Rotten Mango - #98: Mom & Son Incest Killers (Case of Sante Kimes)

Episode Date: September 19, 2021

When you walked by her house in the exclusively rich part of Newport Beach California you would never think it holds such sinister secrets. She was holding young women captive in her house and would be arrested for slavery charges.  After escaping from prison - she went on to brutally murder and scam her way into millions of dollars with her boyfriend. Who is her boyfriend you ask? Well, none other than her very own son.  And just when you think you know her - she surprises you. Book Rec: “Son Of A Grifter” - by Kent Walker (one of Sante’s sons I couldn’t put it down it was so good!) Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Welcome to this week's mini-sode of Rotten Mangle. I'm your host Stephanie Sue. And I'm a concerned listener. And today I'm just going to drop you in. It's been a while since I've been at a loss for words on how to start an episode normally I'm like all in ready to go. This is what I'm starting with But this is such a bizarre case. I don't really have any of that listen to this a woman makes it her life goal to marry a rich Millionaire the he she specifically wanted someone that just it wasn't worth one million two million no well over 50 million Million, two million, no! Well over 50 million! At least a hundred million, are you kidding me?

And she was successful. She married a huge real estate mogul in Orange County. She even had a son with this man, an heir to the inheritance. Now even with the money, she still likes committing crimes. Stealing cars, stealing grand pianos. You name it, she's stealing it.

How do you steal a piano? She's crazy. Oh, like the job, just to steal a piano, it's pretty impressive. It's pretty expensive. If you can steal a grand piano, you probably deserve the piano. I feel like the amount of labor and work

and like renting a van is the cost of a grand piano. Yeah, and listing a piano in there. Yeah. First that you deserve it, you know what, if I ever get a piano stolen, I don't have one, but if I did, you. Yeah, yeah, percent you deserve it. You know what if I ever get a piano stolen I don't have one, but if I did you steal it kudos to you you deserve it you worked hard for it you earned it Then this woman gets arrested for slavery charges. Did this happen during the slavery era? No, this literally happened in like the 1960s, okay, she'd been holding women captive in her house to clean for her,

she would beat them with hot irons if they tried to run away, so she gets sentenced to prison. She escapes and starts killing people with the help of one of her sons, whom she may or may not have an incestuous relationship with. What? So you're thinking, well Stephanie, you just gave the whole thing away. When I tell you, I'm not even scratching the surface. When I tell you, that's not even the shocking parts of this story.

I-I literally had a loss for words. As always, full show notes are available at rottonmingopodcast.com, but there's a really good book on this case called Son of a Grifter by Kent Walker. This is actually one of the sons of the criminals that we're talking about today. I don't even know what to say. This was a book that I finished in one setting, which is alarming, and I say that a lot, but this book was like 500-something pages. Every page is like watching a dark sitcom. It's so dark, it's so gruesome, but he's able to deliver every detail with like this strange

witty humor that you're not expecting. Minus the murder parts, but all of his personal stories, the ones that included his mom, it almost feels like you're watching a movie. Like a dark version of modern family. I haven't seen a lot of deep dives on this case, there's a really good A&E episode on it, Larry King interviewed the woman, and this podcast episode won't be a deep dive, but I highly recommend this book. I mean, it's on Kindle 2, if you want to get it today, it's like a good, just a weekday read. I don't even know what to call her. She went by multiple different names. At one point, it was Sandy, then it was Shandhi, then it was Sante, then it was Sante, then Shante, then Shanti. I mean, the list goes on. She's got like 25 different last names. Her even her ethnicity is constantly changing. One day, she's from a Dutch origin, one day

she's French, then she's East Indian. I mean, she's just a globe-trotting human. I don't know what to do. Let's call her Santee for this video, or Shanty. Shanty. Let's call her Shanty. I'm just thinking which one I like the most, okay? Shanty.

There's no official name that everyone goes by? No! Wow. So much so that when her first born child Ken Tuakker, the author of this book was born, he has no idea what's true. He has no idea his heritage. Maybe he took a 23 and me recently, but up until the writing of this book, he's like, yeah, I don't know what part my mom comes from.

Like, I have no idea what my heritage is. I don't know what my ethnicity is. I've never met my biological grandparents from that side. It's bizarre, but we do know that she was born in Oklahoma. Now, sometimes in her story, she says that she had siblings named Riba and Karim, but even her kids never really knew anything about them, until a court trial. Yeah, her kids were like, you have siblings? What the fork is happening? Sometimes she was from a respectable family in Oklahoma. Sometimes she was born on a farm and she was just hanging out with barn animals.

She was feeding the pigs. She slept with the cows. Her accent, by the way, was horrendous. No matter where she said she was from, her French accent, her somewhat Dutch accent, just all horrendous. But the fact that people bought into it shows really how good of a con she is. I'm talking French people would believe that she's French.

I mean, something would be kind of like, you know, bothering them, tickling them in the back of their mind, but they would believe it. Reba, the alleged sister of Shanti said that she was just a nasty little girl when they were growing up. Now, I don't know for a fact that they were sisters, I don't even know for a fact that they knew each other, but people said that they looked like an identical carbon copy of each other,

so we can only assume. Which he said that ever since she was young, her favorite habit, her favorite thing to do in life, was to creep up on you when you fall asleep. You're taking a gentle nap. Oh, let's just take off his sock. Once your socks are off, well convenient, I happen to have a box of matches in my pocket. Why don't I just stick them between his toes and then light them. What? That was her favorite hobby. I mean, I guess you gotta do what you gotta do, entertain yourself. What? No, it what's crazy is that everyone loved being around Shanti. I mean, she was energetic, she was charismatic, but it goes deeper than that.

I feel like so many times we're like, wow, this criminal, this serial killer was charismatic, but what does that really mean? I feel like it's so overused. Shanti, people told her that her energy alone could fly a rocket to the moon. If she liked you, you felt special. Why would someone this eccentric, this, out of this world,

this different and confident and outgoing? Why would she even talk to me? Maybe she sees something in me and you start feeling good about yourself. It was one of those relationships. People said that she looked like the famous movie actress Elizabeth Taylor And she kind of did it purposefully. I mean she'd wear these massive black wigs She went out of her way to dress like her at restaurants people are be like hey you look

This is crazy you look so familiar and she'd be like oh I'm Elizabeth Taylor You're you're the Elizabeth Taylor? Can I get an autograph? And by that point, the whole restaurant is lined up and she's signing cocktail napkins. Just full in character. Never broke character. Never.

If people questioned her like, oh, but Elizabeth Taylor has like a mole here. Like, got it removed. What's wrong with you? Never broke character. Her boyfriend were obsessed with her They would sleep out by her pool for three nights straight just to be let back into her life They'd be like, please shanty don't leave me

Like that was the life she was living in high school Shanty meets Ed Walker who's gonna turn up to be her second husband Why are we skipping her first? Hold on to your horses. We're gonna get there, okay? She was going by Sandy at the time not as fancy Sandy and Ed was completely smitten I mean he's a high school kid he's a jock he's you know a football player and she's beautiful full of life just quirky and she always talked about all these famous people that she knew. So in Oklahoma he's like wow you know famous people so they start dating he's dating her exclusively and seriously.

He believed that they were in agreement after high school. They're gonna try to go to the same college, stay in the same area at the very least. Then they're gonna get married. That's what you do, you know? Shanty though, dated him casually, definitely not exclusively, and she was just not a person to be tied down.

He ends up in Seattle. She's moving up and down the coast of California for college and they're still talking and Ed believes wholeheartedly. You know what? This sucks. It's long distance, but we're gonna get married once I graduate because I'm studying to be an architect. That's what Sandy wanted him to be. Sandy liked the sound of it. Oh, me? My boyfriend's an architect. I'm dating an architect. She liked the tone of that, the ring of it. Now during one of these vacations, he went to go visit Sandy and her adopted parents opened the door.

Uh, is Sandy home? She hasn't really been talking to me in the past couple of weeks. Can I talk to her? Oh, Ed. Sandy's married. Wait, she just got married? She just got married. Not too long ago, she's a newlywed.

She didn't tell you? I thought you guys were broken up. She got married to an army officer by the name of Lee Powers. Now Lee Powers had relocated from Georgia, Fort Benning, all the way to California to be with his newly wedded wife. He quit the army and he decided I'm going to go to school and I'm going to become a school teacher. I'm going to put food on the table on my pay the bills. Now this shook Shanti.

A what? Now most people would think that that's admirable. What a great career path, I mean you get benefits, maybe I think you get a pension, do you get a pension, right? But to Shanti, this was the worst case scenario. You gotta think big early, that's not enough money, do you want to waste your life, the worst case scenario. hopefully soon to be architect, right Ed? You're gonna be an architect, right Ed? She wanted someone to give her big presents. What's bigger than real estate? Yeah, you could aim for a bag. You could say for my birthday, can I get a purse? Can I get a new little, you know, I filmed 13? That's a huge present.

But what's bigger than a big old plot of land? Maybe some commercial properties, maybe some houses, and he could build it, he could give it to her. She's definitely Thinking very big for a young age, right? That's why I'm so intrigued by her childhood. I mean what kind of house was she raised in? I mean if these are her real siblings like Reba and Karim, what are they doing now? I feel like it was nature. Yeah, cuz she's this is intense. Yeah. I don't even think you could coach this. Yeah. So she, I mean, he gets straight to work.

If that's what Shanti wanted, he will do it. He was really in love with her head over heels. Saved up $100,000. Bought a lot, built a beautiful house, then another, and another. And in California, he's in Los Angeles to be exact. He starts becoming an up and coming contractor in the area.

People wanted to hire him for their projects. This is Shanti's dream, but it wasn't good enough. She wanted more excitement, more money. So she starts trying to burn down the houses that he built for insurance money. Now maybe because she wasn't good at fires yet or maybe because his build was that great, the house wouldn't burn down to the ground only the kitchens would have damage. Insurance would pay them out. They would fix it up and they would sell the house for $400,000 in today's money.

He only spent like $100,000. Now that's really good profit. If Shanti doesn't blow $200,000 of it on Christmas presents. What does she buy? Just everything. I mean this woman buys everything. She is the epitome of just I want excess. I want luxury. I want everything to be brand name. She wants to be dripping in Los Angeles where it doesn't even get cold She wants to be dripping in Minkfur coat that are worth twenty thousand dollars. She wants to have a whole closet of them She wants to have a whole closet of them. She wants jewelry. She wants the best of the best. Now that's still a ton of money that they're

making. Even with all the money that's coming in legally, Shanti could have just given up all her old habits, but she loved shoplifting so much. She got caught stealing hair driers. Things without like $30. She just couldn't help it. She couldn't walk into a store without taking something. And because it's LA, she changed her name from Sandy to San T. That's more of a development for me. How does well-scent T? It's always the same smelling though, except for Sandy.

It's S-A-N-T-E. Sometimes she would do it with the little thing over the E, the little accent, and she would always say, oh, it's with the thing over the E. When people write our name. No. No, she starts getting more involved in Ed's business, wants to help him network, bring him and more clients.

Let's put it on so sorry. That's kind of funny, because in Chinese, we have four tones, right? So when we do the spelling of the words, actually, we have the little thing on top too. The accent, the little. Yeah, we have four different things we do. So imagine me just telling, it's it's the this with

Not every character make sure you do your right Okay, imagine like it's extra bougie Like what is wrong with this guy and the only person uses that kind of spelling is when you're in second grade That's exactly what she was doing and she she thought it would help with networking and ed's business, getting him more clients. And the best way though, not just impressing them with money or her name or the little thing over the e was to have sex with potential business partners. Oh yeah, in their family home in Ed's office, really anywhere that Shanti saw fit or where it would fit.

That was a really good one. I'm sorry I had to. She starts spending more money, racking up tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt buying fur coats, furniture, designer bags, makeup, and starts to lose everything. He would have to develop a house, sell it immediately just to pay off their debt. They weren't even breaking even. He tried to stop her spending, didn't give her money, and so what did she do? She would go behind his back as his common law wife, or his wife, you know, married wife, sell his property to sleazy businessmen.

So for example, if a property was valued at over a million dollars, she would sell it under the table to sleazy businessmen for a hundred thousand dollars. In cash. These guys would jump at the opportunity because a hundred thousand dollars, I mean, I don't even know what percentage of a discount that is and she would pocket the cash and leave Ed in all this debt And herself too, but she didn't care that she was in debt Did not care This woman is I am just this is like my biggest time here. I don't even know What you would do this is like murder in nightmare. I don't even know what you would do.

This is like murder in the making. Like what? Now Ken Walker around this time, Ken Walker is born. So this is Sandy's first child. This is also the amazing author of the book that I'm obsessed with. And now she's a mom. She's not necessarily maternal in the way that she would have been. But she does everything she can for him.

She steals for him, steals toys for him. Yet, toys are us, walks out with just a purse full of everything, the newest gadgets. When it was his birthday, she stole a golf cart. To give him, he's like seven years old. She would throw these lavish parties for him all the time his friends were jealous. I mean, what do your parents do? But she was reckless. Her marriage with Ed was rocky. They were constantly breaking up getting back together

When they were broken up she would call him asking for money I needed to come to my apartment that I'm staying at and give me $50 so he would make the drive I mean Ed was smitten. He was head over heels for this woman He would make the drive to drop off $50 when she is on the couch making out with her new boyfriend. He would still hand her the $50 and drive all the way back home. Now around this time he starts putting all his money, putting all his time, creating a dream project, a house in Laurel Canyon, a prestigious area in Los Angeles. It's gonna be overlooking the city on a beautiful hill, a mid-century modern glass everywhere, beautiful house.

She sets it on fire to claim insurance money. She's literally setting fire to her husband's dreams and goals in life. Literally. Now at Ed's peak, he was worth around $10 million with all of his properties, but Shanti blew through it all. Gave it away, or oftentimes she stole things or ruined something would get sued and guess who's on the hook for it. Head, and he's ready to just pick up the bill, he lost everything because of Shanty.

He has no complaints, no frustration. I mean, after the divorce, he's like, yeah, that was bad. But he had been through so much abuse that whenever she did something like this, whenever she lit a house on fire, sometimes it would be her throwing a kitchen knife at him and it would hit him in the arm. He would just calmly ask her, why do you do this? Oh my god poor dude. Yeah, I mean, no it's bad. So after they're officially broken up, there was a gun incident.

Christmas Eve rolls around. Shanty and Ed decide to be responsible parents. For the happiness of our son Ken, why don't we just go out to dinner as amicable partners. Shanty would bring her new boyfriend Clyde. Nobody will fight. It'll show Ken that we can have a cute little blended family, you know, give him some hope for the future. Dinner goes great. So much so that they're like, hey, you want to hang out at one of our houses after? Okay, sounds good. I'll follow you. So they get into their prospective cars. Shanty and Clyde are in one. Ed and the sun, Kent are in another. Kent is about seven years old at this point. So Ed's following Clyde's car. When he notices, it pulls

over to the side of the road. Well, that's weird. Does something happen? I hope nothing's wrong. So he pulls on over to, gets out to investigate. He starts looking at the tire. And Kent's waiting on the car and he sees his dad stare at the tire Then back at his mom then back at the tire and he looks confused and he looks angry and Slowly Shanti pulls out a gun from inside her coat points it at Ed and he starts screaming Whoa, oh raising his hands and he's like I don't do anything stupid. What's going on? What's going on? And she said did you turn us in? Did you tell the police about us admit it it was you he said I don't know what you're saying I didn't talk to the police and then she pulls the trigger the noise was deafening but can't

set it didn't fall to the ground somehow somehow shanti had missed him from point blank range. Maybe she didn't try to kill him. I mean I think she did because she uh... well you'll see. So Ed leans over, grabs the pistol from her, throws it into the woods and starts booking it. He starts running, okay away from the car, leaving Kent in the car. Clyde starts chasing him in his car, pulls up right next to him, whips out a shotgun and fires, and he too misses. Are you kidding me?

These are the most incompetent, but somewhat competent criminals. Now Ed's freaking out, starts trying to flag down other cars. This is scary and Clyde. He drives back to Shanty. They pick her up. They drive off. Meanwhile, nobody wants to help Ed. Yeah, the city of angels.

Nobody wants to help him. He's like, my wife just tried to shoot me. Everyone's like, okay, step on the gas. That's keep going. So it gets back into the car with Kent. They go home. Once they adrenaline, the shock wears off. Wait, what first of all, what is she screaming at him about? Because someone had informed the police about their illegal criminal activities. And she thinks maybe she was like stealing and setting things on fire, I see. Like their insurance fraud. I see.

And he's like, I didn't do it. So Ed didn't want to turn into his ex-wife. The mother of his child never went to the police about it. If I don't see it, does that mean it doesn't exist? That's the age old question, especially when it comes to credit card statements. I hate to admit it, but I really was one of those people. If I don't see it, does my credit card debt really exist?

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Don't forget to use our URL to let them know that we sent you. Lone amounts will be determined based on your credit income and certain other information provided in your loan application. Go to upstart.com slash rotten. After ruining Ed's life completely, Shanty was officially ready to move on to the next man, but she knew. She knew she needed something bigger, go round her. Yes, there's plenty of fish in the sea, but she wants

to bag a whale. Now marrying a rich rich millionaire was her only goal. She forced Kent to dress up in suits in order to impress these high status men because having a perfect son equals your a perfect mom. There's no question about it. Which means maybe I'll be the perfect wife and these men will be like wow this woman so beautiful She's got the biggest titties. I mean she has really big boobs. She loves showing it off She loved telling everyone she only wore sheer like little gowns. Yeah I mean just telling you the truth So before these men came over to pick her up for her dates, she would be getting ready and she would sit little Ken down. He's like 10.

According to the book, and she would say things like, there's two kinds of people in the world, Ken. The halves and the half-nots. And the half-nots aren't really people at all. I'm doing this for you too, Ken, for us, for our family. We need someone who can give us the things we deserve. Now, her favorite man had always been real estate men, developers, commercial property moguls, men who owned a lot of things that she understood.

Something like stocks, she doesn't get it, she can't set it on fire, there's no way that she can take control over that asset, but real estate, she understands it. So but before she married a millionaire, she had to do a couple of things by herself, an admirable single mom mindset. But not really. She would steal cars, whenever she wanted a new car, she would steal it off the lot. She would go on a test drive with these, you know, car salesmen. Hey, I love this car, you know, my son loves it, but he's taken a nap in the back right now. Or why don't I try parallel parking, you go inside and start the paperwork. Now she looks like a rich, respectable woman, so they'd go inside and start the paperwork and she would just zoot off the parking lot. Yeah.

She picks up a magazine one day. The magazine is called Millionaires. Classy. There's a man in Newport Beach, Orange County, California by the name of Ken Kimes. He was a motel mogul recently divorced and his net worth was estimated in today's money to be around $140 million. Where is this money coming from, Ken? Well he started, he was smart.

When Disneyland was in the works of being contracted in Anaheim, he started buying up a budget property right in front of Disneyland. Turn them into motels, now he's banking. Now he's loaded off his butt. This guy's a catch. This is the one. Let's go fishing. So Shanti is like, okay, we gotta learn everything we can about him.

His favorite color is white. So what does she do? She impulsively, before even meeting the man, goes into her closet, throws out anything with any color on it, only keeps the white clothes, goes on a shopping spree where she only steals white clothing. He loves the smell of gardenias. She smelt like a walking gardenia botanical garden from 10 miles away from that point on. I mean this woman is really intense, so who is this Ken Kym's man?

Is he interested in someone like Shanti? His childhood is interesting. He was also born in Oklahoma on a cotton farm, where his family was employed, and they were broke. They were so broke. They decided to change their lives, pick up, move to California, save up all their money, buy some property, and buy the time that Ken is 24 years old. He's a little real estate developer.

He's building these houses, he loved it, and it only grew from there at his height, he owned ten motels, and restaurants, and commercial properties all up and down in California, and the state of Arizona. Now when he divorced his first wife, who had been there, through thick and thin, through poorer rich, he showered his two children with gifts so that they would choose in the courts to live with him so that he wouldn't have to pay child support. He also forged documents and hired other professionals

to make it seem like his first wife had cheated on him so that she would get nothing in the divorce and he was really proud of it. He thought that that was like his best business move ever, okay? Now, he was a very frugal man, maybe a little bit too frugal, but he was also a very skeptical person. He felt like everyone was out to get him. All people wanted from him was to take his money. Everyone in this world is a greedy person and they don't like you for you.

No, they like Ken because he's rich and because he can do something for them. Especially even his own children could be bought. They liked their mom, but he bought them a bunch of things, maybe a car here and there, and suddenly they're, oh yeah, mom's a bad person in court. So of course, his view on humanity is just like, bar none, it's just on the ground. And Ken, the son, he thinks that this is the reason that Shanti entered into his life so easily. You're thinking that's weird, but he hates people that are after his money. But it's probably because she was so upfront about it.

And it's refreshing. Everyone else, hit little cards up their sleeves. Oh, can you hand some to me? Oh, can you do this? Oh, can you? No, don't bite me that. But Shanti made it clear and obvious. She wanted money. She made it clear and obvious. I money. She made it clear and obvious. I'm here for your money, you're here because I got big boobs and I'm cute. That's it. Pretty, pretty. It's a really smart move.

Yeah. So she decides this one needed extra work though. She starts changing her family background around. Suddenly she's French, moves to Newport Beach and she says, oh, I'm Sonté with an accent. And the little thing over the E at the end, you know? And eventually in Newport Beach she goes from Sonté to Sonté, because she thinks maybe it's better if I'm East Indian. Maybe it's a little bit more Ula-la, maybe it's a little bit more different here. So many French people here. I'm nothing special, but Ken would always call her Santee till the day he died.

Santee? Yeah. Now everyone, everyone that knew Ken Kimes is shook. That's his new wife. Have you seen his new wife at the country club? Oh my God. Did they really get married? Do you think they're married?

They never had an official ceremony, but it seemed like they were married. Or maybe, maybe guys, she's just good never had an official ceremony, but it seemed like they were married, or maybe, maybe guys, she's just good in bed. That's gotta be it. But Ken says it was different. I mean, his mom was loving when she wanted to be. She would give Ken massages all day.

Spoon fed him, like a little baby, poured his drinks, praised him in front of his friends. But everybody else saw her as a gold digger, including Ken, because he refused to tell her how much money he had where it was, and he called every single one of his accountants and told them never to talk to Shanti about his finances. He wouldn't even open up a check-in account for her.

I love it. The trust. The trust is really that the foundation of the relationship is so strong. To solid, solid marriage. Yeah. And in the beginning he refused to even spend a dime on her at first. He didn't shower her with gifts.

He didn't buy her dresses, makeup, skincare, even the cheapest things. So then she would show up to the house with new fur coats and he's like, well, I know you don't work. I know you don't have money because every time I go to sleep, you steal my cash out of my pockets. So where are you getting this from, Shanty? Then he finds out one day that she's stealing it. And he is somewhat proud. He doesn't stop her.

He's like, I don't got to pay for you. So good for you. He admired her absolute ballsiness. Just the audacity. She was just something that most women in Newport Beach were not, which is exciting. She was just crazy. So he would fund her business ventures though. One of them was this poster business.

She was going to sell posters to the United Nations. Listen, I don't know. Okay, it's in the book. It's a deep dive on this whole poster business. But they ended up losing over a million dollars So I wouldn't say she's a really good Just straight by the book business owner Now Shanti would also go down to Mexico or South America to smuggle and young women on the promise of applying for work visa

She's not just stealing pianos. She's literally human trafficking. She would provide them with great pay So she said, and a great opportunity to start a life in the land of dreams and freedom. America, so she said. They would drive down the border and their new plushy Cadillac, and of course, they would go to lesser neighborhoods

and everyone would be staring like what's going on, who are these people? And she would stop a random woman with their young teenage children like 19. She would stick at a... water bills into the mom's hands. A heart felt talk. Shanti was really good at Spanish. Then the young teenagers would get into the car, and she'd tell them,

don't worry. I'll treat you guys like my daughters. And they would drive back into America. They would actually place the two teenage girls into the Cadillac trunk to get pass border control. And the woman were always the same. They were younger, never spoke any English. If they mentioned that they had family in the US or knew English, or could even possibly get a legal work permit

or visa for the United States, she was an interested. That's, you're not it. She would find an excuse. You just don't look. You don't look like you got what I need. Then once they were at Shanti's house, she would take all of their belongings ID. Passport make them work 24-7 without ever leaving the house.

She never paid them, told them that their payment was in free rent and food. Most of them ran away because that was the only way that they could escape. She couldn't even call back home to Mexico. They were literally slaves in our house. She took all their clothes, instant reliffession, she burned them in the fireplace. Gave them all the same uniforms. Once they were done with work, they weren't allowed to leave their rooms or even talk to each other.

Because they could be plotting something. She had locks inside the house, that locked from the outside, so she would literally lock them in their rooms. So what does she do? Is she's just making them clean the house? Yeah. Doing chores? Oh yeah. If they didn't want to do their work or do it well enough, Shanti would shove them, push them as hard as she could until they felt.

They weren't allowed to eat with the family. If the maids needed something like a tampon, they were so terrified. It'd go even to ask her. They would go to the young teenage boy, Kent, and ask him instead. She would burn their arms with hot irons if she was pissed, when she wanted to punish them, sometimes she would pull a gun on them and threaten them. If you ever try to run away, you will be killed because we have connections to the mafia. When one of the girls had burned hamburgers, she was making dinner.

Shanti was so pissed she took her into the bathtub, poured scalding hot water all over her, and when that wasn't enough, got a pan of boiling water to throw on top of her too. Oh my gosh. But she would tell these young undocumented vulnerable abused scared girls be careful. There've been so many times in the past you know. A very entitled American family would walk by and they'd see these young, beautiful women working for us. And they'd get envious. So they would call ice. And the girls were very stupid. The police took them to jail. It was terrible. Nobody could help them. Nobody could get them out.

And that is why it's so important. You don't talk to any strangers. Even if they can speak Spanish. Stay in the house. Or they can take you and put you in prison. Words help. They'll treat you very ugly. Very nasty, they'll hardly give you anything to eat, they'll beat you, molest you, oh, they'll do everything. So don't answer the door, don't answer the phone, and everything's going to be beautiful. You're going to have a very happy life. If you don't, pay attention, it's going to be hell.

She would also provide them with 40 pages of rules. Very beautiful. When she went over to other, I mean, these are also millionaires, okay? These are like, they're not words are insane, and she won't just pay fair wages. She'd go over to people's houses. She would tell them, these are other fellow rich people. Oh my god! Are you doing your own dishes? You are too busy to worry about all this housework. I will get you a maid.

No, really, I'll get you a maid. All you have to do is feed them. You're really doing them a favor. I mean, you should see the conditions that you're saving them from. You don't have to pay them a penny. It's an honor for them to be living in America. So does she do that?

No, all of her friends were like's that seems illegal. Well, thank you I'll just um like I have a fiber. I can just go on fiber or something Get someone we're fine now one day Ken tells Kent. I know it's confusing Who tells who so the dad's name is Ken the first first son, his stepson is Kent, but then they're gonna have another son named Kenny. So one day Ken tells Ken to the son that mom's at the hospital. What?

What is she doing? Is she gonna be okay? Oh yeah, nothing big, something minor. So he's a kid and we should probably having surgery done. Like this young boy is like, I've seen her get all this work done, it's fine. She's gonna come back home and it's gonna be great. But she comes back home with a baby,

a little baby brother. He was born prematurely, but he was healthy now and all of it was just so confusing. He's like, why didn't, why didn't you tell me? Why would you keep this a secret? Something as big as having a little brother? I don't understand and Ken, Ken, the dad, the whole time he'd been talking nonstop about how he didn't want kids he was in his 60s already and now now we

have this new board I'm so confused. Wait the son didn't know the mom was pregnant she was gaining weight but nobody told him. Oh I see. And his name was Kenny Jr. So when the mom was alone with her first son Kent, she would tell him, how important Kenny Jr. is. Listen Kent, he's the key to our lives. If you ever want to live comfortably, we have to make sure Kenny Jr. is safe away from the other children that Ken has. So Ken had two children from a previous marriage. We know that, right? Yeah. We got to make sure nobody touches Kenny Jr. This is the heir. She would call him the heir. The heir to the throne, the heir to the inheritance, the heir to the empire.

He's special. He has a destiny to fulfill. Besides, you're not going to be in the will, because you're just a stepson. And she would say it like that scathing. And it would make Kent just want the love of Kent so badly, just wanted to feel like he had a dad, like a father figure in his life. So for a while, Shanti's over the moon, she loved to play with her baby, but immediately when he peed, she would just hand him over to the maids, and she enjoyed parenting because she only did the fun parts. Now on top of that, she had won, herself, and air, so she's living the dream. Spoiled the crap out of him, for his birthday, she enlisted the help of her friends and family, rented an RV, and stole, can you guess?

Grandpa Hano. A pony. Oh. A full-on horse. She stole a horse. Hit the horse in their garage. Next to their new Cadillac, Tilly was his special day and surprised him with it. And he loved it, Tilly got bored of it in like an hour.

Now Kenny Jr. has always been home schooled so that she could control who he talks to and everything that he does. She had this crazy paranoia that all of the other kids or other uncles or aunts from Ken's side of the family, we're gonna try to brainwash Kenny Jr. into hating his own mom, because they hated her. They hated her. Let's not lie, Ken's first kids hated Shanti.

Thought that she was evil, disgusting, a gold digger. She must have some blackmail on our dad because he's losing his marbles. So she would hire these tutors, and he would study for eight hours a day, and all these tutors said that the mom-to-son relationship was strange. Nobody was allowed to be alone with Kenny without Shanti in the room, including family members. And they were alarmed when they found out that Kenny, who is eight years old now, still showered with his mom.

That's a little weird. And it didn't seem like, oh, I'm just busy, like this the fastest way, like busy mom life, you know? No, it's all about control, it's all about boundaries, and it was just downright bizarre. One of the tutors tried to teach Kenny, hey, we can't lie, okay? It's a good life lesson.

Don't lie to people. And Shanti got pissed. She told the tutor, there's a time to lie, and there's a time not to lie. And I will be the one to teach him that. Would make the maids give pedicures to the tutors and the tutors are like, oh, I don't feel comfortable. Like, I don't need a pedicure, I'm fine.

No, we need fine. Nope. We need to do this. This is to show her that she is subservient to you. Now, one of the tutors Theresa would eventually go to the FBI and say that Shanti had stolen her passport, her ID, forced her to smuggle woman across the border with her so that they could be maids together, yeah, so that they could be slaves to Shanti. She kept threatening me if I leave that she has mobbed something bad's gonna happen to me. And the question is, why would anyone willingly still want to be anywhere near Shanty? Well, she was a good friend when she wanted to be.

So she always strategically hung out with people that were of a lower socioeconomic status than her. They were impressed. She provided them with one thing that they might not have a lot in life. Excitement. She shared them with gifts, spontaneous trips to the Bahamas to Hawaii. She was crazy. She had stories for days.

She made you feel alive. She had pictures with the first lady, with the vice president. She went to a lot of parties in Washington, D.C. She crushed a lot of parties in Washington, D.C., pretending to be ambassadors. Yeah. Man.

It just keeps going, I know. The Washington Post actually didn't expose on her because they found out that they weren't ambassadors. That they were just a rich couple from California and it was bizarre, but she always would ask for a favor. If you were her friend, she gave you a gift, she would remember it until it came in handy. One day Shanti served papers, you know, to show up to court one day. And she just said, I don't want to show up to court. Bags one of her friends, I need a huge favor, please. Gives her this big black wig to wear. Cakes on her makeup puts her in a white dress from Shanti's closet the same one that matched

the one that Shanti was currently wearing. They look like twins. I mean, it was comical. What's the plan? Are we just going out into town looking like this? Follow me. Shanti's lure meets up with them, escorts them to the police station and tells the sheriff, Hey, you didn't serve my client the papers.

This is the real shanty. You served it to this random woman right here, on the straight, pointing at the front. They happen to be wearing the same thing with the same hair, so it's easy to see how you guys could be confused. So they had tried to play it off to the sheriff, but no, you didn't hand me the core papers, you handed it to this woman right here.

Who isn't me? So technically, I didn't get served, so technically I'm handed it to this woman right here. Who isn't me? So technically I didn't get served, so technically I'm not gonna show up in court. That's what happened. Are you kidding? I mean this is like the most bizarre, just the whole bizarre plan, right? Do you ever look into your closet and think to yourself, why do I never have anything to wear? It doesn't make any sense. I got all these clothes, but nothing, really. And I read somewhere that it has to do with the fact that maybe you're filling your closet with too many trendy items. And you need to go back to the basics. Now, this has never appealed to me because you guys know.

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So go to Everlane.com slash rotten and sign up for 10% off your first order plus free shipping and get easy returns within 30 days of your ship date. That's 10% off your first order when you go to Everlane.com slash button and sign up. So at this point Kent's grown up, he gets married, he is kids. Now these are Shanti's grandkids and she really was a great passionate giving grandma. They were interviewed for A&E, the grandkids, and they said, I knew that my grandma loved me. When we were young, there was nothing.

Nothing you could say to convince me that she wasn't the greatest person alive. So for example, during Halloween, Shanti would go over to their house and tell them, I have something special to show you. In my purse, I have these magical pumpkin seeds. They're enchanted. Together, they would spread them all throughout the front lawn. And when Christina would go to bed, the grandchild, Shanti would stay up, cover the entire lawn with real full-size pumpkins. That's so cute. That's a really good idea. I know. It's just so fun. We're going to keep this up. We're going to write this down. The kids would wake up thinking they had a magical pumpkin patch outside their house.

They were just so full of joy. But when Christina was 12 years old, Shanty offered to take her to the Bahamas. It would just be Shanty, Kenny, Jr. and Christina. Now, when they get to the Vegas airport to go through airport security, one of them had a stun gun and one of their just carrying on bags. That's illegal. We have to call the police. So they stopped the whole family.

They're like, you got to wait right here. The authorities are coming. We called law enforcement. And instead of waiting around, Shanti and Kenny Jr. make a run for it, completely stranding 12-year-old Christina with a stun gun. They just left the child. They left the child. The police interrogated her for hours before they were able to get in contact with her parents.

And even after all of that, Shanti and Kenny Jr. never apologized. She would also tell their grandkids, Hey, if you hate cleaning your rooms, you should tell your mom. No, but she's gonna make us clean our rooms like she's gonna be mad. No. She's only making you clean your rooms because she's too poor to hire mates. You should ask her why she's so poor. So when Ken's wife found out about this, she confronted Shanti by calling her a fat fucking wig lady bitch.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha I'm just all families. They need a reality show. I mean, it might as shanti, but everybody else, okay? Don't tell me how to raise my daughter. So what is shanti do? She slips something into her drink, a date-rape drug. Now what her plans were? We'll never know. I mean, thankfully nothing happened. Did she just want her to pass out so that they wouldn't fight? We don't know.

Then there was the constant fighting between shanti and ken. They thought about everything, even who Kenny Jr. loved more. I mean, what the fork is going on. So during one particular fight, Shanti is yelling at Ken. Hades her husband that night, so much so that her best revenge is to lift up her skirt and pee on the kitchen floor. This doesn't seem like a rare occurrence in this house. So she's urinating all over the kitchen floor. Ken comes back out and is like, hey, stop peeing on the kitchen floor. She starts beating him. And he raises his elbow to defend himself, but it accidentally elbows her in the face.

Now she had recently had an eyelid surgery done. So the elbow had kind of hit her eye. Tiny little droplets of blood fell on her face. Now both the suns are there and they're watching this. And it's silent. Everyone's shocked. What is she gonna do? She's gonna blow this whole place up. She's gonna set us all on fire and claim life insurance on all of us. She runs to the bathroom. And she comes out calm. That's okay. She sits down next to Ken. It's okay, honey. It's a mistake. She starts stroking his hair in his back. Side note, Ken also had worked on recently. He had his hair done transplants. Stroking his hair, you know, your hair looks so good. Then out of nowhere.

She yinks it as hard as she could and she was standing there with a fistful of bloody hair and Ken is screaming sobbing in the bathroom and Shanti tries to run after him because she's not done. She wants to rip out more of his hair but she slips and falls straight onto her back because of her own urine. Oh, I'm telling you this is the craziest family that I have. I don't even know what to say. So next time you're a new port beach, walking past these beautiful multi-million dollar houses, just know. Just know there might be some shows inside. They're probably all sh**t shows. So the next morning though, Ken wakes up, he's nervous. His parents just had an explosive fight last night. But they're just sitting there eating breakfast, feeding each other, spoon feeding each other, oh honey, I like this one, oh what are you trying to bite of this?

As if nothing happened. And as the kids got older, there was just no boundaries in that house at all. Shanti wanted Kenny Jr. to shoplift with her, even used his stroller when he's like a full grown kid now, so that she could stuff it with stolen goods. Whenever she wanted Kent to do something for her when he was a late teenager, this is like a flashback. You know, she thought, what are teenagers like? Other than material items.

Girls, she would go to malls, telling them that she had a son that was an heir to a real estate mogul looking for some fun. They would be giddy, they would come over and after what she would ask him. Did she get some? What? Yeah, she would buy him pornoes and just like leave them around the house in his room for him to watch and it was just no sense of boundaries. She even tried to convince him to sleep

with the maids and the tutors and said that they're lonely. But every time you got a girlfriend, she did everything to break it up. Casual sex was fine, but girlfriends, disgusting. That girl is a filthy slut. She's nothing but a gold digger, she's trashy. And he would always think that's really ironic coming from you. And she would also call him a son of a bitch. That was her favorite thing to call him.

And he's like, you know what, if the shoe fits, shoe fits okay if the shoe freaking fits she never saw the ironian it. She would throw these parties for her young teenage boys and all the time this young kids would come in and she would scream I'm throwing these $100 bills into the pool. She would crumble them up throw them into pool watch everyone jump in and fight each other for the money. This was her sick lesson to her kids, that everyone is trying to get money. And that's, look at what they're willing to do for a hundred bucks. And she just loved watching the whole shit show.

Now her crimes continue, she shop lifts, steals more cars, more grand piano, she would go to baggage claim every time, get her bag, and then a few more. Just before leaving, okay? That is my question. Yeah. Like, what's stopping people? That's what I'm saying.

What is stopping people? Like, is that like the only moral code we have left in this society? Don't take other people's baggage claim. Baggage claim, yeah. Because imagine, okay, let's say you weren't even on the plane, you could pretend like you just got off the plane with everyone. Wait there, take one bag. So it's not suspicious. Yeah, because imagine, okay, let's say you weren't even on the plane you could pretend like you just got off the plane with everyone. Yeah, wait there take one bag. So it's not suspicious. Yeah, exactly. Don't take my advice. Why if I give you a mouse? So then she would still light houses on fire. She was arrested in Washington DC.

She had gone to a fancy hotel restaurant and she decided that she had to have the fur coat of the lady sitting next to her. So it's draped over her chair and on Shant's way out, she slips it off and takes it. Now it was estimated to be around $20,000, that fur coat. So she's arrested by the police later and she lied. She lied. Not that she didn't steal it, she was a guy stole the fur coat, but she lied and said that she was 34 years old, but in reality, records show that she's 46. It's a weird thing to lie about to the police.

And then a maid had run away, like all the others. She will never let you go. You have to run away and leave everything. That's the only way. And I hope that whatever is out there is safer than whatever is inside that house. But one of the maids had gone to the police. Something that Shanti really wasn't betting on because they were undocumented She always threatened them that the police are evil. They're out to get you

They're gonna they're gonna molest you. Okay, cuz you're undocumented But she went thank God because the couple was promptly arrested and the news of this just went wild a bizarre case Millionaire woman arrested on slavery charges Shanti was now facing 85 years in prison and can 75 years. They spent millions on attorney fees, $11 million in total. On just this case, illegal fees and the civil suit, because after the criminal lawsuit, or after the criminal case, there was a civil suit between all of the maids being like, you need to pay us for our time and the emotional trauma and the fact that you held us hostage!

And Ken couldn't do it, he just couldn't do it. He was old, so he's like, okay, I'm gonna plead guilty. He was fine to $75,000, but he got no jail time. Because of his age and no previous convictions, but Shanti, on the other hand, she refused to bleed guilty. So with her millionaire lawyers, she got a five-year prison sentence and only served three. Oh, so she did finally go to jail? Yeah, but she only served three, which is surprising.

Why did they let her out after three, especially because during this jail sentencing, she escaped from prison. She ran away while on a hospital visit. It took days to catch her. News worth having a field day. The police should be embarrassed. They can't catch this middle-aged woman. Oh my god.

She probably hasn't run a mile in like 25 years because she's, you know, getting old. Old people are actually really healthy, but Shanty wasn't. She really loved liquor. She really loved drinking smoking. You know, she didn't live a healthy lifestyle. You know, how can you not catch this woman? This isn't some criminal mastermind. This woman was children.

The prison was so embarrassed. How did we let her escape? So finally, after days, I found her again. But because of that, there were always stakeouts at Ken's place, from the FBI and sometimes the police, just to railing the place, making sure that they're not colluding with Shanti to do something. And Ken and Kent would get cheeky with it, they would put on mom's clothes, her big black wig, and get binoculars, and stare straight back at the FBI agents.

And it sounds like the time of their lives, but they were miserable. The only one happy was Kenny Jr. With Mom gone, he didn't have anyone monitoring him, who he's talking to. He didn't have to do that tutoring for eight hours a day, and steady could be free. And his dad can't let him have whatever you wanted, wanted to be his favorite Ken was desperate. Ken was like, Kenny, I'm your favorite parent, right? You love me the most, right? Spuiled him so much, so much more than Shanty, if that's even possible. By his 13th birthday, he had installed a backyard pool,

rushed it, paid contractors, extra thousands of dollars to rush it so it's done in time for Sun's birthday. But him, just games, video games, weapons, because he loved weapons. Meanwhile, Shanty's in prison infuriated. This is a big injustice. How dare they? I did nothing wrong!

All these are just helps and they were living horrible lives with their families and loved ones in Mexico. They wanted to be my slaves. And now these entitled women are wanting more money from me. Disgusting, despicable. That's how she thought. I can't even believe that she somehow did the mental cartwheels to believe all of this stuff.

So at this point, Ken has sold his biggest motel in front of Disney. He wasn't living the same life that he was prior to Shanti. And definitely not prior to this criminal legal battle, he also gambled away close to $1 million, while Shanti was in prison because he was depressed. The family dynamic got worse because of Kenny Jr. he had turned into this spoiled monster, never worked a day in his life but he had this crazy violent temper and belief that he

was God's gift to this world. He even punched his own dad on occasion, tried to strangle his mom with a rope before Kent stopped him, called the cops on Kent and lied and tried to get him arrested for assault, which thankfully didn't work. I mean, this is a dangerous entitled dude in the making. So Shanti gets out of prison, she walks into this show, she's upset. What do you mean I can't fly first class everywhere I go? What do you mean we're trying to save money? That doesn't make sense.

I only write first class. Then she get upset. Then the fact that Kenny Jr. was like, ah, mom, you're back. No, I'm gonna go hang out with my friends. No, I have a girlfriend. I mean, she was just distraught. So she works years tirelessly

to get everyone back under her control. And that is when it was a normal day for Shanty and Ken, her husband. They're running errands and she says, well, I gotta go to the bank, sweetie. Okay, Ken drops her off at Wells Fargo. She goes inside, he says, well, I'm just gonna wait out here,

I don't need to do anything. And when she gets back into the car, he had his head tilted back on his seat, and his eyes closed, and he took one big breath. And she starts screaming, Ken, what's wrong with you? Start shaking him. He's not waking up, witnesses who saw this tried to help. They called the ambulance. Paramedic show up. They attempted CPR.

Rushed him to the hospital. But the hospital said that they knew that he was gone before he even entered. What? When she kept screaming at them, do something. Save him. Fix him. She was hysterical. But he had died of a sudden aneurysm and he was only 77 years old. Now to be fair, he did drink a lot, he did have really failing health, but Kent Walker, he goes really in depth on this in the book.

There are some suspicions that maybe Shanti did have something to do with it. It hasn't been proven. The police never investigated it, but it is a little bit weird. So right before he had died, can it actually pulled Kent aside and said, I need to talk to you about something. It's serious. Don't tell your mom. I'm talking to you. And he seemed nervous. He also mentioned that he thought that someone was poisoning him, but he had always been a paranoid person. So it's hard to say. So Kent was really confused, but just the timing timing of it all weird, but then in hindsight,

you could also say that it really hurt Shanti when he died. Not because she lost the love of his life, but it's said that she was never included, neither was Kenny Jr. in the will, just the children from the previous marriage. Now Shanti and others will claim, no no no no, the will gave Shanti 50% Kenny Jr. 25% and the other 25% to the other children from his previous marriage. Now if that were true, why couldn't she get a hold of his money? That leads me to believe that she wasn't in the wheel.

Oh, so she didn't have money after? No. Oh, wow. Maybe he had hidden a lot of money offshore. That's what the eldest Kent believes, the author. But they really didn't need the money. At least not desperately. They had a house that was paid off. They had another property that if sold could be in the millions. This was left to Shanty. They had hundreds of dollars of just liquid cash. Shanty who's getting older, I mean at this point she's

set for retirement, a really good one. She could go on vacation, support Kenny Jr. during college, spoil her grandkids, you know? Kent, he's married, has a job, as kids, doesn't need her money. But Shanti was broke, and she was depressed, because she knew that in the Bahamas, there was an account that had over $850,000. Is that true? True. And she needed to get into it. She deserved the money.

And Kenny Jr. felt the same. What do you mean that's my dad's money? So it's my money. I'm the one that spent the last years of his life with him, not his other kids. And both of them were just addicted to the lifestyle. They were two peas in a pod. Meanwhile, Kent was living a regular life with his family and he had morals. So it just kind of splits off. After Kent's death, Kent really is just focused on his family, the author,

and Shanti and Kenny Jr. are just egging each other on, enabling each other. They were honestly the worst people to be put in the same room together, mother and son. So the duo head to the Bahamas to ask questions, and one of the bankers, his name was Sa was Said Bilal Ahmed and he kept asking a lot of questions. What do you mean? Why don't you have the paperwork? I get that you're his wife, but your name's not on the account How did he die? When did he die? Will we need all that paperwork? He's just you know doing his job so they invite him over for dinner. Come on. It'll be fun We'll get to know each other He shows up at their rental and his drink was filled with a day-wrapped drug. And they felt like if he's at this

bank, we're never getting at the money because he does everything by the book. Even if we talk to another employee and they try to get us the money, he's going to stop them. So they carry him into the bathtub and they drown him. They get rid of his body in the ocean and they had fully murdered a man. They get back to Los Angeles and now she's stressing out. Kent offers to help sell the property. You know, he got a buyer for three million dollars. Three three million dollars in cashmob. You're set for life. Everyone, even if they were my age, they'd be set for life, but you, this old lady, you're set for life, okay? But she was convinced she could get $9 million for it, so she refused to sell it. When that didn't work, and now she's busting for cash because her spending was crazy, she

needed another plan. She's like, I gotta make money. So there was a man without a home who was digging through some trash. She was looking for some food, and instead he found a foot. He said oh my god What is this foot doing here? And it was attached to this white male who's wrapped in a garbage bag He was wearing these nice business casual clothes, but he had no ID So this man calls the police and he's like, I don't know what to do They notice that this man the dead man and the garbage doesn't have any shoes on but the bottom of his feet were clean

So he had been placed in the dumpster. He had been shot in the back of the head, and it seems like he's just this nice Well-to-do middle-class man. They run his prints. David Cazden, an LA real estate business man, a nice guy, but also a friend of the Karmes family for a while. They go to his house. They start investigating. They find David's daughter. Hey, does your job David have any enemies? Well, the only one I can think of is Shanti Kimes. Yeah, I mean, he was friends with Ken Kimes, her late husband, helped with some insurance things when Ken died, but David was offered a position in some loan fraud schemes and Shanti just kept pushing it. David didn't want to do it. He meant he's a respectable business guy and this pissed off royally.

So one day he comes home to this letter from a bank about a mortgage that he had taken out. $500,000. Turns out Shanti had somehow convinced the bank to take a mortgage out on his name and give her a cash advance. Wait, what? Yeah. Listen, it's a distracting world out there,

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She had a whole plan. She was gonna set the house on fire collecting churns on that too. But if David rats them out, she's not just going down for that mortgage. She's also going down for arson insurance fraud, you know, all of these things. He's already talked once. You have to do something, Kenny. So Kenny drives over and shoots him in his own home execution style. Disboses of those bodies in a dumpster near LAX, goes to the grocery stores and buys a big

bouquet of flowers, goes home, gives Shanty a kiss on the cheek, and says, I did it mom and they fled Los Angeles. They're thinking, well, maybe Florida. No, maybe the Bahamas. They stopped by a couple different states, but nothing really compares to the money of Los Angeles, except maybe one place at the time. Now, there's a lot, which is New York City.

Let's go to New York City, and this time we need to do something big. Now, these two, they're not serial killers. They had murder two people yet, but I mean, even if they're turning into ones, they're not necessarily the typical ones. They're not doing it for the kill. They're not doing it for the thrill of it. They want the money. It seems like they didn't get money.

Did they get, right? Yeah. Bahamas, they didn't get the money. No. And then with David Cazden, I think that they got like $100,000. Yeah. So this is so bizarre Yeah, so they start studying real estate records in New York City They find that elderly widows who are all alone, but have a ton of money would be the perfect

Perfect people to kill and that's when they come across a name 82 year old Irene Silverman She was a millionaire socialite so her childhood. She was actually born in harsh conditions at I believe a brothel Is what a lot of sources stated and she lived most of her life living near one her parents were immigrants who were just trying to make a good Living in New York her mom sowed for a living and Irene fell in love with ballet This is when I mean still to the stair I think that they're underpaid But this is when you were severely underpaid for ballet. So she's just dancing for low pay, ruining her feet, just going through it because this is her passion, this is her life.

And this caught the attention of a millionaire who saw her on stage, fell in love. So she moves to the upper side, starts living a completely different life, but she never got flashy. I think Irene was one of those people where her personality started getting bigger. She was a genuineness, she was outgoing,

she was really eccentric, you know, people would say, but she really enjoyed herself, never stressed out putting food on the table, but people loved her. She didn't flip a switch and turn into this like, snooty, uu, up, right side type of person. She was a kind woman. Now when her husband passed, she was a kind woman. Now when her husband passed

she was left with her house, a six story brownstone that was I believe worth in today's money like $11 million. Inside of it there were like ten separate apartments that could be rented out and she would rent them out after her husband's death, not just for the money but for the company. She had seven employees that really loved working for her. I mean, that's like a really big praise when your employees love you, you know? She had about five million dollars in cash in the bank. I mean, she was doing well. She was 82 years old. So that's when she gets an application. So the plan was simple.

Shanti and Kenny Jr. would forge documents so that they have the power of attorney over Irene. Then they would switch the deed to the house and all the bank records to their names, then killer, fire the staff and cash in on their wonderful piece of real estate. They'd be good for the rest of their lives. They'd be living it up. So they apply to live there. But Kenny Jr. goes by the name of Mani and says, this is my assistant Eva who's going to be living with me.

Eva was actually Shantee. I keep changing her name, don't I? They would even sleep in the same bed together, which Irene thought was a little bit strange. They refused to fill out their credit application and they would keep saying tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. But they kept not filling it out and this was the huge red flag. Then Irene realized that they never let the maids clean the room. That was another red flag.

Then a third red flag is that any time man he would walk past a security camera, he would go out of his way to avoid looking at it. So she told her friends, I don't know about this one. I thought that he was nice, but I don't want him living in here anymore. I thought, I'm, I think I'm just going to get my attorney to write an eviction notice.

I think I have to kick them out. This is when Kenny decided, and she's all alone, to ask her for a favor. Here I filled out this credit application. Comes up behind her, strangles her to death. Rolled her into a shower curtain and dumped her body in New Jersey. They thought that they would get away with it, elderly widow, but they didn't realize that just because these were the worst employers in the world, because Shanti had been arrested for slavery and convicted for slavery charges, they didn't realize how much Irene's employees loved her. And almost instantly, after about two hours of

her being gone, everyone was like, where the fork is Irene? Where the fork is she? This is strange. In the past 15 years years she has never left this brownstone by herself She's always with a friend. She's always with a family member or she's always with one of us. She's 82 years old So they start talking they put her you know, they go to the police. They start talking to the neighbors They put her pictures all over the news and in their initial tips all of the residents in this brownstone said I don't know that new guy's weird that new guy manny and assistant Eva, they're weird, but who the hell are these people? Where can we find them? So they put up a composite sketch because in that apartment They had found duct tape shower curtain with the liner missing you know plastic garbage bags like this is very suspicious

So they put out these composite sketches Meanwhile the LAPD are looking for Shanti and Kenny, for the murder of David Caskin. The feds are looking for her for all the crimes she's committing all over the states, and now the NYPD is looking for her. And that's when the LAPD and the feds look at that picture and they're like, that looks like the bitch that we're trying to get right now. So they find the two and they arrest them. Now when the two are arrested in their car, they found two guns, a stun gun, a date rape drug, $22,000 in cash,

and an entire just back filled with Irene Silverman's documents. Her passport, her ID, her social security card. Why would you have these things? 13 of Shanti's diaries. Because she was a weird con artist. She liked to document everything, so on one side of the page she would have a grocery list. On the second side she would say get social security number elderly people easy targets. End quote. She also made a list of things she wanted to take from Irene after the murder, such as her satin pillowcases. Next to it to do this, she had Kill DK. David Kazgin maybe? So the two are charged with murder and 83 other counts in January of 2000. And she just kept screaming.

Shanti's screaming. Your honor, how can we have some fairness? I'm afraid of you, the judge. I'm afraid of this corrupt system. I'm afraid of you, the judge. I'm afraid of this corrupt system. I'm afraid of the gossip, the lies, that have been fed about my son and me, and I'm afraid of this, that everyone in New York believes this. I was purchasing property legally from Irene for $400,000. Yes, I know it sounds crazy, but she wanted to sell an $11 million property to me for $400,000.

She just wanted to get rid of it, maybe it was too much upkeep, okay? And then her attorney was even more bizarre, so they had closing statements and her attorney said, listen, I get it. Shanti is not a good person. She's a criminal record, but she's not Hitler. That's what he said.

Rifford, I don't know, I don't know words. She's not Jack the Ripper. That's what he said. What? Shanti also told the judge, this is the first time. A mother and son are being convicted with no crime, no witnesses, and no DNA. This is like the witch hunts of Salem.

The police planted and planted evidence to fool the jury, and no one has told the truth in this case. There is no crime because nobody knows where this woman is. The only murder is the murder of the Constitution by the prosecutors. In less than 20 minutes, they were both found guilty. They were sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. And she kept telling Kent, her eldest son, honey son honey don't believe them we've been framed This is the greatest injustice of the history of the American judicial system. They have made a terrible mistake

We're innocent And what does can't feel about this? Disgusted You know like what the heck he said that it was crazy because I mean this book is so real and it's so raw During some points of the trial, he almost sided with his mom. And then he was like, what? Because anytime you talk to her, she just invades your brain. And this is his mom.

Maybe if you talked to her for the first time, you're like, yeah, this woman's crazy. But if you grew up with her and she knows exactly what makes you tick, what triggers you, he just said every time that he would talk to her, he would feel like, okay, no, that makes sense. But then a couple days away, him and his wife would talk and he's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, that's freaking crazy. That just makes sense at all. Meanwhile, Los Angeles is trying to extradite both of them

for a trial for the death of David Cascinn, and they could face death. So California had the death penalty at the time, and Kenny had a reporter visit him in prison in New York. She was younger, she was like 35 years old and she wanted to talk about being extra-dited what's this trial like for you, what's going on in your head. They had talked before, they had built rapport.

So she's in prison and at the end of the interview, he grabs a sharp pen, presses it into her neck and starts screaming at the guards back off back off! She's begging him, please, I have two kids at home like I don't I don't need to I don't need this story I don't want to publish anything. Please just let me go. I won't let her go until they promise me to not extradite my mom to California. She's too old to be executed. Now Kent the brother thought that this was really ironic because he's thinking Kenny you're too young to be executed. Now Kent, the brother thought that this was really ironic because he's thinking, Kenny, you're too young to be executed.

Why are you... Like he just cared about his mom. He didn't even care for his own execution or his own potential trial. Now the authorities refused to cooperate. This went on for over four hours. And finally, Kenny got distracted and an officer tackled him. And they were ironically almost instantly extradited to Los Angeles.

So the LA trial was a bit different because they had a murder, they had a body, and they had capital murder on the table. They wanted a plea deal. These two, they didn't want to be executed, okay? So they want this plea deal to avoid death and Kenny confesses and please guilty to all the murders to save the both of them from the death penalty He will be in prison for the rest of his life and he's just gonna rot in there Shantay died in 2014 in prison. She was 79 years old. She died of natural causes

Kenny's still in prison and Kent Walker. They all disson causes Kenny's still in prison and Kent Walker the eldest son he is a national bestselling author and won an Ed Grail and Poe Award for his book son of a grifter it's wow I had heard of this case before and I I was like okay you know what I get it it's gonna be weird but when I read the book there's so much I didn't even put in this podcast like so much. I mean, there were chapters about how they conjured their way into the political parties in Washington, DC that's so fascinating. Like, how do you just pretend that you're an ambassador?

All the fires are detailed, how they got away with insurance fraud. All the fights are in there, like it's just such a raw book. Eh, I have no words. Now it is speculated there were a lot of ridiculous rumors that there was incest between the two, the mom and the son, and it's mainly because of Kenny Jr.'s journal. He would write things like, oh, I saw my beautiful mom and her little hat. Like it was just, it was weird. It was weird for a full-grown adult son to be saying those things about the mom. And then, you know, the mom, she was overly sexual. There were reports that they showered until they were.

He was much, much older together. Everyone thought that that was weird. Now, Kent doesn't really think that there was anything sexual going on between them, but he doesn't really know. He would hope that there's not, right? And that is the story of the Kimes. Listen, my family is a butthole sometimes but this type of story is like maybe I should go tell them I love them once in a while. So make sure to do that this weekend and I hope you guys enjoyed this week's mini-sode and I'll see you on Wednesday. Bye!

you on Wednesday. Bye!