Dr. Tristin Engels

And I'm Dr. Tristan Engels.

Every Monday and Thursday, we uncover the darkest minds in history, analyzing what makes a killer.

As Vanessa goes through the story, I'll be talking about things like how some criminals are able to garner blind trust from those around them, even as they're actively carrying out violent crimes, how some offenders exploit known flaws in the system to manipulate and maintain control over others, and why even the most ruthless killers sometimes can't own up to their own actions.

So this sentence is very lenient when you consider the magnitude of what she'd actually done.

She actually murdered someone, and they couldn't prove it, and so she essentially got away with it.

And that sends a powerful message regarding her effectiveness and a powerful message on how to refine methods that aren't as effective to her either.

And for someone who is already deeply entitled, detached, and confident in her cleverness, that's reinforcing and emboldening.

So rather than serving as a deterrent, prison likely set the stage for her escalation when she was released.

What stands apart in terms of Dorothea from many of the other offenders we've discussed is not just that she's a woman, though gender absolutely shaped both her methods and her trajectory, but most of the men we've covered used overt violence, coercion, or physical intimidation in their tactics.

Their crimes were loud.

Dorothea's were quiet, calculated, and relational.

She weaponized trust, caregiving roles, and social expectations, which are strategies that are statistically more common in female offenders because society gives them different tools and different blind spots to work within.

And they need to use more covert tactics because most generally can't rely on physical dominance to overpower their targets.

Dorothea understood that people tend to see elderly caregivers, landlords, or maternal figures as safe.

She used that to her advantage.

While the men we've covered manipulated from positions of dominance, Dorothea manipulated from positions of nurturance.

That's part of why she evaded suspicion for so long.

Like I discussed, her crimes blended into roles people don't question often.

But here's another key difference.

Her time in and out of institutions actually refined her.