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Burned Alive
Ash Wednesday
Beautiful, bubbly, 20-year-old Kim Antonakos was returning to her New York City apartment after a night of clubbing with a friend. A business major with wild black hair, long polished fingernails, and a new Honda her loving father had bought her, Kim took good care of herself and looked forward to a bright future. But on her way home in the early morning darkness of that Ash Wednesday, Kim was abducted-and her mysterious kidnappers would be the last people to see her alive.
Scorching Betrayal
As Kim's father, wealthy computer executive Tommy Antonakos, launched a widespread, feverish search for his daughter, he had no idea that her abductors were right under his nose. A cold mastermind had ordered had ordered Kim to be bound, gagged and left in the freezing basement of an abandoned house, hoping to extract ransom from her father. When the plans fell through, he and his henchman panicked, returned to the basement and doused a near-frozen Kim with gasoline, setting her on fire.
Burned Alive
When the fire was extinguished, all that was left of the lovely coed were her charred, lifeless remains. What would drive the kidnappers to commit such a cruel and senseless murder? How did their plans to cover their tracks result in another killing? And how were the murderers finally snared? Read all of the fascinating facts in a startling expose of extortion, murder, and ultimate justice.
Beautiful, bubbly, 20-year-old Kim Antonakos was returning to her New York City apartment after a night of clubbing with a friend. A business major with wild black hair, long polished fingernails, and a new Honda her loving father had bought her, Kim took good care of herself and looked forward to a bright future. But on her way home in the early morning darkness of that Ash Wednesday, Kim was abducted-and her mysterious kidnappers would be the last people to see her alive.
Scorching Betrayal
As Kim's father, wealthy computer executive Tommy Antonakos, launched a widespread, feverish search for his daughter, he had no idea that her abductors were right under his nose. A cold mastermind had ordered had ordered Kim to be bound, gagged and left in the freezing basement of an abandoned house, hoping to extract ransom from her father. When the plans fell through, he and his henchman panicked, returned to the basement and doused a near-frozen Kim with gasoline, setting her on fire.
Burned Alive
When the fire was extinguished, all that was left of the lovely coed were her charred, lifeless remains. What would drive the kidnappers to commit such a cruel and senseless murder? How did their plans to cover their tracks result in another killing? And how were the murderers finally snared? Read all of the fascinating facts in a startling expose of extortion, murder, and ultimate justice.
352 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 15, 1999
106 people are currently reading
415 people want to read
About the author
Kieran Crowley
14 books43 followersKIERAN CROWLEY is a New York Times bestselling crime author and investigative reporter who has received communication from an actual serial killer and deciphered his secret code. Crowley has covered hundreds of trials and thousands of murders and recovered evidence missed by police at numerous crime scenes, some of which helped bring killers to Justice. He lives in New York with his family.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
October 12, 2021
I actually saw a documentary on this murder. This was a well written book and such a sad end for this young girl. I felt her fathers pain , such a sad story. I highly recommend this book.
November 19, 2010
As usual I find it very hard or gruesome maybe to say that a True Crime book was very good. A person lost their life! But I am going to say it.
While the circumstances are beyond sad, the writing is very good. At times gory but murder is never pretty or nice. The author takes us into the mind of Kim imagining how she must have been feeling, thinking while she was tied to that chair, freezing and dying. It was heartbreaking to read.
These dirtballs, so called friends, did this to her for what? MONEY! A kidnapping gone wrong, she wasn't supposed to die. Yet when there was still time to help her what do they do? Set her on fire to avoid getting caught. Yes, she was alive when they set her on fire but thank goodness she was already deep into hypothermia and past the point of feeling or knowing.
It was so hard reading how her father was affected by this whole ordeal. How does a parent ever get over something like this? Justice was done, the creeps are in jail but that does not bring a daughter back to her family.
Burned Alive is a very well written true crime book. I will look for more from this author.
While the circumstances are beyond sad, the writing is very good. At times gory but murder is never pretty or nice. The author takes us into the mind of Kim imagining how she must have been feeling, thinking while she was tied to that chair, freezing and dying. It was heartbreaking to read.
These dirtballs, so called friends, did this to her for what? MONEY! A kidnapping gone wrong, she wasn't supposed to die. Yet when there was still time to help her what do they do? Set her on fire to avoid getting caught. Yes, she was alive when they set her on fire but thank goodness she was already deep into hypothermia and past the point of feeling or knowing.
It was so hard reading how her father was affected by this whole ordeal. How does a parent ever get over something like this? Justice was done, the creeps are in jail but that does not bring a daughter back to her family.
Burned Alive is a very well written true crime book. I will look for more from this author.
June 8, 2023
So WOW... If you want to know how far true crime has come in the last few decades, pick this one up. Nothing quite like a middle-aged white man explaining NY street culture in the'90s. 'He was a user of the Chronic (Chronic is short for Chronic User)' Uh....
Not good narration. Not well-researched. Not good writing. I'm honestly not sure why I stuck with it. The case is super interesting, it's too bad the book does it such a disservice.
Not good narration. Not well-researched. Not good writing. I'm honestly not sure why I stuck with it. The case is super interesting, it's too bad the book does it such a disservice.
December 26, 2009
This was a good book. It held my interest pretty good. Takes place in New York in 1995. A young college student is abducted by her friends because they know her dad has money and will pay to get her back. The kidnapping goes bad, and things don't work out as they had at first planned. The hole they dig for themselves just gets bigger and bigger and causes the beautufil young lady to loose her life in a horrible way.
March 20, 2024
Youtube
September 20, 2025
I can only give this 3* because the actual presentation is as sloppy as hell and I was so irritated by it.
This was a case I hadn't heard of and it makes for really harrowing reading. I don't know WHAT possessed this girl from a good family to mate around with the bunch of lowlifes she chose to but it cost her her life, sadly. Just such a terrible event altogether. They were just a bunch of deadbeat scum altogether. To hear their dumb nicknames and the little gangs they all run about in is truly laughable. They're all just total wastes of air. It was quite devastating to read about Baby the dog just knowing something was wrong.....and I wondered too why Kim's boots were removed, especially as they didn't steal them.
One passage is very true, "The sole bit of good news was that the detectives only had to be lucky once. To avoid justice, the bad guys had to be lucky forever." Or, let's face it, they needed a brain between them. But they were ALL as dumb as a box of rocks and you just KNOW young criminals love to run their idiotic mouths off as well. Fools. The women who chose to consort with these cretins were all as bad as they were as well. Awful people. As someone rightfully said they're a confederacy of dunces and it's just terribly sad Kim gave any of them the time of day at all.
We're told near the end about an office clock being stuck at one minute to five and I didn't know the relevance of this, even though I scrolled back trying to figure it out.
However, the mistakes in it are just appalling and the publisher ought to be ashamed. Even the header page had the author down as Kieran Growley...I should've realised then, really....he wrote about a winered car and I googled, thinking it was some slang description but realised he actually meant wine red. We're told Josh pulled off a piece of charred duct-tape to keep but there hadn't been a fire by then, he wrote made not Mafia. He changed Stacey to Stacy at one point and worst of all wrote Antonakis and not Antonakos one time. Totally disrespectful because if you're going to make money on the back of someone's awful murder the very least you can do is spell her effing name right !!! He also writes stripped not striped, there were missed punctuation marks here, there and everywhere and THEN, to cap it all we're told the pretrial hearing was May 20th 1997, then the trial proper opened October 30th 1996.....really ? Not one editor or proofreader could spot all these mistakes. They all need sacking !!
So I won't be picking anymore books by this author or publisher and I'm annoyed with myself that I paid for this one.
This was a case I hadn't heard of and it makes for really harrowing reading. I don't know WHAT possessed this girl from a good family to mate around with the bunch of lowlifes she chose to but it cost her her life, sadly. Just such a terrible event altogether. They were just a bunch of deadbeat scum altogether. To hear their dumb nicknames and the little gangs they all run about in is truly laughable. They're all just total wastes of air. It was quite devastating to read about Baby the dog just knowing something was wrong.....and I wondered too why Kim's boots were removed, especially as they didn't steal them.
One passage is very true, "The sole bit of good news was that the detectives only had to be lucky once. To avoid justice, the bad guys had to be lucky forever." Or, let's face it, they needed a brain between them. But they were ALL as dumb as a box of rocks and you just KNOW young criminals love to run their idiotic mouths off as well. Fools. The women who chose to consort with these cretins were all as bad as they were as well. Awful people. As someone rightfully said they're a confederacy of dunces and it's just terribly sad Kim gave any of them the time of day at all.
We're told near the end about an office clock being stuck at one minute to five and I didn't know the relevance of this, even though I scrolled back trying to figure it out.
However, the mistakes in it are just appalling and the publisher ought to be ashamed. Even the header page had the author down as Kieran Growley...I should've realised then, really....he wrote about a winered car and I googled, thinking it was some slang description but realised he actually meant wine red. We're told Josh pulled off a piece of charred duct-tape to keep but there hadn't been a fire by then, he wrote made not Mafia. He changed Stacey to Stacy at one point and worst of all wrote Antonakis and not Antonakos one time. Totally disrespectful because if you're going to make money on the back of someone's awful murder the very least you can do is spell her effing name right !!! He also writes stripped not striped, there were missed punctuation marks here, there and everywhere and THEN, to cap it all we're told the pretrial hearing was May 20th 1997, then the trial proper opened October 30th 1996.....really ? Not one editor or proofreader could spot all these mistakes. They all need sacking !!
So I won't be picking anymore books by this author or publisher and I'm annoyed with myself that I paid for this one.
December 21, 2025
‘No honour among thieves.’
Far more than a factual account of a crime, this book grabbed a hold of me and would not let go. This is a true crime masterpiece. A book that brought alive the case and made you live it and breathe it.
This is the story of the murder of Kimberly Antonakos in 1996, New York City.
Early in the book, I felt confusion as there were similar nicknames- BQ, KQ- I kept losing track. However, as the book got deeper into the case, it began to slowly take form and what presented was a complex, insidious and in depth look at a callous crime and the subsequent investigation. I could feel the frustration of the detectives devoted to this case. The lack of hard evidence, hearsay, missing pieces, fear, and silence.
The appalling cruelty of the crime, the beauty and vivaciousness of the young victim, the love of her father- which the author captured so beautifully, and how deeply the crime scene affected law enforcement and the detectives working the case. This is a senseless case with a cast of slippery, dangerous characters. This is an investigation of a murder and a battle between good and evil, played out on the streets of New York. This book, like the investigation left no stone unturned.
5 stars.
Far more than a factual account of a crime, this book grabbed a hold of me and would not let go. This is a true crime masterpiece. A book that brought alive the case and made you live it and breathe it.
This is the story of the murder of Kimberly Antonakos in 1996, New York City.
Early in the book, I felt confusion as there were similar nicknames- BQ, KQ- I kept losing track. However, as the book got deeper into the case, it began to slowly take form and what presented was a complex, insidious and in depth look at a callous crime and the subsequent investigation. I could feel the frustration of the detectives devoted to this case. The lack of hard evidence, hearsay, missing pieces, fear, and silence.
The appalling cruelty of the crime, the beauty and vivaciousness of the young victim, the love of her father- which the author captured so beautifully, and how deeply the crime scene affected law enforcement and the detectives working the case. This is a senseless case with a cast of slippery, dangerous characters. This is an investigation of a murder and a battle between good and evil, played out on the streets of New York. This book, like the investigation left no stone unturned.
5 stars.
February 26, 2024
Its wild that this book was published in 1999. It manages to incorrectly attribute drinking blood to the practice of Santeria, refer to a person’s skin as “light black” and a host of other outright racist depictions.
The thing that I found amusing is how often the author says that cops rely on “facts and evidence, not psychic abilities” while also repeating over and over that various cops in this story “followed their gut” or their “intuition”.
So its folk magic when a grieving mother goes to a psychic to get information on her missing daughter but good ol police work when they rely on their own form of bullshit mysticism?
Curious lol
The thing that I found amusing is how often the author says that cops rely on “facts and evidence, not psychic abilities” while also repeating over and over that various cops in this story “followed their gut” or their “intuition”.
So its folk magic when a grieving mother goes to a psychic to get information on her missing daughter but good ol police work when they rely on their own form of bullshit mysticism?
Curious lol
April 7, 2025
This true story hit home! Although I never met Kim, she lived in the same neighborhood my ex-husband grew up in back in the 90’s.
This read is proof that you have to be careful of the company you keep. Kim was treated worse than an animal by her so called friends. Had she not ensnared herself with evil people, dope heads, thieves, and gangsters, she would probably be alive today. I still don't understand why the ransom calls were missed. Great book but so incredibly sad. I still think about her from time to time and her dad.
This read is proof that you have to be careful of the company you keep. Kim was treated worse than an animal by her so called friends. Had she not ensnared herself with evil people, dope heads, thieves, and gangsters, she would probably be alive today. I still don't understand why the ransom calls were missed. Great book but so incredibly sad. I still think about her from time to time and her dad.
October 28, 2023
It seems there are a lot of crimes that would never have been solved if it wasn't for the fact that the perpetrators can't keep quiet. I thought this was a well-written story of a kidnapping that got out of control and ended with a young woman being killed. There are a lot of players in this story and it moves along quickly. It was a little repetitive but not bad. The courtroom scenes were nicely condensed and only about 50 pages. My heart went out to the victim and her father.
November 16, 2025
Written well enough for a True Crime book.
I like True Crime genre if the story is written really well, otherwise leave it for the TV shows. It is only worth reading if you get the story better than it can be told in the hour allowed for a TV episode. This one might have but I'm not sure. There was still things included that I didn't think necessary and some parts dragged out. Mostly the court part, that can get boring to read. I started it so I had to finish.
I like True Crime genre if the story is written really well, otherwise leave it for the TV shows. It is only worth reading if you get the story better than it can be told in the hour allowed for a TV episode. This one might have but I'm not sure. There was still things included that I didn't think necessary and some parts dragged out. Mostly the court part, that can get boring to read. I started it so I had to finish.
May 5, 2019
It was a good book about a very gruesome and needless crime.
July 5, 2023
This story still haunts me.
October 1, 2025
Gripping sad story
Could not out this book down. I felt I lived the court case. Brilliant author. Really tragic ending for kim
Could not out this book down. I felt I lived the court case. Brilliant author. Really tragic ending for kim
March 6, 2021
Burned Alive: A Shocking True Story of Betrayal, Kidnapping, and Murder — okay, this was the only book that I could find about this true crime.
As with most true crime fascination of mine, I discovered this one because I was watching one of my shows on the ID Network (as usual). There were several shows that had this crime on it. It was especially of interest to me because the crime was in NYC (I mean, there’s tons of crime in NYC, but this one related to me more than gang violence, drug crimes, terrorism, human trafficking, etc.)… she was so young too.
20-year-old Kim Antonakos was returning to her Brooklyn apartment after a night of clubbing with a friend. She was the envy of those who knew her personally, and a true daddy’s-girl, but on her way home in the early morning of that year’s Ash Wednesday, Kim was abducted — and her mysterious kidnappers turned out to be those she welcomed into her home.
Kim’s father, a well-to-do businessman named Tommy Antonakos, had no idea that her abductors and murderers were right under his nose. A loser “mastermind” had organized the abduction of Kim… she was bounded, gagged, and left in the freezing basement of an abandoned house in a Queens neighborhood — all in the wasted expectation of trying to extract ransom from her father.
However, the dumbass called from a payphone, and as soon as it sounded like the receiver was picked up, dumbass would hit the play button on the recorder, playing a pre-recorded ransom demand — only, senõr dumbass didn’t realized that he had pressed play with the recording talking over the answering machine greeting (he didn’t wait until after the beep, if you need me to spell it out for you). See, this mastermind was actually really stupid. When the plans fell through, he and his other loser friends panicked, returned to the basement and doused an almost frozen Kim with gasoline, setting her on fire.
When the fire was extinguished, all that was left were her charred, lifeless remains. You know, I really doubt that the girlfriend didn’t know what was going on — I mean, she was basically living in that apartment too! There’s no way she didn’t know what a creep her baby’s daddy was… and the real sad part was that one of the guys that she used to see was a part of it too.
Kieran Crowley is a New York Times bestselling author and supposedly an award-winning reporter for the New York Post. According to his author bio, his investigative reporting on a series of dismemberment murders of prostitutes helped lead homicide detectives to serial killer Robert Shulman; it also claims that Shulman told police after his arrest that he halted his killing spree when he read a description of himself and his car in one of Crowley’s stories. It’s also been stated that Crowley has covered hundreds of trials and thousands of murders… I will say though, that in a few of the ID shows, he is one of the people that are continously interviewed as a contributor; especially for this crime, as well as other crimes in the NYC area.
I got the Kindle version of this book because the printed version wasn’t available on Amazon anymore (but from my experience, the hard copy is always better than the electronic version because sometimes the electronic version doesn’t have the photos that are usually accompanied with books like these); anyway I became interested in this story from watching like 3 different shows do re-enactments of this horrible murder on the ID Network. I started Googling to find out more and decided to read a true-crime book about it instead (Truman Capote really made a sensational literary genre out of it back in the 1960’s).
The book is very intriguing, but it’s not Capote’s true crime writing, let’s just say — but I still enjoyed it a lot. I put it up there with A Thing of Beauty (the biography on the supermodel Gia, which was made into an HBO movie starring Angelina Jolie). You’ll definitely enjoy this if you enjoy reading other true crime books though.
As with most true crime fascination of mine, I discovered this one because I was watching one of my shows on the ID Network (as usual). There were several shows that had this crime on it. It was especially of interest to me because the crime was in NYC (I mean, there’s tons of crime in NYC, but this one related to me more than gang violence, drug crimes, terrorism, human trafficking, etc.)… she was so young too.
20-year-old Kim Antonakos was returning to her Brooklyn apartment after a night of clubbing with a friend. She was the envy of those who knew her personally, and a true daddy’s-girl, but on her way home in the early morning of that year’s Ash Wednesday, Kim was abducted — and her mysterious kidnappers turned out to be those she welcomed into her home.
Kim’s father, a well-to-do businessman named Tommy Antonakos, had no idea that her abductors and murderers were right under his nose. A loser “mastermind” had organized the abduction of Kim… she was bounded, gagged, and left in the freezing basement of an abandoned house in a Queens neighborhood — all in the wasted expectation of trying to extract ransom from her father.
However, the dumbass called from a payphone, and as soon as it sounded like the receiver was picked up, dumbass would hit the play button on the recorder, playing a pre-recorded ransom demand — only, senõr dumbass didn’t realized that he had pressed play with the recording talking over the answering machine greeting (he didn’t wait until after the beep, if you need me to spell it out for you). See, this mastermind was actually really stupid. When the plans fell through, he and his other loser friends panicked, returned to the basement and doused an almost frozen Kim with gasoline, setting her on fire.
When the fire was extinguished, all that was left were her charred, lifeless remains. You know, I really doubt that the girlfriend didn’t know what was going on — I mean, she was basically living in that apartment too! There’s no way she didn’t know what a creep her baby’s daddy was… and the real sad part was that one of the guys that she used to see was a part of it too.
Kieran Crowley is a New York Times bestselling author and supposedly an award-winning reporter for the New York Post. According to his author bio, his investigative reporting on a series of dismemberment murders of prostitutes helped lead homicide detectives to serial killer Robert Shulman; it also claims that Shulman told police after his arrest that he halted his killing spree when he read a description of himself and his car in one of Crowley’s stories. It’s also been stated that Crowley has covered hundreds of trials and thousands of murders… I will say though, that in a few of the ID shows, he is one of the people that are continously interviewed as a contributor; especially for this crime, as well as other crimes in the NYC area.
I got the Kindle version of this book because the printed version wasn’t available on Amazon anymore (but from my experience, the hard copy is always better than the electronic version because sometimes the electronic version doesn’t have the photos that are usually accompanied with books like these); anyway I became interested in this story from watching like 3 different shows do re-enactments of this horrible murder on the ID Network. I started Googling to find out more and decided to read a true-crime book about it instead (Truman Capote really made a sensational literary genre out of it back in the 1960’s).
The book is very intriguing, but it’s not Capote’s true crime writing, let’s just say — but I still enjoyed it a lot. I put it up there with A Thing of Beauty (the biography on the supermodel Gia, which was made into an HBO movie starring Angelina Jolie). You’ll definitely enjoy this if you enjoy reading other true crime books though.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 17, 2018
I’ve been reading true crime for many years. I’ve read many sad stories, and this one is right up there. Your heart will break for the dad and his beautiful daughter with the kind heart. The book was well written.
November 4, 2008
One of the most shocking books I've ever read in my life. This is coming from an avid true crime reader. What happened to this young woman is beyond words.
August 1, 2009
It was a good book but It explains alot of gory stuff.
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November 12, 2011I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
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July 23, 2012
A horrifying tale of a girl who died in a brutal fashion.
August 28, 2012
its a sad book but true
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 20, 2017
if you like to read true stories this is awesome...its about a couple of her friends that kidnap her for money when things go wrong....a must read...
October 23, 2018
Kim was treated worse than an animal
This read is proof that you have to be careful of the company you keep. Had she not ensnared herself with evil people, dope heads thieves and gangsters, she would probably be alive today. I still don't understand why the ransom calls were missed. I know a long pause was mentioned but I feel that important details were left unexplained. Good read overall.
This read is proof that you have to be careful of the company you keep. Had she not ensnared herself with evil people, dope heads thieves and gangsters, she would probably be alive today. I still don't understand why the ransom calls were missed. I know a long pause was mentioned but I feel that important details were left unexplained. Good read overall.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews