Posted on 02/24/2005 7:54:47 PM PST by XR7
DENVER - Hunter S. Thompson, the "gonzo journalist" with a penchant for drugs, guns and flamethrower prose, might have one more salvo in store for everyone: Friends and relatives want to blast his ashes out of a cannon, just as he wished."If that's what he wanted, we'll see if we can pull it off," said historian Douglas Brinkley, a friend of Thompson's and now the family's spokesman.
Thompson, who shot himself to death at his Aspen-area home Sunday at 67, said several times he wanted an artillery send-off for his remains. "There's no question, I'm sure that's what he would want," said Mike Cleverly, a longtime friend and neighbor. "Hunter truly loved that kind of thing."
Colorado fireworks impresario Marc Williams says it can be done. "Oh, sweet. I'd love to. I would so love to," said Williams, 44, owner of Night Musick in suburban Denver and a fan of Thompson's writing.
Thompson's wife, Anita, and son, Juan, are looking into the cannon scenario, said Brinkley, who has edited some of Thompson's work.
Brinkley also said Thompson did not take his life "in a moment of haste or anger or despondency" but probably planned his suicide well in advance because of declining health. The author of books including "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" was in pain from a host of problems that included a broken leg and a hip replacement.
"I think he made a conscious decision that he had an incredible run of 67 years, lived the way he wanted to and wasn't going to suffer the indignities of old age," Brinkley said. "He was not going to let anybody dictate how he was going to die."
Thompson had spent an intimate weekend with his son, daughter-in-law and young grandson, Brinkley said.
"He was trying to really bond and be close to the family" before his suicide, Brinkley said. "This was not just an act of irrationality. It was a very preplanned act."
Family members had no hint that Thompson planned to take his own life, Brinkley said, and he did not leave a note. "There was no farewell salutation," he said.
Williams, the fireworks impresario, said it is not uncommon for families to have their loved one's ashes scattered across the sky in a fireworks shell, though his company has never done it.
If the Thompson job were his, Williams said, he would probably blast the ashes from a 12-inch-diameter mortar 800 feet into the sky. Then a second, window-rattling blast would scatter them amid a blossom of color 600 feet across.
"If you were going to light up a flash-bomb worthy of Hunter S. Thompson, you'd want to make it an earth-shaker," Williams said.
Thompson had spent an intimate weekend with his son, daughter-in-law and young grandson, Brinkley said."He was trying to really bond and be close to the family" before his suicide, Brinkley said.
Heartwarming, eh?
Always go out with a bang.
Since he obviously considered life so worthless, just flush him.
How 'bout we just flush the old bastard down the twalet?
...it's the funeral that's shot from guns!
(Dad taught me the Quaker Puffed Wheat jingle when I was a kid.)
He will be just like Quaker puffed oats! Shot from a cannon. How dignified.
oops was it wheat or oats?
Just hope they don't shoot into the wind.
I know he's not popular on FR, but I enjoyed reading his old books. RIP.
Lol, it's not dignified at all, but certainly true to form.
I didn't agree with him politically, but I loved his work. I also loved his no-guts support for the 2nd amendment among other things. One of my favorite writers. Too bad I never got to meet him.
I think it could have been both. I know Quaker had both.
Shooting the drug laced remains of Hunter S. Thompson out of a cannon should be considered an environmental hazard.
It was puffed wheat or puffed rice. Shot from guns. I remember that like it was yesterday.
Amen!
A jackass till the end, and even in death.
[Freepmail me to get on or off this Not-A-Ping-List.]
Hmmm. or put his ashes in the front seat of a 73 El Dorado and push it off a cliff. Perhaps I shouldn't be so flippant... after all the man recently died. He should be afforded his dignity.
So blow him out of a mortar already.
Am I the only person who's noticed the startling similarities between Rosie Grier and Douglas Brinkley?
glock rocks wrote:
Hmmm. or put his ashes in the front seat of a 73 El Dorado and push it off a cliff. Perhaps I shouldn't be so flippant... after all the man recently died. He should be afforded his dignity.
So blow him out of a mortar already.
--* How about we take the ashes, put them into a used condom and let the illigals play Pinata with them?
Hey, they stole my idea!!
I wanted my ashes fired out of a howitzer!
Is this the same Brinkley who wrote Kerry's bio about his time in the Nam?
If so, it explains a lot.
Hunter who?
"Hey, they stole my idea!!
I wanted my ashes fired out of a howitzer!"
Whatever smokes your shorts. Gonzo funerals seem to be more of a celebration of a life lived out loud. :o)
RIP HST
B O O M !
I was in artillery, so it would have been fitting.
:(
I'm afraid so.
Hunter Thompson is to journalism as Paris Hilton is to acting
"I was in artillery, so it would have been fitting."
I think that's a great idea! Having been in the artillary you've definitely already lived a life out loud. :o)
And Thank You Sir for Your Service.
Thank you!
My family thinks it's a horrible idea though.
My brother asked what the point would be.
His words, "Having your ashes loaded into a hollow artillery round and launched into the impact zone at Drum wouldn't damage much in the impact zone."
I admit, he does have a point about not damaging anything in the impact zone.
(GASP!)
The guy asked to be shot from a cannon. The wife and son start asking around for a fireworks display. The owner is considering a mortar.
I'm sorry but doesn't anyone know what a cannon is?
Here's the solution: contact a Civil War reenactment group. Haul their cannon to the local gun range. Load his ashes into the muzzle and fire away. Shooters who don't necessarily like good old Hunter can brag they shoot into his ashes for years to come just by shooting into the berm.
PJ O'Rourke has a great quote in one of his books in which he opines with the passing of each flaming liberal that they're about to find our if their creator is pleased with them or not.
Anybody recall it?
ping
For a look at Brinkley's book on Henry Ford, which was, in a more subtle but nonetheless pernicious way, as much a con-job as his diddle on Kerry, see:
Nicollo's Automotive Book Reviews, "Wheels For the World" by Douglas Brinkley
Figgers. It just figgers. "Historian," eh? It's funny, whenever a conservative gets in a little trouble, any subsequent mention of his name is followed by a parenthetical mention of the scandal. But I guess Brinkley is back to being a "historian."
What a jerk to commit suicide with his wife on the line with his kids in the house.
A total @ss.
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Wife details family gathering with Thompson dead in chair By Jeff Kass, © 2005, Rocky Mountain News ASPEN — Hunter S. Thompson heard the ice clinking. The literary champ was sitting in his command post kitchen chair, a piece of blank paper in his favorite typewriter, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot through the mouth hours earlier.
"It was very loving. It was not a panic, or ugly, or freaky," Thompson's wife, Anita Thompson, said Thursday night in her first spoken comments since the icon's death Sunday. "It was just like Hunter wanted. He was in control here." Anita Thompson also echoes the comments that have been made by Hunter Thompson's son and daughter-in-law: That her husband's suicide did not come from the bottom of the well, but was a gesture of strength and ultimate control made as his life was at a high-water mark. "This is a triumph of his, not a desperate, tragic failure," Anita Thompson said by phone, recounting that she was sitting in her husband's chair he called his catbird seat in the Rockies. She added: "He lived a beautiful life and he lived it on his own terms, all the way from the very beginning to the very end." Anita Thompson, like her husband's other close relatives, understood how Hunter Thompson wanted to make his ultimate exit. "I always knew that Hunter was going to die before me," Anita Thompson, 32, said of her 67-year-old husband. "I'd accepted that. I just did not know it was going to be like this. I would rather have him back." Yet Anita Thompson quickly came to embrace Hunter Thompson's gesture with a .45-caliber handgun. She was at the gym when her husband took his life. And when family friend and Pitkin County Sheriff Bob Braudis confirmed the news, her mind raced. "I have enough will power," she thought. "I can turn back time. No, no, no. This is not right. This can't happen." But upon seeing Hunter Thompson's body, she embraced him. "Since he'd done this, I did not want to make it difficult for his spirit," she said. "I wanted to make it loving." Anita Thompson believes she will stay on at the expansive property and famous house that was an ever-changing archive of political, literary and name-your-category items. And she will continue to help administer Hunter Thompson's works. "I'm going to keep on working for Hunter," she said. "He wanted this. He made sure that I was in place to continue on. I'll just do my job until I can be with him again." She adds, citing the property's nickname: "It will remain Owl Farm. It will remain Hunter Thompson's Owl Farm." The last book they had read out loud together was parts of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, a dense classic that explores the fragility of civilization by one of Hunter Thompson's favorite authors. Yet, said Anita Thompson, "He thinks Conrad is funny." Anita Thompson and her husband had a small tiff that afternoon. Hunter Thompson told her to leave the kitchen that was known across the world as his funky and sacred work space. A weird look came across his face. "I don't know why he wanted me to leave the room," she said. "It's all speculation. He'd never asked me to leave the room before." But Anita Thompson did not go to the office with Hunter Thompson's son, as he had requested. Instead, she left the house. But she went to the gym. At 5:16 p.m., according to her cell-phone display, she called and spoke with Hunter Thompson for 10 minutes and 22 seconds. Hunter Thompson put almost everyone on speakerphone. But he picked up the handset to speak with his wife. "I knew it was odd, first of all, that he picked up with the handset ... I thought, 'That's sweet,'" she said. The talk was good. "He said, 'I want you to come home after you work out. Come home and we'll work on a column,'" she recalled. The conversation, however, never really ended. Before formal goodbyes, Anita Thompson heard a clicking sound. She thought Hunter Thompson might have put down the handset and was typing. Or maybe it was the television. She waited. Maybe a minute passed. "He did not say anything about killing himself," she said. The official time of death is 5:42 p.m. But did Hunter Thompson shoot himself while on the phone with his wife? "I did not hear any bang," she says, noting that Hunter Thompson's son, who was in the house at the time, believed that a book had fallen when he heard the shot. Anita Thompson can imagine what was going through Hunter Thompson's mind before the fatal shot: My beloved son, grandson and daughter-in-law are here. I'm in my perch. The fireplace has fire. "I don't know if it mattered if I was here," Anita Thompson says. "I just like to think, and believe in my heart, he felt happy in his life." A woman at the gym saw Anita Thompson in the bathroom. She asked if Hunter Thompson was OK. Anita Thompson pretty much blew it off. Rumors about Hunter Thompson were always in the air. Anita Thompson replied, "Oh yeah," but added, "he's been pretty stressed out lately." A strange look was on the woman's face. She told Anita Thompson to check her phone messages. The woman said she would stay at her side. Now she was shaking, and could barely dial. Anita Thompson then spoke to the sheriff on the phone. Had Hunter Thompson intended for his wife of two years to be in the house? "I don't know, and it's not that important," Anita Thompson says. "I know he loved me. There's no question ... I know he did not want me to find him alone. He knew I was opposed to it." After wading through the police officers outside, Anita Thompson recalls seeing her husband's dead body for the first time. "He was sitting in the chair when they brought me in, and I got to hug him and kiss him and rub his legs," she said. "All the anger was gone when I saw him." Anita Thompson does not know why Hunter Thompson chose the .45 from his vast collection of guns. But he was deft with his death. "He did not destroy his face," Anita Thompson says. "He did it in his mouth. His face was beautiful. It was quick. It was not grisly or gruesome by any means. That's probably why he took that gun. He spared us a gruesome scene." She adds: "His face did look calm and peaceful. He looked content. Like he wanted it." For Tuesday's cremation, Anita Thompson dressed her husband. He was wearing a light blue, seersucker suit, a Tilly hat and his reading glasses, which he had on when he died. He had asked her to include a lock of her hair with him on this occasion. She complied, and more, cutting off her one-foot long blonde ponytail. Anita Thompson is depending on mundane chores, but also family, friends and the estimated 50 messages a day. "Being alone with Hunter in our bedroom, and I've been reading his letters to me," she added. "They have a different charge now. He wrote the most beautiful love letters I have ever seen ... I'm so lucky." Then there was the flag. Hunter Thompson is an Air Force veteran. And following protocol, according to Anita Thompson, a deputy coroner from neighboring Garfield County presented her with a U.S. flag. It now hangs on a storyboard in the kitchen area, normally used for Hunter Thompson's works in progress. A white, silk scarf that the Dalai Lama presented to Hunter Thompson — the two men looked alike — drapes over the flag. The house is filled to the brim with flowers — especially orchids, Hunter Thompson's favorite. "It's nice in here," says Anita Thompson. "He would like it. He does like it, I guess." Yes, Anita Thompson says, the landmark writer is nearby. "Mainly in moments when you're quiet, you can feel him; it's a different energy than when he was in his body," she says. "It's in the chest. It's all encompassing, but just for a second. It's beautiful." Hunter Thompson was huge on swimming for his exercise. But he was also known for his love of fine whiskey, and to put it far too mildly, for experimenting with most every intoxicant known to man. "He loved his body, look what he did to it," Anita Thompson jokes. She then adds a line that maybe even she fails, on its face, to grasp the significance of: "He gave his body everything it wanted."
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