Nearly five years after he was sentenced to 22 years in prison for attempting to hire two hitmen to take out his arch nemesis, Carole Baskin, Joe Exotic has faith he will be a free man at some point in 2025.
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During a recent interview with Us Weekly, Exotic stated his key plan is to get out of prison. He is currently incarcerated at the Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas.
“My biggest goal is not only to get out of here and move on and live a life,” Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, stated. “I want to testify in front of Congress about the prison and justice system [and] what really goes on in here.”
However, Exotic admitted that life has been “tough” for him as of late.
“I’m in a medical facility,” the Tiger King star continued. “Part of the roof is missing, and we have plastic bags above our beds taped to the ceiling to guide water out the window. In the last week, I caught 15 rats on sticky boards under my bed. Now 140 of us have scabies. I run a soup kitchen in here.”
Adding a little snark towards Baskin, Joe Exotic declared, “That’s something Carole and nobody [else] can take away from me, that I gave back to society.”
He then shared what he misses the most outside of prison. “My music, my nonprofit stuff that I did with sick kids, and feeding the homeless on Thanksgiving and Christmas,” Joe revealed. “That was my life. I did that my whole life.”
Joe Exotic Watches ’Tiger King’ For the First Time, Says He’s Working on Lawsuit Against the Docuseries’ Director
Meanwhile, Joe Exotic stated he’s seeking legal action against Tiger King director Eric Goode after watching the series that made him a household name in 2020.
“We’re working on a lawsuit, so the prison let my lawyers come in with it on a computer. I was disgusted with the way [director] Eric Goode portrayed [the situation],” Exotic stated after watching the series for the first time. “Carole and I never had a deadly fight going on — it was blown out of proportion. I never saw Carole’s face until my trial.”
Along with hoping to leave prison in 2025, Joe Exotic is ready to put the drama between him and Carole Baskin behind him. “I don’t want that to define [me] anymore,” he revealed.
He’s also looking to focus more on his health. “My prostate cancer is in remission, [but] they believe I have cancer in my left lung. I have to take it as it comes,” Exotic noted. “I still have faith that I’m going to walk out of here — I just need to live for the next five or six months and hope for the best.”