Coen & Chase to Unveil Blagojevich Book Oct. 25

Chicago Tribune reporters Jeff Coen and John Chase will present their new book GOLDEN on Thursday, October 25 at 7:00 pm at the Main Library. The Book Table will have copies of GOLDEN available for sale and signing. The event is free and open to the public. 

GOLDEN: How Rod Blagojevich Talked Himself Out of the Governor’s Office and Into Prison (Chicago Review Press, September 2012) lays out the last word on who Blagojevich was and how he got in trouble along the way, tracing him from his working class upbringing and climb up the political ladder—littered with bizarre behavior—until his conviction and 14-year prison sentence. Having been granted exclusive and complete access to the federal phone recordings that made Blagojevich a national household name, authors Coen and Chase pack their story with never-before-heard direct quotes from the tapes, the courtroom and their own interviews to present the full inside story of the fallen governor for the first time.

A classic Chicago corruption story reminiscent of All the President’s Men, GOLDEN is the result of years spent sifting through evidence, tracking down documents, and conducting over one hundred interviews with those who were part of the story from the political and investigative sides in order to deliver the most accurate and entire picture of Blagojevich, his mentality and his motives. GOLDEN sheds light on the whole man—who he was in his youth, in the public eye while the cameras rolled, and in private behind closed doors.

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About the Authors
Jeff Coen and John Chase each have spent more than a decade on the staff of the Chicago Tribune. Coen was a beat reporter at the city’s criminal courts building and its federal courthouse and now works with the paper’s political team. Chase covered Blagojevich from the start of his first campaign for governor and helped push the Tribune’s investigations of his questionable fundraising practices and oddball political style. Coen, the author of Family Secrets: The Case That Crippled the Chicago Mob, lives in Oak Park, Illinois, and John Chase lives in Chicago.

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