Joe Exotic says he will die in prison unless Trump pardons him
The 62-year-old felon — who is in federal lockup in Fort Worth, Texas, for a murder-for-hire plot against his rival — said he fears he won't even make it to his parole eligibility in 2030 because his cancer tumors just keep growing.
'I'm not gonna make it. I'm gonna die,' the ex-Netflix star said in an exclusive phone interview Monday while serving a 21-year sentence for plotting to kill big-cat arch-rival Carole Baskin and for violating federal wildlife laws.
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5 'Tiger King' star Joe Exotic told The Post he will likely die of cancer in prison — unless he is pardoned by President Trump.
Netflix US/AFP via Getty Images
5 Exotic is serving a 21-year prison sentence for plotting to kill his rival Carole Baskin.
Santa Rosa County Jail via AP, File
'My earliest out day right now is Oct. 30, 2030. And that's why I plead to President Trump so hard. … With the cancer that I have, let me get out and find some real medical care instead of the taxpayers paying for half-assed medical care.
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'Try going through that [chemo] for a year, puking your ass off by yourself in a concrete room,' he added.
Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage, announced he'd been diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2021.
The incarcerated former zookeeper now says the cancer has spread to his lungs — and doubled in size.
5 Exotic has been battling prostate cancer behind bars since 2021.
AP
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5 Exotic is pleading with Trump to release him from prison so he can receive 'real medical care' for his cancer.
Getty Images
Exotic — who starred in Netflix's 2020 'Tiger King' true-crime series about his life and dark slide while caring for exotic big cats at his zoo in Oklahoma — insisted his health woes have only worsened due partly to the stress of his husband, Jorge Flores Maldonado, being deported to Mexico from the US earlier this year.
'I'm dealing with prostate cancer, lung cancer. I'm waiting for a [positron emission tomography] scan because I think the prostate cancer is in my ribs now,' Exotic said.
'And the stress of [Jorge] being in Mexico with nothing. He's living like a homeless person right now, and there's nothing I can do to help because I'm stuck in here.'
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5 Exotic's husband Jorge Flores Maldonado was deported to Mexico.
Obtained by the New York Post
The fallen star's migrant hubby was booted from the US by ICE in May after getting busted late last year for allegedly driving a car loaded with six other undocumented immigrants across the US-Mexican border.
The pair met and fell in love while in prison when Maldonado was there on immigration raps.
Exotic, betting Trump to step in and spring him early from the pokey, told The Post: 'Let me get up and pay my own bills and work and try and make it the next five years so I can bring Jorge back to America.'
But he also suggested he has come to terms with the fact he'll likely die behind bars.
'I've already got my will done. So everything goes to Jorge so he can at least move on,' he said.
'I have nothing, absolutely nothing. So, you know at this point right now, I wish cancer would hurry up and take me before I have to endure five more years of hell in America.'
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