Episode Details

To the community in Sacramento, she was a respectable matron in vintage clothing who ran a charitable boarding house for the elderly and mentally disabled. But when police began digging in her garden in 1988, they uncovered the dark truth about the "Death House Landlady".

In this episode of pplpod, we explore the life and crimes of Dorothea Puente, a serial killer and fraudster who poisoned her tenants to cash their Social Security checks. We cover:

• The Facade: How Puente built a reputation as a caregiver while using aliases like Teya Singoalla Neyaarda and Sharon Johansson to hide a criminal past that included forgery and running a brothel.

• The Murders: The grim discovery of bodies buried in her yard, including tenants Leona Carpenter, Dorothy Miller, and Benjamin Fink, and the "coffin" found floating in the Sacramento River containing Everson Gillmouth.

• The Investigation & Trial: How a social worker's tip regarding a missing tenant led to a backyard excavation, Puente’s flight to Los Angeles, and the 1993 trial where she was sentenced to life without parole.

• A Bizarre Legacy: From her diagnosis as a pathological liar to the publication of her recipes in Cooking with a Serial Killer.

Join us as we dig into the disturbing case of the grandmotherly figure who turned her home into a graveyard.