Overview of The Devil Wore White - Update
This Dateline update revisits the bizarre and sinister case of Sante Kimes and her sons, Kenny and Kent Walker, centering on the disappearance and murder of New York socialite Irene Silverman in 1998. The episode traces Sante’s long history of fraud, theft, manipulation, and suspected murder across multiple states and countries, then brings the story forward with new reflections from her sons and a fresh cold-case development that may finally help close one of the family’s oldest mysteries.
What the Episode Is About
The story is less a single crime than a decades-long criminal family saga:
- Irene Silverman, an elderly Upper East Side widow, disappears from her Manhattan townhouse.
- Police quickly realize her suspicious tenant, “Manny Guerin,” is actually Kenny Kimes.
- Kenny is arrested in New York with his mother, Sante Kimes, a notorious con artist with a long history of schemes.
- As investigators dig deeper, they uncover a trail of crimes stretching from New York to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Hawaii, and the Bahamas.
- The case eventually connects to at least three suspected murders and one of the most alarming mother-son criminal partnerships in true-crime history.
The Core Crimes and Investigation
Irene Silverman’s Disappearance
Irene Silverman was a wealthy, beloved widow who rented rooms in her mansion to keep company and income flowing. After a Fourth of July party in 1998, she vanished.
Police found:
- Blood near the townhouse entrance
- A suspicious tenant using a fake identity
- Signs of a carefully staged deception
- Missing belongings, including Irene’s passport
What first looked like a missing-person case soon became a homicide investigation.
The Breakthrough
Investigators connected the suspicious tenant, Manny Guerin, to Kenny Kimes, who had already been arrested with Sante in Utah on a car-theft case. That arrest, almost by accident, gave police the leverage and timeline they needed.
The breakthrough evidence included:
- Irene’s passport found in Sante’s purse
- Notebooks detailing Irene’s habits, finances, and the layout of her home
- Evidence that the Kimeses were planning to steal her identity and townhouse
- Later, Kenny’s own confession on the stand in Los Angeles
Other Murders Tied to the Family
The episode shows that Silverman’s murder was not the only deadly crime connected to Sante and Kenny:
- David Kasdan: a businessman found shot and dumped in Los Angeles after being manipulated in a property/loan scheme.
- Syed Bilal Ahmed: a Bahamas bank auditor who disappeared after confronting Sante about offshore financial irregularities.
- Elmer Holmgren: a lawyer allegedly drawn into an arson and later believed to have been killed; this update includes a major development on his fate.
Sante Kimes: The Manipulative Center of the Story
Sante is portrayed as a charismatic but deeply destructive force:
- A lifelong liar, thief, and grifter
- Skilled at reinventing herself and charming victims
- Obsessed with money, status, and control
- Able to dominate everyone around her, especially her sons
The episode emphasizes how she:
- Groomed Kenny into criminal behavior
- Controlled both sons emotionally
- Used charm, fear, and affection as tools
- Continued to deny wrongdoing even after conviction
A recurring idea is that Sante didn’t just commit crimes — she built a criminal family culture around them.
The Sons: Two Different Paths
Kenny Kimes
Kenny was the son most deeply drawn into his mother’s orbit. He:
- Helped with thefts and scams as a child
- Eventually became her accomplice in major crimes
- Confessed at trial to the murders of David Kasdan and Irene Silverman
- Later took a reporter hostage in prison during an interview
- In the update, offers a much softer tone, expressing regret and talking about rehabilitation
Even so, the episode leaves some doubt about how genuine his remorse is.
Kent Walker
Kent, the older son, is the one who eventually escaped the family pattern. In the update:
- He reflects on how hard it was to break away
- Admits he loved his mother despite everything
- Says he feared what she and Kenny were capable of
- Expresses lasting guilt over not saving Kenny from Sante’s influence
Kent’s perspective provides the episode’s emotional counterweight: he understands the family’s damage, but he also knows how hard it is to leave that world behind.
Trial, Confessions, and Sentences
The Irene Silverman case was difficult because there was no body at first and no direct forensic smoking gun. But prosecutors built a powerful circumstantial case.
Key moments:
- The Kimeses were charged with Silverman’s murder in New York
- Kenny later testified in Los Angeles about killing David Kasdan
- He also described how he and Sante killed Irene Silverman
- Both were convicted
- Sentences:
- Sante Kimes: 120 years to life
- Kenny Kimes: 125 years
The episode underscores that the convictions were based not just on evidence, but on a portrait of a family whose crimes repeatedly intersected with greed, fraud, and violence.
The New Update: A Long-Awaited Answer
The “update” part of the episode focuses on a recent cold-case breakthrough involving Elmer Holmgren, the lawyer tied to the Hawaii arson case.
What Changed
- For decades, Elmer was believed to have vanished in Costa Rica.
- New forensic work and genetic genealogy identified his body in a dumpster near LAX.
- Investigators now believe he was likely killed in connection with the Kimes family’s schemes.
- This gives his son, Ken Holmgren, at least partial closure.
This development reinforces the episode’s larger theme: the Kimes story was never just one missing-person case, but a sprawling web of unresolved harm.
Main Takeaways
- Sante Kimes was a rare kind of criminal mastermind: charming, manipulative, and willing to use her own children as tools.
- Irene Silverman’s murder was part of a broader pattern of fraud, property theft, and suspected homicide.
- Kenny Kimes became both accomplice and victim of his mother’s control.
- Kent Walker escaped the orbit, but not without lasting trauma and guilt.
- The case continues to surface new truths, including the identification of Elmer Holmgren’s remains.
- Even after convictions, the story leaves behind a disturbing question: how many people were destroyed by one family’s greed and dysfunction?
Final Note
This episode is a true-crime portrait of a family whose public glamour hid relentless criminality. It’s also a story about power, manipulation, and the long shadow of abuse — with the update adding a measure of resolution, but not closure for everyone involved.