Signed in Blood: The True Story of Two Women, a Sinister Plot, and Cold Blooded Murder (St. Martin's True Crime Library) [Mass Market Paperback]

Jeanne King (Author)

Book Description

Series: St. Martin's True Crime Library | Publication Date: June 30, 2009

They came from different backgrounds, but when Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt met in the 1980s, they became fast friends. For decades, they made a game of engaging in petty crime--bad deals, insurance fraud, robbing wallets. But after years of dabbling in theft, they came up with a way of making their pocketbooks even fatter. They found a way to make murder pay...

It was a plan out of Arsenic and Old Lace: Befriend a homeless man, place life insurance policies in his name--and then have him killed. Their scheme worked once...but then police started to notice a pattern. Helen and Olga were discovered, and in front of a court of law, their coldhearted pact to kill and cash in would finally be exposed.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

TWO GOLDEN GIRLS

They came from different backgrounds, but when Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt met in the 1980s, they became fast friends. For decades, they made a game of engaging in petty crime--bad deals, insurance fraud, robbing wallets. But after years of dabbling in theft, they came up with a way of making their pocketbooks even fatter. They found a way to make murder pay...

ONE DEADLY PLOT

It was a plan out of Arsenic and Old Lace: Befriend a homeless man, place life insurance policies in his name--and then have him killed. Their scheme worked once...but then police started to notice a pattern. Helen and Olga were discovered, and in front of a court of law, their coldhearted pact to kill and cash in would finally be exposed.

 SIGNED IN BLOOD

With 8 pages of alarming photos!

About the Author

Jeanne King is an award-winning journalist who covered crime for Reuters for more than forty years. The author of Never Seen Again (also available from St. Martin's True Crime Library), she lives in New York City.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's True Crime; 1 Original edition (June 30, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312949006
• ISBN-13: 978-0312949006
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,438,726 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Captivating but redundant, August 30, 2009

By 

P. Munter "reader, writer, entertainer" (Palm Desert, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Signed in Blood: The True Story of Two Women, a Sinister Plot, and Cold Blooded Murder (St. Martin's True Crime Library) (Mass Market Paperback)

The story of two women who murder transients for profit is riveting but not particularly well-written. The author repeats several times the details of the murders and the evidence presented in court, but tells us little about the backgrounds of the perps. What makes women in their 70s murder apparently for the first time? We get through the entire book without any kind of answer. What we have is reportage without interpretation. You can read the first 100 pages and put it down, having discovered all the author knows about the case.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Arsenic and Old Lace, it ain't, September 8, 2009

By 

liberal zen "liberal artist" (nc) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Signed in Blood: The True Story of Two Women, a Sinister Plot, and Cold Blooded Murder (St. Martin's True Crime Library) (Mass Market Paperback)

I could not WAIT to start this book, since I had read the bare details in the news. I agree with the reviewer who says that the author did not research this book too well. Seems they read the news story and stretched it out! We hear hints of previous illegal acts on their part...but no details!! No delving into the reasons for their greedy acts, very little childhood info on them, which I believe is essential to understand most criminal acts.

Not a bad book, but could have been so much more, given the chilling mix of 2 elderly ladies and murder for insurance money.

Ann Rule, please write this book!!

Also, MUST say how much I appreciate these customer reviews!! Thanks, Amazon!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Needs a good writer, March 5, 2010

By 

Nancy A. Hudson "readinginminnesota" (Willmar, MN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Signed in Blood: The True Story of Two Women, a Sinister Plot, and Cold Blooded Murder (St. Martin's True Crime Library) (Mass Market Paperback)

An interesting story, no doubt, but a poorly written book. We have none of the elements of good true crime writing. The victims and the perpetrators are not fleshed out...we have little about what happened between these two ladies over the time they knew each other and nothing other the bare facts of the case, described over and over and over again. Why go through the preliminary hearing and then the trial when almost all of the information was the same. You can't write a good true crime book without making it compelling. Repeating dry and boring court transcripts for over half the book is ridiculous and I only finished it because I hate putting a book down unread. Basically it was a waste of time. You would have gotten as much information just by reading the newspaper articles or the stuff on the internet. This writer will definitely not make it to my list of writers to watch. After reading Cruel Death by M. William Phelps, this was definitely not what I should have picked up next. Like going from the zenith to the nadir of true crime reporting.