In-Store Event
Matthew L. Moseley presents and signs
Dear Dr. Thompson: Felony murder, Hunter S. Thompson, and the Last Gonzo Campaign
Date: Saturday August 28, 2010 - 5:00pm
Synopsis:
Most of my memos get lost in the ether and there was no telling what would happen, but I had some small inkling that sending a memo to Hunter about Lisl was not all that dissimilar to sending a memo to Truman Capote about a murder in Kansas. The difference here was that I had Hunter's fax number.
Sometimes the only thing it takes to change a life is a letter. While serving a life sentence at Colorado Womens Correctional Facility in Canon City, twenty-five-year-old Lisl Auman wrote an off-chance letter to legendary Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson to complain that his books were not available in the prison library.
Auman's tragic story began in 1997 when she took a ride in the Thunder Chicken a freshly stolen red Trans Am with skinhead Matthaeus Jaehnig. Their brief and devastating journey resulted in the death of Denver Police Officer Bruce VanderJagt. Jaehnig shot VanderJagt then turned the gun on himself all while Auman was already in handcuffs in a police cruiser. Two officers later said they saw Auman hand Jaehnig the murder weapon and she was sentenced to life without parole.
Communications strategist Matthew Moseley also wrote his own memo to Thompson, outlining how to organize a grassroots campaign to free Lisl Auman from prison and to take on the draconian felony murder law. Dear Dr. Thompson chronicles Lisl's epic struggles and takes you inside the last and perhaps greatest Gonzo campaign.
It is a cautionary tale about death, destruction, lies, justice, the power of media and ultimately, forgiveness.
Praise:
"Hunter Thompson fought tirelessly for Lisl Auman, on the theory that by doing so he was protecting the rights of all of us. Matthew Moseley provides a colorful and well-researched chronicle of the crusade, which would make Hunter proud."
- Walter Isaacson, president of the Aspen Institute, former editor of Time and CEO of CNN
"It is strange how fact can be stranger than fiction. If you put Lisl's case into a script, nobody, but nobody would believe things worked out the way they did. Lisl is a victim and every damn one of us knows he who fears the flashing lights in the rear view mirror are also victims."
- Benicio Del Toro, actor
"Matthew Moseley describes how Lawyers, Guns and Money became more than just a song it became the touchstone for the campaign to free Lisl Auman. Dear Dr. Thompson tells the story of how Hunter Thompson inspired my late husband, Warren Zevon, to leap into the first and only political activism of his life. Moseley s book is a rock and roll report of one of Warren Zevon's and Hunter Thompson's proudest legacies."
- Crystal Zevon, author of I'll Sleep When I m Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon
