Some movies are high art created to say something about the human condition. Others are goofy, entertaining material made to delight audiences with over-the-top spectacle. And some movies are Cocaine Bear, a movie about a bear that finds a stash of cocaine and goes on a rampage.
Despite that bonkers-sounding premise, Cocaine Bear is based on real events. Well, kind of. A bear did get into some cocaine during an incident in 1985, but the real bear didn’t actually go on any kind of rampage.
Inspired by True Events
In September 1985, a 175-pound black bear in Chattahoochee National Forest in Georgia did, in fact, find a stash of cocaine that had been dropped by a drug smuggler named Andrew C. Thornton II. Thornton jumped out of a plane over Tennessee while carrying over 200 pounds of cocaine, some of which got away from him and fell to the ground below.
In real life, Thornton died from the fall when he got tangled up in his parachute. He landed head-first on a private driveway in Knoxville. He was carrying two pistols, night-vision goggles, a bulletproof vest, Gucci shoes, and 77 pounds of cocaine. In a nutshell, it was the 80s.
The Bear
The bear who found the cocaine in Chattahoochee doesn’t seem to have actually hurt anyone after finding the drugs. By all accounts, the bear was in such a remote area and consumed such a vast amount of narcotics that it died from an overdose long before it had a chance to interact with any humans.
The bear was likely dead for weeks when authorities found it next to numerous open containers of cocaine. Bizarrely, the real bear’s story doesn’t end there, either–its remains have been shuffled between owners a lot in the intervening 40 years.
Pablo EskoBear
The bear’s remains were somewhat well-preserved, so the doctor who examined them had the bear taxidermied. It was given to the Chattahoochee National Forest as a gift, but it was moved into storage in the mid-90s ahead of an approaching wildfire.
At some point while in storage, the bear was stolen and sold to a pawn shop. Waylon Jennings briefly owned it after purchasing it from this pawn shop. After changing hands a few more times, the taxidermied bear ended up in the possession of the “Fun Mall” in Lexington, Kentucky. It has a sign around its neck that bears its posthumous nickname: “Pablo EskoBear.”
