Tiger King zookeeper Erik Cowie only passed away a few days ago but that hasn’t stopped Joe Exotic from giving a nasty response to the death.
Cowie died of unknown causes in Brooklyn, New York on Tuesday, September 7th, at the age of 53. His fellow Tiger King star Exotic said he was “not shocked” to learn the news of his death, explaining that his former right-hand man suffered from chronic alcohol abuse and had sought treatment for it.
“So am I shocked he is gone? No, not a bit,” Exotic said to the Daily Mail. “I put him through rehab in Ardmore, Oklahoma, and still (gave) him a home and a job.” And he wasn’t done there: “Erik Cowie got what he deserved,” he said unkindly. “Never wish evil upon anyone else. God is watching.”
The relationship between the pair faltered when Exotic learned that Cowie had laughed off the likelihood of the Tiger King’s life sentence after Jeff Lowe took over the zoo in a special episode of the documentary. “Twenty-two years doing federal time – that guy’s gonna die in there. Good riddance,” Cowie had said back in 2020 about Exotic’s sentence for allegedly hiring hit men to kill Carole Baskin, euthanising tigers, and falsifying zoo documents. “The last words he spoke about me backfired,” Exotic said to the Daily Mail.
Exotic, real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage, now believes that Cowie’s death will strengthen his own criminal case. He currently remains locked up in Fort Worth, Texas. “I can prove Erik perjured himself …The government, Carole Baskin and a few others should be ashamed that they put this all in motion to fabricate this whole thing to steal my zoo and shut me up,” Exotic insisted. “The truth is coming. The world will hate the American Department of Justice.”
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