http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlate...4815089,00.html Author Hunter S. Thompson Kills Himself Monday February 21, 2005 4:46 AM AP Photo NY124 ASPEN, Colo. (AP) - Hunter S. Thompson, the acerbic counterculture writer who popularized a new form of fictional journalism in books like ``Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,'' fatally shot himself Sunday night at his home, his son said. He was 67. "Hunter prized his privacy and we ask that his friends and admirers respect that privacy as well as that of his family,'' Juan Thompson said in a statement released to the Aspen Daily News. Pitkin County Sheriff Bob Braudis, a personal friend of Thompson, confirmed the death to the News. Sheriff's officials did not return calls to The Associated Press late Sunday. Juan Thompson found his father's body. Thompson's wife, Anita, was not home at the time. Besides the 1972 drug-hazed classic about Thompson's time in Las Vegas, he is credited with pioneering New Journalism - or ``gonzo journalism'' - in which the writer made himself an essential component of the story. An acute observer of the decadence and depravity in American life, Thompson wrote such books as ``Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail'' in 1973 and the collections ``Generation of Swine'' and ``Songs of the Doomed.'' His first ever novel, ``The Rum Diary,'' written in 1959, was first published in 1998. Other books include ``Hell's Angels'' and ``The Proud Highway.'' His most recent effort was ``Hey Rube: Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and The Downward Spiral of Dumbness.''
i've been sitting her listening to sad songs and just stairing at my copy of Fear and Loathing: on the Campaign Trail '72 you read so much about a guy ya' feel like you know him
I recall the John Dun Sermon. (i'm paraphrasing) When some one dies, all of the world feels it, because we are all apart of mankind. Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee
what kind of idiot wrote that? gonzo journalism has nothing to do with being fictional anyways, to the point - suicide was probably the best thing for him at that point since he was suffering from some kind of terminal illness like cancer or something related to his alcoholism, and he was undoubtedly in alot of pain. but he will continue to live on through people like us for as long as we can remember him long live Hunter
It was a suicide...or was it? Either way we'll never know. I almost shit a brick when I saw that rolling across the screen last night...Hunter S. Thompson(At this point I'm thinking OOH a new book!)commits suicide at age 67. WHY!? Maybe he did...maybe he didn't but I'm just pissed that he's not around anymore. R.I.P. Hunter~~~
His family had stated he planned the suicide for several weeks. Declining health issues, including a broken leg and a hip replacement. His family don't know if they will be able to carry out his funeral plans. Hunter wanted his ashes to be blasted out of a cannon. Might work better if they play a recording of the "1812 Overture".
Who knows. You gotta give the man credit though. At least he was successful with his suicide mission, and now he's in a better place kickin it with all the other great ones.
I don't think it was suicide. He was totally chasing another bear/journalist away....out of his house. It seriously blows; HST was my only living hero. My friends and I had a Hunter memorial night last weekend.
