Podcasts about bears

Matt Jones and Drew Franklin jump into Week 17 with the Bears just falling short against the 49ers. Week 18 will have a big impact on playoff scenarios and Matt is wondering how many NFC are legit contenders. The Eagles 2nd half stats and lack of offense has Drew doubting them in the playoffs. Which QB are you going to trust in the playoffs? Matt highlights teams that have disappointed down the stretch. Matt recaps his first play by play experience and the feedback from fans. Matt explains some of the 'magic' during the broadcast and how coaches would reveal their game plans. Looking back at the Christmas NFL games, how did we see two of the best kickers in the league struggle? The Lions took a bad loss to the Vikings. Matt feels bad for Travis Kelce's possible last home game at Arrowhead. The Texans defense could give them a chance in the playoffs. The Ravens put up a strong game against the Packers. The Steelers have to be disappointed losing to the Browns. The Patriots rolled past the Jets. The Colts have lost 7 of 8...Matt wonders if it was worth it for Philip Rivers. The Raiders lose and become the favorite for the #1 overall pick. Plus, Matt reviews some rules for wearing different sports jerseys.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The 2025 NFL season is 17 weeks old and with the playoffs right around the corner, a few playoff seedings and spots are still up for grabs. The San Francisco 49ers defeated the Chicago Bears in an offensive shootout to keep their hopes of the NFC's #1 seed alive. Brock Purdy and Caleb Williams traded punches throughout Sunday evening until the 49ers defense stood tall. The Sam Darnold and the Seattle Seahawks knocked off the Carolina Panthers, setting up a week 18 matchup that'll determine the winner of the NFC South. The Philadelphia Eagles held off the Buffalo Bills comeback attempt. Jalen Hurts commanded the first half and Josh Allen owned the second half but it was the Eagles defense that dominated the entire game, allowing the Eagles to stay alive in the race for the NFC's 2nd seed. The Steelers fell to the Browns, the Ravens knocked off the Packers and the Texans defeated the Chargers to all set up wild Wk18 playoff implications. Chris and the fellas break down the games, talk through the playoff outlooks and give their best thoughts on the teams that can win a Super Bowl this season. (00:00:00) - NFL Week 17 Reactions: Dawg of the Day (00:08:35) - Philadelphia Eagles vs Buffalo Bills (00:42:00) - San Francisco 49ers vs Chicago Bears (01:06:15) - Seattle Seahawks vs Carolina Panthers (01:19:00) - Miami Dolphins vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers (01:27:45) - Baltimore Ravens vs Green Bay Packers (01:30:25) - Cleveland Browns vs Pittsburgh Steelers (01:42:45) - Houston Texans vs LA Chargers (01:54:20) - Denver Broncos vs Kansas City Chiefs (01:57:05) - Jacksonville Jaguars vs Indianapolis Colts (02:08:00) - NFL Playoff Previews: Teams That You Trust (02:22:35) - Bermuda Triangle Games: Lions vs Vikings, Bengals vs Cardinals, Cowboys vs Commanders, Saints vs Titans, Patriots vs Jets & Giants vs Raiders (02:36:15) - Locals Landline Presented By Zone (02:41:45) - BetMGM Moments (03:26:05) - MNF Preview: LA Rams at Atlanta Falcons Have some interesting takes, some codebreaks or just want to talk to the Green Light Crew? We want to hear from you. Call into the Green Light Hotline and give us your hottest takes, your biggest gripes and general thoughts. Day and night, this hotline is open. Green Light Hotline: ‪(202) 991-0723‬ Also, check out our paddling partners at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Appomattox River Company ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠to get your canoes, kayaks and paddleboards so you're set to hit the river this summer. Green Light's ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube Channel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, where you can catch all the latest GL action: If you want some Black Friday merch, check out our sale:https://greenlightpodcast.shop/?fbclid=PAZnRzaAOR1RFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xMjQwMjQ1NzQyODc0MTQAAad3Jup6i1N2qH77pK8eUeSbKt2Y0OXMldIw1dRTq_xDRuY3Ctp99Qj4pfyGAw_aem_w9tp_XwGL-ZptFIHvlrM1g Green Light with Chris Long: Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more including hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you.

FS1's Danny Parkins joins the show to react to the Bears lose to the 49ers, break down NFL Week 18 and much more!

Nick Kostos is LIVE on this Tuesday. Nick Kostos opens the show with his recap of the Falcons win over the LA Rams. Plus, Danny Parkins joins the show to break down the Bears loss to the 49ers and NFL Week 18.

Nate Tice is joined by PFF's Trevor Sikkema to buy or sell playoff teams as true Super Bowl contenders before breaking down a few of their favorite prospects in the 2026 NFL Draft. Nate & Trevor start with the AFC, as they explain why they're both buying the Denver Broncos, New England Patriots and Jacksonville Jaguars. The duo disagree on the Houston Texans before touching on the Los Angeles Chargers & Buffalo Bills.Next, the two hosts dive into the NFC playoff bracket: they both buy the Seattle Seahawks (with some caveats), Philadelphia Eagles and Los Angeles Rams. The duo sell the Chicago Bears, both NFC South teams (Tampa Bay Buccaneers & Carolina Panthers) and the Green Bay Packers. Nate & Trevor work out their disagreements on the San Francisco 49ers.The duo round out the show with a few thoughts on some of their favorite prospects in the 2026 NFL Draft, including who to keep an eye on in the College Football Playoff.(4:35) - Broncos(15:35) - Patriots(24:20) - Jaguars(35:10) - Texans(41:10) - Chargers & Bills(43:35) - Seahawks(49:20) - Bears(58:20) - NFC South(1:00:20) - 49ers(1:06:40) - Rams(1:09:40) - Packers & Eagles(1:14:20) - Our favorite NFL Draft prospects Subscribe to Football 301 on your favorite podcast app:

How far can Brock Purdy take the banged-up San Francisco 49ers? Yahoo Sports' Andrew Siciliano, Charles Robinson and Frank Schwab recap that thrilling SNF shootout and dive into key winner-take-all battles in the AFC North and NFC South. Will the Pittsburgh Steelers or Baltimore Ravens come out on top of the division? Is it fair that the struggling Tampa Bay Buccaneers or hot-and-cold Carolina Panthers will host a playoff game? Closing things out, the crew looks at the most disappointing teams that missed the playoffs before discussing their "One More Thing."(6:20) - 49ers win shootout over Bears(19:40) - Browns upset Steelers(40:40) - Bucs & Panthers fight to win abysmal NFC South(49:34) - Which playoffs miss is most disappointing?(1:02:25) - One More Thing

(0:00) Falcons Beat Rams, Did Stafford lose the MVP? (23:40) Ravens favored vs. Steelers, Will Lamar Jackson get traded if they lose? (41:15) Brou's MVP Ballot (46:35) Mahomes Mountain (01:07:23) Who is getting into the Hall of Fame? (01:21:55) Should Rams fans be concerned?  (01:28:23) Top Ten Tuesday, View on Rams changed after loss? (01:52:38) Chargers to sit Justin Herbert, Good the Bears are so aggressive? (02:02:11) Superlatives  (02:10:27) Is Eli Manning a Hall of Fame? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

(0:00) Ravens beat Packers, Browns ‘embarrass' Steelers, 49ers contenders with Brock Purdy? (28:30) Eagles beat Bills, Should they have gone for 2? (44:40) Patriots beat Jets, Can anyone in stop them? (53:57) Steelers lose, Ravens find their winning formula?  (01:14:36) Should people be worried about the Bills? (01:23:59) Time to write off the Packers? (01:30:34) 49ers beat Bears, Good loss for Chicago? (01:53:03) Should the Steelers be worried? (02:04:13) He Said, We Said (02:13:10) Does Matthew Stafford need a big game to keep the MVP lead? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On Monday's Football at Four on 973 ESPN South Jersey, Inside the Birds' Geoff Mosher unpacks the Eagles win over the Bills the day after with some new thoughts and intel during our daily segment.► Subscribe to our Patreon Channel for exclusive information not seen or heard anywhere else and become among smartest Birds fans out there (just ask our members!!) + get all of our shows commercial free!!Support Our Sponsors:► Simpli Safe Home Alert System: https://simplisafe.com/BIRDS for 60% OFF!► Camden Apothecary: https://camdenapothecary.com/► Soul Out of Office Gummies: https://getsoul.com. Use Promo Code: BIRDS for 30% off► Sky Motor Cars: https://www.skymotorcars.com/► Follow our Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/InsidetheBirds​​​​​​...► Follow Geoff Mosher on Twitter: https://twitter.com/geoffmoshernfl​​​...► Follow Adam Caplan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/caplannfl​​​​​​​​...► Follow Andrew DiCecco on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andrewdicecco..

This is "Tuesday Morning Running Back" with Matt Forte for December 30, 2025Topics:(02:30) - Bears/49ers recap (10:55) - Playing football in the rain(20:09) - 3 most dangerous NFL teams right now(26:12) - Matt's predictions for CAR/TB, SEA/SF, BAL/PIT(32:36) - Workhorse of the week (39:04) - What we learned at churchHave a question? Got a guest suggestion? Want to advertise with us? - Email us - jason@sportsspectrum.comWATCH all of our podcast episodes on our YouTube page:https://www.youtube.com/SportsSpectrumMagazineSign up for our Sports Spectrum Magazine and receive 15% off a 1-year subscription by using the code PODCAST15https://www.theincrease.com/products/sports-spectrum-magazine 

Hosts Brad Fowler and Alex Higdon break down the biggest NFL Week reactions, playoff implications, and College Football Playoff quarterfinal previews as the postseason picture comes into focus. We discuss Eagles vs Bills, Josh Allen’s near-heroics, Philadelphia’s recurring second-half offensive issues, and why Buffalo still can’t be trusted in the playoffs. Plus Seahawks vs Panthers, Seattle’s talent edge and turnover concerns with Sam Darnold, and whether either team can make real postseason noise. We also dive into Patriots vs Jets, Drake Maye’s MVP-level performance, and whether New England is being seriously undervalued. We break down Ravens vs Packers with a debate on Malik Willis’ development and starter potential, followed by Texans vs Chargers, Justin Herbert’s impressive performance under constant pressure, Houston’s elite defense, and how far the Texans can go in a wide-open AFC. We recap what may have been the best NFL game of the year: Bears vs 49ers — elite quarterback play from Caleb Williams and Brock Purdy, creative coaching, massive performances from Christian McCaffrey, and what it means for Chicago heading into the playoffs. In College Football, we preview and make picks for the CFP quarterfinals, including Oregon vs Texas Tech, Alabama vs Indiana, Georgia vs Ole Miss, and Ohio State vs Miami. We also react to Michigan hiring Kyle Whittingham and why it could be a program-changing move.

Ruthie Polinsky and Clay Harbor break down the Bears' back-and-forth loss to the 49ers, starting with a pick-six that set the tone and a scoring frenzy that saw the game tied five different times. They dive into the biggest takeaways from the performance, including defensive struggles, an offense that found its rhythm in San Francisco, and why the Bears ultimately couldn't complete the comeback. The duo also hands out game balls and highlights the impact of rookies stepping up despite the loss. From there, the focus shifts to what still lies ahead. Ruthie and Clay take a closer look at the NFC playoff picture, how the Bears can secure the No. 2 seed, and what a potential first-round matchup with the Packers could mean. They also preview the season finale against the Lions, discuss how Ben Johnson may approach the final week, and wrap up with a “Wired In” segment and thoughts on what this performance signals going forward.

NFL Week 17 and we start with Fastest 2 minutes. We then talk about every game from the last week. (00:00:00-00:11:33) Cowboys 30, Commanders 23 (00:11:33-00:20:09) Vikings 23, Lions 10 (00:20:09-00:32:39) Broncos 20, Chiefs 13 (00:32:39-00:47:17) Texans 20, Chargers 16 (00:47:17-00:55:41) Ravens 41, Packers 24 (00:55:41-01:09:49) Browns 13, Steelers 6 (01:09:49-01:22:34) Seahawks 27, Panthers 10 (01:22:34-01:30:16) Dolphins 20, Bucs 17 (01:30:16-01:41:38) Jaguars 23, Colts 17 (01:41:38-01:49:15) Saints 34, Titans 26 (01:49:15-01:57:42) Patriots 42, Jets 10 (01:57:42-02:03:30) Bengals 37, Cardinals 14 (02:03:20-02:08:17) Giants 34, Raiders 10 (02:08:17-02:10:22) Eagles 13, Bills 12 (02:10:22-02:22:43) 49ers 42, Bears 38 (02:22:43-02:35:23) We then talk playoff picture and who's back of the week (02:35:23-03:03:47).You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/pardon-my-take

The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Cousin Sal right after the 49ers take down the Bears on Sunday night to recap Week 17 of the NFL season (2:35). Then, they guess the lines for Week 18 before ending with Parent Corner (01:03:09). Host: Bill Simmons Guest: Cousin Sal Producers: Chia Hao Tat and Eduardo Ocampo Learn more at https://linkedin.com/simmonsbill This episode is sponsored by State Farm®. Don't settle for just any insurance when there's State Farm. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit⁠⁠⁠ www.rg-help.com⁠⁠⁠ to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SPONSORS: - New Year, New Me! Get Huel for FIFTEEN PERCENT OFF with this exclusive offer for New Customers only with code BEARS at https://huel.com/bears (Minimum $75 purchase). The Winter Bears Stavros Halkias and Chris Distefano return for another completely unhinged takeover of 2 Bears 1 Cave. With Tom Segura and Bert Kreischer nowhere to be found, the guys openly admit they once again didn't prepare, and then immediately spiral into bread rankings, prostate exams, STD horror stories, religion, celebrity gossip, and the most deranged podcast business ideas ever pitched. From focaccia-based trauma, to almost doing business with Jeffrey Epstein's brother, this episode goes fully off the rails and never checks the map again. Hit subscribe, brace yourself, and remember: this episode exists only because someone might need it someday. https://www.instagram.com/stavvybaby2 https://www.instagram.com/chrisdcomedy/ 2 Bears, 1 Cave Ep. 321 https://tomsegura.com/tour https://www.bertbertbert.com/tour https://www.chrisdcomedy.com/ https://www.stavvy.biz/ https://store.ymhstudios.com Chapters 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:38 - Fat Boy Pastry Shop 00:07:42 - Just The Tip 00:11:53 - Sexually Transmitted Hilarity 00:25:13 - Family 00:31:15 - Third World Fun & Legendary Funbags 00:35:13 - Pimping Podcast Producers 00:43:42 - Doing Business With An Epstein 00:54:16 - Health Corner 01:01:52 - In Conclusion Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Bills choked the game away against the Eagles. The Bears may have lost the game but they have a QB in Caleb Williams and a head coach in Ben Johnson. Stugotz has an important decision to make with his bet victory over Christopher Mad Dog Russo. Go to OmahaSteaks.com to get 50% off sitewide plus an extra 20% off select favorites and more limited-time deals during their Cyber Sale. And use Promo Code COMPANY at checkout for an extra $35 off. Minimum purchase may apply. See site for details. A big thanks to our advertiser, Omaha Steaks! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tony opens the show by talking about how Michael helped him get his email back on his IPhone, and he also talks about golfing in the cold, getting a new hand warmer, and he talks about connecting with his high school friends. Michael Wilbon calls in to talk about Northwestern winning their Bowl game, and about the Bears playing brilliantly in a losing effort against the 49ers and they also talk about the rest of the big games in the NFL, Ryan McGee calls in to talk about what has stood out to him so far in the college football playoffs, and about Michigan's new head coach, and Tony closes out the show by opening up the Mailbag. Songs : Aubrey Dale “Til the Cows Come Home” ; “California Sober” To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gregg Rosenthal is joined by Jourdan Rodrigue, Patrick Claybon and Nick Shook to recap all of the Week 17 action from around the NFL starting the the Eagles at the Bills followed by Patriots at Jets (12:30), Steelers at Browns (19:30), Ravens at Packers (30:00), Jaguars at Colts (42:26), Texans at Chargers (52:00), Seahawks at Panthers (01:03:45), Buccaneers at Dolphins (01:11:10), Saints at Titans (01:20:36), Cardinals at Bengals (01:25:36), Giants at Raiders (01:29:40), and Bears at 49ers (01:34:00) on Sunday Night Football. Plus, they set the table for Week 18 with all the schedule and playoff implications on the line (01:46:00). Note: time codes approximate. NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thursday at 11:15 PM ET. Hosted by Emmanuel Acho with LeSean “Shady” McCoy and "Carebear" Kieran, the show brings hot takes, cold truths, and culturally forward conversations that connect sports and culture in real time. ⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ Facebook PrizePicks x Speakeasy Pick MORE or LESS. Win cash. Talk your talk. Play $5, get $50 in lineups →  PrizePicks | America's #1 Fantasy Sports App Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this Monday edition of 2 Pros & A Cup Of Joe, Jonas Knox & LaVar Arrington, discuss the Philadelphia Eagles beating the Bills but also point out that the Eagles offense could be their weakness in the postseason. Plus the guys recap the Sunday Night game between the 49ers & the Bears, an NFL record breaking version of ICYMI, and more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

First Take resumes with a steaming hot MVP take from Cam! (10:30) Then, the Bears and 49ers battled in a Sunday night classic! Cam and David Dennis Jr. question whether either teams defense can hold up in the playoffs. (23:20) Next, Nick Sirianni and A.J. Brown had opposite reactions to a massive Eagles win. Find out if Cam trusts them to make a deep playoff run. (31:00) Finally, the Giants saved their best ball for the game they needed to lose the most. Was beating the Raiders a mistake? (36:50) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's episode of The Stretch we are joined by former Bears offensive lineman Kyle Long. We recap the Bears 38-42 loss against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday Night Football. We get into how this loss is still a further reflection of what this team and coaching staff are capable of as a whole. We are later joined by White Sox Dave from Panama and talk some Bears playoff scenarios and more.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/redlineradio

Sheil is joined by The Ringer's own Billy Gil to take a hard look at all of the Week 17 action and determine what will be the most important things to pay attention to in the final week of the NFL season. (00:00) What mattered in week 17?  (1:37) What matters most in next week's Steelers-Ravens matchup?  (5:27) Does the Myles Garrett sack record controversy matter? (12:05) What mattered most from Eagles-Bills?  (15:52) Does the Tom Brady glove controversy matter? (24:56) What mattered most from Bears-49ers? (29:22) Does Trey McBride's tight end receptions record matter? The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.rg-help.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Sheil Kapadia  Guest: Billy Gil  Producer: Chris Sutton  Social: Alysha Tsuji  Production Supervision: Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Daniel Jeremiah, Bucky Brooks and Brian Baldinger break down the biggest games from Week 17, beginning with the Sunday night shootout between the Bears and 49ers (1:10). Then, they dive into Seahawks - Panthers (11:53), Eagles - Bills (14:50), Jaguars - Colts (19:45), Abdul Carter’s impressive rookie season (23:55), Drake Maye’s leap in year two (25:34) Texans - Chargers (28:51), Ravens - Packers (35:15) and Steelers - Browns (40:49). Plus, the guys have a discussion on what makes this season’s playoff race the most wide open in a long time (47:45)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The 49ers & Bears put on a clinic of offensive football. The Bears defense had some issues...Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/house-of-l-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

49ers Beat Bears In THRILLER + Purdy's Performance Check out Aura Frames and use my code GUY for a great deal: https://auraframes.com  https://www.heyguy.co - to BUY HATS or send me an email Check out PrizePicks and use my code HABERMAN for a great deal: https://www.prizepicks.com Check out Hims: https://hims.com/GUY Follow Guy on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/guyhaberman/Follow Guy on X: https://twitter.com/GuyHaberman Enter the Guy's mailbag by leaving a question for in an Apple Podcasts review OR NOW YOU CAN EMAIL guy@heyguy.co Watch Guy's show on YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUJPrxeyo3vQvDYS2IzvKMAOur Sponsors:* Check out Hims: https://hims.com/GUYAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Nick Kostos recaps last night's epic Bears vs. 49ers finish. Plus, Nick explains why he does not trust the 49ers moving forward.

The Westwood One era begins on You Better You Bet! Nick Kostos opens the show breaking down why he thinks the Eagles will win the Super Bowl again! Nick explains why he doesn't trust the 49ers this season, and reacts to the New York Giants beating the Raiders on Sunday.

Nate Tice & Charles McDonald give their instant reactions and takeaways from Week 17 of NFL action. After providing takeaways from the San Francisco 49ers' shootout win over the Chicago Bears on Sunday night, the duo provide their 3 Highs, 3 Lows from a wild week around the NFL. The highs include the Philadelphia Eagles holding off the Buffalo Bills late, the Las Vegas Raiders getting the inside track on the first overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft over the New York Giants and the Houston Texans winning their eighth straight on Saturday over the Los Angeles Chargers.For the lows, Nate & Charles hit on the Green Bay Packers showing they can't be trusted in a loss to the Baltimore Ravens, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Carolina Panthers acting like they're not interested in winning the NFC South and the Pittsburgh Steelers proving unable to clinch the division against the Cleveland Browns.For Extra Credit, the duo discuss Drake Maye's huge 5-TD performance and Trey McBride setting records for the Arizona Cardinals.(1:00) - 49ers beat Bears(20:00) - Eagles beat Bills(33:15) - Raiders win (lose) tank bowl(45:20) - Texans win eighth straight(55:30) - Packers can't be trusted(1:07:05) - Does anyone want to win the NFC South?(1:21:35) - Steelers lose to Browns(1:33:05) - Extra Credit: Drake Maye & Trey McBrideSubscribe to Football 301 on your favorite podcast app:

(0:00) Chris has a proposal for Christmas games  (5:10) SNF: 49ers def. Bears 42-38(23:15) Eagles def. Bills 13-12(42:20) Browns def. Steelers 13-6(51:25) Ravens def. Packers 41-24(56:50) DraftKings Ravens-Steelers Week 18  (58:55) Jaguars def. Colts 23-17(1:03:25) Texans def. Chargers 20-16(1:09:10) Broncos def. Chiefs 20-13(1:10:35) Patriots def. Jets 42-10(1:17:45) Seahawks def. Panthers 27-10(1:20:25) Dolphins def. Buccaneers 20-17(1:23:55) Giants def. Raiders 34-10(1:25:30) Saints def. Titans 34-26(1:26:45) Bengals def. Cardinals 37-14(1:27:40) Vikings def. Lions 23-10(1:29:00) Cowboys def. Commanders 30-23 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What did we learn from chaotic ending of the 49ers/Bears game? What happened to the Bills yesterday vs. the Eagles? Also, how is it possible that the Steelers lose to the Browns? Plus, is Drake Maye the MVP? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Aaron doesn't think sailing is a sport. Could the 49ers or Bears actually win the Super Bowl? Also, was going for 2 the right call for the Bills? Does Nick Sirianni get the respect he deserves? Plus, ESPN Senior Writer Andre Snellings joins the show! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The guys recap all the NFL Week 17 action, from the Bears–Niners shootout and Caleb Williams' breakout to Brock Purdy's sneaky dominance. They also cover Jacksonville's rise, the Giants' self-sabotage, the Steelers' meltdown, Derrick Henry obliterating fantasy matchups, and the general madness of this season. (00:00) Intro (03:20) ‘Sunday Night Football': Bears-49ers (19:54) Jaguars-Colts (29:36) Steelers-Browns (38:17) Oppenheimer Award (01:01:22) Fart or Shart? (01:15:34) Intrusive Thoughts (01:36:48) Play of the Day (01:40:07) Lucille Bluthe Award (01:40:36) Emails (01:45:21) Burn Book Discord link: https://discord.gg/Ge8bbYHrau Check out the 2025 Ringer Fantasy Football Rankings: https://fantasyfootball.theringer.com/ Email us! ringerfantasyfootball@gmail.com This episode is sponsored by Chime. Bank Smarter, Progress Farther The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Producers: Kai Grady, Carlos Chiriboga, and Cameron Dinwiddie Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brian Noe is in for Ben Maller and talks about the amazing SNF game that saw Brock Purdy and the 49ers edge out Caleb Williams and the Bears, Josh Allen blowing it on the final play for the Bills against the Eagles, and more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Brian Noe is in for Big Ben and talks about the shootout between the Bears and the 49ers on SNF, the collapse of Baker Mayfield and the Bucs over the last several weeks, why the Patriots are being underestimated, and much more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jeremiah Sirles, Alex Boone and Phil Mackey react to Week 17 in the NFL! The Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens play a winner-take-division Week 18 game; Where will Malik Willis wind up?; And more! 01:00 - Boone made a guy puke 05:00 - Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens have A LOT on the line this Sunday13:00 - Lamar Jackson drama 19:00 - Where will Green Bay Packers QB Malik Willis sign in free agency? 28:00 - San Francisco 49ers edge Chicago Bears in a BANGER of a game 45:00 - Detroit Lions lost to Max Brosmer and the Minnesota Vikings! 53:00 - More on Minnesota Vikings and Brian Flores 58:00 - We already miss Philip Rivers 1:06:00 - Maxx Crosby vs. Las Vegas Raiders1:10:00 - Philadelphia Eagles edge Buffalo Bills See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Aaron doesn't think sailing is a sport. Could the 49ers or Bears actually win the Super Bowl? Also, was going for 2 the right call for the Bills? Does Nick Sirianni get the respect he deserves? Plus, ESPN Senior Writer Andre Snellings joins the show! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What did we learn from chaotic ending of the 49ers/Bears game? What happened to the Bills yesterday vs. the Eagles? Also, how is it possible that the Steelers lose to the Browns? Plus, is Drake Maye the MVP? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

(0:00) 49ers top Bears(14:00) Caleb Williams' performance(21:00) Ben Johnson's impact on Bears(25:00) Brock Purdy's performance(35:00) Steelers fall to Browns Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On this episode of "49ers Talk," co-hosts Matt Maiocco and Jennifer Lee Chan discuss the electric atmosphere at Levi's Stadium on Sunday and how San Francisco has proven all season that this iteration of the team is built for prime-time games. Also, the duo discusses how good of a job coach Kyle Shanahan and 49ers GM John Lynch have done keeping the team's competitive window open, as well as how a unique roster and season is capturing the hearts of the 49ers Faithful.--(1:00) SNF was an electric atmosphere between 49ers, Bears(6:00) Why this 49ers team is made for prime time(9:00) 49ers continue trend of backups stepping up in Week 17(14:00) How Kyle Shanahan can make real push for NFL Coach of the Year(18:00) As CMC's game goes, so go the 49ers(22:00) Why first-round bye is pivotal to 49ers' health(37:00) What makes this 49ers team unique? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Rich reacts to Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers' thrilling 42-38 slugfest win over the Caleb Williams' Chicago Bears on Sunday Night Football. Rich weighs in on the Philadelphia Eagles' narrow Week 17 win over the Bills after Josh Allen badly missed a wide-open receiver on a 2-point conversion that would have won the game for Buffalo. Rich breaks down the Steelers blowing their big chance to lock up the AFC North by laying a big fat egg against Myles Garrett and Cleveland Browns. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's Merciless Monday on The Coach JB Show with Big Smitty as Super Bowl Champion & Utah Alum Eric Weddle joins to discuss the Ravens' WIN vs. Packers... Super Bowl Champion Shaun King joins to RESPOND to Caleb Willams & Bears' LOSS vs. 49ers... Colorado Alum Matt McChesney joins to discuss Shedeur Sanders' PERFORMANCE in Browns' WIN vs. Steelers... Steve Kim joins the show as well! You don't wanna miss it on MERCILESS Monday on The REALEST Show on Planet ERF! Like, Comment, and Subscribe! The Coach JB Show with Big Smitty is the realest sports show on Planet ERF! We discuss what other talk shows & debate shows refuse to discuss! We are LIVE 3 hours a day from 6-9am pacific with the realest guests on Planet ERF! Coach Jason Brown is the star of the hit Netflix series "Last Chance U", master motivator, and legendary JUCO football coach!! Darnell Smith Fox Sports very own, Ball State Alum, and Nap towns finest! Merciless Monday | Talk that Talk Tuesday | Work-Boot Wednesday | Truth Telling Thursday's | Free Game Friday Matt McChesney on Monday/Friday Steve Kim on Tuesday/Thursday Shaun King - Former NFL QB Monday/Wednesday/Friday Live M-F 6am-9am PST. Subscribe and become a member today, $2.99 for general membership or $5.99 to join Slap Nation and get access to the exclusive Coach's Crew group Chat!! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Shannon Sharpe and Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson react to a wild day of NFL football. The Chicago Bears go on the road to take on the San Francisco 49ers, Rookie Wide Receiver for the Texans Jaylin Noel joins the show, and the Cleveland Browns upset the Pittsburgh Steelers and keep the Baltimore Ravens playoff hopes alive and much more! Subscribe to Nightcap presented by PrizePicks so you don’t miss out on any new drops! Download the PrizePicks app today and use code SHANNON to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup! Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/NI... 04:55 - 49ers beat Bears19:20 - Texans WR Jaylin Noel joins the show!38:32 - Browns beat Steelers46:00 - Jaguars WR Parker Washington joins the show!1:02:25 - Steelers won't void DK Metcalf’s $45M in guarantees (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) #ClubSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Join NFL Legends James "Deebo" Harrison and Joe Haden as they react to Shedeur Sanders and the Cleveland Browns upsetting Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers, Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles knocking off Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills, Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers beating Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears in an offensive masterclass, and much more action from Week 17 of the 2025 NFL season! Download the PrizePicks app today and use code DEEBOJOE to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup! https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/DEEBOJOE Timeline:00:00 - Intro04:50 - Browns beat Steelers50:30 - 49ers beat Bears53:00 Eagles beat Bills55:12 - Play or Fade Presented by PrizePicks (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) #Club #NightcapSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Get Up resumes with a Sunday night thriller between the Bears and 49ers. Both offenses showed out, and both QBs showed off. Hear what DanO has to say about Caleb Williams elite performance! (0:00) Meanwhile - The Bills are a wildcard team, Josh is hurt, and Jalen Carter will be in Joe Brady's nightmares for weeks! Rex tells us if Superman Josh Allen can carry this Bills squad deep into the playoffs! (13:30) And - The Steelers had a golden opportunity to lock up the AFC North, But Shedeur and the Browns had other plans.. (24:00) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Time to Get Up with a game for the ages last night - The Bears left their hearts in San Francisco - we'll tell you exactly what it meant for both NFC heavyweight (0:00) Meanwhile - A slugfest in Philly with a fabulous finish that left lots of room for doubt!!!! (13:00) And - oh the Steelers blew it - now they play for their lives Sunday night - we'll tell you why the reason they lost was a player who wasn't even on the field! (39:15) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

49ers Rush Road Trips are now available for sale on https://www.tickpick.com/organizer/o/49ers-rush or download the Tick Pick app and search "49ers Rush" or go to 49ersRushRoadTrip.com use code "NINERS" for $10 off!There are several ways to support the podcast! Join us at The49ersRush.com for all of our All22 film breakdowns and bonus content. This is the best way to support the show.We still have our Patreon as well https://www.patreon.com/49ersRushPodcastFor the 49er Rush Hat go to https://hiveandpines.com/products/the-red-gateGo to MyBookie.ag and use code "49ers" for deposit bonus!!!!Check out PrizePicks: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/49ERSCheck out Cigars International and use my code 49ERS for a great deal: https://www.cigarsinternational.comCheck out Cozy Earth: https://cozyearth.com/49ERSRUSHI am most active on Twitter please follow @JL_Chapman, Instagram: 49ers Rush Podcast, Email: 49ersRushPodcast@gmail.comIf you need help with website design/builds go to https://www.powerbrandsystems.com/crm949620?am_id=john874Get all 49ers gear at homage.sjv.io/MmYXO2#49ers #49ersrushOur Sponsors:* Check out Cigars International and use my code 49ERS for a great deal: https://www.cigarsinternational.comSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/49ers-rush-podcast-with-john-chapman/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

In this episode of Gangland Wire, Gary Jenkins sits down with Bob Cooley, the once–well-connected Chicago lawyer who lived at the center of the city's most notorious corruption machine. After years out of the public eye, Cooley recently resurfaced to revisit his explosive memoir, When Corruption Was King—and this conversation offers a rare, firsthand look at how organized crime, politics, and the court system intersected in Chicago for decades. Cooley traces his journey from growing up in a police family to serving as a Chicago police officer and ultimately becoming a criminal defense attorney whose real job was quietly fixing cases for the Chicago Outfit. His deep understanding of the judicial system made him indispensable to mob-connected power brokers like Pat Marcy, a political fixer with direct access to judges, prosecutors, and court clerks. Inside the Chicago Corruption Machine Cooley explains how verdicts were bought, cases were steered, and justice was manipulated—what insiders called the “Chicago Method.” He describes his relationships with key figures in organized crime, including gambling bosses like Marco D'Amico and violent enforcers such as Harry Aleman and Tony Spilotro, painting a chilling picture of life inside a world where loyalty was enforced by fear.   As his role deepened, so did the psychological toll. Cooley recounts living under constant threat, including a contract placed on his life after he refused to betray a fellow associate—an event that forced him to confront the cost of the life he was leading. Turning Point: Becoming a Federal Witness The episode covers Cooley's pivotal decision in 1986 to cooperate with federal authorities, a move that helped dismantle powerful corruption networks through FBI Operation Gambat. Cooley breaks down how political connections—not just street-level violence—allowed the Outfit to operate with near-total impunity for so long.   Along the way, Cooley reflects on the moral reckoning that led him to turn on the system that had enriched and protected him, framing his story as one not just of crime and betrayal, but of reckoning and redemption. What Listeners Will Hear How Bob Cooley became the Outfit's go-to case fixer The role of Pat Marcy and political corruption in Chicago courts Firsthand stories involving Marco D'Amico, Harry Aleman, and Tony Spilotro The emotional and psychological strain of living among violent criminals The decision to cooperate and the impact of Operation Gambat Why Cooley believes Chicago's corruption endured for generations Why This Episode Matters Bob Cooley is one of the few people who saw the Chicago Outfit from inside the courtroom and the back rooms of power. His story reveals how deeply organized crime embedded itself into the institutions meant to uphold the law—and what it cost those who tried to escape it.   This episode sets the stage for a deeper follow-up conversation, where Gary and Cooley will continue unpacking the most dangerous and revealing moments of his life. Resources   Book: When Corruption Was King by Bob Cooley Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer @ganglandwire Click here to “buy me a cup of coffee” Subscribe to the website for weekly notifications about updates and other Mob information. To go to the store or make a donation or rent Ballot Theft: Burglary, Murder, Coverup, click here To rent ‘Brothers against Brothers’ or ‘Gangland Wire,’ the documentaries click here.  To purchase one of my books, click here. 0:03 Prelude to Bob Cooley’s Story 1:57 Bob Cooley’s Background 5:24 The Chicago Outfit Connection 8:24 The Turning Point 15:20 The Rise of a Mob Lawyer 23:54 A Life of Crime and Consequences 26:03 The Incident at the Police Station 50:27 The Count and His Influence 1:19:51 The Murder of a Friend 1:35:26 Contracts and Betrayal 1:40:36 Conclusion and Future Stories Transcript [0:00] Well, hey guys, this is a little prelude to my next story. Bob Cooley was a Chicago lawyer and an outfit associate who had been in, who has been in hiding for many years. I contacted him about six or seven years ago when I first started a podcast, I was able to get a phone number on him and, and got him on the phone. He was, I think it was out in the desert in Las Vegas area at the time. And at the time he was trying to sell his book when corruption was king to a movie producer And he really didn’t want to overexpose himself, and they didn’t really want him to do anything. And eventually, COVID hit, and the movie production was canceled. And it was just all over. There were several movie productions were canceled during COVID, if I remember right. A couple people who I have interviewed and had a movie deal going. Well, Bob recently remembered me, and he contacted me. He just called me out of the clear blue, and he wanted to revive his book and his story. He’s been, you know, way out of the limelight for a long time. And so I thought, well, I always wanted to interview this guy because he’s got a real insider’s knowledge to Chicago Outfit, the one that very few people have. [1:08] You know, here’s what he knows about. And he provides valuable insight into the inner workings of the Outfit. And I don’t mean, you know, scheming up how to kill people and how to do robberies and burglars and all that. But the Chicago court system and Chicago politics, that’s a, that’s a, the, the mob, a mafia family can’t exist unless they have connections into the political system and especially the court system. Otherwise, what good are they? You know, I mean, they, they just take your money where they give you back. They can’t protect you from anybody. [1:42] So I need to give you a little more of the backstory before we go on to the actual interview with Bob, because he kind of rambles a little bit and goes off and comes back and drops [1:54] names that we don’t have time to go into explanation. So here’s a little bit of what he talked about. He went from being, as I said before, Chicago Outfit’s trusted fixer in the court system, and he eventually became the government star witness against them. He’s born, he’s about my age. He was born in 1943. He was an Irish-American police family and came from the Chicago South side. He was a cop himself for a short period of time, but he was going to law school while he was a policeman. And once he started practicing law, he moved right into criminal law and into first ward politics and the judicial world downtown. [2:36] And that’s where the outfit and the old democratic machine intersected. He was in a restaurant called Counselor’s Row, which was right down. Bob had an office downtown. Well, he’s inside that system, and he uses his insider’s knowledge to fix cases. Once an outfit started noticing him that he could fix a case if he wanted to, he immediately became connected to the first ward power broker and outfit political conduit, a guy named Pat Marcy. Pat Marcy knew all the judges He knew all the court clerks And all the police officers And Bob was getting to know him too During this time But Bob was a guy who was out in He was a lawyer And he was working inside the court system Marcy was just a downtown fixer. [3:22] But Bob got to where he could guarantee acquittals or light sentences for whoever came to him with the right amount of money, whether it be a mobster or a bookmaker or a juice loan guy or a crap politician, whoever it was, Bob could fix the case. [3:36] One of the main guys tied to his work he was kind of attached to a crew everybody’s owned by somebody he was attached to the Elmwood Park crew and Marco D’Amico who was under John DeFranco and I can’t remember who was before DeFranco, was kind of his boss and he was a gambling boss and Bob was a huge gambler I mean a huge gambler and Bob will help fix cases for some notorious people Really, one of the most important stories that we’ll go into in the second episode of this is Harry the Hook Aleman. And he also helped fix the case for Tony Spolatro and several others. He’s always paid him in cash. And he lived large. As you’ll see, he lived large. And he moved comfortably between mobsters and politicians and judges. And he was one of the insiders back in the 70s, 60s or 70s mainly. He was an insider. But by the 80s, he’s burned out. He’s disgusted with himself. He sees some things that he doesn’t like. They put a contract out on him once because he wouldn’t give somebody up as an informant, and he tipped one of his clients off that he was going to come out that he was an informant, and the guy was able to escape, I believe. Well, I have to go back and listen to my own story. [4:53] Finally in 1986 he walked unannounced they didn’t have a case on him and he walked unannounced in the U.S. Courthouse and offered himself up to take down this whole Pat Marcy and the whole mobster political clique in Chicago and he wore a wire for FBI an operation called Operation Gambat which is a gambling attorney because he was a huge gambler [5:17] huge huge gambler and they did a sweeping probe and indicted tons of people over this. So let’s go ahead and listen to Robert Cooley. [5:31] Uh, he, he, like I said, he’s a little bit rambling and a little bit hard to follow sometimes, but some of these names and, and, uh, and in the first episode, we’ll really talk about his history and, uh, where he came from and how he came up. He’ll mention somebody called the count and I’ll do that whole count story and a whole nother thing. So when he talks about the count, just disregard that it’ll be a short or something. And I got to tell that count story. It’s an interesting story. Uh, he, he gets involved with the only own, uh, association, uh, and, uh, and the, uh, Chinese Tong gang in, uh, Chicago and Chicago’s Chinatown. Uh, some of the other people he’ll talk about are Marco D’Amico, as I said, and D’Amico’s top aide, Rick Glantini, uh, another, uh, connected guy and worked for the city of Chicago is Robert Abinati. He was a truck driver. [6:25] He was also related to D’Amico and D’Amico’s cousin, former Chicago police officer Ricky Borelli. Those are some of the names that he’ll mention in this. So let’s settle back and listen to Bob Cooley. Hey, all you wiretappers. Good to be back here in studio gangland wire. This is Gary Jenkins, retired Kansas City Police Intelligence Unit detective. And, you know, we we deal with the mob here once a week, sometimes twice a week on the podcast. And I have a special guest that hadn’t been heard from for a while. And, you know, to be honest, guys, I’ve kind of gotten away from the outfit. I’ve been doing a lot of New York stuff and Springfield, Massachusetts and all around the country. And I kind of got away from Chicago. And we’re going back to Chicago today. And I’m honored that Bob Cooley got hold of me. Now, you may not know who Bob Cooley was, but Bob Cooley was a guy. He was a mob lawyer in Chicago, and he really probably, he heard him as much as anybody’s ever heard him, and he did it all of his own accord. He was more like an undercover agent that just wasn’t officially designated an FBI agent rather than an informant. But anyhow, welcome, Bob. [7:37] Hello. Nice meeting you. Nice to meet you. And I’ve talked to you before. And you were busy before a few years ago. And you were getting ready to make some movies and stuff. And then COVID hit and a lot of that fell through. And that happened to several people I’ve talked to. You got a lot in common with me. I was a Kansas City policeman. And I ended up becoming a lawyer after I left the police department. And you were a Chicago copper. And then you left the police department a little bit earlier than I did and became a lawyer. And, and Bob, you’re from a Chicago police family, if I remember right. Is that correct? Oh, police, absolute police background, the whole family. Yes. Yeah. Your grandfather, your grandfather was killed in the line of duty. Is that right? [8:25] Both of my grandfathers were killed in the line of duty. Wow. In fact, that’s one of the reasons why I eventually did what I did. I was very, very close with my dad. Yeah, and your dad was a copper. [8:38] He was a policeman, yeah. And in fact, you use that term. I, for many, many years, wouldn’t use that word. It just aggravated me when people would use the word copper. To me, it would show disrespect. Oh, really? I said to us in Kansas City, that’s what we call each other, you know, among coppers. Oh, I know. I know. But I know. But, you know, I just, for whatever reason, one of the things that aggravated me the most, in fact, when I was being cross-examined by this piece of shit, Eddie Jensen, the one I wrote about in my book that was, you know, getting a lot of people killed and whatever. And he made some comment about my father. and I got furious and I had to, you know, my father was unbelievably honest as a policeman. [9:29] Everybody loved him because they didn’t have to share, uh, you know, but he was a detective. He had been written up many times in true and magazines and these magazines for making arrests. He was involved in the cartage detail. He was involved in all kinds of other things, but honest as the day is long. And, and, um, but, uh, again, the, uh, my father’s father was, uh, was a policeman and he was killed by a member of the Capone gang. And, uh, and when he was killed, after he was killed. [10:05] The, uh, well, after he got shot, he got shot during a robbery after he got shot, he was in the hospital for a while. And then he went, then he went back home. He went back home to his, uh, you know, to his house, uh, cause he had seven kids. He had a big family too. And, uh, stayed with his, you know, with his wife and, and, and eventually died. And when he died they had a very mediocre funeral for him. They had a bigger, much bigger funeral when Al Capone’s brother died. But during that time when I was a kid when I was about 13, 12, 13 years old, I worked among other places at a grocery store where I delivered to my grandmother. My grandmother lived in South Park which later became Mark Luther King Drive. She lived a very, very meager life because she basically had nothing. [11:09] What they gave them for the, at that time, what they gave them for the police department was a portion of the husband’s salary when they died, whatever. It was never a big deal like it is now, you know, like it is now when policemen get killed in the line of duty. and I’m thinking at the same time I’m thinking down the road, You know, about certain things from my past did come back to affect me. [11:38] Doing what I was doing, when I got involved, and I got involved absolutely with all these different people. My father hated these people. I didn’t, you know, I didn’t realize how much. I didn’t realize much when I was growing, you know, when I was growing up and whatever. And even when I was practicing law and when I opened up Pratt-Mose, I would have my father and mother come along with other people. And the place was all full of mobsters. I mean, we’re talking about, you know, a lot of Capone’s whole crew. A lot of the gunmen were still alive. In fact, the ones that ran the first award were all gunmen from Capone’s mob. And never said a word, never said a word about it. You know, he met my partner, Johnny Diaco, who was part of the mob, the senator, and whatever colitis could be. My dad, when my dad was dying. [12:38] When my dad was dying, he had what they didn’t call it, but it had to be Alzheimer’s because my dad was a unbelievably, he was a big, strong man, but he was never a fighter, sweet as could be to anybody and everybody. When he started getting bad, he started being mean to my mother and doing certain things. So we finally had to put him into a nursing home. When I went to see him in the nursing, and I had a close relationship with my dad because he saved my life many times when I was a kid. I was involved with stolen cars at school. I should have been thrown out of school. It was Mount Carmel, but he had been a Carmelite, almost a Carmelite priest. [13:25] And whatever, and that’s what kept me from being kicked out of school at Marquette when they were going to throw me out there because I was, again, involved in a lot of fights, and I also had an apartment that we had across the hall from the shorter hall where I was supposed to stay when I was a freshman, and we were throwing huge parties, and they wanted to throw me out of school. My dad came, my dad came and instead of throwing me out, they let me resign and whatever he had done so much, you know, for me. Yeah. [14:00] Now when I, when I meet, when I meet him up in the hospital, I, I came in the first time and it was about maybe 25 miles outside, you know, from where my office was downtown. And when I went in to see him, they had him strapped in a bed because apparently when he initially had two people in the room and when somebody would come in to try to talk to him and whatever, he would be nasty. And one time he punched one of the nurses who was, you know, because he was going in the bed and they wouldn’t, and he wouldn’t let him take him out. You know, I was furious and I had to go, I had to go through all that. And now, just before he died, it was about two or three days before he died, he didn’t recognize anybody except me. Didn’t recognize my mother. Didn’t recognize anybody. Yet when I would come into the room, son, that’s what he always called me, son, when I would come in. So he knew who I basically was. And he would even say, son, don’t let him do this to me when he had to go through or they took out something and he had to wear one. Of those, you know, those decatheters or whatever. Oh, yeah. [15:15] Just before he died, he said to me, he said, son, he said, those are the people that killed my father. He said, and his case was fixed. After, I had never known that. In fact, his father, Star, was there at 11th and State, and I would see it when everyone went in there. Star was up there on the board as if there’s a policeman or a policeman killed in the line of duty. When he told me that it really and I talked to my brother who knew all about all that that’s what happened, the gunman killed him on 22nd street when that happened the case went to trial and he was found not guilty apparently the case was fixed I tell you what talk about poetic justice there your grandson is now in that system of fixing cases. I can’t even imagine what you must have felt like when you learned that at that point in your life. Man, that would be a grief. That would be tough. That’s what eventually made me one day decide that I had to do something to put an end to all that was going on there. [16:25] I’m curious, what neighborhood did you grow up in? Neighborhood identity is pretty strong in Chicago. So what neighborhood do you claim? I grew up in the hood. First place I grew up, my first place when I was born, I was at 7428 South Vernon. Which is the south side, southeast side of the city. I was there until I was in sixth grade. That was St. Columbanus Parish. When I was in sixth grade, we had to move because that’s when they were doing all the blockbusting there in Chicago. That’s when the blacks were coming in. And when the blacks were coming in, and I truly recall, We’ve talked about this many times elsewhere. I remember knocking on the door and ringing the doorbell all hours of the day and night. A black family just moved in down the street. You’ve got to sell now. If you don’t, the values will all go down. And we would not move. My father’s philosophy, we wouldn’t move until somebody got killed in the area. Because he couldn’t afford it. He had nine kids. he’s an honest policeman making less than $5,000 a year. [17:45] Working two, three jobs so we could all survive when he finished up, When he finished up with, when we finally moved, we finally moved, he went to 7646 South Langley. That was, again, further south, further south, and the area was all white at that time. [18:09] We were there for like four years, and about maybe two or three years, and then the blacks started moving in again. The first one moved in, and it was the same pattern all over again. Yeah, same story in Kansas City and every other major city in the United States. They did that blockbusting and those real estate developers. Oh, yeah, blockbusters. They would call and tell you that the values wouldn’t go down. When I was 20, I joined the police department. Okay. That’s who paid my way through college and law school. All right. I joined the police department, and I became a policeman when I was 20. [18:49] As soon as I could. My father was in recruit processing and I became a policeman. During the riots, I had an excuse not to go. They thought I was working. I was in the bar meeting my pals before I went to work. That’s why I couldn’t go to school at that time. But anyhow, I took some time off. I took some time off to, you know, to study, uh, because, you know, I had all C’s in one D in my first, in my first semester. And if you didn’t have a B, if you didn’t have a C average, you couldn’t, you kicked out of school at the end of a quarter. This is law school. You’re going to law school while you’re still an active policeman. Oh yeah, sure. That’s okay. So you work full time and went to law school. You worked full-time and went to law school at the same time. When I was 20, I joined the police department. Okay. That’s who paid my way through college and law school. All right. I joined the police department, and I became a policeman when I was 20, as soon as I could. My father was in recruit processing, and I became a policeman. Yeah, yeah. But anyhow, I went to confession that night. [20:10] And when I went to confession, there was a girl, one of the few white people in the neighborhood, there was a girl who had gone before me into the confessional. And I knew the priest. I knew him because I used to go gambling with him. I knew the priest there at St. Felicis who heard the confessions. And this is the first time I had gone to confession with him even though I knew him. [20:36] And I wanted to get some help from the big guy upstairs. And anyhow, when I leave, I leave about maybe 10 minutes later, and she had been saying her grace, you know, when I left. And when I walked out, I saw she was right across the street from my house, and there’s an alley right there. And she was a bit away from it, and there were about maybe 13, 14, 15 kids. when I say kids, they were anywhere from the age of probably about 15, 16 to about 18, 19. And they’re dragging her. They’re trying to drag her into the alley. And when I see that, when I see that, I head over there. When I get over there, I have my gun out. I have the gun out. And, you know, what the hell is going on? And, you know, and I told her, I told her her car was parked over there. I told her, you know, get out of here. And I’ve got my gun. I’ve got my gun in my hand. And I don’t know what I’m going to do now in terms of doing anything because I’m not going to shoot them. They’re standing there looking at me. And after a little while, I hear sirens going on. [22:00] The Barton family lived across the street in an apartment building, and they saw what was going on. They saw me out there. It was about probably about seven o’clock at night. It was early at night and they put a call in 10-1 and call in 10-1. Assist the officer. Is that a assist the officer? It’s 1031. Police been in trouble. Yeah. And the squad’s from everywhere. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. So you can hear, you can hear them coming. And now one of them says to me, and I know they’re pretty close. One of them says to me, you know, put away your gun and we’ll see how tough you are. And I did. [22:42] Because you know they’re close. And I’m busy fighting with a couple of them. And they start running and I grab onto two of them. I’m holding onto them. I could only hold two. I couldn’t hold anymore. And the next thing I know, I wake up in the hospital about four days later. Wow. What had happened was they pushed me. Somebody, there was another one behind who pushed me right in front of a squad car coming down the street. Oh, shit. Yeah, man. And the car ran completely over me. They pulled me off from under the, just under the back wheels, I was told were right next to, were onto me, blood all over the place. Everybody thought I was dead. Right. Because my brothers, my one brother who was a police kid that, you know, heard all the noise and the family came in. I tried to prostrate my house and they all thought I was dead. But anyhow, I wake up in the hospital about three days later. When I wake up in the hospital, I’m like. [23:54] Every bone of my body was broken. I’m up there like a mummy. And the mayor came to see me. All kinds of people came to see me. They made me into an even bigger star in my neighborhood. The Count lives down the street and is seeing all this stuff about me and whatever. Jumping quickly to another thing, which got me furious. Willie Grimes was the cop that was driving this quad. He was a racist. We had some blacks in the job. He was a total racist. When my brother and when some others were doing their best to try to find these people, he was protecting them. Some of them, if they caught, he was protecting them. [24:48] I was off the job for like nine months when I came back to work. I never came to the hospital to see me. I mean, everybody came. Every day, my hospital went. Because one of the nurses that I was dating, in fact, she was one of those killed. That’s when Richard Speck wound up killing her and some of the others at the same time. It was at the South Chicago Hospital. Holy darn. What they did for me, I had buckets in my womb with ice. We were bringing beer and pizzas and whatever. Every day was like a party in there. When I finally came back to work, it was 11 o’clock at night. I worked out in South Chicago, and I’m sitting in the parking lot, and the media is there. The media, they had all kinds of cameras there. Robert Cooley’s coming back to work after like nine months. They wouldn’t let me go back. [25:51] I’m walking by the squads. And Willie was a big guy. He was probably about 220, a big one of these big muscle builders and all that nonsense. [26:04] He’s sitting in the first car. The cars are all lined up because when we would change, when we would change at like 11 30 uh you know the cars would all be waiting we jumped into the cars and off we go as i’m walking by the car i hear aren’t you afraid to walk in front of my car. [26:26] I look over and he had a distinctive voice i walk over to the car and i reach in and i start punching them, and I’m trying to drag them out of the car. The cameras, the cameras are, you know, they’re all basically inside. They’re all inside. You know, as you walk in there, they’re all inside there. When I do, I eventually walk up there. But the other police came, and they dragged me. They dragged me away, and they brought me in, and whatever. We got transferred out the next day out of the district. And the first policeman I meet is Rick, Rick Dorelli, who’s connected with, who’s a monster. He’s connected with them. And, and he’s the one who told me, he said to me, you know, we played cards and he realized I was a gambler, but I had never dealt with bookmakers. And he said, he says, yeah, you want to make some money? You want to make some easy money? Well, yeah, sure. You know, uh, you know, and thinking that’s, you know, working security or something like that, like I had done back in Chicago, you know, like I had done on the south side. And he said, I want you to make some bets for me with somebody who said. [27:43] And I remember him using the term. He said, I want you to be my face. He said, and I want you to make some bets for me. He said, and he said, and if you, if you’ll do it, I’ll give you a hundred dollars a week just to make the bets for me. And then, you know, and then meet with these people and pay these people off. And I said, sure. You know, I said, you know, why? He says, because I can’t play with these. people he said i’m connected with him he said and i’m not allowed to gamble myself he said but he told me he said i’ve got a couple people i take bets from i’ve got my own side deal going so i want you to do it i want you to do it and i’ll give i’ll give you to them as a customer, and you’re gonna be a customer and he’s and he tells people now that i got this other police He’s in law school. He comes from a real wealthy family, and he’s looking for a place to bet. He’s in Gambia. He’s looking for a place to bet. [28:47] So I call this number, and I talk to this guy. He gives me a number. When you bet, you call, and you do this, and you do that. And I’m going to get $100 at the end of the week. Now, I’m making $5,200 a year, and they’re taking money out of my chest. I’m going to double my salary. I’m going to double my salary immediately. Why wouldn’t you do it? That’s fantastic money at the time. So I start doing it. And the first week I’m doing it, it was baseball season. [29:19] And I’m making these bets. He’s betting $500 a game on a number of games. And he’s winning some, he’s losing some. But now, when I’m checking my numbers with the guy there, he owes, at the end of the week, he owes $3,500. [29:38] And now, it’s getting bigger and bigger, he’s losing. I’m getting worried. What have I got myself into? Yeah, because it’s not him losing, it’s you losing to the bookie. That’s what I’m thinking. I’m thinking, holy, holy, Christopher, I’m thinking. But, you know, I’ve already jumped off the building. So anyhow. I’d be thinking, you better come up with a jack, dude. It’s time to pay up, man. Anyhow, so when I come to work the next day, I’m supposed to meet this guy at one of the clubs out there in the western suburbs. [30:21] I’m supposed to meet the bookmaker out there. And Ricky meets me that morning, and he gives me the money. It’s like $3,400, and here’s $100 for you. Bingo. That’s great. So, okay. When I go to make the payment to him, it’s a nightclub, and I got some money in my pocket. Somebody, one of the guys, some guy walks up. I’m sitting at the bar and, you know, I hear you’re a copper. I said, pardon me? He says, I hear you’re a copper. He was a big guy. Yeah. I hear you’re a copper. Because at that time, I still only weighed maybe like, well, maybe 60, 65 pounds. I mean, I was in fantastic shape, but I wasn’t real big. And I said, I’m a policeman. I don’t like policemen. I said, go fuck yourself. or something like that. And before he could do anything, I labeled him. That was my first of about a half a dozen fights in those different bars out there. [31:32] And the fights only lasted a few minutes because I would knock the person down. And if the person was real big, at times I’d get on top and just keep pounding before they could do anything. So I started with a reputation with those people at that time now as I’m, going through my world with these people oh no let’s stay with that one area now after the second week he loses again, this time not as much but he loses again and I’m thinking wow, He’s betting, and I’m contacted by a couple of people there. Yeah. Because these are all bookmakers there, and they see me paying off. So I’m going to be, listen, if you want another place to play, and I say, well, yeah. So my thought is, with baseball, it’s a game where you’re laying a price, laying 160, laying 170, laying 180. So if you lose $500, if you lose, you pay $850, and if you win, you only get $500. [32:52] I’ve got a couple of people now, and they’ve got different lines. And what I can do now is I check with their lines. I check with Ricky’s guy and see what his line is. And I start moving his money elsewhere where I’ve got a 30, 40, sometimes 50 cent difference in the price. So I’d set it up where no matter what, I’m going to make some money, No matter what happens, I’ll make some money. But what I’m also doing is I’m making my own bets in there that will be covered. And as I start early winning, maybe for that week I win maybe $1,000, $1,500. And then as I meet other people and I’m making payments, within about four or five months, I’ve got 10 different bookmakers I’m dealing with. Who I’m dealing with. And it’s become like a business. I’m getting all the business from him, 500 a game, whatever. And I’ve got other people that are betting, you know, are betting big, who are betting through me. And I’m making all kinds of money at that time. [34:14] But anyhow, now I mentioned a number of people, A number of people are, I’ve been with a number of people that got killed after dinner. One of the first ones was Tony Borsellino, a bookmaker. Tony was connected with the Northside people, with DeVarco, the one they called DeVarco. And we had gone to a we had gone to a I knew he was a hit man, we had gone to a basketball game over at DePaul because he had become a good friend of mine he liked hanging with me, because I was because at that time now I’m representing the main madams in Chicago too and they loved being around me they liked going wherever I was going to go so I always had all kinds of We left the ladies around. And we went to the basketball game. Afterwards, we went to a restaurant, a steakhouse on Chicago Avenue. [35:26] Gee, why can’t I think of a name right now? We went to a steakhouse, and we had dinner. And when we finished up, it came over there. And when we finished up, I’d been there probably half a dozen times with him. And he was there with his girlfriend. We had dinner and about, I’d say it was maybe 10, 30, 11 o’clock, he says, you know, Bob, can you do me a favor? What’s that? Can you drop her off? He said, I have to go meet some friends. I have to go meet some friends of ours. And, you know, okay, sure, Tony, not a problem. And, you know, I took her home. [36:09] The next day I wake up, Tony Barcellino was found dead. They killed him. He was found with some bullets in the back of his head. They killed him. Holy Christopher. And that’s my first—I found that I had been killed before that. But, you know, wow, that was—, prior to that, when I was betting, there was i paid off a bookmaker a guy named uh ritten shirt, rittenger yeah john rittenger yeah yeah yeah he was a personal friend yeah was he a personal friend of yours yeah they offed him too well i in fact i he i was paying him i met him to pay him I owed him around $4,500, and I met him at Greco’s at my restaurant he wanted to meet me out there because he wanted to talk to me about something else he had a problem some kind of a problem I can’t remember what that was. [37:19] But he wanted to meet me at the restaurant so I met him at Greco’s, And I paid him the money. We talked for a while. And then he says, you know, I got to go. I got to go meet somebody. I got to go meet somebody else. I got to go straight now with somebody else. And he said, I’ll give you a call. He said, I’ll give you a call later. He said, because, you know, I want to talk to you about a problem that I have. He says, I want to talk to you about a problem that I have. I said, okay, sure. He goes to a pizza place. Up there in the Taylor Street area. That’s where he met Butchie and Harry. In fact, at the time, I knew both of them. Yeah, guys, that’s Butch Petrucelli and Harry Alem and a couple of really well-known mob outfit hitmen. Yeah, and they’re the ones that kill them. I’m thinking afterwards, I mean, But, you know, I wish I hadn’t, I wish I hadn’t, you know, I wish I could save him. I just gave him. Man, you’re cold, man. [38:34] You could have walked with that money. That’s what I’m saying. So now, another situation. Let me cut in here a minute, guys. As I remember this Reitlinger hit, Joe Ferriola was a crew boss, and he was trying to line up all the bookies, as he called it. He wanted to line them up like Al Capone lined up all the speaks, that all the bookies had to fall in line and kick something into the outfit, and Reitlinger wouldn’t do it. He refused to do it no matter. They kept coming to him and asking him his way. I understand that. Is that what you remember? I knew him very well. Yeah. He was not the boss. Oh, the Ferriola? Yeah, he wasn’t the boss, but he was kind of the, he had a crew. He was the boss of the Cicero crew. Right. I saw Joe all the time at the racetrack. In fact, I’m the one who, I’m the one, by the time when I started wearing a wire, I was bringing undercover agents over. I was responsible for all that family secret stuff that happened down the road. Oh, really? You set the stage for all that? I’m the one who put them all in jail. All of them. [39:52] So anyhow, we’re kind of getting ahead of ourselves. Reitlinger’s been killed. Joe Borelli or Ricky Borelli’s been killed. These guys are dropping around you, and you’re getting drawn into it deeper and deeper, it sounds to me like. Now, is this when you – what happens? How do you get drawn into this Chicago outfit even more and more as a bookie? Were you kicking up, too? Well, it started, it started, so many things happened that it just fell into place. It started, like I say, with building a reputation like I had. But the final situation in terms of with all the mobsters thinking that I’m not just a tough guy, I’m a bad guy. [40:35] When I get a call, when Joey Cosella, Joey Cosella was a big, tough Italian kid. And he was involved heavily in bookmaking, and we became real close friends. Joey and I became real close friends. He raised Dobermans, and he’s the one who had the lion over at the car dealership. I get a call from Joey. He says, you’ve got to come over. I said, what’s up? He says, some guys came in, and they’re going to kill the count. They want to kill the count. And I said, And I said, what? This is before the Pewter thing. I said, what do you mean? And so I drive over there, and he says, Sammy Annarino and Pete Cucci. And Pete Cucci came in here, and they came in with shotguns, and they were going to kill them. I said, this was Chicago at the time. It’s hard to believe, but this was Chicago. And I said, who are they? I didn’t know who they were. I said, who are they? I mean, I didn’t know them by name. It turns out I did know them, but I didn’t know them by name. They were people that were always in Greco’s, and everybody in Greco knew me because I’m the owner. [41:49] But anyhow, so I get a hold of Marco, and I said, Marco, and I told him what happened. I said, these guys, a couple of guys come in there looking for the talent. That are going to kill him because apparently he extorted somebody out of his business. And I said, who were they with? And he said, they were with Jimmy the bomber. They were with Jimmy Couture. [42:15] I said, oh, they’re for legit then? I said, yeah. I said, can you call? I said, call Jimmy. I knew who he was. He was at the restaurant all the time. He was at Threatfuls all the time with a lot of these other people. And I met him, but I had no interest in him. He didn’t seem like a very friendly sort of anyone. I could care less about him. I represented a lot of guys that worked for him, that were involved with problems, but never really had a conversation with him other than I. [42:53] I’m the owner. So I met with him. I wrote about that in the book. I met with them and got that straightened out where the count’s going to pay $25,000 and you’ll get a contract to the… He ripped off some guy out of a parlor, one of those massage parlors, not massage parlor, but one of those adult bookstores that were big money deals. Oh, yeah. So when I go to meet these guys, I’m told, go meet them and straighten this thing out. So I took Colin with me over to a motel right down the street from the racetrack, right down from the racetrack, and I met with him. I met with Pete Gucci. He was the boss of, you know, this sort of loop. When I get finished talking with him, I come back, and here’s the count and Sammy, and Sammy’s picking a fork with his finger and saying, you know, I rip out eyes with these. [43:56] And the count says, I rip out eyes with these. And I said, what the fuck is going on here? I said, Pete, I said, you know, get him the fuck out of here. And you all at the count said, what’s the matter with you? You know, these guys are going to kill him. And now the moment I get involved in it, he knows he’s not going to have a problem. You know, he’s pulling this nonsense. [44:23] So anyhow, this is how I meet Pete Gucci and Sammy Annarino. After a while, I stopped hanging around with the count because he was starting to go off the deep end. Yeah. Yeah. [44:39] And we were at a party, a bear party with, I remember Willie Holman was there, and they were mostly black, the black guys up there on the south side. And I had just met this girl a day or two before, and the count says, you know, let’s go up to a party, a bear’s party up there on Lakeshore Drive. If we go up there, we go to this party, it’s going to be about maybe 35, 40 people in there, one or two whites, other than the players. And other than that, we’re the only white people there. When we walk into the place, there’s a couple of guys out there with shotguns. It was in a motel. And you walk through like an area where you go in there, and there’s a couple of guys standing there with shotguns. We go in and we go upstairs and, hey, how are you? And we’re talking with people. And I go in one room. I’m in one room. [45:45] There were two rooms there. I’m in one room with a bunch of people and, you know, just talking and having a good old time. And the count was in the second room. And I hear Spade. He always called me Spade. Spade, Spade, you know. And I go in there, and he’s talking with Willie Holman. I remember it was one of them. He was the tackle, I think, with the Bears and a couple of others. And this whole room, all these black guys. And he goes, that’s Spade Cooley. He says, him and I will take on every one of you. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And we’re in a room, and he goes, that’s what he says. You know, him and I will take it on every one of you. And Willie did that. He calmed down. He’s telling him, calmed down. What the fuck? It was about a week or so after this. And because I had been out with the county, he’s calling me two or three times a week to go out. And we’re going, a lot of times it was these areas in the south side with a lot of blood. He liked being around Blacks. [47:00] That’s when I met Gail Sayers, and I met some of these others through him. But a lot of the parties and stuff were in the South Side out there, mostly Blacks and all. But we had gone someplace for dinner, and we’re heading back home. We’re heading back to my place, and we’re in his car. He had a brown Cadillac convertible. On the side of it, it had these, you know, the Count Dante press. And he always ran around. He ran around most of the time in these goofy, you know, these goofy outfits with capes and things like that. I’m driving and when we’re talking and I’m like distracted looking at him. And I’m waiting at a stoplight over there right off of Chicago Avenue. And as we’re there. [47:48] I barely touched the car in front of us, you know, as I’m drifting a little bit and barely touch it. There were four guys in the car and, you know, and the one guy jumps out first, one guy jumps out first and then second one, and they start screaming. And when the count gets out, the guy starts calling you, you faggot or something like that, you know, whatever. And as the other one gets out, I get out of the car. And the next thing I know, they jump back in the car, and they run through a red light, and they disappear. Somebody must have recognized them. One of the other people there must have realized who this is that they’re about to get into a little battle with. In fact, they ran the red light. They just ran the red light and disappeared. They come, no, no, no, no, no. And we go off to my apartment and I’m here with this girl, another girl I had just met a day or so before, because I was constantly meeting new people, uh, running around and, uh, we’re sitting on the couch. I’m sitting in the couch next to her and the count, the count was over there. And he suddenly says to her, he says, he says, this is one of the toughest people I’ve ever met. He said, and he says, tell her how tough you are. Tell her how tough you are. [49:10] I said, you know, I said, you know, you know, and he says, tell them how tough you are. And I said, John, you know, and he walks over, And he makes a motion like this towards me. And he barely touched my chin. But I thought he broke it. He then steps back and he goes, I got to cut this hand off. He says, you saved my life. He said, you saved my life. He said, the only two friends I’ve had in the world were my father and you. He says, I wasn’t even that crazy about my mother. That’s when I said then he goes and he stands and I’m looking at it now he stands up against the window I looked up on the 29th floor, he stands by the window he says get your gun he says and I want you to aim it at me, and say now before you pull the trigger and I’ll stop the bullet, I’ll stop the bullet this guy was nuts and I said I said, what? [50:28] He says, before you pull the trigger. [50:36] Tell me before you pull the trigger and I’ll stop the bullet. He wanted me to shoot him. He stopped the bullet. When I got him out of there, Now when he’s calling me, I’m busy. I’m busy. Once in a while, I’d meet him someplace. No more driving or whatever. That was smart. I hadn’t seen him in probably five or six months. And this is, again, after the situation when I had met with Anna Randall and Gooch and the others. I’m up in my office and I get a I get a call from the county, and he said and I hadn’t probably seen him even maybe in a month or two at all and he said, can I come over and talk to you and I was playing cards in fact I had card games up in my office and, we called him Commissioner. [51:41] O’Malley Ray O’Malley, he was the head of the police department at night. On midnights, he got there at 4 to 12. He started at 4 to 12 until midnights. He was the head of them. He was the commissioner. He was in charge of the whole department. He used to play cards up in my office. We had big card games up in my office. And when he’d come up there, we’d have the blue goose parked out in front. We’d have his bodyguard sitting out there by my door. When he was playing in the games. This went on for a couple of years. [52:15] I was at the office, but, you know, I’m at the office playing cards. [52:20] And I had a, it was a big suite. We had, you know, my office was a big office in this suite. We had about six other, you know, big, big suites in there. And so he comes over, he comes over to meet with me. And so I figure he’s in trouble. He’s arrested. He says, I’ve got a situation going. He says, well, you can get a million dollars. And he said, but if I tell you what it is, he says, and you’re in, he said, you got to be in. I’ll tell you what it is. I said, John, if I need money, I said, you get $2 million, then you can loan me if you want, but I don’t want to know what it is. I said, I just don’t want to know what it is. [52:59] It was about a week or two later. It was a pure later, basically. It was a pure later caper. Yeah, guys, this was like the huge, huge. And the one he set it up with was Pete Gucci, the guy that was going to kill him. That was the one who set it up. I knew that. I thought I remembered that name from somewhere. I don’t remember. They ended up getting popped, but everybody got caught, and most of the money got returned. No, no. No bit that the outfit kept, I understand, if I remember right. What was the deal on that? There was more to it than that. Just before that happened, I go up, and Jerry Workman was another lawyer. Actually, he was attorney up in the office, post-rending bank. When I’m going up into the office, I see Pete Gucci there. This is probably a week or so after the situation with the count. Or maybe even a little bit longer than that. I said, Pete, what are you doing? I said, what are you doing here? Jerry Workston’s my lawyer. Oh, okay. [53:55] Okay. He said, I didn’t know you were off here. I said, yeah. I said, Jerry’s a good friend of mine. Okay. And as I’m walking away, he says, you tell your friend the count to stop calling me at two, three in the morning. He says, I got a wife and kids and whatever. And I said to him, I said, Pete, you got no business dealing. I don’t know what it is. I said, but you guys got no business dealing involved in anything. You got no business being involved with him. And I walked away. I see him and I see him as he’s leaving. I see him as he’s leaving and say goodbye to him. Jerry was going to be playing cards. [54:39] It was card night too. Jerry was going to be playing cards in my office because the people would come in usually about 9 o’clock, 9.30 is when the game would usually start. I talked with Jerry. He had been in there for a while. He was arrested a day or two later. The fbi comes in there because he had stashed about 35 000 in jerry’s couch oh really that was his bond money he got that was his bond money if he got to get bailed out to get him bailed out that was his bond money that was there that’s how bizarre so i got involved in so many situations like this but anyhow anyhow now sammy uh, So it’s about maybe a week or two later after this, when I’m in the car driving, I hear they robbed a purulator. The purulator was about a block and a half from my last police station. It was right down the street from the 18th district. That was the place that they robbed. And not long after that, word came out that supposedly a million dollars was dropped off in front of Jimmy the bomber, in front of his place. With Jimmy the bomber, both Sammy Ann Arino and Pete Gucci were under him. They were gunmen from his group. Now I get a call from, I get a count was never, you never heard the count’s name mentioned in there with anybody. [56:07] The guy from Boston, you know, who they indicated, you know, came in to set it up. The count knew him from Boston. The count had some schools in Boston. And this was one of his students. And that’s how he knew this guy from Boston that got caught trying to take a, trying to leave the country with, you know, with a couple thousand, a couple million dollars of the money. Yeah, I read that. It was going down to the Caribbean somewhere and they caught him. And Sammy Ann Arino didn’t get involved in that. He wasn’t involved in that because I think he was back in the prison at the time. [56:44] Now, when he’s out of prison, probably no more than about maybe three or four months after all that toilet stuff had died down, I get a call from Sam, and he wants me to represent him because he was arrested. What happened was he was shot in a car. He was in a car, and he had gotten shot. And when they shot him, he kicked out the window and somehow fought the guys off. When they found him there in the car and in his trunk, they found a hit kit. They said it was a hit kit. How could they know? It was a box that had core form in it, a ski mask, a ski mask, a gun, a gun with tape wrapped around it and the rest of it. Yeah. And he’s an extra time. Mask and tape or little bits of rope and shit like that. I’d say no. So he was charged with it, and he was charged with it in his case, and he had a case coming up. I met him the first time I met him. He came by my office, and he said, you know, and I said, no, that’s not a problem. And he says, but I’ve got to use Eddie Jensen, too. [57:52] And I said, I said, what do you mean? I said, you don’t need Eddie. And he says, I was told I have to use him. Jimmy Couture, his boy, he said, I have to use him. I know why, because Eddie lets these mobsters know whenever anybody’s an informant, or if he’s mad at somebody, he can tell him he’s an informant, they get killed. And so I said, you know, that piece of shit. I said, you know, I want nothing to do with him. I had some interesting run-ins with him before, and I said, I want nothing to do with that worthless piece of shit. You know, he’s a jagoff. And I said, you know, I says, no. He said, please. I said, no. I said, Sammy, you know, you don’t need me. He knows the judge like I know the judge, Sardini. I said, you know, you’re not going to have a problem in there. I get a call from him again, maybe four or five days after that. He’s out of my restaurant and he says, Bob, please. He said, You know, he says, please, can I meet you? He says, I got a problem. I go out to the meeting. And so I thought, there’s something new. I want you to represent me. I want you to represent me, you know, on the case. And I says, did you get rid of that fence? He says, no, I have to use him. But I says, look, I’m not going to, I want, no, Sammy, no, I’m not going to do it. He leaves the restaurant. He gets about a mile and a half away. He gets shotgunned and he gets killed. In fact, I read about that a couple of days ago. [59:22] I know it’s bullshit. They said he was leaving the restaurant. It was Marabelli’s. It was Marabelli’s Furniture Store. They said he was leaving the furniture store. What they did was they stopped traffic out there. They had people on the one side of the street, the other side of the street, and they followed, they chased him. When he got out of his car and was going to the furniture store, They blasted him with shotguns. They made sure he was killed this time. After that happened, it’s about maybe three or four days after that, I’m up in my office and I get a call. All right, when I come out, I always parked in front of City Hall. That was my parking spot. Mike and CM saved my spot. I parked there, or I parked in the bus stop, or in the mayor’s spot. Those were my spots. They saved it for me. I mean, that was it, for three, four, five years. That’s how it was. I didn’t want to wait in line in the parking lot. So my car is parked right in front of the parking lot. And as I go to get in my car, just fast, fast, so walking, because he was at 134 right down the street from my office and he parks like everybody else in the parking lot so he can wait 20 minutes to get his car. [1:00:40] And, and, and Bob, Bob, and, you know, and when I meet up with him, I’m both standing and we’re both standing right there in front of the, in front of the, uh, the parking lot. And he was a big guy. He weighed probably about 280, 290, maybe more. You know, mushy, mushy type, not in good shape at all. In fact, he walked with a gimp or whatever. And he says, you better be careful, he says. Jimmy Couture is furious. He heard what you’ve been saying about me. [1:01:17] You’ve been saying about me. and something’s liable to happen. And I went reserved. I grabbed him, and I threw him up on the wall, and I says, you motherfuckers. I said, my friends are killing your friends. [1:01:34] I said, my friends, because he represented a number of these groups, but I’m with the most powerful group of all. And when I say I’m with him, I’m with him day and night, not like him just as their lawyer. Most of them hated him, too, because most of them knew what he was doing. Yeah most of these and most of these guys hated him and i said you know but i and and i just like you’re kissing his pants and i don’t know if he crapped in his pants too and uh you know because i just turned around i left that same night jimmy katura winds up getting six in the back of the head maybe three miles from where that took place yeah he was uh some kind of trouble been going on for a while. He was a guy who was like in that cop shop racket, and he had been killing some people involved with that. He was kind of like out away from the main crew closer to downtown, is my understanding. Like, you were in who were you in? Who was I talking about? Jimmy Couture? Jimmy Couture, yeah. He was no, Jimmy Couture was Jimmy Couture, in fact, all these killers, we’ll try and stay with this a little bit first. Jimmy Couture was a boss and he had probably about maybe a dozen, maybe more in his crew and, He didn’t get the message, I’m sure. [1:03:01] Eddie Jensen firmly believes, obviously, because it’s the same day and same night when I tell him that my friends are killing your friends. [1:03:14] He’s telling everybody that I had him kill, I’m sure. Yeah, yeah. Because it was about another few days after that when I’m out in Evanston going to a courthouse. And there you had to park down the street because there was no parking lot. Here I hear Eddie, you know, stay. I’m going to say Bob, Bob. And when he gets up, he says, Bob, he says, when I told you, I think you misunderstood. When I told you it was Jimmy Cattrone. it was it was jimmy katron was a lawyer that you know worked in out of his office close friend of mine too he was a good friend of mine it was jimmy it was jimmy katron that you know not because he obviously thought he believed so he’s got all these mobsters too bosses and all the rest thinking that i was involved in that when i when i wasn’t uh when i was when i wasn’t actually But it’s so amazing, Gary. And that’s one of a dozen stories of the same sort. I met unbelievable people. I mean, we’re talking about in New Orleans. We’re talking about in Boston. Now, if you were to say, who were you with? Always somebody’s with somebody. Were you with any particular crew or any particular crew. [1:04:41] Buzz, were you totally independent? [1:04:46] Everybody knew me to be with the Elmwood Park crew. And that was Jackie Cerrone before Michael, I mean, before Johnny DeFranco. That was Jackie Cerrone. Okay. That was Giancana. That was Mo Giancana. Mo was moving at the clubhouse all the time. That was the major people. [1:05:13] And where was their clubhouse? What did they call their clubhouse? Was that the Survivors Clubhouse, or what was the name of their operation? Every group had one, sometimes more clubhouses. Right. That was where they would have card games in there. They’d have all kinds of other things going. the place was full of like in Marcos I call it Marcos but it was actually Jackie Sharon’s when I first got involved Jackie Sharon was the boss who became a good friend of mine, Jackie Sharon was the boss and Johnny DeFranco was, right under him and then a number of others as we go down, our group alone we had. [1:06:04] Minimum, I’d say, a thousand or more people in our group alone. And who knows how many others, because we had control of the sheriff’s office, of the police department, of the sheriff, of the attorney general. We had control of all that through the elections. We controlled all that. So you had 1,000 people. You’re talking about all these different people who we would maybe call associates. It would be in and out of our club all the time. Okay. Yeah. We’re talking a number of policemen, a number of policemen, a number of different politicians of all sorts that we had. I knew dozens of people with no-show jobs there. We had control of all the departments, streets and sanitation, of absolutely urbanizing. We controlled all the way up to the Supreme Court. What about the first ward, Pat Marcy, and the first ward now? Was your crew and Jackie Cerrone’s crew, did that fall into the first ward, or were they totally there? How did that relate, the Pat Marcy and the politicians? And I found out all this over a period of time. [1:07:28] Everything had changed right about the time I first got involved with these people. All these people you’ve read about, no one knows they were still alive. I met just about all of them when I got connected over there with the first word. A lot of the, we were talking about the gunmen themselves. All the Jackie not just Jackie but I’m talking about Milwaukee Phil Milwaukee Phil and all the rest of them they were over there at Councilors Row all the time because when they were to meet Pat Marcy, what they had there in the first war and, It just so happened, when I started in my office, it was with Alan Ackerman, who was at 100 North, where all their offices were upstairs. The first ward office was upstairs. [1:08:22] And below the office, two floors below, I found out on this when I got involved with them, we had an office. looked like it was a vacant office because the windows were all blackened out. That’s where he had all the meetings with people. When Arcado or Yupa, anybody else, any of the other people came in, this is where he met them. When the people from out of town came in, we’re talking about when, what do you think? [1:08:58] But when Alpha, when Fitzgerald, when all these people would come in, this is where they would have their meetings. Or these are the ones who would be out with us on these casino rides. When these people came in, this is where they would do the real talking because we’d go to different restaurants that weren’t bugged. If this office was checked every day, the one that they had down below, and nobody, nobody, their office was, I think it was on the 28th floor, the first ward office. You had the first ward office, and right next to it, you had the insurance office when everybody had to buy their insurance. Obviously at upper rates big office connected to the first ward office when the back there’s a door that goes right into into theirs but the people were told you never get off or you get off you get off at the office floor but then you you walk you you get off it and i’m sorry you get off it at the. [1:10:11] You don’t get off at the first ward office you get off at one of the other offices one of the other offices or the other floors and when you come in there, then you’ll be taken someplace else after that a double shop that’s where they would go and in fact when I had to talk to Petter Cary messages or whatever people like Marco couldn’t talk to Marcy. [1:10:41] Only a few people could. Only people at the very top level could. Marco, he was a major boss. He could not talk to Marco. If he needed, you know, whatever. Marco D’Amico. Marco was, you had, Marco was the one right under Johnny DeFonza. Yeah. Marco’s the one that was in charge. He was the one who was in charge of all the gambling. Not just in Chicago, but around all those areas in Cook County. We had not just Chicago. They were also the ones that were in charge of all the street tax, collecting all the street tax. That’s where the big, big money was also. Everybody paid. What happened was in the 70s, right as I got involved

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