He fell from the sky and landed in a driveway in Knoxville. He was wearing Gucci loafers.
Imagine waking up on a Wednesday morning in September 1985 to find a dead guy in your yard. That is exactly what happened to 85-year-old Fred Myers. The man in the driveway wasn't just some random drifter, though. He was Andrew C Thornton II, a blue-blooded Kentucky socialite, former narcotics officer, and lawyer who had traded his badge for a life of high-stakes smuggling.
He was carrying 75 pounds of cocaine. He had night vision goggles strapped to his head. He had thousands of dollars in gold coins and cash stuffed in his pockets.
Most people today only know the name because of a movie about a bear that ate his stash. But the real story of Andrew C Thornton II is way weirder than a Hollywood horror-comedy. It is a messy, sprawling tale of "The Bluegrass Conspiracy," corruption that reached the highest levels of government, and a man who seemingly had everything but chose to live on the edge until the edge gave way.
The Man Who Had It All
Drew Thornton didn't come from the streets. He grew up on a massive horse farm in Bourbon County, Kentucky. We are talking "old money." He went to the private Sayre School. He played polo. He was a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne and earned a Purple Heart in the Dominican Republic.
Honestly, on paper, he was the perfect American success story.
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After the Army, he joined the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Police Department. He worked the narcotics beat. He was good at it, too. He eventually got a law degree while still on the force. But somewhere in the mid-70s, the line between the good guys and the bad guys just... blurred.
He resigned from the police in 1977. He started practicing law, but that was basically a front. He was already deep into "The Company." This wasn't just a couple of guys selling weed; it was a massive, sophisticated drug-smuggling ring that included other former cops, military guys, and people with some very powerful friends.
The Night Everything Went Wrong
September 11, 1985, was his final flight. Thornton was piloting a Cessna 404 from Colombia. He had a partner with him. They were hauling a massive load of blow—hundreds of pounds of it.
As they flew over Georgia, something went south. Maybe the plane was too heavy. Maybe they thought they were being followed. Whatever it was, they started dumping duffel bags of cocaine over the Chattahoochee National Forest.
Thornton set the plane on autopilot. He told his partner to jump. Then, he jumped himself.
He never made it.
The official report says he got tangled in his parachute. Some people think he hit his head on the tail of the plane when he bailed. Either way, he plummeted thousands of feet. He landed in Fred Myers' driveway in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Cessna kept flying for another 60 miles before crashing into a mountain in North Carolina.
When the cops found him, they found a literal treasure chest on his person:
- 35 kilograms (about 77 lbs) of cocaine valued at $15 million.
- $4,500 in cash.
- Six 1-ounce gold Krugerrands.
- Two pistols and several knives.
- Those famous Gucci loafers.
It was a flashy way to go out, but it was also the beginning of a massive investigation that threatened to blow the lid off Kentucky's political scene.
The Legend of Cocaine Bear
You can't talk about Andrew C Thornton II without talking about the bear. About three months after Thornton's body was found, a hunter in Georgia stumbled across a dead 175-pound black bear.
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The bear was surrounded by the remains of one of the duffel bags Thornton had tossed from the plane.
The medical examiner who performed the necropsy said the bear's stomach was literally "packed to the brim" with cocaine. It had suffered cerebral hemorrhaging, heart failure, and just about every other catastrophic organ failure you can imagine. Unlike the movie, the real bear didn't go on a rampage. It just died.
That bear is now a taxidermied attraction in Lexington, Kentucky. They call him "Cocaine Bear" or "Pablo Eskobear." It’s a bit of a grim tourist trap, but it keeps the legend of Thornton’s botched flight alive.
The Bluegrass Conspiracy
Why did a guy like Thornton do it? He wasn't desperate for money.
Investigative reporter Sally Denton wrote a famous book called The Bluegrass Conspiracy that tries to answer this. She suggests that Thornton and his crew weren't just rogue cops; they were part of a much larger, state-sanctioned shadow government. There are theories—unproven, but persistent—that "The Company" had ties to the CIA and was involved in things like the Iran-Contra scandal.
Thornton was a guy who loved the adrenaline. He was a martial arts expert. He was obsessed with weapons. He reportedly viewed himself as a sort of mercenary or a modern-day pirate. To him, the laws of "regular" people just didn't apply.
What Most People Get Wrong
People often think Thornton was a "drug kingpin" in the traditional sense, like a movie villain. But he was more of a high-level operative. He was the guy who could fly the plane, navigate the legal system, and shoot a gun if he had to.
Also, the idea that his death was a simple accident is still debated in true crime circles. While the parachute malfunction is the official cause, the amount of gear he was carrying—over 70 pounds of coke strapped to his body—made a successful landing almost impossible anyway. It was an incredibly reckless move for an experienced paratrooper.
Looking for More?
If you're fascinated by the dark side of the 80s, the Andrew C Thornton II story is a rabbit hole you can fall down for days. Here is what you should do if you want to see the real evidence:
- Read "The Bluegrass Conspiracy": Sally Denton's book is the definitive source. It’s dense, but it names names and lays out the timeline of the Lexington police corruption.
- Visit the "Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall": If you are ever in Lexington, you can see the actual taxidermied bear. It is a weird piece of history, but seeing the sign around its neck really puts the scale of the smuggling operation in perspective.
- Research the "China Lake" Incident: Before his death, Thornton was involved in a massive theft of weapons from a Naval base in California. Looking into those court records shows just how deep his "Company" actually went.
The story of Andrew C Thornton II isn't just about a guy who fell out of a plane. It's about a period in American history where the lines between law enforcement and organized crime weren't just thin—they were practically invisible. He lived fast, died hard, and left a trail of white powder and unanswered questions all across the South.
The best way to understand the scale of this is to look at the "Cocaine Bear" as a symbol. The bear was collateral damage. So were many of the people caught in the wake of Thornton's operations. The Gucci loafers might be a funny detail, but the reality was a lot darker.
Next Steps: You might want to look into the 1981 Fresno, California indictment of Thornton to see the list of his co-conspirators; many of them were prominent figures who managed to avoid the same fate as the "Flying Narc." Alternatively, searching for the original 1985 Washington Post article "Drew Thornton's Last Adventure" provides a great look at how the media reacted to the news in real-time.