Disturbed Ground: The True Story of the Arsenic and Old Lace Case Book

She didn't look like anybody's idea of a serial killer. But she could change her appearance and personality with lightning speed. Celebrated as a great benefactress, sometimes she was the local Mother Teresa. As socialite, she was the playful Dorothea who danced with Governor Jerry Brown. In the dim light of her neighborhood bar, she was a very desirable, flirtatious older woman. Some were convinced she was an accomplished surgeon. To all, however, and especially to the unfortunates who flocked around her, she was a paragon of generosity and compassion. How could someone so good be so bad? Dorothea Puente ran a boardinghouse on F Street in Sacramento, taking in the city's indigent and homeless. She fed them hearty meals, and tended her flock as if they were family. But when first one corpse, and then another, and another were dug up in her lovingly tended garden, it was clear that the genial landlady act disguised a psychopathic killer. Disturbed Ground takes the reader on a fascinating yet savage journey into the ingenious mind and deceptively warm heart of Dorothea Puente. Carla Norton has created a masterpiece portrait of a woman, her victims, and the epic trial of an American tragedy.