This Week in Literary History: William S. Burroughs Kills Joan Vollmer in a Drunken Game of “William Tell”
Culture Index
Score Breakdown
Relevance
3/25
Freshness
25/25
Authority
18/20
Brand Signal
6/15
Depth
3/15
5-Axis Cultural Radar
This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Literary History newsletter—sign up here. On the afternoon of September 6, 1951, in a friend’s Mexico City apartment, a drunk William S. Burroughs pulled out his handgun and (supposedly) said to his wife, Joan Vollmer, “It’s
