Original subtitles

My name is Joe Exotic, and this is Thunder and Lightning!

Hi, I'm Carole Baskin, and I'm the founder and CEO of Big Cat Rescue.

Animal people are nuts, man, and I might be one of them people.

Tigers are so hot right now!

Let's talk about the Tiger King first.

Is that Joe Exotic? That's Joe Exotic?

Have you heard about this dude

who's in a battle with a lady who might've fed her ex-husband to tigers?

Hey, all you cool cats and kittens, it's Carole Baskin.

People cannot get enough of his feud with Carole Baskin.

Much like Joe, the effort to free him is flashy and over the top.

I've been in prison because of Carole Baskin, you bitch!

You have a prepaid call from...

Joe Exotic.

...an inmate at a federal prison.

I'm sitting on a trash can.

You're sitting on a trash can?

You know, it would be nice

if I could actually see me being famous out there.

But I mean, I've seen these same four walls for a year and a half now.

I would love to be able to watch the documentary.

Maybe later down the road, I can.

But, you know, with all of the guards,

they're singing my music videos, and...

you know, wanting autographs,

and saying they're gonna buy my underwear off the internet.

It's fun. You know, it's cool.

I would love to be able to walk out of here,

but I can't.

Selfies are 15.

All right.

Cool.

Everybody from the zoo is out there making money

using "Joe Exotic" and talking shit.

Joe is a lost, lonely guy that just went way too far.

Sorry, buddy, but you did what you did, and now you gotta serve your time for it.

I'm paying the price for every one of them people.

My big, handsome boy.

I'm done with it.

I will die making sure that they end up in prison.

Yeah. Welcome to my world of bullshit.

Gentlemen, start your engines!

Things have changed in Wynnewood.

With Joe now in prison,

this cast of characters are moving forward.

Dancing the pasodoble, it's Carole Baskin!

The Tiger King empire might be completely declawed.

Congress making a big push to ban backyard big cats.

They think taking my animals is gonna shut me up?

Watch how the fucking game is played.

I am trying to get the fuck out of here.

If I have to make a deal with the Devil, I will make a deal with the Devil.

Tiger King changed our lives overnight.

Anywhere we go, people know my name.

I think it makes sense to capitalize.

I thought, "You know what, how badass would it be to have a big 'TK'

right in the center of the park when you came in?"

Many are in a rush to get out of quarantine,

and this place first on their list of trips.

The virus not giving anyone here pause.

I bet you we've taken 20...

- 30,000 photographs with people. - It's incredible.

We saw huge crowds and lines of people.

Jeff seemed to be making money hand over fist.

Oh my...

Even though we knew that tigers could contract Covid-19.

PETA has submitted a lot of complaints

about conditions for animals at Jeff Lowe's facility.

PETA is conspiring to put us out of business

when we're not doing a thing wrong.

We've gotten lots of trespassers,

several death threats.

I'm sorry, who are you?

This is private property.

This is private. Who the fuck are y'all?

We're subcontractors...

- For who? - For a production.

- Uh, we're not at liberty to say. - Then you can get the fuck off.

Quit pointing this fucker at me!

So, we brought John in from Vegas.

Come on our property, and this is what you'll deal with.

There's an innocent man in prison because of Jeff Lowe.

It's insane. I gotta get the hell out of this jail.

Free Joe Exotic!

I absolutely love Joe, but...

you know, I don't want to be forever known as

just "Joe Exotic's husband." I want to be Dillon Passage.

Dillon turned into a little monster,

because he wants his five minutes of fame.

My name is Jeff Duncan. I'm Dillon's boss.

Ah! False.

He's my manager.

Okay, he's my boss.

We're about to have my merch drop.

This one, we have been told, is extremely effective,

and we can call it Tail Brightener.

Some people call it anal bleach.

I really thought this was for your face.

We've been instructed not to put it on our face. Don't put it on your face.

And three, two...

I'm John Reinke. When you have an accident, and it's serious...

- Ah, fuck. - No, I like that right there, strong.

Let's go again.

I think Joe might get out. I really do.

Everybody thinks Joe was done wrongly, so Joe needs to be out.

Hey, y'all, I just got a letter from the Tiger King.

I wrote him a few months ago. Didn't expect to get it back, but I did.

Joe Exotic needs you more now than ever.

He shouldn't be in jail, because he is innocent.

This is what he wanted, to be on every social media platform,

on every billboard,

to be the talk of the town.

Joe has been famous in his own head forever.

- Help! - Stole my...

I was incredibly disappointed by the public's reaction to Carole

versus the reaction to Joe.

Hi, my name's Jimmy...

The reaction to Joe was #FreeJoeExotic,

certain people treating him like some kind of folk hero

when he was convicted of trying to murder this woman.

But the negative stuff we saw was, "That bitch Carole Baskin."

When we find that bitch Carole Baskin, we're gonna put her head on a stick.

She was terrorized for so long by Joe.

Now, all these other people are coming after her.

This is the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.

I am part of a Facebook group for that thing that came out on Netflix.

Okay.

And there's threats of hundreds of people

bum-rushing the owner and hurting the owner.

The vast majority of the calls, and social posts, and emails

that I was getting were so hateful.

I couldn't leave my phone on because I couldn't sleep.

It was just constantly ringing.

Carole, it's an emergency.

I found an injured bobcat on the corner of...

I know you murdered your husband, you...

Free Joe Exotic! Free Joe Exotic!

You put a hero behind bars.

There's a clear, ridiculous, misogynistic double standard there.

There's not a shred of doubt in my mind

that that lady's husband is tiger sashimi right now.

I'm just saying.

The people were exposed to a great criminal injustice,

and that's the fact that Joe Exotic went to jail.

He's asking for a presidential pardon.

I've heard that.

Is that true, though? Or is that just someone coming up with it?

It sounds true.

It sounds like something Joe would ask for. Yeah.

It does.

If he has to go through another trial and everything,

we're talking about years and lots and lots of money.

The presidential pardon would just get him out.

I can guarantee you that a presidential pardon

has never been done like this in US history.

We're using the biggest bus on US soil.

We're putting on a show.

I reached out to Joe and explained to him that I had looked at his case,

and I felt like we had a good opportunity to blow holes all through it.

I think we can get him released.

I've assembled a team right now

that is gonna put the five finger death punch on this case.

Around the beginning of Covid, Joe was transferred to Fort Worth.

Eric called me and said he had a case for us to work on if I was interested.

He told me what it was, and I said, "I'm in, whatever it is. It's fun."

Our investigators have uncovered quite a bit of evidence that was unknown

at the time of trial and obviously affected the trial.

Joe got screwed.

But, look, notoriety is what we need for a pardon.

And has there ever been an inmate

that gets as much support, love, fan mail? No.

Ain't nothing wrong with being a trailer park Liberace, boy.

Look at this picture right here.

- Ah! - Right.

Like something that ought to be on a bottle of wine.

- Right? - Yes.

- Hello? - Hey, what are you doing?

Actually wrapping the Tiger King Cadillac, believe it or not.

Joe is gonna be so proud of this when I send him pictures of this.

He's gonna be so proud that it came out as good as it did.

Joe hired people to hunt and murder Carole,

but people feel for Joe because Jeff Lowe and James Garretson may have set him up.

The only reason the Tiger King got put in jail

is 'cause everyone put him in jail.

The fat guy they kept putting "businessman" under

- who owned a couple strip clubs. - He's an idiot, though.

- He's super cocky. I hate him. - Yeah.

I constantly get bad reviews on my jet ski business

because of the Tiger King show.

My reviews went from a five to a three. So I'm getting fucked with all the time.

When did you get this?

A couple weeks ago.

$14.97.

"She paid Jeff and James..." Me. "...to get my zoo. Bastards."

"Be my voice. Joe Exotic." The Tiger Queen.

Yeah, that guy's an animal-murdering piece of shit.

- Did you write him the letter? - We kinda all like him.

We all wrote him a letter. I mean, what's wrong with that?

- Perfect. - Joe's gonna hate you.

- That's okay. - He'll be like, "Fuck that piece of shit!"

Tell Joe the life-size Chucky came by to say hi.

I will definitely do that.

The public sees me as just the snitch, you know?

A lot of people don't know the facts.

And I've been talking to a lot of people like Mike Busey.

I'm kind of like a preacher that serves beer at church,

and I'm okay with strippers and other crazy stuff.

He has a big following.

He built the Sausage Castle, where it's like an adult playground.

He has a lot of people that support him.

This used to be a garage which is now our podcast studio.

We try to entertain the people who follow our podcast.

You, sir, are by farone of the most hated individuals in Tiger King,

but now, this is like your opportunity to become the hero of the piece.

You know, everybody turned on Joe. It wasn't just me.

Did Joe Exotic pay to have Carole Baskins killed?

I don't think so.

I think it was some kind of scheme that Jeff Lowe and Glover worked out,

and I mean, I'm pretty sure Jeff Lowe was behind it all.

James Garretson wanted to be a big shot,

and all of a sudden, he gets to be a government agent.

So to avoid prosecution on his own charges,

he starts dancing with the Devil.

If Joe Exotic is guilty of murder for hire,

Jeff Lowe should have been the first one prosecuted.

He drove the money.

He set up the meetings with the government.

Joe has no criminal history. As a matter of fact, he was the...

Youngest police chief in Texas.

The youngest police chief in Texas, so I think that speaks volumes.

Jeff Lowe, on the other hand, does have criminal history.

How could it be

that Jeff Lowe's criminal cases in Las Vegas are still pending?

Why were the firearm possession charges against him not filed in Las Vegas?

He's a felon.

If people knew who Joe was,

there would not be a single "Free Joe" shirt in America.

These people don't know Joe. He is a monster,

and if you go so deep, dark into who he is,

you'd be like, "Oh, wow!"

Joe screwed over a million people.

I don't understand why all these bullshit lawyers

ain't ever talked to the right people.

Everybody says, "What do you think about the Tiger King show?"

It's like, "Dude, I have never watched any of it."

When you live 20 years of it, you don't want to see it anymore.

Adios, Joe. I still got plenty of bullets.

Actually, I haven't seen Joe face to face in 20 years

and don't want to. Because it ain't going to be pretty.

Here's a picture of me, and there's Garold, and Tammy,

Pam, and Joe.

It didn't matter what he had to do to get people to look at him,

he would do it.

It was like he was a little con.

I was born in Garden City, Kansas

and stayed there on the farm until I was 13.

We always fought, because we always had to do the work,

and he got out of it all the time.

Joe used to walk around with a damn BB gun shooting stuff

and then wrap 'em up and doctor 'em back to life.

I used to pick up the medicine bottles

from Mom and Dad and everybody working the cattle,

and I would fill those with colored water.

And that was my veterinarian medicine.

He went through stages of being different people.

He'd dress up as a cowboy one day.

Then he'd dress up as a grandma.

And it was just like he was in a make-believe world.

But in reality, we worked from daylight to dark every day.

We were my dad's hired help.

And we took an ass whooping when we were on the farm.

My dad hit me with an irrigation shovel,

and he almost drowned my brother.

Every time my dad done something wrong, it was always our fault.

I've been in a broken family my whole life. It's all I know.

That's back when we used to chase coyotes.

We had a lot of great dogs. We took 'em all hunting.

And we used to have a black lab. She'd have puppies.

Dad put all them puppies in a burlap sack,

and throw them in a pond, and drowned them.

He did it because he knew it would mess us up.

I was raised in an abusive situation at home,

and I was gonna break that abusive cycle.

One of the guys I graduated high school with

was a cop in another town.

And I was like, "You know, this would be kind of cool."

So, I decided to become a police chief because I wanted to help people.

At the age of 19, I graduated the academy,

and I was the youngest cop in the state of Texas.

Save the world, you know? From drugs, and alcohol, and all that good shit.

This one here, it was Joe and then me.

That was an arrest that Joe and I made that night.

I remember he had a Trans Am, and that's what he patrolled in.

It was decked out with a light bar on top, and it had a green and a blue strobe.

I'll never forget that long as I live.

He looked like a Christmas tree coming down the road.

He had a magnet that said "police"

that he put on the side of his squad car.

He was very good-looking,

and he ended up asking me out on a date. So we started dating.

Joe and I dated... for quite a while.

I was at a point in my life where I had two children and no husband.

My ex-husband beat me on a regular basis.

Joe was the one that got the warrant for his arrest.

And he asked me to marry him on Christmas.

Joe introduced me to his family as his fiancée.

I was dating the fire chief's daughter

and lived with her for several years.

Never had sex one time.

It really made me feel special

that Joe was a gentleman and wanted to wait to have sex.

I will admit I'm naive, okay, so I guess...

When somebody says something like that, you really want to believe it.

He would always come home late,

and some nights, it was like he'd been drinking.

I found out later that he was stripping for the mayor and all her friends.

They would have big parties, and they paid him to be a stripper,

which, later in life, I find, you know, kind of hilarious,

the chief of police stripping for the mayor.

We had to raise money to buy a fire truck.

So, I stripped down to a G-string for money to buy a fire truck.

It was pretty funny.

But I never looked at the big picture with Joe.

I mean, everybody had been telling me that he was gay.

I didn't want to believe it, but he was.

I found out that he was going to gay bars.

♪ Pickin' up strangers ♪

♪ Let me tell you about the dangers... ♪

I was 19 when I came out. It was hard, real hard.

After I found out, him and I broke off the engagement.

But anytime he had problems,

he would turn to me to help him out, help him get through it.

He said he didn't want to be gay.

I couldn't tell you how many times he probably attempted suicide.

It made me depressed.

I spent nights on the phone to suicide hotlines.

Then I met Brian and cleaned up.

I met Brian when I was working security at The Roundup,

and he was a customer.

We dated for a while, and got married, and were together 16 years.

Brian and I got along great.

He was so good with the kids. We all spent time together.

I believe everybody in the family knew that Brian and Joe were a couple.

Brian was included in everything.

I called Brian "Uncle Brian" before I did Joe "Uncle Joe."

Joe didn't try to pretend to be anything that he wasn't,

but it cost him a lot.

Officers in surrounding towns would make fun of him.

There was a couple of times

that other officers didn't want to back us up when we needed help

for the simple fact they didn't like Joe, which wasn't right.

I was bullied most of my life being gay

and kicked to the side of society.

But I'm not ashamed, because you just have to live life to the fullest.

You shouldn't be afraid to fall in love.

♪ You were my first love The one that's gonna last ♪

♪ A million miles later... ♪

I know a lot of great people in Oklahoma. But guess what?

A gay cowboy doesn't fit in up there for a lot of reasons.

♪ You were my true love The one that's supposed to last ♪

♪ A million miles later ♪

♪ Still stranded in the past ♪

For his entire life, Joe is targeted,

just like how he was targeted on this case.

I have the text messages between James and Jeff

saying they want this queer in prison.

And then we have the text messages from Jeff to Dillon

saying he's gonna beat the fag out of Dillon.

There's a lot of folks that are homophobic that are related to this case,

and we can prove that in that pardon document.

The man who's the star of this show on Netflix called Tiger King,

he's asking you for a pardon, saying he was unfairly convicted.

Are you recommending a pardon?

- Uh, no, I'm not advocating anything. - I'll take a look.

Is that Joe Exotic? That's Joe Exotic?

Come on!

We are here in the nation's capital to deliver the presidential pardon request

to our surrogate at the White House.

Look, this is an ugly case.

You have suppressed evidence. You have a tainted jury.

You have collusion of law enforcement and prosecutors.

He's innocent. We can prove it. It's all right here.

And now it's official, folks, a petition for pardon.

More than 200 pages has been filed.

And we've seen with President Trump,

he has a history of granting clemency to celebrities

and those who are politically aligned with his views.

Carole, can I ask you a question?

Would it bug you if he got a presidential pardon?

Of course, because he's been trying for decades to get somebody to kill me,

so having him back out on the streets would be really frightening.

If anyone doesn't think he belongs in jail for the rest of his life for that,

they have my sympathy.

Because there is a bit of a groundswell in America, I believe,

of trying to get Donald Trump to pardon Joe Exotic...

Could we move on to something else?

Could we move on to something else?

So we got a call about a VIP luncheon with President Trump.

Team Tiger had a quick meeting.

We knew this would be a good opportunity.

It would put us in front of the president and the folks that surround him,

and to continue to bring awareness to the request that is on the desk.

Please sign the presidential pardon.

So we drove down last night,

talked to the Secret Service

and the folks that we've already interfaced with.

- I want to get a picture with you. - Okay, come on. Chase can take it.

- He can't take it. - I'll take it for you.

- Okay. - Absolutely.

But this morning, I got a text.

It starts with breaking news!

Breaking news. President Trump has tested positive for coronavirus.

The President and First Lady are positive for Covid-19.

Now in quarantine at the White House.

They were supposed to have a sit-down dinner with Don Jr.

And then his dad got admitted to the hospital, and that went to shit.

So, now we have to reschedule.

I'm a gambler.

When I feel something is in my favor, I push that.

I feel that we have a 100% chance

of gaining the presidential pardon for Joe.

Everything is in its place. We just need the signature.

I was, and kind of still am, a bit skeptical about Eric Love's position

being involved in Joe's case.

Eric Love is throwing all this money away

on somebody who he's never even personally met.

That's what's kind of sketchy to me.

At least Eric Love is trying to get Joe out of prison.

I need Dillon to help me.

It's heartbreaking for me, because I want to get him out of there,

but it's not like I can just walk up to the jail

and be like, "Let him out of there."

If it would be Dillon in jail,

Joe would be on the outside of this building with a pickaxe

trying to get a hole through the wall.

A lot of things have happened since Joe's been incarcerated.

I don't know how I would feel seeing Joe.

It's not easy, and it's extremely stressful,

and he's not okay with me when I'm going and hanging out with my friends.

What's up, birthday boy?

I didn't cause any of this.

I don't know if we're going to stay married forever.

What makes this so hard,

we had an argument the morning that I got arrested,

and I haven't seen him since.

You know, I've lost everything.

I lost my brother.

I lost Travis.

I lost Brian.

I've been through hell.

Brian was the glue of the family.

He always told Joe like it was.

Joe stayed in line with Brian.

But he originally got sick with lung cancer.

It progressed a little faster because Brian was HIV-positive.

I would go, "Grandma, does he really have to take all that medicine?"

Because, I mean, he just had baskets of medicine.

And she was like, "Yeah, that's what helps him."

And he just got so bad, it was like he was skin and bones.

Joe would rush him to the hospital for this, that, or the other.

And then the one time he took him to the hospital,

Brian died in the parking lot on the way home.

And he called me, and that was a gut-wrenching conversation.

Brian had just died in his arms.

Brian was his anchor.

Brian was his normal.

When Joe told me about it, he broke down and was crying.

That is what completely messed him up,

because before that, he wasn't the monster he is now.

The Joe in 2000, I never saw one shred of narcissism,

but after Brian passed away, Joe was a totally changed person.

And when I went back in 2014,

everything that I thought I knew about Joe was just...

gone.

- We're just doing like our usual? - Yep.

Finally sold the show. Got a record label deal.

- Got a book deal. - That sounds exciting.

- A book deal? - Yeah.

One of my music videos made the Top Country Music Videos this week.

Really?

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another fun episode

of A Day in My Life here on JoeExoticTV.com.

Joe is all about the cameras, and there was always a camera on him.

Come on, go through. Get me a stretcher!

Anything personal or anything tragedy, it became a video.

We had a chimp that died.

- We need a necropsy. - I want to bury her.

You want to bury her.

I wanted to find out what happened,

but he wouldn't let me do a necropsy.

Couldn't do it. Won't cut him up. Had to bury it right away.

♪ Say something, I'm giving up on you ♪

♪ Anywhere, I would've... ♪

Joe made a video burying it, like a funeral.

He put a Joe Exotic shirt on it and everything.

♪ Say something, I'm giving up on you ♪

Everything Joe did was for the attention.

This is the part I don't know what to do.

I don't know what the video will be doing, if you'll be showing something else.

♪ Oh, my Lord, I'm so confused ♪

Curl up on the rafter and let me look at God.

Straight up there.

God, man, the next money I have,

I'm buying that big screen TV so we've got a teleprompter.

He was an attention seeker.

He knows how to manipulate people, how to get 'em to do what he wants.

A lot of the bad stuff I've locked away because I don't want to focus on it.

Wherever Joe went, he left a wake of misery, pain, and suffering.

People like John Reinke, you know, he lost everything.

Saff. Saff lost his arm.

You know, I lost my mind. I lost my sanity.

When I took a step back

and kind of looked back at my experience on that park,

I know now that I wasn't doing what was best for those animals.

If Joe wanted to get rid of an animal, he would make sure that it got done.

Did anybody get that dart?

The evidence is unequivocal. The animals are the ultimate victims here.

But I do not believe that Joe Exotic deserves to be in jail for 22 years.

They didn't think they could get the murder-for-hire charges to stick,

so they stuck me with 18 animal charges

to make me look like this horrible animal murderer.

All the wildlife counts were added

because the murder-for-hire case was so weak.

You have a better chance of winning a sex offender case

than you do a cruelty-to-animals case,

and they were going to do whatever it took to convict him.

The only thing that concerns me right now is getting out of this jail

and showing everybody the truth.

President Trump, this is Joseph Maldonado-Passage.

The world knows me as Joe Exotic.

For the last over a decade, I have been harassed and chased by a woman

by the name of Carole Baskin,

which would be the same thing as a Nancy Pelosi for you.

My legal team can prove to you

the convictions that I got was unwarranted for anything that I've done wrong.

So I'm asking you please, as an American citizen, to sign my pardon.

The President's supporters flocked to the nation's capital

in Stop the Steal protests.

DC leaders preparing for pro-Trump supporters coming back

to protest the results of the election.

I've got liquor. We got cups. We got beer.

I brought everything but toenail clippers.

I'm glad.

Well, today, as you can see, we're taking the Exotic 1 to Washington DC.

We're asking for President Trump to please put the pen to the paper

to sign the pardon.

This is John Reinke. Everyone knows him from the Tiger King series.

Joe's gotta get out of there so we can right this wrong.

All we gotta do is be seen. Look at me. We're going to be seen.

We think today's gonna be a great day.

We look forward to heading to Washington DC.

All right, gentlemen. Fantastic. Anybody else?

I'm just loading in. I just want...

♪ Come fly with me, let's fly Let's fly away ♪

♪ If you can use some exotic booze ♪

♪ There's a bar in far Bombay... ♪

Today is the day American patriots start taking down names

and kicking ass!

So, hey, our main mission today is this big banner.

We're gonna hold it up, we're gonna get it out,

and it's gonna be great.

We have hundreds of thousands of people here.

These people are not going to take it any longer.

They're not going to take it any longer.

What are you guys out here for today?

So, I'm the leader of Team Tiger.

We're asking for an immediate signature

on the presidential pardon request that we've submitted.

And then late in the evening or early in the morning,

boom, these explosions of bullshit.

Why are you here? Why are you here?

- Why are you here? - I'm here for America! This is garbage!

- Okay. - This is trash!

- You are not in the right place. - We're in the right place.

Look around you. Do you see any other fucking Joe Exotic signs?

Do you see one? Even one?

- You guys are gutter sluts! - She's fantastic.

You don't belong here! Gutter sluts!

No Republican believes abusing tigers is okay.

Nobody wants you to pardon Joe Exotic. Nobody!

Let's go down the street.

We all think he's trash!

We're going to move down towards the street.

We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesn't happen.

You don't concede when there's theft involved.

As we leave Washington DC...

...we get an alert, and it looks like all hell's breaking loose.

They said after Mike Pence said he wasn't gonna object

to the states giving Biden their electoral votes,

it all went to shit.

Shots fired! Shots fired!

I'm sure people ain't happy.

I hope our banner got noticed.

Donald Trump chose not to pardon Joseph Maldonado-Passage.

His team was so confident he would walk away from prison,

a limo was waiting to whisk him away.

Who's gonna feel sorry for a guy

that's got a stretch fucking truck limousine outside?

I think Fran and Eric Love went a little overboard

with the plane, and the bus, and the limos, and all that bullshit.

I'm fed up with the whole mess, okay?

Why am I in here?

Who benefited from me being in prison?

Who benefited from having my mouth shut?

Carole Baskin.

I know a lot of people are gonna say,

"Joe's been stalking Carole all these years."

But this was about getting to the truth about Carole Baskin and Don Lewis.

Her husband, Don Lewis, has been missing since 1997.

Folks, remember the $10,000 reward we have up

for any information leading to the whereabouts of Don's body,

so we can finally put Carole where she belongs,

in the state penitentiary.

Why is she walking free?

And I'm the one in prison?

I'm looking for someone else

to start digging into Don Lewis' disappearance.

If you give a damn, it's time to speak up.

All right. So Joe was on to a lot of stuff.

Joe had a lot of information.

We cannot discount some of the things that he has said.

My name is Jack, but I go by Ripper.

I am a armchair detective, an internet sleuth.

I have no background in law.

I tell people I got my lawyer degree from Google.

I remember I sent a message to this friend,

"Have you seen Tiger King?"

She sent a message back, "Yes."

And I said, "Maybe we should start like a Facebook group for Don Lewis."

So for those of you out there that have information about this,

it's time to spill the beans.

Law enforcement normally do not like us.

They think we're stepping on their toes,

but this is a job that should have been done 23 years ago.

This is Easy Street,

and at the end of this street, past this locked gate is Big Cat Rescue.

Also at the end of this street,

a lot of questions about what happened to Don.

I've worked a number of cold cases.

I've investigated Klansmen, and I've investigated serial killers,

but the disappearance of Don Lewis just struck me as one

that really hadn't been investigated.

Please welcome Jerry Mitchell.

How many people have gone to jail for their crimes

because of the stories you've done?

Four.

- Four? - Yeah.

A lot of people are wondering what happened to Don Lewis.

The big train of thought is

Carole Baskin had something to do with her husband's disappearance.

There she is. That's Carole Baskin.

Now the unsolved case is garnering new interest from authorities.

The sheriff of Hillsborough County now talking

about the mysterious disappearance of Don Lewis.

This has spanned over the careers of a lot of sheriffs.

The leads have been exhausted,

but I hope someone will feel comfortable coming forward,

providing that missing piece

and helps us bring justice for Don Lewis' family.

Hey, what's up, everyone? It's Ripper here. I am in Tampa.

These twin lives of Don and Carole,

what do they look like?

I want to know these lives.

Because if I know these lives,

then you can find out what happened to Don.