Latest / DISGRACELAND / Joe Exotic: Tiger King, Budding Country Star, Confidence Man Extraordinaire

Transcript

Joe Exotic: Tiger King, Budding Country Star, Confidence Man Extraordinaire · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. Hey, guys, do
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: my best to bring you as much content as I
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: can during this COVID nineteen lockdown. So here's a special,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: unplanned bonus episode. I decided late Friday afternoon to write
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: once I learned the music news about Tiger King's Joe Exotic.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Like the rest of America, I two binged Tiger King
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: and was excited to come at the story from a
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: music angle. So my team and I jumped into action
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: and we pulled this together in three days. So you
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: can ask some content on this Disgraceland off week. For context,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: it usually takes two weeks to produce an episode of Disgraceland,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: and that doesn't include research. So I not only relied
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: heavily obviously on the Netflix documentary as a source for
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: this episode, but I also relied on the New York
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: magazine Intelligencer article on Joe Exotic entitled American Animals that
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: was reported in partnership with over My dead Body season two.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Joe Exotic by Wondery and the rest of the sources
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: used for this episode are available on my website, as
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: are the sources for all of my episodes. Finally, if
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: you have some extra coin lying around and want to
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: donate to help prevent the type of animal cruelty depicted
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: in this episode, there are numerous animal rights organizations out
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: there worthy of your donation. And if depictions of animal cruelty, rape,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: or suicide trigger you in any way, then you might
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: want to skip this. But stories about gun toting, mullet wearing,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: polyamorous con men get you going, And guess what, motherfucker,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: this episode's for you, Melotron. Stories about Joe Exotic are insane.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: As the owner of a roadside zoo in Oklahoma, he
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: ruled over his staff like a redneck circus wrangler. He
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: took tigers and other large predators to malls across America
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: until his touring show was shut down by his nemesis,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Carol Baskin. He was strapped at all times and made
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: sure everyone who ever saw his YouTube show knew he
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: was ready to stand his ground and defense of his cats,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: blowing the intruders away or just playing blow shit up.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: He was a polygamist, a politician, a padlocked Prince Albert
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: wearing protagonist in his own movie, and he was of
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: course the star of a series of low budget country
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: music videos, including one where the body parts of his
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: arch rival's husband are fed to real live, hungry tigers.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: The song, like the video, is so badshit crazy that
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: it's hard not to qualify at it as anything less
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: than great, because Joe Exotic made great music. Actually he didn't,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: but he didn't make music sort of, but not in
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: the way you expect, and totally unlike that music you
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: heard at the top of the show. That wasn't great
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: music either. That was a preset loop from my mellotron
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: called Ham and Tube Funk MK. Two. I played you
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: that loop because I can't afford the rights to the
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Box by Roddy Rich. And why would I play you
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: that specific slice of lo fi auto tuned cheese? Could
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: I afford it? Because that was the number one song
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: in America on January twenty second, twenty twenty, and that
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: was the day that Joe Exotic was sentenced to twenty
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: two years in federal prison for only a small sample
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: of the insane behavior he had exhibited over the previous decade.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: On this episode, Big Cat Exploitation, Tiger Maullie's Deadly gun Play,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Low budget Country Cheese, and Joe exotic. I'm Jake Brennan
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: and this is disgraceland. The police cruiser was screaming down
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: the highway's off ramp. Its driver was drunk to the
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: point of pissing the khaki pants of his uniform and
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: humiliated rejected again the bourbon. The beer. It dulled the pain,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: but love was more than just a shot away. Gay
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: nightlife in Dallas, Texas in nineteen eighty five, for Eastvale
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Chief of Police Joe Shrevogel was heartaches by the number,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: trouble by the score, still at the age of twenty two,
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: while dealing with, as he would be the rest of
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: his life, the post dramatic stress of being raped at
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: the age of five and having to navigate the tricky
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: emotional terrain of young closeted homosexual adult. Joe, with the
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: alcohol revving him up, had reached his breaking point. He
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: turned down the off ramp and gunned it. Pedaled to
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: the metal, straight for the wall, no sad farewells, no tear,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: dimmed eyes, on his way to that fair land where
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: the soul never dies. Joe survived the crash, some would
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: say thrive, but the memory of the crash snuck up
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: on him now and then out of nowhere, as did
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: the other memories, the bad ones, the one about his
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: first husband, Brian, dying of AIDS and that wound was deep,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: it wasn't healing. Ever Worse than that, though more scarring,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: more frightening, was the memory of his second husband JC.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Get on the ground, motherfucker. You're gonna eat this gun.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: You hear me, You're gonna fucking eat it, Eat it,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: eat it. J C was now doing a life sentence
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: for degree murder. He came and went, just like the memories.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Joe couldn't control them, but it didn't matter. He could
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: control most everything else. He had confidence in spades. He
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: used it to build a mini empire, an exotic animal empire.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Joe shri Vogel was now Joe Exotic Exotic Animals. Big
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: cats were the game. But entertainment was the business. Show business,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: or more precisely, Joe business. It had always been that way,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: the business of show the business of Joe. That's how
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: we got the gig. As chief of police at nineteen,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: with zero experience or any real education, he talked himself
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: into it confidence and then later, as a traveling magician,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: he did the same thing he knew a trick or
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: too sure, But like every good confidence man, Joe was
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: only as good as the card up his sleeve. He'd
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: bury the memories, strolled the expanse of his sixteen acre
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: exotic animal park w zoo, and contemplate his next move,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: his next score, his next love. Within the sixteen acres
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: of the animal park, Joe was master of his domain.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Within this space, he kept an untold number of played
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: spinning within his own three ring circus act, not only
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: feeding lions and tigers and bears and more, but playing
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Backwood Sugar Daddy there in Winningwood, Oklahoma, to the island
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: of misfit toys that made up his staff, guiding tourists
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: through to see the wonders and to pet the baby
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: tigers while they took selfies for future Facebook, Instagram and
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: Tinder profile picks. Business was good, ish, and there was
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: always some complications, some hassle, usually money, but things were up.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: Joe was moving into television. He'd launched his own web
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: TV show, but he also had an experienced reality TV
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: producer and crew following his every move, making a reality
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: series on spec with hopes of selling it to Animal
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Planet or National geography, or some other basic cable channel,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: hopefully through a bidding war. So far, today it was
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: quiet at the zoo. Joe was sitting outside smoking, looking
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: up at the clouds, watching them take shape, looking for
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: signs wasting time, and there are only a few patrons
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: so far, are milling about waiting for the show to start,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: waiting to shell out what few dollars they had to
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: hold and pet a baby tiger shit that reminded Joe
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: the cats over in the tiger pen needed to be fed.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Tigers only eat about once a week, meaning wild tigers
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: only kill once a week to eat, not for sport.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: Generally speaking, tigers are afraid of humans, not that there
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: aren't numerous attacks of humans by tigers in the wild.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: There are, but those are mainly cases of mistaken identity,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: where the tiger thinks the human is something else, something
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: normally on the menu, like a wild boar or an
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: elephant calf. Tigers of course also attack humans when they
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: feel threatened, but assuming threats aren't part of the deal,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: and assuming the tiger's normal diet doesn't dry up, then
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: humans are usually off the menu. But not on that morning,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Not at Joe Exotics Exotic Animal Park on that day.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: Humans were absol fucking lutely on the menu. The animal
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: clawed at the arm, big six inch claws, ripping skin,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: then a second swipe gripping into the muscle under the
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: human flesh, shredding the tendons or the muscle connected to
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: the bone, pulling Joe's worker, the one they called saff,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: into the fence and separated him from the hungry man eater.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: The tiger thrust his head at sass arm, brought its
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: sharp canines down through the skin of the arm, severed
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: it almost completely. The tiger fell back for a moment
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: on the other side of the fence. Saf managed to
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: get his arm free at that exact right moment, falling
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: into a puddle of muddy water on the ground. As
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: soon as the attack happened, word went out fast, and
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Joe was on the scene in less than a minute,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: pulling this severely wounded employee out of the muck and
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: quickly applying a makeshift tourniquet to his arm. In another
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: minute flat, Joe threw on an emt jacket, always the showman,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: this time playing the role of authority through sheer confidence
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: alone as he went to announce the malling to the
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: crowd of visitors wandering around his gift shop. Even in
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: the face of disaster, Joe's bravado carried the day as
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: he described the incident to the assembled crowd as if
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: nothing had gone wrong except for Saff putting his arm
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: through the fence. It was sas fault after all, and
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: if for shit, sure wasn't his fault or the tigers,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: because at heart, Joe's fast talking persona was inseparable from
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: his love for the big cats. Like all big cat people,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: he had the stones to walk among some of the
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: world's most efficient predators. Compared to that adrenaline rush. Dealing
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: with the fallout on this messy day at the park
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: was nothing. Every confidence man knows how to handle a
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: mark who spots the work provided a distraction. Move along.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: Nothing to see here except the gw Zoo. In the
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: wake of saff smalling, there was still plenty to see.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: The park remained open, and Saff himself would soon be
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: back on the job, not wanting to give the press
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: more ammo in their campaign to shame Joe or worse,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: shut him down. The inevitable had happened, but thanks to
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: an emt, costume change, and the loyalty of his workers.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: Joe Exotic would stay on top for now. That night,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: Joe sat in front of his computer. The glow of
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: the screening was the only light shining in his broke
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: down palace, a ramshackle ranch house on the Zoo's property.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: Inside it was a total shithole, double wide decor. Joe
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: Chain smoked and cruised Craigslist. It was a nightly ritual,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: old habit. It relaxed him. Joe knew the ins and
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: outs of the free market listing site come internet sewer,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: depending on what you were looking for meth, paid sex,
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: we whatever, and that you knew how to look for
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: capital T in the post to indicate the poster had meth.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Promises of roses for paid sex, for violets for we
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Craigslist could hook you up, especially when it came to sex,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: casual encounters, nssays for no strings attached, massages, waterworks, party
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: and play, all kinds of sex, sex, sex, and more sex.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: So much so that Newsweek in twenty fifteen reported that
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Craigslist alone was responsible for a sixteen percent increase in
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: HIV cases. Joe was clean, though he thought so, anyway,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: he was in love with Travis. Travis was beautiful, which
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: was most of the reason why Joe married him, and
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: certainly all of the reason Joe's other husband, John allowed
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: for the polygamous union. Travis was easy on the eyes,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: but that's not why John allowed Joe to bring him
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: into the relationship. John allowed it because he'd let Joe
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: do whatever the hell was Joe wanted to do. Joe
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: was the boss. Literally, Joe not only paid husband number
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: one John's checks at the Zoo, but Joe also paid
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: John's bills, took care of him real sugar daddy style.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: John wasn't bad looking either, bulky nineteen years old. Joe
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: bought him steroids to beefcake him up a bit more,
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: and Joe paid for his tattoo, the one just above
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: his cock that said privately owned by Joe Exotic. But
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: aside from all that, Travis was okay with John. Like John,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: Travis wasn't even really gay. He was just desperate, young, impressionable,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: and easily influenced by confidence, experience, and opportunity. Travis would
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: go in with Joe for the same reasons John did,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: and like John, Travis liked the math a little too much.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: The clouded things made it all blooey up in his head. Sex, sexuality, love, desired, devotion.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: What did any of it really mean? Anyway? The three
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: of them, Joe, Travis, and John lived somewhat happily Zoo
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: and Joe loved both his husbands, but Travis was special.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: Maybe Joe would write him a song, Yeah, something heartfelt,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: something Clint Black would sing to his pretty wife and
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: mean it. Joe pointed his cursor to the Little Blue
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: create a posting link on Craigslist and lit another cigarette.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: When Joe got the MP three of the songs mix
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: email to him and clicked play, and the sound came
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: rushing out of his tiny little computer speakers. It was glorious.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Joe heard his future calling him. The song was perfect,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: so on brand. So Joe, the reality shoe television producers,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: the networks, his staff at the Zoo, They're all gonna
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: have the same reaction. Joe, you sound amazing, Damn RIGHTY
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: tell him he was Joe Exotic, not some other guy.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Of course he could sing. He had one good leg
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: left too. After that bitch Tiger Chainsaw tore him up good.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: But guess what motherfucker he could dance too, But singing
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: and dancing wasn't gonna be enough. He needed theatrics, and
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: in the age of the Internet, clicks were almost as
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: good as dollars, and that meant Joe needed a video.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: He had the song. Now it was time to pour
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: gas on this bitch. The federal agents from the US
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: Fish and Wildlife Service could not believe what they were seeing,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: yet they couldn't stop watching. They didn't even like country music. Hell,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: one of them didn't even really like music. Yet these
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: music videos were endlessly entertaining, so amateur, yet so damn
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: batshit crazy. It was better than porn. There were love
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: letters to tigers with cheap storm cloud visuals, explosions, a
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: ubiquitous bottle dyed mullet, uncomfortable, extra shitty tattoos, tattooed eyeliner,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: more shitty tattoos, a candlelight dinner for one, more tigers,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: more storm clouds, scantily cloud Country chicks were the singer
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: who everyone knew was gay because he was openly married
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: to not one but two men, surrounded himself with hot
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: babes to demonstrate his sexual prowess with the ladies called
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: pretty woman, Lover and In all the videos, the one
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: constant besides the mullet, of course, was the singer's shameless confidence.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: It's unbelievable he comes across as some sort of every
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: rose has its thorn era Brett Michaels crossed with Joe
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: dirt and with zero irony and about as much self
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: awareness as Kenny Powers. But the one that took the cake,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: the video that absolute could not be topped, was the
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: one called Here Kitty Kitty. In it, the singer Joe
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: Exotic aka Joe Maldonado Passage aka Joe Maldonado aka Joe
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: Shrivogel sings directly to his nemesis while wearing a priest uniform,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: while an actor playing his nemesis feeds her husband's body
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: parts to real live hungry tigers. That nemesis one Carol Baskin,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: owner of Big Cat Rescue outside Tampa, Florida. Like any
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: good nemesis, Carol was like Joe in some ways, but
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: his polar opposite and others. Like Joe, Carol loved big
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: cats and provided them a sanctuary in which to live
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: out their days in captivity. Unlike Joe, Carol had sworn
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: off breeding and declared herself an animal rights activist. Like Joe,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Carol knew the value of internet publicity, sharing web vlogs
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: and maintaining a highly popular Facebook group. Unlike Joe, she
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: used her online platform to target animal abusers and tried
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: to shut down their businesses, and Joe was at the
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: top of her list. From Joe's perspective, this was rank hypocrisy.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: Letters from Big Cat Rescue had hounded his touring mall
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: show until he had to shut it down. But how
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: much better really was Carol's organization than his own? It
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: was clear to everyone watching with grim fascination over the
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: interwebs she had gotten under his skin. In Joe's web videos,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: Joe had positioned mannequins and sex dolls labeled Carol and
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: blow them up with dynamite, empty gun barrels into them,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: and threatened to send Carol venomous snakes through the US mail.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: And these weren't the acts of any normal confidence man,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: but of a showman who had started drinking his own
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: kool aid. Carol up the antie and retaliated by suing
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: Joe for copyright infringement for ripping off her Big Cat
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: Rescue logo In an effort to sew confusion in the
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Big Cat community. The sewing of confusion worked for Joe,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: and so did the lawsuit for Carol. Carol won her
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: day in court, and the result would be her bleeding
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: Joe financially for years. He was crushed, nearly ruined financially
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: because of it, and he couldn't let the gripe against
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: Carol go. The hypocrisy of it all, especially considering that Joe,
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: like a lot of others in the Big Cat community,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: was convinced that Carol was the actual criminal, a felon,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: even a murderer, who got away with killing her husband
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: and taking over his fortune, dousing him with sardine oil
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: and feeding him to the tigers on their property. And
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: that was the running theory anyway, There's no evidence supporting it,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: but the story worked with Joe's narrative that Carol was
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: the real villain, not him, and he was going to
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: prove it. That's what the new song was all about,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: and that's what the Here Kitty Kitty video was about too,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Joe singing his ass off, channeling Charlie Leavin. It wasn't
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: quite Knoxville Girl, but Here Kitty Kitty was steeped in murdered.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: Joe was shining a light on Carroll's bullshit, showing the
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: war in his eyes. She was a murderer. And that's
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: why the FEDS were watching Joe clocking his silly music videos,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: making sure his antics didn't escalate into anything real. Because
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: there were rumors, rumors that Joe was more than just
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: a hapless, publicity starved con man. There were rumors about
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: the slaughtered tigers, and darker rumors still that Joe had
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: real murder on his mind. We'll be right back after
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: this word word word. Tiger coves are high unto themselves.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: They're potentially dangerous, but not really. People love them. They're
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: so damn cute, beautiful. People can't get enough of them,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: And therein was the draw to Joe Exotic Zoo the cubs.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: People would line up for hours to pay five bucks
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: to get to hold them for a couple of minutes,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: and then another five bucks to get their picture snapped
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: with them. But the problem with tiger coves is they
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: grow up in the big hungry tigers that cost over
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: ten grand a year to feed each and for someone
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: like Joe Exotic, those big hungry tigers weren't good for
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: much beyond making more tiger cubs. But pretty soon those
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: cubs would be old enough to make more cubs, and
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: then they too will be costing too much money to feed.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: It was a goddamn vicious cycle. Travis hopped in Joe's pickup.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: He wasn't excited about what he knew they were going
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: to do. Joe, behind the wheel didn't seem to care
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: at all. He sang along to Garth Brooks on the
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: radio as they drove to the outer limit of the
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: zoo's property. Out there, other zoo staff were waiting. The
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: ditch was doug days ago. Joe pulled up to it,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: hopped out of the truck, took a shotgun. Travis stayed
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: in the pickup, and the adult tigers Joe had requested
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: were there in the ditch, roaming, all five of them. Samson, Delilah, Trinity, Lauren,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: and Cuddles. Raised a shotgun, took aim and blasted Samson away,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: then Delilah, then Trinity, Lauren, and at last Cuddles. They
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: all died instantly, all five of them, and Joe was
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: off the hook for fifty grand. The callous murder of
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: the tigers was one of the many things Travis could
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: no longer truck with. Life on the Zoo was well
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: a zoo. Joe was a mess in constant motion, starting
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: one fire to distract from another. There was the lawsuit
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: with Carol, the literal fire in the Alligator House, the
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: destruction of their web studio in years of lost footage,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: and unbelievably a serious run for governor of Oklahoma by
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: the most unserious of candidates. Making matters worse was the
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: fact that Travis confided to others that Joe had him
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: completely locked down, that he wouldn't let him leave the zoo,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: wouldn't let him get a job elsewhere, that he kept
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: him doped up on grass and meth in order to
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: keep him under his thumb. Travis sunk into a deep
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: depression because of it, all smoked more and more weed
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: and doubled down on the meth. All the while Joe
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: was consumed with the zoo, was paying off the lawsuit
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: from Carol, with a silly campaign for governor that was
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: going nowhere, and with his new friend Jeff. Jeff was
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: Jeff Low from Las Vegas, Rumored to be a con
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: man of sorts himself. Jeff had what Joe needed cash,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: cash to keep the studio afloat while Joe paid off Carol,
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Jeff could get shit done. Dig that McMansion on the
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: outskirts of town, dig that hummer, dig that swinging dime
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: spot wife, with the trysts, with the call girls in Vegas.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: Jeff had it going on. Jeff was the answer to
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Joe's prayers, or so Joe thought. No one else did.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: Jeff represented the end death. Joe transferred legal ownership with
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: the zoo to Jeff and focused on brand and entertainment
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: and fending off Carol. Jeff managed his new investment, quickly
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: took control of the zoo and brought in new management,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: Alan Glover. Alan Glover ran out of Fox decades before
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: running into Joe Exotic in his band of misfit toys
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: at the GW Zoo. Alan did hard time, a convicted
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: felon who snickered at Joe's tattooed eyeliner. Alan had a
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: teardrop tattoo below his eye. Rumors spread that it was
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: a prison marker, symbolizing that Allan had killed a man,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: though many claim that the teardrop prison logo is an
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: indicator that it's wearer is a bitch, someone sissy, someone
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: turned out by a more dominant prisoner, a sex toy.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: It's not surprising which meeting Alan ran with on the zoo.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: He refused to work for Joe, degraded him regularly for
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: being a homosexual, claimed he worked for Jeff and Jeff alone,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: which was true. Alan didn't get along with Joe's other
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: zoo staff either, Travis among them, Travis was sunk. Not
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: only was working with Alan under the new zoo order
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: of pain in the ass, Joe was not himself. He
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: was irritable, His mood swings were off the charts. He
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: was regularly blowing up its staff, berating them high, fucked up,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: a erratic, becoming more possessive of not only Travis, but
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: also of John as other husband. Near impossible to deal with,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: and due to Carol's lawsuit and the constant pressure put
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: on Joe to pay off the massive million dollar plus
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: debt the court's rule to the olde Carol, Joe was
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: constantly stressed about money. Feeding the cats was becoming impossible,
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: and there was only so much and expired meat donations
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: he could grab from the local Walmart, and a good
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: portion of that bad meat was now being used to
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: top the pizza Joe was serving to customers from the
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: new pizzeria he and Jeff built on the zoo. But
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: customers weren't the only ones who needed to eat. The
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: adult tigers needed to eat too, and Joe had no
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: cash to make it happen, so he was eager to
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: take the call about the horse, the one some locals
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: wanted Joe to take off their hands. They wanted to
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: donate it to the zoo. Travis thought it was a
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: bad idea. Joe didn't give a fuck with Travis thought.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: Travis smoked some more dope. Joe, once the horse was donated,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: arranged for it to be brought out to the ditch.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: Travis was bored. There were only so many trails to
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: tear ass over on his four wheeler. Joe grabbed his
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: shotgun and headed out toward the ditch. Travis grabbed his
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: ruger and headed toward the zoo's office. Joe was fed up,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: tired of the hassle of the zoo, Carroll's bullshit, Jeff's bullshit,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: tired of the staff, tired of John, tired of Travis,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: tired even of the tigers. Travis was fed up as well,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: fed up with Joe, mostly his constant bullshit, his possessive ways.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Fed up because frankly, he had no life with Joe.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: He wasn't allowed to leave, to work, to love, to live.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: Joe drove in his pickup blasted as newest would be single.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: God damn, this demo was hot. He knew it, and
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: the vocals especially deep, resonant, hinting at a knowing soul,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: someone who's seen some shit, a dead husband, a jailed husband,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: a kept husband. Travis stopped his four wheeler, blasted a
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: rail of math up his nose. His blood ran hot.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: He knew he was fucked this time, especially trapped, kept
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: dying inside to be more, someone who could live a life,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: a real person, a real man, a freeman. Joe put
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: his hand on his shotgun on the seat at his side.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: It comforted him, made him feel like the man he
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: was in control. Confident, Travis patted his hand on the
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: ruger in his pocket as he bounced off the four wheeler.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: It gave him purpose for a moment anyway. Less confused,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: Joe exited the pickup truck and there was the horse,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: as requested, roaming in the ditch. Travis entered the zoo's office.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: There was the camera, as expected, running up on its perch.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: Joe raised the shotgun. Travis raised the ruger. Joe thought,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: out here, no one would see, Travis thought. With the
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: camera on, everyone would see. Joe point out straight at
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: the horse's head. Future tiger met, he thought. Travis pointed
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: it to the temple of his own head. Fuck with me,
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: Fuck with you. He pulled the trigger. Publicly, Joe displayed
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: legitimate grief and of course confidence. Travis's death tore him
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: up good and it brought a ship ton of publicity,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: good and bad, down on Joe, Jeff, and the Zoo. Privately,
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: Joe is a mess alone at night, with the remnants
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: of his trauma, the constant pick of his stress and
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: rattling anxiety, the hum of Craigslist as always lighting his
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: room from his computer screen, the television dead quiet, just
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: like his confidence. Joe lashed out. He pulled the revolver
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: from his side, the one he kept on him at
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: all times, took game at his television and blew it away.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: Then he took gaim at the couch across from him
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: and fired a bullet through it. As well, And finally
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: he did what seemed like an inevitability. He put the
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: barrel of the gun to his own head and pulled
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: the trigger. But the pistol malfunctioned and Joe Exotic escaped
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: death by his own hand. But Carol Baskin would not
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: be so lucky, not if Joe had anything to do
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: about it. She was bleeding him. It had to end.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: She was the living embodiment of an existential threat to
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: his way of life. She had to die, and Joe
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: knew just how to do it. He was confident that
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: not only could he get rid of Carol, but if
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: he was smart, he could solve another problem as well,
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: get rid of that world class prick, Alan Gardner in
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: the process and killed two birds with one crossbow. And
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: that was the plan anyway, The plan he cooked up
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: with Alan traveling halfway across the country from Oklahoma to Tampa,
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: Florida with a gun for Alan for an ex con
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: was too risky, so a crossbow was decided upon. Alan
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: would sneak out to Carroll's property with a crossbow while
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: she was out for a regular bike ride and shoot
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: her with it. No, Alan had a better idea. He
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: was into the knife, smaller, easier to carry and conceal.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: He'd sneak onto Carroll's property, wait for her in the bushes,
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: jump out, attack, and cut her head off for five
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars. But Alan was in it for more than
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: the money. He hated Joe, and he knew that if
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: he did this for him, he would own him forever.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: Alan knew already that he was going to hell for
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: his sins. He needed to make the most of this world.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: He told a friend and confidant of his and Jeff's,
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: James Garretson, who was in on the plan to kill Carol.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: If anybody rats me out and I get popped everybody
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: that they love, I'll have them burnt alive, every fucking
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: single person. And I mean that from the bottom of
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: my heart. They will be burnt the fuck alive. Joe
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: promised Alan the full five k when the job was complete,
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: and gave him a three grand advance. Alan got in
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: his car, headed for Florida and quickly blew all the
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: money on strippers, booze, and drugs. There was no hit
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: on Carol. Fuck it. Alan decided the five K and
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: Joe fucking Exotic weren't worth more time. Joe Exotic, he
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: of the never ending bullshit, the consummate entertainer, a man
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: who's seen forever confident, an extraordinary confidence man, a confidence
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: man's con man, had been out conned by the ex
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: Cohn Alan Gardner, who not only conned Joe out of
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: his money, but conspired with Jeff Lowe and their friend
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: James Garretson to set Joe up for the FEDS and
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: help convict him of a murder for higher plot, murder
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: for hire being a tricky charge to land convictions for
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: needing an exchange of money, wired recordings acknowledging the plot
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: and then motioned by the hired assassin to execute the
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: plot well, the FEDS being the FEDS, weren't going to
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: hang their hat on a complicated scheme that wouldn't guarantee
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: a guilty verdict, especially once Alan blew the money on
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: a lost weekend in Florida instead of taking out Carol.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: So Joe was brought up on nineteen total charges, two
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: that covered the attempt to kill Carol in seventeen for
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: animal cruelty, including multiple attempts to sell or offer to
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: sell tigers, and perhaps most heart strength pulling of all
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: the Murder of the Five Tigers, Samson, Delilah, Trinity, Lauren,
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: and Cuddles for all of it. Joe got twenty two
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: years in a cage for Joe Exotic, for Joe Maldonado, Passage,
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: Joe Maldonado, Joe Shrivoga. There were many humiliations about prison,
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: the irony, of course, being the heat a man who
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: exploited helpless animals, killing them and keeping them caged for
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: his own enrichment was now behind bars. That, of course
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: stung like a motherfucker. But perhaps more stinging was the
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: fact that finally Joe Exotic's confidence had paid off. He
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: was famous, not because of some lowbrow reality TV show,
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: and not because of his silly music videos, but because
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: of a Netflix documentary, Tiger King, that captured America's imagination
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: at a time when the country desperately needed the distraction.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: Joe Exotic was the most famous man in America, and
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: he was rotting behind bars. That stung, But so too
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: did the discovery and humiliation that Joe wasn't, even in
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: his newfound fame, quite what he presented himself as. After
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: the popularity of the Netflix documentary on his life, his
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: Zoo his beef with Carol, it came out in public
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: that Joe wasn't the real voice behind those impassioned country
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: songs he'd been releasing over the years, songs and music
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: videos that constituted so much of who Joe was his identity.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: But no Joe, with his high pitched nasally redneck lil
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: couldn't hold a tune if it was drenched in crazy glue.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: Word is out that Joe Milli Vanilli, that shit, pointed
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: the cursor toward the blue, create a posting link on
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: Craigslist and learned a struggling country act from Vancouver, Washington,
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: the Clinton Johnson Band, to write, record, and of course
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: sing his songs for him. Joe Exotic Forever, a con Forever,
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: a Disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan in this his Disgraceland. Disgraceland
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: was created by Yours Truly and is produced in partnership
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be found
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: on the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com. If
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: you're listening as a Disgraceland All Access member, thank you
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: for supporting the show. We really appreciate it, and if not,
• 35:29
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• 35:31
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• 35:36
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• 35:40
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• 35:45
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• 35:49
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• 35:54
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• 35:56
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• 36:00
  Speaker 1: slash at disgrace lamdpod rock a Rolla. He's a bad
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: bad man, h