The Thing About Helen & Olga - Ep. 6: The Bottom Line

Summary

Podcast Summary: Dateline NBC - "The Thing About Helen & Olga" Ep. 6: The Bottom Line

Date: February 9, 2026
Host: Keith Morrison (Dateline NBC)
Theme: The final episode chronicles the dramatic trial, defense strategies, conviction, and aftermath for Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt—two elderly women who executed a deadly insurance scam targeting homeless men in Los Angeles.

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Episode Overview

In this concluding chapter, Dateline unpacks the courtroom battle between prosecutors and the defense as the fate of Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt—infamously dubbed the "Black Widows"—is decided. Through exclusive interviews, dramatic court moments, and survivors' testimonies, the episode reveals the chilling depths of their crimes and the justice meted out after years of evading authorities.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Scheme and Its Impact

• The Setup: Helen and Olga, under the guise of charity, targeted homeless men in Los Angeles, persuading them to sign off on life insurance policies before arranging their deaths for financial gain.
• Dehumanization: Morrison underscores the callousness, calling the homeless “walking, talking gold” to Helen and Olga (00:29).

2. Arrest and Incarceration

• The Fall: At the time of their arrest (May 2006), both women led comfortable lives funded by their crimes (03:26).
• Conditions in Jail: The women, unaccustomed to hardship, found jail life harsh. Helen’s attorney, Roger Diamond, repeatedly complained about inhumane conditions (07:07).
• Partnership Deteriorates: Their alliance buckled under pressure, with each blaming the other during recorded interrogations (10:11, 10:35).

3. The Legal Teams and Pretrial Maneuvering

• Defense Personalities:
  • Roger Diamond (Helen's attorney): flamboyant, media-savvy.
  • Michael Sklar (Olga's attorney): understated, deliberate.
• Case Joinder: Prosecutors tried Helen and Olga together, leveraging identical evidence against both, which increased mutual suspicion (09:39).
• Quote - Bobby Grace, Lead Prosecutor:
  “These two individuals were the most egregious actors that I had come across.” (02:46)

4. Trial Highlights

• Opening Arguments: Prosecutor Truck Doe (now an appellate judge) delivered a searing address, framing the women as predators who profited from misery (15:03).
• Prosecution’s “Tsunami of Evidence”:
  • 90 witnesses, 277 exhibits—including insurance documents, phone logs, and personal accounts (18:09–21:33).
  • Testimony from Jimmy Covington, a would-be victim who escaped their scheme (21:33).

Notable Quote:

Jimmy Covington, recalling seeing Olga on the witness stand:

"All of a sudden, I'm seeing her there and it's dawning on me this is actually real." (21:33)
"She had those eyes. She kind of looked at me... and that was it. She never looked at me again." (21:50)

5. Defense Strategies

• Helen’s Defense – Blaming Her Daughter:

  • Roger Diamond asserted that Helen’s daughter, Keisha, committed the murder of Kenneth McDavid, presenting no evidence but raising reasonable doubt (24:09–27:20).
  • Quote – Sam Mayrose, FBI Agent:

    “The thing that shocked me the most was when Helen threw her own daughter under the bus... That really surprised me.” (24:09)

  • The prosecution dubbed this the “SODDI defense”: “Some Other Dude Did It” (24:38).

• Olga’s Defense – Playing the Dupe:

  • Sklar portrayed Olga as a naïve follower, manipulated by Helen, responsible perhaps for theft, but not murder (28:14–29:13).
  • Highlighted Olga’s emotional reaction and ignorance in police recordings.

6. Verdict and Sentencing

• Jury Deliberation:
  Initial split verdict—Helen found guilty on all counts; jury deadlocked on Olga’s murder charges (30:52–33:12).

• Unusual Legal Move:
  Judge allowed a second round of closing arguments, focusing on Olga’s role in the conspiracy (33:34–34:52).

• Final Decision:
  Both women convicted on all counts—murder and conspiracy.
  Bobby Grace (35:26):

  “They are the two most egregious actors, the two people that stuck out the most as being the worst people that I have prosecuted.”

• Sentencing Statements:

  • Moving victim impact statements from the families.
    • Sandra Salmon, McDavid’s sister: “My brother Ken did not deserve to die the way he did.” (36:28)
    • Stella Vados, daughter of Paul Vados: “The defendants were greedy, selfish. I think they should live most of their lives in prison.” (37:38)
  • Judge’s condemnation:

    “These unfortunate men were sacrificed on your altars of greed. Therefore, each of you is sentenced and remanded to the custody of the sheriffs for transportation to the Department of Corrections forthwith.” (38:21–39:13)

7. Aftermath

• Both women sentenced to life without parole. Each attempted appeals, all denied (39:13–41:22).
• Current Status:
  • Helen, now 95; Olga, 92, both in separate prisons.
  • Neither shows remorse or has provided information for the victims’ families.
• Legacy and Remembrance:
  FBI agent Sam Mayrose reflected on the tenacity of Ed Webster, the insurance investigator whose persistence broke the case:

  “It was just our honor to be able to work with a guy that, that knew what he was doing and was so kind to everybody…” (41:30)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Black Widows' Motivation:
  Keith Morrison:

  “After all, the city of Los Angeles was awash in raw material... walking, talking gold.” (00:29)

• Legal Strategy – Shocking Turn:
  Sam Mayrose:

  “When Helen threw her own daughter under the bus, accusing her of being the one that drove the vehicle that killed Kenneth. That really surprised me.” (24:09)

• On Defendant's Roles:
  Bobby Grace:

  “We did not have to prove that Olga struck the fatal blow, only that she was part and parcel of the conspiracy...” (34:07)

• Judge David Wesley’s Final Judgment:

  “These unfortunate men were sacrificed on your altars of greed.” (38:21)

• Sam Mayrose on Ed Webster (the insurance investigator):

  “He'd never been in law enforcement, he'd never been a sworn officer, but man, oh man, he knew what he was doing.” (41:30)

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Key Timestamps

• 00:29 – Morrison sets up the "entrepreneurial" but deadly con of Helen & Olga
• 01:47/02:08 – Interrogation room: chilling perspectives on the value of human life for profit
• 10:11–10:35 – Interrogation tapes exposing infighting between the two women
• 15:03 – Prosecutor outlines the case in opening statement
• 18:09–21:33 – The prosecution’s case: evidence, witnesses, and Covington’s testimony
• 24:09 – Defense blames Helen’s daughter for murder
• 29:13 – Olga’s defense: positions herself as a gullible participant
• 33:34–34:52 – Judge’s rare move for additional closing arguments
• 35:26/36:28/37:38 – Victims’ families share impact statements
• 38:21–39:13 – Judge Wesley’s scathing sentencing remarks
• 41:22–41:51 – Reflection on Ed Webster’s role and legacy

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Tone and Style

Throughout, Keith Morrison’s narration is characteristically suspenseful, evocative, and empathetic, balancing somber justice with empathy for the victims and a cold eye on the machinations of Helen and Olga. The prosecutorial voices are authoritative and impassioned, the defense alternates between creative argument and desperation, while the voices of families offer raw emotion and closure.

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Conclusion

The episode provides a comprehensive, riveting finale to the Helen & Olga saga—unmasking human greed, the frailty of justice, and the unlikely evil lurking behind benign exteriors. The “Black Widows” will never leave prison, their victims will not return, and for the families and investigators, the case stands as both cautionary tale and testament to persistence in the pursuit of truth.

Transcript

[Narrator/Advertiser]

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[Keith Morrison]

Edu Myoffer with no or minimums on checking accounts, it's no wonder the Capital One bank guy is so passionate about banking. With Capital One, he wouldn't just tell you about no fees or minimums. He'd also talk about how most Capital One cafes are open seven days a week to assist with your banking needs. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See capitalone.com bank capital1na member FDIC it was a business venture, a startup, really. The kind of entrepreneurial enterprise that identifies an undervalued resource and exploits it. Visionary almost, in a wicked kind of way. After all, the city of Los Angeles was awash in raw material. Homeless men down and out, living on the margins of society, estranged from their families, isolated and penniless. Some consider them a blight on this shining city of stars by the sea. But to Helen Golay and Olga Rudderschmidt, homeless and dispossessed, were walking, talking gold.

[Helen Golay or Olga Rudderschmidt (Interrogation voices)]

He signed for these policies and we have punished because of what he wanted. That's not right. Now remember the bottom line. It is so evil and so heartbreaking to think that anyone would decide that the purpose of homeless human beings is.

[Keith Morrison]

To make profit worth far more dead than alive. It would seem so, but only if no one paid too much attention to the life insurance paperwork or gave the crumpled, bleeding heaps in back alleys more than a passing glance. In this episode, you'll hear from the lawyers who battled in court over the fate of two elderly women the media dubbed the Black Widows.

[Roger Diamond (Helen Golay's attorney)]

There is circumstantial evidence that the jury considered, but there's no direct evidence. So we don't have a situation where we have somebody who said, yes, I saw her do this.

[Bobby Grace (Lead Prosecutor)]

I've prosecuted all kinds of cases. Serial murderers, gang murderers, hate crime murderers. These two individuals were the most egregious actors that I had come across.

[Keith Morrison]

And you'll hear about the dramatic defense claim that prosecutors had put the wrong person on trial for murder.

[Bobby Grace (Lead Prosecutor)]

Someone who's not sitting in the courtroom is the actual perpetrator.

[Keith Morrison]

That's the thing about Helen and Olga. There is absolutely nothing they wouldn't do when their backs were against the wall?

[Judge David S. Wesley]

I didn't see that coming either. I mean, the case was horrifying enough.

[Keith Morrison]

The question was, would this surprise defense strategy work? I'm Keith Morrison, and this is the final episode of Dateline's newest podcast, the Thing About Helen and Olga. Before their arrests in May 2006, Helen Golay and Olga Rudderschmidt lived large. Helen had a large apartment, large car, and a lifestyle largely dedicated to satisfying her enormous appetite for money. Olga lived less ostentatiously, but maintained a healthy bank balance in spite of having no job, no visible means of support. Then one morning, all that changed.

[Helen Golay or Olga Rudderschmidt (Interrogation voices)]

Okay, well, I'm not a criminal.

[Keith Morrison]

I know, but let's just go with the program. Turn around. Turn around.

[Helen Golay or Olga Rudderschmidt (Interrogation voices)]

I can't believe this is not true. Then I have to go to the bathroom, please.

[Keith Morrison]

Suddenly, life for the two women got very small. A 12 by 8 foot cell, a stainless steel toilet and sink, hard vinyl covered mattresses, bunk beds, cellmates.

[Roger Diamond (Helen Golay's attorney)]

Oh, yes, that she's supposed to be housed separately.

[Keith Morrison]

She is.

[Roger Diamond (Helen Golay's attorney)]

However, they put another cellmate in there with her, and the cellmate is interfering with her ability to concentrate on the case of rediscovery and so forth.

[Keith Morrison]

That's the voice of Helen Golay's attorney, Roger diamond, speaking at a pretrial court appearance.

[Roger Diamond (Helen Golay's attorney)]

So she would like an order that would allow her to stay in the cell by herself without having somebody else come in and disturb her and harass.

[Keith Morrison]

Her and so forth. Helen Golay hired Diamond after her arrest on the federal mail fraud charges. But now he deftly shifted gears to defend her on murder charges.

[Roger Diamond (Helen Golay's attorney)]

Good morning. My name is Roger Diamond. I'm the attorney for Helen Golay. Here's a card if anybody needs it.

[Keith Morrison]

I spoke with Roger diamond in 2008. I've often thought that the job of a defense attorney is one of the more creative jobs there is. There must be a lot of left handed people in your business. It's just so interesting. But without giving away too many secrets, how did you propose to go about defending this client? What was your strategy?

[Roger Diamond (Helen Golay's attorney)]

Well, we start with the given that Ms. Golay maintains her innocence. Now, I was not there at the scene. I was not with Ms. Golay. I did not meet her until after she was arrested. So I have to go by what she tells me. And she tells me that she's not guilty.

[Keith Morrison]

As you can probably tell from his voice, Roger diamond is a defense attorney through and through, an impassioned advocate who reads dense court opinions for fun. Now imagine the impression the man is one of a kind. Beneath his unruly mop of wiry gray hair, Roger Diamond's well lined faces punctuated by a pair of dark, piercing eyes. He frequently arrived in court with the rumpled look of a man who had slept in his clothes and was late to a meeting. As if he wasn't ready. But of course, oh, he was.

[Roger Diamond (Helen Golay's attorney)]

She's presumed innocent and yet she's been punished as though she were guilty of a crime. She has a perfect record, has never been convicted of any crime, and she's been punished. She's miserable there at the county jail. It's absolutely horrible, you, Honor.

[Bobby Grace (Lead Prosecutor)]

Horrible.

[Keith Morrison]

Well, nobody's ever confused a county jail with a Carnival cruise. But Helen wasn't alone when it came to complaining about the accommodation. Her partner, Olga Rudderschmidt, complained so much that the jailers reportedly nicknamed her the Kvetch, her complainer. The food was not to her liking. The TV programs playing in the day room were annoying. Instead of designer fashions and workout clothes, both women wore county issue orange jumpsuits. Now, the views from the small windows in their cells somewhat different from the scenery of Hollywood and Santa Monica. Their new home was a graceless concrete jail that squatted in an industrial neighborhood five miles south of downtown la, hard by a busy highway and some railroad tracks. Oh, how the mighty had fallen.

[Roger Diamond (Helen Golay's attorney)]

The conditions that she's living under are deplorable. Absolutely horrible.

[Keith Morrison]

Horrible or not, it might have been a consolation to know that some of Hollywood's more notorious celebrities had bunked at the Central Regional Detention Facility. Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, to name a few. Olga's attorney, Michael Sklar, was in many ways the physical and temperamental opposite of Roger Diamond. Sklar was tall and mild mannered. His goatee was neatly trimmed, his dark, thinning hair combed to the side. All his professional life, he'd been a public defender.

[Judge David S. Wesley]

When do you believe you'd be ready to go forward with the arraignment?

[Keith Morrison]

September 13th. The day we reflect where the voluble diamond always appeared good for a comment to the press. Sklar avoided the media and in court spoke as if each word that crossed his lips was costing him money.

[Judge David S. Wesley]

If you receive the discovery in a week or 10 days, you don't think you'd be ready for the arraignment any sooner than September 13th.

[Keith Morrison]

Well, September 13th is about that length of time.

[Judge David S. Wesley]

So the answer is yes.

[Keith Morrison]

Yes.

[Judge David S. Wesley]

You don't believe you'd be ready any sooner.

[Jimmy Covington (Witness)]

Right.

[Keith Morrison]

Because the cases against both women were. They were identical. The Same facts, the same evidence, the same witnesses. The cases were joined, meaning Helen and Olga would be tried together. Good for the taxpayer, perhaps convenient for the prosecutors. But as you will see, trouble for Helen and Olga. Theirs had always been an uneasy partnership. And now the old resentments were out in the open.

[Helen Golay or Olga Rudderschmidt (Interrogation voices)]

Helene, that's your fault. You cannot make that many insurances. It's on your name. Only three.

[Podcast Hosts (Laci Mosley and Saeed Jones)]

Four.

[Helen Golay or Olga Rudderschmidt (Interrogation voices)]

Three different extra insurances.

[Podcast Hosts (Laci Mosley and Saeed Jones)]

You know what?

[Helen Golay or Olga Rudderschmidt (Interrogation voices)]

I want to ask for a different location. If you're going to talk. I don't want to talk about.

[Bobby Grace (Lead Prosecutor)]

Don't talk.

[Keith Morrison]

Remember the last time those two were alone in a room together? In that interrogation room, wired for sound.

[Helen Golay or Olga Rudderschmidt (Interrogation voices)]

I was doing everything for you. You are talking. Your fault, I know, but your fault that our relationship ended up like this and you ended up like this. I know, but admit it was your fault.

[Keith Morrison]

Now, there would be no common defense here. The trial would play out as their partnership had, with each woman for herself, each willing to do whatever it took to walk away from a murder rap.

[Bobby Grace (Lead Prosecutor)]

The different defense attorneys ended up having adverse theories of the case that brought them into conflict.

[Keith Morrison]

That's the voice of LA County Deputy District Attorney Bobby Grace. Grace was one of two lead prosecutors.

[Bobby Grace (Lead Prosecutor)]

And so the attorneys end up playing out in the trial the real life tension that there was between Helen and Ogan throughout this whole nefarious plot that they had going on. They didn't get along. And that spilled out into their defense tactics at trial.

[Keith Morrison]

Bobby Grace is a formidable looking man, broad shouldered with a shiny shaved head. He joined the LA District Attorney's office in 1988. Homicides and violent crimes were his specialty. But of all the hardened criminals he's encountered over the years, Gray said, it's two old ladies who take the cake.

[Bobby Grace (Lead Prosecutor)]

And I get asked this question all the time. I point to Helen and Olga as being the two people that stuck out the most, as the worst people that I've prosecuted.

[Keith Morrison]

Grace's partner was Truck Doe, a brilliant young prosecutor whose own story did not lack for existential drama. Her family fled Vietnam in 1975 when she was 3.

[Bobby Grace (Lead Prosecutor)]

She's one of the finest trial attorneys that our office had at that time. She's now a judge on the appellate court, Great at analyzing cases and outlining for the jury what are the particular facts that they need to pay attention to. She's very good at that.

[Keith Morrison]

It was a Tuesday morning, March 18, 2008, that the mahogany paneled ninth floor courtroom known as Department 102 began filling with lawyers and reporters and spectators in anticipation of the opening act of the People versus Helen Golay and Olga Ruddersmith. The murders of Paul Vaddos and Kenneth McDavid would of course, command center stage. One can't help imagining though, the spirit of 97 year old Fred Downey was also in that courtroom. Fred's death, after being hit by a car you'll remember, was an accident. A tragic coincidence. After he'd signed over all his money, his property, his estate. At 9:34am Helen Golay entered through a side door on the right hand side of the courtroom. Gone was her trademark bouffant and dangling earrings. Her hair had grown out in streaks of brown and gray. In place of the orange prison jumpsuit, Helen wore slacks and a green sweater. Olga entered a few minutes later, her long dark hair pulled away from her face by a pair of barrettes. She briefly scanned the courtroom looking for a friendly face, but saw none. Relatives of the two murdered men were there though. Sandra Salmon, Kenneth McDavid's sister, and Stella Vados, Paul Vaddos daughter, sat on the left behind the prosecutor's table with their lawyer, Gloria Allred.

[Helen Golay or Olga Rudderschmidt (Interrogation voices)]

They ran over him with a car in an alley as though he was just a piece of garbage that didn't matter. But this was someone's father and Kenneth McDavid was someone's brother. And he was a human being, not a piece of garbage.

[Keith Morrison]

At about 9:40, the jury of nine men and three women filed in and took their seats in the jury box. Court was called to order and Judge David S. Wesley took his seat on the bench beneath the circular seal of the State of California. At 9:45, the raven haired prosecutor truck doe rose from her seat and faced the jury. These two women looked at their victims and saw profit in their plight. She began. For 75 minutes she spoke to the jury about the witnesses they would hear from and evidence they would see which would lead them to only one conclusion. She said that the two little old ladies sitting before them were guilty. Guilty of two murders in the first degree. As for the defense, Michael Sklar and Roger diamond chose to say nothing at all, leaving prosecutors to guess what defense strategy they had up their sleeves.

[Bobby Grace (Lead Prosecutor)]

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[Podcast Hosts (Laci Mosley and Saeed Jones)]

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[Bobby Grace (Lead Prosecutor)]

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[Keith Morrison]

Crime stories are about the unusual, each revealing its own brand of pathology. Murder trials, on the other hand, follow a familiar script. They begin at the scene of the crime, at the moment when the deed was discovered, the natural order of things disturbed. And that is how the murder trial of Helen Golay and Olga Rudderschmidt unfolded. Over the course of three weeks, the prosecution presented a virtual tsunami of evidence. 90 witnesses, 277 exhibits with little physical evidence to present. In the murder of Paul Vados, the prosecutors intended to show that a strong pattern of evidence existed that connected Helen and Olga with the deaths of both Paul vados and Kenneth McDavid. Starting from the night Kenneth McDavid's body was found crushed to death in an alley, to the day investigators found his blood beneath that mercury sable. Prosecutors wove a meticulous story. Phone records documented Helen's call for roadside assistance on the night of Kenneth McCarthy David's murder, less than 1,000ft from where his body lay in the alley, dead. Neighbors testified they'd seen the car parked behind Helen's home before the Murder. And police officers testified they had found the car abandoned blocks from Olga's apartment. After the murder, insurance reps explained the tedious ins and outs of the life insurance business. The computations that reduced the lives of Paul vados and Kenneth McDavid to numbers on the bottom line. Premiums paid in, claims paid out. Calculations that made murder an inescapable cost of doing business. Charles Suheda, the pastor who ran the homeless program at Hollywood Presbyterian, told the jury about the day Helen and Olga showed up saying they wanted to volunteer to help feed the homeless. Such thoughtful, kind women, like grandmothers they seemed to him back then. Now they sat feet away from him. Elderly women accused of killing two vulnerable men, men he had known well, as I recall, they.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

They had a slide of Hollywood Presbyterian Church. They established that there was a church, and this church is doing this work with the homeless, et cetera, and they're trying to help these folks. And then on the other hand, you got this story of two women who. They're destroying the lives of the people that came to the church for help. Okay, that's an incredible juxtaposition that is really high contrast of, if you want to call it good and evil, I think I could call that, you know, good and evil, you know.

[Keith Morrison]

And then finally, Jimmy Covington had his say. Remember Jimmy? He was the guy who slipped the hook. The guy they lured with the same deal they later offered Kenneth McDavid. But Jimmy didn't like Olga's snoopy questions, her demands for more and more personal information. And Jimmy survived to tell his tale in court.

[Jimmy Covington (Witness)]

All of a sudden, I'm seeing her there and it's dawning on me this is actually real. There she is and there's her partner, and it's all coming together. Starting to feel more real to me now, you know, I mean, majorly real.

[Keith Morrison]

Majorly real. Oh, yes. As real as it gets.

[Jimmy Covington (Witness)]

When they asked me if this was her over there, I looked at her and I nodded, yeah, that's her in the blue coat right there. And she looked at me with those eyes like that time when she opened that door at 3 o' clock in the morning. She had those eyes. She kind of looked at me and glanced to the side like that and looked up and that was it. She never looked at me again. Couldn't believe it, how real this was.

[Keith Morrison]

At the end of the prosecution's case, there was a palpable feeling that this had been a route, as if LeBron and the Lakers had just demolished a pickup team from the local yard. But was it enough to convict two elderly ladies of murder?

[Bobby Grace (Lead Prosecutor)]

You never want to get too full of yourself or to assume, because anything that involves human endeavors are unpredictable by their very nature. And so, although we had all the cards in the case, we weren't counting our chickens before they hatched.

[Keith Morrison]

Counting chickens? No. It was the defense's turn now, and the souffle they were serving would require a lot of broken eggs. Helen's attorney, Roger diamond, went first. In what was effectively his opening statement, diamond seemed to concede the obvious. Yes, he told the jury, br perhaps the ladies were involved in some insurance shenanigans. But, he said, that was not the question here. The real question was, who killed Kenneth McDavid? The only case in which real physical evidence existed. Who did it? He asked, staring intently at the jury like a revival preacher preparing for the altar call. Well, after a dramatic pause, he answered his own question, his voice rising. Keisha Golay. Helen Golay's daughter. Well, shock pulsed across the courtroom like ripples on water. Investigators in the courtroom, like the FBI, Sam Mayrose, were stunned.

[Sam Mayrose (FBI Agent)]

The thing that shocked me the most was when Helen threw her own daughter under the bus, accusing her of being the one that drove the vehicle that killed Kenneth. That really surprised me.

[Keith Morrison]

In law school, that kind of tactic is called third party culpability. Means pinning the blame on someone who has not been charged and is probably not even in the courtroom. Bobby Grace has a more colorful name for it.

[Bobby Grace (Lead Prosecutor)]

The Saudi defense, which is some other dude did it. And prosecutors, like, all over the country, they know the Saudi defense. And we spent a lot of time making sure that we are able to counter claims that somebody else did. But this kind of took us a little bit by surprise, given what we knew about the evidence so far.

[Keith Morrison]

As Helen sat with her head down, staring with blank eyes at the table before her, diamond told the jury that it was Helen's daughter who stole the driver's license from that Santa Monica gym and gave it to Olga Rutterschmidt. It was Keisha, he claimed, who called the used car dealership and arranged the purchase of the Mercury Sable. It was Keisha who used her mother's AAA roadside assistance card to call for a tow on the night Kenneth McDavid died. In fact, he claimed he had evidence that the phone used to make that call to AAA was registered to Keisha Golay. Oh, he had the undivided attention of everyone in the courtroom. Now, diamond argued that Helen Golay could not possibly have killed Kenneth McDavid. She was 75 years old. the time, thin and feeble, too weak to have muscled a man who weighed nearly 200 pounds out of her car and into position to be run over. But Keisha. Oh, yes, According to Diamond, Helen's iron pumping daughter was more than capable of that. A plausible theory, yes. Even the investigators, like FBI Sam Mayrose, had to concede. Could be.

[Sam Mayrose (FBI Agent)]

Quite frankly, it's. It's not out of the realm of possibility that that's what happened. But we could never. We could never develop the evidence that showed that Keisha was involved in that.

[Keith Morrison]

Was this Helen's last conversation? The bottom rung on the long ladder of shame? Well, in spite of all of his promises of proof, Roger diamond produced not one whit of evidence to support any of his allegations against Kesha Golay. No phone records, no evidence at all that Kesha Golay had ever been charged with stealing a driver's license from the gym. And certainly no evidence that Keisha was ever in the car that killed Kenneth McDavid. But.

[Roger Diamond (Helen Golay's attorney)]

Well, we don't have to have any evidence at all.

[Keith Morrison]

A rule Roger diamond knew as well as his own name.

[Roger Diamond (Helen Golay's attorney)]

The jury is properly instructed at the beginning of a criminal case that the burden is never on the defendant to produce any evidence. And the burden is never on the defendant, obviously, to testify. Fortunately, in our American legal system, the defendant does not have to testify.

[Keith Morrison]

Keisha Golay did not respond to Dateline's requests for comment. As for Olga's defense, her attorney, Michael Sklar, never even made an opening statement. His defense was best summed up by Olga herself on the day she was arrested.

[Helen Golay or Olga Rudderschmidt (Interrogation voices)]

Helene, that's your fault.

[Keith Morrison]

There's that interrogation room recording again.

[Helen Golay or Olga Rudderschmidt (Interrogation voices)]

I know that you've been. That's the problem, you, fault that our relationship ended up like this.

[Bobby Grace (Lead Prosecutor)]

The attorney for Olga Ruddersmith, he was trying to get as far away from Helen as possible in order to make the argument that Olga was like, really a dupe in this whole situation.

[Keith Morrison]

According to Olga's attorney, the whole scheme was Helen's idea. Helen was the boss. Olga, he said, was too slow witted to even guess what Helen was up to. Olga was the one who cared for them, checked up on them, brought them food, felt genuine grief when they died, said Olga's attorney. Just look at the interrogation room tape. Skier told the jury. Olga never once hinted at knowing anything about murder, even though she blabbed freely about everything else.

[Helen Golay or Olga Rudderschmidt (Interrogation voices)]

I should have taken my passport, it's expired. And get the out of here. That's what I should have done. See what greediness leads you to as.

[Keith Morrison]

For the murder weapon, the Mercury Sable, who had possession of it before and after the murder of Kenneth McDavid, he asked Helen Golay, who had raked in the big bucks. Helen Golay. It was late on A Monday afternoon, April 14, 2008, more than a month since jury selection began, that the chosen 12 finally started their deliberations. Late the following day, they sent a notice to the judge. They were hung on some of the criminal counts, but decided on others. The next morning, Judge Wesley assembled the jurors and opened the envelope that contained their partial verdict and read it to a packed courtroom. Helen Golay convicted of conspiracy and murder. Both Paul vados and Kenneth McDavid and Olga Rudderschmidt. Well, maybe her attorney's plan to pin it all on Helen worked, because when it came to the question of the guilt or innocence of Olga, the jury was deadlocked.

[Podcast Hosts (Laci Mosley and Saeed Jones)]

What's poppin listeners? I'm Laci Mosley, host of the podcast Scam Goddess, the show that's an ode to fraud and all those who practice it. Each week I talk with very special guests about the scammiest scammers of all time. Wanna know about the fake errors? We got em? What about a career con man? We've got them too. Guys that will wine and dine you and then steal all your coins. Oh, you know they are, because representation matters. I'm joined by guests like Nicole Byer, Ira Madison iii, Conan o', Brien, and more. Join the congregation and listen to Scam Goddess. Wherever you get your podcasts, imagine relying.

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[Keith Morrison]

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[Bobby Grace (Lead Prosecutor)]

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[Keith Morrison]

The jury's decision to find Helen Golay guilty on all counts came quickly. She was the mastermind, after all. But perhaps there was something in Olga's befuddled face as she sat at the defense table that convinced at least one or two jurors that she was different. A thief, perhaps, but a murderer.

[Bobby Grace (Lead Prosecutor)]

I believe that the jurors were having some trouble as to whether Olga was part of the actual murder aspect. And there were some votes that were taken, apparently, where the jury was hung, meaning not all the jurors agreed with the murder liability of Olga.

[Keith Morrison]

There was a stalemate. The jury needed more. And so the judge did something very unusual. He allowed the attorneys to, in effect, make another round of closing arguments. Olga's attorney, Michael Sklar, urged the wavering jurors to hang tough, take pride. In rendering a split decision, prosecutor Bobby Grace argued that Helen and Olga had always been partners in crime, all the crimes, even murder.

[Bobby Grace (Lead Prosecutor)]

I tried to lean very heavily on the conspiracy aspect of it and that, you know, that we did not have to prove that Olga struck the fatal blow, only that she was part and parcel of the conspiracy. And it was almost impossible for the jurors to divorce her from all aspects of the larger conspiracy. And it would been inexplicable that Olga would not have gone along for the entire ride because she wanted to get as much money as possible. So she wouldn't have left herself out in terms of the killing part because Helen could have cut her out of the deal if she wasn't stepping up to the plate all the way.

[Keith Morrison]

So then the jury went away again and closed the door for 1/10 hour. Olga Rutterschmidt, her expression unreadable, scribbled on a yellow pad as the jurors finally made their announcement on two counts of murder and two of conspiracy. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Bobby Grace remembered the moment and said.

[Bobby Grace (Lead Prosecutor)]

Among the many cases that I have tried, they are the two most egregious actors, the two people that stuck out the most as being the worst people that I have prosecuted.

[Keith Morrison]

Three months later, Helen and Olga were back in court, manacled and in their prison orange, now for sentencing. Because of their age and the hurdles involved in imposing the Death penalty. Death had been taken off the table. As is almost always the case on such a sentencing day. The ninth floor courtroom was packed with investigators and reporters and the families of the victims and curious court watchers. Before pronouncing their sentences, Judge David Wesley asked Kenneth McDavid's sister, Sandra, and Paul Vaddes daughter, Stella, if they had anything they wanted to say. They did. Sandra was first to walk to the microphone.

[Podcast Hosts (Laci Mosley and Saeed Jones)]

My brother Ken did not deserve to die the way he did.

[Keith Morrison]

At times. Choking back tears, Sandra turned to the one topic that felt particularly raw. The one Helen and Olga could still remedy if they wanted to. They could tell her family where they could find Kenneth McDavid's remains. The defendants have never said where his remains are.

[Podcast Hosts (Laci Mosley and Saeed Jones)]

Olga Rudderschmidt signed his death certificate. And Helen Golay is listed on the death certificate as a place of final disposition.

[Keith Morrison]

How cool have been. Not down where he is. Then a woman in black approached the microphone. In her eyes, the stricken look of a still grieving daughter.

[Helen Golay or Olga Rudderschmidt (Interrogation voices)]

He didn't deserve that. No one does.

[Keith Morrison]

Stella Vados remembered the good father Paul Vados was before life took a downward turn. And then she told the court what she thought of the women who killed him.

[Helen Golay or Olga Rudderschmidt (Interrogation voices)]

The defendants were greedy, selfish. I think they should live most of their lives in prison.

[Keith Morrison]

Would they? The judge got down to business.

[Judge David S. Wesley]

Yes, you'll rise, please. Ms. Golay, the jury has convicted you. You are sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. You may be seated. Ms. Rudderschmidt, please rise. The jury has found you guilty. You are hereby sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

[Keith Morrison]

Then Judge David Wesley paused and glared directly at Helen and Olga and said.

[Judge David S. Wesley]

I don't usually comment on sentences when I give a sentence, but during this trial. Ms. Rudderschmidt, you recognized something in Ms. Golay, but did not recognize it in yourself when you pointed your finger at her and you said, you're greedy. Kenneth McDavid and Paul Vados needed only food, water and shelter. They needed a helping hand. They thought they were getting that help from Ms. Collet and from you, Ms. Rudderschmidt. They thought you were going to give them the help they wanted. Instead, these unfortunate men were sacrificed on your altars of greed. Therefore, each of you is sentenced and remanded to the custody of the sheriffs for transportation to the Department of Corrections forthwith.

[Keith Morrison]

With that, Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt were led from the courtroom to serve out the rest of their days behind bars, though both later appealed their convictions. Those appeals were denied. It's been 17 years since Helen and Olga were sentenced to life without parole. In that time, they have no doubt met and mingled with others of their ilk. Serial killers, husband mutilators, kidnappers, thieves. Both are still alive, serving their sentences in separate prisons. Helen is 95 now, Olga 92. We've written to both of them over the years to see if they had anything to say, anything at all about this. Olga once seemed game, though she said she couldn't talk on the phone and did not respond to a follow up letter from DATELINE sent in preparation for this podcast. As for Helen, she wrote us saying that she has, quote, bona fide and verifiable evidence proving her innocence. And I can only look forward to the day I am a guest on your program Dateline and reveal the truth of my unlawful conviction. She closed by asking us to find her an attorney and pay her legal fees. Naturally, she promised to reimburse us once she's exonerated. Of course, that's something DATELINE would never do. Helen did not respond to our follow up letter. As for the investigators who were instrumental in unraveling Helen and Olga's murder for money scheme, many, like Detective Dennis Kilcoyne, are retired now. So is the FBI's Sam Mayrose, though he still moonlights from time to time on cold cases in Oklahoma. Sadly, Ed Webster, the insurance investigator whose persistence started it all, passed away in 2019.

[Sam Mayrose (FBI Agent)]

Ed could have, could have and should have been somebody that taught at Quantico.

[Keith Morrison]

Former FBI agent Sam Mayrose.

[Sam Mayrose (FBI Agent)]

It was just our honor to be able to work with a guy that was just that, that good. And he'd never been in law enforcement, he'd never been a sworn officer, but man, oh man, he knew what he was doing. And it was just really great to be able to work with a guy that, that knew what he was doing and was so kind to everybody.

[Keith Morrison]

Someone who was kind to everybody. A fine way to be remembered and perhaps the best way to end a story that sadly had so little kindness in it. The Thing About Helen and Olga is a production of Dateline NBC and NBC News Audio from Dateline NBC. Tim Beacham is the producer of this podcast with help from Susan Lebowitz. Rachel Lagon is the associate producer. Thomas Kemen is our assistant audio editor. Susan Nall oversees our digital programming. Adam Gorfin is the co executive producer. Liz Cole is our executive producer. And David Corvo is our senior executive producer for NBC News Audio. Sariah Gage is the general manager, mixing in sound design by Aaron Dalton and Bryson Barnes. Audio produced by Abe Selby and Ursula Sommer, with help from audio engineer Bob Mallory and operations manager Nick Offenberg. Original music by Andrew Epin.

[Podcast Hosts (Laci Mosley and Saeed Jones)]

What's Poppin listeners? I'm Lacey Mosley, host of the podcast Scam Goddess, the show that's an ode to fraud and all those who practice it. Each week I talk with very special guests about the scammiest scammers of all time. Wanna know about the fake errors? We got em. What about a career con man? We've got them too, guys that will wine and dine you and then steal all your coins. Oh, you know they are represented because representation matters. I'm joined by guests like Nicole Byer, Ira Madison iii, Conan o', Br, and more. Join the congregation and listen to Scam Goddess. Wherever you get your podcasts.