Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - She Will Kill You - The Sante Kimes Story

Episode Date: February 14, 2026

Sante Kimes was a calculating con artist whose life read like a blueprint for manipulation, fraud, and ultimately murder. Alongside her younger accomplice and son, Kenneth Kimes, she spent decades drifting across the United States, spinning elaborate schemes that ranged from check fraud and insurance scams to exploiting wealthy older men. Their crimes escalated in 1998 with the murder of 82 year old Irene Silverman, a wealthy Manhattan widow whom Sante befriended before killing her in a bid to seize her townhouse and fortune; Silverman’s body was never recovered. Investigators later tied the pair to the 1998 killing of Los Angeles businessman David Kazdin, whose body was found in a dumpster.

So this is probably one of the most evil women I've ever talked about. So the woman's name is Sante, and Sante is 36 when this story starts, and she's living in Las Vegas. And here's the thing about her. She really, really loves living an expensive lifestyle, like nice cars and big houses and jewelry and all that stuff. And she'd do just about anything to try and get that life. Like at one point, she sets her husband's house on fire multiple times just to claim insurance money. She'll also steal like money and jewelry and dresses and cars and really anything she can get her hands on. Now, eventually her husband has had enough of her crazy antics and they get a divorce.

So now, Sante is single, but she's not going to stay single for long. She needs a man to fund her lifestyle. So eventually, in 1971, she meets this guy, Ken. And Ken is a successful property developer, and this. This dude is rich. He's worth about $22 million. So, of course, she's attracted to him, and soon they start dating. And eventually, years pass, and they get married, and they have a kid together.

And just like that, Sante finally has access to Ken's money. And therefore, everything she wants, mansions, cars, and just the lifestyle. But for whatever reason, this doesn't stop her from being a terrible problem. person. Like, I guess to save money or whatever, instead of hiring a housekeeper, Sante starts smuggling young Mexican women in from Mexico to work as maids. And while they're working for her, she really mistreats these maids. She locks them up, she doesn't pay them. Sometimes she'll even burn them with a hot iron if they piss her off. Like it is crazy. Now, eventually, one of these maids escapes from her home. And the FBI gets involved,

and bam, Sante gets arrested, and she gets convicted of trafficking and she gets sentenced to five years in prison. However, unfortunately, three years later, she gets out. So now it's 1989, and Sante decides that she wants to celebrate getting out of prison and travel the world a little. So she pulls her son out of school.

Her son is this kid, Jr. And junior, he's around 14 at this time, and he is the son of Sante. and kin. So Sante pulls him out of school, and together they start traveling across different countries, Mexico and Japan, and across all of Europe. And while they're doing all this traveling, Sante keeps living a pretty shady life and just like stealing from people, even though she's rich now. And the worst part is that she does all of this right in front of junior, almost like she's grooming him to be just like her. And over time, he does, in the same.

end up wanting to be like her. Junior becomes more and more attached to his mom, and eventually he starts joining in on her crimes and stealing with her. And about five years pass, and it's now 1994, and Sante and Jr., they're done traveling now, but it's here that something terrible happens. Sante's husband Ken suddenly has an aneurysm, and he dies, unfortunately. Here's the thing about him, though. He actually has two other adult children from his first marriage. And of course, since he just died, they should inherit some of his wealth. But Sante isn't about to let that happen. She knows that if Kin's family finds out that he's dead, she and Jr. might have to give up his money or his properties. I mean, she has no idea exactly what could happen. So she doesn't tell anyone in the

family that he died. She keeps that shit a secret. And he has a little. And he has no idea. She has no idea exactly what could happen. And she has no idea. And she quickly has him cremated. And from here, she starts using his credit cards and withdrawing all his money and slowly taking control of his bank accounts. And about three months go by. And she finally tells Junior for the first time, like, hey, by the way, your dad died. And she also tells him about her plan to keep pretending that Ken is alive so that she can keep using his money to fund her lifestyle. And surprisingly, Junior is on board. Like he starts helping her drain his dad's bank accounts and spending all his money.

And two more years go by. And Sante is still out here spending Ken's money and writing checks in his name and stuff. And that is when this guy notices. His name is Saeed. And Saeed, he's been Ken's personal banker for years. And one day, Saeed notices a lot of strange transfers and spending happening with Ken's account. I mean, dead guys don't usually spend that much money. So he starts looking into it.

And pretty quickly, he realizes something shady is going on. And eventually, he figures out that Sante is the one behind it. Now, at the same time, Sante realizes that Saeed knows about her spending Ken's money. And she knows this is really bad for her. And she decides that from here, the only thing she can do is murder him. So in 1996, Sante invites Said over to her house for coffee. And she's pretending she just wants to clear some things up. So he comes over.

And while he's there, she and Junior roofy him. And while he's passed out, they drown him in the bathtub. Then Jr. takes his body and he dumps it in the ocean. And just like that, the problem is solved. Then Sante and Jr. move from Las Vegas. over to Florida. And there they continue living off Ken's money and stealing from other people as well. And years pass. And eventually these two have successfully spent all of Ken's money. Like there's nothing left in his bank accounts. All that's left are a few properties that he owned. So they decide to cash in on those two.

Now, one of Kin's houses in Vegas is actually under a different guy's name. This guy, David. Ken apparently put it under David's name because I guess he was trying to hide his assets from the IRS or something like that. But anyway, Sante ends up forging David's signature in order to take out a $280,000 mortgage on that house. And this actually works. The loan gets approved and the bank gives her the money. But then her greedy ass goes and sets that house on fire hoping to collect some insurance money on it. Now, after that, David finds out of her money. about the mortgage and the fire, and he immediately knows that Sante's the one behind it.

So he goes straight to the bank, and he reports all of this fraud, and the bank ends up halting Sante's insurance payment. So Sante gets super pissed off, and from there, Junior gets a gun, and he goes over to David's house, and blam, he straight up shoots him and kills him. then he wraps up the body and he dumps it in a nearby trash bin. Afterwards, he and Sante leave the state and they flee all the way up to New York City. And there, in New York City, they end up renting a townhouse apartment from an 82-year-old woman. And I guess she lives there too. So I think they're just renting out a room in her townhouse.

And while they're living in this woman's place, they start wiretapping her phone to collect personal information from her. And eventually they use that information to get a copy of the deed to her whole townhouse apartment. And Sante forges this woman's signature on a deed transfer, and they transfer ownership of the place to a corporation that Sante set up. Then one day out of nowhere, Junior attacks this poor woman with a taser in the townhouse, and then he strangles her to death. And after that, he dumps her body in a trash bin over in New Jersey. Yeah, it's crazy. These guys have gotten away with so much so far. It seems like they're just never going to get caught. An all-new season of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus. Mom Talk has just been blowing up. Whitney and Jen are on dancing with the stars.

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Until a few hours later People close to the woman notice that she's missing And that's completely out of character for her So they contact the police And police start investigating And it doesn't take long before they connect Everything back to the two people living in her townhouse Sante and Junior.

And eventually they catch up to both of them and bam, they get arrested. Here's Sante's mugshot. Also, here's Junior's mugshot. And ultimately, Junior takes a plea deal and he gets sentenced to 125 years in prison while Sante goes to trial, she gets found guilty,

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