Dorothea Puente: The Not-So-Sweet Landlady

Dorothea Puente, also known as the “Death House Landlady”, was not your typical landlord. While others were preoccupied with collecting rent and fixing leaks, Puente had a different agenda: lacing her tenants’ food with poison.

Puente was born in Redlands, California in 1929. She meandered through life, working as a nurse’s aide and running a boarding house in Sacramento. It wasn’t until the 1980s that she discovered her true calling: murdering her tenants for their social security checks.

Her tactic was simple - she’d kill her tenants and then bury them in her yard. She was so good at it that she ended up bumping off seven people before getting caught in 1988.

But it wasn’t all smooth sailing for Puente. In fact, her biggest mistake was that she only poisoned her tenants with non-fatal doses of poison. So, not only did she have to slowly wait for them to die, but they also had time to go to the hospital and tell their stories to the authorities.

Puente was eventually caught and sentenced to life in prison, where she died in 2011. But her legacy lives on. She’s been the subject of countless books and TV shows, and even inspired the “horror host” character of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.

Lesson learned: Don’t mess with a landlady who has a penchant for poison. And always make sure to test your poison before using it.