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Hunter Thompson perfected a form of journalism that was basically unknown before his writings. With this style of journalism, called gonzo journalism, the writer would live the life he was writing about.
For Thompson, the goal throughout his career was to be truthful to himself and to his readers, the problem was that to do that he had to lie his way through life. You see for the concept of gonzo journalism to work properly, the subjects should not know that the writer is writing about them.

People often mistakenly believe that it was this habit of lying that created the most trouble for Thompson who received numerous death threats and even had a hit out on him after publishing an expose of the Hell's Angels. The uniformed believe that it was exposing their secrets or lying his way into the Hell's Angels that got Thompson in trouble, but the truth was, he had his death ordered because he didn't learn the Angels' truth during the time he lived with them.
The Hell's Angels live in a very commune like community with Angels' always willing to give what they had to the group. When Thompson made money off the group, but refused to share, he violated a basic ethic of the gang.
Sadly while Thompson may have perfected the appearance of gonzo journalism, he missed the very truth he was searching for and almost got himself killed in the process.

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