True Terror: The Curious Disappearance of Jack 'Don' Lewis

The cold case of missing millionaire Jack Donald Lewis who disappeared over 20 years ago has been brought back into the spotlight by popular Netflix documentary Tiger King.

The show is primarily about Joe Exotic, an ex-zoo owner who is in prison for an alleged murder-for-hire plot against his rival Carole Baskin, who owns Big Cat Rescue. As the plot thickens early in the show, viewers discover that Carole was previously married to Jack Lewis who went missing in 1997 without a trace.

Jack Lewis was a self-made millionaire and owner of Wildlife on Easy Street. Jack was married with four children when he met Carole and she was also married to another man. They eventually left their partners for each other and got married in 1991. Carole was 22 years his junior and it is alleged that he was unfaithful to his young bride.

On August 18 of 1997 Jack went missing to never be seen again. Three days after his disappearance his wife reported him as missing to the authorities. She maintains that he had been talking about going to Costa Rica. This claim was loosely supported by the discovery of the millionaire's van at an airport.

The case of Jack Lewis' disappearance went cold and he was declared legally dead five years later. Despite this legal declaration as a body has never been found his case is still open with the authorities, and following the popularity of the documentary on Netflix the Hillsborough County Sheriff tweeted to request new leads in the case.

Joe Exotic, among others, made many accusations that Carole Baskin was behind her husbands disappearance. He even claimed that she killed him and fed him to her tigers to dispose of the evidence. Exotic went as far as to write a song and make a music video featuring a Carole look-a-like to emphasise his accusations.

Although the accusations are extreme, it has been revealed that Carole's relationship with her husband was rocky before he went missing. Months earlier he had tried to get a restraining order against her, stating that she had threatened to kill him. He allegedly also disclosed days before his disappearance that he was going to file for a divorce. Those close to Lewis aired their suspicions on the documentary, stating that Carole had motive as she would gain financially from his disappearance.

Carole Vehemently denies the accusations of murder and posted on the Big Cat Rescue website to publicly criticise the Netflix documentary. She wrote:

"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 Baskin's full post entitled 'Refuting Netflix Tiger King' here.

Tiger King is one of the wildest true crime documentaries on Netflix and whether you believe all of the claims made by interviewees or not it is definitely worth a watch for the sheer madness of the whole thing.

What do you think happened to Jack Lewis? Have you watched Tiger King? Let me know @curiouslycreepy on Twitter and @creepyandcurious on Instagram.

Stay creepy and curious, ghouls.