"I Used to Be a Very Good Person": Dorothea Puente on the KCRA Plane, 1988

Name: "I Used to Be a Very Good Person": Dorothea Puente on the KCRA Plane, 1988
Uploaded: 2022-03-11
Duration: 1 min 31 s
Description: After her arrest in Los Angeles, Dorothea Puente flew back to Sacramento on a jet chartered by KCRA. Barred from asking about the case, reporter Mike Boyd asked about her charity work. "I used to be a very good person at one time," she said.

After her arrest in Los Angeles, Dorothea Puente flew back to Sacramento on a jet chartered by KCRA. Barred from asking about the case, reporter Mike Boyd asked about her charity work. "I used to be a very good person at one time," she said.

Subject: Dorothea Puente
Recorded: November 16, 1988
Runtime: 1:31

Content warning: Refers to the deaths of elderly and disabled tenants whose bodies were buried in the yard of a Sacramento boarding house.

The Interview

On November 16, 1988, Dorothea Puente was arrested in Los Angeles, days after police had begun digging up bodies in the yard of her boarding house on F Street in Sacramento. With no time to drive to Los Angeles and the last flights of the day already gone, KCRA chartered its own plane, and the officers escorting her back to Sacramento flew on it. KCRA says reporter Mike Boyd was told he could not ask about the case, so he asked her about her charity work. This 91-second clip, reissued by KCRA in 2022, shows part of that conversation and her arrival in Sacramento, where officers pushed her through a crowd of reporters shouting questions.

Historical Context

Puente ran a boarding house on F Street in Sacramento, where she took in elderly, mentally ill and disabled tenants and cashed their benefit cheques. In November 1988 a social worker's inquiries about a missing tenant, Alvaro "Bert" Montoya, led police to dig in the yard, where they found seven bodies. During the search police allowed Puente to leave the house, and she fled. She was charged with nine murders. In August 1993 a jury convicted her of three (Benjamin Fink, Leona Carpenter and Dorothy Miller) and deadlocked on the other six. She was sentenced to life in prison without parole and died in custody on March 27, 2011, still maintaining her innocence.

Circumstances of the Interview

A man who recognised Puente from news reports alerted police, and she was arrested at a Los Angeles motel where she was using another name. The flight back to Sacramento took place before she was booked there. The interview on the plane is short, and much of the audio is hard to make out; the arrival footage is a rush of officers and reporters.

What the Interview Covers

On the plane, Puente talks about her past community work: she says she used to be very active in the Mexican Chamber of Commerce, and she says, "I used to be a very good person at one time." On arrival, reporters shout questions about the murders, ask whether she knows why she has been arrested, and ask where Bert Montoya is. Her answers, if any, are not clearly audible.

What Makes the Recording Significant

The clip captures Puente shortly after her arrest, before she was booked in Sacramento. KCRA counts it among the station's famous moments on camera.

Archival Importance

The Puente case exposed how vulnerable boarding-house tenants could disappear unnoticed. The clip preserves how she presented herself shortly after her arrest, while the search of her house was still front-page news.

Important Caveats

Puente's description of herself is her own; she was convicted of three murders. KCRA's 2022 description says she was "found guilty of nine murders"; she was charged with nine and convicted of three. The flight date is given as November 18 by KCRA and November 17 elsewhere. The audio is poor and no YouTube captions exist; apart from "I used to be a very good person at one time", her words should not be quoted until they have been heard.

Mike Boyd: [unclear: "Where did we meet?" / "We're in the Philippines."]

Dorothea Puente: I used to be very active in the Mexican Chamber of Commerce. And we met one time [unclear: "in the key of Jordan with" / "when the King of Darkness"] [inaudible] California.

Dorothea Puente: [unclear: "Do you ever work with St. Paul's?" / "I'm here to work with St. Paul's"] I worked there [unclear: "under a series on health care" / "every series of help"]. I used to be... I used to be a very good person at one time.

Dorothea Puente: [unclear: "I thought I'd better mention volunteer" / "I thought I'd have been in the Philippines in the volunteer"].

Mike Boyd: [unclear: "You might have been published after that a few years ago" / "He might have been active in that 15 years back"]. [inaudible]

Officer: All right, guys, come on. Let's get [unclear: "them" / "him"] out of here.

Reporters: What can you tell us about the murders? Are you involved in any way?

Officer: Excuse me, excuse me. Max, take [unclear: "him right over there" / "a bite over here"].

Reporter: Do you know why you've been arrested, ma'am?

Dorothea Puente: Right.

Unidentified Voice: [unclear: "He's holding you right now into the call call. He's going to go with us." / "I'm going to go with that."]

Reporter: Did you have anything to do with that?

Unidentified Voice: [unclear: "I don't know what happened to you." / "I can't wait to hurt my plan."]

Reporter: Where's Bert Montoya? Do you have any information that you've heard about that?

Unidentified Voice: Yes. [unclear: "We'll get wordings in that now."] ---