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Dorothea Puente was an American serial killer and financial fraudster who gained notoriety in the 1980s for murdering tenants in her Sacramento, California boarding house ¹². Often referred to as the "Killer Landlady" or the "Death House Landlady," Puente presented a grandmotherly facade while secretly preying on vulnerable individuals ¹²⁸.

Early Life and Background

Dorothea Helen Gray was born on January 9, 1929 ¹⁴. Throughout her life, she engaged in various forms of deception and criminal activity, including fraud and prostitution, before eventually turning to murder ⁶.

The Boarding House Murders

Puente operated a boarding house in Sacramento, California, primarily housing elderly, mentally disabled, and vulnerable individuals ³⁴. Between 1982 and 1988, she murdered at least nine of her tenants ². Her motive was largely financial; she would cash the Social Security checks and other benefits of her victims ⁴⁶.

The full extent of her crimes came to light in 1988 when authorities, investigating the disappearance of one of her boarders, began searching her property ⁵. They discovered seven bodies buried in the garden of her F Street boarding house ⁵.

Conviction and Death

Puente was convicted of three murders in 1993, though she was suspected of more ⁷. She maintained her innocence throughout her life, even granting interviews from prison where she offered her own narrative of events ⁵.

Dorothea Puente died on March 27, 2011, at the age of 82, in a state prison in Chowchilla, California ¹⁷. Her case remains one of the most chilling examples of serial murder driven by financial exploitation in American history ⁶⁸.