The notoriety doesn't stop at his last coke-filled breaths.Ĭocaine Bear's next 25 or so years are equally as wild. Thirty-six years later, even though he's a technically Georgia black bear, Cocaine Bear is a Kentucky legend for dying at the indirect hand of one of the commonwealth's most wanted. The two deaths are widely believed to be connected because the bear was surrounded by 40 open containers with traces of cocaine inside of them. Inside the Kentucky Murder Mansion's twisted love story He had knives, a couple of pistols, $4,500 in cash and a duffel bag filled with about 75 pounds of cocaine worth $15 million on him too. His body was recovered in Knoxville, Tennessee, with night-vision goggles on his face and Gucci loafers on his feet. He just returned from dropping packages in northern Georgia. It was there that Andrew Thornton II, a notorious Lexington narcotics police officer turned drug-smuggler, fell to his death from a plane while on a coke-smuggling run. When a medical examiner was called in back in 1985 to look at the 175-pound body, he found every problem you'd expect from a massive overdose - cerebral hemorrhaging, respiratory failure, hyperthermia, renal failure, heart failure, stroke.Ĭocaine Bear's stomach was so full, you couldn't have packed in more of the illicit drug if you tried.īut how did he get that way? It starts three months earlier and 200 miles to the north. I waited to write that story because the coronavirus shutdown happened the following week and teasing about an attraction that wasn't open to the public didn't seem fair.īut now, it's finally time to introduce you to Cocaine Bear. Interestingly enough, I took a trip to Lexington on March 4, 2020, pre-COVID, to meet the bear and the small staff of retail employees dedicated to preserving his story. With the upcoming film in mind, now seems like as good a time as any to revisit the legend and the story of how he ended up stuffed and on display at the Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall at 720 Bryan Ave. It's happening: 'Cocaine Bear' finally has a release date. The circumstances of his death were originally featured in a wild three-sentence long New York Times brief back in 1985, and now it's part of the plot of a new movie being developed and directed by actress and director Elizabeth Banks. The black bear with just enough teeth showing to scare some children has appeared in thousands of selfies, and he's even gotten to be the guest of honor backstage at a Sturgill Simpson concert. The now taxidermized Cocaine Bear has captured the hearts and attention of roadside travelers since he first arrived in Lexington in 2015. Back in 1985, a 175-pound black bear died from a massive cocaine overdose at the indirect hand of one of Kentucky's most notorious drug-smuggling criminals. The real-life story is stranger than fiction. Our venerable "Cocaine Bear" is part of the plotline for an upcoming film. The story of Kentucky's favorite party animal is heading to Hollywood. Waylon Jennings once owned the stuffed bear. The Georgia state examiner had the animal taxidermised. The Cocaine Bear, now shown at the Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall, was a 175-pound black bear from Chattahoochee National Forest that died after eating about 75 pounds of cocaine that was lost by Kentuckian drug smuggler Andrew Thornton in 1985.
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