Editing William S. Burroughs (section)

===Killing of Vollmer===
Their life in Mexico was by all accounts an unhappy one.<ref name=nytimes_booksection_obit>{{cite news |last=Severo |first=Richard |date=August 4, 1997 |title=William S. Burroughs, the beat writer who distilled his raw nightmare life, dies at 83 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/00/02/13/specials/burroughs-obit.html |access-date=February 7, 2015}}</ref> Without heroin and suffering from [[Benzedrine]] abuse, Burroughs began to pursue other men as his libido returned, while Vollmer, feeling abandoned, started to drink heavily and mock Burroughs openly.<ref name=word_virus /> 

One night, while drinking with friends at a party above the Bounty Bar in Mexico City,<ref name=death_vollmer>{{cite web |last=Grauerholz |first=James |date=December 9, 2003 |title=The death of Joan Vollmer-Burroughs: What really happened? |url=http://www.lawrence.com/news/2003/dec/09/the_death/ |access-date=July 28, 2008 |publisher=American Studies Department, [[University of Kansas]] |website=lawrence.com}}</ref> a drunk Burroughs allegedly took his handgun from his travel bag and told his wife, "It's time for our [[Shooting an apple off one's child's head|William Tell act]]." There is no indication that they had performed such an action previously.<ref name=nytimes_booksection_obit/> Vollmer, who was also drinking heavily and undergoing [[amphetamine]] withdrawal, allegedly obliged him by putting a highball glass on her head. Burroughs shot Vollmer in the head, killing her almost immediately.<ref name=shooting>{{cite magazine |last=Snowden |first=Lynn |date=February 1992 |title=Which is the fly and which is human? |magazine=Esquire |url=http://callmeburroughs.tripod.com/joan.html |access-date=February 7, 2015}}</ref>

Soon after the incident, Burroughs changed his account, claiming that he had dropped his gun and it had accidentally fired.<ref name=vollmer_aftermath>{{cite news |title=Heir's pistol kills his wife; he denies playing Wm.&nbsp;Tell |agency=Associated Press |date=September 7, 1951 |url=http://callmeburroughs.tripod.com/joan.html |access-date=February 7, 2015}}</ref> Burroughs spent 13&nbsp;days in jail before his brother came to Mexico City and bribed Mexican lawyers and officials to release Burroughs on bail while he awaited trial for the killing, which was ruled [[culpable homicide]]. 

Vollmer's daughter, Julie Adams, went to live with her grandmother, and William S. Burroughs&nbsp;Jr. went to St.&nbsp;Louis to live with his grandparents. Burroughs reported every Monday morning to the jail in Mexico City while his prominent Mexican attorney worked to resolve the case. According to [[James Grauerholz]], two witnesses had agreed to testify that the gun had fired accidentally while he was checking to see if it was loaded, with ballistics experts bribed to support this story.<ref name=Morgan-1988-2012/>{{rp|page=202}} Nevertheless, the trial was continuously delayed and Burroughs began to write what would eventually become the short novel ''[[Queer (novel)|Queer]]'' while awaiting his trial. Upon Burroughs's attorney fleeing Mexico in light of his own legal problems, Burroughs decided, according to [[Ted Morgan (writer)|Ted Morgan]], to "skip" and return to the United States. He was convicted [[Trial in absentia|''in absentia'']] of homicide and was given a two-year suspended sentence.<ref name=Morgan-1988-2012/>{{rp|page=214}}

Although Burroughs was writing before his murder of Joan Vollmer, this event marked him and, biographers argue, his work for the rest of his life.<ref name=Morgan-1988-2012/>{{rp|pages=197–198}} Vollmer's death also resonated with [[Allen Ginsberg]], who wrote of her in ''Dream Record: June 8, 1955,'' "Joan, what kind of knowledge have the dead? Can you still love your mortal acquaintances? What do you remember of us?" In ''Burroughs: The Movie'', Ginsberg claimed that Vollmer had seemed possibly suicidal in the weeks leading up to her death, and he suggested that this may have been a factor in her willingness to take part in the risky William Tell stunt.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Burroughs: The Movie|url=https://www.janusfilms.com/films/1646|website=Janus Films}}</ref>

====''The Yage Letters''====
After leaving Mexico, Burroughs drifted through South America for several months, seeking out a drug called [[Ayahuasca|yagé]], which promised to give the user [[Telepathy|telepathic]] abilities. A book composed of letters between Burroughs and Ginsberg, ''[[The Yage Letters]],'' was published in 1963 by [[City Lights Bookstore|City Lights Books]]. In 2006, a re-edited version, ''The Yage Letters Redux'', showed that the letters were largely fictionalised from Burroughs's notes.