Crook CountyWith the help of some old home videos, Kyle embarks on a journey to the past to uncover the family secret and try to pick up the pieces of a broken home. Kyle's mom, Holly, tells the harrowing story of an idyllic family destined to fall apart, and the exact moment where everything changed. Kyle's brother, Kory, reveals the violent relationship he had with Ken.
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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 seventeen years old.
Meet Kenny the kid Tequila.
I became a trusted member.
I ran whorehouses and I did.
His an enforcer for the Chicago outfit.
I wanted him to know I meant fucking business here, so I beat him, put the gun back up to his.
Forehead, and three of my boys come in there.
He lived a secret double life for over twenty years and a.
Wife and I had two children.
Nobody knew anything.
I didn't want anybody to know. I was kind of embarrassed, and I wanted to keep them as far away from it as possible. I wanted them to have a good life.
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. That yeah, I don't know.
He was in the lab un Chill, maybe twenty years after your days 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 two, The Ties that bind Us?
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 seventeen, 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 emptiness 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 that, 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, all right. I didn't want anybody to know. I was kind of embarrassed, and I wanted to keep them as far away from it as possible. I wanted them to have a good life, you know, 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 eighteen years, a loving, blue collar, suburban middle class home with a Ford Explorer in 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, Corey, and I played just about every sport imaginable, so trips to play it against sports to buy and sell our gently.
Used equipment were routine.
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 and 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 firefighter paramedic, and would have a second job, you know, just to make ends meet. But it was, you know, my perfect little life. I you know, had a husband, I had two beautiful sons. We finally had a beautiful home in a nice neighborhood. We eventually made good friends with our neighbors and their kids, made good friends with you know, all the kids in the neighborhood. And you know, 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 and he and unanswered questions.
I don't know why I deserve this.
My life ended.
I'd like to welcome everyone here to Chicago with the bears. Now for you're continued safety to think.
Give all them folks you're gonna fall on, please remain see with them.
Set stands and.
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, hi, mom, are.
You you look very cuddly? A good outfit? You are cuddly, it's true cool.
Oh my god, Hi, he's not allowed in here. You know this is a man freeze out.
Okay, hang out.
Fortunately, I'll go back to Duncan Donuts.
She lives in a small house with her friend Kathy. It's old and dated. The architecture, the furniture like it was pulled straight from a nineteen seventy series catalog.
The last time you saw him, the one and only time other than when you was little, was it your mom's ninety.
Yeah, all right, when she said she's who introduced me to your father, 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 use.
Very true.
I hold no resentment towards you at all.
Thank you very much.
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 mean, I have tons of pictures and things, and all my videotapes are in there and in there, and.
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 and some of my apartments so I will watch VHS videotapes of our family and I love this one and I love this one. I love them all, but this is like my favorite. It's like the beginning of our normal life.
We pick out an old VHS tape from our childhood and pop it in.
What is he found?
Kind?
Look around corners stuff.
It's Easter morning, nineteen eighty nine. My four year old self is joyfully running around the house finding candy filled eggs and baskets, while my brother Corey, two years old at this time, is trying to keep up.
You'll 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, my two beautiful boys, and look it. See all that candy and stuff there, that's your first load. We got part two coming up. I want you to think about this. You know what I got for Easter. My whole life was one basket with socks and underwear.
It is.
That's all I ever got. Look at my kids. Happy Easter, you guys.
The image jumps till later in the day. 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 Cana, where's your Easter bonnet?
Can?
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.
Because the eye is taking it.
That's right.
So now I'm in a pictures side.
He's posing now, showing off his muscles and brimming with that unique blend of sarcasm, confidence and charm that endeared him to everyone around him.
My niece, it's jealous man like me right now.
She's thirty five 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 add free listening and exclusive content, dive into tenderfootplus dot 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 four hundred ad free episodes, as well as subscriber only specials. Subscribe now at tenderfootplus dot com.
You guys were little Corey was like two, your four going on five. Well, our neighbor was a single female who had moved into the neighborhood with this big dog and a Nikita huge probably one hundred pound dog at least, and she had the dog for protection. She also had a cat. And one day you and me and Corey 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 like a screen door. The other door was opened, 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, your head all the way down to your calves. And you were like four years old, forty pounds, and this is like one hundred pound dog on top of you, tearing you to shreds. I was in the front yard with you, and I made this hurdling scream, and thank god Ken was home that day, because he was usually on twenty four off forty eight, and 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 Kenn is trying to pull the dog off of your body. And in the meantime, there's puncture wounds on your legs and on your head and on your back. And Ken comes here, and you know, I get off and he takes the dog and he opens up the dog's mouth like 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 constructed 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 the fire department are carrying in furniture and goofing off.
There's not warm.
The neighborhood was so new that none of the landscaping had been planted yet, so the entire yard was mud.
There's a lot of people out here admiring their mud.
Our house a little blue island in a sea of brown sludge.
That that's something.
Santa, don't you guys.
Growing up was great. We had a great childhood.
And that's my brother Corey dead.
He would take us to the firehouse, seeing all the fire engines and playing with all the medical supplies and the and the paramedic truck and everything. You know, rubber gloves, that was like the coolest thing to like wear, you know, ship like that, And somebody would go on the mic, you know, and it would be an intercom throughout the whole the whole building and 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 micro following this spart throughout the whole building, you know, and everybody would crack up. You know, this is just fun.
She pops.
In another tape, it's my fifth birthday party.
There's about twenty people at some restaurant. I remember this. The kids got to make our own pizzas.
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, will try and then coming home to his happy little family and lying about everything away.
Why don't we get here, kids.
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.
Right here.
I'll relax, will, Yeah, I haven't in motion forever?
In motion, all right? Lamar stills, Baby, this is the nineties.
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. 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 kind of just like nonchalantly, like hanging out in his forward Explorer, kind of yelling at a guy. You know, 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 this big bald man screaming through the window. Well, ken, my dad was just sitting there, and all of a sudden, he fucking just headbuts this guy knocks the guy fucking flat out, and I'm.
Like, I didn't, I don't even, I don't even.
I don't even think I brought it up to him, because I think I was so stunned, like what the hell just happened, you know, you know, just a typical Sunday morning, Dad fucking knocking some guy out through a window in a car with.
His head, you know, 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, like we're behind the car, because you know, he was in front of us, pulling the guy out of his driver's side door, dragging him to like the back. So now I had like a perfect view of this of the crime and just pounding a guy and then leaving him just basically knocked out or like half aware, and then getting back in.
The car and then like you know, doing a little swerve, drive around.
And then continueing.
I was with the day.
So that was the first time I remember seeing that, and I was so young it almost felt like a dream. But then I think it was seventh grade and I remember in like one of my English classes or something, we were doing like a project. You know, you had to like create a scene, like a shoebox scene, you know what I mean. I remember it was sitting in my lap because I was up all night working on it. And we're driving to school and some guy cuts ken off and he chases this dude past the school, like we go on to chase.
I'm screaming a hunt.
And finally we catch the guy a red light and he goes and paunches the guy several times through his driver's side window, then gets back in the car, does a U turn, drops me off at school, and you're like, what do you do?
You know, like you just you can't.
There's nothing to say, nothing to do.
He just like kind of walk like a zombie through the rest of the day, going is that a real thing that just happened?
When things are going well, it's hard to believe they could ever go wrong. And just because my father showed a few flashes of violence or said a few questionable things doesn't mean there's something sinister or terrible lurking behind the curtain. 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 in 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 opened 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. You know, Ken went back and forth to rehab, but the heroin took over and he just kept doing it. And I kept finding perfect Ellie in the house and his arms are always bruised, and I would find blood splits on the ceiling, and he was so bad where he was going crazy, like he would scream at me. He would come at me. He looked like he was possessed. He'd be rolling on the floor screaming like he looked like he was a possessed devil. And I was scared to death. He would come at me many times and he would push me or and I didn't take it. I would push him back. And when I pushed him back, you know, I wouldn't either get hit or push against the wall or something. I had a sleep in my car, or I would sleep at the bottom of the stairs, so I had an easy escape. Because he was so crazy trying to wean off the drug, that's all he cared about. He alienated needed 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.
It really destroyed everything.
During those ten years of addiction, I had already left home and started my own life in Atlanta, where I met my wife, Nicole.
We got married in two thousand and nine.
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 the treatment and assisting in his recovery, but I never knew just how bad it really was. And to be honest, during those first few years, there were so many fights and so much drama between us, all with them becoming the kids and me feeling like the parent that I stepped away from them.
I had never felt this kind of emotional pain before, and I didn't know how to deal with it. So I ignored it and I hoped it would get better. 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 on.
I first noticed that Dad was on drugs when I was sixteen years old. I rummaged through Dad's personal shit in his car to find a couple bucks. When I opened the globbox, I saw a large freezer bag, and then, of course, being sixteen, I looked into it, seeing what the fuck it.
Was smoking pot.
I figured it would be like some pot or something, you know, taking a dug out, you know.
Not tell. But that wasn't the case.
When I opened the bag, there was a bunch of little tinfoil squares that I had no idea what the fuck it was. But then I saw a syringe 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 I'm no dummy, but I'm thinking to myself, what the fuck's going on here?
Like he's fucking he's shooting heroin and he's.
Cooking fucking heroin on our fucking goddamn soup spoons. I was so confused, and so I just did know what was going on. There's what one incident that I remember like it was yesterday.
I'm twenty one.
At this time, I needed to come home for a little bit and save up some money so I could get back out.
I just needed I 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 yo play yogurt and some shit I don't know.
And what really got me is that he was really zonked out, but the spoon. The image of him eating it with a spoon brought me back to when I first remembered seeing the fucking spoon next to a bunch of heroin and needles.
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. And 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 to hazing and dizzy, but me, I'm a fucking savage. I'd attack 'em.
I don't.
I don't stop attacking him, fucking on the floor, beating the shit out of each other. Blood's flying everywhere, Fists are flying everywhere. We end up into the kitchen, where you know, we slam into the cupboards and the and the cabinets, the drawers. I remember ripping out a drawer and trying to fucking hit 'em with it.
He knocked it out of my hands.
He pushed me back into the into the the refrigerator, and I don't know how.
The fight stopped. I just remember it was surreal, which is.
My dad and I are actually fist fighting each other right now, black eyes, fucking blood cuts. It's crazy to have, you know, someone that was so strong in my life and just such a such a man of father figure.
Every I I looked up to him. He was everything to me.
So we fucking budged him in the face over drugs cause he was destroying a fucking family, a fucking horrible.
Did you ever recover from all that?
Like, do you still carry it with you? I?
I carried it every fucking day, absolutely, And I feel like that's how I become so emotional. Just a commercials, fucking movies, anything that has to do with a father and a son.
It I f it fucking destroys me. It's just it's so hard. I mean, I d.
I do mask it very well and I try to forget all the time about everything, but it's it will never go away. It fucked me up, absolutely 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. I mean, you can't take back my childhood, which was awesome in my eyes. It was perfect, But now I don't. I don't know if I can, if I can be the bigger man, and.
And I don't know even talk.
I don't know Kyle, 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, Corey 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 them to move on.
But Mom was still there, living in this hell until my dad either got clean or died trying. And then in twenty thirteen, 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 next morning because I'm driving him to the airport and he's still screaming at me, and the song from Bohemian Rhapsody comes on. Mama just kill the man jus and he goes, perfect sock, puts his fingers to my head like it's a gun, and he goes, you know what, Hollie, I've killed men, I've killed money men. I could kill you too. And 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 like 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 learned the truth. Next week on Crook County.
Listen, there are girls in and out there for years and years and years and years and years. All right, go in there, crap a deal with the client, go to work, get out quick, and wait for the next guy. These girls were pure, pure business, and they made a ton of fucking money.
Everybody.
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 Orn rosen Home 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 Crook County Podcast, or leave us a voicemail by visiting crookcountypodcast dot com. For more podcasts like Crook County, search Tenderfoot TV on your favorite podcast app, or visit tenderfoot dot tv.
Thanks for listening. The story continues next week Awesome Passage Job.
Five I.
Show She Child, She.
Was a Child.
Thank you for tuning into 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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