  Under the hypothesis that some fraction of massive stellar core collapses
give rise to unusually energetic events, termed hypernovae, I examine the
required rates assuming some fraction of such events yield gamma ray bursts. I
then discuss evidence from studies of pulsars and r-process nucleosynthesis
that independently suggests the existence of a class of unusually energetic
events. Finally I describe a scenario which links these different lines of
evidence as supporting the hypernova hypothesis.
