Netflix is delving into the story of one of America’s wildest murder-for-hire plots in the first trailer for its latest true crime docueseries, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness. From the producers behind the streaming service’s FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, the series promises to be the streamer’s next big binge as it tells the story of Joe Exotic, the self-proclaimed “Tiger King,” who toyed in magic, drugs, homemade country-music videos and polygamy before being sentenced to prison in connection to a bizarre crime involving his enemy, Carole Baskin.
“Among the eccentrics and cult personalities in the stranger-than-fiction world of big cat owners, few stand out more than Joe Exotic, a mulleted, gun-toting polygamist and country western singer who presides over an Oklahoma roadside zoo,” an official synopsis for the series reads. “Charismatic but misguided, Joe and an unbelievable cast of characters including drug kingpins, conmen and cult leaders all share a passion for big cats, and the status and attention their dangerous menageries garner.”
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“But things take a dark turn when Carole Baskin, an animal activist and owner of a big cat sanctuary, threatens to put them out of business, stoking a rivalry that eventually leads to Joe’s arrest for a murder-for-hire plot, and reveals a twisted tale where the only thing more dangerous than a big cat is its owner,” it adds.
The film’s scheduled March 20 premiere dates comes just months after an Oklahoma judge sentenced Exotic to 264 months, or 22 years in prison after he was convicted on April 2, 2019 on two counts of murder-for-hire and 17 wildlife charges. At the January hearing, according to National Geographic, Exotic claimed that he “broke no laws” and that he owed Baskin an apology before blaming her, the government, law enforcement, his employees and others for his current scenario.
The film joins a growing number of true crime documentaries to land at the streaming service, following on the heels of Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, Abducted in Plain Sight, Don’t F**k With Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer, and The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez.
It is written and directed by Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin.
Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness premieres Friday, March 20 on Netflix.
