Joe Exotic Claims He’ll Be ‘Dead in 2-3 Months’ in Letter to Donald Trump

In a letter to President Donald Trump as well as his supporters pleading for a pardon, Tiger King star Joe Exotic (real name Joseph Maldano-Passage) has claimed that he will be “dead in 2-3 months” if he doesn’t get any help. Exotic was sentenced to 22 years in prison for a murder-for-hire plot targeting Carole Baskin as well as violating the Endangered Species Act and falsifying wildlife records — and prison hasn’t been treating him well if his letter is anything to go by.

In the three-page letter, obtained by TMZ on Monday, Exotic asked the president to “keep his word” by looking into his case and begged him to “grant me a miracle,” as his “soul is dead” in prison. According to Exotic, every day has become a “struggle,” as he is kept “locked down 24/7 with no phone, email, or commissary. He said that he has not even received a letter from his husband, Dillon Passage, in months, though fans have sent him plenty of pictures and letters of Dillon “having fun.” Exotic asked fans to stop sending him such things and later wrote that he is unsure if he is even still married.

Likening prison to “hell on Earth” and comparing his incarceration to being sent to “death row,” Exotic alleged that he is not receiving the necessary medical treatment or prescription medication for his health conditions. Exotic said he requires blood infusions “every four weeks” for common variable immune deficiency (CVID), though he has “not had one since end of January.” He also claimed that he is “loosing (sic) weight,” has sores that won’t heal, and “they stopped all of my medication expect (sic) one.” In a chilling statement, he predicted that he will be “dead in 2-3 months.” He said that he wishes he “could just have ended things when” his previous husband “Travis died.” He also claims that while in a different detention center, he was “stripped naked, tied to a chair until the skin came off my arms.”

Elsewhere in the letter, Exotic takes aim at people who he feels have taken advantage of him, including some members of his former zoo’s staff, who he says just “want to be famous.” He also makes a number of questionable statements regarding race, including a claim that he may be treated better in prison if he was not a white man. At one point he also states that George Floyd’s message got lost with the rioting.

Exotic concluded the letter with a plea to Trump and a number of other famous names, including Cardi B and Kim Kardashian. He wrote that he has “done nothing wrong but act a fool to protect my zoo from arson and people hurting my animals.” He pleaded for them to “hear my scream of help.”