Ever wondered why homes for the elderly get a bad rap?
Doctors, nurses, and other caregivers have frequently preyed on the elderly, disabled, and children to satisfy their murderous tendencies.
We’ll discuss the story of the Death House Landlady, Dorothea Puente. We’ll discuss her life, motives, and victims to help you understand what happened at 1426 F Street.
Find out how Dorothea Puente became one of the most famous serial killers in the U.S.
Who Is Dorothea Puente?
Dorothea Puente (maiden name Gray) was born in Redlands, California, on January 9, 1929 to alcoholic parents. When she was just eight years old her dad died of tuberculosis. A year later, she was taken away from her mother, who died shortly after.
As you can imagine, Dorothea didn’t have the best life growing up. She was sexually abused in the orphanage.
By the age of 16, she married her first husband, Fred McFaul, and had two kids with him by 1948, but she did not raise them. That was the same year her legal troubles started.
Puente was living in Riverside, California when she started using forged checks to buy accessories she wanted. She pled guilty to two counts of forgery, and served four months in jail and three years probation.
Once Dorothea got out of jail, she moved to San Francisco. Fred divorced her shortly after she left.
In 1952, she took on a fake identity, Teya Singoalla Neyaarda, and married Axel Bren Johansson. Axxe was away on business frequently and Dorothea would use that time to gamble and likely run other criminal enterprises.
In 1960 she served 90 days because she was operating a bookkeeping business as a front for a Sacramento brothel. The next year she was briefly institutionalized and diagnosed a pathological liar after lying, binge drinking, and multiple suicide attempts.
By 1966, her second husband left her. She kept her last name and operated a free womens sanctuary under the name Sharon Johansson, a Christian caretaker.
Two years later, she met and married Roberto Jose Puente. Their relationship was violent and resulted in a separation, then divorce which was finalized in 1973. They still interacted until she got a restraining order in 1975.
After her divorce, Dorothea focused on operating a boarding house located at 1426 F Street in Sacramento. She developed a reputation for helping alcoholics and the disabled, but the truth was far more sinister.
What Did Dorothea Puente Do?
Dorothea Puente helped the elderly, disabled, and alcoholics get government assistance, then provided rooms at her boarding house. The first time she was caught cashing 34 checks that belonged to her tenants. Puente got a slap on the wrist with $4K in restitution and five years probation.
In 1982 Dorothea Puente started getting more aggressive. She started drugging people’s drinks and food with drugs like codeine, diazepam, flurazepam, or a mix of them. She would proceed to steal from them, or when they died continue cashing their social security checks.
Dorothea Puenta slipped Malcolm McKenzie an unknown substance in his drink, gave him a ride home, then proceeded to steal coins and jewelry, including his mothers ring and some watches.
Ruth Munroe arrived at 1426 F Street slightly over two weeks before she was killed at the age of 61 on April 28, 1982 with an overdose of codeine. This was originally ruled an accidental death, but later ruled homicide.
Dorothea visited Dorothy Osborne on May 16, 1982. She spiked her drink and stole credit cards, checks, and other valuables which Dorothy noticed eight hours later.
In 1982, these cases led to a five year prison sentence for grand theft that should have kept her in prison until 1990. While Dorothea was in prison, she was writing to Everson Theodore Gillmouth, who traveled from Oregon shortly before Dorothea was released on September 9, 1985.
She was planning on killing him before he ever picked her up from prison. She wrote Gillmouth’s sister a letter claiming they were getting married, then hired a handyman to build a “storage box” that was 6-foot by 30-inch by 30-inch. By comparison a standard casket is 84-inch by 28 inch by 23 inch.
Once the handyman finished the “storage box,” he called it a day and let Dorothea know he would return in the morning. Dorothea went and grabbed the following items to dispose of the body:
Want the Dorothea Puenta starter pack? Just click on the links above. You’ll be ready to dispose of your husband in no time!
She put Everson in the trash bags and sheet, taped him up real well, put some moth balls and deodorizer in the coffin with him, and put the final nail in his coffin. When the handyman came back, the shipment was ready. He dropped it off by the river and got a free truck and $800.
Meanwhile, Dorothea collected his checks until July of 1986.
Dorothy Puente killed Betty Mae Palmer and Leona Carpenter in October of 1986 and continued claiming their checks until she was caught.
Other victims included:
James Gallop: July 1987
Eugene Gamel: July 1987
Vera Faye Martin: October 1987
Dorothy Miller: October 1987
Alvaro "Bert" Gonzales Montoya: August 1988
Benjamin Fink: March-April 1988
How Many People Did Dorothea Puente Kill?
Nine, but she was only convicted of three. There could have been more given that handymen were obviously willing to help dispose of bodies back then, but there’s no evidence of more.
How Did Dorothea Puente Kill Her Victims?
Drug overdoses or poisoning. She was able to get away with it for so long for a couple reasons including old and sick people dying. I wonder whether they would have caught her earlier if the drugs in each scenario had been the same substances.
How Did Dorothea Puente Get Caught?
Her crimes were uncovered in 1988 when social workers noticed one of her tenants, Alvaro Montoya, had gone missing. When police searched her property, they found several bodies buried in the yard. In total, seven bodies were discovered at her boarding house, though Puente was suspected of more deaths.
When Was Dorothea Puente Caught?
Police went to 1426 F Street on November 11, 1988 with a search warrant and arrested Dorothea Puente immediately after finding bodies buried in her yard. She was able to escape and make it to Los Angeles before she was caught on November 16th, 1988.
What Was Dorothea Puente Charged With?
Police charged Puente with nine counts of murder with special circumstances and were seeking the death penalty. It took until February 9, 1993 for the case to be brought to trial. It took through late July to present 156 witnesses, 3,100+ exhibits, and over 22,000 pages of transcripts.
When the jury deliberated they had trouble deciding whether she was guilty of the nine charges of murder. It took them 37 days to find her guilty of three charges before deliberating on whether to give her the death sentence or life in prison.
On December 10, 1993 Dorothea Puente was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
What Happened To Dorothea Puente?
Dorothea Puente spent over 27 years in prison before she died of natural causes at the age of 82 on March 27, 2011.
Final Thoughts
It's sad to think about the number of families who took their loved ones to Dorothea because they needed a caregiver. The guilt they must live with is unimaginable assuming they didn't know what she'd do.
Dorothea's house at 1426 F Street is still standing. You can go see the outside of it, but beware... the owners are true crime fans and have a sign out front that say trespassers will be drugged and buried.
Related Posts
