01x04 - Playing with Fire

[bunniefuu]

I wake up, I go to work ♪

But every day I get someone

Trying to slam me down ♪

Back in the dirt ♪

I don't care

I move on ♪

So bring on the media

To the driveway ♪

[Joe] I use my music

as an escape from reality.

This is what I do right here,

drive around and listen to myself singing.

This old town is where I wanna be ♪

Is where I'm gonna be ♪

I moved up here

And I took a chance, yeah ♪

Started my own brother's dream ♪

Ain't much left here now ♪

Just some beat-up buildings

And a place to dream ♪

They still haunt me ♪

In this old town ♪

[operator] This is a prepaid call from

[Joe] Joe Exotic.

[operator]

an inmate at the Grady County Jail.

[Joe] Me and Carole

made money off of each other.

We became popular off of each other

because I was her

number one most wanted cub ab*ser

that she could make money off of,

and she was my number one

m*rder*d-her-husband

and-fed-him-to-the-tigers-and

crazy b*tch out there

that I could make music videos

and sh*t about.

[man] All right,

we're gonna get Joe in there now.

Oh, okay.

God, this stinks! Hurry up!

Come on, over here.

[Joe]

If you don't think she's not making money

off of me being in jail right now,

you're crazier than sh*t.

Howard, this entire row of files

is all dedicated to Joe.

Actually

this file cabinet

this is the current legal stuff

and this one down here.

[Kirkham] Tilt up a bit, Michael.

We'll put it right there.

Joe, let's have one right at this camera.

- Come here.

- You got stills, Michael?

Oh, it's a still camera?

Somebody get my

[cubs mewling]

[man] Wow, one with the mouth open

and everything.

[Reinke] The more Joe got aware

of social media and how it worked,

the more he realized that he needed

to work the name.

Like, when you Google "big cat rescue,"

it pulls up Big Cat Rescue

in Tampa, Florida.

Do you know the power you have

if you search Google around the world,

and you're the first choice every time?

Hey, all you cool cats and kittens,

it's Carole at Big Cat Rescue

[Antle] She is the one.

She's the first choice every time,

supersedes all the zoos.

She's at the top of all search.

Most of the cats ate well today.

Nat was a champ

and so was Frosty, the serval,

except for no poop from Frosty.

[Reinke] Joe started realizing that if he

made his name close to Big Cat Rescue,

when they Google it,

it might pull him up first.

[Howard] Joe decided

that the way he would get back at us

was to rename his traveling show

"Big Cat Rescue Entertainment."

He did that as a ploy to help

his, uh, ratings on the Internet.

[Goode] Where did you get the name?

Where'd you get the idea?

Big Cat Rescue Entertainment?

I mean, we're the biggest center

in the United States

who are rescuing big cats.

Uh, and we entertain people, okay?

Here's our logo, all right?

And here is what he started using.

Notice that the "Entertainment" below

is a bit faded,

so you don't even see it.

The snow leopard eyes was, at that time,

the masthead on our website,

so he was copying that.

I don't want to say

it's all the way similar,

but, I mean, it definitely looked like it.

Here, he was handing out a business card

that said, "Florida office",

and had our area code and number

that forwarded to him.

Yeah, he come up with a Florida address

and a Florida phone number

to help ping all that stuff together.

And it worked.

People were contacting us and saying,

"Hey, I didn't think you did

this sort of thing."

Oh, that definitely pissed her off.

And then it just got worse.

We couldn't sue him over the cub petting.

We didn't have standing to do that.

But we could sue him

for violating our copyright.

[man] We are now on the record

in the matter of Big Cat Rescue Corp.

versus Big Cat Rescue Entertainment.

This is the videotape deposition of Joe

uh, "Shreeb-uh-vogel"?

- Schreibvogel.

- Okay.

Honestly, I thought it would end there.

I thought he would look at that

and be smart enough to say,

"You know what?

I don't want the expense of a lawsuit.

I'll just stop using their name."

He continued to use the name,

and he filed counter claims

to drag this out.

We built a website, 911AnimalAbuse.org.

We put a reward out for information

leading to who k*lled Don

or where Don's remains are.

[man] Why did you set that up?

Why did I set that up?

To start posting the truth

about Carole Baskin for a change.

Is Don really under the septic tank?

We tried to expose the fact

that she is scamming the public.

I'm gonna stay on your a*s so hard

that you're gonna end up in jail for fraud

before this is over with.

Why did it take $47,652

to put on your Fur Ball

to only raise $45,000?

[Howard] This is just not true.

I don't think Joe considers lying to be

a question of ethics.

I think he would consider it

to be an art form.

It was like the Hatfield and McCoy.

They go at each other.

"Oh, you did this!" "Well, you did that!"

"I got this!" "I got that!"

It's just a crazy little comedy

between exotic animal owners.

[chuckles]

She even got your big daddy cigar,

looky there.

Oh, that's getting the phone to ringing.

[Kirkham] Joe Exotic was

everything I had dreamed of

in finding a reality show.

- This morning we're sh**ting

- publicity stills

for Joe Exotic Tiger King,

the reality show

in order to get the stills

that we need to send out

to the news media

and everything else worldwide

for the first episode of the show.

And how should we set this thing up then,

knowing our poor angles

[Reinke] Rick Kirkham, he came to the zoo

as a producer for Joe's reality show.

Joe had been trying,

and nobody could get it kicked off.

Rick Kirkham promised him

he could get it done.

Doing his little Internet shows

was only my way of getting into the zoo,

because I had a camera crew sh**ting

a reality show

behind the crews sh**ting

his Internet show.

I could give a crap

about his Internet show.

But that was the deal.

He signed the contract.

"I'll let you sh**t a reality show

if you'll go ahead and run my studio."

Okay, people, stand by.

Fifteen seconds till showtime.

- Stand by, video one.

- Video one is queued!

Let's get Joe on the set.

- Teleprompter

- [Kirkham] It worked out good for me.

I was like, "Hell yeah, I'm gonna make

a million dollars off this reality show.

I'll do your little piddly-a*s

internet show."

This is Joe Exotic's episode

of "Eaten Alive."

Discovery Channel, here I come!

[Reinke] I mean, it was a passion of his

to do a reality show.

You know, g*y man, owning a zoo,

toting a g*n.

He said it'll sell, for sure.

Hey, I'm Joe Exotic,

otherwise known as The Tiger King.

The g*y, g*n-carrying redneck

with a mullet.

He was like a mythical character living

out in the middle of Bumfuck, Oklahoma,

and owned 1,200 tigers and lions

and bears and monkeys and sh*t.

We're sh**ting the reality show

in segments.

In this morning's segment,

we would go into Joe's bedroom,

get the alarm going off, Joe waking up

There was something so odd

about the man,

and yet, he had so much confidence

because he owned the world in his head.

[man] Got you.

All right, keep rolling, keep rolling.

Now this is the kind of movies

we're gonna make here, okay?

- [g*nsh*t]

- [Joe] Whoo! [laughs]

[indistinct speech through walkie-talkie]

[men laughing, grunting]

I'd settled on a title

of Joe Exotic, Tiger King

for the reality show.

That's f*cking heavy.

I said, "Here's what I wanna do, Joe.

I'm gonna build a king's throne.

Big, solid wood, red velvet,

the whole works,

and I'm gonna put it in

the middle of a big tiger cage

with all these tigers around you."

And he's like, "Oh Okay! I like that!"

He wanted to be famous

more than he wanted anything else in life.

Man, when he saw that footage,

he went wild.

He’s like, "I am the Tiger King!

I've always been the Tiger King!"

You can go in there and go into

the gift shop into his office

at eight, nine o'clock at night,

and hear this

[hums fanfare]

and you go around,

and he was sitting there,

playing this shot over and over

of him in this throne.

[Kirkham] Joe's ego was so big.

Can you give me my whip?

[Kirkham] Way too big for his little body.

Look into my eyes. No [chuckles]

[Kirkham] He would have done anything

to become famous.

I watched him fire people

just because he knew

the camera was rolling.

[Joe]problem with that?

[Kirkham] Having the cameras run

on the morning meetings set Joe off.

It was like lighting a firecracker.

[Joe] And if you think it's funny,

you can pack

your sh*t and go right now!

- I like

- Because the disrespect around this place

is ending today!

You're the slacker,

and you do less than anybody here.

Ain't gonna work with me,

so you need to find a new job.

He started getting so crazy to where

he had a rubber blow-up doll,

and he would have "Carole"

written on a name tag on it,

and he would take a dildo

and be shoving it in her mouth.

"Carole, this is coming for you!

It's gonna catch up."

I mean, it got crazy. Got crazy.

She ain't going nowhere.

You wanna know why

Carole Baskin better never, ever, ever

see me face-to-face

ever, ever, ever again?

[g*nsh*t]

That is how sick

and tired of this sh*t I am.

And this picture that you see back here,

that's our sign-up front

with him posing in front of it

with b*llet holes in it.

It's like, this guy is just

unbelievable.

We all tried to tell him,

"Knock it off, stupid."

Y'know, all you're doing

is asking for a battle that you don't

Even if you do win,

it's still gonna cost so much time,

so much money, so much everything.

Bow down, tell her to go f*ck herself

and walk the f*ck out.

But no, he didn't.

He became more obsessed with all that

than he actually

took care of the cats that he had.

I'm not trying to pat myself on the back

or anything, but I'm glad I was here.

And then the rabbit picture

showed up on Facebook.

I was given a picture via email

from a lady in Florida

of Big Cat Rescue's employees

bashing rabbits in the head

and posing

like they're some kind of trophies,

with big smiles on their face.

This is what I got sued over.

Does that look happy?

[man] Are you familiar with

one of your videos that you titled

"Carole Baskin Saga 39:

k*lling Innocent Rabbits"?

Um

I remember doing 57 sagas

about Carole Baskin.

I don't, right in front of me,

have what Saga 39 was about.

But yes, I did some sagas

on Carole Baskin k*lling rabbits.

[Carole] It was back before we could

afford to give the whole prey to the cats

as frequently as we do now.

So, they're holding these rabbits

with blood on their noses,

and they're grinning from ear to ear

because their favorite cat's

finally getting a rabbit,

and yet, that has been twisted

into us being these horrific monsters

that would get pleasure out of

hurting a rabbit.

So, you know, that kind of stuff,

you're just like, "Ugh

really, do I have to explain this

to somebody?"

She sued me for copyright.

- [Goode] Well, what'd you do?

- I posted it all over Facebook.

This wasn't her photo, either.

After I posted it, she paid five dollars

for the person that took this photo,

and then, three months later,

she copyrighted it,

and then, she sued me.

The one lawsuit was about the rabbit photo

and the other lawsuit was about

a bunch of photos

where he would take a picture of Carole

and take her head

and put it on the body of a man

in a diaper.

This here's this picture

of this gooey thing

and it says "Smile everyone!

Life could be worse.

You could have a crotch like Carole does."

I believe they had just

slaughtered a horse,

and this is the horse's p*nis

that he's holding

and it says "Hey, Howard,

suck my Captain Morgan, LOL."

And by the way, that is a p*nis.

A horse p*nis.

That that was my recollection.

[Joe] We did a protest

in front of Carole's place.

[protester 1]

Big Cat Rescue kills its cats!

- [protester 2] Let's find Don Lewis.

- [protester 3] Find Don Lewis.

[Joe] Every person who drove by

hollered, "m*rder*r."

I don't even know

how you hold your head up

in a community that thinks

you k*lled your husband.

[man] And at the time

that you were handing out

these handouts with the photograph,

which is Exhibit 1,

this lawsuit was already pending, correct?

Mmm, yeah.

[man] And you were aware

that Big Cat Rescue

uh, did not approve of or authorize

your use of this photograph, correct?

Yeah, except I didn't make these.

[man] But you participated

in the demonstration

and handed them out, correct?

Yep. No, actually, I didn't hand them out.

I'm the one in the bunny suit.

[man] Third page, you're the bunny?

[woman] Put it on.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen!

I'm Joe Exotic,

and we're gonna make an honest woman

out of this b*tch.

- [protester laughing]

- That's my opening.

[protester] Wait a minute.

Wait a minute. Wait a minute.

[Howard] In early 2013,

we were coming up

to this trial in January,

and we had filed a motion

for summary judgment.

And the judge announced

that she was granting our motion

[gavel banging]

and his counterclaims were going away.

[reporter] Oklahoma's home for live,

local, late-breaking coverage!

[reporter 2] An Oklahoma man

who goes by the name Joe Exotic

has agreed to pay

a Florida animal sanctuary

nearly one million dollars to resolve

a trademark infringement lawsuit.

You know the saying

that you get your day in court?

Well, I don't feel

we got our day in court.

Dirty politics is what I call it.

She had to result

into financially draining us.

You know, I actually believed in

the justice system there for a while,

until this happened.

[woman] The million-dollar judgment,

you know, I just thought she did it

to make a point.

"Look, I'm not gonna back down.

You're not gonna intimidate me,

and you're not gonna have the final word."

I was surprised that she was actually

trying to collect payment.

Who has the millions

to spend that amount of time in court?

She did.

[Joe] She'll never get a million dollars

out of me. I don't own anything.

I don't own anything.

This bus is not mine.

Those cars are not mine.

I'm not stupid.

[laughs]

She wanted everything in assets.

From vehicles to four-wheelers

to everything.

She can take everything away from me.

I don't give a sh*t because she will never

shut this mouth up, all right?

Until the day I see her a*s in prison.

Joe, he turned over what he had to.

'Cause a lot of it was possessions.

She took the semitruck,

and she took the tour bus,

which, in her opinion, was a win

because he couldn't do road shows anymore,

not without the equipment.

He had already spent

a quarter million dollars fighting her.

Carole had him by the ba*ls,

and he hated her.

God, he hated her.

Did I hear you say you wanted

my f*cking watch?

Really? My watch?

[Reinke] Any of the assets

that Carole wanted in the lawsuit,

he would take out there

and blow it up with Tannerite.

[loud expl*si*n]

They tell me you want my g*dd*mn bed too.

[expl*si*n]

God damn.

[Reinke] He'd say,

"Here's your assets, come get 'em,"

- and it'd just be a pile of crap.

- [expl*si*n]

He never stopped antagonizing her.

All I did constantly was:

"Roll the camera,

roll the camera, roll the camera,"

to get all that sh*t on tape.

And I had everything on videotape,

good, bad, and ugly.

I wanna make this show go.

I know how great

this reality show could be.

It's so unique.

I just gotta get it on network.

I've been living here on the zoo

and living and working,

and I'm here at the zoo 24/7.

I'm just tired. Very tired.

We were negotiating with a network

uh, to buy the show.

It would have netted him

quite a bit of money.

'Cause it's the only way

he was gonna pay that million dollars.

But it came to a crashing halt.

[man] Oh, sh*t.

[Cowie] Yeah, I got woked up

at six o'clock in the morning.

Reinke came in, and these m*therf*ckers

had blown up our, uh

the studio.

The blast was so big

that it blew the doors open.

Joe had gone to Chicago for a funeral,

and it was me and Reinke

on the park with the other crew,

and Reinke says, "I ain't touching nothing

till the fire department gets here.

I want it looked at."

That building,

where the alligators were kept,

as well as a studio that Joe had

it was clearly an arson.

It was a set fire.

[Kirkham] It had burned so hot,

there was nothing left.

I dropped to my knees and I cried.

I cried because all of our footage

was in that studio,

and I hadn't backed up anything

outside the studio.

[Joe] An arsonist hit our facility

and set fire to not only

my recording studio,

but the studio that houses our alligators,

which caused them all to burn up

and perish,

boiling alive in a

Let's see.

Boiling alive in an inferno,

a towering inferno?

Boiling alive in a towering inferno

of nothing but flames and fire.

[Finlay] For somebody to burn down

an alligator house,

they gotta be a pretty sick person.

Because they burned up

seven of my crocodilians.

If you have a problem with me,

take it up with me, like a man.

Don't burn live, innocent animals

to get your f*cking point across.

We're not really liked

by the animal world, you know,

animal rights people hate us.

We get constant threats on the phone,

e-mails, letters.

We're offering a 10,000-dollar reward

for information leading to the arrest

and the conviction

of either this suspect

or the people that were involved.

If it is tied

to any animal rights organization,

we are going to double that reward.

Carole Baskin, crawl this fence

and try to hurt any of my animals again,

you can guaran-g*dd*mn-tee

I'm gonna put a cap in your a*s

the first time,

to make you squirm around on the ground.

And then I'mma put a b*llet

right between your f*cking eyes!

I'm waitin' for 'em

to catch Carole Baskin in this.

Because we got e-mails between her

and my producer.

She offered him $20,000.

[Goode] Wait, wait,

she offered who $20,000?

My producer.

[Goode] To do what?

[Joe] To get all the footage

and set fire to my studio.

I had sent Rick Kirkham a Facebook message

and I said,

"I think you probably don't know about

the person you're working for."

[Howard] Her intent was to warn him,

but we never made him any kind of offer

or asked him for anything.

I got him on videotape.

[Reinke] I swear that's Rick Kirkham

walking in front of the video

that morning that it burnt down.

I was, like, in shock.

I was like,

"Are you out of your f*cking mind?"

It was like, "That's my retirement

that just burned, okay?

I got everything invested in that project

that no longer exists."

As far as the footage,

I don't know who's got it.

I suspected Kirkham

of taking all of his material.

I was the one person Joe feared the most

because I was sh**ting everything

in his personal life

and could take what I saw and witnessed

and and harm him with it.

[Joe]

There was all kinds of sh*t on there.

Reinke doing veterinary work

without a veterinarian.

We had cameras

on everybody every minute of the day.

He could have sold it to Carole,

and Carole could be,

you know,

just saving it for a rainy day.

f*ck me, man!

A scenario was thrown at me:

do you think it could have been Joe?

Because when that happened

he was out of town for a funeral.

What better timing?

Nobody would have ever suspected him

of calling to have it burned down.

[Joe] All right.

Follow me. Don't ever

put that camera down in there.

- [Joe] Hi guys.

- [lawyer] What's happening?

What kind of problem is there, Joe?

A week before

the studio burned to the ground,

we had gotten into an argument,

and he was like,

"You know, I don't need you.

I can go on."

And I pulled out our contract.

I showed it to him.

I said, "Joe, when I came here,

not only do I own all the reality footage,

I own all of your Internet footage

from the time I came here

that I produced."

[Joe] My producers

are filming a reality show.

[lawyer] So they want to do a show

related to your park up there?

[Joe] They actually got it filmed.

- [lawyer] Do they?

- [Joe] Mm-hmm.

[lawyer]

And how are you protecting that?

[Joe] What do you mean?

[lawyer] Well, if they've got it filmed,

what do they need you for?

He blew up so bad

when I showed him that contract.

He was like, "You don't own me!"

I said, "Joe, actually I do right now.

I do own this show. I do own it."

- [lawyer] Where is the film?

- [Joe] In my recording studio.

- [lawyer] They don't have copies of it?

- [Joe] No.

Do you see what I'm saying, Joe?

- [Joe] I hear you.

- Just pisses me off, dude.

- [camera operator] I know.

I'll find somebody that needs ten grand.

Make a name for themselves.

[engine starts]

[Kirkham] After the studio burned,

whether he destroyed it or not,

it was gone.

I remember walking over

and handing the camera to Reinke,

and I just said, "I'm out of here, man."

And he said, "Yeah, might as well

go on home."

I got my dog.

I got in my truck.

I left everything I owned, and I drove,

and I left and went back to Dallas.

I had a complete nervous breakdown.

I was told by Joe and by Reinke,

"If you step foot on the park again,

we'll have you arrested for trespassing."

[Rhodes]

This fire happened at about the time

Joe had a judgment placed on him

from a lady in Florida.

Some of the items within this fire

were going to be under subpoena.

And that was some hard drives

and and some videotape

and thing like that,

and that might have been a motivation

to maybe destroy some evidence.

They might have shut me up

for just a little while,

but let me tell you,

they've awoken a monster.

Now Joe Exotic's pissed off.

Be sure and get online

and help us rebuild the voice

of you, the people,

to bring Joe Exotic TV back to the air.

Was it for the sympathy?

Was it for

the attention?

Oh, yeah.

[man]

Joe did take advantage of a lot of people.

That's why I think the fire

of the alligator habitat was a scam.

When I first met Joe,

we discussed what I would charge him

to rebuild at a decent rate.

I only charged him $8,000

to rebuild that $120,000 building.

[Goode] You didn't make any money.

- No.

- Why'd you do it?

For the animals.

I mean, I got to pet cats that people

wasn't even supposed to be

putting their hands in around.

[Joe] Five months ago,

an arsonist poured enough accelerant

in there

to where it completely exploded

the building

and burned the building

down to the ground.

I would like to thank the people

from all over the world

who don't even know us

that dug deep in their pockets

in order to rebuild this great

G.W. Exotic Animal Alligator Facility.

[applause]

Our investigation never did come

to anything definitive.

So, the case is still open.

Again, it's clearly an arson fire.

I got great news for you.

JoeExotic. TV returns to the air.

We're gonna expose the lies,

the corruption, and we are

[Howard] That building contained computers

that held information

that we were seeking.

I suspect that Joe was responsible

for having someone burn down the building,

but I have no firsthand knowledge,

and I can't prove it.

[Goode] How much has this cost you,

this lawsuit between you and Joe?

We've spent over a million dollars

in legal fees.

[Goode] You're kidding. Is it worth it?

Well, if this were a purely

commercial situation, it wouldn't.

You'd say this is not economic,

but this is part of our mission,

to put a stop to this.

And we're not going to allow him

to abuse the system

and wear us out and cause us to go away

and succeed at that.

[Corkill] You know,

if you've got the money

If you've got the money,

you usually find yourself

on the right side.

[Reinke] She's got deep pockets.

I don't know if she wants the facility,

or if she wants the facility shut down.

But any way you look at it,

she wants to take over the zoo.

[tiger huffs]

[Finlay] When Joe pretty much maxed out

all the credit cards

is when he asked me if I wanted

to put the zoo into my name,

and at the time,

it sounded like a good idea.

[Joe] I'm John Finlay,

and I'm president of the G.W. Zoo.

Three, two, one.

Hi, I'm John Finlay,

and I'm president of the G.W. Ex

[children laughing, chattering]

[Joe] G.W. Zoo. It's real simple.

Right on.

They've done so many transfers

and quick claim deeds, you can't

No one can keep track of it,

not even an attorney.

You can go down to the courthouse and ask.

If you just say

the last name Schreibvogel,

they just take a deep breath

and look at you.

Joe kept thinking if he changed the name,

it would just derail them and derail them.

Well, it didn't.

They just moved it to another lawsuit.

Carole Baskin's lawyers are vicious,

and they go after anybody involved.

She sued me also,

just 'cause I was at the zoo.

It was in the works that

I was going to be sued at the same time.

So, everybody that had been involved

all got drug into court.

[Saffery]

Joe's parents, Francis and Shirley

Their name,

Shirley's name is on everything.

The trailers, the water bill,

the electric bill,

the cable, you know, cable bills.

[Howard]

Through the proceedings about the land

and fraudulent transfer to his mother,

the bankruptcy trustee went after her.

[Joe] She sues my mom

for ill*gal transfer of assets.

Okay? Mom dumps

hundreds of thousands

of dollars into defending herself.

Instead of being in a tiger cage today,

I'm in a downtown area

of Oklahoma City.

Thanks to Carole Baskin for dragging us

all out of bed this morning

and sticking my mom at the very top

of that building right there

in order to f*ck with her.

Using a federal court in order to do that.

Between the park and the lawsuit,

Mom ran out of money.

Carole bankrupted 'em.

Hello, good afternoon

to everybody in the nation.

I want to thank you with my whole heart

for all the support and help you have done

to get me and my husband out of the mess

we were in with this attorney.

They come banging on my door

with the sheriff

and demanding the whole sum of money

or else they were going to come in

and confiscate all the furniture

right then and there.

And I know from the bottom of my heart,

Carole Baskin down in Florida

is behind a lot of this

because she's been harassing us

right along with Joe

for years,

because she's so greedy,

and she's so jealous of what he has made

of his animal park

when hers is nothing.

[Putman]

It's "Mom, pay for this attorney."

That's every phone call.

"Mom, I need some money for this."

[Joe] Like 300-something.

I went down to the courthouse

and got a copy of one of the deeds,

and I said,

"Grandma, are you aware

that this happened?"

And she said, "Well, he shoved a paper

in front of me and told me to sign.

I didn't think anything of it."

Joe drained them dry.

I told Joe,

"How're you gonna make money?

"How are you gonna make money?"

He didn't have any other way to make money

other than cub petting.

So he had to breed.

[cub mewling]

[Joe] She's pushing another one out.

You need to be filming her a*s.

See that cub come out

with that camera.

Zoom in on her a*s.

[Johnson]

At that point, Joe was really desperate.

He was gonna lose the zoo.

Carole was gonna take it.

[Joe] She's panting hard.

I know she's panting hard,

but she's having a cub.

You'll see, watch her a*s.

Get me a hole cut.

There's a towel in my car. Go get it!

[man] Careful. Careful.

[indistinct chatter]

[Joe] Everything's all right.

Everybody calm down. It'll be all right.

Just do

what you're supposed to do.

Female.

[cubs mewling]

[Joe] They just never stop screaming.

[mewling continues]

[Joe] I had to finally go sleep

in that studio yesterday.

It was the only way to muffle it.

It still costs 60,000 to 70,000 dollars

a month just to feed all these animals.

[tigers growling]

[man 1] You gonna let them in

or you gonna stand there?

[man 2] There's only 5 buckets of meat

in there and there's 14 cats in here.

[man 1] All we've got is

one barrel of meat right now.

That's all we've got.

So they all getting half buckets?

[Cowie] It's the Walmart meat trucks

have sucked lately.

We don't even have enough meat

to do the wolves. This is ridiculous.

- [tiger growls]

- Ah, no.

Maintenance. It's like putting a band-aid

on everything every day.

I don't even have bear buckets today.

I got one ham.

We got chicken coming, so

You can feed heavy.

[Reinke] Things got so bad,

we started negotiating with Carole

and Howard on how to get out of it.

[Joe] And that's when

I had mediation with Howard

to try and settle the bullshit,

you know, the lawsuit and everything.

[Howard]

The prospect of collecting

a million dollars from Joe

was not real high,

and I was willing to make concessions.

He pointed out

that his cash flow is very seasonal,

that he has few visitors in the winter.

What if we take these monthly payments

and make them lower in the winter

and bigger in the summer.

So, there were four

or five issues like that

that I was willing to accommodate.

We basically had a deal.

[Joe] Me and Howard

came to an agreement.

And then, he got Carole

on the phone. [laughs]

[continues laughing]

And Carole got greedy.

She wanted my mom and dad's house

as collateral.

That was a deal-breaker.

Carole Baskin,

you've already stripped me

of just about everything I own.

And you're gonna have to k*ll me

to shut me up

because I'm gonna die a hero

and I'm gonna liberate

the animal world.

It will be a cold day in hell

before you beat me.

God is in control.

So he'll either pull me through this or

he won't.

[Reinke] Jeff Lowe came on the scene

sometime in 2015.

He just brought the persona

that he was gonna save the zoo,

so we dubbed him "the Godfather."

[David] He says he's rich.

He's all about money.

It's money, money, money, money, money.

My introduction to Jeff Lowe was,

"Hey, Saff, this is our new investor."

[Reinke] He came to the zoo.

Talked with Joe mostly.

He would need someplace to put

14 of his own cats.

[man] My grandfather owned

It was called Robbins Brothers Circus.

It became the largest menagerie

of animals on Earth

with almost 100 elephants.

I mean, this guy was

He had a ton of animals,

and my first cats that I got were probably

at 16 or 17 years old.

Mountain lions and one tiger.

What can I get you? What can I

[Saffery]

Jeff was a businessman, for sure.

You can tell he's been through

the business world a few times.

[engine roaring]

[Reinke] He flashes a Ferrari around.

Rumor has it he has a jet.

He would float back and forth

from Vegas to Wynnewood a lot.

He liked the party life.

He liked the scene.

Up all night, Ecstasy, all that stuff.

I mean, that was just their style.

And that was a big attractant for him

because he's a swinger.

You know, him and Lauren swing.

They like to have sex with other women

at the same time.

They use the tigers to entice 'em in.

So, he took a few cubs out to Vegas.

[Goode] So those are like bait

to get girls?

Oh yeah, it's good bait to get girls.

Who doesn't want

to play with a baby tiger?

For, I guess,

like, a really beautiful woman

to get her picture with

a cute little dangerous animal,

it's like, "Oh, she's got a little spunk

in her, too!"

A little p*ssy gets you a lot of p*ssy.

There you go

Yeah. [laughs]

He put tiger cubs into, like,

a Louis Vuitton bag.

He rolled them through the casino,

up into the suites,

and then brought people up to have

play times with them and party with them.

[woman] Oh, she loves you, honey.

[Mazak]

Basically, that was their free ride.

[Saffery]

And girls came from everywhere.

[Mazak] He posted so many pictures

of him in bed with girls,

and Lauren in bed with girls,

and it's the cats, it's really the cats

that'll draw people in.

[Reinke] Joe says, "Y'all want more?

I'll give you more."

He's a playboy, and he's never denied it.

[plane approaching]

[Finlay Joe and Travis went out

to the mansion that Jeff Lowe had.

[Joe] Great big f*cking mansion,

indoor swimming pool in the house

and everything.

f*cking crazy.

Sitting here with Jeff Lowe.

We have had a fun day. We went

He wines us and dines us,

and goes and spends all this money

on weed and everything else

for Travis and

It was awesome. It was awesome.

You know, I think he got up there,

and he was enamored by the big house

and fancy cars,

and he thought that,

"Here’s my next victim."

- [laughing]

- [man] What have you got?

[Joe] He had the money to fight Carole.

I want two or three of those roller carts

of hundred dollar bills

you had in your warehouse.

[laughs]

- We might be able to get you one.

- [laughs]

I saw, like, Joe bow down to Jeff.

And I didn't like that at all.

Joe was kind of secretive

about what was going on.

[Lowe] Hey, guys.

[woman] Welcome to free conference.

They had a call inside the office.

It was a conference call between Joe,

Howard Baskin, and the attorneys.

That was supposed to have been private,

all of us had to go outside the office.

But Jeff Lowe was actually in there,

and he was laying low during the call.

They thought they had Joe against

the ropes because he was broke.

Joe offered to pay them $5,000 a month.

They said, "Well, that isn't good enough."

She says, "We want $5,000 a month,

and you're gonna stop breeding,

and you're gonna stop cub petting."

And Joe says, "Well, how do you think

I can make the $5,000 a month to pay you,

if it's not through what I do?"

I just got sick of it, and I stepped up.

So this is all just a waste of time.

That settlement agreement

is so far from acceptable.

[lawyer] Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Who's speaking, please?

[Lowe] Jeff Lowe.

- [lawyer] We need you to get off the call.

- You know what?

When I woke up this morning

I was in a free f*cking country!

And I'm still there.

[Howard] And the mediator said,

"If you won't get off the call,

we have to terminate the call,"

and Jeff said, "Well, then,

I just want to say"

[Lowe] Howard, f*ck yourself,

and f*ck your c**t wife.

"f*ck Howard and his c**t wife."

With Jeff Lowe coming in to help him,

Joe believed that if he just

convinced us that he had

endless resources

to keep the lawsuit going,

we would suddenly fold our tent

and go away,

which, of course, we were not going to do.

He owed 40 or 50,000 dollars

to attorneys

that were ready to

stop defending him in his lawsuit

that he had with Carole Baskin.

[Joe] And they said,

"We'll make it 35 if you can pay that."

So, Jeff got a cashier's check

for $35,000.

And then my lawyers recommended

that we just dissolve the Garold Wayne

Interactive Zoo company

and let Jeff open one in his name,

so Carole would have to start the lawsuits

all over again.

So that's what we did.

- Here's another $10,000 reward

- Cash!

In cash. I'm not saying she did it.

I'm saying if you have information

that leads to her arrest,

not even conviction, just her arrest.

Wow.

[Goode] What do you know

about Jeff Lowe? Like what

Only allegedly, not my business.

[chuckles] Right?

I'm not gonna tell on camera

what's wrong with Jeff, so that one day,

this becomes a lawsuit.

You know?

- [Lowe speaking indistinctly]

- [Joe] When I met Jeff Lowe,

I thought I could trust him.

And, oh, my god, sh*t hit the fan.

I didn't know that mansion was rented.

I didn't know that he was behind

on Ferrari payments.

And as soon as he got the zoo

in his name,

the evil side of Jeff and Lauren came out.

[Lowe] Get out, Lauren.

[Lowe] No, get! Get!

- [camera operator] You all right?

- Fine.

[Goode] And tell me what happened

when Jeff Lowe got involved.

Jeff Lowe stole the zoo.

- Wait, say that again?

- Jeff Lowe stole the zoo.

[closing music theme]