Williams grew up in a rough poor African-American neighborhood in the Third Ward of New Orleans known as "The Battleground".
Sidney Bechet talks about Black Benny Williams in his autobiography, as does Jelly Roll Morton in his Library of Congress interviews.
Williams was stabbed in a dispute on July 2, 1924, by a woman named Helena Lewis.
By the time he arrived at Charity Hospital that day, "he had lost a significant amount of blood.
His assailant, Helena Lewis, was shot in an altercation with another woman later that same month.