Dorothea Puente’s Death House, Sacramento. Seven or so poor senior souls robbed of their Social Security and their lives by Madame Puente, buried in Ms. P’s boarding-house backyard. My god! 1980s.
I live here in Sacramento. Of course, I knew about it. My god! Of course, people all over know about it, even somewhat mentioned in the recent film “No Country for Old Men,” the Sheriff, disgusted with life’s events, reads off a newspaper article about such that could be the Puente events. Out and about in town I've been asked to point out the “horror house.” No thank you. I’ve never been near it or interested in being near it. Poe, in reality.
But just recently, just by chance, I found myself on F Street, the Rue Morgue of Sacramento. Had no idea, then I saw two young folks taking selfies of a house from the sidewalk. My friend in our truck says, “That’s the Dorothea Puente house.” That’s all it took. I had to get out. The young couple are having a good time at the “death house.”
And what it is is truly disturbing — a shotgun Victorian Cottage, white, with wrought iron fence, with upper porch, truly of a Gold Rush Sacramento.
There’s a Dorothea Puente Mannequin doll on the porch. What?! Again, I had no idea. It’s an amusement park of death like those Hollywood celebrity “death tours,” only a lot more disrespectful. A sign reads, “Trespassers will be Drugged and Buried in the Back Yard.” What?! The folks who were murdered here must have families. I can’t unfold the whole case here, but maybe they were just men alone. Who owns this property? The city should “domain” it, condemn it, raze it to the ground, salt over its ashes like Rome did Carthage, so this house can never rise again. And there are metal plaques, almost State Parks official, announcing the events. One plaque reads, “I’m just the house. I didn’t do it…” Or words to that effect with an inlaid image of the house.
There’s a car in the short driveway. Someone still lives here among all this bloody malarkey? Does someone live in the Sharon Tate/Manson family house in Los Angeles? I guess so. Someone in Marilyn Monroe’s home where she was assassinated (read Joyce Carol Oates to learn more) in LA? I guess so. I guess real estate is more real than reality. Not me, brother.
Oh, brother, there’s more. The fella I’m with knew a fella who rented an apartment here. What?! Here I'll end this episode of Dark Shadows, the ones the House of Puente doth cast.
The Sharon Tate house was owned by Rudi Altobelli, Sharon and Roman Polanski were renters. Altobelli was a talent manager. After the murders the house was rented out to various tenants, some in the entertainment industry. In 1994 Altobelli finally sold the house, it was razed and a new mega-mansion was built in a different location than the original home on the 3.2 acre property.
To add to your horror about Dorthea Puente, a cookbook, with her own special recipes, was published while she was in prison titled “Cooking With a Serial Killer: Recipes from Dorthea Puente”. It’s available at Amazon.