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April 3, 2020 56 mins

The story told on the podcast Over My Dead Body: Joe Exotic is a story so crazy it is hard to believe that it is real. In this episode of Payne in the Pod, host Robert Moor, joins Mary Payne. 

Joe Exotic is a gay polygamous zookeeper in rural Oklahoma and who bred and rescued lions, tigers, ligers, and exotic big cats. He traveled with these big cats and put on shows where he would charge visitors to pet the baby cubs. As a result, Carole Baskin, the owner of a big cat sanctuary in Florida, became one of his enemies who he is convicted of hiring two men to kill.


Robert takes Mary Payne through his experience of spending time with Joe from the animals and the zoo to extreme things he caught him on tape saying to his current trial. Was it trauma in Joe’s life and his self-image that led him to spiral out of control or was it simply his boosted ego?

Carole Baskin of Florida

Mary Payne and Robert then touch on Carole Baskin. She is a woman who ran away at a young age, lived fairly rough for a few years, was in an out of horrible relationships, was married three times, and one of her husbands randomly disappears. Carole did not think that Joe Exotic was treating his animals with respect, but the two have many similarities. Were Carole and Joe a match made in heaven to be enemies?


Throughout the crazy story surrounding Joe Exotic, the craziest part may be what ultimately brought him down and lead him to jail. Robert and Mary Payne discuss the irony of the situation and updates to the other characters in the story.


Catch up on all of the Payne in the Pod episodes, here. And don’t forget, Payne in the Pod is on Patreon - become a Patron!

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