The Worst Story I Ever Heard

The Davises are like any other family, only instead of a son, they raised a chimpanzee. As with Travis, the chimp that attacked a woman who's finally speaking out, for years everything seemed fine. Then something strange and horrifying happened — though not necessarily what you'd think.

The Worst Story I Ever Heard St. James Davis is crying. It's a loud, whooping wail of a cry. He's sitting in the driveway of his childhood home, a sprawling, L-shaped ranch house in West Covina, California, on a sun-drenched day last September. Standing next to him is his wife of nearly forty years, LaDonna. On the brink of tears herself, LaDonna grabs a cloth and gently cradles his cheek with her right hand. With her left, she carefully dabs at his mouth. St. James keeps his head still as she tends to him. He doesn't say a word as he calms down. He doesn't have to — LaDonna knows what he wants now that the sun is beating down on him. She grabs the beige bucket hat hanging around his neck and eases it onto his head.   LaDonna tends to St. James because he can't tend to himself. St. James, sixty-six, a former high school football star and onetime Nascar driver, is severely disabled and disfigured. There's a two-inch hole in the heel of his swollen left foot, and he is confined to a wheelchair. He has no nose, only a red, raw, exposed septum, surrounded by narrow openings. At the top are three tiny magnets designed to hold in place a crude silicone prosthesis, which is constantly falling off. His right eye is gone, replaced with glass. The skin on his face droops like candle wax because so many bones around his cheeks and eyes were broken. His mouth, which has been completely reconstructed, is stuck in a frown. On his left hand, his index, middle, and ring fingers are stumps. His right hand is much worse. He has a misshapen hunk of flesh for a thumb, which appears as if it were lumped onto his wrist with clay. His index and middle fingers are gone; his ring finger and pinkie are immobile.   But St. James's crying has nothing to do with his physical condition. He's crying because of news he and LaDonna recently received about what really can only be called their boy. At first, St. James and LaDonna were reluctant to speak about all that's happened to them. LaDonna prefers not to talk to outsiders about their life because, she says, they are so often misunderstood. Read the Full Story Our Editors Are Spending All Winter in This Cardigan Forget all those nightmarish, scratchy sweaters your grandmother foisted on you when you were but a wee child. This is not one of those. Entireworld's cardigan is made from superfine felted wool that'll more than stand up to a stiff winter breeze, but isn't so over-insulating you can't wear it inside. And though it's designed to last, you won't have to power through a break-in period before you actually want it to. This is one of those Goldilocks sweater situations: soft, but sturdy. Embrace it. Read the Full Story Matthew Rhys Is Becoming a Matthew Rhys Character What does one of the most acclaimed actors today do during a global pandemic, when most productions are shut down? If you're Matthew Rhys, you escape to the mountains with your family, you grow a beard, you drink martinis, you restore an old boat. In other words: you become the kind of man you play on the screen. Esquire Editor-in-Chief Michael Sebastian spoke with Rhys about all of it. "I've had more setbacks than the Democrats," Rhys told him. Read the Full Story The Coolest, Coziest Sweatpants on the Market Right Now From tried-and-true classics to updated takes on the style from some of the coolest labels around, there's never been more options—or a better time to be in the market for a pair of today's breed of subtly-tweaked, expertly-cut sweats. Click through to check out more than 20 of the best styles available now, and thank us later. Read the Full Story The Best Books of 2020 (So Far) Esquire's resident book expert, Adrienne Westenfeld, has done all the reading this year to determine the year's best books. There's great stuff in here, whether you're looking for a book you can't put down or a thoughtful gift for someone in your life. Read the Full Story The Best (and Best Looking) Cookware of the Year Many of us overlook how satisfying it is to use good cookware. Why rely on your mom's WWII-era stockpot when you could get a brand new, 11-piece set of cookware for $150? Seriously, you can hollow out your cabinet and start fresh for less than the price of four orders on Grubhub. We tried out all the latest cookware to determine the best so you can thoughtfully rebuild your kitchen toolkit. Read the Full Story   Follow Us     Unsubscribe  Privacy Notice   esquire.com ©2020 Hearst Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hearst Email Privacy, 300 W 57th St., Fl. 19 (sta 1-1), New York, NY 10019