September 3, 2024 • 33 mins
Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt were sentenced in July of 2008 to life in prison for the murders of Paul Vados and Kenneth McDavid. The women, who were both in their 70s, appeared to be in the business of rescuing down-on-their-luck men in Los Angeles, but it was a deadly ruse. Instead, theymanipulated their marks with offers of free food and housing, and then manipulated them into helping them open life insurances policies – with the women listed as beneficiaries. Helen and Olga then killed these men in staged hit-and-run car accidents, on which they collected payouts totaling in the millions. Let's meet these Black Widow murderers and their victims.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
with iHeartRadio. Hey, before the show starts today, we have
a little bit of fun news to share. We have
had a secret. We have been working very diligently for
the past many months on creating something that a lot
(00:22):
of you have been asking for, and that is a
book of cocktails and cocktails that are told right alongside
the stories that we talk about.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Plus additional ones that we have not talked about.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
That's right. This book is about half stories you have heard,
although they've been abridged, alongside their cocktails and brand news
stories that we are telling, and brand new cocktails that
we have never had before.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
We are on pre order now so you can order
up and wait for it to hit in October.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
That's right. It is going to be out on October fifteenth,
and you can order it now just about anywhere books
are sold. Check out your local bookstores and see if
they're a have it all right, let's jump into the episode.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Helen Gole and Olga Ruderschmidt were sentenced in July of
two thousand and eight to life in prison for the
murders of Paul Vados and Kenneth McDavid. The women, who
were both in their seventies, appeared to be in the
business of rescuing down on their luck men in Los Angeles,
but it was a deadly ruse. Instead, they first manipulated
(01:30):
the men with offers of free food and housing, and
then manipulated them into helping them open life insurance policies
with the women listed as beneficiaries. Helen and Olga then
killed these men in staged hit and run accidents on
which they collected payouts totaling in the millions. So let's
make these murderers and their victims welcome to Criminalia. I'm
(01:53):
Maria Tremarky and.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
I'm Holly Frye. Helen and Olga were both septagenarians, and
they began killing. Helen, a double divorcee originally from Texas,
had three daughters and had made a fortune in southern
California real estate before turning her attention to helping, or
let's say, pretending to help men who were unhoused and
(02:16):
unsheltered move off the streets of Los Angeles. She was
known for dressing smartly, wearing pantsuits and pencil skirts and
with a tall boufont hairdoom appearance was important to Helen
during her trial. For instance, she requested permission to pluck
her eyebrows and wear makeup in court, a request that
(02:37):
was denied. She owned several properties in Santa Monica, and
according to her tenants, she was quote an aggressive landlord
who often called police over minor parking and noise complaints.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Olga, originally from Hungary, emigrated to the United States in
nineteen fifty seven. She once co owned a coffee shop
with her husband in Los Angeles before they divorced, after
which she moved to Hollywood in the nineteen seventies. At
the time of her arrest, she had an expired electrolysis license,
but it's unclear if she actually ever worked in the
(03:11):
hair removal business. Her neighbors described her as a homebody,
spending her time listening to jazz and classical music and
taking hikes in Runyan Canyon. Olga, though, was also litigious. Reportedly,
when her apartment building's handyman once asked her what she
did for a living, she replied that quote she sued people.
(03:34):
She once sued Ralph's Supermarket, claiming stacked boxes fell on her.
In nineteen ninety seven. In another instance, Olga sued a
lighting company, claiming she had been injured by a falling
lamp fixture that hit her quote like an atomic bomb.
In that suit, she called Helen as a sympathetic witness.
Another time, in this crime highlight reel, she claimed a
(03:57):
muffin she bought at a coffee shop in the Labree
neighborhood of Los Angeles caused her quote emotional damage because
it was quote inedible. Aside from lawsuits, she also ran
a quite extensive credit card scheme, rotating cards in a
cycle that allowed her to rip off credit card companies,
and she often stole her neighbor's mail. Olga became Helen's
(04:21):
indispensable partner in their murder slash insurance fraud schemes.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
The two women first crossed paths in a chance encounter.
They met during the Spandex era fitness craze of the
nineteen eighties at a West Los Angeles health club, and
then began hanging out together at Westside Gym's, the Beverly
Hills Hotel, and the Hollywood Roosevelt, pretending to be guests
and sometimes running small cons. They both had painful childhoods
(04:51):
failed marriages and an unwavering desire for more money In common,
they've been described as a pair of good looking exercise
buffs with a such of flamboyance, and according to those
who knew them, they weren't best friends, but they did
have a unique bond, a relationship that authorities would later
call predatory. In nineteen ninety seven, their murderous acts began
(05:14):
when they took out insurance policies on behalf of Paul Vados.
According to court documents, Paul.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Was their first victim. He was a seventy three year
old widower who battled depression and loneliness, as well as
alcohol use disorder. Following the death of his wife, he
found himself lacking stable, safe and functional housing. He was
living unhoused and unsheltered in Los Angeles when he met
Helen and Olga two years before his death in nineteen
(05:43):
ninety seven. While he was receiving free housing and food
from the women, Helen and Olga began applying for life
insurance policies on him, listing themselves as beneficiaries. After his death,
the women received benefits from eight different life insurance policies
that had been taken out on him. According to Los
Angeles Police detective Dennis Kilcoin, after Paul's death, two quote
(06:08):
old ladies, that's Helen and Olga showed up at the
morgue to identify the body. Helen paid for his cremation
and kill Cooin learned they were listed as beneficiaries on
Paul's life insurance policy. Stated Kilcoin later quote Helen and
Olga had taken a few out on him to the
tune of maybe seven or eight hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Kenneth Ken McDavid, their second victim, had attended Sacramento State
University and was known as a talented DJ on radio
station KQLA, where he quote interviewed the biggest metal acts
throughout the eighties. He landed a gig as CBS and
lived with his aunt in Beverly Hills at the time,
but after his aunt passed away, he eventually drifted away
(06:55):
from his career and his family. He was and let's
say quote this rescued from his unhoused life by Helen
and Olga when he was fifty years old, and he
was taken in by their promise of free housing. But
in two thousand and five he was killed by the
women in a hit and run staged to look like
an accident. Between November of two thousand and two and
(07:18):
March of two thousand and three, just a bit more
than two years before his death, Helen and Olga purchased
more than a dozen policies on McDavid. In total, they
were looking at a payout, some of more than three
million dollars. On those insurance applications, the women were listed
under the guise of Hen's business partner, cousin, or fiance,
(07:39):
depending on which policy you looked at. Two months after
his death, Mutual of New York received two five hundred
thousand dollars claims on Kenneth McDavid. Those were both claimed
a few days apart. The high amounts caught the attention
of insurance investigator Ed Webster. The fact that the insured
person was as a homeless man was another red flag.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Let's talk for a moment about the length of time
between the offer of free housing and these victims' deaths.
These weren't murders of passion. They were calculated and took
some time to become established. Helen and Olga collected all
the necessary personal information and waited two years to commit murder.
And file for payouts. There's a reason for that. Well,
(08:26):
actually there are two reasons for that. Often it takes
two years for a policy to vest. But also most
insurance companies have a two year contestability period. So basically
that means if the insured dies within that period, the
insurance company will investigate the claim to rule out fraud
(08:47):
or misrepresentation, and if foul play has taken place, they
can deny the claim. In addition, explained Los Angeles County
Deputy District Attorney Bobby Grace, quote, there has to be
some sort of lead nexus between parties before you can
take out an insurance policy. Either you have to have
a business relationship or some sort of romantic relationship.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
At the Los Angeles Police Department's West Traffic Division, Ken
McDavid's death had remained unsolved for months until Ed Webster,
waving his red flags, showed up to get a copy
of the incident report. Webster was an investigator for Mutual
of New York, which had issued life insurance on McDavid,
and he'd been trying to reach the women listed as
(09:32):
beneficiaries with no success. The policy Webster was investigating turned
out to be one of several in McDavid's name. Another
red flag for Webster was that, despite Helen's claim to
be McDavid's cousin, the policies indicated something different, that the
women were allegedly investment partners in McDavid's screenwriting career. With
(09:55):
all of these issues and contradictions documented, Webster called him
meeting with the Los Angeles Police Department.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Webster shared all of this information with Los Angeles Police
detective Dennis Kilcoin, who admittedly wasn't so sure what to
think of it at first. Two female murder suspects in
their seventies hardly sounded right. Both Paul and Ken initially
appeared to have been victims of hit and run accidents,
(10:23):
but police didn't link the two cases until late two
thousand and five, after detective investigating Paul Vados's murder overheard
Webster's story describing an eerily similar series of events. When
Kilcoin pulled that case file, he discovered it had been
the same two women who had come forward to report
Vodos missing and to claim his body as next of kin.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
After McDavid's death and before they were arrested for his murder,
Helen had received a total of a little more than
one point five million dollars in insurance proceeds from his policies,
and Olga a total of nearly six hundred and seventy
five thousand. In regard to Ken, detective kill Coin stated quote,
for two years, they paid his rent, and they paid
(11:09):
for life insurance on him. It's almost like they were
housing a farm animal for slaughter.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
On May eighteenth, two thousand and six, both women were
charged with interstate wire fraud for collecting insurance payments, and
they were placed in federal custody.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
But then on August seventeenth, two thousand and six, Los
Angeles police detectives re arrested the women after a federal
judge released the two from federal custody. This wasn't a mistake.
It was done so they could be re arrested on
state capital murder charges. Those earlier lesser charges were then
(11:47):
out the door. Both Helen and Olga were booked on
charges of murdering Paul Vados and Kenneth McDavid in order
to claim benefits paid out on insurance policies. You'll recall
previous these deaths had been initially investigated as hit and
run accidents, but new evidence had changed things before we
(12:08):
talk about Helen and Olga once they were taken into custody.
We're going to take a break for a word from
our sponsors, and when we're back, we'll talk about how
it didn't take very long before they turned on each other.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's start talking about how Helen
and Olga's relationship broke down, and then we'll get inside
the courtroom.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Around the time they were taken into custody, investigators stated
that Helen and Olga's rapport had become strained and that
they had begun to speak ill about each other. Detective
kill Coin observed, quote, they didn't trust each other. Olga
had a powerful focus on money. She'd once complained to
a neighbor that while Helen had assembled a profitable real
(13:04):
estate portfolio of buildings and land parcels, including two Santa
Monica rental properties, she felt that Helen had not paid
her enough for quote scouting said real estate opportunities. Just
days before her arrest, Olga told that same neighbor that
she and Helen were angry at each other. That neighbor,
(13:25):
a man named Lawrence, shared his encounters with investigators and
later stated to authorities that Olga had told him that
she had become jealous of Helen's daughter, Keisha, because her
mother had given her quote all sorts of things without
her having to work for them.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
This is probably a good example of what you should
and shouldn't share with your neighbors, especially when it comes
to your criminal activities, But this story also has a
warning of what you should and shouldn't share with your hairstylist.
Helen's stylist for a span of about eight years asked
to remain anonymous, but had a lot to share about
(14:03):
her conversations with her client in her testimony. For instance,
Helen once told her quote, I am evil. You have
no idea how evil I am. But Helen said a
lot of other things. Her stylist stated that Helen had
told her Olga was quote crazy, very explosive, very loud,
(14:24):
and hard to deal with in public. The stylist claimed
that Helen bitched about everything, calling men quote stupid, calling
her tenants quote pigs, and claiming she was quote mortgaged
to the hilt. She stated that Helen once said those
who were left homeless by Hurricane Katrina, which was a
deadly storm in two thousand and five were quote nothing,
(14:47):
They were just on welfare. They were useless to society.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Los Angeles detectives and the prosecution team believed the women
killed by quote drugging their victims with pills or alcohol
well first, then running them over. It was learned in
court that this was correct. They would take regular prescription
medication like ambient and vicotin, grind an almost lethal amount
of it, and serve it to their victims in a meal.
(15:15):
Pill bottles with residue matching toxicology reports were found in
Helen's home, and the women would then take the drugged
victim for a drive around Hollywood, waiting for him to
become unconscious. At that point, the women would find a
dark alley and pull their victim out of the car.
They'd then reverse the car and run him over and
leave as though it was just a terrible and unfortunate
(15:39):
hit and run accident.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Paul Vados, who was their first victim, had been run
over in an alley off La Brea, and his body
was found after a night of heavy rain. He was
a retired electrical technician trying to live on social security
and a meager pension. According to case records, he had
named the women as co beneficiaries on an inch surance
policy issued by Monumental Life as a gesture to repay
(16:04):
their kindness for free housing and food. After his death,
they were due a payout nearly two hundred thousand dollars,
but Monumental and another insurer guarantee, Reserve Life, were disputing
that payout on the grounds that his death was being
investigated as a homicide and the women had not yet
been ruled out as suspects.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
There were two key problems for the women when it
came to Ken McDavid's death and subsequent insurance payout. Ken
had been discovered in a position that made it appear
that he had been fixing the wheel of his bike
at the point of impact, but according to Janis Amatusio,
a forensic pathologist in the case, the wheel would have
crushed his chest and his lungs upon impact based on
(16:48):
his posture, and the bike curiously wasn't even bent. These
clues opened the door to the possibility of foul play.
There were no known witnesses to the killer, but her
observations led the police to track down all nearby CCTV
footage to see if anything had been caught on video.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
And they found something. According to some grainy surveillance video
from a nearby shop, they discovered Ken had been struck
by a silvered nineteen ninety nine Mercury Sable station wagon
and then for four minutes the car sat paused before
backing up and accelerating to exit the alley. That pause
(17:29):
is when investigators think his body was posed, recalled. Detective
kill Coin, when describing the scene, quote, the man's body
had been crushed, There was black grease on his clothing,
there was blood near his head, and a medical examiner
would later say McDavid died of crush injuries, including lacerations
to his spinal cord and scalp, three broken ribs, and
(17:52):
a fractured pelvis. A toxicology exam found enough prescription sedatives
in his system to induce at the very least drowsiness,
if not sleep itself.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
And that led to the second problem. According to the
Los Angeles Police Department, laboratory tests matched Ken's DNA to
material found in three places on a nineteen ninety nine
Mercury Sable wagon that had been abandoned. Detective kill Coin stated, quote,
we found tissue in three locations on the undercarriage of
(18:24):
the car. We have records to show both women bought
this car in two thousand and four, then they stored
it at Gola's house. Helen and Olga had bought a
nineteen ninety nine silver Mercury Sable station wagon, although they
bought it under a false name, and according to records,
on the night of the killing, they were linked directly
(18:44):
to it via a call received by a roadside service company.
A woman called from a cell phone which appeared to
be registered to Helen's daughter Kesha, requesting assistance with a
disabled Mercury Sable wagon at the corner of Westwood Boulevard
Santa Monica Boulevard, an intersection right nearby where McDavid's body
(19:05):
would be found an hour later. As it turned out,
running over McDavid had caused damage to the fuel line,
the car was towed at the caller's request to a
location near Helen's home in Santa Monica. Shortly after, a
call was made from Keisha's cell phone to Olga's cell phone,
and then two minutes later another call was made from
(19:28):
Olga's cell phone to Keisha's cell phone and then silence. Later,
the tow truck driver would identify Helen as his toe client.
The car was abandoned in storage and then auctioned to
recoup the money's owed, but investigators were still able to
locate it for inspection.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
After Ken's death, a quote, well dressed, older woman named
Helen Golay soon arrived at the morgue, identifying herself as
Kenneth McDavid's fiance. Not long after, Olga Ruder also showed
up to claim his body for cremation, identifying herself to
staff as his cousin. Said kill Cooin of the scene.
(20:08):
Quote for a guy who appeared to be a homeless
man found run over in an alley in the middle
of the night, it was kind of odd that this
woman claimed that he was a fiancee. It's just something
that bothered me.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
And he was right. Investigators discovered the planned killings were
actually much bigger in scope than Vados and McDavid's deaths.
At the time of their arrest, the women were in
the process of repeating their scheme with multiple victims that
they had met in shelters and at churches. Detectives obtained
access to Olga and Helen's insurance policies and found that
(20:45):
the two were in the middle of scamming other vulnerable targets.
Investigators discovered applications for eight hundred thousand dollars each in
life insurance policies for Nicholas cous Jimmy Covington, and Scott
Gohones to detective kill Coin. There was no evidence that
the men had been harmed, though there was a search
for them to ensure their safety. We're going to take
(21:08):
a break here for a word from our sponsors, and
when we return, we'll talk about how one of those
men testified against Helen and Olga during their trial.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about some of the
most damning evidence against the women from the women themselves
before we talk about the verdict and their sentencing.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
One of the men who escaped with his life, Jimmy Covington,
testified against the women. Jimmy was forty eight years old
and known for his classic movie star looks. He was
an unhoused person who testified he'd been approached on the
street in two thousand and five by Olga with an
offer of a place to stay in free grocery. He
(22:01):
signed some paperwork, but he split after the two repeatedly
harassed him and grew angry that he hadn't provided more
personal information. Unfortunately, though they did have enough of his
personal information to take out an eight hundred thousand dollars
life insurance policy on him, he narrowly avoided being killed.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
During the trial, the jury heard a lot of testimony
and was also shown a secretly recorded video of the
two women in the interrogation room together after their arrests.
In this video, when left to themselves, Olga immediately began
berating Helen, yelling that it was her actions in taking
(22:42):
out twenty three insurance policies that raised a red flag.
When the men died, the jury heard her say, quote,
you're going to go to jail, honey. They going to
lock you up. You were greedy, that's the problem.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
In fact, the volume of insurance documents was so extensive
that Olga had made a rubber stamp of each victim's signatures.
The women were savvy when it came to insurance companies.
They shopped for lower cost insurance through companies that allowed
paperwork to be handled over the phone or by mail.
(23:17):
Though the women worked as a murderous duo, investigator's uncovered
evidence that each was not always aware of the other's activities.
For instance, of the roughly dozen policies on McDavid, Helen
was listed as the sole beneficiary on eight of them,
and sometimes they tried to remove each other as co beneficiary. Regardless,
(23:40):
insurers sold policy after policy. During the trial, it came
to light the women usually represented themselves as part of
the victim's family, a cousin and a fiancee. On a
recording played in court, the jury heard Olga snap quote,
I was the cousin, you were the fiancee alone. Most
(24:02):
of the policies were for accidental death, not death due
to natural causes.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Defense lawyers for both Helen and Olga admitted the women
were involved in insurance fraud, but denied any murder conspiracy
despite everything laid out against them. Roger John Diamond, Helen's attorney,
stated that his client had done nothing wrong and that
her relationship with Olga was nothing more than an innocent friendship.
(24:29):
He claimed that Helen had become the victim of quote
innuendo and that quote she has an explanation. In a
last minute attempt to clear herself, Helen claimed her adult
daughter Keisha, was actually the person who drove the car
that ran over Ken McDavid. Let it be clearly known
here Keisha was definitely not a suspect and never was,
(24:53):
was never charged, and didn't testify in the trial. Yet
her mother tried to pin the crimes on her and
asserted that keih Show was the only one who was
strong enough to carry the bodies. Helen took this instance
to point out that she was in her seventies and
not very strong. It goes without saying none of that
crap held up in court.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Olga's lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Michael Sklar, claimed his client
was quote simple minded, and that she was obsessed with Helen.
He also accused Helen of manipulating his client to purchase
a car used as a weapon, and stated that Helen
alone was the one who committed murder. To that point,
he continued that Helen financed the scheme and wrote the checks.
(25:38):
It was never Olga.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
In his closing argument, Deputy District Attorney Bobby Grace called
the women quote the worst of the worst. They didn't
need this money, They weren't poor and destitute. They went
out of their way to target men who had nothing.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
In July of two thousand and eight. The jury found
both with and guilty of two counts of first degree
murder and two counts of conspiracy to commit murder. The
jury also found special circumstances of multiple murder and murder
for financial gain. The court sentenced both defendants to life
imprisonment without possibility of parole.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Neither women showed any reaction to the verdicts or their sentences. Helen,
it was reported, sat with her head close to her
attorney and run along as the court clerk went through
the charges, stated her attorney after the verdicts were read,
quote basically, the ladies did not do very well today,
and added that he was confident there were quote significant
(26:42):
issues to raise on appeal of his client's conviction. He
also stated that a key issue would be whether it
was appropriate for a judge to admit a videotaped conversation
between his client and Olga one which was secretly recorded
by authorities while they were in a holding CELLI. He
stated that he felt that the women's defense was also
(27:02):
quote harmed by Olga's attorney's decision to suggest Helen was
the killer throughout the case and the trial and after
the sentencing Olga's attorney did not provide comment.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Defense attorney Diamond did appeal on Helen's behalf, but in
October of twenty twelve, the California Supreme Court upheld the
murder and conspiracy convictions.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
So Helen and Olga aren't just curiosities as killers because
of their advanced age, although that does put them in
a small percentage of murderers. It's also that they're women
almost all. So about ninety percent of homicides worldwide are
committed by men, so says the twenty nineteen edition of
the Global Study on Homicide from the United Nations. But
(27:51):
that doesn't mean women don't commit murder. One kind of
female murderer has become so infamous it's even sparked its
own nickname, black widow women kill for money, and Helen
and Olga's crimes have become known as the black widow murders.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Who that's a lot to take in. Are you ready
to make it a double?
Speaker 2 (28:11):
I sure am, It is a lot.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
This one was actually hard to think of a cocktail
for initially because there's not a lot of joy or
funniness in it, which is usually where I tend to fixate.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
No sunshine here whatsoever?
Speaker 1 (28:32):
No, absolutely not. So then I just started thinking about
their sort of odd friendship. Calling it a friendship doesn't
even sound right because it's something more complex than that.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
My brain considers it a partnership, right, yeah, which still
isn't exactly right, but yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
And this, after jumping through some mental hoops as I
went from logic to logic, got me to thinking about sidecars,
which is think a lot of people love. Right. My
sidecar is nice and basic, it's cognac, it's quantro or
another triple sack and lemon juice. And I thought, oh,
what if we made one where we just judged it
(29:12):
up a little bit and changed the ingredients around a little.
So I came up with something that I'm calling a
station wagon. That's the only thing I could think of
that would be at least light in tone, terrible and
perfect all the same. Right, It's one of the weird details.
There's something extra, I don't know, unsettling about them buying
(29:33):
a station wagon to run people over with station wagon.
To make a station wagon, you are going to pre
chill your cocktail glass while you're making it, and you
will into a shaker, put an ounce and a half
of cognac, a half ounce of quantro or another triple sack,
a half ounce of lemon juice, so we're still in
(29:53):
a pretty standard and then a half ounce of creme
de violette. So what we've basically done is we have
cut in half the component that's normally a liqueur and
reduce the amount of triple sc and add it in
something else to make up that gap, and in this
case it's creme de violet because that seems like a
mature woman's flavor. I say, as a mature woman, you're
(30:18):
going to give that a good shake and just strain
it into your pre chilled cocktail glass. It is very
yummy if you like a sidecar. It is a very
spirit forward drink at that point. It has a little
bit of bite to it. But then there's this cool,
very light floral finish on the end, which is I
don't know, getting hurt by a mature woman with a
(30:39):
boufont hairdoo and a lot of makeup on.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Probably smells a little perfume.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
A little bit. I will say, the kognak does tend
to kind of obscure the scent of the crime to violette,
but there's a little bit on the nose. So to
make the mocktail version of this is really pretty simple.
We're gonna change some of the things because we're making
up what the is out of two other things. So
we will do an ounce of black tea with a
(31:06):
half ounce of low sugar white grape juice. And then
we'll do a half ounce of orange syrup, a half
ounce of violet syrup, and your half ounce of lemon juice.
So the rest stays the same. Again, give that a
good shake, put it into your chilled thing. If you
don't like this in it in either the cocktail version
or the mocktail on its own, you can top it
(31:27):
off with a soda or a ginger ale and it
becomes a different drink. I will say I did it
with ginger ale, and I found that the cremoviolect came
through more. I'm not sure why that happens. I think
the ginger counters to cognac a little bit there, and
the floral then emerges. Play with it. See what tastes
most delicious to you, and that's the station wagon. And
(31:47):
I hope you drink responsibly and don't feel like you
got hit by a car. We are very grateful. I
know that's terrible. It is. I'm trying to find a
modicum of humor in this horrible story because cry.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
I'm sure everyone listening, just like I did, and I'm
sure you did, found themselves sitting going what is that
like to sit down with someone and have a conversation
of like, here's how we're going to victimize people that
are really down on their luck for money. It seems
horrible if our joviality about the cocktail and its name
(32:25):
is feels disrespectful. Apologies. I'm literally just trying to find
a little comfort in the darkness that is the station
Wagon and we are so thankful that you hung out
with us for this story. We will be right back
next week with another tale of a duo do in
crime and another set of drinks to go with it.
(32:48):
Criminalia is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, please visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite chos
Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
with iHeartRadio. Hey, before the show starts today, we have
a little bit of fun news to share. We have
had a secret. We have been working very diligently for
the past many months on creating something that a lot
(00:22):
of you have been asking for, and that is a
book of cocktails and cocktails that are told right alongside
the stories that we talk about.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Plus additional ones that we have not talked about.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
That's right. This book is about half stories you have heard,
although they've been abridged, alongside their cocktails and brand news
stories that we are telling, and brand new cocktails that
we have never had before.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
We are on pre order now so you can order
up and wait for it to hit in October.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
That's right. It is going to be out on October fifteenth,
and you can order it now just about anywhere books
are sold. Check out your local bookstores and see if
they're a have it all right, let's jump into the episode.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Helen Gole and Olga Ruderschmidt were sentenced in July of
two thousand and eight to life in prison for the
murders of Paul Vados and Kenneth McDavid. The women, who
were both in their seventies, appeared to be in the
business of rescuing down on their luck men in Los Angeles,
but it was a deadly ruse. Instead, they first manipulated
(01:30):
the men with offers of free food and housing, and
then manipulated them into helping them open life insurance policies
with the women listed as beneficiaries. Helen and Olga then
killed these men in staged hit and run accidents on
which they collected payouts totaling in the millions. So let's
make these murderers and their victims welcome to Criminalia. I'm
(01:53):
Maria Tremarky and.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
I'm Holly Frye. Helen and Olga were both septagenarians, and
they began killing. Helen, a double divorcee originally from Texas,
had three daughters and had made a fortune in southern
California real estate before turning her attention to helping, or
let's say, pretending to help men who were unhoused and
(02:16):
unsheltered move off the streets of Los Angeles. She was
known for dressing smartly, wearing pantsuits and pencil skirts and
with a tall boufont hairdoom appearance was important to Helen
during her trial. For instance, she requested permission to pluck
her eyebrows and wear makeup in court, a request that
(02:37):
was denied. She owned several properties in Santa Monica, and
according to her tenants, she was quote an aggressive landlord
who often called police over minor parking and noise complaints.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Olga, originally from Hungary, emigrated to the United States in
nineteen fifty seven. She once co owned a coffee shop
with her husband in Los Angeles before they divorced, after
which she moved to Hollywood in the nineteen seventies. At
the time of her arrest, she had an expired electrolysis license,
but it's unclear if she actually ever worked in the
(03:11):
hair removal business. Her neighbors described her as a homebody,
spending her time listening to jazz and classical music and
taking hikes in Runyan Canyon. Olga, though, was also litigious. Reportedly,
when her apartment building's handyman once asked her what she
did for a living, she replied that quote she sued people.
(03:34):
She once sued Ralph's Supermarket, claiming stacked boxes fell on her.
In nineteen ninety seven. In another instance, Olga sued a
lighting company, claiming she had been injured by a falling
lamp fixture that hit her quote like an atomic bomb.
In that suit, she called Helen as a sympathetic witness.
Another time, in this crime highlight reel, she claimed a
(03:57):
muffin she bought at a coffee shop in the Labree
neighborhood of Los Angeles caused her quote emotional damage because
it was quote inedible. Aside from lawsuits, she also ran
a quite extensive credit card scheme, rotating cards in a
cycle that allowed her to rip off credit card companies,
and she often stole her neighbor's mail. Olga became Helen's
(04:21):
indispensable partner in their murder slash insurance fraud schemes.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
The two women first crossed paths in a chance encounter.
They met during the Spandex era fitness craze of the
nineteen eighties at a West Los Angeles health club, and
then began hanging out together at Westside Gym's, the Beverly
Hills Hotel, and the Hollywood Roosevelt, pretending to be guests
and sometimes running small cons. They both had painful childhoods
(04:51):
failed marriages and an unwavering desire for more money In common,
they've been described as a pair of good looking exercise
buffs with a such of flamboyance, and according to those
who knew them, they weren't best friends, but they did
have a unique bond, a relationship that authorities would later
call predatory. In nineteen ninety seven, their murderous acts began
(05:14):
when they took out insurance policies on behalf of Paul Vados.
According to court documents, Paul.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Was their first victim. He was a seventy three year
old widower who battled depression and loneliness, as well as
alcohol use disorder. Following the death of his wife, he
found himself lacking stable, safe and functional housing. He was
living unhoused and unsheltered in Los Angeles when he met
Helen and Olga two years before his death in nineteen
(05:43):
ninety seven. While he was receiving free housing and food
from the women, Helen and Olga began applying for life
insurance policies on him, listing themselves as beneficiaries. After his death,
the women received benefits from eight different life insurance policies
that had been taken out on him. According to Los
Angeles Police detective Dennis Kilcoin, after Paul's death, two quote
(06:08):
old ladies, that's Helen and Olga showed up at the
morgue to identify the body. Helen paid for his cremation
and kill Cooin learned they were listed as beneficiaries on
Paul's life insurance policy. Stated Kilcoin later quote Helen and
Olga had taken a few out on him to the
tune of maybe seven or eight hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Kenneth Ken McDavid, their second victim, had attended Sacramento State
University and was known as a talented DJ on radio
station KQLA, where he quote interviewed the biggest metal acts
throughout the eighties. He landed a gig as CBS and
lived with his aunt in Beverly Hills at the time,
but after his aunt passed away, he eventually drifted away
(06:55):
from his career and his family. He was and let's
say quote this rescued from his unhoused life by Helen
and Olga when he was fifty years old, and he
was taken in by their promise of free housing. But
in two thousand and five he was killed by the
women in a hit and run staged to look like
an accident. Between November of two thousand and two and
(07:18):
March of two thousand and three, just a bit more
than two years before his death, Helen and Olga purchased
more than a dozen policies on McDavid. In total, they
were looking at a payout, some of more than three
million dollars. On those insurance applications, the women were listed
under the guise of Hen's business partner, cousin, or fiance,
(07:39):
depending on which policy you looked at. Two months after
his death, Mutual of New York received two five hundred
thousand dollars claims on Kenneth McDavid. Those were both claimed
a few days apart. The high amounts caught the attention
of insurance investigator Ed Webster. The fact that the insured
person was as a homeless man was another red flag.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Let's talk for a moment about the length of time
between the offer of free housing and these victims' deaths.
These weren't murders of passion. They were calculated and took
some time to become established. Helen and Olga collected all
the necessary personal information and waited two years to commit murder.
And file for payouts. There's a reason for that. Well,
(08:26):
actually there are two reasons for that. Often it takes
two years for a policy to vest. But also most
insurance companies have a two year contestability period. So basically
that means if the insured dies within that period, the
insurance company will investigate the claim to rule out fraud
(08:47):
or misrepresentation, and if foul play has taken place, they
can deny the claim. In addition, explained Los Angeles County
Deputy District Attorney Bobby Grace, quote, there has to be
some sort of lead nexus between parties before you can
take out an insurance policy. Either you have to have
a business relationship or some sort of romantic relationship.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
At the Los Angeles Police Department's West Traffic Division, Ken
McDavid's death had remained unsolved for months until Ed Webster,
waving his red flags, showed up to get a copy
of the incident report. Webster was an investigator for Mutual
of New York, which had issued life insurance on McDavid,
and he'd been trying to reach the women listed as
(09:32):
beneficiaries with no success. The policy Webster was investigating turned
out to be one of several in McDavid's name. Another
red flag for Webster was that, despite Helen's claim to
be McDavid's cousin, the policies indicated something different, that the
women were allegedly investment partners in McDavid's screenwriting career. With
(09:55):
all of these issues and contradictions documented, Webster called him
meeting with the Los Angeles Police Department.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Webster shared all of this information with Los Angeles Police
detective Dennis Kilcoin, who admittedly wasn't so sure what to
think of it at first. Two female murder suspects in
their seventies hardly sounded right. Both Paul and Ken initially
appeared to have been victims of hit and run accidents,
(10:23):
but police didn't link the two cases until late two
thousand and five, after detective investigating Paul Vados's murder overheard
Webster's story describing an eerily similar series of events. When
Kilcoin pulled that case file, he discovered it had been
the same two women who had come forward to report
Vodos missing and to claim his body as next of kin.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
After McDavid's death and before they were arrested for his murder,
Helen had received a total of a little more than
one point five million dollars in insurance proceeds from his policies,
and Olga a total of nearly six hundred and seventy
five thousand. In regard to Ken, detective kill Coin stated quote,
for two years, they paid his rent, and they paid
(11:09):
for life insurance on him. It's almost like they were
housing a farm animal for slaughter.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
On May eighteenth, two thousand and six, both women were
charged with interstate wire fraud for collecting insurance payments, and
they were placed in federal custody.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
But then on August seventeenth, two thousand and six, Los
Angeles police detectives re arrested the women after a federal
judge released the two from federal custody. This wasn't a mistake.
It was done so they could be re arrested on
state capital murder charges. Those earlier lesser charges were then
(11:47):
out the door. Both Helen and Olga were booked on
charges of murdering Paul Vados and Kenneth McDavid in order
to claim benefits paid out on insurance policies. You'll recall
previous these deaths had been initially investigated as hit and
run accidents, but new evidence had changed things before we
(12:08):
talk about Helen and Olga once they were taken into custody.
We're going to take a break for a word from
our sponsors, and when we're back, we'll talk about how
it didn't take very long before they turned on each other.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's start talking about how Helen
and Olga's relationship broke down, and then we'll get inside
the courtroom.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Around the time they were taken into custody, investigators stated
that Helen and Olga's rapport had become strained and that
they had begun to speak ill about each other. Detective
kill Coin observed, quote, they didn't trust each other. Olga
had a powerful focus on money. She'd once complained to
a neighbor that while Helen had assembled a profitable real
(13:04):
estate portfolio of buildings and land parcels, including two Santa
Monica rental properties, she felt that Helen had not paid
her enough for quote scouting said real estate opportunities. Just
days before her arrest, Olga told that same neighbor that
she and Helen were angry at each other. That neighbor,
(13:25):
a man named Lawrence, shared his encounters with investigators and
later stated to authorities that Olga had told him that
she had become jealous of Helen's daughter, Keisha, because her
mother had given her quote all sorts of things without
her having to work for them.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
This is probably a good example of what you should
and shouldn't share with your neighbors, especially when it comes
to your criminal activities, But this story also has a
warning of what you should and shouldn't share with your hairstylist.
Helen's stylist for a span of about eight years asked
to remain anonymous, but had a lot to share about
(14:03):
her conversations with her client in her testimony. For instance,
Helen once told her quote, I am evil. You have
no idea how evil I am. But Helen said a
lot of other things. Her stylist stated that Helen had
told her Olga was quote crazy, very explosive, very loud,
(14:24):
and hard to deal with in public. The stylist claimed
that Helen bitched about everything, calling men quote stupid, calling
her tenants quote pigs, and claiming she was quote mortgaged
to the hilt. She stated that Helen once said those
who were left homeless by Hurricane Katrina, which was a
deadly storm in two thousand and five were quote nothing,
(14:47):
They were just on welfare. They were useless to society.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Los Angeles detectives and the prosecution team believed the women
killed by quote drugging their victims with pills or alcohol
well first, then running them over. It was learned in
court that this was correct. They would take regular prescription
medication like ambient and vicotin, grind an almost lethal amount
of it, and serve it to their victims in a meal.
(15:15):
Pill bottles with residue matching toxicology reports were found in
Helen's home, and the women would then take the drugged
victim for a drive around Hollywood, waiting for him to
become unconscious. At that point, the women would find a
dark alley and pull their victim out of the car.
They'd then reverse the car and run him over and
leave as though it was just a terrible and unfortunate
(15:39):
hit and run accident.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Paul Vados, who was their first victim, had been run
over in an alley off La Brea, and his body
was found after a night of heavy rain. He was
a retired electrical technician trying to live on social security
and a meager pension. According to case records, he had
named the women as co beneficiaries on an inch surance
policy issued by Monumental Life as a gesture to repay
(16:04):
their kindness for free housing and food. After his death,
they were due a payout nearly two hundred thousand dollars,
but Monumental and another insurer guarantee, Reserve Life, were disputing
that payout on the grounds that his death was being
investigated as a homicide and the women had not yet
been ruled out as suspects.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
There were two key problems for the women when it
came to Ken McDavid's death and subsequent insurance payout. Ken
had been discovered in a position that made it appear
that he had been fixing the wheel of his bike
at the point of impact, but according to Janis Amatusio,
a forensic pathologist in the case, the wheel would have
crushed his chest and his lungs upon impact based on
(16:48):
his posture, and the bike curiously wasn't even bent. These
clues opened the door to the possibility of foul play.
There were no known witnesses to the killer, but her
observations led the police to track down all nearby CCTV
footage to see if anything had been caught on video.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
And they found something. According to some grainy surveillance video
from a nearby shop, they discovered Ken had been struck
by a silvered nineteen ninety nine Mercury Sable station wagon
and then for four minutes the car sat paused before
backing up and accelerating to exit the alley. That pause
(17:29):
is when investigators think his body was posed, recalled. Detective
kill Coin, when describing the scene, quote, the man's body
had been crushed, There was black grease on his clothing,
there was blood near his head, and a medical examiner
would later say McDavid died of crush injuries, including lacerations
to his spinal cord and scalp, three broken ribs, and
(17:52):
a fractured pelvis. A toxicology exam found enough prescription sedatives
in his system to induce at the very least drowsiness,
if not sleep itself.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
And that led to the second problem. According to the
Los Angeles Police Department, laboratory tests matched Ken's DNA to
material found in three places on a nineteen ninety nine
Mercury Sable wagon that had been abandoned. Detective kill Coin stated, quote,
we found tissue in three locations on the undercarriage of
(18:24):
the car. We have records to show both women bought
this car in two thousand and four, then they stored
it at Gola's house. Helen and Olga had bought a
nineteen ninety nine silver Mercury Sable station wagon, although they
bought it under a false name, and according to records,
on the night of the killing, they were linked directly
(18:44):
to it via a call received by a roadside service company.
A woman called from a cell phone which appeared to
be registered to Helen's daughter Kesha, requesting assistance with a
disabled Mercury Sable wagon at the corner of Westwood Boulevard
Santa Monica Boulevard, an intersection right nearby where McDavid's body
(19:05):
would be found an hour later. As it turned out,
running over McDavid had caused damage to the fuel line,
the car was towed at the caller's request to a
location near Helen's home in Santa Monica. Shortly after, a
call was made from Keisha's cell phone to Olga's cell phone,
and then two minutes later another call was made from
(19:28):
Olga's cell phone to Keisha's cell phone and then silence. Later,
the tow truck driver would identify Helen as his toe client.
The car was abandoned in storage and then auctioned to
recoup the money's owed, but investigators were still able to
locate it for inspection.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
After Ken's death, a quote, well dressed, older woman named
Helen Golay soon arrived at the morgue, identifying herself as
Kenneth McDavid's fiance. Not long after, Olga Ruder also showed
up to claim his body for cremation, identifying herself to
staff as his cousin. Said kill Cooin of the scene.
(20:08):
Quote for a guy who appeared to be a homeless
man found run over in an alley in the middle
of the night, it was kind of odd that this
woman claimed that he was a fiancee. It's just something
that bothered me.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
And he was right. Investigators discovered the planned killings were
actually much bigger in scope than Vados and McDavid's deaths.
At the time of their arrest, the women were in
the process of repeating their scheme with multiple victims that
they had met in shelters and at churches. Detectives obtained
access to Olga and Helen's insurance policies and found that
(20:45):
the two were in the middle of scamming other vulnerable targets.
Investigators discovered applications for eight hundred thousand dollars each in
life insurance policies for Nicholas cous Jimmy Covington, and Scott
Gohones to detective kill Coin. There was no evidence that
the men had been harmed, though there was a search
for them to ensure their safety. We're going to take
(21:08):
a break here for a word from our sponsors, and
when we return, we'll talk about how one of those
men testified against Helen and Olga during their trial.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about some of the
most damning evidence against the women from the women themselves
before we talk about the verdict and their sentencing.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
One of the men who escaped with his life, Jimmy Covington,
testified against the women. Jimmy was forty eight years old
and known for his classic movie star looks. He was
an unhoused person who testified he'd been approached on the
street in two thousand and five by Olga with an
offer of a place to stay in free grocery. He
(22:01):
signed some paperwork, but he split after the two repeatedly
harassed him and grew angry that he hadn't provided more
personal information. Unfortunately, though they did have enough of his
personal information to take out an eight hundred thousand dollars
life insurance policy on him, he narrowly avoided being killed.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
During the trial, the jury heard a lot of testimony
and was also shown a secretly recorded video of the
two women in the interrogation room together after their arrests.
In this video, when left to themselves, Olga immediately began
berating Helen, yelling that it was her actions in taking
(22:42):
out twenty three insurance policies that raised a red flag.
When the men died, the jury heard her say, quote,
you're going to go to jail, honey. They going to
lock you up. You were greedy, that's the problem.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
In fact, the volume of insurance documents was so extensive
that Olga had made a rubber stamp of each victim's signatures.
The women were savvy when it came to insurance companies.
They shopped for lower cost insurance through companies that allowed
paperwork to be handled over the phone or by mail.
(23:17):
Though the women worked as a murderous duo, investigator's uncovered
evidence that each was not always aware of the other's activities.
For instance, of the roughly dozen policies on McDavid, Helen
was listed as the sole beneficiary on eight of them,
and sometimes they tried to remove each other as co beneficiary. Regardless,
(23:40):
insurers sold policy after policy. During the trial, it came
to light the women usually represented themselves as part of
the victim's family, a cousin and a fiancee. On a
recording played in court, the jury heard Olga snap quote,
I was the cousin, you were the fiancee alone. Most
(24:02):
of the policies were for accidental death, not death due
to natural causes.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Defense lawyers for both Helen and Olga admitted the women
were involved in insurance fraud, but denied any murder conspiracy
despite everything laid out against them. Roger John Diamond, Helen's attorney,
stated that his client had done nothing wrong and that
her relationship with Olga was nothing more than an innocent friendship.
(24:29):
He claimed that Helen had become the victim of quote
innuendo and that quote she has an explanation. In a
last minute attempt to clear herself, Helen claimed her adult
daughter Keisha, was actually the person who drove the car
that ran over Ken McDavid. Let it be clearly known
here Keisha was definitely not a suspect and never was,
(24:53):
was never charged, and didn't testify in the trial. Yet
her mother tried to pin the crimes on her and
asserted that keih Show was the only one who was
strong enough to carry the bodies. Helen took this instance
to point out that she was in her seventies and
not very strong. It goes without saying none of that
crap held up in court.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Olga's lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Michael Sklar, claimed his client
was quote simple minded, and that she was obsessed with Helen.
He also accused Helen of manipulating his client to purchase
a car used as a weapon, and stated that Helen
alone was the one who committed murder. To that point,
he continued that Helen financed the scheme and wrote the checks.
(25:38):
It was never Olga.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
In his closing argument, Deputy District Attorney Bobby Grace called
the women quote the worst of the worst. They didn't
need this money, They weren't poor and destitute. They went
out of their way to target men who had nothing.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
In July of two thousand and eight. The jury found
both with and guilty of two counts of first degree
murder and two counts of conspiracy to commit murder. The
jury also found special circumstances of multiple murder and murder
for financial gain. The court sentenced both defendants to life
imprisonment without possibility of parole.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Neither women showed any reaction to the verdicts or their sentences. Helen,
it was reported, sat with her head close to her
attorney and run along as the court clerk went through
the charges, stated her attorney after the verdicts were read,
quote basically, the ladies did not do very well today,
and added that he was confident there were quote significant
(26:42):
issues to raise on appeal of his client's conviction. He
also stated that a key issue would be whether it
was appropriate for a judge to admit a videotaped conversation
between his client and Olga one which was secretly recorded
by authorities while they were in a holding CELLI. He
stated that he felt that the women's defense was also
(27:02):
quote harmed by Olga's attorney's decision to suggest Helen was
the killer throughout the case and the trial and after
the sentencing Olga's attorney did not provide comment.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Defense attorney Diamond did appeal on Helen's behalf, but in
October of twenty twelve, the California Supreme Court upheld the
murder and conspiracy convictions.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
So Helen and Olga aren't just curiosities as killers because
of their advanced age, although that does put them in
a small percentage of murderers. It's also that they're women
almost all. So about ninety percent of homicides worldwide are
committed by men, so says the twenty nineteen edition of
the Global Study on Homicide from the United Nations. But
(27:51):
that doesn't mean women don't commit murder. One kind of
female murderer has become so infamous it's even sparked its
own nickname, black widow women kill for money, and Helen
and Olga's crimes have become known as the black widow murders.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Who that's a lot to take in. Are you ready
to make it a double?
Speaker 2 (28:11):
I sure am, It is a lot.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
This one was actually hard to think of a cocktail
for initially because there's not a lot of joy or
funniness in it, which is usually where I tend to fixate.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
No sunshine here whatsoever?
Speaker 1 (28:32):
No, absolutely not. So then I just started thinking about
their sort of odd friendship. Calling it a friendship doesn't
even sound right because it's something more complex than that.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
My brain considers it a partnership, right, yeah, which still
isn't exactly right, but yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
And this, after jumping through some mental hoops as I
went from logic to logic, got me to thinking about sidecars,
which is think a lot of people love. Right. My
sidecar is nice and basic, it's cognac, it's quantro or
another triple sack and lemon juice. And I thought, oh,
what if we made one where we just judged it
(29:12):
up a little bit and changed the ingredients around a little.
So I came up with something that I'm calling a
station wagon. That's the only thing I could think of
that would be at least light in tone, terrible and
perfect all the same. Right, It's one of the weird details.
There's something extra, I don't know, unsettling about them buying
(29:33):
a station wagon to run people over with station wagon.
To make a station wagon, you are going to pre
chill your cocktail glass while you're making it, and you
will into a shaker, put an ounce and a half
of cognac, a half ounce of quantro or another triple sack,
a half ounce of lemon juice, so we're still in
(29:53):
a pretty standard and then a half ounce of creme
de violette. So what we've basically done is we have
cut in half the component that's normally a liqueur and
reduce the amount of triple sc and add it in
something else to make up that gap, and in this
case it's creme de violet because that seems like a
mature woman's flavor. I say, as a mature woman, you're
(30:18):
going to give that a good shake and just strain
it into your pre chilled cocktail glass. It is very
yummy if you like a sidecar. It is a very
spirit forward drink at that point. It has a little
bit of bite to it. But then there's this cool,
very light floral finish on the end, which is I
don't know, getting hurt by a mature woman with a
(30:39):
boufont hairdoo and a lot of makeup on.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Probably smells a little perfume.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
A little bit. I will say, the kognak does tend
to kind of obscure the scent of the crime to violette,
but there's a little bit on the nose. So to
make the mocktail version of this is really pretty simple.
We're gonna change some of the things because we're making
up what the is out of two other things. So
we will do an ounce of black tea with a
(31:06):
half ounce of low sugar white grape juice. And then
we'll do a half ounce of orange syrup, a half
ounce of violet syrup, and your half ounce of lemon juice.
So the rest stays the same. Again, give that a
good shake, put it into your chilled thing. If you
don't like this in it in either the cocktail version
or the mocktail on its own, you can top it
(31:27):
off with a soda or a ginger ale and it
becomes a different drink. I will say I did it
with ginger ale, and I found that the cremoviolect came
through more. I'm not sure why that happens. I think
the ginger counters to cognac a little bit there, and
the floral then emerges. Play with it. See what tastes
most delicious to you, and that's the station wagon. And
(31:47):
I hope you drink responsibly and don't feel like you
got hit by a car. We are very grateful. I
know that's terrible. It is. I'm trying to find a
modicum of humor in this horrible story because cry.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
I'm sure everyone listening, just like I did, and I'm
sure you did, found themselves sitting going what is that
like to sit down with someone and have a conversation
of like, here's how we're going to victimize people that
are really down on their luck for money. It seems
horrible if our joviality about the cocktail and its name
(32:25):
is feels disrespectful. Apologies. I'm literally just trying to find
a little comfort in the darkness that is the station
Wagon and we are so thankful that you hung out
with us for this story. We will be right back
next week with another tale of a duo do in
crime and another set of drinks to go with it.
(32:48):
Criminalia is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, please visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite chos
Hosts And Creators
Holly Frey
Maria Trimarchi
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