Neal Cassady died in the middle of the night alongside the railroad tracks on the outskirts of San Miguel de Allende after leaving a party. It’s been said that he died of exposure, but the cause of death was never quite determined. Here’s an intriguing read by novelist Peter Ferry exploring Neal Cassady’s connection with that central Mexican town long after he passed away.
“When I first get here, the only thing I know with certainty about Neal Cassady’s time in San Miguel de Allende is that he died ignominiously just outside of town in 1968. And although that tie is admittedly tenuous, it’s curious to me that people in this artists’ colony who are surely used to outcasts and iconoclasts seem reluctant to claim him. At least at first…”
Read on..
See here for the full story – [***update 2022, unfortunately this article is no longer available]
[…] connection to Cassady lasted long after the 1964 bus trip, continuing through to Cassady’s death outside of San Miguel de Allende [Guanajuato, Mexico] in early 1968, and, beyond that, to the […]
I was with Neal and George in San Miguel the year Cassidy died. We lived in an apartment called Las Palomas. George came roaring into the courtyard on day driving a dayglo orange Lotus Elan with dayglo green hub caps. I was nineteen years old and they adopted me on the spot!
I believe Neal picked up myself and a friend while we hitchhiking to Laguna Beach in late summer 1967. In an old pickup truck. He looked at my friend and said “ Everything is energy, you just have understand that and everything is possible”. It was a short ride that I never forgot.
The article referenced above, listed as no longer available as of 2022, can be found via the Internet Archive.
https://web.archive.org/web/20210214055808/http://www.worldhum.com/features/travel-stories/searching-for-neal-cassady-in-san-miguel-de-allende-20100503/