Infamous America - Introducing "Deep Cover: Mob Land" from Pushkin Industries

Episode Date: February 21, 2022

Deep Cover tells true stories of crime and corruption. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jake Halpern reveals dark underworlds most of us know nothing about. The new season, Mob Land, tells the true story of a high-rolling Chicago lawyer who fixed court cases for the mob. He did this for years... until he decided to betray them and work with the FBI. He wears a wire to expose a black market of corruption—where politicians were bought and justice was sold. Where, for the right price, even murderers could walk free... With first-hand interviews from FBI agents, mobsters, family members, and criminals, the story is truly a wild journey into a world of corruption, murder and deceit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everyone, I've got a preview of a podcast here that I want to share with you because it follows a theme that we're going to explore a lot more on this podcast in the future, the mob. But on Infamous America, we're not going to do the same old mafia stories you can find anywhere else. And the podcast I want to share with you, Deep Cover doesn't do that either. Deep Cover from Pushkin Industries tells true stories of crime and corruption. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Jake Halpern reveals Dark Underworlds, most of us know nothing about. The new season, Mob Land, tells the true story of a high-rolling Chicago lawyer who fixed court cases for the mob. He did it for years, until he decided to betray them and work for the FBI.

He wore a wire to expose a black market of corruption, where politicians were bought and justice was sold. For the right price, murderers could walk free. With firsthand interviews from FBI agents, mobsters, family members, and criminal associates, the true story is a wild journey through a world of murder and deceit. Here's a preview, and follow the story by searching for deep cover wherever you get your podcasts. Here's the first thing I need to tell you about Robert Cooley. Officially, legally, he no longer exists. He's a ghost.

For all intents and purposes, the man named Bob Cooley died decades ago. But in reality, Bob, he's still very much alive. So your neighbors have no idea who you are? Oh, no, certainly not. Does that work out for the best? No, no big thing either way. It's not a big thing either way. It's just that, you know, they wouldn't believe it.

If, you know, if I told my story, people wouldn't normally believe it. That's Bob. I've been interviewing him for the past year, mainly by Zoom. But recently, I visited him in person. He lives in this small ranch house at the edge of a vast desert, somewhere in the American Southwest. I can't tell you the name of the town or even the state where he lives. And that's for Bob's own safety. I've got more on the floor than I got out of here.

Bob's now in his late 70s. He has thick glasses and a strong jaw dotted with gray stubble. When we met, he was wearing an old L.A. Dodgers cap and a t-shirt that said, parental advisory, explicit content, like the labels they used to put on CDs. The house where Bob lives isn't his. He just rents a room in it. I'll show you in my room.

Beside his bed, the floor is cluttered with v8 vegetable juice and cylinders of pringles. Sort of looks like he's preparing for a hurricane. Obviously, it's a very small room, but it's got a bed. That's where I sleep. So are all your worldly possessions in this room? Oh, yeah, that's it.

It wasn't always like this for Bob. Back before he vanished, before he ran for it, Bob lived a very different life. He was a big-time lawyer in Chicago. I used to run around with thousands of dollars in my pocket and pick up everybody's checks and whatever. I would buy the most expensive thing thinking it was the best. Bob drove around in a gleaming convertible,

wore a hefty gold chain, partied at the nightclubs on Rush Street, gambled with the bookies and dined out with the city's judges. But that was then. Today, he survives on Social Security and lives in this tiny room at the edge of the desert, basically in hiding. Did you have any of your old IDs that you had under your fake names?

Oh, yeah. Can you show them to me? Bob leads me over to his closet and pulls out a big stack of IDs and credit cards. It looks like what you might find at the Lost and Found at a ballpark. The name varies on each of these, but the face is the same,

just a little older each time. Bob points at one ID, an old driver's license. He died about 10 years ago. That's you. That's a different one. Why did he die 10 years ago? Apparently he must have had an unfortunate accent or something.

He suddenly disappeared from the face of the earth. Here's another form of license. Oh, there's another one. That's a fourth name. What happened to this guy? Yeah, he had an accident too. A lot of these guys had some very bad accidents. And that's how it goes with Bob.

He assumes one identity for a few years, pretending to be some guy in some random town. Until Bob feels that itch, like he's not safe. Then that guy dies. The ID gets tossed in this pile. And Bob becomes someone else. else. And let me assure you, there is a reason for all this paranoia, very good reason, a backstory that explains it all. A saga, really. Back in his heyday, when Bob Cooley was still

Bob Cooley, he was the man in Chicago. People around town knew him as a high-priced criminal defense lawyer. But to the city's gangsters, to the mob, he was much more than this. He was their guy, their insurance policy. Sure, he could argue a case well enough, but if need be, he could also fix a case, place the right bribe with just the right judge, and get precisely the right verdict. He was like a get-out-a-jail-free card, only his services weren't free. And Bob, he was more than just a hired hand. He was part of an elite cadre of men. They were backed by the mob, or the Chicago outfit, as it's known. They basically ran the city of Chicago.

Their power base was the first ward, one of the city's most powerful districts. It was a political machine run by gangsters. They had complete control over the sheriff's department, the attorney general's office, the police department, all the courts. They controlled absolutely everything. So mobsters realized if they did anything, they had absolute protection for it. Bob Cooley did the bidding of the first ward and the outfit for almost a decade. Until one day in the spring of 1986 when he decided to betray them, he just walked into a prosecutor's office and started talking.

I regret having walked into that man's office like I did. You know, probably the worst regret of my life, but nothing I can do about that. I jumped off the building. It's a decision that even now, 35 years later, still baffles people. Why did he do it? People are still arguing about this. Not just that.

There are court cases going on right now, where they're discussing what Bob did. And how old were you when the shooting which resulted in your incarceration occurred? I was over 18 years ago. There are guys in prison hoping to get out by invoking Bob's name and the secrets he revealed. Bob's legacy is still shrouded

controversy. But here's one thing that most people can agree on. After Bob Cooley flipped, the city of Chicago was never quite the same. That was a preview of the new season of Deep Cover from Pushkin Industries. You can follow the story right now by searching for deep cover wherever you get your podcasts.