Summary

Evidently, Williams had barricaded himself for three days inside his hotel room with a "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door when police arrived. He'd not allowed anyone in his room—including hotel housekeeping staff—and refused long distance calls from his friend, Maria St. Just. Williams had imagined his own death in his last piece of writing, a one-act called "The One Exception," in which the heroine Kyra withdraws to her room and refuses any human contact. Fearful of an imminent visit to the hospital, Kyra paces around her room, finally sits down in a chair and closes her eyes. Williams himself had a mortal fear of institutions and did not want to die in one.

John Uecker, who occupied a room next to Williams, said that Tennessee had asked him to "pull the plug" if he were ever dying a...