SERIAL KILLER: The Death House Landlady Pt. 2
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Hi, Crime House community. It's Vanessa Richardson. Exciting news. Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes is leveling up. Starting the week of January 12th, you'll be getting two episodes every week. Wednesdays, we unravel the conspiracy or the cult. And on Fridays, we look at a corresponding crime. Every week has a theme. Tech, bioterror, power, paranoia, you name it. Follow Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes now on your podcast app. because you're about to dive deeper, get weirder, and go darker than ever before. We've all been misled by someone we trusted. Maybe it was our own misguided notions, or maybe they tricked us. Either way, we can usually dust ourselves off and learn from the mistake. But when it comes to someone as cold and calculated as Dorothea Puente, the deceit can leave scars that last a lifetime.
Dorothea spent decades perfecting her innocent act. She convinced everyone around her that she was a respectable, charitable woman. Some people even viewed her as a savior. But Dorothea was the opposite. And when she finally crossed paths with someone she couldn't trick, the world learned she was nothing more than a cold-hearted killer.
The human mind is powerful. It shapes how we think, feel, love, and hate. But sometimes it drives people to commit the unthinkable. This is Killer Minds, a Crime House original. I'm Vanessa Richardson.
And I'm Dr. Tristan Engels. Every Monday and Thursday, we uncover the darkest minds in history, analyzing what makes a killer.
Crime House is made possible by you. Follow Killer Minds and subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts for ad-free early access to each two-part series. Before we get started, you should know this episode contains descriptions of child abuse, sexual abuse, domestic violence, and murder. Today we conclude our deep dive on Dorothea Puente, a scammer turned serial killer who posed as a caretaker to gain people's trust and bleed them dry. Dorothea hid her crimes in plain sight, but eventually people caught on to the woman known as the Death House Landlady, and the true extent of her heartless crimes was revealed.
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.
And as always, we'll be asking the question, what makes a killer? By 1982, 53-year-old Dorothea Puente had drugged and killed one of her boarding house tenants, a woman in her 60s named Ruth Monroe. Shortly afterward, Dorothea drugged and robbed a man in his 70s named Malcolm McKenzie after meeting him at a bar. Dorothea thought she was getting away with her escalating crimes. But in reality, Malcolm, who'd been paralyzed but conscious while Dorothea robbed him, had gone to the police. And so did Ruth's son, William. While investigators couldn't prove that Dorothea had killed Ruth, William did hand over paperwork that showed Dorothea had been stealing money from her. So officers geared up to arrest Dorothea on charges of theft,
forgery and parole violation, since she wasn't supposed to be running a boarding house in the first place. However, Dorothea heard through the grapevine that they were closing in on her, so she packed her bags and caught a taxi to the airport, where she planned to flee to Mexico, the country that she lied about being from. But as Dorothea loaded her baggage onto the taxi and envisioned the new life she was about to embark on, her dreams were quickly dashed. The cab barely pulled away from Dorothea's house before police surrounded her. They arrested Dorothea and ultimately she was charged with multiple counts of theft and fraud. Dorothea didn't bother trying to fight her charges. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison with the possibility of parole after three.
So this sentence is very lenient when you consider the magnitude of what she'd actually done.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–14:59
2
What manipulative tactics did Dorothea Puente use to gain trust?
14:59–20:24
3
How did Dorothea's past influence her criminal behavior?
20:24–36:21
4
What methods did Dorothea use to kill her tenants?
36:21–41:21
5
How did Dorothea evade suspicion from social workers?
41:21–46:58
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from Serial Killers & Murderous Minds
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