The Mitchell Brothers, Gail Palmer, and Hunter S. Thompson: Fear, Loathing, Porn, and Dynamite in Aspen
By Third Axis
Third Axis working hard
The recent news story about the murder arrest of James Mitchell, the 27-year-old son of the late porn impresario Jim Mitchell, of the Mitchell Brothers, is a tragic continuation of that family and porn dynasty’s history. It brings to mind my meeting brothers Jim and Artie in better times, back before too much coke, craziness, guns, and murder were what put them in the headlines. (Jim was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the 1991 slaying of Artie.)
In the late-’80s and ’90s I lived in Aspen, Colorado, and freelanced as a photographer and stringer for the two local newspapers, the Aspen Times and Aspen Daily News. The Roaring Fork Valley, where Aspen is located, was also home to the legendary "gonzo" writer and journalist Hunter S. Thompson, who owned a large property near the town of Woody Creek, just down the valley from Aspen. I’d see Hunter regularly at the bar of the renowned Woody Creek Tavern, and bought him a shot of Wild Turkey and had a chat on a few occasions. Hunter was a nice guy, and just a regular Joe when he was drinking at his local watering hole; he was also notorious for pulling pranks, like setting off a stink bomb that emptied the packed bar one night, or pulling a shotgun out of his golf bag on the local course and blasting balls on the fly. (Locally, he was a well-known firearms/explosives proponent, and an excellent marksman. It was fitting that he ended his own life at the business end of a handgun, and I mean that with the greatest *respect*.)
Anyway, where the names of HST, Golden Age porn actress Gail Palmer, and the infamous Mitchell Brothers intersect, was an incident that occurred in 1990. Palmer had long before retired from the porn business and was apparently trying her hand as some kind of journalist. She had arranged to conduct an interview with Hunter at his Owl Farm, and he had reluctantly, by his own admission, consented to a sit-down with the former porn star, whom surely he had seen on screen in her heyday – Hunter was once the night manager at the Mitchell Brothers’ O’Farrell Theater in San Francisco.
The story, as widely reported, “got stranger” when Palmer arrived at the ranch for her scheduled interview, and was told by Hunter that he would only give her the time if they held it in the hot tub. According to Palmer’s statement to the Sheriff’s Dept., she felt awkward about this request and refused. She also alleged the use of cocaine on the premises. Palmer stated that Hunter made several sexual advances toward her, eventually grabbed her breast, and, when she continued to rebuff him, Hunter threw a cocktail glass, which struck her.
Palmer immediately fled from the property, boarded a plane and flew home, where her manager/husband contacted the authorities and filed criminal charges. As (bad) luck would have it, there was a local prosecutor who had a longstanding hard-on against Hunter, whose very public sex-drugs-and-rock-and-roll image had long been a thorn in the side of law enforcement. Palmer’s alleged drug-fueled sexual assault by Hunter was just the offense this prosecutor needed to finally pull a warrant to search Hunter’s home and find the illegal substances that would surely put him away for good.
Sheriff’s deputies showed up at the ranch and proceeded to thoroughly search the premises for 11 hours. However, all they found were “trace amounts” of cannabis, a couple of prescription pills, and some “powdery substance” in a drawer, along with several sticks of dynamite and some blasting caps for which Hunter didn’t have a proper permit (he was constantly setting off explosives of one kind or another on his property, as well as shooting automatic weapons at full propane bottles, etc.). So Hunter was dragged off to jail, but was bailed out immediately.
Thus followed a prolonged pre-trial, which captured the attention of local, state, and national news, and had all of the circus-like craziness that you’d expect from such a thing involving the Great Gonzo, Hunter S. Thompson! And he gave some great copy/sound bites, for sure. But the best part of the show was when the acclaimed porn producers, the Mitchell Brothers, Jim and Artie (both now deceased, and another story altogether), along with a couple of porn actresses/hookers, loaded up a red convertible Cadillac with a giant, mounted buffalo head in the back seat (in homage to the 1980 HST bio-pic, “Where the Buffalo Roam,” starring Bill Murray), and in a show of support and solidarity drove all the way from the Bay Area to the steps of the Pitkin County courthouse in Aspen, where the waiting news cameras had an absolute field day.
The brothers, Hunter, and their instant entourage held court in the bar of the historic Jerome Hotel, where much hilarity ensued, drinks were slung, and I had the opportunity to have a few words with the godfathers of West Coast porn. They were both happy, in their element, and loving all of the media attention being showered upon them. No one would have then imagined the sad days that were to come just a year later.
After an entertaining pre-trial, all charges against Hunter were dismissed, including Gail Palmer’s accusations, since there were no witnesses to corroborate her story. The trace amounts of controlled substances found were too small for prosecution, and the dynamite and blasting caps were ruled to be OK since Hunter testified that he was using them to blast a beaver dam that was blocking an irrigation channel on his ranch.
Nobody, except Palmer and the departed spirit of HST, will ever know what really happened there beside the hot tub, between the Hall-of-Fame porn star and the great gonzo laureate… Now that’s a movie I’d love to see!