If there’s anything people on the internet love more than cute animals, it’s the stories of drug-induced depravity from the Reagan era. So, on Tuesday, when Variety reported that actress Elizabeth Banks’s next project would focus heavily on a bear involved in a failed drug smuggling operation, people on social media reacted in the same way that a cocaine-addicted bear would do if someone popped a credit card and a $ 20 in a party: with extreme interest and excitement.
Described as a “character-driven thriller inspired by real events that took place in Kentucky in 1985”, the film, which has the provisional title Cocaine Bear, it is supposedly based on the true story of a convicted drug dealer who died while parachuting from an airplane carrying an extremely heavy load of drugs. The unfortunate bear in question accidentally found 40 containers of cocaine and died of an overdose.
There are many questions raised by this project: from what perspective will the story be told, that of the dealer or that of the bear? In the latter case, would the film focus on the bear’s daily life, largely consisting of footage of salmon fishing and the development of fecal plugs (search Google) for hibernation? Or would it be Cocaine bear follow another life-inspired trajectory and portray the bear’s fall into addiction, complete with frantic dance montages tuned for EDM and at least one scene of the bear performing with a woodpecker at a sex show for drug money?
Since none of these details have been revealed, here’s what we know about the real story behind the cocaine bear itself.
What is the cocaine bear?
The cocaine bear story begins with the tale of Andrew Carter Thornton, the prosperous son of Kentucky horse breeders who became an Air Force officer and recipient of Purple Heart and later a narcotics officer. Thornton resigned from the Lexington, Kentucky police force in 1977 to practice the law.
The law-abiding life apparently did not serve him well: in 1981 he was arrested, along with 25 other men, for trying to steal weapons from a naval base in Fresno, California, and for trying to traffic 1,000 pounds of marijuana into the country. A 1980 federal indictment alleged that Thornton was part of a drug and arms smuggling ring called “the Company”, which also allegedly involved other former Kentucky police officers.
Initially, Thornton was charged with two criminal charges of conspiracy to import and distribute a controlled substance, of which he pleaded not guilty. After fleeing the state, he was found heavily armed in North Carolina and taken back to California to face a reduction in drug misdemeanor charges. He did not contest the charges and was sentenced to six months in prison and a $ 500 fine; as part of the terms of his sentence, he also had his legal license revoked.
But Thornton’s drug smuggling days were far from over. On September 11, 1985, his body was found in a garage in Knoxville, Tennessee, using a parachute and carrying around 77 pounds of cocaine, which was later valued at about $ 14 million. He was heavily armed and wore a bulletproof vest, and he also carried a Miami Jockey Club membership card. Later, authorities found his plane, which was on autopilot, about 60 miles away. They determined that he tried to jump off the plane, but his parachute did not open. He was 40 years old.
In addition to the bizarre circumstances surrounding his death, Thornton is also notable for inspiring perhaps the most cruel quote of all time in an obituary. “I’m glad your parachute didn’t open,” said the prosecutor who sued him for the marijuana trafficking charge in 1981 to the LA Times after he died. “I hope he got really high on that.” While considering that Thornton’s body was found with several epigrams, including the cheerful quote, “There is only one tactical principle that is not subject to change: it is to inflict maximum injury, death and destruction on the enemy in the least amount of time,” surprising that this was a guy who made more than a few enemies during his life.
In 1987, two years after Thornton’s death, the authorities accused his girlfriend of conspiring to smuggle cocaine from Colombia to Tennessee, but the charges were dropped after a judge ruled that she had made a confession to an agent who pretended to be a member. the Colombian cartel was given under duress.
OK, that’s very sad and all, but where does the bear go in?
A few months after Thornton’s death, a hunter in the Chattahoochee National Forest in Georgia, tripped over a 75-kilogram black bear. The bear was extremely dead; although he was not found half-naked on an art deco coffee table from the 1970s with blood-encrusted nostrils, like someone in Boogie Nights, he seemed to have overdosed after trying to eat 34 pounds of 95 percent pure cocaine, which he found in a backpack.
It is still unclear exactly how much cocaine the bear was able to eat; an autopsy later determined that he had ingested only about three or four grams, but by the time the bag was discovered, all 75 pounds of coca were completely gone. “His stomach was literally filled with cocaine,” said the officer who performed the bear’s autopsy later. “There is no mammal on the planet that can survive this. Cerebral hemorrhage, respiratory failure, hyperthermia, renal failure, heart failure, stroke. You choose, that bear had it. “
Surprisingly, the story does not end there. The bear was stuffed and put on display, passing several owners – including, at one point, country star Waylon Jennings – before finally ending up at the Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall roadside attraction in 2015, where it was renamed Pablo Escobear . “You wouldn’t think a Cocaine Bear was for all ages, but kids love it,” one of the owners told Roadside America. “Everyone wants a photo with the Cocaine Bear.” The bear even made a special appearance in a surreal 2016 ad for the mall.
This is a fascinating story, but it doesn’t seem overly receptive to the film adaptation. Cocaine bear it sounds more like an attempt to be part of the viral news cycle and less like a fully developed project on its own. If I’m being honest with myself, am I really going to watch this movie when it comes out?
Probably not. But if you do, feel free to check this explainer again!