True Crime All The Time - Olga Rutterschmidt and Helen Golay

Episode Date: July 25, 2022

Olga Ruttschmidt and Helen Golay are two female serial killers who operated in California. At the time of their arrest in 2008, Helen Golay was 75, and Olga Rutterschmidt was 73. The two women preyed upon vulnerable homeless men. At first, they offered them help in the form of a place to stay and food. But, their only goal was to get these men to sign life insurance policies with them as the beneficiaries so that they could collect millions.Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss Olga Ruttschmidt and Helen Golay. Olga and Helen are a rarity in the world of true crime, two elderly female serial killers working together. They viewed their targets as investments, often paying their way for years before killing their victims. During that time, they worked to gain their trust so that they would sign a life insurance policy. Then, the two would use their signature to take out many more.You can help support the show at patreon.com/truecrimeallthetimeVisit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise, and donation informationAn Emash Digital productionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

everyone and welcome to episode 293 of the true crime all the time podcast i'm mike ferguson and with me as always is my partner in true crime mike gibson give me how are you hey man i'm doing good about yourself i'm doing very very well good ready to get into some great episodes that we have on tap we've got this one we're getting ready to do and then on true crime all the time unsolved we have a very interesting case very interesting episode on the beatrice six Yeah, man, we're going over to Nebraska. We're going to talk about a very interesting case. People confessed to a murder.

That they didn't commit. That they did not commit. So, yeah, it is fascinating. So check that out. Let's go ahead and give our shoutouts. For Patreon, we had Gina Bixler. Hey, Gina. Miranda Pelham.

What's going on, Pelham? Nancy Jackson. Karen Carindian jumped out at our highest level. What's going on, Karen? Kelly Bates. Hey, Kelly. Samantha. Appreciate that, Samantha.

Maddie O'Dwyer. What's going on, Maddie? Brendan Owen. Hey, there's Brendan. Ro. What's up, Roe? Olivia. Hey, Olivia.

Rosie 16. Well, thank you, Rosie. Matthew Henry. Hey, appreciate that, Henry. Denise Kim Forz. What's up, Kim Forz? Rose Rodriguez. Hey, Rodriguez.

Molly. Hey, good old Molly. Good old Yvonne. Oh, there's Yvonne. Rebecca Eckhart. Hey, Rebecca. Elizabeth Clark. What's going on, Clark?

Sharon Nichols. Hey, Sharon. Tanya Martinson. Oh, Mattsonson. Jens van Miegrow. Hey, what's going on, Jens? Kel Evans. Hey, Evans.

Shelly Jones. What's happening? Jones. Paige Johnston jumped out of our highest level. Awesome. Thank you, Paige. And last but not least, Greg. Hey, there is good old Greg.

And then if we go back into the vault, this week, we selected Christine Monroe. Hey, Christine. And for PayPal, gives me a lot of people making donations to, you know, wish people a happy birthday or a happy anniversary. So happy birthday to Lindsay Spurgeon. Hey, happy birthday, Lindsay. A donation was made in your name. I'm sure you'll figure out who it was. Also, happy birthday to Stephanie Hernandez.

Hey, happy birthday, Stephanie. And a happy anniversary to Jenny Gardner. Awesome. Happy birthday, Jenny. Yeah, we appreciate all the support. All right, buddy, are you ready to get into this episode of true crime all the time? I'm ready. We're talking about female serial killers, Olga Rutter Schmidt,

and Helen Gullet. And we know Gibbs, female serial killers are fairly rare. And I think, you know, to take that a step further, elderly female serial killers, even maybe a little bit more rare, you do have the Dorothea Plentes of the world and people like that. But Olga Rudershmet and Helen Goulet were a team of serial killers who targeted a vulnerable population. The two women befriended homeless men and offered them housing all while they were secretly taking out life insurance policies on these people and planning to kill them and cash in on that

money. There's a new type of low. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, when you think about it, at first, it sounded great. They're helping out, you know, people who may be down on their lock, they're homeless and they're they're giving them some some aid some shelter some food whatever it may be but then when you find out that they're scheming they're plotting and ultimately you know going to kill these men yeah well obviously that that puts a different spin on it at the time of their arrest in 2008 helen gole was 75 and olga ruddersmith was 73 wow The New Zealand Herald wrote, the women made a striking, if somewhat grotesque couple. Now, I get it.

We're talking about serial killers here, but not real flattering. No. The word grotesque really kind of conjures up some, you know, some, some images in your mind. They wrote that go lay favored short skirts, bouffant hairstyles and plastic surgery. Bufant hairstyle. In 2008. That's sweet. Rudershmit's accent evoked

Ja Ja Gabor. Both of the women worked out. They bleached their hair and they used bright lipstick. And why would they not? Unless they did not want to stand out in a crowd. Helen Goulet was born in Texas in 1931. She grew up in a foster home.

As an adult, she moved to California, got married and had two daughters. She married a second time and had her third child, Keisha. By the 1980s, she was single again and working as a realtor. Helen became very wealthy from selling real estate in Southern California. She mainly worked in Santa Monica, where she owned three rental properties. Tenants knew her as an abusive landlord.

She drove a Mercedes SUV and lived in a mansion worth an estimated $1.5 million. Wow, not too bad, huh? Well, we've discussed it before, but I mean, a lot of people have made a lot of money in real estate and especially in California. Now, $1.5 million in California, that's not a lot in today's money. But in the 1980s, I believe that that would have been a mansion. Yeah, it would have been a nice looking home. You know, there was a time, you know, I remember you and I working. looking at houses where, you know, a million dollars in some places in California was buying you

like a 1,200 square foot, two bedroom, something, something. Yeah, and not such a great neighborhood. Yeah. So, I mean, it really got out of control and then it went back down, but I think it's on its, it's way back up. Absolutely. Olga Rudershmidt was an immigrant from Hungary. She was born there in 1933.

she moved to the U.S. in 1957. She owned a coffee shop in Los Angeles with her husband, who was also a Hungarian immigrant. After they divorced in the 1970s, Olga moved into an apartment in Hollywood. Olga and Helen met in the 1980s at a health spa in Los Angeles. They quickly became friends,

but also pretty quickly became con artists. Neither one of these women had a criminal record. before their first arrest, but they had been committing crimes for many years. So apparently Gibbs, what they would do is frequent the various hotels in and around Los Angeles. They sat by the pool and they would steal people's wallets, credit cards. And it was said that Olga learned how to pyramid the credit cards. Basically, she would use one credit card to pay off another. and eventually, you know, these credit card companies would get stiff.

Helen reportedly once used a power of attorney to take property from a dead business partner and cut out his daughter. Kind of brutal there. Yeah, I think we're going to find out both these women are pretty ruthless, pretty brutal. Now, at this point, they're committing more of what you would think of as financial crimes. We know they're going to go further. Helen was also very controlling of her daughter, Keisha.

She really wanted her to marry a rich husband. So, you know, all the reporting talked about how she was very particular about Keisha's boyfriends, who she dated. In 2003, Helen sued her daughter and her partner, Steve Tersevitz, claiming that Keisha assaulted her and trespassed on her property. They responded that Helen threatened to kill this guy, Steve, after what they termed 30 years of psychopathic behavior. So I think this is going to be a case, Gibbs, where, you know, someone was a certain way for a very long time. Maybe some of those people in their inner circle knew it,

but it's probably not a side that they showed to everyone. Sure. Obviously, if you're a realtor and you're successful and you're trying to sell houses and make a bunch of money, you're probably going to really try to rein in the psychopathic behavior or that side of you. You're going to have to if you're going to sell homes, right? Yeah, most people are not going to want to work with you. According to the LA Times, Helen once told a hairdresser, you have no idea how evil I am. She told the hairdresser about a scenario where a woman marries an older man. gets a life insurance policy for him and then uses Viagra to cause a heart attack.

Okay, I understand this type of stuff happens, right? Women kill. We know that. Women can be very vicious, very brutal, very deadly. I could see a scenario where somehow a woman gets, gets her husband or whoever to take a bunch of Viagra by accident. and I'm using my air quotes here. Right. I understand that.

That could happen. I'm sure it's happened a bunch of times. This is what I don't get. Why do you need to tell that type of stuff to your hairdresser? Why do you need to lay on them how evil you truly are and some of the things that you could do or maybe have done? I'm thinking if I was that hairdresser when she went to make her an ex appointment, I'd be like, I am so booked up. Let me call you when I have an opening. Tanya. Tanya. Yeah. Tanya will see you. She can take you.

Helen also apparently called homeless people parasitic and useless to society. So we already said up front that Olga and Helen targeted homeless men. We might be getting a glimpse here into why that comes about. But despite these negative feelings that she expressed other people about the homeless, the two women started helping homeless men in Hollywood. But it wasn't because they were trying to be kind, right? These two women were calculating. They definitely had a strategy. They befriended homeless men by offering them food and shelter. They took out life insurance policies on these men. And then they staged hit and run accidents to cash out these policies.

I don't like they had their own plan of action. But how does that come about, Gibbs? You're sitting around the pool at one of these swanky hotels and, you know, you're stealing wallets and stealing people's credit cards and using them and all that. And then at some point, someone has to come up with the idea, this idea that we're talking about. And then they have to share it with the other. person. And then that other person has to say, you know what? That sounds like a great idea. That's exactly what we should be doing. Yeah, it's run with that. That's the part that always gets me.

Not that one person would come up with a devious plan or, you know, want to do something evil, but then they get their friend to go along with it. Olga and Helen, you know, put these guys up in apartments. And they convinced them to sign life insurance policy. with them as the sole beneficiaries. NPR reported that according to LAPD, Lieutenant Paul Vernon, once they had that signature, they would go to a stationary store

and have a rubber stamp made to complete 19 different life insurance policies. Man, that's a lot. They were really trying to capitalize on what they were doing. Well, I guess they figured they were going to kill these guys. So what's better than one life insurance policy?

19 life insurance policies. Paul Vados immigrated to the U.S. from Hungary in 1956. His wife died in 1985 and he moved in with his daughter Stella in Hollywood. Stella lost contact with Paul in 1995 because he moved to Northern California. Paul suffered from depression and loneliness and also struggled with alcohol abuse. He was living on the street until he met Helen and Olga. From 1997 to November 8, 1999, Paul lived in an apartment in Los Angeles. The off-site manager reported that he didn't have a job.

He usually left sometime in the morning and came back drunk sometime in the afternoon. Olga Rudershmidt told the apartment manager that she was in charge of Paul. And then after Paul died, she told the manager that she would pick up his things. So I will say, Gibbs, I mean, obviously we're talking about one victim here, Paul Vados. This was a fairly long con that we'll find out resulted in murder. Oh, for sure. This wasn't a week, two weeks, you know, this guy was living in this apartment put up by these two women for years. Yeah, they had to get the insurance policy and then they probably had a waiting period, I'm guessing. You know, some insurance policies just don't kick in right away.

And you would think, right, it's going to take a minute to get these guys to trust you to the point where they're willing to sign this first life insurance policy. that's not going to be a day or a week. No. Just because you're giving me an apartment, okay, I'm going to sign, you know, this piece of paper.

But if you've known somebody for a year, a year and a half, two years, and they're taking care of you, well, maybe that's the point where it becomes feasible to get that done.

Witness Norma Seha also testified about Paul. Norma was the daughter of the on-site manager enacted as her mom's translator. Norma and her mom brought Paul food when he was too drunk to take care of himself. Sometimes she said she would help him get home when he couldn't walk. She testified that Olga visited Paul twice a month to bring him groceries. She told them that she was his sister.

When Paul died, Olga told Norma's mom to dump all of Paul's things. Get rid of them. She explained his disappearance by saying that he had been hit by a bus or a train. Paul always paid his rent by money order. Sometimes he paid a loan, sometimes with Olga. Norma's mother had seen Olga with another elderly woman at Paul's apartment. Paul Vados died in a hit and run. On November 8th, 1999, Officer Lee Wilman investigated the accident, which occurred in an alley near 307 North La Brea Avenue.

The crime scene was just about a mile from Olga's home on North Sycamore Avenue. Paul was laying across the middle of the alley. He had no wallet. He had no identification. It looked as though he was laying on the ground when he was hit by the car. His chest and torso were crushed. He also had cuts on his nose. He was covered in grease.

in these areas where he was injured. His left hand had cuts and grease stains consistent with contact from a hot oil pan, muffler or tailpipe. So, I mean, you know, when you think about this, it's pretty gruesome, but you can imagine in your mind that this individual is being run over. And when I say run over, not just hit by the car. I mean, literally the car is driving over him. Yeah.

And so his hands are coming in contact with some of the very hot parts on the bottom of the car. The way that he was injured also indicated that the car was driving slowly. There were no glass fragments. There were no car parts scattered around the scene that would indicate that it was like an accident that, you know, resulted from. some type of speed. At 10 p.m. on November 17th, Olga and Helen filed a missing persons report for Paul. Olga stated that Paul was last seen on November 5th at 6 p.m. in his apartment. The two women had visited him to help pay his rent. She described his mental condition as fair and possibly slipping. Olga reported that they came back on November 10th, but couldn't find Paul.

Olga went to the apartment on November 15th and looked in the unit with a manager. They noticed that Paul's TV was still on. Olga ended up signing the missing persons report saying she was Paul's cousin. Oh, they're smooth, aren't they? Well, I think they've had some time to plan some of this stuff out, right? This was not a spur of the moment decision. They've been putting this guy up for years. Yeah.

And who's going to challenge these? grandmalls. But at this point, they've got to be in their 60s. Yeah. You know, we're in 1999, maybe 60, early 60s. You're really not thinking they're going to hurt somebody. No, two 60 year old women? Yeah.

I can't imagine as the police, your first instinct is to believe that these women who are filing the missing persons report had a hand in this man's death. And let's not forget, they were also. being seen as as these people who were helping him yeah they were paying his rent they were you know getting him groceries you know folks we take care of our car we get to oil changed new tires we work out to keep our bodies in shape so why don't we do the same thing for our brain there are plenty of ways to support a healthy brain like learning a new language or taking power naps there's also better help online therapy i am a big advocate of therapy i think

now more than ever. We need to make sure that we're taking care of that aspect of our life. Better help is online therapy that offers video, phone, and even live chat only therapy sessions. So you don't have to see anyone on camera. If you don't want to, it's much more affordable than in-person therapy. And you can be matched with a therapist in under 48 hours. I personally want to see my therapist on camera to get that connection. What I love about Better Help is that because you're doing it online, you can find that place in your home. where you feel the most comfortable. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com slash T-Cat. That's BetterH-E-L-P.com slash T-CAT-T-T.

We all love a bit of suspense. You know, it keeps things interesting. But when it comes to the cost of prescriptions, you don't want there to be any mystery. Especially now with summer starting, we'd all rather spend our hard-earned money having fun and enjoying a little adventure with family and friends. That's where checking good R-X can help. good Rx, you can compare prescription prices at local pharmacies and save up to 80%. Comparing prices is so important. Before I started using Good Rx, I didn't realize how much

prescription prices can vary from one pharmacy to the next. Sometimes buy as much as $100. But with Good RX, you'll have the information you need to help you find the lowest price. And even if you have insurance, Good RX could actually beat your prescription co-paid price. I've been using Good RX for years now. got my mother-in-law using it. It's amazing how much money it can save you. For simple smart savings on your prescriptions, check good RX. Go to goodrrx.com slash T-Cat. That's goodrrx.com slash T-Cat T-CAT T-C-A-T-T. Good RX is not insurance, but can be used instead of insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid. In 2021, Good R-X users saved 81% on retail prescription prices.

Helen Golay called Officer Wilman on December 3rd and said that she was Paul's one-time fiancé and his cousin's friend. But she couldn't get this officer to provide an accident report because she was not next of him. Dr. Louis Pena performed Paul's autopsy on November 10th. He determined that Paul died from multiple traumatic injuries. He had 48 fractures to his ribs. He had 48 fractures to his ribs. The chest trauma caused a fatal laceration to his aorta. And I think it was pretty clear to this guy that these injuries were consistent with being run over by a car. Yeah, it's such a rough way to go. I actually experienced seeing something like that two weeks ago, and it was rough. So a lady was walking her dog as she crossed the street, a car turn,

ran over her front wheel back wheel and a couple people stopped brought her back to life for a very short period of time but then she didn't make it because all the internal injury she had it's rough seems like a like a like a brutal way to go but that was an accident i'm assuming yes this we know we're going to find out was no accident was not yeah after paul's death helen and olga attempted to get life insurance on another man, a guy by the name of Jimmy Covington. Covington met the women in 2002. He was standing outside a building on El Centro Avenue when Olga approached and asked if he was homeless.

She told him that she worked with homeless people and could help him get benefits and a place to stay if he filled out paperwork. She said that if he provided information about his background and disabilities, he could stay in the building on El Centro. She took him to an office and told him he could stay there while the paperwork was processed. She even gave him access codes for the building and the office. Probably felt pretty good about this. I mean, if you're homeless, this is looking good. If you're looking for help, you might think, you've got an angel here. This woman is going to help. Right. It was reported that Jimmy stayed there for about a week.

week filling out forms answering questions he gave up his social security number birthday family history medical history you name but when olga asked him for his mother's maiden name he didn't want to answer seems strange to give up so much but not that one thing although that is one of those things that is tied to a lot of security questions and things like that it's like Not giving up your pen code for your money card. Although a person's mother's maiden name is not that hard to find out. It's true. You could do a little digging online.

That would be pretty easy to find out. Jimmy became uncomfortable when Olga entered the office where he was sleeping at 3 a.m. To check on him, I guess she did this a number of times. On April 30th, 2002, Helen Goulet applied for a life insurance policy for Jimmy. Covington. The New Zealand Herald reported that according to Jimmy, Olga turned ugly when he refused to give her information for the life insurance forms. She would come to his room at 3 a.m. To confront him, according to him, she'd say, what's wrong with you? You can't remember anything and we need to get this paperwork done. It's a little bit of pressure being applied. Sure.

by Olga because why? The paperwork for the life insurance policy is everything. That's the golden ticket for her. Well, the rest of the plan doesn't work. No, without it. Without the forms signed and everything being complete. But Jimmy Covington, he knew something wasn't quite right. And he decided to leave.

He later said to reporters outside of the court, the paperwork was about where I was born, what my ID number was, what my name was, what my social security number was, my mother's maiden name. And after several days, she just started getting too personal. I told her no. And that's when she got irate. And then her eyes bugged down. And she just screamed and slammed the door.

And I wouldn't fill out any more personal information. and she wasn't giving me any money. And then finally I just loved. Well, yeah, she wasn't getting her way. So she wasn't going to keep paying for somebody that's not going to cooperate with her. Well, and it's so strange to kind of lay it out like this. Right. But this must have been what it was like for these two women.

They're investing Gibbs in these men. Yeah. I know that's strange to say it that way, but they are. It's like they're crops. Yeah, and at some point, they're going to get a big windfall. Yeah. They keep that cash rolling in. They're going to constantly have new people coming in as they get rid of others.

But while they're, you know, in the process, if somebody starts to, you know, not want to comply, well, they're just going to cut them lose. They're not going to keep investing in something that's not going to pan out. The next victim was a man named Kenneth McDavid. Kenneth was a former radio DJ. He left his job. He kind of drifted away from his family before he met Helen and Olga. He grew up in Northern California with his parents and siblings.

He attended Sacramento High School and Sacramento State University. Kenneth's sister last saw him in 1994. She later said in April or May of 2005, she got a phone message from him. but she had no idea where he was living at the time. In late November 2005, she received word from the police that Kenneth died, but she had never heard of Helen or Olga. Two important witnesses against Helen and Olga were Patrick LeMay and his girlfriend, Amy Matt. Kenneth met Patrick and Amy at first Presbyterian Church in Hollywood in 2002.

They were camping outside the church from. for food, LeMay and Matt eventually returned to their home in Michigan. Sometime after this, Helen and Olga met Kenneth and arranged for him to live in an apartment on North Cherokee Avenue. The lease agreement was dated September 1st, 2002. Helen paid Kenneth's rent. So, you know, we're in 2002. My thought Gibbs is that they struck out with Jimmy Covington.

Right. And so very quickly, they had to find someone else. You know, one of the things that we see with these types of crimes is that, you know, eventually that money runs out. You know, if you're living it up and, you know, you're accustomed to a certain type of lifestyle. We've seen this with women who kill multiple husbands. Right. They may wait five years, 10 years, 15 years. You know, years or it may be a year or two. It all depends. They're planning that perfect timing. Or all of a sudden they need some cash and their timing gets moved up. Yeah, it could be a little bit of both to kind of lean towards the ladder, to be honest with you. Patrick LeMay and Amy Matt returned to Hollywood in the spring of 2003. They met Kenneth near the church. Kenneth told him he had a place to live.

he even took them to his apartment. They met him again in 2004. Kenneth invited Patrick to stay with him at the apartment in exchange for him buying food and paying for phone and cable service. And Patrick took him up on this. And he actually did pay for these things for about three or four months. At some point, a man named Daniel as well as Patrick's girlfriend, Amy,

and another woman moved into the apartment. Well, they're definitely treating Kenneth like an investment. I mean, we're a few years into this now. You're talking about Helen and Olga. Yeah. Oh, sure. Yeah. I mean, this is very similar to the first one that we talked about.

You know, that spanned a couple of years. But now this might be a complication because you have three other people living in this apartment. Yeah, you get some witnesses now. LeMay once saw Olga speaking to Kenneth. When Kenneth denied that Patrick was living at the apartment, Olga told him, you know our arrangement. And that's why you can't have anybody living here. And I would think that would be the last thing that they would want.

They want this person isolated. They don't want a bunch of friends. They don't want roommates. I mean, it's part of the reason I'm sure why they select. the people that they did. Homeless men who probably had kind of fallen out with their family, didn't keep in touch with many people. Didn't have anybody to turn to.

Or anybody that was maybe going to come looking for them. That's true. And ask questions. Kenneth explained that Olga paid his rent as long as no one else lived in the apartment. He also said that the women asked him to sign a life insurance policy as what he called an act of good faith. Patrick later said that, you know, he tried to figure out what the relationship was

between Kenneth and Olga. He asked him, are you friends? Are you a boyfriend? Kenneth replied, no. The next time LeMay saw Olga, she was outside the apartment. She wasn't happy because at this point, five people were living inside the unit.

She let herself in with the key, witnessed Douglas Cropot lived in the same apartment building as Olga. She mentioned to him that she had a friend named Helen Goulet, who worked in real estate. Helen ordered her to evict someone and she needed some help. She asked this guy Douglas to bring a gun because she needed protection from what she called a violent street person. So they went to this apartment and they found Kenneth alone. Olga actually pulled the gun out of Douglas's pocket to show to Kenneth. Douglas went back to his car because he felt as though Kenneth was not a threat at all. He was probably thinking, why are we wasting our time right now? Why do you need me for protection? A few weeks later, LeMay went to the apartment, but he couldn't get in

because Olga and Kenneth were inside with an armed guard. Now, the guard led him in to collect his things, but LeMay tried to visit a week later, the guard was still there and this time wouldn't let him in. Security guard Jose Luna was hired on October 30th, 2004 and instructed not to let anyone into a particular apartment unit. He worked from 1 p.m. to 1 a.m. for about a week. That's not cheap. No. To hire an armed security guard for 12-hour shifts during an intense. entire week. I got some overtime pay in there. But I think it just shows you what a threat the two women

thought that these other people living in the apartment were. They didn't want it. Towards the end of 2004, Olga called the on-site manager, Danieli Cosgrove, to demand that the homeless people living in the apartment be removed. Cosgrove told Olga that the listed tenant, Helen Golay, needed to talk to her subtenants. And I guess the two got into a shouting match over the phone. But ultimately, this Cosgrove called Helen and told her that it was her responsibility to remove unwanted subtenants. Helen got into a screaming match with her on the phone. And I guess over the next week, both of these women called Cosgrove repeatedly. They just were not letting up. They wanted these people gone. This one

went on vacation at one point and when she returned the apartment was empty one of the the women called and said that helen gave up the apartment but cosgrove later said that in her opinion it looked as though kenneth left in a hurry there was trash and bottles of medicine left behind she also said that she later saw kenneth on the street he appeared to be homeless again and was carrying his personal belongings on his bike back on the street record shows that Kenneth stayed in different motels in Hollywood from January to June 12th of 2005. Then on June 21st of that year, Kenneth McDavid was killed in a hit and run. It appeared as though he had been run over while changing the tire on his bicycle.

See a trend here? Yeah. And I think obviously at a certain point, the police are going to see it too. But not quite yet. On the night of June 21st, 2005, witness Yoram Haseed was playing backgammon with his friends at a furniture store on Westwood Boulevard. His car was parked in an alley behind the store. Around midnight, he went out to his car. But he stopped when he saw something in the alley.

He returned to his friends and told them to close the back door because someone was lying down in the alley. At 1 a.m., two of his friends. friends drove down the alley. That's when they found a body lying next to a bicycle. One of his friends called 911. The operator told them to honk the horn to see if the person would respond. So one of these guys honked. The person didn't move. One of these guys, you know, told the operator that the person's face was dirty and that there was blood on the ground. So now it's time to get the police on the site. Yeah, police came out to investigate and they determined that Kenneth was dead. And at first, Gives, I thought it seemed like such a strange instruction from the 911 operator honked the horn.

But then I got to thinking, maybe that person was thinking, well, I don't want you to touch the body. What if it is a crime scene? That's a good point. So maybe that's not so strange after all. But at first, I thought, that's weird. to ask a person to do that. As police began their investigation, they didn't find any glass around the crime scene,

and there was no damage to Kenneth's bike. But the front wheel was removed and was laying underneath the bike. There was no damage to his helmet either. The medical examiner determined Kenneth died from blunt force trauma to the upper body. His chest and shoulders were crushed, and he had cuts on two parallel tracks

across his body. Toxicology test found alcohol and sedatives in his blood. His blood alcohol content was above the legal limit. And he also had high amounts of Ambien in his system, as well as Vicodin and topamax, which I think is an epilepsy drug, but I think it can also be used for other things. So he definitely had a number of different types of drugs in his system, you know, on top of the alcohol. After Kenneth's death, Helen and Olga filed a claim for his life insurance policy, but an insurance investigator named Ed Webster was suspicious. He noticed that Kenneth's bike tire was not flat and there were no tools out. Also, Kenneth was laying down when he was hit by the car. Webster learned that two years before Kenneth had moved into an apartment rented by Helen

go lay. Well, if there's one thing you don't want, if you're trying to, you know, commit insurance fraud and in this case murder, it's one of those go-getter insurance investigators. Never good. Now, the police are one thing. They're going to do their job. They're going to try to figure things out. But those insurance investigators, man, you know, insurance companies, they do not like to pay out money. No. That's the model, right? you pay us the premiums, we try not to pay out the big bucks. And so they do employ investigators, people that will go to great lengths to try to figure out if something is going on.

Now, what I will say is this doesn't seem like Sherlock Holmes type stuff here. You know, if the police's theory is that Kenneth was hit by a car while he was changing his tire. Okay, well, number one, the tire's not flat. And number two, there's no tools anywhere. So what was he using? What was he changing it with? And the other thing that struck me, just as it did in the, in the first scenario, is what type of car accident would we be talking about here? If you hit somebody, if you hit a person with any type of speed, probably going to be a little bit of damage to the car. you know, everything you read about these two incidents, it really does kind of appear as though these two individuals were laying on their backs and they were, they were more run over than

being hit and then maybe the car traveling across them. So they weren't forced on the ground by the car. It seems like, seems like they were already on the ground and then boom. That's what it seems like. Now, is that my bias? Because I already know there's, you know, hinky things at play here. You know, saying goodbye to high interest credit card debt is one of the first steps towards financial independence. But the interest month after month can make you feel like you're in a never ending hamster rule. Well, that's where Upstart comes in. Upstart powered personal loans can help you pay down high interest debt all online with simple and easy to understand payment terms. Upstart has helped over 1.8 million customers on their path to financial freedom.

Upstart knows that you're more than just your credit score. So their model, other factors like your income, employment, and other information provided in your loan application to find you a smarter rate for your loan. You can check your rate in minutes for loans between $1,000 to $50,000 without impacting your credit score. Don't wait and check your rate today at upstart.com slash T-cat. That's upstart.com slash T-cat to check your rate today. Don't forget to use our URL to let them know we sent you. Loan amounts will be determined based on your credit, income, and certain other information provided in your loan application. Go to upstart.com slash T-Cat.

Helen and Olga were the sole beneficiaries of Kenneth's life insurance, and this Webster guy thought that was strange. Kenneth was 20 years younger than these women, and he was relatively healthy. I'm sure it did seem strange. You probably thought it should have been more of the reverse. You would not expect that, you know, these two women would outlive him.

You would think he would have a policy maybe on them, not them on him. So I think this guy put everything together and he thought, you know, something's not right here. I think this may not be an accident. It may be a homicide. On June 22nd, 2005, someone used Helen's auto club car to call a tow truck at 11.51 p.m. The caller needed a toe for a 1999 mercury sable waggon. from a garage near the alley where Kenneth was killed to a street near Olga's home. Oh, now we're getting somewhere.

Police later found CCTV footage that showed a silver sable, turn into the alley at 1145 p.m. On June 21st, the sable stopped and backed up before driving off. The sable stopped 15 feet before hitting Kenneth, and then the headlighting. went out. Kenes's body was found 10 feet further down the alley. Police eventually traced the car and found out that Olga bought it in 2004 using a stolen license. So again, how far in advance are these women thinking? Definitely. They are definitely pre-planning. Yeah. Well, we know they're thieves. We do. They stole wallets. They stole credit cards.

I'm sure they stole IDs as well. They had to have known that if they're planning to hit these individuals with a car, they don't want that car to be traced directly back to them. After the accident, Olga called a detective named Brent Johnson and requested a copy of the collision report. She claimed that she was one of Kenneth's relatives. It took about seven months, Gibbs, but Paul. police finally noticed similarities between Kenneth's death in a case from 1999, the death of

Paul Vedas. Paul's head and chasts were crushed, which according to the police is not normal in a hit and run. But the way that he was run over was very similar to what happened to Kenneth McDavid. In both cases, two elderly women. Helen and Olga claimed that. the bodies. There's the connection. And then a detective found the other insurance policies with Helen and Olga as the beneficiaries. The policies added up to almost $6 million. On these policies, Olga was listed as the fiancé and Helen as the business partner. So this was really what police needed, right? They put everything together. Helen and Olga were arrested on May 18th, 2006 on mail fraud charges. At the time, the two cases, the two hit and run cases of Paul Vados and Kenneth McDavid were still

considered unsolved or unresolved, however you want to put it. After the arrest of Helen and Olga, the police put them both in a bugged room. They were told that they were being charged with mail fraud and we're also under investigation for murder. This is great because people like this don't know that a room can be bugged. Or are they so distraught that they've been caught, that they are being investigated for murder that they don't even think about the possibility that this entire room is bugged. Either way, they started fighting. Olga told Helen, you cannot make that many insurances.

It's on your name only. Helen said she didn't want to talk. She wanted Olga to be quiet. But Olga just kept talking and said, you have to because you did all the insurances extra. That's what raised the suspicion. You can't do that. Stupidity. You're going to jail, honey.

They're going to lock you up. I think you can see why Helen wanted Olga to shut the hell up. Absolutely, yeah. Helen responded, all they're after is mail fraud. There's no mail fraud involved. Helen continued to say that the insurance companies were just after them for mail fraud, and they have nothing else. But at one point, Olga said, this is very serious.

And she started talking about them being dragged into Paul Vadoves. Okay, well, if police didn't make the connection before, which they had already made some sort of connection, this just reinforces it. But Olga wouldn't let up. She just kept blaming Helen for making what she called all these goddamn extra insurances. She called her greedy. She said, you're the problem. That's why I get angry. We had no problem with the relationship.

You pay me and be nice and don't make extra things. I was doing everything for you. And at one point, Olga got Helen to admit that she got three policies on her own. Helen also admitted to paying for them. So she got extra greedy. So there was some truth. Right. And what Olga was saying, they were a team, but then Helen got a little greedy and went out on

her own and got some extra policies. At one point, Olga expressed regret for not going back to Europe. earlier in the year. Helen told Olga, now you have to realize the bottom line is this. Whatever Kenneth wanted, and you have to remember that, whatever Kenneth wanted to do, Kenneth wanted all this. I don't believe he did. No, I don't think so. I think he wanted help. Yeah. I'm sure he was glad that these women were being so charitable and, you know, giving him a place to stay. But I think it's ludicrous. that say to say Kenneth McDavid wanted to die so that these women could cash in life insurance policies.

That makes no sense to me whatsoever. So they're already, you know, being looked at as possible murderers. No doubt this conversation that was captured in this, you know, bugged room didn't help at all. The police searched both their homes on the day of their. arrests, the police found rubber stamps with signatures, including Kinnis at their houses. Special Agent Ted Oninger of the FBI found five photocopies of a stolen license inside an envelope in Olga's home. These women really weren't that smart, keeping these rubber stamps around, these.

Well, I don't think they thought that police were going to be searching their home, But isn't that the case, right? Criminals don't think that they're going to get caught. No, you're right. They think they're smarter than the police. Now, if they really were smart, they would have kept all of that stuff, maybe in a security box,

you know, somewhere at a different location, something. But again, we don't want them to be really smart. We want them to get caught so that, number one, they're not doing this anymore. And then number two, we get all the details and we can talk about.

Right. On January 20th, 2004, car salesman Mario Medina sold a 1999 Mercury Sable station wagon to Olga. She paid $6,000 in cash and told Mario that she was buying the car for a friend. Olga and the older woman with her requested that the car be registered to Hillary Adler in Los Angeles, not the address in Encino listed on Adler's license. So Hillary Adler was listed as the new owner of this Mercury Sabre. After they bought the Sable, they got a bunch of citations for illegal parking. Eventually, a man named Jose Quinterra purchased the Sable at an impound sale on November 17, 2005.

So they're using stolen IDs to purchase things? Yeah, and police later figured out that this Hillary Adler existed but had no idea and didn't know who Olga or Helen was. In April or May 2003, her purse with her license and social security card was stolen from the locker room of the Spectrum Club. Club records show that Adler and Helen's daughter visited the club from January. 2003 to February 2004. We got a little help from Ellen's daughter. Sounds like it, but definitely there's a connection there. The police searched Helens Mercedes and found a planner with a posted note with a partial license plate and then written on it. The other side of the page had Olga's name, birthday, social security number, address, phone number, and license number. There was another note

with the apartment manager's name and phone numbers of Kenneth's apartment. So I think that does a couple of things, right? It ties the car in for sure. Absolutely. It ties Olga and Helen together, even more. And then it ties Helen at the very least to Kenneth McDavid. Police got their hands on the sable and inspected it on June 6, 2006. And they found traces of hair, skin, and blood.

on the undercarriage of the car. When they did DNA testing, it was a match for Kenneth McDavid. Now they get the murder weapon. Which is amazing to me. This was almost a year, a full year. After the murder happened,

the car had changed hands, and still they were able to find traces of hair, skin, and blood. That's just unbelievable if you think about it. Oh, truly. I mean, had the car been washed, you can't tell me, It wasn't driven in the rain.

I think what it goes to show, and what we find out in a lot of these cases is it can be really tough to get rid of evidence. There's a lot of nook and crannies that these grannies forgot about. Nook and crannies with the grannies. A second search of Helen's home on June 9th, 2006, led to the recovery of prescription a medication and a posted note with Paul Vado's birthday social security number, parents' names, and his California ID number. And I think one thing that was pretty damning was that the medication found in the house

was also found in Kenneth's system during his autopsy. So if you're talking about links, you know, you can draw the conclusion that they used Paul's medication to help drug Kenneth McDavid. Might make it a little bit easier to run him over. Well, you know, we haven't talked about it yet, but you know, the Ambien, the Vicodin, all of the things that we listed out, most likely were given to him to, you know, knock him out. Yeah. So that he could be run over.

Olga and Helen pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and conspiracy. each. Their double murder trial started on March 18, 2008. Prosecutor Bobby Grace pointed out that Helen and Olga targeted homeless people whose deaths might not be noticed. He also said they didn't need this money. They weren't poor, they weren't destitute, but they went out of their way to target men who had nothing. According to prosecutors, the murders were committed after the victim. The victims were committed after the victims had the policy for two years, which made it harder for insurers to contest the claims.

That means they did their homework. They knew where they had to be. And it also explains what we were talking about earlier, which is it was a longer con than you might think. But there was a very specific reason for it. But we know that they raked in a lot of money. They did. Gibbs. So, you know, to put somebody up in an apartment for two years. Okay. Is that a big outlay of cash? It is.

But not when you know you're getting back two or three million dollars. Yeah. And I, again, I hate to use the word investment, but I believe these women viewed it as nothing more than that. Oh, absolutely. It was just pay the premium and the extra expenses to keep the person up, But they just had to wait it out. Two years. They knew their, like you said, they were going to make all this money. The deputy DA told the court, they waited for two years with murder on their minds each of those days. They started this murder plot with greed.

And you're going to see that even when the jig was up, these defendants remained greedy. Helen and Olga collected millions from 23 life insurance policies on McDavid. and 13 on Vedas. They also tried to insure at least three other homeless men for $800,000, including Jimmy Covington. The prosecutor presented the insurance policies. In some, Olga was listed as a cousin. In others, Helen was listed as a fiancé.

So they were either the fiancé, the cousin. I mean, on the other policies, one was listed as the business partner. They were trying to cover their tracks. things didn't always match up. Well, like we said, there was definite planning. I mean, you can't say that these women didn't go to great lengths to plan things out. Now, I think when you write cousin in the box, that should be a red flag immediately. Not unless you're one of the cousins.

From where all your family is from? Yeah. Investigators also found out that Olga was a customer of the Hollywood rubber stamp. company. In the 1990s, she occasionally called herself Olga Smith on invoices. She ordered signature stamps. And instead of bringing in original signatures, she brought a copy of a document with the signature. She requested that the stamps look authentic, like an original signature. In 1997, she purchased a stamp for Paul Vado's. Documents examiner William Lever tested the signature stamps. And it was his opinion that Paul's signature on the insurance applications was

stamped. You're talking about rubber stamps. I did get some made up with your signature on it. I know. I know the company called me and I was not too happy. Oh, I didn't know you knew. Yeah, I think it wouldn't be too difficult for an expert to identify a real signature versus a stamp. Yeah, I was thinking the same thing because, and it's fascinating, right? When you talk about documents, examiners and handwriting analysis. But when you use a pen, my thought is the flow of the ink would be much different than if you're pressing straight down and maybe rocking back and forth with a stamp. Yeah. The impression is going to be different.

48-year-old Jimmy Covington testified for the prosecution. He said that Olga approached him. She took him to Burger King and promised him money and a bed. Jimmy was suspicious when Olga asked for personal information and his signature on documents. He moved out a few days later, but he didn't know, Gibbs, that these two women had already taken out a life insurance policy on him. and you know I talk quite a bit about you know people who survive who later find out just how close exactly they may have been to becoming a killer's next victim yeah this guy had to feel exactly like that knowing you know what happened to these two men and knowing that these women were planning to do the exact same thing to him Patrick LeMay, Kenneth McDavid's friend testified. He said Kenneth had an arrangement with the women.

Olga paid the rent on an apartment and in return asked Kenneth to sign insurance papers. Special agent Robert Brockway of the California Department of Insurance testified at trial. He explained that a term life insurance policy is the cheapest type of life insurance you can get. the policy is effective for a specified term of years. He also explained that term life insurance policies become incontestable after two years if all premium payments have been made. Now, the insurance company can cancel or rescind the policy before two years if they learn that the insurance was obtained through fraud or misrepresentation.

Oh, so the term life insurance I took out on you years ago. is good to go. Good to go now. Good to know. I know this case isn't all that old. I mean, we're talking about 14 years ago. Right. What if that's still the same? Because so two and a half years later, it's proven that an insurance policy was taken out fraudulently. And you're telling me there's nothing that the insurance company can do as long as the person continues to make the premium payments. Yeah, I'm thinking it's probably changed. I'm thinking that there's some of Additional clauses put into the agreement now that allowed the insurance carrier to back out or cancel the contract. You would think.

I'll look at the policy I took out on you and see what it says. See what it says? Yeah, I know even after the two years gives, there's got to be something that if the insurance company can prove that the policy was procured by some type of criminal means, they have to be able to, to, send it. I just know that. There's no way that they would not be able to do that. Yeah, they'd want to make sure they have that out. It was also said in the reporting in a lot of different places that, you know, insurance companies typically ask the interested person if they have other policies, they want to make sure that they're not overinsured. They want your money. But I think that's a red flag if somebody's got 10, 12, 15, 20 other policies with with different carriers.

Now, if you're these two women, though, you're going to say no. Yeah. We don't have 17 other policies. Oh. And of course, the prosecution played a 30 minute recording of the women speaking after they were arrested, which is like gold. Yeah, that had to have been gold. Helen's lawyer, Roger John Diamond. that's a hell of a name. It's Diamond, man. It's gold, Jerry. He admitted that Helen and Olga were intending to defraud the insurance companies. But they had no intention to murder Kenneth and Paul.

Diamond argued that Helen wasn't capable of the crime because she was, quote, a little old lady. Oh, the little lady defense. Yeah. I mean, that works every time, right? I mean, okay, defrauding an insurance company. That's not good. That's going to get you in trouble. But it's a far cry from murder.

So, you know, as we often talk about, what is a defense attorney's strategy? And how is he going to get out from under this taped conversation that they had that basically laid out kind of what they were doing? So I think, you know, at that point, you have to. to lean into the defrauding the insurance company and then say, but that was it. That was it. this murder thing, no way. It just happened and it just happened to benefit us. She's too little. She's too old. She has nothing to do with it. Can't pull that off. Helen insisted that her daughter, Keisha, drove the car, used the car, and used her phone to call the tow truck. Oh, she just threw her daughter underneath the bus that quick. Yeah.

well, you remember we talked about it earlier, her and her daughter. They didn't have a great relationship. They got into it years before. But it was said that the judge dismissed several of the witnesses that Helen's attorney had planned to call. Probably going to waste time. Well, there wasn't a lot of detail around it, but you could be right. Maybe they weren't going to add anything. I don't know. Olga had her own attorneys. They didn't call single witness. Basically, they just pointed the finger at Helen and said she was the mastermind. She was the manipulator.

Now, you can say, is that a good strategy? Is that not a good strategy? I guess you're hoping that it pushes more blame on to her and the jury believes it? Well, the only thing that does make sense from my way of thinking is that if you remember back to that conversation, right after they were arrested. You know, it was Olga that was really pushing the conversation and pushing it in a way that made Helen look more guilty than she did. And maybe that's what her attorneys were going for.

Maybe they were trying to play up on that 30 minute recorded conversation where Helen did admit certain things. And it was Olga who was kind of getting her to admit to some of those things. But either way, it didn't work for either one of them. On April 16th, 2008, Helen Gowley was found guilty of two counts of murder and two counts of conspiracy. On April 17th, Olga was found guilty of the murder of Kenneth McDavid. She was also convicted of the murder of Paul Vadoes and two counts of conspiracy.

So they both got the same. Yeah, essentially. I said it in a strange way, but yeah, you're right. on July 15th, Helen and Olga were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for the two murders and a stayed sentence of 25 years to life for conspiracy. So they're pretty much locked in. I think they were locked in anyway based on their age. Yeah, they're both still alive. Both women are currently incarcerated in California. Helen is 91, Olga is 89. So Gibbs, as we wrap up this case, one of the things that really jumped out at me was the motive that these two women had for, you know, doing what they did. Helen in particular, she was pretty

well off financially. We talked about it. She was a big time realtor. You know, even in the 1980, she was living in a $1.5 million mansion. Doing pretty good. So, I mean, obviously there's greed here. pure greed. But you have to question, how does she get that money then? If she was willing to do this, what did she do before this? Well, that's true. Did she make all of her money selling real estate or, or like we say, with other people, were there a lot more crimes?

We know they stole wallets and credit cards and stuff like that, but were there other crime? Did they kill other people? Did she kill people and sell off their house? could have. And that's how she made it and made her money being a realtor. We don't know, but it did kind of strike me as being even stranger than, than it would have been. Yeah. I mean, these, she was not a person who was like in dire financial straits and was looking for a way to get out. She was doing very well. She was, you know, you could say she was rich. It was just greed at its worst. Yeah. It was just pure greed. Now,

we also talked about the fact that she looked down on people less fortunate than her she made comments to other people about the homeless so it was almost as if she didn't see a problem right with killing them to get what she wanted because she didn't think anything about them yeah instead of reaching out to lift them up her idea was to reach out lift them up just for a little bit until payday came and then run them over. Yeah, so she could get what she wanted. Both women were reported to be obsessed with financial scams. Well, of course, they were running financial scams.

So then you're greedy. So then you want to do more financial scams and you want to figure out a way to make more money and it just goes on and on and on until for whatever reason it ends in murder. People like that are never going to be happy. They're never going to have enough. Yeah, satisfied. Right. And you could make a parallel to other serial killers, killers that kill for, let's say,

not greed or not money in a different way. They're never satisfied either. No. They're chasing that next rush. Whatever it is, whatever emotion that they get from killing, you could draw that parallel that these two women were chasing something it seems to be money agreed was their fix yeah but that's it for our episode on olga ruddersmith in helen gole you notice i didn't say rudder schmidt a lot i noticed that you're very careful yeah it's easier to say olga we got some voicemails you

want check those out let's hear him hi my can give me my name is kin uh i just listened to your charles ray Hatcher episode. I know I'm a bit behind. I just found you guys a couple months ago. But you guys were talking about how you didn't know if you could handle crime scene cleanup and whatnot. Well, actually, I used to work at a cleaning job where I did crime scene clean up. And let me tell you, it's pretty rough. The worst part is the smell. But anyway, I thought I would call and say that. Keep your own time sicken. Was it last week when I said I didn't want to be the feces guy? You did. Yeah. At this point, I just don't want to, I don't want to clean up. anything related to any of that.

Yeah. You got a big pass. Yeah. It's a big pass for me. Yeah. This is your birthday song. It isn't very long. Hey.

Yep. I'm sorry. I used to be team Mike. But after I found out that Givie shares the three Thursday day on 711, same birthday as my father, I'm kind of a little biased here. However, they're completely two opposite types of people, even though they, Oh, I can't do that. Sit back and listen like a wise person would like my father does,

but my father doesn't interject with a quirky joke sometimes, stay away from the vacuum hoses. And anyways, love you guys. I just wanted to wish, actually both of you, happy birthday, but I just happened because the same day as my dad. So enjoy the rest of your fabulous day. I hope you eat lots of cake. have a slice for me.

Actually, one for my dad because that's too much fake for me. Take care. Keep your head on this level. Keep that teacan skepticism. And you guys, take care. Bye. What is my phone?

I can't find my phone to hang up. Where is my phone? There is. So the happy birthday was great, but that part really cracked me up. Right. Like, I can't find my phone. Where is my phone? I can't hang up this voicemail.

Yeah. This voicemail is going to go on forever. Nothing like a free slurpee, by the way. Hey, Mike. This is Gary Howard again. I just got done listening to T-Cat, and it's definitely a mysterious case, but my biggest mystery and wonder why, and you did not mention anything about it, is, did you say they boiled hot dogs?

They're outside in the wilderness. Who boils hot dogs? I understand when you're at home, maybe, but you're outside camping, and you're boil hot dogs? What type of person at Ryman boils hot dogs when you have a perfectly good fire sticks and help me figure that one out?

Some people are just sticklers for boiled hot dogs. But you and I never even caught that. No. Because it was in the research that part of where quite a bit of their water went

was boiling these hot dogs. Yeah. You're in the wilderness. Save that water. Unless there was a ban on campfires maybe or something like that that I didn't read. Yeah. Could have been because it got so many brush fires and stuff like that. You still have to start a fire to boil the water.

Oh, that's a good point. Or back to the fire. I know. So sometimes when we're going through the case, things jump out of me. But sometimes they don't. And that was one that probably should have jumped out of both of us. Hot dogs are already cooked anyway. Yeah, you can eat them.

Just eat it, man. It's not as good, but you can eat them right out of the package. You can. We had no mailbag. So that is it, bud. For another episode of true crime all the time. So for Mike... And Gibby.

Stay safe and keep your own time ticking.