Inventing Shotgun golf was the last project of brilliant Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson.
Sunday night he used a gun to end his own life.
It may take awhile for the distractions to evaporate, and for the good doctor’s constructive contributions to achieve the recognition they deserve. So here’s a head start:
He opened journalism to the rest of us:
I have a theory that the truth is ever told during the nine-to-five hours.
If I’d written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people – including me – would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism.
A word to the wise is infuriating.
The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason.
This is a real loss. Hunter S. Thompson has done more for creative writing than most other authors I know of.
Ditto, I was going to write about the good doctor for an Essay on “An American that fascinates me”.
I agree with you, it is a real loss.
However, the way he decided to go was pitiful and selfish. He shot himself in his home, he had to know that the one to find him would most likely be his wife. Ever seen the corpse of a person who shot him-/herself? Not a pretty sight.
My respect for him was severly reduced by this.
I used to think that suicide was the timid solution, but I think most people that commit suicide is off-balance and I have a feeling its not always easy to see how things really are and think clearly when you are not in a sound state of mind.
I also think its safe to say that the good Doctor probably wasn’t all that together in the first place. Although, its hard to know what was fiction and truth about the guy. Maybe we will get to know more about him now that he has passed.
I read in an article earlier today that when the coroner came for his body the family was sitting around drinking Chivas in the room where he shot himself. Doctor Thompson’s wife explained that they had had an argument and she had decided to leave to do some training rahter than linger. Later the Doctor called here and were distressed and asked her if she could help him with an article, the conversation was abruptly cut short and she heard a click. She feared the worst and hurried home to find that he had shot himself.
I seriously doubt we will know more about this guy now that he is dead. The scene depicted to the media with the release of the details around his untimely demise almost reads like one of his stories. I suspect there is more to it, just as I suspected there were much more to the stories he sold to the media.