August 17, 2025 • 61 mins
Straight out of the Tiger King, we discuss the crimes and recent convictions of Myrle Beach resident Dr. Bhagavan Antle. We examine his beginnings, zoological parks, "medical" training, his infatuation with young ladies, and his eventual fall from grace.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
For over three hundred and fifty years, the state of
South Carolina has been the setting for some of the
most horrendous crimes ever committed. Some have gained global notoriety,
some have been forgotten, and others have been swept under
the rug completely. Now, two South Carolina natives and true
(00:26):
crime enthusiasts have teamed up to examine these heinous acts
in detail, giving their perspective of the evil that has
resided in the Palmetto State. You're listening to Carolina Crimes.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
And welcome back to Carolina Crimes, episode two thirty five.
I'm one of your hosts, Matt.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Hires and Danielle Myers.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Welcome back. Thank you, Yeah a little. I didn't say
you were on administrative leave last week, and I appreciate that.
We did have some special guests come in. We recorded
at a special time, kind of gave you the week off.
I gave you some pto than you about that for once.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
I'm not in trouble.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yes, yes, and you you just got back from a
big trip. You took advantage of it. Did the city
by the Bay.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
That's right. We went and flew into Santa Claras and
then got to go see Morgan Walling. Great concert, and
then we spent the day up in San Francisco. Yeah,
a lot cooler weather.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Oh I bet.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
I was like, I not wanting to go home because
I don't want to go back and probably.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
For once, probably less rain than South Carolina. I mean,
we've we've about had to start building looking at it. Yeah,
looking into at least some plans and some blueprints, maybe
for an arc. Okay, but uh man, it's a struggle.
I mean you have to get out there and cut
grass any dry second you get.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Man, it's Kevin cut grass yesterday and said I'm gonna
have to cut it again next week because it's thick.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, it is, it is. But we hope everybody there's
been some flash flood warnings. Everybody's safe and just getting
a lot of rain. Everybody getting back to school now
across the state of South Carolina safe and happy school year.
I hope all the kids have.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
And you got the senders off.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, a couple hours ago. So we were a little
bit late recording today. And oh man, we ran down
to Columbia first thing this morning, unpacked everything. Ashley went
in and vacuumed up, and I was Mountain TV's and
put you to work doing it. Do it, lady, lady. Yeah,
we were doing it and got Madison moved in there
(02:41):
at USC So now we're back. You're back with us.
Thank you so much. We appreciate all the feedback. We
appreciate all the listens from out in Grant Grant's Pass, Oregon,
all the folks that tuned in to hear their Orgonite
sisters here. But thank you to Julie for bringing her
(03:02):
sisters in. She's been a long time listener, longtime supporter.
Julie Kane, Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
You just told me that I was asking how that
visit went, and you just said that it was really good.
You had a great time. Yeah, and I hate you
know that I wasn't there, but I'm glad they were
able to come in.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
They're super, They're great, They're great. We appreciate all the
feedback that we received from last week's episode. Had some
few Sherry Hamrick reached out. She is one of our
postal workers that listen all the time. Are are male
carriers and she's I think she's a rural mail carrier
(03:38):
if I remember correctly, but she was giving me some
insight about like the postal police and all the things
I didn't know about going into that episode that I
was really surprised about. But a tragic story there, Irene
Pressley being murdered just over a over a package, some
guys trying to do the wrong thing. He was doing
(04:00):
the right thing, trying to just do her job. Unfortunately
got on the wrong side of some miscreants that's side
to take her life. It's a tragedy. She was a
great lady, great lady. Well before we get started into
this week, just a few housekeeping news and notes that
we usually give you. If you're not already following us
(04:21):
on social media, check us out on Facebook at Carolina
Crimes Podcast. Also over on Twitter at sc Crimes Pod.
If you're looking to support the show, you can do
so for free by throwing us a five star review
and mashing that purple subscribe button and telling us a
little something you like about the show. That's if you're
listening on Apple iTunes or Apple Podcasts. Also, if you're
(04:42):
listening on Spotify, you can leave us a five star
review there as well. Also, if you want to get
some good back to school merch, head on over to
Carolina crimestore dot com. I've had a lot of people
requesting some new stuff. I've got to get on that.
This is my busy time of year though. You know,
football and just started. We're on the airwaves with that,
(05:02):
so I am going to do my best to sit
down and try to do some graphic design. That's tough, man.
I admire anybody that could do that.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
I used to be in that business and the person
who did it for us, I was like, I don't
know how you do this.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah, that's some incredible work. So this week's episode is
gonna be a little different than most. It's gonna be
kind of one of those palate cleansing episodes, and that well,
I was gonna say nobody got killed or there wasn't
a murder, but there's some suspicions surrounding one, Okay, so
(05:40):
we'll get into that too. But this is more about
a individual, kind of like our episode's episode thirty about
Jim and Tammy Faye Baker and episode one on one
about a one to oh one about the Reverend Leroy
Jenkins out of Greenwood, but this one is going to
(06:01):
come from us out of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, via Netflix.
Oh okay, I know this sounds bizarre, but that was
the first time I'd ever heard tell of this person,
and I was just like, whoa, this guy's out there.
You remember back when we were supposed to be quarantining
(06:25):
for about two weeks, that was kind of the time
we were talking about starting Carolina crimes. We all got
sent home from work for what we were told.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Was maybe a month.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Yeah, two three weeks month max. We're going to have
you work at home. And we were like, uh, okay, well,
well during that time, if you remember back then five
years ago, a phenomenon happened, the Tiger King.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
I do remember that. I never saw it.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Are you serious?
Speaker 3 (06:57):
I am serious, but I heard a lot about it.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
You need to go home and watch it, okay tonight. Yes,
I mean, if you've seen this show, you know exactly
what I'm talking about. This wacky cast of characters and
their interactions of these people in the big cat world
that have their these little zoos and facilities. And of
(07:23):
course it's centered around Joe Exotic out in Oklahoma, I
think Winniwood, Oklahoma, and you had Carol Baskt down in Florida,
and then the gentlemen we're going to talk about today.
He was another one of the characters and just these
unbelievable off the wall people that it was. It was
Jerry Springer with felines against the whole thing was kind
(07:45):
of a runaway train. And anytime any of those are made,
you know, you got to take it with a grain
of salt, because a the documentary filmmaker, there's not me
really documentaries out there anymore. Hm. It's always kind of
pushing one side of an agenda, and they're gonna want
you to see what they want you to see, and
(08:07):
then people are gonna get on there in bad mouth
people and slander them, gossip a lot of things like that.
But we're going to get into really the facts about it.
But I can't remember you. I can't believe you've never
seen that.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
I'm sorry, I work on that.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
I was a little, a little u I guess, mischievous.
I told my parents, I mean you're in laws. I
was like, well, you know, you really need to watch
this show Tiger King. They're like, oh, really, well, what's
it about. I was like in their football fans. I
was like, it's about Dabbo Sweney. You gotta I remember that,
(08:45):
and they I think they watched two episodes of Matthew
what is it. Yeah, I was like, you got to
watch it till the end of you gotta watch season one,
this is the backstory. And they don't.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
They don't bring up Dabbo to the very end.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yeah, they didn't. They didn't like that. And yeah, I
remember telling somebody. I was like, yeah, I mean, it's
about this zookeeper, country singer, magician, polygamist, first responder, TV
show host, presidential candidate, reverend. And they were like, God,
that's a lot of characters to keep up with. And
I was like, no, that's just one guy, just one dude,
(09:21):
Joe Exotic. But we're not going to talk about Joe Exotic.
We're actually going to talk about one of those many
characters that caught our attention, a guy by the name
of bogavon antl or doc Antle, and he came on
the screen. He has a very commanding presence when he
(09:44):
was on there. Unique looking guy. He had a long,
blondish gray ponytail and a little one of those I
hate when people say this, I hate the term, but
they say the flavor saver facial hair. So just a
patch of hair under your lip. And yeah, I hate
(10:09):
that term.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I've never heard of another term for it.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yes, but it was this guy, bogavon Antel Now he
ran a fifty acre zoological park in Myrtle Beach by
the name of the Institute for Greatly Endangered and Rare Species.
The well, the acronym was I think what he was after,
(10:34):
T I G E R S SO tigers.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Okay, Yeah, Honestly, looking at this thing on the Tiger
King documentary, it really looked pretty.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Cool on the surface. I'm not gonna lie. It seemed
very clean, well camped. The animals looked healthy, look like
everybody was having a good time. Safety pro of calls
were being followed. So it looked way better. No offense,
Joe exotic, but it looked way better than his zoo
and his enclosures. I mean, this was this was really beautiful.
(11:13):
This place he had there in Myrtle Beach now at
the Institute for Greatly Endangered and Rare Species, well we'll
just call it tigers from here on out. Visitors they
could have an array of experiences when they visited this place.
The lowest priced experience you could have was you could
(11:35):
get a photo with three animals. They couldn't guarantee what
animal you would get a picture with, but it would
be a lemur an African cat. That sounds kind of generic.
I mean there's a lot layers, like several cats. Cat
(11:57):
could be a yeah, this is this is from the
Democratic Republic of Congo. This African cat. You could get
your picture with a lemur an African cat, a wolf
which was being cool, or a capuchin one of the
little capuchin monkeys. Oh yeah, like the ones from the Hangover.
(12:19):
It's got like the flesh colored face and the white
and black on it. You could do that for two
hundred dollars. You could take a day or night tour.
They're at Tigers for three and eighty nine dollars per person.
Pretty healty, it is, I mean that's I guess. It's
(12:42):
like they're going rate for Disney parks.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
I guess, I guess.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
But I think you got to interact with some with
some animals as well, because.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
It depends on what these tours include.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Yes, Now, the big the big ticket item that they
offered theirs was they're private encounters. Now you could paint
with the chimps and paint pictures with them. You could
swim in the river there with the elephant bubbles. I
(13:17):
probably do that, Yeah, and you get pictures, you know,
taking along the way souvenirs. I think you get a
meal as well. Or you could spend the night with
the tigers. You have dinner with the tigers around you.
You fed the tigers, you got to sleep out by
(13:37):
their enclosures with them. That morning you had breakfast I
think with the elephant with bubbles and all kinds of this.
But those those packages started at seven thousand dollars, So
I mean, but when else are you going to say
you spent.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
The night with the time I got to swim with bubbles, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Or swim No, No, you had to pick one of
these two. That's not the whole package. I mean, you
could rather paint with the champs swim bubbles. Yeah. Okay. Well,
like almost everyone else featured in The Tiger King, doc
antl he has run a foul of the law send
(14:20):
you know, since he made his home here in the
pal Meadow State, so that's why we're kind of obliged
to include him here. On episode two thirty five, people
are like, well, why are you talking about the Tiger King?
On Carolina crimes because because this guy was he set
up shopping Myrtle Beach. He was here a friend of
ours that will remain nameless, that is from the Soakasty
(14:43):
area and was in my wedding. Was actually friends and
acquaintances here with doctor bogavon Antel.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
That does not surprise me.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
So here here's how this guy got here. We're going
to talk about. We've talked about how bizarre he is,
bizarre he was, so what made this guy so? Born
in March in nineteen sixty in Salinas, California, bogabon Antel's
birth name was Kevin antl Okay. Easy to remember. Well,
(15:19):
Kevin grew up as part of an extremely wealthy family
that made their fortune in farming. In fact, he was
only a few generations removed from the largest letters producer
in the world was one of his I think great
grandfather or grandfather, Yes, And they had gotten into partnerships
(15:44):
growing lettuce there that supplied the West Coast the majority
of the US as well, and also growing broccoli and cauliflower.
They were what was termed as an industrial farm, so
everything that they grew was essentially sold in grocery. Sword
they're not going They're not packing up and going to
the farmers marketing. You know, they're not. They're not growing
(16:06):
a bushel of broccoli. Yeah, they're by the ton or
mega tons what they're selling. Well, early in his life,
Kevin's father he passed away and he left Kevin a
very very large trust fund, so essentially he would be
(16:28):
set most of his life. Okay, is was the theory there? Well, Kevin,
I won't say he went really wayward, but this was
the late nineteen seventies or mid nineteen seventies, and he
really wasn't having it or getting anything out of school.
(16:50):
So in the ninth grade he dropped out. It's not
clear whether he used some of his trust fund money
or not, but he had a girlfriend, and he and
his girlfriend they made a decision that would forever change
(17:10):
their lives and eventually their names as well. They traveled
from California to Buckingham County, Virginia for what was supposed
to be a month long treat or a retreat at Yogaville.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Oh, I never heard of that.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Well, what Yogaville was was almost a well, it was
a commune for people. Now, I'm not dissing yoga. You know,
we've had Southern Yoga as a sponsor. I do the
Diamond Dallas Paide Yoga occasionally DDPY. I'm not dissing yoga
in any way, but this was more more involved than
(17:53):
just taking your yoga mat to the gym. This was
a lifestyle. It taught clean eating, taught meditate Haitian and
they actually had a a real life guru that we're
going to talk about a little later, uh, teaching them
the ways of clean living.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
I would think you'd have like classes to attend, yes,
and things like that. You know, it's not just a
this is what we offer kind of go do this,
go do that. It's like, no, we're gonna you have
to immerse yourself.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Yeah, and that that's exactly what it was. That's a
good way to describe it. I was having a tough
time there. I'm a little tongue tied today too. Sorry, folks,
it's been a long day already. Well. Kevin's girlfriend, her
name was Betsy, and how they met is a bizarre
story in itself, and this came directly from Betsy in
(18:45):
an interview. She was actually dating Kevin's next door neighbor,
nice Boy, Nice neighborhood, good family. But Kevin's mom, somewhere
along the way, her name was Mariy, she actually started
(19:07):
having sex with Betsy's boyfriend, the teenager next.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Door that was probably her son's age.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Yes, exactly, okay.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
Exactly, okay, so little missus Robinson thing going on.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Yes, and this was Kevin Antle's mom. Well, Betsy when
she found out about this, of course she was distraught.
She was a young girl. Oh my gosh, what am
I gonna do? And they really didn't go into many
details about the confrontation that Betsy had with Kevin's mother,
but there was a confrontation had and the way mari Antle,
(19:47):
the way she handled it was she said, Betsy, it's
it's okay. I know you're upset, but maybe maybe you
should start dating my son Kevin instead. So she broke
up this. She broke up this high school romance. This
is a grown ass woman breaking up a high school romance.
(20:11):
And then when the girl gets mad that hey, this
older woman sleeping with my boyfriend, She's like, yeah, well
here's your consolation prize. My son. He I mean, Kevin
wasn't a bad looking guy. I mean, women lauded him
all through the documentaries. I think they made another Netflix
documentary solely about Doc Antel, but they just said how
(20:35):
charming he was, and he's a nice looking dude. He
looked like I wouldn't say Begi's good looking for the seventies,
but I mean he kind of had that long hair,
the big old stash looking thing. I mean, it looked
like maybe he could have been in Doctor Hook or
Three Dog Nights something like that. He wasn't in the Beg's,
but yeah, that's what he looked like. So that was
(20:56):
kind of the backstory about he and his girlfriend that
went to Yogaville. Well back to Yogaville, their main kind
of mission statement was they were an inner faith understanding
to be used as a vehicle to world peace. So
(21:18):
inner Faith Understanding as a vehicle to world peace, okay.
Yogaville was founded by Swami Satcha Dananda Sarah Swati.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Say that's three times.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Fast, Sachadananda, Sarah Swati, Sarah Swati. He actually opened up
Woodstock in nineteen sixty. I had like a I don't
know if it's a prayer, but kind of a blessing
over the crowd and over the concert and Okay, so
this is the same dude all right. Well as Kevin
(21:59):
and Betsy, they spent more time here at Yogaville. Kevin
he gained the favor of the Swami. Like we mentioned,
Kevin Antl was charming and he had a unique, a
unique way of showing it is. He used magic tricks
to impress and entertain people. They had some old videos
(22:22):
of his magic tricks in there.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
Weren't that great figured it out?
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Yeah, not that great dog, But anyway, he used him
to maybe break the ice and get to talking to people.
He had the gift of gab and he fell in
favor of the Swami, well, Swami Sarah Schwati. He gave
him the name. He got rid of Kevin and gave
him the name Shri Ma hot Mayavi bagavan Antl, which
(22:57):
antle kept the rest of his life. He is now Bogabonka. Yes,
he liked it well. He ended up staying way longer
than a month and actually became an associate of the Swami.
Now this went on for maybe about a year year
(23:19):
or two. The timeline was kind of indefinite, but around
nineteen eighty bogabon Antel he had some strings pulled by
some of his influential family members, and he actually gained
entrance into China to study medicine. And I know we're
(23:39):
audio and I'm doing the air quotes medicine.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
This medical studying was described as rudimentary at best, maybe
something like first aid, I'm sure, maybe some anatomy systems studies,
but his training was really designed to serve rural communities
and kind of figuring out what's wrong with people. Maybe
(24:06):
maybe you can stitch up some wounds.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Yeah, nothing that requires a hospital visit or surgery.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Yeah, he's not doing open heart surgery or you know,
amputating transplants anything like that. But if you got a
good cut above your eye or something you need a stitch,
maybe you can go to him.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Well, that training in China is how Antle received the
nickname doc Okay, so he referred to himself the rest
of his life then as doctor Bug of an Antel.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Okay, that's not the same thing.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
It's yeah, ok it was it on the hangover when
he's a Yeah, you should still call a dentist, or
you should still call a doctor. If you're not a
real doctor, you're a dentist. Well, Dennis, you are real doctors.
We love you. We're not bagging on you. But it's
just a movie line. So yeah, he referred to himself
as doctor bogavon Antel, Doctor bogavon Antel. PhD Oh no,
(25:10):
he's letters. Yeah, he's added some letters later on in life.
So when his training was complete in China Antil, he
moved back to Yogaville and Buckingham County, Virginia to kind
of set roots. And that's when he started to make
his dreams of reality and he decided, I think I
(25:34):
should open a zoo. So, folks, we'll get right back
to this story right after this quick word from our sponsors,
and uh, we'll keep on with doctor bogavon Antel, who
eventually made it to Myrtle Beach. Folks will be right back, hi, friends.
(25:59):
Matt Hires here. One of my favorite parts of bringing
you Carolina Crimes each week is spotlighting the many wonderful
towns and communities within our great state. And today I'm
proud to encourage you all to check out one of
my personal favorites. Rather on a road trip or a
weekend getaway, discover Mullins. Once a vibrant depot town and
(26:21):
the former tobacco capital of South Carolina. Mullins is a
hidden treasure in the PD region. Explore our offerings by
savoring a cup of coffee at our delightful coffee shop,
enjoying lunch at any of our charming restaurants, visiting old
Brick Square, and shopping on our quaint retail stores, which
include an antique market located in a repurposed tobacco warehouse.
(26:45):
Your visit would not be complete without a stop at
the South Carolina Tobacco Museum, situated in the historic train
depot in downtown Mullens, South Carolina. Here you can explore
various exhibits such as models of tobacco plants at each
growth stage, a blacksmith shop, a log tobacco barn filled
with cured tobacco, a farmhouse kitchen showcasing vintage equipment, and
(27:08):
a photo gallery highlighting contemporary tobacco practices. The Mullins Room
honors our town's origins and its swift growth driven by
the railroad and the tobacco industry. Additionally, in late June
twenty twenty five, the Reverend Daniel Simmons Museum will open
its doors to the public within the Tobacco Museum. Reverend
(27:30):
Simmons was one of the victims of the Mother Emmanuel
nine tragedy, and he spent his childhood in Mullins and
worked in its tobacco warehouses. Thanks to a generous loan
from his daughter Rose, we will exhibit many of his
personal belongings, including his beloved Bible. The documentary of his life,
One Last Breath, will be continuously streamed in the museum.
(27:52):
Rather it's for a road trip or a weekend getaway,
Mullins is a perfect place to visit and a place
to call home. Visit Mullins, South Carolina, and welcome back
(28:24):
to Carolina Crimes Episode two thirty five as we do
a deep dive into eventual Oray County resident doctor Bogavon Antel,
And when we left off, we were talking about his
dreams and schemes of opening up a zoo, a zoological park.
(28:46):
In nineteen eighty three, doctor Bogavon Auntil he opened a
fourteen acre zoo they're in Virginia called the Buckingham Zoological Park.
They had an elephant, monkeys, lions, tigers, deer, bears, and
(29:07):
assorted birds and fowl, all over the place, so a
pretty substantial swath of land that uh Antel he made
into a zoo there in in Virginia. Now he remained
active in the Yogaville community and became even closer with
Swami Sarah Swati. They're the leader of the It was
(29:32):
called abstram is kind of the term they use instead
of like church or a gathering building. I believe he
did marry Betsy, his longtime girlfriend who had that bizarre
story how they met. Now Bogavon, he changed his name
to that from Kevin and Betsy. She changed her name
(29:55):
to Brahmy the some Swami Sarah Swati changed it to
bron for her. Besides the zoo Bogavon, he had expensive taste,
and he had expensive toys, and he had that extensive
trust fund from his father that he sure didn't mind
(30:21):
spending money. This is kind of awesome. He had a
Deloreana like from Back to the Future. He had a DeLorean.
He had a Porsche, all funded by that trust fund.
And yeah, well he'll eventually wish he had to go
(30:43):
back in time. But he he prided himself on these
expensive things. He liked to show them off. He liked
to show his animals, and you're an animal lover. I'm
an animal lover too, but you I mean, if somebody
has a little baby tiger cub or something, of course
you're gonna want to pet it, play with it, take
it home. Yeah yeah, I mean that's a magnet for
(31:08):
animal lovers.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
And well, and there's a human curiosity to be close
and have these encounters with these wild animals because it's
so mysterious, and you can't just go and pet them
like you would a dog or a cat.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Yeah don't. You don't really see those every day.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
No, So people are very drawn by the exotic animals.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
So he had this charm. He had the cool animals,
the cool cars, the cool mustache, and he use those
and kind of parley them to track women, okay, And
accusations that he would manipulate women with these I won't
(31:52):
even say women anymore, I'll say girls, okay, because this
gets real disgusting, real quick. He's just not a cocky
guy with money in a zoo. He liked young women
really around, you know, between the ages of eleven and fourteen.
(32:15):
Oh god, And he was in his early twenties at
this time, about twenty three years old, and during an interview,
one lady told a story that there's a huge body
of water there at Yogaville, like a little beer in
a pond, I'll say, close to a lake size. You know,
(32:38):
people from Yogaville would go out there and enjoy the water,
enjoy the scenery. It was beautiful. And he would go
from girl to girl trying to pick them up and
flirt with them and touch them, and you know, touch
arear ends. And you know, they all got to compare
(32:58):
in stories like did he grab you but too? And yeah,
but he had all these things. He had all these things,
and he was, like I said, very charismatic, and he
would turn on that charm for these young girls. And
this is the early eighties, so I don't I don't
(33:21):
want to say it's a different place in time. It
was still very very wrong. Yeah, what he was doing,
But I don't think it's as I don't know, I don't.
I don't think it was as publicized now, like, hey,
if this older guy is hitting on you, you run and
tell your dad, tells an adult, this is creepy, this
(33:43):
is wrong. Well, he met a young woman, a fourteen
year old. Her name was Somati and they became romantically involved,
and she knew he had a wife, but he said, no,
it's okay. She knows, she's okay with me having other lovers.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Sure, I'm sure she was.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Yes. And on her fifteenth birthday, and I'm going to
bring up a big question about this. On her fifteenth birthday,
this Smati, he brought her into private and they had
this little ceremony and where he said, okay, now you're
also my wife, and they had sex for the first
(34:32):
time on her fifteenth birthday. Okay. The question I was
going to raise is he seemed awful careful to that
magic age of kind of fifteen. I don't know if
that was maybe the age of consent in Virginia, if
(34:53):
that was something he had in mind, or if it
was just coincidence. At this time, I'm not real sure
on that, And I felt really funny googling agent consent
in Virginia in nineteen eighty three.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Yeah, because well the eight I know in South Carolina
at sixteen, unless that's changed, but that it couldn't have
all that might not have always been the case, and
so it could have been different. I know in South
Carolina the CSC like the first is between the ages
of eleven and fourteen. Yes, so she said, so, I
don't know if that has something to do with it.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
So she did say this Sumati that even prior to
them doing the deed, he would take polaroids of her,
like nude photo shoots, okay, which is gross and wrong. Uh.
He even took Sumadi on a honeymoon, but his wife
(35:51):
Bromy came along too, and Bromy, you probably guessed that
she didn't have any idea this is what was going on.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
So she probably thought this was just a trip.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Yeah, and another young girl from Yogaville. They're bringing her with.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Maybe he's mentoring, yeah, that kind of thing. And then
he's telling this girl, this is our honeymoon. Yeah, and
she's aware. So there's two different versions that these ladies
are getting.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
And they went in the Caribbean, and Bramy she was excited.
She went snorkeling most of the days while they kind
of hung back in the in the hotel room and
of course consummated their new marriage in the air. Quotes
come out now. According to Bramy, it wasn't long after
(36:43):
that that she herself became pregnant with his child, okay,
and Bogavin did not like this. This is all according
to Bramy from the interview. She said that he blamed her,
that he thought it was not a good thing. You know,
(37:04):
I don't think he was ready to be a dad
or ready to have a child with Bramy, who herself
looked very young for her age. She made accusations that
he would abuse her, choke her, and this is awful
that on the day she went into labor, he was
(37:27):
actually out with a girlfriend or doing whoever, doing whoever,
So she had to send somebody to come to go
notify him, Hey, Brammy's in labor. She's at the hospital.
So Bagabond called her and was like, do I need
(37:47):
to be up there for anything? And she was like,
uh yeah, yeah, dad, you need me here. You need
to get dressed to the hospital, listen it and cool.
And so he came and he laid beside and slept
while she had their child. Well about this time, Sumadi
(38:08):
also became pregnant. Now, if you're in this Yogaville, one
of the tenants that they believed was you're supposed to
be celibate. So she eventually had to tell Swami Sarah
Swati that he she had have a sit down say
that she was with child. There were ramifications for that,
(38:32):
having to leave Yogaville, and there was a whole mess
there with that as well. But it wasn't long before
he picked up right where he left off, and he
at least he's consistent, consistently gross. And he met another
(38:52):
fourteen year old named Rada Astoff. She started off as
she started off being he and Bramy's babysitter, okay, but
he eventually became romantically involved as well with her, and
she actually ran away from home to be with Bogavon.
(39:17):
I mean, her mother thought she was kidnapped, like to
that point, calling the police, putting up posters. She called
Bogamon and was like, I told you to stay away
from my daughter. I think she's there. Let me speak
to her. And he would not. He said, I don't
know what you're talking about. He played dumb, and he
actually got kind of worried about this. This made him
(39:39):
sweat a little bit, so he changed her name and
he did keep her in a hotel room in Washington,
d C. For a little while, which is right outside
of Buckingham County, and changed her name to Chantal Rivera. Okay,
so he got his entire zoo staff to be on
on board with is Lie that this is Chantale, even
(40:02):
though they knew who she was and they knew this
was Rada. So Rada's parents actually sent the police to
the Buckingham Zoological Park and everybody kept up the ruse.
They were like, no, that's Chantale, what are you talking about.
(40:23):
They cut her hair and died, died a little bit,
and they were like, that's not heard at all. So
eventually Bogavon he got up the nerve to forge Rada's
father's signature onto a consent form for the two of
them to be married.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
So a lot of events happened here. At the late
late eighties early nineties in Bogavon's life, he decided he
was going to make a movie. He tried to get
investors in on board with this movie. He hired a
director from Disney who may or may not have had
an alcohol problem. It seemed like the movie was absolutely terrible.
(41:10):
It was, I can imagine, called the Great Tiger Cub Adventure.
He lied to people and said that Kevin Bacon was
considering a part in this movie and Hey didn't know
Kevin Bacon.
Speaker 3 (41:22):
So was this like a drama or comedy?
Speaker 2 (41:29):
From what I gathered, it was about some kids that
got off the school bus one day and found a
cat carrier with some tiger cubs in it. Okay, so
that was kind of the plot, okay, and it was
It was absolutely horrible, straight to VHS. I don't think
it ever made it, but what it was, he was
(41:49):
trying out all these child actors and if their parents
were going to invest in the movie, then he brought
them on to be in the movie as well. So
it really it was a money ground. One of his
right hand men, and we talked about a death that occurred,
(42:11):
a guy named Mark Topping that he was a talented
animal trainer and really helped Bogavon a lot with the tigers,
the Big Cats, kind of his number two guy. He
had a mysterious fall while hiking, hit his head on
(42:32):
the rocks and died immediately. And there's always been this
swirl of suspicion around if Bogavon was involved, but never proven,
nothing really drawing connections. That was just an interesting footnote.
A this happened as well well. Around this time. He
(42:53):
also got a divorce from Brahmy. Good for her, yes,
but she's still she still broken up about it. She
said that was the love of her life. Yeah, he
really was. In nineteen eighty nine, he finally gets gets
some come upance from the law from the United States
(43:13):
Department of Agriculture. He was fined when he closed down
the Buckingham Zoological Park for abandoning several deer and peacocks
on the property. So they were there pinned up without
food and he just left them. So he did get
(43:34):
that he was guilty of that. And also it looks
like he was charged with thirty five other USDA wildlife
violations while that zoological park was open.
Speaker 3 (43:47):
So maybe find something else you're not good at this.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Well he kind of did for a little while. He
went to Hollywood and became an animal trainer. Now this
is not a hit piece. The child stuff, Yeah, hashtag
f that guy for that, But this isn't a hit piece. Really,
this is just abiden by the facts of what went
(44:14):
on in this guy's life. But he was a talented
animal trainer and still is. Went to Hollywood, he trained
the animals for ace Ventura one and two. Oh Mighty,
Joe Young the Doctor Doolittle movies. You remember that one
(44:36):
the tiger had a brain tumor or something. Remember that.
I mean, he trained that tiger. And this is one
for my youth that I'll it's seared in my memory forever.
The MTV Music Awards where Britney Spears came out with
the tiger and the albino python around her dancing. Yeah
(44:57):
that was him. Yeah, it is so yeah, impressive work.
But after he abandoned Zoological Park in Virginia and after
the Hollywood Hollywood, I guess successes, he went to Tennessee
(45:19):
and then on to Myrtle Beach. And we'll finish this
story tied bow on it and tell you exactly what
ended up happened to this doctor bogavon Antel. Right after
this short break and this word from our sponsors, folks
will be right back and welcome back to Carolina Crimes,
(45:57):
episode two thirty five and this deep dive into Doc
bogabon Antel, tiger King, fame and famous in his own right.
To be honest, we mentioned that he left his zoo,
closed it down in Virginia, went to Tennessee for a
(46:18):
short bit, and then on to Myrtle Beach and began
his empire there. He procured fifty acres that became tiger
tigers I guess is the acronym for it. He also
opened up preservation station at Barefoot Landing where tourists could
(46:42):
stop by, a very popular tourist destination there in Myrtle
Beach where you can stop in you can see wolves
in captivity. It was a little area you could get
your picture taken with tiger cubs, of course, and people
really looked at this as exploit of course at tigers.
(47:05):
It's worth noting Napoleon dynamite fans he had a real
life liger.
Speaker 3 (47:12):
So that's the thing.
Speaker 2 (47:14):
That's a no and it says pretty much Napoleon's favorite animal.
But yeah, that a liger across the chine is huge. Ye.
Then we'll put a picture on Facebook of the liger.
Speaker 3 (47:29):
So I need to see that.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
That's incredible. I can't believe a liger was in South Carolina,
but I'm not paying seven thousand dollars to see it.
In twenty fifteen, Rolling Stone wrote an article defending his
practices he wanted to They depicted him as only wanting
to help animals to help them protect them in the wild,
(47:52):
to protect endangered species. He also around this time started
taking advantage of YouTube to kind of promote his product
and his animals. He dressed the chimps up and gave
them fake machine guns, and they were riding hobby horses
like Planet of the Apes. It was really cool. And
(48:12):
the chimps they were driving power wheels, you know, like
you get for a little I guess four year old
four or five year olds, like the big Barbie jeeps,
and they'd drive around and crash into each other and
have a good time. But also another dark cloud came
(48:33):
around doc Antle and it's a lot of accusations and
it had to do with the women. Again. The women
always seemed to be his big thing. I mean, he
collected animals and he collected women. He described himself as polyamorous.
(48:57):
Now Rada, she eventually escaped and yeah, she got out
of there. But the accusations would say that he would
find these women in public at renaissance fairs or scouting
for them, and he would seek these younger women or
(49:19):
younger looking women, and he had a criteria that he
would have for them to come to work for him
as interns to help with the animals. He would always say,
this is a physical and mentally demanding job, and I
have to put you through the paces and the rigors.
But their pre requisites where they were single, they couldn't
(49:43):
have kids, and they couldn't meet once they came on
the property there and some he would try to keep them.
He would monitor their weight and keep them within twenty
pounds of their prime athletic weight, whatever that means. And
one lady said she was even kept on an eight
hundred calorie a day diet. Lord he would encourage, if
(50:10):
not require them to alter themselves with rather it be
hair color or breast augmentation, and really try to I guess,
control these ladies their physical appearance, their mental state. And
he described himself as polyamorous, but some of his partners
(50:32):
were like, he was poly, we could not be.
Speaker 3 (50:35):
I don't think it's Yeah, it's like do as I say,
not as I do.
Speaker 2 (50:39):
Yeah, it's a it's a one way open marriage, I guess.
But he would be involved with these women. Some would
accuse him of grooming them at a young age. I
do too, and he would make them dressing. He loved
costumes like leather costumes and boosts and all this, that
(51:02):
he would have them dress in these scantily clad kind
of tight clothes that come out with these tigers and
look sexy and yeah, something like that. But Bagavon he
was always on law enforcement's radar, surprisingly not for the
(51:24):
women aspect, but for in regards to animal treatment and
animal purposes or i'm sorry, animal purchases. There are several
laws in place that protect animals, especially animals from the
wild that are brought into captivity. There's the Endangered Species
(51:46):
Act of nineteen seventy three, which prohibits taking endangered species,
Like if you find them in the wild, you can't
go take a bunch of these chimp babies away from
their mom. Yeah, that's that text them. And there's also
a law in the books called the Lacy Act that
I found. It was passed in nineteen hundred. Really, yes,
(52:09):
and what it says is illegal to import, export, sell, receive,
or purchase plants or animals obtained illegally. So that covers
a lot of bases, and that might have to do
a lot with customs. When you come in from another guy,
they're like, you got any plants animals we need to
know about. But yeah, that was on the books, and
(52:31):
those were things that Antle would really tiptoe around. Here.
In the nineteen nineties, Antl founded what he called the
Rare Species Fund. It was where he would take donations
to help protect animals in the wild and protect their
(52:52):
natural habitats, and several former employees have come forward and
said that was actually funneling money back to Doc ant.
In December of twenty nineteen, out at Tigers sled King,
(53:13):
calling slid DNR and Ory County Police they were investigating.
They raided the compound and they were investigating three lions
on the premises at the Tigers Myrtle Beach safari Antil.
He explained this away in the press, saying they were
(53:34):
just doing DNA tests trying to see where they may
have come from. And no arrests occurred from that. Looking
back with Ory County Clerk of Court, as we do
in a lot of these cases, he only really had
traffic infractions in Or County. But in twenty twenty, in
(53:57):
the year that Tiger King did come out, he fell
under investigation from the US Department of Agriculture and the
US Department of Justice for the illegal sale of tigers.
Also in October of twenty twenty, in Virginia, antl was
finally indicted on charges of wildlife trafficking, felonies, animal cruelty,
(54:23):
and violations of the Endangered Species Act. What they were
accusing him of was carrying lions in a cruel and
brutal or inhumane manner. In June of twenty twenty three,
he was convicted of the two felony counts of wildlife
trafficking and two felony counts of conspiring to traffic wildlife.
(54:46):
His sentence was two years of prison, suspended for a
ten thousand dollars fine, and he was banned for five
years from trading, possess, possessing, or interacting with wildlife in Virginia.
He did appeal this sentence, and two of the convictions
for trafficking were overturned based on this. Check this out.
(55:09):
The state law prohibits the sale of these animals, not
the purchase he purchased them, exactly right, so he was
really only convicted of the two felony counts of conspiring
to traffic wildlife. Well, on June third, twenty twenty two,
(55:31):
things didn't get any better. He was arrested by the FBI.
This time that old rare species fund he found. He
was arrested for money laundering for animal trafficking for one chimpanzee, leopards,
and cheetahs, and in November of twenty twenty three he
(55:52):
pled guilty. His sentencing this is really odd, was continually
slee postponed, and finally last month inly on July eighth
of twenty twenty five, doctor bogovon antl o keV He
was sentenced to twelve months and one day in federal prison,
(56:15):
a fifty five thousand dollars fine, in three years of
supervised release, and he was giving sixty days to surrender himself.
So he is still free.
Speaker 3 (56:26):
He's gonna wait until the last day right now.
Speaker 2 (56:29):
Yeah, So his park does still remain open. If that's
something you'd like to participate in. I will say this
for the guy. His facility is super clean. It looks like,
I mean, the fees to interact with these animals I
(56:49):
feel are exorbitant. They're well, they're way beyond maybe I'm
just poor.
Speaker 3 (56:54):
No, that's that's a lot. That's totally it's money that's
going to help keep this facility in good working order.
Speaker 2 (57:03):
Yes, And while we're on break, you did google the
age of consent in Virginia and it was fifteen at
that time, so we wasn't breaking any laws that way.
I don't know if polygamy was allowed in Virginia at
that time. So I'm just thinking back, you know, like
the Bill Cosby cases. They went way back and convicted
(57:28):
him on some of those. But yeah, I was wondering
if he think it happened retroactively in some of these
sex cases. But it sounds like it was gross but
not illegal. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (57:42):
I mean, it seems like fifteen was where he was
centered around because of the age of consent, and then
you got that and then the one where he appealed
and he bought him and not purchased. So it sounds
like he's just the man who knows how to work loopholes.
Speaker 2 (57:56):
I think he's incredibly intelligent. Real dose are the worst.
Speaker 3 (58:01):
Kind of criminals. We were very smart.
Speaker 2 (58:04):
But super manipulative, you know, super it the whole kids thing.
I don't know that you know that gets to me.
Speaker 3 (58:15):
Yeah, I think, well, people like that. It's I think
it's he likes being in a position of power, is what.
It sounds like. He likes people looking up to him.
Speaker 2 (58:24):
That's exactly what nearly everybody in their interviews said that
he creates this. He wants to create this universe where
he is the ultimate power. He is God. That's his personality.
I've never met him, so I can't say that, but
this is what.
Speaker 3 (58:41):
These are people who've actually been interacted with him, And
I mean these are people who I don't know. You
have to think, yeah.
Speaker 2 (58:53):
I understand, but yeah, people that they have a firsthand,
first hand and interactions with him.
Speaker 3 (59:01):
Well, and then you have these people who are more
easily to manipulate, or people who are younger who don't
know the ways of the world and things like that,
as opposed to someone whose own age, who's like I
can see right through.
Speaker 2 (59:10):
Yeah, you got a guy with a damn tiger. I mean, hey,
at one point, he's the guy with the Dolorean.
Speaker 3 (59:18):
I mean he has things to offer that most people
don't like. Look what I have, you know, just like, okay,
good selling point.
Speaker 2 (59:24):
I guess now several people, and like we talked to
the beginning about some of these documentaries are so skewed
and they've become gossip sessions and producers only want you
to see one side of the story. But they were
also several accusations that he would traffic marijuana cocaine at
(59:47):
some points, and I mean, he's never been arrested for it, so.
Speaker 3 (59:53):
I don't was he I know the documentary was about him.
Was he in it? Like, was he interviewed?
Speaker 2 (59:58):
Not for the follow up one, now he was, he
was in Tiger.
Speaker 3 (01:00:02):
King, but the follow up one that you watched. Yeah,
So I'm wondering if he's an episode. I wonder if
he's gonna like maybe bring us to have his own
come out, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:00:12):
I don't. I don't know. It's he's sixty five years
old right now, he's still got to do a year
and a day in prison, and he might just go
back to his park and hang out, keep doing what
he's doing. And he seems to enjoy the animals. And
it's a shame that someonere mistreated and that he got
them by nefarious means. But uh, yeah, that's It's an
(01:00:39):
interesting cat on Carolina Crime interesting cats, I guess. So, folks,
we want to say thank you for listening to this
week's episode. We hope you found it interesting. I did.
I've been wanting to talk about this guy for a
long time and he finally got sentenced. We appreciate all
the feedback you're giving. We'll get to these messages real soon.
Try to get back do as fast as we can.
(01:01:03):
If you're not already following us on social media, check
us out on Facebook at Carolina Crimes Podcast. Also over
on Twitter at sc crimes pod. Also, if you'd like
to support the show and you're listening on Apple Podcast
or Apple iTunes, please throw us a five star review
and hit that purple subscribe button and let us know
a little something you like about the show. Also, if
(01:01:25):
you're looking for some sweet Carolina Crimes gear and some paraphernalia,
head on over to Carolina Crimestore dot com. So, until
next time, thank you for listening to this week's edition
of Carolina Crimes.
For over three hundred and fifty years, the state of
South Carolina has been the setting for some of the
most horrendous crimes ever committed. Some have gained global notoriety,
some have been forgotten, and others have been swept under
the rug completely. Now, two South Carolina natives and true
(00:26):
crime enthusiasts have teamed up to examine these heinous acts
in detail, giving their perspective of the evil that has
resided in the Palmetto State. You're listening to Carolina Crimes.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
And welcome back to Carolina Crimes, episode two thirty five.
I'm one of your hosts, Matt.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Hires and Danielle Myers.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Welcome back. Thank you, Yeah a little. I didn't say
you were on administrative leave last week, and I appreciate that.
We did have some special guests come in. We recorded
at a special time, kind of gave you the week off.
I gave you some pto than you about that for once.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
I'm not in trouble.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yes, yes, and you you just got back from a
big trip. You took advantage of it. Did the city
by the Bay.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
That's right. We went and flew into Santa Claras and
then got to go see Morgan Walling. Great concert, and
then we spent the day up in San Francisco. Yeah,
a lot cooler weather.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Oh I bet.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
I was like, I not wanting to go home because
I don't want to go back and probably.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
For once, probably less rain than South Carolina. I mean,
we've we've about had to start building looking at it. Yeah,
looking into at least some plans and some blueprints, maybe
for an arc. Okay, but uh man, it's a struggle.
I mean you have to get out there and cut
grass any dry second you get.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Man, it's Kevin cut grass yesterday and said I'm gonna
have to cut it again next week because it's thick.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, it is, it is. But we hope everybody there's
been some flash flood warnings. Everybody's safe and just getting
a lot of rain. Everybody getting back to school now
across the state of South Carolina safe and happy school year.
I hope all the kids have.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
And you got the senders off.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, a couple hours ago. So we were a little
bit late recording today. And oh man, we ran down
to Columbia first thing this morning, unpacked everything. Ashley went
in and vacuumed up, and I was Mountain TV's and
put you to work doing it. Do it, lady, lady. Yeah,
we were doing it and got Madison moved in there
(02:41):
at USC So now we're back. You're back with us.
Thank you so much. We appreciate all the feedback. We
appreciate all the listens from out in Grant Grant's Pass, Oregon,
all the folks that tuned in to hear their Orgonite
sisters here. But thank you to Julie for bringing her
(03:02):
sisters in. She's been a long time listener, longtime supporter.
Julie Kane, Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
You just told me that I was asking how that
visit went, and you just said that it was really good.
You had a great time. Yeah, and I hate you
know that I wasn't there, but I'm glad they were
able to come in.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
They're super, They're great, They're great. We appreciate all the
feedback that we received from last week's episode. Had some
few Sherry Hamrick reached out. She is one of our
postal workers that listen all the time. Are are male
carriers and she's I think she's a rural mail carrier
(03:38):
if I remember correctly, but she was giving me some
insight about like the postal police and all the things
I didn't know about going into that episode that I
was really surprised about. But a tragic story there, Irene
Pressley being murdered just over a over a package, some
guys trying to do the wrong thing. He was doing
(04:00):
the right thing, trying to just do her job. Unfortunately
got on the wrong side of some miscreants that's side
to take her life. It's a tragedy. She was a
great lady, great lady. Well before we get started into
this week, just a few housekeeping news and notes that
we usually give you. If you're not already following us
(04:21):
on social media, check us out on Facebook at Carolina
Crimes Podcast. Also over on Twitter at sc Crimes Pod.
If you're looking to support the show, you can do
so for free by throwing us a five star review
and mashing that purple subscribe button and telling us a
little something you like about the show. That's if you're
listening on Apple iTunes or Apple Podcasts. Also, if you're
(04:42):
listening on Spotify, you can leave us a five star
review there as well. Also, if you want to get
some good back to school merch, head on over to
Carolina crimestore dot com. I've had a lot of people
requesting some new stuff. I've got to get on that.
This is my busy time of year though. You know,
football and just started. We're on the airwaves with that,
(05:02):
so I am going to do my best to sit
down and try to do some graphic design. That's tough, man.
I admire anybody that could do that.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
I used to be in that business and the person
who did it for us, I was like, I don't
know how you do this.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah, that's some incredible work. So this week's episode is
gonna be a little different than most. It's gonna be
kind of one of those palate cleansing episodes, and that well,
I was gonna say nobody got killed or there wasn't
a murder, but there's some suspicions surrounding one, Okay, so
(05:40):
we'll get into that too. But this is more about
a individual, kind of like our episode's episode thirty about
Jim and Tammy Faye Baker and episode one on one
about a one to oh one about the Reverend Leroy
Jenkins out of Greenwood, but this one is going to
(06:01):
come from us out of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, via Netflix.
Oh okay, I know this sounds bizarre, but that was
the first time I'd ever heard tell of this person,
and I was just like, whoa, this guy's out there.
You remember back when we were supposed to be quarantining
(06:25):
for about two weeks, that was kind of the time
we were talking about starting Carolina crimes. We all got
sent home from work for what we were told.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Was maybe a month.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Yeah, two three weeks month max. We're going to have
you work at home. And we were like, uh, okay, well,
well during that time, if you remember back then five
years ago, a phenomenon happened, the Tiger King.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
I do remember that. I never saw it.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Are you serious?
Speaker 3 (06:57):
I am serious, but I heard a lot about it.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
You need to go home and watch it, okay tonight. Yes,
I mean, if you've seen this show, you know exactly
what I'm talking about. This wacky cast of characters and
their interactions of these people in the big cat world
that have their these little zoos and facilities. And of
(07:23):
course it's centered around Joe Exotic out in Oklahoma, I
think Winniwood, Oklahoma, and you had Carol Baskt down in Florida,
and then the gentlemen we're going to talk about today.
He was another one of the characters and just these
unbelievable off the wall people that it was. It was
Jerry Springer with felines against the whole thing was kind
(07:45):
of a runaway train. And anytime any of those are made,
you know, you got to take it with a grain
of salt, because a the documentary filmmaker, there's not me
really documentaries out there anymore. Hm. It's always kind of
pushing one side of an agenda, and they're gonna want
you to see what they want you to see, and
(08:07):
then people are gonna get on there in bad mouth
people and slander them, gossip a lot of things like that.
But we're going to get into really the facts about it.
But I can't remember you. I can't believe you've never
seen that.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
I'm sorry, I work on that.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
I was a little, a little u I guess, mischievous.
I told my parents, I mean you're in laws. I
was like, well, you know, you really need to watch
this show Tiger King. They're like, oh, really, well, what's
it about. I was like in their football fans. I
was like, it's about Dabbo Sweney. You gotta I remember that,
(08:45):
and they I think they watched two episodes of Matthew
what is it. Yeah, I was like, you got to
watch it till the end of you gotta watch season one,
this is the backstory. And they don't.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
They don't bring up Dabbo to the very end.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yeah, they didn't. They didn't like that. And yeah, I
remember telling somebody. I was like, yeah, I mean, it's
about this zookeeper, country singer, magician, polygamist, first responder, TV
show host, presidential candidate, reverend. And they were like, God,
that's a lot of characters to keep up with. And
I was like, no, that's just one guy, just one dude,
(09:21):
Joe Exotic. But we're not going to talk about Joe Exotic.
We're actually going to talk about one of those many
characters that caught our attention, a guy by the name
of bogavon antl or doc Antle, and he came on
the screen. He has a very commanding presence when he
(09:44):
was on there. Unique looking guy. He had a long,
blondish gray ponytail and a little one of those I
hate when people say this, I hate the term, but
they say the flavor saver facial hair. So just a
patch of hair under your lip. And yeah, I hate
(10:09):
that term.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I've never heard of another term for it.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yes, but it was this guy, bogavon Antel Now he
ran a fifty acre zoological park in Myrtle Beach by
the name of the Institute for Greatly Endangered and Rare Species.
The well, the acronym was I think what he was after,
(10:34):
T I G E R S SO tigers.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Okay, Yeah, Honestly, looking at this thing on the Tiger
King documentary, it really looked pretty.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Cool on the surface. I'm not gonna lie. It seemed
very clean, well camped. The animals looked healthy, look like
everybody was having a good time. Safety pro of calls
were being followed. So it looked way better. No offense,
Joe exotic, but it looked way better than his zoo
and his enclosures. I mean, this was this was really beautiful.
(11:13):
This place he had there in Myrtle Beach now at
the Institute for Greatly Endangered and Rare Species, well we'll
just call it tigers from here on out. Visitors they
could have an array of experiences when they visited this place.
The lowest priced experience you could have was you could
(11:35):
get a photo with three animals. They couldn't guarantee what
animal you would get a picture with, but it would
be a lemur an African cat. That sounds kind of generic.
I mean there's a lot layers, like several cats. Cat
(11:57):
could be a yeah, this is this is from the
Democratic Republic of Congo. This African cat. You could get
your picture with a lemur an African cat, a wolf
which was being cool, or a capuchin one of the
little capuchin monkeys. Oh yeah, like the ones from the Hangover.
(12:19):
It's got like the flesh colored face and the white
and black on it. You could do that for two
hundred dollars. You could take a day or night tour.
They're at Tigers for three and eighty nine dollars per person.
Pretty healty, it is, I mean that's I guess. It's
(12:42):
like they're going rate for Disney parks.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
I guess, I guess.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
But I think you got to interact with some with
some animals as well, because.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
It depends on what these tours include.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Yes, Now, the big the big ticket item that they
offered theirs was they're private encounters. Now you could paint
with the chimps and paint pictures with them. You could
swim in the river there with the elephant bubbles. I
(13:17):
probably do that, Yeah, and you get pictures, you know,
taking along the way souvenirs. I think you get a
meal as well. Or you could spend the night with
the tigers. You have dinner with the tigers around you.
You fed the tigers, you got to sleep out by
(13:37):
their enclosures with them. That morning you had breakfast I
think with the elephant with bubbles and all kinds of this.
But those those packages started at seven thousand dollars, So
I mean, but when else are you going to say
you spent.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
The night with the time I got to swim with bubbles, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Or swim No, No, you had to pick one of
these two. That's not the whole package. I mean, you
could rather paint with the champs swim bubbles. Yeah. Okay. Well,
like almost everyone else featured in The Tiger King, doc
antl he has run a foul of the law send
(14:20):
you know, since he made his home here in the
pal Meadow State, so that's why we're kind of obliged
to include him here. On episode two thirty five, people
are like, well, why are you talking about the Tiger King?
On Carolina crimes because because this guy was he set
up shopping Myrtle Beach. He was here a friend of
ours that will remain nameless, that is from the Soakasty
(14:43):
area and was in my wedding. Was actually friends and
acquaintances here with doctor bogavon Antel.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
That does not surprise me.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
So here here's how this guy got here. We're going
to talk about. We've talked about how bizarre he is,
bizarre he was, so what made this guy so? Born
in March in nineteen sixty in Salinas, California, bogabon Antel's
birth name was Kevin antl Okay. Easy to remember. Well,
(15:19):
Kevin grew up as part of an extremely wealthy family
that made their fortune in farming. In fact, he was
only a few generations removed from the largest letters producer
in the world was one of his I think great
grandfather or grandfather, Yes, And they had gotten into partnerships
(15:44):
growing lettuce there that supplied the West Coast the majority
of the US as well, and also growing broccoli and cauliflower.
They were what was termed as an industrial farm, so
everything that they grew was essentially sold in grocery. Sword
they're not going They're not packing up and going to
the farmers marketing. You know, they're not. They're not growing
(16:06):
a bushel of broccoli. Yeah, they're by the ton or
mega tons what they're selling. Well, early in his life,
Kevin's father he passed away and he left Kevin a
very very large trust fund, so essentially he would be
(16:28):
set most of his life. Okay, is was the theory there? Well, Kevin,
I won't say he went really wayward, but this was
the late nineteen seventies or mid nineteen seventies, and he
really wasn't having it or getting anything out of school.
(16:50):
So in the ninth grade he dropped out. It's not
clear whether he used some of his trust fund money
or not, but he had a girlfriend, and he and
his girlfriend they made a decision that would forever change
(17:10):
their lives and eventually their names as well. They traveled
from California to Buckingham County, Virginia for what was supposed
to be a month long treat or a retreat at Yogaville.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Oh, I never heard of that.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Well, what Yogaville was was almost a well, it was
a commune for people. Now, I'm not dissing yoga. You know,
we've had Southern Yoga as a sponsor. I do the
Diamond Dallas Paide Yoga occasionally DDPY. I'm not dissing yoga
in any way, but this was more more involved than
(17:53):
just taking your yoga mat to the gym. This was
a lifestyle. It taught clean eating, taught meditate Haitian and
they actually had a a real life guru that we're
going to talk about a little later, uh, teaching them
the ways of clean living.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
I would think you'd have like classes to attend, yes,
and things like that. You know, it's not just a
this is what we offer kind of go do this,
go do that. It's like, no, we're gonna you have
to immerse yourself.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Yeah, and that that's exactly what it was. That's a
good way to describe it. I was having a tough
time there. I'm a little tongue tied today too. Sorry, folks,
it's been a long day already. Well. Kevin's girlfriend, her
name was Betsy, and how they met is a bizarre
story in itself, and this came directly from Betsy in
(18:45):
an interview. She was actually dating Kevin's next door neighbor,
nice Boy, Nice neighborhood, good family. But Kevin's mom, somewhere
along the way, her name was Mariy, she actually started
(19:07):
having sex with Betsy's boyfriend, the teenager next.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Door that was probably her son's age.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Yes, exactly, okay.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
Exactly, okay, so little missus Robinson thing going on.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Yes, and this was Kevin Antle's mom. Well, Betsy when
she found out about this, of course she was distraught.
She was a young girl. Oh my gosh, what am
I gonna do? And they really didn't go into many
details about the confrontation that Betsy had with Kevin's mother,
but there was a confrontation had and the way mari Antle,
(19:47):
the way she handled it was she said, Betsy, it's
it's okay. I know you're upset, but maybe maybe you
should start dating my son Kevin instead. So she broke
up this. She broke up this high school romance. This
is a grown ass woman breaking up a high school romance.
(20:11):
And then when the girl gets mad that hey, this
older woman sleeping with my boyfriend, She's like, yeah, well
here's your consolation prize. My son. He I mean, Kevin
wasn't a bad looking guy. I mean, women lauded him
all through the documentaries. I think they made another Netflix
documentary solely about Doc Antel, but they just said how
(20:35):
charming he was, and he's a nice looking dude. He
looked like I wouldn't say Begi's good looking for the seventies,
but I mean he kind of had that long hair,
the big old stash looking thing. I mean, it looked
like maybe he could have been in Doctor Hook or
Three Dog Nights something like that. He wasn't in the Beg's,
but yeah, that's what he looked like. So that was
(20:56):
kind of the backstory about he and his girlfriend that
went to Yogaville. Well back to Yogaville, their main kind
of mission statement was they were an inner faith understanding
to be used as a vehicle to world peace. So
(21:18):
inner Faith Understanding as a vehicle to world peace, okay.
Yogaville was founded by Swami Satcha Dananda Sarah Swati.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Say that's three times.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Fast, Sachadananda, Sarah Swati, Sarah Swati. He actually opened up
Woodstock in nineteen sixty. I had like a I don't
know if it's a prayer, but kind of a blessing
over the crowd and over the concert and Okay, so
this is the same dude all right. Well as Kevin
(21:59):
and Betsy, they spent more time here at Yogaville. Kevin
he gained the favor of the Swami. Like we mentioned,
Kevin Antl was charming and he had a unique, a
unique way of showing it is. He used magic tricks
to impress and entertain people. They had some old videos
(22:22):
of his magic tricks in there.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
Weren't that great figured it out?
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Yeah, not that great dog, But anyway, he used him
to maybe break the ice and get to talking to people.
He had the gift of gab and he fell in
favor of the Swami, well, Swami Sarah Schwati. He gave
him the name. He got rid of Kevin and gave
him the name Shri Ma hot Mayavi bagavan Antl, which
(22:57):
antle kept the rest of his life. He is now Bogabonka. Yes,
he liked it well. He ended up staying way longer
than a month and actually became an associate of the Swami.
Now this went on for maybe about a year year
(23:19):
or two. The timeline was kind of indefinite, but around
nineteen eighty bogabon Antel he had some strings pulled by
some of his influential family members, and he actually gained
entrance into China to study medicine. And I know we're
(23:39):
audio and I'm doing the air quotes medicine.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
This medical studying was described as rudimentary at best, maybe
something like first aid, I'm sure, maybe some anatomy systems studies,
but his training was really designed to serve rural communities
and kind of figuring out what's wrong with people. Maybe
(24:06):
maybe you can stitch up some wounds.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Yeah, nothing that requires a hospital visit or surgery.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Yeah, he's not doing open heart surgery or you know,
amputating transplants anything like that. But if you got a
good cut above your eye or something you need a stitch,
maybe you can go to him.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Well, that training in China is how Antle received the
nickname doc Okay, so he referred to himself the rest
of his life then as doctor Bug of an Antel.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Okay, that's not the same thing.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
It's yeah, ok it was it on the hangover when
he's a Yeah, you should still call a dentist, or
you should still call a doctor. If you're not a
real doctor, you're a dentist. Well, Dennis, you are real doctors.
We love you. We're not bagging on you. But it's
just a movie line. So yeah, he referred to himself
as doctor bogavon Antel, Doctor bogavon Antel. PhD Oh no,
(25:10):
he's letters. Yeah, he's added some letters later on in life.
So when his training was complete in China Antil, he
moved back to Yogaville and Buckingham County, Virginia to kind
of set roots. And that's when he started to make
his dreams of reality and he decided, I think I
(25:34):
should open a zoo. So, folks, we'll get right back
to this story right after this quick word from our sponsors,
and uh, we'll keep on with doctor bogavon Antel, who
eventually made it to Myrtle Beach. Folks will be right back, hi, friends.
(25:59):
Matt Hires here. One of my favorite parts of bringing
you Carolina Crimes each week is spotlighting the many wonderful
towns and communities within our great state. And today I'm
proud to encourage you all to check out one of
my personal favorites. Rather on a road trip or a
weekend getaway, discover Mullins. Once a vibrant depot town and
(26:21):
the former tobacco capital of South Carolina. Mullins is a
hidden treasure in the PD region. Explore our offerings by
savoring a cup of coffee at our delightful coffee shop,
enjoying lunch at any of our charming restaurants, visiting old
Brick Square, and shopping on our quaint retail stores, which
include an antique market located in a repurposed tobacco warehouse.
(26:45):
Your visit would not be complete without a stop at
the South Carolina Tobacco Museum, situated in the historic train
depot in downtown Mullens, South Carolina. Here you can explore
various exhibits such as models of tobacco plants at each
growth stage, a blacksmith shop, a log tobacco barn filled
with cured tobacco, a farmhouse kitchen showcasing vintage equipment, and
(27:08):
a photo gallery highlighting contemporary tobacco practices. The Mullins Room
honors our town's origins and its swift growth driven by
the railroad and the tobacco industry. Additionally, in late June
twenty twenty five, the Reverend Daniel Simmons Museum will open
its doors to the public within the Tobacco Museum. Reverend
(27:30):
Simmons was one of the victims of the Mother Emmanuel
nine tragedy, and he spent his childhood in Mullins and
worked in its tobacco warehouses. Thanks to a generous loan
from his daughter Rose, we will exhibit many of his
personal belongings, including his beloved Bible. The documentary of his life,
One Last Breath, will be continuously streamed in the museum.
(27:52):
Rather it's for a road trip or a weekend getaway,
Mullins is a perfect place to visit and a place
to call home. Visit Mullins, South Carolina, and welcome back
(28:24):
to Carolina Crimes Episode two thirty five as we do
a deep dive into eventual Oray County resident doctor Bogavon Antel,
And when we left off, we were talking about his
dreams and schemes of opening up a zoo, a zoological park.
(28:46):
In nineteen eighty three, doctor Bogavon Auntil he opened a
fourteen acre zoo they're in Virginia called the Buckingham Zoological Park.
They had an elephant, monkeys, lions, tigers, deer, bears, and
(29:07):
assorted birds and fowl, all over the place, so a
pretty substantial swath of land that uh Antel he made
into a zoo there in in Virginia. Now he remained
active in the Yogaville community and became even closer with
Swami Sarah Swati. They're the leader of the It was
(29:32):
called abstram is kind of the term they use instead
of like church or a gathering building. I believe he
did marry Betsy, his longtime girlfriend who had that bizarre
story how they met. Now Bogavon, he changed his name
to that from Kevin and Betsy. She changed her name
(29:55):
to Brahmy the some Swami Sarah Swati changed it to
bron for her. Besides the zoo Bogavon, he had expensive taste,
and he had expensive toys, and he had that extensive
trust fund from his father that he sure didn't mind
(30:21):
spending money. This is kind of awesome. He had a
Deloreana like from Back to the Future. He had a DeLorean.
He had a Porsche, all funded by that trust fund.
And yeah, well he'll eventually wish he had to go
(30:43):
back in time. But he he prided himself on these
expensive things. He liked to show them off. He liked
to show his animals, and you're an animal lover. I'm
an animal lover too, but you I mean, if somebody
has a little baby tiger cub or something, of course
you're gonna want to pet it, play with it, take
it home. Yeah yeah, I mean that's a magnet for
(31:08):
animal lovers.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
And well, and there's a human curiosity to be close
and have these encounters with these wild animals because it's
so mysterious, and you can't just go and pet them
like you would a dog or a cat.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Yeah don't. You don't really see those every day.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
No, So people are very drawn by the exotic animals.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
So he had this charm. He had the cool animals,
the cool cars, the cool mustache, and he use those
and kind of parley them to track women, okay, And
accusations that he would manipulate women with these I won't
(31:52):
even say women anymore, I'll say girls, okay, because this
gets real disgusting, real quick. He's just not a cocky
guy with money in a zoo. He liked young women
really around, you know, between the ages of eleven and fourteen.
(32:15):
Oh god, And he was in his early twenties at
this time, about twenty three years old, and during an interview,
one lady told a story that there's a huge body
of water there at Yogaville, like a little beer in
a pond, I'll say, close to a lake size. You know,
(32:38):
people from Yogaville would go out there and enjoy the water,
enjoy the scenery. It was beautiful. And he would go
from girl to girl trying to pick them up and
flirt with them and touch them, and you know, touch
arear ends. And you know, they all got to compare
(32:58):
in stories like did he grab you but too? And yeah,
but he had all these things. He had all these things,
and he was, like I said, very charismatic, and he
would turn on that charm for these young girls. And
this is the early eighties, so I don't I don't
(33:21):
want to say it's a different place in time. It
was still very very wrong. Yeah, what he was doing,
But I don't think it's as I don't know, I don't.
I don't think it was as publicized now, like, hey,
if this older guy is hitting on you, you run and
tell your dad, tells an adult, this is creepy, this
(33:43):
is wrong. Well, he met a young woman, a fourteen
year old. Her name was Somati and they became romantically involved,
and she knew he had a wife, but he said, no,
it's okay. She knows, she's okay with me having other lovers.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Sure, I'm sure she was.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Yes. And on her fifteenth birthday, and I'm going to
bring up a big question about this. On her fifteenth birthday,
this Smati, he brought her into private and they had
this little ceremony and where he said, okay, now you're
also my wife, and they had sex for the first
(34:32):
time on her fifteenth birthday. Okay. The question I was
going to raise is he seemed awful careful to that
magic age of kind of fifteen. I don't know if
that was maybe the age of consent in Virginia, if
(34:53):
that was something he had in mind, or if it
was just coincidence. At this time, I'm not real sure
on that, And I felt really funny googling agent consent
in Virginia in nineteen eighty three.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Yeah, because well the eight I know in South Carolina
at sixteen, unless that's changed, but that it couldn't have
all that might not have always been the case, and
so it could have been different. I know in South
Carolina the CSC like the first is between the ages
of eleven and fourteen. Yes, so she said, so, I
don't know if that has something to do with it.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
So she did say this Sumati that even prior to
them doing the deed, he would take polaroids of her,
like nude photo shoots, okay, which is gross and wrong. Uh.
He even took Sumadi on a honeymoon, but his wife
(35:51):
Bromy came along too, and Bromy, you probably guessed that
she didn't have any idea this is what was going on.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
So she probably thought this was just a trip.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Yeah, and another young girl from Yogaville. They're bringing her with.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Maybe he's mentoring, yeah, that kind of thing. And then
he's telling this girl, this is our honeymoon. Yeah, and
she's aware. So there's two different versions that these ladies
are getting.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
And they went in the Caribbean, and Bramy she was excited.
She went snorkeling most of the days while they kind
of hung back in the in the hotel room and
of course consummated their new marriage in the air. Quotes
come out now. According to Bramy, it wasn't long after
(36:43):
that that she herself became pregnant with his child, okay,
and Bogavin did not like this. This is all according
to Bramy from the interview. She said that he blamed her,
that he thought it was not a good thing. You know,
(37:04):
I don't think he was ready to be a dad
or ready to have a child with Bramy, who herself
looked very young for her age. She made accusations that
he would abuse her, choke her, and this is awful
that on the day she went into labor, he was
(37:27):
actually out with a girlfriend or doing whoever, doing whoever,
So she had to send somebody to come to go
notify him, Hey, Brammy's in labor. She's at the hospital.
So Bagabond called her and was like, do I need
(37:47):
to be up there for anything? And she was like,
uh yeah, yeah, dad, you need me here. You need
to get dressed to the hospital, listen it and cool.
And so he came and he laid beside and slept
while she had their child. Well about this time, Sumadi
(38:08):
also became pregnant. Now, if you're in this Yogaville, one
of the tenants that they believed was you're supposed to
be celibate. So she eventually had to tell Swami Sarah
Swati that he she had have a sit down say
that she was with child. There were ramifications for that,
(38:32):
having to leave Yogaville, and there was a whole mess
there with that as well. But it wasn't long before
he picked up right where he left off, and he
at least he's consistent, consistently gross. And he met another
(38:52):
fourteen year old named Rada Astoff. She started off as
she started off being he and Bramy's babysitter, okay, but
he eventually became romantically involved as well with her, and
she actually ran away from home to be with Bogavon.
(39:17):
I mean, her mother thought she was kidnapped, like to
that point, calling the police, putting up posters. She called
Bogamon and was like, I told you to stay away
from my daughter. I think she's there. Let me speak
to her. And he would not. He said, I don't
know what you're talking about. He played dumb, and he
actually got kind of worried about this. This made him
(39:39):
sweat a little bit, so he changed her name and
he did keep her in a hotel room in Washington,
d C. For a little while, which is right outside
of Buckingham County, and changed her name to Chantal Rivera. Okay,
so he got his entire zoo staff to be on
on board with is Lie that this is Chantale, even
(40:02):
though they knew who she was and they knew this
was Rada. So Rada's parents actually sent the police to
the Buckingham Zoological Park and everybody kept up the ruse.
They were like, no, that's Chantale, what are you talking about.
(40:23):
They cut her hair and died, died a little bit,
and they were like, that's not heard at all. So
eventually Bogavon he got up the nerve to forge Rada's
father's signature onto a consent form for the two of
them to be married.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
So a lot of events happened here. At the late
late eighties early nineties in Bogavon's life, he decided he
was going to make a movie. He tried to get
investors in on board with this movie. He hired a
director from Disney who may or may not have had
an alcohol problem. It seemed like the movie was absolutely terrible.
(41:10):
It was, I can imagine, called the Great Tiger Cub Adventure.
He lied to people and said that Kevin Bacon was
considering a part in this movie and Hey didn't know
Kevin Bacon.
Speaker 3 (41:22):
So was this like a drama or comedy?
Speaker 2 (41:29):
From what I gathered, it was about some kids that
got off the school bus one day and found a
cat carrier with some tiger cubs in it. Okay, so
that was kind of the plot, okay, and it was
It was absolutely horrible, straight to VHS. I don't think
it ever made it, but what it was, he was
(41:49):
trying out all these child actors and if their parents
were going to invest in the movie, then he brought
them on to be in the movie as well. So
it really it was a money ground. One of his
right hand men, and we talked about a death that occurred,
(42:11):
a guy named Mark Topping that he was a talented
animal trainer and really helped Bogavon a lot with the tigers,
the Big Cats, kind of his number two guy. He
had a mysterious fall while hiking, hit his head on
(42:32):
the rocks and died immediately. And there's always been this
swirl of suspicion around if Bogavon was involved, but never proven,
nothing really drawing connections. That was just an interesting footnote.
A this happened as well well. Around this time. He
(42:53):
also got a divorce from Brahmy. Good for her, yes,
but she's still she still broken up about it. She
said that was the love of her life. Yeah, he
really was. In nineteen eighty nine, he finally gets gets
some come upance from the law from the United States
(43:13):
Department of Agriculture. He was fined when he closed down
the Buckingham Zoological Park for abandoning several deer and peacocks
on the property. So they were there pinned up without
food and he just left them. So he did get
(43:34):
that he was guilty of that. And also it looks
like he was charged with thirty five other USDA wildlife
violations while that zoological park was open.
Speaker 3 (43:47):
So maybe find something else you're not good at this.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Well he kind of did for a little while. He
went to Hollywood and became an animal trainer. Now this
is not a hit piece. The child stuff, Yeah, hashtag
f that guy for that, But this isn't a hit piece. Really,
this is just abiden by the facts of what went
(44:14):
on in this guy's life. But he was a talented
animal trainer and still is. Went to Hollywood, he trained
the animals for ace Ventura one and two. Oh Mighty,
Joe Young the Doctor Doolittle movies. You remember that one
(44:36):
the tiger had a brain tumor or something. Remember that.
I mean, he trained that tiger. And this is one
for my youth that I'll it's seared in my memory forever.
The MTV Music Awards where Britney Spears came out with
the tiger and the albino python around her dancing. Yeah
(44:57):
that was him. Yeah, it is so yeah, impressive work.
But after he abandoned Zoological Park in Virginia and after
the Hollywood Hollywood, I guess successes, he went to Tennessee
(45:19):
and then on to Myrtle Beach. And we'll finish this
story tied bow on it and tell you exactly what
ended up happened to this doctor bogavon Antel. Right after
this short break and this word from our sponsors, folks
will be right back and welcome back to Carolina Crimes,
(45:57):
episode two thirty five and this deep dive into Doc
bogabon Antel, tiger King, fame and famous in his own right.
To be honest, we mentioned that he left his zoo,
closed it down in Virginia, went to Tennessee for a
(46:18):
short bit, and then on to Myrtle Beach and began
his empire there. He procured fifty acres that became tiger
tigers I guess is the acronym for it. He also
opened up preservation station at Barefoot Landing where tourists could
(46:42):
stop by, a very popular tourist destination there in Myrtle
Beach where you can stop in you can see wolves
in captivity. It was a little area you could get
your picture taken with tiger cubs, of course, and people
really looked at this as exploit of course at tigers.
(47:05):
It's worth noting Napoleon dynamite fans he had a real
life liger.
Speaker 3 (47:12):
So that's the thing.
Speaker 2 (47:14):
That's a no and it says pretty much Napoleon's favorite animal.
But yeah, that a liger across the chine is huge. Ye.
Then we'll put a picture on Facebook of the liger.
Speaker 3 (47:29):
So I need to see that.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
That's incredible. I can't believe a liger was in South Carolina,
but I'm not paying seven thousand dollars to see it.
In twenty fifteen, Rolling Stone wrote an article defending his
practices he wanted to They depicted him as only wanting
to help animals to help them protect them in the wild,
(47:52):
to protect endangered species. He also around this time started
taking advantage of YouTube to kind of promote his product
and his animals. He dressed the chimps up and gave
them fake machine guns, and they were riding hobby horses
like Planet of the Apes. It was really cool. And
(48:12):
the chimps they were driving power wheels, you know, like
you get for a little I guess four year old
four or five year olds, like the big Barbie jeeps,
and they'd drive around and crash into each other and
have a good time. But also another dark cloud came
(48:33):
around doc Antle and it's a lot of accusations and
it had to do with the women. Again. The women
always seemed to be his big thing. I mean, he
collected animals and he collected women. He described himself as polyamorous.
(48:57):
Now Rada, she eventually escaped and yeah, she got out
of there. But the accusations would say that he would
find these women in public at renaissance fairs or scouting
for them, and he would seek these younger women or
(49:19):
younger looking women, and he had a criteria that he
would have for them to come to work for him
as interns to help with the animals. He would always say,
this is a physical and mentally demanding job, and I
have to put you through the paces and the rigors.
But their pre requisites where they were single, they couldn't
(49:43):
have kids, and they couldn't meet once they came on
the property there and some he would try to keep them.
He would monitor their weight and keep them within twenty
pounds of their prime athletic weight, whatever that means. And
one lady said she was even kept on an eight
hundred calorie a day diet. Lord he would encourage, if
(50:10):
not require them to alter themselves with rather it be
hair color or breast augmentation, and really try to I guess,
control these ladies their physical appearance, their mental state. And
he described himself as polyamorous, but some of his partners
(50:32):
were like, he was poly, we could not be.
Speaker 3 (50:35):
I don't think it's Yeah, it's like do as I say,
not as I do.
Speaker 2 (50:39):
Yeah, it's a it's a one way open marriage, I guess.
But he would be involved with these women. Some would
accuse him of grooming them at a young age. I
do too, and he would make them dressing. He loved
costumes like leather costumes and boosts and all this, that
(51:02):
he would have them dress in these scantily clad kind
of tight clothes that come out with these tigers and
look sexy and yeah, something like that. But Bagavon he
was always on law enforcement's radar, surprisingly not for the
(51:24):
women aspect, but for in regards to animal treatment and
animal purposes or i'm sorry, animal purchases. There are several
laws in place that protect animals, especially animals from the
wild that are brought into captivity. There's the Endangered Species
(51:46):
Act of nineteen seventy three, which prohibits taking endangered species,
Like if you find them in the wild, you can't
go take a bunch of these chimp babies away from
their mom. Yeah, that's that text them. And there's also
a law in the books called the Lacy Act that
I found. It was passed in nineteen hundred. Really, yes,
(52:09):
and what it says is illegal to import, export, sell, receive,
or purchase plants or animals obtained illegally. So that covers
a lot of bases, and that might have to do
a lot with customs. When you come in from another guy,
they're like, you got any plants animals we need to
know about. But yeah, that was on the books, and
(52:31):
those were things that Antle would really tiptoe around. Here.
In the nineteen nineties, Antl founded what he called the
Rare Species Fund. It was where he would take donations
to help protect animals in the wild and protect their
(52:52):
natural habitats, and several former employees have come forward and
said that was actually funneling money back to Doc ant.
In December of twenty nineteen, out at Tigers sled King,
(53:13):
calling slid DNR and Ory County Police they were investigating.
They raided the compound and they were investigating three lions
on the premises at the Tigers Myrtle Beach safari Antil.
He explained this away in the press, saying they were
(53:34):
just doing DNA tests trying to see where they may
have come from. And no arrests occurred from that. Looking
back with Ory County Clerk of Court, as we do
in a lot of these cases, he only really had
traffic infractions in Or County. But in twenty twenty, in
(53:57):
the year that Tiger King did come out, he fell
under investigation from the US Department of Agriculture and the
US Department of Justice for the illegal sale of tigers.
Also in October of twenty twenty, in Virginia, antl was
finally indicted on charges of wildlife trafficking, felonies, animal cruelty,
(54:23):
and violations of the Endangered Species Act. What they were
accusing him of was carrying lions in a cruel and
brutal or inhumane manner. In June of twenty twenty three,
he was convicted of the two felony counts of wildlife
trafficking and two felony counts of conspiring to traffic wildlife.
(54:46):
His sentence was two years of prison, suspended for a
ten thousand dollars fine, and he was banned for five
years from trading, possess, possessing, or interacting with wildlife in Virginia.
He did appeal this sentence, and two of the convictions
for trafficking were overturned based on this. Check this out.
(55:09):
The state law prohibits the sale of these animals, not
the purchase he purchased them, exactly right, so he was
really only convicted of the two felony counts of conspiring
to traffic wildlife. Well, on June third, twenty twenty two,
(55:31):
things didn't get any better. He was arrested by the FBI.
This time that old rare species fund he found. He
was arrested for money laundering for animal trafficking for one chimpanzee, leopards,
and cheetahs, and in November of twenty twenty three he
(55:52):
pled guilty. His sentencing this is really odd, was continually
slee postponed, and finally last month inly on July eighth
of twenty twenty five, doctor bogovon antl o keV He
was sentenced to twelve months and one day in federal prison,
(56:15):
a fifty five thousand dollars fine, in three years of
supervised release, and he was giving sixty days to surrender himself.
So he is still free.
Speaker 3 (56:26):
He's gonna wait until the last day right now.
Speaker 2 (56:29):
Yeah, So his park does still remain open. If that's
something you'd like to participate in. I will say this
for the guy. His facility is super clean. It looks like,
I mean, the fees to interact with these animals I
(56:49):
feel are exorbitant. They're well, they're way beyond maybe I'm
just poor.
Speaker 3 (56:54):
No, that's that's a lot. That's totally it's money that's
going to help keep this facility in good working order.
Speaker 2 (57:03):
Yes, And while we're on break, you did google the
age of consent in Virginia and it was fifteen at
that time, so we wasn't breaking any laws that way.
I don't know if polygamy was allowed in Virginia at
that time. So I'm just thinking back, you know, like
the Bill Cosby cases. They went way back and convicted
(57:28):
him on some of those. But yeah, I was wondering
if he think it happened retroactively in some of these
sex cases. But it sounds like it was gross but
not illegal. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (57:42):
I mean, it seems like fifteen was where he was
centered around because of the age of consent, and then
you got that and then the one where he appealed
and he bought him and not purchased. So it sounds
like he's just the man who knows how to work loopholes.
Speaker 2 (57:56):
I think he's incredibly intelligent. Real dose are the worst.
Speaker 3 (58:01):
Kind of criminals. We were very smart.
Speaker 2 (58:04):
But super manipulative, you know, super it the whole kids thing.
I don't know that you know that gets to me.
Speaker 3 (58:15):
Yeah, I think, well, people like that. It's I think
it's he likes being in a position of power, is what.
It sounds like. He likes people looking up to him.
Speaker 2 (58:24):
That's exactly what nearly everybody in their interviews said that
he creates this. He wants to create this universe where
he is the ultimate power. He is God. That's his personality.
I've never met him, so I can't say that, but
this is what.
Speaker 3 (58:41):
These are people who've actually been interacted with him, And
I mean these are people who I don't know. You
have to think, yeah.
Speaker 2 (58:53):
I understand, but yeah, people that they have a firsthand,
first hand and interactions with him.
Speaker 3 (59:01):
Well, and then you have these people who are more
easily to manipulate, or people who are younger who don't
know the ways of the world and things like that,
as opposed to someone whose own age, who's like I
can see right through.
Speaker 2 (59:10):
Yeah, you got a guy with a damn tiger. I mean, hey,
at one point, he's the guy with the Dolorean.
Speaker 3 (59:18):
I mean he has things to offer that most people
don't like. Look what I have, you know, just like, okay,
good selling point.
Speaker 2 (59:24):
I guess now several people, and like we talked to
the beginning about some of these documentaries are so skewed
and they've become gossip sessions and producers only want you
to see one side of the story. But they were
also several accusations that he would traffic marijuana cocaine at
(59:47):
some points, and I mean, he's never been arrested for it, so.
Speaker 3 (59:53):
I don't was he I know the documentary was about him.
Was he in it? Like, was he interviewed?
Speaker 2 (59:58):
Not for the follow up one, now he was, he
was in Tiger.
Speaker 3 (01:00:02):
King, but the follow up one that you watched. Yeah,
So I'm wondering if he's an episode. I wonder if
he's gonna like maybe bring us to have his own
come out, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:00:12):
I don't. I don't know. It's he's sixty five years
old right now, he's still got to do a year
and a day in prison, and he might just go
back to his park and hang out, keep doing what
he's doing. And he seems to enjoy the animals. And
it's a shame that someonere mistreated and that he got
them by nefarious means. But uh, yeah, that's It's an
(01:00:39):
interesting cat on Carolina Crime interesting cats, I guess. So, folks,
we want to say thank you for listening to this
week's episode. We hope you found it interesting. I did.
I've been wanting to talk about this guy for a
long time and he finally got sentenced. We appreciate all
the feedback you're giving. We'll get to these messages real soon.
Try to get back do as fast as we can.
(01:01:03):
If you're not already following us on social media, check
us out on Facebook at Carolina Crimes Podcast. Also over
on Twitter at sc crimes pod. Also, if you'd like
to support the show and you're listening on Apple Podcast
or Apple iTunes, please throw us a five star review
and hit that purple subscribe button and let us know
a little something you like about the show. Also, if
(01:01:25):
you're looking for some sweet Carolina Crimes gear and some paraphernalia,
head on over to Carolina Crimestore dot com. So, until
next time, thank you for listening to this week's edition
of Carolina Crimes.
Popular Podcasts
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com