An interesting book I read years ago: SON OF A GRIFTER by Kent Walker with Mark Schone.
“By his mid-20's, Kent Walker had burgled the homes of his neighbors, been named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a slavery trial and taken $500 to intimidate a potential witness. According to any conventional standard, Walker was a fairly hardened criminal. According to the dismal standard of his family, he was a model citizen.
In ''Son of a Grifter,'' Walker and his co-author, Mark Schone, offer a mesmerizing account of growing up as the child of a world-class sociopath. Walker's mother, Sante Kimes -- who was responsible for his youthful crimes -- is the monster behind one of the most celebrated murders of the 90's: in 1998, Kimes and her younger son, Kenny, killed an elderly widow named Irene Silverman in a vain attempt to steal her $7.7 million Manhattan mansion. Both Kimeses are now serving life sentences for that murder, but it was only the final nastiness in Sante's crime spree, one that also may have claimed a Cayman Islands bank official, one of her lawyers, her ''best friend'' and perhaps even one of her husbands. Another of her lawyers -- he's still alive -- says that Charles Manson is the only client he's had as evil as Kimes.
The Silverman murder actually forms a very small part of this enthralling book. Walker, the product of an early marriage, had split with his mom by the time she turned to homicide. Most of ''Son of a Grifter'' chronicles the day-to-day wickedness of Sante, the ceaseless criminal activity witnessed with increasing horror by her elder son. She led a life devoted -- with a purity that approaches genius -- to swindling other people....” http://partners.nytimes.com/books/01/05 ... lotzt.html
