Dorothea Puente Research Paper

Dorothea Puente appeared to be the sweet old lady that couldn’t hurt a fly, but you can’t judge a book by its cover. When you open Puente’s story, you’ll find a long history of lies, manipulation, and crime. This criminal behavior all began with her troubled childhood. Born January 9, 1929 in Redlands, California, she was originally Dorothea Helen Gray. She was abused by both of her parents who died before she even turned sixteen. Her father died in 1937 from tuberculosis. Her mother being a prostitute, a theft, and very unstable, abandoned Puente and her siblings. A year later, Puente’s mother died in a car crash. By the time Puente was sixteen, she was working in a cathouse as a prostitute. That is where she met her first husband, Fred McFaul,