The Misadventures of Joan and Bill

William S. Burroughs, the "Gentleman Junky," destroyed the boundaries of literature in 1959 with his novel Naked Lunch. Stretching and forcing the edges of prose to rupture into a nonlinear universe of science fiction horror, addiction, and eroticism. Naked Lunch takes us through the Interzone into a world where fact and fiction mingle and no one is as he seems. Agents run from report to report ratting out their fellow junkies and feverishly avoiding the ultimate in Control institutions waiting around ever corner to eradicate the concept of "self" and individuality. The relationships between Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs represent the majority of information readers have regarding the foundation of the "Beat" movement of the 1950's and 60's. However, this is only part of the story. In 1944, William Burroughs met the individual that would truly change his life forever, Joan Vollmer. Their turbulent and tragic relationship spanned a decade ending with Joan's premature death at the hands of her partner in crime, addiction, and parenthood. This accidental slaying thrust Burroughs into his lifelong struggle against demons whose tortures he could only purge through writing.

The searing heat of New York, 1944, wrestles the body into submission. Joan Vollmer sits with Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Edie Parker discussing the newest addition to Allen's collection of poetry. There is a knock at the door. A thin man darkens the doorway in a suit and tie, donning a grey, weathered fedora. The man is Bill Burroughs. The room jumps to life as Bill enters. Joan is introduced to the mild-mannered and intense individual. "Pleased to meet you Joan." Bill responds politely. Bill comes from the remnants of the socially unacceptable heirs to the Burroughs Adding Machine fortune. He grew up in St. Louis Missouri and moved to New York City on a whim with longtime friend Lucien Carr in 1938. Bill recently made the acquaintance of a young hoodlum and heroin addict by the name of Herbert Huncke. As a result of this friendship, Bill began experimenting with Morphine and other opiates. By this time he had developed quite a habit, especially for Heroin. Jack and Allen were openly behind Bill meeting Joan. Allen felt that Bill and Joan, "were a match for each other. Equally funny, tuned, witty, well read, and intelligent." Joan and Bill shared an instant rapport, and when Jack and Edie left the apartment, Bill took the spare room. He and Joan became lovers.

Joan hailed from a prosperous family in Albany, New York, and had returned to Columbia University the following year after giving birth to her daughter Julie. She met Jack and Allen at the university, and their influences on one another had prompted the three to begin individual pursuits in poetry, prose and art. With Jack, Joan, Allen, and Bill living under the same roof, the foundations of the Beat Movement began to take form. Joan began a romance with Benzedrine inhalers, a form of amphetamine, and was soon completely dependent on them. You see, addicts have a bond between them. They understand each other and tolerate each other's actions on a level that non-addicts usually never reach. For most, love is the tie that binds, for Joan and Bill it was addiction. It takes an addict to love an addict. Bill and Joan were steeped heavily in their subjective prisons of addiction, sharing each other's pain and understanding it, as most cannot.

The shenanigans of the 115th St. group began drawing attention from the police and the living situation slowly deteriorated. Bill took to shooting up unabashedly in the living room. Herbert used the apartment as a storehouse for stolen property, while Jack danced with his own Benzedrine demons. Joan took so much Benzedrine that she hallucinated for an entire week that their downstairs neighbor was plotting to kill his wife, and that all of their surrounding neighbors were suspicious of the rampant drug abuse occurring in the apartment. As you can see, the unity of creative ideas in this household was quickly falling prey to its occupants' vices.

Bill was arrested for forging prescriptions and after posting his own bail, began robbing drunks in the subway with Herbert. When his hearing came in June he was released into the custody of his father. Quite a shameful condition for a man in his late thirties. Bill returns to St. Louis with his father, leaving Joan and Julie behind in New York. With Bill away, Joan is left to attend to the rent on her own. The loneliness caused by her lover's absence drove her to frenzied abuse of Benzedrine inhalers and Joan collapsed under amphetamine psychosis. She was hospitalized in Bellevue and was the first female case of amphetamine psychosis in the hospital's history. Julie is sent to stay with a relative while Joan is held for ten days of detoxification. Allen packed in the 115th St. apartment just short of being evicted. Allen wrote a desperate letter to Bill expressing his concern for Joan, and Bill immediately left for New York. He and Joan spent a week visiting art museums and galleries, as if on vacation, having the time of their lives. Perhaps enjoying, for the first time, an intimate period together away from outside influences and problems. During this time, William Burroughs III is conceived in a Times Square hotel room. The bond between Bill and Joan is strengthened

With a son on the way, Bill devised a plan to leave New York with Joan. While in St. Louis, Bill met up with his old friend Kells Elvins. Kells owned 100 acres of cotton plantation and 10 acres of citrus grove in Pharr, Texas nestled on the Mexican border. Kells suggested that Bill come in on the deal with him. Bill's parents approve of the idea and purchase 50 acres for him which Bill and Kells developed. Bill and Kells traveled to Texas and set the wheels in motion. Each day he and Kells drove around looking at the cotton. Neither man knew the first thing about the operation, and relied on illegal Mexican laborers to keep it running. At exactly 5 PM everyday drinks were served. Kells would beat on a pan, and the neighbors came running. Once the plantation was underway, Bill returned to New York and asks Joan to join him in Texas. She is all too happy to accept. They purchase a cabin outside of Waverly, Texas, with no running water and no electricity. The property sloped down into swampland and was plagued by scorpions, chiggers, ticks and armadillos. Bill built a cistern to collect rainwater and they lived by the light of kerosene lamps and candles. They can finally live without outside interference. Joan, Bill, and Julie became a family.

Kells ran the plantation while Bill looked after Joan. With Joan pregnant, Bill decided it would be helpful to have another hand around the house. He employed Herbert, who had recently been released from prison, to come to Texas and live with them. Huncke mends fences, carries water, and tends to the house. His most important function is running back and forth to Houston to purchase marijuana seeds for Bill's crop and Benzedrine inhalers for Joan. Every morning Bill, in his typical suit and tie, drove into Waverly to collect official papers, and mail. In the evenings, Bill and Joan relaxed on their porch in the soft Texas air while Huncke grilled steaks and Julie played in the yard. They find peace in the solitude, and waited for the coming day swimming in the sweet melodies of Viennese waltzes by kerosene lamplight. Years later, in a newspaper style manuscript titled "Coldspring News", Bill reflects on their lifestyle and says, "Man, are we ever in Hicksville!"

On July 21, 1947, Joan knocked on Bill's door. "I think it's time." Bill drove her into Waverly at 3 AM and William S. Burroughs III made his appearance. Despite making no prenatal arrangements during her pregnancy, Billy III's birth was uncomplicated and she was able to return home the same day. At the time of Billy's birth, Joan was using two Benzedrine inhalers a day, and was forced to breast feed him. She had made no effort to kick her habit, and her breast milk was unsuitably saturated with amphetamines. Bill often spent the day cradling Billy in his arms walking through the house trying to comfort the infant. Billy experienced withdrawal symptoms immediately and cried out in pain day and night.

Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassidy, who was later immortalized in Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road, hitchhiked into town from Denver, Colorado, and stayed with the family. Allen shipped off to West Africa on a freighter from Houston, and Neal stayed with Joan and Bill to lend a hand harvesting Bill's marijuana crop. At the end of September, Bill put Joan and the children on a train to New York City. Bill and Neal put the marijuana crop into mason jars and filled the back of Bill's jeep with the jars. The next day they started the 1900-mile journey to New York. Cassidy drove nonstop the majority of the way, covering the distance in three days. Once in New York, Bill found there was no market for the uncured marijuana, and had to settle for selling it at a wholesale price to get rid of it. While in New York, Bill's parents paid for Bill, Joan and the children, to stay in a swanky Atlantic City hotel. They felt it would be good for the children. Bill took up with his old friends in New York, and was soon neck deep in another bout with opiate addiction. Joan and Bill was right back where they started.

After the devastating loss Bill had taken on the marijuana, he decided that he no longer wanted to live in the middle of nowhere, and moved his family to Algiers, Louisiana. He bought a house just across the Mississippi River from New Orleans and began riding the ferry across everyday to score for junk (opiates). His habit increased at an alarming rate, and Bill had to push junk on the side to keep up with the price of his habit. The stay in Algiers was short-lived. Bill was busted for possession of heroin. He found a good lawyer, and was sentenced to a sanitarium where he once again kicked his habit. The police had seized his car, and illegally searched his home, so the District Attorney would not prosecute the case. At the time, the mandatory sentence for possession of narcotics was two to five years in prison. Bill's lawyer hinted to him that leaving the country might be a good idea. At the very least, Bill should leave the state. If he was caught with narcotics again, it carried a mandatory sentence of seven years. Bill took his lawyer's advice. Joan, Bill, Julie, and Billy III moved back to Texas and stayed at Kells Elvins' ranch. In 1949, they packed up and left the United States. They settled in Mexico City, where Bill attended Mexico City College on the GI Bill.

In Mexico, Bill and Joan faced persecution at the hands of their neighbors. Local children screamed "Vicioso" (junky) at Bill in the streets; however, Mexico was still less restrictive than the United States. A vast network of bribes trickled from the highest offices in the government down to the petty street thug. Bill had less difficulty finding doctors to write prescriptions for his habit, and found an outlet for his homosexuality by purchasing young boys for the evening. Joan, however, was unable to get Benzedrine inhalers in Mexico City and went through several weeks of painful withdrawal. She began substituting the amphetamine with alcohol, and told Allen in a letter that she was "Drunk from 8 AM on."

Joan did not seem to mind Bill's open homosexuality, or didn't admit as much in public, but Bill's philandering with the young boys of Mexico City drew scorn from his friend Allen. Bill testily replied to Allen's judgment by saying, "Now this business about Joan and myself is downright insane. I never made any pretensions of permanent sexual orientation. What lie are you talking about? Like I say, I never promised or even implied anything. How can I promise that which I cannot give? I am not in control of Joan's sexual life, never have been, never pretended to be. There is, of course, an impasse, and cross purposes that are in all likelihood, not [conducive] to any solution." Bill was on and off junk during this period. When he was off, he drank profusely, often losing his memory of several days in a row, waking up in strange places, and pulling firearms on strangers in bars. Bill and Joan had drifted apart. They were still in accord as far as two individuals are that share the bond of parenthood, but the camaraderie they had shared in the past seemed to be a distant memory. The unity they felt in Texas had dissolved, and Bill was pursuing his desires through prostitution, junk, alcohol, and travel. Joan, in turn, pursued her own desires slipping off to Acalpulco with friends and spending every waking moment inebriated.

In June, Bill moved his family to 210 Orizabo, apartment 5, in Mexico City. This locale put them very close to The Bounty, a bar popular with American expatriates and University students, that was owned by their friend John Healy. The real motive behind the move was a desperate change of scenery. Their previous neighbors had turned Bill into the police and the incident cost him $200 in bribes.

Three months later Bill left his family behind once again and took an expedition to Ecuador in search of Yage. Yage is a drug that is said to heighten psychic communication between its users. It was used by South American tribes to realize visions. The shamans of the tribes were said to effectively communicate psychically while on Yage. The underlying reason for the expedition was Bill's romantic interest in a young man. Bill had developed an obsession for Lewis Marker, which is chronicled in Burroughs' novel Queer. Marker, however, was not homosexual and found Bill's affections tedious and frightening. Marker agreed to go on the expedition with Bill on two conditions. The first being, Bill paid all expenses for the trip, and the second, that Bill limits his sexual requests to twice a week. The expedition was a disaster, and the drug was never found. Bill and Marker returned from Ecuador with a strained friendship and Marker avoided Bill at all costs from then on. Bill fell into a deep depression as a result of Marker's rejection.

On September 6, 1951, Joan and Bill's relationship reached its destructive pinnacle. Bill took a knife he had purchased in Ecuador to be sharpened, and as he walked down the street he suddenly felt tears running down his face. He found it difficult to breathe and was filled with a dreadfully consuming depression. Bill returned to his apartment and drank through the afternoon.

Joan and Bill were very low on money so Bill arranged through John Healy to sell a Star .380 automatic handgun to an interested party. Healy arranged for them to meet at his apartment that evening. At six o'clock Bill and Joan arrived at Healy's apartment which was directly above The Bounty. The buyer had not arrived, but there was a drinking party well underway, so Joan and Bill stayed and joined the festivities. Bill said of that night, "Because I felt so terrible, I began throwing down one drink after the other. And then this thing happened...I was drunk."

Bill opened his bag and pulled out the .380. Turning to Joan, he said, "I guess it's time for our William Tell act. Put a glass on your head." Joan, who was also very drunk, laughed and placed a highball glass on her head almost daring Bill to follow through on his promise of a show. Bill pointed the gun and pulled the trigger. Joan slumped over in her chair and the glass fell to the floor undamaged. The bullet pierced Joan's brain through her forehead leaving a perfect crimson tunnel. Joan Vollmer was pronounced dead on arrival at the Red Cross Hospital.

Bill was charged with 'imprudencia criminal'. He was released on bail, and required to report to Lecumbere prison every Monday morning. Billy III was sent to his grandparent's home in St. Louis, and Julie went to Albany to live with Joan's parents. Bill remained in Mexico alone.

From Mexico City, Bill escaped to Tangier, Morocco, where he began the novel Naked Lunch. Bill said many years later: "I am forced to the appalling conclusion that I would never have become a writer but for Joan's death. The death of Joan brought me into a lifelong struggle, in which I had no choice except to write my way out." The ghosts of his common-law wife haunted Bill until his death. Bill felt an indescribable detachment when he took his wife's life, as if he were possessed by an entity he was not capable of controlling. He lived his life desperately trying to remain one step ahead of the demons that plagued his mind, and the guilt he would never admit to. Some say that Joan moved in front of the bullet at the last moment, taking control of a life that was out of control and spiraling faster and faster into nothingness. Some say Bill couldn't have missed that shot. He was a marksman, and no stranger to weaponry. They feel Bill executed the person who was standing in the way of his freedom. Seeing his responsibility to Joan and their children as the flesh and blood representation of "control" that Bill spent the rest of his days combating through his prose. Joan and Bill murdered each other long before he pulled the trigger on that balmy Mexican evening. When the round left the chamber of the .380 automatic and found its home in Joan Vollmer, Joan and Bill both lost their lives. We will never know the truth about Joan's murder. It is locked in the buried memories of the "Angel-head Hipstress" and the "Gentleman Junky" forever.