LIKE MOTHER LIKE SON: THE STRANGE STORY OF SANTE AND KENNY KIMES (TV)

Summary

A made-for-television movie based on the lives of real-life serial killer Sante Kimes and her son and accomplice Kenny Kimes.

Sante Kimes and her son Kenny are on trial for murdering an old woman, and are called “remorseless” and sociopathic by the judge. Two years earlier, the two of them stalk an old woman, Irene Silverman, walking her dog in a park. They have spent four months meticulously planning her murder and prepare to enact their scheme. Using an assumed name, Kenny goes to visit Irene at the luxury apartment building she manages. He rents out one of the suite apartments and does his best to endear himself to Irene, who seems to like him. Sante recalls how she met her husband Ken years ago when he was the owner of a successful construction company. Interested in his wealth, she seduces him and soon they are married. Soon Sante recruits their children, Kent and Kenny, into her “game,” aiding her in various acts of shoplifting. Eventually Sante starts trying to interfere with Ken’s personal finances, causing tension between the two of them. The police arrive at Kenny’s birthday party to arrest Sante for grand larceny and credit card fraud. As she is being taken away she insists to Kenny that she was falsely accused.

In the present-day, Kenny infiltrates Irene’s room at night, places a listening device on her phone, and steals her passport, narrowly avoiding being discovered by Irene in the process. He confronts her in the kitchen and they share an idle conversation before Irene returns to bed. Sante recalls her past with Ken after he retires and moves the family to Hawaii. Sante has their children home-schooled, but Ken wishes to place them in a public school in order to give them opportunities to socialize with other children. He is also frustrated that the family is constantly on the move in order to avoid subpoenas leveled at Sante for credit card fraud and insurance schemes. Sante and Ken have an argument about this and she walks off. One day, Kent is found by a neighbor stealing his surfboard, and he is brought to Sante to be punished. However, she instead warns him and Kenny against getting caught and encourages them to continue stealing. Kenny starts to feel isolated, discovering that Sante pays local children to spend time with him. In the present-day, Kenny suddenly awakens and heads out, angering Sante.

The next morning, Kenny returns and argues with Sante, who laments aloud that she detests becoming old. Kenny tries to offer her some comfort and collaborates with Sante to plan Irene’s murder, setting the date for the fourth of July (unaware that Sante plans to invite her friend Beatrice over for dinner that night). Irene comes to see Kenny and Sante answers the door, claiming to be his personal assistant. She tells Sante that Kenny is to be invited to a small party she is throwing that evening in honor of an art opening for one of her friends. Kenny and Sante attend the party and Sante becomes intensely jealous when she notices Kenny flirting with a young lady in attendance. She travels to a nearby supermarket and recalls an incident from her childhood when she stole cosmetics from a store. The next day, Sante attempts to forge Irene’s signature from her passport.

In a flashback, Kent discovers that Sante has been abusing their maid and witnesses her burn her hand with an iron. Kent decides that he can no longer stand to live with Sante and decides to enlist in the army in order to get away. He is concerned about Kenny and promises to come back the first chance he gets in order to help him. The abuse of Sante’s household staff is legally charged as slavery and she and Ken are subpoenaed to that effect. Sante intends to countersue, but Ken wishes to settle out of court in order to put the matter to rest. Their lawyer warns that a trial could lead to a class-action lawsuit against her, resulting in exorbitant legal fees. She decides to take the deal and plead guilty to four counts of involuntary servitude, resulting in a four-year prison sentence. Sante is outraged at this outcome and causes a disturbance in court. In the present-day, Irene’s maid reports that Kenny and Sante have changed the lock to prevent the maid from coming in to clean it while they are away.

Kenny purchases a stun gun to use as part of their plan to murder Irene. In the past, Sante comes home from her prison sentence and sees Kenny for the first time in quite a while, surprised to see that he is now a teenager with a rich social life. Sante claims she wants a “new start” with the family and wants to move to the Bahamas, but Kenny is unwilling to abandon his school or friends. Sante feels as though Kenny does not appreciate what she has been through and that she deserves to be somewhere where she is happy. They get into an argument and then a physical altercation, and Kenny nearly strangles Sante before Ken arrives to separate them. That night, Sante apologizes to Kenny and swears to give back to him “tenfold” anything he gives up to accommodate her request. Kenny agrees, hesitantly. In the present-day, Irene begins to suspect that Kenny and Sante are spying on her. Sante poses as Irene in order to have a notary authorize a transfer of ownership of the apartment building to their name in secret. Kenny feels guilty about what they are doing but Sante tells him not to, preferring such risky ventures to a life like Kent’s, who is now a family man who sells vacuum cleaners. Sante decides to take Kenny out shopping with her in order to defuse the tension between them, but she cannot resist attempting to shoplift several valuable scarves from a clothing store.

Irene continues to discover more about Sante and Kenny, including the fact that Kenny lied about being acquainted with a friend of hers. She informs Sante that she is asking Kenny to vacate his suite as soon as possible. In a flashback, Sante discovers Ken dead in his car one day. She discovers that he had not updated his will in many years and that she is not included in it, upsetting her greatly. She visits Kenny in college and misrepresents her financial situation as being worse than it actually is. She tells him that their home in Las Vegas was destroyed in a fire, although Kenny suspects that she is responsible for starting it. He also suspects that she killed Ken, but she insists that she did not. She claims that Kenny is the only person in her life who has remained loyal to her and that they must support each other. She purchases a handgun, claiming that she requires protection from the threats she received from Ken’s old business partners. However, Sante murders David Kazdin, an uncooperative business partner, as a means of preventing him from interfering, and deposits his body in a dumpster in Los Angeles.

Irene discovers her missing passport and Sante contacts an old associate in order to further her scheme by posing as a building manager. The various residents and staff of the building take off for the Fourth of July weekend. Beatrice comes over to have tea with Irene, and Kenny waits for her to be alone. He calls her in her office and invites her to come into his room to renegotiate his lease, but she declines. They manage to corner and murder Irene and dispose of her body. They meet with their contact the next morning, but Kenny realizes that it is a set-up when he sees undercover policemen surrounding them. They are unable to get away and are arrested. The police discuss her extensive previous criminal record and discover the implements she planned to use to murder Irene in her car. She claims that she is Irene’s old friend, but the police obtain the stolen passport and falsified documents which contradict this story.

Sante and Kenny are brought to trial and charged with over 84 counts of various serious crimes. Sante professes that she is innocent and has been framed, and that they cannot prove that Irene has been murdered due to being unable to locate her body. She creates a disturbance in court and the judge orders her and Kenny to be vacated from the courtroom. She places a phone call to Kent to plead for his help, but he chooses not to answer her call. Sante and Kenny are declared guilty and are both given extensive prison sentences for their crimes. An epilogue notes that Kenny was extradited to California in March 2001 to stand trial for Kazdin’s murder, but that Sante has resisted extradition, claiming ill health. Commercials deleted.

Details

• NETWORK: CBS
• DATE: 9:00 PM
• RUNNING TIME: 1:29:28
• COLOR/B&W: Color
• CATALOG ID: 119552
• GENRE: Drama
• SUBJECT HEADING: TV - Drama
• SERIES RUN: CBS - TV, 2001
• COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

• Mary Tyler Moore … Executive Producer
• Sue Pollock … Executive Producer
• Larry Garrison … Co-Executive Producer
• Scott Brazil … Co-Executive Producer
• Frank Konigsberg … Producer
• Drew Smith … Producer
• Neal Doherty … Associate Producer
• Ray Hennessy … Line Producer
• Arthur Allan Seidelman … Director
• Paul Eric Myers … Writer
• Adrian Havil … Based on the book “The Mother, the Son & the Socialite” by
• Robert Clarke … Music by
• Mary Tyler Moore … Cast, Sante Kimes
• Robert Forster … Cast, Ken Kimes
• Gabriel Olds … Cast, Kenny Kimes
• Jean Stapleton … Cast, Irene Silverman
• Ken Radley … Cast, Agent
• Arianthe Galani … Cast, Beatrice
• Mark Mitchell … Cast, Sante's Lawyer
• Wayne Hope … Cast, Tony Vatelero
• Bruce Hughes … Cast, Central Park Man
• Alex Breden … Cast, Kenny at 4 Years
• Jared Daperis … Cast, Kenny at 8 Years
• Daniel Daperis … Cast, Kenny at 12 Years
• Matthew Vennel … Cast, Kent at 15 Years
• Matthew Robinson … Cast, Kent at 18 Years
• Leighton Phair … Cast, Ramos
• Carolyne Cooper … Cast, Irene's Maid
• Daniela Farinacci … Cast, Sante's Maid
• Deidre Rubinstein … Cast, Las Vegas Judge
• Herbert Etienne … Cast, Homeless Man