More "Black Widows" Guilty Verdicts

(CBS/AP)  An elderly woman was convicted Monday of two more counts in scheme to kill homeless men to cash in on insurance payouts.

Olga Rutterschmidt, 75, was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to murder for financial gain in the death of Paul Vados, 73. Last week, she was convicted of murder and conspiracy in the death of Kenneth McDavid, 50.

The jury returned to deliberations Monday after bringing in an alternate to replace a juror who had to leave on a trip. Co-defendant Helen Golay, 77, was convicted of both murders and conspiracy last week.

Defense attorney Michael Sklar said he will begin working on a motion for a new trial, but had no other comment.

Jurors had said that they were deadlocked on the last two counts against Rutterschmidt, but were ordered to start deliberations over on those counts because of the new member. The verdicts came after about an hour of talks.

Prosecutors said the two women collected $2.8 million before their scheme was uncovered during the investigation into the 2005 death of McDavid in what initially looked like a hit-and-run accident. An investigator overheard another detective discussing the 1999 death of Vados in very similar circumstances.

From the start, the defendants' advanced ages kept the case in the headlines, drawing comparisons to the play and film "Arsenic and Old Lace," the Los Angeles Times reported. The killings came to be known as the Black Widow murders.

The women were accused of recruiting the men from among Hollywood's homeless and giving them lodging and food while taking out numerous insurance policies on them.

The convictions carry life prison terms without possibility of parole for both women. Prosecutors chose to not seek the death penalty.

[rational_1]

Back when I lived in North Carolina I had a banker neighbour who insured his stay-at-home wife for $2M. When I asked her why he would do that she got a bit indignant and said she was worth it. Wonder if she''s still alive...

[timothyone-2009]

They are innocent of any crime!! Any man who''s ever had a really good wife will tell you, what these fine women did was nothing more than accelerate the normal effects of marriage! Leave these newly widowed women alone!

[thy1138]

Back in 1963 our teacher showed us a retouched original of a woman in the electric chair being electrocuted, taken from the teacher''s father''s calf I think, who lifted his trouser leg to get it. He had others, one in Nevada I think, of a large tripod in the desert I think taken from a nearby hill that showed the thousands of people that had showed up in what looked like the proverbial "middle of nowhere" as an outing, some by train, to be at the public execution. I would like to commend the prosecutors, though the alleged crimes are heinous, to react "in kind" just as horrible.

[erasmus6]

"But they have such honest faces!" Posted by Extremophil at 03:16 PM : Apr 21, 2008

The one on the right looks like a neighbor I used to have. She was the terror of the neighborhood. We all think she deliberately set fire to her house to get the insurance money. Only problem was that because she was drunk all the time, she forgot to renew the insurance.

Looks can be deceiving.

[mexinvasion]

Scheming Parasites are people too, you know.

[extremophil]

But they have such honest faces!