Last week, the world was plunged back into the murky waters of Tiger King Thanks for the amazing revelation:
Don Lewis – the husband of Carole Baskin who went missing in 1997 – has reportedly been found alive and well in Costa Rica.
Now, if you actually click on any article circulating on Twitter, you’ll find that Lewis is still missing, and that this ground has been covered extensively in the unseen, imaginatively titled 2021 sequel. Tiger King 2.
But Baskin is a fan of the theory for the obvious reason that Lewis is still alive, so he can’t kill him and give him a tiger.
It’s a theory put forward by Carole’s number one rival, the Tiger King himself, Joe Exotic.
Exotis – whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage – is currently serving a 21-year prison sentence for murder for hire.
But the pesky matter of his imprisonment did not prevent Joe from sounding dead on exaggerated reports of Don Lewis’ aliveness.
“Don Lewis is not alive, I have the original diary and believe that he hated him enough to not kill him quickly,” Exotic said this week in an email to Radar Online.
“When this story came out, I said I would voluntarily go to death row if he was still alive and became the headlines of the world,” he added.
“I researched him a lot, I’m 100% sure it was him, his father who is now dead and….killed Don Lewis and ruined him.
Exotic seems to have a point about Baskin’s claim that Lewis is still alive.
That theory is not based on an undated 2002 discovery by the Department of Homeland Security that contained reports that Lewis had been spotted in Costa Rica.
The agency was unable to substantiate the claim, and a subsequent investigation by Tampa’s Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office turned up no sign of Lewis.
“We know he’s not living OK,” said Jack “Ripper” Smith, a spokesman for the Lewis family.
“It’s very disturbing because the family is getting messages from people telling them, ‘Congratulations!'” Smith told Radar. “The family is confused.”
Exotic, meanwhile, claims it was all a stunt organized by Baskin in hopes of raising money for her animal sanctuary.
“Carole didn’t think about this stunt very well, but it has been going on for the past 22 years,” Exotic said in an email to the outlet.
“Anything you can do in the press to raise money for the zoo down the road, that’s just a front to cheat money.”
Exotic continues to lash out at Baskin, accusing him of failing properly
“He pulled this action not thinking that if he is still alive, he should return all the insurance money and give all the property to him and his children,” he said.
“He’s the one who drafted his will, he’s the one who reported him missing, he’s the one who made him officially dead.”
We will have further updates on this story as new information becomes available.