Found by his son Juan, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his infamous ranch in Aspen, Colorado. This was the messy end for the one of a kind, Doctor of Gonzo journalism Hunter Thompson. In the age of villains he was our hero, the creator of counter-culture classics such as the celebrated odyssey through Nevada: 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' and ventures into renegade groups: 'Hell’s Angels'. Brilliant political essays: 'Fear and Loathing on Campaign Trail '72', 'Better Than Sex', and marvellous fiction: 'The Rum Diary.'
A liver of a non-stop exciting and extreme lifestyle, Thompson collected a great wealth of experiences, which he poured into the pages of his books, countless encounters with drugs, brushes with the law, comic disputes with neighbours, standing up for justice and truth, and savage realities that he beamed back from war-stricken areas and political hotspots.
He was always turned on and tuned in, a 'political junkie' as he put it, an avid consumer of all mediums of news, his regular bedtime being 10a.m illustrates his unwilting energies that, no matter how crazy his state, he always focused into concise and cohesive literature. His great works will remain tickling and teaching readers for years to come.
At age 67 he departs from a world that was always at odds with him, though he managed to conquer it through persistence of will and honest writing. Always on the edge of the beat generation, Thompson wrote from the heart, melding the strange truth with fiction and blurring the separating line completely, discussion of authenticity or whether the truth was stranger than fiction is pointless when the true meaning and indisputable purity of his writing is all that has ever mattered.
As Paul Krassner, a former Thompson editor and renowned journalist, said: "He may have died relatively young but he made up for it in quality if not quantity of years." However, he outlived most of his contemporaries and inherited, with the new generation, a strange and dumb America. Passing the high watermark and being delivered into 'the generation of swine' Thompson was always illuminating the brutal realties of the times, from his passionate obituary for Richard Nixon to 'being trapped like a rat in Mr. Bill's neighbourhood' he always smoked out the crooks and exposed the horrible truth. This was brought alive by his fascinating angular perspective and wonderfully witty, alternative take on things.
His younger years consisted of conjuring sports journalism in the Air Force and later working for the much-loved American periodical 'Rolling Stone', tales and accounts from his days there being some of the funniest and most engrossing of his career; wrangles over expenses, disagreements on deadlines, his work appearing over the mojo-wire at all hours.
He may have been perpetually intoxicated, always dallying in uncommon and possibly criminal activities, doing things the crazed state deemed dangerous, but he always a gentleman and nearly became a sheriff, narrowly losing election an election in '71 to a coalition of parties united against him. He may remain an elusive character, depicted through his creation of Raoul Duke or his Doonesbury interpretation: Uncle Duke, but he was always ready to have his say and really stand up for his rights as an American, never to back down to tyranny or evil, so it doesn't matter if the public doesn’t know every detail and fault of the man, what does matter is the message he left us.
Suicide, as it apparently is, therefore, is a very sad and disconcerting way for this man to go, but let us remember well his lessons to us as this Kingdom of Fear gets ever heavier. The legend that was Hunter S. Thompson will live on for eternity in literary remembrance because the man that was Hunter S. Thompson never sold out and always kept his soul pure.