Olga Rutterschmidt and Helen Golay go on trial in Los Angeles Wednesday for insurance fraud and murder in a case that made national news.
The duo, known as the "Killer Grannys", took out millions of dollars in life insurance policies on two homeless men, then allegedly drugged them and ran them over with a car.
Rutterschmidt, 75, and Golay, 77, housed and fed Paul Vados in exchange for signing a life insurance policy. They duplicated his signature and signed several policies.
In 1999, two years later, Vados was found dead in an alley. He was a victim of a hit-and-run accident, but there were no witnesses. The ladies cashed in his policy, claiming to be relatives and friends of Vados.
The elderly duo found another homeless man, Kenneth McDonald, and enacted the same plot. McDonald, 50, was crushed to death in 2005.
Altogether, Rutterschmidt and Golay took out 23 insurance policies and raked in upwards of $3 million.
Each faces up to 160 years in prison without parole if convicted. Prosecutors decided against the death penalty due to their age, because it takes a minimum of ten years to appeal against capital punishment.
The case, which is very similar to the Cary Grant movie Arsenic and Old Lace, has also prompted interest from Hollywood.
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