ABSTRACT
Aspen Sheriff Bob Braudis’s phone was blowing up. On The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Johnny Depp had mentioned shooting the ashes of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson out of a massive cannon in Aspen, Colorado. By the following morning, the national media started asking the author’s family and the sheriff about this outrageous commemoration. After a few calls with the Sheriff, the Thompson family, Depp’s sister, Christie Dembrowski, and the Hollywood producer, John Equis, the author was officially brought on to be the spokesperson and communications director for the funeral of the legendary journalist. Hunter Thompson invented a style of writing that came to be called “Gonzo Journalism,” in which the writer is part of the story, not merely an unbiased observer. Hunter’s benefactor and longtime friend from down the road, George Stranahan, the physicist and whisky maker, had trouble getting his own family into the funeral.
