Elk Antlers Hunter Thompson Stole from Hemingway Returned

Hunter S. Thompson and Ernest Hemingway had a lot in common.

Writers. Gun lovers. Boozehounds. Misogynists.

And they both loved a healthy disregard for the law, as evidenced by Thompson’s theft of one of Ernest Hemingway’s hunting trophies in 1964.

Three years after Hemingway’s suicide in Idaho, Thompson went to his home in Ketchum while reporting on a piece for The Observer that became “What Lured Hemingway to Ketchum?” Following his visit to the cabin where Hemingway shot himself, Thompson departed with his answers as well as a pair of elk antlers that had been mounted above the door of the home.

According to Thompson’s widow, Anita, her late husband “was actually very embarrassed by it” so, in the hopes of making things right, she loaded the antlers into her Prius and returned them. “They were grateful to have them back. They had heard rumors,” Anita Thompson told BroBible. “It was fun to return them properly. It seemed like the right thing to do. I’m so glad I did it.”

Better late than never.

Hemingway photo courtesy of the Ernest Hemingway Collection. JFK Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.

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Evan Bleier

Evan is a senior editor with InsideHook who earned a master’s degree in journalism from NYU and has called Brooklyn home since 2006. A fan of Boston sports, Nashville hot chicken and Kentucky bourbon, Evan has had his work published in publications including “Maxim,” Bleacher Report and “The Daily Mail.”