Louis Theroux says Joe Exotic told HIM that he thought Carole Baskin had fed her ex husband to big cats – and reveals he thinks the series should have ‘focused more on animal rights’
- Theroux told Radio 2 Breakfast Show when he met Joe Exotic, the star of Netflix hit Tiger King, in 2011 Exotic told him he believed Carole Baskin was a murderer
- The 49-year-old filmmaker said he personally didn’t believe Exotic’s theory that Baskin, his arch rival, had killed her ex husband Don Lewis
- Theroux said there could have been more of an animal rights focus to the series, which followed Exotic’s life before his arrest for plotting to kill Baskin
Louis Theroux has revealed that Tiger King’s Joe Exotic shared his theory that arch-rival Carole Baskin had fed her former husband to tigers with him.
The 49-year-old British filmmaker told the Zoe Ball Breakfast Show that Joe, who is currently serving a 22-year sentence after being found guilty of a murder-for-hire plot against Baskin, 58, shared the idea when the pair met during Theroux’s 2011 America’s Most Dangerous Pets film.
The documentary maker also told the Radio 2 presenter that he thought the Netflix series, which has proved a huge global hit, could have focused more on animal rights.
British filmmaker Louis Theroux told the Radio 2 Breakfast Show on Wednesday that Joe Exotic had told him when they met in 2011 that he believed his arch rival Carole Baskin was a murderer
Theroux said he loved the hit Netflix series, which followed the life of big cat keeper Joe Exotic at Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park in Oklahoma, but said his one ‘quibble’ was that animal rights wasn’t a greater focus for the programme
After meeting during filming of Theroux’s 2011 America’s Most Dangerous Pets film, Exotic shared his theory that Carole Baskin had killed her former husband Don Lewis and fed him to the big cats the couple owned
Discussing Exotic’s firm belief that Carole Baskin’s former husband Don Lewis, who disappeared in August 1997, had been murdered by her, Theroux said: ‘I knew a lot of stuff about the alleged murder for hire plot.
‘Joe had always said he thought Carole Baskin had arranged the murder of her husband and fed the husband to her tigers.
Theroux added that he himself thought Exotic – real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage – had made up the accusation, saying he didn’t ‘personally believe’ it.
The documentary maker also said that while he thoroughly enjoyed the series, which follows Joe Exotic’s life as a big cat owner at Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park in Oklahoma, he thinks it didn’t always focus enough on the animals featured.
He said: ‘I thought it was an entertaining and amazing romp through this netherworld of big cat owners and it really gripped my attention. I did think the tiger perspective was slightly lost, that was my little quibble.’
The 49-year-old documentary maker said ‘the tiger perspective was slightly lost’ with the main focus being on the human story
Theroux added: ‘I sort of thought here is an animal rights story here which they kind of did at the end a bit but you didn’t see the foreground.’
Last week, Theroux revealed details of the Tiger King unusual domestic arrangement, saying Joe Exotic would only have sex with two of his husbands at the same time to avoid them getting jealous.
During the course of filming, Louis touched on the now-57-year-old’s sex life with his two husbands, who were 20 and 31 at the time of their nuptials.
The flamboyant zoo keeper had a three-way wedding with Travis Maldonado and John Finlay in 2014.
John was 31 at the time, while Travis was just 20, while Joe was decades older at 51.
Wedded bliss: Louis touched on the now-57-year-old’s sex life with his two husbands, who were 20 and 31 years his junior at the time of their nuptials. The flamboyant zoo keeper had a three-way wedding with Travis Maldonado and John Finlay in 2014 (pictured). John was 31 at the time, while Travis was just 20, while Joe was decades older at 51
Both husbands had begun working at the zoo aged just 19 – John in 2003 and Travis in 2013.
Joe told the journalist that the men avoided jealously by making love in a group, with all three involved at all times, The Weekend Australian reported on Saturday.
‘It works awesome,’ Joe told Louis at the time, ‘Because we’re all too tired to have sex.’
In 2017, Travis, then 23, died after authorities say he accidentally fatally shot himself in the head.
John was moved on and is engaged to a woman named Stormey Sanders. The pair have a child together.
Joe’s final marriage was to Dillon Passage, 22, in December 2017, with the duo together when Joe was arrest in 2018.