LAURINBURG — A former resident of Laurinburg has penned a book about Bill Cosby and her 13 year long work has inside details on the victims of his abuse.
Nicki Weisensee Egan released her book, “Chasing Cosby: The Downfall of America’s Dad,” on Tuesday where the author shares interviews with many of Cosby’s accusers.
“Cosby is such a universal figure and if you want to understand how he went from being ‘America’s dad’ to imprisoned for drugging a sexually assaulting a woman, you should read the book,” said Egan. “It’s a big picture of the whole scandal.”
According to her website, the award-winning journalist and former People magazine senior writer first dug into the story when Andrea Constand went to the police in 2005. Egan continued to heavily investigate the case when others looked away. She gained ties with firm sources and discovered incriminating details that ultimately influenced the prosecution.
“Where there is smoke, there is fire,” said Egan. “There were a lot of things in the process that led him to do this for so many years, I mean there were more than sixty women accusing him.”
In Egan’s interviews and deep digging, she found a “sameness” in the women’s stories that she interviewed.
“These women risked a lot to come forward and tell their stories,” said Egan. “Everyone should come to there own conclusions but if you read the book, there is a stunning sameness to the stories. How he came to them, went to their agents and wanted to ‘mentor’ them. Many of these women were in their teens or early twenties when they met him, whether they were modeling or whatever.”
She said Cosby also spoke to their families to make them comfortable trusting the girl with him at his house.
“He was to help in their professional careers and then it just turned into to something awful,” added Egan. “It reads like a novel and there is an audio version too. Dive deep into the stories and judge for yourself.”
The writer spent her teen years at Scotland High School, where she showed journalistic skills heading “The Bagpiper” newspaper in the 1980s.
“I was an editor for ‘The Bagpiper’ and we made mock-ups at The Laurinburg Exchange,” she said. “I interned there for a summer in ‘86.”
Her advice to aspiring writers is to push through.
“It’s a tough field, tougher than when I first started. Long hours, low pay. But if you love it, do it,” said Egan.
Egan’s book Chasing Cosby can be purchased on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and indiebound.org.
Jael Pembrick can be reached at 910-506-3169 or [email protected].
