Three months after Thornton’s death the dead bear, and the tenth duffel bag, were found south of the state line between Tennessee and Georgia in the Chattahoochee National Forest.
The Cocaine Bear died but that was only the beginning of the story…
What happened next to the real Cocaine Bear?
After being taxidermized, the bear was donated to the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area and displayed at a visitor center before being put into storage during a wildfire.
It was later sold to a pawn shop and purchased by country singer Waylon Jennings. He gave the stuffed bear to a friend in Las Vegas.
After the friend’s death, the bear was sold to Chinese investor Zhu T’ang for $200. Following T’ang’s death, in 2012, his widow gave it to “Kentucky for Kentucky.”
The now stuffed bear has been going under the alias Pablo Eskobear after Columbian drug lord Pablo Escobar.
And the remains of the real Cocaine Bear are now a popular tourist attraction at the Kentucky Fun Mall in Lexington.
But that may not be the end of the story… In an attempt to acquire Cocaine Bear, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Is negotiating with the Kentucky Mall.
