'Worst Roommate Ever': 'Death House Landlady' was charged for killing 9 tenants
Dorothea Puente was an American serial killer. Puente used to run a boarding house in Sacramento in the 80s, and where she murdered various elderly and mentally disabled boarders before cashing in their Social Security checks. She was convicted of three murders, with the jury undecided on another six. Puento was called the "Death House Landlady" by the media.
Before her infamous trial for the murders, Puente had many run-ins with the law. She was first arrested in Riverside in 1948 for buying jewelry with forged checks. After being charged on two counts of forgery, she served four months in jail and three years' probation.
She was then arrested in 1960 at Sacramento for operating a brothel on the pretext of owning a bookkeeping firm. After being found guilty, she was sentenced to 90 days in the Sacramento County Jail.
The next year, her then husband, Axel Bren Johansson, took Puento to the DeWitt State Hospital, on account of binge drinking, lying, criminal behavior, and suicide attempts. During her time there, doctors diagnosed her as a pathological liar and one with an unstable personality. Read on to know about the worst roommate ever.
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Puento's first marriage was to Fred McFaul, a World War II soldier. They had two daughters - one was sent to live with relatives, and the other was put up for adoption. When she had a miscarriage later, McFaul left her.
She then married Johansson, a merchant seaman, in 1952, and would often take advantage of him. She'd invite men home during his frequent trips away, and indulge in gambling and spend all of his money. This is also the time when she created a fake name and began calling herself "Teya Singoalla Neyaarda", claiming to be a Muslim of both Egyptian and Israeli descent. The couple divorced 14 years later, and she would continue to use her ex's name after their separation, living with the identity "Sharon Johansson" for some time.
"Sharon" would hide her delinquent behavior and portray herself as a kind, caring, and God-fearing Christian woman. She also established her reputation as a natural caregiver, who'd provide young women with accommodation, away from poverty and abuse, without charge.
She took on the surname Puente after marrying Roberto Jose Puente in 1968 - a name that she'd use over the next 20 years. The two separated after sixteen months with the former citing the cause being domestic abuse.
Right after the divorce, Puente shifted her focus to running a boarding house in Sacramento. She would aid alcoholics, the homeless, and the mentally ill by holding Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and also assisting people to sign up to receive Social Security benefits. Additionally, she was also a respected member of Sacramento's Hispanic community. Here, she funded charities, scholarships, and radio programs.
In 1978, Puento was charged and convicted for illegally cashing in thirty-four state as well as federal checks - all of which belonged to her tenants. With a five years probation to her name, she was ordered to pay $4,000 as restitution charges.
Shortly after this, during 1982, the mysterious murders began to take place. Puente's roommate at the time was 61-year-old Ruth Monroe, who died from an overdose of codeine and acetaminophen. Puente told the police that the woman died because she was very depressed as her husband was terminally ill. This case was ruled as death by suicide, but little did the authorities know.
Puente was accused of drugging and stealing from a 74-year-old pensioner, Malcolm McKenzie. He was one of the four elderly people that Puente was accused of having drugged at the time. During August of 1982, she was convicted of three theft charges and also sentenced to five years in prison, During her time there, she began her correspondence with Everson Gillmouth, a 77-year-old retiree. The two got close and wedding bells were in the picture again!
Three months later, Puente hired Ismael Florez to have wood paneling installed in her apartment. She covered the expenses with Gillmouth's red Ford, saying that her boyfriend didn't need the pickup anymore. Sounds fishy?
She then asked Florez to build a massive box (around 6 feet) to store "books and other items", had him transport the filled, sealed box to Garden Highway in Sutter County, and then dump the box of "junk" in the riverbank. Still suspicious?
Fast forward to 3 years, the coffin-looking box is found and reported to the police - it contained a badly decomposed body of an elderly man. The woman had the audacity to continue to collect Gillmouth's pension after having murdered him, and even wrote letters to his family. For three years, she explained in her writing that they hadn't been contacted by him because of his illness. During this time, she continued to maintain the boarding house, whilst also taking in about 40 new tenants. Who knew this would just be the beginning?
In 1988, tenant Alberto Montoya was reported missing; he was disabled with schizophrenia. The police investigated further and found a total of 7 bodies on Puente's property, one of them was of her 78-year-old tenant, Leona Carpenter.
Puente was officially charged with nine murders, including her boyfriend Gillmouth, and 8 of her tenants who lived at the boarding house - Ruth Munroe, Leona Carpenter, Alberto Montoya, Dorothy Miller, Benjamin Fink, James Gallop, Vera Faye Martin, and Betty Palmer.
After thorough investigation, it was revealed that most of Puente's victims had been drugged till they overdosed. She'd then proceeded to wrap them in bed sheets and linings, before burying them in the backyard.
Her lawyers filed for a change of venue motion, and so a judge transferred the trial to Monterey County. The trial officially began in October of 1992, ending a year later. The prosecutor was John O'Mara.
The jury thought this through for a solid month and eventually found Puente guilty of three murders (they couldn't agree on the other 6) - two first-degree and one second-degree murder counts. After several deliberations, Puente received life without the possibility of parole in August of 1993. She was imprisoned at the Central California Women's Facility. Up until her death in 2011, she said that her tenants passed due to "natural causes". She died at the age of 82 in prison.
'Worst Roommate Ever' releases on March 1, 2022, on Netflix.
