Dorothea Puente was a notorious serial killer who operated in Sacramento, California in the 1980s. She owned and operated a boarding house known as the "Death House," where she murdered several of her tenants and buried their bodies in the backyard.
Born in 1929, Puente had a troubled childhood and was forced to leave home at a young age. She turned to prostitution and eventually ended up in prison for fraud and forgery. After her release, she opened the boarding house in Sacramento, where she took in elderly and disabled tenants and collected their social security checks.
It wasn't until 1988 that authorities became suspicious of Puente's activities. A tenant had gone missing, and Puente was unable to provide a satisfactory explanation. When authorities searched the property, they found the bodies of seven people buried in the backyard.
Puente was arrested and charged with nine counts of murder. She was convicted in 1993 and sentenced to life in prison.
Throughout the trial, Puente maintained her innocence and claimed that the bodies in the backyard were planted there by someone else. However, the evidence against her was overwhelming. The bodies were found with high levels of sedatives in their systems, and witnesses testified that Puente had bragged about "getting rid of" some of her tenants.
Puente was a manipulative and cunning woman who was able to convince people to trust her, even as she was killing them. She was able to get away with her crimes for so long because she targeted vulnerable people who were unlikely to be missed or reported missing.
Despite her crimes, Puente had a devoted group of supporters who believed in her innocence and fought for her release. She even received marriage proposals from men who were convinced of her innocence.
Puente died in prison in 2011 at the age of 82. Her legacy as the "Death House Landlady" will always be remembered as one of the most heinous and disturbing crimes in California history.