An Ochelata man looks for justice amongst the chaos in season two of Tiger King.

Jack "Ripper" Smith (pictured right), who grew up in Pawhuska, appears as an internet sleuth in the Netflix documentary. Ripper wants to get to the bottom of the cold case surrounding Don Lewis, Carole Baskin's ex-husband. He says he is doing it for Lewis' family.

Ripper says they are still uncovering information in this case after the release of season two of Tiger King. He says they have installed another billboard in Tampa Bay.

Four billboards were put in place in Tampa last summer by Ripper and the Lewis family. Ripper says they still have the $100,000 reward for information that leads to the truth behind Don Lewis' disappearance. He says they raised that money.

Ripper is going through the phone calls from the tip line now. Ripper says over 1,000 calls have come in since the new season of Tiger King came out on Nov. 17. He says the tip line rings constantly.

As time has gone on, Ripper says it has gotten easier to hear who is honest and who is calling to prank them. Ripper says they always do their best to listen and corroborate the caller's story with what they have found or are going to fine. He says they have to be careful with what they are taking in, but they always hand over what they collect to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office in Florida.

To listen to our entire interview with Ripper, click here.

GETTING INVOLVED

After watching season one of Tiger King with the rest of the world during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, Ripper wanted to take a deeper look into the Don Lewis case, but he couldn't find anything online. Ripper says he would then reach out to people he knew that have worked on wrongful convictions in the past. He says they would create a Facebook group called "Don Lewis Cold Case Files," on April 1, 2020. 

A couple hundred people joined the group and were researching documents. Within a day of creating the group, Trish Payne, the ex-wife of Kenny Farr who served as a handyman for Lewis, reached out to Ripper for an interview on his YouTube channel titled "RipperJack Media."

Pictured left is Ripper at a press conference with the Lewis family to announce the $100,000 reward for information on the Don Lewis case.

Ripper says Payne was telling this crazy story that she knew Lewis was missing days before anyone else because her husband came home and told her that Lewis was missing and that they couldn't talk about it. He says Payne, who is also featured in the Tiger King documentary, told him that Farr came home driving a van that belong to Lewis that was later found at the airport in Tampa Bay. Not only that, but Farr had over 50 guns that belonged to Lewis.

The guns are currently being held by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. Ripper says there is evidence and police records that corroborate her story, which is when he truly got involved with the case. He says one interview led to another.

When Ripper went to Florida and began meeting with people, they showed him documents regarding Don Lewis that they were holding onto for over 20 years. Ripper says the people do not know each other, but it fascinated him to see how many individuals in the Tampa Bay area were storing boxes upon boxes of information on Lewis. He says he didn't know why they had saved these documents for so long at first, but came to the realization that there is plenty of evidence that suggests Lewis was murdered and never left Tampa.

Payne was actually interviewed by Tiger King's producers for season one, but her part was cut because they could not corroborate her story initially, which is why it appears in season two. The producers reached out to Ripper because of his contact with Payne on his YouTube channel, and because she had given them Ripper's phone number. Ripper says the guns were discovered to be at the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office (HCSO) shortly after that exchange, which made Payne's short valid. He adds that they had also uncovered some donations made by the HCSO Sheriff and his wife to Carole Baskin, which showed a conflict of interest in the case that Netflix wanted to know more about.

STEPPING ON TOES

In the documentary, Corporal Garcia with the HCSO says internet sleuths such as Ripper step on the toes of law enforcement. Ripper says he is "absolutely" stepping on their toes. He says there were times where he would be frustrated because information would come out and HCSO would show no interest in what was presented to them. 

Ripper says he would give the HCSO witnesses to contact that they never contacted until the information was thrown up in their face. He says he had a goal to put pressure on the HCSO.

Pictured right is Ripper with Don Lewis' ex-wife, Gladys Cross, at the press conference in August 2020.

One of the witnesses that Ripper interviewed was Don Lewis' housekeeper, Sandra Wittkopp, who told Ripper she had never spoken with law enforcement. Ripper says he couldn't understand why the HCSO wouldn't talk to someone such as Wittkopp that was around Carole Baskin and Lewis at least 40 hours a week.

Lewis' daughters told Ripper that they hadn't spoken with law enforcement either. Ripper says it was at that moment that he knew the HCSO needed some pressure. He says he stepped on the HCSO's toes on purpose because he wanted them to do the work that they are paid to do.

Ripper says he isn't trying to make the HCSO look bad. He says he is trying to get the HCSO to do its job.

THE RECEIPTS

During our discussion, Ripper presented receipts (pictured below) that are tied to the septic tank theory that is out there, especially in Tiger King, season one, that Joe Exotic talks about frequently. This theory suggests that Don Lewis is in a septic tank down in Tampa. Ripper says Carole Baskin has refuted the theory, saying the septic had been installed way before Lewis went missing. He says he thought nothing of the septic tank until the HCSO held a press conference and said the septic was installed after Lewis went missing. 

That got Ripper interested in this aspect of the case. Ripper says he talked to the person that owned the mobile home where the septic was built. He says the owner showed him records of when she bought it and when she got the permit for the septic to be installed.

The permit was required in June 25, 1997. Ripper says Lewis went missing in August 1997. He says he was then shown the receipts when the work to install the septic took place.

The first receipts states that the initial load of dirt was brought out on Aug. 6, 1997. Ripper says the most important receipt was dated for Aug. 14, which is the last day Lewis was seen by his secretary. He says fill dirt was brought out to the septic site that day, which is the last step the completing the project.

Ripper says the receipts confirm that Lewis could be in the septic tank. 

"TROLLING" BASKIN

There have been countless times where Ripper has tried to make contact with Carole and interview her on his podcast. Ripper says he even offered to dig up the septic once Carole said she'd allow anyone to do it if they were to install a new one. He says Carole's comment came after season one of Tiger King, but he she kept changing the rules and eventually made it a $100,000 bet.

In season two of Tiger King, Carole makes mention of Ripper and calls his a troll that has made a career out of bashing her. Ripper says this took place during a live show on YouTube with a guy he had talked to days prior. He says he gave the gentleman, Eric Hunley, a list of questions to ask Carole, and led him to talk about real estate with her.

During the interview, Ripper asked a question himself in the chat. Ripper says he wanted to know who Jamie Lewis was, because it was a name they found signed on several documents during their investigation. He says he believes it is a fictitious name that Carol used to transfer a trust or ownership of something to someone else.

Hunley took the questions and presented it to Carole. Ripper says Carole's response was funny because she said she wouldn't even talk to him because he is "a troll." He says Carole didn't even answer the question.

Ripper says Hunley followed up the question by asking Carole if she had done work with him in the past. He says Carole's response was that she had never worked with him before and that he was riding the coat tail of Tiger King.

Ripper says Carole labeled him as a troll because he called her out. He says Carole knows Jamie Lewis isn't a real person.

You can watch the interview between Eric Hunley and Carole Baskin below:

WHAT COULD BE DIFFERENT WITH TIGER KING?

Less than five-percent of what Ripper and the gang has uncovered made it into season two of Tiger King.

Ripper says he understands time constraints and production cuts, however, he thought there could've been more. He says the documentary does a decent job of covering the Don Lewis case, but there were parts in the documentary that he didn't agree with.

The Homeland Security report that stated the Lewis was alive and well in Costa Rica was a part in the documentary that Ripper didn't agree with because it was deemed that the informant was not credible. Ripper says he already knew 100-percent that the report was not legit, but it was in the show anyway. Despite this fact, Ripper says Netflix did a great job of putting information out there.

Ripper says he would have loved to have seen more of the forged documents they have uncovered in the documentary. He says the documents were connected to Don Lewis and his power of attorney.

On top of that, Ripper says he would have loved to have seen the documents they found regarding the properties that were given to Kenny Farr after Lewis went missing. Ripper says that was suspicious on its own because Farr did not manage properties for Lewis. He says Carole Baskin gave Farr three properties valued over $200,000 after Lewis disappeared. Then over the course of the next nine months, even more properties estimated over $1 million were transferred to Farr.

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Anyone who has information regarding the Don Lewis case is asked to call 646.450.6530.