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As a young man he went on a deadly crime spree with his mother · Murder Files Unsealed

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  Speaker 1: All right, ready to dive deep into a true crime story.
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  Speaker 2: I'm ready when you are perfect.
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  Speaker 1: This one's both captivating and chilling. The story of Santae
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  and Kenneth Chimes.
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  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, the Times is. That's a wild one.
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  Speaker 1: It really is. And we've got some incredible sources for
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  this deep dive, a recent interview with Kenneth himself, court
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  documents articles.
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  Speaker 2: Wow, so we're going all in.
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  Speaker 1: Oh absolutely, We're going to unravel the truth behind their
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  crimes and try to understand what drove.
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  Speaker 2: Them, especially that complicated relationship between.
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  Speaker 1: Mother and son exactly. You know what's really interesting is
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  how their story starts. It's not with a dramatic chase
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  or anything. Oh how so, well, it starts with something
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  totally mundane. Renting a room.
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  Speaker 2: Hmmm, doesn't sound too exciting yet.
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  Speaker 1: Oh just wait. Picture that you're a wealthy socialite Irene Silverman, Okay,
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  I'm picturing it, and you're living in a beautiful New
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  York City townhouse.
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  Speaker 2: Nice.
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  Speaker 1: We decided to rent out some rooms just to have
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  a bit of company. Right, So in walks this guy, Manny.
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  Speaker 2: Garran, Manny garn okay, and.
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  Speaker 1: He's accompanied by an older woman. Turns out Manny is
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  actually Kenneth crimes.
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  Speaker 2: Ah, I see where this is gone, and the.
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  Speaker 1: Older woman his mother sante, both living under aliases, already
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  wanted for a string of.
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  Speaker 2: Crimes, hiding in plain sight classes exactly.
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  Speaker 1: But let's fast forward a bit to July nineteen ninety eight. Okay,
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  Silverman disappears. Her friends get worried haven't heard from her. Naturally,
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  they report her missing. Of course, police start investigating, and
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  right away red flags pop up. Manny garn gone vanished
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  and his mother too.
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  Speaker 2: But they don't stay missing for long, do they.
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  Speaker 1: Nope, they're caught that same day.
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  Speaker 2: For Silverman's disappearance.
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  Speaker 1: Actually no, they're arrested for something completely unrelateable. Oh really,
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  what for bouncing a check for a Lincoln town car.
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  Speaker 2: Wow? Talk about a weird turn of events.
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  Speaker 1: I know, right, But here's where it gets even wilder.
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  The police search the car and find all this incriminating evidence, guns, wigs,
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  even a date rape drug.
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  Speaker 2: Oh wow, this is escalating quickly.
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  Speaker 1: And the most danning piece they find personal items belonging
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  to Irene Silverman, like her keys, a forged ded to
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  her townhouse.
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  Speaker 2: So their plan was to take over her assets.
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  Speaker 1: Seems that way. The level of premeditation is just chilling. Absolutely,
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  But at this point the police still don't know who
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  they've actually caught, right, They have no idea about the kimes.
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  Speaker 2: Is past, a past full of crime, as I recall,
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  you got it.
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  Speaker 1: As the investigation unfolds, they uncover this trail of crimes
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  linked to the kimes Is going back years before Silverman, Like,
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  what kind of crimes Olsen insurance Frouda, Nevada.
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  Speaker 2: That's pretty serious.
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  Speaker 1: Then there's a murder of a businessman in Los Angeles.
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  His body was found dumped near lax Oh.
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  Speaker 2: Wow.
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  Speaker 1: They were even suspected in the disappearance of a banker
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  in the Bahamas last scene having dinner with you guessed
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  it the kimes Is.
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  Speaker 2: So this is a pattern of escalating offenses.
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  Speaker 1: It sure looks like it all culminating in Silverman's disappearance.
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  Speaker 2: And at the center of it all the mastermind Santi Kai.
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  Speaker 1: Right. She's described as this charismatic, almost magnetic.
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  Speaker 2: But also ruthless and manipulative.
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  Speaker 1: Right. Absolutely. Even her own son from her first marriage,
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  Kent Walker, He talked about how she could make anyone
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  feel like they were the most important person in the room,
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  like she.
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  Speaker 3: Had the superpower to charm and manipulate exactly.
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  Speaker 1: But under that charm was this ruthlessness that is truly scary. Like.
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  One example that shows this is her history with domestic workers.
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  Speaker 2: That happened there well.
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  Speaker 1: In the mid nineteen eighties, she was accused of bringing
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  women from Central America to work as maids in her mansions.
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  But she didn't just employ them. She basically enslaved them,
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  made them work without pay, terrible conditions. It landed her
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  in prison, but it didn't stop her criminal spirit.
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  Speaker 2: Sounds like it only fueled it.
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  Speaker 1: And you can see that audacity in the televised interview
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  she gave after her arrest first Overman's disappearance.
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  Speaker 2: What does she say?
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  Speaker 1: She denied everything, said she was a victim of a
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  witch hunt, a case of mistaken identity.
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  Speaker 2: Even though the evidence was stacked against her.
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  Speaker 1: Yep, she even shed some tears for the cameras, h
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  trying to play the innocent grandmother.
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  Speaker 2: Wow. Talk about manipulation, but the.
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  Speaker 1: Jury didn't buy it. In May two thousand, both Sante
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  and Kenneth were convicted of Irene Silverman's murder, sentenced to
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  one hundred and twenty years to life.
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  Speaker 2: That sounds like the end of the story.
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  Speaker 1: You'd think, so right, there's more. Oh yeah, there's a twist,
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  a confession that sheds light on their whole criminal partnership.
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  Speaker 2: Can't wait to hear about it.
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  Speaker 1: We'll dive into that right after. Okay, So where were we?
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  Oh yeah, Sante and Kenneth. They're behind bars, convicted of
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  Irene Silverman's murder, right right. But then a few years later,
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  two thousand and four, Kenneth does something totally unexpected.
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  Speaker 2: What's that?
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  Speaker 1: He confesses to another murder, another one, Yeah, the businessman
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  in Los Angeles, the one whose body was found dumped
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  near lax And he implicates his mother too.
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  Speaker 2: Wow, why do he do that? I mean, they are
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  already serving life sentences, That's the thing.
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  Speaker 1: It wasn't about guilt or a sudden change of heart,
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  So why save their lives? Literally, his confession was part
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  of a plea deal to avoid the death penalty for
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  both of them. He confessed to murder to save his
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  mother from execution. It's pretty heavy stuff. And his confession,
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  it didn't just implicate Sante. It gave us all these
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  disturbing details about Silverman's murder too, Like what He described
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  how he tackled her strangled her in her bedroom while
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  Sante she used the TV to mask the sound.
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  Speaker 2: Kenneth even said she told him do it, chilling a
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  glimpse into their partnership in crime. But how did Kenneth
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  end up so entangled in all of this?
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  Speaker 1: We have to go back way back to his childhood.
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  Imagine this family vacations in a motor home, criss crossing
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  the country. Sounds idyllic, right, yeah, kinda, But these weren't vacation.
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  Speaker 2: Oh were they?
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  Speaker 1: Then they were on the run from the FBI. Wow,
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  It's hard to imagine what that must have been like
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  for a kid living with that kind of fear, uncertainty.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely, and it gets worse. When he was ten, the
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  FBI raided their home arrested his parents right in.
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  Speaker 2: Front of him.
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  Speaker 1: Oh Man, talk about dramatic.
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  Speaker 3: Seriously, you have to wonder how that shaped his view
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  of authority. Seeing law enforcement not as protectors but as a.
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  Speaker 1: Threat definitely planted some seeds of distrust. But things changed
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  for a while. When Santi went to prison in eighty
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  five for well enslaving her maids. What happened to Kennethian
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  He went to live with his father, Kenneth Senior. Was
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  he a good guy by all accounts, Yeah, hard working contractor,
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  decent guy. And during this time Kenneth he actually thrived,
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  even went to YC. Santa Barbara, But then tragedy struck.
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  Speaker 2: What happened?
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  Speaker 1: His dad died suddenly and yours? And this is where
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  Sante's manipulation takes a really dark turn.
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  Speaker 2: What does she do?
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  Speaker 1: She didn't tell Kenneth his dad had died?
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  Speaker 2: What why?
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  Speaker 1: She's busy forging checks, taking money, trying to grab his
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  dad's assets. She even pretended to be Kenneth Senior on
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  the phone, made up excuses for why he couldn't talk.
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  Speaker 2: That's messed up.
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  Speaker 3: She took advantage of her own son's grief for her
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  own gain exactly.
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  Speaker 1: And of course Kenneth eventually finds out the truth. He's devastated, vulnerable, inane.
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  She prays on that tells him she's suicidal, needs his
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  help to find his father's money.
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  Speaker 2: It's like she's grooming him, drawing him deeper into her
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  criminal world, and it works.
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  Speaker 1: Kenneth gets more involved in her schemes. It's a complex picture.
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  Speaker 3: Right, very shaped by a chaotic upbringing. Trauma and ultimately
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  manipulated by his own mother. Makes you wonder how much
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  was his environment, her influence, and how much was his
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  own choice.
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  Speaker 1: Nature versus nurture. Could he have broken free from her?
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  Or was his fate already sealed? It's a tough question,
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  he really is. Yeah, it really is. It makes you think,
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  isn't it about the consequences, the ripple effects of these crimes,
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  How one person's choices can just devastate so many lives.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely, and it underscores how crucial it is to understand
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  what leads to criminal behavior in the first place. Like
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  in the crimes case, it's such a tangled mix of
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  nature and nurture, isn't it?
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  Speaker 1: Coldly? How much was Kenneth's path predetermined Yeah, by his genes,
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  his childhood, or how much was his own choice even
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  with his mother's manipulation.
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  Speaker 2: Right, it's a puzzle with so many pieces.
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  Speaker 1: Exactly, And we've tried to put those pieces together. Haven't
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  we explored their crimes, their twisted relationship, the lasting impact
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  on their victim?
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  Speaker 2: We have, But the crime story, it's more than just
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  true crime, isn't it?
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  Speaker 1: What do you mean?
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  Speaker 3: It raises all these questions about family, about manipulation, about
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  the possibility of.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know redemption even in such darkness.
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  Speaker 1: That's true, and it makes you think about early intervention.
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  You know, if someone had been there for Kenneth when
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  he was younger, could it have been different.
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  Speaker 3: It's hard to say, but it definitely shows how much
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  we need programs that support kids facing challenges.
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  Speaker 1: Right absolutely, And I think it also shows how important
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  it is to recognize manipulation abuse, which can be so
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  hard to see sometimes.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, we often think of abuse as physical, but emotional
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  manipulation it can be just as bad, if not worse.
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  Like with Sante, she used her charm, her tactics to
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  control everyone, even her own son.
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  Speaker 1: It's chilling. It reminds you that sometimes the people closest
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  to us they can hurt us the most. So as
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  we wrap up this deep dive into the world of
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  Santi and Kenneth crimes, I keep coming back to one question.
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  Could it have ended differently?
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  Speaker 2: That's what sticks with me too.
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  Speaker 3: Was Kenneth dustin for this or was there a chance,
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  any chance he could have broken free?
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  Speaker 1: It's a tough thought. We can't change what happened, but
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  maybe we can learn from it right. By understanding what
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  leads to these situations, maybe we can prevent them in
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  the future.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly we need to support people, protect to them so
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  these tragedies don't repeat themselves.
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  Speaker 1: I agree. Well, thanks for joining us on this deep
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  dive my pleasure.
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  Speaker 2: It's been a fascinating, albeit disturbing journey, and to.
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  Speaker 1: Our listeners, thanks for being here. Sometimes the most captivating
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  stories are the ones that force us to face the
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  darker side of humanity. Stay curious, but stay safe out there.