Dead
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5ee The Friday Edition
Oregon doily
emerald
Friday, May 25, 1984
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 85, Number 163
A candid talk with Hunter 5. Thompson
By Kim Carlson
Of the Emerald
Things couldn't have been going smoother.
Oh sure, Hunter Thompson's plane was 30
minutes late, and, at 8 p.m., he was changing
from his trademark Hawaiian shirt into a button
down shirt and tie in the men's room at Mahlon
Sweet Airport. Meanwhile at MacArthur Court,
about 1,200 people were anxiously expecting
him to walk on stage any moment. Other than
that — everything was cool.
During the car ride into Eugene, Thompson
was talkative and candid; everything was
peachy.
That is, until about 8:45 p.m. when we arriv
ed in the parking lot at Mac Court and the
trunk of the borrowed brown Mercedes which
carried us and the Gonzo journalist from the air
port refused to open.
"Oh goddammit. Oh goddammit," muttered
Paul the driver under his breath as he jiggled
the only key he had to the lock. "I need my
cigarettes," Thompson said, becoming more im
patient every minute. "Are you sure this is the
only key?"
"I'm really sorry about this," said Paul after
about three minutes of intense lock action. He
was beginning to sweat. "We can get you more
cigarettes, no problem."
"Damn. I need my wallet, my tape
recorder," grumbled Thompson, hitting his
hand on the trunk. After about five luckless
minutes, hope was all but gone. Then, as if by
divine providence, the hood sprung open.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Everyone,
that is, except Thompson, who seemed
nonplussed by the fortunate turn of the key. "I
need my cigarettes," he said, grabbing for the
leather satchel in the trunk. "I don't like being
late. I'm late here."
He headed toward the building, toward the
throng of fans who waited there.
Before the commotion with the Mercedes'
trunk Thompson had sat in the front seat and
talked. He talked about his new book and his
recent passion: the 1984 presidential campaign.
He's following the primaries with the intention
of doing "an analytical piece” for Rolling Stone.
He said he'll probably write something on the
"weird ups and downs" of the campaign.
"The campaign has been so strange. It sw
ings back and forth so violently. Hart has no
business being in there. The whole thing is set
up to keep this from happening. But now when
they go to San Francisco they're going to have,
what, $50 million completely wasted. All the
primaries are totally useless. It's going to be just
a flesh market, a wild scene down there."
Would Thompson publicly support any of
the Democratic presidential candidates? Perhaps
Hart?
"Probably yeah, I probably would, but only
because Cary's an old friend, a neighbor and
you know, my senator. I think he'd either beat
Reagan or utterly destroy the Democratic party.
And either one of'em's good enough for me."
A nasty rumor spread not so long ago that
Thompson was steering clear of journalism. So
what's he doing tagging along to the primaries?
"I got dragged back into this like a junkie.
You can't resist this — a possible forced
ballot... I tried to quit. I did everything possi
ble. It's like sliding back into some heinous
heaven. Some things you can't resist."
"The Curse of the Lono," Thompson's most
recent book, originated when he and a cohort,
English illustrator Ralph Steadman, wdre in
Hawaii covering the Honolulu marathon for
Running magazine.
"The book was so chopped up, about half
of it went to press and half of it didn't. At one
Continued on Page 4A
Photo by Michael Clapp
Hunter Thompson lights up a Dunhill while in Mac Court
last night for a question and answer with about 1200
fans.
Thompson's incisive comments woo Mac Court crowd
By Angela Allen Morgan
Of the Emerald
Master of the hyperbole, gifted with gab, gonzo
journalist Hunter S. Thompson — Doctor, if you please
— er — winged his one-man question-and-answer
show last night at MacArthur Court in front of about
1,200 die-hard fans.
“An Evening of Questions and Answers Political in
Nature," began in usual Hunter Standard Time: one
fashionable hour late. It lasted another two, as the
44-year-old writer chain-smoked Dunhiils, guzzled
suspicious substances and fielded questions from
predictions on the NBA playoffs (Celtics) to a com
parison of Reagan's brand of democracy to Duarte's
(“OK, it's the same").
Because the self-confessed political junkie has suf
fered, feared and loathed his way through "intense,
demented involvement in politics," Thompson's
perspectives were entertaining, insightful and ar
ticulate. Having written about and covered a number
of presidential campaigns, including fellow Coloradan
Gary Hart's, Thompson is a seasoned critic of the cam
paign trail. He is also an unflinching soothsayer of
America's future.
"The whole notion ot democracy right now," he said
from a voice gnarled by smoke and travel, "is in very
serious trouble. We have a bunch of crooks and
criminals who've taken free enterprise and turned it
into a goddamned carnival."
Thompson spared little, noting that his decision to
wear a tie doesn't make him a moderate. His opinions
are the acerbic ones of the dyed-in-the-wool unobjec
tive cultural analyst that he claims to be.
For example: Hart ("a cowboy — brave, straight"),
Grenada ("yes, I'd accept an ambassadorship there"),
Nixon ("the fact that he appears to be a gentleman
shows us where we are right now"), Reagan (a "GE ap
pliance salesman, a creep, you wouldn't want him in
your house for a drink”), lawyers ("they should have a
brand put on their foreheads — it's. . the legal profes
sion. . .the most evil profession in this country") the
Washington football Redskins ("they're done for"),
)esse Jackson ("the smartest guy in the campaign"),
and George McGovern ("given a choice I'd vote for
George anytime").
Political issues aside, Thompson courted the per
sonal, admitting his propensity for drug use while
working. "Beastly, brutal speed is the best. . .Cocaine
is a stupid drug to work on." But all things in modera
tion, he joked, advising a student planning to pull an
all-nighter,"if you must do it, eat speed. But I wouldn't
do it. I wouldn't work either."
His most personal gesture was to autograph the t
shirt of a follower who asked him for the favor. He
began to sign on the back of the woman's shirt. The
audience booed. Thompson signed the front,
democratic and responsive citizen that he is.
Aid to El Salvador OKed; jury convicts guardsmen
From Associated Press reports
ZACATECOLUCA, El Salvador — After a
20-hour trial, a jury convicted five former
national guardsmen Thursday of killing
four American churchwomen whose
deaths in 1980 became a rallying point
for opposition to U.S. aid to El Salvador.
Meanwhile, in Washington, the House
approved $62 million of emergency
military aid for El Salvador today but re
jected any more money in this fiscal year
for CIA undercover backing of guerrillas
fighting the leftist Sandinista govern
ment of Nicaragua.
The U.S. Congress had initially
withheld a decision on a proposed $19
million in military aid for the Salvadoran
government, waiting for the end of the
trial.
In El Salvador, the five-member jury
heard 20 hours of testimony and argu
ment broken only by brief recesses. They
deliberated for an hour before returning
a verdict of guilty on all counts shortly
before dawn.
Relatives of the dead women called the
conviction a good first step toward learn
ing who ordered the killing and who
tried to cover it up. Michael Posner,
director of the Lawyers Committee for In
ternational Human Rights, said he has
been assured there will be an investiga
tion of whether higher authorities were
involved
A U.S. Embassy statement said "the
successful prosecution of these
murderers shows the Salvadoran
criminal justice system can be made to
work.”
In Washington, State Department
spokesman John Hughes said, "The
United States is fully committed to
assisting the government of El Salvador
in the strengthening of the Salvadoran
judicial system.”
The Democratic-controlled House ap
proved the Salvadoran assistance by a
vote of 267-154 and went on to approve,
by a vote of 241-177, an amendment
refusing to go along with any emergency
appropriation for support of the
Nicaraguan rebels.
The vote on El Salvador adopted the
full amount approved by the Republican
controlled Senate for urgent assistance
to help put down a Marxist-led rebellion.
that has gripped the country since the
late 1970s.
Rep. Clarence Long, D-Md., chairman
of the House Appropriations subcommit
tee on foreign operations, said $32
million of the amount will be earmarked
for repayment of Pentagon funds that
Pres. Ronald Reagan diverted to El
Salvador without congressional ap
proval. The remaining $30 million will be
available to the Salvadoran armed forces.
Rep. Harold Wolpe, D-Mich., opposing
the compromise, praised Salvadoran
President-elect Jose Napoleon Duarte
but said, “The way we can help him best
is by letting his military know that the on
ly way it is going to get its aid is to
respect his rule and his programs."