Episode Details

Art Bell interviews Kent Walker, author of the national bestseller Son of a Grifter, about growing up with one of America's most notorious con artists. Walker describes how his mother, Sante Kimes, trained him to shoplift at age six, stole cars from dealerships, committed at least twelve arsons for insurance money, and was convicted of enslaving household workers through intimidation and locked doors.

Walker recounts how his mother possessed extraordinary intelligence and charisma, could fool lie detector tests, and maintained multiple aliases simultaneously in a room full of people who each knew her by a different name. He traces his own break from the criminal lifestyle at age twelve after being caught stealing a surfboard, while his half-brother Kenny fell deeper under their mother's influence. The siblings took opposite paths, with Kent becoming a vacuum cleaner salesman and Kenny joining Sante in the long con.

The conversation covers the final scheme to steal a Manhattan millionairess's $10 million townhouse, resulting in murder convictions without a body or physical evidence. Walker discusses his brother's 125-year sentence and his personal fight against the death penalty in the pending California case.