Under the law, Puente received life without the possibility of parole. Dorothy Miller. Their relationship developed quickly, and the couple was soon making wedding plans. Dorothea Puente looked like a sweet grandmother but looks can be deceiving. Ruth Munroe, 61. In her absence, investigators dug up the whole yard and discovered the body of 78-year-old Leona Carpenter. The reality, in fact, was that across a period of 10 years, Puente had meticulously murdered at least seven tenants at the boarding lodge she ran in Sacramento, California. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. After noticing disturbed soil on the property, they uncovered the body of tenant Leona Carpenter, 78. In Female Serial Killers, Peter Vronsky details how Puente hosted a dinner for social workers and the residents who suffered from alcoholism every few weeks "where the quality of her food and care was put on display.". Even probation officers who stopped by accepted Puentes explanation that the people living at her house were guests or friends not boarders. The Monstrous Crimes Of The Dorothea Puente, The Death House Landlady. Dorothea Puente is an American serial killer. The charges against her were largely circumstantial: There was her criminal past and of course, the corpses at her home. Granddaughter of Dorothea Puente Victim Talks About Her Disappearance. That is a human quality that deserves to be preserved. Investigators opened the box and found the badly decomposed and unidentifiable body of an elderly man inside. Dorothea was convicted of three out of nine murder counts and sentenced to life in prison in August of 1993. 104-107. On April 11, 1982, Monroe also moved in with Punente, ostensibly to "save on expenses" since Monroe's husband had entered into hospice care. During the initial investigation, Puente was not immediately a suspect, and she was allowed to leave the property, ostensibly to buy a cup of coffee at a nearby hotel. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, I told my wife she should get a nose job and now she might leave me, I used to get allergies and congested at night why you should ALWAYS sleep in socks if you want a good nights rest, My neighbors X-rated dog name is offensive, Expert reveals the common duvet mistake were all making and its ruining your nights sleep. Satisfied, the authorities ruled Monroes death a suicide and moved on. In 1982, Puente picked up a man in a bar, and they went back to his apartment together. When she was just 16, she started engaging in sex work, although she eventually met and married a World War IIveteran. She also established herself as a respected member in Sacramento's Hispanic community, funding charities, scholarships, and radio programs. [citation needed], In November 1985, Puente hired a man named Ismael Florez to install some wood paneling in her apartment. James Gallop, 62, (continued left to right) Dorothy Miller, 64. But in 1978, her house of cards started to falter. After Puente opened up her boarding house at 1426 F Street, a string of people died there. According to the Los Angeles Times, Puente was an . 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. Murderpedia . Judy Moise, an outreach counselor with Volunteers of America, became suspicious when Montoya vanished. She was just pure evil, Mildred Ballenger, a social worker who knew her, told Sactown Magazine. Not everybody running them is being nefarious, but nefarious activity can crop up.. "Yet despite the fact that Dorothea was on everybody's radar, nothing was done. She was notoriously known as the "Death House Land Lady" after committing nine murders. She died in prison from natural causes at the age of 82, on 27 March 2011. [2], Puente was born Dorothea Helen Gray on January 9, 1929, in Redlands, California, to Trudy Mae (ne Yates) and Jesse James Gray. Dorothea Puente (birth name Dorothea Gray) was born in 1929 in Redlands, California. [citation needed]. Puente agreed even providing an extra shovel for them to do so. But God always puts obstacles in peoples way.". Puente was convicted of three of the murders, although the jury could not agree on the other six. Although lawyers showed that Puente had gotten dozens of prescriptions of the sedative Dalmane between 1985 and 1988 and that all of the bodies had Dalmane in their system, there was no concrete proof that Puente had been the one to administer the drugs. By 1982, Puente was sent to prison for her thefts. She was a tenant of Puente's when she vanished. Puente was arrested, returned to Sacramento, and held without bail. Victims included Puente's boyfriend Everson Gillmouth, 77, and eight tenants who lived at the . Pathologists testified that they hadnt been able to fix the cause of death for any of the corpses. Dorothea Helen Puente ( ne Gray; January 9, 1929 - March 27, 2011) was an American convicted serial killer. 'The contents might be what you'd never expected. 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 Betty Palmer, 78. She once stated, "The only time they were in good health was when they stayed at my home. A few days later, police returned with a warrant and asked Puente if they could dig in the backyard, where they saw recently disturbed soil. 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. A human leg and a badly discomposed foot were dug up separately in another part of the yard. She was the sixth of seven children born to Trudy Mae Gates and Jesse James Gray, whose "lungs were damaged from a gas attack" while fighting in World War I. Social workers in the 1970s looked upon Dorothea Puente and her boarding house with admiration. Removed from her violent crimes, it actually makes perfect sense to use Puente's image on a cookbook, as she has the perfect visage of a kind old lady who probably knows a secret recipe or two that her tenants all would . It was difficult to determine, though, whether she had poisoned the tenants or if they had taken the fatal overdoses themselves, according to Sactown Magazine. Petitioner raises several claims and a request for a federal evidentiary hearing. Some of the remains were in a mummified state - bound in bed sheets, cloth and duct tape (above), Puente would lure her victims to their deaths by baking them cake laced with sleeping pills. But volatility seemed to follow Puente wherever she went and the new couple argued frequently about Puentes drinking and gambling. Clymo responded by evoking Dorothea the child and caregiver. [6], In 1978, Gray was charged and convicted of illegally cashing thirty-four state and federal checks that belonged to her tenants. Puente ran a boarding house out of a two-story Victorian home on F Street for years . Her father died of tuberculosis when Puente was eight while her mother, an alcoholic, routinely abused her children and died in a motorcycle accident a year later. Although their marriage lasted over ten years, most accounts agree that it was an unhappy and violent relationship. She would later kill them by poisoning or strangling them. Her childhood was not an easy one her mother was an abusive alcoholic who died when she was 10 and her father died when she was 8, Sactown Magazine reported in 2008. Serial Killers and Female Criminals claims that Puente "realized that there was an untapped population of alcoholics, senior citizens, and chronically ill people who were in need of care and, more importantly, [] received government money." Her business parter, a 61-year-old woman named Ruth Monroe, died suddenly in 1982, shortly before Puentewas arrested for drugging herthree elderly patients. In 1993, after several days of deliberations and a deadlocked jury (due in part to her grandmotherly disposition), Dorothea Puente was ultimately convicted of three murders and received back-to-back life sentences. 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. 'She Was Just Pure Evil': How Dorothea Puente, 'The Death House Landlady,' Got Caught. After she was released, he moved to be with her, The Los Angeles Times reported. However, "it's unlikely Dorothea received any psychological counseling," and there's no record of a clear diagnosis from the facility. Stone, Michael H., M.D. Johansson wasn't pleased to find this out when he returned, so they would frequently argue as a result, often about Puente's gambling and drinking as well. Grandson of killer granny Dorothea Puente, who laced cakes with sleeping pills and then smothered them at her California boarding house, reveals how he shared a 'real connection' with her and . She took in vulnerable elderly tenants, many of whom struggled with addiction or mental illness, and targeted those "without strong social networks. Grandson of killer granny Dorothea Puente, who laced cakes with sleeping pills and then smothered them at her California boarding house, reveals how he shared a 'real connection' with her and. Six months after her release, she left Riverside. Puente eventually died of natural causes at the age of 82 in 2011, The Los Angeles Times reported. 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. After several days of deliberations, the jury was deadlocked 75; Judge Michael J. Virga declared a mistrial when the jury said further deliberations would not change their minds. What followed was a string of marriagesand criminal convictions. Afterward, she gave Gillmouth's red pickup truck to Ismael Florez, a carpenter she'd hired, and got him to unknowingly dispose of Gillmouth's body in a river. She was released early in 1990, but not before a state psychiatrist evaluated her and diagnosedher with schizophrenia. Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more! The boarding house made infamous by Dorothea Puentes murders. She created a fake persona, calling herself "Teya Singoalla Neyaarda", a Muslim woman of Egyptian and Israeli descent. Throughout the trial, Puente was portrayed as either a sweet grandma-like type or a manipulative criminal who preyed on the weak. She also suffered a miscarriage. I made them change their clothes every day, take a bath every day and eat three meals a day When they came to me, they were so sick, they werent expected to live.. Despite the guilty verdict of her trial, she maintained her innocence until her death. She gave birth to a child in 1946 and another one in 1947, but motherhood didn't seem to interest Puente. They had a turbulent marriage; Gray took advantage of Johansson's frequent trips to sea by inviting men to their home and gambling away his money. She changed her public image to that of a respectable older matron by putting on vintage clothing, wearing large granny glasses, and letting her hair turn gray. Trial began in October 1992 and ended a year later. 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. Charged with a total of nine murders, Puente was flown back to Sacramento. Despite the fact that parole officers visited Dorothea Puente's boarding house numerous times and were aware of the stipulation that she stay away from elderly people and not handle government checks, nothing ever happened. She eventually opened an unlicensed boarding house that she operated throughout the '70s, catering to disabled, elderly, and homeless people. Although Monroe's family told the district attorney of their suspicions, the DA decided that since the death looked like a suicide and Puente was already jailed, there was no point in pursuing a conviction. She never said anything. She maintained her innocence until her death. A well-researched play by Mark Loewenstern entitled "Dorothea Puente Tells All!" Puente passed away in 2011 from natural causes at the Central California Facility in Chowchilla, aged 82. But, the next day, as the police started digging up other areas of the garden, she asked permission to go and meet her nephew for a coffee to calm her nerves. We've received your submission. Seven bodies were discovered, belonging to Bert Montoya, Leona Carpenter, Dorothy Miller, Benjamin Fink, James Gallop, Vera Faye Martin, and Betty Palmer. She immediately began doing both of those things." Puente was accused of murdering nine people between 1982 and 1988 and cashing their government support checks. Miller was an Army veteran and Puente used Miller's veteran identification card to get medical treatment. The Los Angeles Review of Bookswrites that "Puente was released in 1985, under the terms of parole that she not handle other people's social security checks or work with the elderly. [6], Following her divorce, Gray focused on running a boarding house located at 21st and F streets in Sacramento. Theyd gotten so close that Puente had even told her children to Call me Grandma. Season 1 Episode 2 - Videos. She asked Florez to build a 6-by-3-by-2-foot box to store "books and other items". After her conviction, Dorothea Puente started working as an in-home caregiver, and over the next four years, shekept coming up on people's radar. An officer visited the home and spoke with Puente as well as a tenant while in Puente's presence. After leaving Roberto, Puente married Pedro Angel Montalvo, but the marriage only lasted a week. When the police arrived, Puente told them that Monroe had been depressed due to her husbands terminal illness. In the documentary, police say: This could be my grandma, she was the little old lady next door. Shed also been linked to another two previous deaths that were now seen as too similar to ignore. She had vanished, according to "Murders At The Boarding House.". Once there, Puente drugged him. Some of the bodies were mummified in cloth, bed sheets and duct tape. The founder of MurderAuction - an auction house for serial killer memorabilia - Harder's macabre obsessions have also seen him befriend the likes of Charles Manson and Richard Ramirez. It wasn't the first tip authorities had gotten about Puente, either. When Puente offered to perform a sex act on an undercover cop at a house of ill-repute, her husband sent her to a psychiatric ward. She had a traumatic childhood after being raised by alcoholic parents. She was released just three years later, although a state psychologist diagnosed her as a schizophrenic with no remorse or regret who should be closely monitored.. But unfortunately, "living on the fringes, in and out of police custody for heroin and [sex work], Brenda wasn't taken seriously.". By the time the marriage ended, Puente claimed that the business had amassed a debt of $10,000. She was given five years of probation, which included the stipulation that she was forbidden from running a boarding house. On New Years Day, a fisherman spotted the box, noticed that it looked suspiciously like a coffin, and informed the police. Victims . Preview. It was too late for them to arrest Puente, though. [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. Dorothea Puente, the Sacramento Victorian boarding house Landlady where police found seven bodies buried in her yard. She was given five years probation and ordered to pay $4,000 in restitution. After burying the victims on her property, she then cashed in on the victims' social security checks. She and Gillmouth moved into 1426 F Street, where Puente opened up a boarding house again. Puente did her best to keep herself busy day-to-day, often getting up at 4:30 a.m. to carry out chores in her cell like gathering dirty clothing to wash. She had access to books and TV and was a . The following year, she died in a motorcycle accident. 'Executing Puente would be like executing your grandmother', one juror is reported to have said in response to the death sentence looming over the defendant at the time. There, Puente was described as having an unstable personality, and she was prescribed an antipsychotic for the first time. The 1991 film Evil Spirits, starring Karen Black and Arte Johnson, is loosely based on the Puente murders. I am led to believe if there is any reason for us to be living here on this Earth, it is to somehow enhance one another's humanity, to love, to touch each other with kindness, to know that you have made just one person breathe easier because you have lived. She got in serious trouble for the first time in her life after bouncing a check in San Bernadino and spent four months in jail. The marriage only lasted two years. First, she hung up fake medical diplomas and sat in on checkups with residents. Puente had Chief dig in the basement and cart soil and rubbish away in a wheelbarrow. "This woman is a disturbed woman who does not appear to have remorse or regret for what she has done," he said, according to Sactown Magazine. Sacramento, California, serial killer Dorothea Puente. Puente was born Dorothea Helen Gray on January 9, 1929. At the time, the basement floor was covered with a concrete slab. Dorothea Puente right before she fled Sacramento. Dorothea often took in the elderly and homeless and placed them as her tenants. Here's what you need to know about Dorothea Puente, the subject of the new two-partOxygenspecial "Murders At The Boarding House," airing on Saturday, April 17 and Sunday, April 18 at 7/6c on Oxygen. However, according to the Los Angeles Times, there are conflicting reports about Puente's early life, with some accounts claiming that she was one out of 18 children. It wasn't until Alvaro "Bert" Montoya disappeared that Dorothea Puente's house of death was finally addressed. In the 1980s, she ran a boarding house in Sacramento, California, and murdered various elderly and mentally disabled boarders before cashing their Social Security checks. About her Disappearance California Facility in Chowchilla, aged 82 suspiciously like a sweet grandmother but looks be. 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