1. Dorothea Puente, aka “Death House Landlady”
Puente became known for her ruthlessness, having murdered at least 9 people, most of them elderly, disabled, or addicts. She would rent those in need an apartment, but instead of caring for them and helping them, she would intercept their mail, stealing their money and giving them a tiny commission. Those who complained were never seen again, falling victims of one of the 9 most evil female serial killers of all time.
Her first husband died two years into the marriage, and for trying to forge checks with his name, she went to jail for a year. Immediately after being released she got pregnant from a stranger and gave the baby up for adoption. She had two other marriages, during which she committed several crimes and even returned to prison for 90 days.
Before divorcing Mr. Puente, she took over a care home, where she tended to the homeless and destitute. There, suspicious things began to happen. She “adopted” a homeless man as her handyman, and he’d repeatedly be seen taking out dirt from the basement, where he later installed a concrete slab on the floor, and soon after he disappeared.
After another short marriage and 40 charges of insurance scam, in 1981 she began renting a first floor apartment in Scramento. The first tenant to live there, an elderly woman “committed suicide” by injecting herself with Codeine and Tylenol. A few weeks later, the new resident accused her of drugging and robbing him, so she once again went to prison, this time for thievery.
Her last marriage was to a 77-year-old retiree with whom she’d maintained correspondence during her 3 years in jail. As soon as she got out, they opened a joint bank account, and a few months later his swollen, rotting body (unidentified at the time) was found in the river inside a wooden box. She kept collecting his checks and writing to his family to avoid suspicion.
Throughout the following years she proceeded to take in over 40 tenants, who she’d rob and kill, but in 1988 the police began to investigate, when a developmentally disabled schizophrenic boarder was reported missing by his social worker. Upon visiting the house, the police was overwhelmed by the foul smell that came from Dorothea’s garden, about which the neighbors had complained several times, so they returned the following day with shovels, and discovere a woman’s decomposing remains. She was not immediately charged, so she fled to Los Angeles, but was instantly placed by a pensioner at a bar, and reported to the police.
7 bodies were found in total, but she was charged with 9 murders and was given life sentence, although until her last day she defended her innocence and claimed that her tenants had died of natural causes. No wonder she is the number one on our list of the 9 most evil female serial killers of all time, right?
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