1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:03,440 Speaker 1: This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners. 2 00:00:03,840 --> 00:00:05,760 Speaker 1: Please check the show notes for more information. 3 00:00:07,680 --> 00:00:29,400 Speaker 2: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. The stories about 4 00:00:29,480 --> 00:00:34,159 Speaker 2: Hunter S. Thompson are insane. He was nearly beaten to 5 00:00:34,200 --> 00:00:37,519 Speaker 2: death by Hell's angels. He was almost electrocuted in a 6 00:00:37,520 --> 00:00:41,240 Speaker 2: bathtub when he pissed off the wrong people. He dropped 7 00:00:41,280 --> 00:00:46,080 Speaker 2: acid with many people, including the legendary Mary Pranksters, hunted 8 00:00:46,120 --> 00:00:50,680 Speaker 2: deer with his car, and carried around an alcoholic monkey 9 00:00:50,720 --> 00:00:54,360 Speaker 2: in his pocket. He was an outcast, a rebel, and 10 00:00:54,400 --> 00:00:58,480 Speaker 2: a risk taker. It was also a hell raiser, arrested 11 00:00:58,640 --> 00:01:02,560 Speaker 2: his senior year of high school and denied graduation. He 12 00:01:02,680 --> 00:01:05,800 Speaker 2: was motivated by anger in a world where he witnessed 13 00:01:05,880 --> 00:01:10,600 Speaker 2: great injustices and even greater bullshit, and he steamrolled all 14 00:01:10,640 --> 00:01:15,119 Speaker 2: of these things in his writing. Writing that was so great, 15 00:01:15,480 --> 00:01:18,360 Speaker 2: so unique that a new word had to be created 16 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:22,080 Speaker 2: to describe it. And that great writing was very much 17 00:01:22,280 --> 00:01:24,320 Speaker 2: unlike that loop I played for you at the top 18 00:01:24,400 --> 00:01:28,520 Speaker 2: of the show that was not great. That was a 19 00:01:28,560 --> 00:01:32,320 Speaker 2: preset loop from my melotron called maybe It was Utah 20 00:01:32,720 --> 00:01:36,319 Speaker 2: MK one. I played you that loop because I can't 21 00:01:36,319 --> 00:01:39,000 Speaker 2: afford the rights to a clip from We Belonged Together 22 00:01:39,120 --> 00:01:42,160 Speaker 2: by Mariah Carey, and why would I play you that 23 00:01:42,360 --> 00:01:46,319 Speaker 2: specific slice of emancipation of Mimi Cheese? 24 00:01:46,319 --> 00:01:47,280 Speaker 1: Could I afford it? 25 00:01:48,320 --> 00:01:51,920 Speaker 2: Because that was the number one song in America on 26 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:55,560 Speaker 2: August twentieth, two thousand and five, And that was the 27 00:01:55,640 --> 00:01:59,000 Speaker 2: day that Hunter S. Thompson was given a gonzo farewell 28 00:01:59,680 --> 00:02:02,840 Speaker 2: as ashes were shot from a cannon atop a giant 29 00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:04,960 Speaker 2: fist clutching a Paote button. 30 00:02:06,320 --> 00:02:07,760 Speaker 1: On this episode. 31 00:02:07,720 --> 00:02:13,800 Speaker 2: Hell's Angels bathtub electrocutions acid Cannon's outcasts. 32 00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:18,480 Speaker 1: And Hunter S. Thompson, I'm Jake Brennan and this. 33 00:02:19,160 --> 00:02:44,560 Speaker 2: Is Disgraceland, nineteen sixty six, Mendocino, California. Sonny Barger didn't 34 00:02:44,600 --> 00:02:47,280 Speaker 2: stop the boys in his motorcycle club from doing whatever 35 00:02:47,280 --> 00:02:51,040 Speaker 2: they wanted right now. That was kicking the shit out 36 00:02:51,040 --> 00:02:53,480 Speaker 2: of the writer who'd shadowed them for the past year. 37 00:02:54,280 --> 00:02:57,040 Speaker 2: Not that Sonny hated the writer like some of the others. 38 00:02:57,960 --> 00:03:01,960 Speaker 2: If anything, Hunter S. Thompson's take on the Hell's Angels, 39 00:03:02,240 --> 00:03:05,560 Speaker 2: initially appearing in the Pages of the Nation and now 40 00:03:05,639 --> 00:03:10,120 Speaker 2: expanded into Hunter's first book, made the country's most notorious 41 00:03:10,160 --> 00:03:14,760 Speaker 2: biker gang appear more mythical than they actually were. But 42 00:03:14,919 --> 00:03:18,600 Speaker 2: Hunter Thompson wanted to talk, a big fucking talk. He 43 00:03:18,680 --> 00:03:21,960 Speaker 2: wanted to take risks, take life to the edge, even 44 00:03:22,720 --> 00:03:25,720 Speaker 2: and some of the guys in Sunny Barger's club thought 45 00:03:25,720 --> 00:03:29,120 Speaker 2: that Hunter wanted more than he deserved, taking all that 46 00:03:29,240 --> 00:03:32,360 Speaker 2: money for his big time publication, while the boys on 47 00:03:32,400 --> 00:03:37,000 Speaker 2: their bikes got nothing but someone else's mythology. 48 00:03:37,600 --> 00:03:38,120 Speaker 1: Hunter s. 49 00:03:38,160 --> 00:03:42,600 Speaker 2: Thompson may have been born angry anger, made worse as 50 00:03:42,640 --> 00:03:46,280 Speaker 2: a poor kid growing up around Louisville's charmed upper crust. 51 00:03:47,240 --> 00:03:51,600 Speaker 2: But right now the Hell's angels were angrier. They wanted 52 00:03:51,640 --> 00:03:54,640 Speaker 2: their cut, and if Hunter Thompson didn't have the cash, 53 00:03:55,400 --> 00:03:59,800 Speaker 2: his blood would do. The first punch caught Hunter in 54 00:03:59,800 --> 00:04:03,000 Speaker 2: the and he felt the cartilage in his nose liquefy. 55 00:04:03,640 --> 00:04:06,240 Speaker 2: His legs went out from under him, and suddenly he 56 00:04:06,280 --> 00:04:09,920 Speaker 2: was spread out on the rocky coastline, the angels swarming 57 00:04:09,960 --> 00:04:14,000 Speaker 2: overhead like bats. Hunter didn't kid himself that he could 58 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:17,440 Speaker 2: actually join a motorcycle gang, even though he was riding 59 00:04:17,480 --> 00:04:20,479 Speaker 2: with one for his book, but he did see these 60 00:04:20,520 --> 00:04:25,080 Speaker 2: guys as kindred spirits. After all, it was Hunter who 61 00:04:25,160 --> 00:04:28,479 Speaker 2: saw similarities between himself and the Angels and the Mary 62 00:04:28,520 --> 00:04:32,600 Speaker 2: Pranksters ken Kesey's freak scene that was turning on, tuning in, 63 00:04:32,680 --> 00:04:36,279 Speaker 2: and dropping out over in La Honda. Hunter brought the 64 00:04:36,320 --> 00:04:40,640 Speaker 2: opposing camps together, the Angels with their wine and Benny's 65 00:04:40,960 --> 00:04:44,680 Speaker 2: and the pranksters with their acid tests. Hunter took his 66 00:04:44,760 --> 00:04:48,800 Speaker 2: first LSD trip along with the motorcycle club at Keisi's place. 67 00:04:49,760 --> 00:04:51,960 Speaker 1: He knew his life had been changed forever. 68 00:04:53,440 --> 00:04:56,520 Speaker 2: After the seventy two hour marathon of sex, drugs, and 69 00:04:56,600 --> 00:05:00,760 Speaker 2: violence came to an end. Long after Neil Cassid naked 70 00:05:00,920 --> 00:05:02,720 Speaker 2: stood on the side of the road with a pair 71 00:05:02,720 --> 00:05:06,000 Speaker 2: of binoculars, telling the cops watching them from a distance 72 00:05:06,040 --> 00:05:09,160 Speaker 2: to fuck off, while his ex wife was being passed 73 00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:13,880 Speaker 2: around by bearded bikers somewhere inside those leather clad pillagers 74 00:05:13,880 --> 00:05:18,000 Speaker 2: and their eyes like saucers. And now the acid had 75 00:05:18,040 --> 00:05:20,880 Speaker 2: worn off, but the angel's eyes that were bearing down 76 00:05:20,920 --> 00:05:24,559 Speaker 2: on Hunter bleeding out on the Mendocino Coast still looked 77 00:05:24,600 --> 00:05:29,360 Speaker 2: like saucers. Hunter knew that look the look of an outcast, 78 00:05:29,920 --> 00:05:34,039 Speaker 2: a rebel. Sunny Bargerie's gang were wrist takers out there 79 00:05:34,080 --> 00:05:36,359 Speaker 2: on the open road, pushing it all the way to 80 00:05:36,400 --> 00:05:40,919 Speaker 2: the edge, just like Hunter himself, and just like the angels, 81 00:05:41,520 --> 00:05:42,320 Speaker 2: Hunter did. 82 00:05:42,120 --> 00:05:51,600 Speaker 1: It angry, angry. Nineteen fifty five, seventeen year old Hunter S. 83 00:05:51,640 --> 00:05:52,880 Speaker 1: Thompson was a known. 84 00:05:52,760 --> 00:05:56,920 Speaker 2: Quantity in Louisville, Kentucky, a hell raising hoodlum whose dead 85 00:05:56,960 --> 00:05:59,119 Speaker 2: father was no longer around to keep them in line. 86 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:04,000 Speaker 2: He shot up mailboxes, robbed liquor stores, dumped a truckload 87 00:06:04,040 --> 00:06:06,760 Speaker 2: of pumpkins in a hotel lobby, and the flooded the school. 88 00:06:07,920 --> 00:06:09,680 Speaker 1: Petty arson, petty theft. 89 00:06:10,160 --> 00:06:12,360 Speaker 2: A shrink would call all this acting out a cry 90 00:06:12,400 --> 00:06:15,880 Speaker 2: for attention, spurred on by the people who surrounded him, 91 00:06:16,160 --> 00:06:20,440 Speaker 2: the haves in Louisville's polite society, rich kids who led 92 00:06:20,480 --> 00:06:24,480 Speaker 2: him into their literary club, real fancy stuff, fancy clothes, 93 00:06:24,480 --> 00:06:27,880 Speaker 2: fancy books. But just because Hunter was a member of 94 00:06:27,920 --> 00:06:31,359 Speaker 2: the prestigious at kny and Literary Association didn't mean he 95 00:06:31,440 --> 00:06:34,760 Speaker 2: was an equal. He had no money and no father, 96 00:06:35,240 --> 00:06:38,200 Speaker 2: no future in writing. At least that's what the. 97 00:06:38,160 --> 00:06:40,200 Speaker 1: Other kids told him Hunter. 98 00:06:40,480 --> 00:06:42,640 Speaker 2: They asked him, why the hell are you typing out 99 00:06:42,680 --> 00:06:46,039 Speaker 2: the Great Gatsby word for word to get the rhythm 100 00:06:46,120 --> 00:06:49,240 Speaker 2: of the language, He told him, Could they not understand? 101 00:06:49,680 --> 00:06:52,000 Speaker 2: Holy Jesus not even out of high school, and already 102 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:55,279 Speaker 2: there were bonehead pigfuckers to contend with. Some of those 103 00:06:55,320 --> 00:06:58,960 Speaker 2: pigfuckers liked him, even carried out his childish pranks with him, 104 00:06:59,160 --> 00:07:01,440 Speaker 2: but not enough for her to retain membership in their 105 00:07:01,440 --> 00:07:07,200 Speaker 2: elite club. Senior year, he was voted out, disgraced, and 106 00:07:07,240 --> 00:07:12,080 Speaker 2: then not long after, arrested along with two classmates, accused 107 00:07:12,080 --> 00:07:16,600 Speaker 2: of mugging some other kids for cigarettes. Once again, Hunter 108 00:07:16,800 --> 00:07:20,920 Speaker 2: was reminded of his place in Louisville's social hierarchy. No 109 00:07:21,040 --> 00:07:23,920 Speaker 2: family lawyer to call, all he had was a record, 110 00:07:24,520 --> 00:07:30,160 Speaker 2: banned from graduation, expelled, jailed. His sentence lasted only a month, 111 00:07:30,840 --> 00:07:33,160 Speaker 2: and the judge made sure Hunter understood that he was 112 00:07:33,200 --> 00:07:36,680 Speaker 2: not being released on probation. In fact, until he turned 113 00:07:36,720 --> 00:07:39,280 Speaker 2: twenty one he would remain under the watchful eye of 114 00:07:39,320 --> 00:07:43,600 Speaker 2: the Kentucky law. But until then the Air Force would 115 00:07:43,640 --> 00:07:45,960 Speaker 2: do him some good. Maybe he even teach him a 116 00:07:46,040 --> 00:07:49,800 Speaker 2: lesson or too. What all the Air Force did for 117 00:07:49,920 --> 00:07:54,640 Speaker 2: Hunter s. Thompson was reinforced a deep seated distrust, downright 118 00:07:54,760 --> 00:07:56,400 Speaker 2: hatred even for authority. 119 00:07:57,240 --> 00:07:58,240 Speaker 1: Trapped under Uncle. 120 00:07:58,160 --> 00:08:02,040 Speaker 2: Sam's thumb for two years, he fantasized about leaving and 121 00:08:02,120 --> 00:08:07,040 Speaker 2: when the time came, he'd do it in style. A 122 00:08:07,080 --> 00:08:10,560 Speaker 2: Cadillac idling like a ward hog's fart on account of 123 00:08:10,560 --> 00:08:13,120 Speaker 2: the fact that it had no muffler. It had no 124 00:08:13,240 --> 00:08:16,320 Speaker 2: brakes either, which met Hunter had one pedal to press 125 00:08:16,320 --> 00:08:17,280 Speaker 2: and one option to. 126 00:08:17,240 --> 00:08:21,480 Speaker 1: Exercise full speed ahead he. 127 00:08:21,520 --> 00:08:23,600 Speaker 2: Was hauling asked on the wrong side of the street, 128 00:08:24,040 --> 00:08:28,239 Speaker 2: exiting the military campus as offensively as humanly possible. The caddies, 129 00:08:28,240 --> 00:08:31,960 Speaker 2: spewing black smoke, tires squealing, topped down Hunter with one 130 00:08:31,960 --> 00:08:34,360 Speaker 2: hand on the wheel, the other holding an unopened bottle 131 00:08:34,360 --> 00:08:35,400 Speaker 2: of wine. 132 00:08:35,160 --> 00:08:36,800 Speaker 1: Good Vintage Better Legs. 133 00:08:37,840 --> 00:08:39,839 Speaker 2: He tossed the bottle at the Air Force base his 134 00:08:39,960 --> 00:08:43,080 Speaker 2: gatehouse as the Cadillac went screaming by, like. 135 00:08:43,160 --> 00:08:45,960 Speaker 1: A Malotov cocktail launched in the enemy territory. 136 00:08:48,080 --> 00:08:52,840 Speaker 2: The biker's fist pulverizing his nose reminded Hunter that this 137 00:08:53,440 --> 00:08:55,120 Speaker 2: was no fantasy. 138 00:08:55,280 --> 00:08:58,439 Speaker 1: The angels beating him into a pulp were all too real. 139 00:08:59,040 --> 00:09:03,040 Speaker 2: His battered body still splayed along the Mendocino shoreline, fully 140 00:09:03,080 --> 00:09:04,959 Speaker 2: at the mercy of the Hell's angels who had made 141 00:09:04,960 --> 00:09:08,319 Speaker 2: it their mission to break him. One angel in particular 142 00:09:08,679 --> 00:09:11,680 Speaker 2: was hoisting a giant rock in the air preparing to 143 00:09:11,679 --> 00:09:14,199 Speaker 2: bring it down on Hunter's head and end him for good. 144 00:09:15,400 --> 00:09:18,920 Speaker 2: Hunter was thinking of his wife, now his young son. 145 00:09:19,920 --> 00:09:23,080 Speaker 2: He couldn't die here, not like some gutless swine left 146 00:09:23,080 --> 00:09:25,800 Speaker 2: to shrivel up in the salt there. The birds would 147 00:09:25,800 --> 00:09:29,560 Speaker 2: get him soon enough. It's goddamn flying rats, ridden with 148 00:09:29,640 --> 00:09:32,360 Speaker 2: disease pecking out his eyes. After the last of the 149 00:09:32,360 --> 00:09:34,760 Speaker 2: biker gang had jumped on his Harley and disappeared into 150 00:09:34,800 --> 00:09:38,600 Speaker 2: the California night, That's when he saw Tiny, a biker 151 00:09:38,640 --> 00:09:41,800 Speaker 2: who had shown Hunter some compassion in the past, standing 152 00:09:41,840 --> 00:09:46,359 Speaker 2: at arm's length behind the group of guys now attacking him. 153 00:09:46,440 --> 00:09:51,880 Speaker 2: All right, come on, Tiny was saying, that's enough. So 154 00:09:52,040 --> 00:09:55,640 Speaker 2: Tiny escorted Hunter to his car, told him to leave immediately. 155 00:09:56,760 --> 00:09:59,880 Speaker 2: Hunter wasted no time. He threw the shipbox into fur, 156 00:10:00,320 --> 00:10:02,839 Speaker 2: struggled to navigate with the one good eye he now had. 157 00:10:04,400 --> 00:10:08,920 Speaker 2: It was midnight dark. Any fear Hunter experienced down on 158 00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:12,120 Speaker 2: the beach had morphed into anger. He was angry about 159 00:10:12,120 --> 00:10:15,000 Speaker 2: the excruciating pain he was in, that he was spitting 160 00:10:15,080 --> 00:10:18,920 Speaker 2: up blood all over the dash and Jesus Christ his nose. 161 00:10:19,559 --> 00:10:21,800 Speaker 2: If he didn't do something about it now, tomorrow would 162 00:10:21,800 --> 00:10:24,000 Speaker 2: be hard as the rock that that psycho biker tried 163 00:10:24,040 --> 00:10:27,439 Speaker 2: to brain him with. He pulled the car over to 164 00:10:27,480 --> 00:10:29,439 Speaker 2: the side of the road and went to help with 165 00:10:29,520 --> 00:10:34,760 Speaker 2: the car's overhead light in the rear view mirror, performed emergency. 166 00:10:34,120 --> 00:10:39,400 Speaker 1: Surgery on his aching schnaus. But Hunter S. Thompson wasn't 167 00:10:39,400 --> 00:10:41,360 Speaker 1: a surgeon. He was a writer. 168 00:10:42,080 --> 00:10:44,080 Speaker 2: Then it would be a while before he could breathe 169 00:10:44,080 --> 00:10:47,600 Speaker 2: correctly again. People who met him and saw his fucked 170 00:10:47,679 --> 00:10:50,000 Speaker 2: up nose during this stretch of time assumed he was 171 00:10:50,040 --> 00:10:54,120 Speaker 2: a coke addict, which was funny to Hunter because cocaine 172 00:10:54,160 --> 00:11:00,000 Speaker 2: wasn't his thing. Coke wasn't like mescaline, mushrooms, psilocybin. Subsence 173 00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:02,560 Speaker 2: is that at the time were still legal in the 174 00:11:02,640 --> 00:11:05,640 Speaker 2: United States. And the best thing about those the thing 175 00:11:05,679 --> 00:11:08,080 Speaker 2: that made them better than anything else, was that they 176 00:11:08,080 --> 00:11:11,240 Speaker 2: took Hunter to that place where all the outcasts, rebels 177 00:11:11,240 --> 00:11:14,080 Speaker 2: and risk takers went, the place he wrote about at 178 00:11:14,120 --> 00:11:17,360 Speaker 2: the end of this Hell's Angels book, the dividing line 179 00:11:17,360 --> 00:11:21,800 Speaker 2: between sanity and insanity, life and death. Like a biker 180 00:11:21,920 --> 00:11:24,720 Speaker 2: taking a corner way too fast and sliding into the 181 00:11:24,760 --> 00:11:28,440 Speaker 2: curve of aka going over the high side, a classic 182 00:11:28,520 --> 00:11:31,320 Speaker 2: get off as the MC called it, and the place 183 00:11:31,440 --> 00:12:07,520 Speaker 2: where you got off was the edge. Vegas, Saigon, Miami, 184 00:12:07,800 --> 00:12:11,960 Speaker 2: New Hampshire. Football kickoffs, rumbles in the jungle, fear and 185 00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:15,760 Speaker 2: loathing the only constant until that inevitable million pounds shitthammer 186 00:12:15,800 --> 00:12:19,920 Speaker 2: comes crashing down. Wherever he was and whatever he was 187 00:12:19,960 --> 00:12:21,000 Speaker 2: writing about. 188 00:12:21,040 --> 00:12:21,560 Speaker 1: Hunter S. 189 00:12:21,600 --> 00:12:25,520 Speaker 2: Thompson inserted himself into his journalism, if he could call 190 00:12:25,600 --> 00:12:29,880 Speaker 2: what he did journalism, just as he inserted himself into 191 00:12:29,880 --> 00:12:32,160 Speaker 2: the most feared motorcycle gang in the world when he 192 00:12:32,240 --> 00:12:35,920 Speaker 2: rode with the Hell's Angels for a year. By making 193 00:12:36,000 --> 00:12:39,240 Speaker 2: himself part of the story, Hunter was making himself seen 194 00:12:39,320 --> 00:12:40,160 Speaker 2: and heard. 195 00:12:40,240 --> 00:12:41,160 Speaker 1: That he always did. 196 00:12:41,920 --> 00:12:44,439 Speaker 2: Instead of setting fires and knocking over liquor stores like 197 00:12:44,480 --> 00:12:47,079 Speaker 2: he did as a kid, now as an adult, he 198 00:12:47,280 --> 00:12:51,080 Speaker 2: dosed the unsuspecting with lsd set off roaming candles in 199 00:12:51,080 --> 00:12:54,280 Speaker 2: close quarters, stuck a severed boar's head, and a toilet, 200 00:12:54,520 --> 00:12:58,680 Speaker 2: all gags, all for attention. He wrote as he lived 201 00:12:59,120 --> 00:13:03,920 Speaker 2: wild feral, one moment bleeding into the next, some moments 202 00:13:03,960 --> 00:13:07,880 Speaker 2: deliberately exaggerated to ensure that his audience's eyeballs stayed glued 203 00:13:07,880 --> 00:13:11,640 Speaker 2: to the page, and others so saturated with truth. 204 00:13:11,559 --> 00:13:13,680 Speaker 1: That you could hardly believe what you were reading. 205 00:13:14,440 --> 00:13:17,600 Speaker 2: His style, which in its infancy didn't have a name, 206 00:13:18,200 --> 00:13:25,800 Speaker 2: was the product of his lifestyle and big Sir Hunter 207 00:13:25,880 --> 00:13:28,200 Speaker 2: whipped his car through the twists and turns of Route 208 00:13:28,200 --> 00:13:31,840 Speaker 2: one hunting deer at night alongside a whip it with 209 00:13:31,920 --> 00:13:36,280 Speaker 2: balls the size of California oranges. Forty nine attempts, the 210 00:13:36,360 --> 00:13:39,680 Speaker 2: fiftieth being the charm only because the dumb animal found 211 00:13:39,679 --> 00:13:42,679 Speaker 2: itself caught like a well a deer in the headlights 212 00:13:42,679 --> 00:13:47,080 Speaker 2: and ran headfirst into Hunter's vehicle. The dog was better 213 00:13:47,120 --> 00:13:50,160 Speaker 2: at catching cats anyway. The hunter simply had to issue 214 00:13:50,160 --> 00:13:52,040 Speaker 2: the nonverbal command and the whipp it with the mega 215 00:13:52,120 --> 00:13:55,320 Speaker 2: nuts sprang into action. Hunter didn't make friends with the 216 00:13:55,320 --> 00:13:58,360 Speaker 2: folksinger Joe Bias on that particular evening, seeing it was 217 00:13:58,400 --> 00:14:00,439 Speaker 2: her cat on the wrong end of the whip's job. 218 00:14:02,320 --> 00:14:06,080 Speaker 2: In South America, hunters struggled to maintain a steady byline 219 00:14:06,120 --> 00:14:10,400 Speaker 2: while simultaneously struggling with dysentery while some fucking bell told 220 00:14:10,440 --> 00:14:14,520 Speaker 2: NonStop outside of his room, the National Observer refusing. 221 00:14:14,040 --> 00:14:14,520 Speaker 1: To pay him. 222 00:14:14,559 --> 00:14:18,280 Speaker 2: Those weaseled dicks, then stung by some poisonous insect, now 223 00:14:18,320 --> 00:14:21,480 Speaker 2: forced to spend this beer money on cortizone and antibiotics, 224 00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:24,040 Speaker 2: which many had to steal the beers two at a 225 00:14:24,080 --> 00:14:26,160 Speaker 2: time so that the monkey living in his pocket wouldn't 226 00:14:26,200 --> 00:14:29,560 Speaker 2: go without. I'm serious, this is one hundred percent true. 227 00:14:29,880 --> 00:14:30,440 Speaker 1: Look it up. 228 00:14:31,920 --> 00:14:35,080 Speaker 2: The monkey's thirst for alcohol was as unquenchable as Hunter's, 229 00:14:35,600 --> 00:14:38,520 Speaker 2: so unquenchable in fact, that he, the monkey that is 230 00:14:38,760 --> 00:14:41,200 Speaker 2: suffering from a bad bout of the DTS, jumped from 231 00:14:41,200 --> 00:14:43,800 Speaker 2: a tenth floor window, ending it all, just as Hunter 232 00:14:43,800 --> 00:14:46,400 Speaker 2: would end it some forty years later, not by leaping 233 00:14:46,400 --> 00:14:48,560 Speaker 2: from great heights, but with the great power of a 234 00:14:48,600 --> 00:14:52,760 Speaker 2: forty five but I digress. In Chicago, Hunter found the 235 00:14:52,800 --> 00:14:56,560 Speaker 2: true meeting of America in a Cops nightstick Mayor Daily's 236 00:14:56,560 --> 00:14:59,960 Speaker 2: horde of bloodthirsty thugs committing acts of brutality, of innocenceivila 237 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:03,680 Speaker 2: millions that would have made the Angels blush. Far more 238 00:15:03,760 --> 00:15:06,840 Speaker 2: civil was Hunter's one and only meeting with his nemesis, 239 00:15:07,400 --> 00:15:09,800 Speaker 2: Richard Nixon in the back of a car as the 240 00:15:09,840 --> 00:15:12,600 Speaker 2: presidential hopeful was driven to a lear jet waiting for 241 00:15:12,680 --> 00:15:13,560 Speaker 2: him in New Hampshire. 242 00:15:14,520 --> 00:15:17,760 Speaker 1: The one stipulation politics were off the table. 243 00:15:18,680 --> 00:15:22,920 Speaker 2: Nixon wanted to talk football, which was all the same 244 00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:26,200 Speaker 2: the Hunter, because he already knew he hated Nixon's politics, 245 00:15:26,200 --> 00:15:29,120 Speaker 2: and he gladly talked football for hours with anyone, even 246 00:15:29,160 --> 00:15:33,040 Speaker 2: his enemies. Hunter assumed the feeling was mutual that he 247 00:15:33,080 --> 00:15:36,520 Speaker 2: was on Nixon's infamous enemies list, a list that had 248 00:15:36,560 --> 00:15:40,080 Speaker 2: grown to include Jane Fonda, Paul Newman, The Black Panthers, 249 00:15:40,360 --> 00:15:43,600 Speaker 2: and Scanlon's, the anti authority magazine that hired Hunter to 250 00:15:43,640 --> 00:15:48,600 Speaker 2: cover the Kentucky Derby. Hunter took the Kentucky Derby gig 251 00:15:48,680 --> 00:15:51,320 Speaker 2: without a second thought. He'd cover anything if there was 252 00:15:51,360 --> 00:15:55,000 Speaker 2: a paycheck attached, even better if his expenses were paid. 253 00:15:55,560 --> 00:15:58,000 Speaker 2: He had a wife and a young son. He needed 254 00:15:58,040 --> 00:16:00,800 Speaker 2: the money. But when it came aimed to the Derby, 255 00:16:00,960 --> 00:16:04,360 Speaker 2: to Kentucky, his home state, the state that rejected him 256 00:16:04,400 --> 00:16:07,600 Speaker 2: years earlier, locked him up, kicked him out, publicly humiliated him, 257 00:16:07,600 --> 00:16:09,400 Speaker 2: all the other want to be fuck ups ran home 258 00:16:09,440 --> 00:16:12,640 Speaker 2: to their rich daddies. Hunter wasn't just writing an assignment. 259 00:16:14,200 --> 00:16:19,200 Speaker 2: He was settling a score, or so said Ralph Stedman, 260 00:16:19,640 --> 00:16:22,880 Speaker 2: the Welsh artist hired to cover the Derby alongside Hunter 261 00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:29,960 Speaker 2: for Scamlets nineteen seventy Churchhill Downs. Ralph Stedman had never 262 00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:33,280 Speaker 2: met Hunter S. Thompson before, but he was easy to 263 00:16:33,320 --> 00:16:36,360 Speaker 2: spot in the Derby crowd. He was the one in 264 00:16:36,400 --> 00:16:40,120 Speaker 2: the striped polo tinted sunglasses, his watch threaded through a 265 00:16:40,160 --> 00:16:43,080 Speaker 2: leather biker bracelet, white tube socks pulled up to his 266 00:16:43,160 --> 00:16:46,360 Speaker 2: knees just below his short shorts, sitting at the bar, 267 00:16:46,560 --> 00:16:49,040 Speaker 2: starting a rumor that the Black Panthers were on their 268 00:16:49,040 --> 00:16:53,120 Speaker 2: way to protest, anything to rile up the greed heads, 269 00:16:53,120 --> 00:16:55,960 Speaker 2: spilling bourbon all over themselves and pretending as though Jackie 270 00:16:56,040 --> 00:17:00,360 Speaker 2: Robinson had never put on that Dodger's jersey. Hunter had 271 00:17:00,400 --> 00:17:03,880 Speaker 2: more than his fair share of wisdom concerning Louisville's high 272 00:17:03,920 --> 00:17:07,600 Speaker 2: society to impart to Ralph, as well as a few 273 00:17:07,640 --> 00:17:12,119 Speaker 2: extra doses of psilocybin. Ralph had never done anything like 274 00:17:12,160 --> 00:17:12,719 Speaker 2: that before. 275 00:17:13,080 --> 00:17:13,840 Speaker 1: It didn't matter. 276 00:17:14,400 --> 00:17:16,720 Speaker 2: He was working with Hunter now, so he had to 277 00:17:16,720 --> 00:17:20,200 Speaker 2: get on Hunter's level. The drug was a truth serrem 278 00:17:20,280 --> 00:17:22,920 Speaker 2: for your eyes. And when you were on this stuff, 279 00:17:23,200 --> 00:17:25,560 Speaker 2: you were able to see who these Southern gentlemen, these 280 00:17:25,600 --> 00:17:30,479 Speaker 2: Southern bells, truly were beneath. The veneer of respectability was 281 00:17:31,119 --> 00:17:36,880 Speaker 2: the underbelly, and I do mean bellies, bloated bellies, shouting, crying, puking, 282 00:17:36,880 --> 00:17:40,160 Speaker 2: and pissing themselves, losing more money than Hunter or Ralph 283 00:17:40,160 --> 00:17:42,399 Speaker 2: wouldever see in their lives. How the horses rounded the 284 00:17:42,440 --> 00:17:46,119 Speaker 2: track down below. Hunter didn't care about what was happening 285 00:17:46,160 --> 00:17:49,480 Speaker 2: on the track. That's not why he was here. He 286 00:17:49,640 --> 00:17:52,439 Speaker 2: was here for the slabber on some old fat man's cigar. 287 00:17:53,400 --> 00:17:58,480 Speaker 2: The decorum circling the urinal drain, ordorous lizards, all of them, 288 00:17:58,680 --> 00:18:02,720 Speaker 2: their eyes blacked, their tongues forked, hissing, screeching, chanting, My 289 00:18:02,800 --> 00:18:06,040 Speaker 2: old Kentucky home like a coven, circling a pentagram etched 290 00:18:06,080 --> 00:18:09,399 Speaker 2: on the floor, And on that floor in the middle 291 00:18:09,400 --> 00:18:12,760 Speaker 2: of it, all bloodied and defiled, lay the Derby crowd, 292 00:18:12,880 --> 00:18:19,719 Speaker 2: sacrifice the American dream. When it was all said and done, 293 00:18:20,040 --> 00:18:23,280 Speaker 2: Hunter scrambled to make sense of it all. He was 294 00:18:23,320 --> 00:18:27,119 Speaker 2: barely able to submit his article under deadline. He felt 295 00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:31,119 Speaker 2: like he had failed, so stoned on hallucinogens, just like 296 00:18:31,160 --> 00:18:34,399 Speaker 2: his genteel subjects were stoned on their own bullshit, that 297 00:18:34,480 --> 00:18:37,960 Speaker 2: his final draft didn't even mention the race itself, which 298 00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:40,560 Speaker 2: is what Scanlon's paid him for in the first place. 299 00:18:41,560 --> 00:18:44,880 Speaker 2: But when the magazine published Hunter's article, the Kentucky Derby 300 00:18:44,960 --> 00:18:48,360 Speaker 2: is Decaded and Depraved in their June nineteen seventy issue. 301 00:18:48,600 --> 00:18:53,080 Speaker 2: It hit a nerve, It felt new, daring, a singular 302 00:18:53,119 --> 00:18:57,000 Speaker 2: work from a unique mind. The phone at Scanlon's rang 303 00:18:57,000 --> 00:19:00,399 Speaker 2: off the hook, and people really responded to it. A 304 00:19:00,400 --> 00:19:02,879 Speaker 2: writer at The Boston Globe sent word to Hunter that 305 00:19:02,960 --> 00:19:05,160 Speaker 2: his article read like a missive from the only man 306 00:19:05,200 --> 00:19:07,240 Speaker 2: to make it through an all night drinking session with 307 00:19:07,320 --> 00:19:08,000 Speaker 2: his wits. 308 00:19:07,720 --> 00:19:08,960 Speaker 1: Still about him. 309 00:19:09,600 --> 00:19:11,760 Speaker 2: The town he's in, South Boston had a word for 310 00:19:11,840 --> 00:19:18,560 Speaker 2: that kind of guy. Gonzo Hunter soon put his Gonzo's 311 00:19:18,600 --> 00:19:23,040 Speaker 2: stamp on other American events Marty Gras New Orleans, the 312 00:19:23,080 --> 00:19:27,080 Speaker 2: super Bowl in Houston, America's Cup in Newport, New Year's, 313 00:19:27,160 --> 00:19:31,560 Speaker 2: even Times Square, or wherever the American dream was supposedly thriving. 314 00:19:32,040 --> 00:19:36,480 Speaker 2: Hunter knew better the American dream was not thriving anywhere. 315 00:19:36,960 --> 00:19:41,040 Speaker 2: In fact, the American dream was fucked. It was fucked 316 00:19:41,040 --> 00:19:44,439 Speaker 2: in Chicago in sixty eight, fucked the minute Nixon stepped 317 00:19:44,480 --> 00:19:47,200 Speaker 2: off that Lear Jet in New Hampshire. Fucked when Hunter 318 00:19:47,280 --> 00:19:50,280 Speaker 2: ran himself for Sheriff of Aspen, Colorado, on a ticket 319 00:19:50,280 --> 00:19:54,320 Speaker 2: that promised to legalize grass. Publicly shamed dishonest drug dealers 320 00:19:54,560 --> 00:19:59,080 Speaker 2: and disarmed the entire police force. Hunter's bid for sheriff 321 00:19:59,200 --> 00:20:01,879 Speaker 2: terrified the ste at his quote so much that the 322 00:20:01,920 --> 00:20:05,040 Speaker 2: opposition brought people on stretchers from the hospitals to. 323 00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:08,359 Speaker 1: Go vote in the tolls. They made sure Hunter lost 324 00:20:08,440 --> 00:20:09,640 Speaker 1: by a wide margin. 325 00:20:10,600 --> 00:20:13,159 Speaker 2: It was a political failure that now seemed to mirror 326 00:20:13,160 --> 00:20:17,160 Speaker 2: what he was seeing as his imminent professional failure, because 327 00:20:17,600 --> 00:20:19,679 Speaker 2: even though he'd managed to coin a new style of 328 00:20:19,760 --> 00:20:22,919 Speaker 2: journalism with his Kentucky Derby article, that didn't mean his 329 00:20:23,040 --> 00:20:28,160 Speaker 2: life had suddenly changed. If anything, the attention really gave 330 00:20:28,240 --> 00:20:32,480 Speaker 2: way to more hustling for bylines and paychecks. Add to 331 00:20:32,520 --> 00:20:34,280 Speaker 2: that the fact that it was the dawn of the 332 00:20:34,359 --> 00:20:37,360 Speaker 2: nineteen seventies and the United States was coming apart at 333 00:20:37,359 --> 00:20:41,800 Speaker 2: the seams. Kids were being murdered at Kent State. Nixon 334 00:20:41,880 --> 00:20:45,920 Speaker 2: was sending troops into Cambodia. On the home front, Hunter's 335 00:20:45,920 --> 00:20:47,920 Speaker 2: wife suffered a string of miscarriages. 336 00:20:48,600 --> 00:20:50,480 Speaker 1: The going was getting tougher by the day. 337 00:20:51,200 --> 00:20:55,119 Speaker 2: But this as Hunter s Thompson were talking about, which 338 00:20:55,160 --> 00:20:58,160 Speaker 2: meant that the going didn't just get tough, the going 339 00:20:58,640 --> 00:21:03,440 Speaker 2: got weird. And when the going got weird, that's when 340 00:21:03,480 --> 00:21:04,760 Speaker 2: the weird turned. 341 00:21:04,560 --> 00:21:11,840 Speaker 1: Pro we'll be right back after this. 342 00:21:12,040 --> 00:21:23,480 Speaker 2: We're we're where. He was somewhere between his hotel room 343 00:21:23,560 --> 00:21:25,840 Speaker 2: and the lobby when the drugs began to take hold. 344 00:21:26,880 --> 00:21:30,480 Speaker 2: He remembered saying something like, Oscar, Oscar, where the hell 345 00:21:30,520 --> 00:21:33,240 Speaker 2: did you get off to man? All around him, the 346 00:21:33,320 --> 00:21:35,680 Speaker 2: sights and sounds of a casino at four point thirty 347 00:21:35,680 --> 00:21:37,880 Speaker 2: in the morning assaulted his senses. 348 00:21:39,720 --> 00:21:42,160 Speaker 1: Suddenly he realized that Oscar. 349 00:21:41,920 --> 00:21:45,040 Speaker 2: Wasn't there, not in the hotel, and not in Vegas, 350 00:21:45,480 --> 00:21:50,879 Speaker 2: not even in Nevada. Oscar was gone, and he was 351 00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:55,760 Speaker 2: left behind, stuck carrying Oscar's briefcase, which at last glance 352 00:21:55,840 --> 00:21:58,640 Speaker 2: contained about a pound of weed, a loaded three fifty 353 00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:02,280 Speaker 2: seven magnum and some extra bullets. And if they caught 354 00:22:02,320 --> 00:22:05,720 Speaker 2: him with this stuff, it was all over Christ. They'd 355 00:22:05,760 --> 00:22:07,840 Speaker 2: feed him to the wolves, maybe to the lions that 356 00:22:07,880 --> 00:22:11,280 Speaker 2: did that act over at the Tropicana. Not because they 357 00:22:11,359 --> 00:22:13,960 Speaker 2: knew what was inside his suitcase. You'd have to have 358 00:22:14,160 --> 00:22:16,879 Speaker 2: X ray vision for that, but because he had no 359 00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:19,880 Speaker 2: money left and thus was unable to pay the bill 360 00:22:19,920 --> 00:22:23,679 Speaker 2: for his room. It was why he was here now, 361 00:22:23,960 --> 00:22:27,840 Speaker 2: broke high and skipping out on his tab like some reprobate. 362 00:22:28,640 --> 00:22:32,280 Speaker 2: He had to move fast, well, not too fast. He 363 00:22:32,320 --> 00:22:35,200 Speaker 2: didn't want to raise any eyebrows, not that the red 364 00:22:35,240 --> 00:22:38,440 Speaker 2: Cadillac convertible waiting for him outside was doing him any favors. 365 00:22:39,160 --> 00:22:40,840 Speaker 2: But it was, like he told jan Winner when he 366 00:22:40,880 --> 00:22:42,879 Speaker 2: asked the editor of Rolling Stone to get him the 367 00:22:42,960 --> 00:22:46,440 Speaker 2: car specifically for this assignment, you can't cover the American 368 00:22:46,520 --> 00:22:52,320 Speaker 2: dream and a goddamn Oldsmobile right now, though he'd give 369 00:22:52,600 --> 00:22:56,119 Speaker 2: anything for an Oldsmobile, anything to look in conspicuous. As 370 00:22:56,119 --> 00:22:59,560 Speaker 2: he made his escape, lugging a suitcase full of contraband 371 00:22:59,560 --> 00:23:02,280 Speaker 2: through because seen a lobby as the drugs began to 372 00:23:02,320 --> 00:23:02,840 Speaker 2: take hold. 373 00:23:03,480 --> 00:23:06,280 Speaker 1: Who was he kidding? The drugs had taken hold. 374 00:23:06,119 --> 00:23:09,840 Speaker 2: Hours, days, weeks earlier. He was permanently under their sway 375 00:23:09,880 --> 00:23:13,359 Speaker 2: at this point. That was the whole point, not of 376 00:23:13,359 --> 00:23:15,560 Speaker 2: the article he was cooking up for Rolling Stone now, 377 00:23:15,600 --> 00:23:18,400 Speaker 2: but coming to Vegas in the first place to blow 378 00:23:18,440 --> 00:23:21,960 Speaker 2: off steam, to avoid yet another deadline, to get the 379 00:23:22,040 --> 00:23:27,159 Speaker 2: hell out of La. La was all darkness, even on 380 00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:30,240 Speaker 2: the outskirts as far away as Pasadena and a holiday 381 00:23:30,280 --> 00:23:33,480 Speaker 2: inn near the Santa Anita Racetrack were weeks earlier, Hunter s. 382 00:23:33,520 --> 00:23:38,040 Speaker 2: Thompson hold up working on an assignment. The more Hunter investigated, 383 00:23:38,400 --> 00:23:43,119 Speaker 2: the closer he got to that darkness. Reuben Salazar, a 384 00:23:43,200 --> 00:23:46,359 Speaker 2: reporter for the La Times, was dead, killed by a 385 00:23:46,400 --> 00:23:48,960 Speaker 2: tear gas round fired by a sheriff's deputy during the 386 00:23:49,040 --> 00:23:54,320 Speaker 2: National Chicano Moratorium march against the Vietnam War. The story 387 00:23:54,400 --> 00:23:58,600 Speaker 2: had all the things that got Hunter's blood pumping, war protests, 388 00:23:58,680 --> 00:24:02,960 Speaker 2: corruption and the have nots. But when it became clear 389 00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:05,800 Speaker 2: to Hunter that Salazar's death was likely not an accident, 390 00:24:05,840 --> 00:24:11,480 Speaker 2: but a premeditated assassination, that's when the darkness metastasized. This 391 00:24:11,680 --> 00:24:15,000 Speaker 2: was heavier than the stuff Hunter typically covered. This wasn't 392 00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:17,760 Speaker 2: the derby, or a football game or a campaign trail. 393 00:24:18,359 --> 00:24:23,040 Speaker 2: This was something else. Blood had been spilled, and blood 394 00:24:23,080 --> 00:24:26,239 Speaker 2: would be spilled again. Hunter needed to think about his 395 00:24:26,280 --> 00:24:29,600 Speaker 2: next move. He needed a moment. He needed a shower. 396 00:24:30,280 --> 00:24:33,199 Speaker 2: He walked into his hotel bathroom, only to find that 397 00:24:33,240 --> 00:24:33,879 Speaker 2: there was no. 398 00:24:33,800 --> 00:24:34,560 Speaker 1: Shower to take. 399 00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:38,119 Speaker 2: It was just a bathtub with a copper wire running 400 00:24:38,160 --> 00:24:41,400 Speaker 2: across it, a copper wire that was plugged into a socket. 401 00:24:42,400 --> 00:24:44,440 Speaker 2: He didn't know when they got access to his room, 402 00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:47,040 Speaker 2: but the message was clear. If Hunter wanted to peer 403 00:24:47,080 --> 00:24:49,280 Speaker 2: into that darkness, if he wanted to go right to 404 00:24:49,320 --> 00:24:49,920 Speaker 2: the edge. 405 00:24:50,080 --> 00:24:52,600 Speaker 1: He was going to fall in and that would be 406 00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:54,960 Speaker 1: the end. He thought of the beating. 407 00:24:54,720 --> 00:24:56,560 Speaker 2: He'd endured at the hands of the Angels a few 408 00:24:56,640 --> 00:24:59,160 Speaker 2: years prior. He didn't want to go through that again. 409 00:25:00,200 --> 00:25:03,240 Speaker 2: The hell out of Dodge, but not alone. He brought 410 00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:06,480 Speaker 2: with him Oscar Zeta Ala Coosta, his primary source for 411 00:25:06,520 --> 00:25:09,320 Speaker 2: the Salazar story, who also just so happened to be 412 00:25:09,480 --> 00:25:13,960 Speaker 2: Salazar's lawyer, and their agenda was simple get away, blow 413 00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:15,280 Speaker 2: off steam talk. 414 00:25:15,119 --> 00:25:16,080 Speaker 1: Where they could be alone. 415 00:25:16,880 --> 00:25:21,680 Speaker 2: And now Hunter was all alone, abandoned by his traveling companion, 416 00:25:22,119 --> 00:25:25,320 Speaker 2: carting around a suitcase loaded with drugs and firearms while 417 00:25:25,320 --> 00:25:27,439 Speaker 2: trying to skip out on his hotel bill at four 418 00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:30,520 Speaker 2: point thirty in the morning. He was more paranoid than 419 00:25:30,560 --> 00:25:33,160 Speaker 2: ever before as he made his way outside into the Cadillac, 420 00:25:33,800 --> 00:25:36,879 Speaker 2: shocked that he hadn't been apprehended, even more so that 421 00:25:36,960 --> 00:25:39,119 Speaker 2: he was able to haul ass out of Vegas before 422 00:25:39,119 --> 00:25:42,760 Speaker 2: the sun even came up, and that sun was blinding. 423 00:25:43,600 --> 00:25:44,119 Speaker 1: Hunter S. 424 00:25:44,160 --> 00:25:47,159 Speaker 2: Thompson was a night owl, born a night owl, just 425 00:25:47,200 --> 00:25:52,280 Speaker 2: like he'd been born angry. He let those traits guide 426 00:25:52,320 --> 00:25:56,440 Speaker 2: him as he furiously typed away, just finishing and filing 427 00:25:56,480 --> 00:25:59,320 Speaker 2: the Salazar story, and then getting to work on his 428 00:25:59,400 --> 00:26:05,240 Speaker 2: experience in Las Vegas. But his trip with Oscar Acosta 429 00:26:05,600 --> 00:26:08,280 Speaker 2: would not be written like any other story. He re 430 00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:13,800 Speaker 2: christened himself Raoul Duke, Oscar became doctor Gonzo Duke's three 431 00:26:13,880 --> 00:26:16,840 Speaker 2: hundred pounds samow An attorney. And some things in the 432 00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:20,320 Speaker 2: story were true, like the Vegas motorcycle race that Hunter 433 00:26:20,400 --> 00:26:24,080 Speaker 2: covered for Sports illustrated, a piece of the magazine outright rejected, 434 00:26:24,800 --> 00:26:29,639 Speaker 2: or the National District Attorney's Conference on Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, which, yes, 435 00:26:29,800 --> 00:26:33,360 Speaker 2: no shit, Hunter and Oscar attended, presumably under the influence 436 00:26:33,400 --> 00:26:36,280 Speaker 2: of all the things the conference organizers sought to eradicate. 437 00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:41,680 Speaker 2: When Hunter's larger narrative of these experiences was finally published, 438 00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:44,879 Speaker 2: first as a series of articles in Rolling Stone Magazine 439 00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:47,639 Speaker 2: and then as a nineteen seventy two novel, Fear and 440 00:26:47,680 --> 00:26:50,840 Speaker 2: Loathing in Las Vegas, A Savage Journey to the Heart 441 00:26:50,840 --> 00:26:55,280 Speaker 2: of the American Dream, it was a revelation Hunter's sense 442 00:26:55,280 --> 00:26:58,200 Speaker 2: of humor, the way in which his drug soaked narrative 443 00:26:58,280 --> 00:27:01,800 Speaker 2: commented on the previous decade, on the so called revolution 444 00:27:01,960 --> 00:27:05,280 Speaker 2: that had failed so spectacularly, not that Hunter was a 445 00:27:05,320 --> 00:27:09,119 Speaker 2: revolutionary or that he was anti drugs. Quite the contrary, 446 00:27:09,600 --> 00:27:13,000 Speaker 2: Hunter s Thompson advocated for paying as much for your 447 00:27:13,040 --> 00:27:15,920 Speaker 2: morning paper as you did for a hit of good mescaline. 448 00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:19,639 Speaker 2: He also embodied what was coming down the pike, what 449 00:27:19,800 --> 00:27:24,119 Speaker 2: was already here, the cynical misanthrope who gleefully exposed liars 450 00:27:24,160 --> 00:27:28,120 Speaker 2: and hypocrites. No matter if they called themselves liberal or conservative, 451 00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:31,560 Speaker 2: no one was safe. When Hunter s Thompson was around 452 00:27:34,359 --> 00:27:39,320 Speaker 2: nineteen seventy one, California, Hunter shifted up a gear and 453 00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:44,000 Speaker 2: merged into traffic on the pch Rolling Stone. Staffers filled 454 00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:47,720 Speaker 2: out the rest of his Mustang, including the magazine's chief photographer, 455 00:27:47,760 --> 00:27:48,600 Speaker 2: Annie Leebolds. 456 00:27:49,520 --> 00:27:51,480 Speaker 1: Hunter gave the gas pedal no quarter. 457 00:27:52,040 --> 00:27:55,560 Speaker 2: The California Highway Patrol clocked him easy and the cops 458 00:27:55,600 --> 00:27:57,960 Speaker 2: black and white Dodge, hit the lights and the Hunter 459 00:27:58,080 --> 00:27:58,640 Speaker 2: pulled over. 460 00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:01,920 Speaker 1: One of the fellow staffers was freaking. 461 00:28:01,560 --> 00:28:04,280 Speaker 2: Out in the backseat, and the Mustang was packed to 462 00:28:04,320 --> 00:28:06,840 Speaker 2: the gills with weed and acid and they were all 463 00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:10,119 Speaker 2: going to jail. The cop made his approach on the 464 00:28:10,200 --> 00:28:13,600 Speaker 2: driver's side, and Hunter told everyone to remain calm, and 465 00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:18,560 Speaker 2: then told Annie to get her camera ready. The cop 466 00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:20,960 Speaker 2: ordered Hunter out of the car. He wanted to know 467 00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:24,240 Speaker 2: if Hunter had been drinking. Hunter didn't answer yes or no, 468 00:28:24,840 --> 00:28:26,320 Speaker 2: but instead asked the cop. 469 00:28:26,119 --> 00:28:28,000 Speaker 1: If a drunk man could do this. 470 00:28:29,680 --> 00:28:32,440 Speaker 2: Standing there on the side of the road, Hunter swung 471 00:28:32,480 --> 00:28:35,840 Speaker 2: his head back, launching his sunglasses off his face, which 472 00:28:35,880 --> 00:28:40,760 Speaker 2: he then caught with ease behind his back. His camera flashed, 473 00:28:41,080 --> 00:28:44,440 Speaker 2: and the cop smiled. He told Hunter to hit the road, 474 00:28:44,480 --> 00:28:45,000 Speaker 2: but try and. 475 00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:45,800 Speaker 1: Lay off the gas. 476 00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:46,480 Speaker 3: A little. 477 00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:54,520 Speaker 2: Hunter, a cynic, a misin throat, still managed to possess 478 00:28:54,560 --> 00:28:58,120 Speaker 2: a charm that never failed to work its magic even 479 00:28:58,120 --> 00:29:02,040 Speaker 2: in the company of authority figures him off, especially the 480 00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:05,680 Speaker 2: people who truly made him angrier than anything. Richard Nixon, 481 00:29:05,760 --> 00:29:10,520 Speaker 2: for example, he famously became good friends with Roxanne Pullitzer 482 00:29:10,560 --> 00:29:13,280 Speaker 2: after describing her in one of his articles as quote 483 00:29:13,520 --> 00:29:17,720 Speaker 2: a jaded pan am stewardess unquote. This is the kind 484 00:29:17,760 --> 00:29:20,560 Speaker 2: of person that does not exist anymore, not in the 485 00:29:20,600 --> 00:29:23,840 Speaker 2: world we live in today. Try going on Instagram or 486 00:29:24,160 --> 00:29:27,080 Speaker 2: x as a card carrying member of the NRA who 487 00:29:27,120 --> 00:29:30,440 Speaker 2: also wants to defund the police while tripping balls on 488 00:29:30,520 --> 00:29:31,080 Speaker 2: the regular. 489 00:29:31,800 --> 00:29:32,400 Speaker 1: You can't. 490 00:29:32,600 --> 00:29:35,560 Speaker 2: You can't be all things to all people, not like Hunter. 491 00:29:35,600 --> 00:29:42,560 Speaker 2: Thompson once was. Now, Unfortunately, there are sides and there 492 00:29:42,560 --> 00:29:45,520 Speaker 2: are lanes, and you don't cross over to someone else's 493 00:29:45,600 --> 00:29:47,520 Speaker 2: lane unless you want the rest of the world to 494 00:29:47,640 --> 00:29:52,160 Speaker 2: drive you off the road. However, this is what Hunter did, 495 00:29:52,560 --> 00:29:54,760 Speaker 2: and the more he did this, the more he emptied 496 00:29:54,760 --> 00:29:56,920 Speaker 2: the contents of his brain onto the page and is 497 00:29:57,040 --> 00:30:01,560 Speaker 2: rapidly evolving Gonzo's style. The bigger he became came John 498 00:30:01,600 --> 00:30:02,600 Speaker 2: and Yoko C. 499 00:30:02,760 --> 00:30:03,120 Speaker 3: C R. 500 00:30:03,480 --> 00:30:07,320 Speaker 2: Little, Richard Elton, John Jimmy Hendricks. They may have been 501 00:30:07,360 --> 00:30:09,880 Speaker 2: on the cover of Rolling Stone, but there was no 502 00:30:10,120 --> 00:30:12,960 Speaker 2: question that the words running wild on the pages within 503 00:30:13,080 --> 00:30:16,760 Speaker 2: were the work of the magazine's real golden god, Hunter S. 504 00:30:16,840 --> 00:30:21,000 Speaker 1: Thompson, Rolling Stone's one and only rock. 505 00:30:20,840 --> 00:30:42,840 Speaker 3: Star Foller Feller fer Foller Feller. 506 00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:48,080 Speaker 1: Hunter S. 507 00:30:48,120 --> 00:30:50,960 Speaker 2: Thompson chased his breakfast of ham and eggs with a 508 00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:54,160 Speaker 2: shot of whiskey. Sitting next to him at the kitchen 509 00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:57,720 Speaker 2: table in his Woody Creek, Colorado home, Hunter's son was 510 00:30:57,760 --> 00:31:02,600 Speaker 2: eating dinner. It was almost six pm. Hunter's day was 511 00:31:02,720 --> 00:31:06,400 Speaker 2: just beginning. The knight called to him, as it always 512 00:31:06,400 --> 00:31:09,520 Speaker 2: did the hours when his creativity was at its peak. 513 00:31:10,440 --> 00:31:13,440 Speaker 2: The only hour is that his Gonzo brain would acknowledge 514 00:31:13,880 --> 00:31:17,840 Speaker 2: the dawn approaching at an alarming rate. Daylight was the 515 00:31:17,840 --> 00:31:21,120 Speaker 2: great motivator, well that in the drugs, which were beginning 516 00:31:21,120 --> 00:31:25,440 Speaker 2: to take hold as they always did. The routine got 517 00:31:25,560 --> 00:31:29,560 Speaker 2: Hunter writing, and that writing gave him what he always wanted, attention, 518 00:31:30,800 --> 00:31:34,880 Speaker 2: and over the years his legends simply grew larger, even 519 00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:38,360 Speaker 2: when the quality of his writing began to decline, until, 520 00:31:38,640 --> 00:31:41,560 Speaker 2: just like the Hell's Angels that he'd written about decades prior, 521 00:31:42,280 --> 00:31:47,160 Speaker 2: Hunter now appeared more mythical than he actually was. College 522 00:31:47,200 --> 00:31:50,960 Speaker 2: girls came banging on his door, drug buddies, naked women, 523 00:31:51,160 --> 00:31:54,239 Speaker 2: autograph hounds, Keith Richards. You never knew it was going 524 00:31:54,320 --> 00:31:56,840 Speaker 2: to show up at any given time. Truly a rock 525 00:31:56,880 --> 00:32:00,000 Speaker 2: star life, a life that Hunter lived half the time 526 00:32:00,080 --> 00:32:03,200 Speaker 2: and while simultaneously living as a family man during the 527 00:32:03,240 --> 00:32:03,800 Speaker 2: other half. 528 00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:09,200 Speaker 1: But the halves weren't equal. Hunter's first wife. 529 00:32:08,960 --> 00:32:11,520 Speaker 2: Grew tired of it all, of not knowing what was 530 00:32:11,560 --> 00:32:14,800 Speaker 2: truth and what was bullshit, just like the Gray Area 531 00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:19,640 Speaker 2: and Hunter's writing, and by the nineteen eighties, divorce seemed 532 00:32:19,640 --> 00:32:22,920 Speaker 2: the logical choice, but she knew the thought of it 533 00:32:22,960 --> 00:32:25,800 Speaker 2: would anger Hunters, so she called the cops for peace 534 00:32:25,800 --> 00:32:27,920 Speaker 2: of mind. Does he have a gun? 535 00:32:28,080 --> 00:32:29,120 Speaker 1: The cops wanted to know. 536 00:32:29,680 --> 00:32:31,960 Speaker 2: Yeah, he's got a gun. He's got twenty two guns, 537 00:32:31,960 --> 00:32:37,680 Speaker 2: and they're all loaded. Guns were a fascination. Guns passed 538 00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:41,920 Speaker 2: the time they broke the tension. Machine guns were cathartic 539 00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:45,560 Speaker 2: as fuck. Firing those out back was like watering the lawn. 540 00:32:45,600 --> 00:32:49,320 Speaker 2: As Hunter said, when it came to home security, though, 541 00:32:49,760 --> 00:32:52,400 Speaker 2: a twelve gage short barreled shotgun was the way to go. 542 00:32:53,040 --> 00:32:57,000 Speaker 2: Hunter had a couple of those. But today, Hunter didn't 543 00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:01,320 Speaker 2: have a shotgun in his hand. On this day, decades 544 00:33:01,360 --> 00:33:05,200 Speaker 2: after his first wife divorced him, on February twentieth, two 545 00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:09,280 Speaker 2: thousand and five, Hunter was holding his forty five caliber pistol. 546 00:33:11,040 --> 00:33:15,520 Speaker 2: Hunter had his guns, his booze, food, drugs, fame, attention, 547 00:33:15,720 --> 00:33:19,640 Speaker 2: but he also still had his anger. He was angry 548 00:33:19,680 --> 00:33:22,920 Speaker 2: that jan Winner seemed incapable of paying him on time anymore, 549 00:33:23,680 --> 00:33:27,280 Speaker 2: angry about yet another debacle of a presidential election, and 550 00:33:27,320 --> 00:33:30,800 Speaker 2: perhaps most of all, angry that once again it was 551 00:33:30,840 --> 00:33:35,560 Speaker 2: February and that meant football season was over. Football the 552 00:33:35,600 --> 00:33:38,520 Speaker 2: one thing Hunter could talk to Richard Nixon about, the 553 00:33:38,560 --> 00:33:42,360 Speaker 2: only place where the American dream was still alive, if 554 00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:46,640 Speaker 2: only for a few hours on any given Sunday. But 555 00:33:46,800 --> 00:33:51,040 Speaker 2: now Hunter was staring down months of Sundays with no football, 556 00:33:51,720 --> 00:33:56,880 Speaker 2: staring down the edge somewhere between sanity and insanity, life 557 00:33:56,880 --> 00:34:01,920 Speaker 2: and death. The thought was depressed as always, but for 558 00:34:01,960 --> 00:34:06,240 Speaker 2: some reason this year, right now, at sixty seven years old, 559 00:34:06,280 --> 00:34:09,799 Speaker 2: it was too much one toke over the. 560 00:34:09,800 --> 00:34:14,719 Speaker 1: Line, Sweet Jesus, just like the song said. And with that, 561 00:34:15,280 --> 00:34:15,839 Speaker 1: Hunter S. 562 00:34:15,880 --> 00:34:18,560 Speaker 2: Thompson, sitting in his favorite chair at the kitchen table 563 00:34:18,600 --> 00:34:21,040 Speaker 2: of his Woody Creek home, stuck the barrel of his 564 00:34:21,080 --> 00:34:21,759 Speaker 2: forty five in. 565 00:34:21,800 --> 00:34:23,880 Speaker 1: His mouth and pulled the trigger. 566 00:34:29,239 --> 00:34:31,799 Speaker 2: Six months later to the day, at the top of 567 00:34:31,840 --> 00:34:35,080 Speaker 2: a fifteen story tower shaped like a clenched fist holding 568 00:34:35,080 --> 00:34:36,839 Speaker 2: a payote button, the. 569 00:34:36,760 --> 00:34:38,880 Speaker 1: Logo created years earlier when he ran. 570 00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:42,399 Speaker 2: For sheriff, Hunter S. Thompson's final wish was carried out 571 00:34:42,480 --> 00:34:45,880 Speaker 2: as his ashes were shot out of a cannon. This 572 00:34:46,040 --> 00:34:49,799 Speaker 2: was followed by a fireworks display while Norman Greenbaum's song 573 00:34:49,960 --> 00:34:55,280 Speaker 2: Spirit in the Sky played at maximum volume. Hunter Thompson 574 00:34:55,320 --> 00:34:58,280 Speaker 2: had gone over the high side like an angel's bike, 575 00:34:58,440 --> 00:34:59,799 Speaker 2: sliding into the curve. 576 00:35:00,080 --> 00:35:02,880 Speaker 1: To a place the rest of us have yet to see. 577 00:35:03,160 --> 00:35:06,719 Speaker 2: A place where as Hunter himself once wrote, there is 578 00:35:06,760 --> 00:35:09,520 Speaker 2: no honest way to explain it because the only people 579 00:35:09,520 --> 00:35:11,880 Speaker 2: who really know where it is are the ones who 580 00:35:11,960 --> 00:35:17,080 Speaker 2: have gone over. Can you imagine how Hunter Thompson would 581 00:35:17,120 --> 00:35:22,600 Speaker 2: explain the afterlife? That's one piece of gonzo journalism that 582 00:35:22,640 --> 00:35:26,640 Speaker 2: we'll never get to read, but in that is a disgrace. 583 00:35:29,440 --> 00:35:48,000 Speaker 2: Jake Brennan to this this Disgraceland. Disgraceland was created by 584 00:35:48,040 --> 00:35:51,000 Speaker 2: Yours Truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. 585 00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:53,600 Speaker 2: Credits for this episode can be found on the show 586 00:35:53,640 --> 00:35:57,360 Speaker 2: notes page at disgracelandpod dot com. If you're listening as 587 00:35:57,400 --> 00:36:00,759 Speaker 2: a Disgraceland All Access member, thank you for reporting the show. 588 00:36:00,800 --> 00:36:03,520 Speaker 2: We really appreciate it, and if not, you can become 589 00:36:03,560 --> 00:36:06,960 Speaker 2: a member right now by going to disgracelampod dot com 590 00:36:06,960 --> 00:36:11,239 Speaker 2: Slash Membership. Members can listen to every episode of disgracelaan 591 00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:15,320 Speaker 2: ad free, Plus you'll get one brand new exclusive episode 592 00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:19,600 Speaker 2: every month, weekly unscripted bonus episodes, special audio collections, and 593 00:36:19,719 --> 00:36:24,520 Speaker 2: early access to merchandise and events. Visit disgracelampod dot com 594 00:36:24,560 --> 00:36:27,719 Speaker 2: slash membership for details, rate and review the show, and 595 00:36:27,760 --> 00:36:31,799 Speaker 2: follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook at disgracelampod 596 00:36:31,920 --> 00:36:36,600 Speaker 2: and on YouTube at YouTube dot com, slash at disgracelampod, 597 00:36:36,840 --> 00:36:41,399 Speaker 2: Rock a Roller. He then man