For all of you wishing your condolences to Hunter's family - you're being alot more considerate than he was. What kind of an ******* blows his brains out when his only son and 6-year old grandson are in the house with him? This was a horrific, selfish and ****ed up thing to do.
What gives anyone the right to pontificate or judge Hunter's motives, his rationale? Instead of degrading the good Doctor, smearing this message board with insensitivities, why don't you do us all a favor and take a hike.
Thank you Dr. Gonzo, thank you for your intoxicatingly raw and visual approach to journalism. It is and will forever remain unrivaled. Mahalo Hunter.
Joe - I didn't judge (or "pontificate" to use a word I haven't seen since the 6th grade, but you seem to like) his motives or his rationale. I judged his action. Whether you agree with me or not, to blow your brains out with your 6-year old grandson in the house is a selfish, thoughtless act. If I was saying this plain fact about someone you didn't like I'm sure you would agree with me. Your sheeplike inability to separate truth from you own opinions will stunt your intellectual growth, if you're interested in such things.
If he really did fire the gun when the grand son was in the house, than he is absolutly right, it was wrong. Least of all what if he hit the kid? These boards are only filled with opinions anyway, its the American way.
If I was gonna do myself in id at least leave the house, espically if there was a family in the house. I would have taped myself to one of those huge propane bombs and shoot myself into orbit
Thompson couldn't just "leave the house". He just had back surgery and his leg was broken. One more thing, his wife was in the house and neither was his son or 6 year old grandson. They "discovered" him dead, or don't you read anything but these blogs?
This will be my last post as it seems rather pointless to joust with someone who continues to judge others when the judgement should take place in front of a mirror. I'm not here to banter over such nonsense, I'm simply here to pay my respects. Sleep well Hunter.
If you're not here to "banter such nonsense" (what a way with words you have) - why did you respond to my original post in the first place? Or maybe you understand this better - baaaahh baaahhh baahhhh...
Go on back to your pretend world, I don't think you're ready for the truth.
maybe he was blitzed on sid and mesc and accidentaly shot himself, could happen right? All Ive heard was self inflicted gun shot. we will have to wait and see what the coroner reports it as.
Not sure if he was so hopped up that he pulled the trigger accidentally, who knows what he was thinking at that exact moment...hopefully we will find out someday...mahalo Doc
.....but I can't help but agree with Octavius. According to the report in Hunter's local newspaper his son and grandson were both in the house at the time. Anyone who is happy to let their children and their children's children experience the horror of walking into a room to discover the brains of a loved one decorating the walls is selfish beyond belief.
Makes me wonder weather Hunter was really the great and noble guy he wanted us all to believe he was.
you are absolutely right. what a horrific scene for the family to find. but the people responding to these messages do not care about HST's family, all they care and worry about is themselves.
I agree with what yo said You want to kill yourself then do it alone where no one especially a family member may find you. Those poor kids wil l be traumatized. What kind of mother********er would do that. He is going to hell. Oh yeah and my condolences go to his family. He will be missed.
oh, you had better not say that on this board, or all the sheep will jump your ass. he was such a great man-way above any criticizm, how dare we criticize him for traumatizing his young grandson. what a selfish ****ing prick. keep on speaking the truth brother.
If your so christian Billy then dont you think that it is God is the only one who has a right to judge and punish Hunter for what he did, thats what i was always taught before i realised christianity is the biggest crock of **** ever, in fact religion is probabley mans biggest downfall.
I agree, his family should never have had to go throught that, but these things arent just black and white and we dont know all the facts. He is dead and thats it, hateing him for it will not change what he has done, their is already too much hate in this world, why bother stirring up more?
I loved the Dood Doctors work for more years than I care to count. But a great man "ABOVE CRITICIZM"? I dont think so. As I am sure Hunter would agree. Anyone who made his living publishing his point of view to the world, stands strongest againt criticizm of the world.
I will miss him ... BIG HUG for Juan, Jen, Willam and Anita… who will never be able to fill the hole left in there lives by the man in spite of the myth and legend attached to his life..
I am a long time friend of Juan we went to the Aspen Community School together I have been using the blogs to try to send a message of love to him and the family but I know he is totally swamped because of the media attention at Owl farm and we need to let him know that we care for Him, Anita and the whole family in this time of tragedy while respecting his privacy
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 he 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.
based on what i read, it seems his friends and family are much better adjusted to this event than his fans, who are the only ones that did not see it coming. before casting judgement based on assumption, the supporters and detractors alike should wait and get a look for themselves. it is hard to imagine what strength and intelligence would develop from the closeness that only these rare people could enjoy, but the thousands and millions that have enjoyed him from afar can extrapolate from their own edification, and realize this "discovery" might not have been the same experience known to the unfortunate unloved undernoticed multitudes who have survived someone else's more typical suicide
If Octavius' basic post is true, i.e. if the family was there & the kids could have been hit, then I agree with him/her.
"The death of any man diminishes me." --John Donne. And so it goes for HST. I'm sad when anyone dies, no matter how weird his lifestyle, and no matter how much drugs & alcohol he used.
Too bad there's so much anti-Christianity being spewed on this board. Can't we all just get along?
Its all Billys fault, he was going on about how God put him on earth to torment people such as us for liking Hunter.
Before that we were all just fine.
How do we know they were in the house? If he was FOUND dead surely they werent in the house when the shot went off.
Im completely disgusted at anyone who will find a way to chastise a dead man. HST was a great man, and a great journalist. He's accomplished more in his life than you ever will Octavius, because you are a twisted and unsensitive Dickhead.
I don't think I've ever heard one story out of Owl Farm that Juan or any other children were endangered by Hunter's actions.... in all these years. Not all drug-addled gun owners fit your typical stereotype apparently. You weren't there, so you don't know exactly what happened and shouldn't make any judgments based on your uninformed opinion.
Likely scenario: Hunter upstairs in the bedroom all by himself.... rest of the family downstairs in the kitchen or living areas. How is that going to endanger grand-children?
Defending you seems odious mainly because you have not used much tact in stating your opinion as well as your rush to judgment and ad hominem attacks on a man you never met. However, I can agree that it was a very traumatizing event for the family to have to suffer through. Suicide in most instances is such a waste. I can't imagine ever resorting to this, but if I did I don't think I would want any other family members in the house at the time. I would have to have a very debilitating disease and be in excruciating pain every waking hour to even consider suicide. Maybe Hunter was in that bad of a condition with his health problems. Maybe he was detoxing, which can be a very depressing or emotionally unstable thing to go through. I wasn't there either, but I can empathize enough to see many variables that you would rather gloss over and not even consider.
I know Hunter had created the myth of an invincible, counter-culture anti-hero who could consume inhuman amounts of alcohol and drugs.... and how much of that was real or how much embellished, I don't know. But to be in ill-health and no longer the super-human myth, must have been an adjustment Hunter couldn't make.
Whether that had anything to do with his actions I don't know either, but I am compassionate enough to forgive the man for a selfish act, when I know his family is suffering a great deal right now. I know from extensive experience of living in the Bible Belt how compassion and christianity go together like oil and water... but you really should try it sometime. There's much less friction.
I'll leave the Christianity/compassion comment alone. I'm a little puzzled by this, as my comments have not had anything to do with Christianity. If you have an axe to grind with Christians, you might want to choose a forum where that subject is actually relevant.
With regard to your other comments - your perspective, as well as others who have responded, is focused on his actions relative to himself. In doing this, you're missing my point. I understand he may have had his reasons - good or bad. I understand he may have wanted his family around him. I understand his philosophy of living was to do so on his own terms - and this method of exit is consistent with that. I get it.
What you're not getting is that in doing things the way he did, he made a decision for other people - trumping their ability to live life on their own terms. It is one thing to do this to another adult, it is another matter entirely to do this to a 6-year old child. Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, having your grandfather blow his head off in the same house you're in at the same time you're there is a traumatic event. To believe otherwise is naive. It just may be that this 6-year old boy would've preferred to not have this as part of his life - for his grandfather to decide it must be demonstrates a level of indifference and/or self-absorbtion that is hard for me to comprehend.
Let me ask you since you seem to know so much detail about the situation. What precautions did he take to assure himself that his Grandson would not run in the room to be the first to see his headless grandfather. I suspect he took none. Thank God all grandfathers are not this loving.
He was found in the kitchen slumped over his selectric. This means that the direction of fire was 180 degrees away from the livingroom twards an outter wall of the house.
Yep, blowing your head off so your family can find it is great!
February 25 2005, 3:38 AM
Look, I loved Hunters works. I was shocked when I read the news. But it is dead wrong to kill your self and its so very dead wrong to do it so your family finds it and has to deal with what it looks like when the man you love has the top of his head blown off by a gun. He should have done it a different way but he did not. His son and grandson were in the home. His son stated that fact in the news. I think many of you who look to this being something stinky or how he could have never done this to himself and it was a CIA action are the fringe of the weird we read about in his writings. His writings were entertainment about his madness and he even stated that in interview after interview. His friends even state that. He killed himself in a selfish manner no doubt. We will miss him and I wish this would have never happened. I wanted to learn more about him in his old age but that is a loss for us all.
Although it's very impressive that you've memorized the floor plan of his house, you're missing the point. I've never suggested he endangered his family members with gunfire, but really none of us know for sure.
What we do know for sure is that he made a conscious, premeditated decision to invite his son, daughter-in-law and 6-year old grandson to the house with the intention to blow his head off with them in the house. We also know he did not give them the opportunity to opt out of such a horrific event. This may have served his own twisted purpose, but it demonstrated a profound lack of compassion and respect for those people he presumably loved the most.
Look at what Juan says in the AP report. Basically... Hunter was Hunter and he always did what Hunter wanted how and when he wanted to do it...
It seems to me he used a .45 to be safe and neat and with some considreation for those arround him. This is proved by the fact that Juan and the famly were at the farm more and more as of late. If was really going to say **** you to all to his famly he'd have used the 12 guage shotgun and made sure everone was actually in the room. No.... he did his way ....yes he was in pain... but.... Juan summed it up well
Like I said before. I get it. He died the way he wanted to die. On his terms. I get it.
What you apparently don't get from my posts is that "his way" was completely lacking in compassion for those he presumably loved most.
He could have taken his life in exactly the same manner - at a time of his choosing - in a way that would not have exposed his loved ones, particularly his 6-year old grandson, directly to the horror of this act.
You may admire the individual determination of such an act. I say it exposes his true lack of character and absolute disregard for others.
Are you aware he was on the phone with Anita when he pulled the trigger? Not even a goodbye. Just put down the receiver and caused her to listen to something she didn't even know was coming. If that's not the ultimate selfish act, I don't know what is.
Mr octavio or octavious or whatever the fu ck it is. i've sat here and read your drivel for several days, knowing you're a moron, but respecting your right to be a moron, and, as such, kept quiet and watched you make a fool of yourself.
thus far, it's been a rewarding and often hilarious experience. you should think about comedy my friend...
however, by being exceptionally stupid, you've sadly voided any moronic rights you may have previousliy claimed, and, consequentially, it is my duty to stand up and point out that you are, in fact, a stupid ass.
> Like I said before. I get it. He died the way he wanted to die. On his terms. I get >it.
no you don't. you are judging his actions from an ignorant point of view. it's not your fault i'm sure. many (if not most) americans are really quite ignorant. but you quite simply do not understand hunter's message. the only thing hunter REALLY loved was truth. that's it. that's all.
>What you apparently don't get from my posts is that "his way" was completely lacking >in compassion for those he presumably loved most.
what you don't get is that compassion does not enter into the equation. this was not about those around him; this was about him. his grandson will live. he has good people around him. he'll probably thrive. dads and granddads and uncles and even moms do some fu cked up things, but hell, we're all still here, no? i've seen some nasty sh it in my time, just as i'm sure most people reading this have, and ya know what, we're cognicent enough to recognize your argument for the crock of sh it that it is. we are who we are, and we are responsible for our own paths in life. so please don't degrade yourself like this in front of other intelligent people. just say yes and nod politely; it really is the best course for somebody of your intellectual prowess.
>He could have taken his life in exactly the same manner - at a time of his choosing - >in a way that would not have exposed his loved ones, particularly his 6-year old >grandson, directly to the horror of this act.
Oh the horror, the horror.
humanity is horror. your revulsion towards a man's rights to choose his own fate is as reprehensible to me as pedophilia. who the f uck are you to choose another man's fate? you are a swine.
>You may admire the individual determination of such an act. I say it exposes his true >lack of character and absolute disregard for others.
thanks for that, it proves my above point. the point about you being swine.
hunter used to write about people like you. i think his word was "cowards"
>Are you aware he was on the phone with Anita when he pulled the trigger? Not even a >goodbye. Just put down the receiver and caused her to listen to something she didn't >even know was coming. If that's not the ultimate selfish act, I don't know what is.
yes we are all aware of this. see above regarding this act concerning hunter, not those around him.
can't you wrap your head around this? some people are who they are, and that's it and that's all.
i guess you can't understand. i can only conclude this is because you're stupid. please, stop trying to understand.
and please, stop posting here. you really are not intelligent enough to keep up with the pace of conversation around here. frankly, i feel embarassed for you. please, do yourself a favour and just piss off.
I'll say this again, a little more slowly and clearly this time - so you might be able to understand my point.
Anyone is free to commit suicide, including Hunter Thompson. It is the ultimate act of self determination - and I recognize this right.
However I do not think people have the right to include other people directly in this act, against their knowledge. I think to do so is a supremely selfish, indifferent and disrespectful act.
Mat, you seem to be woefully ignorant of the ugliness, pain and sorrow that suicides leave behind. I have personal knowledge of three suicides. One of them was a tenant of mine who shot himself in the head with a .45 Cal pistol.
This man was not only a tenant but also a friend. (FYI, this man was also a doctor and a published writer.) We lived next door to each other. I discovered, along with two deputy sheriffs, his body lying in a pool of blood on the floor of a home I built and am now living in. Let me tell you, this was not Hollywood; There was nothing glamorous or noble about it. I avoided taking a close look at this man's blasted skull. I did not want this picture reverberating in my mind.
But, I can still see his form and the pool of blood whenever I think of him. I can still hear the pathetic whine of his dog as his body was loaded into the morgue's van.
I'm not being dramatic in the least when I say I can vividly remember my friend's brother crying on the deck after taking a break from dealing with his cherished brother's personal effects.
Mat, you must be either too young, or, I hope not for your sake, too callous to understand death by suicide.
I'm betting on too young because of your resorting to name calling and profanity to make your arguemnts. Either that, or, like so many "writers" one encounters in this thread and on the web in general, you somehow "think" that common courtesy is either uncool , old fashioned, or merely not required for anonymous scribblings whose only purpose seems to be their level of expressed hostility.
I'll concede your cleverness in breaking apart the profane words so they escape the profanity filter. But, here again, you only reveal your own callowness when you rely so heavily on profanity to express yourself. Grow up kid. Being adult, and clever, means winning the argument with carefully chosen words and not heaping insults on your opponent.
E. McShane - thanks for sharing your personal experience of suicide by a .45 caliber handgun. There's no question that in choosing this method of death, a person leaves behind a tremendous mess (literally and emotionally) for others to deal with.
Imagine your same story with an added layer. That being that prior to your tenant's death, he invited his most beloved family members, including his 6-year old grandchild, to be in the house with him at the time he committed this act - although they had no knowledge this was going to happen. Just before he pulled the trigger, he caused his wife, over the phone, to listen to the sound of the cocking gun, the gunshot and his head hitting the desk - without even saying goodbye.
If this same scenario played out with an average citizen - I think 9 out of 10 people would recognize it for the callous, selfish, disrespectful act that it is. Because this was Hunter Thompson - most people, at least on this board, practically praise his determination to go out on "his terms".
It's possible to be a fan of Hunter Thompson's writing, and also acknowledge that this was a screwed up act.
well...if you read the paper and did a bit of research you would realize that his family and personal historian were aware of his state lately and have accepted it as part of the man...his son merely said that Hunter though it was time to go...his historian said, Hunter had been suffering ill health and had spent alot of time recently bonding with family...his suicide was planned...leave the man alone. If you like his work like it, if you don't I don't know why your here...artists especially ones who use massive amouts of drugs often check out at any momment...his life was not one of responsibility to you or anyone...get off your horse...see the man for the man.
...After days of absorbing all the opinions here, I can only arrive at this one for myself:
"HST diminished his personal and professional stature with his final choice to take his own life. It showed weakness, selfishness, and lack of courage."
Just my opinion. I loved reading his old stuff in Rolling Stone, and Fear & Loathing was more of a 'documentary of the times' than fiction.
Sorta like Elvis - I'll try to remember what was, rather than what he ended up being.
Mat the impaler, why don't you try for a new word? So far, every time you post on a statement with which you disagree, you call someone an ass. Is that the only word you know? You claim to be an American Lit professor. Yet every time you post, it's like reading a carbon copy of your other posts. If you don't have a thesaurus, I'll gladly take up a collection to purchase one for you. Ass, ass, ass, you seem obsessed with ass. Could it be that this is why you call yourself Mat the impaler? Because you impale your 16-year-old skanky daughter's ass with your diminutive member every night? Personally, I think that you are a poseur, more likely a janitor at WalMart than an American Lit professor. Look at every one of your posts. Not only do they completely lack maturity and originality, the degree of laziness demonstrated by your persistent lack of attention to spelling, punctuation, proper capitalization, and proper use of the space bar, casts doubt upon the claim that you are even a high school graduate, much less a professor. Before you continue to fling your ineffective arrows of superior intellectual snobbery to and fro, it might be a good idea to put forth the extra effort necessary to make it appear that you have mastered the English language. Because, at present, you give off the impression of being a drunken, one-eyed merchant marine typing with hooks instead of fingers.
Oh, Mat. I have a question for you. Having read your posts, it seems clear that you are either a Briton posing as an American Lit professor, or an American Lit professor posing as a Briton posing as an American Lit professor, a la Victor/Victoria. My evidence? Your use of terms such as "stupid Americans", and "piss off". Not to mention the fact that you spelled the word "favor" with a U, as in "f-a-v-o-u-r". Or maybe, God help us, you're a Canadian. By the way, thanks for the little giggle you gave me earlier. In your response to my post titled "A Special Tribute To HST", you besmirched my skills at proper grammatical construction. Yet, in a post you submitted earlier in THIS thread, you used the non-word "choosed", in place of the word "chose". Today just happens to be my birthday, and that was the greatest gift I received this year. So thanks for that. Please help me figure this out, oh great one. You'll need to use words of one syllable, of course. After all, I am one of those "stupid Americans". I'll boot up my Hooked On Phonics program for further assistance. By the way, I'm fairly certain that HST's ashes are rolling around within his urn at the thought of your ilk being the ones to defend his name and reputation. With friends like you, who needs bullets?
I'm afraid you're right. I love the good Doctor, one might even say I idolize him. His writing talent, his acerbic wit, his political astuteness and his unbelievable crazed energy will always remain with me as a memorable treasure of my hope that there is a future in this country for people that think like Hunter and me. And yes, I also believe he acted like an a*****e. Nothing, but nothing excuses what he did on the last day of his life, for whatever reason, for the unbelievable harm he did to those he left behind. However, the fact that he did a terrible thing doesn't negate all the other wonderful things he did before that, for many of us, obviously. Rest in peace, doc, I'm praying for you and your family.
For one, he didn't blow his brains out. It was very clean with very minimal blood. His wife even dressed him and took some last time photos. The kids that were in the house were in another room on the other side of the house. He said that he would rather go out in a bang, than wither away. He was sick. He wasn't getting better. He had been stating for a long while that he wasn't afraid to die and that he was contemplating suicide.
Now with his ashes, they will either be fired from a cannon, or be placed in a firework.
I admire Hunter S. Thompson - Fear and Loathing was a stroke of PURE brilliance. He was a great guy, who knew what he wanted to say and said it. He will be with us forever.
people kill them selves every day, in fact suicide is our strongest impulse. Americans are the most fearful and suicidal of all peoples in this world. Their judgement if they have any, is co-opted by their disdain of anything original brave, or truthful. Where there is a fear there is a wish. All of you opposers need to remove your self righteous gas from this planet immediately. goodbye.
people kill them selves every day, in fact suicide is our strongest impulse. Americans are the most fearful and suicidal of all peoples in this world. Their judgement if they have any, is co-opted by their disdain of anything original brave, or truthful. Where there is a fear there is a wish. All of you opposers need to remove your self righteous gas from this planet immediately. goodbye.
Anonymous - feel free to take your own advise and not post to this thread. You haven't added any worthwhile comment. If people lose interest in the topic it will die a natural death - you need to control your need to intervene. Let it go - it's not a big deal.
Screw al you dumb****s. He didnt shot himsefl some body killed his ass and any of you ****s who obviusly hate him shuld of had the balls to kill him instead of let the CIA pig****ing swine that still pissed off from al that **** he wrote about nixon if you hate the doc then al you wont to do is take it up the ass from bush and chany and cock your **** ass ****er
I admit I know pretty much **** all about HST, but having recently read Fear and Loathing, and also seen the film I can't wait to delve into everything else he's written.
Damn sad about his passing, not sure I agree with the way he did it, but his life was his own to take, even if I think the way he did it could have been a bit hard for his family.
I'm sure he'll live on in his work.
.....'There's nothing quite like a man on an ether binge'......