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O.J. Simpson Just Accused Carole Baskin of Murdering Her Husband

 

Acquitted murderer turned convicted felon O.J. Simpson lamenting being called Carole Baskin on Wednesday, which is really, really interesting.

Simpson has apparently binged-watched quite a bit of Tiger King. He played a round of golf and took to Twitter to share his thoughts. And because right now, nothing is as it should be, Simpson’s thoughts appear right in line with many other minds on the internet. His comments are prime quarantine-2020 zeitgeist.

A glove-wearing Simpson spoke about returning home to do some Netflixing at home on his couch. Simpson’s take on Tiger King is exactly what we have all been thinking: “Oh my God, is America in this bad a shape?”

Yeah, Juice. TBH, we really are.

Simpson’s take on the exposé on the world of big-cat trading was pretty on-the-mark too: “I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. White people, what’s with you and wild animals? Leave them animals alone!”

He then called the show “crazy” and ended with a statement that is positively priceless, coming from someone who stood trial for a double homicide. “One thing I will say,” Simpson quipped, “there’s not a shred of doubt in my mind that that lady’s husband is tiger sashimi right now. I’m just sayin’.”

Simpson was acquitted of the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman after a 134-day criminal trial. Among the 488 pieces of evidence introduced against Simpson were his history of domestic violence against Nicole Brown Simpson, and blood, footprint, fingerprint, and DNA evidence from the crime scene. In the recent Netflix reality series Tiger King, just one of seven hour-long episodes focused on animal rights activist Carole Baskin’s relationship with her disappeared (and presumably deceased) husband, Don Lewis. No physical evidence against Baskin was discussed in the series, nor has any been found by the Hillsborough County detective investigating the case. The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office put out a request for any information related to Lewis’s disappearance in a recent effort to use the popularity of Tiger King to solve the cold case. If it’s successful, it sounds like O.J. would make an excellent juror for the prosecution.

Until then, though, we’ll have to be satisfied with the Twitter gold O.J.’s post is creating.

Carole Baskin, for her part, has long denied all allegations of being involved in Lewis’s disappearance and presumed death. She says the accusations are vicious lies:

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

There are not words for how disappointing it is to see that the series not only does not do any of that, but has had the sole goal of being as salacious and sensational as possible to draw viewers. As part of that, it has a segment devoted to suggesting, with lies and innuendos from people who are not credible, that I had a role in the disappearance of my husband Don in 1997. The series presents this without any regard for the truth or in most cases even giving me an opportunity before publication to rebut the absurd claims. They did not care about truth. The unsavory lies are better for getting viewers.

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

You can read the rest of Baskin’s history of events here.

Joe Maldonado-Passage, better known as Joe Exotic or the Tiger King himself, was sentenced in Jan. 2020 to 22 years behind bars in the murder-for-hire plot against Baskin, and for illegal animal trafficking and animal abuse.

[Image via Twitter video screen grab.]

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Elura is a columnist and trial analyst for Law & Crime. Elura is also a former civil prosecutor for NYC's Administration for Children's Services, the CEO of Lawyer Up, and the author of How To Talk To Your Lawyer and the Legalese-to-English series. Follow Elura on Twitter @elurananos