DOROTHEA PUENTE“Death House Landlady”

Background

■ Born on January 9, 1929 in Redlands, California■ Father died of TB when she was 8, mother died one year later in

car accident■ She went to an orphanage until her relatives took her in■ Later she lied about childhood, saying she had two siblings and

was born and raised in Mexico■ Marriages:

– 1945, 16 years old; Fred McFaul, lasted 7 years■ 2 daughters, one sent to relatives and the other gave up for adoption■ Miscarriage in 1948, McFaul left her, she lied and said he died of a heart attack■ First crime: jail for a year, pregnant by unknown man, gave daughter up for adoption

– 1952; Axel Johanson, lasted 14 years – 1966; Roberto Puente, lasted 2 years– 1976; Pedro Montalvo, lasted a few months

■ In 1960 she began working as a nursing aid, and shortly after started to manage boarding houses

■ After leaving Montalvo (1976) she spent time in bars and began committing her more serious crimes

Crimes CommittedCrime Date Victim(s) Punishment

1. Forged checks Late 1948 N/A 1 year in jail, paroled for 6 months

2. Owned and managed brothel

1960 N/A Jail for 90 days

3. Vagrancy 1960 N/A Jail for 90 days4. 34 counts of treasury fraud

1976 N/A Not listed, probation

5. Murder April 1982 Ruth Monroe (61 yrs. old)

None, death ruled as suicide

6. Theft August 1982 Malcolm Mckenzie (74)

5 years in jail

7. Murder November 1985 Everson Gillmouth (77)

None at the time

8. Murder November 1988 Alvaro Montoya, found body of Leona Carpenter (78) and 7others

Below

9. Charged with 9 murders, convicted of 3

November 11, 1988, trial lasted one year

Those listed above and others

2 life sentences

Criminal Terms (and others)■ Brothel

– a house of prostitution■ Vagrancy

– Acting as a person who wanders about idly and has no permanent home or employment; vagabond; tramp

■ Treasury fraud– Scheme to get other’s money

■ Paroled– the conditional release of a person from prison prior to the end of

the maximum sentence imposed■ Counts

– a distinct charge or theory of action in a declaration or indictment■ Forged

– to imitate (handwriting, a signature, etc.) fraudulently■ Life sentence

– a sentence condemning a convicted felon to spend the rest of his or her life in prison

Her Victims:

Alvaro “Bert” Montoya

Dorothy Miller

Betty Palmer

James GallopVera Faye Martin Ruth

Munroe

Everson Gillmouth

Last Crime■ November 11, 1988, detectives visited Puente’s home when Alvaro “Bert”

Montoya was reported missing by his social worker and Puente allowed the men to look around– Nothing suspicious in the home but outside the ground was recently

disturbed– They dug up the dirt and found a body– Puente acted shocked at the sight– The detectives decided to return the next day with more equipment

when they found a shoe with a foot still wedged in it■ The next day more bodies were found, and a crowd had gathered

– Puente was not arrested and was allowed to leave her home to go to a local hotel

– They found 3 bodies under cement and a 5th under a gazebo– In the end seven bodies were found, including Montoya

■ Puente fled the scene when the detectives said she could go to the hotel– She made her way to Los Angeles– She tried to scam another man who recognized her and reported her to

police– At 10:40pm she was arrested and flew back to Sacramento

Last Crime cont.■ Puente plead not guilty on nine counts of murder on March

31st,1989■ A five month long trial brought 153 witnesses, 3,100 pieces of evidence, and a scale model of her home■ Evidence included:

– Dalmane (a potentially deadly drug) in the bodies of all nine corpses– Witness confessions to helping build coffins and dig ditches

for the victims– Forged checks of six of the victims

■ December 10, 1993:– Puente was charged with three counts of murder, but the

jury couldn’t reach a verdict on the remaining six – Dorothy Miller, Benjamin Fink and Leona Carpenter– Sentenced to prison for life with no chance of parole at 64

years old■ Puente died March 27, 2011 at age 82

Quotes ■“The sewer’s backed up.” –Puente

– She told people this when they complained about the smell that lingered around her house. They didn’t know at the time, but it was rotting corpses.

■ “I still have the taste of death in my mouth, I can’t eat vegetables grown in the ground because they have dirt around them, like the people dug up in Puente’s yard – and I’m a vegetarian.” –Joy Underwood– Underwood was a police clerk on the scene that

helped dig up the bodies in Puente’s yard when the last murder was discovered.

Books About Puente The Bone Garden

Theory of Deviance: Social Control

■ Definition: deviance occurs when the bonds with society are weakened and broken.

■ Dorothea Puente had no bonds to society growing up or as an adult.

■ There are four elements of the bond to society:– Attachment: none

■ parents died when she was young, married and divorced multiple times, gave up her 3 daughters

– Commitment: faked■ Puente acted like a caring “grandmother”, as many called her.

She could pretend to follow rules and be a good person outside her boarding house.

– Involvement:■ She was always in the home and kept her tenants in there as

well. Plenty of time to herself and was able to do as she pleases.

– Belief: none■ She was not religious in any way, had no values as a person.

■ In the end, Puente has no reason to avoid a deviant lifestyle as her bonds to society were never really formed at all.