Naman Shrestha
In the episode ‘The Grifters’ of ‘Dateline NBC,’ we get a detailed account of the con artist and murderer Sante Kimes, who, along with her son, Kenneth AKA Kenny, committed some heinous crimes, including murders and robberies. The case is also explored in NBC’s ‘Dateline: The Devil Wore White.’ After getting sentenced to life, Sante was serving his sentence in New York before taking her final breath on May 19, 2014. With her criminal son behind bars, you might want to know if the apple fell far enough from the tree when it comes to her other son, Kent Walker. As he featured in ‘Dateline: The Devil Wore White,’ he talked about his relationship with his mother and what he thought of the entire case.
Kent Walker Had Many Differences With His Mother, Sante Kimes
Born in the early 1960s to Sante Kimes and Edward Walker, Kent Walker was still quite young when his parents got divorced. Sante Kimes had a habit of shoplifting, and since Kent was very close to his mother while growing up, he helped her shoplift several times. When he was about 8, in 1970, Sante met a wealthy Newport Beach developer named Kenneth Kimes Sr., who was worth about $20 million at the time. Although it is unclear if the couple got married, they definitely moved in together and eventually, in 1975, welcomed their only child and named him Kenny Kimes.
At first, Kent was not told that he was going to have a baby brother as his mother didn’t want to upset him. When the 12-year-old learned the truth, he reportedly raised his voice at her for the first time. Being a pivotal moment in their relationship, he even told her that he was normal and she wasn’t, which made them significantly different from one another. However, he took on the responsibility of being a big brother quite well as he warmed up to his half-brother Kenny and protected him.
With time, Sante’s rap sheet kept growing, and with it, the distance between her and Kent as well. Things got worse when she was convicted of grand larceny in 1985 for the theft of a fur coat. To add more to it, she was also found guilty of enslaving several housemaids and threatening to have them arrested. Kent was in his early 20s when his mother got arrested. After spending four years in prison, she was freed on parole in 1989 as the theft conviction was overturned. Kent had married by that time, lived in Las Vegas, and worked as a vacuum cleaner salesman.
Allowing Sante and Kenny to Live With His Family Caused a Rift Between Kent and His Wife
Despite spending four long years in prison, it didn’t take long for Sante to return to her old ways. So, bound by his love for Kenny, Kent Walker tried to stop his young brother from getting under her control. Nevertheless, it was difficult because she had already started turning Kenny into one of her own kind, that is, thirsty for the big score and an easy fix of money. Kenny got so influenced by his mother that he ended up hatching an internet scam, after which he dropped out of college.
Soon after that, the mother-son pair moved into Kent’s residence, where he already lived with his wife and kids. However, in 1997, as his wife was finding it hard to deal with her mother-in-law, Kent received an ultimatum from her to ask both Kenny and Sante to move out of their house. A year after that, the two got involved in the murders of David Kazdin and the 82-year-old widow named Irene Silverman. When Kazdin’s body was found, the police arrested Kenny and Sante in New York with a number of items belonging to Silverman in their possession.
Kent Walker Prefers to Keep Aspects of His Personal Life Away From the Limelight
Following the revelation, Kenneth and Sante were convicted of the second-degree murder of Irene Silverman in 2001, and a year later, they were extradited to Los Angeles for the trial of the Kazdin case. The trial commenced in February 2004, during which Kenny surprisingly pled guilty and implicated his mother. Kent divulged that he felt bad for Sante and believed she was devastated by her younger son’s betrayal. In 2001, Kent published his tell-all book titled ‘Son of a Grifter: The Twisted Tale of Sante and Kenny Kimes, the Most Notorious Con Artists in America,’ which earned him the Edgar Allen Poe Award in 2001 for Best Fact Crime.
After the book came out, Kent went to visit Sante, who was being held in solitary confinement, but couldn’t meet her due to security reasons. It is reported that after that day, he hadn’t tried seeing Sante again. After gaining recognition through his award-winning book, Kent has authored several other books and appeared on many television and radio talk shows, including ‘Larry King Live,’ ‘The View,’ ‘Fresh Air,’ ‘Dateline,’ ‘The Today Show,’ ‘Good Morning America,’ and ‘To the Best of Our Knowledge.’ Now in his 60s, Kent Walker leads a private life and prefers to keep his personal details under wraps. All we can tell is that he seemingly resides in Southern California with his wife and kids.
Read More: Where Are Sante and Kenny Kimes Now?
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