Two elderly California women received life sentences Tuesday for murdering two homeless men to cash in on life insurance policies, the Los Angeles Times reported. ( dpa )
A Los Angeles judge sentenced Helen Golay, 77, and Olga Rutterschmidt, 75, to life without the possibility of parole. The women had been convicted of murder and insurance fraud in April.
Prosecutors said the women plucked the two destitute men off the street as "investments," sheltered them for two years, took out millions of dollars in life insurance on them - then killed them in staged hit-and-run accidents in dark alleys.
The crimes occurred years apart, raising police suspicions after Kenneth McDavid, 51, was found dead in 2005. The women killed Paul Vados, 73, in 1999.
The case has earned the women the title of "black widows" and the has been compared to the 1939 play Arsenic and Old Lace, made famous in the 1944 movie with Cary Grant.
They had taken out more than 25 life insurance policies on the men worth 2.8 million dollars while posing as fiancees or cousins.