Carole Baskin is once again refuting claims she was involved in the disappearance of her former husband Don Lewis in the wake of the release of “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness.”
In a lengthy blog post shared on the Big Cat Rescue website, the animal activist criticized the Netflix docu-series, calling it “disappointing, “salacious” and “without any regard for the truth.”
The seven-part series, which dropped on Friday, focuses on the years-long battle between Carole and Joseph Maldonado-Passage a.k.a “Joe Exotic,” the now-imprisoned polygamist who presided over a rival exotic animal park in Oklahoma and was convicted of trying to hire someone to kill her.
While the beef between Joe and Carole is at the show’s center, Don’s disappearance also filled an episode. Exotic and others theorized Carole was responsible for Lewis’ death and possibly fed his remains to their tigers. Carole denied the claims in the series, before doubling down on her website.
“Lies in Netflix Tiger King regarding disappearance of Don Lewis,” Carole began her post. “When the directors of the Netflix documentary ‘Tiger King’ came to us five years ago they said they wanted to make the big cat version of ‘Blackfish’ (the documentary that exposed abuse at SeaWorld) that would expose the misery caused by the rampant breeding of big cat cubs for cub petting exploitation and the awful life the cats lead in roadside zoos and back yards if they survive.”
“There are not words for how disappointing it is to see that the docuseries not only does not do any of that, but has had the sole goal of being as salacious and sensational as possible to draw viewers,” she continued. “As part of that, it has a segment devoted to suggesting, with lies and innuendos from people who are not credible, that I had a role in the disappearance of my husband Don 21 years ago.”
“The series presents this without any regard for the truth or in most cases even giving me an opportunity before publication to rebut the absurd claims,” she added. “They did not care about truth. The unsavory lies are better for getting viewers.”
In August 1997, Don vanished without a trace. He was declared dead five years later, though no body was ever discovered. Theories for his disappearance included Don starting a new life in Costa Rica, crashing his plane while flying there and, wildest of all, Carole killing him and either feeding his body to their cats or hiding it under a septic tank.
Addressing the “supposed circumstantial evidence” around her possible involvement in Don’s disappearance, she first tried to explain why Lewis took out a restraining order against her two months before he vanished.
“Don spent one week per month in Costa Rica. Don was a man who wanted to have sex daily. He would go to Costa Rica during the week I was having my menstrual cycle,” Carole claimed. “I accepted this as something I had to live with. During the week he was away, I would haul off the property as much of the junk as I could.”
The only way he could get her to stop moving his things, according to Carole, was for him to file a restraining order against her on June 20, 1997, which was denied.
As for why Carole was granted Power of Attorney in the event of Don’s death “or disappearance,” an addition which many found suspect, Baskin said she did it because of Don’s trips to Costa Rica. She claimed he had told her about people “going to Costa Rica and disappearing.” In addition, Carole claimed their Costa Rican attorney said Don owed money to the Helicopter Brothers, what she called the “local version of the mafia.”
“Don had purchased a number of properties in Costa Rica and after his disappearance one of the caretakers called and told me there were people reporting seeing him there,” she also claimed, explaining why she told the police to investigate there as well.
She then dove into what she called the “most ludicrous of all the lies,” the theory that she ground Don up with a meat grinder and fed him to the cats.
“As [Don’s ex-wife] Gladys and the daughters did everything they could to make life difficult for me after Don disappeared, they spread this rumor that they thought I had ground Don up and fed him to the cats,” Carole wrote. “And the media loved it.”
Carole said the meat grinder shown in the series was “enormous,” while the one they owned was “one of those little tabletop, hand crank things, like you’d have in your kitchen at home.”
“Meat had to first be cut into one inch cubes like you see here to go through it,” Carole said. “The idea that a human body and skeleton could be put through it is idiotic. But the Netflix directors did not care. They just showed a bigger grinder.”
In what she called, “The Bottom Line,” Carole concluded, “Don was not easy to live with and like most couples we had our moments. But I never threatened him and I certainly had nothing to do with his disappearance. When he disappeared, I did everything I could to assist the police. I encouraged them to check out the rumors from Costa Rica, and separately I hired a private investigator.”
Read Carole’s full piece here.
Carole’s denial comes as many — including Kim Kardashian — pondered her innocence on social media following the documentary’s release.
“Has anyone seen Tiger King on Netflix?!?! It is crazy!!!!” Kardashian tweeted.
A few hours later, Kim added another tweet where she voiced how many fans responded with questions and theories about Carole. “Wow the amount of texts I’ve gotten about Tiger King since I tweeted about it all have mentioned their belief that Carol killed her husband!” she wrote. “What are your thoughts? Do you think Carol killed him?”
Has anyone seen Tiger King on Netflix?!?! It is crazy!!!!
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) March 22, 2020
Wow the amount of texts I’ve gotten about Tiger King since I tweeted about it all have mentioned their belief that Carol killed her husband! What are your thoughts? Do you think Carol killed him?
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) March 23, 2020
“Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness” is now streaming on Netflix.
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