The Lawyer's Daughter
The Lawyer’s Daughter Podcast is an inside look at the complex relationship between true crime, entertainment and liberty & justice for all.
With almost 50 years serving as one of the nations top defense attorneys, Steve Farese sits down with his daughter Kelsey Farese, who works with the worlds biggest names in entertainment. Together they discover the symbiotic nature of their jobs, their personal accounts and struggles as well as never before heard stories on some of the juiciest crimes to make the crossover from courtroom to Hollywood.
New Episodes are released every Tuesday
The Lawyer's Daughter
Dynamite, The Mob & "Pistol" Pete Maravich
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Previously Uploaded: 10-10-2023
“Those Farese's… they’ll get ya!” Today Steve & Kelsey finally address their family's history with organized crime, a murderous plot that would have changed everything and the time Steve got one over on "Pistol" Pete Maravich in Baton Rouge. This is a wild one... buckle up!
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Music by: Mark "Mule Man" Massey https://open.spotify.com/artist/0QgkcO2NiqAB83QFIuL9F6?si=C17J5b7VTcKlPYvylgyFSA
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People are always like, are they mob affiliated? He wanted to snitch dad? Is that what you're saying?
SPEAKER_00I was getting booed and called names.
SPEAKER_01We're not gonna hoat your kitty cat.
SPEAKER_00Went out to crank his car up and it exploded.
SPEAKER_01There was a plot to literally murder our family.
SPEAKER_00The man who had been hired to do this told me himself.
SPEAKER_01They're going to be destroyed. Hello, welcome to another episode of The Lawyer's Daughter. I'm the Lawyer's Daughter, Kelsey Friese, and we're sitting here with my dad, Steve Friese.
SPEAKER_00Here I am.
SPEAKER_01What's up, dad?
SPEAKER_00Nothing, honey. What's up with you?
SPEAKER_01This is like a luxury, us sitting down and actually getting to talk. I've been here since Wednesday, and we like haven't even gotten to spend any time together.
SPEAKER_00Well, we both had things going on.
SPEAKER_01Just a few things going on. Mom was just saying a few minutes ago that you have 40 cases on right now.
SPEAKER_00At least.
SPEAKER_01Dad, that's like insane. I and I obviously I've been learning a lot about your job just through the podcast and stuff, but I definitely had no idea that you and I'm not maybe you're not even fully capable of doing 40, but that that's even like a possibility that you would be handling 40 different scenarios all at once.
SPEAKER_00Well, you prioritize and you compartmentalize.
SPEAKER_01I was gonna say you must your mind palace must just have boxes everywhere labeled at a bunch of different things.
SPEAKER_00Well, Susan Fritz is my boss, and I do what Susan says, and and we keep um uh dueling calendars. And as soon as I walk through the door, she grabs my calendar and fills it up. So uh we have a symbiotic relationship.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, okay. So Susan is your secretary, and she is honestly she has the best again. I think we've talked about this before, how you have you surround yourself with people who are kind of like the opposite of you, or even the opposite of, I mean, of me too. They're very calm, very slow. They it's hard to get a rise out of them. They just sort of move things along very calmly and methodically and sensibly. And Susan is definitely one of those people she soothes me even when I hear from her.
SPEAKER_00Right. She's an organizer, and the great thing about her, besides she being just a wonderful person, is uh she's very empathetic with the clients. Yeah. And the clients just love her.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I can see that too. That and that's a really important thing to have at the front office. Absolutely. You know, as the person making calls and stuff. Yeah, that's a delicate job. So we love you, Susan, if you're listening.
SPEAKER_00I say it sometimes when when I call other lawyers that don't have a Susan? They don't have a Susan.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so you've been working a lot, and then at least, at least you've had a little bit of reprieve this past weekend. When we're filming this, it is the Tuesday after the legendary Ole Miss LSU game.
SPEAKER_00I I I don't know if it's a reprieve or not. It it's a um a trial by combat during the weekend. Jesus to to watch Ole Miss and care so much. And uh uh it's crazy. Yeah, crazy.
SPEAKER_01I've seen some interesting stuff online about how people were like, act like you've been here before, because you know, we did we did storm the field. I I was there, um, and they're like, act like you've been here. And I'm like, but guys, even for LSU's side, like, doesn't it mean a lot that it meant that much to the fans and everybody that we did win? That's the whole point. And it was the Magnolia Bowl, it was a bowl game, essentially. You know, it was a big rivalry game.
SPEAKER_00There's nothing wrong with enjoying yourself.
SPEAKER_01I'm like, guys, at least we care, at least fans do care and are still showing up in the stands because I was hearing some people saying they're like, it's $18 for a hot dog down and you know, not up in the club level. And I was like, that's crazy, but people are still willing to show up to the game, pay for tickets, pay for food, support the team.
SPEAKER_00Well, they they plan all year long for this, and it it's part of a vacation, it's part uh a chance to renew acquaintances and see old friends. So it it brings them back to their day.
SPEAKER_01I did, and I I was really funny that you say see old friends. I saw a girl that I mean I've known my whole life, but I haven't seen her probably in like I mean, it's been a while. I don't get to see her that often. And we ran into each other twice since I've been home. I ran into her up on the square randomly, and then at the olmus game, and we were like, man, we never get to see each other. Now we've seen each other twice in a row.
SPEAKER_00Right. It gives you an opportunity to do to catch up.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Guys, I'm so excited. We have our first sponsor. It's actually my brother, Paxton Friese, and his group, the Farese Group, your partner in retirement. Can you imagine years of hard work and savings? And now you're worried about outliving your retirement savings. Clients of my brother and the Farese Group are gonna help you with that. They have over 20 years and a process of working towards success, not stress, after retirement. To know how you can truly enjoy a level of comfort, please talk to my brother at the Farese Group. It's www.fharesgroup.com. That's Ferris Group.com, F-A-R-E-S-E. Ferese Group, your partner in retirement.
SPEAKER_00Every every year around Halloween, and it used to be O Miss would play L S U right either on Halloween night, which is which is something to see, or uh right around there. But you know, we're approaching Halloween.
SPEAKER_01We are, we are spooky, and you know, I actually as you say that, I had told a story on TikTok about how when I was like 14 at the omiss LSU game, I got popped on the bottom by one of their fans, and I was like, those the the claws were out, they are major kitty cat stories. Well, they're major tiger bill. No, they some paw paw was pawing. Some paw paw dad, to please tell the story about that. Speaking of cats, that that woman, and I I'm not even gonna attempt to it's one of my favorite stories of yours, but something something freaky happened with a not a kitty cat, but another large cat, not necessarily an LSU tiger, but and I can't remember the name of that cat.
SPEAKER_00It it it was an exotic animal. Yeah. Okay. And fortunately, it was at a time where body cameras had come into effect. Because without the body camera, you really just can't get the ambiance of what was going on. Uh, but anyway, my client was stopped. Uh, I think suspicion of uh drunk driving, something along that nature. And of course, um she had exited the vehicle, which is not advisable in cases like that.
SPEAKER_01When she got pulled over? Yes. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Uh she had exited the vehicle after getting pulled over and was uh talking to the police officers. And uh uh of course they wanted to look in her car, and she said, Well, uh I'm not sure, you know, you want to look in there, and and of course, they're thinking from their perspective, yes, we do want to look in there. Drugs and uh to look for whatever evidence, whatever. And one of the officers went there and he opened the door, and some exotic animal, which was one of many that were in that car, it wasn't just one. No, it wasn't just one exotic animal, it was a plethora of them. And uh it tried to jump on him. He barely got the car door closed and jumped back and um uh spoke some um language that you know we can't use on the podcast, and was white as a sheet. Nobody can laugh more than police officers, okay, in circumstances like that because they have to deal with so much and see so much. They were on the ground rolling at this guy. He jumped straight up in the air, ran back toward the police, trying to grab his gun, didn't know what to do. It was hilarious, it was hilarious, and uh of course it made the case a little more workable from my standpoint, and we were able to get the matter worked out, but it was hilarious, and it was all a video, dad's and then she you know they put her in the back and she and she was freaking out, and he was like, say what he was like, we're not gonna hurt your kitty kids. Right, right. She was more concerned not about her plight, but the plight of her, in quotation marks, pets, kiddies. Yeah. And and one of the officers said, You don't have to worry, we're not gonna hurt your little kitties. And of course, he wasn't the one. What did they do with them? Uh they took them to an animal shelter and she got them back.
SPEAKER_01No, so she's out there somewhere with her kitty cat.
SPEAKER_00They didn't want them either.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, they're like, This is a problem for someone else, and another day you just take them back.
SPEAKER_00So from then on, she was known as Catwoman. Catwoman. I love it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And then another LSU story I was thinking about from you that I wanted to hear about it was how you I know we've talked on the podcast before of how you play basketball for Ole Miss. So you've played you got to play against Mirevich. Correct. And he was he played for LSU, right?
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Sorry. As I was saying that, I was like, right, right?
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01What and so what was that? Must have been crazy.
SPEAKER_00Uh it was crazy uh on a number of levels. Um, number one, I had transferred after my freshman year. Uh back then, the rules are nothing like they are today with the transfer portal and all that. If you transferred, you had to sit out for a year. So I transferred, I set out uh until the uh beginning of my sophomore year where I could practice. And I I was on the dummy squad. I was not on scholarship, so I had to walk on, they couldn't give me a scholarship until the year expired. And um uh I'd come home, uh, your your mom was at my house, we were dating at that time, and um for Christmas holidays, and uh the players of course had to stay there, but since I was on the dummy squad, you know, I didn't have to stay there. And we got a call from the coach and one of the uh in fact the point guard had flucked out of school and it was his senior year. So the coach wanted me to come and um um be on the team, and of course, uh after Christmas, uh the first game we had was LSU. Now you have to keep in mind I hadn't played I was gonna say you hadn't been practicing. Well, no no, I'd been practicing. Okay, but I'd not played in an organized game since high school. Oh my gosh, Dad. So uh I'm thinking this is great. I'm on the team, I've got a uniform, I'm gonna get to see Merevich play up close and personal because he was a phenome, he was averaging 44 points a game. He uh uh no three-point shot back then. He was just a once-in-a-generation ball player, and and and he was a a rock star before the term rock star was uh ever evoked. So we get there and I'm on the bench and um I'm in my full warm-up pants, jacket, and um we're behind, I don't know, 12 points in the first half. But man, I'm enjoying watching him play. He is just unbelievable. And uh somebody taps me and says the coach wants me. Well, I figure he probably wanted me to run to the dressing room and pick up something he'd forgotten. And I went up there and he said, Well, you go in for so-and-so. And I go back and start taking my uh warm-ups off, and I can barely get them off.
SPEAKER_01Were you you were shaking?
SPEAKER_00Oh, absolutely. Oh my gosh, that makes me nervous. I was I said, What in the heck is going on? And anyway, we I got in and um I was trying to guard Merevich. You don't guard him. Everybody tries to guard him on the team. And you just try to get in his way. And I just decided that uh he would come down the court and he'd throw a behind the back pass nonchalantly to the center at the post and uh then go. I mean, he did whatever he wanted to do. His dad was a coach, he could do what he wanted to do. Kind of prime time vibes. Right. And and and it was a show. He was putting on a show. It wasn't just a game, he was an entertainer, uh, and he could do it. And uh so I decided when I came down the court because I was a point guard, I'd do the same thing he did.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So if if he threw uh behind his back to the post and split the post and uh went on, I did the same thing. If he dribbled nonchalantly between his legs and behind his back up the court for no particular reason, uh I did the same thing. Well, the fans caught on, of course, quickly, and I was getting booed and called names.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, was this at home or was this at home?
SPEAKER_00No, this was at their place. This wasn't that their place. And it was an old barn-like facility, and the people were right on you. I'm talking about, and when when Meravich played, uh they couldn't sell enough tickets. It was just they were they people you had uh the old folding tin chairs under the go, you barely have room to take the ball out. Oh my god. Uh it was it was crazy. And um anyway, um uh we we were hanging with them at their place. We had a guy named Ken Turner who was absolutely a fabulous player. I I could jump uh a foot higher than he could, um, but he could position himself and get rebounds, could shoot the eyes out of it, and he was having a big night. And uh we ended up um beating them in overtime. Whoa. And after the game, I was so tired because I played in a game. A game's different practice. You you cannot uh create a game atmosphere in practice. You cannot, everything is faster, uh everything is more tense, you're tense, therefore your energy level uh sapped. And you know, I was friggin' dead.
SPEAKER_01And the nerves, just the extra jo extra adrenaline when you're that nervous.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. And uh it was quite an event. It was quite an event, and and we won, and it was great, and Marovich only got like 31 points, which was 13 below his average. And so So you beat Meravich. No, no, no, no, no. I I I didn't have anything. No, Dad, you were on the court, man. Much too much with the victory, but the the thing about it was the next morning, and and this is what back then people now players will probably get on TikTok, they'll get on Instagram, they'll get on uh uh YouTube, whatever, to see what's being said about them. Well, back then we had newspapers, and newspapers are made out of the just for the for the ones that don't know it out there. It it's made out of paper and and people would write on it and just they still exist to this day. Yeah, barely. So uh we would all run the next morning, we spent the night there and got the uh whatever the Baton Rouge paper was, or the Times Picune, or whatever the New Orleans paper, to read read the recap of the game and look at the box score, how many points you score, yada yada. So uh I got the paper and I'm looking at it, you know, rebels defeat tigers and overtime. And there's a quote from Coach Maravich Press, who was a former uh drill instructor in the Marines. I I believe that's correct. And uh he said, well, he said, you know, it was a tough night. He said, you know, uh that sprained ankle that Pete had really made a difference. And I'm saying, yeah, many crickets. You know, can you not give us any credit? Couldn't take the L. You can't give us any credit. He's got a sprained ankle, he still scores 31 points, but that's who he was. Yeah. That's what he did.
SPEAKER_01Dad, that brings up an interesting thing that's going on right now. You're saying that Mer his dad was their coach, and then now right now we're seeing Coach Prime and his son is the quarterback for Boulder. Do you think that there is a like what are there? I mean, I guess there would be good and bad to that, right? Like there'd be advantages to it, but at the same time, I I just it's an interesting dynamic to be a star.
SPEAKER_00It is, but I think you have to understand um Coach Prime. Coach Prime was a superstar in college. He was a superstar in the pros. He he he was also a once-in-a-generation player, and he knows what it takes. He knows what it takes to be great. And uh I think he's doing a good job. Uh, I think he's teaching the young men to be responsible for their actions. Uh that this is uh uh you've been given a gift from God, and you should um uh take that with the responsibility that comes with it. And as far as coaching his son, his son is highly talented, obviously gonna play in the pros. I think he's just trying to make him better, but just as important, make him a better young man.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I think that's I think that's very admirable.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I was gonna say it's like on one side it seems really glamorous to have your dad as the coach, and and of course there's gonna be a thing like, oh, you only get to start because your dad's the coach, but at the same time, like the pressure must be immense to have to go home and hear from your dad as your coach and to hear from your dad as your dad. That would be pretty scary.
SPEAKER_00I I saw something interesting before they played, I think, USC. Uh Coach Prime has this um deal where he will walk the first 40 yards with his son. Uh and when he gets, that's he and his son. When he gets to the 40 yard line, that's he and his player.
SPEAKER_01Ooh.
SPEAKER_00So I think he compartmentalizes that way, and I think that's a great way to do it. Look, the guy is smart, he's a good coach, they're gonna have a great team. Uh, but I think that he he builds it uh he builds it from the fact that if you want it, you've got to go out and get it, and you've got to do it the right way. Yeah, I think that's good.
SPEAKER_01What I like about him is he understands what college football is, which is a lot of it is atmosphere, a lot of it is legacy, respect, creating hype, that it's literally exists for entertainment value. And so he is providing a lot of entertainment value through himself through himself, through the program. I saw this bit where he what I think it's their oldest fan. It was like this older one. Have you seen this? Do you know what I'm talking about? There was so there's this older woman, I think she's like 98 years old, and she was a twin. She and her sister grew up going, they never missed a game, allegedly, at a home game at Boulder. And they are just the biggest fan. And now Coach Prime went to her house. Um, it has her into the locker room. She's saying his little catchphrases. They I've got to show you the video. It's so, so cute. But I love that because I was like, he is showing that even though he hasn't been here a very, very long time, that he has to pay his respect to the people that have been supporting them when they're only winning one game a season. You know, he gets it.
SPEAKER_00He gets it, and that's the thing. And I think Elaine Kiffin gets it. If you look at at how he interacts on the media, uh it's one of those love him or hate him deals, but it still generates interest. Uh, and then you go to some of the older Coaches, and I won't name any names, they really don't know how to handle it. They're the old guys that will we gotta get better and we gotta hit them in the mouth and we gotta be better in the trenches, and uh all of all of those old cliches are out the window.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, if you're not, as a coach, living in the same world as your players, which is dealing with social media, backlash, dealing with the news, dealing with all those sort of things, and you're not putting yourself out there to deal with the same things that they are, you're gonna have a hard time. But since Lane seems to, if not him, he has a team that is helping him understand how to present himself as you know a social media image, then he seems to get it, and prime is the same way. Right, and you gotta ride the wave.
SPEAKER_00Well, you gotta have tough skin. Yeah. Uh you're there to get results. And and what gets results and what works is what you do. And that's what they're both doing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I I wouldn't mind going to a game at Boulder because it looks beautiful. The stadium looks unreal. So I'm I'm throwing that out there. If anyone wants to have me to Boulder, I will come. I will come and make a video.
SPEAKER_00Well, you can you can trade out an SEC game with them.
SPEAKER_01I think, yeah, I it's that would be interesting. And I did go recently. I was in Austin, and I got to go to the University of Texas game, which I was I I am a little interested. I think we've talked about it before, that I'm interested in Texas because they have Arch Manning that's going to be coming up. Of course, he wasn't playing in this game, but I saw him on the sidelines. Uh, he's out there, ready, ready if they need him. But it was really fun to go to a stadium that's that big that has a fan base that's just huge. I I think I was telling you, I don't even know if I saw a college student while I was there. It was, you know, the the fandom, they have like a carnival for little kids, and then it's just like everybody feels like the entire state of Texas is at the game. It has that atmosphere.
SPEAKER_00And they have Bivo. And and and we know friends of ours that were Spurs, which is what they're called that handle Bivo.
SPEAKER_01That's crazy. That blew my mind when you're saying Leslie Vallon. I know we've talked about him a lot. And Randy Fishman. And and Randy, who you're working with right now. I mean, that's that is so cool to me. And he, this thing, this Bivo, he is absolutely massive. He's their big bull mascot.
SPEAKER_00Big boy.
SPEAKER_01And I learned uh um, I was saying a thing I liked about going to Texas was they have like hand signals, you know, they have they do their little horns thing. And this girl came to visit her dad in the stands where I was sitting, and she was coming from the student section to say hi to him, and she was teaching her dad the hand signals that they do in the student section. So when they do uh third down, they they do their horns like this because it's like Bivos tearing tearing through them.
SPEAKER_00So that's little and oddly enough, um I I've seen those uh signals being given at LSU and OMS games, but they're a little different, the signal that they're giving.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think only one finger is used on the messages.
SPEAKER_00It's open for interpretation.
SPEAKER_01That was true. Okay, so to to do the comparison, that was one thing I noticed. Where it was kind of nice to be in Texas, everyone was very polite. The atmosphere was sort of just pleasant. There wasn't a lot of that like drama in the air. Very different from it. Doesn't matter who Ole Miss is playing, the drama is going to be in the air. They don't care. And I kind of was missing that at Texas. I was like, where's the passion?
SPEAKER_00I th I think that's probably say for Oklahoma in Texas. And I think they play this weekend. So I think the passion level goes up.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, I'm sure it does. I'm sure it does. But that's what I meant. Like, I'm like, Olmus could be playing, you know, a a team I can't even remember the name of, and there's still is gonna be someone standing next to you, just absolutely having a meltdown freak out.
SPEAKER_00Well, true, but like you said, uh we we have a lot of student fans at Ole Miss, and they get pretty well lubricated uh by game time. So uh you're you're going to see some unusual activities.
SPEAKER_01That's what I was telling you. When I was in the grove, I was like, man, it's like lawless in here. It's like you you step into the grove and it's like all of a sudden I was like, is this the purge? Like what it feels like anything could happen and nothing is going to be done about it. They're just like, this is the grove.
SPEAKER_00I'm sure I'm surprised they're not shooting skeet out there.
SPEAKER_01It's crazy. Hey guys, it's me again. Sorry to cut into the episode. This is the last time I do it, I'll promise. But again, just wanted to remind you guys if you do have a business or a product that you want to promote, we would love to do it right here. If you want some more information, email us at infotelawyersdaughter.com. Again, that is info at the lawyersdaughter.com. Now back to the episode.
SPEAKER_00I don't think we can discuss uh spooky activity without maybe Salem, Massachusetts. What do you think about that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I feel like a lot of people don't, and maybe we've touched on it a time or two, but that we're we're actually northerners. We we we made well dad, dad, we made we we made a little trip down, but a lot of our family is still up north. A lot of our cousins, and my cousin Al, who is a character in and of itself, I think we've said he's got a if we're gonna have a guest, it it might have to be Al. Al might have to be the first one. He's beyond Ferese character to the max.
SPEAKER_00He he is uh your cousin Al from Boston, just like the advertisement.
SPEAKER_01That says it all. That says it all. Period. But Al, yeah, Al is a he's a lawyer. You know, we've got a bunch of lawyers who are we have a bunch of Farese lawyers who are in Boston, kind of doing the mimicking of us down here in the South. And Al practices in Salem all the time, and I'm always like, that's crazy. Like that's just you don't even think of Salem being a real place that people live.
SPEAKER_00Well, the the the funny thing or interesting thing about Little Al, whose father is Dixie. Yeah. Uh now you've got uh a lawyer up in Boston and his name is Dixie, and that's because his father, my Uncle Al, named him Dixie, and also his sister, Adele, attended Ole Miss. Oh, I didn't know that. And her nickname for Uncle Al was Princess. She was Princess the entire uh uh as long as Uncle Al was alive, she was Princess.
SPEAKER_01No way.
SPEAKER_00So you've got Dixie, you've got Princess, but most of all you had my Uncle Al, who uh was a great lawyer in Boston, who was a real character, everyone knew him. Um in fact, some judges would have what they'd call Al Farese Week in court because he had so many cases, does that sound familiar? He had so many cases that he would the judge would clear his docket and tell Uncle Ile he had to come in every day and handle just his cases. And that's what he did. That's a true story. Oh my gosh. And Uncle Al in his practice, so remember, he would have started his practice in the 30s, mid-30s, late 30s. Uh he uh represented some people that were in a um, let's call it a syndicate. Organized an organized business, uh, an organized business did that did not always play by the norm, and they operated their business on another level. Floris. And he represented a lot of those characters. And uh one time uh he and his partner were uh um, of course, doing their business, and a guy came in to his partner who wanted to flip, that means give states evidence against another person.
SPEAKER_01He wanted to snitch, Dad? Is that what you're saying?
SPEAKER_00He wanted to snitch. And Uncle Al wouldn't have any of that, so he told his partner, he said, No, no, you you can't do that. If if uh if you did that, we're gonna have to split up. He said it doesn't work like that. And his partner, my understanding of the story is his partner didn't listen to him, and uh a couple of uh weeks later went out to crank his car up and it exploded. And it wasn't a product defect that caused the explosion, it was dynamite, and it didn't kill him. An old-fashioned dynamite, it didn't kill him, but it blew both his legs off.
SPEAKER_01Dad.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he survived, and of course, Uncle Al and he uh split, and uh um of course that guy's split was much more severe than Uncle Al's split. But um um Uncle Al represented folks of that ilk, and here's a story you don't know about Uncle Al. Um someday we'll talk about the the story of me taking mother and dad to the airport to go to Uncle Al's funeral, but uh that's a story for another time. Uh but it today it would have put me on the no fly list. Um dad goes to the funeral, and of course dad knows people up there. My mom and dad went up there every year to see Uncle Al. Uncle Al comes see us every yeah. And um dad came back and he told me, he said, uh, you know that character in The Godfather, uh the big bodyguard guy. I said, Luca Brazi? And he said, Yeah, yeah, that guy. He said, he was there at Uncle Al's funeral. I said, Dad. I said, you know, Luca Brazi uh uh uh was in, you know, in New York and in in that m in the movie. And uh who was the big guy who wore an overcoat who ended up getting strangled at the bar uh and killed in the movie. And Dad said, yeah, I know he said, but he was um patterned after this guy. And he said he was there at the funeral, he said he looked just like he did, like the character did in the movie with the big trench coat and the hat and all that. Just quietly lingering in the back six foot cigarette, just the glow of a cigarette. No, but he said very respectful and uh uh came to the burial site and stood off. And so Uncle Al knew a bunch of those characters.
SPEAKER_01I bet, yeah, I bet he took a lot of stories with him. I bet the the mob stories are crazy, and that's kind of uh not necessarily a touchy subject, but I feel like maybe because we're Italian and the last name for Reese, people are always like, are they mob affiliated?
SPEAKER_00Oh, all through my all through my school uh school years, elementary school.
SPEAKER_01Really?
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. There were always stories about us being mob connected. No way. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Because I would have thought it was just because there's a lot of us and then we all work together and work in cr, you know, crime and type. So I was like, maybe that's where people are getting it from.
SPEAKER_00Oh, i it was it it it was used politically against mother and dad, and uh Really? Oh oh yeah, and and uh the Catholic religion was used against them, and uh um the fact that dad represented uh black people in the 50s and all that was people like w when they were campaign they would camp campaign against them and say that they're mob affiliated, like it'd be a little bit more. Oh yes, and and the N-word was quite prevalent in those campaigns and in the newspapers, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Wow, I just remembered a story, and this might I yeah, this might be one of those ones we cut, but I'm gonna bring it up and you tell me what you think. Um because and I know we've touched on it before about how uh granddaddy and granny were very big in the civil rights movement.
SPEAKER_00Not no sorry, not the civil rights movement. No, I wouldn't say very big in the civil rights movement. I would say they had foresight and they could see what was coming. Uh back then, if you wanted to survive and I mean literally survive, you you had to walk the middle of the road. And uh yes, uh one of the things that got 'em defeated was that they had um gotten uh a grant to build a new school for the blacks because oh the old school was just absolutely nothing. And also uh your granddaddy got indicted one time because he gave school books to the black school that were no longer in use, and he was the uh attorney for the school board, and the opposing political side got him uh indicted. Uh the case later got dismissed, but it didn't get missed get dismissed until he went to trial.
SPEAKER_01Jesus Christ. That's a movie. Yeah. That's a movie.
SPEAKER_00I I'll tell you another little story to tell you how bad it was, besides the fact we had a cross burned in our yard.
SPEAKER_01Well, that that was the story I was getting to. I was thinking about like spooky stuff and things that you do kind of see only in movies, and you're like, oh, you know, you're not necessarily gonna know anyone what that these things have happened to, but I was gonna say that y'all have had y'all had a brick through thrown through your window and I were were you so you were born at this time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, oh yeah. So yeah, how old were you when this happened? This was in the uh it really heated up in the late fifties and early sixties. And here's a story you probably don't know. And the reason that I know that it's true is the man who had been hired to do this told me himself. So back then when mom and dad were uh in politics, uh they would have meetings at their house with their supporters. And when I say supporters, close supporters, so there might be eight or ten people there total, including mother and dad. Uh the opposing side, and I know who they were, and I know some of their children uh was uh got this guy and wanted him to crawl under our house and plant dynamite and and blow the blow us up basically. What? And he said he wouldn't do it. He said, I won't do it. I've got a daughter Stevie's age. I'm not gonna do it, and I won't do it. And he didn't do it. But he told me what he did do. He said, I did crawl under the house and listen to the conversations and report back to the other side uh their political plans, whatever they might be.
SPEAKER_01What?
SPEAKER_00And and the guy that actually did that told me himself.
SPEAKER_01Wow. I mean, not to make light of it, but I'm literally blown away by this. Yeah. I mean, dad, that's crazy. And again, again, like this is a small town. This is you would have like you said, you would have known these people. You would have of course. Again, and again, just breaking it down, what you just said, these aren't things that happen and then they go away, and you you just forget about it. You the this is like a legacy, this is a lineage. You literally probably know they're you like you're saying, their children, their grandchildren. You have to see these people and know these histories, which they probably don't even know. Yeah, but I want to I want to make it clear.
SPEAKER_00All of those people that were let's call them our political opponents. Uh I went to school with almost all of their children. All their children grew up, got educated, worked hard, became great people, and are still great people today. And uh so they got out of that mindset and out of that cauldron of hate and escaped. Yeah. And and made decisions uh on their own. Right. What what they were experiencing and what they wanted to do with their lives, and and all of them became fairly successful.
SPEAKER_01How many people in our family know the story about that someone tried to literally like basically I mean we wouldn't exist, I wouldn't exist today if this plan had been carried out.
SPEAKER_00I don't I don't know. I may have told mother. Uh daddy had already passed away when I was told the story.
SPEAKER_01You're joking, Dad.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And and because the the guy told me had gotten older and uh was um looking back in time, and I was always friendly with him, and he had a child my age, I was always friendly with them, and they were always friendly to me.
SPEAKER_01Man, can you imagine that's that's actually terrifying that that you know you would never have known. You would never have suspected that you know that there was a plot to literally murder our family, and you know, this guy's walking around having to see you, and then your your growing family through through your your life, and him looking at you and saying, I almost ended all this.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and he wasn't bragging.
SPEAKER_01That's spooky.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he he was that spooky. He wasn't bragging and and he wasn't looking for atonement. He was just letting me know.
SPEAKER_01Oh no, I mean, I wouldn't think he'd be bragging about it at all. I think he would be literally sitting there and having a moment and saying, I almost did something unforgivable. Yeah. And I'm at the end of my life and realizing how thank God, probably thanking God that he didn't because I mean at the end of the day, he like you're saying, he didn't do it. Right. And he went on, and that's so that's not his legacy. His children don't have to grow up with that. Right. And he's actually, you know, he did the right thing at the end of the day, so he must have been a better person than but but if you look back through history, a lot of people were killed.
SPEAKER_00A lot of people were murdered, a lot of homes and churches were blown up. Uh um, mostly black, but a a lot of white folks uh got caught in the crossfire.
SPEAKER_01This is during the thirties?
SPEAKER_00No, I mean I mean sorry late fifties, early sixties. And and and you look at it, it's really not that long ago. No. Uh in 1962, uh um James Meredith was uh the first uh black uh person to be enrolled at OMES. That's not that long ago. No. And uh uh we've made great strides, and um uh again, people my age, um we don't we don't have any problem with it in the next generation, it goes on and on. So uh interesting times, dangerous times. Um spooky. Yeah, spooky, spooky stuff, man. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, I feel like while we're home in Holly Springs, I always get a little spidey senses around this time, like a lot of spooky stuff. This town in and of itself has a little has a spooky little history, I think we'll get into in another episode. And in the meantime, you and I actually have something we have to get into today. We've got to go and get our Halloween decorations out and get the house decorated because our neighbors are trying to beat us. They think that they're gonna have better Halloween decorations than us, and I'm not gonna stand for that. Not in this house, not today.
SPEAKER_00Well, the the problem with it is they they have these hopes and dreams and wishes that uh again are gonna be shattered.
SPEAKER_01They are going to be destroyed. Unfortunately, we do not lose Halloween or Christmas again, another subject for another time. But get ready, we are coming.
SPEAKER_00And the kids, the kids enjoy it so much.
SPEAKER_01It's for the kids, it's for the kids, but they enjoy it so much and it's so much fun for them. A quick call back to Uncle Al, as you were saying. Didn't y'all call him Uncle Al the Kitty's pal?
SPEAKER_00We called him Uncle Al the Kitty's pal.
SPEAKER_01Because he'd always send y'all toys and stuff, right?
SPEAKER_00And motorcycles, which is another story.
SPEAKER_01I love it. All right, guys, that's another episode from us. We'll see you guys back here next time. Happy spooky season.