"Tiger King" star Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, had strange fetishes, embezzled money for sex and ordered bodies to be buried at the zoo he founded, according to a new interview with former business partner Jeff Lowe, who also appears in the hit Netflix docuseries.
Exotic was sentenced to 22 years behind bars for a murder-for-hire plot against animal rights activist Carole Baskin but he is guilty of so much more, Lowe alleged to Daily Mail.
He learned more about Exotic's history after acquiring the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park in Oklahoma in 2019, after Exotic's departure. Lowe was granted access to Exotic's emails and discovered he had been embezzling money from the zoo to pay for men to have sex with him.
"He was using the zoo as his own personal piggy bank," Lowe said.
After making the discovery, Lowe decided to dig a little deeper. That was when he discovered "whips and chains and bondage devices" in Exotic's attic. He also found photos of stuffed animals with holes cut into their mouths and back ends. Lowe believed they were used as sex toys.
Furthermore, Lowe learned that murder may have been committed at the zoo.
"After Joe was arrested, four locals who didn't know each other told me that there could be dead bodies buried on my property," he said.
One night an employee allegedly shot and killed two protestors attempting to climb the fence. Exotic ordered that the bodies be stuffed into the cavities of massive construction tires and that they be burned.
"Joe thought the dead protestors were working with PETA and they were U.K. citizens, which is why they never showed up on a missing person's report," Lowe said, adding that he informed authorities.
"They came out and searched that particular area of the property bringing a bone specialist from the FBI out of Quantico. They walked around and dug in certain areas," he said. "The problem was it was the area where Joe had thrown animal bones at for years. There were already hundreds of bones buried there from the animals that they fed to the cats."
Feds decided to see how long Exotic was sentenced before evaluating the situation, Lowe said. Excavation and processing of the area would cost an estimated $1 million and authorities were determining whether or not it would be worth the expenses. Lowe said he has not yet heard back from the FBI.
Lowe is not the only one to come forth with claims that Exotic is far worse than he is portrayed in "Tiger King."
In a separate interview published last week in Daily Mail, his niece Chealsi Putman claimed he is "100 times worse" in real life. Putman accused Exotic of animal abuse as well as the illegal sale of tiger cubs.
"I've personally witnessed Joe spray a tiger with a fire extinguisher, not out of safety or for a life-saving reason, but because the tiger didn't react the way Joe had wanted it to," she said, adding that her uncle sold countless tiger cubs illegally.
"He would either take cash under the table for the sale of the tiger or if someone sent a check, it would be made out to another person, or if the money was wired to a store, it would be in another person's name," Putman added.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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