• Also in New York, he becomes close friends with the group that would become known as the Beat writers. Burroughs was arrested as a material witness after his friend Lucien Carr stabs another friend, David Kammerer, to death (both men were also from St. Louis). His father returns to New York to bail him out.

• In 1946, Burroughs buys 99 acres of land near Huntsville, Texas, and moves there with Joan Vollmer, who loved him and would become his common-law wife. She was addicted to amphetamines and alcohol, and their son, Billy, was born addicted to amphetamines in 1947. Billy would die at age 33, an alcoholic. Texas farming, even with paid cotton pickers, proves too difficult. In 1949, Burroughs is arrested for drug possession. His father bails him out and he goes to a sanitorium. He decides to skip the country and move the family to Mexico.

• In Mexico City, Bill, very drunk, tries to shoot a glass off Joan’s head. He hits her and she soon dies (see review for more on this notorious incident). Later he blames, in part, an “Ugly Spirit.” Burroughs’ son is sent to live with his grandparents.