Andrew C. Thornton II

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Andrew C. Thornton II (1945-1985) was a head member of "The Company", a drug smuggling ring in Kentucky. The son of Carter and Peggy Thornton of Threave Main Stud farm in southern Bourbon County, Kentucky. Drew grew up living a privileged life in the Lexington, Kentucky area and attended the private Sayre School with many other Lexington blue bloods. He later transferred to Sewanee Military Academy and then joined the Army as a paratrooper. After quitting the Army, he became a Lexington police officer[1] on the narcotics task force. He then attended the University of Kentucky Law School. Sometime during his tenure, he began smuggling ^[1].

Thornton had a criminal conviction for drug possession while he engaged in drug trafficking. 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 dead body was found in the back yard of Knoxville, Tennessee resident Fred Myers^[3]. The plane crashed over 60 miles away in Hayesville, North Carolina^[4]. At death Thornton was wearing night vision goggles, a bulletproof vest, Gucci loafers, and a green Army duffel bag containing approximately 40 kilos (79 lbs.) of cocaine valued at $15 million, $4,500 in cash, knives, and two pistols. Three months later, a dead black bear was found in the Georgia 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] Known Associates

John Bizzack, former Lexington police officer
Harold Brown, DEA agent
Bradley Bryant, childhood friend and partner in "The Company"
William Taulbee Canan, former Lexington police officer
Dan Chandler, son of Kentucky Governor Albert Benjamin "Happy" Chandler, Sr.
Sonny Collins, former star football player at the University of Kentucky
James Purdy Lambert, owner of Lexington's Library Lounge night club and friend and business associate of Governor John Y. Brown, Jr.
Anita Madden, Lexington socialite and horse farm matron
Henry Vance, staff member of Governor John Y. Brown, Jr.
David "Cowboy" Williams, skydiver, good friend, alleged smuggler, died in plane crash, two weeks after Thornton.