From relentless serial killers to remorseless child murderers, Faces of Evil uncovers the evil behind their often unassuming faces. This six-part true crime series revisits the nefarious deeds of some of the world’s most infamous killers from the UK and America.
Faces of Evil starts Monday, 9th December at 9pm on Crime+Investigation.
When it comes to true crime, the perpetrator is usually the most obvious guess and someone close to the victim — a jealous friend, scorned lover or abusive parent.
However, some cases break all the 'rules'. Nothing adds up, there's no clear suspect and people are left questioning who and what they can trust.
This is exactly what happened in the case of Dorothea Puente, who became known as The Death House Landlady. But who was she, and what motivated her to kill?
Dorothea Puente: petty criminal and master chameleon
Dorothea Puente was born Dorothea Helen Gray on 9th January 1929. She had a colourful but tragic life growing up between the two World Wars. Both her parents were emotionally abusive alcoholics who died young — her father of tuberculosis in 1937 and her mother in a motorcycle accident the following year. Consequently, she was sent to an orphanage, where she was sexually abused.
Shaped by hardship, she struggled to form genuine connections. Like her parents, she married young and had two daughters, both of whom she sent away. But her romantic relationships never lasted long — she had four marriages during her lifetime, all of which were marred by violence and affairs.
With each of her husbands, she adopted a different persona. After her first marriage broke down, she met Axel Bren Johansson under the pseudonym 'Teya Singoalla Neyaarda'. When the couple divorced, she became 'Sharon Johansson'. Eventually, she married Roberto Jose Puente in 1968 and took his name until her death.
Why did she have so many aliases? Partly because she had a suspected personality disorder but mostly to detract attention away from her crimes. She was first arrested in 1948 for purchasing women's accessories using fake checks. Just over a decade later, she was charged with running a brothel in Sacramento and sentenced to 90 days imprisonment.
Her crimes continued to escalate from this point, but she realised she could hide behind a facade. She cleaned up her image and transformed into a respectable old lady with grey hair, thick-rimmed glasses and vintage clothes. She wasn't just perceived as harmless — she actually became a valued member of the community, running a boarding house for the vulnerable and destitute.
The Death House Landlady
People didn't find it too odd that lodgers at Dorothea Puente's boarding house sometimes disappeared. After all, many were homeless, and most had emotional trauma or mental disabilities. Social workers simply believed Puente when she shrugged and said they must have moved on.
However, her behaviour soon attracted suspicion. In July 1982, she was convicted of three grand theft charges against Malcolm McKenzie, Ruth Munroe and Dorothy Osborne. Malcolm and Dorothy survived the robberies, but Ruth was found dead shortly after from 'respiratory depression', which was later ruled as a homicide.
Puente received five years in prison, during which time she started a relationship with Everson Theodore Gillmouth, a 77 year old retiree from Oregon. He picked her up after she served just half of her sentence, with plans to move into the old boarding house. Unfortunately, his body was found on 1st January 1986 in the Sacramento River.
Free from prison, Dorethea picked up where she left off, murdering countless lodgers, robbing their prized possessions and fraudulently cashing their social security checks. It's believed she murdered nine people in total, although she was ultimately convicted of three.
She was fairly clever about how she killed her victims, spiking them with a cocktail of drugs, including flurazepam — a powerful sedative used to treat insomnia.
The aftermath
With the bodies piling up, it was only a matter of time before Puente was caught. On 7th November 1988, police spoke with a former resident about the disappearances. He provided valuable information that gave officers enough reason to search the property.
Once they began digging in the back garden, they soon unearthed the victims. Distracted by the horror, police didn't notice Dorethea quietly escaping. She remained on the run for three days and was finally caught in a Los Angeles motel. Of course, she had assumed a new identity: Donna Johansen.
During the trial, the motives for her crimes were clear — she wanted money. In her mind, there was no sanctity of human life, and she felt no remorse for what she had done. She pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Rather generously, according to state laws, Puente was spared the death penalty. Instead, she was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. She was 64 years old when she was caught. She spent the final 18 years of her life in prison until her death at 82 years old on 27th March 2011.
