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Dorothea Puente: The Boarding House of Death - The True Story of Sacramento's Killer Landlady
Paperback
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Oct 31 2025
Pages: 226
Weight: 0.68
Height: 0.48 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Behind a sweet smile and a tidy Victorian home on F Street lay one of the darkest secrets in American true crime history.
In Dorothea Puente: The Boarding House of Death - The True Story of Sacramento's Killer Landlady, author Jacobson P. Stewart exposes the chilling true story of a grandmotherly woman who preyed on society's most vulnerable the elderly, the disabled, and the forgotten.
To her neighbors, Dorothea Puente was kind, generous, and compassionate. To her tenants, she was a caretaker. But beneath the lace curtains and gentle voice hid a calculating predator who poisoned, buried, and profited from those who trusted her most. When bodies began surfacing in her backyard, the truth sent shockwaves across Sacramento and stunned the nation.
Through meticulous research, firsthand accounts, and psychological insight, this book reconstructs the timeline of Puente's crimes from her troubled childhood and early fraud schemes to her gruesome murders and dramatic trial. Readers will walk through the investigation that uncovered the infamous boarding house of death, meet the detectives who refused to give up, and confront the haunting question:
How could someone so ordinary commit such extraordinary evil?
Perfect for fans of true crime stories, female serial killer biographies, and psychological crime investigations, this book offers an unflinching look at one woman's descent into darkness and the lasting fear she left behind.
What You'll Discover Inside
- The real story behind Sacramento's most infamous murder case
- How Dorothea Puente built a façade of compassion to hide her crimes
- Exclusive details from investigators, neighbors, and courtroom witnesses
- The psychology of a manipulative killer who weaponized kindness
- A riveting exploration of greed, trust, and human vulnerability
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