A bewildering fan theory claims Tiger King star Joe Exotic’s confidant, Jeff Lowe, had at one point been married to their arch enemy, the political activist and zoo owner Carole Baskin.
Netflix’s latest documentary about the underbelly world of big cat domestication might be the most shocking bit of content to have come out this year. The story of zookeeper and tiger enthusiast turned convicted criminal, Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage, has many viewers scratching their heads, wondering how the events relayed in the doc could have possibly happened right under their noses this whole time.
Exotic was sentenced to 22 years in prison, not only on accounts of animal cruelty, but also his having conspired with Lowe to have Baskin, who’d been trying to put him out of business for years, killed. From the way the documentary is constructed though, it seems likely that Lowe orchestrated the murder plot from the shadows so that he could get Exotic in jail and take ownership of his kingdom.
Facebook user Sandee Hunt Brady, who put this theory forward, believes Lowe was not only Exotic’s Judas, but Baskin’s first “abusive husband,” whom she “paid off to take Joe down.” Brady also points out that Carole’s daughter, whom she shows in a photo, “looks just like [Lowe].” She goes on to claim the political activist played an important part in framing the Tiger King, saying “she paid them all off” when Exotic refused to commit the crime. Her theory may be pretty outrageous, but, given all that’s happened in the show, it’s far from impossible.
The tale of the Tiger King marks Netflix’s latest winner in a long line of captivating documentaries. Last year, the streamer produced FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, about how a crooked millennial’s business practices ripped off thousands of partygoers that attended the most disastrous festival in human history. Two years prior to that, Netflix also gave us Abducted in Plain Sight, which remains one of the most unbelievable true crime dramas of all time. Where they get the ideas from, we don’t know, but they better keep ’em coming.