[Headman is] Durango Street updated, not only in language which is uncensored street talk throughout, but—more important—in the ending, where your suspicion that Owen doesn't have a chance is confirmed…. It's [a] kid with a corkscrew who gets him in the end, but Owen's decision to form his own gang of four in self defense sort of brings it on. And so we leave him—going down, dizzy, unable to speak, and in his head the perfect phrase to summarize it all: "What the fuck?" It's at least a generation too late for this kind of dead end realism to carry a real jolt, but Platt does give Owen enough good breaks to keep the options open, while at the same time making forcefully clear what he's up against.

A review of "Headman," in Kirkus Reviews (copyright © 1975 The Kirkus Service, Inc.), Vol. XLIII, No. 14, July 15, 1975, p...