St James and LaDonna Davis gained national attention in 2005 when the chimpanzee-loving couple was savagely attacked by two of the primates while visiting their cherished pet Moe at a ranch in California.
Photos of St James after the mauling — absent a foot, buttocks, nose, lips, and other body parts — shocked America. But new revelations show this was not the end of the couple’s misery and trauma.
After St James died in July 2018, LaDonna was left alone. Now new reporting from NBC News suggest the frail and confused 74-year-old was taken advantage of and fleeced by an immigrant Vietnamese businessman and a violent motorcycle gang.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars went missing from bank accounts, LaDonna’s cars and possessions were stolen, and gang members took control of her house in West Covina, in the Los Angeles suburbs.
When Gilbert Amis, a West Covina Police Department officer, visited the home a week after St James’ death from a stroke, he found the widow caked in dirt and in foul-smelling conditions.
St James brought orphaned chimpanzee Moe home from Tanzania, and the couple treated him more like a son than a wild animal
LaDonna, left, and St James Davis, lost body parts in a frenzied chimpanzee attack in 2005. Here they speak to reporters in 2008 after their ‘child’ chimp Moe disappeared, never to be seen again
‘We’ve got to get her out of here,’ Amis recalled thinking, in an interview with NBC.
LaDonna allegedly endured an extreme version of what happens to millions of seniors in the US every year: financial exploitation by heartless crooks.
It’s the final chapter in one of the most bizarre and tragic stories in modern California history.
St James was a professional boat racer-turned NASCAR driver. LaDonna was his crew chief.
They first entered the national spotlight in 1967, when St James brought orphaned chimpanzee Moe home from Tanzania, and the couple treated him more like a son than a wild animal.
Moe ate with the Davises at the kitchen table, slept in their bed, and was the ‘best man’ at their wedding.
They lived with Moe for nearly three decades until he was forcibly removed from their home and placed in a wildlife sanctuary after he bit a house guest’s finger.
On a trip to see Moe at his ranch on his 39th birthday in 2005, two other chimpanzees escaped from their enclosure and attacked the visiting couple as they served up birthday cake.
The chimps charged the couple. One bit off LaDonna’s left thumb.
St James got off worse — they gouged out his right eye and chewed off his nose, eight of his fingers, and parts of his skull, lips, cheek, buttocks, genitals, and feet.
The attack lasted for several minutes and ended when the two beasts were shot dead.
St James spent five months in the hospital and underwent many surgeries. He was severely disfigured, never walked again, and was blind in one eye.
Moe was transferred to a facility in the San Bernardino mountains. In 2008, he escaped from his enclosure and disappeared. The Davises ‘animal-son’ of 40 years was never seen again.
The Davises treated Moe as their son. He ate with them at their kitchen table and slept in their bed
During the attack, the two chimps gouged out St James’ right eye and chewed off his nose, eight of his fingers, and parts of his skull, lips, cheek, buttocks, genitals, and feet. Here he is seen returning home after months in hospital
St. James Davis, left, and his wife La Donna Davis call out to Moe, while visiting their adopted chimpanzee after he was removed from their West Covina home
They received $4 million in a 2009 settlement related to the attack, court papers show.
This helped cover the costs of St. James’ medical care, but the aging couple grew more isolated and vulnerable, haunted by the memory of Moe.
Men brought in to help manage their 1.5-acre property reportedly took their possessions.
‘She just always wanted to help people,’ said longtime friend Michael McCasland.
‘But everyone seemed to rip her off.’
The couple befriended a hard-up immigrant from Myanmar, Min Zaw Maw, and bonded over their shared love of cars.
Maw moved gear from his engineering company onto the Davises property, court papers show. He called LaDonna his ‘mommy,’ and she called him her ‘son.’
St James was hospitalized by a stroke in December 2017. The same month, a $50,000 check from the Davises made payable to May was cashed, records show — one of many suspect financial moves.
Some $260,000 was disbursed through checks or withdrawals over three months. LaDonna signed another $340,000 off to Maw, his wife, and his business, between August 2017 and December 2018, records show.
Maw has said in filings that some of that money covered labor costs for car sales.
In a brief email to The Mail, Maw said the claims against him in the NBC article were ‘false and just not true’ but did not provide further details about his relationship with the Davises.
Meanwhile, police received reports about unfamiliar people visiting the Davises home, and squatters at their second nearby property, though seemingly with LaDonna’s permission.
McCasland, their friend and a local realtor, described LaDonna as looking disheveled when he dropped in to check on them.
LaDonna altered the couple’s trust to make Maw its successor trustee and beneficiary. That sparked a legal fight between previous trustee McCasland and Maw, and mutual allegations of wrongdoing.
In July 2018, St James, 75, died of a heart attack. As the legal case dragged on, the situation at the Davises’ homes grew more chaotic. Fights broke out among squatters, 911 calls multiplied and code violations piled up.
The belkoved orphan chimp Moe acted as ‘best man’ at the wedding of St James and LaDonna Davis
LaDonna and St James Davis in July 2008 at their home in West Covina, California, talking about their love of cars and missing chimpanzee ‘child’ Moe
The couple later befriended a hard-up immigrant from Myanmar, Min Zaw Maw, who ran an auto startup
At a home visit in April 2019, LaDonna was found with spider wasps buzzing around and rabbit feces covering the floor, officials said. She could not state her age or the year, and valuables were missing.
‘She appears to be a victim of financial abuse,’ wrote Diana Homeier, an LA medical chief.
‘She clearly does not have the capacity to make decisions about her living situation, finances or personal care. Additionally, she is not able to see that she is being taken advantage of.’
LaDonna’s home was later taken over by members of the Mongols motorcycle gang, who forced Maw out, a police report shows.
A series of legal fights followed involving Maw, the new residents, who said they were LaDonna’s caretakers, and court-appointed guardians, over who was responsible for her finances and medical decisions.
Maw maintained that he had spent his own money to maintain LaDonna’s properties.
Ultimately, a court-appointed fiduciary, Brett Hitchman, sold the two properties and put the last of her cash in trusts to cover care for LaDonna, now 80, in a facility for those with cognitive issues.
A November 2022 settlement granted Maw $175,000 and LaDonna’s vehicles. The outcome raised concerns about impunity for those who exploit the elderly.
Experts say abuse cases often end in settlements because of the costs of litigation. Prosecutors are loath to bring charges because cases involving elderly and confused victims are hard to win.
‘It’s really frustrating,’ Dr Stacey Wood, a clinician with LA Adult Protective Services, told NBC.
‘If somebody kicked in a door, took a bunch of stuff and left, the police would have no trouble charging him.’
Not prosecuting fraudsters ‘leaves the criminals free to look for new victims,’ she added.