Show Notes
his episode uncovers the chilling case of Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt, two elderly Los Angeles women who befriended vulnerable, homeless men under the guise of charitable support. Behind the charitable facade, the duo took out millions of dollars in life insurance policies before staging fatal hit-and-run accidents in dark alleys to collect massive payouts. From the initial suspicions raised by overlapping insurance claims to the secret holding-cell recordings that brought them down, we trace how a web of calculated greed turned into one of the city's most ruthless murder schemes.
More from CASES OF THE FBI
On December 11, 1978, armed robbers stole nearly $6 million in cash and jewelry from Lufthansa’s cargo terminal at JFK Airport, launching one of the most notorious organized crime investigations in American history. An abandoned getaway van, insider information, and connections to New York’s criminal underworld helped investigators reconstruct the operation. We examine how federal investigators pursued Jimmy Burke’s criminal network, the importance of Henry Hill’s cooperation, and the evidence that eventually led to convictions in related cases. Why were authorities able to identify major suspects while securing so few convictions for the robbery itself?
In 1960, eight-year-old Gloria Kowalewicz was abducted and murdered in Chicago, beginning a homicide investigation that would remain unresolved for more than six decades. In October 2026, investigators announced that modern forensic evidence had identified former Chicago homicide detective Thomas McInerney as their suspect. How do investigators reconstruct a murder when witnesses have died, evidence has aged, and the suspected killer once worked in law enforcement? This episode examines the investigative methods, forensic breakthroughs, and extraordinary challenges of solving a case in which the suspect was once part of the profession responsible for finding killers.
: In 1969, a teenage girl was murdered in an Oakland hotel room, and a fugitive previously placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list became a suspect. Despite years of investigation, authorities could neither apprehend Taylor Morris Teaford nor identify the victim. When the FBI joined the renewed investigation in 2020, modern forensic techniques and investigative genetic genealogy helped uncover a crucial family connection. This episode explores how federal and local investigators worked together to restore Joanne Burdick’s identity and why the search for answers continues
During Prohibition, Al Capone became one of America’s most notorious organized crime figures, yet federal authorities struggled to secure a major conviction. Investigators from the Treasury Department pursued his financial records while other federal efforts targeted organized crime in Chicago. Their work culminated in a landmark income tax evasion prosecution in 1931. This episode explores the federal investigative strategy that ended Capone’s criminal career.
In October 1986, 23-year-old Teresa Ann Houck left the Baltimore club where she worked and was never seen alive again, found shot to death in Druid Hill Park just hours later. Investigators had physical evidence but no identified killer, and the case went cold for nearly four decades. Then a routine DNA database search produced the match prosecutors say finally gave the case a name. This episode looks at how forensic databases and investigative persistence can bring an unsolved homicide back to life.