Tiger King: Signature on will of Carole Baskin’s husband was ‘100 per cent’ forged, Sheriff confirms

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The will of Carole Baskin’s late husband, whose death is explored in the Netflix series Tiger King, has been proven to be forged, a Florida Sheriff confirmed.

The popular series saw many people, including Baskin’s rival, the titular “tiger king” Joe Exotic, accuse animal rights activist Baskin of killing her second husband Don Lewis, who went missing in 1997 and was declared legally dead in 2002.

But after rumours began circulating that the signature on Lewis’s will had potentially been forged, the news was confirmed by Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister.

“They called in some experts to say that the will was a forgery and I had already told them that two months ago,” Chronister told WTSP.

“They had two experts deem it 100 per cent a forgery. But, we knew that before, because the girl who came forward and said, ‘Hey, I was forced to witness and say I witnessed these signatures.’”

He continued: “The problem was, the statute of limitations had already expired, the will had already been executed at that point. But it certainly cast another shadow of suspicion by all means.”

Chronister explained that law enforcement couldn’t do anything despite knowing about the forgery because the will had already been executed and the required amount of time to act on it had passed.

On Tuesday (2 June), it was announced that Exotic was being forced to hand his zoo over to Baskin as part of a $1m payment for copyright infringement.

Exotic is currently serving 22 years in prison for plotting to have Baskin killed.