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Dateline season 33 episode 13 deals with the story of Sante Kimes, an American fraudster, serial killer, and serial arsonist, who was charged with multiple murders, burglary, and forced slavery. For multiple decades, she committed a series of crimes, which started during her teenage years, with arson and forgery.
Dateline season 33 episode 13 explores how Sante Kimes committed these crimes, with the assistance of her son Kenneth Kimes Jr. Upon interrogation, the mother and son confessed to being involved in multiple murders and a series of frauds.
Dateline season 33 episode 13 episode titled The Devil Wore White, explored the span of crimes committed by Sante Kimes and her son Kenneth Kimes Jr. The episode was re-released on January 31, 2025.
Viewers can stream all the episodes of Dateline season 33 on Peacock.
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Disclaimer: The article contains disturbing themes. Reader discretion is advised.
What is the story of Dateline season 33 episode 13?
Dateline season 33 episode 13 documents its prime subject Sante Kimes, who was born on July 25, 1934, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Sante suffered from a troubled childhood, where her father deserted the family, and her mother took to prostitution for a living.
As per Dateline season 33 episode 13, Sante Kimes started facing assaults from her childhood and began an illicit relationship with her brother. Sante's sister revealed that Sante suffered from a deteriorating mental condition, and soon became a pyromaniac, who started torturing the farm cattle.
According to a People article published on May 7, 2001, after returning from Nevada and completing her graduation, Sante married her high school boyfriend Edward Walker in 1957. However, due to Sante's growing thefts and trouble with the law, the couple ended up divorced in 1969.
Walker worked as a construction contractor, and as per Dateline season 33 episode 13, Sante burned one of his houses in December 1960, to claim its insurance money. After the divorce, Sante had a series of affairs, with the wealthy businessman in Walker's circle.
Eventually, she met a millionaire named Kenneth Keith Kimes Sr. in 1971.
As per Dateline season 33 episode 13, Sante had read about his affair in a magazine and soon started a relationship with him. The couple went on to get married on April 5, 1981, in Clark County, Nevada and had a son named Kenneth Kimes Jr.
Sante Kimes started committing a series of frauds on wealthy businessmen
As per The New York Times article, published on July 14, 1998, Sante started scamming people, with insurance frauds, and promising people of expensive real estate at low costs. She soon started frauding insurance companies, by willingly committing arson and collecting the recovering money.
She also began introducing Kimes Sr. to a high-ranking diplomat, which gave them access to wealthy social circles, becoming a more efficient way to commit major scams.
As per another The New York Times article, published on May 20, 2001, Sante would often imprison maids, and homeless immigrants in her home, treating them as slaves.
Sante was eventually charged with forced enslavement, as per the violation of federal anti-slavery laws. It was in August 1985 that she was sentenced to five years in prison, by the United States District Court.
Sante Kimes and her son Kenneth Kimes Jr. committed multiple murders
The murder of Elmer Holmgren
As per Dateline season 33 episode 13, it was in 1989 when Sante Kimes was released from prison. The following year she teamed up with a lawyer named Elmer Ambrose Holmgren, to burn her property in Honolulu, which was highly in debt, to claim the insurance money.
However, as per a Crime Library article, when insurance officials interrogated Holmgren, he confessed to being involved in the fraud. As a way of revenge, Sante burned Holmgren's complete office, which had documents to testify against her. As per Dateline season 33 episode 13, Holmgren was last seen on August 2, 1991.
He informed his family of taking a trip with Sante to Costa Rica but never came back. Sante testified to his son of killing Holmgren with a hammer from the car's back seat. Since Holmgren's body was never found, no charges were brought against her.
The murder of Syed Bilal Ahmed
As per a Washington Post article, published on March 22, 2005, Kenneth Jr. confessed to killing a banker named Syed Bilal Ahmed, in Nassau, Bahamas, back on September 4, 1996. Bilal Ahmed was in charge of Sante's offshore accounts, which he threatened to expose to the officials.
As per Kenneth Jr.'s narration, Bilal Ahmed was drugged and then drowned in a bathtub. His body was disposed of on the shores and was never found.
The murder of David Kazdin
Back in the 1970s, Sante and Kenneth Sr. had taken the transferred certificates of their home in the name of David Kazdin. As per the Washington Post article, Kezdin was a Los Angeles business associate of the couple. Sante went on to forge Kazin's signature in a $ 280,000 loan, providing the house as a security.
As per a Los Angeles Times article, published on January 26, 2002, Kazdin threatened Sante to expose her crimes.
As a result, Sante ordered her son Kenneth Jr. to eliminate him. It was on March 9, 1998, when Kazdin was murdered at his Los Angeles residence, with a bullet in the back of his head. Authorities retrieved his body in a garbage dump, near the Los Angeles International Airport, in Los Angeles, California.
The murder of Irene Silverman
As per a Charley Project article, published on October 12, 2004, Irene Silverman was a former ballet dancer, who was a popular face at high-fashion parties. Kenneth Jr. used to be a tenant in her mansion, and she mysteriously disappeared from her townhouse on East 65th Street, in New York City on July 5, 1998.
As per an article by Alex Kirsta, published on November 20, 1999, upon interrogating Sante and Kenneth Jr., the authorities retrieved Silverman's keys, her passports, her social security card, her checkbook, and other crucial documents.
Upon searching Kenneth Jr. the investigators retrieved forged transfer documents, of Silverman's townhouse to Sante's shell corporation for $395,000.
The mother and son revealed that Sante had used a stun gun to shoot Silverman, after which Kenneth Jr. strangled her to death. Her body was then stuffed in a bag, and then disposed of in a garbage bin, in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Dateline season 33 episode 13: The investigation of Sante Kimes and Kenneth Kimes Jr.
As per an article in the Los Angeles Times, published on March 22, 2001, Sante Kimes and Kenneth Jr. were arrested on March 14, 1998, after Kazdin's remains were found near Los Angeles International Airport.
Investigators managed to trace a man named Stan Patterson, who confessed to selling a gun to Kenneth Jr. which he used to shoot the victim to death.
It was in June 1998, when Patterson reported to the police that he got a call from Sante. She wanted to see an expensive townhouse in New York's Upper West Side and needed help with its documentation. As directed by the FBI, the meeting was scheduled for July 5, 1998.
The meeting was set at the New York Hilton, with the FBI and New York Police Department officers surrounding the area. Right after Sante and Kenneth Jr. arrived at the spot to meet Patterson, the authorities surrounded them, and the culprits were arrested.
It was during June 2004, when Kenneth Jr. accepted a plea deal, where he confessed to assisting his mother in the crimes.
As per The New York Times article, both the culprits were charged with murder and 117 other counts. Kenneth Jr. went to testify in the jury against his mother, where he revealed every minor detail of how the crimes were committed. Both the culprits were sentenced to lifetime imprisonment.
It was on May 19, 2014, when Sante Kimes died at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women, in Bedford, New York. Her son, Kenneth Kimes Jr. is currently serving his imprisonment at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility, a state prison located in San Diego County, California.
To know more about the series of crimes committed by Sante Kimes and Kenneth Jr. watch Dateline season 33 episode 13 titled, The Devil Wore White on Peacock.
