All language subtitles for Cocaine.Bear.The.True.Story.2023.720p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

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♪

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In a Kentucky mall,
you can meet

a very famous taxidermy bear.

This is my first time
seeing the cocaine bear.

The what bear?

Yes, the cocaine bear.

There's a reason why
he's called the cocaine bear.

This story is amazing.

♪

One day in the woods, a bear
finds a huge bag of drugs.

And the bear got high.

[ Bear growling ]

The cocaine was 95% pure.

No, really, they found him
laying there

with the cocaine around him.

[ Chuckles ]

That's a very interesting
story in itself.

But this is the origin
story of the cocaine bear,

featuring the larger-than-life
man who started it all.

He was mercurial
and mysterious.

He lived on the edge.

He had a James Bond wristwatch
that shot tear gas.

These are Kentucky Blue Bloods

that got together to go
into full-time smuggling.

He was a bad dude!

This is such a powerful story.

It has corruption,
it has murder.

Judge John Wood was fatally
wounded by a single gunshot.

Drugs, murders, gun running,
you name it.

Holy crap, you would
never believe it,

but it did actually happen.

Believe it or not,
this story even has cows...

on drugs.

Oh, come on!
[ Laughs ]

This is the true story
of the cocaine bear.

You wouldn't forget it.
Let's put it that way.

♪

The backwoods of the
Chattahoochee National Forest

in North Georgia
are stark and remote.

In December 1985, a hunter
finds something here

that sparks a legend.

♪

This legend has grown
to be quite a story.

And in 2023, that legend

is brought to life
by an incredible movie.

[ Bear roars ]

And soon the whole world
is talking about it.

Number one trend on Twitter.
Everyone's talking about this.

[ Bear roaring ]

A bear did cocaine!

This will be the winner
of the decade probably.

Cocaine Bear, Fran.

Take One. Mark.

♪

Well, my name
is Francis Bishop Wiley.

And in December of 1985,

I was Assistant
Special Agent in Charge

of the Georgia Bureau
of Investigation,

in Gainseville, Georgia,

and right now I'm retired.

I received a call at the office

from a game warden
in Fanon County, Georgia.

And he advised that a hunter
had found a bear

in the woods on a mountain

and that there was a parachute
and a duffel bag close by.

I dispatched two of my agents
to the scene.

They radioed back and advised me

that there indeed was a bear,
parachute, and duffel bag.

So I said,
well, this is very strange.

I mean, very odd that we would
even find something like this.

I told them to take it
to the Georgia crime lab

in Atlanta,
and they did take the duffel bag

and found residue
of cocaine on it.

There was no cocaine
in the duffel bag,

so where did the cocaine go?

Well, the bear ate it.

♪

♪

The bizarre story of this bear
and what happened

actually begins
three months before.

[ Thud ]

In the middle of the night,
a Knoxville resident

is awakened by a sound
from his backyard.

It wasn't until
the next morning

that he looked in his driveway

and immediately
called the police.

♪

My name is Jimmy Jones.

I'm a retired
Knox County sheriff.

From the time
I was 16 years old,

I knew I wanted to be
in law enforcement.

We were just
in the office that day.

It was a normal day,
just like any other day.

The call came in from dispatch.
It was an elderly gentleman,

and he said that there was
a gentleman out in his driveway

who was trespassing,

and if the police didn't come he
would take care of it himself.

♪

The "trespasser" is the dead
body of a skydiver,

and JJ is called
to the crime scene.

♪

This is a very quiet
community, usually.

There's very little crime,
very little happens.

When we arrived on the scene,
the individual was found

in the gravel driveway area
between the houses.

♪

We were surprised to see
this individual here.

His parachute was kind of
wadded up beside him,

like it hadn't fully opened.

The gentleman was deceased.

There was a duffel bag that
was hooked to the individual.

The duffel bag
contained somewhere

between 30 and 40 packages
marked USA.

All of them were labelled
the same way.

We knew when we cut into it,
it was still moist,

and the smell would just
hit you in the face.

It was a very high quality
of cocaine.

♪

Somewhere between 30
and 40 kilos of cocaine.

It was probably worth
hundreds of millions.

I was amazed.

And I was just a kid. I mean,
I wasn't but 24, 25 years old.

I had never seen
anything like that.

It was like holy crap, you know?

This-- You would never
believe this happened

in sleepy, little, old
Knoxville, Tennessee.

[ Laughs ]

We continued to look
at the body to evaluate it.

There was at least one attack
knife along with some daggers

or spears that were actually
in a sheath on his arm,

night vision goggles.

There was about $5,000
in US currency.

There were precious
and semi-precious stones

in a money belt.

He had some gold Krugerrands.

Nobody knew what
a Krugerrand was.

We heard of 'em,
but nobody actually--

I don't think anybody
had ever seen 'em.

They were gold, and they have
like a little kangaroo

or an animal on the front.

♪

Initially we had no clue
what had happened.

None of this is making sense
for JJ and his team.

Who is this guy in the driveway?

There's some questions that
really haven't been answered.

He was mysterious.

He looked a lot
like a soldier of fortune.

He had a 9mm Browning
high powered pistol

that was loaded
with Teflon-coated 9mm bullets.

Those are the bullets that will
penetrate a bulletproof vest.

He also had a wristwatch

that was like
a James Bond wristwatch,

but it wasn't one that you would
get out of a cereal box.

It was actually a high-quality
watch that shot tear gas.

I was amazed every time
something came off his body,

a piece of equipment
or whatever it was.

I mean, it was just more
and more and more.

He also had some
very expensive shoes.

In an odd fact that a lot
of people noted at the time,

he was wearing Gucci loafers.

[ Ding! ]

♪

I mean, we were still trying
to put pieces together.

We really didn't have anything.

Then as more agencies
became involved,

we ultimately found out

that the plane had crashed
in North Carolina.

♪

The wreckage of the Cessna 404
is still scattered

across this ridge
of the Nantahala Mountains.

We did hear that a body
had been found in Knoxville

of someone who parachuted
out of a plane,

and evidently,
the parachute didn't open.

At this time, it kind of appears

that that may be involved
with this.

♪

The location of the plane
in North Carolina

is more than 100 miles

from the body
of the mysterious parachutist.

The aircraft provides
a vital clue--

It's registered to a man
from Lexington, Kentucky.

In Lexington,
the information filters down

to the local papers.

♪

I was a investigative reporter
at the Lexington Herald Leader

in Kentucky

from about 1979 to 1987.

♪

The body was identified
as Andrew Thornton.

And that erupted the newsroom
at the time.

♪

Drew Thornton was someone

who had been
in a position of authority,

a police officer
who came from privilege.

He was a soldier, had, you know,
been wounded in combat.

Personally, I wasn't
all that surprised

when I heard that he was dead
in Knoxville in a driveway,

having fallen out of a plane.

He had lived on the edge
and was--

His luck had run out.

♪

♪

With the body identified,
police trace Thornton's

flight path all the way back
to North Georgia.

We started receiving
more information

that there was more cocaine
that had been dumped

along the way of his journey.

♪

The duffel bag Drew Thornton
had strapped to his body

when he died

was of the same make,
color, and type

that they found close
to the bear in Georgia.

The incredible story is quickly
picked up by the TV networks.

The medical examiner says
the bear had been dead

for at least six weeks.

GBI agents recovered
none of the cocaine.

They said it could have been
blown away by the wind

or simply dissolved.

One thing's for sure--

The bear did not eat
75 pounds of the stuff.

We believe that the duffel bag
that was found in Fanon County

next to the bear

also had 75 pounds of cocaine.

When we found it,
there was no cocaine.

There was 75 pounds
found with Andrew Thornton

in a similar duffel bag
when he jumped to his death.

♪

So who really is
Andrew Thornton?

And how is he
connected to the cocaine bear?

To find answers, we need
to go back decades

to the heartland of Kentucky's
blue-blood society.

♪

♪

My name is Ron Bryant.

I was historian for
the Kentucky State Park System

and director of Waveland State
historic site.

My family has been in Kentucky
for over 200 years.

Kentucky historian Ron Bryant

is a distant relative
of Daniel Boone.

He knows Kentucky.

There was always old jokes
in Kentucky

about everyone being related
to each other.

Well, in some cases, the gene
pool was rather shallow,

I've got to admit.

♪

But not with Andrew Thornton.

Andrew was a child of privilege.

None of this should have
ever happened

according to the way
he was raised.

When the news came
that Andrew Thornton had died

and how he died,

society was not only
in a state of shock.

It was in a state
of absolute shock.

♪

Andrew Thornton II was the son

of, uh, Andrew Carter Thornton.

The Thorntons had
established themselves

in the horse industry.

And they knew their horses.

And they, in fact,
had at least two derby winners.

That's quite a feather
in anybody's cap right there.

♪

Andrew Thornton certainly
had the breeding--

[ Chuckles ] It's funny
to use the word breeding

for someone
from Lexington, Kentucky,

because that never hardly
ever talks about people.

It's only about horses.

But he really did
have the breeding.

Andrew Thornton entered
the University of Kentucky,

but his heart wasn't in it.

So he left the University
of Kentucky

after a short period of time
and volunteered for combat.

♪

He went into the Army,
actually won a purple heart.

And he particularly liked flying
and parachuting.

♪

In 1968, Thornton returns home
a hero and gets married.

But it doesn't last.

This man of action is looking
for his next thrill.

He wanted something
that was not staid and safe.

He wanted something that was,
shall we say, nearly dangerous.

♪

After having a very
distinguished military career,

he came back, and he joined
the police department.

Thornton liked the idea
of being a police officer

because that was
an adventuresome life.

♪

My name is Jim Huggins.

I was a supervisory
special agent

for the FBI
in Lexington, Kentucky.

from 1986
to 1995 when I retired.

I worked very closely

with the Kentucky State Police
Intelligence Bureau.

♪

In the '70s at that time,
there was a lot of

drug activities
starting to show up,

particularly around
the college campus area.

It was becoming
a major crime problem

for the local law enforcement
agencies at that time.

The Lexington Police Department

creates its first
narcotics squad.

And the promise of action
is a huge draw

for the young Andrew Thornton.

He volunteered
for the Narcotics unit.

His best friend, Bill Canan,
was already working there.

Bill Canan came from
a much different background

than Drew Thornton.

His family was working class.

Drew Thornton likes the fact
that Bill Canan is a tough guy.

As a pair,
they're made for trouble.

♪

They were trying to infiltrate
student groups

out at the University
of Kentucky,

and they would hang out in bars

and dress like
a regular student.

There also were accusations that
they would arrest a drug dealer,

confiscate his drugs,

and then instead of turning them
into the evidence locker

like they should have,
they'd keep them for themselves.

There were allegations that

they did in fact resell
some of the drugs.

It wasn't too big a leap for
someone in a new narcotics squad

to think that maybe if they just
held back a little bit

of what, uh,
they had confiscated

and then turned it back out
on the streets,

that they could
increase their income.

But why would a wealthy member
of the Lexington elite

stoop to stealing drugs?

Nobody really,
really, really knew

what Andrew Thornton was doing.

There had been rumors
that were going around

that something was bad wrong
with Andrew.

For Thornton, it may not
have been simply

just to get some extra money.

It may have been to do something

that other people
couldn't do or wouldn't do.

It would go along with his whole
soldier of fortune lifestyle

that he cultivated.

That would be his downfall,

changing him from
a pillar of society

into a pariah in society.

The charmed life of Drew
Thornton is about to get darker

on the way to a rendezvous...
with the cocaine bear.

In 1975, the cocaine bear
was just a cub

learning the bear way of life
in the woods of Georgia.

♪

Meanwhile more than 300 miles
away in Lexington, Kentucky,

Drew Thornton is relishing
his role as a dirty cop

with his tough guy partner
Bill Canan...

a world away from his
respectable upbringing

in Kentucky horse
breeding society.

I think Andrew Thornton was one
of these types of individuals

that's grown up
with a silver spoon,

and they've gotten just about
anything they wanted.

So to have this kind of thrill

is something that excites them.

[ Chuckles ]
He was a bad dude.

I don't think Andrew Thornton
was rebelling

against his position in society.

I think Andrew Thornton wanted
a different type of life.

That's all it was.

He saw himself
as being an adventurer,

a person that literally
lived on the edge.

Thornton helped create the myth
of Drew Thornton.

He tried to build an image of
himself that was the superman.

But it went beyond what he was
really capable of.

Always a show-off,
Thornton liked to demonstrate

his athletic arrest techniques

to his buddies
in the police department.

And so he tried
to jump over a car,

and at the same time,
he was wearing a weapon.

And the weapon went off,
and it ricocheted and shot him.

[ Laughing ]

♪

It does no more than graze
his leg and his ego.

But that doesn't stop him
from escalating his game

from street dealing to flying
illegal drugs into Kentucky.

♪

I've been a pilot
for over 40 years,

and then later I became

an aviation writer
and photographer.

♪

I think one of the most
fascinating stories you'll find

in drug smuggling
is the story of Drew Thornton.

♪

There's a personality type
who looks for a way

to make life bigger.

Sometime in the mid-'70s,

Drew Thornton decided to move
beyond street level crime

and become a smuggler.

Drew was primarily bringing
really plane loads of marijuana

into Kentucky for distribution
throughout the state.

I mean, this was a big thing.

They had devised a plan
that worked well.

All they did was go get it,
transport it back,

cut out the middle man.

I would have never imagined
that this was happening.

♪

Through their contacts
in the Lexington drug scene,

dirty cops Andrew Thornton
and Bill Canan

establish a network
of out-of-state wholesalers

who supply them
with larger quantities of pot.

Thornton would be coming in
on the weekend,

when a lot of recreational
flyers would be coming back in,

so the radar scopes
would be full of airplanes.

And you could easily
unload your luggage into a car,

head up the highway,
and you're done.

Drew Thornton flew in
many, many loads of marijuana.

He was making
a substantial amount of money.

♪

As 1976 draws to a close, life
is good for the cocaine bear.

But 200 miles away, things
are about to get complicated

for our pair of dirty cops.

♪

In the late '70s, when
the narcotics squad in Lexington

was cultivating people
who could become informants,

one of those people
was Melanie Flynn.

Melanie Flynn met Bill Canan,

who was trying to use her
as an informant.

She was furnishing him
with information

about drug users and purchasers

around the University
of Kentucky.

Melanie by all accounts

was just helping out
the local cops.

She felt like this was
the right thing to do.

Melanie doesn't know she
is working with crooked cops.

But soon she begins to suspect

that the drugs
circulating in Lexington

are being supplied
by Drew Thornton and Bill Canan.

And I think
they became concerned

that she may be a threat
to their operations

and would go to the authorities

and cause them
some major problems.

She leaves work one day
and is going home

and is never seen again.

♪

Her car was later
found abandoned

in an apartment complex
on the north side of Lexington.

♪

She was last seen
about two blocks away

parked at an intersection,

talking to two people
in a dark van.

An investigation later
by Kentucky State Police,

there was some belief that
maybe those two individuals

had been Drew Thornton
and Bill Canan.

♪

When you go from drug smuggling

and you escalate
to a crime of murder,

that's really taken it
to a whole 'nother level.

And that has not been proven yet

of however Melanie Flynn
is still missing.

♪

♪

After Melanie Flynn's
disappearance,

a pocketbook
that she was carrying

was found by a fisherman
in the Kentucky River.

And in that were some
medications that were hers.

Melanie Flynn is probably one
of the most tragic characters

in all of this.

To this day, we don't know
what really happened to her.

And the rumor mill
was running very, very much.

One rumor is that Drew Thornton

is the subject of an internal
affairs investigation.

He quits the police.

Now he's free to move into
full-time smuggling...

and the path is clearing
for his final flight

over the woods of North Georgia.

♪

In the woods of North Georgia,
an innocent bear has no idea

that there is a man 200 miles
away plotting something so huge

that their worlds
will one day collide.

I have heard many people say in
talking about Andrew Thornton,

they would relate him
to the myth of Icarus

flying too close to the sun.

And that's exactly what he did.

[ Chuckles ]

♪

By 1977, Drew Thornton
is no longer a cop

and can now expand
his drug smuggling business

with no one
looking over his shoulder.

He thought of himself as
smarter than everybody else,

had no fear.

And he would push that envelope

where many people
wouldn't do that.

The only way for Thornton to
go big is to find new partners.

He turns to an old friend
from Lexington,

a man named Bradley Bryant.

Bradley Bryant was a childhood
school friend of Drew Thornton.

They went to the same
private school in Lexington,

and they both went
to the military academy,

so they had a long history.

Bryant was even Thornton's
best man at his wedding.

They were the salt of the earth.

They were-- They were
the bastions of society.

♪

Bradley Bryant isn't just
an old buddy of Thornton's,

he's a successful businessman

with links to organized crime
all over the country.

And he wants to be a player
in Sin City.

♪

Bradley Bryant
went to Las Vegas,

and he met the Chagra brothers,
Lee and Jimmy Chagra.

♪

The Chagras were major,
major players

in the drug business.

They had connections with
South America, Mexico, Colombia.

♪

Jimmy and Lee Chagra
would allow Drew Thornton

to import larger
amounts of marijuana.

♪

Andrew wasn't afraid to,
to go to South America

and risk his life doing it.

But I think that was part
of the attraction for him.

♪

If you're gonna bring in
tons of marijuana,

you're gonna need an airplane
capable of hauling that.

Drew Thornton was flying
a four-engine cargo aircraft,

a World War II plane

that was able to carry tons
of marijuana into Kentucky.

Thornton's route takes him
from South America,

up the coast of Florida,
and over North Georgia--

the home territory
of the cocaine bear.

[ Bear growls ]

♪

He was bringing in what's
estimated to be 10,000 pounds,

five tons of marijuana.

In today's money,
that's $5 million.

These are Kentucky Blue Bloods

that got together to go
into full-time smuggling

and were pretty
successful at it.

People don't understand
what a process it would be

to fly into a foreign country,

with a load of drugs coming back
to the United States of America.

That takes a unique individual.

They quickly ratcheted up
their business,

becoming a major organization
in the southeast,

maybe the biggest at that time.

I mean, it was-- it-- it--

it was unbelievable.

♪

Drew Thornton and Bradley
Bryant are raking in the cash

on their way to the top of
the drug smuggling food chain.

♪

But they're so busy
living the high life,

they ignore the warning signs

that it's all about
to come crashing down.

♪

In 1978, Lee Chagra
was assassinated

in his office.

The suspicion was obviously
that it was a retaliation

for some crime
that had gone bad.

Lee Chagra's death brings

unwanted police attention
for Thornton.

Within months, Jimmy Chagra is
arrested for drug trafficking.

And this sets in motion
a bizarre series of events

that will send Thornton's life
into free-fall.

Jimmy Chagra was to go on trial
for his criminal activities.

That trial that would be under
the, uh, supervision

of Judge John Wood.

Was often known as Maximum John

for the sentences
he would hand out.

The day before the trial
was scheduled to start,

Judge Wood was assassinated
in his driveway.

♪

Judge John Wood was fatally
wounded by a single gunshot

as he was getting in his car
this morning.

Emergency attendants
worked on the judge

but could not revive him.

♪

John Wood was assassinated
by a hit man

hired by Jimmy Chagra.

It's hard to imagine
what Thornton's associate

was thinking
when he ordered the hit.

It didn't make a lot of sense
in many, many ways.

It just simply wasn't done.

People just didn't
do things like that.

Perhaps it was scare tactics,
but it didn't work.

Jimmy Chagra went down
for 30 years.

But that's not the strangest
twist in this assassination.

Chagra had hired a gentleman
named Charles Harrelson.

If the name Charles Harrelson
is familiar,

it's because the hit man
has a Hollywood connection.

He's the father of actor
Woody Harrelson.

♪

The Wood killing
was international news.

Everybody in law enforcement
in the United States

knew about it.

That was a line
that had not been crossed.

A lot of attention was on
anything that happened to do

with the Chagra Brothers,
including Drew Thornton.

Suddenly Drew Thornton of
little-old Lexington, Kentucky,

is on the radar of the FBI.

There's nowhere left to hide.

♪

The cocaine bear was the second
case that was worked in Georgia

where an animal had come
to its demise from cocaine.

In September of 1982,
the sheriff's office had called

and said a farmer had found
a blue canister cylinder

in his pasture with his cows.

And his cows had gotten
into the cylinder.

[ Cow moos ]

And I said are you crazy?

The cows had white powder
all over their noses.

♪

There's something going on here.

But where did the cows
get their cocaine?

[ Cow grunts ]

Could it be the same supplier
to our legendary bear?

♪

But back in 1980, Drew Thornton
isn't a cocaine smuggler.

He's running marijuana

and lots of it.

♪

After the murder
of a federal judge,

Thornton becomes a person
of interest for the FBI.

♪

We got notified immediately
from FBI headquarters

that a federal judge
had been murdered,

and there might be a person
in Lexington involved in that.

The FBI has the killer

and the man who ordered the hit.

Now they are shaking down
all of his criminal contacts.

But despite the heat,

Thornton and his old buddy
Bradley Bryant

are still smuggling.

Thornton was living
a very, very good life,

and Bryant was after the money.

So they gambled.

And that's an old Kentucky vice,
of course.

They gambled, and they lost,
and they lost big time.

♪

In 1981 at a hotel
at the Philadelphia airport,

Bradley Bryant's luck ran out.

He was arrested
with a huge supply

of automatic weapons,
night vision goggles,

and sophisticated
communication gear,

something that one
federal agent told me

looked a lot like
a complicated assassination kit.

Another weapons stash
is discovered by the feds

in a Lexington warehouse
owned by Bryant.

♪

He's sentenced
to 15 years in jail,

and there's bad news for
the drug operation's star pilot.

Hidden among the weapons
is a notebook.

Written inside
is the name Andrew Thornton,

along with code words for
marijuana smuggling missions.

Thornton became fearful

for the attention that was gonna
come to bear on him.

He immediately
dropped outta sight.

♪

It turned out
that he was on the run,

and he was still up to his old
tricks, flying his airplane.

♪

For months, Thornton flies
from airport to airport,

staying under the radar
and avoiding capture.

Thornton liked
the idea of risk.

He loved excitement,
he loved adventure.

He would have
enjoyed that immensely.

♪

He landed at an airport
in North Carolina,

and customs officials were
intercepting his communication

and tracking his flights.

[ Indistinct radio chatter ]

And that's where they got him.

♪

But he wasn't caught with drugs.

♪

Thornton's plane
is completely clean.

Someone could have
tipped him off...

or he just got lucky.

Thornton was a very, very, very
lucky man in many, many ways.

The evidence against him
is thin.

Thornton was under suspicion
for drug trafficking.

He was indicted for
a conspiracy involving drugs,

pleaded no contest to a single
count of marijuana smuggling.

Thornton gets off easy
and only serves five months.

♪

With all his friends in prison,

Thornton's marijuana empire
has collapsed.

But he's not ready
to give up just yet.

♪

That's when Drew Thornton
became the lone wolf.

He used what connections he had

to start bringing in cocaine...

[ Bear growls ]

...which changed everything.

[ Indistinct conversations ]

♪

In the '70s, there was
a huge appetite for marijuana

in the United States,

but then in the '80s,
the appetite shifted to cocaine.

It became the drug of choice.

A lot of celebrities
were using it,

and it was attractive
for the smugglers.

I joined DEA in 1983,

I was assigned to working
drug cases throughout Kentucky

that took me to South America.

Once I joined DEA, I learned
a lot about Andrew Thornton.

Andrew went from flying
tons of marijuana

to flying kilos of cocaine,

because it took
a much smaller airplane,

which was less noticeable
by law enforcement.

You could make 10 times the
amount of money easily on a run

that you would with marijuana.

And a pilot like Drew Thornton
could do everything on his own.

♪

By 1983, Thornton's using
his connections in Colombia

to smuggle cocaine into America.

I knew that he was
a major drug smuggler.

And several agencies
were working

to build a case
against Andrew Thornton.

He's now set for the flight
that will make him infamous

and forever connected
to the fate of the cocaine bear.

♪

It's 1985, and Andrew Thornton
is back in the big time,

smuggling cocaine into Kentucky.

But in the legend
of the cocaine bear,

his fate is sealed,

and his end is fast approaching.

♪

On the night of September
the 10th, 1985,

he flew a load of cocaine into
the United States from Colombia.

♪

His goal was to move cocaine
into the Lexington area,

with an intermediate
stop in Georgia

where he had
some co-conspirators

waiting to offload
the airplane.

You just don't get in a plane
and fly to Colombia

and pick up a load
of cocaine and come back.

This would have taken
some serious prior planning.

♪

Thornton's journey
started as planned.

He passed Cuba and navigated
the coast of Florida

without incident.

But what happened next?

There are certain facts upon
which most investigators agree.

♪

Thornton did not make
his landing in Georgia.

Was flying over
the National Forest in Georgia

and started throwing out
cocaine into the forest.

♪

Probably worth
hundreds of millions.

He attached the duffel bags
to parachutes,

pushed them out of the airplane,

and then he had about 75 pounds
of cocaine strapped to his body.

♪

And then with the remaining
cocaine strapped to him,

he put the airplane on autopilot

somewhere near the Knoxville
downtown airport, jumped...

And then something happened
that he didn't expect to happen.

[ Thud ]

How did Andrew Thornton
parachute to his death?

People do have a number
of different theories

to how this happened,
why it went bad.

♪

The most common story I heard

was that the main chute
did not fully open

for unknown reasons.

The reserve chute
also did not fully inflate.

♪

People noted at the time
that there was an obvious cut

or bruise on his head,
and so perhaps he hit his head

going out the door
of the airplane.

He was unconscious,

didn't have an opportunity
to pull his chute.

It also may have had
something to do with

Thornton carrying
all that cocaine on him.

♪

From the injuries to his face,
the medical examiner believed

that load of cocaine
had swung back around

and caught him in the face
and either knocked him out

or addled him
to where he was confused.

You know, so, it would be
a pretty good lick.

But what compelled Thornton
to jump out of the plane?

The word on the street was
he felt like

he was being surveilled
by customs or DEA.

[ Indistinct radio chatter ]

Somewhere along the way,
he became paranoid

that he were being followed
or being tracked by a DEA plane

or Coast Guard or customs.

A lot of people think
he probably jumped out

of the airplane
because of his paranoia.

♪

But we checked, and they did not
have any aircraft

following him
into the United States.

If law enforcement wasn't
on his tail, why jump at all?

♪

I think this was his plan
all along.

One of the stories
that was circulating

was that he actually was ripping
off the Colombian suppliers

by intentionally
crashing the airplane,

claiming the cocaine
was destroyed in the crash,

but keeping it for himself.

Why would he have all those
parachutes in the airplane

tied to duffel bags
full of cocaine

if that wasn't
the plan originally?

No, I don't think so.

He was way too smart to steal
from the Medellin Cartel.

They knew who he was.

He-- He would have not lasted
very long at all

if he had stolen from them.

Whether Thornton was scamming
the cartels or just paranoid,

there's one even more
shocking theory

about what happened that night.

One of the theories is that

there was a second person
on the airplane.

♪

We initially thought that
other people were involved,

but we didn't have any proof.

This is the downtown
Knoxville Island Home airport.

Where Mr. Thornton parachuted
into the residential area

is about 250 yards
as the crow flies

above us on the hill.

About two or three months
after Thornton was found,

another parachute was found
on the far end of the runway.

We theorized
that Andrew Thornton

let the other individual
in the plane jump.

And then Thornton put
the plane on autopilot.

He would jump out of the plane
and let it go across

the mountains
in North Carolina and crash.

If there was one other person
on the plane,

it would've to be someone
that Drew Thornton trusted.

And I don't know
of anybody back then

that he trusted
more than Bill Canan.

♪

Canan's his very close friend
who worked alongside him

at the Lexington
Police Department.

Was Thornton's old partner,
corrupt cop Bill Canan,

with him at the very end?

Canan was
the most likely suspect

until someone else came forward,
uh, also named Bill

who, uh, professed
that he was on the plane.

♪

In 1990, a man named Bill
Leonard told an amazing story

to a journalist at
the Knoxville News Sentinel.

♪

Thornton had talked Bill
Leonard into travelling with him

to help provide
security for him.

But apparently Leonard thought
that was gonna be in Florida

or The Bahamas,
but Thornton kept flying,

and they ended up in Colombia,
surprising Bill Leonard.

♪

You have to ask yourself
how plausible that is.

But, you know, the Bill Leonard
that I knew was a stand-up guy,

and you could believe him.

Leonard has never been
charged with a crime.

And I spoke to former detectives
from Lexington

who believe his story.

They're convinced that he was
an unwitting accomplice

in that smuggling run.

I don't know how you account
for the fact

that someone as experienced
as Drew Thornton

as a paratrooper
did not survive that night

and the totally inexperienced
Bill Leonard did.

Pure luck? Perhaps.

I've asked a number
of the investigators

from the federal aviation

to the FBI to the state police
in Tennessee.

Nobody has any answer.

♪

Much of what happened
in the skies over Knoxville

remains a mystery.

Can more answers
be found in North Georgia?

And what really happened
to the cocaine bear?

♪

On Andrew Thornton's
final flight in 1985,

he drops several duffel bags
full of cocaine

over the Southern United States.

There was a map

that showed where the cocaine
was found along the way.

And you could just about
track his line of flight

where the packages
were thrown out.

♪

One lands in the woods that are
the home of the cocaine bear.

[ Bear growls ]

One of the DEA agents
called back and said,

"You know that a bear

got into that cocaine down there
in the woods."

And I was like, "Oh, come on."

And at first I thought that,
you know, that was, they were,

they were kind of gigging me
a little bit,

but actually, it did happen.

♪

When Fran Wiley's officers
get to the scene,

there is no cocaine left.

She has her own theory
about what happened to it.

There was no cocaine
in the duffel bag at the scene.

So where did the cocaine go?

Well, the bear ate it.

Well, no,
the bear didn't ate it.

The bad guys got it.

♪

The bear would've never
been able to consume

75 pounds of cocaine.

The pathologist told me
that it had consumed

about 3 grams of cocaine

that was 95% pure.

It would probably
would have been dead

within the first or second bite.

♪

My theory is that Mr. Thornton
had a predestined location

for his ground crew
to pick up the cocaine.

And I think that they did.

They probably saw the bear
had got into it.

♪

And they picked up
the remaining and left.

♪

I've heard many variations
of this story

about the bear

in Lexington, Kentucky,
that is on display.

♪

They are portraying it
to be Pablo EskoBear.

♪

But that is not my bear.

There's no way.

♪

The bear was in no condition
to be taxidermied.

I think the purveyors
of the display,

if you press them,
they would tell you

that it's not the same bear.

It's symbolic.

So, what do the mall's
owners say?

They claim that
their "taxidermy bear

is 100% Cocaine Bear,"

and that "if disbelief
is your choice,

then we created
the most fantastic story ever."

♪

The whereabouts of
the real cocaine bear

is as mysterious
as so much of this legend.

The story begins with reports
of a dead parachutist

found wearing Gucci loafers,

and even that may be a myth.

There were incorrect accounts

as to what exactly
he was wearing on his feet.

There was one indication
that he had Gucci loafers.

In reality, Thornton's
shoes were described

as the "Gucci loafers"
of the parachuting world.

He had some very expensive
jumping shoes on.

When I was told about them,
they were equated to Gucci.

That's how they tried
to correlate it to me

was this would be like Gucci.

♪

I don't think we'll ever know
what really happened.

I think we have
gotten pretty close

with the bits and pieces

and the puzzles
that we've put together.

With the individuals
that are still alive

and the agencies that did
the legwork that they did,

I think we got as close
to knowing what happened

as we ever will.

A curtain was drawn
over the conspiracy,

the drugs, the murders.

If I had to go to my grave
with that on my conscience,

I would not want
to stand very tall

on the day of judgment
is all I can say.

♪

Bradley Bryant served his time
and then dropped out of sight.

Bill Canan was jailed in 1994
for federal drug charges.

He passed away in 2020.

♪

And as for Drew Thornton,
his myth lives on,

alongside that
of the cocaine bear.

He was a bad guy.

These guys
did this stuff for fun,

and, and that's kind of scary.

Thinking about Andrew Thornton
and the cocaine bear,

would've Thornton liked to have
been associated with that?

I think he would've thought

the bear was getting
more attention than he did,

and I don't think he would've
liked that whatsoever.

But he probably would've been
amused by it.

♪