American man who committed a crime with mother ‘Dragon Lady’ speaks out

The son of notorious criminal Sante Kimes, Kenneth, now 49, has opened up about his tumultuous childhood and years as an accomplice to his mother’s crimes. “If I could just have an hour with my younger self, I would say, ‘buddy… you need to petition your parents for emancipation,'” Kimes told CNN from prison. “You have to save yourself.”

Kimes and his mother, infamous as the Dragon Lady, were convicted of the 1998 murder of New York socialite Irene Silverman.

The couple’s crimes extended beyond New York. At the time of Ms. Silverman’s disappearance, they were wanted for arson, insurance fraud and a shooting in California, along with a suspected murder in the Bahamas. Their arrests revealed an even darker past. They were linked to a series of crimes in which domestic workers were kidnapped and enslaved, including an infamous case in the mid-1980s in which Sante Kimes was sentenced to prison for running a human trafficking operation in several states.

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When police arrested them in New York, they discovered incriminating evidence in their car, including weapons, wigs and Ms. Silverman’s personal items, including a forged deed to her property. Despite this, the Kimes denied any involvement in Mrs. Silverman’s disappearance.

Sante Kimes called their arrest a “witch hunt” and denied all charges, claiming they were victims of mistaken identity.

In 2000, a jury convicted the Kimes of Mrs. Silverman’s murder and sentenced them to 120 years to life in prison. Four years later, however, Kenneth Kimes made a stunning revelation. He confessed to killing the elderly socialite and implicating his mother in the crime in exchange for a plea deal. “I want to make it clear that I did not confess because I wanted to betray my mother. I confessed because I feared the death penalty for me or her,” Kimes said.

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Kimes described how he tackled Ms. Silverman in her bedroom while his mother turned on the television to mask the noise. He then strangled her, put her body in a car and dumped it at a construction site in northern New Jersey. Her body was never found. The last time he saw his mother was during his confession in 2004. “When I started confessing, she started crying,” Kimes recalled.

His mother died in 2014 while serving her prison sentence.

Kimes described his childhood as marked by lies, insecurity and FBI raids. His mother’s imprisonment in 1985 for kidnapping and enslaving maids was an important moment. “It had a huge, damaging effect on my perspective,” he said. He also recalled his mother’s charisma and manipulative nature, saying, “My mother could make every man in the room feel like the most important person in the world.”

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Kimes also recalled a brief period of stability with his father after his mother was imprisoned in the 1980s. “It was the most stable period of my young life,” he said. However, when his father died suddenly, his mother manipulated him, hiding the news of his death for months.

Now in the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility, Kimes has spent years reflecting on his past and the consequences of his upbringing. He often thinks about the lack of intervention during his childhood, and what would have happened if someone had taken him away from his parents. “Maybe I wouldn’t have been a high-profile killer,” he said. “My entire life and crime is a study in the outcome of a lack of prevention. There are many children like me who are on the path to destruction.”

Kimes has turned to religion and believes he will meet his late partner in heaven. He also regretted his actions and apologized to the families of his victims: “To everyone I harmed, I know it sucks, but I’m sorry.”