Tiger King 3? Mysterious death of Dirk Arthur, a Vegas magician specializing in tigers, has some suspecting murder or suicide
Good article from Vital Vegas about this: https://www.casino.org/vitalvegas/su...ing-questions/
Magician Dirk Arthur died on October 13, supposedly of a "heart attack":
https://www.casino.org/vitalvegas/wp...n1-845x563.jpg
However, some weird circumstances surrounding his death have some people wondering if murder was possible, or even suicide.
Dirk was a magician who used tigers as part of his act. However, he fell upon hard times when these exotic animals acts started to fall out of favor. Dirk was known to be depressed due to his declining career, and planned to leave Vegas sometime soon. He was only 63, and was found dead in his home by his "housemate", Jay Owenhouse.
Owenhouse is another Vegas magician, who is also struggling. He currently doesn't have a show, and despite his desire to do one with tigers, he was denied by Clark County to make the big cats part of his act, and claimed he plans to open a non-animal show in a tent across from Mandalay Bay.
Even stranger, Dirk Arthur sold his home (including a lot of custom enclosures for the tigers) just 11 days before his death, and the deed was filed on the day before his death. The buyer? A family trust linked to Owenhouse's former father-in-law. Owenhouse's wife died in 2009. The sale had been in the works for about 2 years before closing on October 2, 2023. The sale was at least $250,000 below market value, and perhaps more.
There was no will, and Dirk's siblings were notified by Clark County as next-of-kin, who will presumably inherit whatever assets he has left.
There is some speculation that Dirk Arthur was gay, and Jay Owenhouse was perhaps his boyfriend. A conspiracy theorist might say that Owenhouse wanted access to Dirk's compound, somehow got Dirk to finalize the sale (perhaps under duress), and then murdered him after the compound officially went under his control, so Dirk couldn't object. A more gentler explanation would suggest that Dirk was deeply depressed, sold everything to Owenhouse at a huge discount (which had been discussed but never completed), and then offed himself with pills or something else which would bring on cardiac arrest.
Then, of course, is the chance that Dirk Arthur just happened to die of a heart attack after the sale was complete, perhaps hastened by the depression of finally selling off his Vegas dream.
I think suicide is the most likely explanation. However, I don't know why he would do a sham discount sale to Owenhouse, instead of just leaving it to Owenhouse in his will. It is possible that he did the sale first, and then decided after to kill himself, unbeknownst to Owenhouse.
Dirk Arthur was not married and never had any children, as far as I know, which would give some fuel to the gay theory.
