About The Book
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...
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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.
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