In case you weren't satisfied by the Netflix's Tiger King documentary series, or the reunion episode, or TMZ's Tiger King investigation, or that podcast about it, then maybe you'd be interested in reading about it. According to Joe Exotic’s husband Dillon Passage, the controversial zoo owner is spending his 22-year prison sentence writing a book. However, it's apparently less about tigers and more about his difficult childhood, and now all they need is a publisher.
Joe Exotic, real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage, is the wildcard in the centre of Netflix's new documentary series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness. His rivalry with competing cat rescue owner Carole Baskin escalated all the way to him being arrested for a murder-for-hire plot, something he still denies. While the documentary series followed Exotic's life during the time of his arrest, his book takes a step back.
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“You’re going to understand a lot more, which I can’t speak on because it’s not my story to tell," Passage told People, saying it contains “a lot of mental, physical abuse, sexual abuse. It was not good. I’ve read all of it. It’s very heartbreaking. And he did not have a very good childhood.”
Passage hopes the book will shed some light on the person Exotic grew up to be.
“I mean that sentence is 22 years, his whole life and reputation was absolutely destroyed," he said. "So he wanted to get his story out there and write and let people know exactly what’s happened in his childhood and the person he is and what’s affected his choices and decisions."
However, the book is still in its early stages. It was written via letters mailed from jail that have been collected, but still need to be put together into one publishable text. You know who else has written a bunch of books? Carole Baskin. It's like Tiger King all over again.