Don Lewis cold case: “Meat grinder” theory investigated in case of missing millionaire

[This story previously aired on January 1. It was updated on July 30.]

There are attainable new leads in the unusual case of missing millionaire Don Lewis — a person who appeared to fade with no hint.

 Richard Schlesinger: You imagine he was killed, right?

Alex Spiro: Uh, sure.

Alex Spiro, an legal professional and former prosecutor, is working for Lewis’ daughters to assist examine what occurred to their father.

Alex Spiro: There’s witnesses and information that make clear additional details and circumstances surrounding this.

Richard Schlesinger: Have you met these witnesses?

Alex Spiro: Yes.

Richard Schlesinger: And you imagine them?

Alex Spiro: Yes.

DONNA PETTIS [ Don Lewis’ daughter [to reporters]: We had misplaced all hope of ever understanding what occurred to dad.

And then they obtained some hope from a TV collection — the Netflix documentary “Tiger King,” about an Oklahoma-based, eccentric big-cat proprietor named Joe Exotic and his epic battle with Tampa-based animal rights activist Carole Baskin.

Julie Miller | Senior characteristic author, Vanity Fair: Joe Exotic is that this wild, cartoonish— flamboyant, openly-gay, mulleted, tattooed, gun-toting, large-animal proprietor…. Kinda the Mick Jagger, I’d say, of the large-cat animal world. Carole has usual herself as extra of an animal activist. … She says that what Joe is doing will not be humane and must be stopped.

Woven into this leisure, explains Miller, is a cold case.

Julie Miller: Carole’s second husband, Don Lewis, disappeared underneath very mysterious circumstances. It was in 1997 and he simply vanished. There have been all types of theories.

Gale Rathbone | Don Lewis’ daughter: There’s one which he was drugged and put in one of the small planes and dumped out in the gulf.

Julie Miller: The most insane theory, in all probability being that … Carole Baskin … had her husband floor up in a meat grinder and fed them to the animals.

JOE EXOTIC [Joe Exotic TV YouTube page]: Word has it that Carole snuck up on him in the center of the night time, beat him in the pinnacle … floor him up and fed him to the tigers.

As weird as that sounds, one girl believes her ex-husband, who as soon as labored for Don and Carole, could have revealed one thing about Don’s destiny throughout a struggle.  

Trish Farr-Payne: He mentioned, “If you try to leave me again, I will put you in the grinder, like I did Don.”

Her ex-husband denies her story.

Richard Schlesinger: Do you imagine her husband informed her that “he’d put her in a meat grinder the way he did to Don?

Alex Spiro: I will tell you that there is certain information she’s provided that has been independently corroborated,” he replied.

Richard Schlesinger who would you wish to interview most?

Corporal Moise Garcia: Carole Baskin

CAROLE BASKIN [June 1, 2002 video]: I did not kill Don.

Julie Miller: People need solutions. …They need to know what occurred to Don Lewis.

THE MISSING MILLIONAIRE

Like it or not, the Tiger King, Joe Exotic, is again — alongside along with his arch enemy Carole Baskin.

Lots has occurred to those two since we final heard from them.  Netflix got here out with a second season of its “Tiger King” collection and Carole Baskin vented on a star webcast known as “Hollywood Raw.”

CAROLE BASKIN “[Hollywood Raw”]: I actually really feel like that is going to be simply one other horrible yr of individuals having the mistaken thought of who I’m and what I’m making an attempt to do.

Carole Baskin started getting all that spotlight when she was making an attempt to close down Joe Exotic’s non-public zoo in Oklahoma.

JOE EXOTIC [Joe Exotic TV YouTube page]: She has spent over a million-and-a-half {dollars} simply making an attempt to close me down.

Joe Exotic fought again. His weapon was a music video with a sensational message that includes his thought of a Carole Baskin look-alike. His video charged that Baskin murdered her husband Don Lewis and fed him to their tigers.

Carole Baskin has denied the allegation vigorously and repeatedly.

But hundreds of thousands of viewers noticed the video and instantly the warmth was turned up on a cold case: what occurred to Carole’s husband, Don Lewis? The present even lit a fireplace underneath the native sheriff’s workplace.

Cpl. Moise Garcia | Hillsborough County, Fla: We re-interviewed all people and have checked out new proof and proceed to research.

Investigators say solely two individuals have declined to be interviewed by legislation enforcement, one of them is Carole Baskin.

Cpl. Moise Garcia: Carole is taken into account a suspect and an individual of curiosity.

It was 40 years in the past that Carole first grew to become an individual of curiosity to Don Lewis.

 Like so many Florida tales, their story begins like a pulp fiction novel any respected writer would reject.  It begins on an unusually chilly night time in 1981 in Tampa. Carole was nonetheless a young person, and in a nasty marriage. She discovered herself wandering in tears down a major road in the center of the night time, and simply then, 42-year-old Don drove by in his truck. He had stepped out of the house he shared along with his spouse Gladys.

Gladys Lewis Cross: We had had an argument. And — he left residence, and — was headed to a different girlfriend’s home for the night time, which I discovered later. But he was goin’ down … the … avenue, and right here was a fairly blonde, and he or she was cryin’. And he informed me that he stopped and — she obtained in the truck with him, they usually spent the night time collectively. 

Richard Schlesinger: I’m sorry, so he was on his method to one other girlfriend’s home when — 

Gladys Lewis Cross: Yes. 

Richard Schlesinger: — he met — 

Gladys Lewis Cross: Uh-huh [affirms].

Richard Schlesinger: — Carole and took her — 

Gladys Lewis Cross: Yes. 

Richard Schlesinger: — to a — 

Gladys Lewis Cross: Yes. 

Richard Schlesinger: — resort or a motel and — 

Gladys Lewis Cross: Yes. 

Richard Schlesinger: Wow. He was busy. 

Gladys Lewis Cross: Yes, he was. 

Don Lewis was busy with two major pursuits: cash and girls. Long earlier than he picked up Carole that night time on the road, he met Gladys. She was simply 13 when he seen her procuring along with her mom.

Gladys Lewis Cross: And I seemed up, and I believed, “Woo, he sure is good looking.” And then he winked at me … And I circled to see who he may be lookin’ at, and there was nobody there. So, I mentioned, “I guess that was me.” 

A bit of greater than a yr later, Gladys and Don married. He was 17, with little or no cash, however very large plans. 

Gladys Lewis Cross: He might tear something aside, put it again collectively.

Don labored laborious, fixing damaged equipment. He made sufficient cash to purchase and develop a trucking enterprise. Then he began shopping for and promoting Florida actual property. And alongside the way in which, he met Anne McQueen.   

Anne McQueen: Don took any individual …with an eighth-grade training and taught them how you can handle a multimillion-dollar enterprise.

McQueen stored the books and helped run issues. They had been fairly a staff. Eventually, Lewis was price — based on his lawyer — between $5 and $10 million. But you’d by no means realize it. He did enterprise out of a used trailer on an empty lot, he dressed in outdated denims and low-cost T-shirts, and his money administration system was quaint.   

Richard Schlesinger: What about burying cash on the property? Did he do this? 

Gladys Lewis Cross: Yes, he did. 

Richard Schlesinger: That’s sort of an attention-grabbing factor to do. 

Gladys Lewis Cross: Well, any individual would pay him money, and he’d love having money round, so we might put it in a jar and simply dig a gap underneath the little crimson barn we had.

Richard Schlesinger: I imply, the place I’m from, individuals who need money steadily go to the ATM. They do not go to a bit of crimson barn. Why do you suppose he did not wish to go to the financial institution? 

Gladys Lewis Cross: Well, he had lots of cash in the financial institution too, so … 

Don and Gladys raised a household. Their three daughters, Lynda, Donna, and Gale keep in mind their childhoods as joyful.  

Donna Pettis: He was residence each night time. We all the time had dinner. 

It was additionally a bit uncommon; largely as a result of Don had a factor for animals— principally wild ones. 

Gale Rathbone: I would not name it passionate. I’d name it an obsession.  … We would come residence from college, and there’d be a child alligator swimming in the bath. There had been — ferrets and raccoons and horses and cows and — 

Donna Pettis: And a penguin and a monkey. 

Gale Rathbone: Dad actually cherished animals. 

But his daughters by no means knew about that different love of Don’s:  ladies — and never simply their mom Gladys.

Richard Schlesinger:  Was he a very good husband?

Gladys Lewis Cross: He was till I’d get a name and say he is seein’ somebody. 

Richard Schlesinger: Ooh. Well, that is — pardon me, that does not sound like a very good husband. 

Gladys Lewis Cross: He was. 

Richard Schlesinger: Up till that time?

Gladys Lewis Cross: Yes 

Richard Schlesinger: May I be a bit of rude and ask you if roughly what number of ladies he was seeing moreover you? 

Gladys Lewis Cross: If you are talkin’ about the entire 34 years I used to be married to him — probably 25. 

Richard Schlesinger: Forgive me once more for asking, however how did that make you are feeling? 

Gladys Lewis Cross: Well, once I would discover out, I’d inform him I used to be leaving, and he would say, “There’ll be no more.” 

Richard Schlesinger: Did you imagine him? 

Gladys Lewis Cross: Of course, at the moment. And as years glided by, no. … You need to make up your thoughts — to dwell in that scenario or let it drive you loopy.  

Gladys was fairly good about residing with a serial philanderer. And then Don Lewis met Carole.  

Richard Schlesinger: Was there any sense when he met her that she was totally different than the opposite 24 or some odd ladies? 

Gladys Lewis Cross: No. She was— she was identical to the opposite 25. But — I’d say extra grasping, as a result of she did discover out that he had cash 

Richard Schlesinger: What do you assume of her? 

Gladys Lewis Cross: You really need me to reply that? 

Richard Schlesinger:  I’d wish to. 

Gladys Lewis Cross: I feel she’s the worst factor that ever was born in the United States of America. 

Richard Schlesinger: Wow. You do not mince phrases. 

Gladys Lewis Cross: No. And there’s extra if you need them. 

Don and Carole had been seeing one another for about 10 years when Gladys determined she’d had sufficient. She and Don lastly divorced in 1990. A yr later, Don married Carole and earlier than lengthy, the brand new Mr. and Mrs. Lewis had a brand new enterprise. They purchased a bunch of large cats and put them on exhibit at a spot known as Wildlife on Easy Street. 

Don’s former lawyer, Joseph Fritz.

Joseph Fritz: He’d take a chair and sit in the yard with … 10, 12 bobcats, and throughout him, and him playin’ with him prefer it was a family pet. 

But earlier than lengthy, there was issue on Easy Street. Don and Carole weren’t getting alongside.

Gladys Lewis Cross: He informed me then, he mentioned, “I want you to know right now, don’t you or the girls or any of the grandkids or anybody be left in the room with her alone.” 

And then, after solely 6 years of marriage, Don Lewis simply vanished. 

CAROLE BASKIN [WTSP news report]: He would not stroll away and depart his cats. He would not stroll away and depart his enterprise. I discover it laborious to imagine he’d stroll away and depart me.  

WHERE’S DON?

In the times earlier than he went missing, Don Lewis was planning to go to Costa Rica to promote some used automobiles and vehicles.

Anne McQueen: He was presupposed to go and get me some VIN numbers and presupposed to name me again, and he did not.

Richard Schlesinger: Was that like him? I imply, did he do this steadily? 

Anne McQueen: No. Don and I spoke each day.  

Anne McQueen: I lastly — reached Carole… I kinda requested her if she knew the place her husband was. And — her reply to me was, no, that she hadn’t seen him since — the day earlier than. … And she requested me if I believed that she ought to name the police. And I feel I made a smart-aleck comment and mentioned somethin’, like, “You think?  Yeah … you need to do that.” 

There had been some not-so-subtle indicators that there have been issues in Don and Carole’s marriage. There was that cryptic warning Gladys mentioned she was given to not be alone with Carole. And Don’s daughter, Donna, had sensed bother between the 2.  

Donna Pettis: He thought she was loopy. 

Richard Schlesinger: Crazy? 

Donna Pettis: Mm-hmm. He did not — like the way in which she spent cash.  

The couple additionally reportedly fought about what to do with the animals. Carole needed to maintain them and make Easy Street a sanctuary. Don, so the story goes, needed to breed and promote them. He had talked about getting a divorce, and if he had gone by way of with it, it might have been expensive, says Don’s lawyer Joe Fritz.

Richard Schlesinger: So, she would’ve misplaced a substantial quantity of cash? 

Joseph Fritz: Millions. 

Richard Schlesinger: That’s appreciable. 

Joseph Fritz: That’s appreciable. 

The couple made loads of cash whereas they had been collectively. But it turned on the market had been extra indicators of bother. After Don disappeared, Anne McQueen says she remembered a sealed envelope that he had given her two months earlier. 

Anne McQueen: He got here to the workplace, and he was agitated, and he gave me an envelope. And he mentioned, “Take this. Keep it in a safe place “… He both mentioned, “Take it to the police, or you’ll know what to do with it — if anything ever happens.” 

Anne McQueen: I took it residence…. I did not assume something about it.  

But after Don went missing, Anne says she opened the envelope.  

Anne McQueen: He was asking the decide for a restraining order.  

Just months earlier than he disappeared, Don tried unsuccessfully to get a restraining order towards Carole, telling the decide: “… Carole has gotten angry enough to threaten to kill me. … She has a .45 revolver and she took my .357.” 

Richard Schlesinger: Do you keep in mind the way you felt if you learn the stuff about how he — she threatened to kill him? 

Anne McQueen: I began shakin’.  

Richard Schlesinger: Did you truly begin shaking? 

Anne McQueen: I’m shaking now. 

Anne says she took the doc to the sheriff’s workplace and whereas she was there the burglar alarm went off at Don’s workplace. Carole had set it off. According to the Tampa Bay Times, Carole obtained in with assist from her father and Don’s handyman, a person named Kenny Farr, and when Anne obtained again to the workplace, she says she was shocked.

Anne McQueen: Everything was gone. Everything that was in my desk was gone.

Including, she says, Don’s will and energy of legal professional. Police mentioned Carole’s motion was authorized. After all, she was Don’s spouse. But Don’s daughters had been suspicious. 

Lynda Sanchez: Well, to us it’s totally odd. She could also be a partner, however she didn’t have a key in any respect to the gate or the workplace. So that claims loads proper there.  

But that is not the one odd factor. Carole gave an interview to the tv present “Hard Copy,” suggesting Don may need had some sort of dementia:

CAROLE BASKIN [in tears on “Hard Copy”]: Maybe he does not know who he’s. Maybe he does not know the place to name residence. 

But Don’s lawyer Joseph Fritz says Don had no reminiscence issues.   

Joe Fritz: Absolutely none.  

Richard Schlesinger: Did you see him shortly earlier than he disappeared?  

Joe Fritz: I noticed him at the very least each week and generally two or thrice.

And Don’s household does not imagine Carole was actually nervous about Don, in half, as a result of they are saying weeks after he disappeared, she canceled Don’s cellphone account.

Gale Rathbone: If an individual — firstly, your husband, you assume he has dementia, he is obtained Alzheimer’s, and now he is missing, do you flip his cellphone off after two or three weeks of him being missing? His solely lifeline to succeed in you? 

Donna Pettis:  She turned it off. Three weeks after … 

Gale Rathbone: Cancelled the account. 

As the weeks changed into months, Carole supplied one other chance. Instead of Costa Rica, possibly Don was underneath arrest in Mexico and could not name her.   

CAROLE BASKIN [WTSP news report]: The solely place I nonetheless have not seemed that I really feel considerably hopeful of having the ability to discover him alive is gonna be Mexico, and I do not understand how laborious or how lengthy that’ll take.

REPORTER: You assume possibly a jail? 

CAROLE BASKIN: Yeah. I can not assume of anything that will hold him away this lengthy … I discover it laborious to imagine he’d stroll away and depart me.

Don’s household started to assume the worst — that Don was useless, and that Carole performed a job in his dying.

Richard Schlesinger: What was your first thought? 

Gladys Lewis Cross: I’d like to inform you, however I higher not. 

Richard Schlesinger: Can you give me a touch? 

Gladys Lewis Cross: You’ve obtained it. 

Richard Schlesinger: You thought it was her? 

Gladys Lewis Cross: I can not say that. 

Richard Schlesinger: Would I be mistaken in assuming that that was your first thought? 

Gladys Lewis Cross: Maybe. 

Richard Schlesinger: Maybe I’d be mistaken? 

Gladys Lewis Cross: Maybe you may be proper. 

And then, the case took a flip. Police discovered Don’s van deserted at a distant airport; the keys had been reportedly nonetheless in it. Remember, Don had been planning to go to Costa Rica for work.

Gale Rathbone: There is the theory that he simply obtained drained of every part and jumped in an airplane and flew to Costa Rica and drove up the mountain and resides fortunately ever after there.  

Don had owned a number of planes and he cherished to fly. 

Joe Solan has flown lots of of hours in one kind of airplane that Don Lewis favored to fly: a Piper Arrow 3.

Joe Solan: You can roughly get about 700 miles to a full tank, the 2 major tanks full.

Richard Schlesinger: So, if, say you had been going to go from the Tampa space all the way down to Costa Rica. It’s not a nonstop flight.

Joe Solan: No, no [laughs].

Richard Schlesinger: So that is like what number of refueling stops? 

Joe Solan: Oh, in all probability three to at 4 least.

If he did refuel, nobody appears to learn about it. Besides, Don’s household says he would by no means simply take off and depart them. But if Don did not simply fly off to start a brand new life someplace, what was his van doing on the airport?  

Joe Fritz: I’ve heard, on the time … that he was strangled from the backseat of an airplane with an electrical twine and pushed out 50 toes over the Gulf. 

Correspondent Richard Schlesinger can be a pilot and flies the identical kind of airplane Don usually flew.

Richard Schlesinger [flying plane]: First of all, think about the wrestle concerned in strangling a 170-pound man in this passenger seat. Then, if the plan was to push him out the door, that is a problem. The slowest this airplane can fly is about 65 mph, and meaning winds approaching hurricane power could be pushing towards this door making an attempt to maintain it closed. You’d need to open it. You’d need to hold it open, and also you’d need to by some means wrestle the physique out of right here with out interfering with the flight controls. Bottom line: I assume you would do it, however there are simpler methods to get rid of a physique.  

And there was no proof that any of Don’s planes had been missing. So, if it is unlikely Don Lewis was pushed out of a small airplane. Where was he?

THE LATE-NIGHT MILK RUN

In the summer time of 1997, Carole spoke with the native Fox TV station.  

CAROLE BASKIN [Fox interview]: I’m very nervous. … It’s only a feeling … that he’s OK, that he’ll simply stroll again in the gate.  

But Don by no means did.

Alex Spiro: It’s very laborious in the twenty first century to go missing, missing as a middle-aged man who has a really energetic mobile information, banking information, et cetera.

Alex Spiro is an legal professional. A former New York City prosecutor, he is now working for Don Lewis’ daughters.

Richard Schlesinger: There’re all types of— theories about what may need occurred — to Don. One of them — was that he was tossed out of an airplane. Do you discover that credible?

Alex Spiro: Sometimes in high-profile circumstances, individuals provide you with fanciful theories of, , tigers, lions, bears, and airplanes. I imply, there’s often a less complicated clarification of issues.

Spiro says the best factor of all is to start out with the timeline of the day Don Lewis vanished.  

Alex Spiro: There’s a essential window right here the place — Don Lewis went missing. Where the rubber meets the street is what occurred throughout these 24 hours.

So, what occurred the throughout these 24 hours? Carole says she final noticed Don Lewis early in the morning of August 18, 1997, when she got here residence from working a late-night errand. 

Leonora LePeter Anton:  She would not discuss to us in individual this time. So, she despatched us a pair — a diary entries.

Leonora LePeter Anton is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Tampa Bay Times and a CBS News guide.

Leonora LaPeter Anton: And one of them was … what she did that night time … the Sunday, August seventeenth, 1997.

Carole says that late that Sunday night time earlier than Don went missing, she wanted milk and provides for her wild cats.

Leonora LaPeter Anton: … at 11:00, , she had these kittens that had been in the home. There was a bobcat kitten and two caracal kittens. And — she did not have sufficient components for the milk.

In her diaries, Carole says she left Don and drove to a grocery store about six miles away, however the retailer was closed.

And then, the story takes one other twist. She says her automobile broke down. Carole says she walked all the way in which residence. It took her till practically 4 a.m.

Leonora LaPeter Anton: And then when she obtained residence, Don needed to right away return and get the automobile. So, at 4 in the morning, they went again. He put some water — he was— she wasn’t capable of get the radiator cap off earlier. He obtained the radiator cap off, put water in it. And then they drove residence

Leonora LaPeter Anton:  Two hours later, she noticed him in the doorway, and he was leaving. And he — , he simply — he simply left.

Leonora LaPeter Anton: And that is the final time she noticed him.

Don’s ex-wife has her doubts about that story.

Gladys Lewis Cross: I do not assume she was goin’ to purchase milk, no, OK?

Richard Schlesinger: You don’t?

Gladys Lewis Cross: No. She wasn’t goin’ to go purchase milk.

Richard Schlesinger: Do you assume that she was as much as no good that night time?

Gladys Lewis Cross: Could be.

What occurred subsequent has raised much more suspicions. After Don disappeared, Carole produced what she mentioned was Don’s will and energy of legal professional leaving her in cost of every part. But Don’s household says his signature on these paperwork is cast. 

Richard Schlesinger: Would I be mistaken in assuming that you simply imagine that Carole was concerned in making up … the desire and the facility of legal professional? 

Gladys Lewis Cross: You might be.

Richard Schlesinger: I might be mistaken? 

Gladys Lewis Cross: You might be proper. 

Richard Schlesinger: If she was concerned, why would she need to have Don Lewis killed? 

Gladys Lewis Cross: M-O-N-E-Y [spells out word]. 

Richard Schlesinger: Money? 

Gladys Lewis Cross: Of course. That occurs on a regular basis, the world we dwell in as we speak.

Leonora LaPeter Anton had 4 handwriting specialists study Don’s signature on the facility of legal professional. All mentioned the signature didn’t look genuine.  

Leonora LaPeter Anton: Two of them mentioned they felt it was traced from the 1991 marriage license between Don and Carole. And that — that principally they had been, , not correct Don Lewis signatures. 

But Carole says the signatures had been authenticated again in 1997 and are actual.

The Tampa Bay Times additionally seemed into Don’s former righthand man, Kenny Farr. Remember, he reportedly helped Carole get into Don’s workplace that day.  

Leonora LaPeter Anton: He was principally his — a jack-of-all-trades, his right-hand man. And then … after Don Lewis disappeared, he went and labored with Carole Baskin. 

Trish Farr-Payne: He was driving one of Don’s vans. Don’s blue van.

Trish Farr-Payne was married to Kenny for five years. In her first ever TV interview, she informed “48 Hours” that two days earlier than Don Lewis was reported missing, Farr got here residence with Don Lewis’ van – and inside there was a pile of weapons.

Trish Farr-Payne: He mentioned, “Help me carry these in.” We carried ’em in, we put ’em underneath the mattress, we put ’em in the closet, we put ’em in the little toilet we had in our room. I used to be, like, “Whoa — where did you get these?” He mentioned, “Listen, I — I’m — I’m hangin’ on to these right now for Carole.” But — he mentioned, “Don’s gone. And— I don’t want you talkin’ about him.” 

Richard Schlesinger: Did you ask him what he meant by, “Don’s gone”? 

Trish Farr-Payne: No, not proper then. Because … he would blow up actual straightforward at me … I simply did not query it. 

Later that week, she heard on the news that Don had gone missing.

Trish Farr-Payne: Everything began kinda coming collectively. Kenny’s obtained Don’s van, Kenny’s obtained Don’s weapons — Don’s gone, and I knew Don was gone the day earlier than he supposedly was missing. It — one thing wasn’t proper. 

She says she was too afraid to ask Kenny, but it surely was laborious to disregard some very unusual issues. Like the big freezer with a padlock that she says appeared on their porch across the time Don disappeared. And then, she says, the freezer vanished.

Richard Schlesinger: How lengthy after Don disappeared did the freezer disappear?

Trish Farr-Payne:  About every week after Don disappeared.

But Trish says she waited years to inform police about her suspicions.

Trish Farr-Payne: I used to be afraid for my youngsters. You know, I had my youngsters. I used to be afraid for them. I used to be extra afraid for them than something. 

She says he made that one menace that was particularly horrifying and weird … and possibly revealing.

Trish Farr-Payne: Kenny had threatened to place me in a grinder. He mentioned, “If you try to leave me again, I’m gonna put you in the grinder, like I did Don.”

Richard Schlesinger: I’m sorry, he mentioned what? 

Trish Farr-Payne: He mentioned, “If you try to leave me again, I will put you in the grinder, like I did Don.” 

Richard Schlesinger: In a meat grinder? 

Trish Farr-Payne: Yeah. … I believed he was tellin’ the reality. … I knew deep down that Kenny has some half in Don’s not ever coming again. I knew then for positive.

 Richard Schlesinger:  My goodness, so— so that you— y— you type of thought at that time that you simply had been residing with a assassin.

Trish Farr-Payne:  Yeah.

Three years after Don went missing, in the midst of her divorce from Kenny Farr, Trish says she lastly informed the police every part. Kenny Farr would not discuss with “48 Hours” on digicam, however informed us Trish’s story is, as he put it, “[an] outlandish lie.” 

He says, “I had absolutely nothing to do with Don’s disappearance.”

Farr additionally says he cooperated with police on the time of Don’s disappearance and even took a polygraph.

Now, legal professional Alex Spiro says he is discovered some new witnesses.

Richard Schlesinger: Have you met these witnesses?

Alex Spiro: Yes.

Richard Schlesinger: And you imagine them?

Alex Spiro: Yes.

THE MEAT GRINDER THEORY

Richard Schlesinger: Do you take into account Trish Farr-Payne credible?

Alex Spiro: Yes.

Attorney Alex Spiro has been investigating the disappearance of Don Lewis for months.  He does not need to say a lot as a result of his investigation remains to be occurring.  But he’ll say there’s been some progress. 

Richard Schlesinger: Has there been a brand new witness who’s surfaced who can shed vital mild on what occurred or corroborate Trish Farr-Payne’s model of what occurred or simply clear up some of these unclear issues?

Alex Spiro: There have been, sure.

Richard Schlesinger: If that is true, you are a heck of loads nearer to determining what occurred than many individuals would possibly know.

Alex Spiro: I wish to assume I’m nearer to determining what occurred than many individuals would know, sure.

The apparent query is what about Carole Baskin?

After Don’s disappearance in 1997, Carole Lewis carried on at her sanctuary, Wildlife on Easy Street.

On August 19, 2002, 5 years to the day Don Lewis was reported missing, Carole had a decide declare Don useless. Gradually, the investigation into his whereabouts went cold.

 In 2004, Carol obtained married once more; this time to Howard Baskin, a businessman. And the ceremony was uncommon even by Florida requirements, maybe.

Leonora LaPeter Anton: Howard wore like, a toga – a tiger-patterned toga. And was like a caveman. And … he got here to her on the seashore. And she hit him over the pinnacle with a plastic bat. And then he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. And then, apparently, she put a leash round his neck … You know, it isn’t how I woulda completed my wedding ceremony, however – [laughs].  

Carole Lewis grew to become Carole Baskin. And Wildlife On Easy Street obtained a brand new title, too: Big Cat Rescue.

Leonora LaPeter Anton: Howard has an MBA and a legislation diploma. And he type of introduced – a enterprise sense to Big Cat Rescue. … He introduced in, like, a Washington lobbyist. He knew individuals in the group. He principally was actually good at getting donations. 

The group’s mission additionally modified. There was no extra breeding or shopping for large cats.

Carole is an animal rights advocate, somebody who believes nobody ought to personal a wild cat – not even herself. She spoke about it in a 2018 interview with CBS affiliate WTSP.

CAROLE BASKIN [WTSP news report]: Our mission is to place ourselves out of enterprise as a result of there should not need to be a spot rescuing lions and tigers from those who get them as pets. 

Carole finally went after Joseph Maldonado-Passage –  him as Joe Exotic – an unique animal proprietor in Oklahoma. In 2010, she tried to cease him from taking his child tigers to procuring malls across the nation and charging cash for photos.

Joe fought again and tried to take the title of Carole’s group and make it his personal. So, Carole sued him.

JOE EXOTIC [Joe Exotic TV YouTube page]: She has spent over a million-and-a-half {dollars} simply making an attempt to close me down.

She gained. And a decide ordered Mr. Exotic to pay Carole practically $1 million. And that solely added extra gasoline to their feud.

JOE EXOTIC [Joe Exotic TV YouTube page]:  I’m already so goddamn poor, I take advantage of a file cupboard for my dresser drawers. … [Fires gun.]

Joe took to his YouTube channel – Joe Exotic TV – to air his grievances in his personal unique manner.

JOE EXOTIC [Joe Exotic TV YouTube page]: Can you imagine they spent sufficient time to construct one other total web site about me? 

For Joe, nothing was off limits and he gleefully revived these suspicions about Don Lewis’ disappearance.

JOE EXOTIC [Joe Exotic TV YouTube page]: Word has it that Carole snuck up on Don in the center of the night time and beat him in the pinnacle …

Joe made that music video with a girl who was presupposed to be a Carole Baskin look-alike –pushing that unsubstantiated theory that she fed her husband Don to the tigers. 

Joe’s hatred of Carole Baskin began feeding on itself and getting extra violent.

JOE EXOTIC [Joe Exotic TV YouTube page]: You assume I’m obsessed? With you?! Get a life …

JOE EXOTIC [Joe Exotic TV YouTube page]: Carole Baskin higher by no means, ever … see me nose to nose… 

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CAROLE BASKIN [WTSP news report]: He’s posted photos of an effigy of me hanging and pointing a gun to my head.

And Joe Exotic could have completed greater than faux to kill Carole.  In 2019, he was convicted of, amongst different issues, hiring successful man to truly kill her.

He obtained 22 years. Meanwhile, Carole had a brand new theory on who may be liable for her ex-husband’s disappearance.

CAROLE BASKIN [Video diary, October 1, 1997]: She clawed his face up fairly badly. He mentioned he needed to virtually knock her out to get the gun away from her as a result of she was so intent on killing him.

IN SEARCH OF ANSWERS

In January 2021, then-President Donald Trump held the keys to Joe Exotic’s jail cell. His authorized staff hoped for a full presidential pardon.

ATTORNEY ERIC LOVE: I feel we’ll get the pardon, I do. I’m 100% positive.

A really stretched limo waited close to his federal jail, able to whisk the “Tiger King” away from captivity. But the limo left empty; there was no pardon.

Joe Exotic’s case is closed, however Hillsborough County, Florida, Sheriff Chad Chronister nonetheless does not know what occurred to Don Lewis. He thinks Don was murdered and a couple of individual may be concerned.

 Sheriff Chad Chronister: This rich particular person left and left his wealth behind — left his cash behind. You know, when’s the final time …  you have ever heard somebody leaving with out their wealth behind.

But the more strange theories about what occurred are an excessive amount of even for a lawman in Florida. 

Sheriff Chad Chronister: They talked concerning the meat grinder, and that the meat grinders had been used to feed the cats … Well, the meat grinders had been faraway from the property, , a number of weeks earlier than his disappearance. I’m not saying they could not have been concerned, however they weren’t on the property.

With all these uncertainties and people hundreds of thousands of “Tiger King” viewers demanding solutions, the sheriff ordered his staff to take a brand new take a look at the case.

 Det. Moise Garcia: As a end result of “Tiger King” we contacted and adopted up on effectively over 200 leads.

Moise Garcia is a murder detective for Hillsborough County. He says all these suggestions did not assist a lot.

Cpl. Moise Garcia:  A big quantity of these nearly ineffective.

And Garcia says some of his efforts at investigation have been blocked by Carole.

Cpl. Moise Garcia: In the primary “Tiger King” there have been rumors that Don Lewis was buried in a septic tank or beneath a septic tank on the property … we needed to go on the property go searching … however we weren’t allowed entry. … it’s irritating. I’d wish to get on that property and go searching a bit of bit.

Detectives additionally say they’ve additionally been unable to interview Carole Baskin.

Cpl. Moise Garcia: She does loads of interviews … the place she says sheriff’s workplace has not even approached her. That could be very irritating when you have approached her a number of instances and you’ve got been informed “No.”

Cpl. Moise Garcia: Most missing individual’s wives, spouses, they cooperate with legislation enforcement.

Carole’s alleged lack of current cooperation does appear to have elevated the sheriff’s give attention to her.

Cpl. Moise Garcia: The solely individuals who have refused to be interviewed has been Carole Baskin and Kenny Farr.

In an interview with “TMZ,” Carole mentioned since Don went missing, she has launched scores of paperwork and completed many interviews. “TMZ” experiences Carole mentioned she has nothing new to inform detectives and is declining to talk to Investigator Garcia on recommendation of her lawyer. But she did e-mail “48 Hours” saying Trish Farr-Payne’s story about Kenny is fake. 

She known as Trish’s description of the meat grinder, “ludicrous and clearly fabricated.” 

And as for Don’s household’s accusations that she cancelled Don’s cellphone simply weeks after he disappeared, she says that by no means occurred, and he or she informed “48 Hours,” relating to the household, “they are liars.”

And Carole says Don’s allegation that she threatened his life is simply made up.

CAROLE BASKIN [Video diary]: The decide denied his utility saying Don wasn’t in any quick hazard.

She says she by no means threatened Don, and he solely sought a restraining order to cease her from throwing out mountains of stuff he had gathered.

But Carole says she could know who did threaten Don. It’s an explosive allegation: Carole says it is Gladys – Don’s ex-wife — who may be the true villain.

According to Carole, Gladys was indignant over a lawsuit she filed towards Don after their divorce. She sued him for one million {dollars}, however Gladys misplaced.

CAROLE BASKIN [Video diary, October 1, 1997]: Could she have been so indignant over not getting the million {dollars} extra that she thought she would get, that she would kill Don in a last-ditch effort to get well the cash she felt he owed her for all of her struggling?

The Lewis household’s new legal professional Alex Spiro says that is nonsense.

Alex Spiro: I’ve seen no credible proof that the Lewis household has something to do with Don Lewis’s disappearance.

If all the eye is difficult on Carole, she’s made probably the most of it. “Tiger King” has made her a queen. She was on “Dancing with the Stars,” and he or she’s simply come out with a brand new documentary on the streaming channel Discovery Plus, known as “Carol Baskin’s Cage Fight.” 

As for the Don Lewis case, his household remains to be hopeful. And they are saying after greater than 20 years, the publicity round “Tiger King” has has modified every part — with extra suggestions and leads coming in every single day. 

Gale Rathbone: We really feel — actually, we really feel like we have now a military of angels behind us …

Richard Schlesinger: Is Joe Exotic one of these angels (laughs)?

Donna Pettis: He may be main the entire band (laughs).

If you may have any information on the Don Lewis case, please name the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office at (813) 247-8200.

Joe Exotic says he has been identified with prostate most cancers. He stays in jail. 

Produced by Chuck Stevenson and Stephanie Slifer. Jordan Kinsey is the sector producer. Richard Barber and Grayce Arlotta Berner are the editors. Patti Aronofsky is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the chief story editor. Judy Tygard is the chief producer.