Fans of the breakout Netflix documentary Tiger King have always agreed that Carole Baskin’s first husband is definitely dead. More accurately, he was fed to her tigers.
If you’re new to Tiger King, the fastest way to catch up is to check out Screen Rant’s comedic Pitch Meeting.
Suspecting Carole Baskin of getting creative with her tiger food was not without its merits, particularly in the context of the documentary. No doubt sensationalised for the sake of entertainment, Netflix presented a pretty compelling case.
Her husband, Jack Donald Lewis, disappeared in August 1997 seemingly without a trace. He was a multi-millionaire co-running an exotic big cat sanctuary with his wife called, ‘Wildlife on Easy Street’. By all accounts, he was an eccentric with a confusing history that made his actions difficult to predict.
At the time of his disappearance, there wasn’t much to go on. Hillsborough Sheriff Sgt. John Marsicano flew to Costa Rica looking Lewis. He noted that:
‘The investigation has not given us a direction on where to look for clues. I wish we had a whole lot more. We have looked in every conceivable direction.’
There was no evidence at the house of foul play, no murder weapon and no body. One of the last things that Lewis did was purchase a plane ticket to Costa Rica, although he never used his passport to leave the country and the security guards at his property in Costa Rica confirmed that they had not seen him in weeks. The detail on precisely how many weeks ranged from one to six.
‘It is possible [that Lewis ran away]. Does it look from an investigation standpoint, that he would do that? It doesn’t look like that.’
Lewis’ children grew to believe that their father had been killed when the investigation went nowhere and he failed to turn up. He was declared legally dead in 2002.
Joe Exotic, star of Tiger King and arch nemesis of Carole, used to make claims on his video diaries that she had fed Lewis through a meat grinder at her animal sanctuary and given his remains to the tigers. Joe Exotic was later ‘convicted on two counts of murder-for-hire and 17 wildlife charges’ that included killing some of the tigers that were kept at his park. This happened after he tried to have Carole killed when their feud over tigers escalated.
Despite this, there were plenty of fans who saw things Joe Exotic’s way. It didn’t help that Lewis filed a domestic violence injunction against Carole two months before his disappearance claiming that Carole had threatened to kill him (although it is worth noting that the Judge did not think the threat was serious).
Carole declined to take a polygraph test on the advice of her lawyers, but there was no evidence to link her to any wrongdoing. Sometimes this was brought up to add suspicion.
For years, Lewis’ disappearance sat as a cold case, but the enormous popularity of Tiger King – in which Carole Baskin featured heavily – brought the case back into the public light. People wanted answers and the internet became awash with amateur sleuths.
This information frenzy led to the case being re-opened. Most people were expecting to find a body.
‘I would be foolish if I didn’t take advantage of [Tiger King’s] popularity and put the message out that if you think you know something, you should contact the sheriff’s office. This is very important to us,’ said Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister.
‘Most of the calls have been theories. You can tell that people have finished the series and they want to call and provide their theory on who did it and how it was done. People calling in with their perspectives may help our detectives see this through a different lens and say, “Hey, let me take a look at something.”’
This is not dissimilar to the old Australian show Australia’s Most Wanted (1989-98) in which entertainment was used in the hope of digging up new leads from the general public.
When it came to the alleged murder of Lewis, one of the most damning pieces of evidence in favour of foul play was the rumour that Lewis’ will had been changed just before his disappearance to include ‘disappearance’. In 2020, Florida Sherif Chad Chronister confirmed that Lewis’ will had been forged.
‘They called in some experts to say that the will was a forgery and I had already told them that two months ago. They had two experts deem it was 100 per cent a forgery,’ said Sheriff Chronister.
In the very beginning, Lewis’ close friends thought that he might have run off. There was also evidence that discredited some of the more imaginative deaths for Lewis – such as the meat grinder being removed from the property before Lewis went missing. If anyone was fed to a tiger, it would have been in bits smeared with sardine oil (you have to watch the show).
Needless to say, Carole was never very happy with the way she was portrayed by Tiger King. She released a statement:
‘There are not words for how disappointing it is to see that the series … has had the sole goal of being as salacious and sensational as possible to draw viewers. As part of that, it 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 in 1997. The series presents me 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 unsavoury lies are better for getting viewers.’
‘I never threatened him [Lewis] and I certainly never had anything to do with his disappearance. When he disappeared, I did everything I could to assist the police. I encouraged them to check out the rumours from Costa Rica, and separately hired a private investigator.’
Carole spent hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting legal battles to secure control of Lewis’ assets when he failed to turn up. The experience of losing her husband was not only emotionally distressing, it was expensive.
And yet there was very little public sympathy for Joe Exotic’s nemesis. It wasn’t that people believed that Joe was a ‘good’ person hard done by, it was the romance of an exciting murder mystery that seduced the public with half-truths and drama. Joe told a good story about Carole, and people wanted to believe it.
This is something Australians should be familiar with, given what happened to Lindy Chamberlain – possibly one of the largest miscarriages of justice in Australian history.
Carole was subjected to a ‘trial by Netflix’ rather than a ‘trial by social media’, but perhaps it was worth it in the end.
The 81-year-old Lewis has apparently been found alive and well living in Costa Rica a year ago. Carole revealed the news in November of 2021 during an ITV interview – but the world was in the middle of a pandemic, furious about their lives being ruined. The news slipped by unnoticed, even by fans and previous die-hard sleuths.
‘One of the really exciting things that came out of Tiger King 2 is that they produced a letter from Homeland Security. They said my husband, Don Lewis, is alive and well in Costa Rica. And yet all of this drama has been made about me having something to do with his disappearance, when Homeland Security has known where he is.’
The letter, presented by Attorney Joseph Fritz, is presumed to come from the Department of Homeland Security. Crucially, this has not been verified.
Until Lewis presents himself, alive and well, theories are going to continue.
Joe Exotic’s lawyer, John M Phillips, posted the following on Facebook.
‘The 2021 report by Carole Baskin was further unsupported allegation. It’s being republished as if it has veracity. It doesn’t. The story of the Tiger King is filled with lies, set up, and misdirection. We still await a hearing for Joe’s freedom. The lies and set up are spelled out in his motion for a New Trial. Read it The work is done.’
As it stands, no one has come forward to verify the letter confirming Lewis’ status as ‘alive’. Lewis is still officially listed as ‘missing and legally dead’. And Homeland Security is conspicuously quiet.
Watching season two of Tiger King, it seems plausible that Lewis might have been killed in Costa Rica, possibly for all the money he was allegedly moving around in cash in preparation for starting a new life. Maybe he never made it that far. The only thing we know for certain is that he has been erased from the official record and everyone interviewed feels rather, shall we say, unreliable.
Is Lewis alive? Is there a well-fed tiger wandering about? Are we being led astray by Netflix click-bait?
This is one of those cold case mysteries that sucks you in. If there is an answer, or any genuine evidence, we’ll probably have to wait for season three.
