Tiger King (2020): Season 2, Episode 2 - Episode #2.2 - full transcript
You ever see Tiger King?
Yeah.
I dated Carole Baskin
for two and a half years.
So did she do it?
That's the question.
That is the question.
I didn't think so,
but the more that comes out,
the more I think it's possible.
You ever
feel like your life was threatened?
No. I wouldn't
have lived with her if I did.
When I met her, it was
a year and a half after Don disappeared.
It was '98,
and the dating apps came about,
and that's how I met Carole.
You've got mail!
She says,
"I don't think you know who I am."
"And if you want to see about me,
I'll be in People magazine this week."
People wrote the article about her,
that maybe she killed her husband
and fed him to the animals.
What a good girl!
But I believed in my heart
that she didn't kill him.
And sparks flew.
"Life is wonderful. I am in love."
"Alan has taught me so much."
"He pulls me close. I feel him breathe,
hot upon my shivering skin."
"This magic web around me weaved
as I become one flesh with him."
And why
do you think she sought you out?
Hey, man, I'm not chopped liver.
Carole was very kind to me,
but you talk to my son, Todd,
he's going to tell you a different story.
I was coming home from high school.
I throw my backpack in my room.
I gotta go take a piss.
I open the bathroom door.
There's a bobcat.
And I'm like, "Dad, what the fuck, man?"
Carole did not want me there.
She dresses up in all this kitty cat crap,
prances around in her kitty cat robes.
And I was a kid.
I'm like, "What are you doing, lady?"
And so I just hid in my room
as much as I could.
I was not allowed
in a certain part of the house.
I had these curfews.
I could never have friends over.
But their biggest rule,
I was told very strictly,
"Don't talk about Don."
"Do not talk about it."
I don't think
Carole necessarily killed her husband.
I think she can point people
in the right direction,
but she's not going to.
She doesn't care about people.
She cares about cats.
"June 1st, 2002."
"The dilemma of Don's disappearance."
"I didn't kill Don."
"I have loved him since I was 19,
and he taught me
everything I know about business."
My opinions of Carole
beyond what I've read, what I've seen,
the main source, I guess you'd say,
is her own diaries.
I post my diary entries
every day right now
because so many people said,
"Oh, she knows more than she's telling."
But I'll tell you everything I ever said,
everything I ever even thought
and wrote down.
You're welcome to read through it.
It's all out there
for everybody to investigate,
but they don't want to
because they would rather believe the lie
than prove to themselves
what the truth was.
Her diary that she's
reading online, the woman is ludicrous.
I watched them all last night.
I laughed my ass off.
"I remember going to elaborate extents
to create a mystery story line,
where little clues would be left in places
for the kids to find."
"I really like story lines
where you keep thinking
you've discovered the plot,
only for it to twist and turn
and surprise you again."
I had the whole diary up until '97.
We just happened to have gotten
in the mail today...
Carole's diary.
Don would never spend money on her,
and he gave her this cheap wedding ring.
"Don has been so mean lately
that it seems like I'm always crying."
Then he was wanting to leave Carole,
and go to Costa Rica with his animals.
"Don got so mad
that he said he wanted a divorce
and $1,000,000 to move to Costa Rica."
"He said he also wanted 47 of the cats."
So if you
go back to the earliest entries,
the thing it reminds me of
is just a marriage on fire.
You don't see any way
this marriage is gonna make it.
"He's all I've ever
known and the only man I've ever loved."
"I wish there were some way out for me."
The last line says,
"I have to find a way out." It's crazy.
Hey, all you cool cats and kittens...
She overshares.
What is behind that, I don't know.
But you can begin searching for clues
within her words.
It's just a puzzle, and you're just trying
to piece it together.
Honey, I'll be leaving!
I love you.
Sheriff Chronister,
in between being ruled out
and being called a person of interest,
where does Carole fall on the list?
We'll continue to look at everybody.
When you have a cold case,
you're looking at everyone.
There is absolutely
enough circumstantial evidence
for them to bring her in
at least for questioning.
Chad Chronister
can't be making those comments
unless he knows
what the heck he's talking about.
What's your next move,
Sheriff?
Trying to figure out exactly,
"Who was Don Lewis 23 years ago?"
What was his life like then?
There's been a theory
he had fled the country
and just left everyone behind.
We know he was dealing
with some shady characters
down in Costa Rica.
Well, you know what?
That opens up a Pandora's Box.
The sheriff assured us
they have their own suspicions,
but they can't share those with us.
They just have to keep eliminating things.
You know, they, um...
all but apologized for
how it was handled years and years ago.
So they said, "We can't do anything
about how it was handled back then,
but we want to solve it."
The Don Lewis case is
the most high-profile missing person's
case that I've ever dealt with.
But if there's one thing I've learned
in the 12 years of doing homicides is
when you think you've seen it all,
you haven't quite seen it all.
The Tiger King phenomena has been
somewhat of a double-edged sword.
It's been good
because it's got a lot of interest
and generated a lot of conversations.
On the back edge,
it's a lot of information out there
that we wouldn't want out there.
As an investigator, I gotta look at things
in the context of a court of law,
not what I can find
on some internet and speculate on.
Hey, what's up, everyone?
It's Ripper here.
I've been looking for Carole.
I can't find her.
She's not returning my call.
I know there's a whole
subculture of online investigators,
but I don't know
what their backgrounds are.
I don't know what drives them.
I don't really make anything of them.
When it comes to
the Hillsborough Sheriff's Department,
I think it's about time
they get some answers for this family.
When was the last time
you saw your dad?
June 14th, 1997.
Two months
before he went missing.
He told me to come
at a specific time in the afternoon.
He said Carole would not be there
and that would be best.
It's all right! Pet it.
You can pet these. These are bigger ones.
Don't be scared of him!
I don't
remember the exact conversation,
but he got the point across to me
that there was trouble.
I know he was making plans
to go to Costa Rica.
Do you think he would have left
and didn't tell you guys?
- No.
- No?
But law enforcement
was still very divided.
Half of them thought he had just...
- flown off to Costa Rica.
- Mm-hmm.
And half of them thought,
"No, there might have been
something mysterious happen."
The flamboyant entrepreneur
left pending business deals, his cats,
and a very worried wife behind.
He had made that comment to me, you know?
He was gonna leave her,
move to Costa Rica, and take all the cats.
He said that out loud to me one day
'cause he was mad, out on the property.
Do you
remember when he said that to you?
When the clouded leopard died.
They had a clouded leopard they
were moving from one enclosure to another,
and they were moving
this leopard in a box.
But they forgot the box on a path.
It was hot.
The leopard died.
He suffocated in that box.
Don was angry,
and I guess they had a fight.
There was a lot of turmoil there,
a lot of jealousy, a lot of drama,
which I avoided like the plague.
"Don's first day
back from Costa Rica, he wakes up,
and calmly tells me that he
is going to tear down the caracal pens."
"He said that he would poison
all of the cats with antifreeze."
"I told him to get off
the property and not come back."
"I told him that if he did not go,
I would have him arrested."
The whole Costa Rica project,
Carole, I don't think, was a fan of that.
She was not on board with that at all.
There was talk
of moving the animals down there,
and that was something
that would certainly cause friction
when he came back into town.
He had talked to me
about going down there with them.
They were gonna have this great facility.
Just to him,
it was like his Jurassic Park.
I'm not going to discuss any other
properties that he had in Costa Rica,
due to it being an open investigation.
Let me just ask you this,
do you know what he was up to?
Anything relating to Costa Rica,
I'm not gonna speak about.
There was very little to no regulation
of anything in Costa Rica.
That's why he had a frickin' ocelot, okay?
It's a South American cat, for God's sake.
I will tell you this. After Tiger King,
I got a call from a detective
at the sheriff's department.
And when you deal with a murder detective,
information is a one-way street,
from you to them.
They don't give you a damn thing,
but when we were talking about Don,
the detective got mad at me,
and slipped up,
and told me there were federal reports
of him alive and well
in Costa Rica that he had to overcome.
He did tell me that.
So I had a buddy who's very high
in federal law enforcement
search that out for me.
So have you heard
about this Homeland Security document?
Can you read part of it?
"Lewis owns property in Costa Rica
and has traveled regularly."
"In the latter part of August 1997,
Lewis' wife Carole
filed a missing person's report."
"Blank has learned
that Don is currently alive and well
in Costa Rica."
"Lewis has loaned money
to various individuals
and could live quite well."
"Lewiscould reside
in Costa Rica indefinitely."
Cabin crew,
start to descend.
When Don disappeared,
some detective came to Costa Rica
and started asking questions.
And I told them what I knew.
And I said, "Well, I met Don Lewis
in San José, Costa Rica in '96."
He needed a translator, and a driver,
and a whole bunch of other stuff.
So he picks me as his, uh...
guide. Let's call it "guide."
I was his protection.
He talked about moving to Costa Rica
to start all over fresh.
"October 17th, 1996."
"On the day
of our fifth wedding anniversary,
Don left for another week in Costa Rica."
"As always, no card, no flowers,
no recognition of our time together."
"He is too busy
creating a new life for himself."
Don told me that he was there
to get away from Carole.
And so,
he'll put investments into my name.
You know, I'm a front man.
Back then,
Costa Rica was a fiscal paradise.
The laws were very flexible here.
For Don, that was just perfect.
We bought properties
all over Costa Rica.
And I remember
we acquired a house in Rohrmoser.
Then we got a building
in downtown San José.
And then, of course, the Bagaces Farm.
Don was planning
to fill it up with all kinds of cats.
Don built
a little house and cage for the cats.
That's all he had on the farm
before he left.
The mama's feeding them,
taking care of them good,
and she lets me pick them up
almost anytime I want to.
I knew him
well back then. He was a good man.
But, honestly, I never saw him again.
Since he disappeared,
I've never seen him again.
Never.
And I'd recognize him anywhere.
Even all these years later,
I'd recognize him.
People say he lives somewhere else now.
That's the story,
but I don't know if it's true.
I knew something was going on.
But far as I was concerned,
it had to do with some illegal things
called importation of cats, Felidae.
And I wanted nothing to do
with anything illegal.
Was he bringing cats back here?
Was he? Oh, hell yes.
Don bought and sold planes in the past.
He had a pilot's license at one time.
It was revoked for the number of crashes.
But just because
he didn't have a pilot's license
didn't mean he didn't fly.
It meant he flew unlicensed.
Don used to fly a Cessna plane
back and forth from Costa Rica.
He'd have to stop along the way
in the banana air strips.
You can land
in one of those banana plantations,
and it's under the radar, so...
People say, "No, it can't be done." No.
Yes, it is done all the time.
I met Don because he needed
maintenance on his airplane.
One time,
he wanted to take a cat with him.
He tried to fit the cage there.
He liked the jungle areas,
away from the city.
He could've landed
in any of those airports.
Did they keep
records of these flights?
No. If you wanted, you'd take off,
and if you stay below 1,000 feet,
you don't have to
notify air traffic control.
Don liked to
play with dangerous stuff, okay?
But if you want to really know
the real story,
forget the cats.
Trust me.
When he comes in to Costa Rica
by private plane, he'll bring boxes.
One, two, three, sometimes four.
Used clothes on top,
$100 bills rolled up at the bottom.
Was it a couple thousand dollars?
Was it ten thousand...
No, it was $200,000,
$100,000 each box, you know?
It was a lot of money. A lot of money.
Heavy.
I have to fucking carry it.
Don would take all that cash money
down to Costa Rica
and put it in different companies.
He's just hiding money.
He would tell me they
needed to create a company with this name,
this much capital...
So I would create those companies for him.
I would legalize their books.
What they did with those companies
is their problem.
That sounds like Dad.
That sounds like he would have been
trying to get his money out of the States,
so that when he divorced Carole,
there would be less
that he would have to give her.
I don't think he was dealing
with completely illegal things down there.
Dad always walked a fine line.
He was doing
the same things he's always done.
He was doing his street hustle.
Deep down, what Don was doing,
it was illegal.
He wanted clean money.
That's why he was running cash
through all these properties.
The first building he bought
was the Rohrmoser house.
Later on, they turned it into a hotel.
It was worth a lot of money.
People told me
that Don Lewis was a millionaire.
I couldn't believe it
because he looked like a homeless person.
But he would show you the money.
Kind of bragging.
Like, "This is what I got in this time."
That's when I start thinking,
"It's too much money."
I didn't want to be part
of the dirty stuff.
And I was warned,
through a contact from the CIA,
there was an investigation on Don
with federal stuff.
They told me, "Do not get
any more involved with this guy."
Do you think he was involved
with mafia or criminal enterprises?
I don't know.
And if I knew,
I would not tell you either.
When I covered
the Don Lewis disappearance,
I talked to a detective,
and they didn't think he was dead.
They thought he'd fled the country.
That changed their investigation,
or the nature
of their investigation initially.
They had investigated at one point in time
this lounge down the street
from Don Lewis's office.
It was part of a criminal investigation.
Don would go into the bar,
cash a check without it hitting his bank.
And then you can move the cash
to wherever your heart desires,
take it out of the country.
He said, "Start following the money."
Don didn't
want nobody to know what he had.
He definitely didn't want the government
knowing anything about his business.
He wanted his cash where it was his
and nobody knew about it.
I remember one time I was asked to move
one of the semi-trailers
that was way out back behind his house,
and I picked the trailer up,
and there was money
underneath that trailer.
When he disappeared,
Don Lewis was probably worth 20 million,
maybe a little more.
He was very proud of his money
and he was very concerned
about Carole taking all his money
in a divorce.
He said, "She's not getting a dime."
He didn't want to be married
to Carole anymore. He just hated her.
He was planning his escape.
Costa Rica was the perfect place
to have it done.
It was very easy
to get a fake passport in Costa Rica.
There were gangs
dedicated to falsifying passports.
They would register the person
with a fake name
or the name of a dead person.
A person could travel with that.
When the People magazine came out,
and I saw Don Lewis and Carole's pictures,
the first thing I thought was,
"He's not dead."
"He has changed his identity.
He has the money to do it."
"He's gone on with his life."
It's a letter that I wrote to Don
on September 27th, 1997.
"Dear Don, I'm writing you this letter
because I need your help."
"Some think that you are dead.
Some think that you just ran away
because you were scared
that you were going to prison
and that Carole has something
over your head."
"I am hoping
that you just got tired of all the shit
and are some place that you are happy."
"I need for you to,
just for a little while, to come back."
"Then you can go back in hiding
if that is what you want to do."
"I miss you so much. Love, Anne."
"P.S. If you will just call me
or come back,
I will quit smoking no matter what,
and I will pay my debt
and with all the interest."
I'd like to think that I knew
more about Don than what maybe I did.
Maybe he didn't tell me because he knew
that it would have completely upset me.
Don Lewis would not
walk away from the cats he had,
he would not
walk away from his daughters, period.
Even if he was in trouble
and planning to escape?
Oh, hell no.
He loved his daughters.
He loved his cats. He loved his assets.
Usually people who disappear,
you know how they eventually get found?
They make contact with somebody.
It's been 23 years
without contact from Don.
If there's a disappearance,
you should treat it initially
as a homicide.
And what you don't want is to wait weeks,
or months, or however long
and go, "You know,
I think maybe that was a homicide."
"Well, let's investigate that."
Well, you've lost some evidence.
You talk to everybody as a suspect
and you'd think about
who had a motive to take Don out.
While he was with me, he was safe.
We kept him safe.
But once I started seeing
all these characters showing up
and asking, "Where is he?"
I'm like, "What is going on here?"
But you see, Don, he lived two lives.
Business during the day,
fun time during the night.
I would have nothing to do with fun time.
Not me.
Don Lewis.
I remember him like yesterday.
Of all the clients I had...
Don Lewis was most important.
He always needed
a beautiful woman next to him.
He was a charmer.
He treated people nicely.
He had money.
What more could a woman want?
Whenever he came to Costa Rica,
I would take care of him.
And he always liked
everything to be perfect.
I remember every day
we would go and buy The Tico Times.
Don put ads in
The Tico Times, the local San José paper,
looking for a female companion.
He would bring these suitcases
full of old clothing from garage sales,
so the girls could come in
and pick out whatever they wanted.
"I've got all this."
"You can have all this
ifyou just marry me."
We moved to this neighborhood in 1996.
It's a very quiet neighborhood.
But in that house next door,
lived a man we all knew as "El Gringo."
In fact, some people call it
"The Cursed House."
It always had odd tenants
and strange things going on.
There was a lot of movement
outside that house.
A lot of women.
Men would line up outside the house
and look at them.
They were all young.
Don was attracted
to Costa Rica because it was a paradise
where little girls are sold.
People needed money badly.
And they do all the time.
The Rohrmoser house became like a brothel.
I would bring girls
to the house for him.
If he liked one,
she would spend the night there.
He paid them well.
But he liked them young and beautiful.
Don's favorite girl
was Corina.
I believe she was about 15.
I told Don,
"Be careful what you're doing."
"These little girls have family."
"People will find out, and...
they'll kill you for that."
If you're talking about suspects,
look at motive and opportunity.
Who had the motive?
Who had an opportunity to do it?
Maybe someone
Don was having an affair with,
their family got angry and killed him.
Or maybe someone
who got mad at Don in business.
During his
last few trips, Don looked worried.
He told me he was in danger.
He said it was over money.
He had some problems
with some people in the US.
They were really bad men.
I asked, "Bad men?"
He said, "Very, very bad."
"They will kill you," he said. "Bang."
Carole told me
that he hung around with a lot of
unscrupulous type of people.
Maybe he stuck somebody for some money,
and they caught up with him.
When I first got with her, I asked her
the questions to make me feel comfortable.
"What happened?
What was your husband like?"
"What was the story?"
You want to know the truth?
He was a piece of shit, Don Lewis.
He did horrible stuff to Carole.
After all, whatever Don liked to do,
I believe he was a good man.
But by the end, he made a mess.
I remember I was driving him
to the airport,
and Carole called.
So he tells me to stop,
and he gets out of the Jeep.
I'm like,
"What's going on?"
He goes and talks to her,
and then he comes back.
He told me, "I'm sick and tired of it."
"I need freedom."
"If she ever finds out
what I'm doing in here, she'll kill me."
"I visit Costa Rica."
"When I arrived in town late that night,
Don was standing out front,
and the room was a shambles."
"Later I found out that Don had
his girlfriend Corina staying with him,
and she didn't know that Don was married
and threw a temper tantrum,
which would explain the clothes
all over the place."
She used to keep tabs on him.
Obviously, she knew exactly
what was going on.
"I am finding out what kind of person
I am really married to,
and I think other people will realize
who is the real villain."
When there's a homicide,
the spouse is automatically a suspect,
especially if it's a situation
where there's tension in the marriage.
She was not happy about some of the things
that were happening in Costa Rica.
Does that mean that Carole did it?
I certainly wouldn't say that.
But I just keep coming back to the fact
that she was the last known person
to see Don alive.
My husband left early in the morning
and said that he wanted me
to get a truck ready,
that he was gonna be driving down to Miami
to put on the freight cargo
down to Costa Rica the next day.
And he didn't show up
that day for feeding,
which he always comes back
at least in time for feeding.
We've just started to scratch
the surface of the truth in this case.
Nobody ever got held accountable for this.
But in order for there to be justice,
there has to be truth.
And we don't have truth.
There's just so much out there.
We may never know the complete truth,
but hopefully we will have a conclusion.
Hopefully there will
be some charges brought.
But the sheriff's office
can only tell us so much.
Hi, Donna. Detective Garcia.
Um, the camera crew's not gonna come in.
- No.
- Okay. Fine.
We routinely
meet with the daughters.
But Ripper Jack,
I've interacted with him one time.
He had a lot of conspiracy theories
without realizing how committed
the sheriff was to solving this case.
If you're gonna investigate the case,
investigate the case.
Don't go around saying you are
when you're not.
I know the daughters want some
answers to what happened to their father.
And the internet investigators out there,
they think they know a lot.
I can't let you guys
see access to my files here.
Carole may be watching.
She might want to
see what's in here, I bet.
If Carole's innocent, then fine.
But she knows something.
I was searching YouTube
and documenting examples
of people who are disparaging my name.
I came across RipperJack Media.
He has made a career
out of trying to trash me.
He is such a troll.
She's planting a seed is what she's doing,
and she's probably looking for a reaction.
Well, Carole Baskin,
are you trying to scare me?
Wow! I'm wondering
if Carole Baskin put a spell on me.
Carole needs to come forward,
but until she does,
I told Don's daughters,
"We need to get you a kick-ass attorney
and go to court."
Welcome back
to Let's Make a Deal. Hey, John.
- How are you?
- I'm doing well! How are you?
- Very good!
- What do you do, John?
- I'm a civil rights lawyer.
- Give this man a round of applause.
I'm no stranger
to the limelight.
It's a new Sea-Doo!
I know there are gonna
be lawyers who look at Don's case
and they want this level of attention,
but I know a lot of times those lawyers
fly so close to the sun
that they burn up.
You do have to be careful.
But I want to say something
to Carole Baskin.
Howdy-do, ma'am.
We're here. Let's just do the damn thing.
Happening Today, a major announcement
from the family of Don Lewis.
The family has teamed up
with Tampa attorney John Phillips.
We've been retained to do discovery,
to get subpoenas, to take depositions,
and find out more about the death
and disappearance of Don Lewis.
Carole Baskin was able to provide
the sheriff's office
enough information 23 years ago
to make them believe
that Don Lewis just disappeared.
I'm very worried,
but I don't feel that separation.
We'd love to
have their participation.
But at this point,
we're going to do our own thing.
So, I'm out here working in Tampa
and I just happen to be with...
- John Phillips.
- Surprise!
John Phillips, part-time
driver for Ripper, full-time attorney!
Ripper reached out and said
he'd befriended the family
and gotten the family's trust.
We know Don Lewis was a deeply flawed man.
But that's their father,
and so they deserve answers.
How long have you
been waiting for justice?
- Almost 24 years.
- Okay.
- You're gonna do it, aren't you?
- We're gonna help you bring justice.
Everybody grab a drink.
To Don, to finding answers for Don,
with love.
An attorney says
there is new information and a reward
in the search for aman
who disappeared more than 20 years ago.
The family has erected four billboards
across Tampa asking,
"Who murdered Don Lewis?"
There's $100,000
sitting on the table.
It's set up for someone
just to come forward and say,
"Here's what I know.
I want the hundred grand,
and I'll tell you what happened."
Besides there
being a $100,000 reward,
we are sending a message to Carole.
Carole Baskin's responded saying,
"I believe it is a publicity stunt."
She's been
able to weaponize litigation,
vanquish her enemies time and time again.
But we want to sit at a table...
And there can be as many lawyers
as everybody wants to have,
but I want to ask a lot of questions
about what happened to Don Lewis.
- What do we want?
- Justice for Don!
- When do we want it?
- Now!
- What do we want?
- Justice for Don!
- When do we want it?
- Now!
Attorney John Phillips.
If you could repeat that number.
$100,000 reward for finding out
who murdered Don Lewis.
646-450-6530.
Well, get ready for your phone to ring
with all sorts of good tips, bad tips.
Yeah, um...
but I mean, you knew that was coming.
Tip line. Yes, hello?
Y'all can go ahead
and stop because we all know
Carole Baskin did that.
That man did not go missing
in a plane overseas.
He went missing in a cage,
with a lion, turned into cat shit.
You have
two old messages.
Mr. Lewis was killed.
They took out his eyes and his tongue.
Believe me...
He is in a Wisconsin penitentiary
for murdering a tattoo artist.
But I don't want nothing to do with it.
I don't want to get killed, man.
Big cat people are sick f...
Hello, my name is Sandra Wittkopp.
I used to be a housekeeper
for Don and Carole Lewis.
I suspect that Carole's dad and Kenny Farr
had something to do with Don's murder.
I don't have any proof,
but somebody forged my name
on a bunch of papers.
Don's will, for one thing.
So, I just wanted to let you know.
Thank you very much. Bye.
Yeah.
I dated Carole Baskin
for two and a half years.
So did she do it?
That's the question.
That is the question.
I didn't think so,
but the more that comes out,
the more I think it's possible.
You ever
feel like your life was threatened?
No. I wouldn't
have lived with her if I did.
When I met her, it was
a year and a half after Don disappeared.
It was '98,
and the dating apps came about,
and that's how I met Carole.
You've got mail!
She says,
"I don't think you know who I am."
"And if you want to see about me,
I'll be in People magazine this week."
People wrote the article about her,
that maybe she killed her husband
and fed him to the animals.
What a good girl!
But I believed in my heart
that she didn't kill him.
And sparks flew.
"Life is wonderful. I am in love."
"Alan has taught me so much."
"He pulls me close. I feel him breathe,
hot upon my shivering skin."
"This magic web around me weaved
as I become one flesh with him."
And why
do you think she sought you out?
Hey, man, I'm not chopped liver.
Carole was very kind to me,
but you talk to my son, Todd,
he's going to tell you a different story.
I was coming home from high school.
I throw my backpack in my room.
I gotta go take a piss.
I open the bathroom door.
There's a bobcat.
And I'm like, "Dad, what the fuck, man?"
Carole did not want me there.
She dresses up in all this kitty cat crap,
prances around in her kitty cat robes.
And I was a kid.
I'm like, "What are you doing, lady?"
And so I just hid in my room
as much as I could.
I was not allowed
in a certain part of the house.
I had these curfews.
I could never have friends over.
But their biggest rule,
I was told very strictly,
"Don't talk about Don."
"Do not talk about it."
I don't think
Carole necessarily killed her husband.
I think she can point people
in the right direction,
but she's not going to.
She doesn't care about people.
She cares about cats.
"June 1st, 2002."
"The dilemma of Don's disappearance."
"I didn't kill Don."
"I have loved him since I was 19,
and he taught me
everything I know about business."
My opinions of Carole
beyond what I've read, what I've seen,
the main source, I guess you'd say,
is her own diaries.
I post my diary entries
every day right now
because so many people said,
"Oh, she knows more than she's telling."
But I'll tell you everything I ever said,
everything I ever even thought
and wrote down.
You're welcome to read through it.
It's all out there
for everybody to investigate,
but they don't want to
because they would rather believe the lie
than prove to themselves
what the truth was.
Her diary that she's
reading online, the woman is ludicrous.
I watched them all last night.
I laughed my ass off.
"I remember going to elaborate extents
to create a mystery story line,
where little clues would be left in places
for the kids to find."
"I really like story lines
where you keep thinking
you've discovered the plot,
only for it to twist and turn
and surprise you again."
I had the whole diary up until '97.
We just happened to have gotten
in the mail today...
Carole's diary.
Don would never spend money on her,
and he gave her this cheap wedding ring.
"Don has been so mean lately
that it seems like I'm always crying."
Then he was wanting to leave Carole,
and go to Costa Rica with his animals.
"Don got so mad
that he said he wanted a divorce
and $1,000,000 to move to Costa Rica."
"He said he also wanted 47 of the cats."
So if you
go back to the earliest entries,
the thing it reminds me of
is just a marriage on fire.
You don't see any way
this marriage is gonna make it.
"He's all I've ever
known and the only man I've ever loved."
"I wish there were some way out for me."
The last line says,
"I have to find a way out." It's crazy.
Hey, all you cool cats and kittens...
She overshares.
What is behind that, I don't know.
But you can begin searching for clues
within her words.
It's just a puzzle, and you're just trying
to piece it together.
Honey, I'll be leaving!
I love you.
Sheriff Chronister,
in between being ruled out
and being called a person of interest,
where does Carole fall on the list?
We'll continue to look at everybody.
When you have a cold case,
you're looking at everyone.
There is absolutely
enough circumstantial evidence
for them to bring her in
at least for questioning.
Chad Chronister
can't be making those comments
unless he knows
what the heck he's talking about.
What's your next move,
Sheriff?
Trying to figure out exactly,
"Who was Don Lewis 23 years ago?"
What was his life like then?
There's been a theory
he had fled the country
and just left everyone behind.
We know he was dealing
with some shady characters
down in Costa Rica.
Well, you know what?
That opens up a Pandora's Box.
The sheriff assured us
they have their own suspicions,
but they can't share those with us.
They just have to keep eliminating things.
You know, they, um...
all but apologized for
how it was handled years and years ago.
So they said, "We can't do anything
about how it was handled back then,
but we want to solve it."
The Don Lewis case is
the most high-profile missing person's
case that I've ever dealt with.
But if there's one thing I've learned
in the 12 years of doing homicides is
when you think you've seen it all,
you haven't quite seen it all.
The Tiger King phenomena has been
somewhat of a double-edged sword.
It's been good
because it's got a lot of interest
and generated a lot of conversations.
On the back edge,
it's a lot of information out there
that we wouldn't want out there.
As an investigator, I gotta look at things
in the context of a court of law,
not what I can find
on some internet and speculate on.
Hey, what's up, everyone?
It's Ripper here.
I've been looking for Carole.
I can't find her.
She's not returning my call.
I know there's a whole
subculture of online investigators,
but I don't know
what their backgrounds are.
I don't know what drives them.
I don't really make anything of them.
When it comes to
the Hillsborough Sheriff's Department,
I think it's about time
they get some answers for this family.
When was the last time
you saw your dad?
June 14th, 1997.
Two months
before he went missing.
He told me to come
at a specific time in the afternoon.
He said Carole would not be there
and that would be best.
It's all right! Pet it.
You can pet these. These are bigger ones.
Don't be scared of him!
I don't
remember the exact conversation,
but he got the point across to me
that there was trouble.
I know he was making plans
to go to Costa Rica.
Do you think he would have left
and didn't tell you guys?
- No.
- No?
But law enforcement
was still very divided.
Half of them thought he had just...
- flown off to Costa Rica.
- Mm-hmm.
And half of them thought,
"No, there might have been
something mysterious happen."
The flamboyant entrepreneur
left pending business deals, his cats,
and a very worried wife behind.
He had made that comment to me, you know?
He was gonna leave her,
move to Costa Rica, and take all the cats.
He said that out loud to me one day
'cause he was mad, out on the property.
Do you
remember when he said that to you?
When the clouded leopard died.
They had a clouded leopard they
were moving from one enclosure to another,
and they were moving
this leopard in a box.
But they forgot the box on a path.
It was hot.
The leopard died.
He suffocated in that box.
Don was angry,
and I guess they had a fight.
There was a lot of turmoil there,
a lot of jealousy, a lot of drama,
which I avoided like the plague.
"Don's first day
back from Costa Rica, he wakes up,
and calmly tells me that he
is going to tear down the caracal pens."
"He said that he would poison
all of the cats with antifreeze."
"I told him to get off
the property and not come back."
"I told him that if he did not go,
I would have him arrested."
The whole Costa Rica project,
Carole, I don't think, was a fan of that.
She was not on board with that at all.
There was talk
of moving the animals down there,
and that was something
that would certainly cause friction
when he came back into town.
He had talked to me
about going down there with them.
They were gonna have this great facility.
Just to him,
it was like his Jurassic Park.
I'm not going to discuss any other
properties that he had in Costa Rica,
due to it being an open investigation.
Let me just ask you this,
do you know what he was up to?
Anything relating to Costa Rica,
I'm not gonna speak about.
There was very little to no regulation
of anything in Costa Rica.
That's why he had a frickin' ocelot, okay?
It's a South American cat, for God's sake.
I will tell you this. After Tiger King,
I got a call from a detective
at the sheriff's department.
And when you deal with a murder detective,
information is a one-way street,
from you to them.
They don't give you a damn thing,
but when we were talking about Don,
the detective got mad at me,
and slipped up,
and told me there were federal reports
of him alive and well
in Costa Rica that he had to overcome.
He did tell me that.
So I had a buddy who's very high
in federal law enforcement
search that out for me.
So have you heard
about this Homeland Security document?
Can you read part of it?
"Lewis owns property in Costa Rica
and has traveled regularly."
"In the latter part of August 1997,
Lewis' wife Carole
filed a missing person's report."
"Blank has learned
that Don is currently alive and well
in Costa Rica."
"Lewis has loaned money
to various individuals
and could live quite well."
"Lewiscould reside
in Costa Rica indefinitely."
Cabin crew,
start to descend.
When Don disappeared,
some detective came to Costa Rica
and started asking questions.
And I told them what I knew.
And I said, "Well, I met Don Lewis
in San José, Costa Rica in '96."
He needed a translator, and a driver,
and a whole bunch of other stuff.
So he picks me as his, uh...
guide. Let's call it "guide."
I was his protection.
He talked about moving to Costa Rica
to start all over fresh.
"October 17th, 1996."
"On the day
of our fifth wedding anniversary,
Don left for another week in Costa Rica."
"As always, no card, no flowers,
no recognition of our time together."
"He is too busy
creating a new life for himself."
Don told me that he was there
to get away from Carole.
And so,
he'll put investments into my name.
You know, I'm a front man.
Back then,
Costa Rica was a fiscal paradise.
The laws were very flexible here.
For Don, that was just perfect.
We bought properties
all over Costa Rica.
And I remember
we acquired a house in Rohrmoser.
Then we got a building
in downtown San José.
And then, of course, the Bagaces Farm.
Don was planning
to fill it up with all kinds of cats.
Don built
a little house and cage for the cats.
That's all he had on the farm
before he left.
The mama's feeding them,
taking care of them good,
and she lets me pick them up
almost anytime I want to.
I knew him
well back then. He was a good man.
But, honestly, I never saw him again.
Since he disappeared,
I've never seen him again.
Never.
And I'd recognize him anywhere.
Even all these years later,
I'd recognize him.
People say he lives somewhere else now.
That's the story,
but I don't know if it's true.
I knew something was going on.
But far as I was concerned,
it had to do with some illegal things
called importation of cats, Felidae.
And I wanted nothing to do
with anything illegal.
Was he bringing cats back here?
Was he? Oh, hell yes.
Don bought and sold planes in the past.
He had a pilot's license at one time.
It was revoked for the number of crashes.
But just because
he didn't have a pilot's license
didn't mean he didn't fly.
It meant he flew unlicensed.
Don used to fly a Cessna plane
back and forth from Costa Rica.
He'd have to stop along the way
in the banana air strips.
You can land
in one of those banana plantations,
and it's under the radar, so...
People say, "No, it can't be done." No.
Yes, it is done all the time.
I met Don because he needed
maintenance on his airplane.
One time,
he wanted to take a cat with him.
He tried to fit the cage there.
He liked the jungle areas,
away from the city.
He could've landed
in any of those airports.
Did they keep
records of these flights?
No. If you wanted, you'd take off,
and if you stay below 1,000 feet,
you don't have to
notify air traffic control.
Don liked to
play with dangerous stuff, okay?
But if you want to really know
the real story,
forget the cats.
Trust me.
When he comes in to Costa Rica
by private plane, he'll bring boxes.
One, two, three, sometimes four.
Used clothes on top,
$100 bills rolled up at the bottom.
Was it a couple thousand dollars?
Was it ten thousand...
No, it was $200,000,
$100,000 each box, you know?
It was a lot of money. A lot of money.
Heavy.
I have to fucking carry it.
Don would take all that cash money
down to Costa Rica
and put it in different companies.
He's just hiding money.
He would tell me they
needed to create a company with this name,
this much capital...
So I would create those companies for him.
I would legalize their books.
What they did with those companies
is their problem.
That sounds like Dad.
That sounds like he would have been
trying to get his money out of the States,
so that when he divorced Carole,
there would be less
that he would have to give her.
I don't think he was dealing
with completely illegal things down there.
Dad always walked a fine line.
He was doing
the same things he's always done.
He was doing his street hustle.
Deep down, what Don was doing,
it was illegal.
He wanted clean money.
That's why he was running cash
through all these properties.
The first building he bought
was the Rohrmoser house.
Later on, they turned it into a hotel.
It was worth a lot of money.
People told me
that Don Lewis was a millionaire.
I couldn't believe it
because he looked like a homeless person.
But he would show you the money.
Kind of bragging.
Like, "This is what I got in this time."
That's when I start thinking,
"It's too much money."
I didn't want to be part
of the dirty stuff.
And I was warned,
through a contact from the CIA,
there was an investigation on Don
with federal stuff.
They told me, "Do not get
any more involved with this guy."
Do you think he was involved
with mafia or criminal enterprises?
I don't know.
And if I knew,
I would not tell you either.
When I covered
the Don Lewis disappearance,
I talked to a detective,
and they didn't think he was dead.
They thought he'd fled the country.
That changed their investigation,
or the nature
of their investigation initially.
They had investigated at one point in time
this lounge down the street
from Don Lewis's office.
It was part of a criminal investigation.
Don would go into the bar,
cash a check without it hitting his bank.
And then you can move the cash
to wherever your heart desires,
take it out of the country.
He said, "Start following the money."
Don didn't
want nobody to know what he had.
He definitely didn't want the government
knowing anything about his business.
He wanted his cash where it was his
and nobody knew about it.
I remember one time I was asked to move
one of the semi-trailers
that was way out back behind his house,
and I picked the trailer up,
and there was money
underneath that trailer.
When he disappeared,
Don Lewis was probably worth 20 million,
maybe a little more.
He was very proud of his money
and he was very concerned
about Carole taking all his money
in a divorce.
He said, "She's not getting a dime."
He didn't want to be married
to Carole anymore. He just hated her.
He was planning his escape.
Costa Rica was the perfect place
to have it done.
It was very easy
to get a fake passport in Costa Rica.
There were gangs
dedicated to falsifying passports.
They would register the person
with a fake name
or the name of a dead person.
A person could travel with that.
When the People magazine came out,
and I saw Don Lewis and Carole's pictures,
the first thing I thought was,
"He's not dead."
"He has changed his identity.
He has the money to do it."
"He's gone on with his life."
It's a letter that I wrote to Don
on September 27th, 1997.
"Dear Don, I'm writing you this letter
because I need your help."
"Some think that you are dead.
Some think that you just ran away
because you were scared
that you were going to prison
and that Carole has something
over your head."
"I am hoping
that you just got tired of all the shit
and are some place that you are happy."
"I need for you to,
just for a little while, to come back."
"Then you can go back in hiding
if that is what you want to do."
"I miss you so much. Love, Anne."
"P.S. If you will just call me
or come back,
I will quit smoking no matter what,
and I will pay my debt
and with all the interest."
I'd like to think that I knew
more about Don than what maybe I did.
Maybe he didn't tell me because he knew
that it would have completely upset me.
Don Lewis would not
walk away from the cats he had,
he would not
walk away from his daughters, period.
Even if he was in trouble
and planning to escape?
Oh, hell no.
He loved his daughters.
He loved his cats. He loved his assets.
Usually people who disappear,
you know how they eventually get found?
They make contact with somebody.
It's been 23 years
without contact from Don.
If there's a disappearance,
you should treat it initially
as a homicide.
And what you don't want is to wait weeks,
or months, or however long
and go, "You know,
I think maybe that was a homicide."
"Well, let's investigate that."
Well, you've lost some evidence.
You talk to everybody as a suspect
and you'd think about
who had a motive to take Don out.
While he was with me, he was safe.
We kept him safe.
But once I started seeing
all these characters showing up
and asking, "Where is he?"
I'm like, "What is going on here?"
But you see, Don, he lived two lives.
Business during the day,
fun time during the night.
I would have nothing to do with fun time.
Not me.
Don Lewis.
I remember him like yesterday.
Of all the clients I had...
Don Lewis was most important.
He always needed
a beautiful woman next to him.
He was a charmer.
He treated people nicely.
He had money.
What more could a woman want?
Whenever he came to Costa Rica,
I would take care of him.
And he always liked
everything to be perfect.
I remember every day
we would go and buy The Tico Times.
Don put ads in
The Tico Times, the local San José paper,
looking for a female companion.
He would bring these suitcases
full of old clothing from garage sales,
so the girls could come in
and pick out whatever they wanted.
"I've got all this."
"You can have all this
ifyou just marry me."
We moved to this neighborhood in 1996.
It's a very quiet neighborhood.
But in that house next door,
lived a man we all knew as "El Gringo."
In fact, some people call it
"The Cursed House."
It always had odd tenants
and strange things going on.
There was a lot of movement
outside that house.
A lot of women.
Men would line up outside the house
and look at them.
They were all young.
Don was attracted
to Costa Rica because it was a paradise
where little girls are sold.
People needed money badly.
And they do all the time.
The Rohrmoser house became like a brothel.
I would bring girls
to the house for him.
If he liked one,
she would spend the night there.
He paid them well.
But he liked them young and beautiful.
Don's favorite girl
was Corina.
I believe she was about 15.
I told Don,
"Be careful what you're doing."
"These little girls have family."
"People will find out, and...
they'll kill you for that."
If you're talking about suspects,
look at motive and opportunity.
Who had the motive?
Who had an opportunity to do it?
Maybe someone
Don was having an affair with,
their family got angry and killed him.
Or maybe someone
who got mad at Don in business.
During his
last few trips, Don looked worried.
He told me he was in danger.
He said it was over money.
He had some problems
with some people in the US.
They were really bad men.
I asked, "Bad men?"
He said, "Very, very bad."
"They will kill you," he said. "Bang."
Carole told me
that he hung around with a lot of
unscrupulous type of people.
Maybe he stuck somebody for some money,
and they caught up with him.
When I first got with her, I asked her
the questions to make me feel comfortable.
"What happened?
What was your husband like?"
"What was the story?"
You want to know the truth?
He was a piece of shit, Don Lewis.
He did horrible stuff to Carole.
After all, whatever Don liked to do,
I believe he was a good man.
But by the end, he made a mess.
I remember I was driving him
to the airport,
and Carole called.
So he tells me to stop,
and he gets out of the Jeep.
I'm like,
"What's going on?"
He goes and talks to her,
and then he comes back.
He told me, "I'm sick and tired of it."
"I need freedom."
"If she ever finds out
what I'm doing in here, she'll kill me."
"I visit Costa Rica."
"When I arrived in town late that night,
Don was standing out front,
and the room was a shambles."
"Later I found out that Don had
his girlfriend Corina staying with him,
and she didn't know that Don was married
and threw a temper tantrum,
which would explain the clothes
all over the place."
She used to keep tabs on him.
Obviously, she knew exactly
what was going on.
"I am finding out what kind of person
I am really married to,
and I think other people will realize
who is the real villain."
When there's a homicide,
the spouse is automatically a suspect,
especially if it's a situation
where there's tension in the marriage.
She was not happy about some of the things
that were happening in Costa Rica.
Does that mean that Carole did it?
I certainly wouldn't say that.
But I just keep coming back to the fact
that she was the last known person
to see Don alive.
My husband left early in the morning
and said that he wanted me
to get a truck ready,
that he was gonna be driving down to Miami
to put on the freight cargo
down to Costa Rica the next day.
And he didn't show up
that day for feeding,
which he always comes back
at least in time for feeding.
We've just started to scratch
the surface of the truth in this case.
Nobody ever got held accountable for this.
But in order for there to be justice,
there has to be truth.
And we don't have truth.
There's just so much out there.
We may never know the complete truth,
but hopefully we will have a conclusion.
Hopefully there will
be some charges brought.
But the sheriff's office
can only tell us so much.
Hi, Donna. Detective Garcia.
Um, the camera crew's not gonna come in.
- No.
- Okay. Fine.
We routinely
meet with the daughters.
But Ripper Jack,
I've interacted with him one time.
He had a lot of conspiracy theories
without realizing how committed
the sheriff was to solving this case.
If you're gonna investigate the case,
investigate the case.
Don't go around saying you are
when you're not.
I know the daughters want some
answers to what happened to their father.
And the internet investigators out there,
they think they know a lot.
I can't let you guys
see access to my files here.
Carole may be watching.
She might want to
see what's in here, I bet.
If Carole's innocent, then fine.
But she knows something.
I was searching YouTube
and documenting examples
of people who are disparaging my name.
I came across RipperJack Media.
He has made a career
out of trying to trash me.
He is such a troll.
She's planting a seed is what she's doing,
and she's probably looking for a reaction.
Well, Carole Baskin,
are you trying to scare me?
Wow! I'm wondering
if Carole Baskin put a spell on me.
Carole needs to come forward,
but until she does,
I told Don's daughters,
"We need to get you a kick-ass attorney
and go to court."
Welcome back
to Let's Make a Deal. Hey, John.
- How are you?
- I'm doing well! How are you?
- Very good!
- What do you do, John?
- I'm a civil rights lawyer.
- Give this man a round of applause.
I'm no stranger
to the limelight.
It's a new Sea-Doo!
I know there are gonna
be lawyers who look at Don's case
and they want this level of attention,
but I know a lot of times those lawyers
fly so close to the sun
that they burn up.
You do have to be careful.
But I want to say something
to Carole Baskin.
Howdy-do, ma'am.
We're here. Let's just do the damn thing.
Happening Today, a major announcement
from the family of Don Lewis.
The family has teamed up
with Tampa attorney John Phillips.
We've been retained to do discovery,
to get subpoenas, to take depositions,
and find out more about the death
and disappearance of Don Lewis.
Carole Baskin was able to provide
the sheriff's office
enough information 23 years ago
to make them believe
that Don Lewis just disappeared.
I'm very worried,
but I don't feel that separation.
We'd love to
have their participation.
But at this point,
we're going to do our own thing.
So, I'm out here working in Tampa
and I just happen to be with...
- John Phillips.
- Surprise!
John Phillips, part-time
driver for Ripper, full-time attorney!
Ripper reached out and said
he'd befriended the family
and gotten the family's trust.
We know Don Lewis was a deeply flawed man.
But that's their father,
and so they deserve answers.
How long have you
been waiting for justice?
- Almost 24 years.
- Okay.
- You're gonna do it, aren't you?
- We're gonna help you bring justice.
Everybody grab a drink.
To Don, to finding answers for Don,
with love.
An attorney says
there is new information and a reward
in the search for aman
who disappeared more than 20 years ago.
The family has erected four billboards
across Tampa asking,
"Who murdered Don Lewis?"
There's $100,000
sitting on the table.
It's set up for someone
just to come forward and say,
"Here's what I know.
I want the hundred grand,
and I'll tell you what happened."
Besides there
being a $100,000 reward,
we are sending a message to Carole.
Carole Baskin's responded saying,
"I believe it is a publicity stunt."
She's been
able to weaponize litigation,
vanquish her enemies time and time again.
But we want to sit at a table...
And there can be as many lawyers
as everybody wants to have,
but I want to ask a lot of questions
about what happened to Don Lewis.
- What do we want?
- Justice for Don!
- When do we want it?
- Now!
- What do we want?
- Justice for Don!
- When do we want it?
- Now!
Attorney John Phillips.
If you could repeat that number.
$100,000 reward for finding out
who murdered Don Lewis.
646-450-6530.
Well, get ready for your phone to ring
with all sorts of good tips, bad tips.
Yeah, um...
but I mean, you knew that was coming.
Tip line. Yes, hello?
Y'all can go ahead
and stop because we all know
Carole Baskin did that.
That man did not go missing
in a plane overseas.
He went missing in a cage,
with a lion, turned into cat shit.
You have
two old messages.
Mr. Lewis was killed.
They took out his eyes and his tongue.
Believe me...
He is in a Wisconsin penitentiary
for murdering a tattoo artist.
But I don't want nothing to do with it.
I don't want to get killed, man.
Big cat people are sick f...
Hello, my name is Sandra Wittkopp.
I used to be a housekeeper
for Don and Carole Lewis.
I suspect that Carole's dad and Kenny Farr
had something to do with Don's murder.
I don't have any proof,
but somebody forged my name
on a bunch of papers.
Don's will, for one thing.
So, I just wanted to let you know.
Thank you very much. Bye.