«Tiger King» Joe Exotic Has Cancer
Joe Exotic, known from the Netflix documentary «Tiger King», has received a cancer diagnosis while in prison. He was convicted of murder-for-hire conspiracy.
The man known as the «Tiger King», who rose to fame through a Netflix documentary after attempting to hire someone to kill an animal rights activist, says he has cancer.
«With a sad face I must inform you … that my prostate biopsy revealed an aggressive cancer«, wrote Joe Exotic, who is incarcerated at a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas, on Twitter.
The former zoo keeper from Oklahoma, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, is known for his flamboyant rants on YouTube and a failed 2018 gubernatorial campaign in Oklahoma.
He was prominently featured in the popular documentary «Tiger King», «Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness.«.
He was sentenced in 2020 to 22 years in prison after being convicted of violating federal wildlife laws and a failed murder-for-hire plot against Carole Baskin, who runs a big cat rescue sanctuary in Florida.
A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals in Denver ordered in July that Maldonado-Passage be resentenced to a shorter prison term, after the court had incorrectly treated the two convictions separately when calculating his sentence.
The panel found that his recommended sentencing range should be between 17.5 years and just under 22 years, rather than between just under 22 years and 27 years in prison, as the court had determined.
Maldonado-Passage asked on Twitter for prayers and «the world to be my voice so I can be released», saying there was no evidence that he had committed any crimes.
