While Roy remains in critical condition, the USDA launches an official inquiry into the tiger attack. An investigator for the agency pursues an elusive videotape of the incident. Wild Things: Siegfried & Roy is an Apple Original podcast, produced by AT WILL MEDIA. Listen and follow on Apple Podcasts. Apple.co/Wild_Things
It's April 3, 2002, and families are lining up outside a big carnival like attraction at the Cielo Vista mall in El Paso, Texas.
From what I remember, it was out in a parking lot.
They've all bought tickets.
To do something special.
You had to go inside of a cage.
I was sitting in a chair.
I believe from my recollection that the cat was in a cage right to the side of where you sat down and got your picture taken.
But this one was.
He wasn't a cub.
That sucker probably weighed about maybe 400 pounds.
Handlers lead the tiger towards the man, and he has handed a baby's bottle filled with milk.
I would say that was the largest thing that ever sat in my lap.
Let me pull up, see if I've got a copy of that picture.
In this snapshot, a tiger completely dwarfs the man.
His name is David Neal.
In the photograph David emails me, he looks like an average 50 something, wearing khakis and a blue Oxford shirt.
But nobody at this traveling exhibit knows his true identity.
They had no idea that I was working undercover as an investigator for USDA.
You got to do what you got to do for the job at the time.
Ladies and gentlemen, the superstars of magic.