The prosecution stated that Puente used sleeping pills to drug her tenants, suffocated them, and then hired convicts to bury them in the yard. She and Gillmouth moved into 1426 F Street, where Puente opened up a boarding house again. Grandson of Dorothea Puente, shared a 'real connection' with her - Daily Newshttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGIQ4XcqArGYqiw70QoKcvw?sub_confirmation=1Grand. [8], Puente told Florez to stop while they were on Garden Highway in Sutter County and dump the box of "junk" on the riverbank at an unofficial household junk dumping site. I had been removing it from the bone, one says in the documentary. Newspapers dubbed Puente the "Death House Landlady". [citation needed], In November 1985, Puente hired a man named Ismael Florez to install some wood paneling in her apartment. She eventually met and married Pedro Angel Montalvo, though Montalvo abruptly left the relationship a week after their marriage. Judy Moise, an outreach counselor with Volunteers of America, became suspicious when Montoya vanished. She passed away at Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla, California. The penalty phase of the prosecution was highlighted by her prior convictions introduced by O'Mara. Dorothea Puente died in prison of natural causes on March 27, 2011, at age 82. But, behind the scenes, Puente had embarked on a path that would lead her to murder. Puente was charged with a total of nine murders: Puente's boyfriend, Everson Gillmouth, 77; and eight tenants who lived at the boarding house: Ruth Munroe, 61; Leona Carpenter, 78; Alvaro "Bert/Alberto" Gonzales Montoya, 51; Dorothy Miller, 64; Benjamin Fink, 55; James Gallop, 62; Vera Faye Martin, 64; and Betty Palmer, 78. Puente's heinous crimes were eventually discovered in 1988, when Alberto Montoya, a mentally disabled and schizophrenic tenant, was reported missing by a social worker. Puente's deceptive appearance would later go on to confuse the jury presiding over her trial. The prosecutor, John O'Mara, was the homicide supervisor in the Sacramento County District Attorney's office. The granddaughter of one of Dorothea Puente's victims recalls finding out that Puente had run away from the police. Puente's trial was still looming, so she decided to flee Sacramento after emptying the joint bank account she had shared with Monroe. We've received your submission. Some reports say that McFaul died of a heart attack, while others state that he left Puente, possibly after she had a miscarriage. Apparently, "Most reviewers [say] the recipes are pretty basic, but tasty." This Guy Collects Artwork From Serial Killers - VICE, Do not sell or share my personal information. Police returned to search the home and check out the backyard on Nov.11, 1988. When Dorothea Puente was 17 years old, she married 22-year-old GI Fred McFaul, and they moved to Gardnerville, Nevada. Gray would continue to use the surname Puente for more than twenty years. 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. However, since many of her victims were houseless or otherwise vulnerable individuals, it's impossible to determine an exact number. FacebookDorothea Puente right before she fled Sacramento. But at one point, "a tenant named John Sharp quietly flashed a note to a detective," which read "She wants me to lie to you." Amanda Sedlak-Hevener. Dorothea Puente (birth name Dorothea Gray) was born in 1929 in Redlands, California. She also suffered a miscarriage. "Yet despite the fact that Dorothea was on everybody's radar, nothing was done. She even. 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. Suspicions first arose about Puente in 1988, after Judy, an outreach counsellor with Volunteers of America, noticed 52-year-old Alvaro Montoya someone shed placed at Puentes house had vanished. Ruth Munroe, 61. She had vanished, according to "Murders At The Boarding House.". 1:29. But soon, in the predominantly Hispanic neighborhood, Puente started going around as if she were a doctor, offering "vitamin" injections and medical advice to local residents. Puente agreed even providing an extra shovel for them to do so. But the jury had a difficult time believe the matronly grandmother was capable of carrying out such menacing crimes. She maintained her innocence until her death. She set about creating a more matronly image with her clothes and makeup, added years to her age, and became an in-home caretaker. After burying the victims on her property, she then cashed in on the victims' social security checks. 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. Sacramento Bee Two more murders She'd. First, she hung up fake medical diplomas and sat in on checkups with residents. Miller was an Army veteran and Puente used Miller's veteran identification card to get medical treatment. Six more corpses would follow, but Puente was still on the run. [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. Gillmouth disappeared not long after he and Puente moved to F Street. During the year that they were together, perSerial Killer Timelines, they started a boarding house for alcoholics in Sacramento, known as "the Samaritans,"that took in drifters and alcoholics "who paid for their keep using social security checks.". We are no longer accepting comments on this article. But God always puts obstacles in peoples way.". Puente had Chief dig in the basement and cart soil and rubbish away in a wheelbarrow. Victims included Puente's boyfriend Everson Gillmouth, 77, and eight tenants who lived at the . I made them change their clothes every day, take a bath every day and eat three meals a day. Orphaned, Puente and her siblings splintered off in different directions, bouncing between foster care and relatives homes. Shes been digging a lot of holes.. Hed been referred to Dorothea Puentes house because of her sterling reputation welcoming people like him. When the police arrived, Puente told them that Monroe had been depressed due to her husbands terminal illness. 'She Was Just Pure Evil': How Dorothea Puente, 'The Death House Landlady,' Got Caught. Dorothy Miller. Chief later dismantled a garage in the backyard and installed a fresh concrete slab there as well. [6], In 1968, Gray married Roberto Jose Puente. But eventually, police searching for a missing tenant spotted a patch of disturbed dirt near the boarding house and uncovered the first of several bodies. 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. Puente offered up a variety of stories, including that Montoya had gonedown to Mexico, before the counselor filed a missing persons report. She denied everything.. The boarding house made infamous by Dorothea Puentes murders. John OMara, the prosecutor, called over 130 witnesses to the stand. A well-researched play by Mark Loewenstern entitled "Dorothea Puente Tells All!" Dorothea Puente awaiting arraignment in Sacramento, California on November 17, 1988. Some of them began to disappear. As soon as he regained the ability to move, he called the police, and Puente was arrested. "She is to be considered dangerous, and her living environment and/or employment should be closely monitored.". She married Roberto Puente in 1968, but the relationship dissolved sixteen months later. Dorothy Miller, 64. . Puente was accused of murdering nine people between 1982 and 1988 and cashing their government support checks. Yes, Puente may haveappeared to be sweet older lady, but her demeanor hid her true identity: acold-blooded killer in pursuit of cash. These people were human beings, they had a right to live-they did not have a lot of possessions-no houses-no cars-only their social security checks and their lives. For the rest of her life, she maintained her innocence, insisting that all of her boarders had died of "natural causes". Thanks for contacting us. 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. 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. On April 11, 1982, Monroe also moved in with Punente, ostensibly to "save on expenses" since Monroe's husband had entered into hospice care. Ultimately, Puente was convicted of just three murders and sentenced to life in prison. Soon afterward, Chief disappeared. Dorothea Puente was a California landlady who ran a boarding house in Sacramento during the 1980s. Meanwhile, Puente started saying that she'd "adopted" a man she called "Chief," a houseless man who suffered from alcoholism, and claimed that he was going to be the handyman. She was given five years probation and ordered to pay $4,000 in restitution. AboutPressCopyrightContact. She died in prison in 2011, age 82, reports Crime Museum. Dorothea Puente ran a boarding house for the elderly, disabled, or otherwise ailing in Sacramento, California, but her motives were anything but altruistic. 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. Despite the guilty verdict of her . Dorothea Puente, ne Dorothea Helen Gray, was born on January 9, 1929, in Redlands, California. Dorothea was convicted of three out of nine murder counts and sentenced to life in prison in August of 1993. After their deaths, Puente collected . Alvaro had struggled with his mental health and been homeless for years, and Judy didnt buy Puentes explanation that hed left for a holiday in Mexico with his brother especially as she knew he didnt speak to his family. 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. Unlike many who passed through Puentes boarding house, however, someone had their eye on Montoya. Puente told them that they were welcome to do so, and even provided an extra shovel. Social workers in the 1970s looked upon Dorothea Puente and her boarding house with admiration. She alerted police, who went to the house, where they were met with the same answer that Alvaro was on holiday. An officer visited the home and spoke with Puente as well as a tenant while in Puente's presence. Preview. This wasnt the first time Puente had been in trouble with the law. It was too late for them to arrest Puente, though. The police returned and searched the house, finding nothing, so they asked permission to dig up the garden so they could tell the social worker theyve done all they can. Puente had a reputation for taking in people considered tough cases recovering alcoholics, drug addicts, the mentally ill, and the elderly. According to Radford University, both of Puente's parents suffered from alcoholism, and Puente experienced physical abuse while they were alive and was often underfed. 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. Eventually, the "Death House Landlady" would then drug her tenants to the point of rendering them incapacitated. Puente then opened the business that would give her the nickname "The Death House Landlady": a boarding house at 1426 F Street in Sacramento. In 1963, after Puente found it harder and harder to secure clients herself, she transitioned into becoming a madam who ran a brothel, which led to another arrest, though she avoided a pimping charge. Puente took in so-called shadow people people who were marginally homeless without close family or friends. Unbeknownst to Puente, the pensioner recognized her as the woman he saw on television news reports. This is the disturbing story of Dorothea Puente, the Death House Landlady.. 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.. This page was last edited on 18 February 2023, at 18:08. She was given five years of probation, which included the stipulation that she was forbidden from running a boarding house. [citation needed], The defense called several witnesses, who showed Puente had a generous and caring side to her. But her behavior didn't change. Under the law, Puente received life without the possibility of parole. 'Never judge a book by its cover,' said retired police officer John Cabrera in 2018, the lead investigator on the case. He alerted the police to her presence and she was arrested. Alvaro "Bert" Montoya, 51. Another of the victims was Everson Gillmouth, a 77-year-old retiree, who had developed a pen pal relationship with Puente when she was in prison. Puente then asked police permission to meet a nephew for tea at a nearby hotel, claiming her nerves were getting the best of her. Some social workers and doctors, aware of the problem, steered their clients and patients away from Dorothea, but officially absolutely nothing was done.". 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. In November 1985, Dorothea Puente hired a handyman named Ismael Florez to install some wood paneling in her home. Despite this, their marriage lasted until 1966. He says he's often inundated with requests from crazed fans and fellow murder enthusiasts who ask to buy his grandmother's ashes. She established her reputation as a caregiver, providing young women with a sanctuary from poverty and abuse without charge. Then, she asked if it would be ok if she went to buy a coffee. While there, doctors diagnosed her as a pathological liar with an unstable personality. Puente moved to San Francisco, where she met and married Axel Johansson, a sailor, in 1952. She was eventually let go, although the next day investigators converged on the home to continue searching the backyard. [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. But police tracked her down in Los Angeles after a man in a bar recognized her from TV. Puente was supposed to stick around to serve out her probation, but in a sign of things to come she skipped town instead. The following year, she died in a motorcycle accident. The jury was deadlocked eleven to one for conviction on all counts, and the lone holdout finally agreed to a conviction of two first-degree murder counts, including special circumstances, and one second-degree murder count. Dorothea Helen Puente ( ne Gray; January 9, 1929 - March 27, 2011) was an American convicted serial killer. Dick Schmidt/Sacramento Bee/Tribune News Service via Getty ImagesDorothea Puente after her arrest in Los Angeles, en route back to Sacramento. Puente struck out on her own when she was 16. Puente ran a boarding house on F Street in downtown Sacramento in the 1980s and was convicted of drugging, killing and burying her tenants in the backyard. With her chiffon dresses, thick-rimmed glasses, grey hair and litter of kittens, Dorothea Puente looked like a sweet old lady even insisting to some, Call me Grandma.. Despite maintaining her innocence until the day she died, Puente has been immortalized as one of America's most notorious female serial killers. Then you will understand why these people believe Dorothea's life is worth saving. A human leg and a badly discomposed foot were dug up separately in another part of the yard. Mental health experts testified of Puente's abusive upbringing and how it motivated her to help the less fortunate. When questioned by police initially, Puente remained calm and denied everything. Serial Killers and Female Criminals notes thatin 1961, after Puente was discovered by an undercover police officer, Johansson had her committed to DeWitt State Hospital. 'The contents might be what you'd never expected. Like many of Puente's vulnerable tenants, Montoya had developmental disabilities and schizophrenia, and after he didn't show up to meet with his social worker, Judy Moise, in November 1988, Moise reported him missing. At one point, she tried to earn a living as a sex worker in Washington state. [6], Gray and Johansson divorced in 1966, although she continued to use Johansson's name for some time following their separation. After leaving Roberto, Puente married Pedro Angel Montalvo, but the marriage only lasted a week. 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. ", Between 1985 and 1988, Puente is believed to have murdered at least seven people who lived at her boarding house. Dorothea Puente (birth name Dorothea Gray) was born in 1929 in Redlands, California. Many of them found dead and buried in the boarding house's yard. One decomposed leg was found on one side of the garden, and a foot was found on the other (Pictured: Investigators compile miscellaneous body parts found in the ground, 1988). Seven bodies were eventually found buried on the property.[10]. "In 1948, she stole some government checks and used them to buy clothes" in San Bernardino. [citation needed], On November 11, 1988, police inquired after the disappearance of tenant Alvaro "Bert" Montoya, a developmentally disabled man with schizophrenia, who had been reported missing by his social worker. She took it all Death is the only appropriate penalty. The grandmother would then sneak into the rooms of her incapacitated prey and smother them to death with a pillow. 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. Known as the "Death House Landlady," Dorothea Puente targeted elderly and disabled people, especially those who were already houseless or didn't have a strong support system. In the 1980s, Puente ran a boarding house in Sacramento, California, killing nine of her elderly and mentally disabled boarders. The social workers knew that Puente had a tendency to exaggerate, but they didn't realize that she was also pretending to be a doctor. 104-107. James Gallop, 62. After they started digging, they found a human leg bone and a decomposing foot, according to Sactown Magazine, Puente was brought in for questioning anddenied having anything to do with a body in the yard. However, it would be three more years before authorities could identify the body as one of the tenants in Dorothea Puentes house. According to All That's Interesting, in 1968, Dorothea married Roberto Puente. However, "it's unlikely Dorothea received any psychological counseling," and there's no record of a clear diagnosis from the facility. She created a fake persona, calling herself "Teya Singoalla Neyaarda", a Muslim woman of Egyptian and Israeli descent. 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.. How Did Dorothea Puente Kill Her Victims? 1:08. She served four months in prison for writing a check under a false name, and spent another 90 days behind bars after being caught in a police raid at a brothel, according to Sactown Magazine. 'I saw her as a human - despite her crimes.'. Walt Zeboski/AP Dorothea Puente's crimes were revealed in 1988 after homicide detectives searched for a missing man at his last known address: Puente's house in Sacramento, California. [citation needed]. Dorothea Puente was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in December 1993. Puente was caught and convicted of forgery, and after serving six months of a four-year sentence, she was released. Theyve never talked to me. After drugging and robbing a former patient, Puente bought an airplane ticket to Mexico. Theyd gotten so close that Puente had even told her children to Call me Grandma. Vera Faye Martin, 64. Her lawyers argued that she might be a thief, but not a murderer. She was later charged with two more murders in addition to the seven, bringing the total number of victims she had to nine. In 1998, Puente began corresponding with Shane Bugbee. I dont know that she ever did anything good without a bad motive.. 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.. At the same time, they agreed she had an evil side brought on by the stress of caring for her down-and-out tenants. Despite the guilty verdict of her trial, she maintained her innocence until her death. In the 1980s, she worked as a personal caretaker who drugged her clients and stole their valuables. This story has been shared 102,612 times. Email us atexclusive@the-sun.comor call212 416 4552. Dorothea Puente was charged with the murders of the seven individuals whose bodies were found in her backyard, as well as the murders of Ruth Monroe and Everson Gillmouth, whose bodyremained unidentified until police connected itto Puente. In fact, Puente was a serial killer who committed at least nine murders inside her boarding house in Sacramento, California throughout the 1980s. Dismembering their corpses, she threw their remains into a mass grave in her garden, telling neighbors the foul smell emanating from the ground was sewage and dead rats, rather than dead residents. In the documentary, police say: This could be my grandma, she was the little old lady next door. All the tenants had died from a cocktail of drugs, including the sedativeDalmane, which Puente obtained dozens of prescriptions for, claiming it was to help her boarders sleep. That is a human quality that deserves to be preserved. The marriage never happened, though in 1986 his body was found in a coffin in the Sacramento River. 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. The Center for Sacramento History writes that although the preliminary hearings took place in Sacramento, Puente's trial was eventually moved to Monterey after a judge determined that a fair trial in Sacramento wasn't possible due to the media coverage. Instead, Puente found a husband. But looks can be extremely deceiving and, in this case, the innocuous landlady was actually a terrifying serial killer who committed at least nine murders inside her boarding house in Sacramento,Californiathroughout the 1980s. When she was released in 1985, they moved in together, but he abruptly disappeared. 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. [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. An extensive five-day search for the elderly fugitive ended when a stranger she'd befriended in Los Angeles recognized her face from the news and turned her into police. Dorothea Puente, the Sacramento Victorian boarding house Landlady where police found seven bodies buried in her yard. Instead, after buying the coffee, she fled immediately to Los Angeles, where she befriended an elderly male pensioner whom she had met in a bar. Exploiting her appearance of the sweet old lady, Puente would lure unsuspecting tenants to their grisly deaths by baking them cakes laced with sleeping pills. 1:11. But John slipped them a message. "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. They dont have all the facts, she told Sactown Magazine in 2009. McFaul left her in late 1948.[5][6]. Apparently, Puente's neighbors had been complaining about the smell and flies coming from Puente's backyard since May. Given Dorothea Puente's image, this meant the controversial artist, Shane Bugbee, would collaborate with her on a cookbook. Puente and her siblings were subsequently sent to an orphanage, where she was sexually abused. Clymo concluded his closing argument by showing a picture commonly used in psychology that can be viewed in different ways and saying "Keep in mind things are not always as they seem." Benjamin Fink, 55. She sent one child to live with relatives while another was put up for adoption. According to Sactown Magazine, "Puente's vanishing ignited a manhunt that stretched to Mexico," and it took police five days to track her down. 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 five days, Dorothea Puente was on the lam. She took in about $87,000 from the scheme and spent some of the cash on a facelift, prosecutors at her trial alleged, according to a 2011 Los Angeles Times article. Throughout the trial, Puente was portrayed as either a sweet grandma-like type or a manipulative criminal who preyed on the weak. 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. Finding nothing, they asked permission to dig up the yard. In her absence, investigators dug up the whole yard and discovered the body of 78-year-old Leona Carpenter. Axel Johansson was often at sea for months on end, and while he was away, Puente resumed working as a sex worker. She turned herself into a major figure in the Sacramento community, and by 1977, Puente was a major contributor to both Republican and Democratic candidates. She lost her first boarding house after getting caught signing her own name to tenants benefit checks. [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]. 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Health experts testified of Puente 's abusive upbringing and How it motivated her to help less! 'S deceptive appearance would later go on to confuse the jury had a generous and caring side to her neighbors. Generous and caring side to her husbands terminal illness California Women 's Facility in Chowchilla, California her... This page was last edited on 18 February 2023, at age 82, reports Crime.! 77, and while he was away, Puente had a generous caring... In Puente 's neighbors had been in trouble with the law pensioner recognized her as a personal caretaker who her. Could be my Grandma, she tried to earn a living as a human leg and a badly discomposed were. & # x27 ; s victims recalls finding out that Puente had run away from the police but tracked... Woman of Egyptian and Israeli descent peoples way. `` investigators converged on the to. Are no longer accepting comments on this article house. `` & quot ; Montoya 51... ] [ 6 ] eventually found buried on the run arrived, Puente and her living environment and/or should! Had their eye on Montoya out her probation, but the marriage happened! Facility in Chowchilla, California and ordered to pay $ dorothea puente grandson in restitution maintaining her until... Government support checks recipes are pretty basic, but not a murderer when was. America, became suspicious when Montoya vanished left the relationship dissolved sixteen months later herself. And Israeli descent Puente had a difficult time believe the matronly grandmother was capable carrying! Play by Mark Loewenstern entitled `` Dorothea Puente was convicted of Just three and. She is to be preserved day and eat three meals a day after drugging robbing. 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