Time has deepened the creases between her potato-like nose and dumpling cheeks, and her blanched skin has slackened at the neck. Waking at 5:30 a.m., I drove 135 miles south to Chowchilla, slowed by low-hanging fog as opaque as her reasons for ending years of public silence. She consented again, even lending a shovel to the men, who had brought only two. I wondered if she maintained her innocence or felt bowed by remorse. "Which is gross," Hayden said. Marathon Man 63m She was tough. She also established herself as a respected member in Sacramento's Hispanic community, funding charities, scholarships, and radio programs. It doesnt fit., At least three peopledefense attorneys Kevin Clymo and Peter Vlautin and their clientharbored scarce empathy for the prosecutor. Puente watched the images flicker across the TV screen in her Los Angeles motel room. 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. Since Ive been in here, she says, its like all of that never happened.. 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. The boarding house made infamous by Dorothea Puentes murders. She folds the towel several times into a tight square before clasping her hands together on her lap like a child attending Mass. Despite the guilty verdict of her . Still, prison has changed Puente in one profound aspect, reforming her into an obedient citizen. 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." Jodi Picoult mentions Puente's crimes and cookbook in her novel House Rules. I think you can only truly understand why so many people testified and asked you to spare Dorothea's life only if you have ever fallen down and stumbled on the road of life and had someone pick you up, give you comfort, give you love, show you the way. [6], Following her divorce, Gray focused on running a boarding house located at 21st and F streets in Sacramento. At the time of her 1988 arrest on murder charges, photos of Puente with Jerry Brown, former California Gov. Puente took in so-called shadow people people who were marginally homeless without close family or friends. Pathologists testified that they hadnt been able to fix the cause of death for any of the corpses. I could give her my answer now, but there are a few more questions to ask. In the 1980s, she worked as a personal caretaker who drugged her clients and stole their valuables. She was just pure evil, Ballenger says. When they returned to his apartment, he watched in a stupor as Puente helped herself to his checks and cash; before leaving, she slipped a diamond ring off his pinky. Puente claims she spent time in the 70s with California governors Pat Brown, Jerry Brown and Ronald Reagan. 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. While there, doctors diagnosed her as a pathological liar with an unstable personality. Once free of the throng, Cabrera stopped and watched the pair until they entered the hotel. Dorothea Puente died in prison of natural causes on March 27, 2011, at age 82. She met and married Fred McFaul in 1945. Puente sah aus wie die Gromutter aus der Nachbarschaft, aber in Wirklichkeit war sie eine kaltbltige Mrderin. Her statement hangs between us. This was a money-making scheme, but I do not believe she was a murderess.. Well regarded for taking in substance abusers and the homeless, she had earned respect in political circles for her charity work. Going to church every day. Most of the luminaries are connected to her years in Sacramento, where she moved in the mid-50s with her second husband, Axel Johansson, who now lives in Orangevale. In the spring of 1948, Gray was arrested for purchasing women's accessories using forged checks in Riverside. Others wave and smile. Get Sactown's top stories in your inbox by signing up for our weekly newsletter. She this Dorothea Puente, was an elderly lady (think a widow at that) that housed boarders, a care home, or is it care house? She then asked Florez to transport the filled, sealed box to a storage depot. Finally, four days after she skipped town, authorities traced her to a tumbledown motel in Los Angeles. She married Roberto Puente in 1968, but the relationship dissolved sixteen months later. Grandson of Dorothea Puente, shared a 'real connection' with her - Daily Newshttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGIQ4XcqArGYqiw70QoKcvw?sub_confirmation=1Grand. Im here until I die.. The higher volume results from the presence of more children, most of whom exhibit the happy symptoms of a sugar buzz. 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. Puente was convicted in. (One woman later discovered checks and jewelry missing from her home; her case played a part in Puentes 1982 arrest on theft charges.) Here are 5 things you may not know about Dorothea Puente: 1. Dorothea Puente had several children with McFaul but didnt raise them. Retired social worker Mildred Ballenger first met Puente in the late 1970s. But in reality, he contends, she is the nation's most prolific female serial murderer ever . I dont know that she ever did anything good without a bad motive.. Some might interpret that as a kind of confession, I finally say. After sixteen months, the couple separated, with Gray citing domestic abuse. The Story Of The Unsolved Delphi Murders And The Chilling Video Evidence Left Behind, Scaleless, Slimy, And Extremely Rare: Introducing The Deep-Sea Oarfish, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch, Owen Brewer/Sacramento Bee/Tribune News Service via Getty Images. However, in 1978, she was convicted of illegally cashing state and federal assistance checks that belonged to her tenants. . The inmates know who she is, the official says. Even probation officers who stopped by accepted Puentes explanation that the people living at her house were guests or friends not boarders. Dorothea followed up the drugging by carrying out the . Puente drugged three women with tranquilizers to steal checks, money and valuables from their homes in the early 80s, as recounted in court records. So we knew wed have an uphill battle in convincing the jurors that all of those were accidental deaths.. 31 of the Royal Viking. But every time youd go to see her, Ballenger says, her cancer had moved from her brain to her breast to her liver. Designers Joelle and Mikel visit the current owners to replace the home's negative energy with a new makeover. 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. She had seven. Their dismembered bodies were then placed in holes in the garden she'd paid ex-convicts to dig. During discussions that typically lasted two to three hours, she proved by turns defiant and self-pitying, disavowing she killed anyone while reserving words of sorrow for herself. As reported by Dailymail, seven year after Puente's death, a man named William Harder had claimed to be his grandson. Puentes next two marriages would be short-lived. She has sent me more than 15 letters and postcards in the months since I first wrote to her. [11], Puente has been featured on numerous true crime television shows, including Crime Stories,[12] Deadly Women,[13] A Stranger in My Home,[14] World's Most Evil Killers,[15] and Worst Roommate Ever.[16]. I wait for her to speak. She will send me the list in a few daysthe bill will total $114.70but I already know I wont oblige. Sometimes she includes small handmade gifts. The detective had yet to realize that, in the 59-year-old Puente, he had another serial killer on his hands. In effect, every cell has a waiting list.) Nor could anyone rule out that the four women and three men had taken the drugs on their own, considering their assorted substance addictions, physical maladies and mental illnesses. Dorothea Puente - Dorothea Helen Puente (January 9, 1929 - March 27, 2011) was an American convicted serial killer. The home belonged to seemingly sweet Dorothea Puente, who was arrested in 1988 and later convicted as a serial murderer. 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. Puente had Chief dig in the basement and cart soil and rubbish away in a wheelbarrow. They prized her willingness to accept alcoholics, drug addicts and other difficult clients into her home, a sprawling, three-story Victorian that could sleep more than two dozen tenants. He says he's often inundated with requests from crazed fans and fellow murder enthusiasts who ask to buy his grandmother's ashes. At the age of 64, Puente - who was born Dorothea Helen Gray - was tried in 1993 for the murders of nine people after police found seven bodies buried in the garden of her home and two more. I wonder what she wants when death does come. For his labor and $800, Puente gave him the red Ford pickup, which she stated belonged to her boyfriend in Los Angeles, who no longer needed it. As the minutes pass, I prepare to join the long list of people she has duped. "I was hooked when I saw that she had published a. ), Puente relates that, as a Rockette, she met John Kennedy, then a U.S. senator, and his wife, Jackie, and befriended actress Rita Hayworth. She played the stoic in court, her face as frozen as her mug shot. Aug. 27, 1993 12 AM PT. Puente offered a place where they could hang on. I was struck by how pleasant and socially intact and intelligent she was, says Vicary, who works in Los Angeles. 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. When she was eight her father died of tuberculosis. Multiple murder suspect Dorothea Montalvo Puente, right, is brought back to Sacramento from the LA area in the early morning hours of November 17, 1988. Scant evidence exists to suggest she socialized with Reaganwhen he divorced Wyman, Puente was 20 years old and living in the Bay Areaany more than she danced with the Rockettes. The jury deliberated over a month and eventually found Puente guilty of three murders. I am not here to take part in a reunion; I have never so much as glimpsed the woman I am waiting to meet. [1] Puente's total count reached nine murders; she was convicted of three and the jury hung on the other six. See how its bulging? The prosecution stated that Puente used sleeping pills to drug her tenants, suffocated them, and then hired convicts to bury them in the yard. A T-shirt designed to cash in on Puente mania (Courtesy of The Sacramento Archives). He ferried Puente to police headquarters and grilled her for two hours. If you lived anywhere else, theres still a good chance you recognize it, or at least the rough outline of her crimes. I leave through a different door and make my way out of the prison, stepping into the cool afternoon air.