Dirty Money Moves: Women in White Collar Crime

In 2002, Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt were riding high following their first successful life insurance scam. Before the women set their sights on their next victim, Kenneth McDavid, there was another scheme brewing. This one, developing across the country, and involving an elderly man named Fred Downie. At 96-years-old, this widowed New Englander owned a house on Cape Cod, and somehow befriended a young woman named Kecia Golay, Helen Golay’s youngest daughter. 

Kecia soon convinced Fred to move to Southern California, where her mother owned several properties. Fred Downie agreed and would indeed find his place in the sun, though only for a short time. He’d write his niece Mildred letters about the glory of west coast living. As the months rolled by, however, the letters got more despondent. And then, the letters stopped. Soon, Mildred would learn that Fred was dead. 

Unfortunately for Helen and Olga, their claim on an insurance policy for Kenneth McDavid landed on the desk of Ed Webster, a detail-oriented insurance investigator who previously worked as a private eye. And Ed had questions. Soon, the LAPD got involved. Through Kenneth McDavid’s case, they learned about Fred Downie’s case which only raised more questions. Why was 97-year-old Fred Downie in the middle of the road, unattended, when he was struck by a car? And why was he carrying funeral instructions on him when he died? 

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Follow host, Jami Rice, on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube @JamiOnAir to keep up with this story and other true crime cases she’s deep-diving into and providing commentary on.

Check out Jami’s other true crime podcasts, MURDERISH and Lipstick & Lies, which are available in all podcast apps.

Dirty Money Moves is a collaboration between MURDERISH and Cloud10 Media.

Executive Producers are: Jami Rice and Sim Sarna

Research and writing by: Zach Selwyn

If you enjoy Dirty Money Moves, please do us a favor and give the podcast a 5-star rating and review in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any podcast player.

Sources are available at MURDERISH.com

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On June 21, 2005, a 50-year-old unhoused man named Kenneth McDavid was left for dead in a back alley just off of Westwood Boulevard in Los Angeles. Police believed that he’d been the victim of a hit-and-run. After a distant female cousin came forth claiming to be Kenneth’s only living relative, the case was closed and the cause of death was listed as “unknown.”

When a New York insurance claims department employee took note of Kenneth’s case, he became aware of two fairly substantial life insurance policies that had been taken out on the man. The beneficiaries of Kenneth’s life insurance policies were two 70-something women named Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmid, a duo who were known around town as fairly regular volunteers at the Hollywood Presbyterian Church. As law enforcement continued investigating Kenneth’s case they learned his death was just the tip of the iceberg. Eventually,  a much deeper and shocking mystery would be unravaled. And the two sweet, 70-something seniors who’d been helping vulnerable people at the church …they were just devils in disguise.

Sponsors:

Hers: forhers.com/dirtymoney for your personalized weight loss options

Armoire: armoire.style/dirtymoney to get up to 50% off your first month

Follow host, Jami Rice, on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube @JamiOnAir to keep up with this story and other true crime cases she’s deep-diving into and providing commentary on.

Check out Jami’s other true crime podcasts, MURDERISH and Lipstick & Lies, which are available in all podcast apps.

Dirty Money Moves is a collaboration between MURDERISH and Cloud10 Media.

Executive Producers are: Jami Rice and Sim Sarna

Research and writing by: Zach Selwyn

If you enjoy Dirty Money Moves, please do us a favor and give the podcast a 5-star rating and review in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any podcast player.

Sources are available at MURDERISH.com

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A few months after Samantha Azzopardi was sentenced to three years of Community Corrections Order following her latest fake identity scam, where she claimed to be a pregnant 15-year-old victim of sexual abuse, she answered an advertisement placed by a lawyer in Sydney named Theresa Power. Theresa needed a nanny for her young daughter and “Maya Malicka” answered the call. Maya claimed to be 19, Polish, and have tons of experience with kids. Theresa became convinced Maya was legitimate, and hired her as a nanny. The gig with Theresa Power wouldn’t last long, but Samantha had one more alias she wanted to attempt before settling in again as a nanny for a family.

Sponsors

AquaTru: Visit AquaTru.com and use code DIRTYMONEY at checkout for 20% off any purifier

Hers: forhers.com/dirtymoney for your personalized weight loss options

Armoire: armoire.style/dirtymoney to get up to 50% off your first month

Follow host, Jami Rice, on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube @JamiOnAir to keep up with this story and other true crime cases she’s deep-diving into and providing commentary on.

Check out Jami’s other true crime podcasts, MURDERISH and Lipstick & Lies, which are available in all podcast apps.

Dirty Money Moves is a collaboration between MURDERISH and Cloud10 Media.

Executive Producers are: Jami Rice and Sim Sarna

Research and writing by: Zach Selwyn

If you enjoy Dirty Money Moves, please do us a favor and give the podcast a 5-star rating and review in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any podcast player.

Sources are available at MURDERISH.com

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Samantha Azzopardi’s latest alias, a 13-year-old named Harper Hart, had convinced a foster family to take her in while living in Sydney. But, “Harper’s” stories of being in the witness protection program alerted officials, who then sought to confirm her identity. For weeks, they found nothing and Harper remained silent. Then, a colleague at the police station casually brought up the case of the GPO Girl in Dublin, and how Samantha Azzopardi’s and Harper Hart’s stories sounded similar. 

They compared Harper and Samantha’s photographs and saw a small resemblance, but Harper looked 13, and the chance that Samantha, who was 28 at the time, could pass for 13 seemed very unlikely. Then, they retrieved some of Harper's homework from school and found Samantha’s fingerprints all over the papers. Samantha was exposed yet again, but this wouldn’t stop her from ramping up the devious nature of her crimes. This time, she’d involved children in a way that she never had before.

Sponsors:

Hers: forhers.com/dirtymoney for your personalized weight loss options

Armoire: armoire.style/dirtymoney to get up to 50% off your first month

Follow host, Jami Rice, on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube @JamiOnAir to keep up with this story and other true crime cases she’s deep-diving into and providing commentary on.

Check out Jami’s other true crime podcasts, MURDERISH and Lipstick & Lies, which are available in all podcast apps.

Dirty Money Moves is a collaboration between MURDERISH and Cloud10 Media.

Executive Producers are: Jami Rice and Sim Sarna

Research and writing by: Zach Selwyn

If you enjoy Dirty Money Moves, please do us a favor and give the podcast a 5-star rating and review in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any podcast player.

Sources are available at MURDERISH.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Samantha Azzopardi had been living under the alias “Emily,” a 14-year-old gymnast from Russia, when she convinced her friend Hope’s family to adopt her. In this instance, however, her story got much darker than anything else Samantha had ever presented.

According to Hope, Emily claimed that she was severely traumatized by a murder-suicide in her family. Hope’s family believed her, and took her in for an undisclosed amount of time. But, when Hope’s family tried to enroll Emily in high school, school authorities raised questions about her birth certificate. Samantha would eventually move on to a whole new identity, and brainwash an innocent young backpacker who continues to be traumatized by the experience today.

Sponsor:

Hers: forhers.com/dirtymoney for your personalized weight loss options

Follow host, Jami Rice, on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube @JamiOnAir to keep up with this story and other true crime cases she’s deep-diving into and providing commentary on.

Check out Jami’s other true crime podcasts, MURDERISH and Lipstick & Lies, which are available in all podcast apps.

Dirty Money Moves is a collaboration between MURDERISH and Cloud10 Media.

Executive Producers are: Jami Rice and Sim Sarna

Research and writing by: Zach Selwyn

If you enjoy Dirty Money Moves, please do us a favor and give the podcast a 5-star rating and review in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any podcast player.

Sources are available at MURDERISH.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When a young girl was found distraught and non-communicative in the streets of Dublin in 2013, it kicked off one of Ireland’s biggest mysteries. After the Dublin police had exhausted all of their options, they got permission to release a photo of the girl to the media in hopes of finding out her true identity. When Garda eventually did, they discovered she wasn’t a 14-year-old as initially expected. She was 25-year-old Australian con woman, Samantha Azzopardi.

As Samantha’s story went global, others began to contact Dublin authorities with tales of how she’d deceived them as well. Irish authorities grappled with how to process Samantha. Technically, she hadn’t committed any crime, or filed any false claims …but she’d wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars in Government money and countless hours of time. 

How would authorities decide what to do with Samantha? And what exactly were her goals in pretending to be a distraught teenage girl in a country 29 hours away from her home in Australia? And what other false identities had she been living under for the past ten years?

Follow host, Jami Rice, on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube @JamiOnAir to keep up with this story and other true crime cases she’s deep-diving into and providing commentary on.

Check out Jami’s other true crime podcasts, MURDERISH and Lipstick & Lies, which are available in all podcast apps.

Dirty Money Moves is a collaboration between MURDERISH and Cloud10 Media.

Executive Producers are: Jami Rice and Sim Sarna

Research and writing by: Zach Selwyn

If you enjoy Dirty Money Moves, please do us a favor and give the podcast a 5-star rating and review in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any podcast player.

Sources are available at MURDERISH.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What makes a serial killer? Mind of a Serial Killer takes you deep into the twisted minds of history’s most notorious serial killers. Every Monday, hosts Vanessa Richardson and Dr. Tristin Engels, a Clinical and Forensic Psychologist, combines gripping true crime storytelling with expert psychological analysis to answer the question - what makes a serial killer? From Jeffrey Dahmer to Ted Bundy, explore not only their chilling crimes but the dark psychology behind them. Follow Mind of a Serial Killer wherever you get your podcasts!

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In October 2013, two police officers in Dublin, Ireland came across a disheveled, emaciated and distressed teenage girl wandering around by herself outside the General Post Office. She was unable to speak, using only primitive sign language to show her age. From what the officers could translate, the girl indicated that she was 14-years-old. 

Child welfare authorities took her to a nearby children’s hospital while trying to figure out who she was. As The Garda looked into uncovering the young girl’s identity, local media began speculating about possible sex trafficking as the country-wide interest in her case grew. 

Who was this young girl? Where was her family? What was her name? When Irish authorities uncovered the truth, it turned out the young girl was not a young girl after all. She was a 25-year-old Australian con woman named Samantha Azzopardi, and this incident was not the first (or the last) time she’d convinced people to shower her with care and attention by assuming a false identity. In fact, Samantha had been doing this for most of her adult life. As interest in this case grew, so did the stories of the dozens of people she’d de-frauded across three continents. To this day, Samantha’s motive for doing all of this isn’t exactly clear.

Sponsor:

AquaTru: Visit AquaTru.com and use code DIRTYMONEY at checkout for 20% off any AquaTru purifier.

Quince: Visit Quince.com/dirtymoney for free shipping and 365-day returns.

Follow host, Jami Rice, on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube @JamiOnAir to keep up with this story and other true crime cases she’s deep-diving into and providing commentary on.

Check out Jami’s other true crime podcasts, MURDERISH and Lipstick & Lies, which are available in all podcast apps.

Dirty Money Moves is a collaboration between MURDERISH and Cloud10 Media.

Executive Producers are: Jami Rice and Sim Sarna

Research and writing by: Zach Selwyn

If you enjoy Dirty Money Moves, please do us a favor and give the podcast a 5-star rating and review in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any podcast player.

Sources are available at MURDERISH.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

​While Jami takes time off from recording Dirty Money Moves during the Holidays, we’re releasing an episode of her other podcast, Lipstick & Lies. In this episode of Lipstick & Lies, Jami walks co-host Melissa Moore through the topic of our very first season of Dirty Money Moves, the case of Mary Carole McDonnell -“The Heiress Who Hu$tled Hollywood.” 

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It’s been over two years since Elisabeth Finch took her leave of absence from the “Grey’s Anatomy” writer’s room. Once she realized she wouldn’t be getting rehired, and that her web of lies had spun violently out of control, she returned to the same Arizona treatment center where she first met her now ex-wife Jennifer Beyer. Over six months after returning to the treatment center, Elisabeth sat down with Peter Kiefer, the same interviewer from The Ankler who initially broke the Finch story. Elisabeth came clean and admitted lying about her cancer diagnosis. It was an article that Hollywood had been waiting to read. But in true Elisabeth Finch fashion, the disgraced writer found a way to hold on to some of her falsehoods and even hint that she should be given a second chance. Will Elisabeth’s story have a Hollywood ending, or were her lies the nail in career’s coffin?

Sponsor:

Quince: quince.com/dirtymoney for free shipping and 365 day returns

Follow host, Jami Rice, on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube @JamiOnAir to keep up with this case and other true crime cases she’s deep-diving into and providing commentary on.

Check out Jami’s other true crime podcast, MURDERISH, which is available in all podcast apps.

Dirty Money Moves is a collaboration between MURDERISH and Cloud10 Media.

Executive Producers are: Jami Rice and Sim Sarna

Research and writing by: Zach Selwyn

If you enjoy Dirty Money Moves, please do us a favor and give the podcast a 5-star rating and review in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any podcast player.

Sources are available at MURDERISH.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices