The life of Dorotea Puente

Los Angeles Times headline

March 28, 2011

Dorothea Puente, 82, died at the Central California Women’s Facility where she was serving a life sentence without parole. She was sentenced for three first-degree murder convictions for two life sentences. She was a Sacramento rooming house operator who was convicted of killing her tenants in the 1990s. She died of natural causes.

Who was Dorotea Puente?

At 64 years old, her grandmother figure made headlines throughout the country. His was a macabre story that included: victims buried in her Victorian home, a body found in the Sacramento River, and; several heinous murders.

She was considered one of the coldest and most calculating female assassins that ever lived. She claimed that she drugged and killed her victims to cash their disability checks. The amount she stole totaled around $87,000 which prosecutors say she had used for face-lift operations, among other things.

The firsts years

She was given the birth name Dorothea Gray on January 9, 1929 in California, USA. She had alcoholic parents: a father, who was a cotton picker, died when she was four (4) years old; and her mother, who was a prostitute, also died when she was six (6). She was sent to an orphanage after the death of her mother, where relatives claimed her several years later.

Conflicting accounts marked his early childhood. He claimed that he had seventeen (17) other siblings. However, this was not proven: what was known was that his father had strange tendencies to point a gun to his head whenever he was drunk. It was also reported that she was sexually abused at the orphanage where she was staying.

At seventeen (17), he married and had two (2) children. The marriage was short-lived; since her husband died of a heart attack after two (2) years. She gave the two children up for adoption. She was later caught forging checks in Riverside, but she was given probation six (6) months later.

the turbulent years

Shortly after she was released from parole, a man she barely knew impregnated her. She again gave the baby up for adoption. In 1952, she married a second time to a Swiss named Johanson. The marriage lasted for more than a decade and was marked by turmoil and marital disputes. She divorced Johanson in the mid-1960s and later married Roberto Puente, who was nineteen (19) years her junior. Her marriage only lasted two years as Roberto was often seen cavorting with other women.

Dorothea Puente’s fascination with running a guest house began in the early 1960s while she was still married to Johanson. However, that same year, she was indicted for running a brothel and was sentenced to ninety (90) days in the Sacramento County Jail. Her turbulent time came to a halt when she found work as a nursing assistant; and as manager of a pension later.

Before the separation of her marriage to Roberto, she managed to take over a three (3) story, sixteen (16) room house in Sacramento, California. She turned this into a home for the poor, the unwanted, and the homeless. She, however, took it upon herself to cash her tenant’s Social Security checks. And this penchant for government checks eventually led to her reign of terror!

The macabre years of terror

The strange stories began when the neighbors discovered the ‘strange’ activities of a man named Boss, who was supposedly Dorothea’s handyman. The boss was an alcoholic man and was often seen digging up clods of earth and removing them from the basement area of ​​the house. The base floors were then covered with concrete. After all this was done, the Chief mysteriously disappeared. There was no sign of him; and nothing was heard from him either!

Dorothea married a third time in 1976 to another abusive man named Pedro Montalvo. This third husband of hers was another alcoholic; which contributed to the collapse of her marriage after three (3) months. Dorothea was next seen in pubs and bars attracting elderly people receiving pensions or benefits. She took her checks, forged her signatures and cashed the checks herself. She was eventually caught and charged with multiple counts of fraud. She was released on bail, but she continued her illegal activities even though she was on probation.

Paper trails of murders and illegal activities

Authorities claimed the series of murders began with the death of 61-year-old Ruth Munroe, who allegedly died of a drug overdose. She had about $6,000 when she moved in with Dorothea. She died two weeks later, from an overdose of Tylenol and Codeine, which the doctors stated was a clear case of suicide. A month after this incident, Dorothea was charged and convicted of drugging other elderly people and robbing them. Dorothea was sent to five (5) years in prison, but she was released three (3) years later. The terms of her release specify that she will have no contact with the elderly, nor will she cash government checks issued to others.

Dorothea’s pen pal while still in prison, Everson Gilmouth, a 77-year-old man from Oregon, was very helpful when she was later released from prison. Everson was there to pick her up in her red van. However, her body was later found, dumped in the Sacramento River, some five (5) years later. Her pick-up truck was turned over to a handyman, whom Dorothea hired to build a 6 x 3 x 2 box, supposedly to store books and other household items. The box was then nailed shut; and the handyman then helped Dorothea transport the box to a nearby storage area. However, she dumped the box on the river bank on the way to the storage depot.

A year later, the box was found by two (2) fishermen. They informed the police about the decomposing body that they found inside the box. Meanwhile, Dorothea had been cashing the Gilmouth pension check and wrote to her family members that he was ill and she could not write the letters herself.

He continued the board and lodging business serving the homeless and alcoholics. She cashed their checks and gave them a small amount of money, which they always spent on alcoholic beverages at a nearby pub. He then tipped off the police and had them arrested. Dorothea then kept the rest of the money for her own use.

On November 11, 1988, the police were able to bury the bodies on the lawn of Dorothea, then 60 years old. On further investigation, they found several other bodies buried at the base. She was sentenced and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. She died in prison several years later, of natural causes.