Who is Gary S. Chafetz?

Obsession, published by Random House (Crown) in 1994, is his nonfiction account of Dr. Margaret Bean-Bayog, a prominent female Harvard psychiatrist, accused of malpractice in her treatment of a male Hispanic Harvard Medical School patient, 19 years her junior. She was accused of reducing him to a state of a dependent three-year-old, seducing him, and causing his suicide. Chafetz was the only reporter to gain exclusive access to Dr. Bean-Bayog. She allowed him to question her in private for nearly 100 hours of taped interviews without the knowledge or permission of her lawyers, the prosecutor, the opposing attorney, and the Board of Registration in Medicine. NBC optioned the dramatic rights for a film starring Jamie Lee Curtis.

In connection with this book, Chafetz appeared on local and national radio and television, including The Today Show, Larry King Live, and Charlie Rose.

For the past ten years, Chafetz has lectured at Harvard Medical School on the Bean-Bayog case to second- and third-year psychiatry residents at McLean Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Katmandu, a novel, was published by New American Library in 1974. For several years, its dramatic rights were optioned by Saul David, producer of Our Man Flint (starring James Coburn), Von Ryan´s Express (starring Frank Sinatra), and Fantastic Voyage (starring Raquel Welch).

Harvard University and National Geographic Archaeological Expedition. In 1983-84, Chafetz organized and led a $250,000 archaeological expedition in search of the Lost Army of Cambyses, a 50,000-man Persian army swallowed up by a massive sandstorm in 525 B.C. in Egypt´s Western Desert. His expedition was funded by the National Geographic Society, Harvard University, and the Government of Egypt, among others. At Chafetz´s disposal were five jeeps, two trucks, three camels, ground-penetrating radar, an ultra-light airplane, twenty Egyptian geologists, a Harvard film crew, and a National Geographic photographer. Chafetz conducted the search for six months on the Egyptian-Libyan border, but did not find conclusive evidence of the Lost Army´s remains.

Film director Martin Scorsese optioned the story about Chafetz´ expedition for four years.

Just Your Average Arab: co-screenwriter: 2006 Winner of Boston Comedy and Movie Festival´s Best Film.

The Perfect Villain: John McCain and the Demonization of Lobbyist Jack Abramoff, published in September 2008 by the Martin and Lawrence Press, is a nonfiction investigation of the Abramoff corruption scandal. Chafetz was the only reporter to gain exclusive and extensive access to Abramoff, clandestinely interviewing him for over two years before and after he went to prison.

The Lost Army, a novel, will be published by Martin and Lawrence Press in the spring of 2009.