Or he just wanted to go out like Hemingway, and knew that it would add to his 'legend.'
That is my guess also.
Exactly. Furthermore, the only reason this poor, miserable soul's death is being so lamented in the press is because he was a hard-core leftie who detested Republicans, plain and simple. Had his politics been 180 degrees opposite he never would have been made into a celebrated cult-figure icon and his death would have been about a five-minute story.