Tiger King's Joe Exotic should never be released from jail as he 'will seek revenge' TV producer warns
TIGER King's Joe Exotic should never be released from prison because he will exact his revenge on his enemies, his former TV producer has claimed.
Rick Kirkham said it was "beyond belief" that people would want the jailed zoo manager released – saying he is "a guy that holds a grudge."
It comes after Exotic begged President Donald Trump to pardon him in a handwritten letter from his Texas prison cell.
Joe, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, 57, wants to clear his name after being sentenced to 22-years in prison over a plot to kill his rival, Carole Baskin.
But Rick, who spent a year living with and filming eccentric Joe at his Oklahoma zoo for a reality TV show that never aired, has issued a stark warning against releasing the eccentric star.
He told The Sun: "The very fact that Trump would even possibly consider pardoning someone as evil as Joe, is beyond my belief.
"Anyone who would support Joe being let go and out of jail has no idea that this was a man who will hold the revenge.
"He will get revenge and he's not going to come out a better man or a whole person.
"This is a guy that holds a grudge and he will get his revenge."
Rick, referring to Joe’s conviction for murder-for-hire and animal abuse, said: “I think it’s absolutely ludicrous to think that somebody would pardon him considering all the evil that most of us now know he did and that I know personally from having witnessed he did it.”
In Joe's three-page note, sent to podcast host Josh Belcher, he made unsubstantiated claims he’s been “abused” by jail guards and also claimed his new legal team has new evidence.
“I would like to thank everyone in America and around the world for their love and support," he wrote.
“If the millions of you can see what has been done wrong to me in the name of justice, let's hope President Trump will also make this right and grant me a pardon.
"We must take a stand in America that corrupt justice will no longer be tolerated."
The reality star claimed his new legal team has “evidence, text messages from the agents and witness' phones that two assistant U.S. Attorneys, two FBI agents and a federal wildlife agent all conspired to commit perjury.”
He alleged that “this evidence was prevented from the jury seeing it.”
In April, the President said he would take a look at the high-profile case.
Joe, who rose to fame after his show Tiger King, became a global hit, is currently at a prison in Fort Worth, Texas, where he has been incarcerated since March after being sentenced in January 2019.
The Netflix sensation is serving a 22-year sentence after being found guilty of paying a hitman to kill animal activist Carole, and for killing tigers to make room for more exotic cats in his former animal park.
Rick moved into the GW Zoo in Oklahoma to film Joe for a reality TV show in 2006.
Their relationship soured after all of Rick's footage was burned down in a suspected arson attack.
Rick revealed how he had a breakdown and needed inpatient treatment and six months of therapy to cope with what he'd seen at the controversial zoo.
Following the documentary, Rick has spoken of his hatred for Joe, saying he wished he had been eaten by one of his tigers.
Rick is currently starring in a new documentary title Surviving Joe Exotic.
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