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Somehow a neighbor got suspicious, when the police officers investigated the house, the back yard, at least five bodies were buried in her back yard! Several were referred there by social workers who viewed the home as a last-resort refuge for their ailing or most erratic clients. It is a flame of humanity that has burned inside Dorothea since she was young That is reason to give Dorothea Puente life without the possibility of parole. Over the next few years, she adapted by working as an in-home caregiver, affecting a matronly mien with her modest dress, oversized glasses and tremulous voice. 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 . Some of them began to disappear. Cops hauling away body bags. Satisfied, the authorities ruled Monroes death a suicide and moved on. & Brucato, Gary, Ph.D., The New Evil: Understanding the Emergence of Modern Violent Crime (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books), pp. A few days later I drive to Chowchilla for my final visit with her. Several were swaddled in bed sheets that matched linens found in the house. [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. 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. Prosecutors said that Puente was one of the most cold and calculating female killers the country had ever seen.. Shes got everything she needs, her life is taken care of. Dorothea was convicted of three out of nine murder counts and sentenced to life in prison in August of 1993. [citation needed]. The police bulletin sent out after Puentes escape (Courtesy of John Cabrera), Throughout our meetings, Puente furtively points out inmates and comments on their crimes. Sitting knee to knee, they stare without speaking, eyes wet. The erstwhile prostitute had turned a new trick. Federal law shields inmate medical records from the public, leaving open the question of whether she has had three surgeries since entering prison. Dorothea Puente spent much of the 1980's providing shelter for the elderly and infirm in her Sacramento boardinghouse. She filed a missing person report with police on Nov. 7. (Clymo died in 2006.) 3.23. (Courtesy of John Cabrera). I want to know what stopped her from killing herself. They had two daughters between 1946 and 1948; Gray sent one child to live with relatives in Sacramento, and placed the other for adoption. For the rest of her life, she maintained her innocence, insisting that all of her boarders had died of "natural causes". 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. Puente's alleged grandson, William Harder (pictured), insists his grandmother wasn't all bad. She does not smile, laugh or joke much in my presence, but nor does she betray malevolence. Dorothea Puente - Dorothea Helen Puente (January 9, 1929 - March 27, 2011) was an American convicted serial killer. For William Clausen, by contrast, the bodies buried in Puentes yard confirmed what he already considered fact: she killed for profit. But while digging a second hole, Wilson heard a muted thud as his blade struck something hard three feet down. Dorothea Puente, ne Dorothea Helen Gray, was born on January 9, 1929, in Redlands, California. Her evasive answersfirst claiming he had traveled to Mexico, then that he had returned and moved to Utahtripped Moises suspicion. I just did, she says. 3 min read. As we continue talking, the topic switches to her life before prison, and I ask what she misses most about Sacramento. When the police arrived, Puente told them that Monroe had been depressed due to her husbands terminal illness. A lot of people saw your running away as a sign of guilt. Thats when the gray door clanks open once more. All three revolve around murder, a fact she notes without irony or self-consciousness. 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. I dont know what to tell you, she said. Forensic testing had failed to determine a definitive cause of death in any of the victims. I have arrived seeking to somehow pierce Puentes carapace of denial, to find a crack or contradiction in her answers that might expose her deceit. But every time youd go to see her, Ballenger says, her cancer had moved from her brain to her breast to her liver. In fact, Puente was a serial killer who committed at least nine murders inside her boarding house in Sacramento, California throughout the 1980s. I have also done this: Late at night, when it is said her deeds turned darkest, I have pondered the vastness of human nature as I stood outside the tiny yard where she buried her victims. Im certain they were just dying of natural causes, and she started burying them so she could keep the checks coming. (AP Photo/Walt Zeboski). Im here until I die.. Shes not hurting there in prison, he says. Be Careful of the Quiet Ones 45m When college student Maribel Ramos goes missing, detectives turn their focus to her roommate, K.C. Moise alerted police, who went to the boarding house. She has sent more than 15 letters and postcards in the months since I first wrote to her. But in reality, he contends, she is the nation's most prolific female serial murderer ever . Others disparaged the closet alcoholic who on occasion punctuated roof-raising, cuss-filled tirades with a piece of furniture heaved down the stairs. If you lived anywhere else, theres still a good chance you recognize it, or at least the rough outline of her crimes. McFaul left her in late 1948.[5][6]. Witnesses, including her long-lost daughter, testified how Puente had helped them in their youth and guided them to successful careers. Some were in an almost mummified state, wrapped tight with cloth, bed sheets and duct tape. Her rapid decline perplexed her loved ones until they read the coroners report: the death was labeled a suicide caused by an overdose of codeine and acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. The house at 1426 F St., where police found seven of Puentes tenants buried in the yard, as it looks today. With Bill Courage, John Cabrera, Bill Clausen, Judy Moises. But, behind the scenes, Puente had embarked on a path that would lead her to murder. They know what shes done., Puente conveys a pride in her renown that, now and then, gives way to embarrassment, or perhaps weariness. 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. Prosecutor John OMara, then as now head of the Sacramento District Attorneys homicide unit, recognized the difficulty of cultivating compassion for victims he dubbed the shadow people. He had the added burden of building his case with witnesses of the same ilk: alcoholics, the homeless, once and future convicts. Puente was born Dorothea Helen Gray on January 9, 1929. I was on stage when the girl next to me broke her heel and bumped into me. A dark thought arrived. Been here 27 years. [6], In 1978, Gray was charged and convicted of illegally cashing thirty-four state and federal checks that belonged to her tenants. Dorothea Puente after her arrest in Los Angeles, en route back to Sacramento. Their dismembered bodies were then placed in holes in the garden she'd paid ex-convicts to dig. 13, as designated by the plastic placard atop its faux-wood surface. 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. Puentes next two marriages would be short-lived. Puente had welcomed him into her home that February. Artifacts from the Dorothea Puente case splay out before him: a faded article published in a local Spanish newspaper with a black and white photo of a younger Puente; a pair of her mug shots, blue eyes dimmed and weary in both; a prescription label in her name for diazepam, a tranquilizer sold as Valium; the original wanted bulletin from Nov. 12, 1988, the day she went on the lam. At 39, she was 16 years older than Roberto Puente, a Mexican migr whose interest in his heavyset bride concerned money and American citizenship, as chronicled in Disturbed Ground, a 1994 book about the Puente murder case. She turns to look at me. If she had been held accountable for murdering my mother, Clausen says, then maybe there wouldnt have been any other victims.. 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. She answers without pause. He speculates that running a boardinghouse began for her as a humane endeavor rooted in a desire to undo painful childhood memories. Working in my yard.. 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. A lot of people get old in here really quickly cause they just kind of stop doing anything., Ruth Munroe, believed by authorities to be Puentes first victim (Courtesy of The Sacramento Archives). I am waiting for Dorothea Puente. In addition to the usual fare sold in the halls chow line, there are heart-shaped boxes of chocolates for $7. If Im thinking about getting away, you think Im going to ask permission?, Police escort Puente after apprehending her in L.A.; Cabrera walks behind her. This page was last edited on 18 February 2023, at 18:08. She answers without pause. Her statement hangs between us. She consented again, even lending a shovel to the men, who had brought only two. 'We had a real connection,' Harder told VICE. Years later, her granddaughter visits the spot. Dorothea Puente fled to Los Angeles. 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. Finally, four days after she skipped town, authorities traced her to a tumbledown motel in Los Angeles. By 1982, Puente was sent to prison for her thefts. The candy proves popular with youngsters, whose sporadic laughter pierces the rooms hum. James Gallop, 62, (continued left to right) Dorothy Miller, 64. So we knew wed have an uphill battle in convincing the jurors that all of those were accidental deaths.. The infamous home Dorothea Puente lived in is along F Street in Sacramento. That was my tomcat. On her release from prison, she began killing her victims. Genaro Molina/Sacramento Bee/MCT/Getty ImagesThe boarding house made infamous by Dorothea Puentes murders. Puente arrived at the Central California Womens Facility following her conviction in 1993, and her appeals expired early last year. She played the stoic in court, her face as frozen as her mug shot. She tells me they appreciate the advice she provides them, whether informal legal counsel on their cases or how to traverse the social services network after their release. Arrested for the scam in 1978, court records show, she received five years federal probation, the terms of which proscribed her from operating a boardinghouse. "Which is gross," Hayden said. If you lived in Sacramento in the late 80s, you recognize her name. Since Ive been in here, she says, its like all of that never happened.. It is a stifling backdrop in which to live out the years. A well-researched play by Mark Loewenstern entitled "Dorothea Puente Tells All!" Jodi Picoult mentions Puente's crimes and cookbook in her novel House Rules. The Victorian on F Street. Her body shapeless under a long-sleeve T-shirt and dungarees, she has pulled back her snowy plume of hair with a pink scrunchie. 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. Dorothea Puente was a convicted serial killer who ran a boarding house in Sacramento, California in the 1980s. Now she watched from her second-story porch as the trio began to dig. (Courtesy of The Sacramento Archives), Dorfman drew up Puentes will years agoI dont know if its any good anymore; shes probably given away stuff she doesnt [even] ownand still receives Christmas cards from her. Twenty-one minutes laterhe remembers the time preciselyhe exhumed sufficient evidence: the remains of a second body buried about a foot deep in the earth. The serial killer shuffles into the room with a chickens hitched gait. A T-shirt designed to cash in on Puente mania (Courtesy of The Sacramento Archives). "You have heard of the despair which was the foundation of her life, the anger and resentmentIf anyone in the jury room tells you it was not that bad, ask them would you want that to happen to yourself? Bogle Family Vineyards Ryan, Jody & Warren Bogle Thank goodness the potato crop failed. She was the sixth of seven children but didnt grow up in a stable family environment. But you gotta do something so you dont go crazy.. William Vicary spoke with Puente for the first time about two months after her arrest. The checks I cashed, yes. In a cryptic aside, she added, I used to be a very good person at one time., The public heard little from Puente for more than 20 years after that clip aired. She parried, unwavering in her account of Montoyas departure, her voice calm as the detective pressed her. 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. Anyway, so she had six boarders! She created a fake persona, calling herself "Teya Singoalla Neyaarda", a Muslim woman of Egyptian and Israeli descent. 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. That is the question. She inflated her age by 10 to 15 years to further disarm her elderly clients, whom she set about exploiting under the guise of ministering to them. During my meetings with Puente, a number of prisoners softly greet herHi, Miss Dorothea; How are you, Miss D?as they walk past. She was the sixth of seven children but didn't grow up in a stable family environment. Rene C. Byer Sacramento Bee file. In 1967, she attempted to serve him with a divorce petition[inconsistent], but Puente fled to Mexico; the divorce wouldn't be finalized until 1973. It occurs to me that if I were unaware of her past and talking with her outside of prison, she could come across as the little old lady next door. She would later kill them by poisoning or strangling them. We both fell into the orchestra pit and I broke my leg. The other dancer? Sir, she said, I have not killed anybody. She explained that she had buried excess trash in the backyard holes that a tenant mentioned to police, and covered some of them with concrete to stunt weed growth. She'd later return to smother her incapacitated prey. Familiar in name, she remained an enigma. One of the bodies was missing its head, hands and feet, Body parts were also found scattered across the property. Would you want that to happen to your children? Ill be waiting for her.. The penalty phase of the prosecution was highlighted by her prior convictions introduced by O'Mara. I could see the joint., A vial of flurazepam found in Puentes home (Courtesy of The Sacramento Archives). Puente was charged for seven murders, but her trial wouldn't begin for another four years. Puente took in so-called shadow people people who were marginally homeless without close family or friends. 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. Heres this grandmotherly figure in this beautiful, restored Victorian house with all these azaleas and other flowers, OMara says. Most disregarded the warning in the face of a paucity of housing options for alcoholics, drug addicts and the mentally ill, and even after her release from prison in 1985, social workers and homeless advocates, ignoring or unaware that she was an ex-con running a boardinghouse without a license, sent their clients to her. Her passivity subdues suspicion. 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. Chief later dismantled a garage in the backyard and installed a fresh concrete slab there as well. Gillmouth's body remained unidentified for three years. Puente told police that the woman was very depressed because her husband was terminally ill. 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. Inmates eat breakfast and dinner in a dining hall separate from their building units; after breakfast, they receive a cold boxed lunch that they take back to their cells. 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. In October 1988, discovering he no longer lived at the house, Moise began to hound Puente about his departure. Florez agreed, and Puente assisted him. James Gallop, 62. I wondered if she maintained her innocence or felt bowed by remorse. When they finished without noticing anything suspicious, Cabrera asked if they could dig in her yard. He ferried Puente to police headquarters and grilled her for two hours. 104-107. . Her cancer story, on the other hand, sounds consistent with her peculiar, decades-long charade of claiming to suffer from the disease in a ploy to gain sympathy. The business supplied her with steady revenuesteady and, apparently, inadequate. But there were seven dead bodies in your yard. Though born in Redlands, Puente, who speaks passable Spanish, claimed Mexico as her birthplace, a ruse she perpetuated by alternately using the surnames of her last two ex-husbands, Roberto Puente and Pedro Montalvo. Between 1982 and 1988, the elderly and disabled people living in Dorothea Puentes house had no idea that was she was poisoning and strangling some of her guests before burying them on her property and cashing their Social Security checks. The pensioner contacted local law enforcement who then quickly arrested Puente. The three men carried shovels as they fanned out across the backyard of the two-story Victorian at 1426 F Street. Released after three for good behavior, she returned to Sacramento, with her federal probation extended to 1990 due to the state conviction. On New Years Day, a fisherman spotted the box, noticed that it looked suspiciously like a coffin, and informed the police.