Posted on 03/02/2022 4:35:58 PM PST by simpson96
With her chiffon dresses, thick-rimmed glasses, grey hair and litter of kittens, Dorothea Puente looked like a sweet old lady – even insisting to some, “Call me Grandma.”
But looks can be extremely deceiving – and, in this case, the innocuous landlady was actually a terrifying serial killer who committed at least nine murders inside her boarding house in Sacramento, California throughout the 1980s.
Between 1982 and 1989, Puente would take in the vulnerable and homeless – poisoning and strangling some of her guests before burying them on her property and cashing their social security checks.
The disappearances of these so-called “shadow people” went unnoticed for years, until eventually a social worker Judy Moise – who speaks in new Netflix documentary Worst Roommate Ever – reported a tenant missing.
But the police could never have imagined they’d go on to find six bodies buried in the backyard of this “little old lady.”
Suspicions first arose about Puente in 1988, after Judy, an outreach counsellor with Volunteers of America, noticed 52-year-old Alvaro Montoya – someone she’d placed at Puente’s house – had vanished.(snip)
Judy also questioned another of Puente’s tenants, John Sharp, who told her: “Something is wrong. She’s been digging a lot of holes.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Old <> sweet 🤪
She’d be 93 if she hadn’t died 11 years ago.
...ummmm... never mind.
a lot of holes in this story...
Well, there's that.
There was a documentary about her on one of those true crime shows, I’ve seen it a couple times. Eventually the police were on to her. They served her with a search warrant and started digging up her back yard. She snuck off and escaped before she could be arrested,and was on the lam for quite some time. Eventually they caught up with her.
Judy Judy Judy...you’re imagining things!
Half of freepers don’t know what Arsenic and Old Lace is a reference to.
Archie was very much under-appreciated for lite comedy.
Main suspect. Victims were all drunks with no families to speak of. Questioned by the cops. She was released and told not to leave the area. She left the area.
The cops: what were they REALLY saying?
He was also in Bringing Up Baby and His Girl Friday, two of the funniest movies ever.
A really funny movie that one.
L
I lived in Sac during this time. I remember it well. Horrible.
Who is she in the car with - Lionel Richie?
It's one of my favorites!
Grant also did Operation Petticoat and Father Goose. Hitchcock liked him as well. Even if he was a Male War Bride.
I remember this local case. I recall thinking her last name
was Puente, which means Bridge in spanish.
I thought “la mujer tiene un puente al infierno!”
(The woman in on a bridge to hell).
Grant was great in North by Northwest. It’s not Hitch’s best from a critic’s perspective, but it’s my favorite.
Did she have a cousin running up the stairs as if they were charging San Juan Hill?
Not Guilty...
I was wondering why she is news now, I guess that there is a special about her coming out. Getting very hard up for stories.
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