>He breezes swiftly through the matter of the writer having accidentally killed his wife, Joan Vollmer, as part of what they called their “William Tell routine”

>He breezes swiftly through the matter of the writer having accidentally killed his wife, Joan Vollmer, as part of what they called their “William Tell routine”, in which Vollmer would place a shot glass on top of her head for Burroughs to shoot – only this time he missed and shot her in the forehead. In a 1954 letter to Allen Ginsberg, Burroughs wrote "The idea of shooting a glass off her head had never entered my mind consciously, until - out of the blue, as far as I can recall - (I was very drunk, of course), I said: "It's about time for our William Tell act. Put a glass on your head, Joan." So there is reason to think that there was no "routine". Burroughs came up with the idea there and then. It's also worth noting that Burroughs changed his story a number of times over the years. People might be interested in reading James Grauerholz' "The Death of Joan Vollmer Burroughs: What Really Happened?" (https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/6810449/the-death-of-joan-vollmer-burroughs-what-really-lawrencecom https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/6810449/the-death-of-...). Grauerholz was was friends with Burroughs and his text ends up trying to exonerate Burroughs - however, it is fairly evenhanded and also mentions a good deal of information that paints Burroughs in a negative light. Personally, I lean towards the theory that Burroughs did shoot Vollmer accidentally. However, I think that evidence pertaining to the incident is much more ambiguous than how it is usually presented in articles that deal mainly with Burroughs himself as their theme.