Dorothea Puente

Dorothea Helen Puente (Gray; January 9, 1929 – March 27, 2011) was an American convicted serial killer.

Puente was born Dorothea Helen Gray on January 9, 1929, in Redlands, California, to Trudy Mae (Yates) and Jesse James Gray.

Her parents were both alcoholics and her father repeatedly threatened to kill himself in front of his children.

Her father died of tuberculosis in 1937; her mother, who worked as a sex worker, lost custody of her children in 1938 and died in a motorcycle accident by the end of the year.

Puente and her siblings were subsequently sent to an orphanage, where she was sexually abused.

Gray's first marriage at age sixteen, in 1945, was to a soldier named Fred McFaul, who had just returned from the Pacific theater of World War II.

They had two daughters between 1946 and 1948; Gray sent one child to live with relatives in Sacramento, and placed the other for adoption.

She also suffered a miscarriage.

McFaul left her in late 1948.

In the spring of 1948, Gray was arrested for purchasing women's accessories using forged checks in Riverside.

She pled guilty to two counts of forgery, serving four months in jail and three years' probation.

Six months after her release, she left Riverside.

In 1952, Gray married merchant seaman Axel Bren Johansson in San Francisco.

She created a fake persona, calling herself "Teya Singoalla Neyaarda", a Muslim woman of Egyptian and Israeli descent.

They had a turbulent marriage; Gray took advantage of Johansson's frequent trips to sea by inviting men to their home and gambling away his money.

Gray was arrested in 1960 for owning and operating a bookkeeping firm as a front for a brothel in Sacramento; she was found guilty and was sentenced to ninety days in the Sacramento County Jail.

In 1961, Johansson had Gray briefly committed to DeWitt State Hospital after a binge of drinking, lying, criminal behavior, and suicide attempts.

While there, doctors diagnosed her as a pathological liar with an unstable personality.

Gray and Johansson divorced in 1966, although she continued to use Johansson's name for some time following their separation.

Gray assumed the identity of "Sharon Johansson", hiding her delinquent behavior by portraying herself as a devout Christian woman.

She established her reputation as a caregiver, providing young women with a sanctuary from poverty and abuse without charge.

In 1967, she attempted to serve him with a divorce petition, but Puente fled to Mexico; the divorce wouldn't be finalized until 1973.

In 1968, Gray married Roberto Jose Puente.

After sixteen months, the couple separated, with Gray citing domestic abuse.

The two would continue to have a turbulent relationship, and Gray filed a restraining order in 1975.

Gray would continue to use the surname Puente for more than twenty years.

On December 21, 1978, Dorothea Puente was convicted of illegally cashing thirty-four state and federal checks that belonged to her tenants.

She was given five years' probation and ordered to pay $4,000 in restitution.

In the 1980s, she ran a boarding house in Sacramento, California, and murdered various elderly and mentally disabled boarders before cashing their Social Security checks.

Puente's total count reached nine murders; she was convicted of three and the jury hung on the other six.

Newspapers dubbed Puente the "Death House Landlady".

On January 16, 1982, Puente picked up Malcolm McKenzie, 74, from a bar and took him back to his apartment.

He reported that Puente had slipped something into his drink before robbing him of coins, watches, and other jewelry, including a diamond ring belonging to his mother, which she removed from his finger while he was incapacitated.

On April 28, 1982, Ruth Munroe, 61, was found dead due to respiratory depression, caused by a massive overdose of codeine.

Munroe was reportedly in good health when she arrived at Puente's home just over two weeks prior to her death, however, by April 25, she told a friend, "I am so sick I feel like I am going to die."

Following her divorce, Puente focused on running a boarding house located near 15th and F streets in Sacramento.

She established herself as a genuine resource to the community to aid alcoholics, homeless people, and mentally ill people by holding Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and assisting individuals to sign up to receive Social Security benefits.

She changed her public image to that of a respectable older matron by putting on vintage clothing, wearing large granny glasses, and letting her hair turn gray.

She also established herself as a respected member of Sacramento's Hispanic community, funding charities, scholarships, and radio programs.

She eventually met and married Pedro Angel Montalvo, though Montalvo abruptly left the relationship a week after their marriage.