Tiger King (2020) s01e06 Episode Script

GRADY COUNTY JAIL
OKLAHOMA, 2019
[Joe] I was asked to bail
Jeff out of jail two times.
The very first time was when he beat up
and strangled his first wife, Kathy Lowe.
She went to confront him
because he was being
Mr. Showoff with Lauren,
his mistress at that time.
But he got violent with her.
And then, the second time was in Vegas.
They caught him sneaking cubs
into the hotels and shit.
[Lowe] Lauren and I had leased a big home
in Las Vegas.
We had tigers in our house,
and it got me in trouble.
Animal control stormed the place
like we were El Chapo,
because I had two baby cats up there.
[reporter]
The animals weren't all that was taken.
Marshals impounded multiple
semi-automatic handguns and rifles.
[Joe] You know what?
I should've took that
as a very strong warning.
He is a predator.
A hardcore predator.
[snarling]
[Reinke] When Jeff Lowe came back
from getting in trouble in Vegas
is when all hell broke loose.
Ever since then,
it's been a Jeff Lowe world,
and that's when it all went to hell.
THE NOBLE THING TO DO
[judge]
Jeffrey Lowe, I am adjudicating you guilty
and I'm ordering that you surrender
any animals that were confiscated.
You will stay out of trouble.
That means no illegal activity.
If you do that, at the end of the year,
I will vacate the jail time.
If not, you will serve the 179 days.
Do you understand my order?
I do.
When Lauren and I came back
from Las Vegas,
Joe was locking me out of
the online bank accounts.
So we'd snuck back and went to the bank.
I wanted 12 months' worth
of bank statements
because he wasn't providing me
the statements.
I went up to my cashier.
She goes, "You all okay over there?"
I said, "Yeah, why?" She goes
"Hmm." She goes, "I'm thinking that Joe
was being investigated by somebody."
And I looked at Lauren and I said,
"By who?" And she goes,
"There was a federal warrant."
I said, "Really? Can you tell me
what it was about?"
She goes, "That's all I know.
I don't know any more."
So, the Feds were watching him.
You're gonna get me
in fucking trouble, Joe!
- And I came here to save your ass!
- How am I
You forged my name 20 fucking times
on cashed checks.
Just in that 12 months
while he was running
for the governor of Oklahoma,
we found, I think, 88,000-some dollars
in misappropriated spending.
You're gonna do whatever the fuck you want
without even asking me, and it's wrong!
You are a shitty fucking partner.
[Joe] So, I can put some of my money
I don't give a flying fuck!
You lost that when you fucked
with Carole Baskin.
That's not my fault!
It's your fault.
You can't funnel and embezzle money!
I came here to bail your ass out.
You would be fucking who knows where
without me,
and you even said it
before I went to Las Vegas.
You're not going to fuck me.
You're not gonna put me in trouble
and then treat me like shit. Asshole!
[Joe] I have everything covered, Jeff.
He'd spent $60,000 in campaign brochures
and printing and signs and t-shirts
and condoms with his picture on it.
[Lowe] It says campaign.
Paid by the Park.
That's illegal!
And it's my ass!
They already told me
you're being investigated
for something else,
but they wouldn't tell me what it is,
and when the shit hits the fan,
I don't need another felony.
[Joe] Let's take off. I'll move.
Move! Then do it,
and I'll run this park the right way.
[Finlay]
Jeff Lowe was getting downright ugly
right there in front of everybody else.
[Lowe]
Right before Joe got kicked off the park,
he took and burned all of the records
because he didn't want us to be able
to prove the embezzlement.
[Reinke] Shit, I think he burned laptops.
I think he burned transfer papers.
I'm sure Joe knew more
than what he was telling me.
I didn't have a clue where he was going,
what he was gonna do.
He comes in the office,
distraught, tears in his eyes.
Never seen this
except for when Travis killed himself.
Wipe all the computers, get outta here.
He said, "I don't know
what's about to happen,
but Jeff Lowe's taken the park from me."
[Reinke] The last two days, you could tell
he was fixing to leave, to bolt,
and he was trying to gather up anything
he could get ahold of to sell.
He really, really got paranoid,
like a little birdy had told him
something's wrong.
[Lowe] Joe had a truck come in here,
so he could pick up animals
in the middle of the night.
- [Joe] Okay. Here she comes, 'kay?
- Back up.
[Reinke]
He shipped all them money cats out
because they were all worth
three and four thousand dollars apiece,
and he shipped out quite a few.
- [Joe] My little gal. Good, good.
- Come on, girl.
We transported a bunch of
different animals.
I took two baby tigers to California.
There was $5,000 exchanged
in Branson, Missouri.
We thought we were helping Joe out.
I mean,
we didn't know everything going on.
We thought Jeff literally
was taking everything away from him.
[monkey chittering]
[Joe] You got six minutes.
- Six minutes before he
- [Joe] Three ccs.
I'm giving him five.
- [Joe] Keep him looking at you.
- [man] Come on, Bubba.
- Attaboy.
- Going right in his shoulder.
[snarls]
[tiger snarls]
I'm sorry.
That was the last day
that Joe was allowed in the park.
I told Joe, "You come on this property
again, I'll shoot you in the head."
[as Joe] "He's threatening to kill me.
If I come back, he's gonna kill me."
[regular voice]
You damn right. I would have killed him.
[Dial] Whatever Jeff Lowe told him
scared the living hell out of him.
Joe was gone. Just gone.
He won't tell anybody
where he's at, not even me,
and that's probably the last time
I will ever see Joe Exotic.
So this is goodbye ♪
And my last farewell ♪
To all of my fans ♪
You're my biggest thrill ♪
My biggest thrill ♪
[herd mooing]
[Joe] There's just some things
that I'd rather just be left unsaid.
Some mistakes were made
and some attitudes got out of hand.
Rather than argue
or be accused of stuff,
I just decided to walk away.
The cats were my responsibility,
no matter who owns that zoo.
'Cause I'm the one who bred him
and brought him into this world.
So I feel obligated that I need
to make sure that he's safe and secure.
DILLON PASSAGE
JOE'S HUSBAND
[Joe] Get up.
Get up, boy, and get some lunch.
It's lunch.
I'm glad to see him finally
in his final spot.
This is where they're gonna stay.
You know, there was just
There was a lot of threats thrown around,
and I just
would rather just get away.
Got new phones, got
They can't track me.
They can't do nothing.
There you go.
[coughs]
[interviewer] Joe, you don't seem like
your regular self.
Just 20 years of blood, sweat,
and tears, and every dime I had
- I am done. I'm done.
- You're done.
[interviewer] Who's the winner in this?
- Is it Carole? Is it PETA? Is it Jeff?
- Nobody.
- Who?
- In the long run,
it's gonna be the animal rights people
are gonna be the winners of this,
because they're gonna end up
with the property
because nobody can afford
the lawyer bills.
[interviewer] What about Carole?
I still think that she deserves
to sit in jail for killing her husband.
But I truly believe in karma.
And a few people got some karma coming.
[muffled whimper]
[man] You all right, bud?
You want some water?
[Lowe]
Joe was on the run, and he told everyone
that Jeff had a hit out on him,
and Jeff was gonna kill him,
and that's why he left the park.
You know, why does an innocent guy
buy a burner phone?
We tried to narrow down where he was,
but we could just never
pinpoint his location.
[Garretson]
You know, Joe cries victim,
that everybody's trying to take my zoo,
and everybody's trying to do this
and that.
Jeff Lowe already owned the zoo.
Joe just wanted to put it in
somebody's name,
and and continue to be the tiger queen,
I mean tiger king.
[chuckles]
[man] He thought he was more powerful
than anybody because he was Tiger King.
But that was just all in his head.
ALLEN GLOVER
HANDYMAN | G.W. ZOO
Among a bunch of other bad things.
[chuckles]
- [Joe] Yeah.
- [interviewer] Sorry. My phone cut out.
Listen, I just went to the zoo.
Yeah, they already called
and said you'd been there.
That's how fast word travels down here.
Um, I'm gonna
I don't want anybody getting Jeff
all riled up.
All right.
You don't understand
These people are dangerous.
[interviewer]
What is it? It's not obvious?
You're not gonna notice, huh? Okay.
Joe is the man who started this place
about 20 years ago.
And he has just recently retired.
Now we have new owners,
and they're awesome.
I was a little nervous about it,
I'll admit,
but they are awesome
and easygoing, so it's all good.
[David]
Customers would ask where Joe was.
Is he coming back?
"Oh, he retired"
is what the workers were told to say.
[Cowie] As soon as he was gone,
anything and everything that had his image
went on the burn pile.
Word on the street is that Joe left
to get his ass out of trouble.
[Dial] The day after Joe left,
Jeff and Lauren pulled together
the morning meeting
and they said,
"Look, Joe Exotic is going down."
[snarling]
[Dial] Instantly, I just have an icy cold
stabbing feeling going through my heart.
It was just "Christ Almighty,
what has Joe gotten into?"
[Reinke] Joe's MIA.
- Lot of rumors going around he
- [man 1] Wait, are you filming?
- You're getting sound?
- [man 2] Yup.
[Reinke] Somebody better be rolling.
Joe used money from the zoo,
running for president and governor.
Is Joe nervous about that?
I don't know. I mean
Only Joe knows the truth,
so he's either nervous about that
or he's nervous about
getting his ass kicked, I don't know.
[man] What are some of the rumors?
Supposedly, I guess he hired
he solicited somebody
to kill Carole Baskin.
I'm just saying this from hearsay
because I don't know for a fact.
I'm almost positive
that's why the Feds are sniffing around.
I mean, we've all said it.
"Somebody needs to kill the bitch."
I can't tell you how many times
everybody said it.
You know, nobody's ever just really said
how they're gonna kill 'em.
They just said,
"I wish somebody'd kill that bitch.
I wish the bitch was dead."
- You just heard it a lot.
- [man] From who?
From all I mean, from everybody.
I've even said it before.
I wish the bitch were dead.
[Finlay] There was times
that Joe would joke around about it,
about taking out Carole Baskin.
Joe had some pretty twisted ideas,
but I just took it as jokes.
[Saffery] Do I believe that Joe
hired someone to kill someone? No.
No, Joe doesn't have that in him, one bit.
But do I believe that
Joe had a conversation with someone
and said, "Man, I wish Carole was dead"?
Absolutely. He said it a hundred times.
[Thompson] One time I was in the park,
and Joe's talking to me.
He says, "Hey, I hear you can take care of
a problem for me in Florida."
I said, "What problem would that be?"
He said, "Carole Baskin."
I said, "No, I can't.
I can't and I won't."
Being around him,
and I was around him quite a bit,
you see sides of him.
When I do become psychotic,
that's my "going to Tampa" gun.
[Reinke] You really couldn't tell with Joe
if he was serious
or wasn't serious half the time.
[interviewer] Do you think Joe was acting
entirely alone?
[Thompson] Some people who were working
with Joe were criminals.
Jeff Lowe is a felon.
He's done numerous things.
I know he strangled his first wife
in the past.
Allen, Jeff Lowe's right-hand man,
he's a felon.
I don't know for a fact,
but James Garretson ought to be a felon.
Not only did he get in trouble
for pulling a gun on somebody,
this the same man
that sold me a stolen Hummer
and till this day,
I still think there's a case pending
in Garvin county over it.
They're just all crooked, you know?
There's a bunch of rats
in the neighborhood.
- [man] James. What's happening?
- What's going on?
Not much.
- How's business?
- It's not bad.
It's a grind like everything else.
Just grind, grind, grind.
I heard that Joe tried to hire someone
to kill Carole.
He's been trying to get somebody
to kill Carole for years, all right?
When Jeff came along
everybody thought Jeff was
this multi-millionaire
and had all this money Blah, blah.
And whenever Jeff got around,
Joe got a big head and
those two
were trying to get Carole whacked.
Why are you so convinced of that?
Because I was the only one there.
You were actually there?
Yeah.
The first time I met
and discussed the whole murder for hire,
we were sitting in the meeting.
Joe is in his little office back there.
Jeff Lowe is right here,
and they were talking about
the easiest way to kill Carole.
Hey, all you cool cats and kittens,
it's Carole from Big Cat Rescue and I
It was a day where she was riding
her bicycle down a bicycle path,
and she's riding like
the Wicked Witch of the West,
and Joe says, "Look at this bitch.
She rides this entire bike trail
and there's nobody around."
He says, "That's where you gotta hit her.
That's where I gotta get her.
Somebody take a shot from the bushes,
and get her right there."
And then Jeff Lowe goes
to Google Earth and
shows the bike path
right by Big Cat Rescue and stuff.
And he's like, "You can sit right here
and then shoot her while she's riding."
So Jeff Lowe knew more about
the schematics than anything.
That was because
I was the only one smart enough
to bring up the picture on Google Earth
and show it to Travis.
Travis says, "I can shoot her from there,
I can shoot her from there." Joe's like,
"You're not shooting her
because you're my husband
and you'll go to jail forever."
[Joe] I was back at my desk
minding my own business
because none of that's on my computer.
It's all Jeff Lowe,
but Jeff Lowe's had time
to remove that all from his computer now.
[Lowe] Joe talked about
killing this woman
if it wasn't a daily basis,
it was definitely every week.
He says, "Well, the bitch still lives
another day,"
and he says, "I'll find somebody."
He just wasn't shy about it.
[Glover] Well
Joe brought it up several times.
Did I know anybody
that could kill the lady?
I just put it off, as y'know, bullshit.
I came in the office one day,
and he's like,
"I got this crossbow.
You could use this on her nature trail,
wherever she walks.
You could shoot her with this,
nobody'd ever see you."
I'm like, "What the fuck?"
Okay, I can see me walking
around Florida with a fucking
camouflage suit on, okay.
But a fucking crossbow?
Gimme a break.
Allen Glover, he's an old time employee
of Jeff. Jeff knows him real well.
Supposedly since he has a teardrop tattoo,
he's killed somebody before.
Joe came to me one day.
Just out of the blue he says,
"You think Allen can kill somebody?"
I said, "Is he capable of it?"
I said, "Of course. Who's not?"
I said, "I'll cut her fucking head off
for ya if you want."
And he was all into that.
I said, "Would you like me
to bring it back?"
"No, no, get rid of it in the swamp!"
I was like, "Okay
Will do."
[Lowe] So Joe put a picture
of her property on Facebook
and it said,
"Finally found where the bitch lives."
What the fuck are you doing, you know?
What are you, stupid?
I love the cute hat!
[Lowe] Truth be told,
it'd be better for the animal industry
if Carole was dead.
Little hearts on the bottom.
[Lowe] But it started to concern me enough
when I realized that Joe has become
a complete liability.
We're not done yet.
We're still gonna dig up Carole's ass.
Before I'm done with this,
I'm gonna have the bitch's head in a jar.
Joe probably thought I was loyal to him
and I would never turn on him.
I told Lauren, I said, "You know what?
I'm calling James Garretson
and I want to meet."
So Jeff Lowe decided,
"Hey, let's meet at Applebee's."
Jeff Lowe claims
Joe's doing all this illegal stuff.
He said, "I want to get rid of that zoo.
I want to get out of that headache."
And I said, "Call Carole Baskin
and tell her for half a million bucks,
I will hand her Joe on a silver platter
with all the crimes
I know he's committed."
I said, "Sure I'll do it."
He offered me $100,000 to do it.
Carole's phone rang
and saw that it was the 405 number
and did not answer it,
and then a text came in that said,
"If you want information against Joe,
return the call."
We sent that to the law enforcement.
I waited another day,
and then I get a call.
I'm like, "Who is this?"
And he says, "I'm special agent
Matt Brown, US Fish and Wildlife."
I'm like, "Really?"
[Howard] Special agents
of the Fish and Wildlife Service
have very similar powers to FBI agents.
It's just they're mostly focused
on animals, not people.
[Garretson]
This agent shows up here at my shop.
We talk.
He's like,
"You're in a lot of fucking trouble."
[interviewer] For what reason?
Well, here's the deal.
I don't have anything to do
with any of this.
Other than the lemur
I got my ass in a pinch,
and the Feds fucking twisted my arm
over that and shit.
I had bought a lemur with bogus paperwork.
They said, you know,
I'm probably going to get a charge.
My lawyer told me,
"You got to do what they want.
They got your fucking ass hammered."
I don't agree with the laws.
I hate the fucking USDA.
I don't like the government.
That's me personally, but
What do you fucking do?
I thought about it for a couple weeks,
and I was like,
"Do I want to get involved in this?"
And I thought it was
the noble thing to do.
So, I signed up to be
a confidential informant.
I was told to record
all conversations with Joe and Jeff.
Had to keep track of 'em and figure out
what they were planning.
[interviewer]
Who is James Garretson in all of this,
and why is he working for the Feds?
What?
That's news for me.
[Reinke]
I would say James Garretson's involvement
is to get himself out of trouble,
if he's involved.
He's got so much on him, he don't know
how he was going to get out of it,
so he come up with
all this undercover stuff
just to cover his own ass.
[Joe] This has nothing to do
with that lemur.
James is the mastermind
behind illegal credit cards.
He sold John Reinke a stolen Hummer.
As far as I know they could've busted him
with a whole bunch of stolen shit.
Everything about him is a lie.
The man is just
a walking Chucky doll, dude.
[Garretson] If I stole a Hummer,
don't you think I'd be charged? Come on.
The guy's delusional.
So back in 2017,
Joe was just running for office.
Everybody looked at him like a clown.
He could put his face on billboards,
have a limousine to carry himself around,
he can be the big hero,
but he's really trying to find somebody
to kill Carole Baskin.
All I knew
is Joe had already picked Allen Glover
for the hit.
So I told the FBI
Glover was gonna actually do it.
Nobody at the park knew about
the undercover stuff.
Not even Jeff Lowe.
TAMPA, FLORIDA
[Howard] I was sitting at my desk
when the phone rang,
and it was the FBI.
They felt there was an effort by Joe
to kill Carole.
So when I'm told,
"Well there's a credible threat now,"
I'm like, "There's been a credible threat
all this time.
You just caught on to it
in the last few days."
We were aware that this was a possibility.
It's just that call
seriously elevated this.
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
We reached out to Ms. Baskin
in, I want to say, November of 2017.
And this was at the point where we'd heard
some recorded phone calls
and conversations
between Mr. Garretson
and Mr. Maldonado-Passage
indicating that there was, in fact,
a plot coming together.
If Mr. Glover was leaving
to commit this murder,
Mr. Garretson would have knowledge
of that.
First I heard
that Glover was gonna knife her.
And then I heard a gun.
Joe, he didn't really get into detail.
I think he was just leaving that
up to the hit man.
And when I talked to Glover,
Glover was mean and nasty.
He said, "If anybody at the park
rats me out, or whatever,
I'll kill every one
of these motherfuckers."
And he was drinking a lot,
doing a lot of cocaine.
When you're in that state
and he didn't have anything to lose,
you know?
[Glover] The plan was
Hide. Hunt.
Find this woman.
And Joe fucking put his trust in me
to do it.
[Howard] Carole stopped riding her bicycle
to and from.
We put in security cameras.
We kept guns by the bed,
and we carried guns in our car.
[Carole] I got out of my car to get gas
and this guy starts coming toward me.
The whole time he's approaching me
I'm thinking,
"At what point is he close enough
that I should just turn this gas nozzle
into his face?"
[Howard] And naturally,
if someone is approaching you,
now you're thinking,
"Could this be the hit man?"
[Garretson]
And then Allen Glover disappeared.
Fish and Game guys were like,
"Fuck, what's going on?"
They didn't want him to get down there
and kill Carole
because they knew about it.
They could arrest him.
[Carole]
I had heard through the whistle-blowers
that one of Joe's tacks
that he would take against me
would be to drug me with ketamine,
which is a paralyzing agent
so that they could put me
into the back of a car
and drive me out into a swamp,
where they could cut my body into pieces.
[Garretson] We were just trying to track
Glover's whereabouts,
like where he's at. Was he down in Tampa?
But he's not responding.
So it was a big shit show.
[Carole] I knew that he was out there.
I knew that he was deranged.
I knew that somebody really wants me dead.
There was a noise out on our porch,
which is right outside where our bed is.
It sounded like
someone had broken through the screen,
and I woke up to see Carole there,
holding her gun,
- and it turned out to be two
- Dang near shot the neighbor's dog.
[Carole] You don't have to worry about
the barking dog
so much as the one that's quiet.
Those are the people that worry me.
[Garretson] Eventually, I made contact
with Allen Glover.
I was just supposed to small talk
with him.
No matter what I really said,
just to keep him talking.
All the text messages were given
to the government.
GOING BACK HOME
TIRED OF THIS SHIT.
The conversation
that had occurred with Mr. Glover
seemed to indicate that plot was over.
Mr. Glover was just going back home
to South Carolina,
and the agents agreed
this plot had fallen apart.
Apparently, I chickened the fuck out
and didn't make it there.
I started partying instead.
I was pretty fucking scatterbrained.
It's fucked up, the way things happened,
but it happened out for the best.
[Garretson]
At that point, the case stopped.
Glover ended up
in a totally different state.
[Howard] In murder for hire,
the federal prosecutors
don't wanna bring a case
unless it's rock solid,
and to get to that point,
things have to happen
like transfer of money.
[Garretson]
I thought the plot stopped with Glover,
but the Feds wanted me to put in
an undercover agent.
I picked him up, we rode in my car.
I was like, "Hey, Joe, this is my guy.
This is the guy
who will whack Carole for you."
[as Joe] "Really? How much?"
[Green]
They did discuss various details
that Mr. Passage should buy
some burner phones,
or that Mr. Passage should obtain
an unregistered pistol from a flea market,
and that he would pay him
some upfront money.
[Garretson] We started out at 5,000 down
and 5,000 when she's dead.
"Well, let me sell some tigers,
and I'll get you $10,000."
He was negotiating.
He was trying to get the best deal.
They discussed in detail:
"Follow her into a parking lot,
cap her, and drive off."
They had the talk,
and then they negotiated the price,
and that was the wrap.
[interviewer] But why did you need
a special agent to pose as a hit man?
That was gonna be
the nail in the coffin
but there was supposed to be payment.
[Green]
The government doesn't have any evidence
that Mr. Passage actually obtained
any of the phones or the pistol,
and certainly
that he did not give any money
to the undercover agent.
[Howard] Over the ensuing months,
I would just check in with the FBI
and make sure that this was still active
and happening.
We kept waiting for the arrest,
but there were months
where nothing happened.
[Garretson] It just dragged on forever,
and it wasn't gonna happen.
So we all thought
they backed off the plan.
So about the same time
that the FBI was waiting on Joe,
Jeff was dealing with all the problems
in Vegas.
[judge] I am adjudicating you guilty.
You will stay out of trouble.
That means no illegal activity.
If not, you will serve the 179 days.
Do you understand my orders?
I do.
[Lowe] The judge says,
"Stay out of trouble for a year."
We loaded up stuff and we left.
When we came back here from Las Vegas,
I had one of my semi-daily conversations
with James Garretson.
'Cause we were kind of close at the time.
We talked quite a bit.
I told Jeff some things
that were in confidence.
[interviewer] Like what?
I said, "I'm working undercover
with the Feds and Fish and Game."
I told him that they already knew about
the plan to kill Carole Baskin.
They knew everybody involved.
And I said, "Why haven't they come to me?"
And he says, "They want to."
I asked him if he wanted to cooperate
and he said
I'm dying to talk to them
and tell them what I know.
[Reinke] When Jeff Lowe got in trouble
in Las Vegas,
he was looking at jail time there
and a big fine.
I promise you, he's trying
to squash that bullshit in Las Vegas
by feeding them Joe. I mean,
there's a motive behind their madness,
I promise you.
[Lowe] I trusted James.
And he said, "Look, they asked me
to bring Joe a hit man,"
and had Joe
pulled a five dollar bill
out of his pocket as a deposit
that would have been the impetus
to storm the park,
but because he didn't commit
the overt act of
of actually paying,
they had to wait.
It was right after that I told James
that the day before Allen left,
Joe paid him to go kill Carole.
James brought the FBI,
and I started spilling my guts.
The Feds had me call Allen
and try to find out Allen's side
of the story.
And he says, "Can you get me immunity?"
I said, "I can't."
I said, "That's not my position." I said,
"But the closest thing you're gonna get
to immunity
is if you come back
and help these guys,"
I said, "because they don't want you,
they want Joe."
- They know all about Joe.
- Right.
What I recommend strongly
You don't wanna be on Joe's side
when this comes down.
You wanna be on the government's side.
- I gotcha.
- What that What that means
is you've gotta tell me, like,
when he, I don't wanna put any words
in your mouth, so
like, let's just say from
the very first time he approached you,
what he said, and I'll let you go.
He would ask me, "Hey bro,
"you know anybody to go kill
that woman for me?"
What did he offer in exchange?
Well, he was supposed to give me
$5,000 cash to leave with.
But it's your understanding,
when he gave you that money,
he did it for the purpose of you going
down to Tampa and killing Carole Baskin.
Yeah, he gave me three grand.
Supposed to get $5,000,
but he only got three.
But that wasn't about the fucking money.
It was about fucking him over.
[Joe] Allen is Jeff's right-hand man.
That's what makes no sense to all this.
I'm going to hire
a $3,000 crackhead to kill her?
But I knew something was going
to come down sooner or later
because Jeff and James
was con-artist buddies.
They record everything.
Because that's how they blackmail you.
[Lowe] You're fucked.
And you know how you thought
James recorded you? You're right.
You are going to jail.
You'll hide all of this shit.
And then just tell me
what you want me to hear.
[Joe] What am I hiding?
[Lowe] You paid somebody
to kill Carole Baskin.
[Joe] That is not
what I was talking about.
[Lowe] When I started asking him about
where the money came from for the hit man,
you know, he didn't want to answer,
he just turned his head.
I think that was the straw
that broke the camel's back.
Not that he wasn't already planning
on leaving,
but that's why he packed up and left.
[Green] The government did not know
that Mr. Glover had, in fact,
been given money by Mr. Passage,
that he had given him a cellphone
with photos of Carole Baskin.
None of that was known to the government
until July of 2018.
That was obviously new information,
and we indicted him.
During the summer of 2018,
Mr. Passage had moved to a house
within Oklahoma
and then rapidly broken his lease,
packed up his things, and moved.
His social media posts seemed to be
designed to indicate
that he was in Belize
and that he was not where he was.
[David] I had seen online all the pictures
showing that they were in Belize.
I figured it was because
he didn't want to be around any of it,
and he was hiding from everybody.
[Garretson]
Before the Feds even said anything,
I knew the picture in Belize was bullshit.
I was like, "That's Florida water.
That's Panhandle water."
We all knew they were in Florida.
The Feds want you, they're gonna get you.
You can't hide.
[Green] The Fish and Wildlife and FBI
had obtained phone numbers
that were believed to be associated with
Mr. Passage,
and they do what they call
pinging his phones off of cell towers
to try to determine his location.
And with the assistance
of some local law enforcement,
he was arrested in a parking lot.
He said, "At 10:45,
I pull into the hospital parking lot,
parked the truck and
as I'm approaching the main entrance,
five cars and trucks surround me,
and one Gulf Breeze officer screams,
'Get on the ground.'
Three large officers kneel on my back
and all you could see
is the barrel of the gun.
You would've thought
they just caught Ted Bundy."
[laughs]
"Somehow, some way,
I'm going to make this up to you.
I've never been more proud of
being married to anyone
as I am of you. Let's hope
Let's hope this all works out in Oklahoma.
Just never forget I love you."
[interviewer]
What would you say to Joe now
- if you could talk to him about
- I would just hug him.
You know,
that's what he needs.
He doesn't have any contact,
and he's a very affectionate man.
So I would definitely just hug him
as tight as I could.
Hey, everyone.
It's Carole at Big Cat Rescue.
Today,
Joseph Schreibvogel-Maldonado-Passage,
also known as Joe Exotic,
was arrested for seeking to hire someone
to murder me.
We are enormously grateful
to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
the FBI for the many months
of incredibly hard work
that went into this investigation.
KARMA
Joseph Maldonado-Passage,
perhaps better known as Joe Exotic
- Joe Exotic
- Joe Exotic
Joe Exotic
The well-known 55-year-old
former zoo owner
was taken into custody today.
Maldonado-Passage
is being held without bond
and was appointed a public defender
by a federal magistrate judge today.
A court date has not yet been set.
[Reinke] This pisses me off.
He thinks he's above the law.
I just can't believe
he actually paid somebody to do it.
NEW AT 10:00
Hiya, Miss Silva, this is Joe Exotic
from your local jail
in Chickasha, Oklahoma.
Joe Exotic makes good TV.
He makes good news.
Even if it's a train wreck,
you can't help but look.
[Joe] They strip you butt naked, put you
in a six-by-eight-foot concrete room
with no windows, no blankets, no nothing.
I am supposed to be in this country,
born, raised
innocent until proven guilty.
And I've been stripped off my clothes,
my rights, my identity, my dignity.
You can't get him to stop talking,
and if the cameras are rolling,
even better.
Maldonado-Passage tells me
he has a mountain of evidence
that will prove he was framed.
He says he's just counting down the days
to his trial
so he can tell his side of the story.
[Joe] Oh, I know what happened.
I've got three felons that want my zoo.
[Lowe] We are starting fresh,
all brand new stuff.
Brand new attitudes. New employees.
The reputation of this zoo will be just
dragged through the mud
with this whole Joe fiasco.
I want to get away from this
Joe Exotic-haunted place.
So we're building a new zoo.
I envision a great big four
or five million dollar zoo right now.
[Garretson] Jeff Lowe asked me
if I wanted to be part of the new zoo.
I told him where I would build a zoo.
I'd build a zoo down in Thackerville
by the WinStar,
so it's closer to the Texas border.
Oklahoma's poor.
You're gonna get all your customers
from Texas anyways.
[Lowe] We found almost 40 acres
about one mile behind the WinStar casino.
Everything is gonna be huge,
it's gonna be open,
it's gonna be the best
that our money can afford.
We're gonna build that zoo in six months.
[Glover] Once we move,
it'll be a whole different ballgame.
Everybody will be comfortable.
It won't be no bullshit.
It will be nice.
Not like with Joe.
God, I hate that bitch.
Well, when I was told
the FBI was involved, I went,
"Holy fucking shit."
[chuckles]
They went there and took my story
like three different times
to make sure it was fuckin' accurate
before they took it to the grand jury
or jury or whatever the hell it is.
And all I did is like Jeff told me to do
is just come and tell them exactly
what the fuck happened.
And thank God I did.
I'd be sitting in there with fucking Joe.
[Joe] Let me show and tell
the whole thing.
Because then you'll get it.
Then you'll say, "Jesus fucking Christ,
why are you in jail?"
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