netflix
If you have watched the new Netflix documentary Tiger King about the weird, wild world of big cat collectors featuring Joe Schreibvogel, AKA Joe Exotic, Big Cat Rescue owner Carole Baskin, and a slew of other characters that have to be seen to be believed, then you know just how terrible most of the people on the show appeared.
From Bhagavan “Doc” Antle to Jeff Lowe to Mario Tabraue there was no shortage of creepy, borderline insane behavior.
While we can certainly agree that pretty much everyone who appeared on Tiger King were not people we’d want as neighbors, which were actually the worst? We break it down.
8. Rick Kirkman
netflix
Kirkman, the producer of Joe Exotic TV who parted ways with the GW Zoo after the studio containing all of his footage was burned to a crisp, killing several alligators in the process, was accused of being the arsonist who lit up the warehouse.
Security footage showed a man who resembled Kirkman near the warehouse around the time of the fire. He denied he had anything to do with it and left on bad terms.
“I’ve done a lot of shit in my life, but I never experienced anything like Joe Exotic.” – Rick Kirkman
7. James Garretson
netflix
Garretson, a former strip club and zoo owner who sold several of the big cats he owned to Joe’s park, decided to become an FBI informant when the feds started closing in on him for his own lawbreaking and participation in Joe Exotic’s murder-for-hire plot.
As part of his work for the FBI, Garretson introduced Joe to the FBI agent who was posing undercover as a hitman.
[protected-iframe id=”dda427128c7c5c40f0d63689aa260d96-97886205-92827192″ info=”https://gfycat.com/ifr/TiredGrossGoldfinch” width=”640″ height=”788″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no” allowfullscreen=””]
6. Carole Baskin
netflix
Baskin, the founder of Big Cat Rescue, certainly made her fair share of enemies, among them the family of her second husband Don Lewis, a multi-millionaire who one day just vanished into thin air.
Carole has been accused by them, friends and associates of Lewis, as well as Joe Exotic, of either killing him or having him killed, putting him into a meat grinder, feeding him to her big cats, or burying him under a septic tank on the property of Big Cat Rescue.
She wholeheartedly denies the accusations.
“You can see how they go from being so sweet to tearing your face off, just like that, and it’s amazing to have that range.” – Carole Baskin
5. Allen Glover
netflix
Glover, Jeff Lowe’s fixer and a convicted felon with a teardrop tattoo, accepted $3,000 from Joe to murder Carole Baskin. However, instead of killing Baskin, Glover took the money, went home to South Carolina, and spent several days getting drunk and high on cocaine and painkillers, as one does.
“The plan was. Hide. Hunt. Find this woman. And Joe fucking put his trust in me to do it.” – Allen Glover
4. Jeff Lowe
netflix
Lowe, the man who “helped” Joe Exotic right out of owning his zoo, was a convicted felon who had been charged with fraud, domestic violence, and illegally sneaking tigers into a hotel in Las Vegas inside suitcases to make money during parties.
Lowe, who seems to make enemies wherever he goes, was one of the main FBI informants that helped land Joe in prison.
He still owns and operates the zoo.
“A little pussy gets you a lot of pussy.” – Jeff Lowe
3. Bhagavan “Doc” Antle
netflix
Antle, who comes off as some sort of self-styled guru and owns the Myrtle Beach Safari, has several animal abuse violations filed against him over the years. In addition, he grooms young women who want to work with big cats, changes their names, makes them dress seductively in costumes of his choosing, gives them breast implants, pays them next to nothing, and according to one former employee, makes them living in squalor.
“Nothing is cooler, sexier, and more significant to the world we live in today than a tiger.” – Doc Antle
2. Joe Exotic
netflix
Joe Exotic, the man, the myth, the legend, is currently serving 22 years in prison on 19 counts, two which were related to attempting to have Carole Baskin murdered.
He also lost a $1 million dollar lawsuit for copying and using Big Cat Rescue’s logo, lip synced music videos while taking claim for singing in them, embezzled money from the zoo so he oculd run for president in 2016 and governor of Oklahoma in 2018, had several “husbands” who were decades younger than him, milked the death of one of them for sympathy including singing at his funeral, and numerous other offenses too long to list here.
“This is my little town. I’m the mayor, the prosecutor, the cop, and executioner.” – Joe Exotic
1. Mario Tabraue
netflix
Tabraue, director and president of the Zoological Wildlife Foundation, was convicted on racketeering charges in 1989, ran a huge cocaine and marijuana drug ring, and casually mentions during Tiger King a time when someone in his organization killed an ATF agent, dismembered the body with a chainsaw (after Tabraue allegedly tried to dismember the body with machete), and set it on fire.
He was convicted on 61 counts of racketeering and sentenced to 100 years, served just 12 years of that sentence thanks to his cooperation as an informant, and while he easily has the most checkered past of all the characters in Tiger King, might actually currently be the most normal one of the bunch.
“Sometimes they say that I’m the prototype for Scarface.” – Mario Tabraue