CECIL BROWN
Int. :
What else was happening in New York? See any movies?
Williams:
Saw
Chinatown.
Int.:
Did you like it?
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Williams:
Oh yes. There was an element in it I love very much.
Corruptibility. I didn't like Fay Dunaway being shot like that in the
end. I think Polanski is hung up on blood. There are very few
sensational crimes committed in America for which the true culprits
have been found. Very few. I'm not sure Charles Manson is the real
culprit. I wasn't sure when I was watching
In Cold Blood
last night
that those two boys were the real killers. I'm not certain that Truman
(Capote) believes it either. I don ' t tru.st the law. I think they are more
interes ted in looking good in the public's eye by catching just
somebody.
Int.:
But Manson admitted he did it, didn 't he?
Williams:
Oh, well, he wasn't even there. He was accused of control–
ling these people by ocular power-that's ridiculous. Even Sirhan
Sirhan and Oswald are not, I don't think, the real culprits. The law
has an image of itself as an efficient prosecutor. I think there is
something back of " that, " and something back of "that" and
something back of
"that."
Int.:
Aren't you paranoid?
Williams:
Perhaps, but I think we should be skeptical. We are living in
some terrible times. Do you remember Dorothy Kilgallen? She was
the only person that interviewed Jack Ruby and before she printed
that interview she died very mysteriously. Now, they say she died of
an overdose of pills and liquor. I've met her on several occasions and
I never noticed any signs of inebriation and I know these signs very
well. Look at Martha Mitchell. Hahaha! Martha wants to be a lady!
(He roars with laughter now.) Anyway, she claims that Governor
Wallace told her that Nixon was involved in the assassination of
Kennedy. Well, nobody has heard of Martha Mitchell since. (He
chuckles). Yes, baby, we live in some frightening times. But you're
too young to get scared, and I'm too old.
Int.:
Were you frightened when you were thirty?
Williams:
When I was thirty I was very frightened. But conspiracies
have been going on since the beginning of time. Big money is behind
it.
Int.:
The character of Chance Wayne which Paul Newman played in
Sweet Bird of Youth-was
that based on somebody you knew?
Williams:
I imagined it. It was a character who spoke for something in
all of us. Chance Wayne was very impressed by success, but you
