Former presidential candidate John Kerry attended an intimate and exclusive farewell for gonzo journalist Hunter Thompson, a suicide victim – complete with tributes to drugs and blow-up sex dolls adorning the event.

Thompson's ashes were blasted into the night sky in an explosion, according to reports.

But some, according to an Associated Press report, said the gonzo journalist would have sneered at the Hollywood trappings – champagne toasts by movie stars and former presidential candidates.

The writer's ashes were fired from atop a 15-story tower modeled after Thompson's logo: a clenched fist, holding a peyote button, rising from the hilt of a dagger. It was built between his Colorado home and a tree-covered canyon wall.

The guests gathered in a pavilion next to the platform. Inside were blow up sex dolls and a mask of Thompson's arch enemy, late President Richard Nixon.

Thompson shot himself in his kitchen Feb. 20, apparently despondent over his declining health.

The national and most local media were barred from the tribute to the groundbreaking writer who was credited, along with Tom Wolfe and Gay Talese, with helping pioneer New Journalism ? he dubbed his version "gonzo journalism" ? in which the writer was an essential component of the story.

His only son, Juan Thompson, said the hundreds of celebrities, including actors Johnny Depp and Bill Murray, musician Lyle Lovett and former Democratic presidential nominees George McGovern and Kerry, wouldn't have felt comfortable with the press around.

Depp, who played Thompson in the 1998 film adaptation of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," paid for the $2.5 million extravaganza. Depp and Juan Thompson embraced as the ashes fell to the ground.