THE
MONSTER INSIDE

Topics: Abuse; Anger; Cruelty; Depravity; Evil; Human Condition; Human Nature; Sin; Temper; Temptation; Violence

References: Ecclesiastes 9:3; Matthew 15:19; Mark 7:21; 14:38; Romans 7:14–21; Galatians 5:19–21

Journalist Hunter Thompson, longtime contributor to Rolling Stone magazine and author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, committed suicide in 2005 at age sixty-seven. His addiction to drugs and alcohol and his abusive actions toward others were no secret. After his death, his first wife, Sandy Conklin-Thompson, wrote:

He was, on the one hand, extremely loving and tender, brilliant and exciting, generous and kind. On the other end of the spectrum—he was full spectrum—he was extremely cruel.…

I will never forget something Hunter once said to me. In one of his tender moments, I asked him if he knew when he was about to become the Monster. He said, “Sandy, it’s like this. I sense it first, and before I have completely turned around he is there. He is me.”

—Sondi Wright, “He Was Full Spectrum,” Rolling Stone (March 2005)