I can't say I totally surprised - what with the gun centrism etc.
Sad still - when I read he was essentially 'only' 67 it occurred to me he had lived most of his real impactful creative life long ago. Which is fine, so have Paul McCartney etc. Youthful creative rush.

For some perspective - I remember Hunter's long essay on Jimmy Carter in a 1976 Rolling Stone campaign trail article. This was a sort of comeback for him and if you do the math he was ONLY 38 at the time. And this was a comeback, in my opinion.

So if you think that the Las Vegas and Richard Nixon stories and articles were earlier and the Hells Angels book was probably somewhat earlier still in its first magazine versions..well the guy HAD done and seen it ALL very early on.

He never hid that he seemed to be plagued and tormented - by drugs and by the reality he perceived that was the life, the nation, the culture and the politics. Fear and loathing, right?

I guess if he was indeed terminally ill.....

Of course, he was a self appointed Doctor of something.. Journalism, Muckery, Hell Raising....

A rascal is needed for all times. He was one for those times.