On this day in 1951, William S. Burroughs, author of the very controversial and often-challenged The Naked Lunch, shot and killed his wife, Joan Vollmer, in a drunken game of William Tell.
Basically, at an American-owned bar in Mexico, the two were with friends, when Burroughs pulled out a pistol and told Vollmer that it was time to show their friends their William Tell act. She put a highball glass on her head, and he shot her in the head, killing her almost immediately.
EGAD!
Over the next few weeks, after he retained a very prominent Mexican attorney, his story changed several times. Burroughs' brother arrived in Mexico, bribed officials, and, after 13 days in jail, Burroughs was released until the trial. In the end, he "skipped" to the US, and was eventually convicted in absentia of homicide and was given a two-year suspended sentence.
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