Human Harvest: The Sacramento Murder Story

by Daniel J. Blackburn

Dorothea Gray Johanson Montalvo Puente was a female serial killer, an extremely rare phenomenon in the annals of American crime. She took advantage of a flaw in the Social Security laws to carve a lifelong career out of exploiting elderly, ill, often-helpless people. She established herself in positions of trust in order to steal these people's only source of income, then drugged them to expedite her chicanery and, finally, murdered them. Dorothea did not exist in a vacuum. She simply took full advantage of a system that fails to protect America's most helpless citizens. A stubborn and unreasonable refusal to correct a faulty administrative code has perpetuated the callous exploitation of the elderly, allowing people like Dorothea to operate all over the country, in communities large and small.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Crime

306 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Ronnie Cramer · Rating 2 out of 5]

A decent enough chronology of the Dorothea Puente case (the murderous Sacramento boarding house proprietor), though it ends before the trial takes place. After that, there is a transcript of the calls placed by the accused to the author (that imparts no real information) and a finger-pointing epilogue.

[Alberta L. Gallardo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Old book laying around. Finally read it. Interesting case and the events captured reveal progress and problems involved.

[Gail Hedlund · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember this story being in the news. I thought it was the craziest thing I had ever heard of. But reading the story I truly see just how crazy it really was.