Shivangi Sinha
In 1998, when Irene Silverman, a socialite from Manhattan, New York, disappeared from her home, the police had very few leads. They were able to get a description of a suspect from the staff in the house, but when the portrait was circulated, they discovered that the man was Kenneth Kimes, who had used a false name. With his mother, Sante Kimes, he had committed the murder after planning it for months. As the investigation deepened, authorities uncovered many crimes from Sante’s past, as well as others she was accused of. In Netflix’s ‘Homicide: New York’ season 2, episode ‘Mother Knows Best,’ an extensive timeline of her criminal history is shown.
Sante Kimes Had Been in Legal Trouble For Most of Her Adult Life
Mary Gertrude and Prama Mahendra “Doc” Singhrs welcomed their third child, Sante Singhrs, into their lives in Oklahoma City on July 24, 1934. She had an elder brother and a sister, and later a younger sister named Retha as well. Sante was just five years old when her father, who worked as a herbalist, passed away. She eventually moved to Los Angeles, California, with her mother and siblings and started living with Edwin and Mary Chambers, who allegedly adopted her. She later moved again and graduated in 1952 from Carson City, Nevada, after attending Carson High School there with her family. In 1956, Sante got married to Edward Walker, whom she had dated in high school before reconnecting with him.
The couple was blessed with a son, Kent Walker, but things were not as prim and proper as they seemed. Reports allege that Sante had been a bully in school and had also allegedly exhibited cruelty to animals during her younger years. Her allegedly problematic behavior continued, and in 1961, she was convicted of shoplifting in Sacramento. Edward had worked in buying and managing houses, and while he was married to Sante, several of the buildings he supervised burned down. There has always been suspicion about Sante’s involvement. In 1969, after years of separating and getting back together, the couple finally divorced. On April 5, 1981, she tied the knot with Kenneth Keith Kimes Sr., who was a business tycoon in the motel industry.
On March 24, 1975, their son, Kenneth “Kenny” Kimes Jr., was born. It has been alleged that Sante had been involved in conning, deceiving, and stealing from many people she interacted with throughout most of her life. In fact, during the presidency of Gerald Ford, she managed to gain access to a White House reception by introducing her husband as an ambassador. In 1985, Sante was even arrested on slavery charges and was sentenced to five years. She had hired undocumented migrants and forced them to work by threatening to report them to the police. In 1989, Sante was released from prison, and in 1994, her husband Kenneth passed away.
Sante Kimes Was Connected to Two Murder Cases When She Was Arrested
On March 14, 1998, the police found the remains of David Kazdin in a dumpster near the Los Angeles International Airport. The police looked into a mortgage application for a home in Las Vegas that had been placed in his name using a forged signature. Investigators discovered that Kazdin had allowed Sante and her second husband to use his name on a deed, but in reality, they had been living in the house themselves. The house had also been intentionally set on fire, and the police traced the crime back to Sante and Kenny. A man who had confessed to selling a gun to Kenny helped the police and scheduled a meeting with Sante on July 5. When she and Kenny arrived there, they were arrested.
On July 5, 1998, Irene Silverman, a Manhattan socialite, disappeared from her Upper East Side townhouse, prompting an investigation with very few initial leads. Staff in the home provided a description of a suspicious tenant, which led police to Kenneth Kimes, who had been using a false identity. Investigators soon connected him to his mother, Sante Kimes, uncovering evidence that the pair had been targeting Silverman for her property. Prior to the disappearance, Sante had already attempted to scam Silverman by gaining her trust and trying to manipulate legal documents related to her property.
Evidence showed that forged signatures had been used on documents intended to transfer control of Silverman’s assets. Before Irene vanished, Sante had even tried to scam Irene by asking for her Social Security number on the phone, but had failed. A key break came when a bag linked to the Kimeses was found at The Plaza Hotel, which contained forged documents transferring Irene’s property to Sante’s shell company. Combined with witness statements, forged paperwork, and recorded conversations, the evidence pointed to a premeditated scheme.
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Sante Kimes Passed Away While Serving Her Sentence
Sante Kimes was initially charged in Manhattan with a Utah bad check fraud, but soon she was charged with second-degree murder, kidnapping, robbery, burglary, conspiracy, grand larceny, forgery, weapons possession, eavesdropping, and 115 related counts tied to Irene Silverman’s disappearance on the same day. She was tried in New York, convicted on all charges, and handed down a sentence of 120 years. In June 2001, she was extradited to California to stand trial for the murder of David Kazdin. She was charged with first-degree murder, and her trial started in 2004, after which she was found guilty and given a life sentence.
In 2004, when Kenneth Kimes pleaded guilty in Kazdin’s case, he made several allegations, claiming he had shot Kazdin on his mother’s orders and detailing Irene’s killing, stating that Sante had first used a stun gun on her. He also accused her of killing Elmer Holmgren, a lawyer managing her offshore accounts. Sante Kimes died on May 19, 2014, at the age of 79, while incarcerated at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in New York. She was found unresponsive in her cell, with officials ruling the death as due to natural causes.
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