Two elderly American women, who hatched a plot to collect life insurance pay outs, are being charged with murder this month. The pair claimed to be engaged or related to homeless men in order to collect life insurance funds after killing them.
Helen Golay (77) and Olga Rutterschmidt (75) ran down two homeless men in a car, with the intention of receiving large life insurance pay outs. Helen Golay told the authorities that she was each of the men’s fiancé in order to make a claim and Olga Rutterschmidt claimed to be the men’s cousin. Both women will face a life sentence with no condition of parole for good behaviour. According to the ABC website: “Deputy District Attorney Truc Do laid out for the jury evidence of a murder plan that was hatched years before it was carried out. There were 21 life insurance policies taken out on strangers.” Truc Do said.
Two homeless men had insurance policies which the women had bought them and each was worth a lot of money. $829,500 was what could be paid out upon the death of Paul Vados and $5,790,000 would be paid out if Kenneth McDavid died. The women had hoped to reap the rewards of their investments by killing the men and securing the life insurance funds.
One of the victim’s sisters spoke out about the lack of human empathy exhibited by the women in the case; she said she was a nurse who saved lives for a living and that it was hard to imagine what these women were thinking.
In an article published online by the Los Angeles Times it was said by Michael Sklar, Rutterschmidt’s defendant that: “Olga Rutterschmidt lacked savvy, was ‘simple-minded’ and even ‘stupid’.” Sklar added. "I can't tell you how a person can be that stupid. I can only tell you that she was," he also alleged that Golay planned the murders but didn’t tell Rutterschmidt about the scheme, which spanned over eight years and involved the purchase of policies for several men.
"That [car] was used by Helen Golay to kill Mr. McDavid, no question," he said, referring to the 1999 Mercury Sable station wagon on which authorities found McDavid's DNA. Golay's auto club membership was used to call for a tow on that vehicle the night of the alleged murder.
The black widows insurance scam wasn’t the only insurance story in the American press this month though. A woman was found guilty of forging her niece’s signature in order to prove that she was the child’s guardian. Her intention was then to receive $10,000 dollars in life insurance pay outs from Monumental Life Insurance Company.
The woman, Robin R. Francisco (48) took the money which rightfully belonged to the child of her brother and the child’s mother and would not have been found out if it were not for investigations by the Fraud Investigations Division. Francisco pleaded guilty on trial and will now spend five years in prison, with a potential probated five years following that and she must repay $10,000 dollars back to Monumental Insurance. Her final sentence will be passed on May the 5th.
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