End of story for Hunter Thompson

Outlaw, druggie, Dunhill-smoking, Chivas Regal-drinking, anti-establishment literary icon Hunter S. Thompson committed suicide after becoming depressed about the United States’ shift toward conservatism, said one longtime friend who spent the weekend at the Aspen, Colo., home of the late “gonzo” journalist.

“He was depressed about the state of society,” said Loren Jenkins, foreign editor for National Public Radio in Washington.

A vehement opponent of President Bush, Mr. Thompson, 67, “was feeling maudlin about the current conservatism sweeping the country,” Mr. Jenkins said. “He felt he’d had a long run, trying to create a freer society in the ‘60s and ‘70s and he felt it had all been closed down.”

Mr. Thompson’s body was discovered Sunday by Juan Thompson, his son by his first wife, Sandra Dawn Thompson. His second wife, Anita, was not home at the time. The family issued a statement asking for privacy.

In recent months, Mr. Thompson had suffered injuries and other health problems. While others expressed shock at Mr. Thompson’s death, close friends ” including Mr. Jenkins ” did not.

“Everyone who knew Hunter knew that he lived by his own rules and that he would end his life by his own rules,” Mr. Jenkins said.

But other friends said yesterday that Mr. Thompson seemed to be in good spirits during the past week.

“I was there Friday evening at his home and left him at midnight,” said longtime friend and neighbor Michael Cleverly.

“We had a lovely evening. He was very upbeat. I’d have been less shocked if he had shot me rather than himself,” said Mr. Cleverly. “He is the last person on the planet Earth I would expect of that.”

Mr. Cleverly, who knew Mr. Thompson for 25 years, said the writer ” who lived at a compound called Owl Farm ” had several assignments in the works, including a book of his photography. “He was in the midst of a productive life. My only speculation was that [the suicide] had to be an impulse, not something he’d been dwelling on.”

Mr. Cleverly also attended Mr. Thompson’s annual Super Bowl party, and said friends were not aware of anything troubling the writer, except he had suffered “a terrible year physically.”

According to Mr. Cleverly, the writer fell in Hawaii and broke his leg. He also had back surgery and pain from an artificial hip.

Yesterday at his favorite haunt, Woody Creek Tavern, patrons and writers gathered to remember Mr. Thompson, perhaps best known for his drug-fueled 1971 narrative “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” which was made into a 1998 movie starring Johnny Depp.

Recently, Mr. Thompson had been a regular columnist for ESPN.com Web site, and his columns had been collected into a book. Passionate about sports, Mr. Thompson gained a loyal following of younger readers who were not yet born when his name, along with Tom Wolfe and Truman Capote, became synonymous with a new style of observational, stream-of-consciousness magazine writing.

He rode with the Hell’s Angels ” the subject of a 1966 book that established him as a leading practitioner of so-called “New Journalism” ” and wrote a widely praised account of the 1972 presidential campaign and, like George Plimpton, became adept at participatory journalism.

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