terry thompson documentary

There is little doubt at all that he once landed an ultralight on the county fairgrounds. He was actually found with a pillowcase over his head and a gunshot wound to his stomach. He didn't know who was who. The local police confirmed deaths of 48 animals which included eighteen Bengal tigers, three mountain lions, nine male lions, eight lionesses, six black bears, two grizzly bears, two wolves, one macaque, one monkey and one baboon. (And continued to becounty records show at least seven citations for failing to wear a seat belt. ", Since Thompson died, Chuck Spires has been told by two people that Thompson had told them the same thing, and that he said it to the first of them before he even went to prison: "Basically, 'I should kill my wife and then me.' Where do you plan to live when you are released?At my house.Okay. "He couldn't understand," says his friend Phil Cress, "why he got taken away from his life here to be drafted to go to Vietnam. ", There were also pieces of raw chicken scattered around near the body. Given the situationfifty animals, mostly large and potentially aggressive carnivores set loose toward the day's endthings could have gone so much worse. At first the number of animals he came up with was forty-eight, but then his fiance arrived. Merry drove back up the hill, until he came across a deputy running back and forth near Thompson's driveway. TERRY THOMPSON. You had to watch where you stepped." One time Thompson offered Dr. Smith a boat for half price. Lutz instructed that if there were animals outside Thompson's property they needed to be shot. "He loved blues more than anything," says Spires. In 1997, Terry and Marian attended an exotic animal auction, from which Terry gifted an ailing baby lion to Marian as a birthday gift. When a life explodes like this, in a shower of sparks and shrapnel, people pick through the remains and see what suits them best. "See," says Spires, "that's the way he was." Nearby, they found bolt cutters and a stainless-steel Ruger .357 magnum revolver. Now, I may have talked to her a couple times on the phone. Maybe the animals had somehow busted out, and he was injured, in need of help. Apparently it worked. "When he came back, they had been changed around in the cages. They'd long known that there were strange and unusual animals kept out of sight over the brow of the hill around Thompson's houseoften they could hear lions bellow and roar. "If he liked it, he kept it. That's when Moore told Deputy Jeff LeCocq something that would later appear in the official police report and came to be taken as a kind of explanation for what had happened, albeit one that prompted many further questions. They were told that it wasn't safe for them to try to tranquilize anything because so many animals were circulating and others were scattering outward. "Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson" is a lively and insightful documentary about the late great journalist who exploded the myth of objectivity. We sent Chris Heath to Zanesville, Ohio, to find out where the wild things areand what the hell they're doing there. He seems to have lived as though there weren't a rule invented that didn't deserve a little bending. But it doesnt seem to be the case as 5,000 to 10,000 tigers live in captivity in the country, while less than 4,000 remain in the wild. Though no trace would be found of it, dead or alive, it was eventually decided that it had most likely been eaten by one of the cats. He then caught the sight of a lion, and then a bear, and soon realized what happened. But the final blow was finding out that his wife, Marian, had left him. "I was sick, shooting these animals, because they didn't ask to be there," he says. Terry Thompson sentenced to 25 years in prison for the murder of John Hernandez. "He always laughed and would be real pleasant before," says Polk. I'm Terry Gross. IE 11 is not supported. And I had to go and pick up the arm. "Some of them were untrue. Some people just said, 'Oh, that's T.' ". Unknown for sure on that. At death Terry William Thompson was five feet five inches tall and weighed 174 pounds. How could a private citizen have amassed a collection of so many unusual and potentially dangerous animals in the first place? Dr. Michael Barrie, the zoo's director of animal health, had been up at Thompson's property to inspect his large private collection of animals in 2008, accompanying an ATF raid that eventually led to Thompson's imprisonment for a year on gun charges. Three days before Thompson died, Chuck Spires, the guitar instructor, spoke with him for about twenty minutes. "Beautiful blues eyesthat's what you noticed first," says Christine Perone, who dated him for some time in high school. IMDbProStarmeterSee rank Add photos, demo reelsAdd to list View contact info at IMDbPro More at IMDbPro Contact info Agent info Known for X-Men: Days of Future Past 7.9 Six of Terry Thompson's animals survived. One detail Sheriff Lutz chose to release to the press at the time was that there was a sizable laceration on Thompson's head that was consistent with a big cat's bite. And that's when he then said, 'I'm gonna die.' Thompson was a collector of exotic animals, who grew up in Zanesville, and was well-known around the area for the wild things he did. What did he ever do to his country?" "You were able to tell that he had laid at one spot for a while and then he was dragged, it looked like by an arm, and his pants and stuff had been pulled down, and he had been chewed on. "They could only get so many on the helicopter," says Cress, "and they actually had to pry their fingers off the helicopter so they could get off the ground." Informant: You're crazy.Thompson: That's what they all say. Hanna was a trusted animal advocate, and as he emotively articulated his pain at the deaths that had taken place, his unequivocal insistence that the sheriff's department had no other option than to act as they did served as a powerful antidote to the other obvious narrativethat a thoughtless small-town law-enforcement brigade had murdered dozens of noble beasts because they were too dumb and trigger-happy to think of a better alternative. Jack doesn't need to be telling me anything. Zanesville held a special significance for himhe went to school near here, enlisted in the army here, spent his honeymoon night here. The house itself was disgusting. The miracle of the great Zanesville zoo escapewhich began last fall when a depressed, desperate man named Terry Thompson set free his vast collection of exotic animalswas that not a single. He would have no sense of 'Okay, this is too many.' T's World unpacks the events surrounding his 2011 animal release and suicide. "He had no reason why he was spared," says Cress. Frequently these are based on a confident assessment of the animals' happiness (a thorny notion), and on the pragmatic need to save animals from a place worse than where they are. And a second bear, this one much larger than the first. Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. As time passed, people got used to the way he might turn up at the local airfield, say, with a baby bear or lion. The animals were only about ten or twelve feet away. Director Dustin Rikert Writers Fred Hogge Rafael Jordan Stars Caitlin Carmichael Sydney Scotia Jerry O'Connell See production, box office & company info Watch on The Roku Channel with subscription Terry Thompson is known for Red Phone 2 (2003), The Red Phone: Manhunt (2002)and Planespotting (2005). [Talking about the property on which he lived and died]It's the high ground. "He would sometimes step on other guys' girlfriends. 'Because I can. The truth is that while, on a practical level, we may feel as though we can distinguish between better and worse owners, it is logically impossible to know for certain what the animals are thinking or experiencing. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. And there were always planes. "It stood up," says Kanavel, "and was standing there." But of course I've never killed anyone in civilian life.I understand.I don't even kill flies.Terry Thompson and a government informant in conversation at his home, secretly recorded in April 2008. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette May 14, 2012 6:27 AM ZANESVILLE, OHIO -- Residents in this small, struggling town knew a few things about Terry Thompson for sure: He was once an Eagle Scout. Though ultimately no action was taken concerning the animals after Thompson moved to improve his facilities, Barrie had been horrified at what he saw up there in terms of security, cleanliness, and animal cruelty. The only notable substance in his blood was Benadryl. For the majority of Americans who know little about the world of exotic animals, the astonishing events in Zanesville begged some obvious questions. She sounded calm when she reported what her son had seen, as though there was really nothing too strange or alarming about a lion and a bear running loose on an October afternoon in Ohio. (Tigers are reputedly worth as much as $20,000 dead when their body parts are illegally sold off.) (Everyone knows somewhere else worse.). His friends refer to other such outingsa shoot with Newt Gingrich, for instanceand say that he took animals on two different occasions to a Bloomberg corporate summer picnic in New York. The third is what happened that night in Zanesville. Thompson was a door gunner on a Huey helicopter; he told Marshall they had to soften up landing zones, drop soldiers off and pick them up under hostile fire, make emergency medical evacuations: "Dragged both bodies and wounded and maimed soldiers into the helicopter," Marshall says. The incident made global news. His son and wife were off to a literacy night so he was on his own. "But you'll know when I go.". Maybe. Here in the field. "He sold the monkey outside of the auction, because it wasn't legal to sell inside, for $3,500.". To revisit this article, visit My Profile, thenView saved stories. Since 1957, GQ has inspired men to look sharper and live smarter with its unparalleled coverage of style, culture, and beyond. What about neutering, which is now considered not merely acceptable but responsible behavior when it comes to many nonexotic pets? It is believed Thompson released nearly all of his 56 animals, following a mental breakdown which led him to take his own life. Because he wouldn't take any clothes with him." Nearly all of the exotic-animal owners I speak with, deeply skeptical of the official account, identify the same "true" culprit: animal-rights activists. "He was a broken individual," says Phil Cress. He told Spires that he was broke, that all he had was sixty horses, but Spires reassured him that he'd made money before and he could make money again. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. He never left it.". You know, Terry always had to be number onethat was Terry," she says. Personal testimonies from his closest staff and family tell a different story from the daily public barrage of criticisms by of the media. Sitting up there, rusting away, is a brand-new '34 Ford steel body. [In 1976] Terry joined the Army Everest Expedition where he met his tragic death in a crevasse accident in the Western Cwm." - Mike Banks The Climber's Club Journal (London) 1976. Director Ramon Bloomberg Writer Ramon Bloomberg There was, he told her, "a major problem." Terry became so verbally abusive to Marian. "Other things will happen, but this is never going to happen again.". Friends talk of driving to Columbus, a baby bear with them in the front cab, or having naps at his house with baby lions asleep on them. When a state patrolman stopped him for having a taillight out, this is how Thompson described to Spires what happened next: Patrolman: Oh, by the way, you don't have your seat belt fastenedI've got to ticket you for that. ", A bond that tied two people for so long can take time to break completely. Rhino experts from around the world had gathered, and the zoo was throwing a cocktail party on the grounds of the polar-bear exhibit. She was my grandmother's sister, one of ten children who grew up in Muhlenberg County Kentucky. Even when a tranquilizer dose is successfully administered it needs about ten minutes to take effect, and great care is required to establish that it has done soimpossible with so many animals running around. There are all kinds of ways that tragedy and fate can reach across decades to taunt us and trap us. "He was pretty dejected. [8] But people will believe what they need to believe. Ad Choices, 18 Tigers, 17 Lions, 8 Bears, 3 Cougars, 2 Wolves, 1 Baboon, 1 Macaque, and 1 Man Dead in Ohio. Instead, he walked over to Walmart, bought a Schwinn cruiser bicycle and rode nearly fifty miles through the rainy night along the old Route 40 until he reached his home. Terry Thompson. "Back in the '70s," says Stilwell, "if you saw him with a toothbrush in his back pocket, you'd know he was going to go somewhere. ", When Deputy Todd Kanavel, who normally heads up the drug squad, arrived at the scene, Sergeant Blake told him about the body that they had spotted. Meanwhile, at the gateway of Thompson's property, the police were wondering how many animals might be loose. After the wolf went down, Merry fired a few more times to make sure. ", Toward the end, according to Cindy Huntsman, he seemed to treat his collection of animals in the same way. So these animals were like her children. But Thompson explained how upset he was that he used to be able to go around his own private zoo and call his animals by name but could no longer do so. (Thompson was not unusual in routinely taking his cats to the vet for declawing.) Even that statistic slightly obscures the situation. The first involves his daughter and cancer. This riddle hardly bolsters any of the conspiracy theoriesif someone did this to Thompson, they too would have had to find a way of releasing the animals without coming to immediate harm (never mind to have escaped from the scene without being spotted). Friends say that Thompson loved having something that nobody else had, and he industriously accumulated objects that might fit the bill. Near 5:30 p.m. on October 18, 2011 -- the day the world's remaining wildness seemingly died in Zanesville, Ohio, of all places -- Sergeant Steven Blake, of the Muskingum County sheriff's. Her bond with them certainly seemed real. Animal attacks are terrible tragedies but so are attacks on animals and none more so than that which transpired in Zanesville, Ohio in 2011.On October 18th 2. He had been wearing a black T-shirt, blue jeans, and white briefs. Nobody yet knew where Thompson was, and so there was concern for his safety. While animal advocates have agreed that there was little the authorities could do in the matter, the brutal massacre serves as a reminder of why privately owned exotic animals are considered to be ticking bombs. I think he had a little touch of Agent Orange. It just broke my heart. Thompson's motives aren't exactly known, but he was deep in debt, had an estranged marriage and was facing house arrest after a year in prison for a gun conviction. He lived in a hardback tentyou know, a wood frame and a wood floorand apparently a monkey kinda befriended him. But I lean toward another theorythat in the end the animals were just what they've usually been in human history: incidental collateral damage. Only three weeks after getting out, he released the animals, and shot himself. I saw a pair of pants on the ground and the belt was twine. His friend got killed and I guess they're thinking, 'That could be me tomorrow.' His neighbor Fred Polk relates how two of Thompson's Rottweilers got out and killed a couple of Polk's calves. Read on to find out the details. As one friend puts it: "Who is the guy who would piss my dad off the most?" Thompson, 61, was recently released from prison after serving one year on federal weapons charges. Forty miles away, at the Columbus Zoo, an event was being held for the International Rhino Foundation. ("Ever been this close to a tiger?" By now the order had come over the radio: Put the animal down. Apply Bed Bath and Beyond Coupon and save 25% Off your entire purchase, Target Circle: up to 50% Off with Target promo code, Shop the new Polo Ralph Lauren x ASOS Exclusive Collection from $99, Michael Kors Promo Code: sign up for KORSVIP + Get 10% Off on first order, 2023 Cond Nast. "He raised Dobermans back then," says Stilwell. He and his wife liked to drive a decommissioned fireman's truck around town until one night he wrecked it. In the end, as his friends point out, Thompson was only convicted for ownership of a gun without a serial number (he said it was too old to have one) and the possession of a single machine gun. See, the guys who shot expert got killed in Vietnam.-Terry Thompson, secretly recorded in his home by a government informant, April and May 2008. It wasn't quite that straightforward. I'm Terry Gross. Unfortunately, one of the animals, a leopard-jaguar mix, was euthanized after he was severely injured from a cage door that fell on its neck. From there, he walked the fifty or so miles east to his parents' house. As Tiger King reaches its gnawing conclusion, it makes us aware that not a single animal benefitted from all the greed, rivalries and betrayals that unravel in the series. (Even Mr. Kopchak, forgotten in his barn, safely managed to make his way unescorted back to his house at nightfall.) The final total was fifty-six. The charge didn't stick. After the sheriff spoke with Hanna and talked him through what happened, he gave interview after interview. "Everything he had was fast," says Marshall. This reality is revealed to us through Zanesville Animal Escape that briefly makes its presence felt during the first half of the series. "He wanted people to know that he was there. Together, they returned to the house, finding nothing but two monkeys and a dog in cages. Forty-nine animals would be confirmed dead. "One of our vets came into the cocktail area," says Tom Stalf, the zoo's chief operating officer, "and you could see the panic on her face. [From a court deposition Thompson gave while incarcerated on March 28, 2011] Okay. And also a lioness, anxiously scuttering around. It broke my heart. Surely he must have broken every law that prevents your next-door neighbor from secretly housing an ambush of tigers? Spires says Thompson told him that he only pleaded guilty because otherwise they were also going to charge his wife as a co-owner of the property; Thompson told the judge that he pleaded guilty because he and his wife couldn't afford further legal fees. Facebook gives people the power. It kept him sane while he was there. All he remembered was the sight of the bear's head coming at him, and he also remembered what had been drilled into him at weapons training: Shoot what you see. Kopchak wasn't overly alarmed by this sight, unexpected as it was, maybe because the bear wasn't too big as black bears go, and maybe because it was running away from him. "He used to buzz my house," she says. After returning from war, Terry opened a motorcycle shop which he ran till the 90s, and then sold licensed firearms for some years. Blake drove Kanavel's Silverado crew cab, and four others sat on the bed of the truck behind him so that they wouldn't have to fire out of windows. That's where the famous, heartbreaking photo was takenit remains unclear who took itof all the bodies together in the early-morning light, the one that went round the world. And the second occurred when he was a young private owner exhibiting his exotic animals. Most seem to have stumbled into it, impulsively buying a bear or lion cub without thinking through how, as one puts it, "a year from now, it's not going to be so cuddly." "Why him? He was devastated to find the poor condition of the zoo when he returned, and was also heavily in debt. Jack Hanna's lion, at Jack Hanna's animal farm. Even if many of the animals were confused or scared, and not bloodthirsty for human flesh, some of the friendliest might have been expected to want to "play" with Thompsonand when a cat this big decides to play with you, you are in little less peril than when it decides to attack you. His friends and neighbour have revealed that he deeply loved his animals, which could explain why he set them free. He really became a hoarder of the animals. The second, bigger mystery is how Thompson managed to let loose fifty animals without being seriously injured by any of them. Fast airplanes. It was his neighbour, Sam Kopchak, who first noticed that Terrys horses were unusually agitated. The catastrophic incident that took place in Ohio should have served as a cautionary tale for others in America. Thompson did speak to other friends in those days. Some owners took food down to Thompson's property themselves, some say they contacted the sheriff's department. An insightful documentary film has just been released that reveals the true Donald Trump contrary to the constant misleading portrayals by his opposition. The common assumption after the catastrophe at Zanesville was that when it came to Terry Thompson and his animals, he must have been a terrible man doing a terrible thing. Because I can.' " Stalf, who had moved to Columbus only eighteen months earlier, didn't know who Thompson was, but others did. Terry Thompson has 36 books on Goodreads with 326 ratings. Thompson almost collapsed to his seat. Thompson apologized and told Polk that he'd never see those dogs again, but three days later they were back and killed two more calves. Actor: Murder Comes to Town. The 39th Santa Barbara International Film Festival will resume in Santa Barbara, Calif., continuing to take . She had to be convinced that the survivors should be taken to the zoo for safekeeping. (If you visit the Columbus Zoo, his face is everywhereeven on the Pepsi machines.) The guy was able to stumble to his feet and try to run, and Terry caught up to him, so at that moment he took off to run it was no longer self-defense." He was like royalty." The family stayed at the top of London's criminal tree for so long thanks to a string of extraordinary acquittals by juries. By now they had also decided that they would need to neutralize all of the animals that were loose, even those still on Thompson's property, so they formed a shooting party. Terry Thompson(XIII) Visual Effects IMDbProStarmeterSee rank Terry Thompson is known for X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Terminator Genisys (2015)and Free Guy (2021). "He never really got over it," says Marshall. He'd have a beautiful '57 or '55 Chevrolet and they'd be sitting there with half an inch of dust and chicken manure all over the top of it." The miracle of the great Zanesville zoo escapewhich began last fall when a depressed, desperate man named Terry Thompson set free his vast collection of exotic animalswas that not a single innocent person was hurt. Terry Thompson was born in Belfast, he grew up on the Castlereagh Road in East Belfast. Moore said that he had last spoken with Thompson at nine o'clock the previous evening, and that Thompson, who was 62, had told him about a letter he'd received from an unnamed author saying that his wife, Marian, had been unfaithful. He shot the lion while some other deputies shot the cougar. He had a complicated relationship with the law, and his neighbours. Mr Thompson had been released from federal prison three weeks earlier after serving a one-year term on firearms charges, according to the AFP news agency. His probation officer also visited, and Thompson told him how distraught he was at the prospect of being hooked up for a year's electronic home confinement. In 1977, Thompson went to an auction for exotic animals and bought his wife a baby tiger cub called Simba for her birthday. Ordinary Heroes. As he neared the farm buildings he saw more animals. "He always bragged," says Marshall, "that when he sold his business he had 138 motorcycles, 138 cars, and 138 guns." Red, a half-Arabian pinto, was acting skittish and had moved toward the far corner of the field. "He felt betrayed by the government, by the army, by society in general," claims Marshall. Spires mentions that one morning he found a note from Marian in his mailbox, with a stamped addressed envelope, asking if he would write to Terry in prison. Still, Lutz said he wasn't busy and would drive over. Mrs. Thompson chose the spot. I hear different versions of what was being said: dead catsa white tiger and a cougarobserved lying on the property; animals getting loose; a 2-year-old lion being allowed to run around in the open; multiple animals in such bad health that they would have to be euthanized. Where were you then? Maybe a mile away was a school soccer gamekids yelling and screaming in the open air. In the later years it became very overwhelming because Terry went a little off the deep end. 1 distinct work Similar authors. Sams 85-year-old mother, Dolores, called 911, and soon the police were in the area. Not that she was the only one who noticed. As he got out of the car, he grabbed for his rifle on the passenger seat, but it snagged on the computer stand so he left it. Terry Thompson's most popular book is The Martian Diaries: Vol.1 The Day Of The Martians (The . Select Page. But while it seems foolish to expect someone's actions on the verge of suicide to be consistent with their behavior before then, this actionthe cutting of the cagesdoes puzzle some for a different reason. When I interviewed Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson over the summer after the release of his documentary "Summer Of Soul," at the end of the. On October 18, 2011, Terry opened the cages of around 50 of his animals, and then shot himself in the head. "His eyes were just beautiful." ", "He had an ego that you wouldn't believe," says Stilwell. It was all about Terry after that. Thompson also used to insist that he never sold exotic animals, but many in the animal world are scornful at this suggestion. Thompson: It'd better not beI'd be out of the truck by now. There are no sane people that would live in those conditions.". He didn't know too much about lions, but he had heard that it was unwise to challenge them by looking them in the eye, and that if you ran away they had a tendency to chase you. But on their way back to the road, Moore spotted a body near the barn. "I don't know." But an accident happened. Patrolman: Well, sir, this is not personal. But maybe she was a little rattled. Code 16 [dead on arrival], possible 58 [suicide]. By the time the Columbus Zoo team had arrived at the holding area, it was dark. Occasionally there were reports of more unusual creatures running free but nothing too bad had ever happened. 4.74 avg rating 107 ratings published 2021 3 editions. "That's what happens when they send a guy to prison that don't deserve to go there. "There would be dogshit all over the showroom. However, it was devastating to lose so many innocent lives, especially the Bengal tigers who are an endangered species. They'd never had kids. The general impression seems to have been that it was a case of the good girl drawn to the wild boy. Hanna acknowledges that he is not universally popular for supporting what happened that night, and for supporting the laws being drafted. I mean, he was a gun man. There is a belief that unites the exotic-animal owners of Ohio: If only the right people had listened, what happened with Terry Thompsonand all the trouble now following in its wakecould have been avoided. What if some of the cats were drawn toward them? "They had split before he actually went to prison," says Huntsman. Thompson let the animals loose then killed himself. What, too, of this practice of removing cubs from their big-cat mothers soon after birth and hand-rearing them by humans? I guess I am an expert in the military. Yeah, I am. And [Terry] just really beat him up so bad. When the zoo people returned to the site at five-thirty the next morning, they had been joined by Jack Hanna. His gallbladder had been removed earlier in life, and he was suffering from severe atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. "He said, you stand in line for two hours to get to the phone," remembers Stilwell, "and then you call home and there's no answer. He had a funny look. Usually he never hesitated. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories. Soon, their collection grew into a private mini zoo as the couple took care of rescued animals, and also bought some themselves. A fully grown male African lion. He was kind of a loner. View all posts . The answer to the second question is: What laws? _Thompson: _You might as well keep writing, because when I leave here I'm not fastening my seat belt. 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