Son of a Grifter: The Twisted Tale of Sante and Kenny Kimes, the Most Notorious Con Artists in America
By Kent Walker and Mark Schone
4.5/5
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About this ebook
In 1988 a troubled young man and his flamboyant mother were arrested for murdering a wealthy widow in her New York City mansion. Suddenly, America was transfixed by a pair of real-life film noir characters. The media couldn't get enough of the twisted relationship between Sante Kimes and her twenty-three-year-old son Kenny.
But the most chilling story of all was never told—until now. Kent Walker, Sante's elder son, reveals how he survived forty years of "the Dragon Lady's" very special brand of motherly love and still managed to get away.
As a child Kent watched his mother destroy his hardworking father, Ed Walker, and then—with Kent's painful collusion—snare what Sante called "my millionaire." When she married seemingly respectable real-estate developer Ken Kimes, it was a match made in hell.
For the next two decades Kent's mother and stepfather indulged in a globetrotting orgy of criminal behaviour.
Kent, their would-be recruit, was privy to the family business—torching houses, defrauding friends, crashing White When Kent's half-brother, Kenny was born, Kent was twelve years old—old enough to know that he was his younger sibling's only protector. Kent tried desperately to save Kenny from his mother's sinister bidding. His failure haunts him to this day.
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Reviews for Son of a Grifter
8 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This fascinating story held my attention for days. I had to know what happened next and could not put it down. I highly recommend it.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Really interested story told from the "normal" son of Sante Kimes of her bizarre antics as a grifter with her young son Kenny. Needed a serious editor, though. I think easily half of the book could have been deleted without missing too much.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One of the best true-crime books ever written. Walker, the "other son" of con-woman/serial-killer Sante Kimes, recounts in fascinating detail his life with one of the most terrifying sociopaths ever described on paper. Nearly every page contains a Sante horror-story; the woman's entire adult life seemed to have been a nonstop orgy of mental cruelty, shameless manipulation, lying, greed, theft, fraud, assault, arson, torture and even slavery (she was convicted on this charge in 1985 - only the second American to have been in the 20th Century)...all building up, of course, to her murder of millionaire Irene Silverman, and at least three other people, with the willing assistance of her son Kenny. Walker candidly looks at his own conflicted feelings towards his mother and brother, and examines the grossly dysfunctional dynamics of the Kimes clan in depth, never minimizing his own participation in many of her illegal doings. Eventually he broke free from her influence; unfortunately, kid brother Kenny wasn't so lucky, and ended up being her co-conspirator in one of the ugliest mother-son arrangements since Oedipus took a shine to Jocosta. SON OF A GRIFTER was deservedly both a bestseller and an Edgar Award winner for Fact Crime. It's a must-read for anyone interested in con artists, sociopaths, or criminal families!