10 Ways Hunter S Thompson Was Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die

That’s right, there’s no misconstruing that one; Hunter S Thompson made a lot of enemies on the Kona Coast of Hawaii when he visited for what should have been nothing more than a simple reporting job. Described in the utterly fantastic non-fiction book/art book ‘The Curse of Lono’, Thompson was sent to Hawaii to cover a marathon and decided it’d be a super fun to invite his aforementioned artist pal Ralph Steadman, as well as his family, along for the ride.

Spoiler; it wasn’t, in the slightest. The artist and his family hated every minute they were there, what with their dog getting sick, their rented apartment being destroyed by terrible weather and Steadman essentially breaking his leg the very first time he dove into a pool. Though the family fled back to the UK Thompson decided to stick around and see what else the place had to offer. Learning about the history of the place, he discovered the fascinating tale of Captain Cook and King Kamehameha (yes, like that Dragon Ball Z move, except it’s actually pronounced ‘kuh-may-uh-may-ah’), where the former convinced the latter and his people that he was a reincarnation of their lost god Lono and pretty much took the piss; taking all of their food once and then daring to try it again a few days later. That resulted in him and his crew being killed so, you know, I guess karma’s real.

Anyway, at one point after a particularly arduous fishing trip Thompson loudly proclaimed himself to be the new version of Lono, the audacity of which pissed off the locals to no end. He had to hide out in what was pretty much a historical monument known as ‘The City of Refuge’, where throughout history all manners of vagabonds could hide out to escape persecution. What a friggin’ hero.