In this chilling episode, we dive into the disturbing case of Dorothea Puente, the seemingly sweet, grandmotherly boarding house owner in Sacramento, California—who hid a deadly secret beneath her quiet demeanor. Known as the “Death House Landlady,” Puente preyed on society’s most vulnerable, turning her home into a place of manipulation, fraud, and murder.

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References

(n.d.).

Dorothea Puente. (n.d.). Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Puente

Dorothea Puente. (n.d.). Retrieved from Murderpedia: https://murderpedia.org/female.P/p/puente-dorothea.htm

Dorothea Puente. (n.d.). Retrieved from Crime Museum: https://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/serial-killers/dorothea-puente/

Dorothea Puente, Killing for Profit. (n.d.). Retrieved from Crime Library: https://crimelibrary.org/notorious_murders/women/puente/

Goldfarb, K. (2025, April 26). The Monsterous Crimes of Dorothea Puente, The Death House Landlady. Retrieved from All Thats Interesting: https://allthatsinteresting.com/dorothea-puente

Kuz, M. (2009). The Life and Deaths of Dorothea Puent. Retrieved from SacTown Magazine: https://www.sactownmag.com/the-life-and-deaths-of-dorothea-puente/

Neumann, S. (2025, January 18). Swee Grandmawith a Sinister secret: How Dorothea Peunte turned her boarding house into a house of horrors. Retrieved from People: https://people.com/dorothea-puente-boarding-house-serial-killer-case-8774972

Rosewood, J., & Lo, R. (2019). The Big Book of Serial killers Another 150 serial killler files of the worlds worst murderers. LAK.