Murder, Mystery & Makeup - Sante and Kenny Kimes - Like Mother, Like Son

Episode Date: February 8, 2022

Hi Friends! Hope you are having a wonderful day so far. Today I wanted to talk about Sante and Kenny Kimes who were, busy, VERRRYYYY busy. Would love to hear your thoughts about Kenny and his sentencing. ALSO, I cut out SO MUCH more to this story but again, things were getting SO confusing with all these names being thrown around, I just decided to keep it straight to the point and not get too confusing. Thank you for your time.  But other than that Please be safe out there, I love and appreciate you guys so much and I will be seeing you very soon! xo Bailey Sarian P.S. If you haven't already, make sure to check. out my YouTube channel @BaileySarian

If it's a flat or a squeal, a wobble or peel, your tread's worn down or you need a new wheel, wherever you go, you can get a pro at Tread Experts. Conquer rugged terrain with on-road comfort. Until June 15th, receive up to $60 on a prepaid MasterCard when you purchase Kumo Road Venture AT52 tires. Find a Kumo Tread Experts dealer near you at treadexperts.ca slash locations. From tires to auto repair, we're always there at treadexperts.ca locations. Hi, how are you today? I hope you're having a wonderful day so far. My name is Bailey Sarian and today is Monday, which means it's Murder, Mystery, and Makeup Monday. Shana shur, shana shur, shana shur, shana shur, shana shur. If you are new here, hi, welcome.

I'm Bailey. Every Monday I sit down and talk about a true crime case that's been heavy on my noggin. And I do my makeup at the same time. It's a good time. If you like makeup and you are interested in true crime, I would suggest you hit that subscribe button. So I feel like the last couple weeks have been really intense, right? I've just been talking about some really crazy stuff going on.

Today is still bad. People are still dying, but it's not as bad as the other ones. Okay, so a lot of you who have been watching probably know, normally I start off the video talking about the said to be killers background and like where they came from, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right?

So today there's just like so much to this story. I thought I'm just gonna like jump into it and hopefully this doesn't come out confusing. I'm gonna try my best. I'm trying something different, I gotta learn. March 14th, 1998, Los Angeles police receive a 911 call about a body being found, okay? Oh, she's jumping right into it.

Now there was a homeless person who was like out in an alley, digging through the dumpster, looking for food or something sad, and unfortunately, he came across a body. So the police department comes out and they see a white male, he's wrapped in a garbage bag and he's inside the dumpster. There was no identification on his body. So they had no idea who this guy was. He had no shoes on, but the bottom of his feet were clean,

which indicated that this was a body dump and the murder had taken place somewhere else. That's what the police had determined. Police examined the victim and they saw that it was a close shot to the back of his head that killed him. There's a gunshot in the back of his head. They send the body to the coroner's office for an autopsy. And while there, they're able to ID the victim

as David Kasdan. So then police go down to the victim's home. David Kasdan's children, they had already been notified. They were waiting for the police at David's house. David Kasdan's daughter had noticed that their father's car was missing from the garage, and they also noticed some damage that was on this like stone wall just outside the driveway, so investigators go and they check it out and they see that there's like blue paint on the wall, it's the same color of his car, so that is indicating that somebody left in a hurry.

But there's no other evidence of foul play. So investigators had asked like, does your father have any enemies, anyone that would wanna hurt him, and his children, who are grown adults by the way, but they are quick to say, hell yeah, 65 year old Sante Kynes. Oh, and her 23 year old son, Kenny.

David Kasdan's kids presented the police with a letter that he had written to Sante several days prior. Now in this letter, he said that he didn't wanna cooperate with the crimes in a particular loan fraud scheme. Now David Kasdan's daughter doesn't know the specifics of this scheme, but she recalls a strange conversation she had with her father just days before he had disappeared. See, his daughter was over at his house,

and there was this car, and it was just like parked out in front of her father's house. And her father was super suspicious of it. And he, David Kasdanon he told his daughter if you ever see that car don't go outside i don't know why but like david caston's daughter like didn't push further for answers she was just kind of like oh okay i would have been asking a shit ton of questions what are you talking about who's's that? Should I go talk to them? What should I say? Okay so who is the Sante and Kenny Kimes that David Kasten's daughter had mentioned? Well David Kasten, take a shot every time I say it I guess. He had known Sante and Kenny Kimes

and their family for many many years. David had been friends with millionaire Ken Kimes Sr. since 1974. Then David had worked on an insurance claim for the family when Ken Kimes Sr. passed away. David had been threatened by Sante and Kenny recently. The threats were coming in via telephone, personal appearances and letters saying that David needed to watch out and go along with their plans or else.

Anyway, so detectives check into the background of Sante Kimes and her son, Kenny Jr. And they soon find out that one of them has a pretty lengthy rap sheet. Miss Sante over here had been quite busy. Sante had served time for involuntary servitude or slavery. This being the most recent case. She had also been incarcerated for theft and fraud.

She had a pattern of luring Mexican and Latin American immigrants to come work for her as a maid with promises of good treatment, travels, and a job. But for the most part, she just completely lied to these people about everything. So when Sante walked into a room, she got attention from everybody, men and women. Okay, I'll tell you why. Because she had a resemblance, spot on resemblance to Elizabeth Taylor. And she played that up. Friends would say that Sante would say that, yeah, she was Elizabeth Taylor. Cause like people would recognize her

and think she was Elizabeth Taylor. Sante would just play that up and be like, yes, I am Elizabeth Taylor darling, or whatever she would do. And she would just give free shit. But Sante also had charisma to go with the looks, which she felt like gave her power over over men so police were surprised by her history but the slavery charges is what concerned them the most because

of her violent treatment towards her mates but okay sante had mates at one point she would make them clean already clean floors they were not allowed to leave or talk to anybody. She would like walk them into the house. They just weren't allowed to do anything without her permission. On several occasions she actually beat the crap out of some of her maids as well. Like one of her maids cleaned something wrong or like she just didn't listen to her. Sante took the iron and burned her with it. Another maid said that she had beat her with, I'm not laughing, coat hangers when she didn't clean correctly.

I was kind of giggling because I was thinking of Mommy Dearest. No more wired hangers! You know that, right? Let's hope. A lot of you guys are kind of young watching this. Mommy Dearest, look it up. On top of all that, the maids,

they didn't even receive pay for their work. And because they were illegal immigrants, Sante completely took advantage of them. So then in 1970, Sante meets real estate millionaire, Ken Kimes. You see, Sante was reading a local magazine and she came across this article about Ken Kimes and like how rich he was,

how he recently went through a divorce. So then Sante does her homework, okay? She does her homework on Ken. She finds out that he's worth millions of dollars and he's recently divorced and she's thinking, oh yeah, baby, jackpot. She was determined to make Ken hers. I mean, she was just ready to live the life

of a wealthy millionaire because she thought she deserved that. So Sante did more homework on Ken and she realized, well, she found out what he liked and tailored herself to fit that image. For example, Ken's favorite color was white, exciting. So then Sante decided to wear white all the time. Ken loved the smell of gardenias, so that became her signature perfume.

She wasn't wealthy at this point like Ken, so she made sure to dress in a way that exuded wealth, status, highbrow, money. And it was all just designed to help get what she wanted. Sante was constantly throwing herself at him and eventually it stuck. Took some time, but it worked. The two began to hang out and to date and they had fun together. Sante had provided some excitement to his life.

It was kind of boring and bleak and it wasn't long before Ken Sr. becomes aware of Sante's criminal behavior, and he allowed her to carry on with her maids. See, when she moved in with Ken, this billionaire, that's when she really started to get these maids, because they could afford it. Now, it said that Ken, it said that he was seduced into the situation. Sante was the boss.

She called the shots. Ken just went along with it. He had nothing to do with these maids, but I mean, come on. So then five years later, Sante gives birth to Kenny Jr. in 1975. So this is the son of Ken Kimes Sr., the millionaire, right? Kenny was treated as the prince of the household. He could do no wrong. This baby was everything to her. I personally

think it's because this baby was guaranteed money for Sante being the son of a very wealthy man. Ken Kimes, the millionaire, he told friends, and even Sante, that he didn't wanna marry her. He knew that she was after his money, and all of his money was going to his children from the previous marriage. So Sante was like, well shit, I will just like get pregnant and trap his ass.

That's my assumption. A few years later, the Kimes family, they move to Las Vegas. I mean, right off the bat, Sante is transforming Kenny, her baby, into her accomplice. Sante would take him shopping with her in a stroller. You know, she would have her baby in the stroller and it's not funny. It's really sad that she was using her baby to help her, but her kid is just sitting in the stroller, like excited to be alive. She would stuff items into the stroller.

She would even stuff items underneath the baby to like hide them and steal it. She controlled who he could see, when they can see them. Kenny was also tutored at home. Sante didn't want him to have any friends or contact with people without her approval. Kenny, he did get a chance to break away from his mother's tight grip

when Sante finally received jail time for slavery. Apparently one of the maids had escaped out of the house and called 911. It's not funny, but like just the whole thing is like crazy. Like what is happening? But luckily one of the maids escapes and calls 911 and gets out of that, abuse. Kenny would say he saw the detectives come

and arrest his mother and said it was just devastating for him, but Sante was taken away to go to prison. And that's when Kenny actually had a shot to live a normal life away from his mom. So Sante only got a five-year prison sentence and they determined that her boyfriend Ken Sr. he wasn't involved in any way so she goes away and then while she's away Kenny and his father they actually like grew really close together. Ken Sr., he decided to, like he retired, so he was home to really take care of Kenny,

and he enrolled him into a private elite Catholic school in Las Vegas, and Kenny was able to like go to school and make friends and just be quote unquote normal, even though he's going to an elite private school, but yeah, normal. Kenny's father also admitted like that he spoiled Kenny during this time and he was trying to like buy his love,

but that didn't last long. Sante was released from prison in December of 1989 and she had only served three years of the five years that she was sentenced and the old patterns of control emerge again. So in the fall of 1993, Kenny enrolls into college. He seems to be doing well, kind of like away from his mother. But then in 1993, Ken Sr. dies suddenly from an aneurysm.

Now when this happened, Sante was really worried because she didn't have her name on anything. Not one deed, not one checkbook, or even a credit card. Here's his wife of a multi-millionaire who has no access to any of the money, or his money whatsoever. Ken Sr's will, it was said that everything was to go to his children from his previous marriage, but did not include Kenny Jr. or Sante at all, just up. I think maybe he just forgot to update it but so Sante she like calls Kenny her son who's at college now and she just

is telling him how like worried she is, she doesn't have any money, what is she gonna do and like really just dumps all of like her stress onto him. So then Kenny, he ends up just dropping out of college and he returns home to live with Sante, like help take care of her. So Kenny begins taking part in more of his mother's schemes as she tries to liquidate the assets of her now past lover's estate. So back to Los Angeles,

investigators are suspicious of Sante and Kenny Kimes, but they need to find a motive. Because remember the death we talked about in the beginning? They think it's Sante and Kenny Kimes, right? I'm wondering if how I'm setting this up is confusing. We're already here. Police piece together the details of the loan fraud scheme. Sante took a $280,000 loan out on her house

in David Kasten's name. David received a loan book in the mail from this bank saying that he now owed a certain amount of money every month for a loan that he had taken out on that house. So when David got this in the mail, he's like, what the fuck? David tells the bank that the mortgage is not his. And then the bank freezes the account. Police discover the money had been transferred

to an account belonging to Sante. So then Sante somehow figures out that somebody has caught Nant to her. She calls and threatens David Kasten to go along with the loan fraud or else. So police at this point now are like, okay, we have a motive for David Kasten's murder. So they go along with the loan fraud or else. So police at this point now are like, okay, we have a motive for David Kasten's murder. So they go out to the Las Vegas house, the one that the loan was taken out, and they find it is the subject of an arson investigation. You see the house, it was set on fire and burned down.

Sante and Kenny at that point were long gone and had moved somewhere new. So police went to interview the notary public that had forged David Kasten's name on the loan documents. Now this person had been told by Sante that she had the power of attorney to sign David Kasten's name to the loan documents, which in fact was not true.

This person also goes on to tell them that she notarized a new deed for the same house with the name Robert McCarron. So police go looking for this Robert guy and they're having a really hard time finding him. They believe that Robert was a possible victim of kidnapping. So police find this 911 call that Robert had made

after escaping from Sante and Kenny's home. Remember how I said that one of the maids had escaped from the house and called 911? Well, that was Robert. They were able to locate Robert McCarran at a homeless shelter. So Robert tells investigators that Sante hired him as a houseman. What do you call a man-made? Maid. him as a houseman what do you call a man-made made so robert tells investigators sante also hired a man named sean to be the family chauffeur sean was told by sante to watch robert the

house help and to keep control of him and was told to assault robert when he wasn't doing what sante instructed him to do so he this chauffeur guy was in charge of Robert and making sure that he was like following the rules and like would beat him and stuff. Forge, hold on, detectives then look for this guy, Sean, the chauffeur. Sean, he admits he sold Kenny a 22 caliber handgun and the 22 caliber that Kenny had purchased

matched from David Kasten's body. So he agrees to let police know if he hears from Sante and Kenny again but other than that he really had nothing else for them. Police soon learned through questioning witnesses that the two were now in Florida. They had made their way all the way to Florida. They ended up in Florida because Sante and Kenny were making their way to the Bahamas where Ken Sr. his money was. Apparently he had an offshore account in the Bahamas where he stored a lot of money and Sante wanted her hands on that but before LA police could get out to Florida, Sante and Kenny are on the move again. They both realize that there are much bigger targets in New York City and there is a lot more money over there. For example, Irene Silverman who was 82 years old. Irene was a New York socialite. Sante and Kenny found out that

Irene Silverman had a multi-million dollar mansion on the Upper East Side. She had rented out rooms, partly for money and partly for company. So Irene, her extremely wealthy husband had passed away. And again, it was like put in a magazine and that's how like Sante found out, we gotta stop doing that. She found out that this Irene lady,

she had took on all of her husband doing that. She found out that this Irene lady, she had took on all of her husband's wealth. She was just loaded. And then on June 14th, 1998, Sante and Kenny, they arrive in New York. Kenny goes straight to the townhouse and he shows up there with a reference and $6,000 cash for the first month's rent. Irene, she did ask Kenny for an ID and to get a credit application, but Kenny kept reassuring her that he was going to get it to her ASAP, like tomorrow. Yeah, I'm going to get that to you. So Kenny then moves into the apartment, 1B. He does this under the name Manny Guerin. A few days later, Eva, his assistant, moves in as well. And this Eva assistant was actually his mom, Sante.

They wanted to get rid of Irene, steal her identity, and then be able to take over Irene's finances so they could be rich, wealthy, and just live their life. That was the plan. But Irene, she's suspicious. You see, she goes back and she asks Kenny, aka Manny, can you complete this credit application? And every time she asks, he says like,

oh yeah, I'm gonna get it to you tomorrow, tomorrow. And then Irene also notices that whenever Kenny's like walking in the hallway or leaving his apartment, he's avoiding the security cameras. He was always trying to stay close to the walls and he avoided showing his face on the cameras too. Irene then like confides in friends about the strange new tenants in 1B, then she decides to evict them on July 5th. So then back in Los Angeles, Stan, so he contacts police, says that he received a call from

Sante in New York and that she wanted him to come out there so he could manage an apartment building that she was getting. Sante suggested that he brings his toys she meant to bring his collection of guns. So police decide to use Stan okay and they arrange a sting operation for Stan to fly to New York meet with Sante and Kenny at which point police were gonna grab the two and take them into custody. Once New York police have them in custody, they're gonna fly them back to LA for questioning. So Stan plans to meet Kenny and Sante at a hotel. So New York police set up surveillance at the hotel around 5 p.m. Sante and Kenny show up. Police, they waited for the perfect moment

and then they moved in for their arrest. Now, at that same time across town, the New York police are called to the house of Irene Silverman. Now, Irene was missing. Irene hadn't taken a step outside of her Manhattan townhouse by herself in 15 years. So when she was missing that day, it raised alarms immediately. Her rental agent called the police that day

and the workers quickly suggested to police that they look into the tenant of 1B. Detectives want to talk to this mysterious Manny Guerin, but they are completely unaware that the Manny guy was really Kenny who just got arrested across town. So the next day, Irene Silverman's disappearance hits the papers and eyewitnesses are able to give the police a description of the tenant that was living in 1B.

And then a sketch is made up. They release the sketch of Manny and they put it out there. One of the federal agents who had arrested Kenny and Sante, he realized the sketch of this Manny guy looks exactly like that guy Kenny. They look just like him. This point, New York police questioned Sante and Kenny. They deny any knowledge of Irene Silverman. Don't know her, never lived there, who?

So the next day, police, they locate Sante and Kenny's car and inside where they find a 45 caliber gun, there was a large black nylon bag found in the trunk. They also find a date rape drug, a stun gun, a nine millimeter Glock, $22,000 in cash, forged social security cards and a forged document giving them power of attorney in Irene Silverman's name. A lot of forging going on.

They also found a set of 13 spiral notebooks. Sante kept the spiral notebooks and had pages and pages of notes. One entry said, quote, "'Get social security number, elderly people, easy targets.'" End quote. The notebooks also contained information The most significant pages in Sante's notebook were the entries that stated, kill DK. Who could DK be? David Kasten. A few weeks later, LAPD detectives arrive in New York

hoping to get a confession for the murder of Mr. Kasten, but their case is weak. They're not sure if they're going to be able to get a confession for the murder of Mr. Kasten, but they're not sure if they're going to be able to get a confession for the murder of Mr. Kasdan, but their case is weak. They have a motive, but no witnesses and no weapon. David Kasdan was shot with a 22 caliber handgun,

but none of the guns found in their car matched the murder weapon. So police then locate Sean, talk to him again because his name was mentioned again and again in Sante's notebooks. Sean then goes on to say that early one morning, Kenny came and picked Sean up. They drove out to David Kasten's house. Sean didn't know who David Kasten was, but Kenny told Sean just to like wait outside. So like Shawn is just waiting there and he hears a pop, like a loud pop, like a gunshot. Kenny comes outside and tells Shawn to come into the house. And when Shawn walks into the house,

he sees David Kasten lying on the kitchen floor. Kenny told Shawn to go out to the driveway and to back in David Kasten's car into the garage. And they could load David's body into the trunk. Kenny loads the body and they put him in the back of David Kazin's own vehicle and then left. Kenny and Shawn leave David's body and car near the airport. They throw the gun down the sewer

and then they make one last stop. They drove to a floral shop on the way home and they purchased a bouquet of flowers for Kenny's mom. So now police investigators have this new information. The detectives, they drive back to David's home and they conduct a luminol test. So they do this luminol test, and they see that there was evidence of blood

in the kitchen, proving that Sean's story has credibility. Awesome. So finally, LA prosecutors have a case with Sean as their star witness. So on December 16th, 1998, Sante and Kenny are in New York and they are facing 84 separate charges, including the second degree murder of Irene Silverman.

The New York murder case was kind of rough. There was no body, there was no confession, and there was no DNA. And both had pled not guilty, it was all circumstantial evidence. They did have 125 witnesses, but they knew without a body, it was gonna be hard to prove. And finally on May 18th of 2000, Sante and Kenny were found guilty on all counts. How they did it, I don't know, but they did. I think it was the 125 witnesses that really sealed the deal. Together they're sentenced to nearly 250

years in prison and Sante, she launched this media campaign to try to convince the press that she was innocent. She claimed that the evidence was planted and that the police had framed her. Now you can watch clips of her having these meltdowns. I didn't do it. How could the police do this to me? I feel bad for the American people. Like she was, you kind of want to believe her, you're like, yeah lady, yeah. She's a great actress. She should have been an actress.

Back in California, officials announced plans to have the both of them to stand trial for the murder of David Kasdan. So in the meantime, before that, in October of 2000, Kenny was doing an interview with Court TV. Now in this interview, Kenny had just snapped. He rushed the reporter. He held her hostage. Kenny was able to grab ballpoint pen and press it to her throat. He demanded that his mother not be sent to California where the two were going to face the death penalty, so he's holding this lady hostage for four hours, four hours of negotiation.

Kenny finally removed the pen from the reporter's throat, negotiators had like created some kind of distraction and wrestle Kenny to the ground. I mean, he was already found guilty, he probably was like, fuck it. Finally, in 2004, the trial begins for the murder of David Kasdan and suddenly, prosecutors are blindsided because their star witness, Sean, remember the one who was like, yeah, I was there,

he disappears, he just vanishes. Sean was their main witness. People are just panicking. But luckily, luckily, a few days later, Kenny decides to talk. Kenny agrees to testify against his mother, only if neither of them will receive the death penalty. So over the course of three days, Kenny confesses to the murders and tells detectives

that David was going to report them and Sante wanted him dead. He described in detail how he and his mother Sante had lied and stayed in the building owned by Irene. And they're like, oh shit, finally we're gonna hear what happened to Irene. They would stay in his apartment, 1B, right? And they could see everything that was going on

from like the little peephole on their door. And they were waiting for the perfect time to attack Irene. So they would just watch her through the peephole. They see Irene walking down the hallway alone. They're like, this is the perfect time. Kenny opened the door. Sante used a stun gun on poor Irene and Kenny with his bare hands strangled Irene to death.

He and Sante then placed her in a large duffel bag, then put her in their vehicle and transported her several miles away, dumped her body in a dumpster behind a gas station. Kenny testifies against his mother. He pleads guilty and is sentenced to life. Sante, she represents herself and pleads not guilty. She stood by that. She claimed that the cops threatened her son with the death penalty

and forced him to make a false confession and that her trial was just like the Salem witch trials and she claimed that the prosecutors were guilty for murdering the constitution. I'm serious, you gotta see her theatrics. Murdering the constitution of the American people. She's very dramatic. The judge then ordered Sante not to speak. He's like, you're done talking. He also tells her she's not allowed to speak to the media

because she was calling the media people all the goddamn time. The judge felt that Sante was attempting to influence the jury as they may have seen or heard interviews she was giving out. Smart. Anyways, in the end, Sante is convicted of first degree murder in the case of David Kasdan on July 7th of 2004.

She was sentenced to life in prison at the correctional facility in New York. To this day, they still have not found Irene's body, which is awful. And Kenny, like, also sentenced to life in prison, and is currently incarcerated at a correctional facility in California. Sante, she ended up dying of natural causes in May of 2014. Some believe that Kenny should have gotten a lighter sentence. They think that like his life would have followed a different path

it hadn't been for his mother, her controlling ways. Only did these things because his mother brainwashed him and convinced him to go along with her crimes. Sante had never confessed to any of the crimes, even to the day she died, which is like, lady, just give it up at that point, just give it up. Naturally, Hollywood was like, yes, we need to make this into a movie. 2001, a made-for-TV movie called, Like Mother, Like Son.

It starred Mary Tyler Moore as Santee. That was a pretty successful movie. And then another movie in 2006 about the case, it was called A Little Thing Called Murder, and that was a Lifetime movie. So you know that was cheesy and good. And then in 2009, they even had their own feature on Dateline. So that is the story of Sante and Kenny Kimes.

They called them the mother-daughter Bonnie and Clyde. I hope that wasn't too confusing. It seems like Sante, she just wanted to be rich and she went after that goal in her life. And I just wanna let you guys know that, you know, you just need to set better goals for yourself. Like if you wanna be rich, that's great, that's awesome. But maybe like earn it, not kill people for it

and steal their money. That's my advice for you. Let me know what you guys think of this case. Do you think Kenny should get an easier sentence? But other than that, I hope you have a wonderful day today. You make good choices and I will see you guys later. Bye!