Oklahoma Zookeeper 'Joe Exotic' Indicted for Alleged Murder-For-Hire Against an Animal Activist
https://people.com/crime/zookeeper-joe-exotic-indicted-murder-for-hire-plot/
Oklahoma zookeeper and a
one-time presidential candidate who calls himself Joe Exotic allegedly tried to have a woman running a big cat sanctuary killed.
On Friday, Joe Exotic, also known as Joseph Maldonado-Passage, Joseph Allen Maldonado and Joseph Allen Schreibvogel was indicted on two counts of hiring a person to commit murder, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a
press release.
For the first count, according to the statement, the federal grand jury is accusing Maldonado-Passage, 55, of “hiring an unnamed person in November 2017 to murder ‘Jane Doe’ in Florida.”
Maldonado-Passage allegedly paid the unnamed person $3,000 to travel from Oklahoma to South Carolina and finally Florida to carry out the crime.
The grand jury also alleges that Maldonado-Passage even agreed to pay the hitman more money once the murder was complete. It is unclear at this time as to what happened after the hitman arrived in Florida, but the U.S. Department of Justice explained, “Jane Doe did not suffer any physical harm.”
For the second count, in July 2016, Maldonado-Passage “repeatedly asked a different unnamed person to find someone to murder Jane Doe in exchange for money.” However, instead of participating in the murder-for-hire plot, the person allegedly connected Maldonado-Passage with an undercover FBI agent.
Maldonado-Passage, who previously owned G.W. Exotic Animal Memorial Park, then met up with the undercover agent in December of last year to discuss the plan, authorities allege.
The zookeeper was arrested Friday in Gulf Breeze, Florida. Also on Friday, Maldonado-Passage appeared before a U.S. Magistrate Judge in the Pensacola Division of the Northern District of Florida.
While Jane Doe’s identity has not been confirmed, Big Cat Rescue CEO Carole Baskin
claims she was the murder target.
“It is important to understand that this is not the isolated act of one crazy bad apple,” Baskin wrote on Big Cat Rescue’s website. Big Cat Rescue is a sanctuary dedicated to caring for abandoned and abused cats and Baskin has been critical of Joe for many years.
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