Golay and Rutterschmidt- The Black Widow Murders

Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt were two elderly people who were found guilty of killing Paul Vados in 1999 and Kenneth McDavid in 2005, both of whom were homeless.

In the year 1933, Olga Rutterschmidt was born in Hungary. She moved to the United States in 1957. She and her husband ran a coffee shop in Los Angeles. After getting divorced in the 1970s, she moved to Hollywood.

In 1931, Helen Golay was born in Texas. She lived in a house worth $1.5 million and also owned three rental properties.

Golay and Rutterschmidt faked the deaths of Vados and McDavid to look like hit-and-run accidents so they could collect the multimillion-dollar life insurance policies they had taken out on the men.

Helen Golay, the elderly woman made a lot of money in real estate in Southern California before she started helping homeless men get off the streets. Olga Rutterschmidt, an immigrant from Hungary was Helen's partner.

The Victims

On November 8, 1999, 73-year-old homeless man Paul Vados was discovered dead in an alley at 307 North La Brea Avenue in Hollywood, California, he appeared to have been a victim of a hit-and-run. After his wife died, he struggled with depression, loneliness, and drinking. Before he met Helen and Olga, he was living on the street.

Vados had immigrated to the United States from Hungary in 1956.

The authorities use fingerprints to identify the man as 73-year-old Hungarian immigrant Paul Vados. His fiancee, Helen Golay, and his cousin, Olga Rutterschmidt, had lately reported him as missing.

Rutterschmidt arrives at the police station days later requesting Vados' death certificate. Unlike the majority of individuals whose family had been killed, Rutterschmidt did not show any sign of grief. This was suspicious.

In 1997, Golay and Rutterschmidt began applying for life insurance policies on Vados, naming themselves as beneficiaries. Golay and Rutterschmidt received payouts from eight different life insurance policies after his death.

Second Victim

From November 2002 to March 2003, Golay and Rutterschmidt took out thirteen insurance totaling $3,700,000.00 on McDavid. Golay and Rutterschmidt were listed as McDavid's business partner, cousin, or fiancée on different insurance applications.

Six years later, on June 22, 2005. The LAPD receives another 911 call regarding a victim of a hit-and-run in a dark alley. According to CCTV video, a silver 1999 Mercury Sable station wagon struck him to death.

His chest and skull have been crushed, which is exceedingly unusual for a victim of a hit-and-run. He also had what seems to be oil from an automobile's undercarriage splattered on his clothing, leading detective Dennis Kilcoyne to suspect that McDavid was lying down, maybe unconscious, when he was run over.

Before their arrest, Golay got $1,540,767.05 in insurance proceeds from McDavid's death, while Rutterschmidt received $674,571.89.

Trial and Sentencing

Jimmy Covington, a 48-year-old homeless man, said in court that Rutterschmidt had talked to him. Covington said she took him to a Burger King to eat and promised to help him find a place to stay and get help with welfare and other services for the poor.

He said in court that he moved out after a few days because Golay and Rutterschmidt making him sign papers and ask for his date of birth, SSN, and other identifying information made him suspicious.

Conversations between Golay and Rutterschmidt while they were in jail were secretly recorded and used as part of the prosecution's case. In one talk, Rutterschmidt told Golay: "You did all these insurances extra. That's what raised the suspicion. You can't do that. Stupidity. You're going to go to jail, honey. They going to lock you up."

They were both tried, found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.