Tiger King - General Discussion

[Mr. Sparkle]

Am I wrong, or did that nut-job get 19% of the vote for governor of Oklahoma??? 

[Avaleigh]

On 3/28/2020 at 1:20 AM, Slovenly Muse said:

Did she murder her husband? I'm inclined to say no! It seems preposterous to me to say that Carole killing him and feeding him to the tigers is the simplest or most likely explanation. The man was involved in the illegal world of international exotic animal breeding/buying/selling, he flew a plane without a licence, and had Alzheimer's. She was the LEAST dangerous thing about his life. Not saying she definitely didn't do it, but I'd need some MUCH more compelling evidence to believe there is an argument to be made that she did it. Besides, it is very difficult for one person to kill a grown man, then move and dispose of a body, even with tigers conveniently nearby, all on her own, without leaving any evidence. I don't think the practicalities of this were considered at all in the series, which just seems intentionally misleading. It was all gossip, based on speculation and VERY thin circumstantial evidence. Did she take advantage of his disappearance to take charge of his estate, enrich herself, and cut off family members who might be entitled to a share? Sure looks like it! But that's a completely different issue from MURDER. I needed more than salacious gossip to make that idea seem legitimate.

Obviously I have no way of knowing whether or not Carole murdered her husband but based on what I saw in the documentary, I don't think it's crazy that people are suspicious about what really happened and think it's possible that she could have been involved. 

She had the means, she had the motive and post disappearance she didn't really seem that interested in finding out what became of her husband. No, there isn't a rock solid case against her (otherwise she would most likely have been charged) but I don't think it's wildly unfair that so many people came away from this docuseries giving Carole some serious side eye. 

I also don't think that it's a bad thing that more people are now questioning what happened regarding her husband's disappearance. At a minimum it seems like the investigation into her husband's disappearance could have been a bit more thorough. 

[lynxfx]

1 hour ago, Blakeston said:

It's not enough evidence for a criminal conviction, but I think it's enough evidence for the court of public opinion.

I agree. I don't think people realize how easy it actually is to off someone and get away with it when it isn't a crime of passion. When you have time to plan, acres of land, wild carnivorous animals and a husband that is already doing shady stuff off the books, it probably wouldn't take much to fake a disappearance. Without physical evidence found right away, cases go cold pretty quick.

David Spade has been scoring a bunch of interviews the past couple days.

They even bring out the hot nanny at the end.

 

John Finlay with his new teeth.

 

Edited March 30, 2020 by lynxfx

[Ohiopirate02]

1 hour ago, Growsonwalls said:

I thought Carole had the coldest affect when talking about her "late" husband. She made sure to mention in her passive aggressive way that he was a really shitty person and a shittier husband. 

Reading between the lines,  Don was a shitty person and a shitty husband.   He had checked out of his marriage to Carole since he found someone new and was in the process of hiding assets before the divorce.   Something tells me he did the same to his first wife.  She and their daughters were trying to paint him in a better life, but I can't help to think he treated them like shit for years before he disappeared.   

That being said, Carole is a piece of work.  Her story about how she and Don met makes no sense.  It reads to me that she is hiding whatever she did to manipulate Don into starting a relationship.   She was also inconsistent about her relationship with her family.   I know editing happens, but why would you set up a story where her parents disowning her for being raped as a teenager and then her dad is working at the rescue if a reunion didnt happen?  She barely knew her brother, but he miraculously comes to her rescue at 3am when her car breaks down.  I don't think she would use her cop brother and his partner to coverup the murder of Don, but it can help to set up an alibi.

[sainte-chapelle]

28 minutes ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

Reading between the lines,  Don was a shitty person and a shitty husband.   He had checked out of his marriage to Carole since he found someone new and was in the process of hiding assets before the divorce.   Something tells me he did the same to his first wife.  She and their daughters were trying to paint him in a better life, but I can't help to think he treated them like shit for years before he disappeared.   

That being said, Carole is a piece of work.  Her story about how she and Don met makes no sense.  It reads to me that she is hiding whatever she did to manipulate Don into starting a relationship.   She was also inconsistent about her relationship with her family.   I know editing happens, but why would you set up a story where her parents disowning her for being raped as a teenager and then her dad is working at the rescue if a reunion didnt happen?  She barely knew her brother, but he miraculously comes to her rescue at 3am when her car breaks down.  I don't think she would use her cop brother and his partner to coverup the murder of Don, but it can help to set up an alibi.

Carol and joe are both unreliable narrators, a lot of what they said, including Joe's car crash, was proven to be false.

[Growsonwalls]

24 minutes ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

Reading between the lines,  Don was a shitty person and a shitty husband.   He had checked out of his marriage to Carole since he found someone new and was in the process of hiding assets before the divorce.   Something tells me he did the same to his first wife.  She and their daughters were trying to paint him in a better life, but I can't help to think he treated them like shit for years before he disappeared.   

That being said, Carole is a piece of work.  Her story about how she and Don met makes no sense.  It reads to me that she is hiding whatever she did to manipulate Don into starting a relationship.   She was also inconsistent about her relationship with her family.   I know editing happens, but why would you set up a story where her parents disowning her for being raped as a teenager and then her dad is working at the rescue if a reunion didnt happen?  She barely knew her brother, but he miraculously comes to her rescue at 3am when her car breaks down.  I don't think she would use her cop brother and his partner to coverup the murder of Don, but it can help to set up an alibi.

Yeah, that was one thing that struck me: Carole had a sob story about running away from home but then her brother is a sheriff and her parents don't like Don and don't think he treats Carole right and her dad also works at the rescue? I get that families are complex but it made her an unreliable narrator. 

Another thing was Don apparently met Carole in 1981 but didn't marry her until years later. Her story makes it sound like he was a white knight in a pickup truck who rescued her from her Horrible Life but obviously there's way more to the story. 

I also can't believe that Carole snatched all that money from Don's daughters. That's just messed up. She's pretty awful.

Oddly the only person in the film who runs a zoo but doesn't seem totally awful is that Mario drug dealer guy. He seemed more like an eccentric but his zoo enclosures looked big and clean. 

[xaxat]

10 hours ago, Persnickety1 said:

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/lion-role-death-called-terrible-accident-article-1.1290690

A twenty four year old volunteer intern was allowed to work in a lion enclosure by herself. 

 

[SailorGirl]

I don't think Carole fed her first husband to the lions -- she made a comment along the lines of "if something happened to him in a plane over the gulf, we'd never find anything." The way she said it was so blaise -- she could have just as easily said, "the sky is blue." 

My take is she pushed him out of the plane over the Gulf on one of their jaunts to Costa Rica and either flew the plane herself the rest of the way or paid off whomever did fly the plane and that person is living large in Costa Rica right now. 

[Angry Moldovan]

On 3/27/2020 at 10:12 AM, Armchair Critic said:

Jeff Lowe and Allen Glover should be in jail too. 

That pesky, snitchy chucky doll

[Armchair Critic]

Just now, Angry Moldovan said:

That pesky, snitchy chucky doll

You know you got turned on by him on the jet ski  😬😂

[Angry Moldovan]

1 minute ago, Armchair Critic said:

You know you got turned on by him on the jet ski  😬😂

He had me at his lush ginger locks

[Angry Moldovan]

On 3/28/2020 at 6:32 PM, sainte-chapelle said:

I have watched a few documentaries about Tigers, Exotic is very lucky he didn't get his head torn off. He came close a couple of times, when they took him down and were dragging him around by the leg he became prey in their eyes.  Not to mention the poor animals were underfed. Recipe for disaster. The true victims in this story are the animals. I did feel badly for some of the zookeepers, most were homeless folks he picked up off the street. They felt they owed him. Don't even get me started on that other dudes teenage harem.

Did someone put something on his shoes to get the tigers attention?

[Cheezwiz]

9 hours ago, Stiggs said:

I’m in the Tampa Bay Area and this whole saga has played out in our news for years. Seeing it all pulled together with baffling details...wow. Just...good god. The only surprising thing is that ALL of them weren’t from Florida, lol.

@Stiggs LOL! It actually took a loooong while for me to clue in to the fact that only Carol's "sanctuary" was in Florida, and the others were located in different states. I just took it at face value they must all be in the sunshine state, because if ever anyone embodied the "Florida Man" stereotype, it's these goons!

3 hours ago, Superclam said:

Am I wrong, or did that nut-job get 19% of the vote for governor of Oklahoma??? 

Just think, the U.S. missed out on having him as President!

 

[buttersister]

I binged this shitshow yesterday. What a bunch of wild animals. The tigers and lion seemed nice, though.

 

 

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

10 hours ago, Superclam said:

Am I wrong, or did that nut-job get 19% of the vote for governor of Oklahoma??? 

Ok, to answer my own question, he came in third in the Libertarian primary, with a total of 644 votes. The Libertarian candidate went on to get less than 4% of the vote in the general election. 

Edited March 30, 2020 by Superclam

[sainte-chapelle]

8 hours ago, Angry Moldovan said:

Did someone put something on his shoes to get the tigers attention?

Cologne? Sardine oil? We will never know!

[Ohiopirate02]

8 hours ago, SailorGirl said:

I don't think Carole fed her first husband to the lions -- she made a comment along the lines of "if something happened to him in a plane over the gulf, we'd never find anything." The way she said it was so blaise -- she could have just as easily said, "the sky is blue." 

My take is she pushed him out of the plane over the Gulf on one of their jaunts to Costa Rica and either flew the plane herself the rest of the way or paid off whomever did fly the plane and that person is living large in Costa Rica right now. 

I like this scenario more than her killing Don and either feeding him to the animals or burying him in a septic tank.  Carole found a better hitman and paid him more.  I also think her timeline about meeting Howard is suspect.  She waits her 5 years to declare Don dead and then meets husband #2 (or #3) two months after that?  It sounds way too convenient. 

[Nordly Beaumont]

8 hours ago, Angry Moldovan said:

Did someone put something on his shoes to get the tigers attention?

In one of David Spade interviews, Jeff's wife (Leann?) said Joe gave the tigers old shoes for toys. Which makes sense, the tiger just wanted his toy. But, considering the source... who knows if that's true.

[raeb23]

9 hours ago, Growsonwalls said:

Oddly the only person in the film who runs a zoo but doesn't seem totally awful is that Mario drug dealer guy.

Idk...wasn't he the convicted murderer who allegedly trafficked drugs in live snakes?

[Enero]

10 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

Reading between the lines,  Don was a shitty person and a shitty husband.   He had checked out of his marriage to Carole since he found someone new and was in the process of hiding assets before the divorce.   Something tells me he did the same to his first wife.  She and their daughters were trying to paint him in a better life, but I can't help to think he treated them like shit for years before he disappeared.   

That being said, Carole is a piece of work.  Her story about how she and Don met makes no sense.  It reads to me that she is hiding whatever she did to manipulate Don into starting a relationship.   

I don't think she manipulated Don into anything. As you stated he seemed like a shitty person, based on what was said about him in the documentary. I think a couple of people even admitted that he was a womanizer. He likely was a serial cheater who was always involved with more than one woman. For the record, I too, do not buy her story of  him seeing her walking down the street and suddenly deciding to stop and ask her to ride with him because he needed to "talk to someone". When I heard that story, my first thought was, married or not, Carol was prostituting and that's how she met Don. Or they met at a club where she was stripping. 

She claimed she left home at 15 after being raped by three men, because her family were Christian and thought the rapes were her fault.  I understand the supposed attacks happened years earlier, but she didn't seem traumatized by it at all, and mentioned it very casually. 

My question was, where did she go and do before meeting and marrying her first husband? I believe it was stated that she didn't marry him until she was 18-19. Also, how did she reconcile with her family? Or was that whole story about her being raped and leaving home a lie? There's no way to know for sure because of the inconsistencies in her stories. 

10 hours ago, SailorGirl said:

I don't think Carole fed her first husband to the lions -- she made a comment along the lines of "if something happened to him in a plane over the gulf, we'd never find anything." The way she said it was so blaise -- she could have just as easily said, "the sky is blue." 

My take is she pushed him out of the plane over the Gulf on one of their jaunts to Costa Rica and either flew the plane herself the rest of the way or paid off whomever did fly the plane and that person is living large in Costa Rica right now. 

Carol's reaction to her husband's death/disappearance was just odd. She couldn't have cared less that he'd disappeared. Even when he was finally declared dead, five years later, she didn't bother to have a memorial service for him. Regarding his death/disappearance, I believe it is an Occam's Razor situation. If she was involved with his disappearance/death, she likely did kill him on the property and bury him. The property was what? 40 acres or something? When they did an overhead shot of the property there even looked to be a lake on it. It'd be much simpler to kill him and bury him there, than to come up with an elaborate plan to pay someone to fly the plane (a plane he could apparently fly himself), take him out over the ocean and push him out of said plane.  If she killed him, she likely did it in a field somewhere on that property, then buried him out there.  It would be harder to find evidence on so many acres without a very thorough search. 

The speculation she mentioned about him being pushed out of plane over the ocean, could have been nothing more than a story to distract from what really happened.

 

 

Edited March 30, 2020 by Enero

[thejuicer]

15 minutes ago, Enero said:

For the record, I too, do not buy her story of  him seeing her walking down the street and suddenly deciding to stop and ask her to ride with him because he needed to "talk to someone". When I heard that story, my first thought was, married or not, Carol was prostituting and that's how she met Don. Or they met at a club where she was stripping. 

 

 

My mind went right to prostitution, too. She was quite the looker when she was younger I must say. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Doc Antle From "Tiger King" Was In Britney Spears' Iconic 2001 VMAs Performance  Doc Antle From "Tiger King" Was In Britney Spears' Iconic 2001 VMAs Performance

Another picture of Britney, Doc, and the tiger here (and some people think that the woman sitting next to Britney in the other picture is Carole Baskin)

[Cotypubby]

11 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

That being said, Carole is a piece of work.  Her story about how she and Don met makes no sense.  It reads to me that she is hiding whatever she did to manipulate Don into starting a relationship.  

I read on another board from someone who knows the area that Carole twice said Don picked her up on Nebraska Ave, and Nebraska Ave is infamous as the place to go to for prostitution. I guess Carole left that bit out of her story. A prostitute marrying a multimillionaire john who then disappears in suspicious circumstances doesn’t exactly scream innocent. 

Edited March 30, 2020 by Cotypubby

[Ohiopirate02]

20 minutes ago, Cotypubby said:

I read on another board from someone who knows the area that Carole twice said Don picked her up on Nebraska Ave, and Nebraska Ave is infamous as the place to go to for prostitution. I guess Carole left that bit out of her story. A prostitute marrying a multimillionaire john who then disappears in suspicious circumstances doesn’t exactly scream innocent. 

She never mentions Nebraska Avenue, but the filmmakers are aware of it and what it connotes.  They kept on flashing to the Nebraska Ave street sign over the course of the episodes.  

[GiuliettaMasina]

I'm with those who aren't convinced Carole did it. I mean, I wouldn't be shocked if she did, but I'd need a lot more evidence. If she was a sex worker when they met (I think her origin story is fiction, too), that says a lot worse about Don than it does about her.

One thing I am convinced of is that Don was no different than Doc or Joe. Someone who preyed on vulnerable people and animals and got a kick out of flouting reasonable laws. And, like them, he not only had plenty of enemies, he also took plenty of stupid risks.

Edited March 30, 2020 by GiuliettaMasina

[Ohiopirate02]

5 minutes ago, GiuliettaMasina said:

I'm with those who aren't convinced Carole did it. I mean, I wouldn't be shocked if she did, but I'd need a lot more evidence. If she was a sex worker when they met (I think her origin story is fiction, too), that says a lot worse about Don than it does about her.

One thing I am convinced of is that Don was no different than Doc or Joe. Someone who preyed on women and animals and got a kick out of flouting reasonable laws. And, like them, he not only had plenty of enemies, he also took plenty of stupid risks.

I could watch a whole documentary about Don, his first family, Carole, and his business manager.  You can also throw in his lawyer.  How did Carole manage to craft a new will and power of attorney for Don at the same time he was hiding assets?  What happened to his old will?  Was there really only one copy of it?  Why did the business manager not secure the documents when Don disappeared?  Why did a judge accept the new will and power of attorney when Don was missing?  There are so many questions.  

[Blakeston]

3 hours ago, Superclam said:

Ok, to answer my own question, he came in third in the Libertarian primary, with a total of 644 votes. The Libertarian candidate went on to get less than 4% of the vote in the general election. 

The documentary really should have been a lot clearer about that being the primary and not the general election.

20 minutes ago, GiuliettaMasina said:

I'm with those who aren't convinced Carole did it. I mean, I wouldn't be shocked if she did, but I'd need a lot more evidence. If she was a sex worker when they met (I think her origin story is fiction, too), that says a lot worse about Don than it does about her.

If Carole was a teenage sex worker, that doesn't make me think less of her at all. But her absurd "I was just walking down the street, and he needed someone to talk to" story says a lot about how little she can be trusted.

[druzy]

The Hillsborough Sheriff wants to know what happened to Don

Edited March 30, 2020 by druzy

[druzy]

 

[GiuliettaMasina]

8 minutes ago, Blakeston said:

If Carole was a teenage sex worker, that doesn't make me think less of her at all. But her absurd "I was just walking down the street, and he needed someone to talk to" story says a lot about how little she can be trusted.

See, I read that more as the line HE fed her. Seems straight out of a manipulator's handbook. 

Now, does Carole (still) believe in this so-called "meet-cute"?

I'm with you on no. But, she may have at some point, and I don't fault her her lie on this point. On other points, though...

[Scarlett45]

1 hour ago, thejuicer said:

My mind went right to prostitution, too. She was quite the looker when she was younger I must say. 

I have no doubt Carole was a sex worker and that’s how she met Don. I don’t judge her for that, she was young, uneducated and her first husband was a jerk. Also there’s nothing wrong with sex work IMO. I can also believed that she was raped as a young girl and her parents kicked her out, and perhaps reconciled with her after she got with Don who had money. Tragically young girls are raped every day. Carole was likely Don’s mistress for several years and that’s how she helped support her son until he left his wife and married her. 
 

All that being said I also believe it’s possible she killed Don. After her years of poverty and sex work she had a GOOD LIFE with Don. I don’t think she cared about his cheating but when he started talking about disinheriting her and taking away her nice life she wasn’t going to stand for that. He had to go. Of course thinking something is possible does NOT mean it actually happened or there’s enough evidence to pursue the matter legally. 
 

 

[Blakeston]

34 minutes ago, GiuliettaMasina said:

See, I read that more as the line HE fed her. Seems straight out of a manipulator's handbook. 

When you pick up a woman in the middle of the night on Nebraska Ave., your "line" is probably something more like, "How much for a blowjob?"

I think it's just easier for her to say that she wasn't hooking, and it was just a chance encounter.

[GiuliettaMasina]

7 minutes ago, Blakeston said:

When you pick up a woman in the middle of the night on Nebraska Ave., your "line" is probably something more like, "How much for a blowjob?"

I think it's just easier for her to say that she wasn't hooking, and it was just a chance encounter.

That story was real specific, which is why I give it some credence. Either way, given the way most people view sex work, I don't blame her for this lie.

[Scarlett45]

1 hour ago, GiuliettaMasina said:

See, I read that more as the line HE fed her. Seems straight out of a manipulator's handbook. 

Yeah that was a line that Don fed to Carol.  She was clear they went to the hotel room afterwards. He probably saw this young BEAUTIFUL teen girl walking down the street, in a poorer side of town and figured she was easy pickings for his manipulation and ego. 
 

 She got in his car cause she needed the money. 

[Growsonwalls]

I don't blame Carole for being a teenage hookup/prostitute when she met Don. I don't blame her for souring on the marriage as everyone seems to have agreed -- he was an ass. What I do object to was how she took over as POA and then cut Don's daughters out of his inheritance. That's some coldblooded shit right there, and she doesn't seem to have any guilt about it. 

[Stiggs]

On 3/29/2020 at 6:23 PM, raeb23 said:

I agree. It makes for compelling tv but there isn't any real evidence tying her to murder. I could believe that she tampered with his will though. 

I read her (very long) post on her the big cat website where she went into detail, refuting everything: https://bigcatrescue.org/refuting-netflix-tiger-king/ 

My thing with all of her ramblings is...if she is telling the truth, the lack of responsibility she takes for her own life choices is astounding, lol. I mean, I don't know, maybe I'm close-minded, but if my husband was lending money to the mafia of literally any country/island, I might reevaluate whether or not I should stay Mrs. Shadypants. If her explanation of all of that stuff shows she's not a murderer, it unfortunately shows that she is an even bigger dumpster fire than I thought. And being a Florida resident, my society baseline is dumpster fire. When she said she had no friends, I was like, yeah, you are fucking exhausting, woman. Listening to your sociopathic explanations of literally everything takes a lot of energy. I would imagine meeting Carole for lunch usually winds up in someone filing some sort of report. Also, I want to burn her wardrobe. Not hurt anyone or anything - just those god-awful clothes. I love Mrs. Roper and even she would say ENOUGH. 

I wanted to feel sorry for Joe Exotic's mom, but she seems like a scumbag and she begat him, so...

Joe Exotic is having the time of his life right now. When this thing fades into the ether in a week or two (or longer cuz, well, quarantine time), he's not gonna get it. He's dumb enough to think that millions of people pointing and laughing at him is awesome. I sincerely hope they DON'T make a movie out of this - not only could it NEVER hold up the source material, these pieces of shit don’t deserve to be the next "I, Tonya," (which I watched and loved, but still). The way this piece of trash treated those beautiful animals should reserve his place in hell for a billion eternities. I hope he dies in jail. (at an old age - I'm not wishing he get murdered and fed to the big cats, tho that would be appropriate)

Edited April 4, 2020 by Stiggs

[biakbiak]

Because there is literally nothing that is too weird to be connected to this story, the alligators that were killed in the fire that took out the video studio had been owned by Michael Jackson.

[Blakeston]

50 minutes ago, Scarlett45 said:

Yeah that was a line that Don fed to Carol.  She was clear they went to the hotel room afterwards. He probably saw this young BEAUTIFUL teen girl walking down the street, in a poorer side of town and figured she was easy pickings for his manipulation and ego. 
 

 She got in his car cause she needed the money. 

If a man pulls up to a woman standing on a street that's notorious for hookers, in the middle of the night, and he uses a line like that, it's probably because he's afraid it might be a sting, and he doesn't want to say anything incriminating.

[Ohiopirate02]

20 minutes ago, Stiggs said:

I read her (very long) post on her the big cat website where she went into detail, refuting everything: https://bigcatrescue.org/refuting-netflix-tiger-king/ 

My thing with all of her ramblings is...if she is telling the truth, the lack of responsibility she takes for her own life choices is astounding, lol. I mean, I don't know, maybe I'm close-minded, but if my husband was lending money to the mafia of literally any country/island, I might reevaluate whether or not I should stay Mrs. Shadypants. If her explanation of all of that stuff shows she's not a murderer, it unfortunately shows that she is an even bigger dumpster fire than I thought. And being a Florida resident, my society baseline is dumpster fire. When she said she had no friends, I was like, yeah, you are fucking exhausting, woman. Listening to your sociopathic explanations of literally everything takes a lot of energy. I would imagine meeting Carole for lunch usually winds up in someone filing some sort of report. Also, I want to burn her wardrobe. Not hurt anyone or anything - just those god-awful clothes. I love Mrs. Roper and even she would say ENOUGH. 

I wanted to feel sorry for Joe Exotic's mom, but she seems like a scumbag and she begat him, so...

Joe Exotic is having the time of his life right now. When this thing fades into the ether in a week or two (or longer cuz, well, quarantine time), he's not gonna get it. He's dumb enough to think that millions of people pointing and laughing at him is awesome. I sincerely hope they DON'T make a movie out of this - not only could it NEVER hold up the source material, these pieces of shit doesn't deserve to be the next "I, Tonya," (which I watched and loved, but still). The way this piece of trash treated those beautiful animals should reserve his place in hell for a billion eternities. I hope he dies in jail. (at an old age - I'm not wishing he get murdered and fed to the big cats, tho that would be appropriate)

She should have stopped before getting to Don.  Many of the points about the difference between her facility and Joe (and Doc Antle) need to be said.  Just stick to the facts and take the high road.  

[Scarlett45]

24 minutes ago, Blakeston said:

If a man pulls up to a woman standing on a street that's notorious for hookers, in the middle of the night, and he uses a line like that, it's probably because he's afraid it might be a sting, and he doesn't want to say anything incriminating.

Yup I agree. 

[Growsonwalls]

I just read that blog post. Wow Carole still hates Don. The hostility that seeps through every sentence about him is shocking. Like this:

Quote

One day at the bank he overheard a bank officer say he had a $20,000 loan in default he would be glad to sell for $2000. He got the information and, because he could not read beyond a first-grade level, asked me to look into it. In brief, we bought the loan, foreclosed, and sold the property for a substantial profit. That is what got us into the real estate business. We started buying defaulted loans from banks and going to tax deed sales. This was before this became a popular business. There were few people doing it. With me doing the research, negotiations and title clearing on the properties we built this to a portfolio of properties to rent or resell that was worth around $5 million dollars at the time of his disappearance.

I actually wouldn't be surprised if Don was an abusive asshole and she bumped him off the way many wives who have had enough do. My issue with Carole is that she wants to be seen as The Bestest Person in the World. But in that blog post she literally doesn't have a nice word to say about anyone. That's very telling.

[Guest]

30 minutes ago, Growsonwalls said:

With me doing the research, negotiations and title clearing on the properties we built this to a portfolio of properties to rent or resell that was worth around $5 million dollars at the time of his disappearance.

Oh, Carole .... 

As far as Jeff, the skid-row Bret Michaels, I really hope a better lawyer than the one Joe had at trial starts appealing the shit out of Joe's conviction. While I think Joe should have 100% been convicted on the animal abuse charges, the murder for hire "plot" was clearly something skid-row Bret Michaels and his human-cigarette friend cooked up to get Joe out of that zoo. I'm sorry that cameras weren't in the courtroom for that trial.

[OllieSocks]

2 hours ago, Stiggs said:

I would imagine meeting Carole for lunch usually winds up in someone filing some sort of report.

So this had me cackling. Both in relation to Carole as well as someone I know IRL who also runs a (small) cat rescue and is also batshit crazy. My acquaintance, as far as I know, doesn’t have any bodies in her past but otherwise they are eerily similar. 

[jabinlbc]

On ‎3‎/‎28‎/‎2020 at 8:56 PM, Growsonwalls said:

With that being said I don't see how Carole's Wild Cat Sanctuary treats its big cats better than Joe Exotic;s zoo. Both look like sad, small, cramped cage roadside zoos to me. I guess Carole doesn't breed her big cats which makes her better. But these poor tigers deserve so much better.

I will preface this comment by saying I think Carole Baskin is totally crazy, clearly takes advantage of her volunteers, has a questionable past, and may very well have had something to do with her husband’s disappearance/death.  However, Big Cat Rescue is actually a very good animal sanctuary, and takes in big cats who have been in captivity in circuses and roadside zoos, or were "pets" that people could no longer handle.  Once they have been in captivity and can't go back to the wild, they really have nowhere else to go.

I have actually been there once, and their enclosures are quite spacious and well kept, and the volunteers do seem happy to be there.  Also, they do not do any breeding, and as there are no cubs, there is no cub petting or other human contact/interaction with the cats.  Their tours are really quite educational.  They also have a whole separate building with a kitten nursery and cat adoptions!.  Obviously it would be better if these cats were in the wild, but sadly that is not possible...

[lynxfx]

 

[Growsonwalls]

This is Exotic's instagram page. It's about as whacked out as you'd expect.

https://www.instagram.com/joe_exotic/

I love this post:

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

I should NOT have stuck my nose into that rabbit hole. 😳

[HunterHunted]

2 hours ago, Giant Misfit said:

As far as Jeff, the skid-row Bret Michaels, I really hope a better lawyer than the one Joe had at trial starts appealing the shit out of Joe's conviction. While I think Joe should have 100% been convicted on the animal abuse charges, the murder for hire "plot" was clearly something skid-row Bret Michaels and his human-cigarette friend cooked up to get Joe out of that zoo. I'm sorry that cameras weren't in the courtroom for that trial.

You really need to read through the transcripts of the recordings. Joe was an active participant in that conspiracy.

https://news.avclub.com/pulitzer-worthy-journalist-answers-all-our-tiger-king-b-1842479769/

https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/joe-exotic-a-dark-journey-into-the-world-of-a-man-gone-wild/

Joe is a massive pos.

[AheadofStraight]

For those into podcasts, I don't think I've seen it mentioned that Wondery has one out called Joe Exotic: Tiger King, which seems to be a separate production from the Netflix series, came out last fall and is what the future movie is based upon. (If it was posted, my swiss cheese memory forgot, sorry!)  https://wondery.com/shows/joe-exotic/  Article with the podcast host: https://uproxx.com/entertainment/joe-exotic-podcast-interview-host-robert-moor/

Edited March 30, 2020 by AheadofStraight
added URL

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, HunterHunted said:

You really need to read through the transcripts of the recordings. Joe was an active participant in that conspiracy.

Thanks! I'm not quite caught up on all the supplemental reading required post-viewing.

I still think it's possible that neither Jeff nor his creepster pal had any intention of killing Carole -- they just entrapped Joe into their phony scheme so they could turn him into the feds. It's possible! 

10 minutes ago, HunterHunted said:

Joe is a massive pos.

I hope I didn't leave anyone with the impression that Joe wasn't. He is. 

As I combed through that linked Twitter thread, this one tweet about Carole (#12) caught my eye: