Hunter S. Thompson suicide?

[Dave's PA Rental]

Just heard it on another message board...said the AP was running the story...

[Rikk]

Wow.

Did they say how? I'm sure they don't know why yet.

[Dave's PA Rental]

Drudge report has it now...

[Diamondjimi]

Found it.........He was a true original......R.I.P.
Posted on Sun, Feb. 20, 2005





Author Hunter S. Thompson kills himself

Associated Press


ASPEN, Colo. - Hunter S. Thompson, the acerbic counterculture writer who popularized a new form of journalism in books like "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," fatally shot himself Sunday night at his Aspen-area 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.

[rustoffa]

He was always playin' with guns.

Have they said definetely suicide?

That's weird, doesn't seem to fit with his mantra.

RIP nonetheless, a talented writer.

[Satan]

Once again Hell's gain is the Earth's loss. Sorry, mortals

[manwiththedogs]

Author Hunter S. Thompson Kills Himself

26 minutes ago

By CATHERINE TSAI, Associated Press Writer

DENVER - 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 Aspen-area 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 visit to Las Vegas, he also wrote "Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72." The central character in those wild, sprawling satires was "Dr. Thompson," a snarling, drug- and alcohol-crazed observer and participant.


Thompson is credited with pioneering New Journalism — or, as he dubbed it, "gonzo journalism" — in which the writer made himself an essential component of the story. Much of his earliest work appeared in Rolling Stone magazine.


"Fiction is based on reality unless you're a fairy-tale artist," Thompson told the AP in 2003. "You have to get your knowledge of life from somewhere. You have to know the material you're writing about before you alter it."


An acute observer of the decadence and depravity in American life, Thompson also wrote such collections "Generation of Swine" and "Songs of the Doomed." His first ever novel, "The Rum Diary," written in 1959, was first published in 1998.


Thompson was a counterculture icon at the height of the Watergate era, and Richard Nixon once said he represented "that dark, venal, and incurably violent side of the American character."


Thompson also was the model for Gary Trudeau's balding "Uncle Duke" in the comic strip "Doonesbury" and was portrayed on screen by Johnny Depp (news) in a film adaptation of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."


Other books include "The Great Shark Hunt," "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."


His compound in Woody Creek, not far from Aspen, was almost as legendary as Thompson. He prized peacocks and weapons; in 2000, he accidentally shot and slightly wounded his assistant, Deborah Fuller, trying to chase a bear off his property.








"

[Matt White]

A true AMERICAN original.

[blueturk]

That's hard to believe. I just can't see him going out like that...but R.I.P. to a true fucking american original.

[LoungeMachine]

Too weird.

First, I change my avatar to him 3 days ago after rereading The Great Shark Hunt, and now he's dead on my birthday.

I loved Gonzo. There's no fucking WAY this is a suicide. Who kills themselves with a blast to the chest?

Besides, as russtoffa said, not his M.O.

damn, man.

I was out to dinner with my wife when I overheard it at another table. This cannot be true......

[bueno bob]

MSN news is running the same story, suicide...

[Nickdfresh]

Another great American author goes by his own hand:



Sad, sad, sad....

[academic punk]

see ya, Hunter. watch out for the bats.

[Nitro Express]

The guy was brilliant but I always thought he was a fucknut. He's the only guy I can think of that drank mucho alcoholic beverages while playing around with multiple guns in front of him.

I grew up with guns, shot guns eversince I was 8 years old and know enough about them to know, as soon as you get sloppy, as soon as you get too overconfident with them, the chances of accidents increase.

I love whiskey and tequila but I sure as hell am not setting up a whole fucking bar at the gun range. Thompson would sit there and drink while he shot his guns. Only a fucknut does that.

It still could have been a gun accident. Did he leave a suicide note? Who's to say the dude just didn't get drunk, thought the pistol was unloaded and dropped the hammer with the barrel pointed in the wrong direction?

[Nitro Express]

This dude commiting suicide shocks me as much as Wendy O' Willams commiting suicide. Both were strong willed people but also fucking nuts. I hope to see both on the otherside though. I though both were entertaining as hell.