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July 19, 2008 A kindly case of murderBy Bob WeirThis week in Los Angeles, two elderly women were sentenced to life in prison without parole for murdering two indigent men to collect insurance policies taken out on their lives. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Wesley sentenced 77-year-old Helen Golay and 75-year-old Olga Rutterschmidt to two consecutive life terms each. The women were convicted of a scheme in which they befriended homeless men, took out insurance policies on them and then killed them in murders staged to look like hit-and-run auto accidents. Prosecutors say the women collected $2.8 million before the scheme was uncovered. Both women were convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to murder for financial gain in the death of Paul Vados, 73, and Kenneth McDavid, 50. Both victims were run over by cars in dark alleys after the women allowed a period of time to elapse after the policies were taken out on them. The case reminds me of the classic movie, Arsenic and Old Lace, about a pair of elderly sisters who had an unusual method of ending the presumed suffering of "lonely old bachelors;" they poisoned them and buried them in the basement. Cary Grant, who played their shocked and bewildered nephew, Mortimer, gave a zany performance as he tried to cover up for the seemingly kind and gracious, but deadly, duo. The movie gave audiences a light-hearted look at murder by employing a series of comical scenes in which the dead bodies were moved from place to place to stay ahead of the police. Of course, there's nothing comical about murder, but humor has often been used to take some of the horror out of homicide. In the Los Angeles case, the attorney for the black widows denied that his clients had been involved in a murder conspiracy. Rather, he said their idea was to insure old, sick homeless people and then, believing that they wouldn't last long, merely wait for them to die in order to collect. The fact that 2 of them happened to get flattened by vehicles that left the scene in the middle of the night was nothing more than a coincidence. Also, the fact that the women took the men into their home, provided food and shelter, while filling out applications for insurance on the them, didn't mean they were getting them ready to be a profit center for the septuagenarian females, according to their lawyer. When sentencing the murderous matrons to two consecutive life terms, the judge said the unfortunate victims had been sacrificed on the altar of greed by a kindly-looking couple of elderly women who no one would have ever suspected of having such evil intent. Part of the evidence that convicted them was a secretly recorded videotape of the defendants in a lockup after their arrests. The 75 year-old was criticizing the 77 year-old for taking out 23 insurance policies over a period of a few years. She told her accomplice that it was the large amount of policies that raised a red flag when the investigation into the deaths began. "It's your fault," Rutterschmidt admonished Golay. "You can't have that many insurances. You were greedy. That's the problem." Not once did the licentious ladies show any signs that they understood the gravity of the crimes they committed. On the contrary, they talked about it in cold business terms, as though the murders were just dollar signs on a ledger sheet that they had added up incorrectly. It causes me to wonder if the defense of insanity was proposed during the legal proceedings before trial. After all, if they believe that avarice was their only failing, it would appear that they have no conscience about taking human life. I also wonder how they were able to collect almost $3 million from insurance companies who have some of the best detectives in the world to keep their employers from having to shell out for fraudulent claims. This should have been a ground ball for gumshoes to uncover.
Yet, two old ladies with a malevolent view of humanity and no compunction about how to live prosperously in their declining years were able to pull off a multi-million dollar scam. And many people believe that old age leads to diminished physical and mental capacity. There's no indication that these two senior citizens were any less cerebral or cold-hearted than criminally-minded counterparts half their age. I'll never look at grandmothers the same way again. Bob Weir is a former detective sergeant in the New York City Police Department. He is the executive editor of The News Connection in Highland Village, Texas. Email Bob. |
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Comments
Regardless of their guilt or innocence in the deaths of these two men, their admission to taking out 23 life insurance policies so that they might live off the proceeds is both immoral and indefensible. They were playing a futures market with lives. That one or more insurance companies would sell them the policies is just as immoral and indefensible.
Posted by: Bob Myer | July 19, 2008 09:31 AM
They were probably amoral their entire lives and this is just the first,(?), time they acted out.
Posted by: David Bueche | July 19, 2008 11:08 AM
I'm shocked ... SHOCKED ...
that a jury in Los Angeles would actually find these two guilty, let alone sentence them to life in prison.
As one who lived in the once-golden state of CA for over 30 years before bailing out to escape the nuttiness, I am comforted to know there are at least 12 people in LA that have escaped the moonbat philosophy that overwhelms the majority.
Congratulations on doing something right (as in correct) for a change, Los Angeles.
Posted by: Scott | July 19, 2008 11:19 AM
What is surprising to me ishow they could have been able to get insurance on two indigents. Not too long ago,insurance companies required a report on any applicant for a life policy of $100,000 or more, substantiating their existence, character and apparent state of health.
If they are not doing this anymore, I would think it highly probable that a lot of much swindlers smarter than this heartlesss two are at work.
Posted by: stuart williiamson | July 19, 2008 03:09 PM
You wonder that the media didn't clamor for some root cause, some youthful malady that might have impelled them to such actions. Zionistic imperialism, for example.
Posted by: Jewel | July 19, 2008 05:27 PM
Good point stuart williiamson.
I got life insurance months ago and had to submit to a battery of ID and health tests.
The ease with which these 2 hags got 23 insurance applications approved reminds me of our current mortgage crisis.
Posted by: Raemon | July 19, 2008 06:23 PM
Maybe the enlightened government of California - not wanting to discriminate against the homeless - forces these insurers into not looking too intently on the policy holders.
Posted by: George S | July 19, 2008 08:29 PM
California follows the M'Naghten rule, which presumes sanity in the accused. The presumption is rebuttable with proof that the accused was so mentally defective when [in this case] she committed the crime that she did not understand the nature and quality of the act or, if she did know what she was doing, she did not know it was wrong. Psychopaths and sociopaths, which these two clearly are, whether late bloomers or life-long, don't qualify. They should fit right in where they will be spending the rest of their golden years.
Posted by: GCA | July 19, 2008 11:21 PM