Thomas Aalderink Films & Series 17 apr 2020, 15:47

Leestijd: 10 minuten

Tiger King: 23 bizarre dingen die je niet zag in de Netflix documentaire

We kunnen inmiddels wel concluderen dat Tiger King de meest bizarre documentaire op Netflix is. Na iedere aflevering denk je dat het niet gekker kan, maar toch zit je een uurtje later met nog grotere ogen voor de televisie. En het stopt niet nadat je alle afleveringen gezien hebt. Het internet vult zich namelijk met nog meer verhalen die je bijna niet kunt geloven.

Mocht je geen idee hebben waar Tiger King over gaat (we kunnen het ons amper voorstellen), hierbij een korte uitleg. Tiger King gaat over Joseph Maldonado. Hij noemt zichzelf Joe Exotic en hij heeft een eigen dierentuin met daarin voornamelijk grote katachtigen. Vooral leeuwen en tijgers. De manier waarop hij deze hele onderneming runt is al een show waard, maar dit is pas het begin.

De meeste bizarre documentaire op Netflix

Joe is waarschijnlijk de meest unieke en extravagante man die je ooit gaat leren kennen. Hij heeft een bijzondere kijk op de wereld en doet alles op zijn eigen manier. Dat is ook de reden dat hij nu vast zit. Joe moet 22 jaar zitten omdat hij het centrale figuur is in een complot om Carole Baskin te vermoorden. Zij is een activiste en heeft een eigen “rescue” park voor wilde dieren.

De twee hebben een intense hekel aan elkaar, maar de strijd gaat veel verder dan dit duo. De wereld van privé dierentuinen zit vol kleurrijke karakters die geen grenzen kennen. In Tiger King leren we ze allemaal kennen en vallen we van de ene verbazing in de ander. Een absolute must-see.

Hoewel je Netflix je in Tiger King overlaadt met bizarre gebeurtenissen, is dit nog lang niet alles. Er zijn nog zoveel knotsgekke dingen waar we niet van weten. Gelukkig verschijnen er op het internet steeds meer verhalen van mensen die op verschillende manieren betrokken waren bij dit bizarre verhaal.

Bizarre Tiger King feiten

Eén van hen is Robert Moor. Hij werkte vier jaar lang aan een podcast en een artikel over de strijd tussen Joe en Carole. In die periode verbleef hij ook een hele week in de dierentuin van Joe. Hij sprak met nagenoeg iedereen die je in de serie voorbij ziet komen en was later ook aanwezig bij de rechtszaak. Onlangs onthulde hij op Twitter een groot aantal bizarre feiten en gebeurtenissen.

A few pieces of trivia, for people who just watched #TigerKing on Netflix.

1. Joe did not write or sing those country songs. It was an outfit called the Clinton Johnson Band. Joe just sang softly over the top of the vocal track: https://t.co/s4ak4itmUM

— ?????? ???? (@robertmoor_) March 22, 2020

2. When Joe’s cats died, a lot of them got sold to this strange bone museum in OKC. (Whether they then got sold somewhere else is anybody’s guess.): https://t.co/qnzKyIKAJy

— ?????? ???? (@robertmoor_) March 22, 2020

4. Eric Goode, the documentarian, is a quirky character in his own right. https://t.co/TLToFS6XlA pic.twitter.com/5fIFsDt59t

— ?????? ???? (@robertmoor_) March 22, 2020

5. Before Joe married John or Travis, he married another young (straight) guy named JC Hartpence. Hartpence later served time in prison for molesting a young girl, and is now serving life in prison for first degree murder. pic.twitter.com/gn1wtOft3v

— ?????? ???? (@robertmoor_) March 23, 2020

6. At one point I was investigating the fire at the zoo, and I interviewed the case officer at the Wynnewood police dept, Brion Gordon, over the phone. The next day, I got a call from Joe, furious, saying he’d gotten a call from Brion that I was asking about him… (1/2)

— ?????? ???? (@robertmoor_) March 23, 2020

6. I said, “Joe, why is the case officer—on the case in which YOU are a suspect—calling you to tell you a reporter is asking questions about you?”

Joe said, “Well, he’s also my limo driver.”

(Which was true.)

Anyway, this is where Brion Gordon ended up: https://t.co/bjnX7UpGJW

— ?????? ???? (@robertmoor_) March 23, 2020

7. One night in 2015 Joe & I were walking through Walmart when a portly, bespectacled young gay guy walked up, shook Joe’s hand, & thanked Joe for being the only out-and-proud gay man for many miles when he was growing up.

That kid was Josh Diall, who later ran Joe’s campaign. pic.twitter.com/pdzy0NKkzR

— ?????? ???? (@robertmoor_) March 23, 2020

8. (Not really “trivia,” but a useful piece of info for anyone discussing the show): Saff, the person who got mauled by the tiger, told me repeatedly that he is trans, prefers to be called Saff (not “Kelci”), and uses he/him pronouns. So please do likewise. pic.twitter.com/hCE9vS55Dh

— ?????? ???? (@robertmoor_) March 24, 2020

9. For a long time, Joe told everyone he was dying from prostate & bone marrow cancer. He raised $$$ from his Facebook fans for his expenses.

He showed me this horrifying photo as proof. I later learned he just had an infected prostate, dehydration, & a bad outbreak of herpes. pic.twitter.com/uAuXqdsjfQ

— ?????? ???? (@robertmoor_) March 24, 2020

10. Some people are asking what that weird warehouse James Garretson was sitting in. That was a place he owned (owns?) called—wait for it—Tiger Liquidation.

You can see it on Google Maps here: https://t.co/THsTpiHqqq pic.twitter.com/r1I8KA5Np7

— ?????? ???? (@robertmoor_) March 24, 2020

11. Two odd facts about Rick Kirkham:

-Before meeting Joe, he made a film about his addiction to crack cocaine. https://t.co/OUYe8ifcoz

-After the zoo fire, Rick moved to Dallas. Then HIS house mysteriously burned down, almost killing him. He fled to Norway, where he now lives. pic.twitter.com/IHeSoC7WlO

— ?????? ???? (@robertmoor_) March 24, 2020

12. After Don Lewis vanished, but before Carole married Howard, she dated a guy named Jay Baykal.

In 2002, Jay filed a restraining order against Carole, which includes some bizarre and suspicious-sounding details regarding Don's disappearance: https://t.co/k2uWfaT4is pic.twitter.com/hKsQIzCjeL

— ?????? ???? (@robertmoor_) March 24, 2020

13. It was announced back in November that the Joe Exotic: Tiger King podcast (from @WonderyMedia) will be made into a miniseries for Universal, starring Kate McKinnon as Carole Baskin. No announcement yet on who will play Joe.https://t.co/CWIhg0MFvF

— ?????? ???? (@robertmoor_) March 24, 2020

14. (John asked me to take down the photo of him and his new teeth, so I have. The original tweet read: )

I see a lot of people asking about John, Joe’s ex-husband. He texted me a few months back to let me know he got a new job as a welder. And a whole new set of pearly whites!

— ?????? ???? (@robertmoor_) March 25, 2020

15. One day, a source sent me some messages that came from Joe's phone. Joe's contacts tended to be listed as, like, "James Tiger" or "Marc Police." I noticed one of the contacts was simply "Mike Hit." I called up the number. It turned out to be a guy named Psycho Mike. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/r3rhvlwCGT

— ?????? ???? (@robertmoor_) March 26, 2020

15. He was a former hitman (or "bone collector") for a Mexican gang in Dallas. He'd since given that life up. Recently he'd been helping Joe try to get a zoo opened in Dallas.

I asked whether Joe ever approached him about killing Carole. He said no.

2/3

— ?????? ???? (@robertmoor_) March 26, 2020

15. We met at an Italian joint in Dallas and talked for a long time off the record. Then I turned on the recorder and asked him how much, in his experience, it should cost to take a hit out on someone. His answer surprised me. You can hear it here:https://t.co/oXAtBTwmtt 3/3

— ?????? ???? (@robertmoor_) March 26, 2020

16. Here's a detail I've never understood. In the doc, you hear Alan Glover say he never went to Florida. But in the trial, he testified on the stand that one night he got drunk, drove to Florida (supposedly to warn Carole in person?), passed out on a beach, then drove home. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/ewHov9szjy

— ?????? ???? (@robertmoor_) March 26, 2020

16. Joe's lawyers argued that Alan had made this up bc it's a "better story." But…is it? Or was Glover just covering his ass in case some new evidence emerged showing he had in fact been to FL. Did he go there intending to kill Carole & then just (in his words) "chicken out"? pic.twitter.com/7lADS8yMh4

— ?????? ???? (@robertmoor_) March 26, 2020

17. To anyone who came away from #TigerKingNetflix thinking Joe was framed, please take a look at this secretly taped conversation between Joe and James, which was played at the trial. These are not the words of an innocent man! pic.twitter.com/78LpflJRIE

— ?????? ???? (@robertmoor_) March 26, 2020

18. When Jeff teamed up with Joe, one of their schemes was to buy the land next door and open a bisexual strip club/petting zoo called "Tigers and Dreams." 1/2

— ?????? ???? (@robertmoor_) March 28, 2020

18. Later, that plan changed into opening a drive-in movie theater. Jeff convinced a guy named Joe Barth to lend him some equipment to start construction, then Jeff went and sold the equipment.

Barth filed a lawsuit. The next day Barth's house mysteriously burned down.

2/2

— ?????? ???? (@robertmoor_) March 28, 2020

19. Jeff Johnson used to be friends with Joe. Then they had a falling out, and Johnson started an online campaign to expose Joe and Jeff Lowe to be frauds. Lowe and Joe both threatened Johnson online. He didn't back down. Then Johnson's house mysteriously burned down. pic.twitter.com/bvqEAZTFAu

— ?????? ???? (@robertmoor_) March 29, 2020

20. People often ask why no one at Joe’s zoo ever “spoke out.” Part of the reason was because he made his employees sign a one million dollar non-disclosure agreement. (Which, it turns out, wasn’t legally valid.) Here’s a text he sent me at one point. pic.twitter.com/6LEtIjqbQj

— ?????? ???? (@robertmoor_) March 31, 2020

21. Look closely at the restraining order Don filled out against Carole: his signature doesn't match the one on the Power of Attorney, which handed control to Carole in the event of his disappearance. When I asked Carole abt this, she said: "He could barely read or write anyway." pic.twitter.com/pmmqyZR68b

— ?????? ???? (@robertmoor_) March 31, 2020

22. I first discovered this story through a story in the LA Times that said "Michael Jackson's Alligators Burned Alive in Animal Park Fire." That was almost true. Turns out Joe did have an alligator from Neverland Ranch, but it survived the fire; its babies were burned alive. pic.twitter.com/k4lYp1eFV9

— ?????? ???? (@robertmoor_) March 31, 2020

23. This one's minor, but I find it funny. Remember how in the doc Joe says he was on the cover of "Hollywood Weekly" twice? That's one of those magazines where you can pay them to put you on the cover and write a nice article. Other issues feature such famed luminaries as… pic.twitter.com/ZIjeXUpN83

— ?????? ???? (@robertmoor_) April 1, 2020

24. In 2014, Joe posted video claiming to show his computers being hacked by Carole. However, I found out that Carole didn't hack his computers. It was orchestrated by a weed-themed YouTuber named Natty G, who had a falling out with Joe.

Listen: https://t.co/rcMhUU8Qu7

— ?????? ???? (@robertmoor_) April 1, 2020

Meer moois op Netflix voor Tiger Kings-fans

Heb je alle afleveringen van Tiger King in één ruk gebinged en wil je meer? Dan hebben we goed nieuws, want wij hebben vijf andere bizarre true crime documentaires op Netflix voor je op een rij gezet.

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