Hunter's Suicide fuels Conspiracy Buzz

[void]

March 4, 2005 -- WAS Hunter S. Thompson's mysterious death really a suicide?

There are some serious irregularities surrounding the demise of the gonzo author, who was found shot to death in the kitchen of his Woody Creek, Colo., ranch on Feb. 20, and local cops seemed to have done a lackluster job of investigating.

Police reports obtained by the Rocky Mountain News note that cops arriving on the scene heard shots being fired, that Thompson's son, Juan, was allowed to be alone with the body, and that there was something odd about the gun Thompson supposedly used to kill himself.

Before his death, Thompson seemed in good spirits and was not known to be depressed. And considering his long-winded style, the absence of a note seems strange — he'd typed only the single word "counselor."

There were no eyewitnesses to the shooting, only an "earwitness" — Thompson's wife, Anita, who was on the phone with him at the time and who later drank scotch with the corpse. Her account of the incident is inconsistent: She alternately has said that she heard a loud, muffled noise and that she heard nothing but clicking.

The behavior of Juan, who was in the house at the time of the shooting, also was unusual. Pitkin County Deputy Sheriff John Armstrong said that when investigators arrived on the scene they heard shots, but Juan assured them he had merely been firing off a salute to his dead dad. Investigator Joseph DiSalvo also let Juan enter the kitchen alone and drape a scarf over the body.

And in his report, Deputy Ron Ryan noted the semi-automatic Smith & Wesson 645 found next to Thompson's body was in an unusual condition. There was a spent shell casing, but although there were six bullets left in the gun's clip, there was no bullet in the firing chamber, as there should have been under normal circumstances.

DiSalvo said he did not check the gun, adding, "I think a bullet from the magazine should have cycled into the chamber" unless there was a "malfunction." A spent slug was found in the stove hood behind the body.

Conspiracy theorists make much of the fact that Thompson had been working on a far-fetched story about the World Trade Center attack at the time of his death.

As Canada's Globe and Mail reported, Thompson had "stumbled across what he felt was hard evidence showing the towers had been brought down not by the airplanes that flew into them but by explosive charges set off in their foundations."

http://nypost.com/seven/03042005/gossip/pagesix.htm

Conspiracy theorists make much of the fact that Thompson had been working on a far-fetched story about the World Trade Center attack at the time of his death.

Oh my god....

GOD DAMMIT!!

God... Something about his death just struck me as perverted from the beginning... I knew once hunter found out about the world trade center attacks that he would write something...

I always thought that If I did the same, I mean actually came up with any HARD evidence... that I would have a coincidental car accident, or maybe OD, or maybe just simply dissapear.

God dammit I hate this country with every fiber of my being.

conspiracy theories are for those who can't get laid.

[canjodion85]

Originally posted by i am the navajo@Mar 5 2005, 01:57 PM
conspiracy theories are for those who can't get laid.

People who say this are people who don't think.

conspiracy theories are for those who can't get laid.

HEY! Fuck you, asshole! :P

[Einherjar]

Originally posted by i am the navajo@Mar 5 2005, 01:57 PM
conspiracy theories are for those who can't get laid.

Some conspiracy theories are pretty far fetched... but this one doesnt seem too extreme.

[Eloivore]

Well, this is interesting. It doesn't prove anything, of course, but it does suggest they ought to look into it more deeply. Anyone heard whether they tested his hands for gunshot residue? Did they even bother to investigate this at all? If nothing else I find it hard to believe HST would off himself without some kind of dramatic sendoff or message.

The trouble with conspiracy theories is they can become unfalsifiable. If you believe in every fiber of your being that, for example, the phone company killed John F. Kennedy (obscure movie reference), then any evidence to the contrary just becomes evidence for a coverup, so there's no way to disprove it.

That doesn't necessarily mean all conspiracy theories are wrong, only that you have to start out by asking yourself "OK, what evidence would be sufficient for me to believe there's no conspiracy?" If your answer is "none", you've got a problem. A good scientist may hypothesize, but draws conclusions from the evidence, as opposed to selecting evidence to fit a pre-existing conclusion.

But yeah, the more I read about HST's death, the more it seems like we're not getting the whole story, and something seriously fucked is going on. That doesn't mean it's a WTC / 9/11 conspiracy, maybe it was a family argument that escalated into murder for all I know, but whatever it is, the man deserves to have his death investigated.

(As for 9/11 ... I always thought, why bother bombing the WTC, when it would be much easier just to cut funding and manpower and attention so as to "accidentally" let one of the gazillions of attempted terrorist attacks per year succeed? The latter approach has plausible deniability; you could never really prove it was intentional unless someone came forward. Maybe this would make a good thread for debate, then again maybe not)

Conspiracy theorists make much of the fact that Thompson had been working on a far-fetched story about the World Trade Center attack at the time of his death.

Holy shit I want to read what he wrote so bad. I hope it's not destroyed.

[vapor]

I kept asking myself, why? I couldnt beleive he would kill himself. Even though I was plannign to but never met him, he felt like a close friend all these years..

I hope whoever did this is fucking shot. I really do. Sorry for being so coarse but it just really makes me angry..

[Krystena]

Didnt we do this w/ Kurt Kobain?