EDITOR’S NOTE: Help is available if you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or mental health matters.
In the US: Call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
Globally: The International Association for Suicide Prevention and Befrienders Worldwide have contact information for crisis centers around the world.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation will be conducting a review into the case of renowned journalist and activist Hunter S. Thompson’s death more than two decades after it was ruled a suicide, the agency said Tuesday in a news release.
Thompson died at his home in Woody Creek, Colorado, outside of Aspen, on February 20, 2005, of “an alleged self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.” He was 67 years old.
The renewed investigation comes at the suggestion of the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office, which received a request from the gonzo journalist’s wife, Anita Thompson, according to the CBI.
“We understand the profound impact Hunter S. Thompson had on this community and beyond,” Pitkin County Sheriff Michael Buglione said in a statement. “By bringing in an outside agency for a fresh look, we hope to provide a definitive and transparent review that may offer peace of mind to his family and the public.”
CNN has reached out to The Gonzo Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by Thompson’s wife “to promote literature, journalism and political activism” through Thompson’s legacy, for comment.
Thompson is perhaps best-known for his 1971 novel, “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream,” a semi-autobiographical account of how the counterculture of the 1960s led to illicit drug and alcohol abuse.
Thompson, who inspired the term “gonzo journalism” with his character Doctor Gonzo in “Fear and Loathing,” forged a career out of making himself a character in his stories.
CBI says its investigation will take an “unspecified amount of time” and it will provide updates once it concludes.
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