Two elderly Los Angeles women have been convicted of killing homeless men in order to cash in on multimillion-dollar insurance payouts.

Helen Golay, top, and Olga Rutterschmidt have been convicted of murdering two homeless men in Los Angeles.
(LAPD/Associated Press)

Olga Rutterschmidt, 75, and Helen Golay, 77, lured two men away from the homeless community in Hollywood, gave them food and shelter for two years, and took out numerous insurance policies in their names.

The women then killed the men in staged hit-and-run accidents and left their mangled bodies in Los Angeles alleyways. After the men were dead, the women collected $2.8 million US in their names.

Rutterschmidt was convicted Monday of first-degree murder and conspiracy to murder for financial gain in the 1999 death of Paul Vados, 73. A week earlier, she was convicted of murder and conspiracy in the 2005 death of Kenneth McDavid, 50.

Golay, 77, was convicted last week of murder and conspiracy in connection with the deaths of both men.

The scheme was uncovered when an investigator examining McDavid's death overheard another detective discussing the fact that Vados died under nearly identical circumstances.

The case, which became known as the Black Widow case, attracted international attention.

Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty, but the convictions carry life prison terms without possibility of parole.

The week gap between convictions in the trial came because a juror needed to leave on a trip and had to be replaced by an alternate.

At the time, jurors had been deadlocked on the last two counts against Rutterschmidt, but were ordered to start deliberations over when they got their new member. Monday's verdicts came after about an hour of talks.

With files from the Associated Press