Nonetheless, with decades to mull what she might say about her case, she sounds as unpersuasive now as during her plane ride from Los Angeles. Sometimes she includes small handmade gifts. [4], Gray's first marriage at age sixteen, in 1945, was to a soldier named Fred McFaul, who had just returned from the Pacific theater of World War II. They had a turbulent marriage; Gray took advantage of Johansson's frequent trips to sea by inviting men to their home and gambling away his money. When attempts to extract it with a shovel failed, Cabrera climbed into the hole. Wood earlier sent Puente to prison for drugging and robbing the elderly. ', Puente died in 2011 aged 82 in her prison cell at the Central California Facility, in Chowchilla. (Clymo died in 2006.) I wondered how the last two decades had changed her, how she had endured. 'The contents might be what you'd never expected. They described a woman of contradictions. How Did Dorothea Puente Kill Her Victims? 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. They share a gray cinderblock room furnished with eight metal lockers, four slender bunk beds, two sinks, a toilet and a shower. A few wander over to a colorful mural of Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, Tigger and Piglet, who prance beneath a banner reading Family Is Love, Love Is Family. None of the kids acts bothered that mom or grandma or big sister is doing time. Didnt know that at the time., The detective walked about halfway to the Clarion with Puente and her boarder, John McCauley. She answers without pause. Everybodys heard of me. Her upstanding reputation concealed a habit of forging the signatures of tenants on their benefits checks before signing them over to herself. [citation needed], A few weeks later, the police returned after Malcolm McKenzie, a 74-year-old pensioner (one of four elderly people Puente was accused of drugging), accused Puente of drugging and stealing from him. Her warmth for him appears unrequitedshe hasnt heard from him for awhile nowand reflects rose-tinted nostalgia for a marriage that, despite near constant turmoil, lasted longer than her other three combined. A pen pal friendship developed, and when Puente was released in 1985 after serving three years of her five-year sentence, he met her outside the prison, driving a red 1980 Ford pickup. Investigators soon found the decomposing body of an elderly man inside. But in truth, I approach this task without optimism, anticipating that our meeting will stick to the pattern of previous visits. Cooking what I want. Gawkers gather outside 1426 F St. (Courtesy of The Sacramento Archives), Domestic bliss and her maternal instinct failed to take root. A lot of people saw your running away as a sign of guilt. During this period, parole agents visited Puente at least fifteen times; though she had been ordered to keep away from the elderly and refrain from handling government checks, no violations were ever noted. Dorothea Puente right before she fled Sacramento. Given Dorothea Puente's image, this meant the controversial artist, Shane Bugbee, would collaborate with her on a cookbook. Vera Martin, 64. How many other boardinghouses have one person die? Its like she was watching a movie she wasnt particularly interested in., Jury deliberations commenced in July 1993 and soon stalled. After their deaths she continued to draw their social security cheques. They first spoke with Dorothea Puente, who ran the clean, cozy home as a boardinghouse for low-income tenants. But every time youd go to see her, Ballenger says, her cancer had moved from her brain to her breast to her liver. Between 1982 and 1988, she killed nine people, all of whom were renting rooms at her boarding house. I dont feel like confessing my sins to anyone, she says sharply. Bodies were found buried in what is now the yard at left. After learning about the murders inside Dorothea Puentes house, read about the serial killer known as the Angel of Death. Some of the bodies were mummified in cloth, bed sheets and duct tape. Im certain they were just dying of natural causes, and she started burying them so she could keep the checks coming. That is mitigating. In April 2020, the house and current owners were showcased in the Quibi series Murder House Flip. Authorities alleged that, by poisoning her boarders, she wanted to collect their benefits checks without risk of them notifying social workers or police. That is the question. To my surprise, an envelope stamped with the words Central California Womens Facility State Prison arrived a few weeks later. She was notoriously known as the "Death House Land Lady" after committing nine murders. and other board games that the prison makes available to visitors. But she has shown too much interest in my visits for me to believe her. Puentes neighbors and acquaintances murmured disbelief that the white-haired landlady who handed out homemade tamales and fussed over her rose beds and vegetable garden could be a mass murderer. I dont know what to tell you, she said. That same year, the Victorian bungalow Puente used to commit her crimes was sold to a Sacramento couple at a public auction for $215,000. However, in 1978, she was convicted of illegally cashing state and federal assistance checks that belonged to her tenants. She trails Cabrera, his police badge clipped to the front of a dark blue jacket and his jeans tucked into knee-high black boots that he had donned for the days dig. During the 1992 proceeding, investigators revealed that Puente - who was then 63 - had been killing the tenants for money, making $4,000 a month from cashing their social security checks. 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. cold and calculating female killers the country had ever seen., serial killer known as the Angel of Death, Aileen Wuornos, historys most terrifying female serial killer. 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. As the minutes pass, I prepare to join the long list of people she has duped. They had two daughters between 1946 and 1948; Gray sent one child to live with relatives in Sacramento, and placed the other for adoption. A person like her, he says, theres no forgetting.. Puente passed away in 2011 from natural causes at the Central California Facility in Chowchilla, aged 82. 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. She consented again, even lending a shovel to the men, who had brought only two. Satisfied, the authorities ruled Monroes death a suicide and moved on. Most of the lot has been paved over. A person like her, the retired sergeant says, theres no forgetting. (Photo by Jeremy Sykes). Dorothea Helen Gray, ms conocida como Dorothea Puente, naci el 9 de enero de 1929 en Redlands (California, Estados Unidos), en el seno de una familia trabajadora. Inmates enter one at a time at irregular intervals through a gray metal door along the rear wall. She got life for being with a guy when he killed another guy, Puente says. It was a human leg bone, he recalls. He remains convinced of her innocence, arguing that her crimes were limited to filching the benefits checks of her tenants. When we later part, Puente disappears through the gray metal door at the back of the hall. She would later kill them by poisoning or strangling them. Dorothea Helen Puente, rozen Grayov (9. ledna 1929 - 27. bezna 2011) byla americk sriov vraedkyn.V 80. letech 20. stolet provozovala penzion pro seniory v Sacramentu v Kalifornii, kde zabila nkolik starch i mentln postiench klient, aby zskala jejich finann prostedky.Na jejm kont je devt vrad; za ti byla odsouzena a porota trvala na . She claims he has sent her Christmas cards in prison, and as she talks about that small act of kindness, her eyes mist over. She was the sixth of seven children, all of whom struggled in a less-than-stable family environment, with little income and love to speak of in the Gray house. Grandson of killer granny Dorothea Puente, who laced cakes with sleeping pills and then smothered them at her California boarding house, reveals how he shared a 'real connection' with her and . Slight and demure, with her ivory-white hair and solicitous demeanor, the landlady resembled any other elderly woman with a kitchen full of pots and pans and a cat calendar hanging next to the stove. Theyve never talked to me. On another occasion, she casts her circumstance in a biblical light. Others spoke of a calculating criminal who feigned altruism to mask her avariceand a homicidal bent. "I was hooked when I saw that she had published a. 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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 three law officers had stopped by the house to try to learn the whereabouts of Alvaro Bert Montoya, who had gone missing three months earlier. When we discuss her health or the books she reads, when she makes a rare inquiry about my job or background, the conversation tracks as normal, even mundane. In fact, Puente was a serial killer who committed at least nine murders inside her boarding house in Sacramento, California throughout the 1980s. Some might interpret that as a kind of confession, I finally say. We hold each others stare. He ferried Puente to police headquarters and grilled her for two hours. Police found seven bodies. Dorothea Puente Dorothea Puente, born Dorothea Helen Gray was born on January 9, 1929 in San Bernardino County, California. An alarmed Ballenger urged fellow counselors to steer clear of Puente. I made them change their clothes every day, take a bath every day and eat three meals a day. Or about the white-haired woman who turned the yard into a mass grave. Puente watched the images flicker across the TV screen in her Los Angeles motel room. Dorothea Helen Puente (ne Gray; January 9, 1929 March 27, 2011) was an American convicted serial killer. I didnt need to kill anyone. Trial began in October 1992 and ended a year later. The prosecution stated that Puente used sleeping pills to drug her tenants, suffocated them, and then hired convicts to bury them in the yard. He sits in his downtown office, shock of silver hair combed straight back from his high forehead, untucked short-sleeved shirt spilling over his jeans. Know Her Death House Now [citation needed]. We break the ice. Genaro Molina/Sacramento Bee/MCT/Getty ImagesThe boarding house made infamous by Dorothea Puentes murders. Grandson of killer granny Dorothea Puente, who laced cakes with sleeping pills and then smothered them at her California boarding house, reveals how he shared a 'real connection' with her and.