And the hippos were boiled in their tanks

In 1944, Jack Kerouac and William S Burroughs were charged as accessories to murder. One of their friends, Carr, had stabbed another, David Kammerrer, whose sexual advances he'd grown tired of rejecting. Carr, had come to them and confessed; Kerouac helped him get rid of the weapon - neither told the police. For this failing they were arrested.