New Investigation Into 'Gonzo' Journalist Hunter Thompson's Suicide to Be Conducted

Pitkin County Sheriff Michael Buglione said investigators taking a fresh look into Thompson's death want to answer any 'lingering questions' surrounding his dramatic death.

Andrew Griffin

Published: 10/2/2025, 1:45:39 PM EDT

New Investigation Into 'Gonzo' Journalist Hunter Thompson's Suicide to Be Conducted — A stack of books written by late "gonzo" journalist Hunter S. Thompson, who died by suicide in 2005. (Photo by Andrew Griffin/NTD)

When the "gonzo" journalist took his own life at his Colorado home in February 2005, it was ruled a suicide. In fact, his wife, Anita Thompson, said at the time that her notoriously wild husband was feeling unwell after years of drug and alcohol abuse and that at 67, felt his writing career was at an end.

"67. That is 17 years past 50," Hunter Thompson wrote in a message, prior to his death, a message that was considered a suicide note, implying he had not expected to live past the age of 50, after years of writing his "gonzo" pieces for Rolling Stone magazine and other publications, covering politics and culture.

The Louisville, Kentucky native is best remembered for his 1971 article "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," which was made into a film in 1998, starring Johnny Depp, who played Hunter, alongside Benicio del Toro. The following year, his long-form piece in Rolling Stone, covering the 1972 presidential election between Richard Nixon and George McGovern, earned him high journalistic praise.

Fast-forward 20 years after the writer's death, and Anita Thompson has formally come forward, according to the Pitkin County, Colorado Sheriff's Office—the county where Thompson lived and died—to review the journalist's shooting death.

And while the local authorities and Colorado Bureau of Investigation say that there is allegedly no new evidence suggesting foul play, Pitkin County Sheriff Michael Buglione told the media this week that the investigators taking a fresh look into Thompson's death want to answer any "lingering questions" surrounding his dramatic death.

“We understand the profound impact Hunter S. Thompson had on this community and beyond,” Buglione told the Associated Press. “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.”

And the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI), on their website, put out a press release stating that they are involved to provide an "independent perspective" on the 2005 investigation. The CBI stated that the investigation will take an unspecified amount of time and that there is no specific deadline for completion of the follow-up investigation.

With Thompson's distinctive, illicit substance-fueled and breakneck writing style—lumped in with the "New Journalism" tag of the 1960s, like that of his writing peer Tom Wolfe—he inspired a new generation of young writers and journalists wanting to emulate his style while uncovering potentially groundbreaking investigative stories.

In 1970, six years after he wrote his groundbreaking 1966 book on the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang, the Woody Creek, Colorado resident ran on the "Freak Party" ticket for Pitkin County Sheriff, and lost to the conservative incumbent.

In Thompson's final years, he wrote about sports for ESPN's website, as well as longer pieces on the administration of former President George W. Bush and the War on Terror in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, particularly that he felt the "American Dream" was dying or dead and that the nation was going in a dangerous and authoritarian direction.

NTD reached out to both the Pitkin County Sheriff's Office and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, and CBI spokesman Rob Low wrote in an email that beyond what was stated on their website, he had no authority to answer any further questions.