Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn were a successful act in Las Vegas, but it all ended in a few seconds of horror in 2003 when a tiger bit into Roy Horn's neck and dragged him off stage.
Now, a trusted Siegfried & Roy trainer says the truth about that night has been covered up for the last 16 years.
The duo had claimed that Horn suffered a stroke onstage and the tiger, named Montecore, actually came to his rescue. But tiger trainer Chris Lawrence and his wife, Alysha, said the truth is quite different.
They said Horn triggered the attack when he made a tragic blunder trying to move the tiger to another position on stage.
“I won’t call them liars. I'll just tell my truth,” Lawrence told Inside Edition. “Montecore leapt at Roy, swiped at his legs and took him off his feet.
“Roy's yelling, ‘Get him off! Get him off! Get him off!’ And it was about that time that Montecore bit him in the neck,” he recalled.
He believes that human error led the tiger to attack.
In 2009, Fischbacher and Horn gave a triumphant final performance for charity, claiming it was Montecore at their side, but Lawrence said he believes it was actually a different tiger.
"Visibly it didn't look like Montecore to me," he said.
He said he's speaking out now because the pair producing a Hollywood movie that will perpetuate the myth surrounding the tragedy.
Lawrence said 16 years later, he still deals with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“That’s something not only he lives with but myself our kids my family deal with,” his wife said.
Horn is now 74 and has trouble walking.
Inside Edition's calls to Fischbacher and Horn for comment were not returned.
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