So, Hunter S Thompson is dead. Suicide. Managed to survive the drugs and the drink and the madness and everything else and then shoots himself. Goodbye, crazy diamond. You changed journalism. Not singlehandedly, but you were one of them. You called it as you saw it, you took the dry voice of the establishment and said ‘fuck it all’, you put the passion back into it, you put the personality back into it and you took us all on your crazy journey with you. I wonder what did it in the end? Bush being re-elected? You wrote about his administration: “Who does vote for these dishonest shitheads? They are the racists and hate mongers among us – they are the Ku Klux Klan. I piss down the throats of these Nazis.” You never pulled your punches. Was it something more personal? Did you find out you had something terminal and wanted to go your own way? We’ll probably never know. But you’ll be missed.
You are one of my excuses for being up front and blunt. You were a darn sight more eloquent about it though. Give ’em hell.