The Glade 4.0 :: View topic - Landlady from Hell

She was back in business by 1985, renting the entire house and offering rooms to elderly and disabled residents, some of whom she met while cruising bars in the area.

Even in a city with no shortage of infamous and gruesome murders, the Puente case stands out.

This has movie written all over it.

Sacto has about double the murder rate of the US average.

Sacramento has been the home to a disproportionate number of serial killers and terrorists. The UNABOMER, The SLA, Dorthea Puente, Scott Peterson (Modesto, but close enough to smell), and members of the Manson Family (S. Fromme) all lived here one time or another. Sacramento has also had a number of shootouts and family killings that are notable as well as a few local-area serial killers: Soltys, Ferguson (overshadowed by 9/11), the Thrill Killer, and the Goodguys Shootout rank among the finest.

Dorothea operated a boarding house in Sacramento, California where she offered quality lodgings for elderly people on fixed incomes. She also offered poison and a bed of flowers to bury their corpses in. As she offed her boarders she kept cashing their social security checks.
In 1988, after too many of her boarders disappeared, cops showed up with shovels and unearthed seven corpses from her garden. Curiously, Dorothea’s boarding house was six blocks away from the home of Morris Solomon where previously six bodies had been found. Another body discovered in the Sacramento River in 1986 was added to her hit list. It’s believed that she might have killed up to twenty-five others. She was arrested in Los Angeles on November 17, 1988 after she inquired about an acquaintance’s disability check and offered to fix him a nice Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings.

Author:	Micheal [ Sun Mar 27, 2011 6:19 pm ]
Post subject:	Landlady from Hell
Sweet Looking Little Old Lady Dies. I lived two blocks away from her for part of the period she was actively "renting rooms". She looked like your typical tiny Hispanic grandmother, nothing special or weird. http://blogs.sacbee.com/crime/archives/ ... s-inf.html March 27, 2011 Dorothea Puente, Sacramento's infamous landlady killer dies By Sam Stanton sstanton@sacbee.com Dorothea Puente, the notorious F Street landlady convicted of killing her tenants and burying them in her backyard, died Sunday, state corrections officials said. Puente, 82, had been seriously ill for months, and was transferred from the Central California Women's Facility near Chowchilla to an outside hospital in September 2010. Even in a city with no shortage of infamous and gruesome murders, the Puente case stands out. She was a sweet-looking, grandmotherly woman who ran a boarding house out of a rented two-story Victorian at 1426 F Street. Puente began the business in 1980, renting out the top floor of the home, but she was sent to prison for three years for drugging her elderly tenants and stealing checks from them. She was back in business by 1985, renting the entire house and offering rooms to elderly and disabled residents, some of whom she met while cruising bars in the area. The case broke open in 1988, after social worker Judy Moise finally convinced police something was wrong at the boardinghouse. Moise, who worked for Volunteers of America, had referred Alvaro "Bert" Montoya, a 51-year-old mentally impaired homeless man, to stay at the boardinghouse, where Puente was known for lavishing her tenants with gifts and homecooked meals. Montoya disappeared from the home after a few months, and Moise filed a missing persons report on Nov. 7, 1988, with Sacramento police. An officer went to the home to question Puente, and during the course of his visit a tenant slipped him a note that said Puente had asked him to lie. Four days later homicide detectives John Cabrera and Terry Brown showed up at the house with Puente's federal parole agent, Jim Wilson, and some shovels. They began digging in the backyard and Cabrera unearthed what he thought was a tree root. It turned out to be a leg bone belonging to 78-year-old Leona Carpenter. Eventually, seven bodies would be unearthed from the grounds of the home. But on the second day of digging, as police were discovering a second body, Puente strolled away from the home wearing a red coat, purple high-heeled shoes and carrying $3,000 in cash. She took two cab rides to Stockton, then went to Los Angeles as embarrassed police launched a nationwide search. A few days later, Puente was recognized in a Los Angeles bar and arrested, and police detectives who had hitched a ride on a chartered jet from Sacramento television station KCRA returned with her in custody. During the flight, Channel 3's legendary police reporter Mike Boyd scored an interview with her, and she declared, "I have not killed anyone." A jury would later disagree. Puente was charged with nine murders and faced trial in Monterey County because of the massive publicity over the case in Sacramento. Evidence would show she drugged her tenants and had cashed at least 60 government assistance checks belonging to them. During nearly five months of trial that included 156 witnesses, more than 3,100 exhibits and 22,000 pages of transcripts, she was convicted in three of the murders and sentenced to life. She never took the stand, and was sent to the prison in Chowchilla. The case generated worldwide attention at the time and remains a subject of fascination. The court files from the case are stored at the Center for Sacramento History, and the Mansion Flats home on F Street was sold at auction last year to a Georgetown couple for $215,000. Barbara Holmes and Tom Williams said at the time that they were aware of the home's history, but were not concerned. "It's a sweet little home," Holmes said.

Author:	FarSky [ Sun Mar 27, 2011 11:20 pm ]
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Cripes, someone thought Arsenic and Old Lace was an instructional video.

Author:	Aethien [ Mon Mar 28, 2011 3:04 pm ]
Post subject:
Wow, never heard of this. A couple of weird things about that article stand out, though: Quote: She was back in business by 1985, renting the entire house and offering rooms to elderly and disabled residents, some of whom she met while cruising bars in the area. Elderly and disabled residents cruise bars? And: Quote: Even in a city with no shortage of infamous and gruesome murders, the Puente case stands out. Funny, but I wouldn't have pegged Sacramento as having a lot of "infamous and gruesome murders."

Author:	Kaffis Mark V [ Mon Mar 28, 2011 3:47 pm ]
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Perhaps there are so few, that any murder becomes locally infamous.

Author:	Vindicarre [ Mon Mar 28, 2011 4:06 pm ]
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Sacto has about double the murder rate of the US average.

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Landlady from Hell https://gladerebooted.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5829	Page 1 of 1

Author:	Nitefox [ Mon Mar 28, 2011 4:06 pm ]
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This has movie written all over it.

Author:	FarSky [ Mon Mar 28, 2011 4:25 pm ]
Post subject:	Re:
Nitefox wrote: This has movie written all over it. Already had one...

Author:	Aethien [ Mon Mar 28, 2011 4:33 pm ]
Post subject:	Re:
Vindicarre wrote: Sacto has about double the murder rate of the US average. Well, maybe I should clarify: I knew they had a high crime rate (didn't know it was that high, though), but it's not like I've ever heard of "The Hillside Strangler of Sacto", or "The Sacto Night Stalker," that kind of thing. Guess I figured they were just run-of-the-mill drive-bys and stuff. Or, maybe if you have that many murders, some are bound to be gruesome and infamous.

Author:	Vindicarre [ Mon Mar 28, 2011 4:51 pm ]
Post subject:
I know what you mean Aethien; I mean really, The Vampire of Sacramento, come one, that's weak. Bill Pollock's got a thing or two to say about Sacto: Quote: Sacramento has been the home to a disproportionate number of serial killers and terrorists. The UNABOMER, The SLA, Dorthea Puente, Scott Peterson (Modesto, but close enough to smell), and members of the Manson Family (S. Fromme) all lived here one time or another. Sacramento has also had a number of shootouts and family killings that are notable as well as a few local-area serial killers: Soltys, Ferguson (overshadowed by 9/11), the Thrill Killer, and the Goodguys Shootout rank among the finest.

Author:	LadyKate [ Mon Mar 28, 2011 7:27 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Landlady from Hell
http://psychopaths.tumblr.com/post/508090907/dorothea-puente-dorothea-operated-a-boarding Quote: Dorothea operated a boarding house in Sacramento, California where she offered quality lodgings for elderly people on fixed incomes. She also offered poison and a bed of flowers to bury their corpses in. As she offed her boarders she kept cashing their social security checks. In 1988, after too many of her boarders disappeared, cops showed up with shovels and unearthed seven corpses from her garden. Curiously, Dorothea’s boarding house was six blocks away from the home of Morris Solomon where previously six bodies had been found. Another body discovered in the Sacramento River in 1986 was added to her hit list. It’s believed that she might have killed up to twenty-five others. She was arrested in Los Angeles on November 17, 1988 after she inquired about an acquaintance’s disability check and offered to fix him a nice Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings.

Author:	Micheal [ Mon Mar 28, 2011 8:29 pm ]
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Having read the things he has to say, thanks Vindi, I can't verify all of them, but the great majority are definitely true and the ones i can't verify aren't necessarily false, I just don't know. i.e., I've never seen Pabst Blue Ribbon on tap, but I rarely go into a bar, so I'm nowhere near well informed on that subject.

Author:	Aethien [ Tue Mar 29, 2011 2:10 pm ]
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Good stuff, thanks! Had never heard of the Vampire of Sacramento. Wow, just, wow. And here I thought Wisconsin had its fair share ... They've got nothin' on Sacramento.

Author:	Vindicarre [ Tue Mar 29, 2011 3:07 pm ]
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You're welcome Micheal. I am under the impression that he's a native (or at least a long-time resident), so his info should have been good. I'm glad it was. I figured that just the quote might give an unintended impression, so the link would, hopefully, provide a more full picture. Heheh, Aethien, I have alway had the feeling that, in many ways, Sacto and WI are similar, in that their history is really blue-collar and farming. Just normal folks but, of course, Sacto's got that CA twist.

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