Many viewers who saw Tiger King can’t get enough of Carole Baskin and the mystery surrounding her disappearing husband Jack “Don” Lewis featured in the Netflix docuseries. Jeff Lowe, who is the current owner of Joe Exotic’s Oklahoma zoo and the subject of the lawsuit filed by Exotic from prison, spoke with David Spade for a live stream of the comedian’s Lights Out With David Spade about whether or not he thinks Baskins played a role in Lewis’ disappearance in 1997.
Want the Top 5 news stories of the day delivered straight to your inbox before you even wake up? Sign up for the Fame10 Top 5 newsletter and receive 5 breaking news stories every morning!
“There’s no doubt. There’s no question. We know so much more than that documentary showed,” Lowe said of Baskin’s missing husband.
“You know, Netflix whitewashed a lot of it,” he alleged. “I think because of legal exposure from something they can’t prove. But we have a lot more evidence against her that just wasn’t shown.”
After Tiger King‘s popularity soared, the Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister tweeted a plea for any new leads in the “missing endangered adult” case thanks to the renewed interest in the docuseries.
Baskins has completely denied any involvement in her husband’s disappearing on several occasions, including in a statement released after Tiger King‘s premiere, in which she called the docuseries “salacious and sensational.”
“[Tiger King] has a segment devoted to suggesting, with lies and innuendos from people who are not credible, that I had a role in the disappearance of my husband Don 21 years ago,” Baskin wrote in a blog post last week. “The series presents this without any regard for the truth or in most cases even giving me an opportunity before publication to rebut the absurd claims. They did not care about truth. The unsavory lies are better for getting viewers.”
Tiger King producers Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin responded to Baskin’s criticism on Sunday, March 29, saying “she wasn’t coerced” and they were forthright with the portrayal of the characters.
Lowe told Spade he’s not mad or upset at the docuseries’ producers for how the documentary turned out, even if he wasn’t fully on board with how everything played out. As for a potential season 2, Lowe said he doubts some of the other subjects would be on board for it either. “I don’t know anybody, particularly Carole Baskin, is going to want to collaborate with them now. We’ll see,” he said.
Tiger King producers told Entertainment Weekly that they have a lot of leftover footage from that they had to cut out due to time constraints that could be used for a second season.
Brittany R
Brittany is a writer who is obsessed with rom-com movies, Gossip Girl, reality television, fashion, and pop-culture. When she isn't reporting on the latest celeb buzz, she is filling up her online shopping cart without checking out.
