FESTUS, Mo. – A man villainized for shooting an escaped chimp on his property in 2001 is called a “hero” by some today.
He’s also responsible for the start of our coverage on a chimpanzee compound, which led to the national docuseries, “Chimp Crazy.” He did not make the cut in that program, despite his extraordinary story.
We first brought reports about the Festus chimpanzee compound and Tonia Haddix in 2020—because a man named Jason Coats tipped us to a chimpanzee escape.
He was convicted as a felon in 2001 for shooting an escaped chimp that ran onto his property when he was 17. It was an incident we interviewed him about in 2009 when Coats described the escaped chimp as “rocking the car back and forth, windmilling on the windows.”
He credits his dog Lucky with saving his life and the lives of his friends with him at the time. He said his dog distracted the chimp named Suzy, until he says the chimp threw his dog like a rag doll. Coats then shot the chimp.
“It was to the point where I couldn’t really even go to Walmart without getting cussed at. I couldn’t go out in public. They contacted my teachers at school,” he said.
He said the chimp’s owner, Connie Casey, took out a newspaper ad, “Make sure Suzy’s killer is punished!” along with a sign in her yard with Coats’ address.
“Nobody would believe me because they were adults and had these cool animals, and they did things that were in the public eye, and I was just some kid that was forced into a bad situation and had to defend myself,” Coats said.
It’s surreal to his son Jason, who was not yet born but heard the stories later.
“It was almost like a bedtime story after I heard it so many times,” Coats Jr. said.
Now, at 21 years old, he says he couldn’t talk about it for years.
“I remembered being a kid and saying, ‘That’s so cool, I want to tell my friends about it,’ and him… saying, ‘No! Don’t tell anyone about it. Don’t even tell your best friend about it,’” Jason added.
Coats Sr. added, “When I was convicted, the judge told me that he thought I had the potential to be a future serial killer and if he could give me more time, he would.”
He spent 30 days in jail and missed out on the birth of his older son.
In 2021, we reported on Coats’ success getting his felony record expunged, which happened within months of the federal raid on the Festus chimpanzee property.
Yet, his story did not make the cut in the chimp crazy docuseries, so we recently posted his story on social media. It’s received more than 120,000 views on TikTok alone, with overwhelming surprise and support for Jason Coats.
“It almost makes me emotional to go from being such a villain to having people around the world being like, ‘You got totally screwed over, man,’ and I’m glad that people finally see it,” he said.
Yet Coats’ conviction still haunts him. Even though his felony record is technically expunged, it still comes up on some background checks. He’s a contractor and some jobs still prohibit his participation.
“The record is sealed to the general public, but the government can still look in and see that the charges are still there. So, for government jobs and different things, they can say that I was once a felon and that still holds me back in ways,” Coats added.
He feels it’s worth it—to know he did the right thing 23 years ago. He has the support of his family, and finally, now the public.