The Real Cocaine Bear Story: Andrew Thornton Tri-State Crime Scene

Crime Salad

BLACKCAT | Realm

True Crime

4.4 • 3.4K Ratings

🗓️ 28 June 2026

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to https://trymiracle.com/CRIMESALAD and use the code CRIMESALAD to claim your FREE 3-PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF What happens when a highly trained, elite narcotics detective realizes the bad guys are having way more fun than the cops? He starts a multi-million-dollar cartel, of course. This week on Crime Salad, Ashley and Ricky are diving headfirst into an 80s action movie. Andrew Thornton II wasn’t just a cop, he was a wealthy Kentucky blue-blood, a paratrooper, and a licensed lawyer who threw it all away to become the mastermind of a massive international drug pipeline known as "The Company." But Thornton's massive ego and extreme paranoia eventually lead to a fateful, pitch-black flight over the Georgia woods. Join us as we untangle a tri-state crime scene featuring 75 pounds of pure Colombian cocaine falling from the sky, a deadly cartel revenge plot, a dead man wearing night-vision goggles and Gucci loafers, and the ultimate winner of the story... a 175-pound black bear who went on to inspire a Hollywood movie. Download Cash App Today: https://capl.onelink.me/vFut/lz1ykcyo #CashAppPod New Cash App customers can earn $10 if they use code SECURE10 in their profile at signup and send $5 to a friend within 14 days. Terms apply. Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App’s bank partner(s). Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. Cash App Visa® Debit Flex Cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC, and The Bancorp Bank, N.A., pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. See terms and conditions for the Sutton prepaid card, Sutton debit flex card, and Bancorp debit flex card. Discounts and promotions provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. Visit cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosures. Listen & Subscribe: If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and a review! It helps new listeners find the show. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok: @CrimeSaladPodcast Check out our merch: crimesaladpodcast.com Listen ad-free: Patreon Apple Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to Crime Salad. Today's case is one of the most absurd true crime events that we've ever covered. It includes a crashed plane, a pair of Gucci loafers, and a bear. Well, not all of those things at the same time, but they're definitely in the story. And if you're currently picturing a bear wearing Gucci loafers,
0:38.8	flying a plane on autopilot, you're close. But the reality is actually much crazier.
0:45.9	We're talking about a massive multi-state manhunt involving tens of millions of dollars
0:52.0	in pure Colombian cocaine falling from the sky.
0:56.2	This is a true crime story so wild that Hollywood had to get their hands on it to make it an action-packed blockbuster movie.
1:04.0	But the real story is so much more unhinged than the fiction version.
1:08.6	Let's serve up this week's story. I'm Ashley. I'm Ricky.
1:12.1	And this is Crime Salad.
1:17.7	So, picture this. It's the morning of September 11, 1985, in a a quiet, wealthy suburban neighborhood in Knoxville, Tennessee.
1:32.1	An 85-year-old man who has early stages of dementia named Fred Myers, he is standing in his bathroom, shaving.
1:41.4	And he's just doing his normal routine, getting ready for the day.
1:45.6	He happens to glance out of his window and he sees a massive lump lying right in the middle of his
1:51.0	driveway. Maybe it was a lump of trash or even an animal. So he walks outside to investigate
1:57.9	and get a closer look. And he realizes that this isn't what he was thinking. It's a body,
2:05.4	tangled up in a parachute. So Fred, he goes back inside and he calls the police. And you have to get Fred some major credit here because if I'm going outside and it's super early in the morning and I haven't had my coffee
2:18.3	and I see a dead guy just lying in my driveway, I'm going right back to bed.
2:24.7	Right?
2:25.6	And Fred, he handled it so perfectly.
2:28.7	He wasn't just imagining things.
2:31.5	But when the investigators arrive, things get so weird, so fast. This man was found
2:38.5	tangled up in a deployed but completely shredded parachute. He's wearing a bulletproof vest,
2:44.5	and he has military-grade night vision goggles strapped to his head. He has two loaded pistols,
	...

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