All language subtitles for American Greed s04e02 The Black Widows.eng

This is a CNBC original.

In this episode of American Greed, two
grannies in jail.

Caught on tape.

Their cold -blooded murder -for -money
plot is

finally up.

They'd already murdered two men who was
going to murder me.

Their story is about to unravel.

They just fed them and housed them like
animals, just for the sole purpose of

killing them. And it sounds just like
something out of a Hollywood movie.

I think I still could not really get my
brain around the fact that these two

geriatrics had executed this guy.

Los Angeles, California, June 22, 2005.

In the early morning hours, traffic
detective Nelson Hernandez gets a call

what looks like a hit -and -run in the
upscale neighborhood of Westwood.

There was a man in the alley, dead, and
they wanted me to come out and

investigate him.

A middle -aged man lies face -up in the
center of the alley.

There's a bicycle a few feet away.

The front wheel is off.

as though the man had been changing a
tire when he was hit by a car.

We checked the tire, and it was hard. It
had air in it.

And then the other thing was, well, if
he's going to work on the tire, why

he put his helmet on top of this other
tire?

It just didn't make any sense.

And why would he stop here in darkness?

Why wouldn't he just walk the bike down
to the end of the alley where there's

light?

The man has nothing in his pockets
except for two photo IDs.

So it was very clear that someone wanted
to tell us who this guy was.

His name is Kenneth McDavid.

Hernandez notes that McDavid's clothes
are covered in grease, most likely from

the bottom of a car, unusual for a hit
-and -run.

Usually pedestrians will get hit and
then they will either get pushed to the

side of the road or will flip over the
car and they will land someplace else.

They will not have all that grease from
the undercarriage.

So there were a few things here that
just didn't look right.

Once the sun comes up, Hernandez combs
the area for witnesses and inquires

any surveillance video taken that night.

One of the stores on the block has
several cameras in the alley.

We looked at the video that this camera
had captured.

and we could see taillights of vehicles
entering the alley and traveling

southbound in the alley.

The camera doesn't capture the victim,
but there's something suspicious about

one of the cars that enters the alley.

The brake lights came on, all lights
went out.

The lights came on five minutes later,
and the vehicle just drove off.

It appeared to be a Ford Taurus or a
Mercury Stable station wagon.

He can't make out the license plate
number. All he has is the possible make

model of the car and the dead man's IDs.

He follows the only lead he has,
McDavid's last known address, 1843

Lane. We made a follow -up to that
address.

We talked to the manager, and she said,
yeah, he used to live here. He used to

live on the fourth floor.

Ken McDavid played classical piano and
worked as a disc jockey in his hometown

of Sacramento.

He moves to L .A. to try his hand at
writing screenplays.

He can't make it as a screenwriter and
eventually becomes homeless.

The building manager at 1843 Cherokee
Lane tells Detective Hernandez what she

knows about McDavid.

An older woman named Helen Golay takes
him off the streets and pays his bills

for many months.

She appeared to be a well -to -do type
person.

Why would this lady allow this
supposedly homeless man to stay in her

for so many months?

Before Hernandez can track Golay down,
he finds out that she's gone to the

morgue, claiming to be McDavid's
fiancée. She identifies the body and

that he be cremated. Then things get
stranger.

Another woman, Olga Ruderschmidt, who
claims to be McDavid's cousin, shows up

the police station asking for a copy of
the police report.

Usually when a family member comes to
the station, they're hurting because

loved one died.

So they want us to explain to them the
report.

Many cases, you know, they cry and so on
and so forth, and they have questions.

Not in this case.

They basically come in, get the copy,
and out the door.

Rudderschmidt's cold, businesslike
demeanor leaves a profound impression.

And then, more red flags.

Toxicology comes back.

Ken McDavid's body has large amounts of
two prescription medications, including

a sleep aid, Ambien.

Why would you be taking a sleeping pill
if you're going to go out and ride your

bike?

Hernandez begins to wonder if Ken
McDavid's death was no accident, if

set him up.

But if it's murder, what's the motive?

It was just frustrating. I just didn't
have enough to be able to solve this

case.

Time passes with no new leads.

Two months after Ken McDavid's death, a
life insurance claim comes in to money,

Mutual of New York.

Ed Webster is an investigator assigned
to the case.

The claim is for $1 million.

The beneficiaries were Olga Ruderschmidt
and Helen Golay. The contract was

written. in the context that Kenneth
McDavid was a businessman.

These two women were his business
partners in a company called HKO

which, you know, is an acronym for
Helen, Kenneth, and Olga.

They claimed that he made about $60 ,000
in annual income and that if he passed,

their business would be adversely
affected.

Ed Webster soon discovers that Helen and
Olga told police that they were

McDavid's fiancé and cousin.

not business partners.

Something doesn't feel right.

Webster flies to L .A. to try to get
some answers.

There had been a medical examiner's
report, and when I looked at that, it

the first time I saw Kenneth McDavid
represented as a homeless man, which

in the face of all the documents that we
had underwriting.

And there is more.

The address that was listed as his home
address.

was actually Helen's address in Santa
Monica.

The address that was listed on the
application as his business address was

Olga's address in West Hollywood.

So those were clearly misrepresented.

It looks like Helen and Olga are
definitely in business together. The

is, what kind of business?

They take in a homeless man, apply for a
million -dollar life insurance policy

on him, lie about their relationships to
him, and now he's dead.

Webster tries to schedule a meeting with
Helen Golay and Olga Ruderschmidt to

ask them about Ken McDavid.

To his surprise, all he gets is doors
slammed in his face.

Neither of these two women would speak
with me.

Ever.

They would never call me back.

They left cards in the mailbox.

I screamed from the sidewalk. I did
everything.

And they just flat out refused to talk
to me.

Their expectation was to collect the
million dollars in life insurance

Answering my questions would certainly
be one step towards fulfilling that

and they just wouldn't do it.

The two women's reaction makes Webster
even more suspicious.

He decides it's time to talk to the
LAPD.

When he and Detective Hernandez put the
evidence they found together, they're

confident there's more to Ken McDavid's
death.

Why would this lady be taking life
insurance policies on a guy that

be homeless?

Hernandez shows Webster the grainy
surveillance video taken of the alley.

As they start to piece the puzzle
together, the two women who come across

nice old grannies are beginning to look
like cold -blooded killers.

They paid a lot of money in premiums for
a million dollars worth of life

insurance. And they paid a lot of money
for rent and housing. So if you take all

of that in mind, the only way that they
could capitalize on their investment is

if he died.

Next on American Green, a coincidence
that's too close for comfort for police

reveals another victim of the killer
granny.

In Los Angeles, Detective Nelson
Hernandez investigates a hit and run in

Westwood alley. The victim, Ken McDavid,
was once a homeless man.

until two older women take him in and
put him up in an apartment.

But a puzzle is unraveling, and now what
once appeared to be two grannies

lending a helping hand is starting to
look suspicious.

The two women file for benefits on two
insurance policies they take out on

McDavid. The total?

One million dollars.

Detective Fernandez talks about the case
with a colleague, Detective Willman,

when they make a startling discovery.

That's Lee.

It just didn't make any sense.

I got this guy in the alley, and now I
got this insurance guy telling me that

these two old ladies in their 70s have
insurance policies on this guy totaling

million dollars.

He had mentioned that the guy was in an
alley, got hit by a car, and had life

insurance policies.

I'm thinking in my mind, hey, I had this
before, too.

I walked back to where we keep our
unsolved fatals in our cold cases.

Well, back in November of 99, this is
who I was dealing with.

Detective Willman's victim is Paul
Vados.

In 1999, Vados, a homeless man, is found
dead in an alley, an apparent victim of

a hit -and -run.

Two older ladies claim to be next of
kin.

And he said, did you get the names of
those two ladies?

And I said, yeah, one of them is Olga,
the other one is Helen.

They're the same names that I got for my
two old ladies.

Do you have a phone number for them? He
says, wait a minute, that's the same

phone number that I got for my two old
ladies.

When Detective Willman talks to Helen
Golay, she claims to be Varus' fiancée.

She had zero emotion on the phone about
what happened, and most people do.

Later, Olga Ruderschmidt follows up with
a phone call claiming to be Paul Varos'

cousin. She came in a couple weeks later
for a copy of the police report.

She had no emotion. She had no interest
in the investigation. She just wanted to

get the police report and leave.

The parallels between Paul Varos' case
in 1999 and Ken McDavid's in 2005 are a

little too close for comfort.

Two homeless men with sizable life
insurance policies literally run over

crushed to death in two different
alleys.

Made the hair on the back of my neck
stand up. Gave me the kind of chilling

feeling. And that's when we looked at
each other and it was, bingo, we got

than a traffic accident here. These two
old ladies are killing the homeless.

The irony of the situation doesn't
escape them.

Two detectives who sit across from each
other just happened to hit on two

identical cases?

It was a miracle, basically.

The odds of us sharing the same
information, the odds are just one in a

billion.

Insurance investigator Ed Webster hears
about the new development in the case

and begins pounding the pavement.

If what he and the police suspect is
right was a method to how Helen and

find and choose their victims.

He has a theory that the two women are
searching out victims on skid row and in

treatment centers.

The perfect vehicle for these women to
capture these fellows would be in rehabs

or AA meetings where people are open.

They can identify people who don't have
family. They can identify homeless

people. You know, they can identify
people that would not be missed.

His hunch pays off.

I was able to find the Presbyterian
Church in North Hollywood where they

actually were capturing these guys.

Vados was there, McDavid was there, and
there were predictable gatherings of

homeless people there. So that was like
a home run for me.

Ken McDavid and Paul Vados were regulars
at Hollywood Presbyterian Church's

homeless shelter.

Two of the seemingly good souls who come
to help out are Helen Golay and Olga

Ruderschmidt.

Pastor Charles Sujeda remembers them.

My first impression of Helen and Olga
was good.

They were nicely dressed.

Now, they didn't actually talk about
volunteering there or serving there at

but they did express an interest and
wanted to know what we were doing.

If they're coming for the first time, we
always explain to them a little bit

about history and how people can
actually volunteer in the program.

They do reach out to a few of the
homeless men.

They seem interested in their plight.

But they're not.

They prey on their desperation and
isolation.

They tell them each the same story. They
can help.

They offer what's irresistible to a
homeless person, food and shelter.

What the homeless men don't know is that
the women have a plan, and it's time to

perfection.

They immediately take out insurance
policies on the men, saying they are

business partners or relatives.

Then they wait.

It takes two years before they can
collect on the insurance policies.

They guard their prey like investments
for that two -year period.

By housing them for two years, they
would know who they communicated with

who they didn't communicate with, and
that there was nobody.

They would become totally dependent on
these two women, and they would know

conversation and phone calls, whatever,
that they had nobody else.

So they would feel comfortable in having
them disappear.

Once the two years are up and the women
can collect, the men are history.

And they start looking for their next
victim.

In downtown L .A., Jimmy Covington is
down on his luck, living on the streets.

Mostly the hardest part of being out
there is just trying to get back up out

the street because you need a little
help. I mean, I can work a little bit,

I just couldn't get the housing that I
needed, and I couldn't get the medical

attention at first, and I had to really
struggle to get those things.

Olga watches Jimmy.

He sleeps behind a church, and the
security guard has just kicked him out.

One day, while Covington is walking in
downtown L .A., Olga approaches him.

Olga approached me, she came right up to
me and asked me, are you homeless?

I kind of said, well, why were you
asking? She said, real anxious.

Well, I'm an advocate for homeless, and
I've helped other homeless guys, and I

can get you benefits, and I can get you
$2 ,000 a month, plus I can pay you $15

a day, and I also have a little place
for you to stay right now if you want to

come up and fill out some paperwork for
me.

I said, okay, I'll try it out. Where's
this place at? She said, right behind

up there.

I went, whoa, okay.

I'll go up and see what this woman's all
about.

Olga takes Jimmy to an office building
across the street near the intersection

of El Centro and Hollywood Boulevard.

She takes him upstairs to a small office
space that's sparsely furnished.

She came back the next day and she had
some more paperwork.

And then she started wanting my mother's
name and her Social Security number and

her maiden name and my dad's stuff and
all their medical background and

I said, I don't have that information
for you right now. I can't get it.

She started banging on the desk, and her
fist was sticking out, and her eyes

were sticking out.

I'm just thinking that she's not right.
I don't know what her situation was.

Jimmy lives at the office building on El
Centro for four days, but he reaches

the breaking point when he hears Helen
and Olga fighting outside his door.

And I said, here, here's your key back.
I shut the door, and I left.

A smart move.

as Jimmy will later realize.

Helen and Olga apply for an $800 ,000
life insurance policy on his head.

Unlike Vados and McDavid, Jimmy
Covington lives to tell about it.

Back at the LAPD, detectives Hernandez
and Willman confront the shocking truth

about Helen and Olga.

It seemed to me unimaginable to think
that two old ladies in their 70s could

be conspiring to kill.

homeless people.

The case is getting big, and LAPD's
homicide squad is called in.

Next on American Greed, with an
undercover camera rolling, Helen and

finally talk.

What they say could land them in prison.

And later, do the pair have another
potential victim in their sight?

In Los Angeles...

Two men, Ken McDavid and Paul Vados, are
found dead in two different alleys six

years apart.

LAPD detectives believe both men were
killed by Helen Golay and Olga

Rudderschmidt. But Helen and Olga are
unlikely suspects, both in their 70s

no criminal records.

Most of the population we deal with, we
plug their name into these computers.

The computers start smoking and spit out
30 pages of information.

With Helen and Olga, there's nothing.

We don't know if they're related. We
don't know what their connection is. We

don't know what their connection is to
the victim, if any.

The women are put on round -the -clock
surveillance.

24 police officers watch their every
move.

Detective Sanchez and I are kind of
floundering around trying to figure out,

well, what are we going to get in the
daily lives of Helen and Olga? What are

going to learn?

We started reaping the rewards of the
surveillance almost immediately.

And we started learning who they would
go see during the day, where they went,

where they banked.

They're the perfect odd couple.

Helen Golay drives a Mercedes and lives
just a few blocks from the ocean in

upscale Santa Monica.

She's a creature of habit. She lunches
at Izzy's Deli several times a week and

gets a reputation as a bad tipper.

Olga, an immigrant from Hungary, is
athletic.

She takes long walks and climbs steep
trails through the Hollywood Hills.

To our amazement, they were never, ever
seen together.

And it's not like Olga comes over for
pot roast on Thursday nights or

It's just nothing.

With surveillance on the suspect
underway, detectives meet with the

family. Ken McDavid's family is
surprised to hear he had a fiancée.

He never mentioned these ladies or never
mentioned a fiancé.

Their names never came up.

Meanwhile, Ed Webster, the insurance
investigator for Mutual of New York, is

compiling a mountain of evidence.

I was able to call other companies just
to determine if they had coverage, and I

found that there was a lot more coverage
on McDavid and there was a lot of

coverage on Vados, all of which was in
favor of Helen and Olga.

There wasn't a single contract out there
that had anyone else as a beneficiary.

In fact, there are 20 insurance policies
with a face value of more than $5

million.

Armed with what he thinks is a good
cause to pull the plug on his company's

insurance, Webster returns to the
women's homes to get some answers, this

with LAPD homicide detective Rosemary
Sanchez by his side.

But they can't get in.

Helen's house is surrounded by an eight
-foot wooden gate, and she won't answer

the door.

At Holder's residence, they meet
resistance of a different kind.

Ed's knocking on the door.

Who is it?

He identifies himself, Ed Webster from
Mutual of New York.

Immediately, she's busy now. She can't
come to the door. She's taking a bath.

So we said we'd wait for her.

No, no, no, no.

I don't want to talk to you. Well, we'll
come back later. No, no, I have nothing

to say. She did not want to talk to Ed
Webster at all.

But now Webster has another card to
play.

He calls Helen Golay and sets up a
meeting at her favorite deli, supposedly

deliver her insurance check.

We were just reaching for anything that
was going to help us build our murder

case. In our minds, now we're thinking,
okay, they're murderers, and we've got

to get them off the street here.

Detective Sanchez is with him. This
time, she's wired for audio, and she has

small camera that looks like a button on
her shirt.

Is there a signature on here?

That's where you signed it?

When we met Helen initially, the first
thing out of her mouth was, I'm not

answering any, I'm here for my checks,
don't ask me no questions.

But instead of the $1 million check, he
hands Helen a refund for her premium

payments. He says the insurance company
is canceling the policy.

She's outraged.

I gave her the letter and the check, and
she read it, and she threw the whole

thing at us, and just started ranting
that it was unacceptable, she was going

call her lawyer.

And then

she went outside, and we

waited, but she clearly was not coming
back.

I'm thinking, oh, yeah, she is just an
evil, greedy woman

that needs to go down.

They're involved. They killed him.

How they did it, we don't know yet.

So we're on it.

Now it's Olga's turn.

They arrange to meet her in a bank
lobby, but she doesn't show.

Helen could have warned her.

They go to her apartment and knock on
the door.

This time, Detective Sanchez gets it all
on tape with her undercover camera.

We're locking on the door.

He's pissed off.

Talk to my lawyer.

If we don't get away from the door, he's
going to throw hot water on us.

I said, go ahead.

Then I told her that, you know, her deal
might be different than Helen's.

And so she always will open the door and
take the letter.

It's a refund for the premiums that you
pay.

Read it. Read the policy there. The
letter. I don't see it.

Thank you.

Wait, one more question.

Go ahead.

Quit slamming. You're going to break the
door.

Neither one of them would engage for a
second.

Not for a second.

Next on American Greed.

I have to call my lawyer.

As fraud evidence mounts, investigators
make arrests.

But can they prove murder?

There you go.

Oh,

my, that's a lie.

This is an assumption.

In Los Angeles, Helen Golay and Olga
Rudderschmidt are trapped.

Helen is angry.

If you're not going to pay me the full
amount, this has been a total waste of

time.

Olga is even more blunt.

Read it. Read the policy there. The
letter. I don't see it.

Their behavior bolsters detectives'
darkest suspicions that the two women

Paul Barros and Ken McDavid.

for insurance money.

You just see her and you're like, yeah,
she's so evil, yeah, she would do it.

I think everybody involved in this case
knew that these women were as hard as it

could be.

They were killing these guys.

So they knew they weren't normal
grannies.

The circumstantial evidence is
compelling, but investigators have no

gun. They plan to buy some time by first
building a mail fraud case.

The charges fall into play.

When you make your monthly premium
payment and you put a fraudulent

in an envelope, put a stamp on it, and
you put it in the United States mailbox,

well, each time you do that, that's one
count of mail fraud.

Continuing investigation finds that
Helen and Olga apply for 26 fraudulent

insurance policies with multiple
companies.

The face value totals close to $7
million.

But the applications are filled with
lies.

They lie about addresses, income levels,
and most importantly, their

relationships to the men.

They claim to be fiancé and cousin to
both dead men on some claims, business

partners on others.

When in reality, Barros and McDavid are
homeless strangers they take in off the

street.

Those were the kinds of things that made
immediately apparent that there was

fraud.

To help make the case, the FBI gets
involved.

Anytime we identified a bank account,
credit cards, we would start subpoenaing

the records, and they were a wealth of
information.

We found that Helen was actually wiring
money from her account to Paul

Vodafone's account to pay premiums. So
it would appear to the insurance company

that he was making the premium payment.

In terms of proving a fraud case, it
made my life really easy. I mean, it was

just one pack of lies after another.

As investigators build a mail fraud
case, the LAPD has Helen and Olga under

-hour surveillance.

They learn that Olga is meeting
regularly with an elderly Hungarian man

Joseph Gabor.

Surveillance has taken pictures of Olga,
Mr. Gabor.

She's leading him into banks, opening
bank accounts, side streets on the back

her car, signing papers.

And she's obviously instructing him what
to do and where to sign.

So right before our eyes, they're
working up another victim.

We're as far as we can go, and I can't
have surveillance people on Helen and

Olga and watch them run over Mr. Gabor.
We can't do that.

On May 18, 2006, 70 agents from the FBI,
LAPD, and other agencies

arrest Helen and Olga. I have to call my
lawyer.

All at once.

The tentacles go out, and we're going to
seize all the information that we can

get at one time.

I don't know what is this.

What is happening here?

It was a Cecil B. DeMille production. I
mean, there was a ton of people.

On your knees. Come on.

There you go.

And it went off basically without a
hitch.

Who's Galay? My name is Sam Arrows. I'm
with the FBI. You're under arrest for

mail fraud.

Mail fraud? Yes.

But what reason?

For fraud. There's no proof?

No. It's actually for mail fraud.

I haven't done any mail fraud. What are
you talking about? Insurance.

When Helen was arrested, all she kept
saying was, who would do this to me?

Who would do this to me?

Who would do this to me and why?

What are you talking about, Helen?

Yeah, you did it to yourself.

Perhaps because of experience, Olga is
quick to throw Helen under the bus.

There was no insurance fraud. Helen
Goley made insurance.

Olga is pretty predictable. She's
ranting and raving, and she's quite the

talker. We know this by now, that she
just never... She's not crazy, but she's

very caustic with anybody she comes
across on the street.

Oh, my, that's a lie.

This is an assumption.

Anytime...

Helen, on the other hand, comes out, and
she's a little missed innocent. Oh,

what's going on? You've got the wrong
house. It can't be me. I haven't done

anything. I can't believe this. I have
no mail fraud whatsoever.

But inside, Helen's home is filled with
evidence against her. When we searched

Helen's residence, there was a book in
the living room, and the book was The

Sociopath Next Door.

With a subtitle or something like that,
one in 25 Americans has no conscience

whatsoever. And we're thinking, gee,
that's a strange book for Helen to be

reading. The book is only the tip of the
iceberg.

We found a whole bunch of original
checks that she had written to pay for

premiums for the insurance companies,
for the rent on Ken McDavid's apartment.

I saw a check Olga had written to a
rubber stamp company.

We called the owner and met with him.
When we went over there, we showed him a

picture of Olga.

And he said, oh, this is a black widow.

And we said, what?

What are you talking about?

I thought maybe he knew something we
didn't know.

The stamps are precise copies of her
victim's signatures.

But she bought a number of signature
stamps, not only in Ken McDavid's name,

also Paul Vados' name, her own husband's
name, even Helen Golay's name.

She would tell the stamp guys, yeah, I'm
helping out the homeless, or I'm trying

to help these people who can't get in
here and pay their bills.

Supposedly, she was doing her good deed
for society.

The money trail highlights the
viciousness of the crime.

Helen and Olga planned to keep the men
alive just long enough to avoid

and then lead them to slaughter.

We found scratch paper in Olga's
apartment where she was literally

how much premium, They were going to
have to pay over a two -year period.

That's pretty good circumstantial
evidence, I think.

They just fed them and housed them like
animals, just for the sole purpose of

killing them.

While the LAPD and the FBI are searching
their homes, detectives Kilcoyne and

Sanchez take Helen and Olga in for
questioning.

We put them together and interview them.

Like a couple of convicts, they
immediately start shushing each other,

can't keep her mouth shut. She's just
running at the mouth.

The interrogation is being taped. What
the two women don't realize is that when

detectives leave the room, the video is
still running.

Why did you make all these extra
insurances? Too many you had. There's a

You can't do that many.

You were greedy.

That's the problem.

I mean, this is a goldmine for us. I
mean, right before our eyes, they're

rowboats sinking fast.

We had no problem in the relationship.

You pay me and be nice and do me
excellent things. I was doing everything

you. They're hanging themselves.

And Helen knows she's cognizant of
what's going on. She keeps trying to

Olga up, but it's not working.

You are wasting your time and energy
with this.

And secondly, no, we're going to go to
jail.

They're going to lock you in.

And they come just short of saying that,
you know, that they personally did it.

Yes.

It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter.

Next on American Greed, the police have
the murder weapon, which leaves one

question.

Who's behind the wheel? The shocking
answer when American Greed returns.

In May of 2006, Helen Golay and Olga
Rudderschmidt are in federal lockup,

looking at eight counts of mail fraud.

But LAPD detectives suspect them of much
more.

Murder.

They believe Helen and Olga have killed
two homeless men.

Ken McDavid and Paul Vados, to collect
$2 .8 million in life insurance payouts.

The problem is investigators have
trouble believing that Helen, who's 75,

Olga, 73, killed the two men by
themselves.

We knew that they had committed murder.
We just didn't have direct evidence

linking them to it. We can't just seem
to wrap our brains around the fact that

these little old gals are that vicious
that they are actually behind the wheel

of the car.

You know, we're holding out for more and
more information all the time, as are

the prosecutors.

They're just saying, you know what,
you're not there yet, you're almost

but who's behind the wheel?

During a search of Helen's apartment,
FBI Special Agent Sam Mayrose finds an

answer to that question in Helen's daily
planner.

I come across this one page, and there's
a post -it on it, and it's got a

partial tag, a partial VIN.

I was like, holy smoke.

Eureka, we found gold, because we knew
that had to be the car.

So I gave that to Dennis. He called back
to his office, and within minutes, they

had the complete VIN number, the license
plate number, knew who the current

registered owner was, and from there, it
was just Katie barred the door.

It's a 1999 silver Mercury Sable station
wagon, just like we have in the video.

And we go out, and they locate it.

Now the pieces are beginning to fit
together to form the perfect scenario of

murder for money.

The night of the murder, shortly after
the time stamp on the surveillance video

shows the mercury sable pulling out of
the alley, Helen Golay makes a call to

auto repair shop from her cell phone.

She's hit something and broken the fuel
line.

She actually called for road service on
the night of McDavid's murder, one block

away from McDavid's murder off Westwood
Boulevard.

to have a 1999 Mercury Sable station
wagon, the car we've got in our lab

now, towed back to her residence.

The phone call puts Helen at the scene
of the crime.

She abandons the car in the alley behind
her home. It's later impounded by the

city. But the underside of the car
hasn't been touched since that night.

perfect specimen for forensic testing.

The Ohio Patrol people put it up on a
lift, and they start going through the

undercarriage of the car.

On the right side of the undercarriage
is what they call wiping, and the road

grease is absent.

Well, that shows that they ran over
something that wiped the bottom of the

clean.

Kilcoyne believes that something was the
body of Ken McDavid. When McDavid was

found in the alley, his clothes were
covered with car grease.

There are dark spots on the underside of
the vehicle that police think could be

Ken McDavid's blood.

They send samples to the lab.

for DNA testing.

The answer could conclusively identify
Golay's car as the murder weapon.

Helen and Olga are sitting in federal
prison arrested for mail fraud to buy

police time to build a murder case
against them.

The mail fraud is easy to prove.

Each one of the life insurance policies
the two women take out on the dead men

is a pack of lies.

In some, Helen and Olga claim to be
business partners.

In others, fiancées and relatives.

But Helen and Olga aren't worried. In a
telephone conversation, Helen tells her

daughter she's confident police can't
build a case against them.

She's wrong.

Two weeks later, the DNA results come
back.

The spots on the underside of the car
are Ken McDavid's blood.

So then we all realize these are evil,
evil women. And they are, in fact, the

ones behind the wheel of the car.

It's our belief that they probably met
him, took him to dinner.

And the combination of this prescription
medication, which we found in powder

form mixed together in a prescription
vial in her medicine chest, they're

sprinkling that in his drink that night.

And we can see from the videotape, the
car goes down the alley, passes under

one camera, the brake light comes on,
the lights go out.

Now, for four to five minutes, the
lights are out, which is our belief that

that's the time that they're...

pushing mcdavid out of the car the
backup lights come on the car comes back

about 50 feet stops and then the car
moves forward so they've laid them out

back up to get a running start and then
they go forward and they just bulldoze

over this man crushing him to death and
it's at this point we believe that the

fuel line is pulled from the
undercarriage of the car

And then because of the 15 % grade on
that alley, the car rolls down to the

block, and that's where Helen calls for
AAA to come get her. The evidence

against Helen and Olga is overwhelming.

They're charged with two counts of
murder and conspiracy to commit murder

financial gain.

Their relatively cushy lives abruptly
change.

They trade in their upscale lifestyles
for county jail.

You could tell that they were terrified.

that this was not part of their world.

You know, this was something that you
read about maybe in a magazine or the L

.A. Times and you turn the page because
it disgusts you. But this is real life

in the city, and they were part of it
now.

On March 18, 2008, the case goes to
trial.

Deputy District Attorney Bobby Grace is
one of the lead prosecutors.

People say, wow, you know, these people
were upwards of 70, 80, going on 80

years old, and they were involved in
this complex scheme to murder two

individuals for financial gain.

Even in Los Angeles, that's unheard of.

Definitely have never prosecuted anybody
as old as they are for murder.

Grace has to prove that these two women
are not what they appear to be.

I think there's a lot of people out
there that would commit crimes to

to enrich themselves. But how many of
them are willing to go through such

elaborate means to get millions of
dollars? It's just mind -boggling.

The prosecution has a mountain of
evidence.

But the coup de grace is a tape of what
transpires between the two women after

they were arrested.

Their interrogation is taped. And when
detectives leave the room, the little

ladies speak their mind.

Admit it was your fault.

Because what you did, of course I got
angry.

You were greedy.

That's the problem.

We have to cooperate now.

We have to attack money together.

That was just really the nail in the
coffin, so to speak. Once the jury got

opportunity to really hear from Helen
Golay and Olga Richmond out of their own

mouth. then they realized that these
women were truly, truly greedy and truly

evil, that they were willing to do
anything to gain and to profit.

After a six -week trial, Helen Golay and
Olga Ruderschmidt are found guilty and

sentenced to life in prison without
parole.

Among those satisfied with the sentence
is Jimmy Covington, the victim who got

away.

I went around with the papers, showing
everybody, look, this is what they got

him, they got him, they were going to
kill me, they got him. I went through

trip for a while. I was really ecstatic
about it.

Olga and Helen are sent to different
prisons.

Both women appeal their cases.

But in August 2009, their convictions
are upheld and the appeals are denied.

They will remain in prison the rest of
their lives.

That's probably the best punishment for
two greedy people.

like Helen and Olga, that they ought to
sit out the rest of their naturalized

thinking about. Why did I let greed
drive me to have to spend the rest of my

life in prison?

You almost wonder if it was like a drug
to them. I joke a lot that it's crack.

Maybe they got addicted to it. They just
wanted money.

Detective Kilcoyne has an interesting
theory about the pair. It all comes down

to greed.

If they had slowed down, not got so many
policies on McDavid and the millions,

multiple millions of dollars, they'd
still be out there.

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