Dorothea Helen Gray was born on January 9, 1929 in Redlands, California. Her parents were Trudy Mae Yates and Jesse James Gray. They were both alcoholics and were both cotton pickers. Her father died when she was 8 from tuberculosis and her mother died a year later from being in a motorcycle accident. She was sent to an orphanage until one of her family members from Sacramento came to take her under their wing. Dorothea lied about her childhood by saying that she was one of three children and that they were born and raised in Mexico. Dorothea was married a total of 4 times, her first time being when she was just 16 to a soldier named Fred McFaul. She had two daughters with him between 1946 and 1948. Unfortunately, she gave one of them to the family out in Sacramento and the other one she put up for adoption. McFaul left her and she was very embarrassed so she told everyone that he had died …show more content…
After her marriage with McFaul, she forged checks but was eventually caught and sentenced to 1 year in jail and was paroled after 6 months. In 1960 she was arrested for owning and managing a brothel and was sentenced to 90 days in Sacramento County Jail. After getting out the second time she was arrested again but for vagrancy and was sentenced to another 90 days in jail. After her marriage with Montalvo she would look in bars for older men who were receiving benefits, she forged their signatures to steal money but was eventually caught and charged with 34 counts of treasury fraud. While on probation, she continued to commit the same fraud. After her third time in jail she found work as a nurses aid, caring for disabled and elderly people in private homes. Shortly after that, she started managing boarding houses. After her marriage with Puente, she took over a 3 story 16-bedroom care home at 2100 F Street in Sacramento, California. In 1981 she started renting an upstairs apartment at 1426 F Street in downtown