Morbid - Episode 131: Where is Don Lewis? Does Carole Baskin Know? Mini Morbid (Not Really)

Episode Date: April 13, 2020

Tiger King was a trip. But what the hell happened to Don Lewis? A lot of speculation and a complete lack of evidence has made for a truly compelling mystery in the disappearance of Carole Baskin's second husband, Don. Tonight, we discuss the hype, the mystery and the craziness that is this case. Check out our sponsors! Simplisafe Right now when you head to SimpliSafe.com/MORBID our listeners will get free shipping and a 60-day risk-free trial. From SimpliSafe and all of us here, wishing you safety and good health. Stamps.com Right now, my/our listeners get a special offer that includes a 4-week trial PLUS free postage AND a digital scale without any long-term commitment. Just go to Stamps.com, click on the Microphone at the TOP of the homepage and type in MORBID. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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That's ANGI, or download the app today. Hey weirdos, I'm Elena. I'm Ash, and this is a mini kinda morbid. Mini, mini, mini, mini, mini, more bad. Mini, morbid, mini, morbid, mini, more bad. Ha, ha, ha. A mini isch morb, many more bad, many more bad. A mini ish more bad and you're here for it. You are here for it.

And it's good. I think it's going to be pretty many actually this one. So, you know, hang tight. It's a little bit bare with us. Bare with us. We've got, we've got a lot coming for you this week. We really do. There's a whole lot on our plate. And actually we just added a whole

another shabang to our plate that you can't know about yet. But we've got a whole other shabang going on now. We just keep piling that plate high. It's like Thanksgiving over here. It is. Extra mashed potatoes, please. Hell yes. Ooh, baby.

Oh, baby. Well, before we get too far, let's talk to you about our shows. Just real quick, guys. We just got run through them. We got to know the business. Okay, June 2nd. Hopefully we're going to be there at the Good Night's Comedy Club in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Raleigh, we really hope to see you in June. June 3rd, the Comedy Zone in Charlotte, North Carolina. Charlotte, crossing all my fingers and toes to see in my eyes and my arms and my legs. But everything. Talia Hall in Chicago has been now postponed until October 11th. Spooky season at Talia Hall. Yeah. And now one's going to be awesome by the way guys guys because we got something fun planned. Yeah, we do

Then July 8th is going to be at the comedy work south in Greenwood Village, Colorado Colorado, I feel like we're gonna see you in June. I think so. I don't really feel it. Yeah July 11th at the Wilba. Hope that happens. The Wilba with Emily Walsh coming on. I mean, everybody, we gotta make this happen. I'll just be so sad if she doesn't happen. I'll be so sad. And then August 11th in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, we're gonna come for you. It's just a little later than we anticipated.

Elena still wants to ring the Liberty bell. Yeah. Ding dong. That was great. It's been a long day. Ding dong. And then September 16th, we're going to be in Washington, DC at the DC improv. So many monuments. I can't wait.

It's going to be a monumentous occasion. Ooh, it most certainly is. Girl. Ah. September 23rd, we have two shows at Xenys in Nashville, Tennessee. Nashville, I can't wait to see you. We're coming for you still.

Does that mean I have to? I'll fit change if they're the same night. I just realized that. No. You can. You can totally. I mean, it's up to you, whatever you feel is natural. Well, she's extra as fuck, so it's only natural.

That's true, that's true. And then last show for now, September 24th, Huntsville, Alabama at Stand Up Live. Alabama, War Eagle, Roll Tide, all that good stuff. We're gonna see you, and we're excited about it. Football. Football sports. Yay. Yay. So yeah, those are our shows where just rolling with the punches as they, you know, as COVID-19 just punches us all in the face. We are just rolling in the face. Directly in the dome because we don't like having these reschedule,

but it's totally, we have to do it for the safety of everybody. And you know, if June comes and we're still not out of this situation, we will move those two, but the good news is these shows will happen. They just might happen later in the year. That's all. And some of them still have tickets available. So go and get your tickets because even if they need to be rescheduled, just might happen later in the year. That's all. Exactly. And some of them still have tickets available. So go and get your tickets because even if they need to be rescheduled, those tickets are

going to translate. So and then they'll be the morbid weirdo with the tickets and not the morbid weirdo without the tickets. Exactly. You don't want to be that morbid weirdo without tickets. So go to morbidpodcast.com and go buy your tickets up and then we will keep you up to date on if any dates change and we can't wait to see all of you. We can't wait. We can't wait. And you know what, I think that's really all the business we needed to attend to. So

what I just realized. What? We, I, because of what we're talking about this week, we already said we're going to be talking about Carol Fuckuckin Maskins. I should have had you say, hey all you cool cats and I could have said, hey all you cool kittens. Oh man. Kind of missed all of her dreams. It's always 2020. It's always 2020. Well, you know what, hey all you cool cats and kittens, we are gonna be talking about Carol Thaskins. Hell yeah, and her missing husband. And her missing husband.

So, I have a lot of thoughts about that. I have a lot of thoughts about the Tiger King documentary as a whole. Yeah, I don't know if they're gonna be very popular thoughts, but you know what? It's our show, so I get to say these thoughts. So, basically, I think a lot of people know this case, the case of the missing Don Lewis, Carol Baskin's second husband.

I think they know this case strictly, like I'm sure some people may have heard of it before, but I think a lot of people know it because of the Tiger King documentary. I didn't know about it before. Yeah, I think it's one of those that just kind of slipped under the radar. And now because of this documentary, everybody has an opinion on it, including me. So, we all have one. But I feel like the more you look into it, the more you're going to see that it's really glossed over in that documentary.

I mean, they focus one episode on it. Right. Which is probably more than they really should have focused on it to begin with. There's a lot more going on in that documentary. There's a whole shit ton going on in that documentary. And I feel like because they went with that like salacious, let's talk about the rumors of Carol Baskin and her missing husband thing. It did kind of take away some of what that documentary was meant to be about. Oh, I 100% agree with that. Because it turned into all about Carol Baskin

and her missing husband and everybody stopped focusing on the fact that Joe Exotic, well funny and well a very humorous eccentric character. He also murdered his own tigers to make room for other animals. Yeah, and he's caught on camera like abusing them. So yeah, and he said at one point that if he went bankrupt, he would kill all his animals.

Like he said that to Louis Thoreau, Louis Thoreau, I don't know if it's Louis Thoreau or Louis Thoreau, Someone's gonna yell at me. You're trying. You know. He did a documentary about Joe Exotic, and he said that he told him that. Like he was like, he told me if he went bankrupt,

he would kill all of his animals. When he said in the documentary, the sheriff guy was saying, he would just go up in an explosion like they did. Yeah, cult. So it's like you said that to multiple people. Exactly. So it's like, which I know, we're all focusing on like, because it's funny and he's funny

and like his hair's funny and all of the, his shirts are funny and the fact that he has like condoms with his face on it are funny. Yeah. But like, let's just remember that like like, these are a bunch of ship eggs. Like, this one thing was about a bunch of animal abusing ship eggs. Right. And Joe Exotic is funny to a certain extent,

but then you get into the nitty gritty of that documentary. And I don't know if it's episode one or episode two, but him fucking shooting a blow up doll that he named Carol. And he, she's like bound in the back of a truck. I don't care what Carol Baskin's did, that's not funny. Well, exactly. And we're definitely gonna touch upon that at some point because I really wanna talk about that,

the fact that that's just being totally ignored. But he did like crazy shit. Like he put a ditto in her mouth and then shot her in the head. Yeah, I mean, he was, he made like, terroristic threats to her in public openly on social media, like, for years. But we'll get into that.

So basically, if you watch this documentary, and that's all the information you have about the Carol Baskin situation and her missing husband, I urge you to go look further, because while it doesn't, there is nothing that's like telling me she 100% didn't do it. But it's still, it's gonna make you sit there and go Okay, well there is more to this story than what they were giving us

There's always more because all we heard in this documentary was a bunch of rival I mean animal Big cat enthusiasts Yeah, like rallying against this one woman who they're saying is trying to get them all shut down because they're doing like the cub petting and their breeding and abusing animals and all this and she's exposing them. So everyone needs to remember that they have a lot of reasoning behind their like condemnation of her. So absolutely. I think that just needs to be like remembered that these like whether they're men or women But these they are all men at this point, but all these guys that own these different

Like zoos essentially or if they want to call them sanctuary sure They're they're all at stake to lose money if she gets her way So that's a big motivator to be like, yeah, she definitely killed her husband, let's rally against her. Exactly. Cause I think everybody just remains, you know, got to remember that. And you know what,

there's shady shit going on that everybody's fucking zoo sanctuary petting farm, whatever you wanna call it. Yeah, for real, it's crazy. And that's the thing, it's like she's definitely eccentric. She's definitely narcissistic. She definitely loves herself. She is cunning. I could see how she could be manipulative. By no means. Am I going to say that Carol Baskin is this like withering flower that is just floating around saying the but I just think we all need to get a better view of the whole thing. So let's get into it.

So Carol's name is Carol Stair's Jones. That's a maiden name. She was born June 6, 1961 at Lackland Air Force Base in Bexar County, Texas. We love a fellow Gemini. We love it. Carol is a fucking Gemini. I was just gonna say she is a Gemini. She's a true blue Gemini of the highest order.

I could definitely see that. Which leads me to believe even more. Maybe she did fucking kill her husband. They said, but I don't know if we will not end this being like, here's the way that this like, with closure. Yeah, the cat is still questioning it. So, according, so when she was young, she was always super into animals, especially cats, that had to clearly transfer it into her later life where she wears nothing but cap prints and has a very interesting design aesthetic. But she wanted to actually be a veterinarian, but then she found out that veterinarians also have

to sometimes euthanize animals and she was like, I can't do that. So she didn't want to be of any more. A pure moment, Carol, a pure moment. Yeah, very wholesome moment in young Carol's life. a very wholesome moment in young carols life. Unfortunately, she seems to have had kind of a tough beginning to life. According to her own accounts, she was sexually assaulted by multiple men who lived across the street from her when she was 14 years old. Oh my God, that's awful. Yeah. And she grew up in a staunchly religious family.

And they basically told her it was her faults because she was a whore That's basically what they told her because you see her dad later in the documentary on her sanctuary and you're like, oh my god Like you guys got over that. Yeah, I think they literally I'm assuming she grew up in this very religious family So I think maybe she went a different way, but she kind of understood that her parents were still like, I don't know. They almost respected each other's sides or something. Who knows to them, I guess, for a whole figure it out a way to make it work. But yeah, so she feels like she didn't really have a lot of support in the matter. No one was giving our hug and telling her you didn't deserve that. Like, you know, it was basically like, well, what'd you do to deserve it? Kind of thing, which is not awesome. So she ended up dropping out of high school pretty early.

She had some troubles. She ran away from home. She was living on the streets, on the streets at one point. She was sleeping in parked cars. And eventually she moved to Florida from Texas. And she became involved with a man named Michael Murdoch. He was her boss at a department store that she got a job at. She was only 17 at the time and they got married April 7th, 1979 and they had one daughter, a girl named Jamie. Okay. So after she was working at the after she had Jamie, you

know, she wanted to earn some more money. So she began like rescuing big cats like Bob cats and stuff. And she was also breeding show cats. And she ended up getting like she was using like goats and llamas for like a lawn cutting business, like her own little, because they're like good for, like actually some people hire people like to bring goats into their yard and they'll like clean up your yard for you. By just eating the grass. Yeah, they're just like great at doing that.

You learn something new every fucking day in this world. So she was just doing that. Who knew? Who knew? The moral. You know what I mean? So her first husband Michael Michael Murdoch, was abusive. Um, unfortunately, uh, when she was 19 years old in 1980, they had one of their huge knockdown dragout fights.

She was trying to get away from him. So she says that she just threw a potato at him. I mean, whatever it takes, Which I'm like, good choice. I mean, a good Irish way out of that fight. Fuck yeah, like what Irish are way out of here. And it's also like a potato is a good, that's just, that's a good weapon. It's solid enough that if you hom it at someone

that's just gonna hurt, but not solid enough that it's gonna like kill someone. Right, it's a, it's a very in between weapon. It's smart, it's gonna hurt, but not solid enough that it's gonna like kill someone. Right, it's a very in-between weapon. It's smart, it's just smart. But she threw it at him and we're not making light of abuse, by the way. No, no, no. That is not okay. Not okay either way.

She did her lipotato item in her own words. And then that was basically to distract him along enough where she got out of the house. While she was walking down the street barefoot, Jack Don Lewis drove up and offered her a ride. Can I just say? When they described this in the documentary, I was like, this is the creepiest way to get together. It truly is.

Like, you would not win me over by doing this. This is not a super cute, like, meet cute. No, not at all. I hate this. It is not a super cute, like, meet cute. No, not at all. I hate this. She has meet cute of all time. And the worst part is, like, she talks about this meeting, like, like, she's like with starry eyes, like, oh, it was just this wonderful thing.

And what happened was she's walking down the street barefoot after she just threw a potato at her abusive first husband and Dawn Lewis drives up next to her and is like, hey pretty lady you need to read? And she was like, uh, nope I know and she just keeps walking so he turns around and pulls up next to her again Now this is usually the beginning of every bad story We tell you where someone ends up murdered. Like someone circles around and just keeps asking.

This is like what we get in listener tails. That it really is. It really is. It's up into my mom and you're like, Oh, fuck. Yeah, and they just kept circling around. Well, he circles around and he shows her that he has a gun on the passenger side of the car,

seat of the car. To me, this is like, oh, now you run. Right. But no, he was like, oh, now you run. Right. But no, he was like, this is not to threaten you with. He was saying, you can hold the gun up to my head. The whole time we're driving. I just want to talk and give you a ride. So he was like, this is your sign of trust.

Here's my issue with that. Number one, this is a stranger. Number two, how the fuck am I supposed to know that that gun is loaded? And number three, how am I supposed to know if you don't have a gun on the side of you that is loaded that you're going to use to kill me when I hold that gun to your head? Precisely. All my issues. And also, when someone's first meet up with you is like, hey, you can hold this gun to my head

to make sure that I'm not a ski ball. I'd be like, yeah, I don't know I feel like that's a weird thing for you to just like getting right to the table. You're like, I'm actually good. Thanks though. Like I am good Well, she was like, all right cool. So she gets in. She's like what an active trust. Yeah, and she said she held the gun to his head the entire time Which how romantic I guess I don't know. Hot and heavy already. Well, and it gets even more romantic because they went to a hotel. So, so things got real, real, real fast. The problem is she's married, although he's an abusive asshole apparently.

He was also married. So whoops, they had an affair. He was married to a woman named Gladys. They had three daughters together and had been married for decades at this point. And also Gladys' hair, honey. It's a situation. It's the situation. It's the situation.

In the 70s I'm willing to bet it was the hair. Oh yeah. It was the situation. It's the situation. In the 70s, I'm willing to bet it was the hair. Oh yeah, it was the situation. Like people were like, Gladys, who's your hairdresser? Oh yeah. Gladys had it going on. But unfortunately Gladys had to deal with a lot of shit from Don. I will say that. He cheated on Gladys constantly throughout their marriage.

In fact, according to the Tampa Bay Times, she would pack extra food in his lunch when he would go off to work, knowing that that extra food was for his fucking girlfriends. What? Yep. You know how she would know this? Because they would leave notes

and little napkins with kiss marks, like lipstick marks on it in his lunch bag for her to find. That's horrific. And she would just go with it like she was like, yeah, and she's feeding them. Like with the fuck and she's feeding these little bitches. And she also said that like to date women younger than their daughters and she said in one interview, quote, I couldn't compete with that.

Nobody can sister. How sad is that that's horrific I'd be like uh DIVORCE that's the thing it's like girl you don't need to put up with this shit no and also like don what the fuck that's not cool his own daughter said that he was a sex addict yeah like that's really good like and that's the other thing it's like I feel like we're all like failing to just point out the facts here. Right. No one deserves to go missing or murdered

by any stretch of the imagination, but it's like, let's not paint certain people with broad brushes. So Don was a self-made millionaire from real estate dealings. He had a used car business that he built these things from the ground up. He was self-made

Gladison Don did divorce in 1990 Carol also divorced her husband and then he and Carol got married in 1991 Okay Both of them loved exotic cats. So Don was like right on board with Carol's love of the Kite's The Kite's but with Don it felt like it was more like of a collecting thing right like with Carol's love of the kites. Um, the kites. But with Don, it felt like it was more like of a collecting thing. Right. Like, he did love cats, but like, he was rich and rich people just love collecting weird shit. Right. Like, that's just like a thing that from what I hear.

Like, if you're rich listening to this right now, I bet you have a collection of some sort. I've got to say. Like, I'd raise your hand, I know you're there. To Carol, it was like kind of a little bit of both because she did obviously love cats from the beginning and she always loved cats, but girlfriend liked having the money that Don came with. Like, come on, let's not pretend

she did not like have an a millionaire husband. I mean, I'm not gonna lie to you, I would love if Annie became a millionaire. Are you listening babe? So I think it's, I think it's definitely a little bit of both like, she also liked the collecting aspect of it, but she cared. Like she, she, to me, she seems like she genuinely does care

for these animals. Yeah, that's the thing. She, she definitely comes across like she does. Yeah. Um, if not, she's a great actress. But Carol is, like I said earlier, she's like, she is smart as hell. Like she's incredibly savvy.

She really is. One might say cunning. Yeah, oh yeah, she is definitely cunning. She definitely could, you can see how she could manipulate. You could see how she can be cold and calculating for sure. Like I'm not going to deny that. I do believe she cares about the animals, but she's also a little hypocritical because she's saying that you shouldn't keep animals in cages, but she's got her animals in

cages. They're big cages. Like, they're big, you know, enclosures, but you're still keeping animals in cage. I mean, I know that it's like a sanctuary because now it's called Big Cat Rescue, but, you know, like, I don't know. I think there's a lot of hypocrisy running through all of these. Yeah, no, they're definitely in that documentary. But, um, and at one point, she was breeding them, like a nut bag. I guess since she has chilled out on that and isn't doing that,

and I think she's even admitted like in the beginning I was breeding too much and I didn't know that. Yeah, because at one point, she had like the most big cats in the country or something like that. Oh shit. So she had a fair share of moments where you're like, eh, I don't think anybody in these big cat arenas that we saw on the documentary,

at least I'm sure there's some out there that are. But the ones we saw in this documentary, I don't think any of them fully have just the animal's interest in mind. Well, and I think, I think you're right, I think it starts off like that because people even say that about Joe Exotic, like his heart started in the right place,

and then you see where you can get and your heart goes to the wrong place. And I you see where you can get. And your heart goes to the wrong place. And I think it's probably hard to make it steer back. I fully agree with that. So Carol just had a way of steering it back because she's a Gemini. Yeah, there you go. So she figured it out.

Now, like we said, she's pretty eccentric. You know, like just watching her in the documentary. And just knowing that she starts everything with, hey, you cool cats and kittens. I mean, you know, she's a little eccentric. We love a flower crown. Carol. We do love a flower, I mean, you love a flower crown. I used to wear flower crowns

like it was going on a fucking style. Ash loved a flower crown. Yup. Lottled L-ray bitch. But you know what? Oh, God. But we're such different people. We really are. It's like, oh lord, you're like, I want a gnawp.

Oh I think, except I do love that one song that first from the great Gatsby. But you know, I digress. So Dawn could also be described as pretty eccentric. As I feel like most super rich people have an eccentric side. I get that. People said that he was worth somewhere between like five and seven million. Some people save an up to 20 million, which is a big jump, but either way. Didn't he use to like bury his money in the backyard in jail?

Yeah. He like Ron Swanson did, which is, which is pretty rad. I think. I think like he would, like, bury money in like gold bars and shit. Which is awesome. I mean, if you have the means to do it, I think you do that shit. Yeah, I mean, why not trust in your bank,

since shit, just bury your, he literally was Ron Swansonning before Ron Swanson and Ron Swanson. You know, I wouldn't be shocked if Papa has some gold coins buried somewhere. Right, I would, I could see it. On it. John is Ron Swanson, so he would definitely do that

if he could. But so he had, he was definitely a multi-millionaire. But he would, people would see him like looking in trash cans for like food scraps sometimes. That's interesting. And like picking trash in shit. And he never wore like fancy clothes. In fact, the day he went missing,

he was wearing a $2 shirt from Kmart. Hell yeah, he was. He just wasn't into that. But then on the flip side of all that, he did love planes. And sometimes he would just buy a plane with cash. As one of us. And he would just walk around with big wads of cash

out of them all the time. And he had dealings in Costa Rica and he owned 200 acres there. That is a lot of acreage. Exactly. And he was planning on moving the sanctuary down there to that 200 acre plot. Right. But he had a lot of shady dealings down there that nobody really knows a whole lot about. And like I said, he made his millions

through real estate deals, which once he married Carol, he went from, he significantly grew those deals. Oh really? He made a lot of money with Carol too. Okay. Was she involved in the real estate? Yeah, like she helped him out with that stuff, like they became, came kind of a team that way. Okay, and That became kind of an issue when it came to like separating his estate later because his Gladison his daughters thought they should get more But then Carol was saying well, she made this when he was with you But he made this when he was with me. I should take this because this is mine. Okay, but then I'll cut into it later But like it comes down to Carol really because he left

it to her. But that was kind of where she was coming from with that. It also is a weird where he left everything to her. Yeah, certainly is. He didn't leave everything to her though. Yeah, yeah, that's a, that, I feel like there's a lot of like people just being like, well, you know, this happened and they didn't look further into it to see what the actual thing was. They just took the Netflix documentary where it was totally sensationalized.

Like, it absolutely was. But he also, so Don was also dabbling a little bit and buying out mortgages. So he would charge people that were defaulting. These huge interest rates to buy them out. And then after a few months, if they weren't paid up, he would foreclose on their house. Well, that's kind of shitty. Or he would sell off their mortgage

and it would fuck them even further. Perfect. So, yeah. So, not a good thing. So, those people probably didn't think he was that awesome of a guy. So already we're making some enemies here I was gonna say that's definitely gonna get you an enemy or two. Yeah, definitely a few enemies He was also sending a lot of his funds down to that 200 acre plot in Costa Rica. And he was doing this via his business assistant and McQueen.

And that's the little lady in the documentary. The little lady. I don't remember. She's like a tiny little little lady. A tiny little little lady? I don't remember actually. I think it's actually, yeah, maybe. It sounds good. You're like, cool, cool think it's actually, yeah, maybe. Sounds good. You're like, cool, cool. I'm like, yeah, totally, she's a little.

But she was accused by Carol of also taking a life insurance policy out on Don only a few months before he went missing. Okay, so that's weird. And doesn't deny this because she can't, but she says that he told her to do that. Oh, just suspect. Yeah, this is the lady from the documentary.

Yeah, and yeah, it's just a little, it's a little weird. And, and also said that she was the only woman that he didn't hit on. Like, because he just said on every woman. Yeah. Which to me is like, me thinks though, Doth protests too much, yeah. I think, I think they had a lot of that going on in the out. Yeah, I don't, yeah, I don't, I just don't see that just being like a story and tell it again. And you know why I don't see it like a business really shit because I don't think Don had a lot of just business really ships

with women. I mean, Carol actually said that he traveled to Costa Rica, and there's evidence of this. He traveled to Costa Rica a ton on quote unquote business. And he would go there, I mean, once a month, literally. Can you imagine what he said? And she said, I know, and just flying your private plane down there. And Carol said this was for him to carry

on his secret trists as well, because he would do it a lot when she was having her period. Oh, and he said, and so she says, and one of his daughters, like, said this in the documentary, like referred to this, that he was basically a sex addict. Right. Carol said he had to, he needed sex once a day. That's a lot.

At least. At least. Oh yeah, yeah, that's a lot. I think I got things to do today. Yeah, like it's, who shit's going on. I have things to do. I have to, you know, I gotta eat breakfast. I don't know.

It's just like you got a gildude. So she says he was going down to Costa Rica and, you know know meeting women in that he had a girlfriend down there. It was confirmed later that he did have a girlfriend investigator spoke to her. Yeah. So it's like he was doing some shady shit and he was pissing off a lot of people and he was doing shady business down there as well. So he's got this whole network of people that aren't too happy with him.

So it's like, sure, Carol's on that list, for sure. But there's also a long list of other outlets that could have taken Don Lewis out. If that's what happened. A list that's here there and everywhere. They're really, it's like kind of all over the place. So Carol and Don, when they first got married, they bought a bobcat as their first cat. That was the first thing that they bought was a bobcat.

That was the beginning of everything. They were like, holy shit, we want more, this is so fun, we love big cats. So we're going gonna buy six more bobcats from the place we got this original one. Damn. When they looked further into the place though, they figured out that where they were getting these bobcats from, it was actually a fur farm. Oh no! And basically fur farms breed animals just for their fur. It's awful. Like we as a species should be ashamed to that we suck so fucking much.

Yeah, we truly do suck that those exist that we just skin animals for fucking coats. It's unbelievable. So yeah, so we suck. But once Carolyn Don realized that this was a fur farm and what was happening there, they bought 56 bobcats to save them from the fate of being skinned for a coat. I love that so much. Which, these are the kind of things it's like they did these kind of things. So it's like, I know that they cared and I know that they had good intentions together.

Right. It just went awry at times and I think Ego's got into it. I think narcissistic personalities got into it. Lots of money got into it and it changed the whole thing. Yep. But I think now, I do believe now that like, the rescue that she is running, I believe seems legit. Oh, I agree with that 100%. And I do believe she cares for these animals. I just do.

No, I don't know. I'm sure people won't agree, but like, I think you can tell that she does. Yeah, I just, I feel it in my bones. So this is when they began trying to do some good. This is when they were like, all right, we got to do good shit for cats. And they initially called their rescue. They were like, we're going to we're going to open a rescue for the we have 56 box cats now. We got to do something. And they initially called their rescue wildlife on easy street. Which is so cute, it's adorable, very wholesome. And Don began buying injured, abused, and abandoned cats all over the place. Soon they had like hundreds of cats,

they were just like all about it. In June 1997, is when it becomes apparent that like this wonderful We just buy we just save cats and we're so fun and eccentric and we have you know nothing's wrong This is when you see that like things weren't super awesome in this marriage. He's actually we're going very wrong Yeah, it wasn't it this it was just not what it was looking to be from the outside so They definitely were. So, in June 1997, a protection order was requested by Don, against Carol.

What was said for the grounds of this was that Don had gone away on a trip. And when he returned, she had allowed, like garbage men to come take away garages full of his thrift store fines. He was a big finding things at yard sales, like estate sales. He just liked junk. Like again, rich people love collecting shit, so this was some American pickers deal where Don just loved finding old antiques, equipment, storing a bunch of junk that he thought would eventually be worth something. Well, that's what he was doing exactly. He was probably just going to sell it later.

That's all it was. It was someday this will be worth something. It was American pickers. And Carol let people take it away without his permission, without selling it. She just had it all taken away, which is rude. And, you know, so he was pissed when he got back and found this out. Yeah. They argued about it. And he said he was requesting the protection order because during this fight that occurred over the garage sale shit, she told him, if you don't leave the house, I'm gonna kill you. Which maybe she was just being hyperbolic.

But which like totally, like, don't tell your spouse that you're gonna kill them. No. That's just my, I'm gonna give you some like words of wisdom, like don't do that ever, because it's not good. And like that's not a normal fight. Like, it doesn't make her a murder. No, but that is not a normal marriage fight. Like I can tell you with 100% certainty, John and I will not ever tell each other

that I'm going to kill you. Like that's not going to happen. It's just not you. So if you are in a relationship or one of you is actively telling the other one, like with full seriousness, I'm going to kill you, get out of that now. Like that's just fun of that.

That's my little nugget of wisdom for you. But yeah, so. Right, so. So there's a marriage counseling with Elena. That's my little nugget of wisdom for you. But yeah, so the Lina. So there's a marriage counseling with Lina. So yeah, so she said, you know, leave the house. Don't come back or I'll kill you. And she basically told me, if you try to come back, I'm going to kill you.

So he was like, yeah, I think she feels, I feel like she's going to kill me. And then he lost the sense she's just going to murder me. She's very subtle about it, but I feel like she wants to kill me. And then he also, the sense she's just going to murder me. She's very subtle about it. But I feel like she wants to kill me. But he also said, this wasn't the first time she said this. So he said, this just happened to be the time where he was like, okay, that's enough. He was not granted this protection order by a judge. Dun dun dun. And if you want to like that you can look up,

I just briefly looked at what it takes to get a protection order in Florida. And I think it takes a lot. And unfortunately, it just wasn't seen as an issue. I think it's one of those things where it's like they need to have already hurt you. I was gonna think awful, like, you know, like protection order is a real bullshit.

Has already had to have happened. Yeah, like they're basically like, you need to be, protection or physical abuse has already had to have happened. Yeah, like they're basically like, you need to be beaten first and then we'll give you protection order, like it's a lot of bullshit. So he wasn't giving one. One of Don's daughters actually said that Carol tried to have him see like a psychiatrist because she said his mental health was declining

and he saw a psychiatrist once and then was like, fuck that, I'm not going back. Okay. But she said he would like, forget where he was. He would call her lost. And like Carol said that, Carol claims that allegedly, he like wouldn't use the,

he like refused to use the bathroom sometimes. Okay. Like he was really declining. Okay. All of this is speculation, and it's basic, it's just Carol's word, which is really convenient if we look at what happens

to him in the following life. Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's why it's like take it with a grain of salt. This is just what Carol says. Unfortunately, we can't know. So in August 19th, 1997, Don was 59 years old. This is when he went missing. That morning, Don had told

Carol that he was getting up early. He was going to go load stuff into a truck because he was going to be making a trip to Costa Rica and he was going to be bringing stuff down to start that sanctuary. So he had a truck that was going to Miami and then he was going to Costa Rica. Right. So he said, I'm going to finish loading the truck. And he also said, I have to drop some signs off to my real estate office, like my lawyer. And then I'm going to, I'll be doing this. That was the last time she saw him, according to her statements. According to her statements. Right. It was the next morning, now, he did drop the signs off

to the real estate office. No one saw him do that. But the signs were there. So nobody knows how or when those came. It was the next morning that Carol reported him missing. OK. So the next day, police found Don's a blue caravan at Pilot Country Airport in Spring Hill, Florida. Now the window was broken and it was like kind of beat up the van, but

that damage was apparently done to the van before he went missing. So it's irrelevant. Okay. But it stated a lot as like, oh, somebody must have done that to the van. It's like no that already happened. They did find the keys to the van on the floor of the van, which is a little weird. No evidence other than that was found. No evidence of foul play, nothing. Okay. Now, he could fly a plane. He was not a licensed pilot, but he knew how to fly a plane.

And he flew planes often. There are no records saying he flew that day, like no logs or anything like that, but Carol said he had flown before without records or logs because he's not licensed. Right, so he's going. And this is a tiny airport, and it would have been okay to do that.

Like it's not okay, but it would have been okay to do that. Like, it's not okay, but it would have been easy to do that. He also was apparently involved in three small plane accidents before. Oh, shit. So it is possible one theory suggests that maybe he crashed his small plane into the water. Yeah. That's it. We just never saw him again. Right.

It's a possibility. I mean, it's a weird theory, but like, yeah, you know, well, they have like a record of like how many planes he had and like his one gone like, yeah, well, that's I think what they're thinking is maybe because he took out a lot of money that day. Out of his personal account and his business accounts. Okay. They think maybe could he have bought a plane with cash on the spot? And that's why we don't have records to have it. Right. But you know, so after, so you know, they find the event, they don't find any evidence of foul play, they're sitting there

wondering what the hell's happening. Investigators did go down to Costa Rica to talk to people down there, because that is where he was supposed to be going. They found he had all sorts of creepy, shady business dealings and the girlfriend down there. They talked to all of them. They went down several times.

They talked to several people down there. They got conflicting reports about whether some people said they saw him, some people said they didn't. So it just becomes one of those clusterfucks. Well, because like word of mouth is like the worst. It's just, yeah, it's one of those things. So they, they thoroughly searched the wildlife rescue in Florida, they searched the acreage down in Costa Rica,

no evidence of foul play anywhere. They cannot find any evidence of this man, which is crazy. When you think about it, it's like, how do you just go missing without a treasure? Yeah. And, well, and I guess he had two oscillots, and I'm not sure if he was, they were already down in Costa Rica or not, but they were shipped out of wherever they were, and they can't figure out who did that or where they went. That's weird. Yeah. So it wasn't until December 1998 that Don's daughter Donna Pettis, with Gladys, actually put forth the theory that Carol had killed Don,

put him through a meat grinder and fed him to her tigers. Which later inspires a joe exotic original. Yes, a very scary joe exotic original. One might say the most scary. Where he found the most convincing doppelganger I've ever seen. I don't know how he did it, but wow. And if I was that lady, I'd be afraid that he was gonna kill me just because I looked like Carol. Right? I'd be like, this is getting too scary, man. Too much.

Well, and his daughters and his ex-wife said that they were really pissed because law enforcement didn't test the meat grinders for DNA at the, and meanwhile, the police were like, okay, well, the meat grinders were removed from the actual facility weeks before Dawn even went missing. Oh, I don't think they mentioned that in the...

Yeah, and they were like, this was just a rumor. And they also said the meat grinders that were there were like the small meat grinders. Right. But in the documentary, they show this like industrial gravy grinder. She didn't, they never had that. That was never annoying. And I'm not saying that it's not possible to like put somebody through a meat grinder.

Right. It's been done before, I'm sure. But this is like a fully grown male body. And it would take a lot of time, a lot of effort, and a lot of tools to get him into tiny pieces to then slowly put him through a meager. Right. Like that takes a lot of time.

And if he was last seen, you know, on one day, and then reported the following morning, that's not a lot of time to do all that it would take to put him through them a little tiny meager. Well, you would think they would find some kind of like, I mean, that would leave a big fucking mess. 100%. So that's why that theory is to me absurd. Yeah.

It's just absurd. Yeah. It's just, it's not. It's just a fun theory that people like to say. But remember, you know, the ex-wife and the kids are all gonna want a piece of his fortune that he left behind because they you know It's their father and they locate his air but after all he fucking put them there. Well, that's a thing It's like they all deserve a piece everybody does. Yeah, you know and he but he left Carol with power of attorney

right So she had complete control over his state There was language put into the documents that said something along the lines and a lot of people have been harping on this, that Carol is in charge of everything in the event of death, etc. But it also included the language in the case of disappearance, which is weird as fuck. Sure, that's weird. But they both had to sign this document. Uh-huh. This wasn't Carol putting that language in there. That was Carol and Don putting that language in.

Oh, he signed the document as well. Of course he had to. It's his way. It's his will. They left that out in Tiger King. Of course they did. And what's, it's bothering me because it's like that's fishy on both ends. Because if you look at me and both part of this, if it's Carol, yeah, that's fishy because she's getting ready to be like, well, if he disappears, I get the money. It's also fishy on his end because he's literally setting up his own quote unquote disappearance. If it's because another theory is that motherfucker got in trouble and he needed to get the fuck out of Dodge. He just quote-unquote disappeared. And I think it would be fishy if he's signing off on this

because he's basically saying in the case that I disappear myself. Right. Then this is the case. So, I mean, that's just to me, that doesn't prove anything either way. It makes both of them look shady as fuck. That's a very good point. Yeah. So she has a blog that she has just written a blog post for. And the blog post is called Refuting Netflix Tiger King. Okay. She is very unhappy with how that documentary went. Well, it does paint her in not so great of light. Absolutely, it does.

And she, according to her and her husband, Howard, who, who, yes, is somehow sweet baby angel. I love Howard. Like hilarious. I'm mad. But like just look up the pictures of their wedding where he is wearing a tiger outfit and she has some on a leash. It'll just go like that. It'll just go like that. It'll just go like that.

It'll just go like that. It'll just go like that. I don't know what love, you know what I'm saying? It'll be like that sometimes. But so what she's saying is that the producers, when they first pitched this to her, they said this is going to be kind of like a blackfish situation. Where it's going to be about the animals, we're going to be exposing the abuse, and she was all about it. That's what she was for. She says she feels wholly betrayed that it became about her and her missing husband. Because it did. Yeah. So I do get that. I mean,

in her missing husband. Because it did. Yeah. So I do get that. I mean, but then again, when they started talking to you about it, why'd you talk about it? Well, that's the thing. That's the other thing. So it's like, I get why you probably didn't like

the finished product, but you should have known while you were chatting about it. What they were going to do with all that footage. And so apparently there was, so in one of that, in that blog post, she says, quote, after Don disappeared, there were years of my having to manage the properties under a conservatorship demanded by Gladys and the daughters. The numerous attorneys they involved, all being paid out of the estate, reduced the assets

significantly. Ultimately, the assets in the PRSL trust that had the daughters as beneficiaries went to them. Those assets were worth about one million dollars. Okay. So the daughter's got about one million dollars. Each or half a million. I think just I think it's all together. Okay. Yeah. So then she said the assets in the other trust worth about two million by then came to me. So she didn't pay that much more than them?

No. So the claim the girls made in the series that I picked the assets they got and that they were bad assets is nonsense. They got the assets from the trust they were beneficiaries of worth one million dollars. Mm-hmm. Again, this is from Carol's. Well beneficiaries of worth $1 million. Again, this is from Carol's, well, this is Carol's word. So we take this with a grain of salt, but this is what Carol is claiming. Right. Um, honestly, and it's, it's, it's true that this, this documentary became just this like circus of like 100%.

It became the fucking Joe exotic documentary. The Joe exotic and Carol show like it was literally like let's watch Joe exotic he's so funny but then it's like yo we watched this dude like make terroristic violent, abhorrent threats. Yeah against this woman on social media every day, on his channels every day, in public every day. And it's like, then we forget, he hired someone to murder her. Like he was part of, that's why he's in prison.

And we see that same man climb into a bathtub at the end of the fucking documentary untouched. Yep, just untouched. I'm like, yo, he was murdered or he was a hitman, like what? Like, yeah, it's very bizarre. Like the whole thing is very bizarre to me. And he had people who was gonna go do it. Yeah, but then he just like got confused and went to a strip club. Like that's my favorite part

And also it was only what it was only $3,000 Murder supply. I mean the most bizarre murder for higher plot. I've ever seen about it It's wild and truly is but what counts me is it's like what is it? You said like Cardi B who, I know nothing about Cardi B. But that's all I know of her. Apparently she wants to get him out of jail and I'm like, why do I have to go find me to get him out of jail? But like, why though? Like, I don't know. Because it's like, here's the thing, totally separate from Carol Basaskin and her husband. This man did try to have her murdered.

Like, I don't know if he's not gonna save her or money and pick somebody else to do it. That's not gonna get confused and go to a strip club. That's the thing and it's like, and Joe Exotic, the reason he hates Carol Baskin is not because he believes Carol Baskin killed her husband. That is not the reason.

That's just a reunion excuse. He hates her because she's trying to have, well she tried to have his shit shut down because she thinks he's an abusive, like, you know, just money hungry, you know, zoo owner basically. Which it does kind of seem like that's what it is. Exactly, and it's like, so these dudes all have like total reason

to hate her. And their reasoning is money and they don't wanna lose their money. And they don't wanna be seen as animal beazers and she was trying to exploit that whole thing. I still sit in the gray area. I'm not told that she didn't do it, but I'm not told that she did do it.

Because so far, what solid evidence is there that she did it? Yeah, there's none. Exactly. So it's like, is there solid evidence that says she didn't? No, no. Is there solid evidence that says she did? No. But basically, all evidence that we're pointing to that she did is kind of just like, well, I feel like she did because she's an asshole. Like, it's literally like is kind of just like, well, I feel like she did because she's an asshole.

It's literally like, and it's like, well, Dawn was kind of an asshole too. It's everybody in this whole thing is kind of an asshole. So it's like, an asshole does not make you a murderer, right? And it's also just, I need someone to explain to me also like how she killed him. Right. Like she didn't just put him through a mech grinder.

You gotta tell me how she killed him. Well, are people thinking that she literally just like locked him in the thing and then like the Tigers just ate him? I don't know. Cause that's why there's no evidence. Yeah, that's the thing. Cause it's like, if that was what she did,

why wouldn't she just make it look like an accident? Because maybe that would be too convenient with like the how he had the protective order and everything. Yeah, I guess you're right. But I know. And she did say that if you do want somebody to eat someone that you cover them in sardine oil, so that was a little weird. Does that make her a murder?

No, it doesn't make her a murder. Probably not the best thing to joke about though when your husband mysteriously disappeared and people think that you fed him to a tiger. Very true. But then I look back on like the West Memphis 3. Yeah. Yeah. If we're gonna, if we're gonna sit there and take people's just like making jokes or like being stupid and like talking as evidence, then a lot of people are gonna go to jail

for bullshit they didn't do. Yeah. No, it's definitely not evidence, but it does make you go, hmm, memes are fun, but like, memes are fun, but they're not evidence. But it's like, Joe Exotic is fun to like laugh and about and like be like, he's funny, but it's like, everybody, please remember that he hired someone to kill a woman, so. And then just remember that guy getting into a bathtub. Yeah, let's not just, let's

just lift him up too much. Ever part. Because again, he's a dick, Carol Baskins is a dick, that docantil guy's a dick, that Jeff Lowe guy's a dick, everybody's a dick. I'm here to tell you everyone in that

documentary is a dick except for Howard. True. Who reminds me of Nigel Thornberry. And I'll leave you with that. He really does. Oh my God, that's crazy. You're welcome. Well, you know what's crazy too is,

so the Hillsbury County Sheriff's Office, the website still says that, Dawn Lewis is an endangered missing adult. Oh. But in 2002, he was declared legally dead. Okay. Because after a certain amount of time, they declared that. But the case was reopened now because with the new interest of the documentary, it really

was like the documentary. They were like, guess we should reopen this because now everybody's, which is smart. Everybody's eyes are on it. And they say they're getting about like six tips a day about it. But they said a lot of them are nonsense. I was going to say that many of those are for realsies. Yeah, a lot of them are just crazy theories. Right.

Because another theory that Joe Exotic floated was that like she threw him in like a sewer to hold the sewer manhole. Right. Yeah. And that shit didn't make a lot of sense there because she was like, that was already there. It just wasn't. Yeah. She's like, here's another one.

That wasn't working. But, you know, again, it's like watching the documentary. I'm like, watching how violent, joe exotic was when talking about Carol. It's like really alarming that that's not being talked about more. And that like everyone's just like that bitch Carol. And it's like, but wait a second, we don't know that she killed her. Nobody has the smoking gun here. Right. Can we not just forget what's, what else is happening around her?

Violin and manipulative. He made it. Two or three supposed straight men be in love with him. Yeah, I mean those men could have been by. That's true, but they said that they were straight. Yeah, so maybe they just didn't realize it. Yeah, maybe. I don't know. But I think I mean, I think he definitely used like drugs to apply. Yeah, a lot of these people to be around him. That is true. Which is sad. It is really sad. I also just wanted to point out that if you guys aren't listening to Jensen and Holes Murder Squad podcast, I like what are you doing? First of all, go listen to it.

They did a really good episode about this case and they have a lot more like detailed information about certain things because they like did leg work and like reached out to sheriff's offices and talked to them and like I don't want to take their information that they like worked hard to get. So if you want some more details, go over to Jensen and Holes Murder Squad and go listen to them, because they did a great job on this and who doesn't want to listen to Paul Holes talk about

true crime cases? We love talking about it. We love it. So yeah, I think that is really where we sit now. Love it. The Carol Baskin case. It's kind of in a nebulous, now we just wait and see what's in the sunken place.

It really is the sunken place for a Carol Baskin case. What is unfortunate actually is that Carol says that after the documentary aired, she unplugged her phones and like can't go out and she's been receiving like death threats all over the place. Yeah that is because people think she killed her husband. Because you know we are in a gray area so then go over to the other side. If that woman did kill her husband, what is that existence? Can you imagine how shitty that is if she didn't kill her husband? No.

Then now she's known as this. Yeah like that's fucked. And she's like real pissed because she was like, you know, I go on my bike rides and like people are like throwing things at me and like threatening me. And then she said like, you know, it took away from the abuse that was supposed to be, you know, shown to the world. And like, that's what I thought this was gonna be. And now it's become about me.

Which sucks. Which is sad. So it is sad because there was a lot of like points in that documentary where you were like, what the fuck? Like, which I was like, I didn't know. Like I would have held a baby tiger had I got the chance. And now when I, after watching that, I'm like, fuck that. I don't want to hold a baby tiger.

Nope. So, yeah. So I'm not telling you how to feel. No one's an innocent little angel here, but no, definitely not. But so far, no one except Joe Exotic is involved in murder. Exactly. Just put that out there. The only person involved in murder is Joe Exotic himself.

Yeah, exactly. Big wolf. So that's the tail of Carol Baskin. One, eight, good. Well, update this if anything comes about. Yeah, exactly. Big wall. That's the tail of Carol Baskin. One, eight, or the tail. Well, update this if anything comes about. Yeah, for sure. But go watch Tiger King. He'll blow your damn mind.

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