Sante Louis Singr and Kenny Kimes were two partners in crime who complimented each other. Kenny Kimes was a son to Sante Kimes and were arrested in 1998 for allegedly having murdered 83 year old wealthy widow known as Irene Silverman. This murder happened when they were trying to steal her 7 million dollars home in California.
Kenny Kimes, a student at the University of California and was raised by his older brother Kent while his parents were serving a jail term for having been convicted of illegal importation of girls from Mexican streets and turning them into slaves inside locked a house dropped out of the college to help her mother in criminal activities. Kenny’s father Kenneth Kimes and his mother Santes were very infamous for committing two most notable murders, that of Irene Silverman and Syed Bilal Ahmed. This research paper will keenly focus on the crimes that were committed by Kenny and her mother Santes.Though Santes was married to a wealthy man and lacked nothing, her crime attitude never waned and could not be changed for she believed that she could get whatever she wanted no matter what.
For this reason Sante was involved in various crimes for example, she was arrested and charged in mid 1980s for enslaving illegal Mexican immigrant girls who were looking for job opportunities only to turn them into slaves. In this case both Sante and her husband Kenneth Kimes were found guilty and were sentenced to serve a four year jail term but Kenneth was lucky to convince the authority that he would reform if he was released.He was given a suspended sentence, told to pay a fine of 70, 000 US dollars and to join rehab and resume his alcohol treatment program. When Sante was in prison, Kenneth and his family led a normal life only to go back to criminal life when she finished her term.
Unfortunately, Kenneth did not stay for long before he mysteriously died and Sante left with no crime accomplice approached his younger son Kenny Kimes to take his place. He convinced him that they were poor as nothing had been left under their name by Kenneth as his will was not updated and they would only survive if he agreed to help in her criminal activities. Walker and Schone 59)With the help of his son, many criminal activities resulted and thus Sante was common criminal whose activities ranged from shop lifting to murder and she had been charged for 58 crimes but many was the time that she escaped Scott free. Some of the most notable crimes that were committed with the help of Kenny kimes are the murder of Bilal Ahmed – an Indian Banker, the murder of Kazdin and that of Irene Silverman.
Other cases are like the Miami case where Kenny helped her mother to shop lift some lipstick from a Miami discount shop which led to their arrest only to be released on bond.Kenneth Kimes an estate developer was a rich and respectable man but was also a criminal who when he married Sante became a complete criminal match. The two were involved in various scams such as insurance frauds, arson cases, impersonation of Santes as Elizabeth Tylor and Santes pretending her husband to be an ambassador to gain access to the White House reception. They spent a lot of money to hire the best criminal lawyers and one instance when this happened was when they were arrested for enslaving illegal Mexican immigrants by intimidating them that they would tell on them to the authority if they failed to comply.
Santes husband who was a tycoon when he married Santes lost almost everything he had due to lawsuits that had been filed against his family and this led him to transfer some of his money to Bahamas Gulf Bank to avoid it from being taken by the government. (Havill, A) When Kenneth died mysteriously, Kenny was recruited as her mother’s partner in crime and he was gradually and unconsciously introduced into this as her mother would tell him to lie even over very basic things. Sante Kenny’s mother would use all ways to control him in fact she went to an extent of hiring some playmates for him.The relationship that existed between the two baffled many as it seemed to be more than a normal mother to son relationship.
Many could not rule out the possibility that Kenny was sexually exploited by his mother as they would be seen together always. (Ed Vulliamy) Serious criminal activities took place after her Husband Kenneth died. This is when Sante started to forge documents and cheque under her husbands name especially after she realized that she was not mentioned anywhere on his will. By doing this she ended up squandering all that belonged to her husband money amounting to twelve million US dollars.
Anyone who stood on their way in executing their plans was eliminated and even those who had testified against Sante during the slavery charges were killed one by one. Kenneth’s former business associate David Kazdin was another victim of their crime. He was said to have gotten angry after he realized that the duo had forged documents under a family friend to take a mortgage loan worth 280,000 US dollars on a family house that belonged to them that had been put under his name to prevent seizure by the government. After this they put the house on fire and killed Kazdin.
Sante instructed Kenny to kill Kazdin and to dispose of his body, which Kenny willingly did” (Phillips) Sante with the help of his son Kenny would swindle people of their money and property by using fake cheques to buy expensive properties and as days went by they expanded their illicit business to a wider region and that was how they came across a 83 years wealthy widow, Irene Silverman and fallen their victim. According to Walker and Garrison (141), the duo was in Florida when they came to learn of this wealthy widow who had turned her beautiful mansion into a place where the rich and the famous people would be hosted.The people who rented these rooms were charged 6,000 US dollars a month and thus only the rich could afford and other renowned celebrities such as Peter Duchin and Chaka Khan. Sante and her son Kenny devised a plan on how they would get access to the room and this was by raising the monthly charge of 6, 000 US Dollars.
After this, Kenny rented a room claiming that he had been directed by Silverman’s close friend and after a while her mother moved in to live with him. By this time they were on their mission and were only waiting for an opportunity to execute it.Their dream came true when Silverman’s staff went for a holiday weekend and she was left alone. It is at this time that Sante and her son murdered Silverman in fact Kenny wrestled and strangled her and later put her in a suitcase waiting for disposal to a place that is unknown up to now, “With everyone gone, Sante and Kenny had forced the old woman into their suite where, after a bloody struggle, she was hit in the head with a stun gun that had paralyzed her.
Then Kerry strangled Irene. ” (Havill)The Kimeses had planned to kill Silverman and get rid off her staff so that they could sell the mansion, they had even contacted Stan Paterson who the LAPD uncovered that he had sold guns to them illegally in the past and thus the duo had instructed him to fly to New York to buy that mansion. They had told him that the Manhattan apartment belonged to a wealthy woman who wanted to sell it to go round and experience the world. The funny thing was that the same day that Peterson was to go and see the house was the same day that the wealthy widow, Irene Silverman was reportedly said to be missing.
Paterson was used as bait by the police to arrest the two criminals for he had alerted the police that they had contacted her about the mansion that was on sale. (Walker and Garrison 143). Though they had Silverman’s purse and passport still on them by the time they were arrested, the police failed to establish the link between those items and the missing of the lady however, they were arrested. Sante and Kenny Kimes had also been involved in another crime where an Indian banker Syed Bilal Ahmed who was an executive in the Bahamas gulf union bank was murdered.
It was said that Kenneth Kimes had transferred some of his fortune to this bank. They met Bilal Ahmed when they traveled to Bahamas to redeem it for it had been transferred by Kenneth to prevent it from being accessed by the government. “He (Kenneth) had placed money in offshore accounts to protect from endless judgments as the result of the barrage of lawsuits he had to face because of Santes actions. ” (Walker and Garrison 141) it was said that the bank was going under and thus Sante was trying to use forged documents to gain control of this money.
She also tried to use the banks executive Bilal Ahmed and she even had a dinner with him on the 4th September 1996 but unfortunately that marked the end of this executive as he was never seen again. By the time investigations to establish Bilal’s disappearance was launched, Sante and Kenny Kimes had already moved out of the county and by then they were in California. Indeed the life of Sante and Kenny crimes was that of a criminal. Many people lost their lives due to their criminal behavior while others lost their properties worth millions.
They were convicted of many criminal charges but most of the time they went unreported.Works Cited:Ed Vulliamy. Mommy and Clyde’ blaze trail of deceit and death lies leads to murder: They conned their way across the US. But the people they duped had a habit of vanishing without trace, reports.
2000. Accessed from http://www.guardian.co.
uk/world/2000/may/14/theobserver3Garrison, L and Walker, K. The News Breaker. The News Breaker: A Behind the Scenes Look at the News Media and Never Before Told Details about Some of the Decade’s Biggest Stories. Thomas Nelson Inc, 2006.
Havill, A., Sante and Kenneth Kimes: A Life of Crime. Accessed at http://www.trutv.
com/library/crime/notorious_murders/women/kimes/4.html Phillips L. Modern Day Grifters: The Santes and Kenneth Kimes story. Accessed from http://www.
legalzoom.com/legal-articles/grifters-sante-kenneth-kimes.htmlWalker K. and Schone M.
Son of a grafter. Harper Collins publisher. 2009.
