Murder, Mystery & Makeup - The Killer Granny NO ONE Suspected: Dorothea Puente

Episode Date: December 3, 2024

Hi friends, happy Tuesday! On today's Murder Mystery Makeup we learn the story of Dorothea Puente. Dorothea lived a shady life, and her age gave her the perfect cover. I mean, who would suspect a sweet lil ol' granny of being a ruthless serial killer out for her victims' social security checks!? One thing's for sure: you really can't judge a book by its cover. Also, let me know who you want me to talk about next time. Hope you have a great rest of your week, make good choices and I'll be seeing you very soon xo Bailey Sarian _________ :  :    F O L L O W    M E     :  : Discord:  https://discord.com/invite/BaileySarian Tik Tok: https://bit.ly/3e3jL9v Instagram: http://bit.ly/2nbO4PR Facebook: http://bit.ly/2mdZtK6 Twitter: http://bit.ly/2yT4BLV Pinterest: http://bit.ly/2mVpXnY Youtube: http://bit.ly/1HGw3Og Snapchat: https://bit.ly/3cC0V9d RECOMMEND A STORY HERE : [e-mail]  Business Related Emails : [e-mail] Wanna Send Me Something? Bailey Sarian 4400 W Riverside Dr Ste 110-300, Burbank, CA 91505 _________ Get 20% off + free shipping with the code MAKEUP at https://www.Manscaped.com.  We have a special deal for our audience: Get your first visit for only five dollars at https://www.Apostrophe.com/MAKEUP when you use our code: MAKEUP. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to https://www.RocketMoney.com/MAKEUP. 

Everyone's got a pro. Need tires? I've got a pro. Car making a weird sound? I've got a pro. So who's that pro? The pros at Tread Experts. From tires to auto repair, Tread Experts is always there, helping you with Kumo tires you can trust. Until June 15th, receive up to $60 on a prepaid MasterCard when you purchase Kumo RoadVenture AT52 tires. Find your pro at your local tread experts. From tires to auto repair, we're always there. TreadExpress.ca Hi friends, how are you today? I hope you are having a wonderful day so far. My name is Bailey Sarian and today is Monday, which means it's murder, mystery, and makeup Monday. If you're new here, hi, my name is Bailey and on Mondays I sit down and I talk about a true crime story that's been heavy on my noggin and I do my makeup at the same time just to keep myself busy. If you're interested in true crime and you like makeup, hi, I will shut up and get into today's story. Today we're talking about an American serial killer who nobody would have thought would be a serial killer. Because she does not check any of the boxes of a freaking serial killer. These are the ones you gotta watch out for. Okay?

Today we're talking about Dorothea Puente. You know her? I thought I knew her story. I'm always surprised every time. I learn so much. Oy vey. So let me tell you about Dorothea and her story. She's got a lot going on and I left some stuff out

because it was like, dude, it was just a lot. It doesn't matter. Dorothea was born January 9th, 1929 in San Bernardino, California. San Bernardino was like just east of Los Angeles. And at the time when she was born there, because now it's like, it's pretty well-developed, but when she was born, it was like new and upcoming

and becoming a major metropolitan area. You know, just starting off. San Bernardino, a little fun fact, was where the first McDonald's was built. So there's that. Fun. Now record keeping at this time, not, not the best. So there's like a lot of things that we don't really know for sure about like Dorothea's upbringing, but what we do know was that her upbringing was rough, as I'm sure you can imagine, right? Well, maybe you don't, but let me tell you. So it was said that Dorothea, she was

a part of like a really big family. She had anywhere between six to 17 siblings. Now it's unclear, nobody knows what the real answer is. Dorothea would tell conflicting stories about her background and her family, so no one ever really got clarification. So she either had six siblings or 17, just go with it. So Dorothea's parents were not ideal. Dorothea's mom was young when she had children and to make money, she worked as a sex worker. But then when she was home, it was said that she was just like very abusive.

She was uninterested. She's like children where, Not mine. And she loved the alcohol. It was said it was clear to the kids that like their mom did not like them or even want to be around them. She would take off for work. She wouldn't say anything okay. And she wouldn't be gone for like just a few hours. She would like go missing for days days yeah everyone's like where's mom no idea then she would just reappear one day and be like what what it just would be days whatever whatever when she did leave for long periods of time her answer was like what to do with the children was to just lock them in one of the um closets so they'd be. Yeah so she'd lock them in the closet. Jordia's father wasn't any better. He too loved to just numb out with alcohol

and when he was home with the kids it was quite dramatic. I guess he would get like real sauced up and he would announce to everyone in the room that he was going to kill himself like in front of the kids. He's like i'm gonna kill myself so then he would literally bring out his gun he would press it against his head and tell them that he was going to pull the trigger well he was a big old lying bitch because he never did it but like i'm sure it's safe to assume here that that was probably a traumatic thing to witness for the kids or anyone really, right? Your dad doing that? So rough.

Dorothea's father was physically sick a lot too. He had served in like in World War I and when doing so at some point he was exposed to mustard gas which just destroyed his lungs and had lasting effects. In 1927, when Dorothea was eight, her dad ended up passing away from tuberculosis. And then not even a year later, Dorothea's mom ends up passing away in like a horrible, horrible motorcycle accident. She sounded wild, right?

Because I guess at this time, her mom was like hanging around a motorcycle gang causing trouble doing her thing but yeah she got into an accident she died Dorothea was now an orphan and was being moved around from like place to place foster home to foster home and just no longer had that stable home life. I'm not even sure if it was it was stable to begin with you know but obviously tragic for anyone. It was said during this time is when Dorothea became quite the storyteller. Like she would tell like a lot of little lies about anything and everything. When she turned 16 she decided to get out of her situation and move out on her own

to Olympia, Washington. When she gets to Olympia, Washington she tells everyone that her name is Sherry. She's like hey I'm Sherry and she quickly finds a job working at a milkshake shop and starts also working as a sex worker to make some extra money. Working at a milkshake shop though that would be my dream. Okay but she's working there and she's making but you know she's got to pay the bill so she's she does sex work on the side so she could actually make some money. So 1945 Dorothea is 16 years old and this is when she meets a world war ii vet his name is Fred McFall. The two of them seem to hit it off and after knowing each other for just like a few months,

they decide, hey, we should get married. And they do. Ah, marriage, yes. So quickly, but it's pretty normal back then, I guess, right? Well, still now people get married, whatever. They get married. Now Fred, he thought he knew who he was marrying, but he had no idea Fred knew her as

Sheriel Racille and not only that he thought he thought she was 30 years old which I was like okay listen either she must have been like a rough looking 16 year old to pass as a 30 year old or this Fred guy was dumb? Blind? I don't know but he thought she was 30 allegedly. So later on when Fred had learned the truth he would say that he thought Dorothea genuinely just wanted to be a different person. Like she was probably running from her past as Cherielle. She could be whoever she wanted to be. Not that sad Dorothea with the shitty upbringing, you know? Probably, yeah.

Well, Dorothea and Fred, they're married and they end up moving to Nevada together. The two of them would go on to have two daughters. One in 1946 and another in 1947. But get this, both children would end up being removed from the home. Now, I couldn't find out why, because they don't just come in and remove children, right? There has to be something wrong, but they were removed.

One daughter was taken to live with relatives and the other was placed in adoption. I don't know what was going on in that house, but something obviously was not right. 1948, Dorothea and Fred, they end up getting a divorce. It wasn't working out. Don't know. Okay.

When the divorce was final, Dorothea, she would go around telling everyone that her first husband had died. I guess it's better than saying she got divorced. So everyone for a long time believed that her first husband had indeed died. Poor Dorothea. So with her first husband dead now, she ended up moving back to San Bernardino. You know she's familiar with it, it's where she lives, whatever.

She didn't have any money, she didn't have anyone to help her. So this is when she picks up her first criminal conviction. Dorothea, she started writing bad checks, which she got caught for and would end up spending four months in jail for writing bad checks. She was also placed on three years probation, which she kind of took as like a suggestion

because she broke the probation in like month six because she ended up, or she decided she wanted to move to San Francisco instead. So she moves to San Francisco, finds a man quickly, marries him, changes her name. All of this I'm assuming to avoid the probation officers from finding her. She also started claiming to be an Israeli Muslim woman. Like a just a rebrand if you will. Also a side note I don't want to like give all

the husband's names and stuff because there's a ton and it's like you don't need to know all the husband's names and stuff they don't you get it? Okay I just don't think it matters like they end up getting divorced like not that long. So in 1960 Dorothea starts running her own bookkeeping service but really it was a front. She was actually running a brothel and she was working as the madam. She would take care of the location and the girls. And I'm using take care of loosely

because I don't really know. I don't really know if she was taking care of them. We don't know, but she was in charge of the brothel home and she was making good money doing it. She's like, hell yeah. Got him. Well, the guy who was like renting the building to Dorothea, he wasn't dumb. He caught on as to what was really going on.

And he ended up reporting her to the police. So the police come in and they do this whole sting operation. You know, undercover police work. Where I'm sure somebody got a free handy. And she was given 90 days in jail. It was said her husband at the time was very supportive, but it doesn't really matter, because as soon as she got out of jail, she was given 90 days in jail. And she was given 90 days in jail.

And she was given 90 days in jail. And she was given 90 days in jail. And she was given 90 days in jail. And she was given 90 days in jail. And she was given 90 days in jail. And she was given 90 days in jail. It was said her husband at the time was very supportive, but it doesn't really matter, because as soon as she got out of jail, the two of them got a divorce.

It's her second husband. She knew she was onto something, though. Like, maybe not running a brothel, but something else, a new business venture. She was like, I like being in charge, you know? So she ended up setting up like an unlicensed care home and this care home would be for the elderly, the ill and most importantly anyone who struggled with some form of like addiction, alcoholism, stuff like that and she called it the Samaritans. So this new business venture,

Dorothea would be working as a 24-hour caretaker, which would allow her to take a certain percentage of her clients social security checks to fund the thing. So she's able to have, you know, a bit of income and keep things going. It was said Dorothea could be quite the charmer. She was able to get like everyone on her side. When city inspectors would come by or like social workers they'd all come by like the building she was renting and they were always given like a warm welcome. It was said Dorothea would offer them some pie and coffee with every visit and usually every month she would throw a dinner for her clients and their social workers and they were like always impressed with Dorothea. They're like she cares so much about

helping people it's amazing isn't it? It's a shame. The social workers they considered her a stable motherly figure for the people in her care. I mean it was just she was a blessing. Dorothea now 39 gets married a third time to a 21 year old but the marriage only lasted about two weeks and then they divorced. I don't know what the goal was there okay or with any of her marriages but hey third divorce done and over with. But at the same time of this divorce, she also declared bankruptcy. I guess her business, the Samaritans, was $10,000 in debt. Yeah. I mean, she didn't really have a background in running a business, so she had no idea really what she was doing.

She's like, I don't know. I was just guessing. But she took notes, okay? She was going to try again. So she was like, time for another rebrand. That's the rebrand noise so dorothea now in her 40s transformed once more it was said that she had always been known for her quote brassy sexy makeup and dress end quote but now suddenly or all of a sudden she was wearing baggy clothes she's dressing modestly, and she stopped dying her hair.

She told new acquaintances that she was a devoted Christian woman who was dedicated to serving her community. Which is good for her, you want to believe her, but you know, we're here, it's Monday, so we know that's not really what she wants, is it? No, it's not. So Dorothea, she had rented a three-story house at 2100 F Street in Sacramento, California. Sacramento. I've never been. It's the state capital. I hear it's not that great.

Anyways, she's renting a house there, okay? What she did was she took over the whole like third floor of the place for her personal residence and then she had boarders living throughout the rest of the home it was said she took in homeless people anyone struggling with mental health issues or substance issues and within the home she also would host aa meetings and honestly like the local social workers they were familiar with the whole thing and again they considered Dorothea's services as a reliable placement for their clients believing that Dorothea was taking good care of the people. It was said that Dorothea she had a system okay she knew what she was doing. The boarders who

were receiving higher federally funded checks were put on the main floor while the residents who didn't have much to offer her were kept in the basement where like there were quote unquote rooms made up and separated by curtains kind of like what they do at the hospital you know they put up curtains you get it so that's where they would stay and it sounds all fine and dandy but we're here you know. I guess behind closed doors Dorothea would lose it, like she would blow up on her tenants about anything and everything. I imagine she probably had some built up anger huh, especially when it came to like the alcoholics. It was said most likely because they reminded her of her own parents, which makes sense, right?

It was said that she was just a mean woman behind closed doors. During this time, Dorothea even developed a drinking problem of her own. Whoopsie. So to keep her business afloat, she would take social security checks from her tenants to get the basics for the home. And even sometimes she would use that money to donate to political campaigns that worked towards gaining some respect within the social space and it worked I mean people left her alone and again thought she was an angel helping the community helping

the less fortunate and someone that they could rely on. Kind of smart though, huh? She was covering her butt, making sure no one's coming in and like checking up on her. Dorothea somehow managed to get a fourth husband. No idea how she's finding them. I know, but okay. So the two would call it quits

after like 16 months of marriage. Her fourth husband's biggest complaint was that she wanted to buy new pantyhose every single day. Not the pantyhose. Leave the pantyhose out of this. But that was his reasoning. In September of 1978 someone over at the social security administration was getting a little funny feeling about this Dorothea lady. So they start to snoop around looking in her records. And what really stuck out to them was how could a lady with prior convictions be running a reliable boarding house for recovering alcoholics? Like it just things, they had some questions.

So the treasury department started looking into her finances and found out that Miss Dorothea had once again been forging checks. Oh yeah. They stopped totaling the amount of forged checks when the total reached $4,000, which was enough to be charged with a felony. So police, they find her, they approach her. Dorothea quickly pled guilty. And because of this, she avoided prison time.

She instead got five years parole and was ordered to undergo psychological counseling. Now, because of all this hot mess, she ended up losing her house at 2100 F street and her position as a civic leader. This was devastating to her. And it was said this led to her suffering from a complete

nervous breakdown. Her psychiatrist diagnosed her with a broad personality disorder in his words saying that she was a schizophrenia chronic undifferentiated type end quote. Noted you know okay well when she lost this place you know she had to like start over so Dorothea she got some odd jobs just to really get by but she was really looking for a place to once again provide that personal approach you know one-on-one time she really liked that she was good at it I think I'm not sure no she's not so she's working some odd jobs and once she she was able to get enough money saved up she rented another apartment well it was like a it was a house but she rented it and it was on F Street she seemed to

really like F Street so her new residence was 1426 F Street and let me tell you it's so cute so cute she's renting like this cute victorian bungalow 200 a month ah wow i know 1426 f street the house was perfect because it had eight rooms pretty big right a bit of a yard it was built in the 60s, had some cute personality. It looked like a cute little dollhouse. Cute porch, nice little gate out front to keep people out. Kind of perfect for like this sweet older woman. Well, she's got her new place

and she's definitely on the prowl. So, Dorothea goes out to a local bar in the area. It's called the Zebra Club. I love an animal theme. And she ends up meeting a 70 year old man named Malcolm. I guess at the bar, the two of them were quite flirty, you know, getting to know one another, being all cute. And then he invited Dorothea to his apartment

to see where the night takes them. It was said by the time the two of them got back to his place he really wasn't feeling well so he was like apologizing to her and like sorry but I'm gonna lay on the couch for a little bit. So he goes and he lays on the couch and he is just not feeling right. When he's laying there he's starting to realize that like he couldn't move his body. He could still hear and see everything, but he could not speak or move anything, okay? He was like just frozen, which must've been terrifying.

But mind you, he's awake. So he's like looking around, watching Miss Dorothea go around his place, see her, grab one of his suitcases, she's moving around the apartment searching for anything of value, she loaded up the suitcase with like cash, jewelry, whatever she could. She's like this vase, great, put it in there, you know, like and then she left. Poor Malcolm stuck there until about an hour went by when he said that the drug finally wore off. When he was able to like regain control of his body, he gets up and the first thing he does is pick up the phone and calls the police.

Luckily, he was able to give police her first and last name because she didn't think to use a fake name. And the police would catch up with Dorothea a few days later coincidentally trying to cash a check that she had stolen from Malcolm. So it was like all just lined up they're like the checks Malcolm you know but when she got caught she had she had excuses. She told police she was like look listen listen I have reason. Let me think of one first. The first reason is he gave me the checks. He wanted to go steady with me, but I didn't like him like that.

That was her first excuse that he gave him to her. Her next excuse was, I have a psychiatric disorder that occasionally causes my memory to lapse. So I don't really know how I got these checks. I'm sorry. And with both of those excuses she's like which one are you buying and the police were like all right you know you can go and they made a note to keep an eye on her I know that I was like but huh I don't know she's getting a lot of chances so she's let go whatever she keeps doing her thing. Not long after Dorothea

was at a beauty salon where she met 82 year old Irene. Now there was some kind of discussion happening where Dorothea had learned that Irene wasn't feeling well or that she was like looking for a doctor but Dorothea hears this and she chimes in she's like oh my god that's crazy because I'm actually a nurse and what's even more crazy is that I work for your doctor what a small world you know and Irene mind you mind you mind you mind you mind you Dorothea is like this nice, more mature looking woman. Why would she lie, you know? So Irene was like, splendid.

And she asked Dorothea to come over to her house for a house call. Dorothea shows up to Irene's home. She's got like one of those doctor bags in hand, looking pretty legit. She takes Irene's blood pressure and tells her that her body is holding too much water. But not to worry because she had the perfect medication that would help.

So Dorothea goes to her little doctor bag and pulls out a bottle of pills. She tells Irene to just take a few and then lay down, you know, not a big deal. So Irene, she remembers taking a few, laying down, and then that's it. She loses consciousness. Irene would come two hours later. When she wakes up, she realizes that like some of her valuables were missing, like her jewelry and also her prescription medications were missing. So she calls the police, tells them what happens,

but she was only able to give a description of the woman because Dorothea had told Irene that her name was Betty. So not great. But my thought here was like, oh, police are probably making a connection here because it's like a similar story to that guy. Very similar story. Maybe they're making a connection.

But I was asking too much because they certainly were not. Nay, nay. But I was asking too much because they certainly were not. Nay nay. But get this because Dorothea is dumb as hell. A few days later Irene goes back to the beauty salon and guess who is there? Fucking Dorothea aka Betty. Like what an idiot. Why are you going back? Maybe she thought she killed her, whatever. She's back. And Irene is like, that's her. Irene tells her hairdresser to call the police, but she does it in a really low key way.

So, you know, Dorothea won't spook and run. She's like, call the fucking police. By the time police arrive, Dorothea had left. But luckily the hairdresser that was talking with Dorothea knew her real name so she went over gave the police her real name Dorothea do something with it geez so police go on over to Dorothea's place she maintained that she did nothing wrong. And because they couldn't find like Irene's jewelry or anything that linked Dorothea to Irene in the first place,

she couldn't be charged with anything. Dorothea's like, I have no idea what you're talking about. That's crazy. She is just getting away and away and away with more and more stuff. Dorothea was taken to court after two more women in her care came forward and reported that their checks were missing

and that thousands of dollars worth of valuables were gone. But nothing came from it. And like the judge who would see Dorothea would always release her. She would just end up skipping her way right back to 1426 F Street, you know? So at this point, she's getting a little nervous, like police have kind of like been involved a little bit. So she's trying to think of ways, you know, what can I do now? Like she wanted to get a better source of income,

that way she could just get out, flee the country. So with this in mind, she's like, I need to make money fast, like good money fast. So in her mind, the best option here would be to just leave the country. So she's like like I need to make money fast like good money fast so in her mind the best option here would be to just kill people for profit make sense right she's like yeah great that's my new plan big jump big jump but okay Dorothea Dorothea, she had met this woman. Her name was Ruth Monroe. And she met her through Ruth's husband who was terminally ill.

Not quite sure how this all came to be. But they met. They hung out. And Dorothea and Ruth had really hit it off. During the evening together, Dorothea had convinced Ruth that she should go into business with her. Now I read that like they were going gonna go into business together as caterers. I don't know if that's true or not but they're gonna go into business together and Ruth agrees. So they get like a joint account and they're gonna put their money in there and that's gonna be for the business. Ruth is really

liking this idea. Her marriage it was on the rocks and she was like ready for her own business venture. So Dorothea's like, girl, move in with me, right? Ruth is like, great. And she does. So Ruth moves in and it wouldn't take long for Ruth to start feeling off. Ruth would go around telling her friends and family that she was like feeling sick and she was often getting confused. Like she couldn't remember anything it seemed like.

And at one point she even told her family that she felt like she was going to die. Pretty troubling right? So you know Ruth's son he stops by to see how she's doing and the first thing that he remembered was that his mom was drinking alcohol. Now this was weird because his mom like rarely drank alcohol. Especially the drink she was drinking, which I can't pronounce. It's creme de menthe. I know that's not how you say it because it's French and I looked it up. It's like a mint cocktail situation. And I was like, what the hell did she learn about this?

I never heard of this before. Because when you look it up, this creme de menthe sorry it's straight up is it's green it looks like battery acid or like antifreeze but people were drinking it and they liked it I guess it's popular because I did some more googling I was very curious and this drink was like popular we don't need a whole history about this drink but in the 70s and 80s is popular with uh cognac people liked it okay anyways point being she didn't drink much according to her family so it was weird so her son came back over the next two days to check in and like same thing she was sipping on that green juice, the creme de menthe.

In April of 1982, Ruth's other two children came by to visit. The first daughter, Rosie, came in the early morning and she went to her mom's room and found her in like a really deep sleep and was unable to wake her up. So Rosie goes to Dorothea and is like, what is going on? Like, is my mom okay? I can't wake her up. And Dorothea is like, oh is going on like is my mom okay I can't wake her up and Dorothea is like oh my god yeah don't worry the local AER they they came by they gave her a shot to calm her down because she was really agitated so they gave her the shot and it kind of like you know sedated her

now her daughter didn't question it because she trusted that Dorothea was an experienced nurse and was caring for her mother you know. This older woman Dorothea. Later that evening Ruth's son his name's Bill he came by but and he was met with Dorothea like at the door. She was kind of like blocking it. She said what do you want? What are you doing? She told him that he shouldn't go upstairs and check on his mom because she was sleeping and she really needed the sleep. But Bill was like um that's okay I'm gonna go upstairs and check on my mom anyways. You know so he goes up there.

When he gets inside her room he finds his mom in bed. She's lying kind of stiff on her side with like her eyes wide open. She was completely unresponsive and to her son she seemed to be drugged so she was still alive but she was drugged so Bill is like talking to his mom and he tells her like not to worry everything's gonna be all right and that Dorothea is going to take care of you that's what he's saying to her and then Bill said he saw a single tear fall from his mom's eye when he said this. Could you imagine? She's screaming inside like, please no. But again, the family trusted that she was in good hands and they said their goodbyes.

The next morning, Ruth's daughter received a phone call from Dorothea telling her that something was wrong with her mother and that the paramedics were called. So her daughter, freaking out, rushes over there. And when she gets there, she's told by Dorothea that her mom had died. When first responders show up to the house, Dorothea told them that Ruth had a heart condition and was under a lot of stress because she was having issues with her husband. And she was telling authorities that,

oh, most likely Ruth committed suicide because she was so issues with her husband and she was telling authorities that, oh, most likely Ruth committed suicide because she was so stressed out over this. That's what she says. But the coroner's report said, something ain't right here, ma'am. Because on the report, it said that Ruth's liver was enlarged and showed signs of toxicity.

She also had no signs of food in her stomach, which led them to believe that she hadn't eaten in several days but they found a large amount of the alcohol creme de menthe in her system so maybe she was just drinking herself to death that's right but then the toxicology report came back showing that Ruth actually died of an overdose of Tylenol and codeine. Ruth's death was listed inconclusive. Ruth's family was feeling all sorts of ways, you know? Thinking maybe Dorothea was a little suspicious.

Maybe she actually had like done something. Something as horrible as killing their mom, right? So they went to the DA's office but were told that there just wasn't any physical evidence or anything really linking Dorothea to her death to build a solid case so yippity skippy for Dorothea with Ruth out of the way she was able to take out money from her and Ruth's joint account with the full intentions to flee to Mexico. Which she should have because she had the money but I guess she wanted more. Dorothea had a neighbor she was friendly with. Her name was Dorothy. Dorothy Osborne. And you know they would do the neighbor thing. Wave. Hey nice

tulips. Love your yard. Gorge how are you you did you get the mail love that gorge you know neighbor stuff well one night um dorothea came over to the neighbors to have a little girls night she's like i brought the booze so dorothea like goes into the kitchen and prepares both of them an adult beverage dorothea comes back it gives gives the drink to Dorothy. Dorothy takes a sip and baby that's the last thing she remembers. She completely knocked out and when Dorothea came to finally she was looking around realizing that her checkbook and valuables were missing. Just like everybody else you know and the first thing she did was call the police. So the police they come over and they find evidence of the mixed drink that Dorothea had made,

but not only that, right next to it was some kind of like loose white powder. This is great because this is something. So the police, they took this into evidence, and Dorothea was quickly arrested. From there, she was sentenced to five years in jail, but she would only serve three. Why? I don't know. Well good behavior and stuff, but like I don't know. But she also had the money to be able to keep her the place that she was renting, so she didn't lose that this time. I

guess that's good. While in prison, Dorothea began writing love letters to a 70 year old widower. His name was Everson Gilmouth. No idea how they met you guys, no idea. Don't know, don't ask, okay? But she had the ability to get a man quick. She didn't give her secrets away. But she's in prison, they stayed in touch, writing little love letters.

And when she was released, the two of them decided to move into Dorothea's apartment on F Street. This Everson guy, originally he was living in Oregon on his sister's property. So him moving to a new state with like a woman that she had never met, made her worried about her brother, but like there wasn't much else that she could do

because Everson was an adult after all, you know? So after he moved and his sister hadn't heard from him in quite some time, she called the police to like check on him and do like a wellness check. And this was in September of 1985. So the police go by and do a wellness check and Everson was alive and well, but most of all, he was pissed the F off

that his sister even had called the police in the first place. So once the police had left, he called up his sister and told her like, don't ever contact me again. Click, you know, she was shocked like, geez, okay, bye. So after that confrontation, the only time the sister would hear from Everson

was when she received a letter in the mail. She would receive letters stating that you know everything was fine and dandy. He's loving life but the letters were always signed by Dorothea. The whole thing was weird and it was clear none of the letters were coming from her brother but again like what was she gonna do you know? He's an adult. Maybe she's butting in, I don't know. So she just kind of stood back and it is what it is. Everson had been living with Dorothea since mid August of 1985 and he was staying with her. And also I failed to mention that the landlord

was also living at this property. The landlord would like come and go, wasn't really around much you know, but they lived on like the first floor and the landlord remembered seeing Everson around the house and the last time he saw Everson he noticed that he was like grabbing his chest like something was obviously like going on, but he made a note to himself like it must be manageable because he's doing fine you know he's holding his chest he's complaining but it seemed manageable. Well the landlord ended up leaving he left town for like a few weeks and when he came back he

realized that Everson was gone. So the landlord was like, hey, Dorothea, what happened to that guy Everson? And she told him that he didn't like Sacramento, so he decided to move back to Oregon. I'm like, that was that. It's like nobody really asked follow-up questions, you know? I'm so nosy. I'd be like, but why? When?

How? What part? Family down there? Meanwhile, Dorothea had reached out to a friend who was like also a handyman, carpenter, jack of all trades, you know? She reached out to this friend and she's like, "'Hey, can you help me with some work around the house?'

She's like, "'I don't have a lot of money, "'but I can pay you in a vehicle.'" So it was a red pickup truck. And she's like, "'I could give it to you for $800 "'if you will do work for me.'" Now the red pickup truck was she's like I could give it to you for $800 if you will do work for me. Now the red pickup truck was Everson's but the carpenter he didn't know that. He didn't know the full story. He just thought hey cool what a deal. So the carpenter agrees. He's like sure. Comes out starts doing some handiwork for her. Eventually Dorothea gets to the real point.

She's like hey will you build me a box? She tells the carpenter, she's like, I really want this six foot by three foot box to store old things in. And he's like, sure. He's like, I'll make you that box. And she's like, oh, and I also need a lid for the box. Now, if you didn't have questions, then you would just, you know, you're dumb. But this guy just wanted to stay out of it again he's like I don't know what this is but I'm just gonna do it so

he makes this box for her and he drops it off and then a few days later he comes back and he noted that the box was now nailed shut and extremely heavy he didn't ask questions allegedly. He didn't want to know. Instead he helped Dorothea. He helped her out. Loaded it into the truck and he drove the box across town. When Dorothea told him to pull over and it was like in the secluded part of town next to a river. There is when she asked him to help her move the box

into the riverbank and then they left. The box would be discovered in January of 1986 by like two men who were just minding their own business. They come across this box. They thought it smelled a little funky. So they opened it up, found a body wrapped in garbage bags there were like moth balls inside and a deodorant stick and helps to like hide the smell the body itself was said to be so badly decomposed that investigators had a hard time identifying who it

was so at first he was tagged as john doe, three years would go by before anyone came forward and helped ID the body as a person who had lived with Dorothea Puente. So nobody's putting the pieces together. Dorothea has been getting away with everything for her whole life. And like during those three years, Dorothea was still taking in people completely unchecked. She had brought in 40 new

tenants over the course of three years and yeah no one was uh catching on. No one was saying anything. It was said though that she ran like a really tight ship. The residents would pay $350 a month for a room which also included two meals meals breakfast which took place at like 6 30 a.m and then dinner at 3 30 p.m if you missed it that was your own damn fault okay nobody was allowed to enter the kitchen nobody was allowed to open mail or even think about touching the phone alcohol was prohibited except for Dorothea she was allowed to drink. With all these like paying guests in the home she devised a plan. Well she had this plan. She would collect all of the mail and open it before any of the tenants got to it. She would give them small amounts of money to spend

which normally like lasted as far as the nearest bar and that's not me being mean that was her plan she wanted them to go to the bar and like come back drunk because when the tenants would come back drunk and be like out of control or something she would call the police where they would arrest them for being disorderly she liked this because sometimes they'd be locked up for like 30 days which was just beautiful to Dorothea because while they were away she could just pocket any of their money that was coming in this woman. In 1988 there was another social worker who was getting that funky feeling that something wasn't right with Dorothea. I mean yes within the social workers conversations Dorothea was known for like having the best the system had to offer

especially in that area but was it? Was anyone actually following checking up you know? There was an outreach counselor who helped place a man named Bert Montoya with Dorothea and Bert had gone missing so it was odd right Bert struggled with schizophrenia and was also living on the streets but his counselor would like really work closely with him to turn it all around they were able to like set him up with social security checks and were looking to place him in a home where he could be cared for. And that's when the counselor was like, oh my God, duh, Dorothea, perfect.

Like, let me place you with her, which she did. When Bert was first placed with her, it was said that his condition was improving. Like he was taking showers on the reg, he had clean clothes. He was staying consistent with his medication and things were like really looking up for him. In March of 1988, Dorothea took a step like he was taking showers on the reg, he had clean clothes, he was staying consistent with his medication and things were like really looking up for him. In March of 1988, Dorothea took Bert down

to the social security office and told them that Bert was developmentally disabled and that he was incapable of managing his own finances. Because of this, his benefits should be transferred to me, Dorothea. And the workers were like, yeah, totally makes sense. Sure. Dorothea listed herself as Bert's cousin, which made her the payee of Bert's monthly social security check. It was like six something, 600 and something dollars. And it wasn't long after that, nobody saw Bert again. Other tenants were there, right?

And they would ask Dorothea, like, what happened to Bert? And she would tell them that he decided to leave and go stay with family in Mexico. They're like, weird, he didn't even speak Spanish, but okay. But the counselor who was in charge of Bert's account, she did not believe this at all. Instead, she filed a missing persons report with the police stating that Bert was not the type to run away, like no. So police go down to 1426 F Street to question Dorothea about this Bert guy, right?

They scope out the place. They also ask some of the other tenants what they thought like happened to Bert. One resident told the officer that Bert had left for Mexico. Like Dorothea had told them to say this. And he was all serious. He had left for Mexico. But then like low-key, the guy slowly handed over a note to the officer.

The officer looks at the note and the note said, she's making me lie for her. This was enough for the police to get a warrant to search the property. So investigators, they returned to the property like four days later, which I was like, damn, like she could have ran. This lady, she didn't want to run though, she's tired.

But they returned four days later with a search warrant to obviously search the house and also dig up the garden. You see, there were complaints coming in from the neighbor and I think even the landlord too, but there was a stench coming from the property, you know, an off putting stench and they had been complaining about it for quite some time. So I think this is why they came with the intentions

to dig up the garden, from my understanding. But on the first day investigators began digging in the yard and they kept coming across scraps of cloth and some other stuff. They were coming across scraps of cloth but also they came across what they thought was beef jerky and a tree root. So they realized it was not beef jerky or a tree root when they found a shoe with a foot still inside of it. So it was a body. It was a body. Yes they're like that is not beef jerky. All right the next day the officers decided to drill under the concrete patio because there was a concrete patio. So Dorothea's at the house and when she sees this happening she just goes right up to the detective and just asked straight up if she was under arrest and the detective told her no at this time so

she was like okay I'm gonna go down the block and get myself a cup of coffee and they're like yeah go ahead I know no comment I think you know just how stupid everything is right. While away getting her coffee investigators they found three more bodies that were buried hidden under that concrete. Then they found another that was buried under a gazebo that was like on this on the side yard. So it was five bodies being found so far. Yeah, and they just let the killer go get some coffee. So now investigators are looking around like, hey, where's Dorothea?

It's been four hours since some bozo told her to go get some coffee. Four hours and she was now hundreds of miles away. After the search of Dorothea's home was complete, police had unearthed seven bodies total. 51-year-old Burt Montoya, 64-year-old Dorothy Miller, 55-year-old Benjamin Fink, 78-year-old Betty Palmer, 78-year-old Leona Carpenter, and 62-year-old James Gallop.

They were all buried in the backyard. When it came to Betty Palmer's body it was noted that the head hands and lower legs were missing. Never found them. After all this police began to investigate into the disappearances of Everson Gilmouth and also the death of Ruth Monroe. Everson who was found in the box and labeled a John Doe he was identified by hospital x-rays but no cause of death was ever determined. When post-mortem examination of the seven bodies was done it showed that they all had large concentrations of the drug flurazepam, Dalmain as it's commercially known. But this drug can be lethal, especially if taken with alcohol or other sedatives. And it's super potent in elderly people. So Dorothea like knew what the fuck she was doing, huh?

During the search of Dorothea's place, they found dozens of prescriptions for the drug in Dorothea's personal papers. On top of that, they realized that she had cashed over 60 benefit checks that had belonged to the deceased. And she had kept cashing them long after their deaths or disappearances. But she was cashing. Well, investigators knew Dorothea was their girl, but where was she? Where in the world was she?

You see, when Dorothea had left the house to go get coffee, she had pocketed $3,000, headed over to a local hotel where she got herself an adult beverage. I'm sure she needed it. And then from there, she took a cab to another hotel across town where it was said she drank four. And then from there, she took a cab to another hotel across town where it was said she drank four vodka grapefruits. She's feeling nice, a little tingly inside.

She then flags down another taxi and asks them to take her to Stockton, California, where she could board a bus that was heading for Los Angeles. So maybe she gets on that bus and bye-bye she goes. I guess at this point the news had been running um you know their thing on tv like if you've seen this woman please contact police and it was Dorothea's picture asking for anyone who had information to come forward where's her location you know. Now I'm not sure if she was aware that this was happening that she was like on tv but it was happening so when Dorothea makes it to Los Angeles the first thing she does because

this is what she does uh she goes to a bar she goes to a bar where she meets a man named Charles she tells Charles that her name is Donna she's like I'm Donna I'm just a small town lady whose husband just died and like I'm looking to start life all over again. The two of them, they ended up spending the day together. She's telling him like, we're two lonely people just looking for company. We should move in together. But this guy was like, slow down, okay?

I had fun, but not that much fun. But he does make plans to get with her the next day. Now, this Charles guy, he kept asking himself himself like where do I know this woman from? She just looks so familiar. That's when he has his light bulb moment and realizes that he saw her image on TV and police were looking for her. Thank God for Charles huh? So he picks up the phone he calls police.

Hello. They move in quick find the hotel that she was staying at and by 10 40 p.m. Dorothea was placed under arrest. They got her good. So they had to fly her back to Sacramento where I guess during the whole ride she kept telling the officers that she had not killed anyone. She was like the checks yes I cashed. I cashed the checks but I used to be a very good person one time. I'm just a little old woman. How could you think I would do such a thing? You guys are nasty. And when you see pictures of her, you're like, yeah, she's a little old woman. Like, I don't know.

Like, yeah, okay, I can see that. She looks like a nice mature grandmother. During her questioning and interrogation, it was said that Dorothea was just a quote ordinary woman. That she was pleasant socially intact and intelligent. Far removed from the media caricature that was depicting her as the embodiment of evil end quote. Okay. The psychiatrist who was working with her before the trial diagnosed Dorothea as suffering from antisocial personality disorder, which is a condition marked by deceit and manipulation of others without any remorse. The psychiatrist speculated that running a boarding house most likely began for her as a humane endeavor rooted in a desire to undo painful childhood memories. Like she wanted to rehabilitate her tenants

as she couldn't for the people in her own family. But, and there's a very big but, on the other hand, when these people would quote unquote act up, Dorothea would act up too. And she would snap, decide to kill them. Dorothea showed up to court on March 31st, 1989 and she showed up so cute oh my god she was leaning into granny. She was wearing like this nice blue dress, a pearl necklace, just

looking like a a nice grandma who sent you birthday cards and probably knits things for you. But she was there to plead not guilty. well she would end up sitting in jail for another four years her trial finally began in like February of 1993 the prosecutor was blunt in a summary to the court saying quote she wanted people who had no relatives no friends no family people who when they're gone won't have others coming around and asking questions. End quote. And I think we can all agree on that one, right? Sounds about right.

But her defense team, they were working hard. Her defense team came back saying that the tenants died of natural causes. How dare you accuse poor Dorothea. The only reason Dorothea didn't call paramedics to retrieve the bodies was because she was in charge of operating the boarding house, which was in violation of her parole, and didn't want to get sent back to prison. Natural causes, everyone. They just happened to be buried back there. They wanted to be buried back there so the trial would go on for five months they brought in like 153 witnesses 3100 pieces of evidence and even a scale model of the victorian boarding house i love that i know but that was placed in front of the courtroom it was so cute i love a cute looking dollhouse especially a victorian looking dollhouse yay it was cute propped up mention okay it was noted that during trial she

fully leaned into sweet little grandma persona during her testimony she you know poker face grandma face not giving any signs that she could be capable of doing any of these atrocious things like burying people in your backyard ma'am cash and checks what was that about now the prosecution's main problem was that there was no there were no eyewitnesses to these alleged murders I mean yeah there were people who lived with Dorothea who came forward and said like that she was always giving them medication practically like shoving it down their throats and that helped because in the case of Ruth Monroe's death the toxicology tests revealed that there were high traces of that prescription strength sleeping pill in her system so it was like okay you know

that's something then there was a handwriting expert that confirmed that Dorothea had signed the names of seven dead tenants on 60 federal and state checks that were sent to her address in like 1987-1988 making around five thousand dollars a month from the forgeries. Now the prosecution brought in the handyman. Oh I was like the handyman the one who helped Dorothea make the custom box to dump in the river him yeah so he told the court that he did indeed help her build this box but no charges would be brought against him the statute statute of limitations on the crime had expired so that was amer, but his testimony was really helpful and played a big role in like getting Dorothea locked up.

I can't say statute of limitations, whatever. But this testimony played a major role because it gave jurors a glimpse into her sick little lies. So after a year of weighing the testimony, the jury found Dorothea Puente guilty of murdering Dorothy Miller, Benjamin Fink, and Leona Carpenter. The jury, they couldn't reach a verdict

on the six other murder charges as they were declared a mistrial. It's believed because the bodies were so badly decomposed, there was really nothing found linking her directly to their deaths. You think being buried in the yard would be enough, you know, but it's just not. I know, who would have thought? On December 10th, 1993, Dorothea was sentenced to prison for life without the possibility of parole. She was 64 years old and would be spending the rest of her

life at the Central California Women's Facility. It's near Chowchilla, California. It's like the largest women's prison in the country. While she was in prison, not kidding, Dorothea released a cookbook. Looked it up, had to know if it was true. It was true. It's called Cooking with a Serial Killer. Recipes from Dorothea Puente. Came out in 2005. I don't know what she was cooking. I didn't even know she liked to cook. Maybe she picked it up in like prison. But she came out with this book as 230 ratings, 4.5 out of 5 stars. Jeez, let me know if there's anything good in there. Look, Dorothea, like, she never really opened up about much of anything. It's not like she denied, but she never talked about it.

And that's fine, she doesn't have to. There was one interview where she just pretty much said, "'I don't give a shit what anyone thinks.'" And it was like, all right right that's it you know. Dorcea died in prison on March 27th 2011 at the age of 82. Rip. So the home itself at 1426 F street it has become pretty famous. The home sold at a public auction for pretty cheap the couple who lived slash lives there i don't know if they sold it there but like they knew people were going to come to the house gawk it was known as this murder house people were coming regardless and they felt that um they

might as well just lean into the whole a serial killer used to live here thing, you know? So they had a sign or they have a sign hanging outside that says, trespassers will be drugged and buried in the yard. Also there's like a mannequin of an older woman dressed up like Dorothea. She gets moved around, but last I looked it up, she was on the porch. People have lots of mixed feelings there.

I don't know what to say. I wouldn't go look, but like I get what they're doing you know. They're not making money off of it. I don't know. You know I don't give a shit. As long as it's like they're not like putting up the victims or something right. I don't know. I don't know. Don't ask me. But there is this one guy. His name is Martin Cutts and he conducted a series of interviews with Dorothea for a Sacramento magazine called Sacktown Magazine. In the interview, he said that she appeared and behaved like an ordinary old lady.

Of course, he was like, I'm smart enough to know better, but she's utterly ordinary. She was not out hunting for victims or saving quote unquote tokens like many serial killers do you know, but she never like bragged or opened up or talked about any of the crimes. She didn't care for anyone to know or even know who she was. He goes on to say that Dorothea was wrapped up in her fantasy world and her insistence that she was a good person and according to Martin that's what made

Dorothea so terrifying she's an otherwise unremarkable woman who simply just didn't place value on human life the fucking end I know Dora, obviously unhinged. Absolutely unwell. Here are my closing thoughts because I had a couple of unanswered questions. Dorothea, bad. Yes, prison. Go to prison. Bad. Don't do that. You can't do that. No. But bodies were found buried in the backyard. So I was like, who helped her right? She's an older woman. There's no way she could do that all on her own. You're telling me she's upstairs or something and like

kills someone and then drags them outside. You shoveling and burying a body. No there's no way she's doing that on her own. I don't believe that. Also it was noted that one of the victim's bodies the there were several limbs that were missing what was that about where did that take place the dismemberment like was it in like what was that about there had to be like physical evidence or something right tools something and this made me think maybe we can all agree here, that most likely the

tenants were helping. I would think so, right? She probably told them they had to help or she would report them, get them removed from the house, sent to jail or something. Maybe she threatened them. Maybe she just didn't tell them what she was doing, but like, hey, go dig a hole in the backyard over there you know but still she would have to get help to carry the bodies she wasn't buff I saw the pictures no buffness okay so she had help we just don't know who and maybe like she it was a power play though in my mind she was using them to do like most of the dirty work. She had all the power but you can't convince me that this woman was lifting and moving bodies on her own you know. I got hung up on that. Maybe it was the carpenter guy. I really don't think she gave a shit about what anyone thought

and that's a fact. Also what was with the short marriages and stuff? Was it just for a quick name change you think? Probably. Did they see something and bounce? Was there some sort of financial gain? Did they help? I just don't know but probably never know and no one's ever spoke up or spoke out and that's okay. Yeah I guess that's okay. What do you think? She got some help didn't't she? She's a little old lady, she probably, she couldn't do that. You know, she's probably watching and directing everybody to do what they needed to do. I bet.

I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. Please be safe out there. Make good choices. And I will be talking to you guys later. Goodbye. choices and I will be talking to you guys later. Goodbye!