HUNTER S. THOMPSON DEAD AT 67

Hunter S. Thompson, the acerbic counterculture writer who personified
"gonzo journalism," died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in
Woody Creek on Sunday night. He was 67.

Regarded as one of the most legendary writers of the 20th Century, Thompson
is best known for the 1972 classic "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." He is
credited with pioneering gonzo journalism - a style of writing that breaks
traditional rules of news reporting and is purposefully slanted.

Pitkin County Sheriff Bob Braudis, who is a close personal friend of
Thompson, confirmed the death. Thompson's son, Juan, discovered his body on
Sunday evening. Thompson's wife, Anita Thompson, 32, was not at home when
the shooting occurred.

"On Feb. 20, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson took his life with a gunshot to the
head at his fortified compound in Woody Creek, Colorado. The family will
provide more information about memorial service and media contacts shortly.
Hunter prized his privacy and we ask that his friends and admirers respect
that privacy as well as that of his family," Juan and Anita Thompson said
in a statement released to the Aspen Daily News. "He stomped terra."

A small group of friends and family members mourned the loss of Thompson at
Owl Farm, where sheriff's deputies were investigating and processing the death.

"Details and interviews may be forthcoming when the family has had the time
to recover from the trauma of the tragedy," Braudis said in a phone
interview from Owl Farm, the rural Woody Creek home Thompson moved into in
the 1960s.

Thompson grew up in Kentucky. He is survived by his wife, Anita Thompson of
Woody Creek, son Juan of Denver, daughter-in-law Jennifer and grandson William.

"Hunter was not only a national treasure, but the conscience of this little
village," said Gerry Goldstein, a prominent Aspen attorney who is a dear
friend of the Thompson family. "He kept us all honest. It didn't matter who
you were, whether you were his friend or someone he didn't even know. He
didn't mind grading your paper. He was righteous. He was part of a literary
nobility."

Pitkin County Commissioner Dorothea Farris, who moved to Carbondale in the
late 1980s after living in Woody Creek, called Thompson a fine neighbor
despite the fact it was common for her to hear gunfire from his property.
As much as he was a defender of the First Amendment, he was also a champion
of the Second Amendment. Firearms were abundant at Owl Farm, where he had
his own shooting range.

"He was a good neighbor," Farris said. "He slept during the day and wrote
at night. This is sad."

Thompson's larger-than-life persona was evident in his stories of
drug-depraved adventures in books such as "Hell's Angels" and "Fear and
Loathing in Las Vegas," which was brought to life on the big screen by
actor and friend Johnny Depp. He stayed in close contact with Depp and a
number of world luminaries including actors Sean Penn and Jack Nicholson,
presidential historian Douglas Brinkley and former Sen. George McGovern,
whose presidential bid he chronicled in the book "Fear and Loathing: On the
Campaign Trail '72."

"We regarded him as our honorary national editor," said Dave Danforth,
founder of the Aspen Daily News, where Thompson was a guest editor in the
1990s. "I did a paper on him in school. Any aspiring writer studied Hunter
S. Thompson in both the pre- and post-gonzo eras."

Thompson was born in Louisville, Ky., on July 18, 1937. He joined the U.S.
Air Force after high school in 1956, and was sports editor for a military
newspaper in Florida when he received an honorable discharge about a year
later. His work first became famous in the pages of Rolling Stone magazine.
For the last several years, he wrote a sports column for ESPN.com.

His books include "The Proud Highway" and his most recent effort, "Hey
Rube: Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and The Downward Spiral of Dumbness."