Free Republic

John Kerry attends Thompson's blowing-up.

Shortly after reporting the death of his father, Hunter S. Thompson's son walked outside to fire three shots into the air, according to reports released Tuesday. Several Pitkin County sheriff's deputies heard Juan Thompson fire the shots as they approached the Woody Creek home, known as the Owl Farm. "Juan told me he had shot a shotgun into the air to mark the passing of his father," said Pitkin County Deputy Sheriff John Armstrong in his report. Hunter Thompson, who reigned as a savage social critic and inventor of Gonzo journalism for decades, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in...

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...