John Gorman GREW UP IN CHICAGO • JOURNALISM CAREER BEGAN AT CITY NEWS BUREAU • FATHER TO KATIE & MIKE, GRANDFATHER TO TWO • WENT TO XAVIER UNIVERSITY ON A Basketball SCHOLARSHIP • WORKED AS A BARTENDER IN AUSTRALIA
Hinsdale's John Gorman was working as the communications director for the Cook County State's Attorney's office in January of 2003 when then-Illinois Gov. George Ryan granted clemency to the state's 167 death row inmates. Not surprisingly, Gorman's colleagues were livid.
"As a member of the prosecutor's office, I was outraged, too," said the now retired Gorman, who had heard countless impact statements from victim's loved ones.
The longtime Chicago Tribune reporter and editor felt compelled to channel his emotions into a book.
"I went down to my basement for about three months and wrote about 195,000 words," he said.
Publishers, however, weren't so gripped by the Windy City-based crime novel he had crafted. So it sat on a flash drive for 18 years until a friend convinced him to self-publish - after chopping the length by nearly two-thirds and enlisting ruthless fact-checkers, including wife Janice.
A reference to Gov. George Riley has clear real-life parallels too, as does his protagonist Mike Halloran. Like Gorman, Halloran is Irish Catholic, tall at 6'5" (Gorman is 6'7") and played college basketball.
The response was gratifying, with interviews on Chicago radio and invitations to do readings.
"That kind of inspired me to write a second book about a year later," said Gorman, with Mike Halloran again on the case in "Snatch & Catch" released earlier this year. "In both books I use my experience as a reporter and things I saw and heard in the state's attorney's office.
"So I had (an understanding of) the banter back and forth between the defense, prosecutor, judge, and I made up what I imagined took place in the juror's room."
Among his Tribune assignments was covering the Dirksen Federal Building for three years and helping open the paper's Lake County bureau. Gorman was one of the first reporters on the scene in December of 1979 when police arrested infamous serial killer John Wayne Gacy.
"That was a very distasteful story to cover, but a huge story, so I got a lot of front-page coverage out of that," he said.
He also drew on his 18 months in India serving with the Peace Corps for his fictional flourishes. Readers have asked him why his one of his perps flees to south Asia rather than, say, Canada.
"I say, 'I don't know Canada, but I do know India,' " he said.
Gorman even persuaded his Tribune bosses to green light a series on the Peace Corps that enabled him to return to a part of the world that had left such a profound impression.
"I did a story about snake charmers, and a story about some American children who were going to school in a remote area of northern India," he said, using mid-1980s teletype technology to transmit his articles back to the States.
Gorman said composing a novel consumes considerable time and energy, especially the editing. But he's encouraged by positive feedback, citing one gentleman at a Cliff Dwellers club gathering in the city whose countenance initially projected disapproval. After several attendees spoke, the man took his turn.
"He said, 'Well, I'd just like to say I thoroughly enjoyed your book'," Gorman recounted with a laugh. "He was the most glowing."
- story by Ken Knutson, photo by Jim Slonoff
