LA's 'Black Widows' Get Life in Prison for Murders

Pair killed two homeless men for life insurance
By Peter Fearon,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 16, 2008 1:43 AM CDT
LA's 'Black Widows' Get Life in Prison for Murders
Helen Golay, 77, after she was sentenced 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.    (AP Photo/Genaro Molina, Pool)

Two elderly women who carried out a cold-blooded scheme to murder homeless men have been sentenced to life without parole by a Los Angeles judge. Helen Golay, 77, and 75-year-old Olga Rutterschmidt—nicknamed the "Black Widows" in the media—lured two vagrants off the street, cared for them for two years, then murdered them for $2.8 million in life insurance, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The first victim was killed in a Hollywood alley hit-and-run in 1999, and the women collected $600,000 in insurance. Authorities became suspicious when the women claimed insurance payouts on a second victim who died of similar injuries six years later. (More Helen Golay stories.)

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