Killers of 2 homeless men for insurance get life without parole

[gristy]

Source: LA Times

A Los Angeles judge today sentenced two women to life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing homeless men in a coldblooded years-long scheme for $2.8 million in life insurance money.

Helen Golay, 77, and Olga Rutterschmidt, 75, grabbed international headlines for their slow-motion murders of two homeless men they lured off the street, housed and cared for for two years, then ran over for life insurance claims. Prosecutors said the women were abusing a law that says insurers cannot contest life policies after two years.

In 1999, Vados, the first victim, was found dead in a Hollywood alley in an apparent hit-and-run accident, after which the women collected about $600,000 in insurance claims. Authorities got suspicious when the same two women claimed the body and profited from the 2005 death of McDavid, whose mangled body showed the same upper-body injuries as Vados.

Authorities found McDavid's DNA in the undercarriage of a 1999 Mercury Sable station wagon, which someone using Golay's auto club membership had towed on the night of McDavid's death in Westwood.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-olgahelen16-2008jul16,0,5422268.story

[madeline_con]

1. OOPS! LOL! Perfect crime gone terribly awry!

This reminds me of the funeral home director and his wife who tried to pull the same sort of insurance fraud on a guy who worked for them (on one of those Bill Curtis shows). He was run over, too, but the "hit and run" was suspicious. Old ladies watch too much TV.

[Turbineguy]

2. But...

will they be allowed to vote for McCain?

[Retired AF Dem]

3. Waiting for the compassion posts

They are old they shouldnt be in prison.

[slackmaster]

4. Or "They were always good neighbors" or "My granny didn't kill nobody"

:argh:

[Retired AF Dem]

6. No "compassion" here

Release denied for dying Manson follower

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A follower of Charles Manson who stabbed pregnant actress Sharon Tate to death nearly 40 years ago but is dying of brain cancer in a California prison was denied compassionate release Tuesday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080715/ap_on_re_us/manson_follower

Just breaks my heart. NOT

[willing dwarf]

7. Plenty of people feed on the body of the homeless

Working as a social worker for a soup kitchen in Philadelphia, I've seen so many cases where people are being held to having almost no life at all, just so somebody can get their check. There's a designated payee for SSI for people who are deemed incompetent due to mental illness or mental or physical disablity. Probably most of the time the designated payee is a decent person, but sometimes they are people who are really just feeding off the disabled person. It's outrageous, and very hard to change.

So in that regard, it seems odd that these two women would have killed these homeless guys (if instead, they could have been their designated payee.)

I think if there were compassion it should go to the poor homeless people who fight off the vultures who would feed off them even before their dead.

[rasputin1952]

5. Apparently, when it comes to gaining money, neither age nor

gender is a deterrent for some.

A bad re-write of "Arsenic and Old Lace".

Murder, particularly for financial gain is abhorrent as it had to be premeditated.

I can find little compassion for people who would take the lives of others, simply to get another dollar.