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.