Most notorious home in Sacramento: Step into killer Dorothea Puente’s downtown house
Sacramento Bee staff
There were no surprises when Barbara Holmes and Tom Williams bought their two-story Victorian home at 1426 F St. at auction for $226,000 in 2010.
They outbid just one other contestant in a packed room, where everyone knew the Sacramento property in the Mansion Flats neighborhood was where serial killer Dorothea Puente had drugged and murdered as many as nine victims. Puente died in prison in 2011, after being convicted of three slayings. The jury deadlocked on the other six cases after one juror refused to participate further.
Since then, they have remodeled the house to modern standards and found a way to embrace its gruesome history — a necessity when you make your bed in what the police called the “death room.”
A mannequin dressed in a red coat evocative of the one worn by the serial killer when she escaped police in 1988 has long graced their front porch. Stolen in 2014, its remains were “dismembered and discarded, much like some of Puente’s victims.”
The couple, who participated in a 2015 documentary called the “The House Is Innocent,” have to find a balance with the public’s unending fascination with their property. For all their whimsy, they are clear-eyed about the historical occupant.
“She truly was an evil ... criminal in the body of a little old lady,” Williams told The Bee in 2012. “An awful, horrible person.”
Barbara Holmes and Tom Williams, the owners of the former home of the infamous Dorothea Puente at 1426 F St. in Sacramento, pose earlier this month in front of the house with a Sacramento Bee news photograph of the late serial killer leaving the scene during the police investigation. Hector Amezcua hamezcua@sacbee.com
A plaque asks for privacy from visitors outside the former home of notorious Sacramento serial Dorothea Puente. Hector Amezcua hamezcua@sacbee.com
Photos of the renovated former boardinghouse
Barbara Holmes, who lives in the Sacramento house where serial killer Dorothea Puente committed her crimes, fills a pitcher in her kitchen earlier this month. Hector Amezcua hamezcua@sacbee.com
Life masks of famous actors hang in the former home of serial killer Dorothea Puente. The home is now owned by Barbara Holmes and Tom Williams. Hector Amezcua hamezcua@sacbee.com
“This is what they call the death room,” said Tom Williams of the room where he and his wife Barbara Holmes now sleep. The room is believed to be where notorious Sacramento serial killer Dorothea Puente dismembered a body. Hector Amezcua hamezcua@sacbee.com
Once the bedroom of serial killer Dorothea Puente, this room is now used by the grandchildren of the home’s current owners, Tom Williams and Barbara Holmes. “They found empty pill capsules in drawers were she had taken the Dalmane and poured it into the drinks,” said Williams during a tour earlier this month. Hector Amezcua hamezcua@sacbee.com
A room in the basement of the home that Dorothea Puente was convicted of killing three people and charged with six other deaths. The room is now a craft room for the new owner Barbara Holmes. Hector Amezcua hamezcua@sacbee.com
A view from the kitchen at the former home of notorious Sacramento serial killer Dorothea Puente. Current owners Barbara Holmes and Tom Williams said that a wall, since removed, would have concealed some of her murderous activities. Hector Amezcua hamezcua@sacbee.com
A stairwell leads from the main floor to the basement at 1426 F Street, the Sacramento home where notorious serial killer Dorothea Puente committed her crimes. Current owner Tom Williams said earlier this month that the bodies would have been dragged down the stairs before being buried in the garden. Hector Amezcua hamezcua@sacbee.com
Ephemera related to the Dorothea Puente serial killer case
A collection of photos, showing the investigators that found the bodies of the victims of serial killer Dorothea Puente, hangs on the wall. Hector Amezcua hamezcua@sacbee.com
A prescription for medicine made out to Dorothea Puente, part of a collection of ephemera related to the crimes of the notorious serial killer, hangs in the hall of her former home. Hector Amezcua hamezcua@sacbee.com
The original handwritten recipe of Dorothea Puente’s garbanzo bean salad, part of a collection of ephemera related to the crimes of the notorious serial killer, hangs in the hall of her former home. Hector Amezcua hamezcua@sacbee.com
A framed document titled “Dorothea Puente Bar Crawl” lists the notorious Sacramento serial killer’s favorite Sacramento nightlife locations hangs in her former home. Hector Amezcua hamezcua@sacbee.com
A framed “Sacramento – I dig it!” T-shirt depicting notorious Sacramento serial killer Dorothea Puente hangs amid other memorabilia about the case on the wall of her former F Street home. Hector Amezcua hamezcua@sacbee.com
