From: Jeff Duffey jeff@duffeyhomes.

com
Subject: Fwd: Netflix
Date: March 26, 2020 at 1:42 PM
To:

From: Carole Baskin <carole.baskin@bigcatrescue.org>

Date: March 24, 2020 at 8:27:04 AM CDT
To: lesliejolly@icloud.com
Subject: Netflix

LIES IN NETFLIX “TIGER KING” REGARDING DISAPPEARANCE OF DON LEWIS

When the directors of the Netflix documentary Tiger King came to us five years ago they said they wanted to make the big cat
version of Blackfish (the documentary that exposed abuse at SeaWorld) that would expose the misery caused by the rampant
breeding of big cat cubs for cub petting exploitation and the awful life the cats lead in roadside zoos and back yards if they survive.

There are not words for how disappointing it is to see that the docuseries not only does not do any of that, but has had the sole goal
of being as salacious and sensational as possible to draw viewers. As part of that, it has a segment devoted to suggesting, with lies
and innuendos from people who are not credible, that I had a role in the disappearance of my husband Don 21 years ago. The
series presents this without any regard for the truth or in most cases even giving me an opportunity before publication to rebut the
absurd claims. They did not care about truth. The unsavory lies are better for getting viewers.

There is no short, simple way to refute so many lies. If you do want to know the truth, it requires understanding the history of events
in the years before my husband’s disappearance and the roles and behaviors of the people interviewed in the series, which I have
tried to do as concisely as I can below but still requires a few pages.

THE TIME LEADING UP TO DON’S DISAPPEARANCE

In the few years preceding his disappearance Don’s behavior was gradually showing signs of mental deterioration. Originally Don,
from time to time, would buy vehicles or other equipment at auctions with a view to reselling them, although mostly he never got
around to reselling them. But gradually his hoarding of junk that he brought to the 40 acres the sanctuary now sits on increased and
involved junk of no value. He deteriorated into dumpster diving and even got stuck in a dumpster and called me crying because he
did not know where he was.

Back then Alzheimer’s was not a commonly used word. I had not heard of it. Someone mentioned Alzheimer’s to me and I got Don
to agree to set up an appointment with a specialist, Dr. Gold. Anne McQueen intervened and convinced him to see her psychiatrist,
Dr. Blasini. He referred us to a Dr. West in the same building who was not there, so Don saw Dr. Russell. He diagnosed Don with Bi-
Polar Disorder and gave him a prescription to have an MRI at St. Joseph’s Hospital. I did not find the prescription until I was
searching his bedside table looking for clues to his disappearance.

His behavior became increasing strange. He started refusing to use the bathroom and defecating outside. He brought in a homeless
man to stay in our house. I rescheduled an appointment for him to see the specialist Dr. Gold. But he disappeared before the
appointment date.

DON’S “WEALTH”

Everyone repeats the lie that Don was a millionaire when I met him. He had a business cutting the axles off of trailers pulled by
tractors and selling the boxes as storage and the axles back Great Dane. If you search the property records you will find he only
owned two real estate properties at the time. He may well have been worth six figures and, coming from a very modest background,
would have felt he was rich. No one, including Anne McQueen who had access to his books, has ever provided any bank records or
other evidence that he had more than that.

One day at the bank he overheard a bank officer say he had a $20,000 loan in default he would be glad to sell for $2000. He got the
information and, because he could not read beyond a first grade level, asked me to look into it. In brief, we bought the loan,
foreclosed, and sold the property for a substantial profit. That is what got us into the real estate business. We started buying
defaulted loans from banks and going to tax deed sales. This was before this became a popular business. There were few people
doing it. With me doing the research, negotiations and title clearing on the properties we built this to a portfolio of properties to rent
or resell that was worth around $5 million dollars at the time of his disappearance.

We kept the properties in trusts. During the roughly ten years we were partners before we married there were properties we bought
together and some Don bought on his own or with another woman, Pam. When we married I put all of those I had not worked on
into one trust. The ones from our joint efforts were kept in a separate trust. The trust holding the properties I was not involved in was
set up with his children as beneficiaries if he passed. I was the beneficiary of the trust holding the properties I was involved in.

THE MAIN PEOPLE INTERVIEWED AND THEIR LIES

Anne McQueen is referred to as Don’s trusted assistant. A few months before his disappearance we caught her embezzling roughly
$600,000 in properties by buying them with our funds and putting them in her name. A court ordered her to return them. Not the best
sign of integrity, credibility, someone to believe.
Wendell Williams. We made a loan to Wendell when he purchased the 40 acres that became the sanctuary. He dug out dirt to sell
for construction, digging an 18 acre 30 foot deep hole without our knowing. He then began operating the hole as an illegal dump site
for construction debris. The hole filled up with water when he hit a spring. He stopped making payments. We foreclosed on him and
ended up with the property.

Wendell is a very good con man and Don continued to deal with him despite this. During the time when Don was declining mentally
I repeatedly observed Wendell cheating Don. Don liked to carry a lot of cash. I heard Wendell telling Don, “Remember that two
grand you owe me?” and saw Don peeled off two thousand dollars and gave it to him. A few hours later, I saw Wendell do it again,
and because of Don’s dementia, Don peeled off two thousand dollars again and gave it to Wendell. I confronted Wendell about it.
After that Wendell did everything he could to create a rift between me and Don. There were many, much larger, transactions where
Wendell was scamming Don. He was convincing Don he was selling Don real estate properties by handing him paper he said were
deeds but were not. Don, who could not read, believed him and would give him cash and checks for amounts in excess of $60,000
thinking he was purchasing property.

Don’s wife Gladys Lewis Cross and daughters Donna Pettis, Lynda Sanchez & Gale Rathbone. I feel for Gladys because every
woman in Don’s orbit adored him. He could make you feel like you were the only woman in the world; the only one who understood
him; the only one he ever really loved. In the series Gladys makes it sound like she told Don their marriage was over when she
found out about me. Don had been unfaithful to her for years and it was well known by her and generally. In the 1998 Dateline /
People Magazine article Anne McQueen said she was probably the only woman he didn’t try to have sex with. Even Don’s daughter
refers in the series to Don’s condition as being a “sexaholic.”

When Gladys demanded a divorce 1989 there was a man at her church she wanted to marry. So she told Don that if he would give
her a quick divorce she would settle for one million dollars. She and the daughters worked with Don to picked properties she would
get along with some cash, cars, jewelry and coins. I was told that Don’s oldest daughter Donna Pettis subsequently managed to
lose all of it in the stock market in the years that followed.

In 1996, despite their prior divorce settlement agreement, Gladys, who freely accuses me of being “greedy,” filed a suit claiming she
was entitled to more. Daughters Donna and Lynda testified on behalf of Gladys. Don expected Gale and Anne McQueen to testify
on his behalf. Instead they testified for Gladys. At that time Don told me eliminate them as beneficiaries of the PSRL trust. I did not
do so because I felt they were family and over time he would change his mind. To the best of my knowledge he never spoke to any
of them again.

After Don disappeared there were years of my having to manage the properties under a Conservatorship demanded by Gladys and
the daughters. The numerous attorneys they involved, all being paid out of the estate, reduced the assets significantly. Ultimately
the assets in the PRSL trust, that had the daughters as beneficiaries, went to them. Those assets were worth about $1 million. The
assets in the other trust, worth about $2mm by then, came to me. The claim the girls made in the series that I picked the assets they
got and that they were bad assets is nonsense. They got the assets from the trust they were beneficiaries of, worth $1 million.

Gladys and her daughters had strong selfish motivation to lie and make implications about the meat grinder and Don being buried
on the property 23 years ago that have absolutely no basis in fact whatsoever and they continued to do so in the series.

THE SUPPOSED “CIRCUMSTANTIAL” EVIDENCE

The series makes a huge deal out of Don having applied for a restraining order that was denied and that the term “disappearance”
used in the Power of Attorney document. Both have logical explanations the directors did not explain. Anne’s story about being told
by Don to deliver the restraining order application to police if something happened to him does not make logical sense based on her
behavior after he disappeared.

The Application for a Restraining Order. Don spent one week per month in Costa Rica. Don was a man who wanted to have sex
daily. He would go to Costa Rica during the week I was having my menstrual cycle. I accepted this as something I had to live with.
During the week he was away, I would haul off the property as much of the junk as I could. Wendell told Don I was doing this. Don
tried calling the police to get them to stop me. They told him he would need a restraining order. It is unclear if it was Don’s idea that
to get a restraining order he should say I threatened him or if someone like Wendell suggested that. Don filed for the order June 20,
1997 and it was denied.

Don disappeared two months later on August 18, 1997. Anne claims Don told her to give the document to the police if anything
happened to him. If someone tells you that, and the person disappears two months later, do you “forget” that, as Anne claims? No,
you remember and give it to the police immediately. But Anne did not tell the police or me about it until September 9, 1997 when
she claims to have suddenly remembered just in time to spring it on me in a court hearing with Judge Sexton as a way to try and
have herself appointed as Conservator of our estate. Anne is an embezzler and a liar and her claim that Don told her “if anything
happens to me give it to the police” and she simply forgot that until the hearing three weeks later is simply not credible. Later, when
Anne was forced to return the embezzled properties, at the end of the negotiations, with the matter now closed, she opened up and
told me that she knew all along that the only reason Don applied for the restraining order was to stop me from removing the junk.

“Disappearance” in the Power of Attorney. Don had told me about people going to Costa Rica and disappearing. Our Costa Rican
attorney, Roger Petersen, said the Helicopter Brothers were the local version of the mafia and Don was loaning them money. That is
why I included “disappearance” as an event that would activate the Power of Attorney. I am sure attorney Joe Fritz is correct that
this is unusual. It made perfect sense in this situation given what I was told by Don and by Peterson about Costa Rica and Don’s
dealings there at the time.

Flying to Costa Rica. The entire discussion of whether Don’s small planes could fly to Costa Rica was totally irrelevant. The planes
Flying to Costa Rica. The entire discussion of whether Don’s small planes could fly to Costa Rica was totally irrelevant. The planes
could not fly that far and no one ever suggested they could. Don had purchased a number of properties in Costa Rica and after his
disappearance one of the caretakers called and told me there were people reporting seeing him there. That is the only reason I
urged the police to investigate there. But the series seems to imply I was suggesting he flew one of his planes there.

The Van and Airport. The claim was made by Kenny Farr that the police did not examine the van. It was the police who found the
van at the airport, not me. And the mechanic Dale Lively said they came to him because they found his fingerprints in the van. So I
have no idea where Kenny got that idea.

The Meat Grinder. This is the most ludicrous of all the lies. As Gladys and the daughters did everything they could to make life
difficult for me after Don disappeared, they spread this rumor that they thought I had ground Don up and fed him to the cats. And
the media loved it. The meat grinder shown in the video was enormous. Our meat grinder was one of those little tabletop, hand
crank things, like you’d have in your kitchen at home, like the one pictured here.

Meat had to first be cut into one inch cubes like you see here to go through it. The idea that a human body and skeleton could be
put through it is idiotic. But the Netflix directors did not care. They just showed a bigger grinder.

The Office Trailer. The series makes it sound like there was something nefarious about my moving the office trailer to the sanctuary
property to secure it. They implied this was wrong because it was “Anne’s office.” The trailer was moved because Anne was spotted
taking boxes of records out of the trailer, which she was not entitled to do. Anne was an employee, it was not her trailer. It belonged
to our business. I removed it to where I could keep it secure so she could not keep stealing documents. The implication that this
was done to keep the trailer from the police is nonsense. I showed the police the Power of Attorney entitling me to move it and
invited them to look through it as much and whenever they wanted.

BRIEFLY SOME OF THE OTHER PEOPLE INTERVIEWED

Mark McCarthy operates a horrible roadside zoo in south Florida, one of the places we would like to see not exist. Dennis Hill is the
first of the exotic animal abusers to threaten to kill me years ago. Vernon Yates houses animals in small barren cages in St.
Petersburg and makes money taking them to venues like restaurant or pet store parking lots. When we find out, we contact the
venues like we did with Joe’s malls. Vernon has twice physically attacked me. All three of these animal exploiters have a motivation
to lie to make life difficult for me in any way they can. In contrast, Kenny Farr I love like a son. He was someone I could trust to keep
Don from getting lost or going into cages with cats that could kill him while I worked. But his estimate that Don was worth 20 million
made me laugh out loud. He would have no possible basis for any guess of the value. That was four times what our holdings had
ever been worth prior to Don’s disappearance on Aug. 18, 1997.

The Bottom Line

Don was not easy to live with and like most couples we had our moments. But I never threatened him and I certainly had nothing to
do with his disappearance. When he disappeared, I did everything I could to assist the police. I encouraged them to check out the
rumors from Costa Rica, and separately I hired a private investigator. Robert Moor’s Wondery Podcast “Joe Exotic” included
discussion of Don’s disappearance but was much more honest and fair in their treatment of it. They ended the discussion by
pointing out that the investigator told them that, in their dealings with me, “she was courteous and there was nothing that jumped out
at me in terms of her demeanor that to make me think that she was not giving us accurate information or hiding anything.”

https://bigcatrescue.org/joe-exotic-wondery-don-lewis/

In contrast to the Tiger King series, if you would like to hear a podcast and read a very well written article that really does delve into
the issues raised by Joe Exotic and his cub petting, see Rachel Nuwer’s “Cat People” at https://longreads.com/2020/03/16/tiger-
trafficking-in-america/

OTHER COMMENTS WE HAVE RECEIVED

The good news is that the series appears to have reached an audience that had no clue about roadside zoos and hopefully now see
the seedy underbelly of this exploitative and abusive business. It has been interesting to see that some people who have contacted
us have complained that animals should not be in cages. We totally agree and our goal is to end having them in cages and have no
need for a sanctuary like ours. Our federal bill, the Big Cat Public Safety Act, would stop the cub petting that drives the breeding and
end ownership as pets in back yards. See BigCatAct.com.

We have also been asked why we do not let them go free. For that see BigCatRescue.org/gofree.

Others have gotten the impression that the images of a crowd at the sanctuary represent our daily routine. That film is from our
once a year event called the Walkabout. See BigCatRescue.org/safari-days. The rest of the year our visitors are taken around in
groups of no more than 20 on guided tours where they learn about the stories of the cats and the issues they face in captivity and in
the wild.

Find out more about cub handling and what you can do to stop it at CubTruth.com

For case numbers, dockets and links go to https://bigcatrescue.org/netflix/

For the cats,

Carole Baskin, CEO of Big Cat Rescue

P.S. Remember to choose BigCatRescue.org/smile and Big Cat Rescue as your charity so that Amazon will donate .5 percent of
your shopping dollars to the cats AT NO COST TO YOU!!!

"The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do." - Steve Jobs

Carole.Baskin@BigCatRescue.org
12802 Easy Street Tampa, FL 33625
Cell 813.493.4564

Caring for cats ♥ Ending the trade

YouTube: Watch us on BigCatTV.com More than 1 Million Subscribers and more than 450 million views

Facebook: Join more than 2.5 Million Big Cat Rescue fans http://www.facebook.com/BigCatRescue

Check out all the cats YOU helped in 2019: https://youtu.be/tQxzhoDNmn0

For the cats,

Carole Baskin, CEO of Big Cat Rescue

P.S. Remember to choose BigCatRescue.org/smile and Big Cat Rescue as your charity so that Amazon will donate .5 percent of
your shopping dollars to the cats AT NO COST TO YOU!!!

"The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do." - Steve Jobs

Carole.Baskin@BigCatRescue.org
12802 Easy Street Tampa, FL 33625
Cell 813.493.4564

Caring for cats ♥ Ending the trade

YouTube: Watch us on BigCatTV.com More than 1 Million Subscribers and more than 450 million views

Facebook: Join more than 2.5 Million Big Cat Rescue fans http://www.facebook.com/BigCatRescue

Check out all the cats YOU helped in 2019: https://youtu.be/tQxzhoDNmn0