In Memoriam

Hunter S. Thompson

Born July 18, 1937
Died February 20, 2005

The Outlaw Journalist, Res ipsa loquitor

Hunter S. Thompson has fatally shot himself tonight; this is terrible news for the world. I never knew the man but I have read anything he wrote that I could get. At one time I almost had all of his books (even "The Curse of Lono"). But this is not about me. It is about a man who wrote about real life and in doing so illustrated to the world that real life was more bizarre than fiction. I admire him because he was all about justice. He was not a liberal or conservative (in my mind), he was just himself. He was a believer in the American system of democracy, which he showed in his campaign for sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado, on the Freak Power ticket.

The Freak Power ticket had a nontraditional stance on many issues, including tearing up the streets and putting grass instead, allowing no cars in town and decriminalizing drugs. He didn't dismiss the notion of him and his deputies partaking in some mushrooms while on duty. All of this would seem absurd except that he almost won. He wanted to show the people that if a third party entered into a two-party race there was a huge potential for victory. He was an adamant supporter of the Bill of Rights, especially the Fourth Amendment. He never seemed to be trying to win a popularity contest or be in the photo op of the week with the hip charity of the week. He supported a woman in Colorado in her bid for a retrial, and believe me, the crime she was entangled in was one that wouldn't get you any friends at the courthouse. But he saw injustice and was outraged. Now don't get me wrong -- I am not going sit here and compare him to Gandhi because I am sure that he wasn't an angel, but he never made that claim. In fact, he recommended that you probably shouldn't do a lot of the things he did. But he always had the balls to tell it like it is, or how he saw it, and he did so with a razor wit, a sense of humor and a keen eye for what was really going on. I, for one, am sorry that I never had the honor of meeting the man, but if he is in a better place, then I feel nothing but happiness for him.

He pulled no punches and lived a life that reminds me of an old Chinese curse that he talked about in his writings, "may you live in interesting times," and he did. I do not think he viewed it has a curse, and neither do I. A cursed life, in my opinion and what I imagine HST would think, would be one that was mired in a soulless existence, scared to speak your mind and willing to accept injustice and mediocrity from your so-called leaders and your fellow man.

I give my sincerest condolences to his surviving family and I thank him for giving us all a glimpse of himself and the life he lead. I am most certain that some of the best stories he had probably never made it to the printing press. Quaere verum, "Seek the truth." Sit tibi terra levitas, "May the earth rest lightly on you."

-- Jeremy John Harwood

I'm a great admirer of Hunter S. Thompson's from way back -- when "Hells Angels" first came out -- and I've read and reread everything else of his I could lay my hands on since then. And now I've just read that he has committed suicide -- a huge loss, especially with the moronish Bushites dominating the U.S. media. We will miss his savaging of the loony right -- and his wild anarchic view on everything else.

-- Gary Baigent

I will miss him ... Big hug for [his son] Juan, [daughter-in-law] Jen, [grandson] William and [wife] Anita, who will never be able to fill the hole left in their lives by the man, in spite of the myth and legend attached to his life. I am a longtime friend of Juan's. We went to the Aspen Community School together.

Let's see if we can get the word out ...
He was first the man.
He became the myth and legend
To me he was several people.
He was my best friend's dad although Juan always called his dad Hunter.
(At Juan's wedding he said to a friend about me, "Look there's another little bastard I raised that turned out OK.")
He was Hunter S. Thompson, retiring shy Southerner who loved guns and his freedom
And
He was the Dr. Gonzo who we all know who would be in your face and try to kill you if you attempted to try to take away his guns, drugs, freedom, privacy and the God-given right to go into an explosive tirade about it.

To be such a person required him to have a unique emotional support structure. These people now need our support, love and understanding in this time of grief.

-- Bradley Laboe

"What Lured Hemingway to Ketchum?" an early article of Hunter S. Thompson's reprinted in "The Great Shark Hunt," seems like as apt an epitaph for Hunter as any. The last line gave me chills when I reread it after I heard the news:

"So finally, and for what he must have thought the best of reasons, he ended it with a shotgun."

-- Stephen

I am sorry to see him go.

I do not know if it is morally right or wrong to end one's own suffering. But let's not be coquettish about it -- Hunter S. Thompson was a profoundly gifted, and profoundly disturbed, man. Suicide is the final, selfish act of a person who is gravely disturbed by outcomes that have always been beyond their ability, as well as everyone else's ability, to control.

Welcome to human experience, Hunt. I am sorry you chose to go just as the party was starting to get real.

Life's unspilling is more than I can bare to watch, too, but sometimes it's just not about me. Sometimes it's about us and whether or not we can be so mundane as to become the hero other people always thought we were.

-- Greg Mucha

Cintra Wilson is a sharp and hilarious writer, and I will concede that the recently departed have earned the benefit of the doubt. But I don't understand how she finds this a "befitting" end to the man. Sure, Hunter S. Thompson dealt with more demons, did more drugs and lived more lives than most anyone can be expected to. But that's exactly what's so galling about him exiting in this typical and, yes, cowardly fashion. Hunter was no coward in life. He was this unkillable, doggedly determined presence, beaten and ruined over and over again yet surviving just the same. If his goal was to avoid being remembered as a sad, spent fossil, his suicide for me only reinforces that description. And I say that as someone who loved the guy. "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" was an all-time classic for me in college, and I still go around calling people "bastards" in his honor. The least the son-of-a-bitch could have done was leave a note. Cintra should've nailed him on that, at least.

-- Matthew Cooke

On Sunday, Feb. 20, 2005, the '60s finally officially died. It put a bullet into its head. And in these sad, violent, foreboding times, was there a more appropriate way for the vision of peace and love to die than that?

-- Jim Houser

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