February 18, 2025 • 39 mins
We're Back!
Welcome to Season 3, Episode 1!
New Episodes EVERY Tuesday!
When Kyle was an adult, he learned his father's lifelong dark secret:
whereas everyone believed his father to be a family man and Chicago firefighter, he was living a double life...as a Chicago hitman for the mafia.
Jules sits down with Kyle Tekiela, host and producer of the chart-topping true crime podcast, Crook County. Kyle takes us behind the scenes into the why and not just the how he made this podcast.
To listen to Kyle Tekiela's hit podcast, "Crook County"
https://www.crookcountypodcast.com/
Follow Kyle on Instagram:
@champagnetekiela
Follow Crook County Podcast on Instagram:
@crookcountypodcast
Don't forget to say hi to your hosts, Jules and Jen!
Instagram:
@yourhostjules
@jenriverainvestigates
Have a case you want us to cover?
Please email us:
outreach@fireeyesmedia.com
Jules: jules@fireeyesmedia.com
Jen: jen@fireeyesmedia.com
Help us keep telling cases by leaving a 5 star review and rating wherever you get podcasts.
True Crime and Headlines is a Fire Eyes Media LLC Network podcast and production.
you're wanted
you're loved
and you deserve to be here
Welcome to Season 3, Episode 1!
New Episodes EVERY Tuesday!
When Kyle was an adult, he learned his father's lifelong dark secret:
whereas everyone believed his father to be a family man and Chicago firefighter, he was living a double life...as a Chicago hitman for the mafia.
Jules sits down with Kyle Tekiela, host and producer of the chart-topping true crime podcast, Crook County. Kyle takes us behind the scenes into the why and not just the how he made this podcast.
To listen to Kyle Tekiela's hit podcast, "Crook County"
https://www.crookcountypodcast.com/
Follow Kyle on Instagram:
@champagnetekiela
Follow Crook County Podcast on Instagram:
@crookcountypodcast
Don't forget to say hi to your hosts, Jules and Jen!
Instagram:
@yourhostjules
@jenriverainvestigates
Have a case you want us to cover?
Please email us:
outreach@fireeyesmedia.com
Jules: jules@fireeyesmedia.com
Jen: jen@fireeyesmedia.com
Help us keep telling cases by leaving a 5 star review and rating wherever you get podcasts.
True Crime and Headlines is a Fire Eyes Media LLC Network podcast and production.
you're wanted
you're loved
and you deserve to be here
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Fire Eyes Media. Hey everybody, welcome back to True Cremen
Headlines with Jewles and Jen. We're back each week with
an all new case every Tuesday. This is season three
and we're excited to share that we're coming back stronger
than ever, with little to no banter, remaining victim centered
as always, and being more advocacy driven. We took some
(00:28):
time off to learn how to do better, and now
it's time to be better victims first. Always make sure
to follow us on Instagram at Fire Eyes Media LLC
to stay upstate on everything that Jewels and I are
working on and to be the first to know when
new episodes post. Don't forget that independent podcasts like True
(00:50):
Cremen Headlines grow from five star reviews and ratings, so
please make sure to leave us one wherever you're listening.
This will ensure we're getting out in the algorithm, getting
these stories heard, and spreading awareness for these cases. Now
on to today's episode, Let's go.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I've done criminal defense now for almost thirty seven years.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
It takes one guy out there to say, who's that
fucking asshole Kyle who thinks he can just get on a.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Goddamn microphone on a podcast and start publicizing this shit.
Earlier this morning, detectives and federal agents invaded a junkyard
in DuPage County, just west of Chicago. In keeping with
the legendary mo of the Chicago Mob. Officials fully expected
that they might find corpses inside the trunk of the automobile.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
From iHeart Podcasts and Tenderfoot TV comes a new true
crime podcast, Crook County.
Speaker 5 (01:46):
I got recruited into the mob when I was seventeen
years old.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Meet Kenny aka the Kid. I ran whorehouses and I
did his an enforcer for the legendary Chicago outfit.
Speaker 5 (01:58):
I wanted him to know I've been fucking business here.
Put the gun back up to his forehead.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
He lived a secret double life as a firefighter, paramedic
for the Chicago Fire Department and a wife and I
have two children.
Speaker 5 (02:09):
Nobody knew anything.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I always believe whatever he said, so I was.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Not aware of his mafia involvement.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Dad was a fucking crazy bastard. Welcome to Crook County.
The true story of one man's life inside organized crime
and his family left to pick up the pieces when
it all went wrong. You could see why he could
be an enforcer. People are dying. Is he doing this
every night?
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Does he go out when they go to bed and
they don't even know He's not even in the house.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Torn between two worlds.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
Just when you think you're away from all this shit,
I'm covering up fucking murders that these cops are.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Doing, tearing him and his family apart.
Speaker 6 (02:50):
I don't know why I deserve this.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
Ken's gonna die one day, and now Ken's got up
sitting in front of the big guy and try to
explain his way out of this one. You know, every
fucking opportunity in the world to do the right thing,
but I chose not to.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Ken is this great guy, and he's a legend.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
And bad was a heroin addicts. He was a freaking
crazy man. We don't know who he is really. He
is my father, and I had no idea about any
of this until now. Welcome to Crook County. Available now.
Listen for free on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
(03:33):
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Hi, everybody, It's Jewels with True Kremin headlines with ChEls
and Jen and I have a really special guest for
us today. This is the kickoff of season three of
True Cremen Headlines, and I could not imagine a better
way to kick off our new season than with Kyle
Taquila from Crook County Podcast.
Speaker 7 (03:53):
This is a brand new podcast.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
It came out today, the day we're recording on February eleventh.
I've listened to the first two episodes, Kyle, and my
mind is blown. It's multi layered. I cannot wait to
ask you a million questions because I have so many
curiosities and I just need to pick your brain.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah, I'm the host and creator of Kirk County. It's
a wild story about my father who was had a
secret double life in the mafia, and I only recently
found out and throughout him telling me the story and
me kind of asking people my family trying to confirm
if this was true or if he's nuts. I found
out a lot more to the story and ended up
(04:31):
just kind of coming together itself as a show. So yeah,
today's the premier day. Very exciting.
Speaker 7 (04:37):
Congratulations. This is multi layered.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
This is more than just producing a podcast like we
typically will share podcasts, and it's different because this is
your life.
Speaker 7 (04:47):
This is your father.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
This is very it feels very vulnerable and intimate to
hear and to see a little peek into it. But
it's so informational and I feel like we can take
away so much from it, and I have got to listen.
Speaker 7 (05:02):
To the entire thing.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
I am going to wait week to week because I
love that anticipation of having something you love to, you know,
stretch it out. But I know that you can hear
it all at once. On do you want to tell
everybody where they can go if they want to binge
on at once?
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yeah, you have to subscribe to a tenderfoot plus. I think, oh,
terrible lot this stuff. I'm just figuring that out.
Speaker 7 (05:21):
So yeah, let me tell you. Yes, you're right, get
mad at me. No, No, I'll yeah you can.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
You can listen to the entire thing early and binge
the whole season if you subscribe to Tenderfool TV right now.
So if you can't wait, I know the first two
episodes will blow your mind. So before I dive into
some of my questions, and I'll be very careful not
to give spoilers, I have to know when you said
you recently found out what's this timeframe?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Sure, that's a good question, so you know, and it
kind of This isn't really a spoiler, but you know,
in the in the one of the first two episodes,
you know, I basically found out my dad's a heroin
addict and he calls me in twenty thirteen. We've been
a strange for about four or five years. At this point,
the relationship was just terrible, a lot of bad stuff,
(06:14):
and he basically said that today's my last day unless
you give me some help. That's pretty much the gist
of his phone call. And so I didn't know what
to do. I decided I'll help him, and so I
just kind of started researching rehab facilities in the Los
Angeles area and got him booked, and then threw him
on a flight the next day and picked him up
from the airport and he was just like a skeleton
(06:35):
of a person. It was awful, and dropped him off
at the rehab place. And as he got sober over
the next several months year, he started to kind of
open up and start to tell me little bits and pieces.
And then eventually he's like, you know nothing about me.
Here's who I really am, and here's the story. And
so he just started kind of like unleashing all of
(06:57):
these things on me, and it was over the core
of about four years that the whole kind of picture
of every kind of like decade and every kind of
phase of his life came together, which was about twenty seventeen,
and at that point I felt like we were both
ready to turn this into more than just a story
passed from father's son and turn it into kind of
(07:19):
like really not really a podcast to like put out
there in the world, but something that I can create
that would be like a family history almost, you know,
just to kind of give my kid a little perspective
on his family history and you know, my uncles and
my aunts and my mom and my brother, who you know,
are all victims in their own way from the stuff
that happened with my dad, and kind of give them
(07:41):
a little bit explanation on it. And then it just
became so rich and I mean incredible really that I
just kind of formatted it into episodes and then it
turned into a podcast. And then I got a hold
of tenor Foot TV through their incredible composer mevs. Makeup
and Vanity Set, and he listened to the first kind
(08:01):
of pilot episode and he thought it was incredible and
brought it to Donald and we met up and they said,
let's do it. But then kind of COVID hit that
next year and I just kind of wasn't in the
mood to put this out, So I sat on it
for another four years until till last year, and we
finished all the episodes and kind of came up with
(08:22):
the plan to release it. So it's been it's been
eleven years since that first sit down with me. When
I brought him into rehab. We had known that he
had serious problems with it, but that was the first
time he had ever I mean, it's the first time
I talked to in five years, and it was the
first time I got an update on how he was doing.
And it was the first time that he had said
(08:43):
anything about it besides like trying to deny it or
whatever or just be an asshole. So it was like
the first kind of vulnerable moment that I had seen
from him, I mean almost ever, And so I think
that's why it struck me so hard, and I'm like,
he's really fucked up. I think I really need to
help this guy.
Speaker 7 (09:00):
So, yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
I'm glad, Oh, I bet, I bet it was very
traumatic and multi layered, and I'm glad you brought up
that everyone in your family are victims, because it's easy
to read a headline my dad had a secret life.
We didn't know he did all these things, and then
to disassociate from the person telling the story. But it's
(09:25):
you are a victim, Your brother's a victim, your mom, everybody.
I mean, it passes down generationally too, and so leaving
this kind of oral history also for your child is
kind of like a gift, like what can we take
away from this? What can we learn from this? Not
hide from it, but you know, confront it head on
(09:46):
and process it. Through this process, have you had to
battle some of the traumatic pieces that maybe you didn't
realize we're still there, or realizing how this may have
shaped the trajectory of your life without knowing until you
did this project.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Yeah, it's you know, it's it's been like going to
therapy for the last eleven years. You know, because as
I'm going through, as I'm interviewing my mom and my
brother and obviously my dad and his twin brother Rich
who appears in another episode, and his old firefighter partner
for twenty years, which appears later in the season two,
(10:24):
and he's got some insane stories, and his high school
girlfriend who had kept in touch with him for all
these years and who had no idea about it either.
So it's just like you're talking to all these people
and you're really it moves on from just being a
story that someone's telling to like an actual life and
(10:46):
how that kind of takes root in your heart. It
takes a long time to really kind of grasp, but
it took a lot of time to really understand it
and really understand what it means to me and how
I'm supposed to react to it and how I'm supposed
to move forward knowing all of this, basically knowing that
like my first twenty something years were in a way
a lie, you know, and then how it affected my
(11:10):
mom and how it affects my relationship with my mom
and my brother, who were both big time victims of it.
It's a lot, like you say, it's multi layered, and
it really is like a huge, you know, therapy session
for me as I'm as I'm digging in and trying
to understand it. And that's what I tried to do
as a narrator in the show, is to be extremely
vulnerable and kind of like be it along for the
(11:32):
ride and accept the hard truths and hopefully learn from
it and make myself a better person and make my
family stronger and not repeat the same mistakes that he made.
So yeah, in a way, it's it's been an amazing
thing because it really gives me perspective on my life
(11:56):
versus his life. And even when we didn't know this stuff.
You know, I didn't have a family history really, like
I just knew my dad was a heroin aut and
you fucked everything up. So there's so many questions that
I have, and like so much anger and pain and
like the fuck, why would.
Speaker 8 (12:13):
You do this?
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Why would you ruin this family? You know, you're so selfish,
Like all those emotions really bubbled up. And so I've
been able to put to bed all those all those
emotions and now just accept it and move forward, like
you say, and confront it and in a way kind
of own it and be proud of it because I
get to learn from it, so does my kid.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
How do you broach even begin to broach the subject
with close family that maybe didn't know about all of this,
and you say, hey, you're about to find out a
lot in a little amount of time, and it's going
to be heavy.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
You know, that's good. I think that people take cues
from the person giving them news or information. So if
I come at it like all freaked out, their initial
reaction is to be freaked out. But I'm coming at
it from a place of just like truth and confidence
and showing the positive sides of it. And so when
they when I have to sit someone down, and like
(13:10):
when I had to tell my mom all these details,
or when I had to like tell my brother that
you know, that dad was a hit man, you know,
it's like you kind of have to do it, and
you have to be the big you know, you have
to be the parent in the room essentially, you know
what I mean. And then to my son, of course
he doesn't know about this stuff yet, but he will when,
you know, when he comes of age. You know, he
(13:31):
knows that his grandpa that he doesn't see, he doesn't
seen him for a reason is because his grandpa's sick,
and that he's made a lot of bad choices in
his life, and those bad choices, you know, have led
to him and my relationship, you know, being almost non exsistent,
and so you kind of like plant seeds along the
way for the kid, but the adults you have to
treat like adults, and you just have to go in
(13:52):
and say, I don't know if you know this, but
this is the truth and it's time we all confront
it and just kind of be the leader pack.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Yeah, so that's a lot on your shoulders to go
in and after you've processed or trying to process all
this information, then you have to re tell it to
the closest members of your family who were directly impacted
by it.
Speaker 7 (14:14):
So this would be a very very heavy project.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Has your mom and your brother have they listened to
the podcast?
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Yeah, we're gonna have a bonus episode after the season.
Okay that it was on Christmas, you know, just a
couple of months ago, and we had finished all the
episodes and I set them both down and we listened
to the whole season together and we recorded it. And
it was their kind of fresh reactions to everything. You know,
they knew the gist of it, but to hear the
(14:44):
episodes and hear every detail played out and hear his
interviews very emotional. It was a tough day. We drank
a lot of wine to get through that day, but
I think it was really valuable for all of us,
and it really brought us all together there.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
And it's interesting because just doing a little bit of
reading about you and your career, and you know, as
a family man, a husband, a father, and all of
the projects you've got going on, you seem so far
removed from anything that your father was involved in.
Speaker 7 (15:20):
What do you attribute that to?
Speaker 2 (15:23):
That's interesting? You know, well, I didn't find out that,
you know, the mafia stuff until twenty thirteen, and I
was well into my career at that point and already married.
But the heroin and you know, just the kind of
emotional abuse of being at home. Fortunately for me, I
was seventeen, I was senior in high school and when
(15:45):
it started to get really bad, so I was able
to kind of leave and go to college and separate
myself from that. And I was extremely immature and young
and didn't know how to deal with that kind of stuff,
So it was easier for me to disassociate at that
time and just be a college guy and work on
my career because I always knew that I wanted to
be a filmmaker or in music or some kind of
(16:06):
entertainment ever since I was ten years old. When I
got my first guitar. That was just I had the direction.
I just knew it. But my younger brother, unfortunately didn't
have that kind of direction. And he is three years
younger than me, so he was a freshman in high
school when it all started getting really bad. So he
basically lived his entire high school life with a heroin
(16:26):
attic father, you know, so incredibly dysfunctional, and that poor
kid bears the scars of those years, and I think
it changed him. I think he would be a much
different person. He's a great guy. He's really come a
long way and he's doing well, and I'm really proud
of him and I love him so much. But I
think obviously that affected him in a really negative way.
(16:47):
And so kind of to answer your question, I was
fortunate enough to have built a foundation, a new foundation,
away from all that, so it was a lot healthier
for me and easier for me to come back to
it and approach it instead of me being a kid
and trying to deal with it and start a life
(17:10):
out of, you know, the ashes of your childhood. So yeah,
that's so interesting.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Now you you can grow up in the same household,
but you don't have the same parents of the same reality.
Speaker 7 (17:22):
It's very interesting.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
You know, so you moved away and went to college
and your brother was in the house as a single child,
basically only child.
Speaker 7 (17:31):
Yes, while you were away of college.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Has that ever come up between you two about about that?
Speaker 2 (17:39):
I mean, it's not like a point of conflict between
us or anything like that, but of course, you know,
that is the reality. And he even says in one
of his interviews, he's like, you know, fortunate, he was
unfortunate for me. I was there and I had to
see all this stuff, and you know, he's he's the
type of person who really buries his emotions and tries
(18:01):
to forget and like put it all locked, lock it
all in a black box, you know, upstairs somewhere so
he doesn't have to deal with it. And so the
emotional journey for him and this show is you know,
when he actually got to listen to all the episodes,
it was the first time he had listened to any
of the episodes, and and for him to kind of
see the full story, I think I think it made
(18:23):
a huge impact on him. And I think it showed
him that that he doesn't have to hide from it,
that he can maybe try to own it and start
the process of accepting it instead of trying to hide
it and lock it away, because you know, at the
end of the day, the you know, the one of
the morals of the story is secrets are like a poison.
(18:43):
And the longer you keep a secret, you know, the
more distance you put between yourself and your loved ones,
and the more lies you have to come up with.
Keep a secret, and pretty much you completely disassociate you know,
your worlds, which is what happened to my dad. He
completely disassociated one world from another and was one person
over here and one person over here. And that took
a long time for him to develop that mechanism, you know,
(19:04):
defense mechanism. But it's not healthy at all. And if
you're trying to be a healthy person, and especially if
you're trying to raise your own family, you need to
be completely honest with everybody, no matter how hard it is.
And so I think this really gave me like a
visceral truth, like it just showed it showed me the
way of how to be a better man and how
to be a better partner and father.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
You can hear your brother's pain in his interview. It's
the second episode when when he comes in and retells
a story. I won't go into it. I don't want
to spoil it, but you can you can hear how
real and raw it is. And when he's retelling an experience,
it just ripped my heart apart, he said, Aline, And
I don't want to spoil it, but there I'll tell
(19:48):
you offline, there's something that just peers through my heart.
And I was like, this is so real and so raw,
and everybody is so brave and vulnerable to share this
story because how many stories may come out like this.
People will hear and say, Okay, I'm not gonna be
freight anymore. I'm gonna basis head on. Especially you know
(20:09):
you say words like mafia. That's that can be a
very terrifying subject. And it's very real and it's not pretend.
I know it's it's got the Hollywood perception of it,
but it is a very real and dangerous entity. So
I'm curious if there has ever been a layer of
(20:29):
fear or anything as you go forward with this project
or during it, there's.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Always been an underbelly of what if this goes wrong?
And what if someone hears something that triggers something and
they feel like retaliating, or even the police like an
old agent. If you hear something and it sounds like
a something that he was working on thirty years ago
and it's the missing piece to his investigation or whatever.
(20:57):
Of course that reality is there. It's going to be there.
That was part of the risk of putting this out there.
And and I had those conversations with with my dad
and and my family about it, and you know, his
response to it was is that if karma's coming, let
karma come. You know, he's him being able to tell
this and unleash this kind of monkey that's been on
(21:19):
his back for his whole life. To me, it was
way more therapeutic and and worth it. If if he's
got justice coming to him, then he's kind of accepted it.
That's the kind of man he is, like he's he's
just like, I've my life is terrible, My memories are terrible.
Uh you you boys, You know, his sons were the
only real joy that he had in his life. And
(21:42):
and he doesn't want to be remembered as a piece
of shit I mean to be. To put it bluntly,
he wants to be remembered as someone who tried really
really hard to keep this awful world away from us,
and he just he in a way, he succeeded, but
he failed because he it turned him into a drug addict,
because that's how we had to deal with it. So
(22:03):
but yeah, you know, I'm I'm already getting dms from
people that look like they're in the mob, and I'm like, oh, great,
here we go. So I'm just being nice. And you know,
I mean, listen, if you listen to the whole season,
you'll understand that the way I do it is not
like some some tell all snitch fest, you know, where
(22:23):
I'm like digging up dead bodies and pointing to this
person saying you did this. It's not like that at all.
It really is like a family story that's wrapped in
a mafia package. So I don't at the end of
the day, I don't feel I feel like this could
actually help people instead of it being detrimental.
Speaker 7 (22:40):
Absolutely, absolutely so.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
Has your dad reached out to your mom since this
has come about?
Speaker 7 (22:49):
Have they communicated at all?
Speaker 6 (22:51):
After all?
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Yeah, he's they've texted a bunch, and you know, they've
been separated for a long time. They're still not divorced,
but they've been separate for over a decade, and you know,
there's just only so much lying that one person can take,
you know, And from my mom's perspective, and I don't
blame her, she's just done and so he can say
(23:12):
whatever he wants, but like he's burned that bridge with
her and she needs to move on with her life,
which she has and she's been She's done a really
great job kind of getting trying to get her life together,
you know, as a single woman. In her she just
turned seventy in December, you know, so she's stable. She
still lives in the Chicago Land area and is just
(23:33):
living her life and you know, being a grandma to
my son and being a mom to me and Corey
and my brother.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
When I first saw I can't remember if it was
Pain or Tenderfoot who first shared that Crook County coming out,
and I thought, oh, my gosh, because I have also
been one of those who has been fascinated with the
ins and outs of the mafia and how that works
and all of those you know, you have the Hollywood tales,
but also the real life stories and people you meet
(24:01):
along the way who will share stories about their loved
ones who were also in it and how it affected everybody.
Speaker 7 (24:09):
And as soon as I heard the trailer, I was
absolutely hooked.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
And I have to also commend whoever did the editing
and the sound production and just the producing and all
the sound effects. It sounds like you're listening to a
radio drama.
Speaker 7 (24:27):
It is cool, impressive.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Well that so I did. That's I'm a filmmaker, so
I did all that editing on that. But but I
had a great team and they helped kind of, you know,
push me in certain directions as far as how they
would want the trailer to go. And you know, Donald
and Payne are really great meters over at Tenderfoot, and
they've got a lot of experience in this space. And
then MAVs make him in Vanity said did the score
(24:50):
and he's incredible, and then you know, everybody over at
Tenderfoot's just been absolutely amazing. And I couldn't have picked
better partners for this show. But yeah, that was one
of the things I've listened to many podcasts, and I
just didn't want this to be people talking for you know,
an hour, two hours, you know, for twelve episodes. I
really wanted this to feel, like you said, like a
radio drama like I wanted to feel cinematic. I wanted
(25:11):
to be able to close your eyes and just transport
right to the moment that I'm talking about. So yeah,
it's very, very heavy with sound effects and sound design
and really crafting the worlds and moments like a movie.
It really is like an audio movie for sure.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
It's very cinematic. I grew up on all that. I
don't know if you are familiar with the old school
radio dramas like Gangbuster, are yeah, Gangbusters and The Green Lantern,
all those old radio dramas. Yeah, I group listening to
all those, and so I've really felt nostalgic almost listening
to the first two episodes. And also as a producer myself,
(25:49):
I can really appreciate when someone's really good at what
they're doing, and it makes me like, think, I got
a level at my stuff. I can learn a lot
from This is really interesting. So I really appreciated that
behind the scenes. Level two, are you interested in developing?
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Thank you?
Speaker 7 (26:06):
You're welcome Krik County into.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
A documentary series for film. With your background and the
projected popularity that I know Krik County is going to
get already getting. By the way, I know you're not checking,
but it's looking good.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Thank you. That's that's very cool. Yeah, I feel like
we were talking about this before we got on, but
I just I'm trying to not obsess over it and
just let it be and not try too hard to
turn this into something. And I just I feel like
I've put my energy into crafting the show, and if
it gets out there and people connect with it, that's amazing.
(26:43):
I'm not going to try to force it and we'll
just see how it goes. But it's people like you
who have reached out to me. You know, I've never
met you before, but you saw the trailer and you're like,
this is insane, and that's how we started talking. And
so I mean to me, that means everything to me
because I want this to be something that people can
not only enjoy listening to, but like maybe find some
healing in their own in their own life, because there's
(27:04):
a lot of lessons to be learned, you know, throughout
every episode. So that's great. I appreciate that. Thank you
very much. And then your other question is will this
be a series well as far as documentary series, No,
this is the documentary, but but it's so rich. The
world are so rich, the characters are so rich, there's
so much going on. It spans you know, three decades,
(27:26):
and there's so many angles to it that it just seems
like it's a natural fit for Prestige TV, a narrative
you know, with actors and writers. So yeah, that's the hope.
I mean, I think that'd be pretty awesome.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
As you move forward. Where can people find you to
connect with you? If they want to connect with you
on social media? Where can they find Kyle Tequila and County.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Everything's at Krook County Pod or at Kirk County Podcast,
I can't remember which one it is. And then you know,
my my personal sham pain Tequila and I'm public and
you know whatever, I'm happy to talk to anybody. I'm
not trying to hide anything, so and I'd love to
talk with with everybody who listens to the show and
get their feedback and you know, enjoy the process. I'm
(28:13):
not trying to hide from it or whatever. I'm here
and I'll talk to anybody and just trying to enjoy
every moment of this process. So yeah, one of the
one of the things I want to do with this
is I want to do an audience Q and A.
So I've got like a voicemail thing set up, so
if you go to Kirkcounty Podcast dot com, you can
(28:33):
click on the leave of voicemail and ask me a
question or just say something and then I can take
that recording and play it on the episode and kind
of answer that. And so I want to do that
later on in the year. So please feel free to
visit kirk County Podcast and dot com and leave me
a voicemail and maybe you'll be on the show.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
I will add all of your connections and your tags
in our show notes too. So anybody listening that wants
to connect with Kyle Tequila and krit County Podcast, I
know you're the one that runs krit County Podcast social media,
so you can kind of find.
Speaker 7 (29:10):
Out where he is easily. He's not too hard to
find on there.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
But okay, so back to this one question that I
have to ask when I asked you earlier, like if
you if there's any fear about doing this podcast, you
bounced it back to your dad, wasn't afraid and if
justice is coming then that's the kind of guy is
But what about like you, you are involved, obviously very
(29:36):
involved and you said, people are messaging you know, I'm curious.
Was there ever a point during this where you're like, oh,
I made a mistake or you feel fear for your family,
not really particularly you per se.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Well, I will say this that there were things that
I discovered in the interview with my dad that I
did not put in the show for a good reason.
So you know, of course there are If I was
an idiot, I would put this stuff in, and then
I should absolutely be terrified. But I feel like I
did a pretty good job of filtering that kind of
(30:11):
you know, knowledge with what's currently in the show versus
what's not in the show. And I think I'm able
to thread that needle pretty successfully with you know, and
there's enough detail and enough story to understand the world
and really get the picture without like calling out people
by name or like I said, you know, showing where
the bodies are buried, you know, because that would be
(30:33):
not good for me for sure. So yeah, I think
I've done my best to kind of hopefully filter all
that out. But of course, you know, my wife, she
in the beginning of this, she was like a little
very hesitant, and rightfully so. And you know, there were
some interactions earlier on with my dad that were really questionable.
You know, there was a point in time where like
he like was kind of homeless or in between homes,
(30:55):
and he was using my address as his address, and
we were getting weird male packaging and and you know,
there the story of him leaving the outfit. You know,
that's part of his journey that he became a firefighter
paramedic after he left the outfit, but he never really
left the outfit. You can't really meet the outfit. You're
(31:16):
a part of that family forever. And so as a
firefighter paramedic, he was still doing the bidding of the mob,
you know, as a first responder civilian and so and
that went on, I mean throughout me being in middle school,
he was still doing that kind of shit. And so,
you know, and when I met my wife, I was
very young. I was twenty one, So there was still
(31:38):
there's still weird that happenings going on with my dad
that she was able to see that were creepy. You know.
So there's definitely a one percent chance that something can
blow up in my face still, but I feel like
that's a mitigated risk and I've done my best to
help mitigate it. So recently got a DM from someone
(32:02):
who I can confirm has a relative that was involved
in the mob. I won't say his name, OK, but
when he when he reached out to me, I was
my heart jumped because I know I know that last name,
like it's that last name is kind of in the show.
I was like, oh my god. And it was basically
like the message was this looks cool, you know, just
simple nothing, and I'm like, is that sarcasm? And am
(32:24):
I gonna get killed?
Speaker 7 (32:25):
Is that ominous the show?
Speaker 2 (32:29):
And so I wrote him back a couple of times
and it was like silence, and I'm like, oh god,
I'm totally fucked. I'm already on their map and the
show's not even out yet, but h and then you.
But he finally got back to me and he's like, no,
this really looks great and I actually have his screenplay.
I'd love to talk to you about my show. Like, so,
you know, it's like they all have their own thing
that they want to pitch, you know what I mean.
(32:49):
So I feel like it's not it's not like it
was in the eighties and nineties when they were really
at like kind of the pinnacle of their power, and
and you just don't rat and you don't say anything,
and you know, it's like everyone's got legitimate businesses for
the most part, and you know their families are living
trying to live legitimate lives. And I think everyone feels
(33:12):
like they've got a great story to tell, and a
lot of them want to figure out a way to
tell that story. So we've already been talking about maybe
turning his story into another season or whatever. But but yeah, again,
I think this could be really helpful as opposed to
be something that stabs me in the back figured figurtted
way homeward.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
Literally I knew it the second I saw it. I'm like,
oh my gosh, this is something special. This is incredible,
and it's so just put together so well, and you
sound so amazing, and obviously you sound trained.
Speaker 7 (33:48):
What is your background.
Speaker 8 (33:50):
Well, I've been producing movies for like over a decade,
which is a similar timeline too, when my dad came
and said I'm gonna kill myself if you don't fix me.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
So like right around that time is when I made
my first movie, or I was going into production on
my first movie. But but prior to that, you know,
in college, I studied film and TV and I was
a producer, editor director, like like we basically were like
a one man band, like you would go out and
film these really great documentary stories and put them on
(34:22):
together as a show. And the show with Aaron Pbs
in the Chicago Land area in the Midwest, so i'd
kind of like I've been packaging and putting together documentary
style stuff since I was eighteen, and so for me,
it's just very easy to kind of put a story
together and know what works and what doesn't. And I'm
very good at editing. I've been an editor and a
(34:42):
graphic designer for a long time, so and and I'm
a musician, so I know how to deal with music
and sound, and I don't know, I think just my
whole background was just the perfect situation to create something
like this, and I hope people would would see that,
you know, And so thank you for bringing that up,
because you know, it is a craft to tell a
(35:03):
good story, and not everyone can do it. You know,
a lot of people have done a great job, and
a lot of podcasts I've heard really are excellent, and
I've enjoyed I've enjoyed the whole space, but yeah, you
know you could. There's there's a thing in Hollywood and
it's like the editor is the second director, and a
good edit can save the bad film. And that's extremely true.
(35:24):
You know, the editing is everything, and you can take
the worst footage and the worst story and if you
can edit it the right way, you can create something
really magical. So, yeah, I appreciate you calling that up.
Speaker 7 (35:36):
Yeah, that's that is so true too.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
We're pretty novice over here and I'm learning on boots
on the ground, and so I've also learned to be
smart enough to surround myself with people who are so
much better and so much more experience and so much
wiser into just be quiet and listen and watch and
study them because I'm learning so much.
Speaker 7 (35:59):
To your foot was so freaking smart to swoop you up.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
You can totally tell people are passionate one hundred.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Percent, and they're passionate, they're enthusiastic, and they're very good
at what they do. And you know, one thing that's
really special about pay is that he has a similar
background to me as far as like filmmaking and editing,
which which is why you know that first season of
Up and Vanished, when I heard it back in God,
was that like twenty seventeen or something like that. It was,
it was a while ago. That was I mean, it
(36:28):
felt like a movie as well, you know, so I
think I think honestly the reality is that I heard
up and vanished and I was like, wow, this is
this felt like a movie. I could just close my
eyes and he's taking me there. And that's I think
when it really clicked that I could turn my dad's
story and expand it and not just have it be
like an in house family thing, but put it out
(36:49):
there in a way that in a package that is
that is appropriate for entertainment for people to listen to. So, yeah,
if you're if you're struggling with something, you know, that's
why there's therapy. That's why they're you know, for for addicts.
That's why there's alcoholics anonymous and narc anonymous and cocaine
anonymous and all that. Like, there's no shame in getting help.
The problem is when you try to hide it and
(37:10):
help yourself, it never works out. And I've seen that
so many times happen with my dad, with people other
people that I know, and I think it's it's really
cathartic and a beautiful thing when you can open yourself
up to your most vulnerable parts and and it's it's
incredible how it changes you. It makes you actually so
much more confident and feel better about everything when you
(37:32):
do let it out there in the world and you
do put yourself make it on stage, because then there's
nothing left to hide. Yeah, and to have that foundation
to live the rest of your life is so powerful.
You know, there's so much to this story. It's hard
to describe it. You know, it really is. And you've
heard the first two episodes. You know it's not just
a mafia story. It's not just a family story. Somehow,
(37:53):
it's all those things and a million other things. So
I really think, if you, if you you're curious, give
those first two episodes a shot and see if it
hooks you, and then listen to the rest of the season.
And I want to hear from you. I think what
I want to leave with is just I want to
hear from you if this story affected you in any way,
if even if you just liked it or you thought
(38:15):
it was shit, I want to hear that too. But yeah,
I just want to be really interactive with the people
who can take something from the show and you know,
just enjoy the experience. It's it's quite a thrilling ride
because you know, when you're living with something for so
many years privately, to put it out there, it's wild.
You know, it's a really wild experience, and not a
(38:36):
lot of people get that opportunity, So I just wanted
to take advantage of that and enjoy every second.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
Well, we appreciate it, and we look forward to the
rest of Krik County everybody. I'm going to put all
the links in our show notes and post a lot
of the video clips from this podcast on social media.
I'm on Instagram at your host Jules, and today I'm
here with the podcast Drough Crumben Headlines, and this kicks
off season three.
Speaker 6 (38:57):
Thank you Kyle, thank you Joe.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
Fireeyes Media
Fire Eyes Media. Hey everybody, welcome back to True Cremen
Headlines with Jewles and Jen. We're back each week with
an all new case every Tuesday. This is season three
and we're excited to share that we're coming back stronger
than ever, with little to no banter, remaining victim centered
as always, and being more advocacy driven. We took some
(00:28):
time off to learn how to do better, and now
it's time to be better victims first. Always make sure
to follow us on Instagram at Fire Eyes Media LLC
to stay upstate on everything that Jewels and I are
working on and to be the first to know when
new episodes post. Don't forget that independent podcasts like True
(00:50):
Cremen Headlines grow from five star reviews and ratings, so
please make sure to leave us one wherever you're listening.
This will ensure we're getting out in the algorithm, getting
these stories heard, and spreading awareness for these cases. Now
on to today's episode, Let's go.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I've done criminal defense now for almost thirty seven years.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
It takes one guy out there to say, who's that
fucking asshole Kyle who thinks he can just get on a.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Goddamn microphone on a podcast and start publicizing this shit.
Earlier this morning, detectives and federal agents invaded a junkyard
in DuPage County, just west of Chicago. In keeping with
the legendary mo of the Chicago Mob. Officials fully expected
that they might find corpses inside the trunk of the automobile.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
From iHeart Podcasts and Tenderfoot TV comes a new true
crime podcast, Crook County.
Speaker 5 (01:46):
I got recruited into the mob when I was seventeen
years old.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Meet Kenny aka the Kid. I ran whorehouses and I
did his an enforcer for the legendary Chicago outfit.
Speaker 5 (01:58):
I wanted him to know I've been fucking business here.
Put the gun back up to his forehead.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
He lived a secret double life as a firefighter, paramedic
for the Chicago Fire Department and a wife and I
have two children.
Speaker 5 (02:09):
Nobody knew anything.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I always believe whatever he said, so I was.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Not aware of his mafia involvement.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Dad was a fucking crazy bastard. Welcome to Crook County.
The true story of one man's life inside organized crime
and his family left to pick up the pieces when
it all went wrong. You could see why he could
be an enforcer. People are dying. Is he doing this
every night?
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Does he go out when they go to bed and
they don't even know He's not even in the house.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Torn between two worlds.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
Just when you think you're away from all this shit,
I'm covering up fucking murders that these cops are.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Doing, tearing him and his family apart.
Speaker 6 (02:50):
I don't know why I deserve this.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
Ken's gonna die one day, and now Ken's got up
sitting in front of the big guy and try to
explain his way out of this one. You know, every
fucking opportunity in the world to do the right thing,
but I chose not to.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Ken is this great guy, and he's a legend.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
And bad was a heroin addicts. He was a freaking
crazy man. We don't know who he is really. He
is my father, and I had no idea about any
of this until now. Welcome to Crook County. Available now.
Listen for free on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
(03:33):
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Hi, everybody, It's Jewels with True Kremin headlines with ChEls
and Jen and I have a really special guest for
us today. This is the kickoff of season three of
True Cremen Headlines, and I could not imagine a better
way to kick off our new season than with Kyle
Taquila from Crook County Podcast.
Speaker 7 (03:53):
This is a brand new podcast.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
It came out today, the day we're recording on February eleventh.
I've listened to the first two episodes, Kyle, and my
mind is blown. It's multi layered. I cannot wait to
ask you a million questions because I have so many
curiosities and I just need to pick your brain.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah, I'm the host and creator of Kirk County. It's
a wild story about my father who was had a
secret double life in the mafia, and I only recently
found out and throughout him telling me the story and
me kind of asking people my family trying to confirm
if this was true or if he's nuts. I found
out a lot more to the story and ended up
(04:31):
just kind of coming together itself as a show. So yeah,
today's the premier day. Very exciting.
Speaker 7 (04:37):
Congratulations. This is multi layered.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
This is more than just producing a podcast like we
typically will share podcasts, and it's different because this is
your life.
Speaker 7 (04:47):
This is your father.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
This is very it feels very vulnerable and intimate to
hear and to see a little peek into it. But
it's so informational and I feel like we can take
away so much from it, and I have got to listen.
Speaker 7 (05:02):
To the entire thing.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
I am going to wait week to week because I
love that anticipation of having something you love to, you know,
stretch it out. But I know that you can hear
it all at once. On do you want to tell
everybody where they can go if they want to binge
on at once?
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yeah, you have to subscribe to a tenderfoot plus. I think, oh,
terrible lot this stuff. I'm just figuring that out.
Speaker 7 (05:21):
So yeah, let me tell you. Yes, you're right, get
mad at me. No, No, I'll yeah you can.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
You can listen to the entire thing early and binge
the whole season if you subscribe to Tenderfool TV right now.
So if you can't wait, I know the first two
episodes will blow your mind. So before I dive into
some of my questions, and I'll be very careful not
to give spoilers, I have to know when you said
you recently found out what's this timeframe?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Sure, that's a good question, so you know, and it
kind of This isn't really a spoiler, but you know,
in the in the one of the first two episodes,
you know, I basically found out my dad's a heroin
addict and he calls me in twenty thirteen. We've been
a strange for about four or five years. At this point,
the relationship was just terrible, a lot of bad stuff,
(06:14):
and he basically said that today's my last day unless
you give me some help. That's pretty much the gist
of his phone call. And so I didn't know what
to do. I decided I'll help him, and so I
just kind of started researching rehab facilities in the Los
Angeles area and got him booked, and then threw him
on a flight the next day and picked him up
from the airport and he was just like a skeleton
(06:35):
of a person. It was awful, and dropped him off
at the rehab place. And as he got sober over
the next several months year, he started to kind of
open up and start to tell me little bits and pieces.
And then eventually he's like, you know nothing about me.
Here's who I really am, and here's the story. And
so he just started kind of like unleashing all of
(06:57):
these things on me, and it was over the core
of about four years that the whole kind of picture
of every kind of like decade and every kind of
phase of his life came together, which was about twenty seventeen,
and at that point I felt like we were both
ready to turn this into more than just a story
passed from father's son and turn it into kind of
(07:19):
like really not really a podcast to like put out
there in the world, but something that I can create
that would be like a family history almost, you know,
just to kind of give my kid a little perspective
on his family history and you know, my uncles and
my aunts and my mom and my brother, who you know,
are all victims in their own way from the stuff
that happened with my dad, and kind of give them
(07:41):
a little bit explanation on it. And then it just
became so rich and I mean incredible really that I
just kind of formatted it into episodes and then it
turned into a podcast. And then I got a hold
of tenor Foot TV through their incredible composer mevs. Makeup
and Vanity Set, and he listened to the first kind
(08:01):
of pilot episode and he thought it was incredible and
brought it to Donald and we met up and they said,
let's do it. But then kind of COVID hit that
next year and I just kind of wasn't in the
mood to put this out, So I sat on it
for another four years until till last year, and we
finished all the episodes and kind of came up with
(08:22):
the plan to release it. So it's been it's been
eleven years since that first sit down with me. When
I brought him into rehab. We had known that he
had serious problems with it, but that was the first
time he had ever I mean, it's the first time
I talked to in five years, and it was the
first time I got an update on how he was doing.
And it was the first time that he had said
(08:43):
anything about it besides like trying to deny it or
whatever or just be an asshole. So it was like
the first kind of vulnerable moment that I had seen
from him, I mean almost ever, And so I think
that's why it struck me so hard, and I'm like,
he's really fucked up. I think I really need to
help this guy.
Speaker 7 (09:00):
So, yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
I'm glad, Oh, I bet, I bet it was very
traumatic and multi layered, and I'm glad you brought up
that everyone in your family are victims, because it's easy
to read a headline my dad had a secret life.
We didn't know he did all these things, and then
to disassociate from the person telling the story. But it's
(09:25):
you are a victim, Your brother's a victim, your mom, everybody.
I mean, it passes down generationally too, and so leaving
this kind of oral history also for your child is
kind of like a gift, like what can we take
away from this? What can we learn from this? Not
hide from it, but you know, confront it head on
(09:46):
and process it. Through this process, have you had to
battle some of the traumatic pieces that maybe you didn't
realize we're still there, or realizing how this may have
shaped the trajectory of your life without knowing until you
did this project.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Yeah, it's you know, it's it's been like going to
therapy for the last eleven years. You know, because as
I'm going through, as I'm interviewing my mom and my
brother and obviously my dad and his twin brother Rich
who appears in another episode, and his old firefighter partner
for twenty years, which appears later in the season two,
(10:24):
and he's got some insane stories, and his high school
girlfriend who had kept in touch with him for all
these years and who had no idea about it either.
So it's just like you're talking to all these people
and you're really it moves on from just being a
story that someone's telling to like an actual life and
(10:46):
how that kind of takes root in your heart. It
takes a long time to really kind of grasp, but
it took a lot of time to really understand it
and really understand what it means to me and how
I'm supposed to react to it and how I'm supposed
to move forward knowing all of this, basically knowing that
like my first twenty something years were in a way
a lie, you know, and then how it affected my
(11:10):
mom and how it affects my relationship with my mom
and my brother, who were both big time victims of it.
It's a lot, like you say, it's multi layered, and
it really is like a huge, you know, therapy session
for me as I'm as I'm digging in and trying
to understand it. And that's what I tried to do
as a narrator in the show, is to be extremely
vulnerable and kind of like be it along for the
(11:32):
ride and accept the hard truths and hopefully learn from
it and make myself a better person and make my
family stronger and not repeat the same mistakes that he made.
So yeah, in a way, it's it's been an amazing
thing because it really gives me perspective on my life
(11:56):
versus his life. And even when we didn't know this stuff.
You know, I didn't have a family history really, like
I just knew my dad was a heroin aut and
you fucked everything up. So there's so many questions that
I have, and like so much anger and pain and
like the fuck, why would.
Speaker 8 (12:13):
You do this?
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Why would you ruin this family? You know, you're so selfish,
Like all those emotions really bubbled up. And so I've
been able to put to bed all those all those
emotions and now just accept it and move forward, like
you say, and confront it and in a way kind
of own it and be proud of it because I
get to learn from it, so does my kid.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
How do you broach even begin to broach the subject
with close family that maybe didn't know about all of this,
and you say, hey, you're about to find out a
lot in a little amount of time, and it's going
to be heavy.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
You know, that's good. I think that people take cues
from the person giving them news or information. So if
I come at it like all freaked out, their initial
reaction is to be freaked out. But I'm coming at
it from a place of just like truth and confidence
and showing the positive sides of it. And so when
they when I have to sit someone down, and like
(13:10):
when I had to tell my mom all these details,
or when I had to like tell my brother that
you know, that dad was a hit man, you know,
it's like you kind of have to do it, and
you have to be the big you know, you have
to be the parent in the room essentially, you know
what I mean. And then to my son, of course
he doesn't know about this stuff yet, but he will when,
you know, when he comes of age. You know, he
(13:31):
knows that his grandpa that he doesn't see, he doesn't
seen him for a reason is because his grandpa's sick,
and that he's made a lot of bad choices in
his life, and those bad choices, you know, have led
to him and my relationship, you know, being almost non exsistent,
and so you kind of like plant seeds along the
way for the kid, but the adults you have to
treat like adults, and you just have to go in
(13:52):
and say, I don't know if you know this, but
this is the truth and it's time we all confront
it and just kind of be the leader pack.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Yeah, so that's a lot on your shoulders to go
in and after you've processed or trying to process all
this information, then you have to re tell it to
the closest members of your family who were directly impacted
by it.
Speaker 7 (14:14):
So this would be a very very heavy project.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Has your mom and your brother have they listened to
the podcast?
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Yeah, we're gonna have a bonus episode after the season.
Okay that it was on Christmas, you know, just a
couple of months ago, and we had finished all the
episodes and I set them both down and we listened
to the whole season together and we recorded it. And
it was their kind of fresh reactions to everything. You know,
they knew the gist of it, but to hear the
(14:44):
episodes and hear every detail played out and hear his
interviews very emotional. It was a tough day. We drank
a lot of wine to get through that day, but
I think it was really valuable for all of us,
and it really brought us all together there.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
And it's interesting because just doing a little bit of
reading about you and your career, and you know, as
a family man, a husband, a father, and all of
the projects you've got going on, you seem so far
removed from anything that your father was involved in.
Speaker 7 (15:20):
What do you attribute that to?
Speaker 2 (15:23):
That's interesting? You know, well, I didn't find out that,
you know, the mafia stuff until twenty thirteen, and I
was well into my career at that point and already married.
But the heroin and you know, just the kind of
emotional abuse of being at home. Fortunately for me, I
was seventeen, I was senior in high school and when
(15:45):
it started to get really bad, so I was able
to kind of leave and go to college and separate
myself from that. And I was extremely immature and young
and didn't know how to deal with that kind of stuff,
So it was easier for me to disassociate at that
time and just be a college guy and work on
my career because I always knew that I wanted to
be a filmmaker or in music or some kind of
(16:06):
entertainment ever since I was ten years old. When I
got my first guitar. That was just I had the direction.
I just knew it. But my younger brother, unfortunately didn't
have that kind of direction. And he is three years
younger than me, so he was a freshman in high
school when it all started getting really bad. So he
basically lived his entire high school life with a heroin
(16:26):
attic father, you know, so incredibly dysfunctional, and that poor
kid bears the scars of those years, and I think
it changed him. I think he would be a much
different person. He's a great guy. He's really come a
long way and he's doing well, and I'm really proud
of him and I love him so much. But I
think obviously that affected him in a really negative way.
(16:47):
And so kind of to answer your question, I was
fortunate enough to have built a foundation, a new foundation,
away from all that, so it was a lot healthier
for me and easier for me to come back to
it and approach it instead of me being a kid
and trying to deal with it and start a life
(17:10):
out of, you know, the ashes of your childhood. So yeah,
that's so interesting.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Now you you can grow up in the same household,
but you don't have the same parents of the same reality.
Speaker 7 (17:22):
It's very interesting.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
You know, so you moved away and went to college
and your brother was in the house as a single child,
basically only child.
Speaker 7 (17:31):
Yes, while you were away of college.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Has that ever come up between you two about about that?
Speaker 2 (17:39):
I mean, it's not like a point of conflict between
us or anything like that, but of course, you know,
that is the reality. And he even says in one
of his interviews, he's like, you know, fortunate, he was
unfortunate for me. I was there and I had to
see all this stuff, and you know, he's he's the
type of person who really buries his emotions and tries
(18:01):
to forget and like put it all locked, lock it
all in a black box, you know, upstairs somewhere so
he doesn't have to deal with it. And so the
emotional journey for him and this show is you know,
when he actually got to listen to all the episodes,
it was the first time he had listened to any
of the episodes, and and for him to kind of
see the full story, I think I think it made
(18:23):
a huge impact on him. And I think it showed
him that that he doesn't have to hide from it,
that he can maybe try to own it and start
the process of accepting it instead of trying to hide
it and lock it away, because you know, at the
end of the day, the you know, the one of
the morals of the story is secrets are like a poison.
(18:43):
And the longer you keep a secret, you know, the
more distance you put between yourself and your loved ones,
and the more lies you have to come up with.
Keep a secret, and pretty much you completely disassociate you know,
your worlds, which is what happened to my dad. He
completely disassociated one world from another and was one person
over here and one person over here. And that took
a long time for him to develop that mechanism, you know,
(19:04):
defense mechanism. But it's not healthy at all. And if
you're trying to be a healthy person, and especially if
you're trying to raise your own family, you need to
be completely honest with everybody, no matter how hard it is.
And so I think this really gave me like a
visceral truth, like it just showed it showed me the
way of how to be a better man and how
to be a better partner and father.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
You can hear your brother's pain in his interview. It's
the second episode when when he comes in and retells
a story. I won't go into it. I don't want
to spoil it, but you can you can hear how
real and raw it is. And when he's retelling an experience,
it just ripped my heart apart, he said, Aline, And
I don't want to spoil it, but there I'll tell
(19:48):
you offline, there's something that just peers through my heart.
And I was like, this is so real and so raw,
and everybody is so brave and vulnerable to share this
story because how many stories may come out like this.
People will hear and say, Okay, I'm not gonna be
freight anymore. I'm gonna basis head on. Especially you know
(20:09):
you say words like mafia. That's that can be a
very terrifying subject. And it's very real and it's not pretend.
I know it's it's got the Hollywood perception of it,
but it is a very real and dangerous entity. So
I'm curious if there has ever been a layer of
(20:29):
fear or anything as you go forward with this project
or during it, there's.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Always been an underbelly of what if this goes wrong?
And what if someone hears something that triggers something and
they feel like retaliating, or even the police like an
old agent. If you hear something and it sounds like
a something that he was working on thirty years ago
and it's the missing piece to his investigation or whatever.
(20:57):
Of course that reality is there. It's going to be there.
That was part of the risk of putting this out there.
And and I had those conversations with with my dad
and and my family about it, and you know, his
response to it was is that if karma's coming, let
karma come. You know, he's him being able to tell
this and unleash this kind of monkey that's been on
(21:19):
his back for his whole life. To me, it was
way more therapeutic and and worth it. If if he's
got justice coming to him, then he's kind of accepted it.
That's the kind of man he is, like he's he's
just like, I've my life is terrible, My memories are terrible.
Uh you you boys, You know, his sons were the
only real joy that he had in his life. And
(21:42):
and he doesn't want to be remembered as a piece
of shit I mean to be. To put it bluntly,
he wants to be remembered as someone who tried really
really hard to keep this awful world away from us,
and he just he in a way, he succeeded, but
he failed because he it turned him into a drug addict,
because that's how we had to deal with it. So
(22:03):
but yeah, you know, I'm I'm already getting dms from
people that look like they're in the mob, and I'm like, oh, great,
here we go. So I'm just being nice. And you know,
I mean, listen, if you listen to the whole season,
you'll understand that the way I do it is not
like some some tell all snitch fest, you know, where
(22:23):
I'm like digging up dead bodies and pointing to this
person saying you did this. It's not like that at all.
It really is like a family story that's wrapped in
a mafia package. So I don't at the end of
the day, I don't feel I feel like this could
actually help people instead of it being detrimental.
Speaker 7 (22:40):
Absolutely, absolutely so.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
Has your dad reached out to your mom since this
has come about?
Speaker 7 (22:49):
Have they communicated at all?
Speaker 6 (22:51):
After all?
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Yeah, he's they've texted a bunch, and you know, they've
been separated for a long time. They're still not divorced,
but they've been separate for over a decade, and you know,
there's just only so much lying that one person can take,
you know, And from my mom's perspective, and I don't
blame her, she's just done and so he can say
(23:12):
whatever he wants, but like he's burned that bridge with
her and she needs to move on with her life,
which she has and she's been She's done a really
great job kind of getting trying to get her life together,
you know, as a single woman. In her she just
turned seventy in December, you know, so she's stable. She
still lives in the Chicago Land area and is just
(23:33):
living her life and you know, being a grandma to
my son and being a mom to me and Corey
and my brother.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
When I first saw I can't remember if it was
Pain or Tenderfoot who first shared that Crook County coming out,
and I thought, oh, my gosh, because I have also
been one of those who has been fascinated with the
ins and outs of the mafia and how that works
and all of those you know, you have the Hollywood tales,
but also the real life stories and people you meet
(24:01):
along the way who will share stories about their loved
ones who were also in it and how it affected everybody.
Speaker 7 (24:09):
And as soon as I heard the trailer, I was
absolutely hooked.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
And I have to also commend whoever did the editing
and the sound production and just the producing and all
the sound effects. It sounds like you're listening to a
radio drama.
Speaker 7 (24:27):
It is cool, impressive.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Well that so I did. That's I'm a filmmaker, so
I did all that editing on that. But but I
had a great team and they helped kind of, you know,
push me in certain directions as far as how they
would want the trailer to go. And you know, Donald
and Payne are really great meters over at Tenderfoot, and
they've got a lot of experience in this space. And
then MAVs make him in Vanity said did the score
(24:50):
and he's incredible, and then you know, everybody over at
Tenderfoot's just been absolutely amazing. And I couldn't have picked
better partners for this show. But yeah, that was one
of the things I've listened to many podcasts, and I
just didn't want this to be people talking for you know,
an hour, two hours, you know, for twelve episodes. I
really wanted this to feel, like you said, like a
radio drama like I wanted to feel cinematic. I wanted
(25:11):
to be able to close your eyes and just transport
right to the moment that I'm talking about. So yeah,
it's very, very heavy with sound effects and sound design
and really crafting the worlds and moments like a movie.
It really is like an audio movie for sure.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
It's very cinematic. I grew up on all that. I
don't know if you are familiar with the old school
radio dramas like Gangbuster, are yeah, Gangbusters and The Green Lantern,
all those old radio dramas. Yeah, I group listening to
all those, and so I've really felt nostalgic almost listening
to the first two episodes. And also as a producer myself,
(25:49):
I can really appreciate when someone's really good at what
they're doing, and it makes me like, think, I got
a level at my stuff. I can learn a lot
from This is really interesting. So I really appreciated that
behind the scenes. Level two, are you interested in developing?
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Thank you?
Speaker 7 (26:06):
You're welcome Krik County into.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
A documentary series for film. With your background and the
projected popularity that I know Krik County is going to
get already getting. By the way, I know you're not checking,
but it's looking good.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Thank you. That's that's very cool. Yeah, I feel like
we were talking about this before we got on, but
I just I'm trying to not obsess over it and
just let it be and not try too hard to
turn this into something. And I just I feel like
I've put my energy into crafting the show, and if
it gets out there and people connect with it, that's amazing.
(26:43):
I'm not going to try to force it and we'll
just see how it goes. But it's people like you
who have reached out to me. You know, I've never
met you before, but you saw the trailer and you're like,
this is insane, and that's how we started talking. And
so I mean to me, that means everything to me
because I want this to be something that people can
not only enjoy listening to, but like maybe find some
healing in their own in their own life, because there's
(27:04):
a lot of lessons to be learned, you know, throughout
every episode. So that's great. I appreciate that. Thank you
very much. And then your other question is will this
be a series well as far as documentary series, No,
this is the documentary, but but it's so rich. The
world are so rich, the characters are so rich, there's
so much going on. It spans you know, three decades,
(27:26):
and there's so many angles to it that it just seems
like it's a natural fit for Prestige TV, a narrative
you know, with actors and writers. So yeah, that's the hope.
I mean, I think that'd be pretty awesome.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
As you move forward. Where can people find you to
connect with you? If they want to connect with you
on social media? Where can they find Kyle Tequila and County.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Everything's at Krook County Pod or at Kirk County Podcast,
I can't remember which one it is. And then you know,
my my personal sham pain Tequila and I'm public and
you know whatever, I'm happy to talk to anybody. I'm
not trying to hide anything, so and I'd love to
talk with with everybody who listens to the show and
get their feedback and you know, enjoy the process. I'm
(28:13):
not trying to hide from it or whatever. I'm here
and I'll talk to anybody and just trying to enjoy
every moment of this process. So yeah, one of the
one of the things I want to do with this
is I want to do an audience Q and A.
So I've got like a voicemail thing set up, so
if you go to Kirkcounty Podcast dot com, you can
(28:33):
click on the leave of voicemail and ask me a
question or just say something and then I can take
that recording and play it on the episode and kind
of answer that. And so I want to do that
later on in the year. So please feel free to
visit kirk County Podcast and dot com and leave me
a voicemail and maybe you'll be on the show.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
I will add all of your connections and your tags
in our show notes too. So anybody listening that wants
to connect with Kyle Tequila and krit County Podcast, I
know you're the one that runs krit County Podcast social media,
so you can kind of find.
Speaker 7 (29:10):
Out where he is easily. He's not too hard to
find on there.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
But okay, so back to this one question that I
have to ask when I asked you earlier, like if
you if there's any fear about doing this podcast, you
bounced it back to your dad, wasn't afraid and if
justice is coming then that's the kind of guy is
But what about like you, you are involved, obviously very
(29:36):
involved and you said, people are messaging you know, I'm curious.
Was there ever a point during this where you're like, oh,
I made a mistake or you feel fear for your family,
not really particularly you per se.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Well, I will say this that there were things that
I discovered in the interview with my dad that I
did not put in the show for a good reason.
So you know, of course there are If I was
an idiot, I would put this stuff in, and then
I should absolutely be terrified. But I feel like I
did a pretty good job of filtering that kind of
(30:11):
you know, knowledge with what's currently in the show versus
what's not in the show. And I think I'm able
to thread that needle pretty successfully with you know, and
there's enough detail and enough story to understand the world
and really get the picture without like calling out people
by name or like I said, you know, showing where
the bodies are buried, you know, because that would be
(30:33):
not good for me for sure. So yeah, I think
I've done my best to kind of hopefully filter all
that out. But of course, you know, my wife, she
in the beginning of this, she was like a little
very hesitant, and rightfully so. And you know, there were
some interactions earlier on with my dad that were really questionable.
You know, there was a point in time where like
he like was kind of homeless or in between homes,
(30:55):
and he was using my address as his address, and
we were getting weird male packaging and and you know,
there the story of him leaving the outfit. You know,
that's part of his journey that he became a firefighter
paramedic after he left the outfit, but he never really
left the outfit. You can't really meet the outfit. You're
(31:16):
a part of that family forever. And so as a
firefighter paramedic, he was still doing the bidding of the mob,
you know, as a first responder civilian and so and
that went on, I mean throughout me being in middle school,
he was still doing that kind of shit. And so,
you know, and when I met my wife, I was
very young. I was twenty one, So there was still
(31:38):
there's still weird that happenings going on with my dad
that she was able to see that were creepy. You know.
So there's definitely a one percent chance that something can
blow up in my face still, but I feel like
that's a mitigated risk and I've done my best to
help mitigate it. So recently got a DM from someone
(32:02):
who I can confirm has a relative that was involved
in the mob. I won't say his name, OK, but
when he when he reached out to me, I was
my heart jumped because I know I know that last name,
like it's that last name is kind of in the show.
I was like, oh my god. And it was basically
like the message was this looks cool, you know, just
simple nothing, and I'm like, is that sarcasm? And am
(32:24):
I gonna get killed?
Speaker 7 (32:25):
Is that ominous the show?
Speaker 2 (32:29):
And so I wrote him back a couple of times
and it was like silence, and I'm like, oh god,
I'm totally fucked. I'm already on their map and the
show's not even out yet, but h and then you.
But he finally got back to me and he's like, no,
this really looks great and I actually have his screenplay.
I'd love to talk to you about my show. Like, so,
you know, it's like they all have their own thing
that they want to pitch, you know what I mean.
(32:49):
So I feel like it's not it's not like it
was in the eighties and nineties when they were really
at like kind of the pinnacle of their power, and
and you just don't rat and you don't say anything,
and you know, it's like everyone's got legitimate businesses for
the most part, and you know their families are living
trying to live legitimate lives. And I think everyone feels
(33:12):
like they've got a great story to tell, and a
lot of them want to figure out a way to
tell that story. So we've already been talking about maybe
turning his story into another season or whatever. But but yeah, again,
I think this could be really helpful as opposed to
be something that stabs me in the back figured figurtted
way homeward.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
Literally I knew it the second I saw it. I'm like,
oh my gosh, this is something special. This is incredible,
and it's so just put together so well, and you
sound so amazing, and obviously you sound trained.
Speaker 7 (33:48):
What is your background.
Speaker 8 (33:50):
Well, I've been producing movies for like over a decade,
which is a similar timeline too, when my dad came
and said I'm gonna kill myself if you don't fix me.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
So like right around that time is when I made
my first movie, or I was going into production on
my first movie. But but prior to that, you know,
in college, I studied film and TV and I was
a producer, editor director, like like we basically were like
a one man band, like you would go out and
film these really great documentary stories and put them on
(34:22):
together as a show. And the show with Aaron Pbs
in the Chicago Land area in the Midwest, so i'd
kind of like I've been packaging and putting together documentary
style stuff since I was eighteen, and so for me,
it's just very easy to kind of put a story
together and know what works and what doesn't. And I'm
very good at editing. I've been an editor and a
(34:42):
graphic designer for a long time, so and and I'm
a musician, so I know how to deal with music
and sound, and I don't know, I think just my
whole background was just the perfect situation to create something
like this, and I hope people would would see that,
you know, And so thank you for bringing that up,
because you know, it is a craft to tell a
(35:03):
good story, and not everyone can do it. You know,
a lot of people have done a great job, and
a lot of podcasts I've heard really are excellent, and
I've enjoyed I've enjoyed the whole space, but yeah, you
know you could. There's there's a thing in Hollywood and
it's like the editor is the second director, and a
good edit can save the bad film. And that's extremely true.
(35:24):
You know, the editing is everything, and you can take
the worst footage and the worst story and if you
can edit it the right way, you can create something
really magical. So, yeah, I appreciate you calling that up.
Speaker 7 (35:36):
Yeah, that's that is so true too.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
We're pretty novice over here and I'm learning on boots
on the ground, and so I've also learned to be
smart enough to surround myself with people who are so
much better and so much more experience and so much
wiser into just be quiet and listen and watch and
study them because I'm learning so much.
Speaker 7 (35:59):
To your foot was so freaking smart to swoop you up.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
You can totally tell people are passionate one hundred.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Percent, and they're passionate, they're enthusiastic, and they're very good
at what they do. And you know, one thing that's
really special about pay is that he has a similar
background to me as far as like filmmaking and editing,
which which is why you know that first season of
Up and Vanished, when I heard it back in God,
was that like twenty seventeen or something like that. It was,
it was a while ago. That was I mean, it
(36:28):
felt like a movie as well, you know, so I
think I think honestly the reality is that I heard
up and vanished and I was like, wow, this is
this felt like a movie. I could just close my
eyes and he's taking me there. And that's I think
when it really clicked that I could turn my dad's
story and expand it and not just have it be
like an in house family thing, but put it out
(36:49):
there in a way that in a package that is
that is appropriate for entertainment for people to listen to. So, yeah,
if you're if you're struggling with something, you know, that's
why there's therapy. That's why they're you know, for for addicts.
That's why there's alcoholics anonymous and narc anonymous and cocaine
anonymous and all that. Like, there's no shame in getting help.
The problem is when you try to hide it and
(37:10):
help yourself, it never works out. And I've seen that
so many times happen with my dad, with people other
people that I know, and I think it's it's really
cathartic and a beautiful thing when you can open yourself
up to your most vulnerable parts and and it's it's
incredible how it changes you. It makes you actually so
much more confident and feel better about everything when you
(37:32):
do let it out there in the world and you
do put yourself make it on stage, because then there's
nothing left to hide. Yeah, and to have that foundation
to live the rest of your life is so powerful.
You know, there's so much to this story. It's hard
to describe it. You know, it really is. And you've
heard the first two episodes. You know it's not just
a mafia story. It's not just a family story. Somehow,
(37:53):
it's all those things and a million other things. So
I really think, if you, if you you're curious, give
those first two episodes a shot and see if it
hooks you, and then listen to the rest of the season.
And I want to hear from you. I think what
I want to leave with is just I want to
hear from you if this story affected you in any way,
if even if you just liked it or you thought
(38:15):
it was shit, I want to hear that too. But yeah,
I just want to be really interactive with the people
who can take something from the show and you know,
just enjoy the experience. It's it's quite a thrilling ride
because you know, when you're living with something for so
many years privately, to put it out there, it's wild.
You know, it's a really wild experience, and not a
(38:36):
lot of people get that opportunity, So I just wanted
to take advantage of that and enjoy every second.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
Well, we appreciate it, and we look forward to the
rest of Krik County everybody. I'm going to put all
the links in our show notes and post a lot
of the video clips from this podcast on social media.
I'm on Instagram at your host Jules, and today I'm
here with the podcast Drough Crumben Headlines, and this kicks
off season three.
Speaker 6 (38:57):
Thank you Kyle, thank you Joe.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
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