Webby, you are thinking of this case. This is different.

Joel

A Victim Vanishes


The woman’s name was Sante Kimes and thus far she had been arrested
and charged 14 times for crimes that ranged from shoplifting to
keeping slaves. There had been much, much more of course but she was
smart. Most of the time she hadn’t been caught.


Kenneth Kimes Jr. mugshot (NYPD)
Her son Kenny was already following in her footsteps. Just two months
before he had helped his mom steal some lipsticks from a discount
store in Miami, knocking down the store detective before being
arrested. Of course, the charges were reduced, bond was posted, and
they quickly left town. Who was going to put out an APB for such a
petty crime?


******************************************************


Carved stone face above the Silverman mansion door (Georgiana Havill)
The gray limestone mansion at 20 East 65th Street in New York City was
designed to ward off evil. The builder had put a carved stone face
above the double front door when it was constructed at the turn of the
20th century. The godlike sculpture was there for good luck. Wings
sprang from the head and its fierce mouth was open, snarling at all
who passed by. Legend said the god flew away at midnight in search of
bacchanalian revelry, returning each dawn to guard the entrance of the
great city house and its occupants within.

Today, on this morning of July 5, 1998, the great carved face had
failed to do its job.

On this Sunday after the most celebratory of American holidays, East
65th Street was silent. New York’s Central Park was a block in one
direction and Madison Avenue intersected the eastern end of the
street. The night before had been full of gala events. Gotham was
still sleeping.

A strange pair was taking advantage of the slumbering city. They
emerged from the mansion dragging a huge suitcase, bickering so loudly
that small birds flew away alarmed from their perch in the tree next
to the house. The woman making most of the noise had a voice that
grated, like a long fingernail scraping slowly across a blackboard.
The twenty-something young man with her was tall and muscular, nearly
handsome with his wavy hair. There was something about his eyes
though. He had a frightening stare when he looked towards you. Psycho
eyes. And nobody but nobody would have guessed that the older woman
was not only his mother, but also his lover and soul mate.

The woman giving orders had been pretty once. Some would say beautiful
since she had been mistaken many times for Elizabeth Taylor when she
was younger. But she had gotten soft and plump with age. Time had not
been kind and her black hair, usually covered by a wig, was flecked
with gray. She was not happy if someone learned her age was 65.

Her son was struggling with the suitcase and she barked at him to be
more careful. There was a reason for that. As he dragged the luggage
towards the stolen green Lincoln Town Car you could see that it was
leaking small, dark drops. They were small dots waiting to be
connected. Red dots. He was leaving a trail of blood behind him.

As the city slept off its holiday hangover, the man lifted the heavy
bag and heaved it into the cavernous trunk of the Lincoln. When he
slammed the lid, the woman again yelled at him for creating the noise
even though her own voice was much louder.


Sante Kimes mugshot (NYPD)
The woman’s name was Sante Kimes and thus far she had been arrested
and charged 14 times for crimes that ranged from shoplifting to
keeping slaves. There had been much, much more of course but she was
smart. Most of the time she hadn’t been caught.


Kenneth Kimes Jr. mugshot (NYPD)
Her son Kenny was already following in her footsteps. Just two months
before he had helped his mom steal some lipsticks from a discount
store in Miami, knocking down the store detective before being
arrested. Of course, the charges were reduced, bond was posted, and
they quickly left town. Who was going to put out an APB for such a
petty crime?


Irene Silverman (NYPD)
Just hours before, the mother and son had committed the ultimate
offense. The body inside the suitcase had been a lively 83-year-old
socialite named Irene Silverman who owned the East Side mansion and
leased out suites to those who could afford to pay the $6000-per-month
rent. Celebrities in town for a long stay--singer Chaka Khan and
pianist Peter Duchin were regulars--often made up the cast of paying
guests. The old dowager didn’t need the money. She simply liked
company. Her staff cleaned the small apartments. Their generous
employer had given the servants the holiday weekend off.

With everyone gone, Sante and Kenny had forced the old woman into
their suite where, after a bloody struggle, she was shot in the head
with a stun gun that had paralyzed her. Then Kenny had strangled Irene
with his own hands. After that she was wrapped in a shower curtain
that had been purchased just for the occasion and then trussed up with
duct tape.

Why kill an old woman? Well, when the dust cleared, Sante was planning
to tell the staff that her “dear friend” Irene had sold her the
mansion and would show them a bill of sale if necessary. Besides
murder, forgery was another specialty Sante thought she had mastered.
The servants would buy her tale, she thought, and Irene--well, that
Mrs. Silverman had gone off on a long European vacation would be her
tale.

But that was for tomorrow. Right now there was a body inside the trunk
of a stolen car that had to be made to disappear. Her son got behind
the wheel and the two sped down the block, turned onto Madison Avenue
and merged the Lincoln into an ever-present herd of yellow taxicabs.


CHAPTERS


1. A Victim Vanishes


2. Rags to Riches


3. Sante, Sandra, Sandy


4. High Plains Hustler


5. A Capital Caper


6. The Boy Slave


7. The Slave Girls


8. Journeys of Death


9. It's All Over


10. The Author


- Book Titles


- Court TV Coverage

 
 

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"Joel M. Eichen" <joeleichen@yahoo.com> wrote ............

Everything I write about you is with a VBG on my face.  As Jan knows, we
all love you.

Lose the x-posts though.  I have a mother-in-law.  I have threatened before.
You will have a weekly shipment of newspaper clippings on your doorstep.

So when is the Hawaii trip??

carabelli

Somethings "we" just "know" ... aren't we "smart"???  ;-)

Webby