
GBRLIFE Transmissions
Why do women commit crimes? While crime isn't biased to gender, the reasons behind the crimes can be. GBRLIFE of Crimes dives into women's crimes and the Psychology behind them. Support this podcast:
GBRLIFE Transmissions
The Con Queen of Fifth Avenue: Mother, Son, and Murder — Sante Kimes Shownotes
In this episode of GBRLIFE Of Crimes, we peel back the silk-lined curtain on Sante Kimes—the social-climbing grifter who turned forgery into a family business… and murder into a twisted bond with her only child, Kenny. From penthouse impostor to modern-day Bonnie (with her own Clyde raised at her side), Sante’s life proves that the most dangerous disguise is a mother’s smile.
How does a woman obsessed with luxury coax her son into pulling the trigger—again and again?
Join me as we explore:
• The abandonment, poverty, and early scams that forged Sante’s chameleon identity.
• How marrying millionaire Kenneth Kimes Sr. super-charged her appetite for power.
• Kenny’s upbringing as “heir to the hustle”—and the psychology of maternal psychopathy.
• The enslavement case, the execution-style killing of David Kazdin, and the disappearance of Irene Silverman.
• Whether Sante Kimes was a cold-blooded puppet-master… or proof that evil can be inherited by nurture, not nature.
With every forged deed, she built an empire of lies. With every corpse, she signed it in blood. This isn’t just a story of greed—it’s a study of motherhood weaponized and morality for sale.
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New York City, 1998. The air hangs thick with summer heat. Limousines idle outside 5th Avenue boutiques. Their drivers swiping sweat from their brows. Uptown socialites pass their days behind double-locked brownstone doors, sipping iced tea and clutching pearls. In this world, wealth is armor, and deception and art. And then she appeared, a woman in oversized glasses, dripping in costume jewelry that looked real enough. Her voice, soft, low, rehearsed. Her charm? Addictive. She had a son, a tall, clean-cut, young man who never said much, but always carried the bags, always looked at her like she was queen of the world. She introduced herself as Mrs. Silverman, or sometimes Mrs. Jordan, or Madame Guérin. Her story changed, but her ambition didn't. Because what Santi Kain wanted wasn't attention, it wasn't money, not really. What she wanted was to be untouchable. Welcome to GBRLIFE Transmissions. I'm your host, Kaitlyn, and you're listening to GBRLIFE of Crimes, where we explore not just what happened in crimes committed by women, but why they happened and the psychology behind them. Today, we unravel the story of a woman who used lies like weapons, a woman who transformed manipulation into motherhood, and a woman who, along with her son, left behind a trail of stolen identities, scorched earth, and death. This is the story of Sante Kimes and how a con artist became a killer. Born in 1934 as Sante May, her early life is already wrapped in contradiction. Some reports say Oklahoma. Others say Los Angeles. Even her birthplace is a fog of half-truths. Her mother was a 14-year-old girl. Her father, gone before she took her first breath. Abandonment, poverty, instability. Psychologists often point to this triad as a recipe for identity fragmentation. For children who grow up with no solid foundation, pretending to be someone else isn't deception, it's survival. And Santi learned early how to be anyone. She stole. She lied. She ran away. And by her teens, she was boosting luxury items from department stores and hitchhiking across state lines, lying about her age and name as easy as breathing. She married young, but she divorced faster, changed cities, names, accents. and with each reinvention, she learned what worked. Confidence, elegance, or the illusion of it. Paperwork that looked real enough until it didn't. This wasn't just petty theft, it was identity curation. Santi was building the persona of a woman who belonged in penthouses, even if she had to kill to get the keys. In the 1960s, she met Kenneth Kimes Sr., a wealthy motel tycoon more than 20 years her senior, and they married quickly, and their union changed everything. Sante suddenly had access to everything she'd only pretended to have before. Private jets, real estate portfolios, bank accounts with zeros stacked like dominoes. But it didn't satisfy her. It never could. Because Sante didn't want his money. She wanted power. And power that depends on someone else isn't real. So she began quietly building her own empire of lies. One fake identity at a time. Forging checks. Inventing corporations. Running international scams while still playing the doting housewife. And when Kenneth Sr. died in 1986, she inherited millions. but instead of calming the storm inside of her, it escalated. In 1975, Santi gave birth to her only child, Kenneth Kimes Jr. He was her shadow, her student, her soldier. By all outward appearances, he was polite, handsome, well-spoken, but under her influence, he became something else. In criminal psychology, there's a term for what happened to Kenny. Coercive maternal enmeshment. It's when a mother makes her child her emotional extension. Blurred boundaries, no identity outside of her approval. Sante didn't just raise a son. She built a partner. By his teens, Kenny was helping her forge documents, stealing cars, lying to authorities. They ran scams together across state lines, from fraudulent credit cards to burning down homes for insurance. And when the stolen money dried up, they looked for new marks. Only this time, the stakes would be deadly. In the early 1990s, Santi and Kenny were arrested for enslaving undocumented maids in their California mansion. They beat the women, starved them. And when one escaped and reported them, authorities found passports locked away in safes. And a hot iron punishment. Santi got five years, but she served less than three because she called it a misunderstanding. But the truth? This wasn't just fraud anymore. It was ownership. And it wouldn't stop there. March 1998, Los Angeles. David Carsden was a longtime acquaintance of Santi. He helped her with real estate paperwork, trusted her. Big mistake. When he discovered she had forged his signature on a $280,000 loan, he threatened to expose her. Days later, he was found in the trunk of his car, shot in the back of the head. Execution style. The killer? Kenny. Sanze had convinced him that Carsden was dangerous. She reportedly said, he's going to take your future. Do you want that? That was all it took. Now, flush with fake identities and murder, in their rear view, Sante and Kenny headed to New York City. There, they set their sights on Irene Silverman, a wealthy 82-year-old widow who owned a $7.7 million limestone townhouse in Manhattan. Sante and Kenny moved into one of Irene's rental units under the names Manny Guerin and Eva Guerrero. They began intercepting her mail, forging ownership documents, and then July 5th, 1998, Irene Silverman was never seen again. They were caught two days later in a stolen Lincoln in Delaware, filled with 14 forged IDs, seven handguns, rubber gloves and duct tape, a forged deed to Irene's home, Irene's personal documents, and a memo in Santi's handwriting that read, body acid or fireplace? Irene's body was never found. But the evidence was overwhelming. What made Santi Caim so dangerous wasn't the crimes. It was her ability to convince people, including her own son, that it wasn't wrong. So let's break it down. Clearly, she had narcissistic personality disorder. She believed that she was above others, deserving of more. And empathy was irrelevant. Morality, optional. but she also had manipulative attachment because Kenny didn't just help her. He lived for her approval. He once said, if my mother asked me to kill somebody, I probably would. And then I'd make her a sandwich. That isn't loyalty. It's psychological captivity. And then there's also the mutual reinforced psychopathy because together they were worse than they could have ever been alone. She planned the cons, he carried them out. She cleaned up the lies, he cleaned up the messes. One brain, two bodies, no conscience. And in 2000, mother and son stood trial in Manhattan. Prosecutors painted them as modern day Bonnie and Clyde, if Bonnie had raised Clyde from birth and taught him how to kill. Kenny tried to take all of the blame, as I'm sure you thought he would. And Santi smiled, adjusted her pearls and said, I've never broken any law in my life. The jury didn't buy it. So they were sentenced. Sante to 120 years and Kenny to 125 years. California later added a life sentence for the Kasdan murders, but Sante died in prison in 2014. Kenny, he's still incarcerated. And to this day, he calls her my best friend. Beneath the pearls and the penthouses, something twisted and monstrous lurked Because this wasn't a woman scamming banks or skipping rent. This was a woman who turned deception into a bloodline. And her son, he didn't inherit her eyes. He inherited her evil. This has been GBRLIFE of Crimes, part of GBRLIFE Transmissions. And I'm Kaitlyn, reminding you that understanding the darkness helps us appreciate the light. Join me next time as we uncover another case that challenges everything we thought we knew about the criminal mind.