Thousands pledge to break Joe Exotic out of Fort Worth prison in Facebook event
About 16,000 people are apparently committed to breaking the “Tiger King” out of a Fort Worth prison.
As of Sunday, 16,000 people marked they were going to a Facebook event titled “Break Joe Exotic Out of Jail (They Can’t Stop Us All).” The location for the event is listed as the Federal Prison FMC Fort Worth, where the notorious star of the Netflix popular documentary series “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness” is serving a prison sentence.
The break-out will supposedly take place on May 14 and is hosted by the Facebook page “Legalize CRACK for Recreational Use.”
Joe Maldonado-Passage, more commonly known as Joe Exotic, is the focus of the series that features his controversial exotic animal zoo. He is serving a 22-year sentence on two counts of murder-for-hire, eight counts of violating the Lacey Act for falsifying wildlife records and nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act.
“Everybody gotta dress up as joe so they cant tell who is who,” the event description explains. “We will need lots of crack and tigers and probably a few tanks.”
In accordance with coronavirus safety protocols, the event reminds attendees to stay 6 feet apart.
In April 2019, Maldonado-Passage was found guilty of trying to hire someone to murder Carole Baskin, a prominent animal rights activist, according to NBC News. His husband, Dillon Passage, said March 31 that the 57-year-old was in quarantine because the previous prison he was at reported coronavirus cases, according to an interview Passage did with Variety Live.
The break-out appears to be inspired by the 2019 Facebook event “Storm Area 51 , They Can’t Stop All of Us,” where thousands promised to gather in Nevada to “see them aliens.”
This story was originally published April 12, 2020 at 2:59 PM with the headline "Thousands pledge to break Joe Exotic out of Fort Worth prison in Facebook event."
