In his latest prison dispatch, Tiger King star Joe Exotic claims justice is coming for his longtime nemesis Carole Baskin and he hopes Don Lewis’ family gets the answers they are searching for. In a new jailhouse phone interview, Exotic maintained his innocence and defended putting five endangered tigers to sleep at his zoo. The phone call will air as part of the new Investigation Discovery special, Joe Exotic: Tigers, Lies and Cover-Up.
“All I can say is, don’t throw stones when you live in a glass house,” Exotic said in one clip, published by TMZ Friday. “A dear friend of ours in Tampa, Florida is feeling the repercussions of the way she lived the last 20 years of her life, thinking she can bully people around. Exotic, whose legal name is Joseph Moldanado-Passage, was not clear about what the “repercussions” Baskin is facing.
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Exotic then commented on Lewis’ family, who recently began a major push calling for new information into his disappearance. Lewis, Baskin’s second husband, went missing in August 1997 and was declared legally dead in 2002. Baskin was never charged in connection with his disappearance, but an entire episode of Tiger King focused on Exotic’s conspiracy theory that Baskin killed Lewis and fed his body to her tigers. Exotic hopes that Lewis’ daughters’ pleas for help finally give them some answers.
“This is a travesty,” Exotic said of his own prison sentence. “If this can happen to me, how many other innocent people have they tried and… every one of their cases needs to be re-opened and re-looked at.” He then defended killing five tigers at his zoo, saying they were “in pain” because they had “a toenail coming out of their ankles,” “no teeth” and “they had exposed root canals.”
Last year, Exotic was convicted on 17 charges of animal abuse and two counts of murder for hire. Prosecutors said he hired a hitman to kill Baskin. Exotic has maintained his innocence and asked President Donald Trump for a pardon earlier this month. He also claims he has been sexually assaulted in prison. His jailhouse interview will air during Investigation Discovery’s special on Sunday at 9 p.m. ET. The last part of the special will air on Monday at 9 p.m. ET.
Meanwhile, Baskin can be seen on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. She made it to the third week and will participate in Monday’s “Disney Night” episode, which airs at 8 p.m. ET. During the DWTS premiere, Lewis’ family’s attorney aired a new commercial, which Baskin said she has not seen yet. “I am not at all surprised,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “It’s just been a huge publicity stunt on their part so what more could they possibly do than that?”
