Podcasts about south chicago

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

Patrick reacts to the Vatican Library’s decision to provide Muslim scholars with a prayer space, questioning its implications for evangelization and religious reciprocity. Candid listener calls spark practical advice and honest conversations about serving at Mass, personal devotion, and everyday faith disruptions, while Patrick threads commentary on global affairs, immigration, and culture through frank audio clips and sharp opinions. From Mass etiquette to coffee and donuts, Patrick’s perspective surprises, provokes, and refuses to shy away from hard truths. Audio: Speaker Mike Johnson BLASTS Democrats' insane list of demands to the end government shutdown (00:19) It’s a mistake: Vatican Library grants Muslim scholars a prayer room (03:09) Linda - I was asked to be an usher for mass, and I find it uncomfortable. I don't want to do it anymore. Do you have any advice? (11:45) Ann - If Muslim clerics are coming to the Vatican library to study, maybe they are coming to study Catholicism. Is it better that they are separated from the crowd or to be able to do it in the open? (21:15) Audio: Muslim boast - you will all be Muslim's soon – Remember, he’s talking about the USA (26:41) Audio: Konstantin Kisin: You have to treat different cultures and people differently - You can't solve a problem you won't admit (28:45) Audio: Van Jones on the genocide in Nigeria (talking with Bill Maher) and the double standard against Jews (33:00) Audio: When will the U.S. ban the Muslim Brotherhood? (35:19) Audio: Black resident of South Chicago explains why the state government wants illegal aliens (38:53) Bernadette (email) – Why does it bother you when ushers indicate when your pew can get in line to receive the Eucharist? (40:40) Claudia - Is it a sin to eat donuts after mass or offer people donuts after mass? (42:27) Magdalena - Poland doesn't accept Muslim refugees or migrants. We have a long history with the Muslims. Ottomans took the Polish people into slavery. We won't be forced to accept anyone. (48:39)

Segment 1: Steven Esposito, President of Yellowstone Wealth Management in Lake Forest, talks to John about today’s market rally, the Trump v. Jerome Powell feud, why he thinks interest rates should be lower, why Powell might be hesitant to lower rates, his thoughts on the trade deals and what that could mean for the market, the rotation into the […]

Brad Evans & PJ Glasser react to the latest NFL Offseason news, including the latest surrounding Anthony Richardson's shoulder injury. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brad Evans & PJ Glasser react to the latest NFL Offseason news, including the latest surrounding Anthony Richardson's shoulder injury. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode, we're fueled by the smooth Run Conejo Run cocktail and joined by the homies from Compas Unfiltered Podcast for another epic North vs. South Chicago crossover. The guys chop it up about what it really takes to survive in Chicago, whether modern parents are raising soft kids, and Ramon shares a dog story that might just break your soul. From laughs to life lessons, they even break down the keys to making a relationship last—plus a whole lot more you don't wanna miss!

Our search for incredible humans throughout thee galaxies continues, and amazingly, we encounter John Salhus in our own cosmic backyard! John has nomadicly traveled throughout thee world, called local hot spots in Chicago his home and eventually landed in thee far far southeast side to open up his very own art studio called Buena Vista Projects! John is an active long distance cyclist, ski racer, surfer, and multidisciplinary artist who sketches, paints, sculpts, and restores works of art. We converse on the "Eastside Art District", his art studio being a beacon for all artists, his travels to Alaska and Europe to name a few, and how a humble human from Minnesota made his dreams come true. We also got clearance to discuss a major mystery in South Chicago, thee unknown artist! !SKOL!

City Council has cleared the way for a multibillion-dollar quantum computing campus to be built on the former U.S. Steel South Works site in South Chicago. Maxwell Evans explains what this means to the neighborhood, and University of Chicago graduate student Chloe Washabaugh explains what it's all about. Read More Here Want to donate to our non-profit newsroom? CLICK HEREWho we areBlock Club Chicago is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit news organization dedicated to delivering reliable, relevant and nonpartisan coverage of Chicago's diverse neighborhoods. We believe all neighborhoods deserve to be covered in a meaningful way.We amplify positive stories, cover development and local school council meetings and serve as watchdogs in neighborhoods often ostracized by traditional news media.Ground-level coverageOur neighborhood-based reporters don't parachute in once to cover a story. They are in the neighborhoods they cover every day building relationships over time with neighbors. We believe this ground-level approach not only builds community but leads to a more accurate portrayal of a neighborhood.Stories that matter to you — every daySince our launch five years ago, we've published more than 25,000 stories from the neighborhoods, covered hundreds of community meetings and send daily and neighborhood newsletters to more than 130,000 Chicagoans. We've built this loyalty by proving to folks we are not only covering their neighborhoods, we are a part of them. Some of us have internalized the national media's narrative of a broken Chicago. We aim to change that by celebrating our neighborhoods and chronicling the resilience of the people who fight every day to make Chicago a better place for all.

Jen Sabella, the Director of Strategy and co-founder of Block Club Chicago, joins Bob Sirott to share the latest Chicago neighborhood stories. She provides details on: These South Chicago Goats Will Eat Your Christmas Trees: Urban Growers Collective is taking donations of decoration-free pine trees through Jan. 11 at its South Chicago farm to feed to […]

Plans are underway to transform the former U.S. Steel site in South Chicago into the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park, a world-class quantum computing hub. With support from the governor and mayor and investments from IBM and the University of Chicago, shovels could be in the ground as early as next month. Block Club Chicago's Maxwell Evans has been covering the plans and says neighbors still question what tangible benefits this megadevelopment could bring to the often overlooked South East side.  Good News: Buddy Guy's Residency Want some more City Cast Chicago news? Then make sure to sign up for our Hey Chicago newsletter.  Follow us @citycastchicago You can also text us or leave a voicemail at: 773 780-0246 Become a member of City Cast Chicago. Interested in advertising with City Cast? Find more info HERE 

Steve Grzanich has the business news of the day with the Wintrust Business Minute. The Chicago City Council has approved a zoning change that clears the way for a quantum computing campus in South Chicago. Tech startup PsiQuantum plans to build the world’s first quantum computer there. The quantum park will eventually be home to […]

Mayor Brandon Johnson announced the six new members at a South Chicago church just three days after the current board announced they would resign. Forty-one alderpeople have signed a letter criticizing how the mayor handled the situation.Read More Here Want to donate to our non-profit newsroom? CLICK HEREWho we areBlock Club Chicago is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit news organization dedicated to delivering reliable, relevant and nonpartisan coverage of Chicago's diverse neighborhoods. We believe all neighborhoods deserve to be covered in a meaningful way.We amplify positive stories, cover development and local school council meetings and serve as watchdogs in neighborhoods often ostracized by traditional news media.Ground-level coverageOur neighborhood-based reporters don't parachute in once to cover a story. They are in the neighborhoods they cover every day building relationships over time with neighbors. We believe this ground-level approach not only builds community but leads to a more accurate portrayal of a neighborhood.Stories that matter to you — every daySince our launch five years ago, we've published more than 25,000 stories from the neighborhoods, covered hundreds of community meetings and send daily and neighborhood newsletters to more than 130,000 Chicagoans. We've built this loyalty by proving to folks we are not only covering their neighborhoods, we are a part of them. Some of us have internalized the national media's narrative of a broken Chicago. We aim to change that by celebrating our neighborhoods and chronicling the resilience of the people who fight every day to make Chicago a better place for all.

Plans for the quantum campus in South Chicago reveal a site more than four times bigger than Lincoln Yards. Crain's commercial real estate reporter Danny Ecker talks with host Amy Guth about the site and its potential impact.Plus: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson unveils picks to replace school board after mass resignation, Rivian seeking federal loan to restart Georgia EV plant project, Stellantis sues UAW to stop strike over plant investments and Walgreens to pay $80 million in Baltimore opioid settlement.

Today on the show, Paul and Ben talk at you from the past, including things about living in South Chicago, seeing theater in Bellingham, shout out to junk removal companies, Chicago wards, the Google Notebook LLM, Three Mile Island getting back online, the problem with EVs, celebrity impressions, Seinfeld vs … Continue reading →

In this episode of Love & Speak the Truth, Sister Brenda welcomes Marianne Solorio, director of Mary Ward Center. Located in South Chicago, the center provides a range of educational services for immigrants and local residents. Marianne recounts her personal journey from the corporate world to community service, highlighting the transformative impact of the center's programs on individuals' lives. She discusses the challenges faced by recent migrants and the center's mission to offer not just education but a sense of family and belonging, fostering empowerment along the way.

In this video I discuss the recent tax bills that residents of the South Chicago suburbs received, because they were accidentally billed nearly 40 times what they were supposed toWebsite: https://www.actualjusticewarrior.com/https://linktr.ee/ActualJusticeOdysee: https://odysee.com/@actualjusticewarrior:2Rumble: https://rumble.com/ActualJusticeWarriorInstagram NEW: https://www.instagram.com/actualjustice/Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/actualjusticewarriorUtreon: https://utreon.com/c/ActualJusticeWarrior2nd Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ajw2dreamscometrueTeeSpring Store: https://teespring.com/stores/actualjusticewarriorNew Store: https://actualjusticewarrior.myspreadshop.com/Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/iamsean90Parler: https://parler.com/profile/Actualjusticewarrior/postshttps://www.minds.com/actualjusticewarriorSupport me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SeanFitzgeraldPaypal: https://www.paypal.me/Iamsean90Venmo: https://venmo.com/iamsean90Support me on Subscribe Star: https://www.subscribestar.com/seanfitzgeraldGab: https://gab.com/Iamsean90Twitter https://twitter.com/iamsean90 Backup Twitter https://twitter.com/AJWSeanBitchute: https://www.bitchute.com/actualjusticewarrior/Discord: https://discord.gg/c7PGFFp3rd: https://www.youtube.com/user/DudeMonkeyHQGet Storable Food: https://www.preparewithajw.comGet Pocketnet: https://pocketnet.app/actualjusticewarrior?report=following&ref=PST4P2KEweDQJ2RAtG3scUmXAgPJJ5JJRLPodcast Links:Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1o0q86AVIzH1ZhCl8pe3du?si=e260b6ab98d64e74Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/actual-justice-warrior/id1637748971Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9iYWNrLnN0dWRlby5mbS9hcGkvdjEvcG9kY2FzdHMvNzMvcnNzLWZlZWRzSources:Local News Segment: https://youtu.be/5OTqzw0m9H4?si=7oMiRBJhqYyA7LJx#Chicago #ChicagoTaxes #IamSean90 FAIR USE NOTICEThis video may contain copyrighted material; the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available for the purposes of criticism, comment, review and news reporting which constitute the 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. Not withstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work for purposes such as criticism, comment, review and news reporting is not an infringement of copyright.

Joe McCartin, Ben Blake and Julie Greene remember the 1937 Memorial Day Massacre, when police opened fire on striking steelworkers at Republic Steel in South Chicago, killing ten and wounding more than 160. Patrick Dixon interviews Tom Sito on the 1941 strike by animators against Walt Disney. Sito, a well-known American animator (Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Lion King, Shrek and many more), animation historian and teacher, is the author of “Drawing the Line: The Untold Story of the Animation Unions from Bosko to Bart Simpson.” And in this week's Labor History Object of the Week we take a look at a United Farm Worker banner commemorating the 1965 strike against grape growers in California. The banner is part of the exhibit “For Liberty, Justice, And Equality: Unions Making History In America” at the George Meany Labor Archives at the University of Maryland College Park campus. Plus we've got music by Joe Glazer, the Eureka's, Willie Sordill and Joan Baez. Originally released May 27, 2018 Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory  

This week on The Curatorial Blonde, Ep. 51 features Reevah Agarwaal who is a multi-disciplinary artist from New Delhi, India, currently based in Chicago, IL. She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in 2024. Through textiles and print media, her work explores girlhood, memory, and the complex dualities that exist in domestic relationships. Using repurposed found textiles that have a personal history, she creates quilts and collages that reference her childhood, relationships, and the domestic spaces she has lived in. By employing material history, intuition, and memory, she aims to reconstruct and reclaim narratives of women and girls.  Her work has appeared in various shows including Stainless Gallery in New Delhi, and at Zhou B Art Center, Co-Prosperity Sphere, Purple Window Gallery, Color Club, South Asia Institute, FLXST Contemporary, Free Range, and The Martin in Chicago. She also has permanent public artwork on view in South Chicago which was funded by Chicago Public Art Group (CPAG) and South Chicago Parents and Friends. Recently she received the New Futures Award from The Other Art Fair. Currently, her work is on view in a two-person show at FLXST Contemporary with Lisa DeAbreu titled "Becoming". #arttalks #ReevahAgarwaal #ContemporaryArt #arttalks #Chicago #CairaMoreira #TheCuratorialBlonde #southasianartist #indianartists

On April 27, the South Chicago Dance Theatre leapt into its seventh season at the Auditorium Theatre. Founded by Kia Smith in 2017, the dance company has performed on stages across the globe. Their 2024 performance, titled “New Horizons,” included six works by five outsourced choreographers, and one by Smith herself. The company centers on concert dance, a culmination of styles including ballet and Afro-jazz intentionally created for the stage. Before the performance, founder and executive artistic director Kia Smith sat down with Vocalo host Nudia Hernandez to discuss the company's roots and what audiences can expect from their performance. This interview was edited and produced by Nudia Hernandez. To stay up to date with the South Chicago Dance Theatre, follow them on Instagram @southchicagodancetheatre

In this episode, Jim engages in a conversation with Anthony Thompson, a coach and influential figure in Jim's morning devotional group. Anthony shares his life journey, starting from a challenging upbringing in South Chicago to finding his way through being a celebrity PR professional in LA and eventually rediscovering faith. He emphasizes the importance of aligning decisions with one's beliefs and preparing for the future. 3 Key Takeaways: Devotionals and Impact: Learn about the impact of Anthony's morning devotionals. His unique approach connects principles from secular books, like "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," as well as biblical teachings making it relatable and impactful for everyone. Coaching and Distractions: Anthony delves into his coaching approach, emphasizing the importance of identifying distractions that hinder personal or professional growth. He uses the analogy of a basketball player's "spots" to illustrate how the devil attacks individuals in their areas of greatest value. Business Lessons and Humility: Anthony shares a business failure in Australia, highlighting the importance of humility and seeking wise counsel. He encourages leaders to recognize when to prioritize revenue generation before revisiting other aspects of their goals. This episode provides valuable insights into overcoming challenges, finding authenticity, developing confidence, navigating distractions, learning from failures, and the importance of humility in leadership and personal development. Question: What areas in your life or business do you find yourself facing distractions, and how can you refocus on your strengths to overcome them?

On this edition of TMWS, I have Daniel Powell a.k.a Captain Challenge to give us an amazing update on Project HOOD and how you can support this community center/job training center effort in South Chicago.

On this edition of TMWS, I have Daniel Powell a.k.a Captain Challenge to give us an amazing update on Project HOOD and how you can support this community center/job training center effort in South Chicago.

On this edition of TMWS, I have Daniel Powell a.k.a Captain Challenge to give us an amazing update on Project HOOD and how you can support this community center/job training center effort in South Chicago.

Business owners, let's cut to the chase: You NEED to pay yourself. You DESERVE to pay yourself. And if you haven't quite figured out how or just need some additional encouragement, this episode should not be missed.    We sat down with serial entrepreneur Brandon Neely to discuss his journey from starting a coffee shop in South Chicago to becoming a small business advisor. He recognized that, even though he was doing something he loved (running a coffee shop), everyone else was getting paid for it. He knew something had to give.    That's when they pivoted. Today, Brandon is a Profit First and Bank On Yourself Professional and the co-host of the Wealth Wisdom Financial Podcast with his wife and business partner Amanda. Together, they help develop personalized financial strategies for businesses and help implement the Profit First system.    In addition to the Profit First system, we cover the importance of self-care and running a lean, profitable business, the concept of a poverty mindset versus a balanced mindset in finances, and balancing ego-driven desires with financial discipline. Brandon also gives us a look at how he uses life insurance policies to his advantage and how it ties in with the Banking Yourself strategy.    If you're still figuring out how to pay yourself or wonder if you could be doing a better job at it, don't miss this convo with Brandon Neely.  Episode Highlights: The Profit First system explained Why you should bank on yourself The STILL Method What is a “properly structured” life insurance policy? The three things every business owner needs to have Acknowledging if you have a business or a hobby Favorite Quote:   “Is this a hobby or is it a business? Because if it's a hobby, treat it like a hobby and be OK with not getting paid.” Connect with Brandon: https://grandmaswealthwisdom.com  https://www.facebook.com/brandonneely.bizactivist  https://www.instagram.com/wealthwisdomfp/  https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-neely/  https://www.youtube.com/c/wealthwisdomfinancial      Stay Connected: Connect with Matt and Luigi on Instagram: @matthew.r.meehan @luigi_rosabianca @theLiquidLunchProject @ShieldAdvisoryGroup. Visit The Liquid Lunch Project website and subscribe to The Weekly, our Friday morning newsletter, for all the latest in the world of finance, tech, small business, and more. www.theliquidlunchproject.com Make sure you never miss an episode — check out The Liquid Lunch Project on Apple Podcasts, and don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review.  

Show notes and Transcript Godfrey Bloom is well known for his time as a UKIP MEP in the European Parliament where he served 3 terms, but he joins Hearts of Oak today to discuss all things finance.  Godfrey's career was in the military, financial economics and he spent many years as an investment banker.  He has written many books including 'The Magic Of Banking: The Coming Collapse'.  Godfrey discusses how he has managed to fuse together a life in the army, in politics and in finance.  He then then delves into the shadowy financial institutions which control all our lives and have pushed every government into a spiral of debt that will sooner or later collapse the global financial system.  We finish by looking at gold and why Godfrey believes it is the perfect store of wealth. Godfrey Bloom is a libertarian author with six books published on both military history & Austrian School Economics. He worked in the City of London where he won an international prize for fund management (fixed interest) with Mercury Asset Management. Bloom finished his city career as General Manager of a life assurance company. He represented Yorkshire & Lincolnshire in the European Parliament & was a staunch campaigner for Brexit for twenty five years. During his term of office he attracted over sixty million views on his chamber speeches exposing State bank & tax malpractice on Facebook & You Tube. Thought to be an all time record. He brought experience if not influence to the mainly lay EU Parliamentary Monetary & Economic Affairs Committee, putting both members & European Central Bank President under unaccustomed pressure. Godfrey Bloom passed out of Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 1976 & served as logistics liaison officer to 4th Armed Division in Germany. He is an Associate Member of the Royal College of Defence Studies & has presented papers & lectures to The RCDS, Joint Services Staff College, National Defence University Washington & too many universities to list. His speciality is procurement & geo political military strategy. Godfrey Bloom is holder of the Territorial Decoration & bar, Sovereign's Medal, Armed Forces Parliamentary Medal & European Parliamentary silver medal.  Connect with Godfrey... WEBSITE:     https://godfreybloom.uk/ X:                  https://x.com/goddersbloom?s=20 SUBSTACK: https://godfreybloom.substack.com/ Interview recorded 19.9.23 *Special thanks to Bosch Fawstin for recording our intro/outro on this podcast. Check out his art https://theboschfawstinstore.blogspot.com/ and follow him on GETTR https://gettr.com/user/BoschFawstin and Twitter https://twitter.com/TheBoschFawstin?s=20  To sign up for our weekly email, find our social media, podcasts, video, livestreaming platforms and more... https://heartsofoak.org/connect/ Support Hearts of Oak by purchasing one of our fancy T-Shirts.... https://heartsofoak.org/shop/ Please subscribe, like and share! Transcript (Hearts of Oak) Godfrey Bloom, it is wonderful to have you with us today. Thank you so much for your time. (Godfrey Bloom) A pleasure to be here.  Great to have you and people can follow you @GoddersBloom on Twitter. Godfreybloom.uk is the website and godfreybloom.substack.com. On the website you can get about gold and your wealth, the great reset, climate and green energy, COVID, military, all topics that I know our viewers and listeners will be interested in. But for our viewers who may not have come across Godfrey Bloom, he has a long and varied career encompassing financial services, army, politics. It was the politics where I first came across you serving two terms, I think for UKIP in the European Parliament. And one of Godfrey's books, all available on the website, but is The Magic of Banking, the coming collapse paperback. Now Godfrey, how did you manage to fuse together finance, military and politics? It's an interesting mix. Well, of course, it's the only advantage of being very old is that you get lots of opportunities to do lots of stuff. So it's not because I'm particularly clever, it's because I'm particularly old. So just to bear in mind my background in the 1960s, I went into the city with a very prestigious Broking House in the 1960s, about 1966-67, in those days. Now, in those days, if you were going to get anywhere in the city, it was, first of all, you had to wear a bowler hat. You had to have a bowler hat, and it seems a long time ago now, but you didn't have to wear it, you just had to make sure you had it on the hat stand. I still got it. And the other thing, a couple of things, all the senior directors were wartime officers. All the middle management were National Service officers. So you had to have some kind of military connection. Shore Service Commission, Territorial Army Commission, perhaps with a prestigious regiment. And so on and so forth, and you had to play rugger, as we called it in those days. I ticked every box in a fairly modest kind of way. That all fused together. As you go through life, something pops up. My main life was an investment fund manager, a pension investment fund manager, specializing in fixed interest with a view to pension investment. Dull, very un-prestigious. The equity boys were the glamour boys. It was a bit like the difference between a fighter pilot in the war and coastal command. I was more coastal command. So that's what you had to do. And then I was in a territorial regiment and I was then attached, I did a short service with regular back to the territorial army, so on and so forth. Started in life armoured reconnaissance with 4th Armoured Division in Germany. Where we had the sort of stuff that you see now in old black-and-white movies was actually state-of-the-art stuff when I was soldiering. It was all a very long time ago. Then, when I worked for a very prestigious investment house in the city, I was asked to investigate the implications of becoming the common currency, as it was called then in the late 80s and early 90s, what did it entail, so on and so forth. I had a very good team of statisticians and people. I looked at that and I saw the implications. I dug deeper into the implications of our membership of the European Union. And the deeper I dug, the smellier the whole thing got. And that drew me into politics in 2004, where I resigned from the board of financial service companies and went into politics, which was an eye-opening experience. So that's why I came to do all these things. You couldn't do that now, I don't think, because the world has changed and everything is really too focused on micromanagement and micro career patterns and so on and so forth. So I was very lucky to be born when I was, you could have a really holistic kind of career pattern, which gave me my army and politics and business. So I had all three. I don't think you could do that now.  Very true. And I think that connection with the military and our politics public service has gone as well. And I think that's a shame for our country. But let me talk to you. Many people think they are free to vote for what they want. They're free to go where they want. They're free to use their money as they want. But it's that financial freedom or maybe lack of it. I want to talk to you about. There are financial institutions that can operate in the shadows that control our lives. And I know you've written about this, you've done videos about this. Do you want to kind of touch on that and maybe pull the veil slightly back on that? Well, I think it was Jacob Rothschild who actually got it dead right, for better or for worse, and I would suggest worse. And that was, he said, it doesn't matter who you vote for, it's who controls the money. And of course it's been the Rothschilds being part of the cabal that controls money. Since I don't know, probably 120, 130 years at least, not just in this country, in Europe as well. So he who controls the money. And of course, as we become a more secular society, money becomes the primary goal. It is the religion. It is the religion of Western Europe, it's the religion of North America. It's how much money. In a secular society, of course, you lose any form of moral compass. If indeed, perhaps there was any moral compass, I don't know, but I'm sure there was more moral compass in yesteryear than there is now. So the deal is, and which means you can buy any journalist and you can buy any politician. And almost every single journalist and every single politician is bought. There are very few exceptions. It isn't always overt, but you've only got to look at certain responses from journalists. And I'll give you one very easy example of that. In Syria, for example, when the CIA and the Washington neo-cons are trying to destabilize Syria in order to get their pipeline coming from Qatar, it's all about money, it's all about money and influence, and this is what was happening. Then of course you would find the CIA would put out a press release saying Assad has dropped poison gas on his own people and he's a very bad guy. That would be a CIA press release. Now, people like Andrew Neil on BBC TV would read that out within hours of it being circulated. There was no possible question of us checking whether it was true or not. And Andrew Neil, who was a sort of dwyan of supposedly independent broadcasting, joke, joke, would read that out with a straight face, which meant everybody watching BBC would believe that to be true. And of course, subsequently, we find out that it wasn't true at all. It was CIA propaganda. Or indeed, I have to say, sadly, MI6 or MI5 propaganda. So you're getting a constant stream of lies from legacy broadcasting, and people believe that it was the same in the fake pandemic. 80% of people in this country will believe it if it's on the BBC, and psychologically, I did a course with the Smithsonian Institute on trying to get to the bottom of this psychologically. 80% of the people, I don't think it's just true of Britain, I think it's 80% of most of the Western industrialized countries, will believe anything they're told, and people do. The people who push back against it are kicked out or de-platformed. I mean I'm de-platformed. I used to be a regular speaker at Cambridge University and various other universities. I can't get on now. I haven't been interviewed by the BBC now for years. Dissent is verboten. So there's no concept of dissent. But if you do an audit trail of all of it and you if you go right back and find out why is this. You will find it's about money or political power. There are no exceptions and there are no good guys left in politics. Well obviously in finance we've seen, I mean Nigel Farage just talked about his issues with banking, it's happened to many many others and it seems as though banks can punish people for whatever reason and I think that's a world away from the traditional view of the bank being someone who kind of looks after your money, it's safe, it's cared for, it's maybe invested well, and I think what we've seen in the last few months has been a completely different side from the banks. Yes, but of course the banks have been politicized as well, have they not? You're looking at concepts of ESG, so your ratings for stock holdings by BlackRock and Vanguard, who are the biggest investors in the world, together they own the world, basically. They actually own each other, but that's another long story. So you have Larry Fink and people of this Vanguard, of course, and people you don't even know who voted, because it's not publicly quoted, so you don't even quite know who really owns it. So, it's highly politicized. And, of course, the situation with Nigel Farage was interesting, because NatWest and Coutts are 38% owned by the government. So, you couldn't get more to be more of a political bank than NatWest. It is a government bank. And the chief executive was put there because she was a government appointee. She has no knowledge of anything, finance, whatever. I mean, laughable. I mean, when I was the director of a main investment bank years ago, I wouldn't have employed her to clean the cars. She's utterly hopeless. She's a political agitator with a clean, squeaky-clean record, common purpose, WEF, the whole tutti-frutti. Of course. Expertise went out, and so did discretion and confidentiality. She had to go because she broke confidentiality, which is at the basis of banking, and Coutts in particular, where I also used to be a client when I had enough money to be a client of Coutts Bank. So you have all these problems. Of course, it's interesting enough, she's gone. She went with £2.3 million payoff. And I bet you anything you like, in two or three months, she'll pop up somewhere else in a very senior, very highly paid appointment. That's how the game plan works, all right? So, it's all about money and so on and so forth, but of course, I have to say... This has been going for some time. They did the same thing to Tommy Robinson, they did the same thing to Britain First, they did the same thing with the political platform of For Britain. They were debanked, which means it's very difficult to function in modern society if you have no form of bank. You can't collect subscriptions, you can't do anything. Interesting though, I have to say, this has been going on for some time. But when it happened to Nigel? That's a different game, is it? Oh, that's a much different game. It happened to Nigel. Nigel wasn't bothered about this until it happened to him. It's the old theory, isn't it, of Winston Churchill. You placate the crocodile on the basis that you hope he will eat you last. No, it's true. I thought exactly the same, although I was thankful for a high-profile figure to highlight the injustice. But you're right, it's happened to most individuals don't have the ability to have a nationally out program or a newspaper column to talk about this injustice. So at least it is being aired. But as you pointed out, the madness of a bank being partially government owned and the government said, it's not our fault. And you wonder, well, whose fault is this? And they were blaming past regulation. You mentioned some of those companies, BlackRock and Vanguard, and these are shadowy companies. They own parts of many companies. They're very large shareholders of many institutions. Kind of how has it got to that? Should that worry people? Is this just how financing capitalism works or is there a darker side to this? No, one has to just remind everybody, certainly the younger generation, the difference between mercantilism and capitalism. Capitalism is laissez-faire. It means that you invest, you pretty well do what you damn well like, and the only demonstration of true capitalism post-war, of course, was Hong Kong under John Cooperthwaite, where his view was, it's my job to make sure the drains work and the police aren't corrupt, nothing else is my business. That's capitalism and of course that produced one of the most successful territories on the face of the planet in a very short period of time with no natural resources. Hong Kong has no natural resources. What we have now is mercantilism, which is sometimes referred to as crony capitalism, but it's got nothing to do with capitalism. Now, in a nutshell, how these sort of things work, I used to work for a company called Mercury Asset Management, which was part of the Warburg Empire. It was the biggest pension fund manager in Europe. I was the representative of the National Association of Pension Funds, the institution there, as well as being a fund manager. I wasn't on the main board, incidentally. I was on a junior board, but believe me, I knew how the game worked. Now, when you're doing that, Merck Asset Management then owned 4% of the European stock market. That's a very significant number. It doesn't sound like much, but 4% of the stock market is big. Then they were acquired by Merrill Lynch, a big American investment house, and then Merrill Lynch were acquired by BlackRock, and so it goes on, and so it gets bigger and bigger, almost like a sort of an astrophysicist would talk to you about a black hole. It becomes bigger and bigger, and the gravity pull is beyond human imagination. And then of course the oligarchs are part of that, and they're rich beyond most of our dreams. I mean the George Soros's of this world, the Bill Gates of this world, the Mark Zuckerberg's of this world, all these people are wealthy beyond imagination. And so you'd have to go back to the Rockefellers, to find people who were that rich in comparison. And what is interesting then, they would produce organizations, institutions, like the Bill and Melinda Gates and so on and so forth, and the Rockefeller Foundation. And these also get hijacked politically, and you can go back to the Quaker side in this country, to Roundtrees, for example. Quaker, and they were very good to their employees, and they had an ethos, a Quaker ethos. And now there's a very wealthy Roundtree Foundation, which is hijacked, politically, completely. It's woke. The National Trust is woke. Everything has become woke. And woke is really just part of the World Economic Forum's game plan. And this grows and grows in power. So you end up now with a prime minister who is World Economic Forum, no shame about it. No conspiracy theory yet. You know, somebody's always conspiring. That's absolute nonsense. Look at their website. It's perfectly up front. They boast about this. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the leader of the opposition, Starmer, when asked, do you think Parliament or Davos, which was the most important, he said, Davos. The King who gives royal assent to our laws now is World Economic Forum agent. In fact, as far as I understand, he could be the top man. I'm never quite sure whether Klaus Schwab reports to him or vice versa but the principle is the same. So now, of course, they control everything, and Bill Gates is the biggest farmer in the United States. He owns more land in the United States than anybody else. It's very difficult for ordinary people to fight against this, and they certainly can't fight against it with a vote. Vote is totally meaningless, and so you have these huge power blocs, and our elected politicians, are simply stooges. Penny Mordaunt, for example, is a stooge to Bill Gates. He wrote a forward for her book. She's an advocate of Bill Gates. All these people are paid, and we have a CIA, who, with a huge budget, an unaudited budget, they could pay you to interview certain people or not interview certain people in a Swiss bank account. Very significant amount of money. And most people have a price. Most people can be bought. And those who can't be bought are people like Neil Oliver, on a much smaller scale, me. You can't buy me, but I'm few. I'm one of the very few, and you can't buy me because money is not my God. I don't know whether you could buy me with other things. I can't imagine what they would be. So some people are incorruptible, but that's a tiny minority, and that certainly doesn't work in politics. How have you seen, looking back at the industry, how finance works, kind of, how have you seen a change? Has part of it been more scrutiny? Has part of it been the internet opens up the ability to question, with the public going direct? I mean, Neil Oliver, obviously on GB News, but having a huge reach on social media. Kind of, how have you seen a change? and how has social media affected the people's awareness of maybe what is happening? Well, social media is a wonderful thing. You know, it's a wonderful thing that you can get a significant footprint on that. But again, most people, it's still sadly legacy TV. It's still the BBC or ITV or whatever it happens to be that calls the shots. People who follow social media of course are the most informed but then if you look at my whole, just let's take me, my whole footprint is probably, I probably in total have overall something like 160,000 subscribers. That really isn't very many. Obviously, Neil Oliver is much bigger, and I'm glad of that because he's, in my view, a great man, a great historian, and a great leader of thought. So I'm a huge supporter of his. But there's still most people, most people go with the flow, they half watch BBC, they half watch ITV, doing something else, putting a shelf up, doing the ironing, whatever it is. So most people accept what they're told. Most people, of course, when it comes to things like pandemics or so-called pandemics, listen to their doctor. People have this divine faith in the National Health Service, which is, of course, ludicrous if you dig down into it, but most people do.  Again, it's a legacy thing, and it goes back to people being brought up on Doctor in the House, black and white, Ealing movies, funny enough, where you are now. Wonderful things when it worked and when it was incorrupt. Now, of course, that's all gone. The Bank of England, central banks are now political appointees. You have your head of your central bank, Carney is a classic example, brought in as a Canadian, ex-Goldman Sachs, most of them are ex-Goldman Sachs, which is known as the vampire squid in the city. Even hard-nosed investment bankers like mine used to regard them as beyond the pale. These are the sort of Vlad the Impaler of the investment banking world, but they're all political appointees, so Carney was a political appointee. So that this nonsense of the Bank of England being independent. So it doesn't work like that and they go on to other political appointments with the UN or the International Monetary Fund or the Bank of International Settlements which of course nobody ever told us about, which is the most powerful institution in the world. So all these things come together to thwart the ordinary guy. In my experience in Britain, and I don't know what your experience is Peter, but my experience is the true guy who questions anything of this nature is what we used to call the artisan class. You're sparky, you're bricky, you're joiner. People who actually do real stuff for a living, they actually put kitchens in, shelves in, drive a cab. People who actually do a real job for a living are very much more highly critical and much better informed. So for example, my window cleaner is simply miles more informed than my friends who read history or law at Oxford. You know, the dinner party set, your English middle class are so gullible and naive. It's unbelievable. A working man having a pint in the pub who's a sparky or a chippy, he's not so gullible because he does a real job and sees stuff every day. So the divide, you have this divide. And people make a big mistake if they think, and people do, that the divide is somehow between class, particularly, or skin colour, or wealth. Well, it isn't. I can tell you. And 10 years in politics showed me this campaigning for Brexit, for example. The people who really understood these matters were the artisan class, but your divide in society is between those in the wealth-creating sector and those in the public sector. Your public sector, your civil servant, your man at the town hall, anybody who works for the government is protected. They have index-linked pension funds, which have long since gone from the private sector. These people are virtually unsackable, the Quangos. All these people are entitled and have the arrogance of office. There's your divide. It's not old or young or black and white. It's who works for the government in some form and who doesn't. There's your divide. Of course, in the last five years, we've seen over 100,000 new civil servants. One might imagine that they won't be happy until everyone is a civil servant and therefore everybody can be controlled. If only we had a conservative government, but I see the same difference in conversations with friends, with colleagues, and I echo what you said. Everything we knew about finance seems to have gone out the window, gone out of fashion. I mean, saving money, don't spend more than you earn, invest wisely, make sure your repayments are manageable, have cash in hand for a rainy day. Now every government worldwide seems to be in a rush to see who can run the biggest deficit, who can get the biggest debt. And governments, maybe at one time, would have been common sense. It's this rush to spend much more than any other government. What are your thoughts on kind of how we have got to that state of financial madness? Well, the problem we've had is Keynesianism. That's from the 1930s, where personal savings were regarded as a bad thing. Public spending and private spending and consumption was regarded as a good thing, and debt doesn't matter. This is your Keynesian theory which has been taught now to generations of people in universities and schools and they don't teach alternatives, they don't teach Austrian school economics, they don't mention some of the great names of yesteryear like you know some of the great French economic philosophers. So they don't talk about this. Debt doesn't matter. They can print money. Of course, in 1971 when America came off the gold standard, the dollar came off the gold standard, which was the reserve currency in 1971, Nixon closed the gold window, which was the technicality of the problem. You see the spending power of the United States dollar from 1971. That 1971dollar now would buy you six cents worth of services and goods, a complete collapse of paper currency. And of course, sterling's worse, and so on and so forth. So it's the degradation of money and it's the unseen tax inflation. So who does inflation hurt? It holds people on fixed income, old-age pensioners. Mainstream society suffers from inflation, but not your public sector. For example, if you're in the public sector, and certainly if you're a pensioner, I have a small pension for the Ministry of Justice, because I worked for them for a while. I won't go into the details there. It's very small. But last year I got an 8.5 percent increase, and I'll get another 8.5 percent, so I'm protected. I live in a small village, but we have retired civil servants in the village, totally protected. Always got new cars, expensive holidays, and extensions to their cottages or houses. Money is no object to them because they're protected. But if you're on fixed income, you're stuck. And it gets back to what I say, there's this divide in society, some people who are affected by inflation and some who are not. So when you consider debt doesn't matter, and of course, to keep up, try and give a modern veneer to it, they've taken away the term Keynesianism by calling it modern monetary theory. There's nothing modern about it. And that somehow, and this is the great key, and I tried to explain this to undergraduates when I was allowed to speak at universities. And the faculties who don't understand it, believe me, the faculties at universities have absolutely no more idea about the economic supply to the moon. So they have these thoughts that debt doesn't matter, that somehow an individual like you or me or a small businessman. Debt doesn't matter. Debt matters. You can't get into debt because debt will catch up with you and your business will go out or you'll go bankrupt. They'll come and take away your furniture, etc. That's for us. Somehow a government doesn't have this problem. Apparently, governments go on spending and spending more money, and borrowing and printing more money with no great effect. It really doesn't matter. Of course, it does matter as we're beginning to see because actually now in the United States, servicing the national debt is exactly the same amount of money as their military budget, which is $1 trillion a year. They're spending $2 trillion in the United States a year, to no purpose, $2 trillion. And then mainstream media, which of course is bought and paid for by the state, the BBC in particular, if you don't pay the BBC you go to prison and that's a government-sponsored idea. Nobody challenges it. For example, you get to the chancellor of the exchequer interviewed. We now have the highest tax regime that we've had basically since the war. Nobody ever suggests, in either political party or in mainstream media, nobody ever suggests that they cut government spending. It never happens. Nobody stands on the platform of cutting government spending. So you have high-speed rail, 100 billion. You have OECD, which incidentally is unaudited, 1 billion pounds a month. Five billion pounds to the Ukraine. God alone knows where that goes. And so on and so forth. So we spend quangos, probably 600 or 700 billion pounds a year in all these things. They could halve income tax. They could standardize income tax. They could halve VAT if they stopped spending. But stopping spending doesn't happen. It doesn't occur to them to stop spending. So when they say, oh, more money for the national health, we need more money for the national health because it's crumbling and breaking down. They don't need any more money. The national health system is rolling in money. Their problem is that out of the 1.2 million employees that they have, half of those aren't medics of any sort. They're not radiographers, physiotherapists, nurses, doctors, surgeons. Goodness knows what they all do. Yes, you need some administrators, you need some sparkies, you need bits and pieces, but do you need 600,000? Procurement. Procurement. My sister used to work for the Norwich Infirmary. She said, I can buy mattresses online, exactly the same, for a third of the price that we spend on them, because nobody's in charge of procurement. Nobody cares about public money, because it's not their money. We have waste on an unprecedented scale. The concept has gone of the public purse. If you went back to before the Great War, if you were a councillor, first of all, you'd be unpaid, there'd be no expenses, and there was a very serious concern about the public purse, taken very seriously from a moral dynamic. Nobody cares about the public purse now. Nobody cares. Does debt matter? Well, yes, it does matter, and we are going to see in the next few years, we're going to see a collapse of the banking system, and we're going to see a collapse of fiat currency. It's paper. It's intrinsically worthless. Then the people who survive that will be the people who have the foresight to buy gold, gold coins.  Well, I want to finish off on gold, but let me just pick up on the move away from fiat, the restrictions on using cash, often in shops and businesses. It's coming more and more, closing of ATMs, closing of bank branches, and this move towards central bank digital currencies, this move towards a new government control. I mean, how have you viewed this? Give us a little bit more of your thoughts on where it's going. Well, the key, of course, to central bank digitalization, which we have to an extent already, of course, nobody, De La Rue do not print notes anymore. It's created electronically. And, of course, I explain this in my book. If you go in and want to borrow £60,000 for an extension, or you want to buy 20,000 pounds of gold, the bank clerk, if you're a good customer, and they know you, they will simply create that electronically by tapping it out and crediting your account. That's digital money. That's electronic money. It doesn't really exist. Of course, then you send it to somewhere else, the person who's sending you a car, so on and so forth. If you look at the international regulation Basel III, for example, and you have to keep 10% reserves. If you put your money, if you put 100,000 pounds into the bank, they only have to keep. 10,000 pounds of that back as a reserve. They can lend it on. Of course, it doesn't matter to whom they lend it. This is one of the problems that we have. It isn't good lending. It's not sound lending. For example, the Euro bond buying process, when I was there and I was trying to look at what they were actually buying, oh, well, it's Asset Bank. Sell them. No, Mr. Bloom, these are asset-backed bonds. Well, they're not. You get BMW or VW Finance, for example. What you're actually buying is a bond and the asset is an aging BMW or Volkswagen. It's not asset-backed at all. We found this out in 2007, did we not, where people thought they were buying a mortgage from a doctor in Washington with a nice big house at Springpool in Arlington. They weren't, they're buying trailer trash in South Chicago. I didn't fall for it. I was in the game at the time, but I knew what I was doing, because I'm an old man. The children that run the city and run pension funds in some of these councils, they fell for it because they simply didn't do their homework. You can't avoid homework. You have all this degradation of everything, bonds, stocks, deposits, not backed, not guaranteed. You have all these problems. The only way it can go is to destroy itself, to collapse. We saw this in 2007 and 2008, but did we change anything? We didn't change anything. Nothing changed. It's the same thing. They've just printed more and more money and borrowed and spent more and more money. Now we're in a situation where it simply must collapse. They want digital currencies so they can control it. They can program it, and for those of subscribers who aren't familiar with the concept, I'm sure they are, otherwise they wouldn't be watching this program, but let's just take it from there. It's programmable. The World Economic Forum, in line with the International Monetary Fund and the Bank of International Settlement will not want you to spend money on travel or petrol or meat. Are all these things that they think are bad under the cover of saving the planet, which of course we all know is absolute nonsense, its fake, its fake science. But they've got to frighten people to comply with it. The planet will boil if you don't do this. And of course most people don't have the benefit of traditional education. So they're being conned by people because a, they can't be bothered to do the homework, and b, they've probably in the main gone to a state school, this generation or the generation before, where they haven't really had an education at all. They're not educated at all. I mean, I speak at universities. Nice kids. Like a beer, play rugby, play cricket. I love going there. Educated? They're not educated at all. They don't even pretend to be. So these are the problems. You have an uneducated workforce. Programmable. So when you go in and it's programmable and the state can control it, the bank can control it, they will say you've had your ration of petrol this month. Just like the war, you've had your ration of meat this month. You've had your holiday, Mr. Bloom. You've had your holiday. You can't go on another holiday. Think of the planet, you nasty man. Of course, you look around and you see the King flying around in his private jet, the Royal Air, and all of them, Candy, all these people, Soros, Bill Gates...  Sadiq Khan, who's just done a transatlantic flight with his entourage to talk about climate change.  Exactly, so, everybody sees this, the question is what can you do? Now in London they reap what they sow. I have very little sympathy for Londoners. It's the second time this man's been elected. So whose fault is it? Well, did you vote against him? The answer is, you clearly didn't. That's why he's there, it's the same as Mark Drakeford, isn't it? In Wales, beautiful country, just got back there, hosted walking. I love Wales. Wales is a wonderful, wonderful country and they've got an idiot running. Well, why is he there? Who put him there? Well, the Welsh voted for him, didn't they? So it's as simple as that. And they've got a Muppet in Scotland. And who voted for him? The Scots voted for him. So stop whinging. Voting doesn't do much good, but it might because you can make more of an effort for whom you vote. And so it's programmable and we know it's going to be programmable, don't we? Because that's the whole point of it. And if you look at the World Economic Forum's spokesman on banking, they say it will be programmable. We'll know exactly how you spend it and what you can and cannot spend it on and they'll cancel it so you can't save because they are modern monetary theorists they will want for you to consume they will want you to consume so if you've got a hundred thousand pounds worth of savings or fifty thousand they say if you don't spend it by the end of the year it will disappear so that will encourage spending which they think is a good thing not saving but if you look at countries with the most successful systems over the years and over generations. It's savings. We built the biggest empire the world's ever seen and led the industrial revolution from about 1815 to 1913. The British led it, but it was based on sound money. And savings and interest rates, which outpaced inflation, although there wasn't hardly any inflation in those days. Savings made a point. Saving money made a point. There's no point in you saving money now. There's no point in you saving money in the traditional sense of saving money because you know if you were saving money for a car, which costs £30,000 today, it'll be £40,000 next year. You might as well buy it now. That, of course, degrades your entire financial system.  I want to finish off on gold. On your website, one of your tabs is gold. People can find it forward slash gold on godfreybloom.uk. It's intriguing, the more control that is being pushed upon us, the more people have talked about gold, also about crypto looking forward, but gold looking at that traditional store of wealth. Tell us why you believe that gold is an important store of wealth and why people should be taking advantage of that personally. Well, gold is a store of wealth. It's not an investment and it's not get rich quick. And as I always say to my undergraduates at universities, I always hold up a sovereign coin. The date on it is 1905. The date isn't really relevant, but it happens to be 1905. I explained that a gold sovereign in 1905 would buy you bed and breakfast in quite a good hotel in Paris, London, New York, or Berlin. It will today, because a sovereign is worth just under 400 pounds, so it will today, and it will in 100 years' time. Then we went back on to the gold standard after the Napoleonic Wars in 1860 and 1817. The Gold Sovereign became money. That was money. That was a preservation of wealth. That was a medium of exchange, which is what money is. I say, I try to explain money in the book. Most people don't know what money really is. They think they do, but they don't. Now let's just take your staple commodity in the 19th century. Let's go from 1816 or 1817 to 1913, a loaf of bread was the same price in 1817 as it was in 1913. You can't have inflation because if politicians and bankers can't print money, you can't print gold. That's the beauty of gold, but it's not an investment, it's not get-rich-quick. It's where you protect your wealth and you have to squirrel it away to protect your family because nobody can bugger it for you. They can't degrade it. Cryptocurrency like Bitcoin has some of the same attributes. It's significantly more volatile and there are all sorts of, situations where that might not do what you want it to do. But I'm not going to go down that route because there are bigger experts than me on Bitcoin, but gold, it's free of VAT. There's no capital gains tax on it because it's coin of the realm. If, let's say, for example, you are 60 years old, you're retired, you're coming up to retirement, something like that, you've worked hard all your life. Let's say you've got about £100,000 worth of saving or £50,000 worth of saving. It doesn't quite matter what it is. You don't need it at the moment. You've got a bit of a pension. You've got a bit of this, you've got a bit of that. You're perfectly okay. What you're worried about is what happens when you get to my age and you're dribbling down your cardigan and you can't recognize your in-laws and you're deaf as a post and all the rest of it, you've got all these things, then you're going to need care, you're going to need private medical care, you can't drive anymore so you're going to need a cab if you're going to go anywhere, so on and so forth. What you want with that £100,000 or £50,000 when you're 60 is the same purchasing power when you're 75. Only gold will do that for you. Only gold, and it's been proven to do that for you, for 5,000 years. If you dig up a Roman gold coin today, or a Saxon gold coin today, it'll buy you just what it bought when it was buried in the ground or sank in the boat. That's your key. And that's where gold comes in, as it has done for 5,000. There really isn't anything else, to be brutally frank. Some people argue for silver, but it's an industrial metal, some for Bitcoin if you can cope with the volatility, so on and so forth. But that's why I'm a gold bug and I've been a gold bug since Gordon Brown sold our gold at something like 270 pounds an ounce to buy Euros. He's still sometimes brought on TV as an elder statement. The man is a buffoon. He's a buffoon. It's £1,600 an ounce now. And he got rid of our reserves. That's your reserves and my reserves. And anybody watching this clip who's British. That was our gold. So, he got rid of it and, of course, now if you look across the world, BRICS nations, Russia and China, are beginning to view perhaps gold as being the medium of exchange for countries and trade. Not buying a newspaper, not buying a pound of sausages, you'll use whatever the currency of the day is for that, of course, that will continue. For us in smaller gauge, it used to be coppers, copper pennies, silver pennies, all that. Yeah, that won't change. But for big deals, for big deals, for individuals, an exchange of trade and goods, it will be done in gold because that's the way it's been done for 5,000 years and nothing's going to change that. Certainly not Muppets like Jeremy Hunt. There's no bigger Muppet than Hunt. We will end on that. Godfrey, I appreciate you coming on and people can follow you on Twitter godfreybloom.uk on the website and godfreybloom.substack.com Are those the best places to find you? Yeah, absolutely. Yes, you can find me and I just, if I may just put a word in quickly here. It is a not-for-profit website. Everything I do is not-for-profit. I do not turn a buck on anything that I do recommending. Even my books are virtually at cost because I don't need to make any money. Now another advantage perhaps of being an old knacker is that I've got nothing to spend my money on except beer at the rugby club. Well thank you, I've looked at the website and your Twitter and thoroughly enjoy them both for the information they provide. So thanks so much for coming on and sharing your thoughts on finance. Great, Peter. Thank you for inviting me.

On closer examination of the chosen one, it all looks like a huge deception. The complete exposure of illigitimate 44. Wayne Madsen's revealing earlier investigations. A huge consortium of shadowy people. Who was Soeharko? Now is a good time to stay away from large crowds. Barak Obama, test tube baby. His largely unknown inheritance was huge. A far off hospital on an island. Saul Alinsky was a mentor to be proud of. Mark Seidenberg provides accurate research. How Hawaii details were related. Was all this to develop a banker's boy? Hidden records and hot zone training. South Chicago didn't trust him. Momma was an exotic. The Man's Country private club. Pre-AIDS testing gets started. Ten fetish rooms available. Larry Sinclair goes public. A fully equipped dentist chair in the basement of the White House. A drowned chef can't talk. Falsified corporate histories setup by the CIA. A fully complicit and totally controlled media. Pulling off the hits with the Bush's. Human trafficking included. Real reporters risk death. Michael Hastings, his work and his murder. The Feinstein legacy. Evil is the absense of God. Our nation is going through a day of death, so we must look hard to find our faith. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In a twist on the “alphabet dating” TikTok trend, host Jacoby Cochran and City Cast marketing coordinator Jermaine Thomas faced off last week to see who could come up with the best Chicago date ideas based on the letters in their first names. Now lead producer Simone Alicea and newsletter editor Sidney Madden are offering their picks whether you're gearing up for cuffing season, celebrating a long-term relationship, or just looking for something fun to do with friends. Check out Meeting of Styles in South Chicago and West Englewood through Sunday. Want some more City Cast Chicago news? Then make sure to sign up for our Hey Chicago newsletter.  Follow us @citycastchicago You can also text us or leave a voicemail at: 773 780-0246 Interested in advertising with City Cast? Find more info HERE  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We have a lot going on in the month of August and to kick it off, this weekend we'll be at Sweet Home South Chicago!!! Listen in for the details and where you can go to join in on the fun! We are a local podcast based out of the SouthEast Side of Chicago and cover a wide range of places, people and events in Chicago and Northwest Indiana. Facebook: South By SouthEast Instagram: @south_by_southeast_podcast Youtube: @southbysoutheastpodcast

Also in the news: Richton Park wants to host the Bears; One-month old boy found unresponsive at home in South Chicago; Boat rental owner arrested after throwing customer's phone into the lake and more.

Also in the news: Richton Park wants to host the Bears; One-month old boy found unresponsive at home in South Chicago; Boat rental owner arrested after throwing customer's phone into the lake and more.

King Keto (@kingketo), whose real name is Brandon Carter, grew up in the rough South Side of Chicago. He saw his father build a successful insurance claims business from nothing, earning millions of dollars annually, only to lose it all tragically. This instilled in Brandon the belief that with consistent hard work over time, success will come.After attending Howard University business school and dabbling in rap music, opening for prominent artists in the early 2000s, Brandon worked multiple jobs in his early twenties to support his family after his father passed away. He was a personal trainer, security guard, and restaurant manager, often working 14+ hour days.Brandon was one of the pioneers of online personal training in the late 2000s, combining strategies from books like The 4-Hour Workweek and Crush It. Over many years, he built his fitness business to 7 figures in revenue.With a social media following of over 3 million strong and 100+ million views of his training content, Brandon has cemented his status as a leading fitness influencer.But his most significant impact comes through the High Ticket Trainer (HTT) program he founded. It's dedicated to helping personal trainers build thriving online businesses.Brandon continues to walk the talk by growing his multifaceted fitness empire. He proves combining knowledge, personality, and perseverance creates transformational success.Brandon is now promoting his 10 Commandments of Online Training—a step-by-step guide on becoming a successful online trainer. What Traves and Brandon discussed:King Keto grew up in a rough area of South Chicago and saw his dad build a business from nothing to making millions but then lose it all. This gave him the belief that hard work over time leads to success.King Keto's experience at Howard University business schoolHe worked multiple jobs (personal trainer, security guard, restaurant manager) while building an online training business in the late 2000s. He wanted to support his family after his dad passed away.How King Keto was one of the first people to pioneer online personal training, combining strategies from 4-Hour Workweek and Crush It. We built a 7-figure fitness business over many years.Why King Keto believes that recreation and hedonism are not the only ways to enjoy life, pushing yourself, seeing what you're capable of, and providing value to others can also bring joy.Get ready for an intense conversation with online fitness pioneer King Keto!Hear the crazy story of how King Keto grew up in rough South Chicago, saw his dad rise from nothing to earn millions, then lose it all, and had to support his family by working multiple jobs after tragedy struck.Learn how King Keto became one of the first to make online personal training a business, combining strategies from classic books like 4-Hour Workweek and Crush It.Get King Keto's hilarious hot takes on controversial topics and his unique philosophy on finding fulfillment beyond just recreation and hedonism.If you want to be inspired by a fitness influencer who's been through it all, this raw and honest interview is a must-listen. Check out the new episode with King Keto now!Special Offer for Travis Makes Friends Listeners:Get 16 free meals with the Hello Fresh discount code hellofresh.com/travis16Special Offer for Travis Makes Friends Listeners:Get 16 free meals with the Hello Fresh discount code hellofresh.com/travisDon'tn't forget to subscribe to our Youtube Channel, @travismakesfriendsFollow Travis on:IG

The experts dismiss the old South Chicago steel mill site as suitable for a new Bears stadium. Ben riffs. And political strategist Delmarie Cobb makes the case for a stadium to go there. She asks the question—why do the powers that be have such disdain for the south side? Then it's on to Trump and Biden. Why does MAGA overlook Trump's dementia and focus on Biden's? And more…See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We've made contact with a human on a humanitarian mission that came from thee Universe itself! We fly high with Vanessa Bly and talk about her unique upbringing, introduction to helping others, her amazing mother and thee powerful positive impact she left behind, and Vanessa's relentless work ethic to bring health and wellness to our communities via multiple outlets! We dive deep into basic human rights that are being overlooked/mishandled and how we need to come together to fight for our right for clean air, clean soil, clean water, safe housing, positive environments and cohesive communities! Vanessa is a human fighting for other humans' quality of living to be safe, sound, and healthy. We salute you!

Throughout the 1980's, the Cleveland Indians and their fan base, were eager to flee from the antiquated, concrete, multi-purpose monstrosity that was Municipal Stadium. For almost a decade, civic leaders and the Cuyahoga County citizens of Ohio, could not agree on the funding for a new domed baseball/football stadium. By 1992, a sin-tax is proposed, voted on and passed with the slimmest of margins, for a brand new crib for the Tribe. The responsibilities for the new Gateway site creation. was eventually handed over to famed baseball stadium architecture firm, HOK Sports, who is coming off of the raving success of their recent ground-breaking creations in Baltimore and South Chicago. In a nod to Cleveland's blue-collar work ethic culture, HOK was able to deliver a modern day, retro, baseball cathedral, that would revitalize and re-energize a slowly dying city and a beleagured fan base. The result was a rousing success, as the fans and team, developed a symbiotic relationship, with the now 10th oldest baseball stadium in the majors. #ClevelandIndians #ClevelandGuardians #JacobsField #ProgressiveField #MannyRamierez #JimThome #EddieMurray #KennyLofton #CharlesNagy #DennisMartinez #BillClinton #GradySizemore #JobaChamberlain #ClevelandCavaliers

Throughout the 1980's, the Cleveland Indians and their fan base, were eager to flee from the antiquated, concrete, multi-purpose monstrosity that was Municipal Stadium. For almost a decade, civic leaders and the Cuyahoga County citizens of Ohio, could not agree on the funding for a new domed baseball/football stadium. By 1992, a sin-tax is proposed, voted on and passed with the slimmest of margins, for a brand new crib for the Tribe. The responsibilities for the new Gateway site creation. was eventually handed over to famed baseball stadium architecture firm, HOK Sports, who is coming off of the raving success of their recent ground-breaking creations in Baltimore and South Chicago. In a nod to Cleveland's blue-collar work ethic culture, HOK was able to deliver a modern day, retro, baseball cathedral, that would revitalize and re-energize a slowly dying city and a beleagured fan base. The result was a rousing success, as the fans and team, developed a symbiotic relationship, with the now 10th oldest baseball stadium in the majors. #ClevelandIndians #ClevelandGuardians #JacobsField #ProgressiveField #MannyRamierez #JimThome #EddieMurray #KennyLofton #CharlesNagy #DennisMartinez #BillClinton #GradySizemore #JobaChamberlain #ClevelandCavaliers

Juan los cuenta su historia que empieza desde salvador. Juan viene de familia de 12, una familia de música. El se educó y se dedicó a ser activista. El se mudó para Estados Unidos en la ciudad de South Chicago. En ese tiempo se hizo amigo de roman Villarreal. En su tiempo en Estados Unidos el le dio interés un libro de correr un maratón. A los 40 el dijo “llo puedo ser esto”. Se dedicó con mucha disciplina a entrenar para el maratón y el corrió muchos maratón por todo el mundo a los 40s. Y ahora está trabajando para a ser un documental de las aventura de su vida y los maratones. We make contact with an ancient soul of knowledge and wisdom. Along with thee 93 Studio artists, we tuned our frequencies into contact with Juan, a man who started running marathons at thee age of 40 plus... And not just one marathon, many, many and all over thee world!!!! We discuss his upbringing, thee culture, running is an art, a common thread about breathing across different mediums, killing thee marathon, discipline and respecting Thee Arts

This week, Backwards K Pod takes a look at "Baseball's First Palace", the unforgettable Comiskey Park. In 1910. the throwback crib would change the evolutionary history of the game, with her cavernous playing field, symmetrical walls and history of light hitting White Sox teams, built on speed and pitching. It would be the site of the first All-Star Game in MLB history. The home of over 20 Negro League All-Star Games, an exploding scoreboard, heavyweight boxing matches, rock concerts and crazy promotional ideas like Disco Demolitian Night. This is the history of South Chicago and their rabid baseball fanbase, that would live in synergy with their communal baseball monument. #ChicagoWhiteSox #CharlesComiskey #EdWalsh #ZacharyTaylorDavis #ComiskeyPark #BillVeek #DiscoDemolitianNight #CarltonFisk #OzzieGuillen #FrankLane #FrankThomas #EddieGaedel

A convicted murderer who was out on bond in a pending gun case is accused of brutally beating his ex-girlfriend to death and fatally shooting her current boyfriend at her South Chicago home last weekend. Steven Hawthorne, 56, chased Tamera Washington, 26, into the street before shooting her in the arm and later picking up a "large rock" and dropping it on her head repeatedly, Cook County prosecutors said in court Tuesday. The attack started just before 2 a.m. Sunday when Hawthorne, 56, allegedly let himself into Washington's home with a key. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/leah-gordone/support

This week, Backwards K Pod takes a look at "Baseball's First Palace", the unforgettable Comiskey Park. In 1910. the throwback crib would change the evolutionary history of the game, with her cavernous playing field, symmetrical walls and history of light hitting White Sox teams, built on speed and pitching. It would be the site of the first All-Star Game in MLB history. The home of over 20 Negro League All-Star Games, an exploding scoreboard, heavyweight boxing matches, rock concerts and crazy promotional ideas like Disco Demolitian Night. This is the history of South Chicago and their rabid baseball fanbase, that would live in synergy with their communal baseball monument. #ChicagoWhiteSox #CharlesComiskey #EdWalsh #ZacharyTaylorDavis #ComiskeyPark #BillVeek #DiscoDemolitianNight #CarltonFisk #OzzieGuillen #FrankLane #FrankThomas #EddieGaedel

We bomb atomically with thee South Side Socrates, fat caps, mean streaks, bubble letters, and wild styles beez our philosophies. El Dtel, one of thee main capitano's from 93 Studios, talks anything and everything about "Thee Culture" / Our Culture! One of thee best graffiti artists around, he drops bombs on thee art scene, breakdancing, artificial intelligence, our beautiful South Chicago, it's businesses who are best in thee city and of course, and Thee Meeting of Styles (which he organized) where top artists from around thee world, came to our home and blessed us with amazing pieces.

We pow wow and gather our paint brushes, colorful thinking caps, blick watercolors, krylon spray paint, and empty canvas as we listen to our art parents Roman And Maria Villarreal!  They talk about their origins in thee art world, South Chicago in thee 70's and beyond, thee devastating steel mill butterfly effect, local art scenes, how they both consistently learn and teach, and how art can/should be considered a therapy.  Students and Artists  Shapeless, Cortez, and Cosmo contribute to thee tribe by dropping their knowledge and experience.  

EPISODE SUMMARYI love this episode. You will find so much inspiration embedded in these 30 minutes of conversation with Integrative Medicine Specialist, Dr. Geeta Maker Clark. After my conversation with this incredible human, a new idea emerged, inspired by her FOOD As POWER course she teaches with her medical students to middle schoolers in South Chicago.I have a feeling that I am not the only one who will walk away from this episode feeling new energy to do the work I'm designed to do just like Geeta. You can learn more about Dr. Geeta maker Clark here.Links and resources:Click here for the free How to Eat Less Water CONDIMENT STORAGE TABLE. It is a printable list of popular condiments that belong in the pantry and those in the refrigerator that can be hung in your kitchen for easy reference.Download FREE the TEN TIPS to EAT LESS WATER SUMMER PARTY PLANNING GUIDE for all the tips, steps, and info on how to celebrate like a kitchen activist with your friends and family.Find gifts designed to serve well-being at the Eat Less Water Shop.Get a copy of the EAT LESS WATER book

A new grant from the city's tourism arm Choose Chicago seeks to help 12 Chicago neighborhoods draw more tourism: Auburn Gresham, Austin, Back of the Yards, Englewood, Lincoln Park, Lincoln Square, New City, North Center, North Lawndale, Roseland, South Chicago and Hyde Park. Reset hears more about the program with vice president of Choose Chicago Rob Fojtk and hears from folks in neighborhoods who could receive this money.

Just because your name is McGivney, it's not a given that putting faith first will come easy. For my guest Joe McGivney a distant relative of Blessed Michael McGivney holding on to the faith was not the It seems like the foundation that was given to him as a child growing up in South Chicago remained but on that foundation was a structure of anxiety and selfishness that led to a period of addiction that would eventually be almost life altering if it were not for an aunt, a wife and the intercession of Blessed McGivney himself. Joining me along the way is Joe McGivney to show me how he found a new direction in life.

3 MORE COMMUNITY AREAS TO GO!!! Happy Holidays, family! We hope the season is off to a great start for you! This episode we learn about South Chicago and we have Dario's sister and brother-in-law, DeAnna & Bob Spoerl joining us! They have the podcast GC And More they are talking about. Along with our thanksgiving spread we had Birrieria Ocotlan, a local favorite in South Chicago! Let's have some fun! Visit our website and check out our new interactive map to visit all the restaurants and cool sites we've featured on the podcast! BPositiveProd.com/77FlavorsChi WATCH US ON YOUTUBE HERE! Shop our gear from Amazon! https://www.amazon.com/shop/77flavorschi Follow us on IG: 77 Flavors of Chicago @77flavorschi Dario @super_dario_bro Sara @TamarHindi.s --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/77-flavors-of-chicago/support

26 time Chicago Marathon finisher, Gabi Perez is Chicago's Runner! Born and raised in Chicago, Gabi Perez has been a part of the Chicago running scene for over 26 years. She began her career in the running industry in 1995 as a cashier at what was then called Niketown Chicago and worked her way up to be the first sports specialist in the entire fleet of Niketowns as a Women's Running Specialist. Today Gabi is working her dream job, (the dream she's had since she started her career at Niketown in the 90's) which was to become a Performance Running EKIN in Chicago. She is excited to once again work with runners to listen to their needs and the needs of our locally owned and operated running shop owners like Last Lap Cornerstore. She believes that serving athletes and small running stores is an absolute privilege. Gabi still lives and trains in South Chicago. She grew up as the youngest of 4 and credits her accomplishments to her family. They are her inspiration for running, and she's learned the importance of hard work, discipline, and the power of faith. 26 time - Chicago Marathon finisher (consecutively) 1 time - Lake County Marathon Finisher 7 time - 50 Miler finisher 4 time - 70.3 Half Ironman finisher 4 time - Chicago Triathlon finisher (olympic distance) 1 time - 140.6 Ironman distance finisher - Rev 3 Cedar Point 140.6 Triathlon Hosted by Courtney Phillips @courtneynphillips & Ian Gonzalez @acoolthought. Intro by producer Dini - @dinibeats. Podcast edited by Jerami Watson - @teezythegreat (twitter) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/therunnersclubpodcast/message

“There are all kinds of ways in which we, as a community, enable the American story,” says Deval Patrick, implying that our success stories overemphasize the individual.   Patrick's own American story is a remarkable one, starting in a tough South Chicago neighborhood, journeying to a planet called boarding school, then onto Harvard and a distinguished legal career, before two terms as Governor.  He recounts how then Senator Barack Obama was initially quizzical, though supportive, of his long-shot run for office. He also underscores the unusual nature of politics in the Bay State, where there are more unenrolled or independent voters than both parties combined, and a Democratic legislature that may prefer GOP Governors to enhance their own power.  “These are human dynamics,” says Patrick, “not so much partisan dynamics.” But politics in Massachusetts is changing as throughout the nation. Listen in for a clear-eyed, richly-informed discussion with Deval Patrick, 2020 White House aspirant now teaching at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. How'd you hear about The Purple Principle? Click here to answer our one question survey: https://fluentknowledge.com/tpp-survey Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney. SHOW NOTES Our Guest Deval Patrick: Former two-term Governor of Massachusetts, 2020 Presidential candidate, and Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. Follow him on Twitter @DevalPatrick. More episode resources on our website: https://fluentknowledge.com/shows/the-purple-principle/states-ma-part1   Join Us for Premium Content: Apple: https://link.chtbl.com/PurpleApple Patreon: patreon.com/purpleprinciplepodcast Find us online! Twitter: @purpleprincipl Facebook: @thepurpleprinciplepodcast Instagram: @thepurpleprinciplepodcast Our website: https://bit.ly/2ZCpFaQ Sign up for our newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/purpleprinciple/the-purple-principle-report 

In this episode of the Balance Boldly Podcast sitting with Naketa Ren Thigpen let's welcome Camille Baker, she is the author of Have We Met? She earned a bachelor's degree in finance from the Ohio State University. There, she took sign language classes for fun, and during business classes that didn't hold her interest, she wrote stories. After graduating, she completed the Interpreter Training Program at San Antonio College. Camille now resides, interprets, and writes in South Chicago.Contact Camille BakerWebsiteSocial Media:Tw: https://twitter.com/camilliemillIg: https://www.instagram.com/camilleuntil/ Subscribe, REVIEW, Share & Balance BoldlyOn the Balance Boldly Podcast, host Naketa Ren Thigpen talks with ambitious women in business (and a few brave men) from a wide array of industries about their pursuit of success, how they face business burnout, navigate relationship hurdles, and what overall work/life balance looks like for them. Not your conventional personal development podcast, Balance Boldly uncovers real solutions to real problems afflicting real people at home and in the workplace, daily.If you enjoyed this episode, head over to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, or your favorite podcast app to subscribe to the show and leave your honest review.If you want to dive deeper into personal development topics shared on the BBP (Balance Boldly Podcast) and get the “how-to” for implementing and infusing these tools, connect on LinkedIn so you get notifications for the Live Fully LinkedIn LIVESTREAMS held first and second Wednesday at 12pm EST (as long as I'm not selfishly vacationing and intentionally refueling)

In the second half of the 1960s, a series of explosive devices began showing up on the south side of Chicago, some of them with lethal outcomes. Were these from a series of unrelated pranks or were they the work of a serial bomber? Want to help support the show? Buy me a coffee!https://www.buymeacoffee.com/chicagohistoryLeave me a voice message - just click on the microphone in the lower right corner here:https://www.chicagohistorypod.comAffiliate Links (anything you buy - not just this stuff - through these links helps benefit the show):On This Day in Chicago History by John R. Schmidthttps://amzn.to/3PT0nthUnknown Chicago Tales by John R. Schmidthttps://amzn.to/3x6GgPhSummertime Outdoor Movies? Here's the gear I use:Epson Home Cinema Projector:https://amzn.to/3RtIr9V120" Projector Screen/Stand:https://amzn.to/3KtYm5BLove the podcast? Leave us a review!https://lovethepodcast.com/chicagohistorypodChicago History Podcast Clothing, Mugs, Totes, & More (your purchase helps support the podcast):https://www.teepublic.com/user/chicago-history-podcasthttps://teespring.com/stores/chicago-history-podcastChicago History Podcast (chicagohistorypod AT gmail.com):https://www.facebook.com/Chicago-History-Podcast-107482214277883https://twitter.com/chicago_podhttps://www.instagram.com/chicagohistorypod/Chicago History Podcast Art by John K. Schneider (angeleyesartjks AT gmail.com) and on https://www.instagram.com/angeleyesartjksSupport the show

Why is it necessary to have a physical space in South Chicago that focuses on reproductive health? Chicago is historically one of the most segregated cities in the US, says Regina Townsend of The Broken Brown Egg, and most reproductive clinics are located in the more affluent, predominantly white neighborhoods on the north side.   Reproductive health is difficult enough without having to travel an hour each way to ask a question or understand test results. Enter: The Well Lit Project.  Mental health, financial literacy, as well as reproductive health and justice  — all of these are critical to our overall health, and wouldn't it be nice to have a south-side space for resources, conversation, and rest? Learn more about The Well Lit Project in this conversation among Ruby, Anne, and Regina Townsend, then discover how you can help Turn On the Lights.