SEQUELS: Billy's Last Words

SEQUELS Billy's Last Words

When he was a five-year-old boy in Joplin, Mo., William Edward Cook was pushed out into the world on his own; his ne'er-do-well father abandoned him in a deserted mine cave. Because he had a deformed right eyelid nobody wanted to adopt him. By the time Billy was 21 he had served time in both Missouri reform schools and the state penitentiary, had the words H-A-R-D L-U-C-K tattooed on the fingers of his left hand and had resolved to "live by the gun." During a murderous, 22-day rampage Billy vented his rage at society (TIME, Jan. 22,...