Tiger King’s Joe Exotic says he’ll be ‘dead within months’ without help from Donald Trump in impassioned prison letter
‘Tiger King’ Joe Exotic was jailed for trying to have an animal rights activist murdered. (Netflix)
Tiger King star Joe Exotic has said that his “soul is dead” and that he will be “dead within two to three months” if Donald Trump doesn’t pardon him in an impassioned letter from prison.
In the letter acquired by TMZ addressed to his “supporters, fans, loved ones”, Exotic claimed that he is not receiving the medical treatment he needs for his current health conditions, comparing his prison sentence to death row.
He pleaded for the US president to “keep his word and look into making this wrong a right and grant me a miracle”.
Feeling isolated and abandoned – even by his own husband, Dillon Passage – Exotic said his time at the Federal Medical Center, Fort Worth, has him at the end of his rope.
In response, Passage took to Instagram to clarify Exotic’s allegation that he has “gone radio silent on him”. “I’ve been writing letters and it is a shame to hear that he isn’t receiving them,” Passage wrote.
Tiger King star Joe Exotic: ‘I will be dead in two to three months, it’s like I have been sent to death row.’
Known off-stage as Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage, the 57-year-old is currently carrying out a 22 yearslong sentence on two counts of murder-for-hire, eight counts of violating the Lacey Act for falsifying wildlife records and nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act.
The Kansas-born Exotic, who ran GW Exotic Animal Park in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, had paid a man $3,000 to go to Florida and kill Carole Baskin in November 2017.
In the years since Exotic has watched from behind prison bars his name gain immense cultural significance thanks to a Netflix docu-series detailing his rise and fall.
In the three-page letter, Exotic described how his success in the world outside is doing little to dull the pain he’s experiencing. “My soul is dead, I struggle every day to hold on to what little hope I can find,” he wrote.
Exotic said that his lines of communication have all been cut off – “you will never understand the mental abuse this does to a person.”
“I don’t even know if I’m married anymore, seems everyone is busy making money and being famous, I don’t even get a letter from Dillon, everyone sends pictures of him having fun, but as a person screaming for help, I am asking you to stop.
“Please stop sending me pictures of him having a party while I live this hell. Everything has failed me.”
He then described, the scratchy randomly capitalised letter continued, how he has lost weight due to his common variable immune deficiency, and said: “I will be dead in two to three months, it’s like I have been sent to death row.”
Exotic also made some questionable comments on racial issues, opining that the “message” of George Floyd has gotten “lost in the riots”, before capping off the letter asking for the reader to play the Michael Jackson song “Will You Be There”.
Joe Exotic’s husband responds to ‘heartbreaking’ prison letter.
Passage later responded to Exotic’s printed letter on Monday night (June 8), saying he was “heartbroken” by it.
“He is living in hell right now and I’m outraged by the way he is being treated. I can’t even begin to imagine how that is breaking his spirit. I love Joe and I’m standing by him. The photos that I post on here are a highlight reel of my life.
“What you don’t see are the hours that I’m alone at home, missing my husband and my friend.
“I’ve been writing letters and it is a shame to hear that he isn’t receiving them. I know they limit the amount he can read in a week and I only hope they eventually get to him.
“Joe, I hope that this reaches you too. Know that I love you and I’m fighting for you every day.”
