By Steve Gorman
Jan 23 (Reuters) – A comprehensive case review into the 2005 death of author-journalist Hunter S. Thompson, including autopsy records, has affirmed authorities’ original conclusion that he took his own life, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation said on Friday.
The review, conducted after the writer’s widow, Anita Thompson, raised questions about the official suicide ruling, found no “new physical evidence, facts, or circumstances to support a conclusion different from the 2005 investigation,” the CBI said.
The reexamination corroborated the original determination of the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office that Thompson died from a self-inflicted gunshot to his head at his Owl Creek farm retreat near Aspen in February 2005. He was 67.
In an apparent suicide note written days before his death but published months later by Rolling Stone magazine, his literary springboard, Thompson lamented the onset of old age and physical limitations, then concluded, “Relax — this won’t hurt.” The note, scrawled in black marker, was titled, “Football Season is Over.”
Friends and family had said at the time that Thompson, whose “gonzo” style of journalism eschewed any pretense of objectivity and established the hard-living writer as a counter-culture icon, had been in pain from a hip-replacement, back surgery and a recently broken leg.
Those close to him also had said that Thompson, a longtime gun enthusiast, had contemplated taking his own life for years.
But Anita Thompson, now 54, contacted Pitkin County Sheriff Michael Buglione with “new concerns and potential information” related to the original investigation into her husband’s death, prompting the sheriff to request reopening the case in July 2025, the CBI said in a statement announcing its findings.
“While we have always believed the original investigation was conducted properly, we recognized the importance of an independent review for the Thompson family,” Buglione wrote in the statement. “CBI’s conclusions reaffirm the original findings and, we hope, provide reassurance and clarity.”
SCENE RE-EXAMINED, INTERVIEWS CONDUCTED
Most of the original physical evidence and photographs from the 2005 probe have been disposed of, according to the CBI.
But state investigators reviewed autopsy and other law enforcement records from the case, re-examined the scene, and interviewed a number of people, including Anita Thompson, her late husband’s son, Juan Thompson, and his ex-daughter-in-law, Jennifer Thompson. The original lead detective and the county coroner also were interviewed.
“The modern trajectory analysis and scene reconstruction conducted in 2025 – which was based on the intact bullet defect – was consistent with the original PCSO investigation, the autopsy report and the observations of original investigators,” the CBI said.
In a statement carried by other news media outlets, Anita Thompson said she was grateful to the CBI for its “thorough” review, adding, “This allows all of us who loved Hunter to move forward with a clean conscience.”
Hunter Thompson was best known for his book “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” adapted from a two-part article written for Rolling Stone in late 1971, chronicling his drug-fueled misadventures in Nevada while ostensibly covering a motorcycle race in the desert.
The book became the basis for a 1998 Hollywood adaptation, starring Johnny Depp as Thompson’s alter-ego, Raoul Duke. The writer was also caricatured as Uncle Duke in the comic strip “Doonesbury,” right down to his signature aviator glasses and cigarette holder.
The New York Times reported earlier this month that his widow went to authorities with suspicions about her husband’s demise after hearing of rumors from a relative that his death had been staged to appear as a suicide.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
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