Tiger King (2020) s02e04 Episode Script

[soft music playing]
[James Garretson] What's crazy about
the whole thing is seeing the hitman
out on the street.
That makes no logical fucking sense.
You're gonna let a guy free
that supposedly was gonna go kill a lady.
And he's free on the street.
[Joe Exotic on recording]
'Cause he was never really a hitman.
Kinda hard to put a hitman in prison
when it's just all made-up bullshit.
I do not think
Joe deserves 22 fucking years.
He got a raw deal.
But what I understand, the government's
been wanting his ass for years.
Jeff made sure my story fit
to what they needed.
[Exotic on recording] And that was
their plan, was for him to lie for Jeff
so they could set me up and take the zoo.
[Allen] It only cost Jeff
3,000 fucking dollars to get rid of Joe.
[Exotic] Jeff called and said,
"Let's send Allen back to South Carolina."
"Give him $3,000
and get him the hell out of your hair."
But for their story,
it was to go to Florida and kill Carole.
See, that's all bullshit.
Without that money,
there's no case for the murder for hire.
So I think that whole thing was a setup.
Jeff said, "Allen,
no matter what the fuck you do,
please don't put me in this."
If I would just take the bullet,
he would make sure I was taken care of.
[John Phillips] What Allen has admitted to
is that the case against Joe
is based upon perjury,
because Jeff was telling him
what to say and what to do.
That warrants a new trial.
That is in the interest of justice.
[Jeff Lowe] Based on what?
You know, Allen is a drunk
who got arrested at a strip club for DUI.
He's trying to turn on us,
but he's too stupid
to get his story straight.
[officer] Let me ask you something.
On a scale of one to ten,
one being you're stone-cold sober,
you're ready to go to church,
and ten being you'd be drunk
and passed out in a ditch,
where would you put yourself?
One to ten?
[officer] Yeah.
I'm good.
[officer] Well,
that's not part of the scale.
[Exotic on recording] And I'm gonna hire
a $3,000 crackhead to kill her?
Where does that make sense?
You know, if the evidence is out there,
go ahead and present it.
[Exotic] Jeff Lowe's in more trouble
than he knows what to do with.
And I'm not gonna shut up,
and I'm not gonna stop
until people see the truth.
[dramatic music playing]
[tape recorder rewinding]
[man] I understand that you,
at one time, were affiliated
with the Greater Wynnewood Zoo.
Is that correct?
I was employed. Yes.
[man] Okay.
And who owns Greater Wynnewood Zoo?
Jeff Lowe.
[man] So what's the nature of the dispute
between you and Mr. Lowe?
[chuckling]
Very personal.
[Exotic on recording] I've been in jail
for two and a half years.
These people in here?
At least they have honor
because they're real crooks.
Jeff's a piece of shit
that sucks off of people
that are vulnerable.
Stealing my zoo wasn't enough.
They had to take my freedom.
They had to concoct all this bullshit
and get me thrown in jail.
[Zuzana Kokol chuckling] Come on.
Come on, girl.
[tutting]
No. Come.
Jeff Lowe is opportunist
and goes after people who are in trouble.
He promises them probably heaven on earth,
and then he fucks them over
without lubrication
from behind with a wire brush.
[laughing] Hi.
Hi, guys.
[roars]
[chuckling] She's jealous.
Well, Jeff Lowe came to Nevada,
and we were actually butchering horse
that day.
Hey, Bam-Bam! Here's your yum-yum.
And the people who gave us the horse
kept asking us,
"Oh, was it you
at McDonald's with baby tiger?"
And I'm like, "What baby tiger
and what McDonald's? What's going on?"
[Scott] He goes through the drive-thru.
The cub's not even in a transport cage.
It seems like he never did it correctly
with exotic animals.
That's my opinion, of course,
but I am rarely wrong.
I am Eastern European bitch,
so I cannot be wrong.
Was Joe Exotic
really trying to kill Baskin,
or was he set up to make it look like
he really wanted to kill her?
Because Joe was talking about it,
but it was kind of like
just for the entertainment.
"Oh, I want that person dead.
I wish you were dead."
Good afternoon.
[Zuzana] All these years
and Jeff Lowe wasn't in picture.
Joe didn't hurt anybody.
All of a sudden, Jeff Lowe is in picture
and there are two hitmen.
I mean, what is going on?
Joe's argument that we
conned him or scammed him out of the zoo
For what? What did I gain, you know?
I gained a huge liability,
personally and financially.
There's nothing to gain in owning a zoo.
[Zuzana] A few years ago,
Carole Baskin won
one million judgment against Joe Exotic,
so if Joe Exotic puts the assets
in other people's names,
then Carole Baskin cannot collect
on her one million judgment.
That was the plan, but it didn't work.
We didn't steal the zoo.
Joe dumped it on us.
What he did was illegal transfer of assets
to hide it from Carole to begin with.
And then it just became
more and more apparent
that Carole was gonna pursue the property.
[Carole] The lawsuit that caused Joe
to be so angry with me
has been pending since 2011.
We are still pursuing that judgment
against Joe and now Jeff Lowe.
[Zuzana] Now, she has the one million
judgment against Jeff Lowe.
I don't think there's a state that
Jeff Lowe's gone to that he hasn't
gotten sued in or gotten thrown in jail.
Bad luck has followed him
from Lansing, Michigan to South Carolina,
to Colorado, to Wynnewood, Oklahoma.
He's just been like
a black cloud of controversy.
[Joe Barth] Man,
I wish I'd never met the guy.
I've owned a drive-in movie theater
in Beaufort, South Carolina for 15 years.
Jeff Lowe bought the building
that was next to the drive-in
to have his liquidation store in
and also a flea market on the outside.
He was supposed to have a TV show
that they were working on.
Oh, my God!
I'm Jeff Lowe, and I'm a liquidator.
[rock music playing]
Liquidation is the business
of buying and selling
what America returns to the stores.
[Exotic on recording] He was
buying semis of shit,
and he had me convinced
that he had 15 liquidation stores.
Yee-haw!
[Exotic] But the TV show,
the whole thing went nowhere.
He's a good bullshitter.
Don't forget about me.
I bought a $24,000 load
of broken toasters from him.
He would tell me how well
he did in the liquidation industry.
So I tried it out.
This load shows up at my house.
I open the semi doors,
48-53 foot of just toasters.
I pull them out, and I'm like,
"These boxes sure look damaged."
My customers would take them home,
plug them in,
and the motherfuckers would catch on fire.
The toasters would catch on fire.
[Jeff] Tough shit.
Don't beg me to help you
get into the liquidation business
and then bitch and moan
when you buy liquidated merchandise.
I have a pretty clear picture
of who Jeff Lowe is based on my reporting.
In the years that I've been following him,
the charity fraud might be
one of the darker, sadder moments
in Jeff Lowe's criminal history.
The charity was called CODA,
Citizens Opposed to Domestic Abuse.
It's a battered women's shelter
in South Carolina.
Jeff Lowe posed as an employee,
and he was able to divert
millions of dollars in donated goods
and then sell them
through his liquidation business
to turn a profit for himself.
[Exotic on recording]
Fourteen-million dollars of donated stuff
that he turned around and sold.
It was an ungodly amount.
The money did not go
to the victims of domestic abuse.
It went into Jeff Lowe's pocket.
[Jeff] The feds were
watching my bank account.
They wanna charge me
with five counts of wire fraud.
That may not sound like a big crime,
but it comes with a big penalty.
It's a felony charge and it can lead
to up to 20 years in prison.
[Exotic chuckles] And he doesn't
spend a day in jail. Go figure.
The story he told me was
he was sentenced to a halfway house,
and then he blackmailed them.
He sold the people
that were working in the halfway house
stolen watches, and TVs,
and stuff like that,
and got released from the halfway house
because he got everybody in trouble.
Jeff's a scam artist.
With this felony,
he never even had to pay restitution.
He didn't have to pay that money back.
So Jeff has a history of thinking
that he can get away with things
and unfortunately being right.
[Tim Stark] How do I relieve stress?
I picture that fucking golf ball
as a midget Jeff Lowe.
Hey, Jeff, ready to go
for a flight, motherfucker?
It's not hard to picture
the golf ball as Jeff Lowe.
It's about the same damn height.
Here you go, cocksucker!
You little fucking dick!
You stupid cunt!
Fuck, I need
a little bandana and a little hat,
so I can put it
on the little son of a bitch.
You ready, Jeff?
I think I hit him farther than Carole.
Fuck.
[Allen] Tim Stark and Joe Exotic,
they would be like two peas in a pod
when it comes to batshit crazy.
[squawking]
Hi, pretty birdie.
Good bird.
You gonna go up there and sit down?
I joke around in my shows and tell people,
"My name's Tim Stark. I am a drug addict."
My choice of drugs is animals.
I get high every fucking day and love it.
And I love that high I get.
You want a grape?
Good bird. Down the hatch.
Take her down. You want one?
- [growls]
- Oh, shut up.
[Brittany] Tim Stark is
one of the most cruel animal exploiters.
[Timothy Clark] If you talk
to anyone that volunteer or are on staff,
if they don't admit that they were naive,
then they're still fooling themselves.
I would always say, "Tiger drunk."
The customers coming out there,
I'm like, "They're tiger drunk."
But it was the volunteers and the staff
that were tiger drunk.
- [Stark] Hi, Mother.
- Hi.
I didn't bring you anything to drink.
I didn't know where you were
or where you'd be.
[Stark] Go, Joey.
That's my mommy.
His wife Melissa worked, like, three jobs
in order to feed
the animals that they had.
And finally, he found a way to take care
of those animals, and I'm gonna cry.
He came up with Tiger Baby Playtime.
Other people didn't like
what he was doing,
so they tried to put a stop to it.
[woman] Ladies and gentlemen,
let me introduce Tim Stark,
the president and founder
of Wildlife in Need!
[crowd clapping]
[Aimee Perry] What brought me
into Wildlife in Need
was the show that Tim put on.
That's what got me hooked.
It gave him a platform for his voice,
the glory that he got
over the Tiger Baby Playtime.
[Stark] I'll show the difference
[Aimee] Early on when I was volunteering,
I was like, "How can a place that brings
so much joy and so much happiness,
so many smiles to people's faces, be bad?"
- [group laughing]
- [woman] I've never
[Aimee] Tim did something different.
He would just thrust a number of animals
out into the crowd,
let people do whatever they wanted.
- As you can see, a pissed-off tiger.
- [cub growling angrily]
It don't take them no time
to get pissed off.
Wanna see a pissed-off tiger?
- Show 'em what pissed off looks like.
- [growling angrily]
- Show 'em.
- [growling continues]
The one thing you wanna learn
if you're the idiot standing in a room
holding a pissed-off tiger,
you always wanna hand it to somebody else.
- [woman yelps]
- [group exclaiming and laughing]
[Stark] Porta-potty's out there
if you need to wipe.
We see a pattern among all of these guys
in this animal exploitation business.
We saw it with Joe, we see it with Tim,
and we see it with Jeff,
where they don't wanna take responsibility
for their own actions,
so we need to focus on shutting them down.
[Carole] All of these backyard breeders
that were so close to Joe,
he knows about the inner workings
of their facilities.
He knows where the smoking guns are.
He could participate with the government
and bring down this entire ring of people
who are exploiting big cats.
[Exotic] There's so much
to be exposed about this whole industry.
I can't wait till they arrest
every one of them.
[Brittany] I was able to work with Joe,
and it looks like both Tim Stark
and Jeff Lowe are going to go down.
[Exotic] You know, where was
Tim when I was going through a trial?
Moving in my zoo.
[laughing] So I can't
feel too sorry for him.
[Stark] When Jeff
first got Joe put in jail,
that's when I decided, "What the hell."
"I'll go out there and become partners
and we'll build the zoo together."
Well, a new zoo could be welcoming guests
in Thackerville this year.
[reporter] Stark says
they'll bring in the exotic animals
from his refuge in Indiana
and from the zoo in Wynnewood.
The founder of that zoo, Joe Exotic,
is in jail awaiting trial
on a murder-for-hire charge.
[Allen] Once Joe was out of the picture,
Tim came aboard.
The more I thought about that,
"Damn, it's happening again."
[Stark] I knew Jeff was a sneaky,
conniving little bastard.
That's what I was wanting in order
to help me try to beat PETA, beat USDA.
You have to be a sneaky, conniving fucker
in order to keep up with these assholes.
I got a partner here,
and we're gonna crush them motherfuckers.
I ain't gonna play no games with them.
Two heads butting together like that
is not ever gonna turn out good.
And it didn't.
[Roy Hardin] Thackerville, Oklahoma
is a good town with good country folks,
and cheap taxes,
and mostly friendly, good people here.
Gotta knock that hill down and
get it smooth so the fence will look nice.
[man] All right.
[Roy] When I first heard
about the zoo being built in Thackerville,
I thought, "all right,"
'cause I like exotic animals.
I've got fish, and I've got birds.
I think I'd like to listen to the
lions roar in the evenings and mornings.
[growling]
[Roy] But I believe
all of them big cat people are crazy.
One minute, they're hugging
and calling each other brother,
and the next minute,
they're suing one another.
[man] How much is this gonna cost?
'Cause this is not cheap.
By the time we open
at the end of the summer,
we'll have four or five million dollars
wrapped up in this.
[man] Where are you gonna get
the four million bucks?
- I'll pull it out of my damn pocket.
- [man chuckles]
[Jeff] We got it in here.
[Stark] It was supposed to be
50/50 partnership,
but there was absolutely nothing
50/50 about it.
I was paying 100% of the bill.
I was doing 100% of the work.
I was moving some of my animals.
[Allen] He was putting in probably
a hundred hours a week out there,
and Jeff wasn't putting a dime in.
Tim would start a project,
and Jeff had no idea
what the fuck Tim was doing.
"Well, he's spending his money not mine."
[Exotic] And that's the crazy part
about all of this.
Tim is going through now
the same thing with Jeff Lowe.
Jeff has frauded so many people
into coming into business with him,
the list goes on and on and on.
Smoking cigarettes
on top of a bale of hay. [laughing]
I'm gonna set my balls on fire.
When Tim Stark left his park in Indiana
and headed this way,
it was July-August. It was freaking hot.
And he had a lot of animals just jammed
in the back of his gooseneck trailer.
The air conditioning unit had broken down.
He brought 112 animals down
on his first trip.
That was heartbreaking.
He called me and he says,
"My generator died."
And I said, "Well, it's 100 degrees out.
You can't not run the air conditioner."
He showed up two and a half days later
with a trailer full of dead animals.
It's because he actually stopped
in a different state for a booty call,
stayed overnight,
and didn't even check on the animals.
[Stark] I stopped to stay the night
at a friend of mine's over in St. Louis.
I was too fucking tired.
I didn't have no choice but to stop.
I done been working
for 48 hours straight. No sleep.
Get in the fucking truck and drive
13 fucking hours to goddamn Wynnewood.
He admitted later
that he didn't even check.
From the time he left Charlestown
till they got to our place,
he didn't check them for water.
We opened that trailer up,
the smell, the heat,
the fecal matter, it was everywhere.
And the dead animals,
they were everywhere.
I probably buried at least 30 plus animals
when he got there.
Never seen anything like it.
[Stark] I didn't have
my business partner there
to help me like we were scheduled to do.
He abandoned me and the animals.
And now he wants to blame it on me.
[Jeff] Tim and I have
philosophical differences.
So we kicked him off the land.
We just couldn't take it anymore.
He's just bipolar.
[producer] Okay. So who's Sue?
Sue?
- Sue.
- [Lauren] Who's Sue?
- Oh, Sue is Tim's pseudonym.
- Oh!
- Sue! That Sue.
- [Jeff] Yeah, and
[Jeff chuckles]
Oh, goodness.
Yeah, I forgot about that.
When you think something's bullshit,
you don't try to remember it. [laughing]
["A Boy Named Sue" by Johnny Cash playing]
Well, my daddy left home
When I was three ♪
He didn't leave very much
To my ma and me ♪
Except this old guitar
And an empty bottle of booze ♪
[Stark] My dad, he never called me "Tim."
He called me "Sue."
I was the "Boy Named Sue."
Not that I was a little girl.
It was more or less like the song,
"Boy Named Sue,"
you know, Johnny Cash's song.
Before he left
He went and named me Sue ♪
This is a picture Tim drew
one day while his son was in surgery,
and we were waiting
for him to come out of surgery.
This is how he spent his time
was drawing this picture.
There's a carving
on the wall there that he did,
and as you see, he signed it Sue.
That's what he was proud of, the name Sue.
Sue is the good part in me.
My wife married Sue.
She just didn't know it.
Tim Stark may have caused
a lot of problems in my life.
But that's not who I am.
[Jeff] Tim's biggest enemy
was his narcissistic personality.
And I thought, "I'm done with this."
And we were
probably better off without Tim.
I was discouraged for a long time
because Tim wasn't getting anything done.
I don't know what his problem was.
It's almost like he tried to sabotage
the thing from the beginning.
It was harder than I ever anticipated,
running the zoo in Wynnewood
while building a huge 50-acre zoo
in Thackerville.
And
Does Tim have us blocked in?
We're gonna go through it.
[scraping]
[man] Okay.
[Jeff] Everything takes longer
than you think, but it'll get there, and
if I have to
if I have to
put Lauren on a corner earning,
then we'll do whatever we have to do.
[laughs]
[baby coos]
[Jeff] So this is the VIP suite.
Shaq, and Flav, and all those guys,
when they come, they'll wanna stay in this
for more exclusive parties.
I got a great big 12-person hot tub.
The hot tub will be behind it
so these people can't, you know,
see all the activities in the hot tub.
[Allen] He was thinking "strip club"
on top of having a zoo.
And they would be able
to play with baby tigers, also,
at the strip club.
- [producer 2] What did you think of that?
- I thought it was wonderful. [chuckles]
Talked about he'd like to bring girls in
and party and stuff like that.
[Jeff] Just dragging those around
[Roy] Trying to have
a zoo and a strip club.
I think they need to be
on separate properties.
[laughs] Not on the same property.
[Taryn Walker] Jeff and Lauren are snaky.
They're very snaky.
They almost put a spell on you.
You almost get brainwashed
if you're not paying attention.
We all got so used to working so much
for so little and we were so tired.
And they get you just kind of rolling
with their way of thinking.
It took me a while,
but I would always notice on the radio,
repeatedly, "Code 69."
[on radio] Go for red.
Code 69 is
Well, we got codes for a lot of things.
These are FCC radios,
so people do listen in.
Code 69, that means
it's a pretty girl in the park.
Um, Code 69?
- "Hey, some bait just walked in the zoo."
- Basically. Basically.
I am the one
that picks out the cute girls.
You would never know.
She just walks up
and she gets who she wants.
[Lauren and Sarah laughing]
[Jeff] My opinion of ecstasy or molly
is that it's got to be one of the safest.
You can drive on it.
You can fly a plane on it.
- It doesn't skew your
- "Fly a plane"?
intelligence.
[Exotic on recording] Jeff and Lauren are
like two rabid dogs in a goldfish bowl.
[Ashley Webster] Jeff and Lauren
draw people in with the money, the cats.
They manipulate the situation,
and they bring vulnerable women in.
Because we weren't making relationships.
We were making experiences.
The person was almost nameless.
There was no, like, relationship bond.
There was no, like,
"This is another girlfriend coming in."
It was like, "That's our toy."
[Jeff] It was typically hit and run.
[Taryn] They would show up
from the back of their house.
A beautiful woman would be walking in,
and walk past with Jeff and Lauren Lowe,
and they'd be gone.
Code 69.
[Exotic] This got so out of hand
between sleeping with the female staff
and using our customers as sex toys.
It wasn't about tigers.
It wasn't about running a zoo.
They're just predators.
[Ashley] One of my friends sent me
the link showing that they were hiring
for the G.W. Zoo,
and she knew how much I loved animals.
I was completely naive.
Jeff was probably able to scroll
through my Facebook pictures
to see if I was pretty enough
to go down there.
It was 2016 when I went to the zoo
and worked with Jeff, Lauren, and Joe.
My very first day,
Jeff said something
about killing Carole Baskin
and how she needs to die
because she took some of his animals.
At that point in time, I didn't know
if he was actually being serious or not.
So then our morning meeting, I went
and approached Jeff, Lauren, and Joe.
They were all talking
in a very heated conversation,
and I was just trying
to make sure everybody was okay.
And Joe looked right at me, and he goes,
"I will pay you a couple of grand
to go down to Florida
and kill Carole Baskin."
"I have all the guns."
And I looked at him
and I was just like, "What?"
[laughing] I started laughing
because I was like, "Me?"
Of all people.
I didn't really know Joe.
And I was so uncomfortable.
Like, all three were staring at me
like they wanted an answer.
[Exotic] I don't even remember
ever talking to Ashley Webster.
She was there such a short time.
And she came there
to be a playmate for Jeff and Lauren.
Why would I even
consider asking her to go kill Carole? A
A girl that has a service dog.
Am I gonna pay her
to have her dog go gnaw Carole's legs off?
Where does any of that make sense?
[Ashley] I left a voicemail
on Carole Baskin's phone.
I was warning her
that they were coming for her.
[Jeff] The call to Carole
is actually what started
the murder-for-hire investigation.
[Ashley on recording] Hi, Carole. Uh
You really gotta call me back.
He was actually talking about
paying someone to kill you.
He's offering
like a couple of thousand dollars.
I feel like your life is in danger.
[Ashley] Within three days
of me coming back from the zoo,
the FBI showed up at my house.
They were very much aware that Jeff Lowe
was conspiring to kill Carole Baskin
because I told them that.
He was making threats to Carole.
I flat-out heard him say
that he wanted Carole dead.
Jeff Lowe was just as much
behind the murder-for-hire plot
as Joe Exotic was.
A hundred percent.
Joe took the fall
for all of their actions.
I feel that is very unfair.
[John] Ultimately,
her deposition was withheld from trial,
and nobody really got to hear
about Ashley Webster.
I think her testimony is important
to show this was more
than a simple business transaction
between Joe and Allen
to go kill Carole Baskin.
Did you know that Jeff
was recording you in these phone calls?
No, I did not.
- [Jeff] They know all about Joe.
- Right.
- [Jeff] What I recommend strongly
- Yup.
[Jeff] You don't wanna be
on Joe's side when this comes down.
- You wanna be on the government's side.
- I gotcha.
[Jeff] What that means is
you've gotta tell me, like, when he
I don't wanna put any words in your mouth.
[Allen] I should've expected it,
knowing him for so long.
That's what they did
just to entrap somebody.
Being played, that took a long time
to actually sit down
and truly think exactly what happened,
how it happened,
because at the time I thought
I was just basically falling in suit
on keeping the park open
at pretty much any cost.
Yeah, I got set up just like Joe did.
That's a hard fucking pill to swallow.
[John] You said something to me
on the phone that
[Allen sniffles]
nearly brought me to fucking tears.
You said something to the effect of
this should be you in jail
or you should be in jail with him.
Yeah.
Tell me what you meant.
I did worse than he did.
What do you mean?
I agreed to do something
that I know I wasn't going to do,
and I didn't think that man
wanted to do it either. It was just
talking shit,
and things got caught up at the moment.
That's the way it worked out,
it was horrible.
[John] Are you willing
to get arrested and face perjury?
To help Joe? Yeah.
I've already said that.
Why?
It's the fucking thing to do, dude.
It's the fucking thing to do.
Allen was a pawn in this game,
just a dumb, stupid pawn.
Isn't it funny
that whenever these guys get in trouble
for their own actions,
that it's always gotta
be somebody else's fault?
And if I've done something wrong,
where's the law?
Where are they coming to get me?
They're not.
[reporter] The dominoes keep falling now
for people who gained notoriety
on the Netflix docu-series Tiger King.
Can you guys just tell us
what your understanding is
of what has happened to your zoo?
We have anticipated this
for almost two years.
As soon as we came into the picture,
Carole Baskin wrapped us
under the same umbrella as Joe
to get me included
in his judgment for a million dollars.
[Stephen Colbert] Carole Baskin
has been awarded
the zoo once owned
by the Tiger King, Joe Exotic.
Oh, how the mullet has turned!
[Exotic] This is how Carole ruins you.
Okay, if she can't kill you,
and she can't put you in jail,
she's gonna bankrupt you.
And you know, before I even got arrested,
Carole Baskin and PETA
were working together.
Now, PETA is suing everybody.
[Stark] I've had cats
throughout the last 20 years.
Never had any problem whatsoever
with any of them
until there was a fucking PETA spy
on my property.
[crackling on microphone]
[spy] Okay, you're in.
[Aimee] Tim looked at me one day
and he said, "There's a mole
on this property. I know it."
He looked me in the face.
"Anyone who talks, I will find them
and I will fucking slit their throat."
Tim was just so paranoid
that he had booby traps
and security cameras.
And, you know, he had
an arsenal of firearms in his house.
I can't imagine
the amount of balls that it took
to walk in there and look him in the face.
I was trained by the United States Army
to shoot a motherfucking terrorist.
It's that simple.
So come at me, motherfuckers.
[Clark] It definitely
spooked and scared all of us.
A lot of people that volunteered for him,
after they left, they didn't wanna speak.
But it got to a point
where I was just getting sick and tired.
We needed to protect the animals.
So I made a call to PETA.
[growling]
[Clark] People would get
scratched during the shows,
so Tim cut the nails of the tigers.
Anyone that knows anything
about animals knows
that's the worst thing
you can do to a cat.
If you're declawing an animal,
think of it as a human
that we're cutting off that first knuckle.
So just think about that for a second.
I mean, I can't stress this enough.
We're cutting off
your first knuckle to your hand.
And as a tiger,
they walk on the tips of their toes.
So you're cutting off
that ability for them to walk.
Later on in life, they'll be flat-footed,
have arthritis and all kinds of problems.
But at the time, that doesn't matter,
'cause it's about the money.
It's not about the animals.
[Aimee] Tim thinks that
because a vet will do it, that it's okay.
Never mind if it's humane.
Never mind if it cripples the animal
for the rest of their life.
Oh, my god.
[Clark] I would say
the numbers that talked to PETA
after I talked definitely grew.
It didn't really have
nothing to do with me,
but it was the power of numbers.
And it was all right
and don't let Tim bully you.
[reporter] On Monday,
a judge ordered a temporary injunction
against Wildlife in Need
after PETA claimed the refuge violated
the Endangered Species Act
by declawing big cats.
I don't give a [bleep] what PETA says.
I don't care.
[Jeff] I think the beginning of his end
was probably the PETA lawsuit.
He buried himself
so deep in trouble with his mouth.
[man] Today is Wednesday, April 10, 2019.
The time is 9:31 a.m.
We are on the record.
I'd like to ask the court reporter
to please swear in the witness.
I'm not gonna sit here and be badgered.
I'm not gonna sit here
and be a part of a fishing expedition.
[woman on mic] Mr. Stark, you are
obligated to answer the questions
that are asked in this deposition
No, I'm not. No, I'm not.
[man] All of you guys, stop!
Stop, stop, stop!
[man] What are WIN's big cats fed?
Food.
[man] What kind of food?
Meat.
[man] What kind of meat?
Depends.
Wake up to fucking reality
before you waste my time!
As a TV station, we've been covering
Tim Stark and Wildlife in Need
for fifteen-ish years.
I've probably done
three dozen reports on him.
And it wasn't always bad.
But recently things really started rolling
in a way that Tim Stark didn't like.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Curtis Hill] Our office received
numerous complaints about Tim Stark.
We were able to recognize very quickly
that there was some compliance issues
that would allow us to investigate.
Indiana's new Attorney General spends
his days handling consumer complaints,
but as I recently discovered,
can also summon a king-size music talent.
[Curtis] When I was a kid,
I just enjoyed his music
and actually had the ability
to sing and sound like Elvis.
Wise men say ♪
Only fools ♪
Only fools rush in ♪
What the evidence from Wildlife in Need
actually demonstrated was
this was not a rescue operation at all.
This was an opportunity
for an individual to use a corporate front
to purchase animals, exotic animals,
endangered animals
and exhibit them for profit.
And based upon information
he has said himself,
for enormous profit.
That's fraud.
[Stark] Mr. Miyagi, where you at?
Happy boy.
[Shay] The Indiana Attorney General's
Office told us they have filed dozens
of exhibits,
multiple motions with Tim Stark,
demanding that he not bring animals
back from Oklahoma,
that he not bring people to his property.
He's doing it all anyways.
He's completely ignoring it.
[inaudible]
[Stark] Anytime you possess something,
it's yours.
Period.
Which means that it is,
from that day forward,
your personal property
to pretty much do with whatever
you see fit to fit your needs.
If I wanted to go and shoot a tiger,
and skin him out, and butcher him,
and have tiger steaks for dinner,
it's my fucking prerogative.
It's my animal, my property.
Nobody has the right to tell me what
I can or cannot do with my property.
And God himself says
I can do with them what I choose.
For years, he's said
that no one will take his animals alive,
that he'll throw grenades at people,
and he successfully intimidated
USDA inspectors by brandishing a gun.
[soft guitar music playing]
I'm not trying to be a dick,
but I need everybody outside the gate.
[Shay] Here at Wildlife in Need, the judge
gave the Attorney General's office
two eight-hour days
to complete this inspection.
That means about four minutes to inspect
each of Stark's hundreds of animals.
[Stark] I'm getting fucked in this shit,
and I'm not gonna tolerate it!
It's already been proven
that the Attorney General's office
is in conspiracy with PETA.
- [man] That's not true.
- [Stark] The hell if it ain't!
Let's go, Jess. Move it! Get them moving!
[indistinct chatter]
This is how I raise birds and animals.
Ain't that right? Good boy. Oh!
And then you raise that one
to fly into your skull.
Shut the fuck up and don't even tell me
what you're wanting to tell me!
'Cause as you see, half the people's here,
half the people's out there!
I'm not gonna tolerate this shit
if you motherfuckers think
you're gonna separate,
and go different directions,
and try to fuck my shit!
I'm not gonna tolerate it!
Wildlife in Need founder Tim Stark
is expected back in court tomorrow.
The judge is bringing him in
after he didn't follow court orders
and was held in contempt of court.
I've got a court case tomorrow.
And what it's based on,
it's called a compliance hearing.
The judge called it.
[producer] Where is Sue in this?
Is Sue there in you?
Sue is the part that everybody loves.
I love Sue. I hate Tim Stark.
You know, because Tim Stark
has turned into a very rude,
very defensive, you know,
asshole in all reality.
You know, but in order to fight
the shit that I'm fighting,
Sue would do it
in more or less attorney fashion.
Tuck your tail, play the game.
Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!
Tim Stark's not that fashion.
Tim Stark's like, "Fuck this. Fuck you."
"Come get me, motherfuckers,
and let's see what you're made of."
[suspenseful music playing]
[Stark] I'm always nervous
when it comes down to this shit.
Because you know you're up against
the most corrupt shit on the planet.
It's hard not to be nervous.
They don't give a fuck about that.
They don't give a shit about truth.
All they care about is the game.
I don't play the game.
I am the fucking game.
[inaudible]
[Stark] Those are the corrupt,
fucking piece of shit whistleblowers.
[suspenseful music continues]
[officer] Come down here.
You can't go threatening
anyone in the courtroom.
- I haven't threatened a single person.
- The attorney says you're trying.
- That's 'cause he's a pussy.
- [officer 1] Okay. That's the thing
[officer 2] That's not proper conduct
in the court.
[Stark] Hell, court ain't started yet.
[officer 2] In the courtroom,
that's not proper conduct.
Court hasn't started yet.
I can videotape right now.
I can do anything I wanna do.
I haven't threatened anybody.
I specifically told him.
Just like Phil Rizzo, I told him, legally,
I will destroy his damn whole entire life.
Legally. I didn't threaten him physically.
I didn't do
[officer] Can you
at least try to conduct yourself
I do conduct myself.
- That's not proper conduct in courtroom.
- [Stark] I got court to do.
[Shay] Tim Stark had
a lot to say in court today,
most of it unsolicited commentary
that the judge
actually had to ask him to stop.
Witnesses say after his outburst,
seven more sheriff's deputies
were brought in as extra security.
- [man] Question for you
- I'm offering y'all everything you asked.
- Walk away. Leave me the fuck alone!
- [man] You're offering us nothing.
I know I'm offering
What the fuck are you offering me?
- [man] We can take care of the animals
- The shit show continues! Fuck you!
The shit show will continue,
you sorry prick.
[Shay] Hold on one second.
Tim, anything you wanna say?
Make sure everybody gets in there,
you bunch of fucktard motherfuckers.
Watch what happens when I get you
on the stand. Let's see what happens.
Are you ready for that?
I'm gonna show that you're the lying,
little fucking cunts that you are.
You wanna go against me?
[officer] Sir, don't do that.
I can talk however the fuck I want.
Leave me alone, man.
I ain't in the goddamn courtroom.
I can talk however the hell I want.
It's the fucking English language,
motherfucker.
[Shay] Anything else, Tim?
[Shay] The judge says he does plan
to make some decisions in this case soon,
but he wouldn't give a deadline.
[Aimee] His day is coming.
They will get him for the crimes
that he committed against animals.
Because people like me are gonna speak.
We're gonna talk.
We're not afraid anymore.
You can sit there
and say you wanna slit my fucking throat.
I got a 9mm, let's go.
I'll stop you.
[dramatic music playing]