Nearly all of the exotic-animal owners I speak with, deeply skeptical of the official account, identify the same "true" culprit: animal-rights activists. The third is what happened that night in Zanesville. Usually he never hesitated. 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 I invite you to click around the site right now and come back . An African lioness crawled under the livestock fence and ran south down the road then headed toward someone's home, so he shot her before she could go farther. "He never really got over it," says Marshall. 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. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. "And he always used to say, 'I don't like animals but I would never hurt one. The strange truth is: Nobody knows. [7] In the years leading up to his death, he went to prison on federal gun charges, was heavily in debt, and his wife had left him. His gallbladder had been removed earlier in life, and he was suffering from severe atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. "Beautiful blues eyesthat's what you noticed first," says Christine Perone, who dated him for some time in high school. Terry Thompson, a Vietnam War veteran, was a lifelong collector of exotic animals. In the later years it became very overwhelming because Terry went a little off the deep end. The lion was in the same place as a moment ago, still on the other side of the fence, though it was quite obvious that the animal could get over the fence anytime it wanted to. 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. Thompson seemed to need help, so Stilwell took up his Echo Weed Eater, and his lopper for the thicker growths, and his portable air compressor to pump up the flat tires of Thompson's Dually truck. "His eyes were just beautiful." "I asked him what he was going to do when they turned the key on him," says Spires. Select Page. But people will believe what they need to believe. Sams 85-year-old mother, Dolores, called 911, and soon the police were in the area. Cages only lead to more cages, unless a far worse reality awaits them. "Everything he had was fast," says Marshall. Want to Read. The 73 acre farmland with the private zoo was owned by Terry Thompson. In 1997, Terry and Marian attended an exotic animal auction, from which Terry gifted an ailing baby lion to Marian as a birthday gift. First they had to deal with a male African lion that managed to run between some junk cars after the first shotthere were dozens and dozens of old cars and RVs and tractors parked in clumps of rusted metal around the hillside, weeds growing around them. It broke my heart. By Ryan Gajewski Staff Editor, Digital "I'm not gonna lie, it . The Mexican cartel. He was upset with the army because he saw some horrible, ugly things." Every human who interacts with an animal and then makes claims about what that interaction means to the animalin backyards or zoos or even on the plains of Africais making a claim neither they nor anyone else can verify. After the wolf went down, Merry fired a few more times to make sure. On one of his last visits, Stilwell walked around the animal cages with Thompson. "And, you know, I'm a cat person.". ), Thompson flew regularly for a local millionaire, including a vintage World War IIera Stearman biplane, and also kept some of his own planes on the Kopchak Road propertyhe had the electric company move the power lines so that he could take off and land there. 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. There was now only one unaccounted fora macaque. The charge didn't stick. It was also in Zanesville where he met his wife, Marian Sharp (Thompson), for the first time. (And continued to becounty records show at least seven citations for failing to wear a seat belt. "He wanted people to know that he was there. Those around him believed that he was changed man after he returned from war, that he never fully recovered from its trauma. It was presumed that the remaining two animals were eaten by some of the bigger ones. Perhaps it was the first of many telltale signs that Thompson, man of so many friends, didn't call anyone. There are no sane people that would live in those conditions.". From award-winning writing and photography to binge-ready videos to electric live events, GQ meets millions of modern men where they live, creating the moments that create conversations. 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. Maybe there's a letter or a note that explains it all. Mrs. Thompson chose the spot. His farm was reportedly raided June 2008 . "Kind of classyyou know," says Jim Stilwell, a longtime friend of Thompson's who went to school with Sharp. They were circling, and in the center of their troubled orbit there was some kind of dark shape. ", "He had an ego that you wouldn't believe," says Stilwell. The previous day he was doing an event at Penn State, and although he'd just had knee surgery, he drove straight here "a hundred miles an hour." What did he ever do to his country?" It was so bad one time, he ran out of bullets.". His son and wife were off to a literacy night so he was on his own. This is a [Mannlicher-Schoenauer]see the twists in the barrel.I do see that.Okay, hand built in Austria. An insightful documentary film has just been released that reveals the true Donald Trump contrary to the constant misleading portrayals by his opposition. The government stole his heart. Carried herself gracefully. Partly, I think, they talk because they're proud of what they do and the way they do it, but it's also because their way of life is under attack. Hanna acknowledges that he is not universally popular for supporting what happened that night, and for supporting the laws being drafted. Likewise, there is wide disagreement about what kind of human intervention or interaction can be beneficial or justified. He said he didn't have any control over it. As for what actually happened on that day in October, I hear all kinds of theories, though most of them sound recklessly far-fetched. "That's when Terry actually goes to [Moore] and asks him about Marian having cheated on him while he was in prison," says Deputy LeCocq. Zanesville held a special significance for himhe went to school near here, enlisted in the army here, spent his honeymoon night here. TERRY THOMPSON. And he said, 'Well, I got through Vietnam' ", When John Moore told the police about a letter accusing Marian Thompson of adultery that Thompson had received on the day before his death, the implication seemed to be that he had received some fresh, devastating news about his marriage. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories. "Very depressed. You finally just stop.". He had been wearing a black T-shirt, blue jeans, and white briefs. And you've not spoken to your wife since her deposition [five weeks earlier]?No. She would explain that she had spent $30,000 buying them, and that she used to sleep with the young female. ", "I think he knew when he did what he did that he was going to put himself and Zanesville, Ohio, on the map," Stilwell says. Thompson let the animals loose then killed himself. By the time the Columbus Zoo team had arrived at the holding area, it was dark. Thompson's wife, Marian, arrived around lunchtime. Jack Hanna's lion, at Jack Hanna's animal farm. Merry didn't know what was going on, so he stopped. "If he liked it, he kept it. After that, Merry went back for his rifle. Then he turned back, intending to deal with a black bear and a tiger along the roadway, but he was distracted by a cougar heading south, so he followed the cougar into another driveway where he met a male African lion coming the other way. ", Many of Thompson's friends believe that his time in Vietnam was the defining experience of his life. It's hard to tell whether Thompson pushed his luck more as he got older, or whether he couldn't (or wouldn't) adapt as the looser times of his youth tightened up, or whether his luck just ran out. Since 1957, GQ has inspired men to look sharper and live smarter with its unparalleled coverage of style, culture, and beyond. Ordinary Heroes. 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. And the second occurred when he was a young private owner exhibiting his exotic animals. "He used to buzz my house," she says. Without a USDA license, he wasn't allowed to supply animals for photo shoots and commercial events, though he sometimes got around it by using fellow owner Cindy Huntsman's animals and accreditation. In Taft's living room, a fence was built around his couch, and that is where he spent most of his time as he recuperated: safely inside a cage inside his own house, man looking out, tiger looking in. "You got cancer or something? After the sheriff spoke with Hanna and talked him through what happened, he gave interview after interview. Maybe something went very astray with Terry Thompson, and so of course it is now in the interests of the other owners to draw a firm line between what he did and what they do, but my hunch is that if one had visited him a few years ago, he would have expressed the same love and care and concern for his animals, and done so with conviction. He reported back to the sheriff that, whether the body was Thompson's or someone else's, it was deceased. John Moore mentally ran through the rows of cages he would feed. "He had accused her of turning him in for the guns. And I had to go and pick up the arm. How could a private citizen have amassed a collection of so many unusual and potentially dangerous animals in the first place? Terry Thompson was born in Belfast, he grew up on the Castlereagh Road in East Belfast. And he never differentiated between themhe kind of liked the notoriety." . Aunt Iris was old the day I met her, or so it seemed. "There was never just one girl in his life," she remembers. Bob Thompson Trailer from Jeffrey Cooper on Vimeo.. Facebook; Twitter; RSS; Designed by Elegant Themes | Powered by WordPress IMDbProStarmeterSee rank Add photos, demo reelsAdd to list View contact info at IMDbPro More at IMDbPro Contact info Agent info Known for Red Phone 2 5.7 TV Movie Writer 2003 The Red Phone: Manhunt 4.2 TV Movie Writer 2002 Planespotting 6.5 He was kind of a loner. He had a complicated relationship with the law, and his neighbours. I also hear about how Thompson would tell people he had slept together with his big white tigerthe same one, presumably, that was with him at the end. 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. 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. Only then did she call 911 and alert the world. He only looked back once, when they were about a third of the way to the barn. "My father didn't like animals," she told me. And there was the lion he had seen before, now pacing back and forth. "There would be dogshit all over the showroom. It was decided that the dead animals be buried, there and then, on the property. These days many exotic-animal owners have learned to keep what they do to themselves, to avoid the unwanted attention of unhappy neighbors, animal-rights activists, and journalists who treat them as scary eccentrics or worse. It was beyond anything that you would ever want to experience. It was very sad to seehow someone clearly had lost their mind. Where they should have been, there was nothing but a raw gap. "Betrayed by his family. "See," says Spires, "that's the way he was." 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. At first the number of animals he came up with was forty-eight, but then his fiance arrived. He had acted as an animal handler on Wild Kingdom in 2008, and provided a lion cub to a photoshoot with Heidi Klum. 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. "I was sick, shooting these animals, because they didn't ask to be there," he says. (Everyone knows somewhere else worse.). "When he would go into the house another buddy would hold an M16 out, protecting him, and then when he came out he would hold the M16, protecting his buddy. "My father's gun," he told a government interviewer, "brought home from World War II in Germany, never been shot, never been cleaned, never been handled." The white tiger was atop him. As for the enemy: "He said he just had to keep mowing them down. Their assumption was that he had been thinking about the animals, and they couldn't work out his train of thought. As they pulled up between the barn and a row of cages, two tigers started out of the barn toward them. One was that he had gone under the interstate bridge where it crosses the Muskingum River in the middle of Zanesville. I don't know what happened to it when he left.". ", Toward the end, according to Cindy Huntsman, he seemed to treat his collection of animals in the same way. When the owners I meet with talk about the proposed new laws (which, in their most inflexible draft versions, would effectively close down everyone in Ohio whom I speak with, and so would inevitably lead to massive animal euthanization), there is one other common target of their ire, aside from Terry Thompson: Jack Hanna. Terry Thompson died under the most dramatic of circumstances. Terry William Thompson grew up just east of Zanesville on his parents' farm, close to the airport. Smith asked why it was only half price. Only once you slide up and down these slippery moral slopes can you see how much easier it is for all of these owners to believe that they are acting with kindness to animals that they love, and that their love is on some level reciprocated. ". We sent Chris Heath to Zanesville, Ohio, to find out where the wild things areand what the hell they're doing there. GQ may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. "It's only half a boat," Thompson explained. Soon after, he bought himself a brand-new Corvette. View the profiles of people named Terry Thompson. He would have no sense of 'Okay, this is too many.' And sometime in this period, Marian told Sam Kopchak that Terry was giving guitar lessons behind bars. 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. So these animals were like her children. He shot the lion while some other deputies shot the cougar.