Dorothea's Early LifeDorothea Puente was born in Redwood, California in 1929 as Dorothea Helen Gray. Dorothea had a rough upbringing. When she was eight, her father died from tuberculosis and a year later her mother died from a motorcycle accident. After her parents died, she and her siblings were forced to separate and live in locations away from each other. She was adopted by relatives. Around the age of 16, Dorothea was living in Washington, working as a prostitute and working at an ice cream parlor. She met her first husband, Fred McFaul, at the age of 22 and shortly after, they got married. They had two daughters together and moved back to California. Dorothea became pregnant again in 1948 but suffered a miscarriage. Shortly after the miscarriage, Fred left her. Dorothea became so embarrassed, she told everyone Fred had died of a heart attack. After Fred left her, she sent one daughter to live with relatives and the other was put up for adoption.
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Beginning a Life of CrimeHer criminal activity started with forging checks. She eventually got caught and was sentenced to jail for a year, but was paroled after six months. Not too long after being released, she became pregnant by a man she didn't know very well and gave birth to a daughter, who was also given up for adoption. She married a man named Axel Johanson and their marriage lasted 14 years. In 1960, she was arrested for owning and managing a brothel and was sentenced to 90 days in jail. She was released, but shortly after she was arrested again for vagrancy and sentenced to another 90 days in jail. This started a criminal career for Dorothea. She soon started working as a nurses's aid for the disabled and elderly and then went on to manage boarding homes. She divorced Johanson and married Roberto Puente for two years. Dorothea was married a fourth time to Pedro Montalvo, but the marriage only lasted a few months because he was a violent alcoholic. Soon after, Dorothea started going to bars to find men who were receiving benefits. She would forge their signatures to steal money from them. She was eventually arrested on 34 counts of treasury fraud. She was placed on probation but that did not stop Dorothea.
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Getting Caught
In November of 1988, police became suspicious of one of the tenants that had gone missing, Alberto Montoya. His social worker had reported him missing. Alberto was disabled and had schizophrenia. The police went to go look at the property and noticed disturbed land. They eventually found the body of Leona Carpenter, who was 78 and one of Puente's residents. Police ended up finding several bodies and Puente was arrested. Dorothea Puente was charged with nine murders, but was only convicted of three and sentenced to two life sentences. The case took a year long to complete because there were over 130 witnesses. The jury was 11-1 on convictions for all counts. The defense tried to argue that Dorothea had a rough upbringing and called her long-lost daughter to help her. After sentencing, she continued to say she was innocent and all of her tenants died of natural causes. Dorothea died of natural causes at the age of 82 in prison in March of 2011.
Page By:
Maggie Taff
Maggie Taff