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Universal Pictures' new horror-comedy, titled Cocaine Bear, premiered this weekend. Inspired by a bizarre real-life event that made headlines for its absurdity, the movie is garnering plenty of attention.
But how much truth is there in the story? It turns out that the real story behind the incident is pretty sad, although it is being marketed as intriguing and terrifying.
Kentucky Fun Mall story
In 1985, a Georgia black bear made headlines after accidentally ingesting at least three to four grams of cocaine. It made people wonder how a bear had access to such a potent drug.
Turns out that the cocaine had been dropped from a plane by a smuggler who may have been high on the drug himself. The bear found the cocaine lying around and ingested the whole thing, leading to his death.
The Kentucky Fun Mall capitalized on the bizarre incident and put up a taxidermy of a bear, advertising on their website that it was the real bear. They even made Cocaine Bear products like T-shirts, sweatshirts, tank tops, snow globes, hats, socks, beer, and even Valentine’s Day cards.
Their official advertisement reads:
“We here at the Kentucky Fun Mall obtained the actual Cocaine Bear taxidermy and have put it on display for everyone to enjoy. Before we searched for Cocaine Bear’s stuffed remains, he was a forgotten footnote in the story of the Bluegrass Conspiracy. In 2015 we tracked down the long-lost taxidermied bear and brought him to the KY for KY Fun Mall in Lexington, Kentucky, to share his legend and what we learned about his post-overdose provenance.
It continues:
"Visited [by] and bringing joy to thousands of people every month, Cocaine Bear is not just a roadside attraction—and soon-to-be biopic antihero—he’s also a city mascot, a heartwarming community builder, and a warning to all the dangers of drug abuse. We trademarked his name and likeness as part of our guardianship, popularizing him as a character. You can visit Cocaine Bear free of charge during opening hours. We hope that you do.”
However, this story does not align with what actually happened, according to two retired Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents, Fran Wiley and Gary Garner, who had worked closely on the case.
What is the Cocaine Bear true story?
According to Wiley, who was the assistant agent in charge of GBI’s drug enforcement office, the bear was female and her remains did not have any claws as they were taken out for DNA testing.
Moreover, Wiley claimed:
“Our bear could not have been taxidermy. Our bear had been on the ground for about three months when we found it…so it was decomposed. In fact, the people at the crime lab were so mad that we brought this bear in because it stunk up the whole lab. They would’ve incinerated this after they did all their testing. They would not have kept this thing.”
So the story by Kentucky Fun Mall was seemingly a made-up one, and Kentucky locals Whit Hiler and Griffin VanMeter installed a taxidermy bear into their Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall, spinning a fake story around it.
Universal Pictures has dramatized this story about the bear’s tragic fate for entertainment purposes. Cocaine Bear 2023 arrived in theaters on February 24, 2023.
