Where is Carole Baskin’s husband? Mississippi reporter hunts down ‘Tiger King’ mystery
Like many Americans holed up in their homes amid the coronavirus crisis, investigative reporter Jerry Mitchell found himself sucked into the warped world of big cat breeding showcased in the hit Netflix show “The Tiger King.”
The seven-episode true crime series, which debuted to rave reviews in March, details the raucous rivalry between ex-zoo keeper and convicted felon “Joe Exotic” and Carole Baskin, his nemesis and owner of the Big Cat Sanctuary in Tampa, Florida.
Mitchell said he’s less interested in the drama, however.
Instead, the award-winning journalist, formerly of The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi, is on the hunt for answers in the 1997 disappearance of Baskin’s husband, local millionaire Don Lewis.
The “Tiger King” docuseries gives viewers a brief peek into the mystery and like many, Mitchell is clawing for more.
“When (big cat collector) Doc Antle, at the beginning of episode three, said something about, ‘You don’t solve 20-year cold cases,’ I just kind of took that as a challenge,” he told McClatchy News in a phone interview, chuckling. “I thought, let me poke around at this. Let’s take a run at this and see what I can do.”
Mitchell has made a career of cracking cold cases from the Civil Rights era, including the murder of Mississippi NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers and the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing that killed four young African-American girls in Birmingham, Alabama.
More recently, he took on the case involving suspected serial killer Felix Vail, who was convicted in 2016 for murdering his first wife in 1962.
It’s thought to be the oldest conviction in a serial killer case in U.S. history and plausibly the oldest solved cold case in the country’s history, according to The Clarion-Ledger.
“There are a number of these that are kind of what we call ‘no body’ cases,” Mitchell explained, pointing to the case involving Vail, who’s suspected in the disappearances of his second and third wives. He was the last person to be seen with either of them.
“So, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility (to have a case) if you have witnesses and other things,” the reporter added. “And I think that’s the key.”
As it pertains to Lewis’ disappearance, the seasoned journalist said he’s digging for things such as Baskin’s diary, passages from which are mentioned in the Netflix docuseries. He said he’s tried to reach out to the late millionaire’s family for more information, including Baskin. The two were married but having troubles when Lewis went missing in August 1997.
Conspiracy theories have swirled since then, including claims that Baskin fed her husband’s remains to her dozens of pet tigers.
“It’s just a process,” Mitchell told McClatchy News of his work. “You do this as an investigative reporter; you start gathering information. Repeatedly, there were a number of things that were alluded to in the show that I’m just trying to dig deeper into. As we sometimes say, I like to get into the weeds.”
Mitchell, whose book detailing his cold case work hit shelves this year, also said he hasn’t ruled out contacting Joe Exotic. Exotic, born Joseph Allen Schreibvogel, is serving a 22-year prison sentence in Texas for the alleged murder-for-hire plot against Baskin. He’s also charged with over a dozen counts of animal abuse.
Through his efforts, Mitchell said he hopes to bring Lewis’ family — and millions of viewers — some sense of closure.
“You certainly want to see these things pursued ... and not just left cold just because they don’t have the manpower or they aren’t able to get to the bottom of it,” he said. “When families aren’t really able to get closure, it’s very difficult for them. That’s a very incredible thing to have to live with.”
Lewis was legally declared dead in August 2002, five years after his disappearance.
Florida authorities have never charged anyone in the case.
“At a minimum, you’d like to have answers,” Mitchell added. “Ideally, you’d like to have justice.”
This story was originally published April 7, 2020 at 1:52 PM with the headline "Where is Carole Baskin’s husband? Mississippi reporter hunts down ‘Tiger King’ mystery."