Sante and Kenneth Kimes Trial: 2000

After three months of lurid testimony, during which the mother and son became known as "grifters" in the press, the jury handed down verdicts on May 18, 2000. Kenneth Kimes was found guilty on 60 separate charges; Sante Kimes was convicted on 58 charges. On June 27, Judge Uviller pronounced sentences: 125 years, 4 months for Kenneth; 120 years, 8 months for Sante.

The case had many other strange twists, and took on a vigorous afterlife in print, television, and Internet media. Sante's older son, Kent Walker, published an account, Son of a Grifter, a year later, suggesting that his mother had sought to engage him in several of her schemes. Kenneth gave numerous interviews in prison, but at one point, he took a reporter hostage by holding a pen to her neck. He demanded that extradition proceedings against his mother be dropped in Los Angeles, as a conviction in that case would carry a death penalty. Guards finally wrestled the pen away from him and freed the reporter. Another book on the case, Like Mother, Like Son: The Strange Story of Sante and Kenny Kimes, was made into a film for television, starring Mary Tyler Moore. The film aired about one year after their conviction.