In 2008, two women were put on trial. They were accused of the murders of two men, six years apart. The women, Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt were in their 70s at the time of the trial. They murdered two men: Paul Vados at the age of 73 in 1999 and Kenneth McDavid at the age of 50 in 2005.

Now, the age of the women is obviously the first thing that sticks out about this story. How often do a pair of senior citizens commit cold-blooded murder? What makes this story even more horrific, however, is the hows and the whys of what happened.

It turns out that Golay and Rutterschmidt took out life insurance policies on the two men, coming to a whopping sum of $2.8 million. They then killed the men, making their deaths appear to have been hit and run accidents.

The saga began in 1997 when the women became friends with Paul Vados in 1997. They let Vados stay with them for a time, and convinced him to take out a life insurance policy. From there, they then forged his name to take out additional policies. When Vados was killed in what seemed to be a hit-and-run in 1999, they collected. In all, there were over a dozen life insurance policies on Vados.

When the duo decided to duplicate their efforts again, they found Kenneth McDavid. Like with Vados, they brought him into their home and convinced him to sign life insurance policies. McDavid had a total of 23 insurance policies naming the women as beneficiaries.

It appeared, as well, that the pair were trying to find yet another victim. Jimmy Covington, a 48 year-old man, was approached by the women, taken to a fast food restaurant and was promised shelter. He became suspicious when the women asked him to give personal details, and when they asked him to sign life insurance documents.

Officials were able to boost their case for prosecution of the women using secretly recorded conversations while the women were in jail. Ruttershmidt said to Golay, in one conversation, “You did all these insurances extra. That’s what raised the suspicion.”

The court convicted Golay and Rutterschmidt in April of 2008. The women were both sentenced to life terms in prison without parole.

Photo via M Hedin