Several months after Andrew Thornton II’s death, a hunter was in the Chattahoochee National Forest in Georgia when he discovered a deceased black bear that weighed about 175 pounds. Beside the bear was a duffel bag that contained 75 pounds of cocaine, and it was later found out that it came from the Cessna that Thornton piloted before his death, per Backpacker. Apparently, the bear died of an overdose after consuming large amounts of the substance that fell from the sky.
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As reported by Rolling Stone, a necropsy was carried out, and the bear’s stomach “was literally packed to the brim with cocaine.” The medical examiner who performed the examination said the bear suffered before death. “Cerebral hemorrhaging, respiratory failure, hyperthermia, renal failure, heart failure, stroke. You name it, that bear had it,” he said. The cocaine bear, or “Pablo Escobear” as he was called, was taxidermied and displayed at the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area for a while, and over the years, it somehow ended up in country singer-songwriter Waylon Jennings’ possession. The cocaine bear was owned by different people throughout the years before it was acquired by Kentucky for Kentucky. Today, Pablo Escobear is displayed at Kentucky for Kentucky’s Fun Mall in Lexington (via KY for KY).
