Episode 8: The Big Fish

Previously on deep Cover. In nineteen eighty six, Bob Cooley began working with the FBI as an undercover operative, and he started going after smaller targets like bookies and some big ones too, including a stage senator, but he still had more work to do. Bob's ultimate target was Pat Marcy. He ran the First Ward, a powerful political district controlled by the Mob. He was a nasty, vicious human being.

You could tell it. If you met the man, you would know that he's pure evil, but unbelievably powerful in every sense. Bob knew that if he really wanted to accomplish his mission, he had to nail Marcy. Marcy was the big fish. Bob Cooley wasn't the only one trying to expose Pat Marcy in the First Ward. There was a TV journalist trying to do the exact same thing.

Her name was Carol Maureen. She would go on to become a big time correspondent for sixty Minutes, but back in the eighties she was a local reporter for Channel five. And Carol has this one very vivid memory from back then of going out to launch by herself. I remember one day being in Counselor's Row, which was the restaurant across from City Hall where the first Ward had a table where the first Ward guys and those who were invited would sit and have lunch. Jes. So you can

picture the place. Imagine black leather booths, wood paneling, blood red carpet, lots of old black and white photos up on the wall. This is a place where deals are cut, not all of them kosher. Even the menu hinted at this, advertising a gigantic burgher called the Lawbreaker. That particular day, Pat Marcy was there sitting at his usual table. With him was John Diarco Senior, one of his most trusted confidants,

father of John Junior, the poet and state senator. Anyway, Carol just goes about her business, takes a seat, looks at the menu, ordered a bowl of soup. The waitress came back and said, mister Marcy and mister Garco picked up your check, and I said, I don't want them to pick up my check. And she looked at me like, all yeah, kidding me, And so I mean, I wasn't

going to trick bag her. But I went back to NBC, ordered a big fruit basket and sent it to the First Ward to cover the cost of my bowl of soup. It wasn't a coincidence that Carol just popped into Counselor's row that day. I was always drawn to sort of secret societies. The idea of penetrating something that people don't want you to see that you want to know more about has always been of interest to me, And in Chicago, there was perhaps no secret society more steeped in mystery

and power than the First Ward. Technically, the First Ward was just one of the city's fifty legislative districts. Even so, back in the nineteen eighties, the First Ward was among the most important because it included downtown Chicago, Chinatown, and Greektown. But in truth, it was much more than this. The First Ward was the Mob's Ward. It always was. Everyone

knew it. We had long discussions in the newsroom, other reporters and myself about how do we get into that, how do we prove it, how do we show it? And it was always a challenge. Part of the challenge was the fact that Pat Marcy flew beneath the radar. Why because he was elusive. He was not in the public view on purpose. The way it organized crime truly works is you don't know who they are. The Pat Marcy's are the people that operate behind the scenes with

the real power. But Carol, she was patient. She worked her sources, talked to them on pay phones, just listened and slowly built trust. And then one day, years after cultivating sources, the phone rings and a voice says, go to counselor's row. Now, little did Carol Marine know she was about to cross paths with Bob Cooley and the FBI.

Not just that she would soon find the evidence that she needed, she was about to break a major story on the first ward and this would put Bob in a very precarious situation where he might be outed or worse. I'm Jake Halbern and this is deep Cover mob Land episode eight, The Big Fish. By this point, Bob had been working undercover for over two years. The FBI referred to the whole effort as Operation Gambat, short for Operation Gambling Attorney, an apt name. Of course, Bob himself was

a gambler. He also represented bookies who ran the mob's gambling operations, and in a way, this whole operation itself was one big gamble. Now it was time to go after Pat Marcy. The FBI had been trying to incriminate him for twenty years and they'd gotten nowhere. Ironically, Bob's big break came from his brother, Bill Cooley. Bill was a lawyer like Bob, but an honest one. Bill had a client with a property in the First Ward that

needed rezoning. So Bill did what he was supposed to do, went to see the First Wards Alderman, a guy named Fred Rody. Rody was an elected official, but he was also very much a mob guy. People joked openly that Roodie's campaign motto really ought to be vote for Rody and nobody gets hurt. When Rodi discovers that Bill is Bob's brother, he suggests, rather cryptically that Bob should call him. Eventually, Bob gets wind of this. I knew exactly what it meant I know what he wants. He's gonna want to

bribe and whatever. And this is a perfect opportunity for Bob. Bob didn't have to come up with some scheme and approach ROADI No, this was far better. Rody had solicited this bribe on his own. Just to be clear here, Rody wasn't as big a fish as Pat Marcy, but he was still an important player. Bob and the FBI cooked up a plan. Bob would bribe Roady to get the building rezoned. The FBI would provide the money, Bob would get the whole thing on tape. So Bob arranges

to meet Rody at Counselor's row. They sit down and Bob lays it all out. I made up some stuff. You know, Well, they got a big building and they're gonna make millions doing this and doing that and whatever, and I want to know how much it's going to cost to take care of it. While we're talking, who comes walking up with Pat Marcy? Yeah, v Pat Marcy, the big boss. He comes around the corner and he sees us sitting there, and he said, what's going on here?

It was an awkward moment. Marcy seems suspicious Bob says, Rody seemed a bit like he was a kid who'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. I have no doubt in my mind that Rody was going to do this steel himself. I was going to do this and was going to cut Pat out of whatever it was, because he says, oh, Pat, he said, I was going to tell you about this path. Rody jumps to his feet and offers his chair to Marcy. Marcy sits down. At this point, Rody explains what's going on.

Bob is here on business with a request to rezone a building. According to the transcripts, here's what's said next on the wire. Marcy says, quote, tell me who the fucking owners are. Bob explains that the owners are square, meaning they don't want to be directly involved with paying a bribe. Marcy tells him, quote, you're going to need zoning. What else are you going to need there? And like that,

Marcy has taken He's now in charge. He tells Bob, quote, once we see what it is, then we'll talk about it. In other words, that you have to pay if you want to get something done, and you know what are the facts, and you know what says, and what's that? And I'll determine how much it's going to cost and whatever. But Path cut himself into the steel. To Marcy, it must have seemed like Rody was taking all the spoils for himself, and a strong man like Marcy could never

let that happen. And so Marcy intervenes and walks right into Bob's hands. So Bob presses ahead with his bribery scheme. At his next meeting with Rody at Counselors Row, Bob brings a pad and a pen. He's got a bunch of notes written on the pad with made up specs on this building that needs to be rezoned, and then he looks up at Rhody and says, quote, tell me what the procedure is. Now. That's code for how much

is this thing going to cost me? Rody then grabs the pen and notepad and writes down the number seventy five and underlines it. Roadie's being careful, playing it smart, not saying anything out loud. Here's what's said next on the wire, Rody, you know what I'm talking about, Bob. Yeah, little ones, not big ones. That's also code. Bob is clarifying what exactly seventy five means. He's asking if it's seventy five little ones, which would mean seven hundred and

fifty dollars. Roady, No, seventy five hundred, Bingo. Roody is broken code. Apparently he got frustrated or careless, and he just says the exact amount, which is fantastic for Bob. All that Bob needs to do now is get the actual payoff on tape. So as discreetly as he can, Bob pulls out some money and says, quote, let me give you five hundred now, so you've got some lunch money in your pocket. The next step for Bob is

to put cash in Marcy's hands. So three days later, Bob straps on his tape recorder again and returns to Counselor's row. Pat Marcy is waiting for him and escorts him to the back of the restaurant. Bob asks him if the figure that Rody has given him is okay translation, is seventy five hundred a big enough bribe for you? Marcy tells him, quote, the figure's okay. Bob then counts

out thirty five hundred dollars the first installment. Marcy takes the money on tape and in so doing incriminates himself. Now you might be tempted to think, okay, then Bob's done here, right, He's god Marcy, why doesn't he get the hell out of Dodge? But that's not how Bob saw it. He was determined to make certain that the case against Marcy and the first ward was airtight, so no judge or jury could possibly acquit. There was more work for Bob to do. He had to pay off

a second installment on that zoning bribe. He also had another scheme in mind. He was trying to get Marcy to tamper with another court case. Bob's handlers at the FBI agreed with this strategy. Here's Marie Dyson. He just kept going back to Marcy. He could do that, and then if it didn't feel right that day, he'd stay away from Marcy for a while. How dangerous was Marcy? Very deadly? And the scary part was there were so many ways he could blow his cover. Stupid little things

could go wrong. In fact, this is exactly what happened a while later, when Bob returned to Counselor's Row for another visit with Marcy. That day, they're actually outside the restaurant, chatting on the sidewalk. They're getting ready to go inside. Marcy gestures for Bob to go first, and then he places his hand on Bob's lower back, on the exact spot where Bob's tape recorder is tucked away. So when he did that, I mean it was like somebody hitting

me with a hammer. And I was terrified that he had, you know, that he would know what it was. Bob's mind is racing, trying to come up with his next move. I'm just acting, trying to act as non chalant as I can, but believe me, I'm a nervous rock. At this particular instant, Bob and Marcy entered the restaurant together. They head over to the first word table. I went like I was going to sit down, and then I pulled myself up as you would if you know you had a problem, as Oh my back was killing me.

I said, you know, and I've got this brace and it's not helping. It's not helping a whole lot. The back injury is bullshit. Bob was just making it up on the spot, and the back brace, well, that was Bob's cover. So if by chance Marcy had felt something. Well, then there was an explanation, But would Marcy? The problem was, there was no getting into Marcy's head. Did he know? Was he suspicious? And what was his threshold for quite literally pulling the trigger. Bob and his FBI handlers were

all guessing. When we come back after the break, Bob pushes his luck. It had been a close call with Marcy, and Bob still didn't know if he was safe. He talked the whole thing over with his handlers, the carpool buddies, Steve and Marie. You know you're scared, and he's scared, and everybody's scared. Anything could happen. We were going to do everything in our power not to make a mistake,

because this guy could get killed just like that. Given all of this, it was inevitable that Bob started to go down some dark rabbit holes thinking about the worst case scenarios of how it might end for him. I don't think I really feared. I didn't fear dying. I feared being tortured. I did not think I would like that. Bob had once been friends with a gangster named William Butch Petrocelli, who'd fallen out of favor with the mob. Bob believes he was one of the last people to

see Butch alive. Bob says they had lunched together one day. Butch disappeared a few days later. Months passed without any sign of him. Then Butch's charred body was discovered. He'd been stabbed in the chest and his body had been burned with a blowtorch. I'd wake up sweating and whatever

because I saw myself being tortured. I kept seeing pictures of Butching kind of playing a blow torch to my testicles and things like that that you know that I was terrified that Bob knew he needed a contingency plan, something he could do to save himself from this fate. I had condom plated carrying, you know, carrying some kind of tablets, so I could commit suicide if you know, if they caught me. But you know, but I just

never did do that. And the reason I didn't do that is because I would have gone to hell them. I believe that committing suicide, you know, is one of those sins that you can't do. It was ironic in a way. Bob was a man who enjoyed his pleasures, money, sex, power, and he was willing to bend the rules to get all of these things. But in the end, he would not compromise his own moral code to save himself from

the most gruesome of endings. Instead, Bob decided to carry a gun, two guns in fact, which was a problem. Here's Bob's handler, Steve Bowen. Bob was never authorized to carry a gun under any conditions. Did I know on occasion that he had a gun on him? Yeah? And did I do anything about it? No. If I was going in to do what we're asking him to go in to do, I'd want a gun on me too. I asked Bob what his plan was. What would be his move if he walked into some back room and

a group of mob henchmen were waiting for him. I figured, if I walked into the room and there's a group there, just start shooting. When it came to decompressing, Bob didn't have a lot of options. The FBI wouldn't let him gamble. Bob wasn't married, and he didn't have anyone he could totally confide in. He never went to a therapist, but he did have at least one form of Catharsis feeding wildlife yep. For a while, Bob lived in an apartment

on the outskirts of Chicago. It was on the first floor, and Bob liked to open up the glass doors, sit outside and feed the animals. Birds would come, but what he really liked were the raccoons. They'd watch him eat and feed, and I'd have a little water gun because I'd have to spray the mother raccoon because she'd beat up and the kids see no fighting for the food. But I just enjoyed doing stuff like that. This image

has stayed with me. I imagine Bob, after a stressful day of work undercover, coming home, taking off his coat, sending his gun down on the table, then walking through those glass doors, picking up a water gun and using it to protect the baby raccoons, making sure they got enough to eat. Bob told me he loved all animals except rats and snakes. Why because they're dirty little creatures. They remind me a lot of some people. And snakes For some reason, I just don't like snakes, although he

quickly added, these are guy its creatures. Ay, all they want in life is to you know, eat and fall around and you know and survive. Sadly for Bob. Eventually he decided that the first floor apartment it wasn't safe. He just felt too exposed there, so he moved to another apartment on the fourth floor of a nearby building. He still tossed food off the balcony, but it wasn't quite the same. In so many ways, life just kept narrowing for Bob, and now even the baby raccoons were gone.

Bob kept going with his undercover work. There was no way of knowing whether Pat Marcy had felt that tape recorder on his back, so cautiously he returned to Counselor's row wearing a wire and armed with his two guns. His goal was to bribe Marcy once again to get him on tape, agreeing to tamper with a court case. This time. As he answers Counselor's row, Bob is on a high alert, so is his handler, Steve Bowen, who is stationed across the street. Inside the restaurant, Bob has

a look around. Almost right away, he sees a mobster named Ernest Rocky in Falie. Rocky was a burly guy, a former paratrooper with a well earned reputation for brutality. Bob plays it cool. He makes the rounds, mingling with the regular patrons, and then he sees pat Marcy cat Marcy was standing there and when he saw me, didn't say a word, just motion for me to follow him.

Where too, That's the question. Bob glances about and realizes he can no longer see Rocky, but there's no time to look for him because he's got a stick with Marcy. Marcy heads outside, but instead just stopping there on the sidewalk, he continues heading towards a parking garage. Bob's trying to get his bearings and quickly. I right away was nervous, wondering, you know, this is something totally unusual. I didn't know

whether the hell they we're going. That's Bob's handler, Steve Bowen, watching it all play out from across the street, whether they were going off in a car, they want to take him in a restaurant whacking, or whether they just wanted to top twing in there. Steve is in a bind. If he intervenes and rushes in too soon, he could blow Bob's cover or start a gunfight. But if he waits too long, Bob Mike get killed. Meanwhile, Bob's now walked into the parking garage with Pat Marcy. He still

hasn't seen Rocky at this point. He's just going with it, and we walk through the big door where the cars come out, and we walk into a little shitty bathroom. Pat walks in there. I'm following him, and I'm envisioned. I've got two guns on it this time. What I'm thinking is I'm walking behind him. This may be a trap. When he opened that door, I'm ready to pull one of my Volbos out and start shooting in case there's people in there. I'm not going to talk. I'm not

going to say a word. I'm going to start shooting, two guns at the ready. Bob stands there as Pat Marcy pulls open the door to the bathroom. I can see it's a very small room and there's nobody in there. I can see there isn't He walks over to the urinal and he takes a leak. Now he's never said a word to me. Bob just stands there in the bathroom for what seems like forever. He's still on the lookout for Rocky or some other would be a sail at who might rush through the door at any moment. Meanwhile,

outside on the street, Steve can't wait any longer. It was just me and I had to go, so started to go in there after room, and then I'm going hand I I'm gonna try to find him and protect him if I acted, And just then he sees Bob and Marcy walking back out, huge sigh of relief. It had all been a false alarm. But to Bob it didn't seem like a chance occurrence, not at all. There's almost no doubt in my mind that they're testing I see.

So the test is if this guy's wearing a wire, there's no way he's going to follow me into a bathroom in a parking lot, exactly. I mean, you know, I'd been dealing with these people for years. He's never done something like that before. In all this time, Bob says, he was determined to keep going. His handler, Marie, admired his courage, but she knew how risky this was for him. Every day that you continue to do this, it's a

scarier day because you when should you stop. You need what you you need for evidence, you need what you need to make cases. But at the same time, it's becoming very It's the danger is increasing for Bob. This is a human being. This is a person you know, that has offered to do this and has asked very little of us, and we are putting him in harm's way. It seemed like for the moment, Bob was safe and that Pat Marcy didn't know that the FBI was onto him.

But all of that was about to change. Little did anyone know, a gigantic story was about to break, thanks to the journalist Carol Marine. More on that after the break, Carol Marine had been looking into the First Ward for years. She's the journalist who visited Counselor's row, got a free cup of soup and then sent the first Ward guys a fruit basket. She kept plugging away with her reporting, and then one day her phone rang and a voice said, go to Counselor's row. Now we speed to Counselor's Row,

and what do you know? There is a camera discovered by a bus boy inside the bench of a booth that sat across from the first Ward table, connected to coaxial cable up through the rafters, up through the floors up to the other first Ward office. The FEDS had bugged the first ward table, so Carol races to break her story about the bug. Meanwhile, Bob is actually en route to meet Fred Rody, the corrupt Alderman, to pay

him off for his help tampering with a case. Bob's plan is to meet Rody at you guessed, at Counselor's Row. At this point, Bob has no idea that a camera has been discovered at the restaurant. In fact, Bob doesn't even know that the FBI has installed such a camera there. No one had bothered to tell him, and now he was walking right into it completely blind. I get out of the car, I start walking on the sidewalk, you know,

to go into Counselor's Row. And I get about halfway from the alley to there when he sees Fred Rody, the corrupt Alderman, because he was waiting for me. It turns out, when he saw me, he came out and he motioned me to walk across the street with him, and he started walking across the street. Now I have no idea what's going on at this time? What the fuck is this? Roadie turns to Bob and breaks the news, tells him about the hidden camera that's been discovered. Bob

is floored and right away, what hell a bug? Where what bug? Bob is legitimately shocked here he's not putting on a show. He had no idea about that bug. Rody leads him across the street to city Hall and takes him up to his office. Now his office is a huge, a huge room, and it's but see things about thirty forty feet up. And he's not saying a word. Now we're not talking at all. As we're walking towards her. We go in and now I'm thinking in my mind, this is some kind of a trap for me. Bob

tries to calm himself down. I mean, they're not going to kill him in city Hall, right, he had to keep his composure. When we walk in there, he closes the drapes and has us said a word, and then comes over to me and says, have you got the money? Have you got the money? In other words, game on Roadie still wants to get paid, which means he still trusts Bob, which means for the time being, Bob is safe. And I was never so happy in my life to hear some words. I started counting it out, knowing if

I'm counting it. You can hear it on tape. When you're counting money, you can hear that. And I'm saying one, two or three, and I give him the money. So amazingly, Bob executes his plan. He gets the bribe on tape. But all hell breaks loose when Carol Marine breaks her story for Channel five. For years, it has been rumored that some of Chicago's most interesting political deals have been made at one particular table at a restaurant near City Hall.

The night is shocking surprise for the movers and shakers who sit at that table. Federal agents have been watching them through a hidden camera, and Carol has the exclusive details. Ron The discovery of the camera seems to have blown the lid off part of a major investigation. For more than two years, the Federal Strike Force on Organized Crime has been looking at Chicago's infamous First Ward. Tonight, the story of how part of that investigation has unraveled on camera.

A lawyer representing the restaurant shows Carol around, takes her over to the spot where the camera was concealed. It occupied this area right here, Carrol, which is not more than a heap of them. The machine itself appeared to

be a James Bond type device. It was a bus boy a few days ago who, in cleaning, lifted the seat of this booth, and, to his amazement and the amazement of his bosses, discovered a very sophisticated camera setup, a camera that was pointed at this corner table commonly referred to as the first Ward Table, the table where

Bob had sat with Pat Marcy many times. Channel five News is learned the FBI is not just interested in the conversations of those who sit at the First Ward Table, that this probe is an examination of far more than that. The FBI is looking at gambling in Chinatown, which is part of the First Award. It is probing any violations of the Hobbs Act, which addresses official corruption, and it

is investigating attorneys, judges, state employees, and politicians. For Pat Marcy and the First Ward guys, this must have been like an air raid siren going off. First comes the news that their unofficial headquarters Counselor's row has been bugged, and now Carol Marine is telling them straight up that the FBI is investigating their entire corrupt network. So what do you do when you get news like this? I think. If you're Pat Marcy, you take a good hard look

at your own people. You consider the facts, facts like this, Bob Cooley just paid Rody a bribe. And if you're Pat Marcy, wouldn't you wonder can we really trust Bob? And if the answer is no, what are you going to do about it? Bob knew his time was almost up, but he wasn't ready to walk away just yet. Bob wanted to track down his old friend, a judge he had ribbed long ago in that murder case that he'd

fixed involving the hitman. In many ways, fixing that case had been Bob's original sin, and he felt, even all these years later, that he still had some unfinished business here. Meanwhile, Carol Maureene was getting ready to break an even bigger story next time on deep Cover. For approximately five years, a Chicago lawyer has been a government informant, secretly recording conversations with some of this city's movers and shakers. The identity of this informant will come as a shock to

some powerful people. Deep Cover is produced by Jacob Smith and Amy Gaines and edited by Karen Shakerjee. Our senior editor is Jan Guera original music and our theme was composed by Louise Gera and Fawn Williams as our engineer. Our art this season was drawn by Cheryl Cook and designed by Sean Karney. Mia Lobell is our executive producer.

Special thanks to Heather Fame, John Schnars, Carlie mcgliori, Maya Kaning, Christina Sullivan, Eric Sandler, Mary Beth Smith, Brant Haynes, Maggie Taylor, a Coolemarano, Magan Larson, Royston Beserve, Lucy Sullivan, Edith Russlo, Riley Sullivan, Jason Gambrel, Martin Gonzalez, and Jacob Weisberg. I'm Jake Albert. Subscribe to Pushkin Plus and you can binge the rest of the season right now adds free. Find Pushkin Plus on the deep cover show page in Apple

Podcasts or at pushkin dot fm. To find more Pushkin podcasts, listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.