She jumped bail and went on the run in 1962 with Vivian and their children. And Carmichael wasn't the only transgender celebrity Carlson outed in this way—he did the same thing to tennis player Renée Richards. Then along came a life changing event, the news about 37-year-old Geraldine Elizabeth (Liz) Carmichael. It's almost impossible to summarize, because so many themes and bits of history intersect. Then her life of secrets and lies was exposed. As The New York Post reports, one of her first coups was getting a shell of the car displayed at the 1975 Los Angeles Auto Show, which put a spotlight on the car. Carmichael was charged with grand theft, fraud and securities violations. In August 1961, she was arrested on counterfeiting charges. Co-directed and executive produced by the brilliant Zackary Drucker, The Lady and The Dale uncovers a story of a transgender woman … She fled to Dallas moments before police came to arrest her, but was apprehended and found guilty in 1977. "[17], American automobile executive and fraudster, Carmichael, 1974 or 1975, with a model of the Dale automobile, "The Lady and the Dale's Liz Carmichael Was a Trans Woman, Scammer, and Devoted Mom", "Hun svindlet til seg millioner. Her neglected story is being told … [6][7] She often introduced her wife Vivian Barrett Michael as her secretary. She grew up in Jasonville, Indiana, later moving to Detroit, Michigan with her family. Carmichael was also the mother of five kids. Clifft had invented a three-wheeled car design. Here's the untold truth of disgraced entrepreneur Elizabeth Carmichael. With Clifft, she left the USMI to form the Twentieth Century Motor Car Corporation, whose goal was to market the unique low fuel consumption vehicle. The Daily Beast notes that Carlson became "fixated" on Carmichael, went out of his way to refer to her using male pronouns, and insinuated that her transgender status was just a way to obfuscate her identity in order to get away with her crimes. She was charged with desertion for leaving her first wife, Marga, whom she met while stationed in Germany, and their two children. In the 1970s, Elizabeth Carmichael was set to change the auto industry with a car called The Dale. [2][3] She grew up in Jasonville, Indiana, later moving to Detroit, Michigan with her family. [16], Carmichael died of cancer in February 2004. “I’m going to build the public exactly what they’re looking for, and I’m going to knock the hell out of Detroit doing it,” said Liz Carmichael in 1974. Liz Carmichael was also a trans-woman who was born Jerry Dean Michael, in 1937. Elizabeth Carmichael was assigned male at birth in 1927, and named Jerry Dean Michael. [8], In 1973, still on the run from her 1961 arrest, Carmichael was working at the United States Marketing Institute (USMI), in Los Angeles. Elizabeth Carmichael with her family. And as The Los Angeles Times notes, Carmichael was suspected of having ties to the mafia, and some employees reported seeing some shady characters who could have walked off a Scorsese set hanging around the company's offices. It might not be too surprising that a con artist with a long history of scams, criminal schemes, and fake identities ran her company with less-than ideal integrity. [14], Roughly two weeks after the episode aired, a viewer tip led police to Dale, Texas, where Carmichael was eventually found working under the alias Katherine Elizabeth Johnson,[7] at a flower shop. A car that was supposed to revolutionize the automotive industry but was never actually produced and never moved under its own power. It wasn’t until 1989 when Carmichael was finally apprehended for the last time, thanks to her appearance as a missing person in an episode of Unsolved Mysteries. As reported by Car and Driver, Carmichael told the press that The Dale would utilize two BMW motorcycle engines, with a total of 40 horsepower and a top speed of 85 MPH. Then Carmichael married Vivian Barrett. Living as Jerry, she married Vivian Barrett Michael in 1959 and bore five children with her. Now the subject of an HBO Max documentary series, The Lady and the Dale, here's what to know about Liz Carmichael, her wife Vivian, and their five kids. The company's main product, the Dale car, was widely covered in the press, with its claim of 70 miles per gallon coming at the time of Arab oil embargo. They used stolen records to create new identities on a regular basis—and homeschooled their kids. Carmichael worked out a deal with Clifft, licensing the rights to his design and naming the car The Dale in his honor. In 1954, she married a woman named Juanita, with whom she had two children before their relationship ended in 1956. [9][dead link] Carmichael falsely promoted herself as being widowed (her husband "Jim" had supposedly died in 1966),[10] and holding degrees in mechanical engineering and business from The Ohio State University and Miami University, respectively. The only version of the car that actually moved under its own power, in fact, was cobbled together in a last-minute frenzy when potential investors demanded to see it. In her early life, Carmichael counterfeited checks and was engaged in many Ponzi schemes, which got her on the radar of law enforcement in 1961. Elizabeth Carmichael Credit - Colin Dangaard / Courtesy HBO. According to the doc, Carmichael was transgender, and before coming out as a … But she never gave them that time because she was impatient to cash in, trying to sell stock in the company without going through the proper legalities. Put it all together and a lot of the people involved with Elizabeth Carmichael's company weren't surprised when she was indicted. Liz was a charismatic woman with a lot of presence. Directors for the series are Nick Cammilleri and Zackary Drucker. In the 1960s, being transgender was incredibly difficult—in every way. (Following her transition, she was known as the mother to her children, while her wife became known as their aunt.) According to Esquire, Elizabeth Carmichael ultimately served 18 months of her term in the Men's Central Jail before being granted parole. Her neglected story is being told … When Carmichael told the story of her background during the Dale media blitz, she said she studied mechanical engineering at Ohio State University, … Living life on the run takes a toll—as does not living your truth. She'd been selling flowers for income. As Bustle reports, after being indicted in 1975 she fled and was eventually found in Dallas and brought back to face trial in 1977. She was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison and ordered to pay $30,000 in restitution. As The Guardian reports, prior to the attention brought to Carmichael's story by HBO's new film about her, she had largely vanished from the public memory—in part due to her trans status. Then, Liz came onto the scene with a promise of a zippy new design that could get 70 miles to the gallon. Time reports that the producers of HBO's film about Carmichael were unable to locate a death certificate (or a birth certificate, for that matter) for her. And Jalopnik reports that she was still alive in Austin, Texas, in 2013 (though they offer no source for this, and also incorrectly claim she spent 10 years in prison). She claimed to have studied structural engineering at Ohio State University, and invented a deceased husband named Jim, also a structural engineer. A car with great mileage would be the answer to many a flustered prayer. As reported by Esquire, that's where she met the man who would alter the course of her life, Dale Clifft. Oprah Magazine reports she made outlandish claims, too—like saying the car was bulletproof, or that it could drive underwater. Money—or at least the pursuit of it—defined Elizabeth Carmichael's existence. Here was a cheap car that could offer excellent gas mileage, with a finished design ready to go. It proved impossible to separate her gender identity from her crimes—though, as noted by The Guardian the court system surprisingly affirmed her gender identity. She had a wife, Vivian, and five kids. According to her brother-in-law Charles, Elizabeth went underground for a while after that in order to ensure the scheme worked. While the design for The Dale, licensed from Dale Clifft and the founding product of the 20th Century Motor Car Corporation, was real enough, Carmichael set about creating hype for it that would have been nearly impossible to deliver on. Carmichael's criminal career began more than a decade before she achieved national notoriety with the Dale. As reported by Esquire, she owned a newspaper in the early 1960s, and the printing presses gave her an idea: She began printing counterfeit money on the side. This time, she vanished completely for 12 years. Born in Indiana in 1927, Geraldine Elizabeth “Liz” Carmichael (dead name: Jerry Dean Michael), was married to Vivian Barrett Michael and had five children. She had a wife, Vivian, and five kids. By faking the death of "Jerry," Elizabeth Carmichael was able to finally live life totally on her own terms as a transgender woman. In 1958, she married a woman named Betty Sweets after knowing her for four weeks. [2], According to the FBI, Carmichael married four times while identifying as Jerry Dean Michael. Elizabeth Carmichael (Courtesy HBO) She went on the run once more, for more than a decade, but was found living under a false identity and put on trial after that Unsolved Mysteries episode. Geraldine Elizabeth Carmichael was born Jerry Dean Michael in Indiana, in 1927. An exceptional con artist. But things went wonky long before Carmichael's scheme came crashing down. And it's all wrapped in some truly delightful 1970s fashion and car design. According to The New York Post, Elizabeth Carmichael and her family were on the run for years, moving frequently to stay one step ahead of warrants for her arrest—and landlords demanding rent. While serving her time there, Carmichael was unsurprisingly attacked and beaten severely. Liz Carmichael and the Dale, the invention that would ultimately land her in prison for fraud, arrived right on time. Geraldine Elizabeth "Liz" Carmichael (born Jerry Dean Michael 1927 – February 2004) was an American automobile executive and convicted fraudster. Her early life was restless and messy; as reported by Esquire she married three times and had five children before meeting the woman she would spend the rest of her life with, Vivian. And when the company imploded, it ended with a suitcase of cash being divided up between the executives and Carmichael. Elizabeth Carmichael’s Wife and Children Elizabeth Carmichael sired many children in her lifetime. The design of a three-wheeled car that Dale Clifft created was a real design—as reported by Esquire, with some effort it could have been developed into a running car. Then Carmichael married Vivian Barrett. Interviews with Carmichael’s living family, including her son, brother-in-law, and granddaughter, reveal Liz to be a loving and devoted parent. It was almost too good to be true. For one, she was a criminal living under an assumed identity. When she was eventually accused and convicted of fraud and other crimes, Drucker says … Photograph by Colin Dangaard/Courtesy HBO. Oprah Magazine notes that Elizabeth's youth was marked by several arrests, and she was fired from several jobs for skimming money. [7][15] She served 18 months in a men's prison, despite having been recognized as a woman by the courts. Meet Elizabeth Carmichael, Wily Con Woman and Fascinating Trans Trailblazer The unbelievable true story, of a serial fraudster who transitioned in the … After transitioning to a woman in the late 1960s, she lived the rest of her days as G. Elizabeth Carmichael. Carmichael built a myth around herself and her company as a David going up against Detroit's Goliath, claiming she would revolutionize the industry. Esquire reports that just minutes after the episode aired, a viewer called into the show's tip line and identified Elizabeth Carmichael as living under the name Katherine Elizabeth Johnson (interestingly, in the town of Dale, Texas, where she ran a flower shop). The True Story Was Much More Complicated", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Geraldine_Elizabeth_Carmichael&oldid=1011122356, CS1 Norwegian Bokmål-language sources (nb), Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with dead external links from February 2021, Articles with incomplete citations from February 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 9 March 2021, at 04:05. After living the ragged life of a fugitive for several years, constantly moving her family around the country and trying to eke out an existence using fake identities, Elizabeth Carmichael decided to stop running—and as reported by The New York Post, decided to fake her own death to get a fresh start. Her previous identity revealed, she was found guilty of a slew of old charges as well as charges connected to the fraud surrounding The Dale. The investors fled, and Carmichael was eventually indicted on charges of grand theft. [2] In 1959, she married Vivian Barrett Michael, her fourth wife, and together they had five children. As a result she faced some pretty bleak employment prospects, but Elizabeth persevered and according to The New York Post landed a job with the United States Marketing Institute in California, a company that provided advice and guidance to inventors hoping to market their ideas. Although she was given a 10 to 20 year prison sentence and $30,000 restitution fine, she fled police after posting her $50,000 bail. The documentary has been described as "... a lot of stories—about fraud, flight, FBI manhunts, transgender politics, selective prosecution, bias in the media, and corruption in the courts. Or did she? Once arrested it was discovered that Carmichael was actually a male born Jerry Dean Michael. [15][16], On January 31, 2021, HBO premiered a four-part documentary titled The Lady and the Dale. At the same time, the car would weigh less than 1,000 pounds, get 70 miles to a gallon of gas, and—most incredibly—cost less than $2,000 (which would be about $12,000 in today's money). Det eneste Liz Carmichael var dønn ærlig om, var egen transseksualitet", "How Elizabeth Carmichael Went From Small Time Scams To Running An Infamous Car Company", "The Cockeyed Tale of the Three-Wheeled Dale", "Murder, Transsexuals, And The Price Is Right: The Story Of The Dale Car Hoax", "She Really Is a He: The Bizarre Liz Carmichael Auto Caper", "Dale car: Elizabeth Carmichael Dale: 20th century motor car company", "History's Greatest Automotive Mysteries, Myths and Rumors Revealed", "Liz Carmichael Promised the World a Three-Wheeled Car. For the first time in her life, she told her wife the truth: She was a transgender woman named Liz. Photo courtesy of HBO. Case. As The New York Post notes, Carmichael had plenty of experience running from the law, as she'd spent years doing so with her family in the 1960s. Oprah Magazine tells us that she deserted her first wife, Marga, and their two children in 1954. They had a daughter together, but the marriage ended after one year. Elizabeth acquired the hormone injections she needed from veterinarians, and had to perform the injections on herself, and had to go to Mexico to get breast implants. According to Esquire, she returned to the flower business and spent her later years with her family, and Hemmings reports she died after a battle with cancer in 2004 at the age of 77. Out of jail awaiting arraignment, Elizabeth made the fateful decision to skip town, taking a pregnant Vivian with her. [2][4], In 1961, she was arrested for counterfeiting U.S. currency in the Los Angeles, California, area. But even then, some employees recall being paid in cash—stacks of $100 bills—which wasn't the norm even in the early 1970s. You can view her story from a feminist point of view, or see it through the lens of a pioneering transgender woman. Oprah Magazine reports that Dick Carlson is open about his transphobia, stating that one reason he went after Carmichael is because he was bothered by the fact that she looked "like a man." She was involved in counterfeiting checks and multiple fraudulent schemes that entailed an investigation by the police officials. Liz popped on the scene in late 1974 as the founder of Twentieth-Century Motor Corporation (TCMC.) Appropriately for someone who gave authorities the slip several times and lived under many assumed names, there's not a lot of certainty about Elizabeth Carmichael's fate. Elizabeth Carmichael was many things—a parent, a criminal, a loving spouse—but above all else she was a con artist. [9][11], Following accusations of financial impropriety at the Twentieth Century Motor Car Corporation, Carmichael was charged with 31 counts of grand theft, fraud and corporate security violations. She was arrested, extradited to California,[6] tried and sent to prison. Geraldine Elizabeth “Liz” Carmichael was a trans woman who was born in 1937. After being on the run for 12 years, Elizabeth Carmichael was apprehended in 1989 and finally brought to justice. When Carlson found proof of Carmichael's trans identity, he didn't hesitate to reveal this extremely private aspect of her life—live on television. It might not be surprising that the media of the 1970s and 1980s wasn't particularly kind or sensitive towards a transgender woman accused of some pretty wild crimes—we're still struggling about these issues as a society today. Technically a motorcycle, Clifft thought it had potential as a dune buggy of sorts—a lightweight, affordable recreational vehicle. Drucker: Liz Carmichael continues to be one of Dick Carlson’s amusing stories. Then, Carmichael evaded prison once again. Not having a working car didn't slow Elizabeth Carmichael down. Elizabeth Carmichael. What's certain is that Elizabeth Carmichael is one of the most complex criminal figures in US history, and the lingering confusion about her final years is 100 percent on-brand. Alongside her wife Vivian, they were often running from authorities. The Twentieth Century Motor Car Corporation was an American automobile company started by con artist Geraldine Elizabeth "Liz" Carmichael, in 1974, incorporated in Nevada. It barely moved, and almost tipped over when taking turns. [12][full citation needed], She went into hiding, and was featured in a 1989 episode of Unsolved Mysteries,[13] which detailed the fraud behind the Dale for which she was a wanted fugitive. Geraldine Elizabeth “Liz” Carmichael didn’t want to just create a new car—she wanted to change the world; be the next Henry Ford; the first woman to disrupt the automobile industry. But as Bustle notes, that effort was never really made, and in the end only three prototypes of The Dale were ever built—and only one actually moved under its own power. She left Juanita and married Betty Sweets in 1958 after knowing her for just four weeks. Elizabeth Carmichael faced several challenges when it came to supporting her family in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Carmichael saw much more potential in the design—she thought she saw a potential solution to the energy crisis that gripped the country in the early 1970s. Survivors also include, Charlotte Ginn and her husband, Tom of Rogers; Jackie Carmichael of Dallas, Texas; Jerry Carmichael and his wife, Tricia of Rogers; Keith Carmichael and his wife… As historian Susan Stryker tells The Guardian, the trial became more about whether she was a "fraud" for living as woman. As reported by Esquire, a television reporter in Encino named Dick Carlson (Fox News' Tucker Carlson's father) launched an investigation into Carmichael and her company. Her audacious plan to market a cheap, futuristic-looking, fuel-efficient, three-wheeled car is the subject of the new HBO documentary The Lady and the Dale. As The New York Post reports, the company had a before-its-time startup energy, described by some former employees as "a religious fervor." According to Oprah Magazine, Vivian was initially upset at this revelation and took their two children and left. Elizabeth wrote Vivian a touching love letter explaining her feelings and her identity, and Vivian was persuaded to return. Premiering Sunday night, the four-part series tells the story of trans woman Liz Carmichael, who upended the car industry in the 1970s ... That made life for Carmichael, third wife … For the first time in her life, she told her wife the truth: She was a transgender woman named Liz. [2][5], While on the run, Carmichael faked a serious car accident in an effort to shed her identity as Jerry Dean Michael. Elizabeth is survived by her loving husband, Jack Carmichael, married for more than 63 years. It's a crime story (there are, in fact, many, many crimes involved), but it's also an inspiring story of someone resolutely refusing to be defined by anyone but herself. She had been using the name Katherine Elizabeth Johnson and was operating a flower shop in Dale, TX (no relation). Then she married a woman named Juanita and had two more children, moving the family more than 20 times in the course of about two years as she tried to stay one step ahead of failed businesses and criminal schemes. “The Lady and the Dale” is a four-part series that examines the life and entrepreneurship of Elizabeth Carmichael, a former con-artist-turned-hopeful-automotive industry disruptor. It should have been obvious to everyone that Elizabeth Carmichael never intended to go meekly to prison. What really makes Carmichael's story so enthralling is its layers. During the gas crisis, Americans were lining up for hours to fill up their tanks. The shame of it is The Dale might have succeeded if Elizabeth Carmichael hadn't been so impatient. Liz Carmichael. She claimed to be a farmer's daughter, a widow of a NASA engineer, and a graduate with a degree in … According to Oprah Magazine, Vivian was initially upset at this revelation and took their two children and left. It turned out that Liz Carmichael was a trans woman who transitioned several years before she founded the company. According to Esquire, the claims she made about The Dale weren't lies—the car could have met those standards in time. Liz Carmichael was born a man, Jerry Dean Michael, in Indiana in 1927. [5] She changed her name to Liz Carmichael in the late 1960s. She drove her car into a tree one night on a deserted road, making sure to leave some blood behind for identification purposes. Geraldine Elizabeth “Liz” Carmichael was a trans woman who was born in 1937. Oh, yeah—it's also the story of a car. It's also the story of a family that very obviously loved and supported each other through some very weird experiences. She launched the 20th Century Motor Car Corporation to manufacture it. [1] She was captured in 1989, and served 18 months on fraud charges. But as Vanity Fair reports, the media were especially cruel to Elizabeth Carmichael because journalists didn't simply ignore her gender identity, they actively insinuated that it was part of her criminal scheme. She and Vivian grew their family the whole time, eventually having five kids while they evaded law enforcement. They conceived a daughter, but the marriage ended within a year. Liz Carmichael was also a trans-woman who was born Jerry Dean Michael, in 1937. The story of Liz Carmichael (as she preferred to be called) blew up in the 1970s. The children call her Mother Liz and me just plain Mother,” Barrett Michael said at her time of Carmichael's arrest. Carmichael … According to Biography, she formally petitioned the court to be addressed as a woman at her trial, which the court granted—meaning that she was legally recognized as a woman. Her wife was the former Vivian Barrett and they were the parents of five children. In 1989, she was the subject of a an episode of Unsolved Mysteries on NBC (where it was implied that she was a cross-dresser in order to hide her true identity). When she met her fourth wife, Vivian, she'd already left behind a trail of failed enterprises—and after their marriage she worked with her new brother-in-law, Charles, making fake IDs and writing bad checks. As noted by Esquire, when she re-emerged officially under her new identity as Elizabeth, she came prepared with a backstory. Details: In 1973, Liz Carmichael seemed to be the consummate Los Angeles businesswoman. The phrase "stranger than fiction" gets overused, but every now and then we're reminded of a true story that actually happened that is so crazy there's just no other way to describe it. Tips helped authorities locate Carmichael, who'd been living under the name Katherine Elizabeth Johnson in Dale, Texas. LAist reports that she also shot up the car with a gun in order to make it look like she'd been murdered. As Jalopnik reports, Carmichael posted $50,000 bail—and lost no time in skipping town. She was also a trans woman, and while evading authorities, she slowly began the process of transitioning—a development … [5] There she met Dale Clifft, who had invented a three-wheeled car with low gas consumption. As The Guardian reports, Carmichael seemed to thrive on the dangerous attention, wearing mini-skirts and sporting elaborate hairdos, often posing with her hands on her hips as if daring people to question her identity. Elizabeth Carmichael launched the 20th Century Motor Car Company legitimately enough, licensing Dale Clifft's designs for what would be their flagship product, the three-wheeled car called The Dale. Mike Carmichael, RFC®, CRPS® is the founder and managing member of Carmichael Financial, LLC, an independent, full-service wealth management firm with locations in New Jersey, Arizona and Utah. Information about the con artist’s early life is scarce, but in … With HBO's 2020 docuseries The Lady and the Dale, we were all reminded of just such an episode from history: If you wrote a thriller based on the story of Elizabeth Carmichael people would say the plot was too unbelievable. Specifically, most of the coverage surrounding Carmichael speculated that she "posed" as a woman in order to evade the authorities. The Untold Truth Of Disgraced Entrepreneur Elizabeth Carmichael, As historian Susan Stryker tells The Guardian. For another, she was a transgender woman at a point in history that was not at all friendly to the trans community. In fact, Elizabeth once quipped to her family that "moving is cheaper than paying rent." Geraldine Elizabeth Carmichael was born Jerry Dean Michael in Indiana, in 1927. Throughout her trial it was implied that she was merely a cross-dresser seeking to throw the law off her trail, and despite her own request to serve her sentence as a woman and the court's prior rulings, she was sentenced to serve 32 months in the Men's Central Jail in Los Angeles. In short, Liz was an inveterate charlatan. But as Time notes, that didn't stop the legal system from treating her as a man masquerading as a woman. Real Name: Geraldine Elizabeth Carmichael Aliases: Liz Carmichael, Jerry Dean Michael (given name) Wanted For: Conspiracy, Grand Theft, Fraud and Counterfeiting Missing Since: 1980. Liz was the widow of a former NASA structural engineer and a mother with five children. Elizabeth Carmichael was a transgender woman living a very public, very loud life at a time when trans people were treated horribly. 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