Andrew C. Thornton II
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Andrew C. Thornton II (b. 1945) was a head member of "The Company", a drug smuggling ring in Kentucky. Andrew grew up in the Lexington, Kentucky area and attended the private Sayre School. He later joined the Army as a paratrooper. After quitting the Army, he became a Fayette County police officer. He then attended the University of Kentucky Law School. Sometime during his tenure, he began smuggling [1]. On a particular smuggling run from Colombia, having dumped packages of cocaine off near the Chattahoochee River, Andrew jumped from his auto-piloted Cessna 404[2]. In the September 11, 1985 jump, he was caught in his parachute and ended up in a free fall to the ground. His body was found in the back yard of Knoxville, TN resident Fred Myers[3]. The plane crashed over 60 miles away in Hayesville, NC[4]. Andrew was wearing night vision goggles, a green Army duffel bag containing approximately 40 kilos of cocaine, knives, and two pistols. Three months later, a dead black bear was found in the Gerogia wilderness that had apparently overdosed on cocaine dropped by Thornton.[5]
The story of Andrew C. Thornton II was examined in Dominick Dunne's Power, Privilege, and Justice and in a book, The Bluegrass Conspiracy: An Inside Story of Power, Greed, Drugs and Murder by Sally Denton
[edit] References
- ^ DeMott, John S. (1985-10-12), "Cocaine's Skydiving Smugglers", Time: 2
- ^ AP (1988-2-8), "Woman to Go on Trial As Smuggler's Helper", The New York Times: 1
- ^ 1985-9-23, "American Notes Drugs", Time: 1
- ^ National Transportation Safety Board (1985-9-11). NTSB Accident Report Identification: ATL85LA273. NTSB. Retrieved on 2007-2-17.
- ^ 1985-12-23, "Cocaine and a Dead Bear", The New York Times: 1
