Pod Insights Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén Golden Years Killers Pt. 1 About this episode No one batted an eye at the two women who became fast friends at an LA gym in the 1990s – until years later, when it came out that they’d teamed up for a plot to kill men down on their luck.
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Transcript 0:02 Speaker 00 This episode includes discussions of murder. Consider this when deciding how and when you'll listen.
0:14 Speaker 00 At first glance, you probably wouldn't clock Helen Goulet and Olga Rutter Schmidt as serial killers. Helen was a Texan with big hair and a mind for real estate. Olga was a fast-talking Hungarian immigrant who made a habit out of suing people. Both were over 62, old enough to retire. In decades on their own, neither woman was a hardened criminal. However, once they got together, they became co-conspirators in a shocking insurance scheme, one that left millions of dollars in their pockets and at least two bodies in their wake.
0:56 Speaker 00 This is Serial Killers, a Spotify podcast. I'm Janice Morgan. You might recognize me as the voice behind the investigative docu-series Broken and the true crime podcast Fear Thy Neighbor. I'm guest hosting for Serial Killers, and I'm thrilled to be here. Be sure to check us out on Instagram at Serial Killers Podcast, and we'd love to hear from you. So if you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts. Today, we'll meet Helen Goulet and Olga Rutter Schmidt. They found their victims in Los Angeles in the late 90s and early 2000s, in between trips to the gym.
1:34 Speaker 00 Stay with us.
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2:58 Speaker 00 Once they became friends, Helen Galley and Olga Rutter Schmidt did just about everything together. But while the two were joined at the hip in adulthood, their beginnings couldn't have been more different. Because she was born first, we'll start with Helen's story, which begins in Texas in 1931. Her childhood was marred by instability and tragedy. Soon after her birth, her mom left the family and ran off with another man. When she was still just a young girl, her dad died in a car crash. She moved in with her grandfather in Texas, then her cousins in Washington State. But nothing lasted. Eventually, during her late teens, she ended up in foster care, which she left when she turned 18.
3:44 Speaker 00 After graduating high school, Helen tried to establish herself in Oakland, California, struggling to find a good job and provide for herself. But she soon found out that it was easier to rely on someone else than to fend for herself. In this instance, that "someone else" was 22-year-old Vernon Galley. When they met in 1951, Vernon was a Navy veteran on his way to becoming a dentist with a steady salary. That meant he could take care of Helen in a way no one had since she was a little girl. The couple married and settled down in Salem, Oregon, and went on to have two daughters. For a while, it seemed that Helen's life had changed for the better. She wanted for nothing and was in a loving, stable home.
4:29 Speaker 00 But then, around 1960, after nine years of marriage, it all came crashing down when the couple divorced. Helen kept the girls and returned to California.
4:41 Speaker 00 At some point after that, she got back into the dating scene. And in the spring of 1962, she wound up pregnant. The relationship didn't last, but she decided to keep the baby. In her book Signed in Blood, author Jean King claims Helen's ex Vernon wasn't happy with his new development, and made it clear that he'd only pay child support for their two daughters and not her daughter with another man. It's unclear if Helen ever even asked him to help out with her youngest daughter, but the fact remains that there was now an extra mouth to feed. The stress of it all seemed to weigh on her, as did her ex's financial presence. By the mid-sixties, thirty-something Helen was a struggling, single mom in Los Angeles,
5:26 Speaker 00 which has never been an easy city to make it in.
5:30 Speaker 00 Helen picked up odd jobs, but at times, she had to rely on welfare just to get by. Then, one day, her luck changed. At some point in the seventies, she got a job in real estate, which brought her into the orbit of mogul Artie Aron. She started bringing in real money for the first time in her life, and she was even able to purchase several rental properties of her own. Given her history, you might expect Helen to be a sympathetic landlord. But that wasn't the case. She wanted to make as much as she possibly could, so she raised her rents through the roof. But in 1979, the city of Los Angeles passed the Rent Stabilization Ordinance.
6:13 Speaker 00 This meant that landlords could only increase rent once a year, and only by so much. After that, a lot of property owners felt like they couldn't make a profit anymore. Helen, though, she took it in stride. She figured there were other ways to make a quick buck off her tenants, one of which was collecting fines if they broke any of her rules. But for that to work, Helen had to catch people in the act. So over the next several years, she reportedly peered in windows, listened at doors, and generally snooped. Unsurprisingly, most of Helen Gale's residents weren't too pleased when she wrote them up for frivolous reasons. They came to think of her as a mean-spirited bully without an ounce of empathy.
6:57 Speaker 00 But it seems Helen didn't care what people thought, as long as she got her money.
7:03 Speaker 00 That said, it was a lonely way of life, made even lonelier when all three of her daughters grew up and moved out. But instead of sitting home alone, she became a regular at the Sports Connection Athletic Club. This was the perfect place for her to run into like-minded people. Around this time, Jazzercise was taking America by storm. Women of all ages were flocking to their local gyms in colorful spandex, ready to sculpt their bodies. And Helen couldn't get enough of it. She was obsessed with her appearance and went to the gym as often as she could. It was on one of those days, sometime in the mid-eighties, that Helen met Olga Rutter Schmidt. At first glance, Olga was just like her.
7:48 Speaker 00 She was in her 50s, fit and fabulous. But as I mentioned at the start, their beginnings couldn't have been more different.
7:58 Speaker 00 Olga was born in 1933, just two years after Helen and thousands of miles away in Budapest, Hungary. As Olga tells it, the defining moment of her youth happened one night in 1944. World War II had taken over her home country. Overhead, Allied forces were bombing German-occupied Budapest. It was a scary time for everyone. Whenever Olga and her parents heard the attacks above them, they raced down into the basement. It was as close to a bomb shelter as they'd get. Usually, they stayed there until the fighting ceased. But on that day, the 11-year-old grew tired of waiting.
8:39 Speaker 00 She just wanted to play her piano, so she ignored her parents' order and ran upstairs. She booked it to the instrument, but just as she hit the first few keys, a bomb hit her family's apartment. Olga was blown back by the force, and the building crumbled around her. Her hand was crushed by a block, and she struggled to break free. And for a few excruciating minutes, she probably wondered if she'd die right there.
9:09 Speaker 00 Olga's parents climbed through the rubble and came to her rescue, but she didn't make it out unscathed. Her right hand was badly damaged, and she worried she'd never be able to play piano again. Throughout the ordeal, Olga had been holding back her tears, but now she let it all out. It's possible it was the first time she wanted to leave her home country, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. You see, life was complicated in Budapest, and her family situation didn't make it any easier. When Olga was a teenager, her parents divorced, and her father started a second family. This meant Olga and her mother had to fend for themselves.
9:53 Speaker 00 To make matters worse, an uprising broke out in Hungary in 1956. By then, Olga was 23 and ready for a fresh start. So she left her mother and her homeland behind. She journeyed to New York City, where a local family sponsored her. What she actually got up to in New York is unclear, but by the early 1970s, the 40-something moved to Los Angeles. There, she met and married her husband, Andrei Ruderschmidt. Soon after that, the two opened up a coffee shop in Hollywood. In a way, the small business symbolized her rise to success. From a child of war to a businesswoman, Olga was the American dream personified.
10:36 Speaker 00 Unfortunately, her life followed a similar trajectory to Helen's. Great until it wasn't. In 1978, Olga's marriage ended. The coffee shop closed down. Olga was on her own. Even worse, she was low on cash. Her solution? Lawsuits. One time, she was at a grocery store and claimed that a stack of boxes had fallen and maimed her. She hit the store with a personal injury claim. Another time, she complained to a coffee shop manager that she'd been served subpar food. A nearby customer overheard the commotion and came to interject. Only, they didn't just use their words.
11:19 Speaker 00 According to Olga, this third party shot her with a stun gun, right there in the middle of the store. It's almost too wild to believe. But Olga insisted it was all true. What's more, she claims the attack had caused her physical injuries and emotional trauma, so she filed a negligence claim against the coffee shop. It seems like a frivolous case, but it might have worked out for Olga Rutter Schmidt, because by the mid-eighties, she could afford visits to the Sports Connection Athletic Club. That's where she reportedly met and became enamored with Helen Goulet, and that friendship would change her life.
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13:03 Speaker 00 Call it fate or destiny, but when Helen Goulet met Olga Rutter Schmidt, she felt an instant kinship. They were both beautiful health nuts, both divorced, and most importantly, they both liked the idea of easy money. It was almost inevitable that the 50-somethings would be fast friends. One of their early capers together involved a trip to the exclusive Beverly Hills Hotel. Once inside, Helen grabbed Olga's arm and took her to the bathroom. They changed into their sexiest swimsuits and spent the day lounging at the pool. But they weren't finished. They were on a mission to find a fabulously wealthy man and make off with whatever they could. It didn't take long for a guy to approach.
13:47 Speaker 00 He was immediately taken by Helen's southern drawl. And as Helen flirted with him, Olga pickpocketed his wallet. Then the two ladies excused themselves. They said they just needed to run to the bathroom and promised they'd be back in a minute. Instead, they ducked into a stall, changed back into their regular clothes, and strutted out of the hotel. By the time the guy realized he'd been fleeced by two middle-aged women, they were long gone.
14:16 Speaker 00 As far as we can tell, Olga was more than happy to be Helen's wingwoman. But Helen wasn't quite so pleased. While the scheme was fun, stealing wallets was small-time stuff. If they wanted to make real money, they'd need to change up the game. At this point, they'd each dabbled in the litigation business, and now seemed like the perfect time to combine their efforts. Not that Helen needed the cash. By this point, she owned multiple properties in the Santa Monica area, and her real estate business was booming. And though we don't know the exact numbers she pulled in, she lived a comfortable life. Meanwhile, Olga lived off housing subsidies and social security, and that might have made her desperate.
15:00 Speaker 00 So when the opportunity to threaten people with lawsuits for money came up, Olga was all for it. And when Helen suggested a more sinister plan? Well, Olga agreed to that, too. If there was money to be had, she wanted in. So they put their plan into action, scouring the street for the perfect target. Soon, they stumbled upon 71-year-old Paul Vatos. He was in dire straits, waiting in line at the Hollywood Presbyterian Church for a free meal. He also seemed to have no close ties to anyone. To Helen and Olga, he was the perfect mark. The women made their way past volunteers and approached Paul with a gift of a lifetime.
15:44 Speaker 00 They promised to give him a home, pay his rent, and help him get his life together. Paul couldn't believe it. It was like he'd met two genuine angels. And the women made good on their promises. They moved him into an empty apartment, and since he was so frail, Olga came by every day to help feed and bathe him. Meanwhile, Helen not only paid the bills, she orchestrated the most crucial part of their plan: applying for life insurance. On the paperwork, she listed herself as Paul's fiancee and Olga as his cousin. All they needed now was to get him to sign the dotted line. Olga had that covered. She got her hands on a document with Paul's signature.
16:29 Speaker 00 Then she marched down to the Hollywood Rubber Stamp Company and ordered a signature stamp. With that, they had their all-important life insurance policy. But one wasn't enough. Nope, they took out at least six policies on Paul, with the potential benefits adding up to $879,000. Now, Paul was overinsured with just one policy. He was unhoused and had no income. But the women could pile up the policies because at that time, insurance companies didn't share information with each other. So they had no way of knowing Paul was already covered. What's more, they tended to overlook applications for smaller policies.
17:13 Speaker 00 Perhaps with that in mind, Helen and Olga only applied for modest amounts: $50,000 here, $75,000 there, nothing that would raise any red flags. For Helen and Olga, the most important part of each policy was its incontestability clause. This meant that after two years from the signing date, the insurance companies would have a much more difficult time denying the claims. In such cases, even if the companies realized they've been deceived, they still might have to pay up. One of the only surefire ways to null such a policy is to prove criminal intent. So the women's plan was simple. They'd take out life insurance in Paul's name... and then wait.
17:57 Speaker 00 In the interim, they'd watch over him and keep him happy. All the while, they'd mark days off the calendar. And when those two years expired,
18:09 Speaker 00 they'd kill him.
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19:14 Speaker 00 Two years. That's all Paul Vatos had left to live once he met Helen Galley and Olga Rutter Schmidt. The women spent that time cooking for Paul, taking care and cleaning up after him. And still, he was nothing more than an object to them, a means to an end. During those two years, they figured out how the 71-year-old would die. They'd run him over with a car. As far as insurance companies were concerned, hits and runs weren't usually indicative of foul play. Perhaps the two friends knew that and figured they could easily make it look like an accident. So on November 7, 1999,
19:56 Speaker 00 68-year-old Helen and 66-year-old Olga picked Paul up from his apartment. They took him to the theaters, where they bought tickets for The Bone Collector, a film about the hunt for a sadistic serial killer. It was an eerie hint of what was to come next. Of course, Paul had no idea. While we don't know exactly what happened next, we can make an educated guess based on the evidence. After the movie, the trio went to a dinner. There, it's believed the women spiked Paul's food when he wasn't looking. Then Helen and Olga waited for the drugs to take effect. When he was clearly inebriated, the women guided the 73-year-old back to the car and drove toward Hollywood.
20:41 Speaker 00 When they were about a mile away from Olga's place, they pulled into an empty alley and put the car in park. They dragged Paul out of the backseat and into the street, laying him flat on his back. Then they got back into the car and drove over him. Afterward, they didn't even stop to check if he was dead. They just kept driving down the alley and never looked back. They'd done what they'd set out to do. The next morning, LAPD officers found Paul's body. But without any ID on him, they labeled him a John Doe and sent him off to the lab. Two days later, his toxicology report came back clean.
21:22 Speaker 00 But it's important to note, it didn't test for prescription drugs. Meanwhile, Helen and Olga knew they couldn't jump the gun. If they reported Paul missing right away, it might look too suspicious. So they waited over a week until they went to the police. When they finally did, they fed the cops the story that Helen was Paul's one-time fiance and Olga was his cousin. The two of them were just oh-so worried about him. The police took down the report. When they connected the dots to their John Doe, they reached out to Olga and informed her of her cousin's death. She collected his body and Helen, his pseudo-fiance, paid for his burial.
22:06 Speaker 00 The police had no real leads in the hit-and-run, so once the women took Paul's body off their hands, the officers filed the case away. But while the police had had pause on the investigation, the insurance companies weren't so quick to close the book. Given that Paul had died in a hit-and-run with no witnesses, they needed to double-check that everything was above board. That was an inconvenience for sure, but Helen understood they were playing the long game. They'd waited two years already. What was a few more weeks? Besides, Helen had come into another fortune of her own. Her longtime real estate partner, Artie Aaron, recently died from cancer. Helen saw an opportunity to enrich herself.
22:51 Speaker 00 With lightning speed, she produced a power of attorney agreement and assumed control of the deeds to 13 of his properties. Those buildings were worth millions and might have gone straight to Artie's family, but Helen had documents that said otherwise. Helen did have a history with forging signatures. Still, the documents appeared to be genuine, so when his family tried to contest them, it made no difference. That meant Helen was rolling in more dough. She treated herself to a designer wardrobe, a brand-new Mercedes SUV, and a facelift. All the while, Olga watched from the sidelines.
23:32 Speaker 00 She wanted a cut of Helen's earnings. They were partners after all. But Helen saw the properties as a separate deal and made it clear that Olga wouldn't get a dime of that money. This left Olga fuming. Helen knew that she was struggling, and yet she wouldn't even offer her a lifeline. To rub salt in the wound, Helen had the audacity to complain about how much her plastic surgery hurt. It was behavior like this that perhaps brought Olga to her breaking point. She felt like she had the short end of the stick. Before the next bit of insurance money came in, she wanted to make sure she got her cut first.
24:13 Speaker 00 So in March of 2000, she called The Mutual of Omaha, one of the companies where they held a policy. As Paul's cousin and blood relative, she tried to convince them that they should pay her before Helen, but apparently, they declined. Both of them were listed as co-beneficiaries, and they couldn't change that after Paul's death. After hanging up, she realized that her request might just get her into trouble with her partner. She called the company right back and asked that they didn't tell Helen about her call. And it seems they respected her request. Helen never learned about that little betrayal. Which was a good thing, because as much as Olga hated to admit it,
24:54 Speaker 00 she needed her partner in crime. Without Helen, she couldn't get much done. That became clear in August of 2000, when Helen finally stepped in and took charge of the lingering insurance issues. She threatened to sue the companies if they didn't pay out properly. Sure enough, her ultimatum worked. By the start of October, Helen and Olga received their checks. Between all the policies they took out on Paul, they each collected nearly $300,000 in benefits.
25:28 Speaker 00 For Olga, this was a life-changing amount. She could finally live the high life like Helen. But that huge wad of cash lost its luster sooner than expected. Olga was envious of Helen still having so much more than her. And that's an emotion that can spell disaster. Before long, Olga was willing to do whatever it took to have all that Helen had. And if that meant taking another victim, then so be it.
26:06 Speaker 00 Thanks for listening to Serial Killers. We're here with a new episode every Monday. Be sure to check us out on Instagram at Serial Killers Podcast, and we'd love to hear from you. So if you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts. For more information on Helen Goulet and Olga Rutter Schmidt, among the many sources we used, we found "Signed in Blood: The True Story of Two Women, A Sinister Plot, and Cold-Blooded Murder" by Gene King, extremely helpful to our research. Stay safe out there.
26:41 Speaker 00 This episode was written by Alex Burns, edited by Jane O., Joel Callan, and Maggie Admire, fact-checked by Bennett Logan, researched by Mickey Taylor and Chelsea Wood, and sound designed by Alex Button. I'm your host, Janice Morgan.
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