Beattie was an altar boy as a young man but would later become a career criminal and join the Westies. He became a lieutenant to Jimmy Coonan and operated primarily in narcotics. Beattie and other Westies also had a no-show jobs provided to them through their connections in the Genovese and Gambino crime family. Beattie witnessed the downfall of the Westies as it's members began to abuse drugs and to turn on each other. He claimed that Coonan and Edward Cummiskey once held him at gun point as he sat in a bathtub taking a bath, silencers pointed at his head, as they waited for fellow Westies mobster Paddy Duggan to return to the apartment to murder and dismember him. He also witnessed but didn't participate in many other vicious crimes committed by fellow Westies gangsters.