Kingdom of Fear

by Hunter S. Thompson

  Soon the argument began and the woman said Thompson lost control and threw a glass of cranberry juice and vodka in her direction. She said she ducked.

  Then, she claims Thompson grabbed her left breast, “squeezing and twisting it very hard. He then punched her in her left side with his right fist, and finally pushed her backwards with the palms of [his] . . . hands,” the arrest warrant affidavit stated.

  She said that Thompson then went to the room where he keeps some of his guns and that she ran out of the house and sat on the porch. A cab took her away about 15 minutes later.

  Thompson, in an interview with the Times Daily, said the woman was “real drunk, sloppy drunk.”

  Thompson said the woman wanted sex with him.

  “I pushed her away from me. She went backwards and one hand brushed her breast,” Thompson said.

  Conflict of Interest

  A day later, the woman called the sheriff’s department. Sheriff Bob Braudis said that because of his 20-year friendship with Thompson, he felt he would have a conflict of interest handling the case. Braudis gave the investigation to the District Attorney’s office, which has its own investigators.

  Thompson said officers took 11 hours to search his house because they were frustrated they couldn’t find much evidence of drug usage or wrongdoing.

  “I don’t know if that (11-hour search) helps my reputation or hurts it,” he said.

  District Attorney Blakey said officers found possible drug paraphernalia and a small quantity of suspected marijuana and possible cocaine. The suspected drugs have not been weighed. Blakey said. All of the possible drug-related items have been sent to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation lab in Montrose, the prosecutor added.

  Overzealous Cops?

  Blakey bristled Tuesday at suggestions that Thompson—who has made fun of cops in his books—was set up by overzealous law officers.

  “That’s absolutely not true,” Blakey said. “If there was overzealous law enforcement here, he wouldn’t have been called and asked to come to the D.A.’s office (to be arrested).

  “Hunter Thompson is just like anyone else; he’s going to get fair treatment under the law, no better or worse,” Blakey promised.

  “For my part, I had lived about 10 miles out of town for two years, doing everything possible to avoid Aspen’s feverish reality. My lifestyle, I felt, was not entirely suited for doing battle with any small town political establishment. They had left me alone, not hassled my friends (with two unavoidable exceptions—both lawyers), and consistently ignored all rumors of madness and violence in my area. In return, I had consciously avoided writing about Aspen . . . in my very limited congress with the local authorities I was treated like some kind of half-mad cross between a hermit and a wolverine; a thing best left alone as long as possible.”

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Rolling Stone magazine

  Oct. 1, 1970

  . . .

  The Witness case turned on the day they decided to search the house, the day I got arrested. I got in such a rage that it was war. From then on I was in a kill-or-be-killed scenario; until then I hadn’t really paid that much attention to it. It was a bag of shit. But my own lawyer got me busted. He invited me down to the courthouse to be taken and fingerprinted. I knew I was in trouble. So from then on it was just that rage. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. It’s focus and concentration. It was a little bit like the Mailbox—when I made that decision to ask, “What Witnesses?” That eerie soliloquy . . . “It’s a matter of taste.” It always boils down to a question of taste.

  The Mailbox incident was a confidence builder, I think, but it didn’t teach me that I was smarter than they were. It taught me that they were not as smart as they thought they were. I did not plead guilty on that one, and I got in the habit of that. It is a red thread in this book. I have been looking for one, and that is what it is.

  GONZO’S LAST STAND?

  Sometime on the night of February 21, Dr. Charles Slater called the Sheriff’s Office to complain that Thompson had assaulted his wife—the precise time of his call is very much at issue, for the Aspen Times Daily has reported that the tape which automatically records all incoming calls is missing Dr. Slater’s. Later on that night (sometime between 2 A.M. and 5 A.M. on February 23, actually), Palmer’s former boyfriend and business partner Marco DiMercurio also called. Saying that he was speaking from Los Angeles, DiMercurio claimed that Thompson had in the course of the evening held a gun to Palmer’s head. He insisted that there be an investigation, but warned that Palmer couldn’t be interviewed until after 2 P.M.

  By then, Sheriff Braudis had withdrawn from the case: A close friend of Thompson’s, he’d been criticized for not being sufficiently aggressive in investigating the dispute between Thompson and Floyd Watkins. Seeking to ensure the appearance of fairness, Braudis transferred the complaint to Chip McCrory, the deputy district attorney for Aspen. McCrory, formerly a prosecutor from a Denver suburb, was appointed to the Aspen office in 1985, becoming chief deputy after his predecessor resigned in 1988.

  Though McCrory is neither well liked nor regarded as politically ambitious, the conservative down-valley Republican named Milton Blakey is affectionately called “Judge Blakey” by those who like him well enough to tease him about his much desired judicial appointment. . . .

  With Blakey’s encouragement, McCrory has moved sharply away from the path marked out by his predecessors who’d tempered the prosecutorial urge with a healthy dose of what the Supreme Court has called “community standards.” McCrory, for instance, recently brought—and lost, after less than an hour of jury deliberation—a felony case for the alleged sale of some $25 worth of cocaine. Even more problematic was his decision to seek a felony conviction against a well-regarded young woman who, while being booked for a DUI, pushed a recovered-alcoholic jailer who was pressuring her about the virtues of AA. Even members of the jury that had just convicted her were horrified to discover that the law that McCrory chose to invoke—which was designed to discourage incarcerated prisoners from assaulting their guards during riots—carried an inescapable mandatory prison sentence. (“Old Aspen,” including the mayor, has contributed generously to her appeal fund.) For the zealous McCrory, who’d been prominent among those criticizing the sheriff’s allegedly laissez-faire attitude toward Thompson, Palmer’s tale of sex, violence, drugs, and weaponry must have seemed a dream come true.

  Whatever the cause, McCrory seems to have reacted to Palmer’s complaint with more speed than prudence. Without interviewing any of the other people who’d been at Thompson’s, McCrory drew up charges for assault and sexual assault, and then—after a local judge had passed on signing a search warrant—had it signed by a judge some 60 miles downvalley. The Village Voice, May 15, 1990, Vol. XXXV, No. 20

  . . .

  There are a lot of jackasses in the world who think they are smarter than I am. There are a lot of smart cops. But most of them don’t get into this kind of chickenshit case.

  D.A. MAY FILE CASE AGAINST ASPEN WRITER

  BY EVE O’BRIEN

  SPECIAL TO THE DENVER POST

  The district attorney of Pitkin County said yesterday he has enough evidence to file felony drug charges against journalist Hunter S. Thompson after a raid on Thompson’s home last month. . . .

  At a county court hearing yesterday, filing of formal charges was scheduled in district court April 9. Deputy District Attorney Chip McCrory, who is handling the case, said the assault charges, both misdemeanors, and any felony charges will be lodged at that time.

  Thompson didn’t make an appearance at the hearing yesterday, much to the chagrin of television crews outside the Pitkin County Courthouse. . . .

  March 14, 1990

  . . .

  The whole case turned, in the beginning, on a hearing that I didn’t go to, in court. It was the first official thing that happened and I thought by not going I would lessen the effect of the case by not kicking up such a noise over the stupid thing.
It was a misdemeanor at that time. Ho ho. I sent Michael Solheim as an observer to see what happened in the courtroom, and I didn’t expect much of anything, just an “Okay, you’re arrested.” It was a very pro forma kind of thing. Nothing was expected to happen. It was late afternoon when Solheim got back here and said, “It started out as a misdemeanor, but. . .” After a huddle in front of the judge, where the attorneys approach the bench—my attorney and the D.A. and the prosecutor—the judge announced that the charges had been changed to felonies. And that he was getting rid of the case—out of his court—and it would be turned over to the district court, as felonies. I recognized at once when I heard the news that my own lawyer had participated. His record as a lawyer and as a human being is real weak: I can’t believe that fucking lawyer. I wish I could tell you his name, but let’s just call him “Chickenshit.”

  From one little huddle, the case went from Magistrate Tam Scott’s court to District Felony Court. Solheim came out here to report that, and I got extremely agitated, and that is when I decided to fire Chickenshit. I called him and asked him what happened—he jabbered some kind of talk about “Well, it was just necessary,” or “It was obvious”—lawyer crap. He kept sending me bills for a year or two; I should have had him arrested for fraud.

  It is a hard decision, to get rid of your lawyer. That’s always bad. Prejudicial, really; the defendant fires one lawyer, and brings in an outsider . . . and Chickenshit was an insider. It was a difficult decision to BOOM, just kick him out the door. The longer the lawyer’s on the case, the more information he has, but at that particular time, it was necessary.

  I had a list of the top five criminal lawyers in Colorado, whose names had been suggested. Hal Haddon was on that list, and I called him first. I had known Hal for years, since the McGovern campaign. On the phone I found myself apologizing to him, saying, “Oh I’m sorry to do this, but . . . that fucking lawyer. . .” I was apologizing for everything. He said, “Christ, I thought you’d never ask.” Hot damn, man. The next day, Hal drove over the Divide to take the case.

  That was a huge morale booster; “Ah, finally, we rumble.” After I got rid of Chickenshit—from then on it was fun. It was agony with that other lawyer; if you do not trust your lawyer and have good reason not to, that is very unpleasant and uncomfortable.

  In the beginning, I didn’t think I was going to need a huge criminal lawyer. But once Haddon came over here, and he told me how much trouble I could be in, as they always do: You might die from this. . . well, I just figured, if I was going to die, it was better to die fighting.

  I remember Haddon said this only once in the case: “My theory as a lawyer is that: Lawyers will take you all the way up to the door of justice, and just say, Well, it’s up to the jury now—justice will be done.” Haddon said, “My theory is, I want to take the client through the door.”

  THOMPSON HIT WITH 5 FELONIES

  JUDGE DISQUALIFIES HIMSELF

  BY DAVID MATTHEWS-PRICE

  TIMES DAILY STAFF WRITER

  Hunter S. Thompson didn’t act Monday like a man who had just learned he was facing a possible 16 years in prison.

  Moments after the District Attorney hit the “gonzo” journalist with five felony charges and three misdemeanors, Thompson and his lawyers retired to a conference room in the Aspen courthouse. Somebody asked what they were doing in there. . . .

  “We’re just smoking crack,” said Thompson with a grin.

  Judge J. E. DeVilbiss announced that he was disqualifying himself from the case. He gave no reason in court for removing himself and he wouldn’t comment outside the courtroom either. Ninth District Judicial District Chief Gavin Litwiler will decide who replaces DeVilbiss.

  April 10, 1990

  . . .

  There were several judges; nobody really wanted this. DeVilbiss recused himself; we went through all the judges in the county—all three on the district level. Nobody would touch it. We had to go to Grand Junction to find a judge.

  NEW JUDGE NAMED IN THOMPSON CASE

  BY DAVID MATTHEWS-PRICE

  TIMES DAILY STAFF WRITER

  A Grand Junction judge—who is regarded as a good listener, but unpredictable—was selected Thursday to handle the drug, sex, and explosives case of author Hunter S. Thompson.

  Mesa County District Judge Charles A. Buss will replace Aspen District Judge J. E. DeVilbiss, who withdrew from the case on April 9 without explanation. . . .

  Independent Judge

  “From my experience, he takes every case on an individual basis and I don’t think there is any way to predict how he will rule,” said Grand Junction attorney Steve Laiche. Laiche, who is now in private practice, appeared almost daily before Judge Buss when he was a deputy district attorney.

  “When you are before him, you don’t know how you are going to do, but he is going to listen,” Laiche told the Times Daily on Thursday.

  Laiche said it’s hard to generalize about how Buss rules on drug cases. But, the attorney noted, there are other judges in Grand Junction who would probably give drug defendants longer sentences than would Buss. . . .

  April 20, 1990

  . . .

  It wouldn’t have meant much to half-win a case on the right to smoke marijuana in the home.

  Deciding it was a Fourth Amendment case and not a marijuana case was the right thing to do. Legally it wasn’t. Legally it was risky. But politically it was right.

  Almost everything I did was contrary to Haddon’s wishes and habits. He said he never had a case where every time he went into court, he knew what he was going to say by reading the morning newspapers.

  (CA Press Photo Service)

  THOMPSON BOUND OVER FOR TRIAL

  BY DAVID MATTHEWS-PRICE

  TIMES DAILY STAFF WRITER

  A judge Tuesday threw out one of the five felony charges pending against gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson because a witness who claimed to have seen him consume cocaine later admitted she wasn’t sure what it was he put up his nose. . . .

  May 23, 1990

  . . .

  I think Haddon was surprised to win the preliminary hearing: Not even God can win a preliminary hearing. I just got angry. It wouldn’t have meant much to half-win a case on the right to smoke marijuana in the home. That wasn’t an issue with me.

  (HST archives)

  (Aspen Daily News)

  TODAY: THE DOCTOR, TOMORROW YOU. That was the breakthrough. After that, the majority of people I knew in town were prepared to fight this to the end. I saw then that I had the support of the newspapers and my friends hadn’t turned against me.

  I had recognized a threat when it was announced to the press that it was a felony case. I recognized the lack of support I had then, mainly due to the charge that I’d put a gun to her head. Nobody knew what had actually happened that night, until I got on the trumpet—the coconut telegraph. I realized it was a threat; I understood it instantly, and my response was to take out a full-page ad in the Aspen Times and the Daily News to explain my case—point one, two, etc. I labored over it; dense, gray type, like a legal argument. Solheim and I struggled for days. And finally I said, “Fuck this. Never mind it.” And I came up with that line: “Here’s what we’ll put in there—just white space and ’Today the Doctor, Tomorrow You,’ underlined . . .” When the ad appeared . . . it was like magic. Maybe one of the best decisions of my life. Now, if I had come out with some legal gray page explaining my position, it would not have worked. It had to be “we.”

  I recognized that. I was trying to put the ad together—to be effective—and it wasn’t. But that “Today the Doctor, Tomorrow You” just came to me in a moment of stress. And, shit, the tide turned immediately.

  GONZO’S LAST STAND? (CONTINUED)

  “. . . I have more public support now than when I ran for sheriff,” Thompson laughs, and he’s almost certainly right: There are a lot of houses in Aspen where 66 hours of searching could produce something incriminating. As a supportive ad in the Aspen Times rea
d, “Today the Doctor, Tomorrow You.” But beyond that, there is something about the D.A.’s invasion of Thompson’s house that seems to grate on the Western sensibility of even Aspen’s conservatives. Finally, of course, there is the matter of the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

  A few years ago, McCrory’s warrant would have been worth as little legally as it is morally, but the Nixon/Reagan legacy on the Supreme Court means that it has a better than even chance of standing up against the challenge Thompson’s lawyers plan to bring. And what that means is that on the basis of someone’s unsupported word that you used drugs (burned the flag/plotted insurrection/planned a possibly illegal demonstration/committed sodomy/possessed pornography/arranged an abortion) in the privacy of your own home, the cops can break down your door. . . .

  The Village Voice, May 15, 1990, Vol XXXV, No. 20

  . . .

  I had to mobilize the whole national and international network. I would call the papers. I could get the Times in London . . . I could mobilize people. And Haddon recognized that suddenly we had a cause here. For Haddon it was like going into combat with somebody you know is good and think is right, you’re a lawyer and he’s not, and he—your client—starts making announcements to the press. Every move he makes is not with your counsel . . . I just left the legal stuff to him.

  THOMPSON REJECTS PLEA BARGAIN; TAKES

  DELIVERY OF CONVERTIBLE

  BY DAVID MATTHEWS-PRICE,

  TIMES DAILY STAFF WRITER

  MAY 22, 1990

  On the eve of his preliminary hearing on drug charges, author Hunter S. Thompson rejected a plea bargain offer from prosecutors and received a red convertible from well-wishers who traveled here from San Francisco.

  His supporters, led by porn theater owners Jim and Art Mitchell, left the Bay Area in a convoy of a half dozen vehicles at 3 A.M. Sunday—or “after work,” as they put it. They arrived Monday morning at Thompson’s cabin near Woody Creek.

  As the convoy was arriving, Thompson was on the phone talking to his lawyer about the plea bargain offer from the District Attorney.