Then came the day after Thanksgiving in 2001, when Golay presented Cowan with an eviction notice and ordered him to vacate the premises by the end of the year.
Since the apartment building was owner-occupied with less than three units, it was exempt from the city’s rent control laws,giving Golay the freedom to evict Cowan, he said.
“She told me she needed my apartment to move a family member in, which I think is the only reason other than gross destruction of the place that she could’ve gotten rid of me,” he said.
In reading the articles about Golay and Rutterschmidt and how they are accused of befriending homeless men in order to cash in on their deaths, Cowan had a flashback about Fred Downie.
The 97-year-old man from Massachusetts moved into the second upstairs unit in 2000 and Cowan remembers chatting with him on occasion and how, despite his old age, Downie would often take walks down to the Albertsons at the corner of Lincoln and Ocean Park boulevards.
“I was told that he was a relative,”Cowan said.
Then one day, he noticed that Downie was gone and was told by Golay that her relative was hit by a car in November 2000 and later died from his injuries.
The LA Times reported last year that investigators were exploring whether Golay was also connected in the murder, and believed that Golay and her daughter had moved the man from Massachusetts, acquired his home for $1, and sold it for $200,000.
The driver who struck Downie was found not to be at fault. Downie was not walking in a crosswalk when he was hit.
Today, Cowan wonders if Golay was indeed responsible.
Since Golay was arrested last May, Cowan has been closely following the trial.
“I just couldn’t conceive that she would do this,” he said.
This morning, the saga will continue as the so-called “Black Widows” meet up for the first time since the preliminary trial wrapped on March 15.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 29, 2007. Read the original PDF.