Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

A good quick read. Nice for a flight of 3 hours or less. Gritty and intense, the gall and gumption are what keep you glued.

Sante and Kenneth Kimes may be on par with the Canadian Ken and Barbie (Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka) while their motives were more for financial gain, Sante Kimes is one woman that I wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley.

The author does a great job in painting her origins and past in helping understand her but I doubt anybody could understand her. Her incestuous relationship with her own son, Kenneth Kimes Jr., was always troubled. She had him home-schooled, isolating him from other children, and raised him in an isolated atmosphere. Kenneth Kimes is sadly a victim of his own mother's wrath. When she was in prison, he was finally allowed to go to school and make friends of his own age. Sante Kimes did the most harm to possessing her son like an accomplice instead of as a son. She smothered him with her twisted version of love. Granted, his father was no prize but he allowed Kenny to have some sort of normalcy while his mother was in prison for kidnapping and abusing her illegal immigrant maids from Mexico. She referred to them as her little slaves. What choice did Kenny have in his life with his mother around to corrupt and twist the world in their direction.

Sante would spend some time in prison for her previous crimes but it only made her angrier that she didn't kill her maids instead. She vowed never to return to prison. Sante's horror knew no boundaries, laws, husbands, lovers, etc. She wanted something so she went after it. Her late husband would also be a victim of her madness, constant troubles with the law which included their son as an accomplice as young child. Sante's crimes led them to live around the country to avoid the law like Hawaii, Las Vegas, California, etc.

Of course, the book does paint Sante's past which explains so much about her psychopathy or sociopathy. She's a narcissistic sociopath that is one thing clear and she raised her own son, Kenny, to be the same. He was only trying to please and satisfy his mother's insatiable appetite. No other woman would ever be allowed in his life. It's sad for Kenny but he's probably more free now than he was outside prison. He doesn't have to answer to his demanding, abusive, maniacal mother.

I know that we'll never find the beloved Irene Silverman's remains now. It's been too long. She had an incredible life and was robbed of truly living in the end. Sadly, there were other victims that we don't know about who came into the crossfire of Sante and Kenneth Kimes' crime spree. Still, I would read another book about this bizarre, troubling case. This book was pretty good though.

First of all, I don't agree with people who complain about too much background being given or, as one person called it, "historical meanderings." No wonder people think all Americans have the attention spans of fleas. I happen to LIKE "having the table set" first.

As for Sante and Kenny...scary! I used to feel sorry for Kenneth, Sr. but after I read about the shabby treatment he accorded his first wife, I thought that, in Sante, he got what he deserved.

Great read, hard to put down. Never fails to amaze me that there are people like that walking amongst the rest of us!

This was an excellent book on the would-be drifters who became killers. Easy to read with good historical background to the Kimes family, which had its own group of bandits from the 1920s and beyond.

Mike Koch, author of "The Kimes Gang."

The story of this books is lost among all of the historical clutter. The author writes about too much past and not enough about the story line. I find my self skipping pages and twice whole chapters. Very disapointing.

it was real good. ans sante kimes is hilarious the way she trys to look like liz taylor. she's the ultimate "embarrassing mom". and son kenny is also funny as the geeky mommas' boy gone wrong. the mother & son crime team should really consider becoming a comedy team with their quirks and antics. the part where sante crashes a government soiree in d.c with her husband is a laugh riot, also.

This is the story of Sante Kimes, her son, Kenneth, and the murder of Irene Silverman. Well, it is supposed to be that story.

The story opens with a scene of Kenneth Kimes lugging a suitcase dripping blood down the sidewalk and putting it into the truck of their Lincoln towncar, then speeding away. Then it jumps to the early days of the victim, Irene Silverman, and her career as a ballet dancer.

The author leaps into the past and tells the story of the Kimes gang from the early 1900's. Although this has no bearing on the story being told, he meanders through it anyway. Then, he tells the life story of the parents of both Sante Kimes, her husband, and his first wife. He goes to great length to tell about the nasty divorce proceedings from that first marriage. Then, he finally gets around to the life story of Sante Kimes and her son.

Although the book contains some interesting reading, it meanders too far off course in an attempt to "flesh out" the manuscript. I found the ancestral rambling to be boring and actually skipped most of two chapters. While the movie might be okay, the book was a real bummer!