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Son of a Grifter: The Twisted Tale of Sante and Kenny Kimes, the Most Notorious Con Artists in America (Revised)
Son of a Grifter: The Twisted Tale of Sante and Kenny Kimes, the Most Notorious Con Artists in America (Revised) | Kent Walker, Mark Schone
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In 1988 a troubled young man and his flamboyant mother were arrested for murdering a wealthy widow in her New York City mansion. Suddenly, America was transfixed by a pair of real-life film noir characters. The media couldn't get enough of the twisted relationship between Sante Kimes and her twenty-three-year-old son Kenny. But the most chilling story of all was never told--until now. Kent Walker, Sante's elder son, reveals how he survived forty years of "the Dragon Lady's" very special brand of motherly love and still managed to get away. As a child Kent watched his mother destroy his hardworking father, Ed Walker, and then--with Kent's painful collusion--snare what Sante called "my millionaire." When she married seemingly respectable real-estate developer Ken Kimes, it was a match made in hell. For the next two decades Kent's mother and stepfather indulged in a globetrotting orgy of criminal behaviour.Kent, their would-be recruit, was privy to the family business--torching houses, defrauding friends, crashing White When Kent's half-brother, Kenny was born, Kent was twelve years old--old enough to know that he was his younger sibling's only protector. Kent tried desperately to save Kenny from his mother's sinister bidding. His failure haunts him to this day.
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I don‘t recall hearing anything about the Kimes‘ when the murder trial of the mother and son grifters was national news, so I came to this ignorant. Written by the Kimes‘ eldest son, his life often sounds like a plot lifted from a screenplay. It‘s endlessly fascinating.

Walker‘s personality can be off-putting sometimes. I don‘t think his mother was evil (as even the judge claimed), but another victim of a system that has failed the mentally ill.