"Tiger King" Joe Exotic announces prison engagement

“Tiger King” Joe Exotic announces prison engagement

Benjamin Hughes

CBS News Live

CBS News Texas

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FORT WORTH — Joe Exotic, made famous in the Netflix series “Tiger King” and currently serving time in federal prison, says he is engaged to a fellow inmate in Texas and hopes to get married.  

Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado, is currently incarcerated at Federal Medical Center Fort Worth. He submitted a marriage application to the federal prison to wed fellow inmate Jorge Marquez Flores, he announced in a news release Wednesday. 

Maldonado was convicted in 2019 on 21 counts, including 19 counts of wildlife crimes and two counts of hiring hitmen to kill animal activist Carole Baskin. He is serving a 21-year sentence. 

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Joe Exotic, Jorge Flores

His fiancé, 33-year-old Jorge Marquez Flores, originally from Mexico, is serving time for immigration-related issues, according to Maldonado’s news release.

S.E. Jenkins

S.E. Jenkins is a digital content producer for CBS Texas. She has also been a Digital Content Producer in Tallahassee and Myrtle Beach. S.E. graduated with journalism degrees from Texas State University, Aarhus Universitet and City, University of London.

Source: cbsnews.com