Dorothea Puente (1986-1990) was a 57-year old, charming and attractive California woman who spoke Spanish fluently and supered an apartment house in Sacramento. She convinced the Dept. of Social Services to refer clients to her, and operated a state-subsidized room & boarding facility where she systematically bilked the residents out of their Social Security income to the point of killing 25 of them (officially listed as missing) and collecting their Social Security checks even after their deaths. Neighbor complaints about the stench in the backyard led police to dig up 7 bodies, and she was charged with 9 murders (2 other bodies were found in the river). The trial lasted until 1993 and was a tortuous affair involving a change of venue and whether the public wanted to execute a woman who was now 64 years old. She was sentenced to life imprisonment.