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Who Is Yarri Schreibvogel, Joe Exotic’s Brother, And Why Are They Feuding?
Yarri Schreibvogel described some of the abuse he and Joe Exotic suffered at the hands of their father.
Anyone familiar with “Tiger King” would anticipate its share of surprises, but the show continues to surprise: Enter Yarri Schreibvogel, Joe Exotic’s estranged brother, sure to stir things up in season two.
In the first episode of season 2, streaming now on Netflix, audiences are introduced to Joe’s older brother, Yarri.
“Welcome to my world of bull s***,” Joe Exotic says about him from behind bars.
Of the 30+ million people who watched season one, some might recall Joe discussing Garold, his other brother who died in a 1997 car accident. Joe initially named his zoo “The Garold Wayne Exotic Animal Memorial Park” in his brother’s honor. Still few have heard about Yarri or their two sisters, Tammy and Pam.
“I haven’t seen Joe face-to-face in 20 years, and I don’t want to,” says Yarri. “Because it ain’t going to be pretty.”
Yarri makes his grand entrance into “Tiger King” dressed in flannel and sporting a rifle. He aims the firearm at a hand-drawn illustration of his brother before pulling the trigger and hitting Exotic’s head.
“Adios, Joe,” Yarri laughs. “I still got plenty of bullets.”
This will ring familiar to viewers who remember Exotic doing the same to Carole Baskin’s image.
Yarri shares childhood photos of the Schreibvogel family, claiming that as children, Joe would carry his BB gun with him to shoot at animals and then work to bring them back to life.
According to Yarri, their father put the boys to work on their Kansas farm at an early age, where they worked from morning to night. Yarri admits to “taking an a** whooping” while living with their father.
From prison, Joe Exotic alleges his strict father hit him with an irrigation shovel and nearly drowned his brother. Yarri also admits in the episode that their father tied the children’s puppies in a burlap sack and drowned them in a pond.
“He did it because he knew it would mess us up,” says Yarri.
Despite sharing a tumultuous past, the two brothers are not close. Neither one of them divulge why they’re not on speaking terms, but reasons might be gleaned from this year’s documentary, “Shooting Joe Exotic.”
In the 90-minute documentary, Bafta-winning filmmaker Louis Theroux reads from a letter sent to him by Joe Exotic that accuses Yarri of abuse.
“Ingrained in my memory forever…,” wrote Exotic, according to Digital Spy. “Being molested by my oldest brother at about five years old in the bathroom of our old farmhouse.”
Yarri denied abusing Joe as a child.
In Theroux’s special, the brothers allegedly had a falling out after Joe prevented Yarri from visiting their dying brother, according to Digital Spy. Joe referenced two psychics who claimed Yarri gave off “bad vibes.”
Another source of contention might have been a $250,000 life insurance policy in Garold’s name, according to Digital Spy. Their parents allowed Joe to take the money, which he then used to create the zoo featured in “Tiger King.”
“Joe used Garold’s death to get what he wanted,” Yarri’s wife, Wendy, said in the special.
Fans can anticipate more drama to unravel further into Tiger King’s second season, which is now available for streaming on Netflix.
