From William S. Burroughs to Krystian Bala: Six Writers Who Were Accused of Murder

Writers Bring to Life the Monsters They Create

Several writers have throughout history created stories featuring wickedness in all its glory. Sometimes these fictional worlds find their way into reality when people recreate the crimes they penned on a page. Many authors have taken over the role of monsters found in fables, in their own lives for several reasons. Sometimes, it is because of pure rage, and in other instances, it was a calculative move to achieve certain objectives. Here are six writers who were accused of murder.

1. William S. Burroughs

William S. Burroughs was one of the most prominent writers to come out of the Beat Generation, ATI reported. This movement encouraged a fluid lifestyle, hitchhiking, and creating art, rather than submitting to mainstream conventions. Burroughs created masterpieces like Junkie (later Junky), Naked Lunch, and The Ticket That Exploded, Life reported. He met Joan Vollmer, in one of the group's meetups in the latter's Upper West Side apartment. Both of them soon got together, and moved to Mexico City. In 1951, Burroughs shot Vollmer in her head, while playing a game. The couple were hosting a party, and Burroughs wanted to show off a gun he had in his possession. He asked Vollmer to place a gin glass on her head in a game called William Tell, where a shooter typically aims at the apple on a person's head. The police report then stated that "Burroughs thought [Vollmer] was joking" when she collapsed after he shot at her. He was apparently too drunk to realize that he had shot her right in the forehead." Burroughs, through bribery, fled to the USA and Mexican authorities convicted him in absentia of manslaughter. He was never tried or convicted for Vollmer's murder.

2. Blake Leibel

In 2018, director and graphic novelist Blake Leibel was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of his girlfriend, Iana Kasian, THR reported. Kasian was tortured to death by Liebel in 2016. The novelist made Kasian go through scalping and blood-draining before delivering the final blow. The prosecutors shared with the jury that Liebel was mirroring practices featured in the plot of Syndrome, a 2010 graphic novel, he helped create that told the story of a scientist who experiments on a psychopathic killer to find a cure for evil. Kasian's mother contacted the police authorities after not hearing from her daughter for days. Officials entered Liebel and Kasian's apartment and saw the latter's mutilated body in the bed, behind the mattress, and on the floor. Liebel was found in the bedroom. The novelist was sentenced to life in prison, the Los Angeles Times reported.

3. Anne Perry

Anne Perry through her creative genius became a renowned writer of crime and historical fiction in the 2000s, The Guardian reported. Before becoming Anne Perry, she was Juliet Hulme, who along with her friend, Pauline Parker, bludgeoned the latter's mother to death. The reason was simple, in 1954, Parker's mother refused to allow her to leave New Zealand and follow Hulme to South Africa. Both friends were convicted and sent to prison. Hulme spent five years at M.t Eden women's prison in Auckland. After being released, she shifted to Scotland, changed her name, and joined a Mormon church. A movie based on the murder titled Heavenly Creatures was released in 2003, starring Kate Winslet as Hulme.

4. Richard Klinkhamer

In 1991, Dutch author, Richard Klinkhamer's wife disappeared from the northeastern Netherlands and he became the prime suspect in the investigation, ATI reported. The author was apprehended but not charged because of a lack of evidence. A year after his wife, Hannelore Klinkhamer, disappeared, Richard Klinkhamer went to his publisher and submitted a manuscript detailing seven ways in which his wife could have been killed. This gave him notoriety in front of the public's eyes, leading to many interviews. Six years later, Richard Klinkhamer sold the marital home where he and his wife resided and moved to Amsterdam. The new owners found a skull buried beneath the garden shed’s concrete floor during renovation. Forensic analysis proved that the skull was of Hannelore Klinkhamer. Richard Klinkhamer was arrested. He confessed that on January 31, 1991, he beat his wife to death and then buried her in their own house. They got into an argument, and in a fit of rage, Richard Klinhammer committed the murder. In 2001, he was sentenced to seven years in prison. He was released in 2003 on account of good behavior. At the age of 78, Richard Klinkhamer committed suicide.

5. Kenneth Halliwell

British writer Kenneth Halliwell met Joe Orton at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), London in 1951, The Guardian reported. They had an instant spark and soon moved in together. Both of them collaborated on various novels and plays. They also participated in stealing from local libraries. The writers stole books of every genre but had a particular taste for what Orton called "rubbishy novels and rubbishy books." Orton's steady rise to fame as an artist apparently caused conflicts in their relationship. Halliwell allegedly hammered his lover to death in the early hours of August 9, 1967, and then committed suicide by drinking grapefruit juice laced with pentobarbital.

6. Krystian Bala

In 2007, Krystian Bala, a celebrated Polish writer of pulp fiction was sentenced to 25 years in jail for his part in the abduction, torture, and murder of a Wroclaw businessman, Dariusz Janiszewski, The Guardian reported. Bala had used the crime as a plotline in his bestseller Amok, published in 2003. In the novel, the murderer gets away with the crime. In real life, Bala gave detectives the breakthrough by detailing the incident in his book. It is believed his estranged wife's alleged cheating drove Bala to torture and murder the victim. Janiszewski's body was scooped out of the river Oder near Wroclaw in southwest Poland by fishermen in December 2000. In 2005, a caller tipped police that they should read Amok and look into Bala as a person of interest in the murder. Investigators later found that Bala had called the victim around the time of his disappearance and also sold his phone on the internet.