The AP story on globeandmail.com:

Writer Bill Cardoso, who coined the term "gonzo" to describe the frenetic participatory journalism practised by Hunter S. Thompson, died on Feb. 26 of cardiac arrest. He was 68.

Mr. Cardoso began his journalism career as a sports writer, went on to write for the Boston Globe, and came to know Mr. Thompson. When Mr. Thompson wrote his colourful, drug-riddled story The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved, Mr. Cardoso wrote that the piece was "pure gonzo."

The term stuck. Mr. Thompson, who died last year, embraced gonzo and so did Webster's 1979 Dictionary: "bizarre, unrestrained, extravagant, specifically designating a style of personal journalism so characterized."