I’m sure most people know the story of the Tiger King, a documentary series which became required viewing last year around the world when many countries went into lockdown. The series followed Joe Exotic, a flamboyant character who ran a big cat attraction and ended up behind bars for some of his questionable life decisions.
Season 2 of the show is now out, and I’ve been watching it recently. Given that Joe Exotic ended up in jail at the end of season 1, season two aims its focus elsewhere - concentrating on the disappearance of Carole Baskin’s husband Don Lewis, over 20 years ago.
In the middle of the season, Don’s now middle-aged children are shown trying to find out what happened to their father, employing a gimmicky lawyer and a conspiracy minded internet sleuth to help them. But one person in particular caught my eye - Troy Griffin, a psychic:
That’s a mouthful - "Christian Clairvoyant Empathic Psychic Medium". Troy apparently uses remote viewing, and for murders can use this "skill" to find locations of interest.
From what I’ve found online (opens new window), Troy claims that he works for police departments, charging up to $250 an hour. He told ABC news, who interviewed him as part of a story of a missing pregnant woman, that his success rate is around 20% (which is interestingly a lot more humble than many psychic detectives), but when pressed by ABC to give one example that they could look into, he couldn’t even manage to name one. The news company contacted the police about the pregnant woman case, to hear from them about Troy’s claims of being involved in the investigation, but the police said they had had "no official contact" with him and were unaware that he was involved at all.
In front of the cameras for season 2 of the Tiger King, Troy went looking for the place where Don was supposedly killed. When he finds what he thinks is the location, he talks of feeling "bad juju" and then he starts retching and becomes visibly upset - so much so, that the daughter of the deceased man has to comfort him.
To me, this is the absolute pits. I’ve always liked using the term grief vampire to refer to psychics, but to pretend that you’ve psychically connected to a traumatic event, and then play-act that you are affected by this trauma to the extent that a grieving family have to comfort you, is taking it to another level. This man had the nerve to appear on camera feeding on the emotions of a missing, possibly murdered, man’s children, getting them to give him attention and sympathy for his fake emotional state. Ugh.