Earlier this week, the Ogle Mole Network lit up with some unverifiable dispatches claiming that Joe Exotic – the eccentric and bizarre tiger zoo owner who dabbles in politics, country music lip-synching and weirdness– was in deep tiger shit, and about to be indicted by a federal jury on some very serious charges.
Well, I guess those rumors were true. Earlier today, a federal grand jury indicted Joe Exotic on murder for hire charges!!!
Via KOKH:
Oklahoma's Joe Exotic has been indicted on a murder-for-hire plot.
Court documents, released Friday in federal court, show that Joseph Maldonado-Passage has been indicted on two counts of hiring a person to commit murder.
Documents allege that the eccentric tiger king of Wynnewood attempted to hire a person in November 2017 to murder an unnamed person in Florida. He then gave the person $3,000 to travel from Oklahoma to South Carolina and then Florida to carry out the murder.
Exotic would then pay the killer thousands more after the deed, according to documents.
A second indictment alleges that Exotic repeatedly asked another unnamed person to find someone to kill the same "Jane Doe" in Florida for money. Joe Exotic allegedly was put in contact and met with an undercover FBI agent to discuss the details of murdering the woman.
Earlier this year, we ranked Joe Exotic number one in our Oklahoma gubernatorial candidate rankings. The rationale was "Oklahoma is finally at the point where only a foul-mouthed, openly gay, marijuana-smoking tiger zoo operator with his own promotional line of condoms can save us." I guess I should have added "who wants to kill his enemies" to that reasoning.
Anyway, there's obviously a lot to digest here, like, uhm, "Did Joe Exotic's husband really kill himself" and "Have they checked the tiger cages for human bones?"
Unfortunately, it's A) Friday, B) WIFI is down at TLO headquarters, and C) we have a 4-month pediatrician appointment for my daughter at 2:30. I'll have more news and info on Monday. In the meantime, here's a copy of the indictment....
