The Mysterious Death of Joe Exotic’s Third Husband, Travis Maldonado
Joseph Maldonado-Passage, popularly known as Joe Exotic, has become an infamous name that has dominated the headlines in recent years. He was the former owner of the Wynnewood Zoo, Oklahoma, and his wild, erratic behavior has been showcased in the popular Netflix documentary Tiger King. However, the most enigmatic and inexplicable event surrounding the Tiger King is the death of his third husband, Travis Maldonado.
Travis Maldonado was much younger than Joe when they first met at the zoo, where Joe was Travis’s boss. Joe had already been through two failed marriages before meeting Travis, but he felt that their relationship was different. They shared a deep connection and even shared their bed with Joe’s second husband, John Finlay.
On October 6th, 2017, tragedy struck when Travis accidentally shot himself in the head inside the zoo’s gift store. Travis was playing with a gun and thought that it was empty when he pulled the trigger. While it was officially ruled as an accident, many unanswered questions and uncertainties still surround his death.
Joe has his own theories about Travis’s death; he believes that Travis may have committed suicide due to the overwhelming pressure of living with a meth addict like Joe. Travis was struggling with his mental health, and his difficult love triangle, residing on the zoo property, away from his parents without proper therapy, made him vulnerable.
One possibility is that Travis was on drugs, which left him massively insecure and painfully jealous. This was also suggested in the Netflix series, wherein he claimed that he received a text message from a friend that he believed to be romantic in nature. Travis strongly disputed his husband and suspected that he was cheating on him.
In the documentary, it was also revealed that Travis was coping with his father’s death, which had taken place just a year before his own demise. This reportedly put him on a downward spiral and encouraged his use of drugs.
Travis’s death was declared an accident, and the firearm was still found inside the gift store. As per the state law, he had to be buried within two days, and Joe arranged a fast and intimate funeral on the zoo’s property.
However, rumors and speculations regarding Joe’s involvement in Travis’s death continue to persist. Many people believe that Joe played a direct or indirect role in Travis’s demise, leading him down a dangerous path towards illegal firearms and drugs.
Nevertheless, the mysterious death of Travis Maldonado remains largely undefined and leaves us all questioning what really happened that day. Despite Joe Exotic’s heroic portrayal in the media and claims of his genuine love for his third husband, it cannot be denied that Travis’s death is still an open wound and a tragedy that needs answers.
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