A man who opened an account in Bermuda under a false name and his mother have been found guilty of murdering a wealthy widow to get her $10 million New York townhouse.

In one of the most highly publicised US trials in recent years, Kenneth and Sante Kimes were found guilty on Thursday of a total of 118 offences.

A jury in New York convicted the pair of murdering 82-year-old Irene Silverman and trying to fraudulently transfer her six storey Beaux-Arts home to themselves.

Last month, the jury heard that Kenneth Kimes, 25, tried to open an account with Island stockbrokers Lines Overseas Management Limited (LOM) using a bogus name.

The company said it had been assisting the US authorities in the case and that none of its employees had committed any impropriety.

The body of Ms Silverman, 82, a former Radio City Music Hall dancer, was never found, but the Kimeses were arrested the day she vanished in July, 1998, for writing a bad cheque for $14,900 for a car.

The Kimeses had not disposed of Silverman's personal documents or other suspicious items.

In the car, Police found loaded pistols, a red wig and two fright masks, plastic handcuffs, $30,000 in cash, a stun gun box, syringes and a pink liquid similar to a known "date rape'' drug.

They also found cassettes of Ms Silverman's telephone conversations -- secretly taped by the Kimeses -- and a forged deed that transferred her townhouse to the Kimeses for a fraction of its nearly $10 million value.

Sante Kimes, 65, was found guilty of a total of 58 crimes, while her son was convicted of 60. They face life imprisonment when they are sentenced on June 27.