This seems kind of weird. As the article says he was on the phone with his wife and left a suicide note. His son by a previous marriage was in the house with him when he died, which makes me think this is some sort of inheritance dispute between his widow and son.
I checked out the Pitkin County Assessors site, big notice to all residents IN RED A 80% raise in property taxes for 2025. I looked up the Thompson house-its listed under the Owl Farm Trust with her name- roughly from $3,400.00 per year to $35,000. But they have 42 acres 10 minutes from Aspen....so its not going to be cheap! But I don't know anything...maybe he was miserable. He was working on the Lisl Auman case helping her get an appeal, why would he just kill himself, she got her appeal in 2005. He would have seen it happen but he off himself while his grandson at the house???? Now property taxes go up? oki.....
It does make sense with a wider context. In short, he was miserable, and he always planned to go out on his own terms when he felt he'd reached the end of the path (I imagine influenced by seeing his father die painfully through disease as a young man). He documented both well. Having his family in the house at the time, and to be on the phone to his wife, was likely to let them know the nature of it, a kind of act of transparency and trust. It makes sense in the context of his beliefs and nature. Also, he would have always been in the middle of something, work wise.
The last thing he typed has always sat deeply with me:
"Football Season Is Over
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”
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[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 29.4 ms ] thread"Football Season Is Over
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”
https://www.espn.com/espn/page2/story?id=1992213
The Battle of Aspen > Thompson's campaign for sheriff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_Aspen :
Dynomite!