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Sante Kimes CONVICTED KILLER The former Hawaii Kai resident is described as sinister, evil and manipulative

Kenneth Kimes CONVICTED KILLER The pair could be sentenced to life in prison, but the victim's body has never been found

‘Evil’ woman, son,
ex-islanders,
guilty of murder

The 'master of disguises' and
her son are convicted in New York
on 118 counts and are suspected
in 3 other murders

By Rod Ohira
Star-Bulletin

A lavish lifestyle, glitz and charm provided former Hawaii Kai resident Sante Kimes with a perfect masquerade.

"She was diabolical, sinister, evil and manipulative," Honolulu attorney Jeffrey Portnoy said about Kimes, who was convicted with her son yesterday in New York for murdering a wealthy 82-year-old widow.

"At times, she could be disarming and charming. But she was a master of disguises in personalities. In my civil practice, I have never come across anyone this dangerous where people felt for their personal safety and property."

Portnoy knows the Kimeses from a 1985 lawsuit filed by an 18-year-old girl, who claims she was a slave in their Portlock home.

Portnoy was representing an insurance company in the case.

He said Kimes repeatedly harassed the chief executive officer of the insurance company by standing in front of his house during the litigation, which was eventually settled out of court.

Kimes, 65, and her 25-year-old son, Kenneth Jr., were convicted yesterday for killing Irene Silverman, whose body has never been found.

The Associated Press reported the jury forewoman pronounced "guilty" 118 times -- 58 times for Sante Kimes and 60 for Kenneth Kimes.

Irene Silverman
MILLIONAIRE VICTIM
The 82-year-old Manhattan widow was
last seen in 1998. A mother-and-son
drifter team killed the former Radio
City Music Hall dancer in a plot to
steal her elegant six-story
townhouse mansion

The pair could be sentenced to life in prison June 27.

Prosecutors said the two plotted to steal the six-story Beaux-Arts mansion Silverman's husband had left her.

Silverman vanished in 1998, the day the Kimeses were arrested for writing a bad $14,900 check for a car.

The Kimeses had not disposed of Silverman's personal documents or other suspicious items.

In the car, police found loaded pistols, a red wig and two fright masks, handcuffs, $30,000 in cash, a stun gun box, syringes and a pink liquid similar to a known "date rape" drug.

Police also found cassettes of Silverman's telephone conversations -- secretly taped by the Kimeses -- and a forged deed that transferred her townhouse to the Kimeses for a fraction of its nearly $10 million value.

Kimes and her son are also suspected in the 1996 disappearance of a Bahrain banker in the Bahamas, the 1998 death of Los Angeles businessman David Kazdin and a drifter, who worked with the Kimeses at the time.

Portnoy said: "I think it's long overdue.

"They were very talented in their ability to engage in criminal conduct and stay one step ahead of law enforcement," he said.

Denise Jacob of Haleiwa met Sante Kimes and her late husband, Kenneth, in April 1990, while the Kimeses were living on Portlock Road.

"They were very eccentric," Jacob said. "Mr. Kimes was nice, but Sante was very flamboyant in her wigs and dresses and very outspoken.

"It was evident she ran the place. I can see where someone like that could make a living getting people to trust them. Sante had a way about her, you would never suspect anything vicious."

A 1978 fire badly damaged the Kimes' Hawaii Kai home. In September 1990, fire destroyed the home.

Investigators said both fires were deliberately set.