Her statement hangs between us. Owen Brewer/Sacramento Bee/Tribune News Service via Getty ImagesDorothea Puente awaiting arraignment in Sacramento, California on November 17, 1988. At the time, the basement floor was covered with a concrete slab. Ive given up hope of getting out, she says. First off, I was getting the checks. This 'sweet little granny' was actually a psychotic serial killer She parlayed its success by pumping money into political campaigns and charitable causes, contributions that bought her the appearance of legitimacy and access to elite circles. She came on a little hard, what with her questions about his Social Security benefits and abrupt suggestion that they consider living together. She killed her husband after he abused her and her kids. A Latino woman with shoulder-length dark hair passes our table and whispers hello to Miss Dorothea. As jury foreman Mike Esplin recalls, the man simply said, Thats all Im going to give. Puentes composure cracked after the last verdict was read. Cabrera, lead detective on the Puente case, stands with the shovel that she lent to law officers to dig in her backyard on Nov. 11, 1988. No, Dorothea Puente is no longer alive as of 2022 as she died on March 27th, 2011. FacebookDorothea Puente right before she fled Sacramento. As most serial killers, Dorothea had a rough childhood. She recalls the future president and his first wife, Jane Wyman, as her good friends. When I mention the Gippers second wife, she frowns. During their initial meeting, he encountered a woman of utter ordinariness, one far removed from the media caricature that depicted her as the embodiment of evil. The first episode centers around one of the worst of all: Dorothea Puente, a Sacramento, California woman who has been dubbed Sacramento's most notorious murderer. Dorothea Puente - Wikipedia The union lasted just two years. Im certain they were just dying of natural causes, and she started burying them so she could keep the checks coming. Season 1 Episode 2 - Videos 1:11 Preview Dorothea Puente Runs From Police Now Playing Preview Granddaughter of Dorothea Puente Victim Talks About Her Disappearance She gave birth to a daughter in 1946 followed by a second less than a year later, but public documents suggest she inherited her mothers aversion to childrearing. She marks much of the day reading mind-candy fictionshes a fan of John Grisham and Dan Brownand watching TV; her favorite prime-time shows include CSI, Criminal Minds and Cold Case. People were always coming and going. The psychiatrist diagnosed Puente as suffering from antisocial personality disorder, a condition marked by deceit and manipulation of others without remorse. I talk about the foggy drive to the prison, she recounts her trip to the visitors hall. She watched from her porch, and before Cabrera put spade to soil, she requested a moment of his time. (Courtesy of The Sacramento Bee/Genaro Molina). So we knew wed have an uphill battle in convincing the jurors that all of those were accidental deaths.. Watch Granddaughter of Dorothea Puente Victim Talks About Her I think they needed somebody and I was the easiest one around., Yet the most illuminating aspect of talking with Puente in prison arises from her silence about the dead. Our visit winds down. On subjects unrelated to her misdeeds, she will open up, weaving anecdotes that are sometimes embroidered, sometimes made from whole cloth. Puente watched the images flicker across the TV screen in her Los Angeles motel room. Dorothea Helen Gray met the world on Jan. 9, 1929, in Redlands, Calif., the sixth of seven children born to Jesse James Gray and Trudie Gray. Gawkers gather outside 1426 F St. (Courtesy of The Sacramento Archives), Domestic bliss and her maternal instinct failed to take root. Look at Job, John, Paul, Moses. Newspapers dubbed Puente the "Death House Landlady". Some play Scrabble, Sorry! Seven bodies were eventually found buried on the property.[10]. But in the 1980s, their residence was a boarding house owned by Dorothea Puente, who killed her elderly and disabled tenants to steal their Social Security checks. [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. They dont have all the facts, she tells me one morning, dismissing those who judge her a murderer. Some lauded the tireless advocate whose charitable work benefited the Hispanic community. McFaul split from his young wife in 1948. When police arrived at 1426 F Street in Sacramento, they noticed some disturbed soil in a vegetable patch, but not thinking Puente to be a suspect they allowed the grandmother to flee the scene, In her absence, the officers dug-up the entire garden (left) where they discovered seven bodies. When she was eight her father died of tuberculosis. A contrary perception derived from Puentes strong ties to Hispanic residents living in downtown and midtown. Then you will understand why these people believe Dorothea's life is worth saving. The silence here feels powerful enough to swallow space. Her escape intensified interest in a lurid tale that for a time made Sacramento the center of the media universe. Puente passed away in 2011 from natural causes at the Central California Facility in Chowchilla, aged 82. Do not sell or share my personal information. 4. Moise alerted police, who went to the boarding house. The next day, under suspicion but not yet under arrest, Puente, then 59 and ostensibly the essence of grandmotherly virtue, fled the city. It is a wistfulness that lays bare the depth of chaos that defined Puentes status quo long before they married in 1952. In effect, every cell has a waiting list.) Dorothea Puente at the Central California Womens Facility, February 21, 2009 (Courtesy of Central California Womens Facility). One-time hitman Julio Santana (right) stopped counting after he reached 492 kills. But while digging a second hole, Wilson heard a muted thud as his blade struck something hard three feet down. [6], In April 1982, 53-year-old Ruth Munroe began living with Puente in her upstairs apartment, but soon died from an overdose of codeine and acetaminophen. In April of 1982, a 61-year-old woman named Ruth Monroe moved into Dorothea Puentes house. They appealed to authorities to reexamine their mothers death, a probe that ended with investigators upholding the suicide ruling. On her way back, she insisted to reporters that she hadnt killed anyone, claiming: I used to be a very good person at one time.. The total included a man she had met after her release from prison in 1985 whose body turned up the following year in a wood box next to the Sacramento River; Ruth Munroe, her former business partner; and the seven boarders found in her yard, among them Montoya, whom police speculated may have been unwittingly recruited by Puente to carry wrapped-up bodies out of the house, then perhaps learned the truth and paid with his life. [19] It was then the subject of the 2015 documentary short The House Is Innocent and was again opened to tours for one day in conjunction with a local film festival's showing of the film.[20]. The serial killer shuffles into the room with a chickens hitched gait. (AP Photo/Walt Zeboski). The only time they were in good health was when they stayed at my home. Authorities alleged that, by poisoning her boarders, she wanted to collect their benefits checks without risk of them notifying social workers or police. Dorothea followed up the drugging by carrying out the . Inside Dorothea Puente's Tragic Childhood - Grunge An Asian woman in her mid-thirties, with sharp cheekbones framed by long glossy black hair, wears standard-issue prisoner garb: white T-shirt with long navy blue sleeves, dungarees and blue sneakers. Puente arrived at the Central California Womens Facility following her conviction in 1993, and her appeals expired early last year. Her goodwill earned her the honorific title la doctora and flattering write-ups in local Spanish publications. Federal probation officers visited her numerous times in the next two years without suspecting she ran a business, lulled by her kindly facade and clean home as much as by her lies that those staying at the house were friends or guests. When she was eight her father died of tuberculosis. But volatility seemed to follow Puente wherever she went and the new couple argued frequently about Puentes drinking and gambling. [citation needed]. Dorothea Puente, also known as the Death House Landlady, was a little-old-lady serial killer who preyed on the elderly and drug-addicted men and women of Sacramento, CA in the 1980s. Given Montoyas history as a transient, his disappearance would have escaped notice without the persistence of Judy Moise. A state psychologist who evaluated Puente before her release from prison in 1985 diagnosed her as schizophrenic. Dorothea Puente awaiting arraignment in Sacramento, California on November 17, 1988. With Jeff Rechner, Joelle Uzyel, Mikel Welch. The 1991 film Evil Spirits, starring Karen Black and Arte Johnson, is loosely based on the Puente murders. To reduce chest pain, she wears a nitroglycerin skin patch. She told me Dorothea had given it to her to help calm her down, says the 55-year-old Clausen, who runs a furniture upholstery shop in South Land Park. She also mentions undergoing major cancer surgery in 1961 to remove her reproductive organs and part of her intestines and stomach. The Bogle Family's winemaking story begins in 1968 when Warren V. Bogle wanted to try a new crop and planted potatoes on their farm just south of Clarksburg. Drugs Puente used to knock . She had breached her federal probation by running a boardinghouse, yet admitted to the offense when asked. At the time, she owned a solid reputation among Sacramentos social workers, who referred clients to her that other boardinghouses turned away: the mentally ill, recovering alcoholics and drug addicts, those with chronic physical maladies who had no one to care for them. While there, doctors diagnosed her as a pathological liar with an unstable personality. A woman known as Dorothea Puente runs a boarding house for those less fortunate, but her seeming benevolence belies motives that are much darker. Cooking what I want. 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. In late 1981, his mother, Ruth Munroe, went into business with Puente, leasing and running the restaurant side of the Round Corner Tavern in midtown. She wound up serving four months in jail and shortly afterward fled Riverside County, flouting the terms of her probation. I know her only through the words of others. La historia de Dorothea Puente: la dulce abuela que mataba - Clarn Its about a mile from my building to here, she says. 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. Six months after her release, she left Riverside. Heres this grandmotherly figure in this beautiful, restored Victorian house with all these azaleas and other flowers, OMara says. 104-107. [citation needed], Granting a change of venue motion filed by Puente's lawyers, Kevin Clymo and Peter Vlautin III, a judge transferred the trial to Monterey County. New Netflix docuseries to feature Sacramento serial killer Dorothea Puente The wanted bulletin for Dorothea Puente. It was too humiliating, too shameful for her to admit responsibility for these crimes. She asked Florez to build a 6-by-3-by-2-foot box to store "books and other items". [6], Gray was arrested in 1960 for owning and operating a bookkeeping firm as a front for a brothel in Sacramento;[5] she was found guilty and was sentenced to ninety days in the Sacramento County Jail. Cooking with a Serial Killer Recipes from Dorothea Puente - Goodreads Puente had stayed poised a day earlier when Cabrera showed up with a fellow homicide detective and a federal probation agent. For someone who insists she worried over the well-being of her tenants, Puente tells me that, after her arrest, she fretted about Sam. A search of the home showed nothing amiss. Puente was found guilty of the murders of 64-year-old Dorothy Miller, 55-year-old Benjamin Fink, and 78-year-old Leona Carpenter. Dorothea Puente House Now - Sound Health and Lasting Wealth I made them change their clothes every day, take a bath every day and eat three meals a day. Dorothea Helen Gray, ms conocida como Dorothea Puente, naci el 9 de enero de 1929 en Redlands (California, Estados Unidos), en el seno de una familia trabajadora. My question about the incident draws an explanation akin to the one Puente gave a county judge nearly a half century earlier: I was there visiting a friend when the cops came. She refuses to elaborate. Dorothea Puente was arrested in 1988 after the dismembered bodies of seven residents were found in the garden of her home in Sacramento, California Being escorted to a police car after her. I have read books and hundreds of news articles and file after file of court records related to her crimes. I ask why the cops targeted her. A couple who braved the stigma of the house's curse purchased the home, fully aware of the history. In the 1980s, Puente ran a boarding house in Sacramento, California, and . 13 and watch the prisons visitors hall gradually fill, my doubts that she will appear grow with the rooms din. Vlautin spoke gently about Puente's childhood touching on the traumatic aspects that shaped her life and urged the jurors to see the world through her eyes. Dorothea Puente, Sacramento's most notorious female serial killer Nonetheless, with decades to mull what she might say about her case, she sounds as unpersuasive now as during her plane ride from Los Angeles. Retired social worker Mildred Ballenger first met Puente in the late 1970s. [1] Puente's total count reached nine murders; she was convicted of three and the jury hung on the other six. Cabreras superiors approved her request, deciding they held insufficient evidence to detain her. Marathon Man 63m Going to church every day. The pensioner contacted local law enforcement who then quickly arrested Puente. Some might interpret that as a kind of confession, I finally say. As the search expanded, cabin fever seized Puente. But before the cop left, Sharp managed to slip him a hand-written note that read, Shes making me lie for her. He later divulged unsettling details about life at the house. Under the law, Puente received life without the possibility of parole. He returned to the house, grabbed a shovel and began to dig. She claims he has sent her Christmas cards in prison, and as she talks about that small act of kindness, her eyes mist over. The serial killer shuffles into the room with a chickens hitched gait. She was incarcerated at Central California Women's Facility (CCWF) in Chowchilla, California. Mental health experts testified of Puente's abusive upbringing and how it motivated her to help the less fortunate. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. Once free of the throng, Cabrera stopped and watched the pair until they entered the hotel. So when I wrote to Puente last summer, nearly 20 years after the discovery of her victims, I had little expectation she would respond, let alone agree to talk. Get Sactown's top stories in your inbox by signing up for our weekly newsletter. We break the ice. Dorothea Puente, ne Dorothea Helen Gray, was born on January 9, 1929, in Redlands, California. My oldest grandson is 15 and wanted to do this attraction. To give strength to other people. She lifts the paper towel to her eyes. In November 1992, the same month jury selection started, she rejected a plea deal that would spare her the death penalty if she pleaded guilty to all nine murders. Puente has told me during previous meetings that her case still attracts worldwide attention, and that she recently spurned interview requests from a British newspaper and an Australian TV station. She responds with a burst of words, scanning the room as she talks. Wearing purple pumps and a long red coat over a pink dress, Puente carries a large maroon purse and pink umbrella, her eyes cast downward to watch her step. I inquire how she juggled the demands of professional golf with her Rockettes career while flying between San Francisco and New York every week. On Nov. 11, 1988, acting on the concerns of a social worker looking for a client who had disappeared, homicide detectives dropped by the mans last known address: a boardinghouse for derelicts and the mentally ill that Puente operated at 1426 F Street, within a mile of the Hall of Justice and the Capitol. Dorothea often took in the elderly and homeless and placed them as her tenants. She would later kill them by poisoning or strangling them. In any case, after more than 20 years behind bars, and despite the withering of her features, she retains a physical vitality and a fondness for cosmetic excess. I am waiting for Dorothea Puente. [7] On August 18, 1982, Puente was convicted of three theft charges and sentenced to five years in prison; there, she began corresponding with Everson Gillmouth, a 77-year-old retiree from Oregon. The home belonged to seemingly sweet Dorothea Puente, who was arrested in 1988 and later convicted as a serial murderer. Her warmth for him appears unrequitedshe hasnt heard from him for awhile nowand reflects rose-tinted nostalgia for a marriage that, despite near constant turmoil, lasted longer than her other three combined. Despite maintaining her innocence until the day she died, Puente has been immortalized as one of America's most notorious female serial killers. He neither explained his motive for capitulating nor discussed why he agreed to convict her of only three killings. To vary her diet, Puente sometimes cooks in her room, making tamales with tortillas, canned chili, cheese and other ingredients bought in the prisons canteen or mail-ordered through a food-delivery service. Puente told police that the woman was very depressed because her husband was terminally ill. Published: 17:09 EST, 21 January 2019 | Updated: 17:42 EST, 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. Theres a waiting list of people who want to be in my room. (This is true in the broadest sense: The prisons population hovers around 4,000 from month to month, roughly double its capacity. Not everybody running them is being nefarious, but nefarious activity can crop up.. By 1982, Puente was sent to prison for her thefts. I started working her, Cabrera says, but all along, she was working me. She donated to Hispanic arts and education programs while providing cheap medical care to her boarders and other patients, falsely claiming she had worked as a nurse in World War II. Genaro Molina/Sacramento Bee/MCT/Getty ImagesThe boarding house made infamous by Dorothea Puentes murders. That is a human quality that deserves to be preserved. Their theory hardened into subjective truth when they discovered that, following the funeral, the nurse had drained thousands of dollars belonging to Munroe from a joint business bank account. Puente had a reputation for taking in people considered tough cases recovering alcoholics, drug addicts, the mentally ill, and the elderly. Today the 59-year-old Cabrera works cold cases for the department as a retired sergeant. Season 1 Episode 2 - Videos 1:11 Preview Dorothea Puente Runs From Police Dorothea Puente was a convicted serial killer who ran a boarding house in Sacramento, California in the 1980s. However, in 1978, she was convicted of illegally cashing state and federal assistance checks that belonged to her tenants. In the narrative of her life that unfurled at her murder trial and in news reports and books about the case, she grew up poor, deprived in equal measure of material comforts and parental nurturing. It wasnt until 1988 that suspicions first arose about Puente, after one of her tenants, 52-year old Alvaro Montoya, went missing. A few wander over to a colorful mural of Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, Tigger and Piglet, who prance beneath a banner reading Family Is Love, Love Is Family. None of the kids acts bothered that mom or grandma or big sister is doing time. She falls silent for a moment. In 1998, Puente began corresponding with Shane Bugbee. Granddaughter of Dorothea Puente Victim Talks About Her Disappearance The granddaughter of one of Dorothea Puente's victims recalls finding out that Puente had run away from the police. '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. A well-researched play by Mark Loewenstern entitled "Dorothea Puente Tells All!" Its like she was watching a movie she wasnt particularly interested in., Jury deliberations commenced in July 1993 and soon stalled. I want to know what stopped her from killing herself. For years, the disappearances of these so-called shadow people who lived at the margins of society went unnoticed. When the police arrived, Puente told them that Monroe had been depressed due to her husbands terminal illness. By 1952, she had wed Johansson, whom she met in San Francisco. She created a fake persona, calling herself "Teya Singoalla Neyaarda", a Muslim woman of Egyptian and Israeli descent. Only after unearthing seven corpses at 1426 F Street in November 1988 would prosecutors charge Puente with killing Munroe.