The True Story Behind the Tiger King: Joe Exotic
The larger than life characters in the hit docu-series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness has everyone wondering, did these events actually happen in real life? There are so many questions surrounding the new show, and people keep wanting more.
The show, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness was released to the United States on March 20, 2020 and it hit the world running, racking up 34 million views in the first 10 days alone. Topping the long awaited Stranger Things 2, with 31.2 million views in the first 10 days. The show covers a seemingly small community of private wildlife owners and conservationists, fighting over who gets the law on their side.
The show’s main character is Joe Exotic, born in a small town in Kansas, then moving to Eastvale, Texas due to an allegedly rape by an other boy. In Texas, he and his family joined the police department, soon training to become chief of a smaller department. But tragedy struck, Joe attempted to crash his police cruiser into a bridge because his parents singled him out to the “gay one” out of his siblings. That night has changed his life, for the better or for the worst. Joe also tried at many other career paths like music, politics, and the most infamous, zoo keeper, soon becoming to be the biggest private tiger breeder in all of the United States.
Husbands/Personal Relationships:
Joe had always been open about his sexuality, and being a homosexual. He had multiple, non-gay/non homosexual so called husbands who despite not being married legally. His first was Brian Rhyne who died of HIV complications in 2001. Then, the second was Gary Hartpence, who was allegedly known as Jack, but suspected of changing his name. Hartpence was the event manager who aided Joe with his traveling show. There was actually not a lot of information on Hartpence, but according to Hartpence, he was wanting the zoo to be nice and free roaming for the animals, but Joe kept on buying more and more tigers from breeders. The pair was never married and Hartpence was convicted in 2006 for molesting a child and in 2014 for first degree murder.
John Finlay was hired as an employee for the G.W. Zoo, within a month, he had started a relationship with Joe, while this was going on, Joe’s relationship with Hartpence started to deteriorate over drug and alcohol addiction. Finlay was straight out of high school and was just figuring out his life when he was hired to be a part of Joe’s zoo, where he started his relationship with Joe. According to multiple zoo employees and people who knew Finlay claimed that he was actually straight and even got a female employee pregnant. Many suspect the marriage was to fuel Finlay’s meth addiction, and Joe was desperate for love and affection, he bought the boys over with things they couldn’t live without. Not just fuelling Finlay’s meth addiction, he also bought him multiple guns, a truck, and had Finlay tattoo “Private Property of Joe Exotic” near the spot that doesn’t shine. According to Finlay, Joe had ruined his life, and he is now living happily with his fiance with a new set of teeth.
The third husband was a tragedy. Like Finlay, Travis Maldonado met Joe when he was just 19 and had a serious meth addiction. According to another park employee, Joe had asked Travis if he was straight, and oblivious to the question, Travis said yes. Then Joe continues asking him questions and in the end confirming Travis was gay. Travis, Finlay, and Joe end up getting married in an illegal three-way service in 2013. At that time, Finlay had left Joe for a woman, the same park employee who Finlay impregnated, and Travis was described by Joe as his ‘saving grace’. The peace didn’t last long, according to Joe, Travis was fooling around with his Ruger that he didn’t believe could fire because he had taken the magazine out earlier. When he tried to show the other employees that he had taken the magazine out, he actually shot himself in the head. But Joe’s campaign manager, Joshua Dial, Joe had fallen for straight guys, and Joe knew that, saying “I fell in love with straight guys.” Before Travis’s death, he was seen angrily beating one of Joe’s lorries and screaming Joe didn’t care about any of his problems and didn’t care about him. Joshua suspects Joe manipulated Travis into the marriage, guilt-tripping him to stay because his last husband left and Travis being an marijuana user, kept supplying him meth, making him come back for more. The “accidental death” Joshua suspects what actually a suicide attempt that worked. Travis’s mother, Cheryl Maldonada suspected Joe was also putting on a show during his funeral, and even going as far as building Travis a memorial in his zoo.
The fourth husband, who is still married to Joe to this date is Dillon Passage, whom he married on December 11, 2017. Joe met Dillon on a dating app, Gridnr and they hit it off with some karaoke. Dillon admits that he kind of “jumped the gun” with Joe when they got married a mere two weeks after they met. Although the 33 year difference, Dillon’s family is actually accepted Joe. Their chill attitude could have something to do with Joe’s influence on twenty something year olds, but as Dillion explained, “I was in a really bad place when I met Joe. I was just going through a lot of things, I was an addict. Being around the animals gave me a purpose. It felt like I was actually doing something with my life.” To this date, Dillon and Joe are still married, despite Joe serving his time in jail. But in recent posts on Dillon’s Instagram, it shows that he is not wearing the wedding band.
Careers:
Joe’s animal career began with a pet store that his brother opened in Arlington, Texas, but it was soon shut down by police for violations for decoration and signs. According to Joe, he had been hanging gay pride flags, for example an American flag with rainbow stripes, accusing the police to be homophobic and targeting his business because of his sexuality. After closing down his pet store in 1997 and his brother’s death, Joe bought an 16 acre farmland with his parents in Oklahoma, creating the zoo we all know today, Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park (G.W. Exotic) in his brother’s memorial.
Things were quite at first, Joe and his tigers, they traveled from one city to another to perform in malls. Then Carole Baskin (then known as Carole Lewis) showed up, accusing Joe of neglection of wildlife, and usage of their ‘trademarked’ name of Big Cat Rescue. The case costed Joe an enormous sum of money, and when Carole and her husband couldn’t get Joe’s case through, she started taking her fury to his parents, forcing them to bankrupt and having to go to a popular donation website, Go-Fund-Me.
While his animal career was going on, Joe also decided he wanted to be famous. He did everything in his power to have his presence known, planning a reality TV show and producing music videos that were posted on YouTube.
When the Constitution said anyone over the age of 35 could run for president, they meant it. Joe Allen Maldonado ran for both the 2016 presidential election and the 2018 governor election for the state of Oklahoma. Running as an independent candidate in the presidential election and a libertarian in 2018, but in 2019 he was censured from his party, and when arrested the state convention voted unanimously to revoke his membership.
Now:
Joe is now serving his time in FCM Fort Worth, and will like be there for 18 or so years. As soon as the show, Tiger King; Murder, Mayhem, and Madness, aired, the public has been calling for Joe’s release. He even asked the president to personally pardon him, but since the coronavirus outbreak, Joe has recently tested positive for COVID-19 and is currently in quarantine in jail. We don’t know if he might survive this.
Works Cited Page (in MLA format of course):
Bruney, Gabrielle. “‘Tiger King’ Subject Carole Baskin Denies Accusations of Feeding Her Husband to Cats.” Esquire, Esquire, 29 Mar. 2020, www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a31903483/tiger-king-carole-baskin-now-alive-big-cat-rescue/.
London, Matt. “‘Tiger King’: Lawyer for Carole Baskin’s Missing Husband Says He Was Strangled, Thrown from Plane.” Fox News, FOX News Network, 26 Apr. 2020, www.foxnews.com/media/tiger-king-carole-baskin-don-lewis-lawyer.
Walters, Gillian. “The Truth about Joe Exotic’s Husband Dillon Passage.” NickiSwift.com, Nicki Swift, 3 Apr. 2020, www.nickiswift.com/199048/the-truth-about-joe-exotics-husband-dillon-passage/.
“Joe Exotic Convicted for Murder for Hire & 17 Wildlife Trafficking Violations Sentenced to 22 Years in Federal Pen.” Big Cat Rescue, 14 Mar. 2020, bigcatrescue.org/joe-exotic-arrested-murder-hire/.
“Joe Exotic.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 5 May 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Exotic#cite_note-Intelligencer-1.
“Joe Exotic’s Husbands: This Is What the Tiger King’s Partners Are up to Now.” UK, 26 Mar. 2020, thetab.com/uk/2020/03/26/joe-exotic-husbands-now-149487.
Netflix, and NetFlix. “Tragic Past of Tiger King Joe Exotic’s Husband Travis Maldonado Who Shot Himself.” Mirror, 3 Apr. 2020, www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/tiger-king-tragic-past-joe-21807507.
“Tiger King.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 6 May 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_King.
