The CNN report said that the local sheriffs were calling it a POSSIBLE suicide. HST was known to have an adversary attitude to local law enforcement. I’m suspicious, suffice it to say. I’m not saying cops would have offed him, just that maybe someone with a grudge somehow got past his compound security.
Or maybe I’m just supremely pissed and sad about this, and I’m not thinking rationally.
One of my absolute, all-time favorites. One of the most brilliant political commentators who ever lived and a guy who could make me laugh so hard it actually caused physical pain. A legend and an utter original.
RIP, Hunter. You will be missed. 
Bite me, Kel.
I am shocked… I’m still a little numb. The man was a living legend, and the world is poorer for his passing.
The rest of the tequila is getting used up tonight. Here’s to you Hunter S, a mouthful of petrone and a curse under my breath.
‘So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark – that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back…’
You will be missed.
Any credible media source has to say POSSIBLE suicide until it has been determined by a medical examiner that it WAS a suicide.
You know what, Kel? There’s a lot to be said for going out on top. Most people don’t have the balls.
*There is nothing more depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge… *
Would you really say he was “on top”? I have not heard of many people who were on top of their lives who shot themselves.
Yeah, coward enough to voluntarily face the possibility of oblivion, Hell, or being reincarnated as a tapeworm.
Now, I ain’t saying it’s automatically a good idea for everyone to go out and kill themselves or anything, but I’m not going to say it’s “cowardly.”
His son says it was suicide. Chances are he’s right and it wasn’t an assault…
Still.
I was actually in tears just now, driving to get a bite to eat, had to pull over.
Hunter… I am so fucking angry at you. You were a living legend, you had so much more to do, so much more to say. The world is a poorer place now that you are gone and… good gods. You will be missed.
May you find peace.
Fuck, and I’m still crying. You will be missed. Dr. Gonzo… you will be missed.
Thompson was from my part of the US and I always felt a connection to him. I never met the man but read every book of his I could get my hands on. I never failed to enjoy them and I laughed myself silly over so many of his lines.
I always want to think of him hunkered down on the Owl Farm, watching satellite news broadcasts and eating/smoking/snorting some exotic drug (ibogaine, anyone?) and making his analytical comments on whatever was happening. Always against the current, never pandering to anyone in this world or the next.
He lived his life on his own terms and seems to have died in the same way.
RIP HST.
Testy
Some more HST quotes:
America… just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable.
Call on God, but row away from the rocks.
I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.*
And maybe the greatest opening line to any American novel:
We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like “I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive. . . .” And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas.
“The first law of controlling your environment is to get the hell off the defensive as fast as you can. There are no rules in the passing lane. Only losers play fair, and all winners have blood on their hands.”
-Hunter S. Thompson
Judo in the clinches.
Fear and loathing.
HST was the finest political and cultural commentator this country has produced since Twain. His apparent suicide surprises me. But he always surprised me.
I don’t believe in any sort of afterlife, but if there was one I would hope he was there - with more drugs and booze than even he could imagine. Probably laughing at us, and hoping that sometime we get it right
It’s worth quoting in full, but a few lines from his personnel assessment by his Air Force CO:
…in spite of frequent counselling with explanations of the reasons for the conservative policy of an AP base newspaper, Airman Thompson has consistently written controversial material and leans so strongly to critical editorialising that it was necessary to require that all his writing be thoroughly edited before release.
…this airman, although talented, will not be guided by policy or personal advice and guidance.
And words that could serve as his epitaph:
Sometimes his rebel and superior attitude seems to rub off on other… staff members.
That was all written in 1957: the man began as he went on. RIP, Hunter.
May (Hell’s) Angel’s speed him to (Heaven’s) rest. :mad:
My first reaction was, “WHOA!” And then, “Oh no… Bosda’s gonna take this hard”
I’m just hoping that wherever he is, my dad is greeting him with a pat on the back, a drink and a giant doobie.
RIP, Hunter.
Rest in peace, Hunter Thompson. We’ll miss you. Stay sane inside insanity.
And Dio, props for the bouquet of quotes, especially the wonderful opening line to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Read his Scanlan’s stuff about travelling in S America waaaaaaay back when. Some of it is in the Great Shark Hunt. Great shit. Probably influenced me and my travels.
I met the man in IIRC 1986 at UCDavis. He was kind of a jerk. Not that I blame him as it was a college Hunter-fest with a buncha wannabes and he just wanted a quick paycheck.
Having some beers in his honor. Hunter’s thirst for hops was legendary and if I had some Ballentines Ale, i’d be sucking it down right now.
I don’t know what to think. I was in the middle of enjoying some of the good Doctor’s favorite activities when I got smacked with the news.
I hope someone was, indeed, tending the light at the end of the tunnel.
Kel --shut up. :mad: