All language subtitles for How.It.Really.Happened.S05E06_English

I was onstage.

We go our show through like --
like clockwork.

King: Mm-hmm.

The tiger -- and it grabbed him
on the sleeve like this,

and Roy said, "Let go,"
and the tiger let go.

And Roy went back,
and he slipped, tripped.

Oh, he fell?
He fell.

Then what?

The tiger took Roy
on the neck,

and he pulled him
back onstage.

I say
it was an accident.

If it would be the tiger
would be out for killing Roy,

it would be in no time.

The tiger would be
not anymore.

Do think he was trying
to help him?

That's exactly
what I think.

♪♪

♪♪

Hi, everyone. Welcome to
"How It Really Happened."

I'm Hill Harper.

On the night
of October 3, 2003,

Montecore, a 380-pound
white tiger,

took down Roy Horn,
one of the Kings of Las Vegas,

shuttering the
multi-million-dollar

Siegfried & Roy show forever

and sending Roy Horn
to the trauma center

to fight for his life.

It was an event
that shocked the world,

and Siegfried and Roy
have maintained ever since

that the tiger
was actually trying to help Roy.

Tonight, we will get to the
truth of this dangerous illusion

and how it really happened
that fateful night.

Less than 24 hours earlier,

Roy Horn had been celebrating
his 59th birthday

and was on top of the world.

♪♪

Moss: Roy Horn's birthday party
was a really big deal

for the people of Las Vegas.

Hello, everybody.

Siegfried and Roy -- they were
the stars of the strip.

Everybody was happy,
and it was a wonderful time.

And he was glowing.

Thank you.
Love you all.

I remember him that night
being very joyful,

in a great mood.

There's no way that Roy
could have known

that the next day was gonna
change his life forever.

[ Sirens wail in distance ]

And now to the spectacle in
Las Vegas that ended in horror.

Entertainer Roy Horn of
Siegfried & Roy was badly mauled

during last night's performance
at the MGM Mirage.

He was attacked by one
of his famous white tigers

on the left side of his neck.

At some point, the tiger
wasn't doing something

that Roy wanted him to do.

The tiger kind of
dragged him down,

and so they were both down
on the ground.

Man: We just noticed him
pounding with his microphone

on the tiger, like, so hard.

The tiger just grabs him.

Like, it looked to be
right around here in this area.

Just locks on him.

And -- boom --
he was, like, hanging.

He looked like a rag doll
in his mouth.

I mean, that thing
just had him.

The sound of him moaning

was, like,
probably the scariest part,

'cause you could tell
that he was hurt.

And it seemed impossible --
just not possible.

Jillette: One of the things
that's such a tribute to Roy

is that he was so good at what
he did that we're all shocked.

He did an incredibly
dangerous thing

and did it with such joy,

you thought he was just dealing
with giant housecats.

Love you, Roy!
Love you, Roy!

Moss:
It was a very emotional sight

to see that many people holding
candles outside a hospital.

♪ ...his grace
will live... ♪

Reporter: He had massive blood
loss and trouble breathing.

As soon as he got here, he was
rolled into emergency surgery.

King: What's the latest,
Siegfried, on Roy's condition?

Well, I just left Roy
two hours ago.

He responded excellent.

The doctors say it's magic,
what's happening.

Moss: And when we knew that it
was a matter of rehabilitation,

we had started to hear that,

possibly, the tiger
was trying to save Roy.

It was not an attack the way --

how it always
has been described.

It was the very beginning
of how they spun the story,

how they created the myth.

Yuman:
Montecore got distracted.

Roy got distracted.

I don't believe that
this was an attack.

I don't believe
that Roy was mauled.

I don't want to say
there was a cover-up,

but there was certainly
an effort to make sure

that what happened to Roy Horn
was kept within the family.

Even to Nancy O'Dell
and "Entertainment Tonight,"

they went so far as to say
that the tiger was relieving

some sort of pressure.

This massive animal was,
in some way,

trying to save Roy Horn?

Clearly, they had a story line

for how that night happened
to Maria Shriver on NBC.

You believe that Montecore
realized you were in trouble

and just picked you up
and took you offstage for
help.

Yeah, that's how wonderful
they are.

Goldman:
How big are these canines?

I mean, they're, like --
they're big.

Like 3 inches.
Like, they're big.

Why did they, you know,
plunge that into his neck?

I couldn't begin to understand
why they would continue

to perpetuate this myth.

Baum: I think it's an accurate
characterization to say

that there was a cover-up.

Bennett: Vegas has long been a
town that protects its secrets.

Woman: Right here!
This way!

However many years it takes,

the truth should
and often does come out.

It took more than a decade

for one of the animal trainers
there that night,

Chris Lawrence, to come forward
on the "Today" show

and "The Hollywood Reporter"

and break that story line
that Siegfried and Roy

and their team
had been putting out

and try to shed some light
and some truth

on what really happened
behind the scenes that evening.

What I loved about the job most
was my bond with the cats.

Baum:
Chris Lawrence was a seasoned
trainer at the Las Vegas show.

Prior to the incident,

Chris Lawrence was very
much team Siegfried & Roy.

This is not somebody
who was a disgruntled employee

or a dissident.

The most salient fact about him

was that he was
the direct trainer

who worked with Montecore,

the tiger that was involved
with the attack that night.

Initially, they had planned
on using a younger cub,

but Chris thought,
"Why don't we use Montecore?"

Montecore was known for
being a very large cat

who could vamp
a little bit more

and was also such an
experienced, seasoned cat

that they thought,
"You know what?

There's not gonna be
any problems with this one."

Which obviously is ironic
in retrospect.

The point that I realized

that things were
kind of going sideways

was when Roy turned
Montecore around,

and he ended up with his face
in Roy's midsection.

Reporter: Lawrence, who was just
a few feet away offstage,

says he could see the cat
become confused and irritated,

knocking Roy to the ground.

Lawrence says he tried
to pull Montecore back,

but the tiger's power
threw him off his feet.

Bennett: I can't imagine
going against a power

as strong as Siegfried & Roy
to talk about something

that no one has dare talked
about for more than a decade.

Baum:
Tiger trainer Chris Lawrence
reached out to me.

"The Hollywood Reporter"
had published a report

about Siegfried and Roy's
intention to do a biopic

that was going to apparently
discuss the attack --

what he felt was
a counter-narrative to the truth

about what happened that night.

He was sick of that.

He wanted to set
the record straight.

I think it adds
to his credibility

that he went
on the "Today" show.

Reporter: Lawrence says
Roy made several mistakes

that he believes
were critical.

I think his actions

in trying to possibly
save the routine

or rectify the situation

actually ended up
complicating it.

Baum: Chris Lawrence was waiting
and watching in the wings.

Things, at times in the past,
could go wrong.

But Chris was always judging --

when was the right time
to intervene?

Because if you intervene
as a trainer,

you are cutting out
the illusion.

With the right lighting,
you build your sets in a way

where it disguises
some of the safety protocol

that's taking place --

possible cables, leashes,
ways of restraining an animal.

You just don't see it.

That's why it's called magic.

[ Applause ]

Baum: It's not very entertaining
to see somebody dressed in black

who's not Siegfried
and Roy coming in,

and it also undercuts
the master-of-illusion aspect

of both Siegfried and Roy.

It makes it look like they don't
know what they're doing.

And according to Chris,

he'd been admonished by
Siegfried and Roy in the past

for coming in
before he should have.

I won't call them liars.
I'll just tell my truth.

Bennett: Chris Lawrence gave an
interview to "Inside Edition."

Montecore leapt at Roy
and swiped at his legs

and took him
off of his feet.

How horrifying was that
to see up close?

More than I can describe.

And Roy's yelling, "Get him
off.
Get him off. Get him off."

And it was right
about that time

that Montecore bit him
in the neck.

Do you think
this was human error

that led to this
tiger attack?

Yes, I do.

Miller:
I'll tell you, when you see
an animal attacking somebody,

it's way worse
than you would expect.

There's nothing worse.

It's scary.

Baum: Chris Lawrence attempted
to grab Montecore's leash.

He briefly had it,

but then Montecore attacked
and lunged toward Chris.

Chris briefly ended up
on his back

with Montecore on top of him.

At this point,
Chris Lawrence claims

that he had
an out-of-body experience

and basically saw life
pass before his eyes.

I remember vividly thinking,
"Here he comes."

There was no telling me
he wasn't coming for me.

This is where a lot of his PTSD
comes from.

It's a salient moment
in his life.

But soon, Montecore left him

and went for the key moment
of attack, where he bit Roy

and soon dragged Roy
off the stage

with Chris running behind him.

Goldman: It's important.

I mean, it only validates
what we knew back in '03,

which was, this was not
some life-saving procedure

being done by the tiger.

Baum: Objectively speaking,

Chris Lawrence helped
save Roy's life.

He went out there in front
of a homicidal tiger

and did his level best
to stop him

and came close to dying himself.

One of Chris Lawrence's key
claims is that,

in the years leading up
to the attack,

there had been a lot less
direct contact

between Roy and all of his lions
and tigers and leopards.

That kind of contact
is throughout the day.

It's feeding those animals
treats.

It's taking them for walks.

Behavior that creates
a close companionship.

Wherever I am,
they're going along with me.

So I am sort of
their father figure.

So wherever I am,
they are comfortable.

Hello.

Baum: Chris really thinks
that this was

a heavily contributing factor
to something going wrong.

He claimed that there had been

more of a treating them
like props

than doing the inter-species
bonding that you need

in order to really have
the rapport

to successfully do
this kind of program.

After my story,

Siegfried appeared
on "Good Morning America."

He decided to hit back
on Chris Lawrence's claims.

Chris Lawrence has come forward
now, saying --

I know.

...that Roy essentially
was to blame.

Was he?
No way.

And that this story
is just a cover

to save the brand
and save the image.

What do you say to that?

Well, I feel very sorry
for Chris.

He had, in his life,
all these problems.

And he vaguely said,
"I think he had problems

he didn't know how to address."

But he had no pointed
and legitimate response

to the very specific allegations
that Chris made.

One of Chris Lawrence's
chief complaints

is that his testimony
regarding the incident

was kept separate from the USDA.

Only his supervisor's
testimony was given to them.

He believes that
that was purposeful.

Neal: We relied on the attorneys
for Siegfried and Roy

and their management to tell us
who was working that night.

And it's a shame that we didn't
get the interview

with Chris Lawrence
or his statement.

Friess: It's probably very
likely that one of these animals

had done something
very dangerous in the past,

but nobody ever knew about it.

King:
Their incredible act of illusion

has drawn tens of millions
of fans.

And they're here with us --
Siegfried and Roy.

The sad part was,
we see them on "Larry King."

We have 55 large cats.

King:
What's your insurance like?

And they're asked a question,
"Anything ever happen?"

King: You must have had
accidents.

No, actually,
we have been very fortunate.

Are you kidding me?

Smith: Just to say
that everything was fine

because no audience members
were hurt

is really an incomplete answer.

Salmoni: If you're gonna have
that many cats

working with people
every single day,

it's normal
for people to get attacked.

I've had both of my eyes bit.

I've had my cheek bit.

I've had my nose torn out.

I've been bit through my hand.

I've been clawed
through my forearm,

bit through my shoulder.

The definition of an attack
can be anything.

It's really about understanding

how close
to out of control it was.

♪♪

We were acrobats.

We were called
The Seven Alexanders.

And I was trained
from the age of 4.

The MGM, at the age of 10 --
that was my debut.

And I was so proud
to be working in the show.

It was my first time.

I was really strong.

I was vibrant,
just excited about life.

And then you had
Siegfried & Roy,

who were headlining,
in a sense.

They were kind of coming up
at that time

and becoming very popular and
becoming the stars on the
strip.

Smith:
On April 29, 1976,

as Siegfried & Roy's cat act
was leaving the stage,

Sean and his family
were about to go on.

There's a security guard,
and he says,

"You guys have to move.

They're gonna start
bringing animals in."

And I heard a crash.

And I looked.

And I'm staring
at the leopard.

The cat saw him,
they locked eyes,

and that's when Sean knew
he was in a lot of trouble.

I ran down the hallway as fast
as I could, and all it --

[ Snarls ]

...jumped my back,
and it just started biting me,

just tearing into my neck.

Rajnai:
He was screaming so hard.

I would run out and what I see
is my son.

I mean, my God,
there was so much blood.

I tried to get that animal
to attack me and let him alone.

I was pulling them both.

And I was screaming,
"Open the door."

All the dressing rooms --
they shut the door.

They were scared.

That cat was just now
holding on,

instead of chomping down on me
and eating me.

That's the only thing I can do
is grabbing his hand,

with the animal.

I was pulling them both.

My son was crying and said,
"Mama, am I gonna die?

Am I gonna die?"

I said, "No, you're not
gonna die. You're not."

Then they came and got
the animal and took it away.

And it turned around,
and it went [snarls]

and it just was full
of blood.

I mean, its face was just
drenched in my blood.

[ Monitors beeping ]

It turned out,
there was 14 bites,

14 puncture wounds
in my head.

The doctor said that I was like
that close to being paralyzed.

And I had tubes
stuck in there

so they could drain
the puncture wounds for weeks.

Yeah, it was bad.

Every little thing was,
like, excruciating pain.

It was insane.

Beside my mom
saving my life,

the only reason
that I did not die that night

was because
they'd declawed the leopard.

As it was chomping down
on me,

his instinct was to pull
and bite and pull and bite,

and if he had claws,
he would have got to my heart.

I would have been dead.

After the accident,
I was recovering and healing.

Roy never, ever came
to the door, said "Sorry."

Never did that.
Siegfried did.

He came to the trailer.

We lived in a little trailer
at the time.

He brought me a watch.

So this is what I got.

I got a watch and a box
of chocolates, okay?

Doesn't work anymore.

I still have it
44 years later.

But he came,
and he apologized.

He said he was sorry.

Obviously,
this is a big deal.

Obviously,
there's gonna be a lawsuit.

We were all sitting in the law
office for the deposition,

and he was like third or fourth
down where I was sitting.

And the attorney asked
everybody, "What do you think?"

And then Roy goes, "Yeah,
and my animal was in shock."

I tell you, the blood
just went to my head.

I got up -- I tell you,

I wanted to go and do
some scratching on his eyes.

I...I...I go crazy.

Instead of saying,
"I felt so bad for this kid,"

my child he's talking about,
but he didn't.

Just talked
about his animal.

It's just unheard of.

From our perspective, from what
happened to us, he was cold.

He was a cold guy.

Because he had no remorse,
nothing.

It screwed my life up
horribly,

because I was afraid
of everything after that.

It was psychological, man.
It was that PTSD.

It was massive for me.

Afterward, Siegfried and Roy
were, shall we say,

less than generous with
the family, with their time,

and with any kind of willingness
to settle in a genuine fashion.

There were some hardships.

You know, in the circus
and stuff,

you don't work all the time.

And I remember that we had
to dip into savings.

And then it took quite a long
time to recoup from that.

It was like $75,000
is the lawsuit we settled on,

but that lawyer's fees,
the hospital bills,

and all that, we were left
with $30,000-some

at the end of the day.

But I couldn't touch that
until I was 18.

But they flourished.
They made millions.

It hurt us.
It set us back a lot.

It did.
Nobody -- Nobody reached out.

The story was --
it was a little blurb like this.

The article was literally
less than 200 words long.

This story could have been
a national news story.

When things can be embarrassing

and that embarrassment can cause
trouble to the bottom line,

it didn't surprise me at all

that this received
very little coverage.

When something traumatic
like this happens to you,

you need to get over it.

At some point,
I got over it.

Thankfully, I went on
to be an actor.

I was able to use
these experiences

and this pain
for something good, I suppose.

I directed films.

I'm thankful that I'm able to
do
that and I'm alive to do it.

By stepping forward,
Sean can remind the press

of what its job really is.

And I saw the coverage
of Siegfried and Roy

being extremely soft --
that there were no accidents.

You can't keep the truth
covered.

Never.

It always prevails.

Briscoe: They know the truth,
and so do we,

that there was other things
that have happened,

and I have my dad
to show that for the truth.

Welcome back to
"How it Really Happened."

Siegfried and Roy's story

about their unblemished
safety record

was, as it turns out,
an illusion.

We requested an interview
with Chris Lawrence,

but he said he would no longer
speak about it publicly

because it triggered his PTSD.

But we found someone else.

In his first national television
interview, Charles Flannery,

who worked as a stagehand
for Siegfried and Roy

and did some carpentry
for them on the side,

reveals that he was attacked
while working at their home

by a white tiger named Magic.

Briscoe: When I hear
that Siegfried and Roy say

that nothing else
ever happened to anybody else,

it's like them ignoring my dad.

That's like saying,
"You don't exist."

Flannery:
In October 30, 1985,

I was attacked by one
of Siegfried and Roy's tigers.

We was working over
at Siegfried and Roy's house

and we were building
an ice cave.

I picked up the tools
and was going home.

Siegfried -- I don't know
where he was,

but he had a cat out,
walking it, talking to my buddy.

Roy was holding the leash,
and the leash was let go.

And the next thing they know,

the tiger had jumped on
my dad's back and bit his neck.

Flannery:
I didn't know it till I felt
the hot breath on my neck.

I hollered at Roy,

and he came immediately
and got the cat off me.

Briscoe: He had his left carotid
artery completely severed,

and his right carotid artery was
punctured by the tiger's tooth.

Due to the severed artery,
he ended up stroking,

and that's usually
what causes paralysis --

and puncturing the vertebrae
in the back of the neck, too.

They had him in
a medically induced coma.

Flannery: When I woke up, it was
about December the 24th.

It was pretty soon after
I came out of the coma,

I more or less came to terms
that I couldn't move.

Siegfried and Roy came
quite often

to the hospital to visit me.

The visits were kind of somber.

Roy was grieving
over what had happened.

Siegfried was more just trying

to keep control
of the situation.

I believe that Siegfried
was angry at Roy

because the whole situation
of my dad being attacked

and Roy
letting the tiger loose --

he probably felt that
it shouldn't have happened.

Flannery: They said nobody else
ever got hurt.

I'd probably disagree with them
on that one.

I was in the hospital
for six months.

And it left me paralyzed
on both sides, partly,

in different ways.

They really never
asked me to not say anything,

but I knew that
they didn't want me to.

It meant a lot to their show

that anything I said
might cause difficulty for them.

In my knowledge,
Siegfried and Roy

have never discussed
these incidents in public.

I believe there's
a nondisclosure agreement

that was signed
between Siegfried and Roy

and my parents.

Flannery: I signed an agreement
with Siegfried and Roy

that I wouldn't discuss
any of the financial orders

that they did for me.

Neal: I would imagine that
if they settled out of court

and nobody ever
reported it to USDA,

USDA would never have
found out about it.

Flannery:
Roy is still out advertising
they don't bite people,

but they do.

You're talking about
a wild animal.

Moss: So, they did admit
to Diane Sawyer in 1996

that Siegfried was injured
by one of the big cats.

You had a chunk of your arm
taken out by a lion, right?

Yes. It was not a chunk.
It was just a --

33 stitches?

It was a nip, yes.

But we had, at this time,
an illusion

where Roy changes to a lion,
and I open up the cage.

And to make it look
very ferocious,

so I had a lot of wrestling
with the lion.

And went too far
with going with playing.

I just got
too carried away.

Not one of them has ever
really turned on you?

No, I guess
I'm very fortunate.

At some point, once a month,
I'm sure, one of those cats

started escalating
his aggression.

Roy would have seen it
and either get a trainer

to get it off or figure
out a way to manage that

so it doesn't become
a dangerous situation.

That is the skill.

Miller: The longer you work
with dangerous animals,

the odds go up that
a potential problem could occur.

I've been bit a few times.

So you do this for 10 years, 20,
30 years,

you're pushing the envelope.

Something's gonna happen
at some point.

It's not if.

It's when.

Salmoni: I was in a live show
with my lion,

who loved audiences, loved me.

He did the same show
three times a day.

I spent 13 hours a day
with that lion.

For months, three times a day,

he would walk past
this little red carpet,

and that day,
he wanted to grab it.

When a lion is possessive --
or a tiger --

they will kill anybody
or anything they think

that could take
that thing from them.

He was growling at me,
whipping his tail at me,

showing me
all the body postures of,

"This is mine, Dave!"

He continued his charge
far enough back

that I ran out of room.

And he broke my rib cage.

He was about to lunge
for my throat,

so, instead,
I put my arm in his mouth.

He was thrashing to try
and get me off my feet,

so the muscles tore
out of my forearm,

instead of him being able
to keep control of me.

I told the story at least
10 times to 10 different people

within the 24 hours
of me being attacked

to when I first saw the video.

You'll see there was a woman
onstage with me,

who was my backup.

Her story was different
than my story,

my story was different
than her stories,

and both of our stories
were different

from what we saw on camera,

because your memory in
these adrenalized situations

is not correct.

I talked to as many
as I possibly could,

and I heard the same story.

And that story was not
what Siegfried and Roy claimed.

It was a very simple story.

The tiger seemed
to get antagonized

and went for Roy's neck.

Roy was being picked up and
tossed around like a rag doll.

And then they went offstage.

Observing the video
of the attack

on Roy Horn on October the 3rd,

there's no doubt in my mind
that this tiger attacked Roy,

and Montecore
was just being a tiger

and didn't want to play anymore.

He was actually attacking.

Bennett: It was a huge
cultural phenomenon.

Everyone was talking about it.

Everyone wanted to know,
"What went wrong?"

Siegfried and Roy -- the tiger
bit the man in the head.

And everybody's mad
at the tiger,

talking about
the tiger went crazy.

That tiger ain't go crazy.

That tiger went tiger!

Baum:
If "A tiger's gonna tiger,"

as Chris Rock
infamously said months later,

that doesn't go with
the illusion, really,

that they had spent so
many years carefully concocting.

Salmoni:
Why this night?

If he's hugged and kissed Roy
for seven years,

why now all of a sudden?

Baum: So, MGM taped
their performances,

and MGM allowed the USDA
investigators

to look at the video, but they
couldn't take possession of it.

We had to make appointments,

and we had to do it behind
closed, locked doors.

Observing the video...

...Roy tried to get Montecore
to lay down

and tapped him
with the microphone.

Montecore grabbed his hand.

Roy kicked him with his boot
because he was going after him.

And then the cat grabbed Roy
by the neck

and drug him off the stage.

I remember seeing someone
run to the curtain

and start grabbing Montecore,
trying to get him off of Roy.

The only other USDA inspector
in Vegas who saw it said...

The investigators themselves

couldn't definitively say
what had happened, right?

Because there was
a primary witness,

and it's a tiger,
and it doesn't talk, right?

But there aren't many stories,
in tiger terms,

that would make sense.

Bennett: Siegfried and Roy
always stuck to their story --

Montecore was protecting Roy.

Salmoni: These animals are not
like domestic animals.

They just don't have
that kind of behavior in them

to try and save somebody.

It's, like,
against their instincts.

I'm a zoologist, animal trainer.

I trained captive tigers
how to hunt.

And I've introduced myself
into numerous prides of lions.

I've had big cats in my life
for the last 20 years or so.

So, the story of protection
doesn't add up

in any way at all.

In this case, you can't say
an animal's protecting you

if he's sunk his teeth
into your body.

Montecore gets up,
cool as a cucumber,

leans over,
and picks up Roy like a cub,

on the right side
of his neck.

The tiger knows
how to use his teeth.

I know that one of the canines
went through his scapula.

To bite someone through their
scapula takes so much pressure.

That tiger knows exactly
what he's doing.

And, clearly, evolutionarily,

tigers have to know how much
pressure to use in their jaw

to carry around a little cub.

They're fragile
when they're born.

And the mother,
who can kill a buffalo,

walks around with them
in her mouth all the time.

Bennet:
Roy maintained this idea of
a nurturing male tiger to ABC.

So you think that he picked you
up as tigers do their cubs.

With the cubs, yeah.

Miller:
Dad is never around the cubs.

He'll eat the cubs.

Mom will kill Dad
and keep Dad away from cubs.

So Montecore, a male tiger,

would never be walking
a cub around,

because males aren't
in that situation.

There's no stories that add up
as easily as

tiger just wanted to challenge
for dominance that night.

We know Montecore was 7.

We know for sure, at 7,
that's the prime of their life.

You're the dominant one
in its life, and one day,

it wakes up with just
a little bit more testosterone

than it had yesterday,

and, "Now that I'm the big,
strong tiger,

you're not gonna tell me
what to do."

But, as a human, you won't have
seen the difference

between Tuesday and Wednesday.

King: And these tigers
can be dangerous, right?

Tigers can be --
of course.

It's a 650-pound --

you know,
and they're very demanding.

It's a very demanding --
as you know --

They go where
they want to go.

Salmoni: Very likely, the tiger
was challenging for dominance.

Roy accepted that challenge
by bopping it on the nose.

Then the tiger escalated, which
was very normal tiger behavior.

He says, "Well, if we're gonna
fight, we're gonna fight."

Once the challenge was accepted,

the tiger escalated
into a bite up here.

As soon as the tiger bit Roy,
Roy somehow got underneath him.

Once Roy stops fighting back,
the fight for dominance is over.

The tiger is now dominant.

He's won that fight.

"I'm the boss now."

Once they get ahold of
something, including a person --

and even someone they love --

they will become possessive
over it.

And the longer they possess
this thing,

the more dangerous they will
become, and they become deadly,

and they'll hang on as hard
as they have to.

They won't let it go.

And then it's on.

That tiger will fight
to the death to not give up

whatever he's got ahold of
and is possessive over.

It's just the way they are.

Roy's a handler, not a trainer.

So he's got his actual trainers
in the background somewhere,

and they're gonna be
coming out to try

and take Roy from him.

So that's when all
the possessive behavior

is gonna start coming on.

At that point,
according to Chris,

there was a continued mayhem,
where Chris' supervisor,

the head
of the animal-handling team,

had to move into, essentially,
a jaw-opening exercise

that they had practiced
in the past

where both index fingers
are put inside of them

in order to get their mouths
to open up.

Someone did grab the tail,
tried to pull Montecore,

and they had another individual

trying to pry Montecore's teeth
from Roy's neck.

I believe it was
a fire extinguisher

that actually got him to let go.

Baum: They were able to work
on Montecore,

walk him into circles,
and calm him down,

and separately drag Roy
into another area offstage

and begin
administering first aid.

In my opinion,
it was not a stroke.

It was an attack on Roy
from Montecore.

And I still stand by that.

There's truth in illusion
to them,

and saying that Montecore
didn't attack Roy

but was actually trying to
help him is itself an illusion

in the tradition
of Siegfried & Roy.

Horn:
This is the white-tiger cub.

They are already -- the species
was extinct in the wild.

And it's Siegfried
and my biggest goal --

to save this white tiger.

Friess: Siegfried and Roy
positioned themselves

as these saviors
of a rare species

that was somehow losing
the survival battle in the wild.

That claim itself was a lie.

The white tiger was not
a separate species of any sort.

Salmoni: White tigers are just
a genetic recessive gene

that affects the coloration
of the cat.

Being white in a jungle
isn't gonna help you hide

and sneak up on things.

Friess:
And the effort to save them

was actually an effort
to inbreed them.

Because of the recessive genes,

they had to breed them within
very close family relatives.

Many of the animals that
are born have all kinds

of genetic problems --

cleft tongues and scoliosis
and other medical conditions.

It's not this great, heroic feat
to save the white tigers

when you're breeding an animal

that you are deliberately
risking genetic chaos for.

♪♪

Basically, we have our own
breeding program.

The white tiger was already
extinct in the wild.

We work to get them
at different zoos.

Salmoni:
There is no genetic benefit,

from a conservational point
of view, to saving white tigers.

This is a happy day
for Siegfried and Roy.

I think that what we need
to be concerned about

is genetic diversity,

which is the opposite of what
comes with a white tiger.

They felt that it was
sort of a lie

for a kind of a higher purpose.

One of the most important things
for public figures with wildlife

is to impress upon people
how amazing animals are.

People have to get involved
and to appreciate nature,

because when they appreciate
nature, they can defend it.

Then after you see how beautiful
this tiger is or this lion is,

regardless of the color,
that's how you motivate someone

to becoming interested
in conservation.

I really felt like they,
over the years,

did a great job bringing
awareness to tigers in general.

Bennett:
Montecore was not put down.

He lived on Siegfried
and Roy's properties.

He continued to be cared for.

He was still very much loved,
as Roy told Maria Shriver.

Roy, I know you see
Montecore every week.

Yes.

How would you describe your
relationship with him today?

He's my baby.

You're not mad at him?

No.
He saved my life.

I think what's more important
here is,

you know, these
are alternative facts.

It's a distortion
of what really happened,

and it undermines the truth.

Miller: They believed that was
the way to protect Montecore,

and I really think that
that's where it all came from.

But I think the truth
is more important.

It doesn't bother me, even as
a journalist, if they needed to,

in some way, tweak the story
a little bit in their favor,

because they are an institution

and they had had successes
for so long with wild animals.

Clearly, they had a story line
for how the attack happened,

how the accident happened,

because that's what
I believe Roy believes.

There could have been a very,
I think, impactful

and important discussion
about how, you know,

man and beast are allowed
to entertain together.

[ Vocalizing ]

And I think that did
a disservice

to the animals in a way.

Roy Horn has a responsibility
to explain

to people that hugging
and kissing tigers is wonderful,

but they're terrible pets.

You know, we take the chances.

We walk them on leashes.

They haven't evolved to walk
on a leash.

They haven't evolved to hug
and kiss me.

These are wild animals,
and we are willing

to take the risks
because we love it.

The real story should start
with these are not pets.

These are wild animals
doing wild-animal things.

Bennett:
In 2014, Montecore died at the
Secret Garden at the Mirage,

after a relatively long life --
17 years old.

And on ABC, Roy Horn admitted
how different his life is now.

Well, yeah, there's a little bit
of a setback now

because of my condition.

I'm not that quick
like I used to be.

Bennett:
Siegfried and Roy came together
in 2009 to do a final act,

and it was the first time
since the accident

that they performed.

And although it was heroic
and he had trouble walking,

it was that sad happy
that you sometimes get

when you see
something like that.

You're so happy that
the person is alive

and there and standing
before you,

but you're so sad

that they're so different
from what they were.

By sticking to their story

that Montecore was protecting
Roy Horn

on that fateful October night,

Siegfried and Roy may have
perpetuated the myth

that tigers
can make loving pets.

The proliferation of tigers
in captivity continues

to be a national problem,
with an estimated 7,000 tigers

owned privately
in the United States --

more than those living
in the wild in India.

We reached out numerous times
to Siegfried and Roy,

their former manager,
Bernie Yuman, Steve Wynn,

Feld Entertainment,
and MGM Resorts.

They all declined to comment.

Roy Horn only performed
publicly again one final time,

in 2009, to benefit
the Lou Ruvo Brain Institute.

Despite his impaired speech
and major physical challenges,

he pushed himself every day to
communicate and to keep moving.

But, sadly, in April 2020,
his publicist confirmed

that Roy Horn had
tested positive for COVID-19.

And on the 8th of May 2020,
the real tiger King of Las Vegas

lost his fight against COVID-19.

The legendary Roy Horn
was 75 years old.

Thanks for watching.

Good night.