The Disappearance of Oscar Zeta Acosta

Oscar Zeta Acosta was a prominent Chicano activist, lawyer, and author — best known for his political work in Los Angeles and as the inspiration for the character Dr. Gonzo in Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" — who disappeared in Mazatlán, Mexico, in the summer of 1974. He was 39. He had telephoned his son Marco from Mazatlán saying he was about to board a boat full of white snow, which was interpreted as cocaine, and was never heard from again. No body was ever found.

Acosta had been a polarizing and complex figure in his lifetime — a radical lawyer who had represented the Chicano Moratorium protesters in Los Angeles after the 1970 anti-Vietnam War riot, a man with documented serious drug use problems, and a personality too volatile for many institutions to accommodate. He had disappeared periodically before and was known for erratic behavior. His disappearance was not reported publicly for some time.

The circumstances — a phone call from Mexico mentioning cocaine, in an era of violent drug trafficking — pointed to various theories: that he had been killed in a drug deal gone wrong, that he had been murdered by law enforcement or criminal elements for his political activities, or that he had deliberately vanished to escape his legal and personal debts. Hunter Thompson, who cared about Acosta deeply, wrote about his disappearance and conducted informal inquiries, but reached no conclusions.

Oscar Acosta was declared legally dead in 1986. His literary estate has been managed posthumously, and his two autobiographical novels — "The Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo" and "The Revolt of the Cockroach People" — remain significant works of Chicano literature. The circumstances of his death or disappearance have never been established, making him one of the most notable literary and political figures in American history whose fate is entirely unknown.