Posted on 02/21/2005 8:32:02 PM PST by freedom44
ASPEN, Colo. (AP) - While Hunter S. Thompson's suicide shocked many in his out-of-the-way neighbourhood, one of his closest friends said Monday the writer had been in a lot of pain after a broken leg and hip surgery.
"I wasn't surprised," said George Stranahan, a former owner of the Woody Creek Tavern, one of Thompson's favourite hangouts. "I never expected Hunter to die in a hospital bed with tubes coming out of him.
Thompson died in his home Sunday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, Pitkin County Coroner Dr. J. Steve Ayers said Monday.
Authorities refused to say whether a note was found. Thompson's body was found by his adult son, Juan, later Sunday evening.
Investigators recovered the weapon, a .45-calibre handgun.
Neighbours in Thompson's Woody Creek neighbourhood said a broken leg had kept him from going out as often as in the past, including to the tavern.
But Shep Harris, who now owns the tavern, said Thompson would sometimes slip in for a drink and a smoke if no one else was there.
Patrons normally are not allowed to light up because the tavern does not have a separate smoking area but if Thompson were the only customer, he had a waiver.
"We called it the Hunter Rule," Harris said.
Mike Cleverly, a neighbour and longtime friend, spent Friday night watching a basketball game on TV with Thompson. He said Thompson was clearly hobbled by the broken leg.
"Medically speaking, he's had a rotten year," he said.
But he added: "He's the last person in the world I would have expected to kill himself. I would have been less surprised if he had shot me."
Thompson was legendary for his love of firearms.
"He had a thing about guns," said Mary Eshbaugh Hayes, an acquaintance and a former editor of the Aspen Times newspaper.
"I was always very worried he was going to shoot someone."
He did, at least once. In 2000, he accidentally slightly wounded his assistant trying to chase a bear off his property.
Hayes said she was present when a drunken Thompson fired three shots into a copy of one of his books and gave it to a friend, saying: "This is your autographed copy."
Despite the gunfire and the wild, drug-addled image he projected in his writing, Thompson was on good terms with the sheriff's department and was friends with Sheriff Bob Braudis and DiSalvo, the sheriff's director of investigations.
"I would definitely call him a friend," DiSalvo said.
"This was not the way I expected Hunter to die."
I'm sorry he's dead and I feel bad for his family,but I'm sick of hearing about Hunter Thompson.
(Rant off!!!!)
The actual Hunter Thompson, killed by the legendary Hunter Thompson.
Lol! I really loved reading HST. RIP.
THAT is funny.
What a copout! If the reality was anywhere near the myth he built around himself, Thompson would have used his pain to cop some killer 'scrips from at least three different doctors.
Suicide. What a Coward !
I never cared for his overheated, boozed-up and also overwrought literary style, but I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE the news report of his death on WOR Radio in New York at 7 PM tonight. The newcaster opened with the words (and I'm paraphrasing)---"Well, it seems that gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson believed himself to be a thoroughbred race horse; after he broke his leg he decided to shoot himself". The story continued on for a few more sentences of factual information. I just can't imagine who wrote that copy, and how it got past the censors, or whoever looks over these things. My only thought was that Thompson himself left a note of permission for newscasters to describe it thus, but I kind of doubt that.
#3----much like Hemingway, who, as CLive James pointed out, after many years of mounting the heads of wild beasts on his walls from his hunting expeditions, finally made a trophy of himself.
It's hard enough for an anonymous, mediocre drunk to admit that they're powerless and generally wrong about nearly everything. For a Hemingway or Hunter Thompson it's nearly impossible.
I think he was distraught about the hockey strike.
At least he knew enough about fire arms to use a 45.
Good choice!
just about every junkie I ever met used the excuse of a bad back and chronic pain as the reason and purpose for their addiction .... as it works out the cure is usually far worse than the complaint.
I guess this means his gig at ESPN is over.
Yet another Bush enemy bites it.
come to think of it, he started fads by being counter cultural.... maybe just maybe Hollywood will catch on.
why'd you click on the link, then?
How long before some pimply 13-year-old DUer posts "BUSH ASSASSINATION!!!"?
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side. "
HST
Yes, but he will still be able to vote for his beloved Democrats in Chicago.
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