The trial lasted for five months, one hundred and fifty-three witnesses were called, one hundred pieces of evidence were submitted, and a scaled size replica of Dorothea’s house and garden sat on a table in the middle of the courtroom resembling a doll’s house that had been misplaced.
Probably one of the most damaging pieces of evidence provided by the prosecution was a video-tape the police had made of an interview with Dorothea. The video showed her blatantly lying to police. It also showed her claiming to have a bad heart, was unable to lift anything heavy, and, therefore, “couldn’t drag a body anyplace.” However, an ex-tenant, Robert French, testified that he had seen Dorothea lifting 95-pound sacks of concrete in the front yard to move them to the shelter. The concrete, the prosecution alleged, was later used to cover some of the gravesites.
Another boarder testified that he had complained to Dorothea about a stench “like death” pervading the house just days after Fink’s disappeared; Dorothea had told him that it was a problem with the sewer.
By the time the jury was sent out on July 15, 1993 to decide on Dorothea’s fate, the trial had lasted five months. The jury essentially had to decide whether Dorothea was a benevolent, unbalanced woman or a scheming, conning, murderous, old witch. On August 2nd, the jury informed the judge that they were deadlocked on all counts. The Judge sent them out again with some advice on how to break the deadlock. The jury returned on August the 25th with the news that they had reached a verdict on three counts but still remained deadlocked on six counts. It had become the longest murder trial deliberation in Californian history.
The jury had found Dorothea Puente guilty of first-degree murder of Dorothy Miller and Benjamin Fink and second-degree murder of Leona Carpenter. The judge ruled a mistrial on the other six counts. Dorothea, whiter than ever, displayed no emotion whatsoever when the verdict was read out to the court.
On Oct 7th, 1993, the judge once again sent the jury out to determine if Dorothea should receive the death sentence or life in prison with no parole. The defense paraded numerous witnesses through the court pleading with the jury to spare Dorothea’s life, saying how she had helped them. The jury was deadlocked, and Dorothy was given life in prison with no parole.
On Dec. 10, 1993, Dorothea Puente, at the age of sixty-four, was sent to Central California Women's Facility near Chowchilla for life with no possibility of parole.
Dorothea Puente died at the age of eighty-two from natural causes in prison on March 27th, 2011.
BLANCHE KISER TAYLOR MOORE
Blanche Kiser Taylor Moore was born on February the 17th, 1933 to Parker Davis Kiser and Flonnie Blanche (née Honeycutt) in Concord, North Carolina, the fifth born of a total of seven siblings. Her father Parker was a mill-worker, a hellfire-and-brimstone Baptist minister, womanizer, alcoholic, and gambler. As a child and young teenager, her father would sell her for sex to pay off his gambling debts. Flonnie worked as a mill-worker. Parker Davis Kiser and Flonnie divorced in 1959.
Blanche grew up into an attractive young woman. One article described her as “Long, lithe, with generous breasts, and a sleek round bottom perched on slender, perfectly shaped legs.” She was said to have had an energetic, outgoing, and friendly personality.
In 1952, at the age of nineteen, to escape her father’s abuse at home, Blanche married twenty-four-year-old James Napoleon Taylor, a furniture restorer, veteran, and who was five years her senior. They had two children together; Vanessa in 1953 and Cindi in 1959.
In 1954, Blanche began working at Kroger, the country's largest grocery store chain, as a cashier. In 1959, Blanche was proud to be promoted to head cashier which, at the time, was the highest job available for a female employee in the chain. Although her work situation was going well, it was a different story at home. James, like her father, had become a compulsive gambler and heavy drinker who would frequently disappear for entire weekends having spent all his money.
In 1962, Blanche started an affair with a married man and a father of two boys: Raymond Reid, who was the new manager of the Kroger store in which she worked.
In September of 1966, Blanche made an attempt at reconciliation with her father, Parker Davis, whom she had never forgiven for abandoning her mother or for her appalling childhood. Blanche went to stay with him and shortly after her arrival his health took a turn for the worse. Blanche stayed to nurse him, but he died suffering from violent stomach cramps and projectile vomiting. His death, at the age of 62, was attributed by doctors to a “heart attack triggered by chronic emphysema.”
In 1970, James’s mother Isla Taylor, became bed-ridden, and Blanche cleaned and cooked for her on a daily basis. Isla died on November 25, 1970. The local doctor attributed her death to natural causes, yet her symptoms had been very similar to those of Parker Davis. Isla left a modest inheritance to James.
James, who had cleaned up his act and stopped drinking, died in 1971. He had become ill with the flu and suffered symptoms of swollen glands, excruciating stomach pains, and swollen glands. He was hospitalized and died shortly after Blanche had visited him with some homemade ice-cream. The cause of his death was attributed to a heart attack. Blanche inherited all of James’s estate.
Following James’s death, Blanche and Raymond began to date publicly, and Raymond abandoned his wife and children. He rented a small apartment in Burlington and filed for a divorce. Blanche bought herself a new house in Burlington. Raymond’s divorce was finalized in 1973. Although Blanche and Raymond planned to marry, they never actually lived together.
In January 1985, Blanche’s house burned down. Blanche told a story about a suspicious looking man who broke into her home and stole her underwear. Her home insurance company provided her with enough money to buy a new mobile home in Sandy Cross, Burlington. The new second home burned down netting Blanche a second payout.
On Easter Sunday, 1985 Blanche met the Reverend Dwight Moore. He had become the new pastor in rural Alamance County of the Carolina United Church of Christ. Within a short time, they began meeting up for meals. Dwight was a handsome divorced father. They kissed on their second date and many years later Dwight said,
"I guess that's when the bells started to ring a little bit." He went on to say, "She was fairly attractive physically…She was a very good conversationalist, very interested in people. She had all the appearance of being kind. She had many of the qualities which would make for a good wife for a pastor."
In October of 1985, Blanche launched a sexual harassment suit against Kevin Denton, a regional manager for Kroger, and the Kroger Company itself. The case was settled eventually, two years later, out of court for $275,000 in Blanche’s favor. During this time, Blanche had to pretend that she was so traumatized by the sexual harassment that she was "completely alienated and antagonistic towards men and had not been able to maintain any meaningful social contacts with the opposite sex since.” This meant that her romance with Raymond had to be hidden as he still worked for Kroger; thus, it was in his best interest to keep the affair quiet. They both maintained to acquaintances and family that they were just friends. The lawsuit was also a convenient excuse to give to Rev. Dwight Moore as to why she didn’t want their affair public.
In this way, Blanche was able to maintain the affairs with both men.
Within a short time of the beginning of Blanche and Dwight’s affair, Blanche soon learned, through various conversations, of Dwight’s financial worth. He had divulged to her the amount he had in savings, his group and individual life insurance policies, retirement plan, death benefit package, and more. Altogether, the Reverend was worth around a quarter of a million dollars: a much better catch than Raymond Reid.
In 1986, Raymond Reid became ill with what doctor’s diagnosed as shingles. He then started to experience weakness and tingling in his extremities. He was hospitalized at the Baptist Hospital and for the next three months, his health would yoyo. While in the hospital, Blanche helped Raymond draw up a new will, naming herself as executor and beneficiary to one-third of
Raymond’s estate, the remainder to be divided between his sons.
One of the attending doctors at the hospital ordered tests for “heavy metals intoxication.” A urine sample showed six times the normal amount of arsenic in Raymond’s system, but the test results got lost in a nightmare of bureaucratic red tape and were never seen by the doctor.
The doctor’s finally diagnosed Raymond with an acute case of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a disease that has symptoms very similar to arsenic poisoning. Each day Raymond was in the hospital, Blanche visited him bringing home-cooked meals, puddings, and milk shakes. The hospital staff saw her as a woman devoted when, in fact, Blanche was poisoning Raymond right under the noses of the doctors and nurses. On October the 7th, 1986, Raymond died. The doctors wanted to carry out an autopsy, but Blanche persuaded Raymond’s sons not to give them permission.
Blanche received $45,797 from his life insurance and $30,000 from his estate. She also tricked Raymond’s two sons into handing her over yet more money saying they were going to start a family business. In fact, according to one report, Blanche gave the money to her two daughters, Cindi and Vanessa, to start a tanning business in Burlington.
Following Raymond’s death, Blanche and Dwight began meeting each other publicly, and they soon had plans to marry. However, Blanche developed cancer of the breast, and the wedding date was postponed to November of 1988. Then, due to a mysterious complaint of the intestines of Dwight’s, the wedding was postponed again to April of 1989.
The newly married couple spent their honeymoon in Montclair, New Jersey to visit Dwight’s newly born first grandchild and returned home on April the 26th, 1989.
On their first evening home, Blanche fixed Dwight a chicken sandwich after he had finished mowing the lawn. Shortly afterwards, he collapsed. For two days, he lay in bed suffering excruciating pain before being admitted to North Carolina Memorial, Hospital.
Blanche telephoned Dwight’s daughter Debbie and said he was just being admitted for some tests when, in fact, he was near death and for her not to worry about coming to the hospital.
Blanche, as she had with Raymond, visited Dwight everyday bringing him homemade ice-cream and milk shakes and yet again impressing the nurses with her devotion. The doctors, puzzled by Dwight’s symptoms, ordered a toxic screen test to be carried out.
The results of the toxic tests that came back were startling. Dwight possibly had in his body the highest dosage of arsenic ever recorded in anyone who was not a corpse.
The doctors immediately ordered that no food or drink except that given by the hospital was allowed to be given to Dwight and they posted a guard on his door. The police were called and began an investigation. Dwight, on being told by police and doctors of the results of the tests, thought he must have inhaled the poison while spraying the garden for pests. He adamantly rejected any suggestion that Blanche may have caused his illness.
The police investigators began to look into Blanche’s past. They interviewed Raymond Reid’s doctors and what they learned there left them in no doubt as to who had given the arsenic to Dwight.
Steve Balog, the Alamance County District Attorney, began seeking court orders for exhumations. The first body exhumed from Pine Hill Cemetery was that of Raymond Reid. Elevated levels of arsenic were found in his body. The police then exhumed Blanche’s first husband, James Taylor, also from Pine Hill Cemetery. Elevated levels of arsenic were also found in his body.
For the police, the summer of 1989 became nightmarish as more bodies exhumed with elevated levels of arsenic content, the greater the fears grew that the number of exhumations would only grow.
From Oakwood Cemetery in Mebane Blanche’s father, Parker Kiser, was exhumed. Blanche’s mother-in-law, Isla Taylor, was exhumed from Alamance Memorial Cemetery. All had elevated levels of Arsenic in their bodies.
The atmosphere in the police department became surreal. Cemeteries began to be referred to as “Blanche’s landfills.” The media began to pick up on the story as it had all the elements needed for a captivating story.
Finally, Dwight, who was slowly beginning to recover now that Blanche was forbidden to give him homemade treats with the medical evidence coming in, had to accept the awful truth that his new wife had tried to kill him. He filed for a divorce.
On July the 18th, 1989, Blanche was arrested at her Sandy Cross mobile home and taken to the Alamance County jail and charged with murdering Raymond Reid in the first-degree. Later in separate cases, they charged Blanche with the 1973 arsenic murder of her first husband, James N. Taylor, 45, and with two counts of assault with intent to kill Rev. Dwight. Moore.
THE TRIAL
Blanche’s trial began on October the 21st, 1990 in Winston-Salem.
Prosecutors introduced fifty-three witnesses who testified under oath that Blanche visited Raymond Reid daily in hospital bearing food. But despite these witnesses, Blanche testified that she had not.
On the witness stand she testified,
“I know there was arsenic in those men, but I didn’t put it there.”
The Reverend Dwight Moore, who was still far from well and still lacked feeling in his hands and feet, also testified against Blanche. He recalled that she had asked him to purchase some arsenic-based ant killer for her. He also described her daily visits to him in the hospital, bringing homemade food and beverages, which, at the time, he saw only as caring on her part.
In the prosecution‘s closing arguments they said,
In the defense closing arguments Blanche's attorney, Mitchell M. McEntire, argued that Blanche was a pious, churchgoing woman well-known for her kindness and could not possibly have committed such heinous deeds.
The jurors disagreed and on November the 14th, convicted Blanche of Raymond Reid’s murder. After a further three days of deliberations on November the 17th, 1991, the jury came back into court recommending the death penalty.
On November the 18th, the judge sentenced Blanche to die by lethal injection on January the 18th, 1991.
The prosecution never pursued the charges for the other murders and attempted murder of Dwight Moore, feeling there was little point as she was already condemned to die.
Blanche Taylor Moore
However, because of appeals, Blanche Taylor Moore is still residing on death row at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women as of today, April 18th 2013, twenty four years after her arrest.
Blanche, to this day, still emphatically claims her innocence.
Her brother, Sam Kiser, has been quoted as saying,
"As God is my witness, I do not see a dark side to my sister nor have I ever seen a dark side," and "She was more willing to give to people than to receive from people. She didn't believe in making her good deeds known. She was just a caring person."
Blanche Moore, when she entered prison, was not in very good health. She suffered a reoccurrence of breast cancer and required chemotherapy and radiation therapy. The side effects of the chemotherapy and radiation have left her extremities in pain and her feet so numb she has to use a walker. She lost her toenails, fingernails, and hair.
Her cancer treatments in prison have been sporadic. When Blanche is sent to a doctor outside the prison, she has to be shackled at the wrists and legs and escorted by four prison guards in two vehicles. Once at the physician’s office, she is paraded through the waiting areas in her shackles.
During her time in prison, Blanche has suffered two incidents of violence against her, both in the early years of her incarceration. Once, she was choked badly and nearly suffocated. In the other attack, Blanche, whilst, carrying a pot of boiling water was struck with a broom handle by another inmate.
Her days in prison row are monotonously the same. She wears the yellow smock that is compulsory attire for death row women prisoners. Her only jewellery is a small jeweled-cross necklace.
The prisoners are awakened at 5:30 for breakfast, lunch is given at 10:30 a.m., and supper is at 4 p.m., and they must be in bed by 11:30 p.m. The harsh lights in th
e cells remain on 24 hours a day. Blanche’s brother, Sam, sent her in a mask to block out the light so she could sleep.
She spends her days listening to the radio or watching television news stations. She devours books, knits, and crochets.
In an interview, Blanche said,
“The hardest part for me is not to be able to get up and get a glass of tea or sit on the front porch and watch nature or phone a friend or get into a car and drive to the mall to walk around.”
Sam Kiser, who believes his sister is innocent, tries to visit Blanche at least once a month.
Blanche’s lawyers in 2010, and eleven other death-row inmate’s lawyers from Forsyth County, filed a motion to convert their sentences to life imprisonment based on the state's Racial Justice Act.
Blanche’s lawyers prior to this filed two motions to transfer the sentence to life without possibility of parole. The first was turned down in 1998. The second, filed in 2001, cited exculpatory evidence withheld from defense in the case; it, too, was denied.
Blanche is now the oldest inmate on North Carolina's death row.
Rev Dwight Moore lives with his wife, Kaye, in Nathalie, Virginia. He says of Blanche that he,
"Never felt the need for vengeance and has no desire to see her executed. Nor has he any objection to her efforts to get off death row.”
Dwight said in an interview that the nerve damage he suffers as a result of the arsenic poisoning is a constant reminder of his and Blanche’s relationship.
"The worst lingering effect has been the tremors in my hands and weakness in my legs along with peripheral neuropathy," said Dwight.
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