(bright music) - [Narrator] To understand just who Rod Blagojevich is and where that fight came from, we need to go back to the beginning, to an apartment on the near Northwest side of Chicago.

Rod Blagojevich was born in 1956, the second son of Serbian immigrant Rade Blagojevich, and his American-born Serbian wife, Millie.

- Both my mother and father were loving parents, working people both, my dad, Finkel Steel company was among the places that he worked, and my mom worked for the Chicago Transit Authority taking fares and passing out transfers at the subway stations.

My brother and I got jobs as little boys, shoeshine boys, so I went to public school.

I wasn't exactly setting the world on fire in school.

- [Narrator] Rod's older brother Robert was a natural athlete and superstar student.

- He was just always in that sense, a little bit in the shadow of his brother's excellence.

Rod sort of describes himself as the screw-up.

You know, he had a harder time in school.

- [Narrator] But Rod had charm and lots of it.

- He was flashy and fun and he loved Elvis Presley and he did Elvis impressions.

- Elvis came from nothing, Blago related to that coming from hard scrabble.

Serbian roots, climbed up on his charm and charisma and hair, and maybe Rod thought he was very much like Elvis.

I think it was just part of his charm.

- [Narrator] Rod played basketball in high school before trying his hand at Golden Gloves Boxing, where he lost a few bouts and then quit, but not before he asked a photographer to snap his photo in the ring.

- It was the first time I ever got my name in the Chicago Tribune.

I think the last time they ever wrote anything nice about me was in the Golden Gloves.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] After working to help put himself through college while living at home, Rod headed to Malibu, California, where he narrowly graduated with a law degree from Pepperdine University.

- As a little boy, I used to read the World Book Encyclopedia.

I would read the history parts, but I would read about these presidents and almost all of them were lawyers.

I didn't wanna work at a factory.

I didn't wanna do the hard work my father did.

I think I'll be a lawyer.

- Rod was a lousy student, barely got through law school, acknowledges that fact.

And yet I watched him play word games and memory games, and he was unbelievable.

It's a brilliance in one way and kind of an ignorance in another way.

- [Narrator] Once back in Chicago, he took a low level job in the Cook County state's attorney's office working traffic court.

But he wanted more.

- Rod really didn't have any particular plans one way or the other.

He just wanted to be somebody.

He wanted to be a celebrity, and politics was his way to do it.

And he did.

(dramatic music) - [Narrator] The Chicago Blagojevich grew up in was Mayor Richard J. Daley's city, the boss, who ran it with his famed political machine, where patronage ruled and the city's aldermen were kings of their fiefdoms, the 50 Chicago wards.

- We're talking about scratch my back and I'll scratch your back.

We're talking about, you know, knowing that if you have a multimillion dollar project coming in, that you better cut that alderman in in some way.

But that's how things were done in Chicago.

You had to bend the knee to power to get things done.

- [Narrator] You also had to know someone.

And Blagojevich didn't.

He was looking for a way in when he showed up at a fundraiser for Alderman Dick Mell, one of the city's most powerful word bosses, whose daughter Patty was also at the event.

- Dick Mell was a machine alderman, that meant clout and connections and contracts were everything.

Mell, of course, famously stood up in the city council chamber on his desk at 4:00 in the morning demanding a vote after Harold Washington's death.

- I saw him on television, as I think most of Chicago did.

Little do I know that four months later that I'd meet his daughter, fall in love with her, and he'd become my father-in-law.

(lively music) - [Narrator] Within a few months, 23-year-old Patty Mell and 31-year-old Rod Blagojevich had fallen for each other.

- And we had driven up to Wonder Lake for a 4th of July celebration, family celebration.

It was late in the evening and Rod's radio in his car was broken.

And on the way home, he sang Elvis to me all the way home to keep me entertained.

And that's when I kind of knew that he was different and special.

- [Narrator] The couple was married two years later.

- This really was, you know, Rod Blagojevich's direct tie in the machine.

He was now family.

There's no question that Dick Mell was Rod Blagojevich golden ticket to politics.

- [Narrator] Mell had an eye for talent and decided his ambitious son-in-law might make a great candidate for state rep. - My father-in-law said, "Would you be interested in running?"

And I was, because of all the history books I read and all the rest, this could be my chance to actually get in.

- [Narrator] Blagojevich entered the Democratic primary race for Illinois' 33rd district as the underdog.

But he had two things going for him, Mell's backing, which meant money and an army of political soldiers, and his innate skill as a campaigner.

- He was likable, he was relatable, and he was handsome and young and energetic, and all those worked to his benefit.

- I ran 14 hours a day knocking on every single door I could find, going to the subway stations, train stations, going to the bus stops, shaking a thousand hands a day, and just all over the place and doing it full time.

And then we won by a lot.

- [Narrator] In a surprise upset, Blagojevich won 65% of the vote in the primary and then sailed to victory.

- So now people know if you go to Mell, yeah, the son-in-law that he sponsored is now a state legislator.

What do we need?

Do we need something passed?

Do we need somebody in the legislature to lean on somebody else in a certain committee?

Those are the kinds of things that start happening and how you branch out your power.

(dramatic music) - [Narrator] Three years later, Blagojevich and Mell moved on to an even bigger stage, the race for US Congress.

- Mell just wanted more influence.

He had a tremendous amount of clout in the city of Chicago.

He just wanted that expanded to the state of Illinois.

He wanted more.

- [Narrator] Blagojevich won and was sworn in as congressman for the Fifth District of Illinois in 1997.

- He was a total backbencher in Congress.

He really didn't have any meaningful accomplishments to speak of, but he had incredible political skill and intuition and drive and talent, and that was enough.

- [Narrator] Blagojevich accomplished little in Washington.

That is until his second term when he traveled with Jesse Jackson to war-torn Belgrade, Serbia, on a mission to free three US soldiers being held captive by strong man and dictator, Slobodan Milosevic.

(Rod speaking foreign language) - Blagojevich served as a translator, helping the delegation negotiate for the soldiers' release.

- We are going on for an early morning jog in Belgrade, and we're counting on the fact that at about this time, the bombing intensity kind of slows up a little.

- Two days later, Milosevic relented, and as the world watched, the soldiers were freed.

- He's teaming up with Jesse Jackson, you know, who is revered in the Black community and in Chicago in particular.

And this was a real lift.

I think he saw, "Hey, I did this myself.

I didn't need my father-in-law.

I didn't need anyone.

I used my own instincts, my own charisma, my own language."

He saw himself on a trajectory to the presidency at some point.