Dorothea Puente: The Landlady Of Death

Despite her gentle appearance, Dorothy Puente was actually a serial killer who committed a minimum of nine murders in her boarding house in Sacramento, California during the 1980s.

Portraying herself as a compassionate caregiver, Puente managed a boarding house in Sacramento, California, catering to marginalized individuals such as the homeless, elderly, disabled, and mentally ill. While offering them shelter, she embezzled their Social Security and disability benefits and carried out their murders.

Although Puente seemed like a kind elderly woman, her facade concealed her true nature as a ruthless murderer driven by greed. Exploiting her boarding house, she exploited the vulnerable to steal money and administer lethal drugs. Eventually, seven bodies were discovered buried on the property of the "Death House Landlady," leading to accusations of her involvement in the deaths of nine individuals.

Dorothea Puente (birth name Dorothea Gray) was born in 1929 in Redlands, California. 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. She spent her teen years bouncing between foster homes and orphanages, and was allegedly sexually abused at one point, according to a 2011 Los Angeles Times article.

At the age of 16, she began working in the sex industry, but later married a World War II veteran. In 1946 and 1947, she had two children, but she didn't seem interested in motherhood. Eventually, she gave one child to relatives and put the other up for adoption, as reported by Sactown Magazine. Her first marriage ended in 1948.

Following this, she had a series of marriages and got involved in criminal activities. She spent four months in prison for writing a check under a false name and served another 90 days after being arrested in a police raid at a brothel, according to Sactown Magazine. In the 1970s, she ran an unlicensed boarding house for disabled, elderly, and homeless individuals. However, she was secretly taking their benefits checks and was convicted in 1978, receiving a five-year probation, as per the publication.

Puente was undaunted. She set about creating a more matronly image with her clothes and makeup, added years to her age, and became an in-home caretaker. She then drugged three elderly female patients and stole their money and valuables, a scam that landed her in prison in 1982 for five years, according to "Murders At The Boarding House." She was released early in 1990, but not before a state psychiatrist evaluated her and diagnosed her with schizophrenia.

"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. "She is to be considered dangerous, and her living environment and/or employment should be closely monitored."

Puente then opened the business that would give her the nickname "The Death House Landlady": a boarding house at 1426 F Street in Sacramento.

The Victims

Puente's first victim may not have been one of her boarders, though. Her business parter, a 61-year-old woman named Ruth Monroe, died suddenly in 1982, shortly before Puente was arrested for drugging her three elderly patients. 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. 

Everson Gillmouth is suspected to be her next target. He and Puente developed a pen pal relationship during her time in prison, leading him to develop feelings for her. Following her release, he relocated to be with her, as per The Los Angeles Times. However, their planned marriage never materialized. Tragically, in 1986, his body was discovered in a coffin in the Sacramento River.

After Puente opened up her boarding house at 1426 F Street, a string of people died there. 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. 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.

Among the deceased individuals discovered on her premises were Dorothy Miller, a 64-year-old war veteran who passed away in October 1987; Benjamin Fink, a 55-year-old struggling with alcoholism who died in April 1988; Leona Carpenter, a widowed woman in poor health who also died in 1987; Bert Montoya, a man with intellectual disabilities who passed away in 1988; Betty Palmer, aged 78; James Gallop, a 62-year-old with multiple health problems; and Vera Faye Martin, aged 64.

Her crimes were discovered

It was Montoya's disappearance that led to Puente's downfall. An outreach counselor with Volunteers of America had placed him at Puente's boarding house and she was alarmed to learn he had seemingly vanished in October 1988, according to Sactown Magazine.

Puente offered up a variety of stories, including that Montoya had gone down to Mexico, before the counsellor filed a missing persons report. An officer visited the home and spoke with Puente as well as a tenant while in Puente's presence. The tenant backed Puente up — but then slipped the cop a note saying that Puente was forcing him to lie, the magazine reported. The tenant eventually told police Puente hired prisoners on furlough to dig holes in her yard and filled some of the holes with concrete and also alerted them to another boarder who had mysteriously vanished.

It wasn't the first tip authorities had gotten about Puente, either. 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.

Police returned to search the home and check out the backyard on Nov. 11, 1988. After they started digging, they found a human leg bone and a decomposing foot, according to Sactown Magazine

Puente was questioned but claimed no involvement with the body found in the yard. Despite being released, investigators returned the next day to search the backyard further. Puente then requested permission to meet her nephew for tea at a nearby hotel due to her nerves. The police granted her request, and shortly after her departure, a second body was discovered. By the time they realized this, Puente had already disappeared, as detailed in "Murders At The Boarding House."

A manhunt ensued for the 59-year-old woman, and she was eventually found four days later at a California motel. She had been drinking at a bar with a man who thought she was acting oddly, later realizing it was Puente, a wanted woman. He alerted the police to her presence and she was arrested.

Puente had become interested in him after learning he received disability checks, The Los Angeles Times reported.

“She was just pure evil,” Mildred Ballenger, a social worker who knew her, told Sactown Magazine. “I don’t know that she ever did anything good without a bad motive.”

The Trial

In total, seven bodies were found in Puente's yard. She was put on trial in 1993 for the nine murders. She denied killing anybody.

The charges against her were largely circumstantial: There was her criminal past and of course, the corpses at her home. All the tenants had died from a cocktail of drugs, including the sedative Dalmane, which Puente obtained dozens of prescriptions for, claiming it was to help her boarders sleep. 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.

"She sat there so totally motionless and emotionless,” one juror said of Puente's demeanor during the trial, the outlet reported. “It’s like she was watching a movie she wasn’t particularly interested in.”

Ultimately, Puente was convicted of just three murders and sentenced to life in prison. Her time in prison was spent visiting the prison chapel, reading John Grisham books, and watching TV. She even wrote a cookbook from behind bars: "Cooking with a Serial Killer."

Puente eventually died of natural causes at the age of 82 in 2011, The Los Angeles Times reported.

She maintained her innocence until her death.

“They don’t have all the facts,” she told Sactown Magazine in 2009. “They’ve never talked to me. ... I don’t think anyone would pick this kind of life. But God always puts obstacles in people’s way."

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