Joe Exotic has been interviewed in prison following the runaway success of docuseries Tiger King.
The controversial tiger trader – whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage – was jailed after being found guilty of hiring a hitman to kill his rival, the animal rights activist Carole Baskin.
Last month, before contracting coronavirus, Exotic learnt of the show’s success after being interviewed by Netflix over the phone.
He told the streaming service that he is “done with the Carole Baskin saga” and is looking ahead to being released from prison.
On whether he will be just as eccentric after being freed, he said: “That will never change.”
He added that he’s excited to see how famous he’s become.
While Exotic has proved a popular television figure, many alarming stories about his alleged behaviour have begun circulating the web since the show began.
Louis Theroux, who filmed a documentary series with him in 2011, told his Instagram followers that the most “troubling” thing he heard him say was that he would kill all of his animals if his GW Exotic Animal Foundation went bankrupt.
One bizarre moment in the episode, titled America’s Most Dangerous Pets, sees Exotic tell Theroux that if he were to get into the cage with his tigers, he would shoot him in the head to spare him a grisly fate.
