybody, no matter who
you are or where you came from, can get a
fair shot at the brass ring.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Shot.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
There is something you've just got to see for yourself.
But only a few miles from the bright lights of
Michigan Avenue, there's a different stretch of road, the dark
corner of the windy City you won't see in any
board of tourism commercial. It's a place where the cops
(02:08):
are just as crooked as the criminals, where drugs and
prostitution run rampant, and where a young mafia hit man
they call that kid, is parked outside of a dark,
dilapidated apartment building, waiting for just the right moment to
make his next move.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
It's about nine 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 songs that I
always play before I do something sketchy like this, and
that's sympthy for the double deesus.
Speaker 5 (02:42):
Needs introduce myself.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
I'm a mad It.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
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,
(03:10):
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,
(03:39):
walk up to the apartment complex, ring the buzzer. This
asshole comes to the buzzer, announces his name. I said,
this is Ken. I'm coming up for the coke. It says, fine,
come on up. Buzzer hits. I walk up the stairs.
(04:00):
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 pulled my arm out with my
twenty two and I put it right in his forehead.
Back it up, I tell him. He backs it up.
His eyes were as big as saucers. I want to
(04:23):
say his name, dude, but I can't. Will you? Will
you added his name out of here? Skick back it
up to the bathroom. He didn't move fast enough, and
I wanted him to know I meant the fucking business here.
So I beat him. I had him twice right cheek,
left cheek, backed off, put the gun back up to
his forehead, backed him up into the bathroom. Got to
(04:44):
the bathroom. Get on your knees. He would have gotten
his these 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 them right behind the base of
the toilet. There he sat. I can't remember exactly what
(05:12):
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 head,
(05:34):
it was just my setup. It wasn't my head. 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? Can ransacked his bedroom,
found the dope, got about three or four honces of
(05:56):
what was called at the time, it was pink cocaine.
What the hell they call it back then, Peruvian, So
I don't know. Anyway, it was coke, all right, because
that's what everybody was doing back then. Uncomfortable brought him
to the living room, started tearing up the carpet inside
the living room, wrapped them up in there, and left
them until tomorrow. What normally happens is or what was
(06:19):
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 a 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
(06:40):
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.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Holy shit, I'm your host, Kyle Tequila. Welcome to Crook County.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Yeah, Crook County.
Speaker 6 (07:11):
Yeah, there's no doubt about that.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
It's a den of thieves.
Speaker 6 (07:14):
Dead was a fucking crazy bastard.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
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
thirty seven years.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
It takes one guy.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Out there who's in his late to say, who's that fucking.
Speaker 6 (07:37):
Asshole Kyle who thinks he can just get on.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
A goddamn microphone on a podcast and start publicizing this shit?
Speaker 4 (07:43):
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 hours
now these fucking people. Can I find him at our address?
Speaker 2 (07:56):
I'll give a shit about kat He did what he did,
and if he's got to pay, he's got to pay.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
It destroyed our life, It destroyed our prriage, It destroyed
my kids, It really destroyed everything. Just why I think
I'm getting out of his ship, I'm right fucking back
in it. It's a double It's following me wherever the
fuck I go. I can't shake this down of a bitch.
He won't leave me alone.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Episode one, Give me your fucking money.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
I'm not gonna put my voice on nothing, are you. Yeah,
you're guess I'm gonna tell the story. Uh huh.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
All right, I'm interviewing Kenny the Kid for the first time.
He's a big man in his mid sixties, 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
(09:12):
reminds me of a down on his luck Clark Kent,
you know, Superman, but fat oh.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Man, I'm not good at this. Man.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Just whenever you feel like it, just start talking.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
But what am I? Okay?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
He's not used to having a microphone in his face
and seems to be having a little trouble getting comfortable
with me.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
I know, I'm very confused on this, Kyle, and I'm
just gonna talk. Okay, I'm just gonna talk. I really don't,
it's just it's I really kind of don't understand what.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
It goes on like this for a while, but eventually
he starts talking.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
This is a story, well story, it's not not a story.
It's it's this is this is my story basically the
experiences I've had, most of them not by choice, that
just ended up like I never thought I what ended.
(10:08):
I'm surprised I'm sitting here, you know, I I technically
I shouldn't be sitting here. You know, 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 you know, I want.
I didn't want. I didn't do the things that the
(10:29):
other people did, trying to move up in the outfit,
you know, trying to get their own crews, trying to
make more money. I did fly under the raidar and
I really didn't want to know what the hell was
going on where I became 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
(10:49):
he's working. He's not running hors on the side, our horizon,
the side. He does what he's supposed to do when
he goes home.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Kenny spent over twenty years working deep inside the legendary
Chicago Mafia, also known as the South Side Gang or
simply the Outfit, which rose to power in the nineteen
twenties during Prohibition under Torio 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 one hundred years,
(11:21):
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,
(11:41):
Paul the Waiter, Rika Anthony Big Tuna Accardo, and Salvator
Momo Giancano. When Kenny was there in the seventies, eighties
and early nineties, the bosses were Joseph Joey doves A Uga,
Sam Black, Sam Carlisi and John No Nos Defranso. It
was a period of great prosperity and they were stronger
(12:05):
than ever.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Cook County in the Chicago area. Okay, Chicago is actually
in Cook County, and we worked in the unincorporated areas
because the unincorporated areas are you know, we owned you know,
we owned the judges. We owned the fucking cops. You know,
we owned them, you know, so we can work freely,
all right?
Speaker 3 (12:27):
And what did you do?
Speaker 1 (12:28):
I was a low level I ran whorehouses and I
did them and I did hits. You know. It was
just a low level guy and my crew. You know,
the money that we made in our crew worked its
way up the ladder to the big bosses. You know,
you're in the fucking trenches, man, This is low level,
in the streets, in the dirt, in your face, the backbone,
(12:51):
and 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
were in the fucking trenches fighting it out, fucking hand
to hand to knife, all right. We are the guys
in the fucking trenches, hand to hand, knife to knife,
(13:14):
all right. That's where we are. That's how down, that's
how far down the ladder we were, all right, fucking
clipping people and running fucking whoes.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
He takes a long pause and seems to be deep
in some old memory.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
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 hornhouses and fucking kill you know people.
You know, I was doing what I had to do
(13:52):
to have a normal life and raise a normal family. Okay,
that's all I was doing. I was I didn't have education,
I didn't have the opportunity for an education. I didn't
go to college. I barely got out of fucking high school.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
You know.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
I just survival mode. That's all, just really as simple,
and I survived.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
Look.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
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,
(14:37):
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?
Speaker 1 (14:54):
I got recruited into the mob when I was seventeen
years old, and completely unbeknownst to me, I was the
last thing on my mind. And there's my parents got divorced.
You know, I'm not going to go into the fucking wall.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
Was me?
Speaker 1 (15:10):
You know, I had a rough childhood bullshit, but I
got tossed out of 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 you an idea of a kind of family.
You know, I grew up. God rest their souls. Okay,
all right. I love my mother dearly, and I love
(15:31):
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 out sixteen years old. I'm living in
a backseat of my fucking sixty eight Camaro for about
three or four months. I need money, all right. I
(15:52):
know this fucking clown, it's dealing dope, dealing fucking Mexican
dirt weed. Because back then it was I don't know,
the shit they got now is insane, but it was
just straight Mexican dirt weed back then, and he was
I think you think he had placidos and Quailu's so
placid was Quailu cash and Mexican fucking dirt. Weeat so
and I knew we hung out at the fucking kmart,
(16:14):
So you know, I watched him for a while. I
kind of figured out his pattern, you know, And I
don't know why 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 what anyway, came up
on him and rob this fucking ass. I had a
fucking pencil and came up kind of from the side
(16:38):
I was came because kind of walked on bottom on
on an angles. 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 in his back. He had a
jacket out, so I used the rubber you know, you know,
the eraser part, and believe it or not, if you
stick that thing in there hard enough, you know, just
(17:00):
you know, have somebody to do that to you when
you're not expecting it, and you know, being told that
I need your cash and I need you dope, and
I need it right now, all right, And I got
a fucking nice 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
(17:20):
we're on our way. He goes off in a sprint.
I go off, do a round and come back to
my car. 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.
(17:43):
So these two come up on me. I'm sitting down
and I'm going I'm thinking to myself, ah fuck, here
we go here, 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.
(18:04):
That's the guy that robbed me. Uncle. He marde a
fucking crew. He's a mob dude, all right, you know
we're talking send to get her. Alphad guy all right,
So he tells me, He goes, are you looking for
a job? Oh, yeah, I'm looking for a job. I'm
just fucking starving her. That's how I got into a
(18:24):
fucking outfit. That's what I got. He was impressed.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
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.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Yeah, of course you 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.
(19:33):
I still do you know very much.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
How much did your family know about your time in
the mafia.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
I mean, nobody, nobody knew anything. I didn't want anybody
to know I was I was kind of embarrassed. My wife,
you know, she was purposely bliss you know, money was
coming in and she had you know, she was secure
and she was raised her kids, and you know we
had a nice suburban life. You know, so like all
(20:03):
the wives of people that were involved in the outfit
or you know, blind by choice.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
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,
(20:33):
because Kenny is my father, and I had no idea
about any of this until now.
Speaker 5 (20:52):
He's a dark days last him and I'm lost in.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Away 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 crimes in and it gets
in the country, the Chicago Outfit. We'll exploring great depth
my father's life of crime and it's profound and lasting
impact on my family to this very day.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
I don't know he was in the mob until maybe
twenty years after you guys were born.
Speaker 6 (21:23):
It's crazy to have someone that was so strong in
my life and so be fucking bad, dream in the
face over drugs because he was destroying our fucking family.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
You could see why he could be an enforcer.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
I'm blind, rage, out of control, violent person.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
You were sitting on a bombshell and you probably didn't
realize it.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
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 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
(22:10):
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 we're never meant
to see the light of day, not to mention broadcast
the entire world. I hope we can all find some
healing through this journey together. Thank you to Orrin Rosenbaum
(22:31):
and the excellent team at UTA for their support, and
of course to my fearless attorney, Wendy Bench, who's an
absolute badass and a total rockstar. 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 dot com. For more podcasts like Crook County, search
(22:52):
Tenderfoot TV on your favorite podcast app, or visit tenderfoot
dot tv. Episode two is available now. Subscribe to Tenderfoot
Plus at tenderfootplus dot com to binge the entire season.
Speaker 7 (23:07):
Time I inst but so tall, sustayes so cold, it's
nustand don't do thet that no tests, don't trust.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
Not trusted, Doc Blue and endless dafe one.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Thank you for tuning in too, Crook County. New episodes
are released weekly completely free, but if you're riching for more,
check out Tenderfoot plus on Apple Podcasts or visit tenderfoot
plus dot com to subscribe for early access to the
full series, plus an ad free experience
If you're listening to a tenor foot TV.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Podcast, Girls 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.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
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.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Chicago, Chicago.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Exciting. This is a nineteen seventies era Board of Tourism
advertisement for the city of Chicago. Fine. It's overflowing with
sunlit city scapes and joyful, smiling faces of young people,
families and tourists, all locked in a state of perpetual
eight millimeter textured happiness and wonder of this city of
(01:24):
broad shoulders, this great city by the lake. Look north
now that glittering shopper is Paradise, proudly dubbed the Magnificent Mile.
It really does look like a wonderful place to live.
A place with endless possibilities, or anybody, no matter who
you are or where you came from, can get a
fair shot at the brass ring.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Shot.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
There is something you've just got to see for yourself.
But only a few miles from the bright lights of
Michigan Avenue, there's a different stretch of road, the dark
corner of the windy City you won't see in any
board of tourism commercial. It's a place where the cops
(02:08):
are just as crooked as the criminals, where drugs and
prostitution run rampant, and where a young mafia hit man
they call that kid, is parked outside of a dark,
dilapidated apartment building, waiting for just the right moment to
make his next move.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
It's about nine 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 songs that I
always play before I do something sketchy like this, and
that's sympthy for the double deesus.
Speaker 5 (02:42):
Needs introduce myself.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
I'm a mad It.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
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,
(03:10):
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,
(03:39):
walk up to the apartment complex, ring the buzzer. This
asshole comes to the buzzer, announces his name. I said,
this is Ken. I'm coming up for the coke. It says, fine,
come on up. Buzzer hits. I walk up the stairs.
(04:00):
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 pulled my arm out with my
twenty two and I put it right in his forehead.
Back it up, I tell him. He backs it up.
His eyes were as big as saucers. I want to
(04:23):
say his name, dude, but I can't. Will you? Will
you added his name out of here? Skick back it
up to the bathroom. He didn't move fast enough, and
I wanted him to know I meant the fucking business here.
So I beat him. I had him twice right cheek,
left cheek, backed off, put the gun back up to
his forehead, backed him up into the bathroom. Got to
(04:44):
the bathroom. Get on your knees. He would have gotten
his these 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 them right behind the base of
the toilet. There he sat. I can't remember exactly what
(05:12):
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 head,
(05:34):
it was just my setup. It wasn't my head. 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? Can ransacked his bedroom,
found the dope, got about three or four honces of
(05:56):
what was called at the time, it was pink cocaine.
What the hell they call it back then, Peruvian, So
I don't know. Anyway, it was coke, all right, because
that's what everybody was doing back then. Uncomfortable brought him
to the living room, started tearing up the carpet inside
the living room, wrapped them up in there, and left
them until tomorrow. What normally happens is or what was
(06:19):
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 a 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
(06:40):
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.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Holy shit, I'm your host, Kyle Tequila. Welcome to Crook County.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Yeah, Crook County.
Speaker 6 (07:11):
Yeah, there's no doubt about that.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
It's a den of thieves.
Speaker 6 (07:14):
Dead was a fucking crazy bastard.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
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
thirty seven years.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
It takes one guy.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Out there who's in his late to say, who's that fucking.
Speaker 6 (07:37):
Asshole Kyle who thinks he can just get on.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
A goddamn microphone on a podcast and start publicizing this shit?
Speaker 4 (07:43):
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 hours
now these fucking people. Can I find him at our address?
Speaker 2 (07:56):
I'll give a shit about kat He did what he did,
and if he's got to pay, he's got to pay.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
It destroyed our life, It destroyed our prriage, It destroyed
my kids, It really destroyed everything. Just why I think
I'm getting out of his ship, I'm right fucking back
in it. It's a double It's following me wherever the
fuck I go. I can't shake this down of a bitch.
He won't leave me alone.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Episode one, Give me your fucking money.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
I'm not gonna put my voice on nothing, are you. Yeah,
you're guess I'm gonna tell the story. Uh huh.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
All right, I'm interviewing Kenny the Kid for the first time.
He's a big man in his mid sixties, 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
(09:12):
reminds me of a down on his luck Clark Kent,
you know, Superman, but fat oh.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Man, I'm not good at this. Man.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Just whenever you feel like it, just start talking.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
But what am I? Okay?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
He's not used to having a microphone in his face
and seems to be having a little trouble getting comfortable
with me.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
I know, I'm very confused on this, Kyle, and I'm
just gonna talk. Okay, I'm just gonna talk. I really don't,
it's just it's I really kind of don't understand what.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
It goes on like this for a while, but eventually
he starts talking.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
This is a story, well story, it's not not a story.
It's it's this is this is my story basically the
experiences I've had, most of them not by choice, that
just ended up like I never thought I what ended.
(10:08):
I'm surprised I'm sitting here, you know, I I technically
I shouldn't be sitting here. You know, 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 you know, I want.
I didn't want. I didn't do the things that the
(10:29):
other people did, trying to move up in the outfit,
you know, trying to get their own crews, trying to
make more money. I did fly under the raidar and
I really didn't want to know what the hell was
going on where I became 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
(10:49):
he's working. He's not running hors on the side, our horizon,
the side. He does what he's supposed to do when
he goes home.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Kenny spent over twenty years working deep inside the legendary
Chicago Mafia, also known as the South Side Gang or
simply the Outfit, which rose to power in the nineteen
twenties during Prohibition under Torio 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 one hundred years,
(11:21):
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,
(11:41):
Paul the Waiter, Rika Anthony Big Tuna Accardo, and Salvator
Momo Giancano. When Kenny was there in the seventies, eighties
and early nineties, the bosses were Joseph Joey doves A Uga,
Sam Black, Sam Carlisi and John No Nos Defranso. It
was a period of great prosperity and they were stronger
(12:05):
than ever.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Cook County in the Chicago area. Okay, Chicago is actually
in Cook County, and we worked in the unincorporated areas
because the unincorporated areas are you know, we owned you know,
we owned the judges. We owned the fucking cops. You know,
we owned them, you know, so we can work freely,
all right?
Speaker 3 (12:27):
And what did you do?
Speaker 1 (12:28):
I was a low level I ran whorehouses and I
did them and I did hits. You know. It was
just a low level guy and my crew. You know,
the money that we made in our crew worked its
way up the ladder to the big bosses. You know,
you're in the fucking trenches, man, This is low level,
in the streets, in the dirt, in your face, the backbone,
(12:51):
and 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
were in the fucking trenches fighting it out, fucking hand
to hand to knife, all right. We are the guys
in the fucking trenches, hand to hand, knife to knife,
(13:14):
all right. That's where we are. That's how down, that's
how far down the ladder we were, all right, fucking
clipping people and running fucking whoes.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
He takes a long pause and seems to be deep
in some old memory.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
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 hornhouses and fucking kill you know people.
You know, I was doing what I had to do
(13:52):
to have a normal life and raise a normal family. Okay,
that's all I was doing. I was I didn't have education,
I didn't have the opportunity for an education. I didn't
go to college. I barely got out of fucking high school.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
You know.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
I just survival mode. That's all, just really as simple,
and I survived.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
Look.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
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,
(14:37):
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?
Speaker 1 (14:54):
I got recruited into the mob when I was seventeen
years old, and completely unbeknownst to me, I was the
last thing on my mind. And there's my parents got divorced.
You know, I'm not going to go into the fucking wall.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
Was me?
Speaker 1 (15:10):
You know, I had a rough childhood bullshit, but I
got tossed out of 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 you an idea of a kind of family.
You know, I grew up. God rest their souls. Okay,
all right. I love my mother dearly, and I love
(15:31):
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 out sixteen years old. I'm living in
a backseat of my fucking sixty eight Camaro for about
three or four months. I need money, all right. I
(15:52):
know this fucking clown, it's dealing dope, dealing fucking Mexican
dirt weed. Because back then it was I don't know,
the shit they got now is insane, but it was
just straight Mexican dirt weed back then, and he was
I think you think he had placidos and Quailu's so
placid was Quailu cash and Mexican fucking dirt. Weeat so
and I knew we hung out at the fucking kmart,
(16:14):
So you know, I watched him for a while. I
kind of figured out his pattern, you know, And I
don't know why 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 what anyway, came up
on him and rob this fucking ass. I had a
fucking pencil and came up kind of from the side
(16:38):
I was came because kind of walked on bottom on
on an angles. 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 in his back. He had a
jacket out, so I used the rubber you know, you know,
the eraser part, and believe it or not, if you
stick that thing in there hard enough, you know, just
(17:00):
you know, have somebody to do that to you when
you're not expecting it, and you know, being told that
I need your cash and I need you dope, and
I need it right now, all right, And I got
a fucking nice 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
(17:20):
we're on our way. He goes off in a sprint.
I go off, do a round and come back to
my car. 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.
(17:43):
So these two come up on me. I'm sitting down
and I'm going I'm thinking to myself, ah fuck, here
we go here, 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.
(18:04):
That's the guy that robbed me. Uncle. He marde a
fucking crew. He's a mob dude, all right, you know
we're talking send to get her. Alphad guy all right,
So he tells me, He goes, are you looking for
a job? Oh, yeah, I'm looking for a job. I'm
just fucking starving her. That's how I got into a
(18:24):
fucking outfit. That's what I got. He was impressed.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
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.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Yeah, of course you 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.
(19:33):
I still do you know very much.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
How much did your family know about your time in
the mafia.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
I mean, nobody, nobody knew anything. I didn't want anybody
to know I was I was kind of embarrassed. My wife,
you know, she was purposely bliss you know, money was
coming in and she had you know, she was secure
and she was raised her kids, and you know we
had a nice suburban life. You know, so like all
(20:03):
the wives of people that were involved in the outfit
or you know, blind by choice.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
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,
(20:33):
because Kenny is my father, and I had no idea
about any of this until now.
Speaker 5 (20:52):
He's a dark days last him and I'm lost in.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Away 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 crimes in and it gets
in the country, the Chicago Outfit. We'll exploring great depth
my father's life of crime and it's profound and lasting
impact on my family to this very day.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
I don't know he was in the mob until maybe
twenty years after you guys were born.
Speaker 6 (21:23):
It's crazy to have someone that was so strong in
my life and so be fucking bad, dream in the
face over drugs because he was destroying our fucking family.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
You could see why he could be an enforcer.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
I'm blind, rage, out of control, violent person.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
You were sitting on a bombshell and you probably didn't
realize it.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
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 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
(22:10):
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 we're never meant
to see the light of day, not to mention broadcast
the entire world. I hope we can all find some
healing through this journey together. Thank you to Orrin Rosenbaum
(22:31):
and the excellent team at UTA for their support, and
of course to my fearless attorney, Wendy Bench, who's an
absolute badass and a total rockstar. 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 dot com. For more podcasts like Crook County, search
(22:52):
Tenderfoot TV on your favorite podcast app, or visit tenderfoot
dot tv. Episode two is available now. Subscribe to Tenderfoot
Plus at tenderfootplus dot com to binge the entire season.
Speaker 7 (23:07):
Time I inst but so tall, sustayes so cold, it's
nustand don't do thet that no tests, don't trust.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
Not trusted, Doc Blue and endless dafe one.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Thank you for tuning in too, Crook County. New episodes
are released weekly completely free, but if you're riching for more,
check out Tenderfoot plus on Apple Podcasts or visit tenderfoot
plus dot com to subscribe for early access to the
full series, plus an ad free experience
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