Hunter S. Thompson Dead at 67

Posted on February 20, 2005

Gonzo journalist, counterculture hero and bestselling writer Hunter S. Thompson, author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas fatally shot himself Sunday night at his Aspen-area home, his son said. He was 67. "Hunter prized his privacy and we ask that his friends and admirers respect that privacy as well as that of his family," Juan Thompson said in a statement released to the Aspen Daily News. Thompson is best known for creating New Journalism or, as he called it, "gonzo journalism" in which the writer made himself an essential component of the story. He was a true original. Thompson once said: "Fiction is based on reality unless you're a fairy-tale artist." "You have to get your knowledge of life from somewhere. You have to know the material you're writing about before you alter it."