SOURCE: A review of Billy, in New York Magazine, Vol. 26, No. 49, December 13, 1993, p. 90.

[In the following review, Koenig presents a mixed assessment of Billy.]

On a hot afternoon in 1937, two black boys in a Mississippi town stray too far from home. They are attacked and beaten, and one of them, Billy Lee Turner, pulls out a knife in panic and sticks it between the ribs of the white teenage girl who has clawed at his face. In a short time, she bleeds to death. This kind of thing has not happened before, but the sheriff knows just what to do. He makes his way straight to LeRoy's bar and says to LeRoy,

"I reckon it's about four-thirty, five o'clock abouts. I want them two boys fore that sun goes down. I don't get em, I'm not even gonna be askin why. Ya hear me? Ya want ta f...