Start at the beginning.
... what are the facts of the murder committed by William S. Burroughs
On September 6, 1951, in Mexico City, William S. Burroughs fatally shot his common-law wife, Joan Vollmer, during a drunken gathering at a friend's apartment. The incident occurred while Burroughs attempted a "William Tell" act, aiming to shoot a glass off Joan’s head. He missed and struck her in the forehead. She was rushed to Cruz Roja (Red Cross) hospital but died hours later at age 28.
Burroughs gave conflicting accounts—initially claiming it was an accident during the stunt, later denying it under legal advice. Witnesses, including American students Edwin Woods and Lewis Marker, were present, as was the couple’s four-year-old son, William S. Burroughs Jr. Burroughs had been drinking and claimed memory loss, though others reported only light consumption.
He was convicted in absentia of culpable homicide and sentenced to two years in prison but never served, fleeing to the U.S. The tragedy profoundly impacted his life and writing, with Burroughs later stating it catalyzed his literary career. The event was dramatized in David Cronenberg’s film Naked Lunch.
... a social critic draws comparison with Jean Genet as--except for the severity of their crimes--both were notorious causes celebre
A social critic draws a comparison between William S. Burroughs and Jean Genet, noting that both became causes célèbres despite the gravity of their personal transgressions—Burroughs for the 1951 shooting of his wife Joan Vollmer during a drunken "William Tell" act in Mexico City, and Genet for his criminal past and provocative writings. While the severity of Burroughs' act was greater in physical consequence, both figures were elevated in literary and counterculture circles for their transgressive art and lives. Genet, a former thief and social outcast, gained acclaim for works like The Thief's Journal and Our Lady of the Flowers, which challenged moral and social norms, making him a celebrated, if controversial, figure. Similarly, Burroughs, though condemned for his violence and drug use, was lauded alongside Genet for bringing taboo subjects like homosexuality and addiction into highbrow literary discourse, helping shape the Beat movement and later queer literature.
...
I was thinking about Allen Ginsberg and searched *any* recording of him reading from his writings. The top search result was an April 29, 1988 Library of Congress video titled "Allen Ginsberg Reads his Poetry." The total length of the video file is 01:21:36. At 00:01:20 Ginsberg gets down to business with a "kaddish", or lament, for his former acquaintance Joan Vollmer:
I'd had an encounter in my dreams with an old friend, a lady who was dead who had been married to the poet William S. Burrows--and novelist--who was one of my teachers. She had died there in Mexico City and was buried there and I'd never seen her grave. So I went to visit her there in Mexico City in my dream.
(Transcribing by listening as if taking dictation it may be my error when Ginsberg continues his narrative, stating that he) ...had a drunken night in his house with a boy and the next thing he knew he was dreaming. Darkness. So, this begins in bed in San Francisco, I went to Mexico City, and returned to San Francisco for a surprise ending.
He said he saw Joan Burrows sitting on, and leaning forward from a garden chair, arms on her knees; she studied me with clear eyes and downcast smile (he said), her face restored to its fine beauty -before the tequila and salt had made it strange -before the bullet in her brow.
At this comment Allen Ginsberg points his right index finger at his forehead.
We talked of our lives since then.
"Well," she said, "what's Burrows doing now?"
Bill is (unintelligible) in North Africa.
"And Kerouac?"
Jack still jumps with the same Beat genius as before, notebook-a-booga-BOOGA. (he laughs)
"I hope he makes it. Is Hooky (?) still in the can?"
Nah, last time I saw him was on Times Square.
"And how's Kenny?"
Married, drunk and golden in the East.
"You?"
New loves in the West,
(aside)
...then I knew she was a dream.
I questioned her: Joan, what kind of knowledge have the dead? Can you still love mortal acquaintances? What do you remember of us?
She faded. The next instant I saw her rain-stained tombstone with a nearly illegible epitaph.
Ginsberg concludes with a brief description of the dreamed graveyard in Mexico. There is a jump cut in the video at approximately 00:02:45, followed by a change in the direction of the narrative.