Dorothea Puente: A Serial Killer

Woman on spree other than shopping

Columbia Southern University
Criminal Investigation Woman on spree other than shopping
One of the toughest things to do is sit back and get into the minds of a serial killer. In a profession dominated by men throw in the feminine factor and you have the case of a life time for some investigators and prosecutors. When most people hear of a killing spree the first question they ask is “who is he?” But as we will examine below the male mind is not the only one geared to not only kill but do it over and over again. Though these cases are few and far between and not as abundant as their male counter parts woman killers Dorothea Puente and AileenWuornos were recent woman who joined the elite club of woman

She would over time unveil a dark side of herself that many disbelieved. Dorothea Puente ran a boarding house in Sacramento, California in the 1980s. Puente cashed in the Social Security checks of the elderly and disabled boarders living in her house. Many of them ended up dead and buried in the boarding house’s yard (Crime Museum 2015). Her lust for these crimes started in 1982 when she attempted to drug 74-year-old Malcolm McKenzie and stole his pension in the process. Although unable to prove the attempted drugging, Puente was convicted of theft and sentenced to 5 years in jail. During this time, she began a pen pal relationship with 77-year-old Everson Gillmouth. Upon her release in 1985 Puente roomed with Gilmouth which would not end well for him.
Over the next three years Puente would victimize what is believed to be up to nine other victims. In 1988 a tenant at Puentes house failed to show up for a scheduled meeting which was ultimately turned over to authorities. After a search of the home turned up 7 bodies in a backyard grave Puente was not immediately considered a suspect. Once she fled to Los Angles and avoided police questioning the light turned to her. Charged with 9 counts of murder the jury could only agree on 3. With these three convictions she was handed 2 life sentences that she served until her death in 2011 at the age

The mind of a serial killer is one that many have studied and found that this is just not the transfer of an angry mind over night. Researchers have for decades theorized that deviants are the result/caused by societal traumatization (Forsyth, 2015). In the case of Puente there is very little about her history available and has not presents of any social trauma, Aileen Wournos is quite the opposite. It is documented that she was molested as young child and her father was sentenced to prison. Shortly after his incarceration he killed himself. During her life she lived through hard times and many close family deaths. Being from the Midwest she moved to Florida and fell into a life of prostitution and drugs. We know from many scenarios played out time and time again this life style is one of predator or prey and it seems that Wournos chose to be the