who was hunter s thompson's attorney in real life

by Prof. Gay Weissnat IV 8 min read

The basic synopsis revolves around journalist Raoul Duke ( Hunter S. Thompson) and his attorney, Dr. Gonzo ( Oscar Zeta Acosta ), as they arrive in Las Vegas in 1971 to report on the Mint 400 motorcycle race for an unnamed magazine.

Oscar Zeta Acosta

Full Answer

Was Hunter S. Thompson lonely?

Jun 05, 1998 · He was a driven, hell-raising attorney who was involved in high-profile civil rights cases in Los Angeles in the late 1960s and early ‘70s …

Was Hunter S. Thompson a doctor?

Feb 03, 2022 · Hunter S. Thompson, along with his attorney and traveling companion Oscar Zeta Acosta, at Caesars Palace around the time of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. ... “Thompson’s life, work, and ...

What are the best Hunter's Thompson quotes?

Apr 28, 2017 · Early Life. Hunter Stockton Thompson was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on July 18, 1937. His father, Jack, was a World War I veteran and insurance agent who died while Thompson was in high school ...

Is Hunter's Thompson dead?

Oscar Zeta Acosta. The Mexican-American lawyer and activist played a prominent role in Hunter S. Thompson's 1971 classic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as …

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Apr 04, 2018 · The movie is about the adventures of Hunter S Thompson, whom is portrayed by Johnny Depp. His crazy attorney (played by Benicio Del Toro) accompanies him to Las Vegas, where they meet a variety of characters (or caricatures, depending upon …

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Who was the attorney in Fear and Loathing?

Oscar Zeta AcostaOscar Zeta Acosta. The Mexican-American lawyer and activist played a prominent role in Hunter S. Thompson's 1971 classic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as "Dr.

Who is Dr. Gonzo based on?

Oscar AcostaThe inspiration for Dr. Gonzo was not a “300-pound Samoan” but a Chicano activist who believed that Hunter S. Thompson never gave him his due.Jul 13, 2021

Was Dr. Gonzo real in Fear and Loathing?

He was a driven, hell-raising attorney who was involved in high-profile civil rights cases in Los Angeles in the late 1960s and early '70s and inspired the character of Dr. Gonzo in Hunter S. Thompson's surreal book “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.”Jun 5, 1998

Was Dr. Gonzo an attorney?

Gonzo was the lawyer compatriot of Hunter S. Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.Apr 2, 2018

Where is Hunter S. Thompson House?

Owl Farm, Thompson's “fortified compound” in Woody Creek, Colorado, is dark and silent outside.Jul 12, 2019

Who wrote the book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas?

Hunter S. ThompsonFear and loathing in Las Vegas / AuthorHunter Stockton Thompson was an American journalist and author who founded the gonzo journalism movement. He rose to prominence with the publication of Hell's Angels, a book for which he spent a year living and riding with the Hells Angels motorcycle gang to write a first-hand account of their lives and experiences. Wikipedia

What did Hunter S. Thompson think of Fear and Loathing movie?

Terry Gilliam has claimed Hunter S. Thompson was a "pain in the ass" on the set of 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'. The late journalist made a cameo as himself in the 1998 cult film, which stars Johnny Depp as Hunter and is based on the writer's novel of the same name.

Who is Hunter to Johnny Depp?

Hunter S. ThompsonAmid years of strange, unconventional friendship, Johnny Depp and the late Hunter S. Thompson developed a relationship built on trust, love and admiration. It was back in 1998 when Thompson's iconic piece of Gonzo journalism, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, was adapted into a film by director Terry Gilliam.Nov 2, 2020

How did Hunter S. Thompson meet Oscar Acosta?

The two men met in Aspen but lit out for Nevada from Los Angeles. Acosta had been involved in the Chicano Movement and was defending its local leaders in court. At the same time, he was an aspiring novelist who sought and received literary advice from Thompson.Nov 21, 2021

What kind of doctor was Hunter S. Thompson?

Thompson claimed, in a 1974 interview, to be a doctor of divinity in the Church of the New Truth (I haven't been able to find any information on it). Another time, he said he had purchased a doctorate from the Universal Life church (apparently a legitimate religious organization, founded in 1959), in the 1960s.

Is gonzo journalism real?

Gonzo journalism is an unconventional style of journalism that relies on the reporter's personal involvement in the story. While traditional reporting relies on hard facts, gonzo journalism takes readers a step inside the mind and feelings of the writer as the story unfolds.Nov 8, 2020

What did they take in Fear and Loathing?

We had two bags of grass, 75 pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers … and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.Nov 11, 1971

Early Life

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Thompson was born into a middle-class family in Louisville, Kentucky, the first of three sons of Virginia Davison Ray (1908, Springfield, Kentucky – March 20, 1998, Louisville), who worked as head librarian at the Louisville Free Public Library and Jack Robert Thompson (September 4, 1893, Horse Cave, Kentucky – July 3, 1952…
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Late 1960s

  • Following the success of Hell's Angels, Thompson successfully sold articles to several national magazines, including The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Pageant, and Harper's. In 1967, shortly before the Summer of Love, Thompson wrote "The 'Hashbury' is the Capital of the Hippies" for The New York Times Magazine. He criticized San Francisco's hippies as devoid of both the p…
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Middle Years

  • Aspen sheriff campaign
    In 1970, Thompson ran for sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado, as part of a group of citizens running for local offices on the "Freak Power" ticket. The platform included promoting the decriminalization of drugs (for personal use only, not trafficking, as he disapproved of profiteeri…
  • Birth of Gonzo
    Also in 1970, Thompson wrote an article entitled "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved" for the short-lived new journalism magazine Scanlan's Monthly. For that article, editor Warren Hinckle paired Thompson with illustrator Ralph Steadman, who drew expressionist illustrations …
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Later Years

  • Throughout the early 1990s, Thompson claimed to be at work on a novel entitled Polo Is My Life. It was briefly excerpted in Rolling Stone in 1994, and Thompson himself described it in 1996 as "a sex book — you know, sex, drugs, and rock and roll. It's about the manager of a sex theater who's forced to leave and flee to the mountains. He falls in love and gets in even more trouble than he …
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Death

  • At 5:42 pm on February 20, 2005, Thompson died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head at Owl Farm, his "fortified compound" in Woody Creek, Colorado. His son Juan, daughter-in-law Jennifer, and grandson were visiting for the weekend. His wife Anita, who was at the Aspen Club, was on the phone with him as he cocked the gun. According to the Aspen Daily News, Thompso…
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Legacy

  • Writing style
    Thompson is often credited as the creator of Gonzo journalism, a style of writing that blurs distinctions between fiction and nonfiction. His work and style are considered to be a major part of the New Journalism literary movement of the 1960s and 1970s, which attempted to break fre…
  • Persona
    Thompson often used a blend of fiction and fact when portraying himself in his writing, too, sometimes using the name Raoul Duke as an author surrogatewhom he generally described as a callous, erratic, self-destructive journalist who constantly drank alcohol and took hallucinogenic …
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Works

  • Books
    Thompson wrote a number of books, publishing from 1966 to the end of his life. His best-known works include Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Rum Diary, The Curse of Lono, and Screwjack.
  • Articles
    As a journalist over the course of decades, Thompson published numerous articles in various periodicals. He wrote for many publications, including Rolling Stone, Esquire, The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, The San Francisco Examiner, Time, Vanity Fair, The San …
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External Links

  1. Douglas Brinkley, Terry McDonell (Fall 2000). "Hunter S. Thompson, The Art of Journalism No. 1". The Paris Review. Fall 2000 (156).
  2. "Hunter S. Thompson's ESPN Page 2 Archive", Totallygonzo.org
  3. "Shotgun Golf With Bill Murray", Thompson's final column for ESPN.com's Page 2.
  4. A collection of articles on Thompson from The Guardian
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Overview

Oscar "Zeta" Acosta Fierro was a Mexican-American attorney, politician, novelist and activist in the Chicano Movement. He was most well known for his novels Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo (1972) and The Revolt of the Cockroach People (1973), and for his friendship with American author Hunter S. Thompson. Thompson characterized him as a heavyweight Samoanattorney, Dr. Gonzo, in …

Life and career

Oscar Acosta was born in El Paso, Texas, to Manuel and Juanita (née Fierro) Acosta, from Mexico and El Paso, respectively. He was the third child born but second to survive childhood. Acosta had an older brother, Roberto, born in 1934. After the family moved to California, the children were raised in the small San Joaquin Valley rural community of Riverbank, near Modesto. Acosta's father was drafted during World War II.

Friendship with Hunter S. Thompson

In the summer of 1967, Acosta met author Hunter S. Thompson. In 1971, Thompson wrote an article on Acosta and the injustice in the barrios of East Los Angeles, as well as the death of Salazar, for Rolling Stone magazine, titled "Strange Rumblings in Aztlan". While working on the article, Thompson and Acosta decided that a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada, was in order, so that they could freely discuss the subject matter of the article away from any police supervision. Thomps…

Disappearance

In May 1974, Acosta disappeared while traveling in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico. His son, Marco Acosta, believes that he was the last person to talk to his father. Acosta telephoned his son from Mazatlán, telling him that he was "about to board a boat full of white snow." Marco is later quoted in reference to his father's disappearance: "The body was never found, but we surmise that probably, knowing the people he was involved with, he ended up mouthing off, getting into a figh…

Quotes about Acosta

Oscar was not into serious street-fighting, but he was hell on wheels in a bar brawl. Any combination of a 250 lb Mexican and LSD-25 is a potentially terminal menace for anything it can reach – but when the alleged Mexican is in fact a profoundly angry Chicano lawyer with no fear at all of anything that walks on less than three legs and a de facto suicidal conviction that he will die at the age of 33 – just like Jesus Christ – you have a serious piece of work on your hands. Espec…

Motion pictures

The film Where the Buffalo Roam (1980) loosely depicts Acosta's life and his relationship with Thompson. Its name is derived from Thompson's article about Acosta, "The Banshee Screams for Buffalo Meat," in reference to Acosta's book Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo. Actor Peter Boyle portrayed Acosta, whose character is named "Carl Lazlo, Esquire" and Bill Murray portrayed Thompson.

See also

• American literature in Spanish
• Latino literature
• List of people who disappeared

Further reading

• Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo (1972), ISBN 0-679-72213-0 (Random House)
• The Revolt of the Cockroach People (1973), ISBN 0-679-72212-2 (Knopf)
• Oscar "Zeta" Acosta: the uncollected works. Ilan Stavans, editor. (1996) (Arte Público Press)