Halloween

1. Halloween Haunted houses are a chilling reminder of the depravity of some of the world’s worst criminals. Many of the fun activities we enjoy in Halloween, originate from dark, scary events. The creepiness of haunted mansions have come from stories such as Dorothea Puente. Puente was a charming grandma-like figure in her community. She was involved in community service and in local politics. The people that knew her, thought she was a nice lady. She would often share food with her neighbors. It wasn’t until a social worker noticed that someone was missing, that prompted an investigation in Puente’s home. Officers upon arrival at the Puente’s residence, requested permission to look around. With Puente’s permission, the officers were able to take a look around the home. Upon arriving at the backyard, they decided to dig up a particular place that looked different than the rest. What they found was chilling, an arm that was the beginning of a long excavation by law enforcement to unearth seven bodies. Puente committed all these crimes, while successfully keeping the other people living there from suspecting that anything wrong was going on. She would often explain that the smell of rotting flesh was coming from septic problems, or from dying rats. Puente had been drugging and murdering her victims and there was a whole backyard to prove it. The most unnerving aspect of it all, was Puente’s lack of emotion during the digging and later trial for her crimes. Perhaps we toy around with those ideas that reminds us of these crimes to help us be warned of the unsuspecting dangers we can potentially face.