Do Go On - 234 - Andrew Thornton and the Cocaine Bear

Episode Date: April 15, 2020

On the 11th of September 1985, a twin-engine Cessna 404 crashed into a ridge in a remote area of Nantahala National Forest in North Carolina, three months later a black bear was found dead in Georigia - listen to find out how these two events are related and the wild stories that follow!Buy tickets to our live stream shows here: https://sospresents.com/Our website: dogoonpod.comSupport the show and get rewards like bonus episodes: patreon.com/DoGoOnPod Submit a topic idea directly to the hat: dogoonpod.com/Submit-a-Topic Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] out our other podcasts:Book Cheat: https://play.acast.com/s/book-cheatPrime Mates: https://play.acast.com/s/prime-mates/Listen Now: https://play.acast.com/s/listen-now/Our awesome theme song by Evan Munro-Smith and logo by Peader ThomasREFERENCES AND FURTHER READING:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMrdx-YRiJ4&feature=youtu.behttps://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/50220https://www.mirror.co.uk/science/pablo-eskobear-story-legendary-cocaine-8474914https://kyforky.com/blogs/journal/cocaine-bearhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_C._Thornton_IIhttps://www.odditycentral.com/travel/pablo-eskobear-the-legendary-cocaine-bear-of-kentucky.htmlhttps://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2017/08/amazing-tale-kentucky-folk-hero-pablo-eskobear-cocaine-bear/https://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/23/us/cocaine-and-a-dead-bear.html

Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serenji Amarna, 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there.

Canada, we are visiting you in September this year. If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. Hey, mate, it's just Matt dropping in here quickly before the start of the episode to let you know. We're doing three more live streams coming up over the following three Saturday.

Saturday's Melbourne time anyway. So Melbourne time, it's midday Saturday. This week, for instance, Saturday the 18th of April at midday. But you can go to a website if you're somewhere else in the world just to double check the conversion rates. I've done it myself here. For instance, midday Saturday is Friday night 10pm in Toronto in Canada or Columbus, Ohio. It's 9pm Friday in Dallas, Texas, 7pm in LA. She's America has a lot of time zones apparently.

New York City in New York is 10 p.m. on Friday. London, Cardiff and Dublin, I'm guessing all of the UK and Ireland, it's 3 a.m. which sucks. Sorry about that. But the good thing about these streams is they're up for 24 hours. So you can watch it at whatever time suits you best in the 24 hours after it comes out. So if you're not a party animal from Cardiff, you can watch it the next morning when you get up if you want to. Auckland obviously is 2pm, prime time Saturday.

And Iceland also in the middle of the night, 2 a.m. Paris, 4 a.m. Anyway, you can look it up. I'm just looking up at time and date.com. What a tedious way to start. I do apologize for that, but it was fun to me. It blows my mind. The world has all these different times. And we're ahead of most of you,

apart from those wily New Zealanders who are streets ahead of the rest of the world in so many ways. Anything else I need to tell you? Oh, I say porn differently to Americans. I say, so when I say porn shop, I mean a what you would call. call I guess a poor poir-un sharp I can't do it to us porn and porn are homophones but to you sound very

different porn and poor one P-A-W-N is porn P-O-R-N is also porn sorry but it's fun language is fun we're also we're all wearing suits during this so there's a couple of very brief references to that Anyway, if you want to watch the streams, please go to sOSpresents.com and yeah, you can get a ticket for the following three weeks if you want to. I reckon you bloody should want to, because it is a whole lot of fun. We had so much fun. Apart from the episode, we recorded another 45 or so minutes to the live stream exclusively to that, which is all gone now. You can't see it anymore. But yeah, anyway, why am I a gas bag and let's get.

On with the show. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates. Welcome to another episode of Do Go On. My name is Dave Warnacky and as always I'm sitting here with Jess Perkins and Matt Stewart. Hello Dave, hello Matt. Hello, Dave, hello, Jess. There's always a struggle.

Wasn't it wild how we were just sitting here and then he clicked and the show started? That freaked me out. I wasn't ready for it. All right, this is the first time you're tuning in. Hello, my name's Jess. Very nice to meet you. And what we do is every week, one of the three of us does a report on a topic. Sometimes it's about serial killers. Sometimes it's about events in history.

Sometimes it's about Betty White. And then they tell a story to the other two who disrespect them so much. They just derail and talk about themselves a fair bit. And we've done that for a long time. That's very true. And I'm really hoping this week is about Betty White. Yeah, that would be good. And the way we get on to the topic, Jess, is the report giver asked the question.

I'm the report giver this week. This is my question. Okay. Thank you. And to you, to a lesser extent, Dave. Okay. I'll answer second. Yeah, great.

I'll give you one shot each. Okay. The crashing of an unmanned plane in North Carolina in September 1985 ended with the discovery of which dead animal three months later. What? Basically, say, an animal. A lion? No. Pelican.

No. Oh. It was bear. Damn it. Black bear. Okay. You know what? I'll just listen to the report.

I reckon I was going to ask for clarification, but I reckon you'll get there in time. Yes, I will. In time. In time. Geez, if we have time. I hope you get there. So this was suggested by just the one man,

Drake Galaspie, which I'd never heard of the word of the name Galaspe. I don't know if he misspelled his own name Galaspe. But anyway, I'm going to take his word for it, and that word is Galaspe. And the report begins now. Okay. On the 11th of September, 1985,

this used to be the famous September 11th. Wow. Oh my God, it's about a plane crash. I didn't even put that together. Oh, obviously laughing at my stupidity and not the terrible tragedy. Of this bear, we presume. On September 11th, 1985, a twin engine Cessna,

4-04 crashed into a ridge in a remote area of Nantahala National Forest in North Carolina. There were no signs of any fatalities or survivors. There was also no flight plan for it lodged anywhere. So you're saying that no humans were found in the wreckage? Yes, or anyone. Dead or alive. No one dead or alive was found in the wreckage. Okay.

A few hours later, in Knoxville, Tennessee, home of the Wigsphere. the Whigsphere, around 100 kilometres from the crash site, Fred Myers awoke to find a man's body lying on his driveway with a parachute draped around him. Oh no. He finds death very funny. It sounds like the start of a riddle. You know those rooms where you're like, a man in a paddock, he's got a parachute on.

He stood on a block of ice. Yeah. Got it. It sounds like... Shock on with balloons. He woke up, manned in his driveway, parachute. No other evidence go. So he is dead.

He is dead? I thought he was alive. I missed that bit. Sorry, yeah. I love the phrasing. He woke to find a man's body, a live body, lying on his driveway. Now that he's dead, he's no longer a man.

He's a body. Isn't that interesting? Yeah, Elmikferson's done that in life. Another few too. His main parachute hadn't been deployed, but his emergency one had, probably on its own. And though it wasn't enough to save his life, it did mean that the injuries suffered were much less severe

than you might expect to see on someone who had just fallen from the sky. He didn't fully splattened. I bet that was a real relief for him. Yeah, die young, leave a good-looking corpse. When the police arrived, they found the man to be wearing a khaki-colored outfit with a bulletproof vest, night vision goggles, and a pair of Gucci loafers.

That's confusing. Also, it's daytime. Once he's near the night vision goggles. Maybe it's a little clue as to when he actually Skydove was in the night. It's loafers. Gucci loafers. Yeah, it's a funny look in my mind. He's basically, he's a civilian, but he's wearing full army get-up and then fancy Gucci slippers.

Yeah. The police found in the man's possession two handguns, knives, ropes, food rations, vitamins, a book with names and codes, a compass, an ultimateter, thousands of dollars in cash, and six Kruggerens. Do you know what Krongerans? I have no idea what that is. South African gold coins. Apparently it's, yeah, they're kind of untraceable and it's a big chunk of the world's gold is in these coins. and they're worth different amounts depending on how big, how much gold is in them or something?

I've never heard of them before this week. That's interesting. The police also found a key with an identification number matching that of the plane that crashed earlier in the morning. If you hadn't guessed that, these two things are connected. I had my suspicions. I didn't. Yeah, but I'm good at picking twists.

Yeah, that's you. You're good at the twist. I initially had it written, so I was going to reveal the key thing later. I'm like, I reckon they'll probably cut it. There was also a key. I've never thought about how planes have keys. Yeah, I mean, you've got to start them, not you? No, you do, but I've just never thought about that.

In the engine, they do that on a Qantas plane? I wonder how often the pilots are like, oh no. Then you check the review mirror. There it is. Where are those keys? They always have a little rock out the front. Yeah. It looks like a rock, but it's actually a nifty little.

There's a few hundred rocks just lying at the end. In the garden at my building, where I live there is like little rocks and pebbles and stuff around. And we found out that our elderly neighbour kept her spare key at our front door in a fake rock. That's smart. But we had no idea it was there the whole time. She left it. It was a key. Did you find our house?

You used to discover it one day? No. No, it was a bleak reason why she'd fallen and we needed to get into the house. And that's where we found out where the key was. You started going, well, let's check the rocks. Who knows? It could be any of them. Let's start at our front door, not hers.

Very confusing. Anyway, just letting you know that. It's not there anymore, so it's safe for me to disclose that information. Where is it now? I'd rather not say. Okay. Good try, Dave. Try.

I was about to reveal it, I don't even know. Does that be correct? On top of all this, so he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, Ack and a lot of heat. He's got guns. Yeah, knives, rope. He's ready to go. He's also got quagrons. Yeah, and thousands of dollars in cash. And food rations. That's what I'm interested.

And what kind of snacks are we talking about? Smarties? Yeah, has you got some smarties? He's got trail mix? Yeah, trail mix even smarter than Smarties. It has some smarties in there for a little bit of chocolate, a little bit of sugar. Yeah, what trail? Do you reckon they're picking up? I always assumed trail mix was things you'd pick up on a trail, but it's probably more like things you'd eat on a trail.

Yes. Because you can't pick up little bits of chocolate on a trail. No. You just leave and... Unless you're in Candyland. Are you in Candyland? Answer me that. Why didn't you?

Answer me. I like to leave you. No, we're not in Candy Land. I've tried to eat this chair. On top of all this, he was also wearing a satchel that contained 34 kilos of pure cocaine. Okay. Apparently worth around 15 million bucks at the time. now even more.

But he's got rations of food. You're loaded, mate. Bring yourself to a rice duck. Are you saying you're loaded or as in like you can go days without food because you've got so much cocaine? You'll never... A bit of column B. You'll never eat to eat again. Is it an appetite suppressor?

I don't know. In that jacket, I reckon you might. This is wearing a purple jacket. Classic cocaine wear. The cocaine packets had wear. The cocaine packets had USA 10 written on each of them. Okay. I love a cocaine.

He's also a patriot. You, oh, say. Yeah, that's how it was written. You times 10. I'm saying that's how good we are, 10 times better than the rest. The police found two different IDs on the man, both featuring the dead man's photo. So obviously, at least one of them was a fake. Was he dead in the photo?

Yeah, how do he do it? One for Andrew Thornton and a second for Andrew Bourbon. Okay, but it's most likely Andrew. Yes. I reckon it's most likely Andrew Thornton. Bourbon sounds like a fake name for sure. Well, you are correct. I soon determined that the real one was Andrew Thornton.

Full name, Andrew C Thornton, the second. C. One are they... Yeah, the C's... It's not really a full name if you haven't said what the C is for. Well, all right. I said full and I hope you'd let that slide. C short for Coke Man.

He's like, that's why he needs to come up with a second name because the real name really gives it away. Yeah, really gives away. Yeah. I'll go for Bourbon. Yeah. But yeah, it's funny. Andrew Bourbon is a funny name, but he was from Bourbon country in Kentucky.

Okay. So, yeah, he's pretty good imagination, this guy. So, yeah, he is Andrew Seethorn in the second. Normally, doesn't it go Andrew C. Thornton, Andrew C. Thornton, Jr., Andrew C. Thornton, the third. But he's just gone with the second. I don't get it. But anyway, why should I? Does that mean that there is a third? You become a second when you have a third. Oh, maybe. Maybe. Yeah, because your dad can't be junior. It'd be ridiculous.

I mean, you couldn't respect him. No. No. All right, junior, go get my socks. My tutsies are cold. Yelling at your dad to get socks. Sorry, not my rules, junior. I'm the third.

Fetch me my sockies. Thornton was the son of Carter and Peggy Thornton, so his dad wasn't. I think that Carter was the sea. Bar, not cocaine. Oh, well, the sea and Carter was short for cocaine. Thornton was the son of Carter and Peggy Thornton from Bourbon country, or county maybe in Kentucky.

According to the Washington Post, the Thorntons were a wealthy Lexington horse breeding family. Oh. Hmm. Hmm. I don't say. He enjoyed a privileged upbringing in Lexington, where he attended a prestigious private school

and also played polo amongst other wealthy people at Pursuits. Yeah. That's horse polo. Oh, right. But on the land. Land, land horse polo. In the water. Yeah, there's,

Horse water polo, water polo, horse land polo. What's just polo? That's just going around with a big hammer and a ball. Yes. Croquet. Land croquet. Croquet is polo. We sorted that out.

After school, he joined the army as a paratrooper. And according to the LA Times, he served in the 101st Airborne Division in the mid-60s, and was among soldiers sent to the Dominican Republic, after a revolution, he was wounded and received a purple heart. Other sources say it was in a different airborne division, 60 something or something, but... Okay. And whatever. But he's an experienced car with parachutes.

Yeah. Purple hearts on the big ones, I think. Yeah. In 1968, he joined the Lexington Police Force, serving there for nine years. According to the Washington Post, in the early 1970s, he became a member of the Lexington Police Department's first narcotics squad, working with the DEA's regional office in Louisville, says former DEA agent Larry Lakin, DEA worked with Drew on many occasions in narcotics and sometimes on a weekly basis. Worked very closely together.

Okay. So he had a history of working in narcotics law enforcement. That's really handy considering his middle name is cocaine. Yeah, Coke Man, but maybe it's Cocaine Man, Coke Man for short. Yeah. You've got to shorten your middle name. Please. Cocaine Man was my father.

Cocaine Man Jr. was my father's name. Call me Coke Man 2. He also worked his way through law school at the University of Kentucky while on the force. He's got a lot of careers happening. He's got a lot going on. I think he's still in his 20s. He's just kicking goals. He's a go-getter.

Pretty focused. Yep. What-not? I guess it's all that cocaine. Yeah. Is it a focusing drug? I know what you were saying, it suppresses your appetite. Yeah, and you focus.

Jess is our resident cocaine expert. We'll keep directing questions to you. Please. Look at that jacket. It's full of Coke. So after serving in the army and police force, in 1977, he resigned from life in uniform to become a lawyer in Lexington. I mean, lawyers can still wear uniforms, can they?

Yeah. Maybe. I don't know. What is it like, what would the uniform be a suit that has a badge saying? Lawyer. Lawyer man. Yeah. Flash woman.

A sex woman. Because women can be lawyer man too. Yes. Are you talking about like a barrister's outfit with like a wig and stuff? Oh yeah. That is kind of a uniform, isn't it? Hmm. But it seems he never practiced law.

Instead, he became more involved in the other side of the law. The crime. Oh. Oh. There's probably three, is there three sides of the law? You've got the law, then the crime, and then... The time. Okay.

That's on what I was going to say. What were you going to say? I'm not sure, but it was going to be better than that. You back yourself. You really pause for a long, long time. I thought I was really helping you out there. Well, you were wrong. The Washington Post writes,

the affiliation between Thornton and the DEA intrigues cops who try to understand Thornton's shift from NARC to drug smuggler. NARC. D.A. agent Robert Brightwell, who says he worked with Thornton on narcotics investigations in the early 70s, describes him as, quote, a 007, that's fucked me up there because he's written it, and 007.

Oh. Come on, Ross. Weird phrasing. Saying it to you, Jess. Come on, Jess. Let's assume the guy wrote this article's name is Ross. Okay. Come on, Ross.

My brother-in-law says that a lot. Come on, Ross. I don't know what it means, but it means even less in this context. Yeah. So I regret it as soon as I said it. It's a weird family in-joke thing that I don't know what it means. Yep.

And instead of asking, you've just taken it on. Yeah. I respect that. It's just fun to say. Come on, Ross. Come on, Ross. It's fun. Anyway, the quote is,

a 007 paramilitary type personality, an adventurer driven by adrenaline rushes, who became bored with being a cop. That's why he went to the other side. Yeah, for the thrill. Skip forward to 1981 in Fresno, California. Fresno, home of the Fresno Tarkos baseball team. name, I believe.

Probably one of the best mascots. Tarko. It's a taco. Yeah. Their emblem is a taco. That's good. How good is that? Love a mascot you can eat. Yeah, edible mascots. Much like the Brisbane Lions.

Yes. So we're skipping forward in 1981 in Fresno, California, and he was one of 25 men being accused of the theft of weapons from the China Lake Naval Weapons Center and of conspiring to smuggle a thousand pounds of marijuana into the United States. A thousand pounds. A thousand pounds. That's a fair bit.

Yeah. I don't know how, I have no idea what that means. Pounds less than a kilo? Yes. So it's not, probably not even that much. Probably, whatever.

Probably a weekend of my house, you know. I don't know. You're doing Coke and marijuana. I mean, it's a gateway, isn't it? That's what they say. Yeah. So you've used cocaine as a gateway to marijuana. Yeah.

Yeah. Ow. You know, once you start a Coke. There's only one way down. Yeah. If you keep going down this slippery slope soon, you'll be under, like, corn flakes or something? Yeah.

Man, I hope it never gets that bad. You know, cornflakes was invented to stop masturbation? That's a thing you'd know? Could you talk about Mr. Kellogg's one? Harry Kellogg's or whatever his name is? Ross. Come on, Ross. Making a food so boring, it'll stop kids.

wanking. What a character. Kellogg's. His name's Kellogg as well. Kellogg. You thought about it before I hadn't. Kellogg. What a... I don't like it. I love it. Dave, how do you feel? It's one of the all-time great names.

Okay. Kellogg. That's us in a nutshell. Yin and Yang and another yin. So the 25-man ring that was all caught up in this thieving conspiracy included other former Lexington police officers and was linked to a group known only as

the company. Ooh, I like that. The company was described in a 1980 federal indictment paper as, quote, a dope and gun-running syndicate with more than 300 members and $26 million in boats and planes. I mean, a name like the company

can either be, like, yeah, drugs and guns or improv. You know what I mean? And both of them have $26 million of votes and planes. You know, it's either going to be like a cute little theatre company or drugs and guns. There's no in between. I love the idea that they do both. Yes.

I mean, you've got to be able to switch off. Once you get the international waters, they're games of a space jump. They go off. Okay. I need a scenario. Stealing Coke. And we've done that one. weapons.

Come on, I want to escape from our Monday to Friday. It seems that Thornton was one of the key players in the company. I believe maybe even one of the head hunchos and honchos and honchos. Oh, wow. Is he a babe? Well, in the TV documentary I watched last night, he's played by a babe. Okay. But I don't think he was a babe.

We can assume he's a babe. The photos of him, he was like, no, all these descriptions, I'm picturing Sean Connery. Yeah. Because of that 1007 reference. From Ross. Someone else called him a Rambo style man. Okay, yeah. Whoa.

A fellow police officer described Thornton as, quote, an edge walker walking on the edge, I guess. Of his feet. He walked sort of like. He didn't run very fast. It was really weird, actually. He said, why don't you just walk? Just walk on the solsy feet.

He went, what's that? Nobody had told him. No. That's crazy. He learned how to walk from horses, clipclopping. Four at a time. Yeah. How do you think horses walk?

Is that four at a time? Two and two at a half? If they're four at a time, that must be like jumping out. You've never seen them, Gallup, like I have. True. What does that mean? Where have you been? Well, I've been down at the track.

Okay. I imagine as an affluent east boy. You are a horse. You were, you know, breadbog. I was born on a horse. You were born on a horse. A Clydesdale? Yeah.

Ah. They've got big, big, big back. Big back. They got big everything. Big everything. They're big horse. Yeah. Big, big horses.

Never put their feet on the ground at the same time, though. Oh. Okay. Only one on the ground at a time. Yeah. Okay. Kind of like one of those desert geckos. The sands real hot.

You know what I'm. mean. Dezo. Dezo. Dezo. Dezoes. Dezoes. Dezo Geckos. No, those Liz Boys in the Dez? It's like I'm talking another language. So this other police officer described him as an edge walker. That's right. How we got here. Edge walker, yes. Walking on the edge, got it. As well, the thrill seeker motivated by danger. Yeah, okay. Actually, the sea, in his middle initial sea, stood for danger. He went on to say, as a policeman, Andrew could walk the edge only so long before it became routine. Drug smuggling was a natural transition for him. He was a Starsky and Hutch type of cop.

He drove fast cars, popped in and raided people. Starskin Hutch, 007, Rambo. Jesus guy, doesn't he sound like the coolest guy? He wasn't. Doesn't he, though? It does sound very cool. He sounds like a fun character. in a film.

As a real person, he sounds like a fucking nightmare. Did he have a family? Like, yeah, imagine being married to him or living near him, you'd be like, oh, this tool again. It was married. To the job of smuggling drugs. And also a woman. Oh, wow. So, yeah, it was a bit of a three-way thing going on.

And in the end, it was too much for the two humans in the relationship and they split, but he stayed married to the job. Yeah, he sounds like a nightmare. Because I think she remained kind of friends with him. but she found that his laugh-so was a bit full-on. Yeah. He sounds awful. He sounds exhausting.

Just sit down and watch a movie for fuck's sake, Andrew. I am a movie. No, you're not. I just want to go to IKEA. We need a new cabinet. They're coming for dinner. Can you just sit still? All the cabinets are full of drugs.

I just need somebody to put the fucking plates. Do you know? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Jess, have you also seen? the documentary, I imagine. You accessed that pretty quickly, actually. I don't know where I went, but I feel lighter.

Yeah. Okay. There's a little repressed session there. I don't know what you mean. Okay. I'm dizzy. That's the drugs. I need more coke.

I'm running low on coke. I'm getting hungry. Anyone got some Coke? Just eating it by the spoonful. With milk, like cereal. The Kellogg style. Just makes it a paste. I haven't wanked in ages.

I've just been eating this cocaine cereal. Can't even get it up anymore. You're happy, Kellogg? Hell, you're happy? My inside's a mush. So he's walking on the edge. He's walking on the edge. But yeah, so he's up on these charges

because of the, you know, the conspiracy to thief all these things. from the army. But perhaps due to his family's powerful standing in the community, he wasn't charged in the China Lake weapons case. This is one of those ones where there's a million different articles about it, and they're all a little bit... They talk about him differently. Some kind of...

He can tell they like him, and some are like, he was a shit cop, he's a bad guy, and other ones are like, he was a great cop. He's the best at everything. Some say, you know, his family helped him get out of this. Others were like, they just didn't really have anything on him. Yeah.

Apparently, he said when he got caught, he's like, you don't have anything on me. It was just really arrogant about it. Really, that doesn't sound like him at all. Perhaps due to his family's powerful standing in the community, he wasn't charged in the China Lakes weapons case, but was instead indicted on the lesser charge of conspiracy to import a controlled substance,

as well as conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. Okay. According to the LA Times, the indictment said the charges involved the flight of an air, the flight of a plane on a drug run from South America to Kentucky in 1979. He was named as the pilot. Thornton pled not guilty before doing a runner. He was arrested months later as a fugitive in North Carolina.

He didn't pay for his dinner. No. It's succulent. Hell, he is outrageous. Again, his wife's still at the table, like, oh, okay. Oh, I guess I'll have to pick it up then. I see that. Okay.

The court diner. Yeah. He's like, not guilty, but I will go another chicken chamein. Thank you so much. Yeah, so months later, they finally caught up with him, arresting him in North Carolina while he was wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a pistol. You'd think fleeing would have led to a more severe punishment, but after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor drug charge,

any felony charges were dropped. As such, his sentence was relatively light, with six months in prison and a $500 fine. That would have been pretty rough on him, right? 500 bucks. 500 bucks. Big ones. He was also placed on probation for five years and his law license was suspended.

Suspended. Yeah. No arguments. O'Fson buts, young man. Suspended for one month. Go to your room. Your room being prison for six years. I forgot he was a lawyer as well.

I forgot that. So it's been suspended. Yeah. Okay. He was still on probation when he died, so he never got... He forgot that he died. I was like, oh, spoiler. No, that's right. We found him dead, yes.

Parachute man. So he was a free man again in 1982, and it seems like he got back to business pretty quickly. Details aren't super clear of what he's up to in the next three years, but it seems he continued working as a drug runner amongst other strange behaviour. This next part is taken from another article in the post. It was written at the time. And it was probably, it was one of the bits that made me like,

this guy isn't that cool? Yeah, I've already got that. But this one, well, anyway, all right. So this is from that article in the post. Anticipating a nuclear holocaust, although some of this would have put him in good stead for what's happening in the world right now, but unfortunately he's super dead.

Okay. Anticipating a nuclear holocaust, he stockpiled parrot military weapons, maybe not that bit. Freeze dried food and stockpiled gold coins. He wore camouflage fatigues and swast stickers. Okay. It was a bit that made me go like, oh, he's a Nazi. Oh, that's the bit that made you a bit iffy on this bloke, was it? That was the bit that really made me go, oh.

Yeah, and that one kind of turned me against him a bit. Gotcha, yeah. Now he's a genuinely bad guy. Yeah. Yeah, swastikers, that's the name for the Nazi version of that symbol, or is that? Because he also was apparently big into meditation and stuff. Didn't the symbol used to be about something else? I believe so, yeah.

Anyway, that was the only article that I saw the word swastika written. Okay. They really pricked up my attention. Picked up my prick radar. A bit of a prick, there's a Nazi guy. That's a hot tag. Thank you. Yeah, I actually, I don't mean to have such a hot take,

But I do reckon Nazis are bad people. Yeah, you said it. I don't apologise for that. No. I stand by that. I'm happy to put that on the record. I reckon you'll panic at it and take that out tonight. I don't want to offend anyone.

Yeah, I panic edict by taking out bits I think might offend. Dave panic edicts by any facts he got slightly wrong. Which you might offend people. Yeah. Me. So he wore camouflage fatigues, swastikers and bulletproof vests. loved his bulletproof vests, and he talked about eyes for eyes and teeth for teeth,

you know, vengeance sort of stuff. He had become increasingly paranoid. He surrounded his farm with Constitina wire, setting up barracks and digging trenches, according to Kentucky State Police. Really getting into it now. He's ready for trench warfare. He's going back to World War I, let's do this.

Thornton's farm was the subject of aerial and ground surveillance several times following reports that Thornton was operating a guerrilla warfare training camp, for mercenaries, according to Sergeant Ralph Ross. Well, most of the mercenaries farm animals? Pending pigs. A pig with like black on its face. Could Sergeant Ralph Ross be the Ross?

Maybe. Come on, Ross. Ralph Ross. Ralph Ross. Ralph Ross is a great name. Ralph Ross is incredible. What's Ralph short for? Ralph Ayat.

Thornton consistently maintained that nothing illegal occurred on his farm. That pig wanted to wear. That military fatigue. Find me a pig that doesn't want to wear a bulletproof vest. Find me one. I challenge you. I thought you were talking about the cop. You're talking about a pig.

An actual pig on the farm. I'm like, Dave. I'm not calling. There's a strong language from you. No, I'm in a genuine pig. He's lost it. He's training farm animals for gorilla warfare. He's trying to get a cow to hold a grenade.

It's hard. Yeah, that is hard. I would have picked a different animal. Like some kind of... Chicken? Yes. Of the wing. Obviously they could at least hold it

like in its paw as it flaps a little bit. Oh, that's fun. Let's face it, he tried every animal. A lot of it went wrong before he found the ones that worked. Yeah. He blew up a few cows.

Yeah. At dinner. You know what they say? You got to blow up a few cows to make a chicken chal mane. How does that saying actually? You got to crack a few eggs. To make an omelet,

to make a chicken chameau. It also be a key ingredient of chicken chameau. I have no idea what a chicken chameau is. You don't say. It sounds delicious. Succuline even. A friend described her kinds of planes thought and flu

as a smuggler's dream. Okay. I wish your only thing would have made that better. Smuggler's wet dream. Heaps of cabin space. Oh yeah. Drugs. Yes, yes.

You don't have to, so you could just sit comfortably, not surrounded by drugs. That is right. There was a lot of space for drugs. They ripped all the chairs out of them. Only the pilot's chairs remained. And they also fitted them with special fuel tanks that meant that they could fly extra long distances. Wow. That is a smuggless dream plane.

When you said smuggless dream plane, I imagine Wonder Woman's invisible plane. Now that's a smuggless dream plane. Fuck, yeah. I imagined a really big ass cavity. in the back of the plane somehow. Back a full. The plane's just like, nothing.

Waddling around? Plain sweating. I think one of them may have broken. I feel really focused and not hungry. The plane just started zooming up. Still, you've got a pole plane and you're still putting it in little condoms. I've got eight thousand.

and condoms back there. Just put it in a bag. Oh, yeah. Oh, shit. So these alterations I made to the plane made them perfect for a trip from, say, Columbia to the United States. For example.

For example. Could be anywhere. It could be anywhere. It could be anywhere. But that's an example. And on September the 11th, 1985, that seemed like exactly what he was doing.

Okay. Or at least on the 10th, sorry. The crash happened early on the 11th. But, yeah, on the 10th, that's what he was doing. He was flying a big load of Coke up that tightly packed aeroplanes' ass from Columbia to the States. Police retraces path by finding multiple satchels of cocaine, dropped into places like national parks along the route.

On purpose? Yes. But so these discoveries made it clear that he'd flown up from South America. They sort of followed it like a Hansel and Gretel. Yeah, right. Or a Hansel and Charlie path. A real trail mix of cocaine, if you will. Oh, that's what they should do.

Imagine trail mix instead of the little chocolate bits, cocaine pills. Why not as well as? Why can't you still have a little chalky treat? Fantastic. Fantastic idea. Can we copy our way? Going to business, yes. Let's form the company.

A company. A two, three, four. We're a dance company. Yeah. Having made the majority of the journey back home, though, Thornton put the airplane into autopilot and jumped. Oh. Why he chose to do this remains unclear to this day. Because he's dead.

Yes. So he, dead men tell no tales. I learned that from a pirate ones. Ah. Or at least a pirate's movie title. I haven't seen it, but yeah, probably Johnny Depp. Hello, I'm Johnny Depp. Yes.

I'm a pirate. Yep. Oh, I'm based on rock and rolla from the stones. Now do Jeffrey Rush in that movie. Jeffrey Rush? Do Jeffrey Rush? Do Jeffrey Rush in that movie. Hello.

I'm not very good, apparently, allegedly. But I'm quite litigious. Edit point. That's a panic edit if I've ever seen one. I don't want to offend him. No. Because he'll take me to court. But you're dressed and ready to go.

I'm ready to represent. myself. Well, Your Honor. Guilty. You walk into the courtroom. Everyone just knows. Guilty. So he's jumped. People aren't sure why. But it seems like this is why he was dumping the cargo along the way. He was getting ready to jump. Had he dumped all the coke or just some? Well, he jumped with a big chunk of it on his person. And the rest had been dumped. So when the plane was found there was no coke on board. Right. No survivors.

No. People or coke. Whatever the case was, he was an expert skydiver and the type of guy who wouldn't even let anyone touch his pack. He was a fanatic about his equipment according to a friend in Lexington. He's a real freak. Very, very experienced skydiver. But he wouldn't let anyone touch his pack.

Not even the guy that repacks the parachutes. He wouldn't. He didn't trust him. Don't pack him. He wouldn't even let people repack his plane's ass. He just wouldn't let anyone touch anything. His plane, he's asked to pack. Yeah.

He thought of his parachute is kind of like his second anus. Yeah. No touching. Maybe one of the reasons why him and his wife broke up. He was in ass play. He wasn't. He wasn't willing to try or communicate. Which, you know, sad, but that's,

That's love, isn't it, in the end? What? Ask play. It's a phrase that I only relatively recently, and it's real fun. I was in, I was in some sort of a show. Okay, good, yes, that narrows it down.

Come on, Ross. What was it? It's not like people are watching a lot of shows at the moment. It was a podcast. And they were talking, anyway, this is, now it's in another podcast. Us play. It means playing with your ass, I think.

I'm not a virgin. You want to scream that in court? I'm not a virgin. For a say. Objection. Proof. Objection. He definitely is, Your Honor. Sustained.

So it was a very good jump, a very experience. So it was surprising to those who knew him to hear, died in a skydiving accident. Yeah. Knoxville... It wasn't surprising that he was found with hundreds of pounds of cocaine strapped to him. Oh yeah, did he have the gold coins?

Yeah, that's him. Yeah. How many guns do you have on him? Yeah, that's Andy, yeah. But splattered? Hmm. But, weird. That's not like him.

Not my boy. That's his mum. Knoxville police lieutenant Jerry Day described him as a quote, a kind of survivalist. An individual who was expecting trouble. and ready for it, which explains why his body was found with weapons, food, ropes, night vision, goggles, etc., etc., picnic camper.

But unfortunately for Thornton, it sounds like his over-preparedness might have caused his downfall, quite literally. According to the New York Times, he fell to his death because, quote, he was carrying too heavier load while parachuting. Yeah, that's, yep. Got greedy. Grady. The fact that he was such an experienced jumper and he miscalculated the weight.

he could carry, makes it seem like the jump wasn't pre-planned. Some people say this, maybe this was always a plan. He was always just going to let the plane go on crash. He was going to land and meet someone where he was going to make a deal. But it seems like that's probably not the case, just because he otherwise wouldn't have had such a heavy load on him. Today I found out.com suggests it might have been something else, though, quote, it was also later noted by friends of the man in question

that he had a propensity to push the envelope on how, late he could open his parachute. So it's also possible that in the darkness, he simply waited too long to deploy it. Okay. He was challenging himself. He was playing chicken with the ground. Apparently he was famous in skydiving circles as one of the few guys who would wait to the very last second to pull his rip cord. Again, he sounds like a nightmare. But didn't it say he didn't pull the rip cord at all? And only the emergency one had gone off automatically? Well, they're not sure of went off automatically or if he had to pull it. Yeah, if the first one failed. Yeah.

Because that's what it's for. That's the problem. If you leave it to the last second and then it fails, you've lost a couple of seconds before you get the emergency one and then it's too late. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's a possibility. I'd be famous in skydiving circles for pulling it at the first possible moment I could. You're in the plane?

You get sucked out, you're just dangling. Oh, no. It's wrapped around you. You're full to your death. Somehow, that's how you die. It gets caught in the propeller. But if that is what happens, can you please still tell people

it was a skydiving accident? Yeah, it was kind of skydive accident. That was completely avoidable. It was entirely her fault. Falls out, it comes out. These little planes of the propeller at the front and gets caught in the propeller. You're flinging around.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Are you picturing me as a cartoon as well, in it? Yeah. And eventually you get minced up in a chicken chal mane. Yes. The best part is it's your first ever skydive so you go tandem with a professional, But you just, you, sorry, mate, I don't trust you.

Pulled it. He also dies. Just no, no. But at least I was prepared. You played it safe. I played it safe. Thank you. You know the documentary series I was talking about before?

It's called FBI Files, Dangerous Company. Oh, that's good. Oh, that's good. Because the whole point of it was he kept dangerous company. So that doco suggests that Thornton believed he was being followed by another plane. So he put the plane into... So you tried to lose it? Did he indicate left and then turn right?

Apparently, yeah. And they reenacted all so good. He's going, lose him. But the other plane was too fast and was catching up. So he got it into autopilot and jumped. And we know he was a super paranoid guy. So this checks out. On the way down, they suggest he was knocked unconscious.

possibly straight away hitting his head on the plane on the way out. Which feels like it would be hard to do. I'd find a way. He hit his head on the plane. He was famous for being the best in the biz. Yeah, and then he hits his head on the plane. Rookie mistake. Yeah, it really is.

You're going to hit yourself pretty hard on the head to knock yourself out. Oh, no. I guess if he jumped, got caught by Gus of Wynn, thrown back in the other. I don't know. But they also suggested it could have been that he was pummeled by one of the duffel bags full of cocaine all the way down, boom, boom, boom. It feels very cartoony.

Either way, they suggest that he was knocked out and unable to pull the rip cord of his main parachute and the emergency parachute wasn't deployed until it was too late. Either automatically or he came to and went, oh shit, pulled it and it was too late. So that's what they suggest on the doco. It's an hour and a half. I'll put a link to it in the show.

This is very good, and it goes into all this other stuff as well. But they say at the start, the injuries that the cops found on his body when they found him suggest that maybe it wasn't an accident, that maybe he was hit and it was murder. And then they go, yeah, it looks like he probably hit his head on the plane. I tell you that an hour and 20 minutes later. You dogs.

You dogs. He was murdered. Murdered by a plane. That plane had it out for him. Well, and also one of the bags burst and the plane was on like a Coke rage. Yeah. Is that I think? You get rage?

Oh, yes. Really focused. And angry. Suppressed rage. Yeah, yeah. So it's one of those made for TV docos where it's like all reenactments. And you know, it's sort of lowish budget. A lot of like, is it dark and a lot of filters so you don't see a lot of the background?

because it's not properly a background. Totally. But there's, I mean, it's an hour and a half long, and it's sort of, you know, there's obviously some budget. There's so many location shoots and all this sort of stuff. My favourite bit, I can't remember exactly what he said, but the narrator's talking about the cops and saying, they realise that he was actually quite a bad guy.

And that's overlaying cops reenacting this scene where they're in the crime lab looking at evidence and the main cop, you can hear him just audibly say, I reckon he's quite a bad guy. I'm guessing he's just like riffing. Just making up so. All right, I'm a cop. Okay, what do I think about this criminal guy?

Yeah, I think he's quite a bad guy. Yeah. I think this guy might... He might be a criminal. Yeah, but if people are interested, it'll be linked in the show notes, goes way deeper into the company and all the bad things they did,

which also include includes the assassination of a judge who was in the middle of a court case with one of the people connected to the company was probably about to be found guilty by this judge. That judge got assassinated by a sniper. The man convicted of that murder was Woody Harrelson's dad. What? I don't think anyone expected him to say that. And I would normally have gone into all that stuff way more, but we haven't even got to

the reason that I'm doing this report. Just a bear. Yeah. Which I totally forgot about until about 10 minutes ago and I zoned out for a second and went, wait, where's the bear come into this? Woody Harrison's dad killed a judge. Well, he was found guilty of it. The guy who accused of it apparently later changed his story. But I think Woody Harrelson's dad died in jail.

Right. I think he was a career criminal. Okay, so it wasn't just like that actor from Cheers. It was his dad. No, yeah. He just got named. What are you talking about? Yeah.

Whoa. So it sounds like, yeah, he was a pretty wild operator. But, yeah. Unfortunately, no time to go into all that. Yeah, okay. Because the reason that Drake Galaspe suggested this topic was about this bear. Yeah, right. But maybe before we jump into that quickly, what's your theory?

Why did he jump at that point? You think it makes sense that he just got paranoid? I reckon he's... sound like a paranoid kind of guy. Yeah. And that maybe if you think you're being followed, when you land, you're definitely going to get busted. So if you crash the plane, there's a chance in darkness that you'll be able to jump out. D.B. Cooper style, no one notices you and that you can go back and get the drugs in the forest later.

Yeah, I think that was the plan. It's still super risky, obviously. Yeah, totally. And he had 15 million bucks of drugs on him and there were more that he dropped. So it was so much. There's a lot. Yeah. And the people he bought him off, I think they didn't get paid up front.

So then there's this whole story about how maybe there were retributions afterwards as well, which I don't have time to go into either. So it's just like it's a big, messy story. There's multiple books have been written about it. It's inspired different story arcs on different TV shows. Wow. The police ruled the death an accident. So the plane got away with it.

Classic. Until now. It does seem likely. that another person was on the plane with him and someone else was helping him coordinate things on the ground. The New York Times report in 1988 that, quote, two people were indicted on charges of conspiring with Mr Thornton to import the 880 pounds of cocaine. I don't think, I couldn't find anything he had come of those charges. I think one of them was his girlfriend at the time and she was the one on the ground, allegedly. She was just wanting to go to IKEA.

Yeah. Oh, this wasn't his wife. This was a girlfriend. I know. But I mean, lots of people like to go to IKEA for stuff. You're different people wanting to go to like, he has a type, doesn't he? He meets him at IKEA. Yeah. And they, yeah, then he changes. Yeah. Like that.

So that, let's draw a line in the story of Mr Thornton and get onto the bear. So about three months after the plane crash, authorities found one of the coke drops that Thornton had made. So they were tracking these down. One, they found three months later in a national park. Oh, no. There they found around 40 packages of cocaine that had been ripped open, but only residue remained. Nearby, they found the body of a 175-pound black bear.

To confirm their strong hunch that the bear had died after consuming the cocaine, they sent its body to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. There they performed a necropsy, which is apparently the animal version of an autopsy. What they found was, quote, its stomach was literally packed to the breast. brim with cocaine. There isn't a mammal on the planet that could survive that. Well. Are you built up a tolerance? He's a bear. He's black bear. Bit of a pussy.

My dad's watching. I am joking, dad. Cerebral hemorrhaging, respiratory failure, hypothermia, renal failure, heart failure, stroke. You name it, that bear had it. That's one hell of a drug. Oh, my God. Cocaine's a hell of a drug. They do say that. The story was picked up by the media, and the bear became known as the cocaine bear,

aka Pablo Escobare. Okay, that's cute. But it's not the bear. I mean, the bear didn't know, did it? It wasn't like sweet, heaps of cocaine. It wasn't snorting it. No. Well, we assume.

Yeah. It was just like, hmm, food. Oh, I feel good. More food. Yeah, what a weird food. Maybe, yeah, it probably has a delicious taste. Yeah. Pure.

That's the thing about Colombian cocaine. Delicious. It's amazing. You can sprinkle it on your cereal. Yeah. And I do. And your Kellogg's. Don't talk to me until I've had my morning cocaine.

In 2015, a small company named Kentucky for Kentucky, set up by mates Witt Hiler and Griffin Van Meter, became interested in the story and tried to find out what happened to the bear's body. Griffin and Witt made headlines in 2011. after launching a campaign to replace Kentucky's tourism slogan, which is unbridled spirit, to Kentucky kicks ass. Okay. Kentucky Packs ass.

There we go. Let's start it up. Hashtag Kentucky Packs Assass. Let's make it happen. According to Roadside America.com, the popularity of that campaign encouraged Griffin and Witt to open a brick and mortar store, the Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall, as a marketplace for locals to sell quirky home state items,

such as gold-plated KFC breastbone necklaces and fried chicken scented candles. They also wanted their stores to showcase unusual Kentucky relics, and that's when they remembered cocaine bear. Growing up here, I remember hearing about it a lot, said Witt. Could it possibly still be around? First, they contacted the Georgia Bureau of Investigation who conducted the necropsy. Conducted. That's what they call that in Kentucky.

When you conduct in Kentucky, it's Kentucky. You conduct. Yep. They... They conduct a full investigation. Yeah. The Kentucky Symphony Orchestra is led by a contactor. So are their trams.

The Colonel? Yes. They all look like that there. They spoke to an examiner who remembered the incident well. They said that despite all the damage the Coke did to the bear internally, apparently the bear's body remained in good cosmetic shape. Quoting from Kentucky from Kentucky's website, Kentucky for Kentucky's website, such good shape that he thought it would be a shame to just have it cremated.

He contacted. Contacted. Contacted. Talking is so hard. Yeah. So like this thing, every three weeks I read like a 20-page report and I still don't know how to read people. I hit words in the weird, the syllables all wrong.

Anyway, people know this. I don't know why I'm telling you. You know it better than that. anyone. He contacted a hunting buddy who did taxidermy, had it stuffed, and then gifted it to the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area where it was displayed in the visitor center. So they called the visitor center, this is the Kentucky for Kentucky fellas, but he wasn't there anymore because quote, apparently in the 90s the threat of an approaching wildfire prompted park employees to evacuate the area's facilities. They took the few artifacts ahead, including the cocaine bear,

and put it in temporary storage in a nearby town called Dalton. But a month later, the storage was robbed and the bear was stolen. What? Who steals a bear? It must be huge. Well, the stuff from storage was later recovered from a Nashville pawn shop, but not Pablo Esco bear because Pablo had already been onsold. Okay.

That was, to legendary country musician, Waylon Jennings bought cocaine bear. What? I'm the pawn shop. I'm the pawn shop. The pawn shop owner said he was unaware of the bear's colourful history or that he was stolen, but this was contradicted by Jennings, who, quote, told police that this particular pawn shop owner, a guy he's done business with in the past,

called him as soon as the bear came in and relayed the whole coke-fuge story of Andrew Thornton in great detail. I had no idea. Jennings was apparently already very familiar with Thornton, even before Thornton's death, from Kentucky for Kentucky again. We couldn't find out for sure if Jennings knew Thornton personally, but he definitely knew what he was about. So when Jennings had a chance to nab the infamous cocaine bear, he took it. He gave the bear to his Kentucky loving friend Ron Thompson,

who was a Kentuckian, whatever they're called. Intuckin. Kentucky. And who's the guy who told him all about the Thornton story and was possibly New Thornton personally as well. But that's not clear. And Thompson displayed it in his Kentucky-themed party mansion in Las Vegas. Oh my God.

Bear's gone on a real journey. And he's a Kentucky-themed mansion. Yeah. That's one of his mansions, and that one is Kentucky-themed. Yeah, he has 50. One for every state. But then never in the state they're from. No, 49.

He said it'd be cold in the cold, head in the cold-cold ground before he had a Missouri party mansion. And that's how Coke Bear went to live in Nevada desert, at least for a while. Oh, my God. When Thompson died in 2009, much of his estate was sold at auction. Kentucky for Kentucky called. the auction house who helped them track down the buyer, a man named Zhu Tang, a Chinese immigrant living in Reno. He bought the bear uncontested for the opening bid of 200 bucks.

What? I would buy it. How much? How much? $2.50. It feels like, yeah, it's funny they didn't get another bid, but then, you know, it's a big, dead bear. I guess you're lucky. When they tried to contact Zhu, they found that he had already passed away, sadly, but they were able to get in contact with his wife, and they learned he'd been using the bear as decoration in his traditional Chinese medicine shop. When he died in 2012, she sold the business but saved the bear, even though she never really liked it, apparently. Quote, he was always bringing home junk from auctions and estate sales and things like that,

she said. The bear was one of his favorite things. He just loved it for some reason. At first, he wanted to keep it in our living room, but I wouldn't have it. It scared me. I made him take it to the store. She was unaware of the bear's history, but when they told her, The scars from the post-mortem examination on its abdomen all of a sudden made sense to her.

These scars also helped confirm to the Kentucky boys that they'd found their bear. Oh my God. After telling her about the whole story and the quest to track it down, which took them a few months, Mrs. Seng at first said, if they'd gone through that much trouble, they could have the damn thing just to get it out of her sight. All that to do was pay for shipping. So in 2015, Griffin and Witt unveiled the cocaine bear at their fun mall. quote, you wouldn't think that a cocaine bear would be for all ages, but kids love it, said Griffin.

Everybody wants their picture with cocaine bear. According to Roadside America, Griffin and Witt are attentive parents to their fairy showpiece. Cocaine bear is given regular cleanings and outfitted with a Kentucky hat and an oversized gold chain. Dangling from its neck is also a flashy sign that gives the bear's proper name, Pablo Escobar, and ends with the warning. Quote, don't do drugs or you'll end up dead. and maybe stuffed like poor cocaine bear. And that is the end of my report about Andrew Thornton

the second and the cocaine bear. That was quite a journey. I don't know what to say. That's wild. It's a funny addendum at the end, right? What a journey they went on to find that bear. Yeah. Is it possible that that bear is cursed?

Two owners... I had the same thought. Yes, so they've had it since 2011 and seem to still be alive. Okay. All these people taking their photo. with it, all dead. All dead. Including the kids.

Oh no. They're dying of old age. Very confusing. That is weird and amazing. Yeah, it's a wild story. I think the Wail and Jennings bit was the bit that made me go, all right, I'm listening. So, yeah, it's a funny, a post script. All right.

Yeah, because the bear, it's interesting they latched on it because I think the bear wasn't even living in Kentucky, but it was connected to this Kentucky story. a Kentuckan. Yes, contushan. Contution. Gave him the coke, I guess. So that's the connection there. Yeah, right.

Wild story. Yeah, and what a great suggestion from Drake. Yeah, well done, Drake. Thank you so much, Drake. Galasby. Well, now we can move on to everyone's favorite section of the show, which is, of course, our Patreon section, where we thank the people that support the show on patreon.com

slash do go on pod. Kicking off with the fact quote or question section. Which has a little jingle. Fact, quote, or question. And the way this works is if you support us at patreon.com slash do go on pod, there's a bunch of different levels. This level is the Sydney-Sharnberg deluxe Rest in Peace Memorial Edition level. And if you support us on this level, you get to give us a fact, a quote or a question.

Each week, I'll read out two of them. And you also get to give yourself a title. Other things on this level you get to so many things, including you get to vote on two of the three topics. You get two. Should we announce? We should announce it. Yes!

So at the moment we put out and have for a long time two bonus episodes every single month and they're still up there for you to check out. So there's over 60 bonus episodes if you support us on the bonus episode level. Plus the D&D series that we recently did with Sans Pants. There's four episodes of that as its own little thing. But we're not going to just continue to do two bonus episodes a month.

we have just hit a new goal. Jess, what are we doing? We're going to be doing, phrasing the bar, baby! So three bonus episodes a month. One mini report, one random roll of the dice could be anything,

and one phrasing the bar. And we'll be starting that next month, assuming that we stay at that level, I guess. Yeah, that's right. And if you don't know what phrasing the bar is, it is a show where we will be going through the filmography of Brendan Fraser. We still don't know how to say his name.

Maybe we'll figure it out. Yeah. I'm very excited. So excited for that. But I imagine the first couple of things are going to be a bit shit before it gets to the good stuff, you know? I can look up. The first one, he's like basically an extra.

Like a cameo, but episode two, Encino man. Oh, wow. No. He hits the big time, baby. He hit the ground running. The first movie, yeah, I think it's more of a cameo appearance. I love it. I love that we're going to start with that.

I assume we're going to start with it. Yeah, we'll start with nothing. and then Encino man. One of my old-time favorite films that I haven't seen in years. I mentioned Paulie Shore earlier today. Squeez in the J-U's. I can't remember if I said that on the pot or not. It's Paul. Shaw alive.

Yeah. What's he doing? That time of recording. What's he doing? Anyway, that is... No, that's a big question. What is he doing? What is he doing?

Did he have a reality show for a while? That was Jersey Shore. Oh. That's so good. Thank you so much. Yeah, his sister. But yeah, thanks so much to everyone that has been jumping on the Patreon lately. You know, it's extra stuff for you to listen to, maybe you've been in quarantine,

and also helps us out a lot as well with the lack of live shows and things like that. And the people that have been watching the streams as well. It's really a great way to keep us going. It's so cool. So, yeah, so on the Sydney-Sharmberg level, you get all those things. But the thing that people really love is the fact, quote or question. You get to give yourself a title and then you get to give us a fact or quote or a question. This week, the first fact quote or question is Jessica Gillette Sheather.

And she's given herself the title of Jesse Jess Jess, Queen of the Donut People. Ooh. I instantly feel hungry for donut. Me too. I mean, I'm hungry in general. I've called it like its own cuisine. Hungry for donut. But donut people, do they eat lots of donuts or are they made of donuts and would they be offended by us eating donuts?

Yeah. Sorry, Jesse, Jess, Jess. But maybe, like, maybe if they are made of donuts, they'd be like, well, I mean, we have to have a purpose. Please, eat donut, you know? Maybe there's a difference between people made of donuts, sentient beans made of donuts and then donuts the food. I think there's a difference. Get you head out of your butt, Dave. I have a feeling that Jesse knew this kind of intellectual discussion would follow.

this title. There was that episode of The Simpsons, maybe a Halloween one where Homer gets, his head becomes a donut. And he started nibbling on a little bit. That's right. He's picking out of that head. Or am I thinking of, hey, don't scratch up them heads. Some different Halloween episode.

Oh, yeah, it's both. So her question, Jesse Just Jess, is, hey guys, I've been re-watching the Mighty Bush lately. I know a few people have been re-watching the Mighty Boosh in quarantine. It's a great show. And I kind of forgot how good it is. I did a, if you don't know, Jess, I did a, one of the first primates was about the Mighty Bush. It's good fun. Oh yeah, Bolo.

Bolo, yes. She goes on to say, it's something that always makes me laugh like I'm watching it for the first time. What always makes you laugh no matter how many times you have seen or heard it? Well, the Simpsons. Yeah, Simpsons is so much laughter. A man getting chased off a course by a pack of dog. Yeah, that does make me laugh. It's the mention of the concept.

So funny. That's a good question. I think I can re-watch the US office during the peak years and laugh a lot every time. Oh, and Black Books. I love Black Books, and every time I re-watch it, I think... Yeah, Black Books is very good. With Nail and I, it makes me laugh every time, I reckon. Normally, yeah, Mighty Bush would be right up there as well.

I actually reckon Kimmy Schmidt might be. That's a show that I've watched a lot. And there's always jokes in there that make me laugh. Yeah. My favorite recurring joke. Have I talked about this on the podcast or was somebody else? But Titus keeps, he always says moi in relation to himself. He'll be like, moi.

And he's obviously seen noir written down and doesn't know how it's supposed to be said. But the good thing about they never explain, like they don't spoon feed that to you. He just keeps saying it. It cracks me up every time. Moi? Maybe that's the actor. He's meant to be saying... Moi.

It's very funny. Moi? Yeah, I can't relate to mispronouncing words like that. Nothing funny about it. It's great. Yeah, great question. I'm trying to think of anything else. Probably like Happy Gilmore.

I haven't seen that in a long time. Seinfeld. Signfeld's still great. Yeah. I recently... Well, I mean, I watch it probably a couple times a year, Four Weddings and a Funeral. Oh, yeah.

And that is very funny. Yeah, right. Still. Yeah. Oh, I've got to say, I'm so sorry that I didn't mention this earlier, the succulent Chinese meal man. Oh, that makes me laugh. Every time. I cannot not laugh.

Yeah. Does that make sense? Yes. I cannot help but laugh. Yeah. Every line. Every line. Just, it's like, that seems like a written riff.

Ta-ta. Doesn't it like, ta-ta-ta-ta. And farewell. Ah, yes. Oh, yes. Every line is gold. All around the UK. That was you guys the whole time.

Ah, yes. Because you can put it in anywhere. Ah, yes. Can you please help me with... I see you've learnt your judo well. So, if you don't know what we're talking about, I'd be surprised if we were referenced it so much. Just type in succulent Chinese meal into YouTube.

And you're welcome. And yes, just enjoy it. It's a two-step process. He's sort of the guys slowly revealing himself to the public. And once he's fully done that, I'm doing a report on him for sure. It's okay to hear it. Thank you so much, Jessica, Gillette, Sheettha, fantastic name, JGS.

The second fact quote or question of this week is Catherine Kloh, sorry, bracket, pronounce Clough. You're welcome. You really do read from Lesterach. Catherine Clough. Clough. Clough. Who's given herself the title of Brigadier, Garretier.

of Barbados. Briggadie. Putting three records together, I salute you. Yeah, love that. Thank you so much, Brigadier, Gary of Barbados. Gary Babados. Question is,

I just wanted to ask, what's your perfect Sunday? It's a quote and question. This is in bracket, sorry. Question is, what's your perfect Sunday? Bracket. It's a quote and a question. Maddie, as you haven't pre-read this,

and to save you a Google, it's from Hot Fuzz. One of the best. Oh, HotFathers is another funny, part of a very funny film series. I was just thinking of that one before. Are we talking S-U-N-D-A-Y or S-U-N-D-A-E? Oh, good question, because I've got answers for both. D-A-Y.

D-A-E, I'm banana split, sprinkler nuts, a bit of chocolate sauce, maybe a couple of wafers. Have I said nuts? I don't think you've said nuts. I just sprinkler nuts. Oh, yeah. I'm a chocolate ice cream with chocolate sauce. Then a shitload of cream on top.

A couple of cherries. For looks and taste. Fantastic work. For looks and taste. Okay. Just your perfect Sunday? I'm not thinking I'm much of a Sunday person. What about a caribor?

What's your AY then? A.Y? Hmm. Brunch? Oh yeah. Buffet. Fuck, I love brunch. Maybe a walk.

Some sort of exercise. And then a movie. Oh, sounds great. Yeah. My perfect Sunday and most Sundays are able to go this way. I get up and have pancakes watching Insiders, which is a weekly political show on Sunday mornings, 9 a.m., followed by off-siders, which is a weekly panel show about sport. Eating pancakes, banana on top. Yum, yum, yum. What a great start to the day. Then just sort of chilling,

maybe a walk, something like that sounds nice. If it's a perfect Sunday, probably the Saints have a win. in the afternoon, or if it's summertime outside of footy season, just a beer garden, just having a few drinks with mates and then coming home and, yeah, chilling out with a movie or something. That's my perfect Sunday. Love that. We have pretty similar taste, guys, because mine is definitely sleep in. Oh, yeah.

Big sleeping on Sunday. That's why it's brunch and not breakfast, you know? 11 a.m. Yeah, go out for brunch. Yes, please. Come home, chill for a bit, maybe go for a drive to find a beautiful pie. Oh, yeah, love going for a drive on a Sunday. Yeah, like a Sunday drive.

Pie drive, love it. Drive out into the country. Get a pie, get a scone. Oh, yeah, love going for a drive and getting some scones. Yeah. Obviously, cream first, then jam. Proper way. Yuck.

And then the only other thing I would say is long walk with the dog. Oh, yeah, okay. Take him to the park. Yeah. Let him up lead. He's going to play with the other dogs. I'm going to play with the other dogs by patting him. Dave, is that a euphemism?

Quite a torture. one about wanking. Taking a long walk with the dog, playing with a few other dogs. I've been going for walks. I'm not following anymore. Is this still about wanking? Because we're not allowed to do much at the moment.

Obviously, we've all been doing a little wanking. But also, because you can't go anywhere, you're only allowed to go for walks and stuff. We've been walking around the park across the road from our house. And the other day, I was like, yeah, I prefer walking in the park because, rather than walking around the block, like in the streets,

I think it's just too noisy. And my boyfriend was like, and because there's less dogs? Because the park is filled with dogs. Oh my gosh. I saw five border collies in one day. What? Five of them. Oh my God.

What a day. Love those puppets. On primates last week, we had this kind of conversation with me and Evan are like, we both have friends like you guys. Probably you two are, two of these friends are talking about. And we both don't really get it, but we're sort of just polite to our friends. We're like, oh, yeah, look at that dog. Look at that dog over there.

Yeah. Look at it walking along. Yeah. Yeah, it's great. Look at it. Look at it. But I like parks. Yeah.

I like trees. Yeah. I love little areas of urban areas that feel like you could be in the bush. Yes. Like a reserve. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Love that. Anyway. A little, if there's a little stream running through it. Oh, I walk along the river. Yeah. Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful.

I reckon we could all have a perfect Sunday together. It sounds like it. No, thank you. I'm in, Dave. And let's finish with. A Sunday. Yeah. Oh.

Can I? I would add that to my perfect Sunday. It would be a fantastic dessert at the end of it all. Yeah, good one. I love dessert. I'm keen. A Sunday, yes. Please.

That Sydney, I think about it all the time. That's Sydney date we had Dave. That was a beautiful day. After a live show or maybe the night. We were up in Sydney for a live show. We went out and we had Italian for dinner and then went to a dessert bar. With a walk in between. With a walk in between.

It's fantastic. One of my best ever dates. I was going to say, is it sad that it's also one of my best ever dates? Is that sad? Is that sad or is that super happy? because it makes me fuller joy. Anyway, thank you so much, Catherine Clough, and Jessica, Gillette, Sheetah, a couple of fantastic names.

That brings us to the other Patreon shoutouts and thank yous. These are on the, I believe, the, I always forget what level. The five buck level, you get a shout out. And Jess normally comes up with a little game to play. Yeah. What do we have? We had cocaine bear. Cocaine bear and a man falling to his death.

Okay. Or the company. We could talk about their crime family name or something. Or cocaine bear. Cocaine bear. It doesn't have to be a drug, but some sort of... Thing and some sort of animal. Yeah.

Okay. And that's their, what, spirit animal? Yes. Because mine's cocaine bear. I know. Well, maybe this is the bear that's set up, or the animal that's set up at their local weird mall. Yeah, yeah, yeah, great. Mine's actually craft beer wombat.

Yeah. What does beer wombat? Beer wombat. That's cute. Mine's pie dog. You are. a pie dog. He's a little pie dog.

Oh, look at that little pie dog. Oh, yes, look at that little pie dog. Yes. They're so great. Oh, man, life's not worth living with that. That's a great. This may be my favourite ever one you've come up with. That's fantastic.

Okay. All right. Well, I'm going to kick it off if that's all right with you. And I would love to thank from Minneapolis, Minnesota, from the Twin Cities. Well, one of the Twin Cities. Do you know that? I learned that recently. One of my good mates, Dan, is a Timberwolves fan.

and they were watching Boston versus Timberwolves in the basketball a month ago or something and they were wearing a thing that said twin cities on their jersey the singlet and apparently that's because they're in Minnesota there's two pretty big cities right next to each other and they're basically joined up is it St Paul the other one St Paul's the other one yes of course the geography nerd would know thought I'd come here with a new fact and Dave said yeah heard it

step aside dickhead so yeah Minneapolis Minnesota so go Timberwolves and it's It is J. Broman. Jay Broman. Jay Broman. Okay, I think Jay Broman is the... He is the chocolate.

Yep. Timberwolf, maybe. Wolf, chocolate, wolf. Chocolate, wolf. That's pretty good. That's a good one. I like that very much. Also, does the animal require,

do they have to eat whatever the thing is until they die? That's probably bad, isn't it? Does the wolf eat enough chocolate to die? Then it gets stuffed and put on display? No, let's not. focus on that side of it. No, well, I mean, they just eat. Yeah, they eat it and love it.

This is the kind of wolf that can definitely handle. Yeah, that's right. Chocolate wolf. It's dark enough for the wolf to be able to digest it. Yeah, loves it. I should say, these are listeners. I mentioned it last week. I did an audit.

This is what I've been doing in my lockdown period. I'm auditing all our shoutouts. And I found all these people that have fallen through the cracks. So Jay Broman has been waiting patiently for over two years. How can we keep that name, Jay Broman. Also waiting for over two years. Jacoby, Austin de Angel.

Oh, fantastic name. Jacoby. We love your work. We absolutely love your work. From Sacramento. California. Okay, Jacoby is a cake mouse. Cake mouse.

Oh, yes. I love when a food is bigger than the animal. Yeah, that's cute. That's how much it likes it. It's like, I'm going to tackle that. Thanks, Jacoby, our cake mouse. What an absolute legend. Dave, do you want to thank some people?

I would love to now, all the way from Fenton, Michigan, am I? Missouri? We feel like we've been here before. Every time. You keep talking and I'll look it up. I think Missouri's M.O. From Fenton, Madison Countman. Oh.

Madison Countman. Madison Catman. It is Michigan. Michigan. Michigan, of course. Fenton, Michigan. Madison Countman And I think that Madison

Or courtman Or courtman Is the Hot Chip Donkey The hot chip donkey Oh my god Hot chips

I love hot chippies Because when you guys are talking about your favorite foods I was like what the fuck is mine Hot chips Hot chips is number one I reckon I mean good hot chips are the best But even bad hot chips

Still fine It's never like terrible I mean peace is my favourite food Yeah I think pizza, I had pizza last night, fantastic. But the UK did prove to you that you can fuck up pizza. Oh, you can. That's true.

You can and they did. I feel like America took a few great Italian foods and improved them. Do you reckon? I reckon they, because the genuine Italian pizza is very bare and sparse with ingredients. I normally have just one or two apparently on top. Yeah, yeah. I like how the Americans have just loaded them up. See, I like pineapple on a pizza.

I don't mind a basic pizza, but I love one. with mushrooms, capsicum, olives. Onion. Onion. Pineapple. Cheese.

Cheese. Yeah. So, tomato base. Yum. I had that exact piece of yesterday, but I had avocado on it. What the fuck?

It was cooked. Love it. I don't like cooked avocado. I don't like cooked avocado. For me, it makes it even better. Where did you get that pizza from? That was a Domino special.

Fuck on. It was a good Friday. It was on a public holiday because we still have to work because it's a newsroom, technically so the news never stops. They provide lunch on public holidays and the only thing that was open was Domino's, which I was stoked about

because I loved it. You still go into the office? Yeah. Yeah, it'd be one of the few. Yeah, so they've made it so half the people if you can work at home, you are but unfortunately for me, I cannot. I've got an official letter from the ABC saying I'm an essential worker if I get pulled over by the police. That's the world

we're living in. Wow. I don't have that. I'm not. They could just play a task. tape, but they let me work. It's funny with audio stuff, I could definitely phone this in, literally. Yeah. Well, from 1 a.m to 6am, which is when I'm on, I don't need. Someone doesn't have to be there.

Don't say it, Jess. No, but I'm an essential worker. Hang on, good on you. You've got the paper. Thank you. Thanks to Madison Courtman, Madison Catman. We absolutely love your work over in Michigan. And sorry, it's taken a while to get to you.

It's also taken a while to get to, but we're still going to give him a massive shout out. Matthew Lauer or Lowa. Matthew. Yeah, not Matt Lauer. He's not a supporter of the show. Oh, yeah, he's not a good dude. But this is a good dude. Matthew Lauer, who has not said where you're from, Matthew,

but I presume you're listening in space. Yeah. Wow. In a way, aren't we all in space? Yes. I think it's true. Matt, do you have an idea for your fellow, Matt? Well, I think my other favorite,

I think, we've talked about this before, my favorite four cuisines. I said cuisines, weird there. Italian. Japanese. Mexican. The fourth one. And I reckon I'm going to go with burrito.

What about a burrito vol? Oh, burrito vol. Bowls is one of my favorite comedy animals. I know it's coming up. That's why I thought it would be good. I still don't really know what it is. It's a small English thing. Burrito vol.

Burrito vol. Sounds like burrito bowl. It's delicious. Yeah. Thank you, Matthew. Sorry, it's taken a while, but you mean the world to us. You are the wind beneath our wing. Your name might be lower, but in our estimations, you are.

hire. You're hired. You got the job. I would like to bring it home and thank some people. A local one from Preston here in Victoria. David Cunningham. I thought it was going to be me. David Cunningham.

Thank you so much for your support. That does impressing me much. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Okay. Okay, you go food, I'll go animal. Okay, a... A... curry.

Dingo. Oh, yum. Curry dingo. Good work. Yeah. I made a Thai green curry the other night. That's why I was thinking about it. Because Thai would be my third.

Yes, Thai's right. Italian, Mexican Thai. Okay. Thai's great. I like so many. Indian. Indian. Yum.

I'm into Indian. I don't know if there's a cuisine I dislike. But I haven't had them all yet. So thank you very much to David. And I would also love to thank another Dave. Oh, is it me this time? Dave,

Ballantine. Oh, Valentine. Happy Valentine's Day. Dave doesn't say where he's from either, but we can only assume space. Okay. Do you want to say the food? No, I'll say the food.

You say the animal. Okay, yep. Dave is, of course, the strawberry. Cat. Ooh, nice. We didn't have a cat. Strawberry cat. Yeah, a little strawberry cat.

That's great. Like when people go, I'm a strawberry blonde. Yes. You know, like a ginger cat, but it's a bit pink. I was a strawberry blonde as a kid, which is a lie, of course, a red head. It's a lie that a lot of redheads.

I know one of my parents wouldn't let it go. They're like, no, he's strawberry blonde. Like they were ashamed. I will not admit this. No, it's Auburn. No, it's not. No, it's fucking not. I believe it.

No, it's, um, no, my mom says I'm actually a strawberry blonde. It's light black. Thank you, Dave. Very light. Dave Valentine, the strawberry cat. Dave. Thanks to everyone that we mentioned. and just there, you're all great.

So many great ones there. Let me just double check if anyone is being inducted in the Triptitch Club. Dave, do you want to explain the Triptich Club briefly? Well, we've recently launched the TripTich Club, which is for people that have been supporting the show at the shout-out level for three consecutive years. Yeah, it's pretty a massive effort. Absolutely long-term supporters of ours, which we totally appreciate.

And usually, Jess, we supply some sort of order and or drink. Why the fuck? Do I forget this every time? I'm trying to give you time here. Thank you. And or cocktail. Yep. For example, we had, I think we had a prawn cocktail last week,

but just this week, the Triptitch Club, if there are any, what would they be nibbling on? Of course, there's an open bar as well. Well, yeah, is it open bar, but there's also a cocktail special this week. Oh, what are we talking? Espresso martinis. Oh, my God. Keep you going.

Yum, yum, yum. Yeah, delicious. I went to a wine bar, like, you know, when we're allowed to still, for a little celebration. I went up to the thing, and there was a cocktail menu. And I tried so hard to find one that wasn't the most. basic bitch, espresso martini, but I ended up sheepishly saying, do you mind if I get a, it was like a classic kind of joint?

I fucking own it now. Sometimes I'm like, I'll have a porn star martini, thanks. Oh, what's that mean? I don't remember, but they're pretty good. Me walking up there, I don't think they're expecting anything less. What do you want, espresso martini? We don't do VB, sorry, mate. Yeah, we got espresso martinis and mini pizzas. Oh, yeah.

Oh, fantastic. I love finger food. There are a couple of inductees in the trip. Club this week from Missouri City in Texas, it's Matt Lass, and from Whitehaven Cumbria in Great Britain, it's Scott Clark. Welcome.

Grab a mini pizza. Make yourself at home. If we can get you anything, let us know. And these are genuine Italian mini pizzas. Just like Mama used to make them. No avocado on them, sadly. Sadly no. But they are delicious. I do want to take back slightly what I say, I love both versions of the pizza.

I don't want to offend anyone from Italy. Of course, I'm one 18th, Swiss-Italian. Well, you're not. One-16th, one-eighth. You say tomato, you say tomato. I know, but do you want one-eighth of a pizza or do you want one-sixth of a pizza? It makes a big difference.

I'll take one-eighth, the amount that I am Swiss-Italian. One-eighth sucks. I'm actually, I think I'm one-quarter. You keep bumping it up, mate. You're trying to claim citizens. I'm fully Swiss-Italian. Among me, something Swiss, Roger Federer. Something Swiss.

Chocolate. Yeah, there you go. Chocolate. pizza, mama, yeah. Oh, that's fantastic. So, that brings us to the end of our Patreon section, the best part of our show. That's right. It brings us to the end of the episode as well.

Thank you so much for listening to us. Of course, many episodes for you to check out. Have only recently started listening. And if you want to support us on Patreon, patreon.com. Do go on pod. If you get on the, I think, DB Cooper level or the one above that, I forget what it's called, you can now get three bonus episodes a month. and we're excited for that.

I can't wait to watch the cameo appearance of Brendan Frey's. I think the first film might start either River or Joaquin Phoenix quite young. Cool. I looked into it. I had a bit of time. But yeah, thank you so much for listening. We'll be back next week with another episode. But until then, check us out on do go onpod.com or follow at dogo on pod for all the social media needs.

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