Suicide Stories

Buddy Ortega, 62, a real estate broker and ski instructor, met H.S. Thompson in the 1960s at a party. The pair socialized over the years, and Ortega supported Thompson's quixotic run for sheriff — though he figured it was a longshot when he saw campaign posters with pictures of hallucinogenic peyote buds.


In recent years, Ortega said, the hard-living journalist had become more reclusive, hanging out at the home he called his "compound" and taking advantage of open space to fire his automatic weapons.


But Ortega hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary recently. He said he last saw Thompson two days ago at Woody Creek's post office, and everything seemed fine.


"We all have demons," Ortega said. "Who knows, man? You sit down, have a few cocktails or maybe nothing — maybe you have a cup of green tea — and maybe nothing seems right. He was a little more complex than most of us, so maybe some of those demons surfaced and he didn't like what he saw."

Los Angeles Times