By Josh Bate
Cocaine Bear is now in theaters and has seemingly taken audiences by storm with its wacky, unbelievable true story. In the film, a drug lord’s lost cocaine somehow gets into the hands (or mouth) of a wild bear, who ingests the substance and then proceeds to wreak havoc on the woodland area.
It’s surprising enough that Cocaine Bear is based on actual events, but perhaps even more shocking that the true story is actually somewhat similar to what occurs in the movie (although with less violence). In the 1980s, a man named Andrew Thornton had a parachute mishap and fell to his death in the skies of Tennessee. Thornton believed that the FBI was hunting for him and had an armory of weapons on his body, along with a large amount of cocaine.
Not all of the substance was on Thornton, however. Much of it landed in the woods, which is where the black bear comes into the proceedings. The bear was unfortunately found some time later having eaten almost all of the drug stash dropped by Thornton, and died after a suspected overdose.
While the bear might not have terrorized a small town of people like in the film, they still did leave quite a legacy. Today, a stuffed version of the animal stands tall in a tourist attraction in Kentucky, where they are nicknamed Pablo Esco-bear.
Check out The HoloFiles’ review of Cocaine Bear: