William S. Burroughs: A Man Within Page #5

It is life handed to you

on a toilet seat,

you know, rather than

a silver platter.

He opened the tunnel

to a way out.

'Cause if you're doing something

and you want to stop,

you're not going to stop

until you figure out what

it is you're actually doing.

[ Burroughs ]

It's like ultra...

subject... regulator...

There's a unique...

after morphine...

the metabolic...

dramatic relief from anxiety.

N-ethyltriptamine... alarming

and disagreeable symptoms.

The use of opium

and/or derivatives...

[ Grauerholz ]

The legend is that he went

to London and kicked it...

with the apomorphine cure

in 1956.

The reality is that he was

chipping around, off and on,

uh, to one extent or another,

his whole life.

I mean, when I met him in '74,

he was not taking it,

except just, you know,

gobble a pill of whatever,

but within two years,

he was again.

And that time,

it got such a grip on him...

that the breakthrough there

was to, uh,

enroll in the methadone

maintenance program under...

His physician was named

Dr. Harvey Carcass.

Give me something to shoot!

[ Man Chuckles ]

[ Man 2 ]

It kicks like a mule, babe.

I want something to shoot!

[ Man 1 Chuckling ]

Yaa!

[ Woman, Indistinct ]

This great big mamba-jamba...

was a gift from Hunter Thompson.

[ Clears Throat ]

It's a .454 Casull.

It was the biggest handgun

manufactured at the time.

The gun that he carried

the most, when I was around him,

was a .38 Smith & Wesson snubby.

And he just carried it on

his belt with him at all times.

Although there was a couple

of times when he was going to

the barbershop or the doctor,

and it would make people

uncomfortable to look down

and see this old man...

with a big piece on his belt.

So Michael didn't want him

to wear the big gun.

So I think the compromise

they worked out was that

he'd carry, uh, derringers,

rather than a big pistol

on his belt.

But when he was at home,

he always had a gun on.

He slept with a gun

under his pillow.

[ Ewert ]

When we slept together in bed,

was there a loaded gun...

in a holster in the bed with us?

Why, yes, there was a loaded gun

in a holster in bed with us.

There were guns everywhere

in his house. Everywhere.

I remember one of the first

nights we were sleeping together

in his place in Kansas,

and I'm sticking my feet

down in the covers

and my foot hits some bump,

some really hard bump.

And I'm like, um,

"William, what is that?"

And he's like,

"Oh, it's a gun."

And I'm like, um,

"Oh, is that gun loaded?"

And he goes, "Oh, yeah,

always... always keep it loaded."

That way, you never

have to worry about

whether it's loaded or not."

[ Wayne Propst ]

This is a silencer.

This was in William's basement.

Take a .38 and shoot it

in the basement.

There was a target

across the basement.

Upstairs...

this is about what you'd hear.

[ Soft Tap ]

No, a little louder

than that.

[ Louder Tapping ]

That's a gun going off

down in...

And you wouldn't even...

Barely...

People would be sitting

at the dining table,

and we'd come up

from the basement and say,

"Did you hear that?"

And they'd say, "What?"

And it was shooting

six rounds of .38's.

I would imagine

he got a feedback, uh,

high out of it, in the sense

that this is better than

shooting heroin.

I mean,

you shot something else,

and it went bang.

[ Fred Aldrich ]

He had a fascination with guns

that was all his own.

I've often wondered

what it sprung from.

Whether it was,

you know, being gay...

and being subjected to the kind

of abuse that gay people

sometimes find themselves.

And he was a slight man.

He was never a big guy.

And whether that made him feel

more secure, because I know

he always had a gun at home.

And he talked about

defending himself.

[ Patricia Elliot Marvin ]

He had all these...

I think half his fantasy life...

was what he would do

if somebody did something.

Like, when there was a dog

attacking us on the way

to Dylan's.

Man, he had 14 different plans

on how to take care of that.

[ Chuckles ]

[ Vale ] Burroughs himself...

He said you always have

to have three lines of defense.

He had the sword cane that,

if you pressed a button,

it became a spear really.

He had a cane, but he knew

the art of cane fighting.

He'd studied it.

He had a book on it.

And then he had the cobra.

And then he also had

a sharp knife that he

could flick out real fast.

He studied all these arts

of self-defense.

This is a...

[ Dean Ripa ]

In his writing, you see,

he's always pushing himself

to the limits of...

psychic limits.

And the feeling of danger

that is evoked by that...

was something that

intrigued him about snakes.

Snakes represented,

among other things,

a form of weaponry

to William Burroughs.

And the injection process

of snake venom...

is very, very similar

to the projectile

firing ability of a gun.

He was also very fascinated

with the addictive properties

of snake venom.

"'Kim, if you had your choice,"

would you rather be

a poisonous snake...

or a nonpoisonous snake?'

'Poisonous, sir,

like a green mamba

or a spitting cobra.'

'Why?'

'I'd feel safer, sir.'

'Safer?'

'Yes, sir. Dead people

are less frightening

than live ones.

It's a step

in the right direction.'

"'Young man, I think

you're an assassin.'"

[ Ripa ]

I wrote him a letter...

where I offered to send him

a Gaboon viper.

And I did this

ending my letter...

with something almost

like a threat.

"If I do not hear

from you..."

uh, a positive

or negative reply...

"you may consider

the snake in transit."

So...

[ Chuckles ]

So he rapidly responded.

In fact, I had two or three

quick letters...

please begging me not

to send the Gaboon viper.

But I did also get

an invitation to his house.

And in those days, I often

carried snakes around

in suitcases.

So he wanted to see

the snakes feed,

and I think I had

a rattler in there

and a couple copperheads.

And I put a mouse

or a small rat in there

for them to eat it.

The rat had jumped

out of the way.

Evidently it was not

going to get bitten.

So William just blindly,

thoughtlessly reached in

with this hand,

grabbed the mouse, or rat,

to move it into position

that the snake could bite it.

And when he did that,

at that moment,

the snake struck, and I think

it just grazed his hand.

It just brushed his hand,

you know.

So I was very nearly

responsible...

for killing William Burroughs

on that trip...

[ Chuckling ]

when he... when he reached in.

Very brave guy, you know,

but not, you know,

I don't think so cautious

as he should have been.

- It's a magnum?

- [ Man ] Yeah.

[ Man ]

He'd go have some cocktails

with Fred and then come out...

and say, "See? My hand

is really steady now."

[ Man 2 ] Yeah.

Well, a few vodka Cokes

will do that for you.

The thing about William...

and Tom does this as well

as I do...

is that he'd be...

"Now, did I tell you

about the"...

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