According to reports, Golay and Rutterschmidt staged Vados and McDavid's deaths to appear as hit and run incidents in order to collect on multimillion-dollar life insurance policies they had taken out on the men.
[1] Seventy-three-year-old homeless man Paul Vados was found lying dead in an alley in Hollywood, California, near 307 North La Brea Avenue on November 8, 1999.
According to a surveillance video, fifty-year-old homeless man Kenneth McDavid[3] was hit by a silver 1999 Mercury Sable station wagon on June 21, 2005.
Covington asserted she took him to a Burger King restaurant for a meal, where she promised him shelter and assistance with obtaining welfare and other services for the destitute.
He testified that he had moved out after a few days, due to growing suspicious when Golay and Rutterschmidt asked him to sign documents and demanded his date of birth, Social Security Number and other identifying information.
Suspicion had in fact been raised when a detective happened to overhear a colleague discussing a case whose features closely resembled that of another one.
[12] Also in 2009, the series Wicked Attraction featured an episode named "Golden Years" in its second season detailing the history and criminal acts of the two.
[15] On July 21, 2008, The Closer aired the episode "Speed Bump" loosely based on the Black Widow Murders, with a few changed details, such as paroled felons as the victims instead of homeless men.
[17] On November 17, 2021, Dateline NBC released a 6 part Podcast titled "The Thing about Helen and Olga" presented and narrated by Keith Morrison.