Tiger King
CBS special48 hr Suspicion : The Tiger King Mysterydigs into one of the most blab - about aspect of Netflix ’s wild documentary series : the fade and possible slaying ofCarole Baskin ’s husband , Don Lewis . Though much of it recaps details that viewers will already sleep together from watching the original series , it also nail a new possible defendant and boast a raw witness with a story about a inscrutable freezer , a van full of guns , and a terrific death threat involve a meat milling machinery .
Tiger King : Murder , Mystery and Mayhemarrived on Netflix just ascoronavirus pandemic lockdownswere going into effect worldwide . With masses stuck at habitation and looking for amusement , the docuseries end up being watched by 60 million family worldwide . The main subject of the show was big quat accumulator Joe Exotic , who is currently serve a 22 - yr conviction in Union prison house after being convicted for beast abuse and murder - for - hire .
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The target of this murder - for - hire patch was Carole Baskin , Joe Exotic ’s bane , who have an animal sanctuary call Big Cat Rescue . Baskin had long been trying to get Joe Exotic shut down due to his practice of breeding and deal big bozo sonny boy , and Exotic fired back by popularizing a possibility that Baskin had off her missing former husband . He even went so far as to make a music video call " Here , Kitty Kitty , " featuring a Carole Baskin impersonator diagrammatically feeding clod of flesh to the self-aggrandising cats , suggesting that this was Don Lewis ’s fate .
48 Hoursrecaps the accusations against Baskin and presents an audience with Trish Farr - Payne , the x - wife of Don ’s handyman , Kenny Farr . Kenny was interview inTiger King , but only to get his account of Don ’s disappearing ; he was never presented as a possible suspect . Here are the biggest reveals in48 Hours ' interview with Trish Farr - Payne , and from the rest of the special .
The Meat Grinder
Let ’s start with the most disturbing claim in48 Hours Suspicion : The Tiger King Mystery . Speaking to CBS correspondent Richard Schlesinger , Farr - Payne describes an abusive marriage in which she was terrified of Kenny , and was therefore afraid to go to the constabulary even when he allegedly disgorge a grisly particular about his involvement in Don Lewis ' disappearing .
Trish Farr - Payne : Kenny had peril to put me in a grinder , he said , " If you sample to leave me again , I ’m gon na put you in the poor boy , like I did Don . "
Richard Schlesinger : I ’m drab , he said what ?
Trish Farr - Payne : He say , " If you attempt to leave me again , I will put you in the grinder , like I did Don . "
Richard Schlesinger : In a meat grinder ?
Trish Farr - Payne : Yeah .
Richard Schlesinger : Do you think of what you think when he said that ?
Trish Farr - Payne : I recall he was tellin ' the true statement . At that prison term . I thought , you live , at least – th — that is credibly the turnin ' point where I be intimate — I knew deep down that Kenny has some part in Don ’s not ever coming back . I know then for certain .
The core grinders used atBig Cat Rescue(which was then called Wildlife on Easy Street ) were highlighted inTiger King , with one of the many theories being that Carole Baskin used them to moil up her husband ’s body so that he could be fed to the big CAT . Baskin herself terminate the theory , say that the grinder was so small that she could n’t even have used it to grind up Don ’s hand , let alone his whole body . ask for gossip by CBS , Barkin said that Farr - Payne ’s meat hero threat story was " idiotic and intelligibly make up . "
Related : Tiger King : Carole Baskin ’s Missing Husband ’s Will Was Forged , Sheriff Confirms
48 Hourspunches another hole in the pith hero sandwich hypothesis , with Sheriff Chad Chronister excuse that the grinders had actually been removed from the property several hebdomad prior to Don Lewis ' disappearing . " I ’m not say they could n’t have been ask , " he clarify . " But they were n’t on the property . " Of course , given the popularity of the pith grinder theory it ’s possible that Farr - Payne could be tell the truth even if Kenny Farr was n’t involved in Don ’s disappearance ; he may have plainly been lying to scare her , and using the rumors as seed textile for the lie . However , that would n’t explain the other things that Farr - Payne tell she picture .
A Van Full Of Guns
Don Lewis ' van was highlighted as a point of curiosity inTiger King . Three or four days after his disappearing , the van was found at a local drome where Lewis kept a routine of small planes that he flew . The keys were still deep down , along with his briefcase . According to Kenny Farr , the police force never looked at the vanguard while it was at the drome . It was brought back to Wildlife on Easy Street , and a duo of days passed before it was properly investigated by police .
Farr suggest that the van was planted at the aerodrome rather than being left there by Lewis , but his X - wife has her own story to evidence about the new wave that imply Farr himself could have planted it . According to Farr - Payne , two days before Lewis was declared overlook Farr came home with the van , which had a voltaic pile of gun at heart :
" He enjoin , ' Help me dribble these in . ' We carried ‘em in , we put ‘em under the bottom , we put ‘em in the wardrobe , we put ‘em in the little bathroom we had in our room . I was , like , ' Whoa — where did you get these ? ' He said , ' take heed , I — I ’m — I ’m hangin ' on to these decent now for Carole . ' But — he said , ' Don ’s gone . And — I do n’t want you talkin ' about him . ' "
Farr - Payne read that at the meter she did n’t ask her husband what he think by " Don ’s gone , " because " he would boast up really soft at me . " agree to her story , however , the van and the pile of guns were n’t the only suspicious thing to show up around the clip of Lewis ' disappearing .
Related : Tiger King : Joe Exotic ’s First Husband ( That Netflix Does n’t admit )
The Mysterious Freezer
The final detail offered up by Trish Farr - Payne paints a rather ominous film . She says that around the time that Don Lewis went lacking , a freezer appeared on their porch that was sealed with a padlock . A calendar week after Lewis ' disappearance , the Deepfreeze was gone . Trish aver that between Kenny ’s argument " Don ’s perish , " the van , the voltaic pile of gas pedal , and the Deepfreeze , she began to reach a conclusion about what had happened . " Everything bulge kinda coming together , " she order . " Kenny ’s get Don ’s van , Kenny ’s got Don ’s guns - Don ’s asleep , and I knew Don was break down the day before he supposedly was omit . Something was n’t right . "
Trish did n’t report her misgiving to the police force until three years later , when she was in the midst of divorcing Kenny . It ’s unclear whether or not the police reconsidered Kenny Farr as a suspect at that point , but as of 2020 there are no suspects or even persons of interest in the case . involve for comment on his x - wife ’s story , Farr called it " an outlandish Trygve Lie " and suppose " I had utterly nothing to do with Don ’s disappearance . "
Carole Baskin’s Relationship With Jay Baykal
One aspect ofCarole Baskin ’s lifethat was forget out ofTiger Kingwas a relationship she had after Don Lewis ' disappearing , but before her marriage to Harold Baskin . The family relationship begin around five year after Don went missing , and not long after he was formally declared numb . Like Don Lewis once did , Baykal require a judge for an edict of protective covering against Carole just a couple of months after their relationship start . Like Lewis ' request , it was denied due to a lack of evidence of a credible threat .
Baykal was not interviewed for48 Hours , but in his order of auspices petition he write , " I aboveboard revere I am in peril of last . " He also take that when he inquire Carole what she would do if her husband showed up again , she respond , " Dead body can not talk . " Lewis ' oldest daughter , Donna Pettis , says that Baykal actually called her and suggested pursuing activeness against Carole , tell her that he was so afraid he ’d started slumber with a heavy weapon beneath his pillow .
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How 48 Hours Sheds New Light On Tiger King
Trish Farr - Payne ’s interview in48 Hourscasts a different view on Kenny Farr ’s consultation segments inTiger King . The former odd-job man paint a motion picture of Don Lewis concocting a design to disappear and perhaps even to couch his own wife for murder in the unconscious process . According to Farr , this was his last interaction with Lewis , shortly before his disappearance :
" Don started to tell me something . He say , ' Kenny , if I can pull this off it ’ll be the crafty thing I ever did in my aliveness . ' And I recognise that there was more to follow . Like , he did n’t finish what he was saying , and he left . He leave with a phone call , and he left out . I never got to see him again after that . That was the last matter that Don Lewis ever said to me , was , ' If I can draw this off , it will be the slickest thing I ever did in my lifespan . "
If Trish ’s account is taken as exact , Kenny ’s audience inTiger Kingcould be interpreted as him trying to create the impression of Don Lewis disappearing on purpose , in lodge to breed up a more minacious truth . However , given all of the conflicting accounting of Don ’s last known days , it ’s impossible to know which details are unfeigned and which are not .
Local policereopened the investigationinto Don Lewis ' fade in the wake ofTiger King ’s freeing , and have since obtain a floodlight of tips and selective information , but so far none of it come out to have led to any progress on the case . 23 years after Lewis went missing and with no consistence ever find oneself , the chances of this case ever being conclusively solved are slight - but that wo n’t check cyberspace sleuths from continuing to come up with their own favorite theories of exactly what happened .
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