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Today’s Topics: 1, 2, 3, 4) Special Edition:  Father Robert Elias shares his conversion story, from a hedonist to the Catholic Priesthood

Ready for a Spiritual Fresh Start? Looking to deepen your prayer life beyond the holiday season? Download our free guide to Carmelite spirituality to help you navigate the new year with purpose and peace: https://midnightcarmelite.com/reset The decorations are coming down, the carols are ending, and the emotional "high" of Christmas is beginning to wane. But what happens when the angels stop singing and you're left in the quiet of a cold January? In this episode, we explore how to transition from the temporary feelings of the holidays into a "naked faith"—the kind of faith that sustains you when God feels distant and the path ahead is lit only by the faint glow of starlight. Summary As the festive glow of Christmas begins to fade, how do we transition from fleeting holiday emotions to a steady, persistent faith? Today, we dive into the profound contrast between the shepherds and the Magi. While an explosion of angelic glory greeted the shepherds, the Magi had to endure a long, quiet journey guided by a single star. We discuss why most of our spiritual lives look more like the Magi's trek than the shepherds' visitation. You'll discover how to recognize God's presence in the ordinary, the beauty of the Eucharist, and why the mystery of the Incarnation is the ultimate proof of God's infinite love for you—even when you don't "feel" it. Key Takeaways The Shepherd vs. The Magi Experience: Understand why God sometimes gives us "angelic" consolations and why, at other times, He asks us to walk by the "starlight" of pure faith.Finding God in the Ordinary: How to recognize Emmanuel (God with us) in your daily life and the Eucharist, even when you aren't experiencing big spiritual visions.The Power of the Incarnation: Why God becoming man is the ultimate answer to your deepest questions and the necessary starting point for all spiritual growth.Walking the "Starlight" Path of Faith: Practical encouragement for staying faithful to your prayer life when the pomp and circumstance of the season disappear.

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

Welcome, my unholy loves, to the final episode of our Unholy December series.In seventeenth-century Puebla, a cloistered nun's suffering was documented as spiritual warfare rather than illness. Drawing on colonial convent records and clerical testimony, we examine how pain, devotion, and fear collided inside the rigid world of New Spain's Carmelite convents. Stripped of folklore, this case reveals how a woman's body became a site of religious authority and control. The Possessed Nun of Puebla endures not because of what was believed to inhabit her, but because of how her suffering was interpreted.****************Sources & References:Rosalva Loreto López, “The Devil, Women, and the Body in Seventeenth-Century Puebla Convents,” The Americas, Cambridge University Press.False Mystics: Deviant Orthodoxy in Colonial Mexico, Scribd academic document.Discalced Carmelite Convent of San José and Santa Teresa — historical foundation and context.Fernando Cervantes, The Devil in the New World: The Impact of Diabolism in Colonial Mexico, Yale University Press, 1994.****************Leave Us a 5* Rating, it really helps the show!Apple Podcast:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beauty-unlocked-the-podcast/id1522636282Spotify Podcast:https://open.spotify.com/show/37MLxC8eRob1D0ZcgcCorA****************Follow Us on Social Media & Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!YouTube:@beautyunlockedspodcasthourTikTok:tiktok.com/@beautyunlockedthepod****************Music & SFX Attribution:Epidemic Sound"Return of Light" Christoffer Moe Ditlevsen"Final Examination" Jay Varton"Ghost Dungeons" Ethan Sloan"Creepy Crawly" Arthur BensonFind the perfect track on Epidemic Sound for your content and take it to the next level! See what the hype is all about!

Free Advent Guide: Are you looking to deepen your prayer life this season? Download our free guide to Carmelite spirituality to help you navigate Advent with purpose: https://midnightcarmelite.com/reset Do you feel pressure to create the perfect "Hallmark Christmas," only to be met with stress, difficult relatives, and a feeling of emptiness? We often think that a perfect holiday means abundance, comfort, and peace. However, Bishop Sheen famously remarked that the saddest moment in history was when there was "no room at the inn." In this episode of Midnight Carmelite, we explore the profound theology behind the Manger and the Inn. While the Inn represents a world full of itself with no room for God, the Manger represents the poverty, lack, and discomfort where Christ actually chooses to be born. We discuss how you can transform family tension, awkward conversations, and holiday chores into an offering of "straw" for the baby Jesus, turning your struggles into a path for deep spiritual growth. In this episode, you will learn: The Spiritual Value of Discomfort: Why Christ chose the cold, smelly manger over the comfort of the inn, and what that means for your holiday struggles.How to Navigate Family Conflict: Practical advice on practicing spiritual poverty when dealing with difficult situations or hurtful comments.From Possession to Freedom: Understanding St. John of the Cross's teaching that to possess God, we must desire to possess nothing—including our own will.

In this episode, Jason explores one of the most important texts in world spirituality: The Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross. St. John was a 16th-century Carmelite monk who helped St. Teresa of Ávila reform the Carmelite order—and was kidnapped and imprisoned by rival monks for nine months, during which he composed this classic text on spiritual transformation. In this episode, you'll learn: - Why the "dark night" is not depression, but a necessary stage of spiritual development - The three signs that distinguish true spiritual purgation from mere lukewarmness - How God "weans" the soul like a mother teaching a child to walk - Why divine light appears as darkness to the unprepared soul ("a ray of darkness") - The ten steps of the ladder of love leading to union with God - How suffering is more secure than pleasure on the spiritual path Key quote: "He who shines with the greatest light shall cast the darkest shadow." If you've ever felt spiritually dry, disconnected, or like God has withdrawn His presence—this episode reveals why that experience is not only normal, but essential. ---

Today’s Topics: Father Raymond of the Blessed Sacrament joins Terry 1) Gospel – Matthew 21:23-27 – When Jesus had come into the temple area, the chief priests and the elders of the people approached Him as He was teaching and said, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?” Jesus said to them in reply, “I shall ask you one question, and if you answer it for me, then I shall tell you by what authority I do these things. Where was John’s baptism from? Was it of heavenly or of human origin?” They discussed this among themselves and said, “If we say ‘Of heavenly origin,’ He will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we fear the crowd, for they all regard John as a prophet.” So they said to Jesus in reply, “We do not know.” He Himself said to them, “Neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things.” Bishop Sheen quote of the day 2, 3, 4) Terry and Father Raymond discuss prayer

In this powerful men's talk, Fr. John Hollowell shares how St. John of the Cross profoundly shaped his priesthood and spiritual life — and why this Carmelite saint has so much to teach men today. Fr. Hollowell reflects on:  • The danger of chasing spiritual “feelings”  • The meaning of spiritual dryness and the Dark Night of the Soul  • Why discipline, detachment, and self-denial matter for men  • The difference between emotion-driven faith and mature holiness  • How true masculinity grows through obedience, trust, and perseverance Drawing from personal experience, Church teaching, and the wisdom of St. John of the Cross, this talk challenges men to stop waiting for signs or feelings and instead choose faithfulness, sacrifice, and steady commitment to God. A must-watch for any man seeking deeper prayer, stronger self-mastery, and authentic growth in holiness.  

Send us a textWe explore mental prayer through a Carmelite lens, moving from definitions and methods to the lived experience of silence, distraction, and trust. The theme is simple and demanding: prayer is a relationship, not a performance, and silence is where love learns to listen.• mental prayer as interior attention and loving presence with God• meditation using reason vs mental prayer using affection and attention• rosary as rhythm that steadies focus on the mysteries• how distraction and dryness purify motives and deepen trust• the necessity of silence for identity, depth, and freedom from noise• discursive prayer and the Carmelite emphasis on friendship with Christ• practical helps for recollection: scripture, crucifix, sacred music• growing intimacy through practice, Lectio Divina, small resolutions• reflection prompts on silence, expectations, and dialogue vs monologueClick here to support the Carmelite Friars! Have something you'd love to hear Fr. Stephen and John talk about? Email us at myfriendthefriar@gmail.com or click here!

Join Ken Hackett as he explores the theme of hope through the life and writings of Saint Teresa of Avila, a Carmelite reformer whose mystical experiences, relentless perseverance, and transformative faith continue to inspire. Discover how hope can endure in the midst of suffering, opposition, and uncertainty, and learn how Teresa's spiritual journey teaches us […] L'articolo In the Shadow of Carmel – St. Teresa of Avila: Saint for Today – Ken Hackett proviene da Radio Maria.

Today’s Topics: Father Raymond of the Blessed Sacrament joins Terry 1, 2, 3, 4) Gospel – Luke 1:26-38 – The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a Son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of David his father, and He will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of His Kingdom there will be no end.” But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” And the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the Child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.” Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her. Memorial of Saint Saint , pray for us! Bishop Sheen quote of the day

12-7-25: The First Noel-Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles by

In this episode of In the Shadow of Carmel, secular Carmelite Ken Hackett reflects on the meaning of hope in Carmelite spirituality in light of the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope. Drawing on Scripture, the Rule of St. Albert, and the teachings of Carmelite saints—from Elijah and Mary to Teresa, John of the Cross, Thérèse, […] L'articolo In the Shadow of Carmel – Jubilee Hope: Carmelite Style – Ken Hackett proviene da Radio Maria.

Free Advent Guide: Are you looking to deepen your prayer life this season? Download our free guide to Carmelite spirituality to help you navigate Advent with purpose: https://midnightcarmelite.com/reset Is silence just empty space, or is it something more? In our modern world, we often view silence as a vacuum—an absence of noise. But true spiritual silence is actually a form of active receptivity. Just as you must be silent to truly hear a friend or imagine a story while reading, you must cultivate interior silence to perceive the reality of God. In the hustle of the holiday season, it is easy to miss the Incarnation if we are not prepared to listen. In this week's episode of Midnight Carmelite, we explore how to prepare for the feast of the Incarnation. We look to the Nativity story—where Christ was born into a silence—as our guide. We also discuss the practical tool of mortification. Far from being a negative practice, we frame mortification as the "shovel" used to clear the stable of our hearts, while our good deeds become the straw that cushions the manger for the Christ Child. In this episode, you will learn: The definition of Active Receptivity: Why silence is not a void, but a necessary state of listening for God's disclosure.Lessons from the Nativity: How the humility of the shepherds and Magi allowed them to notice what the rest of the world missed.The "Shovel" and the "Straw": A practical metaphor for using mortification to remove worldly attachments and good deeds to welcome the Lord.Practical Advent Steps: How to replace distractions (like excessive shopping) with ten minutes of Scripture and silence.

Ken Hackett introduces a new series of this beloved show, reflecting on hope through the Carmelite spiritual tradition in light of the 2025 Jubilee Year, Pilgrims of Hope. Beginning with the biblical and historical roots of the Jubilee, the episode explores its themes of mercy, renewal, conversion, and freedom. Drawing deeply on the lives and […] L'articolo In the Shadow of Carmel – What Medieval Spanish Contemplatives Teach Us About Hope – Ken Hackett proviene da Radio Maria.

Today’s Topics: Father Raymond of the Blessed Sacrament joins Terry 1) Gospel – Luke 21:1-4 – When Jesus looked up He saw some wealthy people putting their offerings into the treasury and He noticed a poor widow putting in two small coins. He said, “I tell you truly, this poor widow put in more than all the rest; for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood.” Memorial of Saint Andrew Dũng-Lạc, Priest, and Companions, Martyrs Saint Andrew and Companions, pray for us! Bishop Sheen quote of the day 2, 3, 4) Terry and Father Raymond discuss self-knowledge and all it encompasses as described by Saint Teresa of Avila

A reading for meditation of the St John of the Cross poem - "I Entered the Unknown."John of the Cross (1542 -1591) was a Spanish Catholic priest, mystic, and a Carmelite friar of converso origin. John became a priest in 1567 and considered joining the Carthusian Order where monks lived cloistered in individual cells. He was attracted by the simple and quiet life. However, he encountered Theresa of Avila, a charismatic Carmelite nun. On Nov. 28, 1568, Theresa founded a new monastery. The same day, John changed his name again to John of the Cross. Within a couple years, John and his fellow friars, relocated to a larger site for their monastery. He remained at this location until 1572.

Today’s Topics: Father Raymond of the Blessed Sacrament joins Terry 1) Gospel – Luke 18:35-43 – As Jesus approached Jericho a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging, and hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what was happening. They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” He shouted, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!” The people walking in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent, but he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me!” Then Jesus stopped and ordered that he be brought to Him; and when he came near, Jesus asked him, “What do you want Me to do for you?” He replied, “Lord, please let me see.” Jesus told him, “Have sight; your faith has saved you.” He immediately received his sight and followed Him, giving glory to God. When they saw this, all the people gave praise to God. Memorial of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Religious Saint Elizabeth, pray for us! Bishop Sheen quote of the day 2, 3, 4) Terry and Father Raymond discuss the importance of Marian Spirituality to Carmelite Spirituality

Today's Topics: Father Raymond of the Blessed Sacrament joins Terry 1) Gospel - Luke 17:1-6 - Jesus said to His disciples, "Things that cause sin will inevitably occur, but woe to the one through whom they occur. It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times saying, 'I am sorry,' you should forgive him." And the Apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith." The Lord replied, "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you." Memorial of Saint Leo the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church Saint Leo, pray for us! Bishop Sheen quote of the day 2, 3, 4) Terry and Father Raymond discuss stories of Carmelite Martyrs

Today I spoke and acknowledged the 14th of November which is the Feast of All the Saints of Carmel. And I highlighted St Elizabeth of the Trinity, as it was her feast day on Saturday 8 November – Sabrina To listen to more episodes on the lives of the Saints, click here! L'articolo Saint of the Week – St. Elizabeth of the Trinity and all Carmelite Saints proviene da Radio Maria.

Friends of the Rosary,Ten years ago, Louis and Zélie Martin — the parents of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, pictured — were canonized as a model of a joyful and holy marriage.Pope Leo said their lives show “marriage as a path to holiness.”"Among the vocations to which men and women are called by God, marriage is one of the noblest and most elevated.”Pope Leo XIV urged couples to look to the Saints as a model of a joyful and holy marriage.The Pontifex urged to discover God's “boundless love and tenderness and strive to make them love Him in return as He deserves.”Our secular society tends to present marriage and family as outdated and boring, but they are just the opposite.The pope described the Martins as a couple who found “profound happiness in giving life, transmitting the faith, and seeing their daughters grow and flourish under the gaze of the Lord.” “Dear couples, I invite you to persevere courageously on the path, sometimes difficult and laborious, but luminous, that you have undertaken,” Pope Leo stated.“Above all, put Jesus at the center of your families, your activities, and your choices,” he explained.Louis and Marie-Azélie (Zélie) Martin were married in 1858 at Notre Dame Basilica in Alençon. Before marrying, both had sought religious life — Louis with the Augustinians and Zélie with the Sisters of Charity — but each discerned that God was calling them to marriage.Zélie prayed for children who would consecrate their lives to God, and the couple was blessed with nine. Four died in infancy, and the remaining five became religious sisters, including Thérèse, who would later become one of the Church's most beloved saints and a Doctor of the Church.Thérèse said that God had given her “a mother and a father more worthy of heaven than of earth.”Zélie died of breast cancer in 1877 at age 45. After Zelie's death, Louis moved the family to Lisieux, where four of his daughters went on to become Carmelite nuns.The Martins were canonized together by Pope Francis on Oct. 18, 2015, becoming the first married couple in Church history to be declared saints together — a testament, Pope Leo said, to the enduring truth that marriage, lived faithfully, “leads to the glory of heaven.”Ave Maria!Come, Holy Spirit, come!To Jesus through Mary!Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.Please give us the grace to respond with joy!+ Mikel Amigot w/ María Blanca | RosaryNetwork.com, New YorkEnhance your faith with the new Holy Rosary University app:Apple iOS | New! Android Google Play• ⁠November 8, 2025, Today's Rosary on YouTube | Daily broadcast at 7:30 pm ET

Do you ever sit down to pray, only to find your mind is restless, anxious, or pulled in a dozen different directions? In a world that offers instant gratification, it's harder than ever to build the spiritual focus needed for deep prayer. We're told to "seek God," but our attachments often seek "consolations" instead. Enjoying the episode? The journey does not have to end here. Get my free guide, "The 5-Minute Prayer Reset," and discover a simple framework to turn this inspiration into a consistent daily practice at https://midnightcarmelite.com/reset. This week, we dive into the practical and powerful Carmelite concept of mortification. Far from being an outdated practice, mortification is the spiritual equivalent of going to the gym. It's the conscious, willed denial of our small, everyday attachments—from choosing the fruit snack you don't prefer to cutting off a "doom-scrolling" session. We explore how these tiny acts of self-denial build incredible spiritual muscle, killing self-will so you can become more docile and receptive to God in prayer. In this episode, you'll learn: What mortification truly is (and what it isn't).Practical, small ways to practice mortification in your daily life.How building "spiritual muscle" directly combats distraction and agitation in your prayer time.Why a lack of mortification is often rooted in a deeper lack of hope in God, keeping us lukewarm.

Today's Topics: Father Raymond of the Blessed Sacrament joins Terry 1) Gospel - Luke 14:12-14 - On a sabbath Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees. He said to the host who invited Him, "When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or sisters or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." Memorial of Saint Martin de Porres, Religious Saint Martin, pray for us! Bishop Sheen quote of the day 2, 3, 4) Terry and Father Raymond discuss the charism of Carmelite spirituality

O'Maria Akpati's life has been a journey of discovering the true beauty that lies within each of us. She's a former celebrity makeup artist, a former Carmelite nun, and now a "True Beauty" advocate. In an age of shallow pursuits leading to desperately unhappy people, O'Maria empowers others to discover their own beauty that shines through the pursuit of truth and goodness what she calls "Godfidence."Reference Linkshttps://informedchoicewa.substack.com/https://www.youtube.com/@BEAUTYFULLPeoplehttps://www.radiomaria.ie/extvs_programme/the-theology-of-true-beauty/https://instagram.com/omariamediaSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today's Topics: Father Raymond of the Blessed Sacrament joins Terry 1) Gospel - Luke 13:10-17 - Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath. And a woman was there who for eighteen years had been crippled by a spirit; she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect. When Jesus saw her, He called to her and said, "Woman, you are set free of your infirmity." He laid His Hands on her, and she at once stood up straight and glorified God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant that Jesus had cured on the sabbath, said to the crowd in reply, "There are six days when work should be done. Come on those days to be cured, not on the sabbath day." The Lord said to him in reply, "Hypocrites! Does not each one of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger and lead it out for watering? This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now, ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day from this bondage?" When He said this, all Hs adversaries were humiliated; and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by Him. Bishop Sheen quote of the day 2, 3, 4) Terry and Father Raymond discuss the Spirituality of the Carmelites

10-19-25: Mercy Rushes In (Reprise) - Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles by

Friends of the Rosary,Today, October 15, the Catholic Church celebrates the Memorial of St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582).Born in Avila, Spain, in the year 1515, this sixteenth-century Spaniard saint is honored as the "seraphic virgin," virgo seraphica, doctrix mystica, doctor of mystical theology, and teacher of the spiritual life.She reformed the Carmelite Order, with the help of St. John of the Cross, changing most of the Carmelite convents and founding thirty-two reformed convents.She reached the highest degree of prayer and, through prayer, obtained such knowledge of divine things that in 1970 Pope St. Paul VI named her the first woman Doctor of the Church.  Her writings are still the classic works on mysticism. Autobiography of St. Teresa, Interior Castle, and Way of Perfection.Through her mystical union with God, she reached a climax when her heart was transfixed (transverberatio cordis),St. Teresa composed the following well-known lines:Let nothing affright thee,Nothing dismay thee.All is passing,God ever remains.Patience obtains all.Whoever possesses GodCannot lack anythingGod alone suffices.Ave Maria!Come, Holy Spirit, come!To Jesus through Mary!Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.Please give us the grace to respond with joy!+ Mikel Amigot w/ María Blanca | RosaryNetwork.com, New YorkEnhance your faith with the new Holy Rosary University app:Apple iOS | New! Android Google Play• ⁠October 14, 2025, Today's Rosary on YouTube | Daily broadcast at 7:30 pm ET

Fr. Dave Heney joins Patrick to discuss St. Teresa of Avila (2:52) who was St Teresa of Avila? (11:52) what is a Doctor of the Church? What are some of the insights of writings in the life of St Teresa o Avila? (20:29) Break 1 Richard - Daughter is a Carmelite. Wanted to share what she's going through as a Carmelite and my experience as a father. (29:01) How did St. Teresa deal with opposition in her life? (35:42) Mike – I was able to visit her convent a few times. The greatest treasure of hers is her prayer 'Let nothing trouble you God is in control' (38:23) Break 2 What is a mystic? Why was it so difficult for St Teresa to be a Mystic? Resources The Autobiography of Saint Teresa of Avila: The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus https://tanbooks.com/products/books/the-autobiography-of-saint-teresa-of-avila-the-life-of-st-teresa-of-jesus/?srsltid=AfmBOooK8aIC1CeGtVwc5AHCAgS3xjR3LCcN7ntShF88zsccjMxrxTeP The Way of Perfection: Study Edition https://www.icspublications.org/products/teresa-of-avila-the-way-of-perfection-a-study-edition

Send us a textWe trace Carmel from Elijah's fire on Mount Carmel to Teresa, John, and Thérèse, showing how silence, detachment, and love shape a steady allegiance to Christ. Along the way we share how Our Lady's scapular, community life, and simple daily prayer can anchor an ordinary life in God.• origins on Mount Carmel and the Rule of Saint Albert• Elijah as spiritual father and model of zeal• Our Lady of Mount Carmel and the brown scapular• allegiance to Jesus through contemplative prayer• Teresa of Avila's Interior Castle and perseverance• John of the Cross and purification in the dark night• Thérèse's Little Way and holiness in small acts• community shaped by silence, charity, and intercession• practical steps to begin a Carmelite practice• resources, retreats, and pilgrimages with Journeys of FaithVisit our website today and take the first step on this journey of faithBrowse our Brown Scapular CollectionBrowse our Carmelite Spirituality CollectionOpen by Steve Bailey Support the show

Today on Saint of the Week, we learn about Saint Teresa of Avila, a joyful and courageous woman who devoted her whole life to prayer and friendship with God. From a young age, she longed to see God and this led her to become a Carmelite nun. She shared how to grow close to Him […] L'articolo Saint of the Week – St. Teresa of Avila- Sabrina McKiernan proviene da Radio Maria.

In this episode of All Things Legion, Mary Stenson welcomes Fr Seán Ford, a Carmelite priest and spiritual director of the Ancilla Domini Curia in Francis Street. Together they discuss his journey from solicitor to priesthood, the spirituality of the Carmelites, and the ongoing mission and inspiration of the Legion of Mary in today's world. L'articolo All Things Legion – Fr. Sean Ford – Mary Stenson – A Legion of Mary Podcast proviene da Radio Maria.

Friends of the Rosary,Today is the feast of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face (1873-1897), popularly known as "the Little Flower."St. Thérèse, a cloistered, discalced Carmelite nun, is the patroness of all foreign missions and the patroness of France.She died of consumption on September 30, 1897, at the age of 24, and was canonized in 1925. In 1997, Pope St. John Paul II declared her a Doctor of the Church.Her interior life is revealed through her autobiography, "Story of a Soul.""The Little Flower" attained a high degree of holiness by carrying out her ordinary daily duties with perfect fidelity, having a childlike confidence in God's providence and merciful love.She was always ready to serve others at all times, prayed especially for the priests, and had a great love of the Church and a zeal for the conversion of souls.The month of October is dedicated to the Holy Rosary. The Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary is celebrated on October 7.Ave Maria!Come, Holy Spirit, come!To Jesus through Mary!Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.Please give us the grace to respond with joy!+ Mikel Amigot w/ María Blanca | RosaryNetwork.com, New YorkEnhance your faith with the new Holy Rosary University app:Apple iOS | New! Android Google Play• ⁠October 1, 2025, Today's Rosary on YouTube | Daily broadcast at 7:30 pm ET

Happy feast of St. Thérèse of Lisieux! This episode is a "rose" to take with you today as we reflect on this great saint and her "little way" of growing closer to Jesus. St. Thérèse received particular graces from God in her life that helped her reach an incredible level of holiness. Even though she lived within the walls of a Carmelite convent, she is the patron saint of missionaries and is even a Doctor of the Church. Her sanctity, sweetness, simplicity, virginity, and vocation to the religious life may make it hard to relate to St. Thérèse at first – especially when we're feeling the weight of the cross of infertility and its effect on our marriages. But there is so much we can learn from this saint even though our lives may look very different from hers.Will you let St. Thérèse send you a "rose" today? Links:"The Hidden Gift of Hidden Suffering" blog postI Believe in Love (personal retreat book)Aleteia article on married saintsJust for TodayCompiled and translated from the writings of Saint Thérèse with selections from the Imitation of Christ

Is there such a thing as a universal human experience of the divine, or are all encounters shaped by culture, language, and power? In this video, we explore the classic debate between perennialism and constructivism, from William James and Mircea Eliade to Steven Katz, Talal Asad, and beyond. Drawing on philosophy, anthropology, psychology, and neuroscience, we look at how claims of universality are entangled with history and how particular traditions cultivate what we call “religious experience.”CONNECT & SUPPORT

Join Angela Sealana and Carmelite friar Father Jorge Maria Cabrera de la Eucaristía, OCD, as they explore the life and teachings of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, the beloved Little Flower. Discover the inspiring life of this role model of faith and hear how her teachings can guide us on our spiritual journey. In this episode, you will learn: Who was St. Thérèse ‘the Little Flower'? What were her major contributions to Christian spirituality? Why is San Antonio home to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Little Flower? Learn about special opportunities to venerate relics of Thérèse and her holy parents in 2025. Continue Your Journey: Guest information and helpful resources. Jewel for the Journey: “Souls on fire with love cannot remain inactive.” - St. Thérèse of Lisieux Do you like what you hear? Become a Missionary of Hope by sponsoring a week of Journeys of Hope. Click here to get started. Learn more at https://pilgrimcenterofhope.org/media-and-resources/all-media-series/journeys-of-hope.html Help us spread hope! https://pilgrimcenterofhope.org/support

Adam Wright is joined by Joe Scherrer, a Secular Discalced Carmelite. But what is a Discalced Carmelite and how can they be secular? Joe enlightens us and shares who the Secular Discalced Carmelites are and what they do in the world. He then sets the stage with Adam for a coming series on the Beatitudes that will air on Roadmap to Heaven over the next several weeks. Fr. Joe Weber continues the week reflecting on the Gospel reading of the day! Download the Covenant Network app today! Pray the Visual Rosary at VisualRosary.org For more information on Covenant Network, visit OurCatholicRadio.org

Tuesday of the 22nd Week in Ordinary Time Saint of the Day: St. Brocard; French by birth, he went to Mount Carmel; he was elected prior, and asked Albert, the patriarch of Jerusalem, to draw up a rule for the monks; this rule became the foundation of the Carmelite order; Brocard ruled for 35 years, and died in 1231 Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 9/2/25 Gospel: Luke 4:31-37

Full Text of ReadingsSaturday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 412The Saint of the day is Saint Teresa Benedicta of the CrossSaint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross' Story A brilliant philosopher who stopped believing in God when she was 14, Edith Stein was so captivated by reading the autobiography of Teresa of Avila that she began a spiritual journey that led to her baptism in 1922. Twelve years later she imitated Saint Teresa by becoming a Carmelite, taking the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Born into a prominent Jewish family in Breslau, Germany—now Wroclaw, Poland—Edith abandoned Judaism in her teens. As a student at the University of Göttingen, she became fascinated by phenomenology–an approach to philosophy. Excelling as a protégé of Edmund Husserl, one of the leading phenomenologists, Edith earned a doctorate in philosophy in 1916. She continued as a university teacher until 1922, when she moved to a Dominican school in Speyer; her appointment as lecturer at the Educational Institute of Munich ended under pressure from the Nazis. After living for four years in the Cologne Carmel, Sister Teresa Benedicta moved to the Carmelite monastery in Echt, Netherlands, in 1938. The Nazis occupied that country in 1940. In retaliation for being denounced by the Dutch bishops, the Nazis arrested all Dutch Jews who had become Christians. Teresa Benedicta and her sister Rosa, also a Catholic, died in a gas chamber in Auschwitz on August 9, 1942. Pope John Paul II beatified Teresa Benedicta of the Cross in 1987 and canonized her 12 years later. Reflection The writings of Edith Stein fill 17 volumes, many of which have been translated into English. A woman of integrity, she followed the truth wherever it led her. After becoming a Catholic, Edith continued to honor her mother's Jewish faith. Sister Josephine Koeppel, O.C.D., translator of several of Edith's books, sums up this saint with the phrase, “Learn to live at God's hands.” Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross is a Patron Saint of: Converts to ChristianityEurope Learn more about Saint Benedicta of the Cross! Saint of the Day, Copyright Franciscan Media

We live in a time when many people believe that the existence of God is unknowable, that human reason is incapable of knowing whether God exists or that God does not exist.  This is not something new. Edith Stein, the towering intellectual saint and martyr the Church honors today, lost her faith in God during her teenage years, despite being brought up in a devout Jewish home. She was the youngest of eleven children. Her widowed mother encouraged all her children to think critically and encouraged them in their studies.  Edith's studies were interrupted by World War I. She became a volunteer nurse at an infectious disease hospital in her home town in Germany. Confronting the suffering of her patients must have been a major factor in choosing the topic of empathy for her doctoral thesis. Even with graduating summa cum laude from the University of Freiburg, she was denied a teaching certificate due to her gender. Instead, Edith became a teaching assistant to her university professor, the renowned philosopher and mathematician, Edmund Husserl. .  Edith was constantly writing and studying, but it was not until she read the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila that her life changed dramatically. She was moved to convert to Catholicism and, eventually, to enter into the convent of the Discalced Carmelites. She took the name, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, honoring her patron saint.  Her sister, Rosa, also converted and became a tertiary of the Carmelites, living outside the convent, but assisting the sisters in their mission. During the turbulent years of World War II, the leadership of the Carmelites grew concerned for the safety of St. Teresa Benedicta and her sister. They transferred them from Cologne to the Netherlands, thinking that their Jewish backgrounds would not under as much scrutiny. Soon after their transfer, however, the Dutch bishops wrote a strongly worded public letter condemning the abuses of the Nazi regime. Edith Stein also wrote a letter to Pope Pius XI, pleading that Pope must make a similar public statement against the Nazis. It is not known whether the Pope read the letter or not.   It was not long after the Dutch bishops letter that the Gestapo rounded up 244 people of Jewish descent in the Netherlands, including Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross and her sister, Rosa. They were sent to Auschwitz and murdered just a week later in the gas chambers, probably on August 9th, 1942. In a statement to her Carmelite superiors, Edith wrote: “I beg the Lord to take my life and my death…as atonement for the unbelief of the Jewish People, and that the Lord will be received by his own people and his kingdom shall come in glory, for the salvation of Germany and the peace of the world…”  Even after her arrest, she was offered an escape plan, but refused, stating: “If somebody intervened at this point and took away (her) chance to share in the fate of (her) brothers and sisters, that would be utter annihilation.” The writings of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross fill 17 volumes. A woman of integrity, she followed the truth wherever it led. She was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1999 and is one of six patrons saints of Europe.  St. Teresa Benedicta, pray for us. Blessings, Fr. Kevin MacDonald, C.Ss.R.

Saturday of the 18th Week in Ordinary Time Optional Memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, 1891-1942; brilliant philosopher from a Jewish family, she stopped believing in God at age 14; but the autobiography of St. Teresa so captivated Edith Stein that it led her to baptism in 1922; twelve years later, she became a Carmelite nun, taking the name, Teresa Benedicta of the Cross; she spent four years in the Cologne Carmel, and then moved to the Carmel in Echt, Netherlands; the Nazis occupied that country in 1940; they arrested all Jews who had become Christians; Teresa Benedicta and her sister Rosa--who was also Catholic--died in a gas chamber at Auschwitz in 1942 Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 8/9/25 Gospel: Matthew 17:14-20

Episode 185 - Special guest Geralyn Rea is back on the podcast to discuss the inspiring life of Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, better known as Edith Stein. In this episode, Nathanael Rea and his wife Geralyn explore Edith Stein's journey from a brilliant academic to a Carmelite nun, her profound insights on femininity, and her enduring legacy as a spiritual mother. Discover how her writings continue to influence and inspire, even in the face of adversity.

In this episode, the monthly series called “What Are the Sisters Reading?” continues. For the month of August, Sister Kathryn Hermes, FSP, shares about a book called "The Selected Poetry of Jessica Powers," an anthology of poetry by a Carmelite nun who has been hailed as one of America's greatest religious poets.  To check out more books on the Catholic faith and religious items of interest at the Pauline Books and Media Center at 1025 King Street in Alexandria, please click here.

Full Text of ReadingsSeventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 111The Saint of the day is Saint Titus BrandsmaSaint Titus Brandsma's Story Given the birth name Anno, Brandsma and his siblings grew up on their parents' dairy farm in rural Frisia. As devout Catholics, the family was in the minority among their Calvinist neighbors. From age 11 Anno was educated at a preparatory school for boys who were studying for the priesthood. He joined the Carmelite novitiate in 1898, taking the name Titus in honor of his father. In the years following his 1905 ordination, Brandsma received a doctorate in philosophy and initiated a project to translate the works of Saint Teresa of Avila into Dutch. One of the founders of the Catholic University of Nijmegen, he served as a professor of philosophy and the history of mysticism at the school. While there Brandsma was known more for his availability to faculty and students than for his academic achievements. Working as a journalist Brandsma served as ecclesiastical advisor to Catholic journalists. His long-standing opposition to Nazi ideology came to the attention of the Nazis when they invaded the Netherlands in 1940. In direct opposition to the Third Reich, the Conference of Dutch Bishops sent a letter ordering Catholic newspaper editors not to print Nazi propaganda. Fr. Brandsma was arrested while hand delivering the letter in January 1942. After being imprisoned in several other facilities, in June he was taken to the Dachau camp in Germany. During his brief time at Dachau Fr. Brandsma was well-known for his kindness and spiritual support of other prisoners. His death on July 26, 1942 was a result of the Reich's program of medical experimentation on prisoners. He gave a wooden rosary to the nurse who administered the fatal injection; she later became Catholic and testified to his holiness. In recent years Brandsma has been honored by both the cities of Nijmegen and Dachau. Titus Brandsma was beatified in 1985, and canonized in 2022. Reflection Conscience often creates martyrs. That was the case for Titus Brandsma. Many people “go along to get along,” not realizing that by doing so they are destroying themselves internally. In his homily at the canonization Mass Pope Francis said, “Holiness does not consist of a few heroic gestures, but of many small acts of daily love.” Saint Titus Brandsma is a patron saint of: Catholic journalistsFrieslandInternational Union of Catholic EsperantistsTobacconists Read: Touched by Death, Healed by the Catholic Saints Saint of the Day, Copyright Franciscan Media

Waiting on the Mountain: Trusting God's Time with Mary and Elijah Today's Homily occurs on the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel . . . . . . and explores the deep spiritual symbolism of the mountain . . . specifically Mount Carmel . . . and how it relates to faith, patience, prayer, and transformation. The mountain is more than geography; it's a spiritual summit, a place of ascent where prophets like Elijah wait in vigilant hope for God's quiet, powerful action. After his victory over idolatry, Elijah climbs higher . . . not for glory, but to wait for the Lord's rain, a symbol of restoration that comes only through perseverance and trust. This patient expectation mirrors the Carmelite tradition, where Saints Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross teach that real prayer is not about many words, but about aligning oneself with the will of God. The Homily connects this to Mary, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, who is both a model and a “mountain” of receptivity to God's Word. Jesus highlights her true greatness not her physical motherhood, but her hearing and doing the will of God. In this feast, we are called to spiritual ascent . . . through character, devotion, and trust . . . in Mary's school of holiness. At Mass, this spiritual climb finds its summit in the Eucharist, where we behold the Lamb of God and receive the ocean of divine grace. Listen more to this Meditation Media. Listen to: Waiting on the Mountain: Trusting God's Time with Mary and Elijah ------------------------------------------------------------ Quote from the Homily Their recommendation is a much more powerful and much more fundamental thing. Seek to do the will of God, period. At first glance, that sounds like we're replacing praying with doing, but to do the will of God, one must know it. To do the will of God, one must desire it. To do the will of God, one must seek it. Let's note the power of the advice. Let your heart seek not its own way. Let it seek the way of the Lord. Let not your heart aspire after its own ambitions. Let your heart seek out what the Lord desires for you. And the more one begins to do that, what happens is one surrenders himself; one surrenders herself to the Lord in a way that saying, many prayers never get us to because of the issue. The issue in the spiritual life is not so much praying as it is belonging. One belongs to the Lord and to really belong to the Lord . . . ------------------------------------------------------------ Our Lady of Mount Carmel: Italian Painter: Pietro Novelli: 1641

The History of the Brown Scapular Way back in the 1200s, in Aylesford Priory, England... St. Simon Stock, a Carmelite monk, had this famous encounter: Our Lady of Mount Carmel appeared to him and showed him the Brown Scapular. For religious folks, the scapular is part of their habit. For laypeople, it’s the mini version: two little squares of cloth, connected by strings, worn under your clothes. Important to remember: Wearing it is not a magic ticket to heaven. Patrick really hammers this home. What’s the Point of Wearing It? Patrick explains it this way: It’s like a wedding ring.→ The ring doesn’t literally make you married, but it’s an outward sign of an inward reality. The scapular is an outward sign that you’re asking Our Lady to pray for you, to help you love Jesus more, and to remind yourself to live for God. The Big Misunderstanding There’s a lot of rumors floating around:“If you wear the Brown Scapular, you’re guaranteed heaven.”"You’ll skip purgatory and go straight up the Saturday after you die!” Patrick is super clear here: -The Church does not teach that. -There’s no record of Our Lady promising that to St. Simon Stock. - Patrick says that salvation depends on dying in a state of grace, loving God, repenting from sin, not on religious accessories. Why Still Wear It, Then? Because: -It’s a beautiful sign of devotion to Mary. -It reminds you daily to love God and neighbor. -Our Lady does intercede for those who ask. -It helps you stay close to Jesus, but it’s not a magic amulet. Bonus: Does Patrick Wear It 24/7? Yep... under his shirt, like most folks.He takes it off for showers or swimming (no, you’re not spiritually vulnerable if it’s not on — again, not magic!). Bottom Line (aka “What You Tell Your Friends”) The Brown Scapular is:-A beautiful, centuries-old Marian devotion.-A reminder to live for Jesus.-Not a spiritual hack or shortcut to bypass repentance and grace. Love Our Lady, trust in her prayers, and keep your eyes on Jesus.

Friends of the Rosary,Today is the Memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the feast day of the Carmelite Order and the Feast of the Scapular.We celebrate worldwide the devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel and her Brown Scapular.This feast was instituted in 1332 and extended to the whole Church by Benedict XIII in 1726.In the twelfth century, a group of hermits living on Mount Carmel was organized into the Carmelite order devoted to the contemplative life under the patronage of Mary, the holy Mother of God.The Carmelites were still under constant harassment, and the sixth General of the Order, St. Simon Stock, pleaded with the Blessed Virgin for some special sign of her protection. On July 16, 1251, she designated the scapular as the special mark of her maternal love.Today, the scapular is a distinctive feature of the Carmelites, and lay persons also wear this sacramental object, enjoy the graces associated with it, and do so as a sign of their devotion to Our Lady.The Brown Scapular object is an expression of our belief that we will meet God in eternal life, aided by the intercession and prayer of Mary.Today, in New York City's East Harlem, is one of the oldest festivals in America dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Additionally, Williamsburg in Brooklyn, NY, hosts the annual Festival of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and St. Paulinus of Nola (Festa Del Giglio).Ave Maria!Jesus, I Trust In You!Come, Holy Spirit, come!To Jesus through Mary!Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.Please give us the grace to respond with joy!+ Mikel Amigot w/ María Blanca | RosaryNetwork.com, New YorkEnhance your faith with the new Holy Rosary University app:Apple iOS | New! Android Google Play• ⁠July 16, 2025, Today's Rosary on YouTube | Daily broadcast at 7:30 pm ET

Join us as we journey through the vibrant world of Italian-American feast traditions, focusing on the rich history and cultural significance of the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. This episode spotlights the oldest celebration of the feast in the United States, held in Hamilton, New Jersey. Andy Ponzarello shares captivating stories about the Italian immigrant experience and how these traditions endured through hardships like the World Wars. We delve into the origins of the Carmelite Order and the importance of July 16th—the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Southern Italian culture. Explore the evolution of Marian imagery, from Greek Byzantine influences to depictions in the Carmelite habit, and the widespread devotion to the brown scapular. Through historical context and personal anecdotes, we show how these devotions became a powerful unifying force for Southern Italians, both in their homeland and in immigrant communities across America. Discover the unique customs and modern revitalizations that keep these feasts alive—from candlelit processions to innovations like drone shows. We examine how these events continue to draw crowds and maintain cultural vibrancy through strategic outreach and strong community involvement. Through heartfelt stories and historical insight, we celebrate the enduring legacy of Italian American feast traditions and the deep emotional bonds they continue to foster across generations.   HIS SOCIALS Facebook: The Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Society, Hammonton, NJ FEAST   WEBSITE: Website: https://www.mountcarmelsociety.org/

Embracing Patience and Presence in Everyday LifeIn this episode of The Catholic Man Show, hosts David Niles and Adam Minihan dive into the spiritual wisdom of Brother Lawrence, a 17th-century Carmelite lay brother, and his timeless book, The Practice of the Presence of God. From a heartfelt story about Adam's son asking, “Can patience exist without annoyance?” to exploring how Brother Lawrence found God in the chaos of a busy kitchen, the hosts discuss cultivating a constant awareness of God's presence. They address modern distractions like smartphones and share practical ways to reclaim presence in daily life, drawing inspiration from Brother Lawrence's disciplined yet joyful spirituality.Key Topics Covered:Adam's son's profound question: “Can patience exist without annoyance?”Brother Lawrence's life as a lay brother and former soldier, finding God in mundane tasksThe importance of disciplined prayer to build a habit of God's presenceOvercoming modern distractions like technology to stay present with God and othersPractical tips: Cultivating natural focus to enable supernatural awarenessAction Item:Practice presence by setting aside your phone during family time or conversations. Start with disciplined prayer to build a habit of offering every moment to God, as Brother Lawrence did.Resources:The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence (ICS Publications: icspublications.org)Join a pilgrimage with Select International Tours: selectinternationaltours.comKeywords: Brother Lawrence, Practice of the Presence of God, Catholic spirituality, patience, spiritual discipline, overcoming distractions, presence with God, Catholic men's faith, Christian living, technology and faith