Laura said:
http://gawker.com/the-astounding-conspiracy-theories-of-wall-street-geniu-1561427624
Mark Gorton does not have a reputation as a crackpot. Quite the opposite. He's been favorably profiled in the New York Times for his business acumen and charitable deeds. His experience as the head of Limewire—which disrupted the music industry and then lost a $100 million lawsuit as a result—was closely followed by the press. And when Michael Lewis's blockbuster new book about high frequency trading was published recently, prominent media outlets turned to Gorton to learn what HFT firms are really like. The Huffington Post even dubbed him "the new face of Wall Street." He is a very respected and very wealthy man.
This week, we were forwarded documents that Gorton was sending out to employees at Tower Research. These documents—embedded at the bottom of this post—are essays by Mark Gorton, laying out his theories on the secret high-level murderous criminal "Cabal" that is responsible for, among other things, the JFK and RFK assassinations, the presidential careers of the Bushes, Clinton, and Obama, the Oklahoma City bombing, the 9/11 plot, and the murder of countless witnesses, politicians, and journalists who sought to expose them, including Sen. Paul Wellstone and even Hunter S. Thompson. Everything, according to Gorton, has been an inside job.
I've been thinking about Hunter S. Thompson's death in February 2005. Previously I just assumed it must have been suicide, since everyone knows how crazy he was, always shooting guns in his backyard and blowing things up. Today I've been reading a book of interviews with Hunter S. Thompson published in 2009,
Interviews with Hunter S. Thompson: Ancient Gonzo Wisdom edited by Anita Thompson (Cambridge, Mass: Da Capo Press, 2009).
[The book has an Introduction by Christopher Hitchens, in which Hitchens seems unable to accept HST's views on 9/11 and feels he has to try and downplay them:
"[. . .]I have some private reason to think that he didn't always believe his own propaganda about 9/11 and its aftermath, and I certainly find much of the exaggeration on those subjects in these pages to be just that: a straining for effect that may well even have helped contribute to the final accidie." - from Hitchens' Introduction.]
Thompson clearly had strong views about what he saw as a fascist direction being taken by the USA in the 21st century. He thought 9/11 benefitted the US administration, and condemned the ongoing wars against Iraq, e.g. in this 2003 interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWbsm4Lp6g8
Of course this isn't itself proof one way or another or whether he committed suicide or was suicided, but might count for something in a consideration of "Who benefits?" from his death.
Something else that strikes me from reading the interviews was just how serious Hunter S. Thompson was about being a writer/journalist, and of his serious interest in the nature of politics, the media, truth, liberty, and evil. As an example of his serious approach to writing, he would copy out pages on his typewriter from the novels of authors he admired.
This contrasts with the public person of HST as being a drug-addled nutcase. Here are a couple of quotes from the book of interviews relating to this:
from a 1986 interview with "T.O." magazine (Toronto):
T.O. [magazine]: Do you get upset at the way the media have portrayed you?
HST: Well, I don't mind being portrayed as a dope fiend or a sex fiend as long as there's something else in there. [He sighs wearily.] You know, I'm more concerned with the Supreme Court than I am about rock and roll - or with the war in Nicaragua than I am about drugs.
from a 1993 interview with "Spin" magazine:
SPIN: Your use of drugs is one of the more controversial elements about you and your writing. Do drugs and alcohol play as big a role in your life now as they did in your earlier work?
HST: Obviously, my drug use is exaggerated or I would be long since dead.
This is from 13:16 in the interview in the Youtube link above, a 2003 interview with KDNK Community Radio, Colorado, on the topic of Iraq:
HST: You know, Bush, he's really the evil one in here. Well, more than just him. We're the Nazis in this game, and I don't like it. I'm embarrassed and I'm pissed off. Yeah. I mean to say something and I think a lot of people in this country agree with me. A lot more never say anything. We'll see what happens to me if I get my head cut off in the next week by - it's always unknown or bushy haired strangers who commit suicide right afterward. No witnesses. [. . .]
Mary Suma: Is that the CIA kind of crime?
HST: Oh, absolutely. Anybody that's a successful criminal's kind of crime. We can go on and on. I have to be restrained on the subject.
HST is supposed to have written the following suicide note four days before his death:
No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun — for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax — This won't hurt.
I find this note a bit odd. HST joked in interviews several times about never expecting to live past 27 or past 30, which fits the "live fast - die young" romantic stereotype. Not expecting to live past 50 isn't really the same thing. It also seems a bit pedestrian compared to HST's usual writing style, and moralistic ("You are getting Greedy. Act your old age.") in a way that seems out of character for HST.
This website has some more doubts and information about HST's death/suicide:
_http://aneta.org/thompsonmurder_com/