03x03 - Don't Trust Bhagavan

[bunniefuu]

[birds and insects chirping]

[eerie instrumental music plays]

The story how we heard it was
that Mark fell off a waterfall or Mark…

It was kind of strange.

[Dave] Mark being so fit and so agile,

that he would accidentally slip,
hit his head, and go over these falls,

this always seemed, kind of, a little off.

I've never spoken to Bhagavan since then.

I've always wanted to,

but I never had the opportunity.

I, first of all, would like
to ask him what happened.

None of us know
what really happened that day.

I always loved that Buddhist saying,

"There are three things
that cannot long stay hidden."

"The sun, the moon, and the truth."

[mysterious music plays]

[Dave] Something that's never
been reconciled in my mind,

is the fact that he was the number two guy
at this Buckingham Zoo.

So here obviously is Bhagavan,

doing his levitation thing,
and then right here, that's Mark.

And Bhagavan couldn't even
come out here to the funeral.

Why?

Why?

I mean that makes no sense at all.

[Dave] Take a day and come out here

and be with us.

You were with him for the last five years.

Why wouldn't you even come out
and make an appearance?

[Dave] That's never been reconciled
in my mind.

And it always amazed me
that this letter from Mark,

it says, "Don't trust Bhagavan."

[music crescendos]

[footsteps]

[birds and insects chirping]

[cryptic instrumental music plays]

[David] And this is the study
where I keep the secret archives.

So, this is where I have some more videos.

This one's got mold on it. [laughs]

So, this could actually have something.

[mechanical hum]

[David] I remember we set up
a hidden camera in my living room.

We thought it would've
been fun to videotape Mark.

We'll ask him some questions
and see what he says.

Since he didn't know about it,
we thought he'd be more himself

and just reveal all.

We will be sh**ting the Mealworm,
he should be arriving in about 20 minutes.

Bhagavan called him Mealworm, that…

[chuckles] …was his nickname.

May the Mealworm live happily ever after.

May I never hear "Mealworm" again!

[men laughing]

He was a really nice guy and really jolly.

A happy person, really liked Bhagavan.

And I think came here for a better life.

I was jailbound, boy, I was…

I was getting ready for prison.
There was no doubt.

They were gonna nab me any day.

[moody guitar music plays]

[Dave] Back in the late '70s,

Mark and Bhagavan
were in the marijuana business.

Bhagavan was, like, the biggest
pot dealer in the area at the time.

I mean, he told me stories
where they had like

a room full of bags of weed
and rooms full of money.

[Mark] Dude, I was living
in a three-bedroom house,

with a pool and a Jacuzzi,

and having steak and lobster
six or seven days out of the week

and just partying my a*s--

Thousands of dollars in cash,
right there in my hand, you know?

[Dave] Mark was actually going out
in the middle of the night to meet planes

that would swoop down
in the abandoned airfields out there

and drop out the bales of marijuana.

[Mark] Of course,
I had an amazing collection of reefer.

Like 25 different types of weed
that I would, you know--

Big buds like this long
that weighed like a half ounce.

Because I'd buy pounds of it, you know,

and I'd just find the best-looking stuff
and seal it up, you know? [laughs]

[Dave] One time, we met up
at Bhagavan's house.

And when I met him,
Mark said, "This is Bhagavan."

You know, "If you're not comfortable
with that you can just call him Kevin."

That's where I first
got to see one of his tigers.

You could just see
these huge-a*s teeth and like,

"Oh, my God."
He said, "Just chill, he's okay."

[tiger growling]

[Betsy] It was always dangerous.

I always had a g*n.

He was always afraid someone
would come after me to get to him.

Because he was at the top,
somebody wanted to knock him down.

[somber music plays]

[Betsy] Somebody broke in
while I was at the store,

so, of course, we had to pack
everything up and move.

[Betsy] Bhagavan decided
we had to go to Virginia.

And, you know, back then,

I still did everything he said,
I had no mind of my own.

[Dave] Things got kind of weird.
I got a phone call from Mark

in the middle of the night,
and he was so paranoid, so… [grunts]

I said, "What's the matter?"
He goes, "I need to get out of town."

[Dave] "People are getting popped.
I need you to help me pack up."

We got to the storage facility.
He had a huge trash bag.

Probably eight, ten pounds of weed,

and he said, "Just take it,
get whatever you can for it."

"Send me some money."

He went his way, I went my way.

And I don't know how much time passed,
but he called me up,

and he said,
"I'm fine, I'm in Virginia right now."

"Do you remember Bhagavan-- Kevin Antle?
He's putting me up out here."

"I just need to lay low."

"I'm working at a zoo,
Buckingham Zoological Park."

[cryptic music plays]

[Dave] I said, "Oh, that sounds cool."

He goes, "Yeah, I can tell you more
about it later, I can't talk right now."

"Okay."

So, from then on, he was working
down there at the zoo close to Yogaville.

[mysterious instrumental music plays]

[Ruth Vargas] Yogaville saved my life.

I left home very young.

So I was on my own
and an emancipated teenager from 16.

[Ruth] The New York City modeling scene
was full of drugs and debauchery.

A couple of the models I worked with died,
so, I decided I wanted the spiritual life.

I told my friends and family.
They were very upset.

"What are you doing?
That's crazy, they're a cult."

That's the first word they said,
everyone said that.

And I said, "Fine, but I don't really want
that New York City fast-paced insanity."

[Ruth] I started working a little bit
at Buckingham Zoological Park with Mark.

He was a very nice guy.
He had that whole lumberjack thing.

[Dave] Part of Mark's transformation

was to follow the teachings
of this Swami Sachidananda.

…to know yourself.

[Dave] His name was changed to Mitra.
M-I-T-R-A.

Thank you very much.

[Mark] By the way, I'm Mitra. Hi!

[man laughing]

Okay. That's me. Hi!

[Mark] To anybody who will
talk to my folks, I'm Mark. [laughs]

But if they ever do find out,
it's a stage name.

[Mark] They would not grasp
this guru thing.

[cryptic music plays]

Mitra was this really attractive guy

and he had this loving personality
about him, he was very gregarious.

[Steven] Had this big smile,
was always laughing and joking,

and he was kind of the fun at the zoo.

You would fall in love with
that kind of a character very easily,

because he was so likable, you know,

and it was a stark contrast
between him and Bhagavan.

[birds chirping]

[presenter] [span style="style2"]He's one of the most
[span style="style2"]unusual people you'll ever meet.

He makes his living training wild animals
for movies and television commercials.

If there were ever
a real life Beast Master, this guy is it.

Pearlies. Pearlies!

[adventurous instrumental music plays]

[lions growling]

[Becky] "Dear Becky,

could this really be a letter
from 'The Wild Man of Virginia?'"

"Does he even have
all his body parts still attached?"

"Well, I'm happy
to say yes to the above questions."

"We've been busy filming
for a television series we are making."

"I ride a zebra in an open field
for the episode titled 'Wild Horses.'"

"It will take months, maybe years
to finish the first 28 episodes."

"Did you like the picture?"

"Nothing like taking a Jacuzzi
with a couple of kitties."

"Love, Mark."

[Becky] He loved those animals.

He was really passionate about it.

You know,
here's this guy that trains tigers,

and works with animals and it was…

I mean, it was really cool.

[presenter] [span style="style2"]This guy works for a popular
[span style="style2"]oil company that sports the slogan,

"Put a tiger in your tank."

Bubbles played a baby
for the McDonald's corporation.

Yum, yum.

Kevin Antle. Bhagavan. Doc.

Uh, I've known him for 30 years.

Met him in Buckingham, Virginia,

when he was trying to be a tiger guy

and I was doing animals
in films and commercials.

[Karl] He had a commercial job
and he needed extra hands

and Mark Topping, who's there
with me, he was a good trainer,

he was Bhagavan's number one guy.

He also was eager to learn.
I showed him a few things.

[Ruth] Karl was pretty good
with his animals,

in terms of training them.
Definitely better than Bhagavan.

[Karl] Bhagavan did not value
experience or knowledge.

He just was so sure of his way,
his technique.

What do I know, I'm just,
you know, the Black guy from Compton.

I don't know nothing.

Okay.

[muffled yelling]

[Karl] Doc Antle
is just a spoiled rich kid.

[bear growls]

[Doc] I came from
a highly successful family.

I could have had far more money
than I'm ever going to make

off of hanging out
with my beloved animals.

[Betsy] He grew up in a wealthy family.

They were the ones that grew all
the lettuce in the entire United States.

[guitar music plays]

[Radha] Bhagavan had a trust fund
that was supporting him very comfortably.

And then I believe he just,
kind of stumbled into realizing

that the animals could be lucrative.

[presenter] [span style="style2"]At the ripe old age of 21,
[span style="style2"]he received his PhD in zoology

from the British College
of Natural Science.

All of the time, people say they think
they're going to meet Dr. Antle, PhD.

They meet me
and they are taken aback, they say,

"A hippie doctor. How did-- Who is this?"

That happens a lot.

[Radha] To my knowledge,
he's not a doctor.

When he was in China, he paid somebody
to write "doctor" on some certificate.

And, frankly, I would never
let him stick a needle in me. [laughs]

He was never an actual doctor.

He wanted to be one,
but he didn't have patience for school.

So he just says he is.

I'm a doctor, right, on one side.
I'm "Doc" because I'm an MD.

And so I got a whole-- I've gone through
and done a lot of autopsies,

I've been through a lot of bodies,
seen a lot of sickness.

One of the challenges with Bhagavan Antle
is that he doesn't tell the truth often.

And so it's very hard
to separate the fact from fiction.

[drums roll]

[Steven] Everything that I know
about Bhagavan's past came from Mitra,

because Mitra was the only one
that would talk to me about it.

No one else would discuss Bhagavan
in any sort of way.

It was through him that I began to learn
about Bhagavan's nefarious past,

that Bhagavan
was involved in some deals which

weren't aboveboard, shall we say.

[rattling, hissing]

[Karl] I really do know of
some factual, real sh*t

that happened with him over the years.

There was a period of time in the '80s
when Bhagavan and I traveled to Venezuela

on a commercial
for South American television.

[Karl] And it became apparent
that there was a bonus bumper crop

of cocaine available.

And I'm like, why do we care
about an abundance of cocaine?

He was like, "We can get a truckload
sent to Florida, to my friend Mario."

[cryptic music plays]

[Karl] I was like, "I don't know Mario,
don't wanna know Mario."

"This is not what I signed up for."

"I'm not about to be involved
in drug smuggling."

[Karl] But he saw how good my tiger was,
that it would do all kinds of tricks.

You know, be a nice tiger.

And so he said, "Come on down to Virginia.
You can stay in my house."

"We've got a lot
of work in New York, but…"

"You got to eat vegetables
and, you know, you're gonna…"

And my attitude was like, "Dude, I'm going
to Wendy's and getting a cheeseburger."

-[Karl speaks indistinctly]
-[tiger growls]

[Mark] Not eat meat?

You've gotta be f*cking crazy.
I will not stop eating meat.

And then, all of a sudden,
boom, I'm not eating meat.

[Sumati] Mitra wanted to learn
to train animals.

I don't think he realized how hard
Bhagavan is on his employees and interns.

I kind of felt a little bit bad because
I was, like, the traveling mistress,

which meant that, often times,
Mitra would be driving the car

and Bhagavan and I
would be having sex in the back,

which couldn't have
been comfortable for him at all. [laughs]

It was incredibly awkward for me
because I was a pretty modest person,

and kind of shy,
and so it was very awkward.

[Sumati] But Mitra was very sweet
and super funny.

I adored him,
I thought he was really cool.

Mitra always had an interesting
relationship with Bhagavan, where…

it wasn't quite as…
Lord Bhagavan, over Mitra.

There was a--
It was a little bit closer together

than any of the other relationships
that I've seen with interns.

[Dave] In this letter, "I'm number two."

"Assistant director
and manager of this establishment."

"Bhagavan has offered a new condition
of my contract in the future."

"Owning and receiving
one to two and a half percent interest

for the next 10 years."

"Could add up to big bucks
or could all fall apart tomorrow."

"That's the gamble, you take, right?"
Yeah.

Go way down the hill, Mitra.

-[Doc speaks indistinctly]
-[tiger growling]

Put the chain on her, Mitra.
Put a chain on the cat.

She's ruined for the day,
and getting ruined for life.

When you would come into the fold

Bhagavan would go about
a process of breaking your spirit.

He's going to tear you down
to the lowest level he can get you,

and then you're going to be reborn.

[fireworks whistling]

[Steven] When I got the job in Korea,
Bhagavan made this big deal about my hair.

I had very thin, horrible hair.

I had this horrible mullet
that I apologize for in advance,

but it was the thing back then.

He showed up in Korea and said,
"We're gonna get you hair extensions."

So he found this Korean lady to come in,
and I swear to you it was almost hot glue,

and she was taking these long
hair extensions and she was gluing them,

and while she was gluing them
into my head, she was burning my scalp.

And I was going, "Ow!" [laughs]

And the next thing you knew,

I had this big, bushy mane
that looked horrible.

On stage, when I was dancing around
and doing my thing,

and I would sweat and heat up,
my head would get hot,

it would melt the extensions
and I would spin my hair

and you'd see this long
strand of hair fly out to the audience.

I would sit in my dressing room

and I would cry, and cry.

[somber melodic music plays]

[Radha] There was a certain aspect
to the relationship

between Bhagavan and the apprentices,
where Bhagavan was very domineering.

When I said, "Drop it,"
that's what matters.

[Doc] It doesn't matter what you think,
it matters what I think is happening.

I was always worried about Mark
because he abused him so badly.

Yeah, Mark was the nicest man
I've pretty much ever met.

He never complained about anything.

He did exactly what he needed to do,
and he was always kind.

[Radha] Mark was really,
kind of funny and charming.

Although I feel that he…

wasn't really allowed to be that way,

either around me or around Bhagavan.

Well, when I first got there, you know,

they were definitely
treating me like a human being.

But, eventually,
I was living in this little cubicle.

I remember talking to him
one night about his trailer.

He said, "It's so cold in there."

[Dave] Mark had a hybrid wolf
named Nimbus Ned.

And Nimbus Ned slept with him at night,
and that's what kept him warm.

[Ruth] It was atrocious conditions.

Bhagavan convinced them all
that all they needed was rice and beans.

[Ruth] Mitra was hungry all the time,

but he worked so hard.

He worked seven days a week,


He would have to work very long hours.
He'd talk about that.

After a while, I just realized
that, you know, wild animal training

really isn't what I wanna do all my life.

Mark was trying to get out,

probably because he wanted
to get away from that grasp.

He wanted some reality,
he wanted some freedom.

[Mark] This is to the new future.

To the future, yes.

-My new future. [laughs]
-Your new future, right.

Can I make it to Arizona…

[Mark laughs]

…safely, with very few problems.

[men chuckling]

[Becky] "Dear Becky,
well, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year."

"I didn't have to write that
because I'll be in town,

Phoenix/Scottsdale,
for a few days before Christmas."

"I leave Christmas Day for a magic show
in Reno for the 26th until January 1st."

"Then I fly back to Virginia."

And that was…

the last time that I saw him.

[eerie instrumental music plays]

[Karl] Doc Antle said,
"I got a magic show for you."

"I'm gonna send Mitra, and you're
gonna go to Reno to do this show."

[Karl] And Mark was telling me
how he wanted to get out,

that he was distrustful of Bhagavan.

He told me Bhagavan owed him money
and it came from the dope deal.

But… he was owed money.

At this point,
I didn't want to be involved,

'cause it's not my scene.

[Karl] It struck me as odd
that five months later,

Mark Topping slips and falls
on a waterfall and dies.

[somber instrumental music plays]

[Karl] I heard for years
that Bhagavan was responsible

for Mark Topping losing his life.

[Betsy] A lot of people thought
that Bhagavan

had something to do with Mark dying.

Everybody thought that.

[interviewer]
Why would he have wanted to k*ll Mark?

For the same reason
he hates that I'm out here.

'Cause he knew his secrets.

[cryptic instrumental music plays]

[Steven] In my mind,

it goes back to the money
that was owed to Mitra.

[insects chirping]

[Steven] One time I caught Bhagavan
late at night

outside working on a tiger trailer,

which was very unusual
and I was curious what was going on,

so I went out there,
and he didn't hear me come out.

As I walked up to him, he was by himself,
and he was ripping open this big brick,

this giant brick
of plastic trash bags and duct tape,

and when he ripped it open,

it was filled with cash.

[Steven] He grabbed a screwdriver
and he grabbed me by the throat,

and he shoved me up against the building,
he stuck that screwdriver up in my throat,

and he told me,
"If you ever mention this again,

you'll never see another sunrise."

[Steven] Bhagavan owed Mitra
tens of thousands of dollars,

and Mitra was very angry
that he had not been paid this money.

It was a very strained relationship.

[Betsy] I know that he left for a while.

When I saw that Mark
was back again I was like,

"Oh no, you got away.
Why did you come back?"

He just went like this, you know?

[elephant snorting, grunting]

[Becky] The animals were
a really cool part of his life,

but he was trying to make it more a part
of his life, where he could have a life.

And I think that's what
he was doing here on his last visit.

He was actively pursuing
employment out here.

And then he was gone
and he never did get to come back.

I remember crying about that,
like, he was gonna come back,

and he never did get to come back.

[grim music plays]

[Sumati] In May of 1989,

Bhagavan was talking to a computer store

where I was working
as the PR and marketing person,

and he had made an arrangement
with the owner to sh**t a commercial.

[announcer][span style="style2"] On The Com Connecting Point
[span style="style2"]has tamed the computer jungle,

bringing you a full line
of Apple computers.

[Sumati] I had been avoiding Bhagavan
from the minute I left him.

-And so I avoided the whole commercial.
-[lion roars]

[Sumati] But at the end of the day,
before they all left[span style="style2"],

Mitra Topping was there
and he asked me out on a date.

And I was happy to go on a date with him,

'cause I thought he was really handsome,
and very sweet, and very cute, and funny,

and I was really looking forward to it.

But before I left the parking lot,
I was in my car

and Bhagavan came to my car
and confronted me.

And he said, "I'm leaving Radha."

"And I want to marry you."

So, he again, for the second time,
asked me if I would marry him.

But nothing had changed,
as far as I could tell,

you know, he was still the same person
that he was when we were together.

So it was-- I said,
"No, thank you. I'm not interested."

And I don't think I would have told him.

But Mitra Topping may have had to tell him
that he was gonna go on a date with me,

because he needed permission
to be away from the compound.

[Sumati] And… very, very tragically,

in the morning before our date,
he went hiking

at Crabtree Falls and he fell and--

off of Crabtree Falls and died.

The day that we were
supposed to go on a date.

[birds chirping]

[somber music plays]

[Dave] Normally, in this kind of a case,
you would get notified by the authorities.

I got a call from Bhagavan.

He said, "Your brother's
been in a very terrible accident."

I remember falling,

just falling down to the ground,
sitting there on the ground,

and my wife at the time said,
"What's the matter?"

I said, "Mark is dead."

It was Bhagavan, he said, and that he said

"Tell your parents that I was there,
that I was with him."

[Becky] It sounds odd to me
that he was the one

that notified the family
and not the authorities,

but it was just fishy
the whole way around.

[cryptic music plays]

[male voice] Always wondered why
he was up there by himself,

because there was nobody
at the top of those falls who came down,

"Hey, that's my friend,"
or anything like that.

It was Memorial weekend of 1989, and…

we were--
me and my wife were both off of work,

so we thought--
we'd heard about Crabtree Falls.

We hadn't been in Virginia a year yet.

So we decided to go up there
and have a walk up,

and I was a little nervous going up

because I saw all these signs
about how dangerous it was,

and all of the people that had been k*lled
by climbing around on rocks.

I was 12 years old at the time.

It was a pretty moderate--
pretty moderate to steep hike up there.

It took quite a while,
probably over an hour to hike to the top.

[Ty] And this woman walked up to me
and said, "Did you see that boy fall?"

I said "No,"

and she said, "Oh, he has to be dead,
he hit awful hard."

My wife, she starts looking out
over the water towards the fall,

and she saw a boot
sticking up behind a rock.

I took the binoculars,
it was definitely a boot,

so I ran up the mountainside,

and I got level with the boot.

I looked over and I did see
a body behind a rock on the other side.

[Ty] When I got out there
his head was under the water.

I needed to get it up so he could breathe,

so I put one hand behind his neck,
in case his neck was broke,

then I put my hand
under his head to lift it up,

but that's when I realized
there were no skull back there.

I knew he was dead,
but I just couldn't get myself to leave.

One of the biggest things I remember,
at some point you picked his wallet up,

I could tell he had pictures in there,
and I started leafing through them,

and there was a photo of him
with a tiger in a swimming pool.

[Vanessa] And that always stuck out to me.

[Ty] I felt an attachment to the boy.

I don't know why.

I guess just spending
all that time on the bank,

keeping people away from him was…

You develop some
sort of attachment, I guess.

You feel like you're protecting him
even though he's not alive anymore.

[somber instrumental music plays]

[Ty] I felt like I was there
all afternoon,

because it took forever
for rescue to get up there.

[birds chirping]

And when they did, I stood
around longer, waiting to be questioned.

I says, "I'm the one who found the body,
is there anything you need from me?"

"What's your name?"
I think all he took was my name.

I don't even think he took my address.

But no questions
and that's always bothered me because…

How did they know he wasn't pushed?

[Vanessa] There were other hikers
at the top of the falls.

No one else had witnessed this
other than this one woman.

I don't know if she witnessed
the whole thing,

if she caught a glimpse and thought
she saw somebody fall from the top.

-Yeah, there was only that one person.
-Just the one, yeah.

She just said,
"Did you see that boy fall?"

[interviewer 1] So the authorities
never questioned you?

No.

In fact, I kept watching local news
about the accident at Crabtree Falls.

There was nothing.

Been wondering my whole life,

why there wasn't more of an investigation.

[grim instrumental music plays]

[Dave] The last picture of Mark
was taken on the day that he passed away.

He's there, and there's a guy
standing behind him.

Paul Lewis told me last year,
before I moved out of Buckingham,

that he was with Mitra
um, the day that he died.

Paul Lewis was a local guy,
a real nice guy.

Rode motorcycles with him,
and they had rode up there that day.

[beeping]

Okay, we have started
this recording for Paul Lewis.

[phone ringing]

-[male voice] [span style="style2"]Hey David.
-Hey Paul, how you doing?

-[Paul] [span style="style2"]Doing good.
-Good, good.

I'm thrilled to be able to talk to you,

because I don't think
we've ever spoken before.

[Dave] That Memorial Day weekend,
you guys took a motorcycle trip.

Who came up with the idea
to go out to Crabtree?

[Paul] [span style="style2"]I'm not sure,

but it could have been me,
because I liked it a lot.

Back then it was pretty popular,
but still there wasn't a lot of people.

There's a sign there that says,
"20 people, or whatever, have fallen."

"Don't be the 21st,"
or something like that.

David, that sign
that you're talking about,

I read to the group aloud
as we walked towards that sign.

I knew the sign, I knew what it said.

-[Dave] Wow.
-[span style="style2"]It was, like, giving them fair warning.

"This place is dangerous.[span style="style1"]"

Wow.

[somber music plays]

[sighs] Jeez.

[Paul][span style="style2"] Your brother was extremely brave.

-[Dave] Yeah.
-[Paul] [span style="style2"]He was extremely strong.

Your brother saw these people
rappelling down the mountain.

And they had all the gear
that you need to rappel.

I believe he was trying to show off.

-Yeah.
-[Paul] [span style="style2"]And he climbed a tree

and jumped over to the falls.

And he was so confident,

he thought he could get a fingerhold
and climb up the mountain.

And those rocks were so old,
sloping downward, they'd been worn smooth.

He didn't have anything to hold on to,
and that's why he fell off.

You actually… um, were there

when he took that death-defying leap.

[Paul][span style="style2"] I didn't see him take the leap.
[span style="style2"]Somebody else did.

That always plagued me…

How could Mark ever--

How could this ever happen to him
because he was… he was not stupid.

[Paul][span style="style2"] We were all very sad.

I mean, it was really hard for us
to understand why it happened.

It was-- just didn't make sense.

Yeah, and the last thing
that Mark ate was a can of peaches.

Mm-hm.

[Dave chuckles]

[Paul] [span style="style2"]I watched him
[span style="style2"]eat that can of peaches.

[Dave laughs]

-I'll be darned.
-[Paul] [span style="style2"]You know, they were vegetarians.

I really appreciate you
taking the time to talk to me.

[Paul] [span style="style2"]Yes, you're welcome.

Yeah, I'm sorry for your loss,
David, I really am.

[gentle music plays]

[Dave] I felt good
that I could actually talk to this guy

who spent the last day with my brother.

Mark loved peaches. When Paul told me,

it was like, "That's so Mark."

[cameraman] Something
that you want right here.

[Mark] Yeah! That looks almost delicious.

Hey, first time I'm on my video. Oh boy!

[Dave] I'm very happy that I had a chance
to get some idea of what the day was like.

Mark did what he did, and he died,

and we're suffering with his loss.

[Dave]
My brother has a brick in here somewhere.

[Dave] There it is.

[sighs] Right there.

[emotionally] I miss him.

[sniffles, gasps]

[sobbing]

[Dave] It does bring a bit of closure but…

what happens to Bhagavan as a result of

the other atrocities that people
have talked about that he has done?

Let's just hope justice prevails.

[indistinct voices]

[Steven] For a period of time,
life just went on for Bhagavan.

You know, at the zoo, it just kept going.

I never saw
any emotion from him in that respect.

Once again, it was a constant stream
of young girls coming in and out.

Bhagavan would groom one girl,
after another girl,

and then one more.

They're all afraid to say anything
because their parents are still there.

Their families
are still part of the ashram.

[Ruth] I do not believe that anyone
who has a predilection

for 12, 13, 14-year-old
virginal girls ever changes.

I wondered why Swami Satchidananda would
allow him to be a part of our community,

because people were asked to leave.

But eventually someone broke the silence.

[lion growling]

That's a good boy.

[moody guitar music plays]

[Earl Wood]
He knew that we were after him.

Our department received information from
a law enforcement agency in California

to verify if, number one,
Mr. Antle was in fact there,

and number two, if he was,

were there any underage females
with him at the time?

And I was handed a warrant

for his arrest.

[tense guitar music plays]

[Earl] His house has a great big fence
with a big chain around it,

so there's no way we can get in.

Nobody was there, but when I left,
I spotted a vehicle,

the only one, coming at me.

So, I slow down
and as we came into each other,

he dropped his head and hid.

Then I knew it was him.

So immediately I made a u-turn,
cut my emergency overhead light on.

He ran.

[siren wails]

[Earl] That's the last time
I saw his brake lights come on.

He had already gone
back to his house and left the car

with the door wide open and just--
He was gone.

It was an abandoned vehicle.

[Earl] I was aggravated.

But immediately I went out
and I started looking for him.

I search for about,
maybe, an hour and a half,

because normally
I don't let people get away.

It's just not going to happen.

Went home, came back the next day,
the car's still there, door's still open.

[music cl*max]

[birds chirp]

[Earl] Day three,
car was still there with the door open.

Fourth day, I went by there
and the vehicle was gone.

So, I went up and I blew the siren again.
Nothin', nobody.

[birds and insects chirping]

[Todd] But after a while,
Doc abandoned the zoo down here.

I've read that he had all kind of charges.

State Police had, like,
an all-points bulletin out for him,

saying he was gonna try to leave.
But he must have got away.

[cryptic instrumental music plays]

[Todd] USDA came a bunch of times
'cause they heard he'd abandoned the zoo.

They said it had snowed 20 days before.
They knew nobody had been here for 20 days

'cause there were
no footprints in the snow.

[Todd] It was animals that he left behind,
and I think just moldy hay for them.

This whole thing was enclosed,
so they're just roaming inside.

[birds chirp]

[Steven] I got a call from someone
in Buckingham

that Bhagavan had left
some animals on the property

and they were trying to find him.

The next time I saw him was in Tennessee.

[cryptic guitar music plays]

[Steven] He had found some money,
which he used to call a honeypot.

He was able to get some investment

and he was building the first iteration
of what eventually would become

the compound that he now has
in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

[speaking indistinctly]

[interviewer 2] Why won't you
even talk about that part of your life?

I already explained it,
you wanna shut the camera off

I'll explain it to you again,
for the eighth f*cking time.

My story is the story of conservation.

My story is not the story
of my lifestyle growing up.

You keep asking questions that may,
in fact, give the bad guys opportunities

to punch holes in a story
to create drama that's untrue,

but it still creates drama.

[dramatic music plays]

[Ruth] Bhagavan is
an egocentric narcissist

who really believes
that he is one of the tigers.

He's the main tiger at his zoo,
and he's very far from it.

[lion growls]

[Doc] Lions k*ll each other in the wild,
they are always looking

to take over the pride.

The big males have harems that they keep.

You put it in such a delicate way,
"Take over the pride."

-"Take over."
-[both laughing]

And to keep that harem intact,
they have to fight to the death.

Males come in
and say, "I'd like to have your girls."

And they say,
"Well, let's fight about it."

And whichever lion wins gets the girls.

He struck me as the Harvey Weinstein
of the animal training business.

Higher up. Raise your arms up.

I think he's gonna have to face the music
on his predator behavior.

[meowing, purring]

[Radha] He's left a trail of suffering
behind him.

[Sumati] I hope the truth about the way
he's been treating people

over time will be known,

and that the victims
and the survivors will be empowered.

[music builds]

[Steven] The universe
is a perfect accounting system.

It's like a beautiful
symphony of mathematics.

And no debt will ever go unpaid.

Tonight, the Myrtle Beach Safari is at
the center of a multi-state investigation.

Breaking news:
An indictment on this[span style="style2"] Tiger King star.

[reporter] This week Bhagavan "Doc" Antle
was indicted in Virginia

on animal cruelty
and wildlife trafficking charges.

[Brittany Peet] I don't know
what Doc's expiration date is,

but given all of the accusations,
I hope that it will be soon.

I categorically deny any act or conduct
that could be considered animal cruelty.

[music builds]

[Diane] You know, I think karma
is a strange thing.

In my life when there have been wrongs
done to me and I've thought,

"I'm gonna get revenge,
I'm going to fix this person."

Every time I've left it
to God to take care of,

the result has been
far greater, and more creative,

and more intriguing
than I could ever have done on my own.

So I think perhaps what's happening now

is really karma.

[music crescendos]

[tense music plays]