'Joe Exotic: Tigers, Lies and Cover-Up': What happened to Don Lewis? The truth behind Carole Baskin allegations
Over two decades after the mysterious disappearance of once Don Lewis, a Netflix documentary managed to send an entire planet in an uproar about his possible murder. The suspect? His second wife, Carole Baskin. A lot of people believe these accusations thanks to the infamous 'Tiger King' Joe Exotic, who first claimed in his docuseries that Baskin not only killed her husband but fed him to the tigers at her Big Cat Rescue Foundation. Baskin sent Joe to prison on animal cruelty and murder-for-hire charges, and the former entertainer is now serving time. But the reasons behind his outrageous allegations against Baskin are now being addressed in another documentary, 'Joe Exotic: Tigers, Lies, and Cover-ups', which tracks the aftermath of Lewis' disappearance in 1997, that happened right after he had mentioned seeking a divorce from Baskin.
The ID documentary kicks off with former investigator Jim Rathmann approaching a fellow former cop Dan Toporowych about his involvement with Joe's defense team. Toporowych insists the police work in Joe's incarceration was 'bad' which propelled him and his work-partner to take up the job. But that isn't the only thing fishy about Joe and Baskin's rivalry, which some assume stemmed more out of Baskin's need to shut up the 'Tiger King' from raising suspicions against her, than his animal cruelty charges.
After his chat with Toporowych in the first episode, Rathmann reaches out to other people involved in the investigation following Lewis' death. The documentary sees Lewis's closest friends claiming Baskin showed up to court just three weeks after Lewis's disappearance and presumed death with a will, and a power of attorney. Baskin has explained that saying Lewis asked her to have both a will and a power of attorney as he wanted her taken care of after his death, and none of his inheritance to go to his "greedy kids." As per Lewis's friends, the disappearance was shortly after he had gone to the cops to file a second restraining order against her after Baskin had pointed a gun at him, twice.
Meanwhile, the ex-wife believes Lewis had flown away to Costa-Rica, leaving her behind clueless and unsuspecting. But years later, when Joe's accusation prompt the police to dig back into the case, it was revealed that Baskin had both denied a property search, as well as a polygraph test. When Rathmann speaks with Lewis's go-to mechanic Dale Lively, it is revealed that his truck was discovered just days after his disappearance. Reminiscing about the incident, Lively tells Rathmann that when Lewis' truck was discovered and checked for prints only Lively's prints were found that too, on the dashboard. According to him, the truck had already been wiped clean of prints, so someone had gotten to the truck before the cops had. Without taking her name, it becomes obvious Baskin is their prime suspect.
However, Lively believes, or rather suspects, that Lewis is in Florida at the time of the documentary's filming, but people just haven't found him yet. Meanwhile, aircraft experts claim Lewis hadn't flown a craft in a long, long time and didn't intend on doing it any time soon either. These claims seemingly contributed to the ongoing conspiracy theory that Baskin killed Lewis for his money and business and even more outrageously so, fed him off to her big cats.
Joe Exotic: Tigers, Lies, and Cover-up's three-Hour Special Premiere Begins Sunday, September 27 at 9/8c and concludes Monday, September 28 at 9/8c on ID.
