The Mother, The Son, And The Socialite: The True Story Of A Mother-Son Crime Spree (St. Martin's True Crime Library) [Mass Market Paperback]

Adrian Havill (Author)

Book Description

Series: St. Martin's True Crime Library | Publication Date: December 28, 2004

The Mother
Once mistaken for a young Elizabeth Taylor, the weathered, 64-year-old Sante Kimes may have lost her movie-star good looks, but she never lost her pathological ambition to con, steal, and murder, and to use her emotionally explosive son as a pawn in her twisted schemes.

The Son
Friends said Sante Kimes had a Svengali-like psychological hold on her handsome but troubled 23-year-old son Kenneth. Completely dominated by his controlling mother, Kenneth would express a Norman Bates-esque love/hate for Sante, who seemed to call the shots in the most notorious and bizarre mother-and-son crime team in history.

The Socialite
82-year-old Irene Silverman was suspicious of the surly young man she had just rented a $6000-per-month apartment to in her Manhattan mansion and was planning to throw Kenneth Kimes out. Then she suddenly disappeared without a trace-- except for the bloodstains outside her luxury townhouse.

The Crime Spree Of The Century
Linked to an unbelievable cross-country crime spree that may have included as many as four brutal murders, police finally caught the Kimeses. In the sensational trial, damaging evidence was presented that left no doubt in the jurors' minds as to the Kimeses' guilt in the murder of Irene Silverman. A judge sentenced the Kimeses to life in prison. Now, The Mother, the Son, and the Socialite takes you behind the scenes to reveal a story of two master criminals who thought they could get away with anything-- including murder...

With 8 pages of shocking photos!

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Crime journalism at its best! Well-written, carefully researched, and as timely as the headlines that captured attention from coast-to-coast."--Jack Olsen, bestselling author of Hastened to the Grave and Salt of the Earth

"An instant true-crime classic! Gritty and riveting!"--Larry Celona, Police Reporter, New York Post

About the Author

Adrian Havill is the author of While Innocents Slept and The Mother, The Son, And the Socialite: The True Story of a Mother-Son Crime. He has also written several biographies, including The Last Mogul: The Unauthorized Biography of Jack Kent Cooke, Deep Truth: The Lives of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Man of Steel: The Career and Courage of Christopher Reeve, and contributed to Juice: The O.J. Simpson Tragedy. He lives in Virginia with his wife, Georgiana. They have two children.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's True Crime (December 28, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312970692
• ISBN-13: 978-0312970697
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,513,682 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Frightening study of people who care only about themselves., April 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Mother, The Son, And The Socialite: The True Story Of A Mother-Son Crime Spree (St. Martin's True Crime Library) (Mass Market Paperback)

Though I had read news accounts of Sante Kimes and her son's criminal exploits, this well written book tells how they became that way--i.e., people who'll do anything to get what they want--including killing apparently. More amazing to me is that they didn't need to enslave young women or steal fur coats because they were wealthy themselves. It seems they have personalities that can't be satisfied. You wouldn't want to meet this crime couple even on a bright sunny day. Smooth operators driven to satisfy themselves at everyone else's expense. It'll be interesting to see how many of the murders that they will have to face trial on. I hope the judges know to never let these people out to prey on others again.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You Won't Put Book Down!, May 21, 2001

By 

Karen Rhyne - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mother, The Son, And The Socialite: The True Story Of A Mother-Son Crime Spree (St. Martin's True Crime Library) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is simply the best. It's the story of a mother and son, con-artists who were only recently put away, presumably for "good." It's a truly bizarre tale, a story that has continued to capture the media attention even today.

The things they did were simply unbelievable and will keep you on the edge of your seat. For instance, the son would go into a store and distract the salesman so the mother could steal whatever she wanted. They stole fur coats, expensive scarves, and son, anything they wanted. They were convicted of insurance fraud schemes, murdering an 80-yr-old woman just to get her $10 million mansion, and a host of other things.

What's so weird is that these people were rich themselves; they didn't need to steal or con people for money.

This book is better than any true crime book I have read, and I am true crime buff. The author really did some serious research in writing this story. I know you will be pleased with the read. In fact, I read it all in one setting. I kept telling myself that what I was reading indeed happened. I was so fascinated by the book that I spent 5 days researching the criminals on the net.

Some things I liked about the book: non-stop action, short and detailed chapters, background just enough to keep you from getting confused, and because it left me spellbound, still saying to myself it all happened.

Get this book. It doesn't cost much, and it will be worth the read.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Drifters Meet The Grifters In Psychotic Meglomania, August 28, 2001

By 

Gypsychick "gypsychick" (miami, fl USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mother, The Son, And The Socialite: The True Story Of A Mother-Son Crime Spree (St. Martin's True Crime Library) (Mass Market Paperback)

A string of missing and murdered people. Dozens of false passports, rope and bloody trunks, tranquilizers and needles, and more than a few unpaid Cadillacs, this story is all the more shocking when one realizes this spree serves as a crash course in grifting - taught by mother to son. "Grifters" author Adrian Havill tells us "are the Einsteins of crime" and yes indeed that seems to be the case. Sante Kimes. Overweight, over-confident, overly made up and over bearing, she is the fat femme fatale, the Patron Saint of The Grifters. Her life spent rolling from scam to scam, save a three year prison stint for conviction of keeping her housekeeping help as "slaves" - locked in her home and under her rigid punishment system, Kimes was once thought of as a beautiful woman on the cusp of business and society. Along with her Norman Bates-like son Kenny, she wreaked havoc and murder across the country culiminating in the New York disappearance of eccentric, bubbly millionaire Irene Silverman. This is simply an incredible story and the book opens with a wondefully informative introduction which details the differences between drifters, grifters, serial killers, mass murderers, spree killers et al and helps set the stage for the reader to truly try to understand what makes this sick woman and her jittery son/probable lover tick. Well worth reading for the aficiandos of true crime in it's most bizarre form.