In 1985, a strange incident happened in a forest in Georgia with a big black bear, two brave pilots, and a mysterious smuggler. This unusual story is not well-known, but a film was released based on this story in February 2023. In early December 1985, a hunter in Chattahoochee National Forest had a surprising encounter. While tracking a deer, he stumbled upon a massive American black bear. However, instead of a live bear, he found it dead, its body oddly deflated. The hunter relieved that he didn’t have a live bear encounter, moved on without giving much thought to the unusual situation.
To understand what happened to the bear, let’s go back to September 10, 1985. On that night, two pilots flying a small Cessna airplane over Northern Georgia intercepted an unexpected radio message. The pilots realized they were in trouble and decided to take evasive actions, leading them to the Chattahoochee National Forest. Little did they know, this decision would lead to a series of events involving a black bear and a mysterious smuggler.
Former Knox County Sheriff Jimmy “JJ” Jones was on the case back in 1985 and said it is as unusual as it sounds. “It was almost like a movie,” Jones laughed. “You wouldn’t believe it; it seemed too good to be true.” Jones said he had only been on the force for a few years when the Metro Narcotics Unit got an unusual call. (Source)
To understand what happened to the bear, we need to go back to September 10, 1985, at around 11:30 PM. Two pilots flying a small Cessna airplane over Northern Georgia intercepted an unexpected radio message. The message revealed other pilots planning to follow their Cessna. Recognizing the situation, the two pilots understood they were the target. This interception was possible because the eavesdropping radio was physically close to the transmitting pilots.
The unexpected turn of events made the Cessna pilots take evasive maneuvers. They changed course, trying to shake off their pursuers. The pursuit continued, leading the pilots to make erratic moves in an attempt to escape. The situation became increasingly tense as they realized the gravity of the chase.
As the pursuit unfolded, the Cessna pilots found themselves over the Chattahoochee National Forest in Northern Georgia. The tense atmosphere inside the airplane was palpable. Suddenly, an intense burst of light enveloped the aircraft, blinding the pilots temporarily. The light was so bright that it penetrated the plane’s cockpit, causing disorientation and panic.
After the blinding light faded, the pilots regained their vision and control of the plane. However, they noticed something peculiar: a large American black bear on the forest floor below. The bear seemed unaffected by their presence. Curiosity got the better of them, and the pilots decided to investigate the bear’s behavior.
Descending towards the forest, the pilots observed the bear acting strangely. It seemed fixated on an object on the ground, pawing and slashing at it. Eventually, the bear managed to rip open the mysterious object, releasing a unique flowery scent into the air. Less than 10 minutes later, the bear experienced an unprecedented event, something no other living being on Earth had encountered.
The pilots, astonished by the bizarre spectacle, decided to document the incident. Little did they know that this encounter would become the centerpiece of a major motion picture set to be released in February 2023. The film would capture the extraordinary journey of the bear and the inexplicable events that unfolded in the winter of 1985.
Upon overhearing the radio transmission indicating that their plane was being followed, a typical reaction might be to reach out to the unknown pilots and inquire about the situation. However, the main pilot of the Cessna had a different plan. Before the co-pilot could react, the main pilot informed him that they would have to abandon the plane by jumping out. Setting the plane on autopilot, they climbed into the main cabin, strapping parachutes onto luggage.
With the side door open, the rush of cold night air and howling wind made communication impossible. The main pilot began pushing the luggage out of the plane, followed by the co-pilot. After all the luggage was out, the main pilot handed a parachute to the co-pilot, gesturing for him to put it on. Amid the noise and chaos, the co-pilot struggled with the parachute. Eventually, the main pilot pushed him out of the plane, and then he jumped out after him. Abandoning their plane, still on autopilot, they left it to eventually crash.
Five hours later, in Tennessee, an 85-year-old man named Fred Meyers found a big parachute with the main pilot in his driveway. The main pilot’s parachute failed, leading to a deadly crash. Fred called the police, and they were surprised to find the main pilot dressed like a soldier with expensive gear.
To solve the mystery, let’s go back two months to late November 1985, about two weeks before they found a bear in the Chattahoochee National Forest. Back then, the bear was alive and well, doing its usual routine of looking for food. One day, it found a strange bag on the forest floor – one of the bags dropped from a plane.
Curiously, the bear went to the bag and, using its strong claws, opened it. A pleasant smell filled the air as the bear sniffed and licked the contents. Whatever was inside was too tempting, and the bear ate it all. It got a burst of energy, ran for about a hundred yards, and then suddenly collapsed. Two weeks later, a hunter found the dead bear.
The hunter told a friend about the bear and the bag, connecting it to a strange story involving pilots and a mysterious person in someone’s driveway. The pieces of this puzzle slowly came together, telling a story involving a curious bear, two bold pilots, and a confused old man. The answers to these mysteries were hidden in the events of that night in 1985.
Now, to understand what happened next, we need some context. The police had gathered information about a man found dead in Fred Meyers’ driveway – Andrew Thornton. He was a 40-year-old former Kentucky Narcotics Investigator (also a former paratrooper and police officer) turned smuggler. The police linked him to a crashed plane in North Carolina.
The surviving co-pilot, who cooperated with the authorities, revealed that Thornton forced him to throw out the luggage and jump from the plane. The police believed the co-pilot was innocent and didn’t charge him.
When the police found Thornton’s dead body in a driveway in Knoxville, Tennessee, he had a lot of weapons, wore a bulletproof vest, and had a duffel bag tied to his waist with around 77 pounds of cocaine inside, worth about $14 million. It seemed he died because his parachute didn’t open when he jumped from a plane. The police found the plane about 60 miles away, and identified it using a key found on Thornton’s body. Before jumping, Thornton had set the plane to fly on autopilot towards the Atlantic Ocean.
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The police were looking for the missing bags in Northern Georgia, asking the public for help. When the hunter’s friend heard about the bear and the bag, they thought it might be connected to the investigation and told the police. Excited about this tip, the police went to the Chattahoochee National Forest. They found the empty bag near the dead bear, confirming their suspicions. The bear had eaten the contents – cocaine.
“They put two and two together, and then we started tracking where the bags of cocaine were thrown out and it was a multi-agency case. FBI, TBI, everyone got involved with it.” Sheriff Jones said. “In 1985 that was a huge amount of cocaine. I mean when you talked about 300 pounds of cocaine in 1985, that’s a lot of cocaine.”
To find the missing bags and their illegal cargo, the police kept searching, with the community helping. Unaware to them, the answer was in the bear’s stomach. Acting on a hunch, they brought the bear’s body back and found it was “packed to the brim with cocaine.” The bear died from a massive cocaine overdose.
When officials found the bear’s body on December 20, all 40 bags of cocaine were open and empty. The head medical examiner at the Georgia State Crime Lab, who spoke to the Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall (where the bear is currently displayed), said that the bear’s stomach was filled to the top with cocaine. However, he believed the bear had only absorbed 3 to 4 grams of cocaine into its bloodstream when it died. (For comparison, a lethal dose for a human of the same size is about 7.5 grams.) Some police officers wondered if the bear, later nicknamed “Pablo Escobar” or “Cocaine Bear,” had destroyed or eaten 75 pounds of cocaine, or if someone local had taken it.
Normally, after an autopsy, an animal is cremated, but for some reason, the bear was taxidermied. It changed owners multiple times and ended up in the Kentucky Fun Mall in Lexington, Kentucky, with a sign saying “Cocaine Bear.” It’s now a unique reminder of this strange chapter in history.
And that’s the end of the story about the bear, the pilots, and the mysterious smuggler. If you found this story interesting, remember to like the button uniquely and subscribe for more content. If you have a story suggestion, visit the Mr. Ballin subreddit linked in the description below.
