Dec. 8, 1987
He came. He saw. He swilled Chivas Regal at an alarming rate and chain-smoked Dunhills from his trademark cigarette holder.
And he told strange tales from a strange time.
Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson took the campus by storm last night after a winter blizzard cancelled his initial appearance here last month.
Thompson, author of the cult classic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas found little of either at Tawes Theatre where he mumbled his infamous “gibberish” during two hours responding to questions posed by more than 1,000 students and visitors.
“I can be a criminal and an acid freak,” the Colorado journalist muttered. “I am a criminal and an acid freak. I grew up in a generation of criminals and acid freaks.”
The socio-political writer, who popularized Gonzo journalism by immersing himself in the often-tumultuous events of the time and playing at will with the facts while reporting on the Hell’s Angels, the ’60s counter-culture and the 1972 presidential campaign, used his ascorbic wit to blast Vice President George Bush and Attorney General Edwin Meese, among others.
Regarding Bush, Thompson referred to a remark he made earlier this year at Marquette University in Milwaukee suggesting that the vice president should be stomped to death. “Let me say this for the record: George Bush should not be stomped to death,” he mumbled, adding “I beat on Bush. Who else do we have to beat on?” After a short pause, he threw in, “Well, there’s always Nixon.”
Thompson, whose appearance was sponsored by SEE Productions, told the rapt audience: “The Secret Service came after me about advocating the stomping to death of George Bush.” He said that one agent told him he couldn’t mention the “stomping to death” of the vice president. “[They] went wacko. The newspaper, the house, the school. People were arrested …” he trailed off into a grin.
The agent told the 48-year-old writer as he was planning to report on the Iran-Contra hearings, “If you go to Washington to cover the Iran-Contra hearings without talking to me first, your life from now on will be a series of misunderstandings,” Thompson said, quickly following with a sarcastic crack: “I could understand that.”
The Rev. Jerry Falwell is another favorite target of Thompson’s. “There are some people who should be stomped to death. Jerry Falwell very well might be one of them,” he said. He compared Falwell’s friends to a “rat’s nest of Jesus freaks. These aren’t just criminals — these are scum.”
The Great Gonzo also challenged Meese, suggesting a naked Meese should go one-on-one with an 800-pound elk in a large, dark room with only a knife and a “hit of acid” for both Meese and the elk.
“He’s a problem, Ed Meese. He’s sloppy, and he’ll get his,” Thompson solemnly pronounced. “If Ed Meese has a job driving a cab in [California] two years from now, I would feel like I’ve done my job,” he said.
Thompson further attacked the White House for the Iran-Contra scandal, decrying the deaths of U.S. Marines and others which he tied into U.S. arms sales to Iran. “I don’t have anything against the Ayatollah [Khomeini] — Reagan does — but if I did have something against him, I wouldn’t sell him a .44 magnum with a case full of shells,” he said.
As for the Contras, “Even the Hell’s Angels wouldn’t be associated with those bastards,” he said.
Thompson, who said he does not advocate using drugs, nevertheless cautioned the audience on one of his favorite pastimes. “Acid is my favorite drug. But there is a rational way to deal with drugs as with anything else. If you drive a car on acid, you should be careful,” he said.
