LA's 'Black Widows' Get Life In Prison For Murders
National News
Two elderly women dubbed the "Black Widows" of Los Angeles were sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing two homeless men whom they housed for two years before murdering them in hit-and-run crashes in order to collect $2.8 million in life insurance money.
Helen Golay, 77, and Olga Rutterschmidt, 75, were convicted in April of first-degree murder and conspiracy to murder for financial gain in the deaths of Kenneth McDavid, 50, and Paul Vados, 73.
Golay and Rutterschmidt claimed to be aunts, fiancées or cousins of the men on insurance applications, taking out 16 policies for McDavid and three for Vados, for which they acted as beneficiaries. The women had taken out the policies two years before the plotted deaths, purportedly because California law makes life insurance fraud more difficult to contest when a policy has been active for two years.
After running down Vados in a Hollywood alley in 1999, the women collected $600,000 in insurance claims. Authorities grew suspicious when the same two women amassed claims after McDavid was killed in an apparent hit-and-run accident in 2005 and had upper body injuries similar to Vados. Golay used her auto club membership to request the towing of a 1999 Mercury Sable station wagon an hour before McDavid's death. McDavid's DNA was found on the vehicle.
The duo was first arrested in 2006 for insurance fraud. On a secretly recorded videotape made the day of their arrest, Rutterschmidt called Golay "greedy" for taking out so many insurance policies and drawing media attention.
Superior Court Judge David Wesley told the women, "(T)hese unfortunate men were sacrificed on your altar of greed."
Related listings
-
Hotel Chain Wouldn't Rent To Black Family, Man Says
National News 07/14/2008The Clarion Hotel in Scranton refused to rent rooms to a black family though it had 52 vacant rooms, and its desk clerk admitted that she would not rent to them because they are black, the family claims in Federal Court. Eric Davis and his family als...
-
Bank Of America Seeks Protection
National News 07/09/2008Bank of America claims members of a "radical anti-tax group" filed bogus papers in court and attempted to "seize" and "foreclose" upon two BofA branch banks. Members of The United Cities Group wore false badges from the "Treasury Department" during t...
-
Report shows law firm mergers are up
National News 07/08/2008The second quarter of this year saw the pace of law firm mergers rise sharply in the U.S., according to a new report from legal consultancy Altman Weil Inc. There were 26 new law firm mergers and acquisitions reported in April, May and June, compared...
Grounds for Divorce in Ohio - Sylkatis Law, LLC
A divorce in Ohio is filed when there is typically “fault” by one of the parties and party not at “fault” seeks to end the marriage. A court in Ohio may grant a divorce for the following reasons:
• Willful absence of the adverse party for one year
• Adultery
• Extreme cruelty
• Fraudulent contract
• Any gross neglect of duty
• Habitual drunkenness
• Imprisonment in a correctional institution at the time of filing the complaint
• Procurement of a divorce outside this state by the other party
Additionally, there are two “no-fault” basis for which a court may grant a divorce:
• When the parties have, without interruption for one year, lived separate and apart without cohabitation
• Incompatibility, unless denied by either party
However, whether or not the the court grants the divorce for “fault” or not, in Ohio the party not at “fault” will not get a bigger slice of the marital property.