Hunter S. Thompson’s family and his wife are at odds over a reinvestigation of his 2005 suicide – as claims fly that she wants full control of the Gonzo journalist’s legacy.
His widow Anita Thompson suggested HST’s son and daughter-in-law — Juan Thompson and Jennifer Winkel — may have tampered with the scene of his death to make it “look like a suicide,” according to text messages she sent former Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office officials in Colorado, the New York Times reported.
Anita Thompson — HST’s second wife, whom he married two years before dying at his typewriter in their Aspen home — claimed Juan’s ex-wife and Jennifer’s son had been confiding with people for years about a supposed cover-up scheme, prompting the sheriff’s office to re-open the decades-old case in September.
But Juan and his wife are baffled by Anita’s insistence on a cover-up, especially since the gun-loving journalist behind “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” had been open about his plans to end his own life for years.
“I do not know why she raised this. And I can’t imagine that the CBI would find anything to act on,” Juan, 61, told the Times. “There is nothing new to know about Hunter’s actual death.”
“This is really shocking,” Jennifer added. “It’s been disruptive to our family. It’s obviously been very traumatic to be revisiting this.”
Hunter — as famous for his drinking and drugging as he was for his unhinged yet bitingly insightful writing — died from a gunshot wound at 67 as his health was rapidly declining from years of substance abuse.
He was on the phone with Anita when it happened, and Juan was nearby and found his father’s body alongside a suicide note titled “Football Season is Over.”
“No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun — for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax — This won’t hurt,” the letter read.
Juan then took one of his father’s many guns and fired three shots in the air to honor him — with a brief investigation finding no signs of foul play.
“The injuries were consistent with the reported self-inflicted gunshot wound,” an autopsy from the next day read, with the sheriff’s department then ruling “Case status is Closed/noncriminal.”
But police who were at the scene of the death say little investigating was done, and that everybody was operating under the presumption that nothing more than a suicide was at hand.
“Never once did I consider this a homicide. It never crossed my mind,” said Joe DiSalvo, who was Pitkin County’s undersheriff at the time of HST’s death and one of the first on the scene.
“I get there, he’s dead at the typewriter,” said DiSalvo, who was also a friend of Thompson’s.
“Hunter talked about suicide,” he told the Times. “He talked about the way he was going to kill himself.”
It remains unclear if Anita is suggesting someone murdered Thompson, or whether the supposed plot was some kind of assisted suicide.
But Anita’s behavior since Thompson’s death has raised some eyebrows, with some accusing her of trying to cash in on her late husband’s iconic name and image.
Among the schemes people point to are her posting his Aspen home — Owl Farm — on Airbnb for $550 per night, and plans to sell official “Gonzo strains” of weed.
Still, others think there is no reason to rule out the claims Anita raised.
“The question of whether there was assisted suicide is a legitimate question,” former Aspen mayor and attorney Mick Ireland told the Times. “I don’t have an opinion on it.”
Juan and Jennifer, however, think Anita knows her husband really killed himself.
“We hope this brings her closure,” Jennifer said.
