LOS ANGELES, USA - TWO women in their 70s who befriended and then murdered homeless men to collect millions of dollars in life insurance were on Tuesday jailed for life at a Los Angeles court hearing.

Helen Golay, 77, and Olga Rutterschmidt, 75, who were convicted of murder in April, have been dubbed the 'Black Widows' for orchestrating a scheme that saw them take out insurance policies on destitute men before killing them.

The two women received nearly US$3 million (S$4 million) in insurance payouts before their crimes were discovered, prosecutors told their trial at Los Angeles Superior Court earlier this year.

Prosecutors had not sought the death penalty for Golay and Rutterschmidt, who will now die behind bars after being sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

'They made US$2.8 million by murder - murder to collect life insurance benefits of two men who had nothing,' deputy district attorney Truc Do told jurors at the women's trial.

Golay and Rutterschmidt were charged with two counts each of murder and conspiracy in the deaths of Mr Kenneth McDavid and Mr Paul Vados.

Mr McDavid, 50, was found dead in an alley in Westwood in June 2005. He had been run over by a car. Mr Vados, 73, was killed after being run over in an alley in Hollywood in 1999.

Prosecutor Do said Golay and Rutterschmidt specifically targeted homeless men, took out insurance policies on them and claimed they were related to the victims. According to prosecutors, the women applied for 26 life insurance policies on three different people - including the two dead men. -- AFP