Tiger King is a 2020 American true crime docuseries about the life of zookeeper and convicted felon Joe Exotic. It was released on Netflix on March 20, 2020. The series focuses on the small but deeply interconnected society of big cat conservationists such as Carole Baskin, owner of Big Cat Rescue, and collectors such as Exotic, whom Baskin accused of abusing and exploiting wild animals.
Episode 6: The noble thing to do
Grady County Jail, Oklahoma, 2019. Joe says that he was asked to bail Jeff out of jail twice. The first time was when he beat up and strangled his first wife, Kathy Lowe. Joe says it’s because Jeff was showing off his mistress at that time, Lauren, and she confronted him and he got violent with her. The second time was in Vegas. They caught his sneaking cubs in the hotels. Jeff said that while he was living in Vegas he and Lauren had cats and animal control heard about it and stormed the place like they were El Chapo. The animals were seized along with multiple weapons. John Reinke said that when Jeff came back from Vegas that’s when the shit hit the fan. It all went to hell. Jeff Lowe was told by the judge that he needed to surrender any animals that were confiscated and stay out of trouble, and if he didn’t then he’d go to jail for 179 days.
Jeff said that when he and Lauren came back from Vegas, Joe was locking them out of bank accounts. He said that they snuck back and went to the bank and asked for the past year’s bank statements. A teller at the bank told him that Joe was being investigated by the Feds, and that’s all she knew. Jeff said that while Joe was running for governor and doing his political thing they found that he had forged his name on cashed checks equaling up to $88,000 in misappropriated spending. He paid for his entire campaign with the park’s money, and Jeff was P-I-S-E-D about it. Apparently that’s illegal.
Jeff told Joe that he’s already being investigated for something else, and when the shit hits the fan, he doesn’t need another felony. So Joe offers to move. And Jeff tells him to leave. Jeff said that right before he left, Joe took all the records and burned them, because he didn’t want them to prove the embezzlement. Joshua Dial says that he came into the office, distraught, tears in his eyes. And said, “wipe all the computers. Get outta here. I don’t know what’s about to happen, but Jeff Lowe’s taken the park from me.” John Reinke said that right before he was fixing to leave you could tell that he was ready to bolt. He was gathering up anything he could get his hands on to sell, but he had gotten very paranoid.
Joe got a semi truck and grabbed animals in the middle of the night. He had shipped all the “money tigers” out that were worth 3-4 thousand dollars apiece. Marsha David, a GW employee said that she helped transfer a bunch of animals, and she took two baby tigers to California, $5,000 was exchanged in Branson, Missouri. She said they thought they were helping Joe out. They didn’t know everything that was going on. Joe had just told them that Jeff was taking everything away from him.
Jeff banned Joe from returning to the park. Jeff said that he told Joe if he showed back up in the park he’d shoot him in the head. Joe went on the run. All we know about Joe’s location is it’s an undisclosed location in Southern Oklahoma. Joe said that he knows things were bad and mistakes were made, but he decided to just walk away. That the cats were his responsibility because he bred and brought them into the world. Dillon Passage, Joe’s husband is with him. And Joe says that they can’t track him, that they got new numbers, new phones. Karma recording of Joe talking about how upset he is. And the director asks him about Carole. Then Joe gets up and throws up. He’s super distraught.
Jeff said that Joe was telling people that Jeff had a hit on him, and that’s why he needed to leave the park. But Jeff said, “Why does an innocent guy buy a burner phone?” They tried to narrow down where he was but couldn’t. James Garretson said that Joe was saying that Jeff was taking the zoo but Jeff already owned the zoo. It was in his name, but Joe wanted to be the owner of the zoo still. Joe believed that Jeff and the people at the zoo were dangerous and after him. The employees at the zoo were told to tell customers that Joe retired. They weren’t allowed to tell them what happened. The zoo completely changed the image and got rid of anything that had Joe’s picture on it.
Josh Dial said that Jeff and Lauren got everyone together for a business meeting and said, “Look, Joe Exotic is going down.” He said he was so worried about Joe and what he had gotten himself into. John Reinke then says that Joe used money from the zoo, running for president and governor. Then, he plays audio of Joe talking about killing Carole. He says that he doesn’t know for a fact, but he suspects that’s why Joe was worried about the Feds. John Reinke said that they all said that they wished she were dead, but they never talked about details or in seriousness. John Findlay talked about the fact that they all heard him say he wanted to kill her, but they took it as a joke, Saff said the same thing.
Marc Thompson, Joe’s security guard said that Joe said to him, “Hey, I hear you can take care of a problem for me in Florida.” He asked what problem that would be and he said Carole Baskin. Marc said absolutely not. John Reinke said that half the time with Joe you couldn’t tell if he was serious or not, and that he worked with criminals. Jeff Lowe is a felon, Allan, Jeff’s right hand man is a felon. James Garretson is a felon, and Reinke said that he sold him a stolen hummer. The director, Eric Goode goes in with a hidden camera and asks James Garretson if Joe tried to get someone to kill Carole, and he said he had been trying to for years.
Garrelston said that when Jeff came around everyone thought that he was a multimillionaire, and they were both trying to get her whacked. He said that he was there with them when they were discussing it. Jeff brings up a time when Carole was riding her bike and Joe said, “Look at this bitch. She rides the entire bike trail and there’s nobody around. That’s where you gotta get her.” James Garretson picks the story up there and says that Jeff googled it and found the bike path and said, “That’s where you need to sit and shoot her when she’s coming.” He said that Jeff knew more about the schematics than anything. Jeff said the only way he knew was, because he was the only one smart enough to bring it up on Google Earth and show it to Travis. Joe said that he was minding his own business at his computer I guess when this was going on. He said it was all Jeff Lowe.
Allen Glover said that Joe brought up wondering if he knew anyone who could kill Carole often. But he said he just brushed it off as bullshit. He said one day that Joe brought him a crossbow in the office and said that Allen could use that on Carole and no one would know he did it. And Allen said that that was the dumbest idea ever. That he’s not gonna just go around Florida with a crossbow. Allen said that he told Joe that he would cut Carole’s head off and Joe was all into that. He asked if Joe wanted him to bring it back and Joe said, “Get rid of it in the swamp.”
Joe then puts a picture of Carole’s property (like a bird’s eye view) on Facebook with the caption, “Finally found where the bitch lives.” Jeff said, “What are you, stupid?” But he says, “Truth be told, the animal community would be better off if Carole was dead.” But he said that it started to concern him when he realized that Joe had become a complete liability. The bitch’s head in a jar. Then Jeff said he wanted to get together and talk to James Garretson. They went to meet at Applebee’s, and I hope to god they had a reservation. He told James that he wanted to get rid of the zoo and get out of the headache. Jeff said tell Carole for half a million bucks he would hand her Joe on a platter with all the crimes he knew he committed.
James said he’d do it because Jeff offered him $100,000. Howard Baskin said that a call came in on Carole’s phone with a 405 area code. Then a text that said, “If you want information against Joe return the call.” They sent it to law enforcement. James Garretson got a call the next day and it was from Special agent Matt Brown, from the US fish and wildlife. The agent went to James Garretson’s shop and said that he was in a lot of trouble. He says he had no part in all of this and that he got in trouble for buying a lemur with bogus papers. He lawyered up and thought about it for a few weeks and asked himself, “do i want to get involved in this?” He decided it was the noble thing to do. Pause for laughter. He then signed up to be a confidential informant. He had to record all conversations he was present for between Joe and Jeff. Reinke said that the reason James is involved in this is to get himself out of trouble. James said that he told the FBI that he knew that Joe had picked Glover for the hit and that he was actually going to do it.
Howard Baskin said that he was sitting at his desk when the phone rang, and it was the FBI. They said that they had reason to believe that Joe tried to have Carole killed. Amanda Green, federal prosecutor, said that they reached out to Carole in around November of 2017. They had heard some recorded phone calls of James and Joe about having the murder for hire take place. James says that Allen was mean and nasty, and said that if anyone at the park ratted him out he’d kill every one of those motherfuckers. He said he was drinking a lot and doing a lot of cocaine. Allen said that the plan was to hide, hunt, and find this woman. And Joe put his trust in me to do it. Howard said that Carole stopped riding to and from work on her bike. They put in security cameras, they carried guns. Then Allen Glover disappears. They were trying to track Allen’s whereabouts, but he wasn’t responding. Eventually James made contact with Allen. Allen said that he was going back home and he was tired of this shit.
Amanda Green said that they had figured out that Allen was going to go back home to South Carolina and that the plot had fallen apart. Allen said, “Apparently, I chickened the fuck out and didn’t make it there. I started partying instead.” James said that he thought the plot stopped with Allen but the FBI wanted him to put in an undercover agent. They discussed details like buying burner phones and getting an unregistered pistol from a flea market, and that he would pay him. It started out as $5,000 up front and $5,000 after she was dead and Joe agreed and said, “Let me sell some tigers.” Joe was trying to negotiate and get the best deal. The government has no proof that Joe bought burner phones or the pistol, and that he didn’t give the agent any money. An arrest was never made months later.
Around this time Jeff is dealing with all the problems in Vegas. Jeff said that the conditions for his parole was to stay out of trouble for a year. And he said he was having one of his daily conversations with James, because they were close at the time. James told Jeff that he was working undercover with the FBI, and that they knew everyone involved. Jeff wondered why they hadn’t gone to him about it. James said they wanted to. Jeff said he was dying to talk to them. Reinke said that he promises that Jeff is trying to squash everything in Vegas by feeding them Joe. Jeff said that James told him that if Joe had given the undercover agent a $5 bill to kill Carole, it would’ve been over. Jeff said that the day before Allen left for Florida, Joe paid him to kill Carole.
James brought the FBI, and he told them everything. Jeff called Allen and asked for his side of the story and Allen asked for immunity. Jeff said he couldn’t give him that, but the closest thing to immunity you’re gonna get is if he went back and helped the FBI. Joe said that Allen is Jeff’s right hand man, and it doesn’t make sense. He also says that he wouldn’t pay a $3,000 crackhead to go kill Carole. That James and Jeff are con artist buddies and they record everything to blackmail you. Jeff said that when he started asking Joe where the money for the hitman was Joe packed up and left.
Amanda Green said that the government didn’t know that Allen had been given money by Joe to kill Carole as well as a phone with pictures of Carole. None of that was known until July of 2018. Then they indicted him. During the summer of 2018 Joe had gotten a home in Oklahoma and rapidly broken his lease and packed up and moved. His social media posts made him look like he was in Belize. James said that the pictures of Joe and Dillon looked like they were in Florida. That you could tell it was panhandle water. Amanda said that they did what is called pinging his cell phones. Like… Amanda… it’s cute you think we need an explanation on what pinging is. Joe was arrested in a parking lot.
Dillon talks about Joe’s letters and when asked what he’d say to Joe right then he said he’d just hug him because Joe’s a very affectionate person and he needs that right now. Carole released a video, and Joe said that he can’t wait to tell his side of the story in court because he was framed. That he knew EXACTLY what happened, 3 felons wanted his zoo.
Jeff said that he’s building a new zoo. He wanted to get away from the Joe Exotic bad persona. He asked James Garretson if he wanted to go in on it. James said that if it was him he’d put the zoo closer to Texas near the Winstar Casino. That’s exactly what Jeff did. Allen said that he’s so glad that he told the FBI everything that happened or else he would be in jail like Joe is. Then, we hear from Joe.
