Joe Exotic Called Us From Federal Prison. He’s Not Enjoying the Food.

A few hours before “Joe Exotic,” née Joseph Maldonado, called me from federal detention in Forth Worth, Texas, I had underlined a sentence in Jay McInerney’s beloved novel Bright Lights Big City that would come to take on a special resonance: “Everything becomes symbol and irony when you have been betrayed.” Little did I know that sentiment would seem to underscore the conversation I would have with the incarcerated wild animal breeder, who’s currently working on an appeal for his 20-year sentence (and has personally reached out to the Trump administration for a pardon). I came to learn that many figures in Exotic’s life have shied away from him since his arrest, including former lovers, coworkers, and friends—but, shockingly, not Carole Baskin, the rival breeder who Exotic was arrested for conspiring to kill. News broke in the form of livestreams and AI-generated couples photos that Exotic had found love once more behind bars, marrying a fellow inmate this past Spring. For safety reasons, we weren’t able to discuss his recent nuptials, though Exotic did hand-draw us a portrait of him and his new beau before we got to chatting about a wide range of topics, including his ex-husband (backstabbing), his daily prison routine (rather normal), and the first meal he’ll have upon his release (a steak).

———

JOE EXOTIC: You can record me, you just can’t put me on a three-way call.

EMILY SANDSTROM: Okay, that sounds good. Well, first off, how are you doing?

EXOTIC: I’m hanging in there. I mean, it’s prison.

SANDSTROM: Right. I wanted to ask you first about your recent marriage. Can you tell me how you met your husband?

EXOTIC: Well, we’re going to leave that off because, first of all, that was an AI picture that my people put out there. And they did it and it went as a joke, and they’re fixing to deport him, so I’m going to keep him safe and out of the press.

SANDSTROM: Got it. You’ve been married twice before, right? Can we talk about that?

EXOTIC: I can talk about the past ones. I’m just not going to put Giorgio in danger because when he gets to the border, god knows what’s going to happen. Everybody thinks that I made millions off of Tiger King and I didn’t get paid a dime.

SANDSTROM: Well, other than that, how’s stuff in prison? What’s your daily routine like? 

EXOTIC: The prison that I’m at is pretty cool. It’s like a college campus, really. There’s no doors and you’re not in cells. You’re in dorms. I’m in a dorm with nine other guys. And I spend seven hours a day at recreation.

SANDSTROM: Are people nice there?

EXOTIC: Yeah. I get along with everybody.

SANDSTROM: Do they know your story?

EXOTIC: Unfortunately, everybody does. 

SANDSTROM: And I guess you have access to the internet, right?

EXOTIC: No. We have access to TV and the news and emails, and we have tablets for renting movies.

SANDSTROM: Are you listening to the news a lot?

EXOTIC: I listen to the news all day, and then I sleep with it in my ear at night on the radio.

SANDSTROM: Oh, that’s cool. With regard to your previous marriages, would you describe yourself as a romantic?

EXOTIC:  The two marriages that I’ve had, they were very romantic. I worked all day, come home and cook dinner, and eat dinner and watch movies. And I’m not a go-out-and-party-at-the-bar type of person because I don’t drink and do drugs and all that, so I’m pretty much a homebody.

SANDSTROM: You guys met in a chat room, right? 

EXOTIC: Dillon, yeah. Unfortunately. That was the one big mistake of my life.

SANDSTROM: How come?

EXOTIC: Piece of shit. I was arrested and put in prison for two years while Tiger King was being filmed, and he signed a contract and sold all of my never-seen footage to Netflix for $2.6 million and left me here without a dime.

SANDSTROM: You’re kidding?

EXOTIC: No, I’m not.

SANDSTROM: That’s fucked.

EXOTIC: Yeah. Considering he was homeless when I met him and covered in syphilis.

SANDSTROM: Have you been able to confront him?

EXOTIC: I didn’t get to confront him directly, but during the divorce my lawyers did.

SANDSTROM: Is there litigation ongoing between the two of you?

EXOTIC: It’s been over for three-and-a-half years now.

SANDSTROM: Was that case successful?

EXOTIC: Well, I didn’t get no money because he claimed he already spent it all.

SANDSTROM: All right, well, tell me what are your hopes for your case now.

EXOTIC: Well, I’ve been on appeal for a year and three months waiting to overturn my conviction. So that’s my hope, that the court will come back and say they’re going to overturn my conviction and let me have a new trial. And the government will never take me back to trial because all of their witnesses admitted to perjury on world television. I don’t know if you saw Tiger King 2, but I was told that they all admitted to perjury, and Alan Glover took the film people and my lawyers to the zoo and showed them how they were going to kill me.

SANDSTROM: Right.

EXOTIC: Pretty crazy that I’m the one in jail, huh?

SANDSTROM: Did they tell you how long your appeal could take?

EXOTIC: My first two appeals were finished in 11 months. This one’s been a year and three months already, but the lawyers keep saying, “Because it’s takin’ longer, that’s a good thing.” And I’m like, “Well, you’re not the one sitting in prison waiting for this good thing.”

SANDSTROM: For sure. 

AUTOMATED VOICE: This call is from a federal prison.

EXOTIC: Everybody in prison would like an answer next week, like the politicians do when they sue somebody or go to court. But it seems like they’re in front of the Supreme Court within a month.

SANDSTROM: Is there anything that you’re learning about yourself while you’re in prison?

EXOTIC: Yeah, I learned to hate people. I wasn’t prejudiced until I came to prison. Let’s see, what else? I’ve learned to eat some things that I normally wouldn’t.

SANDSTROM: What kind of food are they feeding you?

EXOTIC: It’s pretty bad. It really, really is bad. A lot of chicken. Everything’s chicken.

SANDSTROM: Okay.

EXOTIC: The food’s pretty pathetic.

SANDSTROM: Can you like, pay for nicer food or is everyone in the same situation?

EXOTIC: Well, I mean, like the county jails? You can order food from outside the world in a county jail. Prisons not like that.

SANDSTROM: Right.

EXOTIC: You can buy stuff off the commissary and cook your own stuff, but they never change what you can buy on the commissary. So it’s always refried beans and tuna or shredded beef or whatever. But you can only make burritos in so many different ways.

SANDSTROM: What’s the first thing you’re going to eat when you get out?

EXOTIC: A steak.

SANDSTROM: Great choice.

EXOTIC: I’m going to Outback Steakhouse.

SANDSTROM: Has anyone who made the documentary reached out to you recently?

EXOTIC: No. Everybody that worked at the zoo that I gave a home to and a job and kept them off the street, not one of them has even reached out to see if I’m even alive.

SANDSTROM: Really? How do you feel about that?

EXOTIC: It tells me who they really were. They all got paid to be on Tiger King. That’s part of the evidence we have now. Eric Goode was paying the witnesses during my trial to keep his little story going so he can make Tiger King. But John Finlay, we were together 11 years. As much as I did for that piece of shit, he’s never even wrote or asked if I’m alive. [John] Reinke has. You know, the guy with no legs?

SANDSTROM: Okay. That’s nice.

EXOTIC: Reinke has met with my lawyers several times, but I don’t talk to him because when I get a new trial, I don’t want the prosecutors to be able to say, “Oh, well, and Reinke has been in communication and they have come up with these stories.” You know?

SANDSTROM: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Conspiracy. 

EXOTIC: Right, right. But you know Saff [Kelci “Saff” Saffery], that lost her arm?

SANDSTROM: Yes.

EXOTIC: And I saved her life? I would’ve expected her at least to check up on me. But nope.

SANDSTROM: I’m sorry to hear that. This world is full of backstabbers and betrayal.

EXOTIC: I’ve heard more out of Carole Baskin than I have anybody.

SANDSTROM: Oh, really?

EXOTIC: Yeah. Well, she got on World News and said that she would help me get a pardon. And then she posted on her YouTube that my lawyers got two videos that prove I’m innocent. Believe it or not, she’s done more to help me than anybody.

SANDSTROM: Well, I’m feeling optimistic about your appeal.

EXOTIC: My lawyers feel real good about it, and I’ve got a gut feeling that it’s going to come back good. You know, I have [Joe] Rogan, Dana White, Andrew Tate, Matt Gates, George Santos, Lauren Boebert, Laura Loomer. I have all them people out there, and the leader of the Proud Boys. Every one of them are out there screaming for a pardon. And I really still think Trump will come through, but he’s going to do it on his terms and in his time.

EMILY: You haven’t heard anything back from the administration yet?

EXOTIC: I haven’t heard a word. I don’t know what’s up with that man. He’s too busy making AI pictures of himself as the Pope.

SANDSTROM: Yeah, I saw that this morning.

EXOTIC: It’s crazy. It’s crazy. He’s going to do it when he needs to–

AUTOMATED VOICE: This call is from a federal prison.

EXOTIC: –and when he needs a distraction. The more you watch Trump, the more you learn about him. Just like the picture of the Pope that he did. And then they had a picture today on TV of him in a Star Trek and a Jedi outfit. It’s just a distraction to keep you from things. Because he hasn’t got no answers about the hostages and Hamas. He hasn’t got the Ukraine war stopped. So he’s got to draw your attention somewhere.

SANDSTROM: For sure. You’ve been a Trump supporter for a while though, right?

EXOTIC: Yeah, I am. There’s some things that I wish he would do different, but we’re never going to find anybody perfect.

SANDSTROM: I understand. Is there anything else you want to tell me?

EXOTIC: I don’t know if you’ve seen the evidence link on my website with the videos of them admitting to perjury and all that good stuff. But if you broadcast this, tell everybody to go to JoeExoticOfficial.com. Help me out on that website because that is what pays my lawyers, and then get on the evidence link on that website and spread it around and show everybody how these people admitted to perjury and the crimes they were committing when they were setting me up. Because the phone recordings of Jeff and Lauren admitting to raping people and all that is there.

SANDSTROM: That’s really crazy.

EXOTIC: It makes you wonder what the hell the government was thinking, huh?

SANDSTROM: For sure.

EXOTIC: Kamala Harris co-sponsored the bill for Carole and put me in here, the Big Cat Safety Act. So this was a political move, is all this was.

SANDSTROM: That must be crazy to feel like you’re caught in a political crossfire?

EXOTIC: Well, what’s crazy though is they destroyed my life, put me in prison. My mom and dad have died since then. I have nothing left, just so you couldn’t pet a baby tiger. I mean, really!?