The Wild True Story Of Joe Exotic's Murder Plot Featured In Netflix True Crime Series 'Tiger King'

A politician. A country artist. A tiger owner and an attempted murderer? Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness is unlike any true-crime series Netflix has released thus far, simply because the story is almost unbelievable.

The documentary series, released Friday, takes an in-depth look into the life and work of Joe Exotic, an exotic animal park owner who tried to have his biggest rival killed.

While murder is the tagline of the whole series, it raises dozens of other questions about tiger captivity, animal rights and abuse and what the future should hold for endangered species. It follows money-hungry breeders and those trying to stomp down all operations that risk the flourishing lives of the world's remaining big cats.

Joe Exotic opened the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park in Oklahoma in 1999. With around 200 tigers and a list of other exotic animals, it became a family attraction followed by controversy.

From the very start, Joe Exotic's story is absolutely wild. The documentary series explains that the man, real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage, made a life-changing comeback after he tried to kill himself by driving his car off a bridge. During his recovery, he found comfort in the company of big cats, like tigers and lions, and developed a huge affinity for exotic animals.

From there, he went on to create the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park in Oklahoma, some of which he credited to his brother who died from drug abuse, where he bred tigers and allowed the public incredibly close encounters with the dangerous animals.

After starting a not-so-popular web series, which aired every night on his website, he created the stage name Joe Exotic. He then began touring the country with his animals and gaining fame. In his path, he found an enemy: Carole Baskin.

Baskin is the owner of Big Cat Rescue, a conservatory location that rescues captive exotic animals for rehabilitation. Baskin's ultimate goal is to end tiger captivity, she claims in the documentary. She's spent years trying to disarm Joe Exotic's business and the business of other controversial animal parks around America. She, and supporters, spent a decade hounding the self-operated animal park, and it led to the ultimate threat from Joe Exotic.

Joe Exotic spent years making public threats to Baskin on his web show. He even admitted to filling her mailbox with venomous snakes. Then, he wrote a country song claiming Baskin killed her missing husband and fed him to her tigers. While Baskin denied the allegations after her husband, Don Lewis went missing, the claims, which extended past Joe Exotic, did make national news as seen in People Magazine in 1998.

Throughout their aggressive opposition, Baskin and Joe Exotic's rivalry seemed like a mean-spirited, yet distanced feud. It escalated past what anyone could predict when Joe Exotic tried to pay a man $3,000 to kill Baskin.

Turns out, the man he'd promised the money was actually an undercover FBI agent, according to CNN.

Now, Joe Exotic is in prison for 22 years—he was arrested back in 2018, and sentenced in January—but attempted murder for hire wasn't the only charge.

Questions about how Joe Exotic ran his controversial business surfaced in addition to the motive of foul play. The park owner was also charged for killing five tigers, which was listed in nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act, Kiro 7 reported.

He was also accused of illegally selling baby lemurs with falsified paperwork, according to CNN. The controversial character also made news when one of his two husbands, Travis Maldonado, shot and killed himself in 2017.

The Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park was bought by new owners, Jeff and Lauren Lowe, who have attempted to erase Joe Exotic's ownership from the public image of the zoo. It's still operating, though the owners have publicly slammed Joe Exotic's behavior.