Kenny witnesses American Airlines Flight 191 crashing out of O’Hare Airport killing everyone on board and reveals a newfound purpose. Things take a dark turn when a girl disappears and Ken takes matters into his own hands. The Turf Wars rage in the streets of Chicago.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: What is the significance of American Airlines Flight 191 crash?
So not only working and running whorehouses, I'm doing occasional hits on the side. All right, ordered hits. And we met a new boss. Big fat Paulie. He always gave me my assignment.
Kenny's twin brother, Rich, revealed an abusive childhood. I remember eating dog food because I was so damn hungry. You know, some of the torture stuff, I wouldn't, I'd never speak of it, ever. And remembers Ken as a troubled kid. You could see why he could be an enforcer, because he just had that mentality, very violent mentality.
My name is Kyle Tequila. Welcome to Crook County.
Crushed by the way that I'm tired. I see it because I'm living alone.
There was up evil in the outfit at that time. The cubs were being taken over by different factions. The drugs, there was a big turf war for drugs. There was a lot of up evil at that particular time. So I was able to backdoor my shit out at that time.
Episode 6 Fire in the Sky
We're reporting this afternoon on the worst commercial air disaster in United States commercial aviation history. There was a plane that went down in Chicago at DC-10 that I actually witnessed this plane go down. At O'Hare Field, flight 191, American Airlines bound for Los Angeles. The account of possible disaster victims ranges from 263 up to 279, some as high as 290.
In 1979, the tragic crash of American Airlines Flight 191 shocked the country.
Hugh Hill is now in position at O'Hare Field to give us our first direct on-the-scenes report. Hugh?
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Chapter 2: How did the plane crash influence Kenny's career aspirations?
Ken was leaving a shift at the club and stopped to pump gas at a station near O'Hare Airport when he witnessed the plane make a cartwheel in midair and nosedive into the ground shortly after takeoff.
Many rescue vehicles leaving the area, more coming in, fighting rush hour traffic to get there. Just an unbelievable sight. Hundreds of people milling around, wishing that they could help, wanting to help, I'm sure. But the heat is so intense from the smoldering wreckage, it's almost impossible to get close to some of the areas of the plane that are left.
The scene left an enormous impression on Kenny's mind. And over the course of the next few months, an idea began to form that maybe, one day, he could be a firefighter.
Chapter 3: What was Kenny's role in the Chicago Outfit?
It's just like, it's all the fire trucks, the police, and everybody converging in on this. I'm like, man, that'd be a cool job, dude.
They are still taking bodies out every few minutes. The firemen are still here. All of these emergency personnel, quite dedicated to the task. Highly professional people, but of course, touched by the emotion of this day and this night.
So I just did a little bit of research, and back then, research, you had to go to a library, you know. So I did a little research, and I knew I did not want to be in the outfit my whole life. I just knew I didn't want to do that, even though I was a natural. But I just simply didn't want to do it.
But it was only an idea, and a crazy one at that. He was deep in the outfit, and there was no way they would ever let him go. So he put it behind him and went back to work.
But I always knew, and this is kind of bizarre, but I always knew that the less I knew, the better chance I had of surviving. Now, we flip that coin. I'm doing hits, all right? You know, that's knowing too much. So I'm in the mode of, you know, don't get nosy, don't ask questions, do your job and go home.
However, I guess the people that are attracted to that business and are in their business are not, there's no paper trail. And back then it was strictly paper. There's no computers, all right, strictly paper. And if you didn't have a paper trail, you didn't exist. These people were living, they were tangible, they ate, they breathed, they did bad things, but they didn't exist.
Everything was done with cash. Like I said, you could walk into a goddamn car dealer in 1979 and buy a fucking Coupe Deville for $12,000 cash, because that's all they wanted was cash. And no one's asking any fucking questions. I don't give a fuck who this guy is. Here's your application. I mean, whatever you're filling out there, use whatever fucking name you want.
I got that cash in my hand, baby. That shit's packed right there. So it's a cash world. No one's asking questions. Now that, you could never do that now. That's impossible. You just, you can't, you can't live like that now. And you can't get away with the stuff that we got away with now. It would be impossible.
I asked Chicago Tribune reporter Jeff Cohen to weigh in on this general period in the outfit.
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Chapter 4: How was life in Chicago affected by organized crime in the 70s and 80s?
And so that let them expand into basically almost all manner of life in Chicago. There were certain neighborhoods where you couldn't even open up a hot dog stand without getting some kind of permission and or street loan from somebody who would then have a piece of that business going forward. So you had money moving through the city
at all levels that they controlled through legitimate businesses and definitely through illegitimate ones.
As the years dragged on, the image of the plane crash still haunted him, and he found himself no longer able to suppress the urge to move on from the outfit.
Yeah, the reason I was, the reason I remember that plane crash so much is because that's when I decided I wanted to be a paramedic firefighter. I didn't, you know, I figured that's my career now, I'm going to do this. Because I don't want to do what I'm doing. Everybody that worked in that business, that was their career. In their minds, that's what they were going to do forever.
And I knew that that's just not going to happen. It just can't happen.
Ken had made up his mind and put a plan in place to eventually leave the outfit. With his current responsibilities taking up most of his time, he knew it would take years to finish all the classes required to get his paramedic license before he could even begin to look for a job. But none of that would even matter without the approval of the higher-ups, which he knew was impossible.
So he went back to his old boss, Mickey, the made guy who first saw potential in a young kid who had robbed his nephew and offered him a place in the outfit.
I was young. I still had a chance to get out. And he just kind of liked me, and he knew that would not be a good life for me. So he kind of encouraged me on the side to just, you know, go ahead, get your education, all right? So he was like a mentor. Yeah, he was like a mentor. Like a weird fucking fucked-up mentor.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, he was like, you know, I mean, I looked at him like a dad, you know?
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Chapter 5: How did Kenny plan to leave the Chicago Outfit?
So, with the green light from Mickey, Ken hit the books.
I start studying to be an EMT paramedic, all right? I get my EMT, I can take the fire department test. Anyway, so I go through that period. I am working in the outfit, and I'm studying to be an EMT because I want to get out of fire department. I want a career. I want to get out of this business.
But he was still years away from passing any tests. And he still had a job to do, managing the club. And that responsibility came before all else.
So I remember working the front door of the whorehouses and studying my EMT book while I was working the front door of the whorehouses. I distinctly remember that. They thought I was nuts. You know, what the fuck you want to do that for? Let's go out and party. You know, I just told them, listen, I got more important shit to do, okay? More important to me. So, and I think they respected that.
So I think I impressed the bosses too. You know, cause I wasn't just, I wasn't doing what everybody was doing. I was trying to move on.
Part of that responsibility included hiring new girls. And one new girl in particular lit a fire in Ken that almost cost him everything.
There's a type of soil in Mississippi called Yazoo clay. It's thick, burnt orange, and it's got a reputation.
It's terrible, terrible dirt.
Yazoo clay eats everything, so things that get buried there tend to stay buried. Until they're not. In 2012, construction crews at Mississippi's biggest hospital made a shocking discovery.
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Chapter 6: Who was Honey and what was her impact on Kenny?
We would date. I dated her. In fact, I'll be honest with you, I think I fell in love with her. I really do. I think I fell in love with that girl. I asked him what she looked like.
yeah kind of short i don't know maybe five four little baby doll cuts you know short bangs you know down the sides of the cheeks back of the cheeks and then cropped up on the neck you know just i don't know what they call them baby dolls i used to call them baby doll cuts she wore red lipstick drove me insane red lipstick drives me insane She wore it all the time.
And she had those sparkling, beautiful eyes. So you could swim in them. I could just dive. Go swimming in her eyes. And that smile, man, it got me every fucking time.
It's a great girl. Ken knew he would need to tread carefully with Honey. But the attraction was too strong. They were lovers and friends and would spend many nights confiding in each other.
She would, and I would come to work, you know, stressed out because I was in school a lot. And, you know, I knew I had to work a late shift and, you know, I was tired, but I'd walk in the door and she would be waiting for me, man. She was always so loyal and there. She would just, I'd see that big smile on her and it just, you know, just, everything went away. All the bad stuff went away.
But Honey wasn't the only woman in Ken's life.
I was seeing Honey when I was dating your mother, Kyle. We weren't married, but we were dating, and we would, for quite a period there, just like all people when they first start dating, maybe not all people, but in our particular case, we would break up for a time, and then get back together, break up for a time, get back together. And for a couple years there, your mother and I broke up.
And that's when I did a lot of this... mobster work. We did a lot of it when I was broken up with her.
I asked my mom what she remembers about these years.
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