Dateline NBC – Talking Dateline: The Thing About Helen & Olga

Release Date: February 11, 2026
Host: Lester Holt
Guests: Keith Morrison (Dateline Correspondent, Host of “The Thing About Helen & Olga”), Susan Leibowitz (Senior Producer, Dateline NBC)

Episode Overview

In this special episode, Lester Holt sits down with Keith Morrison and Dateline producer Susan Leibowitz to discuss the making of the true-crime podcast series “The Thing About Helen & Olga.” The episode revisits the chilling case of Hel en Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt, two elderly women who, under the guise of charity, befriended, insured, and ultimately murdered homeless men in Los Angeles for insurance payouts. Through relaxed, in-depth conversation, the team recounts the multi-year investigation, bizarre courtroom moments, behind-the-scenes stories, and lingering mysteries that surround this case.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Scam: Kindness as a Cover

• In the late 1990s, Helen and Olga portrayed themselves as charitable figures, helping homeless men in L.A.

• Beneath the surface, they patiently cultivated relationships over years, took out life insurance policies on their victims, and staged their deaths to look accidental, collecting significant payouts.

• Keith Morrison calls them “sort of Thelma and Louise of crime.” [02:44]

  “We say elderly ladies. They weren’t that elderly when they started their scams, who just played the most interesting and patient games with men to try to take their money away... There is sort of Thelma and Louise of crime.”
  — Keith Morrison [02:44]

• Their key asset: patience. They’d wait years before making a claim, so as not to arouse suspicion from insurers.

  “They would spend two years waiting for the time when an insurance company would trust them to give them the money...”
  — Keith Morrison [03:34]

2. The Investigation & The Role of the “Granny Task Force”

• The scam unraveled when an insurance investigator noticed something suspicious about the payout claims.

  “I’ve never encountered somebody who is quite so calm, methodical, and deliberate. He just would not give up until he solved this puzzle.”
  — Keith Morrison [04:42]

• This investigator’s dedication pushed law enforcement to take a closer look, leading to the formation of the “Granny Task Force”—a specialized group assigned to trail Helen and Olga.

• The comedic element: police struggled to keep up as then-septuagenarian Olga hiked steep Runyon Canyon, outpacing her would-be followers. [07:20]

• Evidence gathering included surveillance, financial tracing, and late-night crime scene recreations to confirm allegations.

3. Confrontation and Break in the Case

• A dramatic moment is recounted when Helen expected a life-changing insurance check only to be handed a refund instead, all caught undercover on video.

  “If you’re not going to pay me the full amount, this has been a total waste of my time. I am very unhappy. A lot of grief and heartache and problems.”
  — “Helen or Olga” reenactment [06:31]

• At Olga’s house, she wouldn’t open the door, reaching out only enough to grab her check and slam it closed, underscoring their mounting desperation.

4. The Murders and Attempted Cover-up

• The killings involved staging fatal accidents, such as running men over with cars in alleys.

• Detectives tried to reconstruct these crimes, working with the California Highway Patrol to recreate how Kenneth McDavid was killed, staying up “til two in the morning.” But this elaborate evidence was never used in court as prosecutors changed strategy. [08:42–10:12]

  “I never completely understood what they were trying to prove, but they were trying to figure out if there was something they could do to help make their case.”
  — Susan Leibowitz [09:29]

5. Other Alleged Victims & Civil Suits

• The story included a segment about Fred Downey, an elderly man in Cape Cod befriended by Helen’s daughter, coerced to sell his house, and who later died in circumstances echoing the California murders. His family was unsettled to find Helen and Keisha’s gravestones beside his.

  “There are two more gravestones there for Keisha and Helen. Right. So they’re going to be buried beside poor old Fred Downey. And Fred’s relative is very, very, very unhappy about that.”
  — Keith Morrison [13:23]

• Helen and Olga were involved in numerous civil suits—against lighting stores, gyms, grocery stores—over suspicious “accidents.”

  “They were just looking around, which he said was unusual in lighting stores… at one point he hears crash. And one of them… has been hit by one of their lamps… and later on, the store gets sued.”
  — Susan Leibowitz [17:02]

  “In order to have that lamp hit you… you’d have to go out of your way, bring the lamp low enough… so it just seemed peculiar at the time.”
  — Royal Lighting Store Owner [17:46]

  • Susan describes searching through a basement full of missing paper court files, highlighting both their brazen litigiousness and the system's flaws.

6. Personality, Motives, and Legacy

• The discussion explores whether Helen or Olga was the ringleader. Keith suggests Helen was the prime schemer, though both were opportunistic. [14:46]

• Their backgrounds and relationship remain partly mysterious; even those close to them wanted little to do with them. Attempts to reach friends and family were largely rebuffed.

  “People wanted to keep them at arm’s length.”
  — Susan Leibowitz [15:26]

• There are hints that the full extent of Helen’s (and possibly Olga’s) misdeeds may never be known, with questions remaining about unexplained property transfers and other suspicious deaths. [16:12]

7. Trial, Verdict, and Ongoing Impact

• The trial saw Helen attempt to shift blame to her daughter (who has never been charged), but the jury found both women guilty of murder.

  “The jury didn’t seem to have any trouble reaching a verdict in Helen’s case. But they talked a little longer about Olga before they finally came to a conclusion.”
  — Keith Morrison [20:19]

• Both women are now elderly, in separate prisons, likely to die behind bars. As of this episode, Helen is 95 and Olga is nearly 93.

  “Whatever else prison life has done for them, it has not harmed their longevity.”
  — Keith Morrison [24:36]

8. Behind the Scenes: Human Impact & The Hollywood Presbyterian Church

• A number of poignant, personal moments focus on the lingering toll these stories take on the journalists who cover them—Susan ended up sending her own daughter to the preschool at the same church where Helen and Olga befriended their victims. [22:48]

• Both Keith and Susan touch on the emotional cost and the need to balance empathy with professional distance.

  “Life can be tragic for people, and you live in those moments. You feel tremendous empathy for people who are the victims of crime… But… you’ve got other things in your life… and then move on to the next one.”
  — Keith Morrison [23:54]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “There is sort of Thelma and Louise of crime.”
  — Keith Morrison [02:44]

• “If you’re not going to pay me the full amount, this has been a total waste of my time.”
  — “Helen or Olga” (reenactment) [06:31]

• “They were just looking around, which he said was unusual in lighting stores… and later on, the store gets sued.”
  — Susan Leibowitz [17:02]

• “There are two more gravestones there for Keisha and Helen. Right. So they’re going to be buried beside poor old Fred Downey.”
  — Keith Morrison [13:23]

• “Whatever else prison life has done for them, it has not harmed their longevity.”
  — Keith Morrison [24:36]

• “People wanted to keep them at arm's length.”
  — Susan Leibowitz [15:26]

Important Timestamps

• 01:03 – Episode begins, Lester introduces guests and recaps the case
• 02:44 – Keith Morrison dubs Helen & Olga “the Thelma and Louise of crime”
• 03:34 – Patience and method in their insurance scam explained
• 04:36–05:51 – The pivotal role of the insurance investigator
• 06:06 – Undercover confrontation where Helen receives a refund, not a payout
• 07:20 – The “Granny Task Force” and their unusual surveillance challenges
• 08:42–10:12 – Crime scene recreation with law enforcement
• 11:56–14:40 – The Cape Cod victim Fred Downey, and family reaction to burial plot
• 15:03 – Little known about origin of Helen and Olga’s friendship
• 16:12 – Speculation about unknown crimes and property transfers
• 17:02–18:38 – The lighting store “accident” and pattern of suspicious civil lawsuits
• 20:02–20:34 – Trial outcome and Helen blaming her daughter
• 22:48–23:32 – Susan’s ironic connection to the case through her child’s preschool
• 24:36 – Update on Helen and Olga: ages, prison status, no chance of release
• 25:23–25:41 – Susan's correspondence attempts with the women, including odd responses
• 25:49–25:58 – Closing thanks from hosts

Final Thoughts

This episode provides an intimate look at the investigation, personalities, and darker layers of the Helen and Olga case—the calculated patience, systemic blindspots, and the odd, often surreal details. Morrison and Leibowitz blend reporting with personal experience, providing a revealing and at times darkly comic take on one of Dateline’s most memorable stories.

For listeners newer to Dateline or The Thing About Helen & Olga, this episode both recaps the facts and brings out the tangled, often absurd human side behind the headlines—making it essential listening for true-crime aficionados who want a deeper understanding of both the case and those who reported it.