[6], Following her divorce, Gray focused on running a boarding house located at 21st and F streets in Sacramento. [2], Puente was born Dorothea Helen Gray on January 9, 1929, in Redlands, California, to Trudy Mae (ne Yates) and Jesse James Gray. The following year, she died in a motorcycle accident. Dorothea Puente fled to Los Angeles. According to All That's Interesting, in 1968, Dorothea married Roberto Puente. Multiple murder suspect Dorothea Montalvo Puente, right, is brought back to Sacramento from the LA area in the early morning hours of November 17, 1988. Dorothea Puente was a convicted serial killer suspected of murdering nine people during the 1980s in Sacramento, California, in order to collect their social security checks. The boarding house made infamous by Dorothea Puentes murders. Grandson of Dorothea Puente, shared a 'real connection' with her - Daily Newshttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGIQ4XcqArGYqiw70QoKcvw?sub_confirmation=1Grand. On New Years Day, a fisherman spotted the box, noticed that it looked suspiciously like a coffin, and informed the police. 1:11. She met and married Fred McFaul in 1945. For his labor and $800, Puente gave him the red Ford pickup, which she stated belonged to her boyfriend in Los Angeles, who no longer needed it. Puente was born Dorothea Helen Gray on January 9, 1929. Her father died of tuberculosis in 1937; her mother, who worked as a sex worker, lost custody of her children in 1938 and died in a motorcycle accident by the end of the year. Puente struck out on her own when she was 16. Her time in prison was spent visiting the prison chapel, reading John Grisham books, and watching TV. There, the former prostitute turned back to a life of crime. cold and calculating female killers the country had ever seen., serial killer known as the Angel of Death, Aileen Wuornos, historys most terrifying female serial killer. And she didnt buy Puentes explanation that hed left on vacation. That is the question. Gray-haired landlady, Dorothea Puente, made headlines as one of the most shocking serial killers in Sacramento history. In April 2020, the house and current owners were showcased in the Quibi series Murder House Flip. Dorothy Miller. Prosecutors would later allege she pulled in over $87,000 from her scam and spent some of the cash on a facelift, the outlet reported. She then asked Florez to transport the filled, sealed box to a storage depot. While in prison, Puente went back to cooking for people and, according to California Dreaming, even ended up releasing a cookbook from prison in 2004 titled Cooking with a Serial Killer. Puentes next two marriages would be short-lived. For more on Puente's story, watch thenew two-partOxygenspecial "Murders At The Boarding House," airing on Saturday, April 17 and Sunday, April 18 at 7/6c on Oxygen. For a while, social workers looked past what they considered to be Puente's "eccentricity" and admired her for dealing with "tough cases." Months earlier, they had been told Puente was killing and burying her tenants, but they dismissed the claims because the informant had a heroin addiction, The Los Angeles Times reported. Dorothea Puente, who ran an unlicensed Sacramento boarding house, became infamous for actually killing residents in the 1980s. Seven bodies were discovered, belonging to Bert Montoya, Leona Carpenter, Dorothy Miller, Benjamin Fink, James Gallop, Vera Faye Martin, and Betty Palmer. It wasnt until 1988 that suspicions first arose about Puente, after one of her tenants, 52-year old Alvaro Montoya, went missing. [17] The result was Cooking with a Serial Killer (2004),[18] which included a lengthy interview, almost fifty recipes, and various pieces of prison art sent to Bugbee by the convicted murderer. This story has been shared 122,375 times. Soon after, Ruth died from an overdose of codeine and acetaminophen with police putting it down to suicide as Puente told officials shed been depressed after the death of her husband. Many of her victims had traces of the drug in them (via The Los Angeles Times ). Puente, who took in people who were older, disabled, or otherwise ailing, would steal their Social Security and benefits checks and poison them by lacing their food with prescription medicine, according to The Los Angeles Times. According to Serial Killer Timelines by Chris McNab, after her first marriage ended, Puente became involved in criminal activity. Vera Martin, 64. However, she was arrested before she could board the plane, and this time, her lawyer wasn't able to argue that she wasn't a flight risk. The policeman who interrogated her reveals in the documentary: She was emotionless and she would look straight into my eyes and answer every question. [citation needed], The defense called several witnesses, who showed Puente had a generous and caring side to her. One of the bodies was missing its head, hands and feet, Body parts were also found scattered across the property. Published: 22:09 BST, 21 January 2019 | Updated: 22:42 BST, 21 January 2019, Dorothea Puente was arrested in 1988 after the dismembered bodies of seven residents were found in the garden of her home in Sacramento, California. [11], Puente has been featured on numerous true crime television shows, including Crime Stories,[12] Deadly Women,[13] A Stranger in My Home,[14] World's Most Evil Killers,[15] and Worst Roommate Ever.[16]. Puente also wasn't as old as she looked, often claiming to be at least 15 years older than she actually was. When the police arrived, Puente told them that Monroe had been depressed due to her husbands terminal illness. But to the end of her life, Dorothea Puente insisted that she was innocent and that she had been taking good care of the people under her charge. [citation needed], O'Mara called over 130 witnesses; he argued to the jury that Puente had used sleeping pills to put her tenants to sleep, then suffocated them, and hired convicts to dig the holes in her yard. On New Years Day, a fisherman spotted the box, noticed that it looked suspiciously like a coffin, and informed the police. In Female Serial Killers, Vronsky writes how Puente's patients often ended up in the hospital, and Puente's name kept coming up to the same doctor who treated the patients. I dont think anyone would pick this kind of life. Investigators soon found the decomposing body of an elderly man inside. Soon afterward, Chief disappeared. She was put on trial in 1993 for the nine murders. When she was just 16, she started engaging in sex work, although she eventually met and married a World War IIveteran. In the documentary, police say: This could be my grandma, she was the little old lady next door. Unlike many who passed through Puentes boarding house, however, someone had their eye on Montoya. Volunteers of America had placed him at Puente's boarding houseand she was alarmed to learn he had seemingly vanished in October 1988, according to Sactown Magazine. However, it would be three more years before authorities could identify the body as Everson only happening due to the similarities between him and the bodies being found in Puentes backyard. Apparently, "Most reviewers [say] the recipes are pretty basic, but tasty." She asked Florez to build a 6-by-3-by-2-foot box to store "books and other items". Puente was arrested, returned to Sacramento, and held without bail. Trial began in October 1992 and ended a year later. We were just digging and digging, he says. Gillmouth disappeared not long after he and Puente moved to F Street. When they came to me, they were so sick, they weren't expected to live.". Dorothea Puente (birth name Dorothea Gray) was born in 1929 in Redlands, California. They dont have all the facts, she told Sactown Magazine in 2009. These were people the Salvation Army wouldn't take them. One of these was of a 61-year-old woman named Ruth Monroe, who Puente persuaded to move into her house in April 1982, when her husband died. She established herself as a genuine resource to the community to aid alcoholics, homeless people, and mentally ill people by holding Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and assisting individuals to sign up to receive Social Security benefits. And since she never reported their deaths, "their social security checks continued to come in, and Puente continued to forge their signatures and collect the cash.". LIFTING her apron over her head, Dorothea Puente beamed with pride at the freshly-baked cakes in front of her knowing her unsuspecting victims would be at her mercy moments after biting into Puente agreed even providing an extra shovel for them to do so. I think you can only truly understand why so many people testified and asked you to spare Dorothea's life only if you have ever fallen down and stumbled on the road of life and had someone pick you up, give you comfort, give you love, show you the way. Dorothea Puente, infamously known as the "Death House Lady," was responsible for the deaths of nine elderly and mentally disabled individuals, plus an additional unconfirmed six people (via Crime Museum).From April 1982 through November 1988, Puente ran a boarding house where she stole from her tenants to the tune of $5,000/month (via Murderpedia), before she would kill them with drug overdoses. Their dismembered bodies were then placed in holes in the garden she'd paid ex-convicts to dig. Investigators soon found the decomposing body of an elderly man inside. Benjamin Fink, 55. After declaring "the Samaritans" bankrupt, Dorothea Puente promptly set up a new boarding house on 2100 F Street in a large 16-bedroom Victorian house in the early 1970s. Puente ran a boarding house out of a two-story Victorian home on F Street for years . After an autopsy was done, medical examiners found a large amount of codeine in her system, and although her death was labeled "undetermined cause," it was believed to be a suicide. "She is to be considered dangerous, and her living environment and/or employment should be closely monitored.". But after installing a concrete slab in the boarding house basement and one over the foundation of the garage, "Chief" disappeared. But Puente presented herself as a harmless old woman who was given gifts, and the police let her out on bail. This is the untold truth of Dorothea Puente, the Death House Landlady. Next, Dorothea Puente went to San Francisco, where she married her second husband, Axel Bren Johansson, in 1952. The Monstrous Crimes Of The Dorothea Puente, The Death House Landlady. Puente had Chief dig in the basement and cart soil and rubbish away in a wheelbarrow. By 1948, McFaul asked for a divorce and Puente drifted south to California. She collected tenants' monthly mail before they saw it and paid them stipends, pocketing the rest for "expenses". Chief later dismantled a garage in the backyard and installed a fresh concrete slab there as well. While the police were digging, Dorothea Puente asked if she could run out to buy a coffee. She set about creating a more matronly image with her clothes and makeup, added years to her age, and became an in-home caretaker. In 1948, she was convicted of forgery and sent to prison for four months, before working as a prostitute for years and then being arrested for running a brothel in 1960. Preliminary hearings began in 1990, and the trial and sentencing took place in 1993. Serial killer Dorothea was branded by the media as the "Death House Landlady" for her tendency to target and murder her senior citizen tenants - and steal their social security money. Her lawyers argued that she might be a thief, but not a murderer. In 1961, Johansson had Gray briefly committed to DeWitt State Hospital after a binge of drinking, lying, criminal behavior, and suicide attempts. Ultimately, Puente was convicted of just three murders and sentenced to life in prison. During that time, it appears that they had two children together, although one was sent to live with relatives and the other was put up for adoption. Dorothy Miller, 64. . In the 1970s, she opened her first boarding house in Sacramento. Monroe had just moved in with Puente when she died of an overdose but a coroner couldn't determine if it was homicide or suicide,The Los Angeles Times reported in 1993. Not yet considering the sweet lady to be a suspect, the officers obliged at the 59-year-old's request to go down the street to buy a cup of coffee - but she had no intention of returning. After Florez finished the job, Puente had one more request: to build her a six-foot-long box so she could fill it with books and a few other assorted items before the pair of them would bring the box to a storage facility. Then aged 63 (above), 103 witnesses were called to testify against her in the trial, Suspicion arose in 1988 when Alberto Montoya, a mentally disabled and schizophrenic tenant, was reported missing by a social worker, Puente's victims: (left to right)Everson Gillmouth, 77. Is the untold truth of Dorothea Puente, after one of the drug in them via! 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