From "FBI to re-examine suicide of Hunter S Thompson at wife’s request/Anita Thompson wants fresh inquiry into death after writer was ruled to have shot himself 20 years ago, leaving a note that was published by Rolling Stone" (London Times).
1 అక్టోబర్, 2025
"She later cast doubt on the suicide ruling, saying his death had been 'a big mistake' and that they had planned out their life together."
"Mr Thompson penned what friends believed was a suicide note, which was published by Rolling Stone soon after his death. 'No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun,' the note, which was addressed to his wife, read. 'No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun — for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax — This won’t hurt.'"
From "FBI to re-examine suicide of Hunter S Thompson at wife’s request/Anita Thompson wants fresh inquiry into death after writer was ruled to have shot himself 20 years ago, leaving a note that was published by Rolling Stone" (London Times).
There's no new evidence of foul play. It just seems to be a widow's interest in seeing the self-shooting as an accident. I'd say I don't see why the FBI should expend its resources on this, but the article doesn't mention the FBI, only the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. That's the kind of confusion I wade into when I look for news of America in the London Times. Maybe they don't call anything the "Bureau of Investigation" over there. Anyway, it seems to me that the written note should be the last word. Yes, it's humorous, but that doesn't mean it was only a joke.
From "FBI to re-examine suicide of Hunter S Thompson at wife’s request/Anita Thompson wants fresh inquiry into death after writer was ruled to have shot himself 20 years ago, leaving a note that was published by Rolling Stone" (London Times).
48 కామెంట్లు:
Waste of FBI time. Who cares about this at all?
HST - the good writer - died a long time before 67. Hard to think of anything very good published after 1980. All his big stuff, Leaving LV, Hells Angels, Fear and Loathing all written before 1975.
Thompson had an amazing body, its incredible given his intake of booze and drugs that he lasted to 67. Whether it was suicide doesn't seem open to question. Experienced gun owners rarely shoot themselves by accident.
When in the hospital for some operation (hip? Back?) they had to give him ethanol via an IV to keep from getting the DTs. Later the drug/booze intake caused him problems. His tolerance was so high, he needed more pain killers than usual, and you can only go so high before its dangerous. Result: Chronic pain.
Well folks have been trying for years to prove Kurt Cobain did not kill himself, so why not HST's wife?
Or is there some money or property involved? Even if it was an accident, he was wielding the firearm, by himself at the time, was he not?
Hunter S. Thompson was very much over-rated as a writer. He was a big drug user and drinker.
What a complete loser! Because he lived 17 years beyond his pre-determined expiration date that is a good reason to kill himself?
I think many here in the Althouse community are over 67. I, for one, am doing my best and most important legal work now.
FBI CBI what difference does it make,
It would be quite a coincidence if he wrote that note and then accidently shot himself. I have to wonder what "reopening the case" looks like when there is no new evidence, and not much old evidence either.
Maybe the CBI agreed to do it because they knew they wouldn't really do much of anything. Have an agent flip through the file over his morning coffee and confirm the cause of death. Then maybe the Widow Thompson will stop calling.
right after September 11th, he really went around the bend,
Thompson was found dead at his kitchen table on the evening of February 21, with a pistol at his feet. Police arriving at the scene were greeted by Juan, the journalist’s son, who was firing a shotgun into the air to mark his father’s passing.
That's a pretty gutsy way to greet police just arriving to investigate a shooting death. I'm sure it was traumatic.
so the whole family is nutz, good to know
HST was a gifted journalist in his early years, I used to read his stuff in the National Observer. As he evolved into Gonzo journalism, I read all of it, and enjoyed it, mostly. His later stuff was just phoning it in, and cashing in - but that's not something that's out of the ordinary. We all gotta live, and we all hope to retire comfortably.
But I've also read the complexities of Thompson's character. He wasn't always nice, wasn't necessarily a kind person. He didn't always forgo being presumptive on his notoriety for cynical gratification. Blowing your brains out to let your family discover your remains, I thought at the time, was not out-of-character for what I had read about him. I doubt the investigation will find anything different.
"No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun."
No more bat country.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hunter-s-thompson-911-column_n_59b6b389e4b036fd85ccc97a
I would hope that they went by the physical evidence back then and not just the note.
I assume there was a gsr test, but this is colorado after all
"Hunter S. Thompson died by suicide on February 20, 2005, two weeks after Super Bowl XXXIX. As a dedicated fan, Thompson marked the end of the football season as a significant date in his life, and his final note was titled "Football Season Is Over".
A total whack job and loser. The NFL? Really?
https://www.espn.com/espn/page2/story?id=1250751
His sports column from September 12th 2001:
The towers are gone now, reduced to bloody rubble, along with all hopes for Peace in Our Time, in the United States or any other country. Make no mistake about it: We are At War now -- with somebody -- and we will stay At War with that mysterious Enemy for the rest of our lives.
It will be a Religious War, a sort of Christian Jihad, fueled by religious hatred and led by merciless fanatics on both sides. It will be guerilla warfare on a global scale, with no front lines and no identifiable enemy. Osama bin Laden may be a primitive "figurehead" -- or even dead, for all we know -- but whoever put those All-American jet planes loaded with All-American fuel into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon did it with chilling precision and accuracy. The second one was a dead-on bullseye. Straight into the middle of the skyscraper.
Nothing -- even George Bush's $350 billion "Star Wars" missile defense system -- could have prevented Tuesday's attack, and it cost next to nothing to pull off. Fewer than 20 unarmed Suicide soldiers from some apparently primitive country somewhere on the other side of the world took out the World Trade Center and half the Pentagon with three quick and costless strikes on one day. The efficiency of it was terrifying.
We are going to punish somebody for this attack, but just who or what will be blown to smithereens for it is hard to say. Maybe Afghanistan, maybe Pakistan or Iraq, or possibly all three at once. Who knows? Not even the Generals in what remains of the Pentagon or the New York papers calling for WAR seem to know who did it or where to look for them.
This is going to be a very expensive war, and Victory is not guaranteed -- for anyone, and certainly not for anyone as baffled as George W. Bush. All he knows is that his father started the war a long time ago, and that he, the goofy child-President, has been chosen by Fate and the global Oil industry to finish it Now. He will declare a National Security Emergency and clamp down Hard on Everybody, no matter where they live or why. If the guilty won't hold up their hands and confess, he and the Generals will ferret them out by force.
Good luck. He is in for a profoundly difficult job -- armed as he is with no credible Military Intelligence, no witnesses and only the ghost of Bin Laden to blame for the tragedy.
as we discovered subsequently there were 10 opportunities to stop Bin Laden most recently in 1999, when he was hunting with princes from the UAE
Often funny, always drug-addled.
Life insurance?
I recall there was a similar controversy over Hemingway's death.
he was that crazy three years before
And to strengthen his infamous suicide note, a revision to Gonzo's will was found near his body. Perhaps Hunter got tired of the frequent arguments with his wife, Anita.
Anyway, the Second Amendment struck in the prime of Thompson's life.
"Act your old age. Relax — This won’t hurt.'"
If The State of Colorado can waste time and tax payer money - they are ON it.
A selfie-abortion? It was his Choice.
RCOCEAN II said... "Thompson had an amazing body, its incredible given his intake of booze and drugs that he lasted to 67."
But by then his body was broken. He was wheelchair-bound, which despised.
you can look at his savage screed against kentucky derby,
and you see how much of a misanthrope he was,
Misanthrope is very kind. The guy was a drunken scumbag.
On balance, the comments make me glad that I never caught the HST bug. Not that friends weren't pushing and pumping his brilliance, but his writing didn't click with me.
he thought he was Mencken on pot, and whatever else was in his cabinet the roman a clef, he wrote about his early days in Puerto Rico, which was made into the movie with Amber Heard, suggests he wasn't always so cynical
Hunter Thompson sold hundreds of thousands of books, and was published regularly in dozens of magazines. There is not a single commentator here on Althouse Blog who can claim the same thing.
and yet he blew his brains out, because he was so happy
When I was young, I read a lot of HST's work. I thought he peaked when he wrote an article for Cycle World called "Song of the Sausage Creature." I believe the woman who arranged that article went on to do greater things. (If you search for for it, it is online.)
In retrospect, insanity can only take you so far. I appreciate the entertainment he provided. I never took any of it seriously.
Thompson titillated all the milquetoast-y lefties who never crossed a line in their life. Hence he’s lionized by all the lambs. He died as he lived, essentially a coward.
The note incidentally, was apparently written about 5 days before his death....
RIP, Doc.
Valentine Smith said...
Thompson titillated all the milquetoast-y lefties who never crossed a line in their life. Hence he’s lionized by all the lambs. He died as he lived, essentially a coward.
------------------
Love him or hate him, Thompson has an enduring legacy. When you die, no one will ever remember that you ever even existed.
Hunter Thompson sold hundreds of thousands of books, and was published regularly in dozens of magazines. There is not a single commentator here on Althouse Blog who can claim the same thing.
So what?
There's a certain President who's done things you couldn't do in three lifetimes, but that never stops you from smearing him.
At least some of the criticisms of HST are founded on facts.
I read his stuff in the day, like a lot of Harvard Lampoon, heavy drugs inspire humor, of course they do. I like ORorke more, he was the intellectual version rather that the green beret version of drug crazy.
Hst was a fighting soldier from the sky, but for drugs.
I just turned 67, and I ain't no ways tiard.
I can't imagine giving up at this point. Life is a blast if you live it.
Hunter Thompson lived an extremely lucky life. Many drunkards and druggies end up dead in a homeless shelter. But Thompson could write and had a body that was still functioning after 50 years of abuse.
You can start with the alcohol, everyone who knew Thompson said he was a alcoholic. Whether he put away a bottle of booze a day, like Hemingway, is unclear but it was a lot. He also smoked, and starting in the 60 did every drug imaginable.
But he never got liver disease or cancer. Or died of heart disease. He threw the medical dice and got a lucky seven. Many people who do that die in their 50s. They rolled snake-eyes.
And being a famous writer, meant he work past 45 and still make a living while only being able to do "brain work" a couple hours a day.
So anyway, there' not much to admire about him. And he was a bad example. But lots of people like his earlier pre-80s work.
BTW, there's nothing more stupid than the "Well, you can't do that, how dare you criticize". Almost all of humanity cant put on a TV show, or publish a novel. Or play a professional sport. So therefore, none of us criticize anything they do. Unless we're professsional writers, athletes, or TV producers. LOL.
And can you get elected President? No. So shut about Biden and Trump.
I never hated Hunter Thompson. In fact, I loved his books back in the day. But that’s a long long time ago, and I grew up. Something he never did. Yes, I was a lamb back then a lamb that roared and crossed too many lines and paid for each one.
What Thompson did to his family is almost yes almost unforgivable.
Only serial killers and cats like Mao and Stalin and maybe someone who considers himself a justice warrior desire to be remembered. I’ll pass.
Happy birthday - Bagoh.
btw- I was pondering why your airport is named after that creepy Senator Pocket Stuffer - Harry Reid(D). What a crock!
That is such a sham and Nevada needs to correct that crime. Airports should be named after the city they reside in.
Las Vegas International Airport. Done.
Y'all need a petition.
Song of the Sausage Creature, for those that are so inclined.
I knew his grandson in college. Great kid. Smart, pretty awkward, very tall. Not very gonzo, really nice guy. I had no idea he was related until a relative tagged him on a Facebook post years later. Hope he's doing alright.
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