Robert M. Beattie (born ) is an American Wichita-based author, lawyer, and educator, best known for his non-fiction book Nightmare in Wichita.
Career Beattie attended Wichita West High School. Prior to writing Nightmare in Wichita, he was a writer for Teen Talk, a column in the Wichita Beacon.
Nightmare in Wichita
Nightmare in Wichita is about Dennis Rader, a serial killer in Wichita, Kansas who created the name BTK after his modus operandi, "bind, torture, kill". Rader resumed sending letters to media again after a 13-year hiatus after hearing about the book. Right before he was going to publish it, Dennis Rader was arrested and then convicted as the BTK Killer. As a result, Beattie quickly wrote an epilogue.
Beattie is also known for interviewing serial killer Charles Manson for a class project as a professor at Newman University in Wichita, which stirred controversy and brought media attention to him. Language of Evil is about a murder in Douglas County, Kansas.
Beattie ran unsuccessfully for the office of Kansas Secretary of State in 2006. He testified in front of the Kansas legislature against the reliability of polygraph examinations.
Works Nightmare in Wichita, New American Library, 2005,
References
External links Author's website