Thanks, Paul. I'm glad that you shared my interpretation of Burroughs' ability to immerse himself in those underground scenes yet somehow be invisible and less prone to scrutiny…
I have never heard anyone suggest that Burroughs' killing of his wife was anything other than an accident. As I remember it from a Burroughs bio read long ago (Ted Morgan ?)he bribed his way out of a Mexican jail.
What if it had gone to a legit court? Or did it ? But more provocatively and cynically why wouldn't Burroughs have wanted-at least at that moment - to kill his wife? Plenty of people kill their wives-it's not exactly an unheard of crime .And Burroughs a rich, spoiled bad boy who somehow wound up married to a woman ,as many gay men of that generation did ,may have felt an overwhelming,unendurable ,unappeasable rage at the situation. Is that really so difficult to imagine ? Why would you be playing William Tell ,when drunk, in the first place?-
Hi Dave – Thanks for your comments. I don't think I have heard a theory that there was an actual motivation as such behind the Vollmer shooting. In the UK and the US forces of law and order different interpretations of the act of killing exist, of course. Britain has murder and manslaughter and various other subtleties in between; America has varying degrees of murder, doesn't it? I'm not certain if issues such as 'when the balance of mind was disturbed' would have applied in the WSB/Joan case. It was certainly a dark episode and one that was never resolved in the legal sense.
I picked up the 1977 edition in France in the 1980s - I had never managed to get a copy despite much searching previously - and I still have it. What I loved and still do about Burroughs is, as you alluded to in the article, his way of dressing and acting amongst the drug underworld of New York. As (I think, if I recall correctly) he said in the book: You had to have front. No cop would give him a second glance with his suit, Fedora and umbrella. A true breakthrough classic of its time.
Thanks, Paul. I'm glad that you shared my interpretation of Burroughs' ability to immerse himself in those underground scenes yet somehow be invisible and less prone to scrutiny…
I have never heard anyone suggest that Burroughs' killing of his wife was anything other than an accident. As I remember it from a Burroughs bio read long ago (Ted Morgan ?)he bribed his way out of a Mexican jail.
What if it had gone to a legit court? Or did it ? But more provocatively and cynically why wouldn't Burroughs have wanted-at least at that moment - to kill his wife? Plenty of people kill their wives-it's not exactly an unheard of crime .And Burroughs a rich, spoiled bad boy who somehow wound up married to a woman ,as many gay men of that generation did ,may have felt an overwhelming,unendurable ,unappeasable rage at the situation. Is that really so difficult to imagine ? Why would you be playing William Tell ,when drunk, in the first place?-
Hi Dave – Thanks for your comments. I don't think I have heard a theory that there was an actual motivation as such behind the Vollmer shooting. In the UK and the US forces of law and order different interpretations of the act of killing exist, of course. Britain has murder and manslaughter and various other subtleties in between; America has varying degrees of murder, doesn't it? I'm not certain if issues such as 'when the balance of mind was disturbed' would have applied in the WSB/Joan case. It was certainly a dark episode and one that was never resolved in the legal sense.
I picked up the 1977 edition in France in the 1980s - I had never managed to get a copy despite much searching previously - and I still have it. What I loved and still do about Burroughs is, as you alluded to in the article, his way of dressing and acting amongst the drug underworld of New York. As (I think, if I recall correctly) he said in the book: You had to have front. No cop would give him a second glance with his suit, Fedora and umbrella. A true breakthrough classic of its time.