American History Tellers - Listen Now: American Criminal

Episode Date: November 12, 2024

The true crime history podcast American Criminal takes you inside the minds of our most notorious felons and outlaws, exploring the dark side to the American dream.In this series, a Manhattan socialite disappeared from her mansion on the Upper East Side. After a brief investigation, detectives zeroed in on one woman: Sante Kimes. As the police and media looked into the story, they couldn’t believe the rap sheet of the person they’d just picked up: slavery, people trafficking, fraud, murder? What would drive someone to all of that?  If you like what you hear, search for and follow American Criminal wherever you listen to podcasts.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What would you do to achieve the American dream? Would you change your appearance? Burn down your own home? Perhaps you'd enslave people? Or maybe just commit a little light fraud? Or you could lie your way into a meeting with the First Lady? Sante Kymes did all of these things and more, because for her, nothing was ever enough to satisfy her greed.

Money, jewels, furs, property, influence, she wanted it all, and she was willing to do whatever it took to get it. From Airship, this is American Criminal, a show that takes a deep dive into the dark reality of some people's American dreams. From assassins to con artists, forgers to gangsters, you don't know the full story until now. You're about to hear a clip from episode 3 of our five-part series on Sante Khymes. In this snippet, Sante's on the run from authorities over some grand larceny charges, unaware that she's about to be picked up for a much, much more serious offense.

I hope you enjoy, and when you're finished, search for and follow American Criminal wherever you listen to podcasts. and follow American Criminal wherever you listen to podcasts. After her disastrous showing in DC, Sante decides it's best to lay low for a while. She and Ken Senior move around Vegas, switching hotels frequently, staying far away from their own home, lest the authorities go looking for them there.

After a couple of weeks of that though, they're tired of being on the run. Ken Sr.'s closing in on 70 by now, and Sante's night as sprightly as she once was either. So they rent a condo in La Jolla, a neighborhood of San Diego, California. That's where they are when federal marshals catch up to them on August 3, 1985. But the marshals aren't there about the furs. They've got warrants for Sante and Ken Sr. for two much, much bigger crimes. Slavery and human trafficking. Over the last dozen or so years, Sante's been in the habit of smuggling young women across the border from places like Mexico, El Salvador, and Peru to work as maids in

her homes. Only, she never pays them. She confiscates their passports and forbids them from leaving her home. In more recent years, she's done the same to college students brought in to be round-the-clock tutors for Sante's youngest, 10-year-old Kenny. Like the maids, Kenny's tutors are young women

enticed with promises of luxury accommodations, exciting travels with the family, and generous paydays. None of it materialized, though. Instead, what these women got was beaten, burned, and belittled. Most eventually escaped the horrors on their own. Some of them managed it with Kent's help. And a few even went to the authorities

to report Sante and Kent, Sr., but nothing was done for years. Even when a 14-year-old girl showed up to the U.S. Consulate in Guadalajara to talk about the time Sante threw a pot of boiling water over her, the information was simply filed away for later. But now, the sheer number of complaints against Sante has become impossible to ignore, and the feds have finally moved in. When they crash through Sante and Ken's rented condo door, they even find a final, terrified young woman

who's just the latest maid in Sante's employment. After the arrest, Sante and Kent Sr. are transported to Las Vegas to answer for their crimes. Kent's wife is called in to look after Kenny, but Kent is in for a treat of his own. Even from jail, Sante's determined to keep pulling the strings on the men in her life.

At this stage, Kent's graduated from flight school and is on a training exercise when he gets a call from his mother, who orders him to come back to Las Vegas and help her. When Kent resists the summons, Sante goes over his head, telling his superiors that her husband's had a heart attack and that she needs her son to come home to help care for him. Despite Kent's protest, he's ordered to return to his family. Sante's continued manipulations delay his return for so long that Kent gets an early discharge.

He'll never fly a helicopter again. Not that Sante cares about her son's life. She's staring down 85 years in prison for 17 charges, including involuntary servitude and transporting people across the border. Ken's only slightly less complicit, so he's looking at 75. Of course, local news sees on the story of the millionaires complicit, so he's looking at 75. Of course, local news sees on the story of the millionaires who've been using slave labor in their mansions, and out come the old stories about the times Sante and Ken Sr. crashed government

parties in D.C. and Ken's fake ambassador title, and all the rest. Pretty quickly, it seems like there's not a single person outside the family who wants to take Sante's side. In fact, people are lining up to take their shot. An attorney in Hawaii assembles a group of Sante's former maids and tutors to file a civil suit against the couple, asking for $31 million in damages. So even if Sante and Ken Sr. somehow beat the criminal charges,

they'll have to fork out millions in legal fees. And that's even if they win the suit. It's not looking good, so it's a minor miracle when Sante and Ken Sr.'s lawyers manage to work out a deal for their clients. He just has to plead guilty to one count of misprision of a felony, which means that he knew a felony was being committed and didn't report it. In exchange, he'll get off with probation and a felony record. Sante has to plead guilty to more than Ken Sr., but her sentence shouldn't be more than

two years. They're astoundingly good deals, considering the charges. Still, both of them have to be talked in to taking those deals. Both Sante and Kent Sr. believe there's a conspiracy against them, that they've been set up by crooked lawyers and a corrupt justice system. Ken finally sees reason when he's reminded that court cases are expensive. He could easily lose his fortune fighting the charges in court. Sante, meanwhile, believes that a guilty plea will set them up for catastrophe in the civil suit.

It'll lose them everything. But like Ken Sr., she's finally talked into taking the deal. Then comes the big day, when Sante and Ken Sr. appear in court to actually sign the papers. Ken's goes off without a hitch, but then it's Sante's turn. And, surprise, things go very differently. It turns out there's been a typo in Sante's deal. So now it says that the various prison terms

she'll be given have to be served consecutively instead of concurrently. Seeing that, Sante starts throwing a tantrum right there in the courtroom. Instead of calmly asking that her lawyer and the prosecutors rectify the mistake, she starts screaming and crying and has to be physically restrained. She's like an angry toddler, only there's nothing and no one that can get Sante Cimes to calm down. So she refuses

to sign her deal, which means she's going to trial after all. And in the meantime, she has to stay behind bars. At least, she's supposed to stay behind bars. But as always, Sante has something else in mind. On December 30, 1985, about three months after her courtroom freakout, the news breaks that Sante Kymes has escaped jail. A couple of days after Christmas, she feigned a medical episode so that she'd

be moved to the hospital, where security was much, much less stringent. There, she easily gave her guard the slip and just walked out the front doors. So now all of Las Vegas is on the lookout for the Liz Taylor look-alike who's on trial for slavery. The headlines don't get much wilder than that. Well, not yet they don't.

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