The Lady and the Dale (2021) s01e03 Episode Script
The Guilty Fleeth
ELIZABETH CARMICHAEL:
I can do anything a man can do.
I will run the auto industry
like a queen.
SPEAKER: This three-wheeler
flew in the face of tradition.
People were flocking
to make deposits.
SPEAKER 2: She
brought in thirty-grand a day.
There was so much
cloak and dagger going on.
We didn't have
the equipment to make a car.
SPEAKER 3: People
weren't getting their paychecks.
She was getting nervous,
and she hired bodyguards.
You're not telling me
this wasn't the mafia.
SPEAKER 4: In the shop,
there was a briefcase
full of cash and a revolver.
SPEAKER 5: Bad things
were going to happen.
We were driving when
it came on the radio.
We thought that
Liz had been killed.
(TIRES SCREECHING)
(SYNTHESIZER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(TAPE RECORDER CLICKS)
G. ELIZABETH CARMICHAEL:
And, um
(TAPE CLICKS)
(MUSIC ENDS) ♪
(RINGING)
VERN VIHLENE: I got a call
from Liz one day
that they had chartered
an airplane
and they were going to take
some of their prototype cars
and do television commercials
in Dallas.
I was supposed to get
an advance payment
of three thousand dollars.
But the day before the shoot,
I still had not received
my deposit.
And I wasn't happy about it,
so I just walked
into her office.
(OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
VIHLENE: There was a bunch
of gentlemen in there,
and they were in some sort
of a meeting,
and Liz was behind
her giant desk.
I have no idea
who these people were,
but they were serious
businessmen.
They were dressed to the teeth,
as was Liz.
What they were discussing,
what was going--
I have no idea,
but I was very uncomfortable.
I knew I should not have been
in that room.
And I put a copy of the invoice
on her desk, and I said,
"If we're going tomorrow,
I gotta have this."
And she opened her desk drawer
and counted out
thirty 100-dollar bills for me.
I left the room feeling
a little bit apprehensive,
but as far as I was concerned,
we were heading to Dallas
the next day
to film a commercial.
It was probably two hours later
someone started shooting.
(GUNSHOT)
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
RADIO ANCHOR:
Late this afternoon,
someone was shot to death
in the showroom
of the Twentieth Century
Motor Car Company.
CANDI MICHAEL:
I remember pulling over
and frantically talking,
"What do we do? What do we do?"
Vivian was scared to death.
We thought it was Liz.
When we got to Dallas,
Liz was at home.
-(GIRLS GIGGLING)
-CANDI: Liz had already flown
to Dallas. We didn't know this.
We were all just happy Liz
was there, and we didn't care.
You know, "Mommy's all right.
Life goes on."
And that's when she said that
it was between the bodyguards.
There's been no official
explanation as to what happened,
but we have learned
the victim was a man
identified as Bill Miller.
It's believed that Miller
and another man
got into a heated argument
in a small office
next to the showroom.
One suspect has been jailed
on suspicion of murder,
47-year-old Jack Oliver
of Huntington Beach.
And it so happens
that the murdered man,
William Miller, first met Oliver
at San Quentin.
They were cellmates together.
JACKIE POWELL: William Miller
was my dad Jack's cellmate
at San Quentin Prison.
He and my dad were bodyguards
for Liz Carmichael.
There was an investigator
from the Security Exchange
coming to look through
the books of the company.
To quiet the investigation,
Bill Miller had come up
with a plan
to assassinate
this investigator.
My dad said,
"No, this isn't gonna work.
This isn't what we should do."
They wrestled over the gun,
and according to my dad,
the gun went off,
and he shot Miller four times.
(GUNSHOTS)
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
DICK CARLSON:
Mrs. Carmichael can't be
reached for comment today.
According to
a company spokesman,
she is currently in Texas.
She's trying to negotiate
a deal for an assembly plant
she says was abandoned
by the Ford Motor Company.
Carmichael had a perfect alibi.
She'd left an hour before
from Burbank Airport
to fly out to Texas,
where she was opening
another facility.
All of this, of course,
makes one wonder
why Mrs. Carmichael didn't take
her bodyguard along with her,
why she had one
in the first place.
Of course,
it's a little late for that now.
MARK MACCARLEY:
Up until the homicide
that took place
in the Encino office,
it was only after that,
and very quickly,
law enforcement agencies
start taking a closer look
and the press turned on her
and said, "This is a scam."
CARLSON: We decided
once again this morning
to pay a visit to
the Dale headquarters in Encino
to see if they were still
selling options on their cars.
They did yesterday.
They weren't doing that,
but they weren't doing
anything else either.
GERRY MCGUINNESS:
Things started to fall apart.
It happened rapidly.
One thing after another.
Boom, boom, boom.
You couldn't turn on the TV
without seeing
a negative report.
CARLSON: Lots of irritated
Dale investors were in the lobby
trying to get somebody
to pay attention to them,
mostly to get their money back.
I was told that I would receive
the money within 10 days,
but I--
I'm a little dubious about it,
and I came here to collect it,
and they're closed.
People had begun
to show up at the showroom
asking for their money back.
INVESTOR: Let me get my money,
that's all I want.
Money, here. Twentieth Century.
I called them last night
at nine o'clock, and they--
they said, "Come on in,"
you know,
"we'll do what we have to."
And then I came in,
and they wouldn't do anything.
So we pounded on the windows,
and they still
wouldn't do anything.
CARLSON: Now, we tried to get
some reaction from the people
out at Twentieth Century
Motors in Encino,
but all the company officers,
including Mrs. Carmichael,
are in Dallas,
promoting the Dale in that city.
So we can't very well present
their side of the story
at this time.
("TRAVELIN" BY JIMMY CARTER
AND DALLAS COUNTY GREEN PLAYS) ♪
CANDI: I remember
when we came to Dallas,
there was a lot
of media attention.
I just remember there was
a whole bunch of people
with cameras at the airport,
and the family was all together,
all the kids and Liz,
and we were waiting
for the airplane to arrive
that was bringing the Dale
from Los Angeles.
When they finally got it out,
there was a big
round of applause.
(APPLAUSE)
CANDI:
It was just awesome.
It was just really amazing,
the whole thing.
Begged me
To take her with me ♪
GERRY BANKS:
Once she got to Dallas,
Liz got a lot
of television coverage,
was shown
on all the local stations.
At the time this happened,
I had been
assistant district attorney
for about three years.
There was a vehicle that
was supposedly the prototype
that had been brought
from California,
and it was kept in a garage
out in Addison.
And we went out there
and looked at it.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
BANKS: And it was a large
toy kit car at the very best.
If Liz wasn't there on the scene
and wasn't convincing you,
and you started looking
at this critically,
it was a house of cards.
Liz, you did this
in California.
If you think you're gonna screw
millions of dollars
out of people in Texas,
not going to happen.
We're gonna prosecute it.
ANCHOR 1: This late development
from Dallas, Texas.
The district attorney of Dallas
has issued criminal complaints
against 10 officers
of the Twentieth Century
Motor Car Company of Encino,
manufacturers of the
controversial Dale automobile.
They're accused of conspiracy
to commit grand theft
in the sale and promotion
of the Dale.
Among those charged
is Mrs. G. Elizabeth Carmichael,
president of
Twentieth Century Motors.
CANDI:
It just suddenly came to a head.
The house was full of
all the people from the office,
and they were discussing,
"Do we stay and fight
or do we leave?"
And they took a vote.
Liz did not decide.
And I remember sitting
on the stairs
when the last salesman
came in the room
with a briefcase.
And that last man had just
closed out their account,
and they divvied up the money,
and everybody went
their separate ways.
It was Sam she worried about
the most.
And she was in tears
when she told him,
"Don't worry about it.
Do what you've got to do."
Liz thought of Sam
as a father figure.
Even as a child,
I knew she loved Sam.
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
In probably
less than 10 minutes,
the whole family was in the car
and we were on the road,
and that was the end.
("SOONER OR LATER"
BY HOT KNIVES PLAYING) ♪
BANKS: As we used to use a lot
in file argument,
"the guilty fleeth
when no man pursueth."
CARLSON: Meanwhile, downtown
at police headquarters
at Parker Center,
five top executives
at Twentieth Century Motor Cars
were booked on fugitive warrants
from Dallas, Texas.
They're all accused
of conspiracy
to commit grand theft.
I believe that,
as any good criminal was,
she was thinking
several moves ahead.
CARLSON: Investigators say
that official records
of her existence
before March of 1973
could not be found.
Whatever the facts of her past,
the mystery
of Geraldine E. Carmichael,
or who she is,
is not going to be solved
until it's discovered
where she is.
To have done it
three or four times
and gotten away with it,
why wouldn't she think
she could keep on?
And time ♪
(MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
(INSECTS CHIRPING)
We went to a judge and obtained
a probable cause arrest warrant
and a probable cause
search warrant.
(BANGING)
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
BANKS: Place was abandoned.
No one was there.
Um, we found a lot
of female undergarments,
but a lot of things, and again,
I don't know the names for 'em,
that would suppress
the male part
so that, uh, she looked
more like a female
and some literature on
completely making the change
to a female.
I didn't realize that there's
a possibility that she
uh, she might be
of another gender.
It made the case
more interesting. (CHUCKLES)
There were some personal papers
of Liz Carmichael
of her being from Indianapolis,
and some information there
that she had contacts
at the local utility company.
I flew to Indianapolis
and went to the utility company.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CHARLES RICHARD BARRETT:
I was over at my office
at the phone company
when Mary Jo, my secretary,
she said, "Mr. Barrett,
there's some strangers here."
She says,
"I don't know who they are.
Charlie, are--
are you in trouble?"
I said, "I think I know
what's going on."
I go in there
and I shook everybody's hand,
and they said, "Now,
you probably know
why we're here."
And I said, "I don't know,
but I got an idea."
And he said, "Well, we think
you know where she is."
And I said,
"Well, I ain't got a clue."
And they said, "We've been
talking to your neighbors.
We've been talking
to your wife.
You're not being honest
with us."
And I thought, "You know,
you're trying to build a case
on me, and" (STAMMERS)
"I'll be truthful as I can."
And that's what I told them,
just like I'm talking today.
They said, "Where is she?"
And I said,
"Well, she's at this address."
So
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CLARENCE MEE: He said,
"I've known her
for a long time
and she dresses as a female."
That's when we discovered
that Liz Carmichael
was actually
Jerry Dean Michael.
We contacted our Dallas office
and asked them
to run the name
Jerry Dean Michael.
And they got back on the phone
and said,
"Y'all get back to Dallas
right away."
(CAR ENGINE REVS)
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CARLSON: After I gave the glass
that the informant
had given to me
to the LAPD,
I was on the set at ABC
and the phone rang.
(RINGING)
It was a sergeant at the LAPD.
And he said, "Dick,
you're not gonna believe this.
This glass belongs to a guy
who's a fugitive
from a counterfeiting arrest
in 1961.
And he's been on the lam
all these years,
and his name
is Jerry Dean Michael."
There was the proof.
All along, we had this feeling,
but you can't operate
on feelings.
And so we decided
we weren't gonna tell
the management
about this discovery
because we were afraid
that they would stop us.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
ANCHOR 2: Dick Carlson tonight
has some answers to those
very intriguing questions
about the mystery woman
who vanished completely
after promoting
a three-wheel car
that really never was.
CARLSON: Introduced the story
as another Dale car story,
and then I ran a picture
of Mrs. Carmichael,
then I did a slow dissolve
into the crew-cut
Jerry Dean Michael.
CARLSON: (IN STUDIO)
Mrs. Carmichael's fingerprints
match those
of a notorious con man.
Geraldine Elizabeth Carmichael
in reality is a 47-year-old guy
by the name
of Jerry Dean Michael.
(MUSIC STOPS) ♪
(BIRDS SINGING)
(QUIET MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CANDI: Several months after
the exodus from Dallas,
we wound up in Florida
on the run from the law.
And we were all sitting
on the couch,
and Brian was in and out
of the house.
-(DOOR OPENS)
-CANDI:
And he'd come in and said,
"There's a strange delivery van
acting weird two doors down."
Wendi and I went outside
and I saw the delivery van,
and then I saw the mail truck.
And I came in and I said,
"The mailman's here again."
Liz and Vivian
just looked at each other,
and then all of a sudden,
Liz jumped up and was gone.
(FOOTSTEPS RUNNING)
And within seconds, the police
started swarming in the house.
-(SIREN WAILING)
-OFFICER 1: Police! Quick!
Get down! Get down!
Everybody down!
CANDI:
I was trying to catch Michael.
Michael was running around
in the kitchen,
and I'd just picked him up
coming around a corner,
-and a cop had his gun
-OFFICER 2: Freeze!
You're under arrest.
CANDI: pointing right at me.
(METAL CLICKING)
Why would you be bringing
guns drawn like that
in a house
full of little kids
against people that have never
been accused of violence?
Jerry Dean Michael had never
been accused of a violent crime,
had never been accused
of carrying a weapon. Never.
Liz, same thing.
And we're just sitting there
in shock.
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CANDI:
The whole family was sad.
We figured
we'd never see Liz again.
None of us could figure out
how she did it.
She ran out the house
just wearing her bodysuit.
Day goes by,
and we're all sitting around
quietly discussing
what's going to happen.
And then Liz creeps out
from behind a curtain.
She came back
to say goodbye to us.
We were trying to whisper,
and everybody's saying
their goodbyes.
-OFFICER 3: Hold it there.
-CANDI: Then the cops busted
through the house again.
OFFICER 3: You're under arrest.
CANDI:
And that's how they got her,
'cause she came back
to say goodbye to her kids.
Not exactly happily ever after,
but it started a whole new
episode of our lives.
(MUSIC FADES) ♪
(ENGINE REVS)
CARLSON: Elizabeth Carmichael
was officially unmasked
over the weekend
when she, or rather he,
was caught by the FBI
in Miami, Florida.
Carmichael is
in actuality a man,
and he spent the weekend
in the men's lockup
in the Dade County Florida Jail.
I saw that and I thought,
"My gosh.
Look what they're doing to Liz."
It angered me.
CARLSON:
Looking harried, bedraggled,
and wearing the pink pantsuit
he had on
when arrested late Friday,
Carmichael was handcuffed
and taken off to arraignment.
I know Liz.
(CHUCKLES)
That had to be just terrible.
(INDISTINCT CLAMOR)
I was notified at home
that they had arrested her
that evening in Miami.
I, along with Gerry Banks,
flew out of Dallas that night
and interviewed her
the next morning.
BANKS: We knew there was
about six million dollars
that we could account for
that had come in
from California to Texas.
(CHUCKLES) So I said,
"Well, Liz, what happened
to that 10 million dollars?"
I deliberately inflated it.
And she immediately said,
"It was only three."
The way she said it and the way
she looked at you, you know,
and just--
With the smile. (LAUGHS)
And we-- and we both
just started laughing.
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
BANKS: She told me that
she had gone to Mexico
and had started the surgery
to become a female.
As part of this, she had
had her testicles removed.
I think you gotta be
pretty brave
to do something like that.
That, you know,
certainly life-altering,
body-altering change,
I-- I--
I don't think a weak-hearted,
faint-hearted person
would do something like that.
Trans people would do
what they could do
outside the-- the medical
establishment.
Maybe they could get hormones
on the street
or on the black market,
or maybe
they would inject silicone.
The doctors would say,
"We don't want
to essentially sterilize you."
And that would be an argument
against surgical transition.
People would go to Mexico for
the first step of the procedure
to simply be castrated,
and then they would look
for a plastic surgeon in the US
who would operate on them
once they had already, um,
had their testicles removed.
That was so common
that the slang term for it
was the Tijuana Two-Step.
(MUSIC FADES) ♪
(CAR APPROACHING)
(PEACEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CANDI: The first time
we went down there,
we went down with Jerry,
even though at home,
Jerry was dressing as Liz,
but out in public,
it was still "Jerry."
And I remember him wearing
black dress pants,
a white button-down shirt,
and a black blazer.
And this was for
the breast implants.
Even though Liz already
had some breasts,
hormones only get you so far.
If you wanna look
like Dolly Parton
(CHUCKLING)
you need some inserts.
Wendi and I sat
in the waiting room,
and Jerry went
into the doctor's office.
We were coloring,
we played board games
while we were waiting,
and then
she came out, wear--
dressed as a woman,
and we went on.
She never went back
to wearing men's clothes again.
Never.
BANKS: She told me she wanted
to be known as a trailblazer.
Making the change
from male to female,
and yes, it can be done.
I said, "All this stealing,
all this money you got,
would detract from that."
And her answer was,
"No, I don't think it will."
(MUSIC FADES) ♪
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CARLSON: I flew to Miami,
and I went to the sheriff
who ran the jail.
And I asked him,
"Where did you put this guy?
Is he a male or a female?
He-- he's been saying
that he's a female,
but does he have, uh,
male equipment or female?"
He said, "Oh no.
He's-- he's equipped
just like you and I are.
He's a male.
So," he said, "I put him
in a cell by himself."
The feds brought him back
on a plane.
I rode on the plane with him.
He really disliked me,
I have to say.
Pete Noyes and I
were always bothered
by the fact that she looked
so much like a man.
That was my first thought,
but I couldn't impart that
to the rest of the crew
'cause I couldn't say that
in front of her.
DENNIS SMITH:
There was something off
from the moment he met her.
Dick's alarm went off
when he shook her hand.
And he went back to Pete
and told Pete,
"I think this woman
needs looking into."
CARLSON: People have been asking
why we wanna know so much
about the Dale, and
Well, they have been asking.
In fact, you know,
a lot of people have asked me
if we have an obsession
-here on Eyewitness News
Wants To Know.
-COHOST: Do we?
No, we really don't, but, uh,
we're convinced
there are an awful lot
of questions about the Dale
that ought to be answered.
And new ones, in fact,
pop up every day.
Till we get the answers,
we're gonna continue
to ask the questions.
SANDY STONE:
Whenever a trans story surfaced,
the media would take it
and run with it
in the simplest possible terms,
which was
a man masquerading as a woman.
So when someone like Liz
appears in the media,
then you already have
that way of framing it.
And it sells much more
than trying to tell
the truth would be.
Liz had to combat
the narrative in the media
that she was not a woman.
How do you combat
the media's narrative
that you are not a woman?
And the answer is
you don't.
The secret life of Jerry Michael
sounds a little like
a second-rate grade B movie.
In 1961, he jumped bail
in Los Angeles.
He'd been arrested on
a counterfeiting charge
at the time.
He's been arrested
about seven times, in fact.
And for the last 14 years,
he has been a federal fugitive,
moving from house to house
It was all some version
of what now gets called
the "evil deceivers
and make-believers"
trope or stereotype,
that we're pretending to be
something that we're not,
and that it's a deceitful act.
CARLSON: In the mid-1950s,
Michael was a gunrunner.
He was supplying
the pre-Castro Cuban government
of Fulgencio Batista with arms.
Now I ask you, would you buy
a used Dale from this fella?
CARLSON: (IN PRESENT)
Elizabeth Carmichael
was a supreme egomaniac.
The fact she posed as a woman,
it was a-- a manner
of disguising herself
as a fugitive,
but also was a way
for her to garner publicity.
It was very effective.
You may recall
my introduction to Jerry,
or Geraldine if you prefer,
earlier this year
when we began our investigation.
Carmichael made a lot
of fantastic claims,
then he vanished.
SUSAN STRYKER: There was a lot
of using the language
of "also known as,"
which suggests it kind of like
it's a criminal pseudonym
of some kind.
There was a lot of misgendering.
They would say, "A man who
was pretending to be a woman,"
or "Liz Carmichael,
really Jerry."
To be non-consensually outed,
it has to be considered
as very, um--
as a violation.
Something was disclosed
about them
without their consent
that is gonna have
really powerful
negative consequences for them.
CARLSON: To teach the children
that their father
was to be called their mother,
that their real mother
was to be called their aunt,
and to train them in that,
I can't imagine
that any shrink wouldn't say
that this is, like, kind of
a bad idea to be doing this.
CANDI: (CHUCKLES)
She really was a great mom.
Liz and Jerry
loved being parents.
BARRETT: When people say
my sister and Liz
were leading their children into
a terrible thing and so forth,
I really have
a problem with that.
Those children were loved
very much by both parents.
CARLSON: She used them,
just like she used
her real wife, Vivian,
pretending to be the aunt,
living in some, uh,
sister-to-sister relationship.
If you didn't think
that was kind of sick,
you wouldn't think--
you wouldn't think--
you would think Jeffrey Dahmer
was a normal person,
is what I think, you know.
Jerry chose to become Liz
and transition to that end.
And in the process,
she kept the children informed
all the time,
and they had conversations.
I think she did a good job.
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
When they took Liz into custody,
they wind up
flying her back to LA,
and we've got no money.
And Vivian was trying
to figure out
how do we get back to LA?
(INDISTINCT CLAMOR)
CANDI: Reporters were constantly
hounding Vivian,
and a reporter
offered her 500 dollars
if they'd let him come in
and do an interview,
so she did.
And that's how
we got back to Los Angeles.
Five hundred dollars was enough
money to drive back to LA.
(CRICKETS CHIRPING)
(MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
In 1974, I joined
the Public Defender's office.
I was familiar
with the Carmichael case,
and I was very familiar
with the jail
wherein she was being housed.
She was taken
to the Men's Central Jail,
which is the central location
for prisoners
who come to Los Angeles.
In the 1970s, there were really
no spoken guidelines
or written guidelines
with the way
that transgender people
were treated in the jails.
In this particular instance,
thrown into
the general population
dressed and grooming themselves
totally as a woman
was an invitation to disaster.
-(TYPEWRITER KEYS CLACKING)
-VIVIAN MICHAEL: Dear Sis,
it looked as though March was
going to better for all of us,
but disaster struck.
(FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING)
On Sunday, Liz was being
escorted to pill call.
That's where prisoners
receive medication.
At all times
when she's out of her cell,
-she's accompanied by a deputy.
-(JEERING AND WHISTLING)
VIVIAN: She wears a blue band
on her wrist,
which is visible at all times,
and the guards
and prisoners alike
all know what it means:
"A woman in a men's jail.
Keep away."
Sunday, around noon,
the deputy came for her,
and they went the normal route
from the 13th floor
to the 14th floor.
(OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
VIVIAN: Liz suddenly realized
she didn't have the deputy
escorting her.
He had disappeared
and was nowhere to be seen.
The first blow she received
was in the center
of her forehead,
and laid her wide open,
tearing a vein.
She said
the blood went everywhere,
and she was blinded by it
and couldn't see
to defend herself.
He just pounded her face
over and over.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
STRYKER: She was beaten.
She was beaten really severely.
In the US, we say
you're not supposed to have
cruel
and unusual punishments,
but I think incarcerating
trans people in prisons
that are not the one
that they should be in,
it is a form of cruel
and unusual punishment.
It would've happened to me,
it would've happened to her,
it would've happened to any
number of different people.
What Liz went through
was not uncommon.
The only reason
hers was reported
was because she was
a high-profile defendant
that the press
was interested in.
And that was part of the problem
that existed then,
still exists today.
VIVIAN: When Liz had been
brought into the courtroom,
the judge looked at her.
both her eyes
were bulging and black,
and did a double take.
The prosecutor winced,
and everybody
in the courtroom gasped.
-(JURORS WHISPERING)
-JURY MEMBER: Oh, my God.
VIVIAN:
The reporter, Walt Woron,
he has been following this case
since the beginning
and is kinda partial
to Liz and me.
I almost thought I could see
tears forming in his eyes.
I know they were in mine.
(WATER SPLASHING)
VIVIAN:
I'm tired, I'm worried,
but Liz says,
"Pray and keep your chin up."
And I'm trying.
I've noticed that when I do,
things go right
even though they look bad
to anyone else.
(TYPEWRITER KEYS CLACKING)
VIVIAN: You'll have
to forgive her for not writing,
but she has no time for anything
but working on this case.
She is determined to win,
and out of all the lawsuits
pay back anyone and everyone
who lost money in the company.
Give my love to all.
Love, Vivian.
(MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
WALT WORON: The courtroom
was relatively small,
with molded wooden benches
to accommodate
but 70 witnesses
and spectators.
The dark-haired, handsome figure
at the right of a long table
unwound from his chair.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
WORON: He began to read
from a several-page indictment.
"G. Elizabeth Carmichael,
Edward J. Comstock,
Samuel Schlisman,
Andrew Farrell,
Jay Gardner,
you are charged with conspiracy
to commit grand theft,
with the sale or offer to sell
a security without a permit,
with sale or offer to sell
a security
by means of false statements
or omissions."
The defendants could be seen
uneasily shifting in their seats
from time to time,
looking at the jurors.
Walt Woron, Automotive News.
KIT GRANAT:
RON ABRAMS:
Liz was the only defendant
that requested a jury trial.
The rest of us would like
a court trial
because it would've been shorter
and the judge would've been
able to separate out
the defendant's culpability.
My client, Sam Schlisman,
I thought I could
get a deal for him
because Sam was really not
the main character
in the company.
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(TAPE SCRATCHES)
MACCARLEY: I will say
that I was impressed
by my client, Jay Gardner.
He absolutely believed
in what Elizabeth Carmichael was
talking about and developing.
Bob Youngdahl,
career prosecutor.
The best description is
very competent and methodical.
He was machine-like
in terms of his presentation
to the court and jury.
Liz felt that Bob Youngdahl
was nothing but a foot soldier
for the big government,
the big government
that was out to knock her down
and crush any entrepreneur
who dared challenge
the big three.
ANCHOR 3: Liz Carmichael
says she doesn't want
her court-appointed attorneys
to handle her case
because, as she puts it,
they were picked by her enemies.
To have my attorneys appointed
by those people
who are prosecuting me,
uh, to me,
is not the best way to go.
So I would prefer to have
an attorney of my own choice,
even if he were less competent,
than have an attorney
of somebody else's choice,
taking the chance that I'm
not getting
the best counsel possible.
WORON: Though she has
no formal law training,
she says she has spent
the last 14 months in jail
studying law so as to be
able to defend herself
when the time came.
She took it upon herself
to defend herself
in front of the jury.
She was never gonna end up
having some lawyer
represent her
and speaking for her.
She had to speak for herself.
She'd been like that
her whole life.
ABRAMS: If she had an attorney,
she wouldn't have
drawn attention to the fact
that she's six foot two
and weighs over 200 pounds.
That taints the jury's
perception of this lady.
REPORTER 1:
There were some deceptions
involved here though,
weren't there?
They claim there were.
In my opinion, there were not.
REPORTER 1:
Why, for example, did you decide
to pose as a woman
in this transaction?
Well, it wasn't
in this transaction.
I'm a transsexual.
Had nothing to do
with Twentieth Century
Motor Car Corporation.
I've been living as a woman
for eight years.
My children regard me
as their mother.
Uh, totally legitimate,
so far as fraud is concerned.
This was, uh--
I happen to, uh,
have a medical problem,
uh, which is not totally unique.
I'm sure you've heard
of Christine Jorgensen,
very similar.
STRYKER: Christine Jorgensen
was the first person to become,
I would say, globally famous
for being trans
when news of her sex
reassignment surgery
uh, was trumpeted
on the, you know, headlines
of newspapers around the world.
Thank you very much.
STRYKER: Trans women
who followed in her footsteps,
like her,
were able to assimilate
and go unnoticed in society.
But those who were unable
to navigate the medical system,
those who had only
partial surgeries, like Liz,
were much more likely
to be characterized
not as women but as men
masquerading as women.
REPORTER 1:
And you had a sexual operation?
I had the first one.
I still have another one to go.
STRYKER: Just because
she had not had
the second step of that process,
the conversion of a penis
into a vagina,
that she was considered
to still be a man.
But she'd been on hormones,
she had breasts,
she didn't have testicles.
But the press would say, like,
"Oh, you're still a man
because you have this
sort of non-functioning penis."
PATRICK COLEMAN: She prefers
to be known as Liz Carmichael.
She has requested me,
which I have done on her behalf,
is try to see if she could wear
women's clothing
in the courtroom
itself properly.
She's been a woman
the last eight years.
That's the way she wants it.
Doesn't wanna change.
STRYKER: In 1976,
there was actually a hearing
about Liz's gender identity.
You know, could she be
considered a woman?
Based on her self-statements,
the hormones,
the-- the castration,
she was taken seriously
as a transsexual,
therefore she could be
presented as a woman.
The judge asked Liz,
"What name are you known by?"
And she says, "I am
Geraldine Elizabeth Carmichael.
I'm world-famous."
(INSPIRING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
And it was official
at that point.
She was
Geraldine Elizabeth Carmichael
in the eyes of the law.
CARLSON: Judge Malcolm Lucas
ruled that Michael could wear
-women's clothes for the trial.
-("A NEW DAY" BY THE NOTATIONS
PLAYING) ♪
CARLSON: So he carried
a blue pantsuit
and a pink blouse with him.
Michael's wife
and four small children
waited inside the courtroom
for the person they call
"Mommy Liz."
MACCARLEY:
That was the beginning
of the trial of Liz Carmichael,
which continued
for almost nine months,
one of the longer cases
in the Los Angeles
Supreme Court history.
Would it be appropriate
for me to say
Channel Two
is my favorite channel?
Liz sought out the media
as much as she possibly could.
She felt that
the more she explained herself
and her case,
the better it was for her.
MACCARLEY:
Every time we stepped
out of the courtroom,
there were representatives
from the major networks,
CBS, NBC, ABC,
that were covering this
every single day.
REPORTER 2: What's your reaction
to what happened today?
-Very frustrated.
-MACCARLEY: She knew
that every word that she put out
would be recorded or taken down
by a member of the press,
as well as the jury.
Thank you for a new day ♪
ABRAMS: She was a true believer,
in the sense that
if she said it,
it must be true.
REPORTER 3: Ms. Carmichael,
the obvious question.
Where is the money?
What money?
MACCARLEY:
If she had really wanted
to engage in a big fraud,
all she would have had to do
is collect all these deposits
and not even spend the money
for all those employees
that she hired.
This is good evidence. It says
she didn't take that money
and run off with all this cash,
never to be seen again.
It won't be bad ♪
WORON: Liz Carmichael
is exhibiting more optimism
than at any time
during the trial.
The longer the trial
has gone on,
the more assured
she has become.
MCGUINNESS: I was called up.
She said to me the one question,
"Tomorrow, if I wanted you
to come back and work for me,
would you do it?"
"Well, of course!
But I would like
a little more money."
(LAUGHS)
-(SOBBING)
-MCGUINNESS:
Other guys had gone up after me
and bawled like babies,
just going,
"Liz, I'll follow you
to the end of the world!"
That's how powerful she was.
MACCARLEY: This is a woman
who knew how to inspire.
Someday ♪
MACCARLEY: You listened,
even for five or ten minutes,
to Liz Carmichael,
and even I could have
become a believer.
The prosecution put on
over a hundred witnesses.
Every one testified
that we were building the car.
Uh, prosecution would like
to have you believe
that we never intended to.
Their own witnesses testified
that we were building it.
There'd have been
a quarter million Dales
on the road today
if they'd have left us alone.
MACCARLEY: The jury did want
to inspect the vehicle,
and so we went down
to a facility
to look at the car.
(WAVES SLOSHING)
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
ABRAMS: The car looked terrible.
It was kind of off-balance,
it was dirty,
it was in a dingy garage.
The prosecution had this car
for a long time.
The district attorney
made sure it didn't look
like a presentable vehicle.
MACCARLEY: The one that we saw
was the mock-up.
No engine in that vehicle.
Now, of course, this was
Bob Youngdahl's decision.
He wanted the jury to see
that the car
that was touted as the greatest
vehicle since the Model
had nothing inside of it.
It was purely a piece of,
uh, prefabricated fiberglass.
Somebody, I think,
opened the front hood.
There was nothing inside.
That's extremely damaging.
If you want, I'd call that
one of the low points
in the trial
for Liz Carmichael.
(JURORS MUTTERING)
MACCARLEY: Youngdahl went back
and said, "You saw what you saw
in that maintenance yard.
And did you see something
that could actually
even get itself outside
of the maintenance yard?"
No.
(SEAGULLS CALLING)
CARLSON: I was notified that
they were gonna put her on trial
and they wanted me to testify.
And I was picked up by
Bob Youngdahl, the prosecutor.
On the way out in the car,
Youngdahl said
that the Los Angeles
Police Department
had arrested a minor criminal.
In the course
of interrogating him,
he offered up some information
that would perhaps
get him out of the charge
that he was facing.
He had been hired
to murder Youngdahl
and Pete Noyes and me.
Ten thousand dollars each,
and another 15
for doing the deed.
G. Elizabeth Carmichael
had offered them
the money to do this.
MIA YAMAMOTO:
Jailhouse snitches invariably
are trying to
get out of the crimes
for which
they are legitimately culpable.
The very use
of the jailhouse snitch,
in many ways, shows how
desperate the prosecution is,
and it undermines
their credibility.
They went and saw the judge
to tell the judge
that the defendant,
who was also her own attorney,
has been charged with a plot
to murder
some of the witnesses.
The judge said,
"I can't listen to all of this
unless you bring in
the defense attorney,
who is Mrs. Carmichael."
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
ABRAMS: Because she was
representing herself,
Liz had the ability
to cross-examine every witness.
That means that everybody
that testified
could be questioned by Liz.
YAMAMOTO:
This individual, he found out
that he was going to be
cross-examined
by Liz Carmichael,
and decided to take the fifth.
None of that testimony
ever came out.
And that actually showed
a fairly sophisticated
understanding
of the criminal justice system
by Liz Carmichael.
When something
that inflammatory would come in,
it would completely taint
the entire proceedings.
It would have called,
at least, for a mistrial.
If there had been a verdict,
that verdict
would have been overturned.
It was so tainted,
they dropped the entire effort.
And that was the end
of the investigation.
Mrs. Carmichael
was a thoroughly bad person
from my point of view,
and the irony
of having to be interrogated
by her on the stand
is infuriating.
I sat on that stand for at least
a day, maybe two days,
and I would say something
that was completely prejudiced,
because I was
completely prejudiced.
I would periodically, uh,
refer to her as "sir"
or some other male designation,
and the judge
would interrupt me and say,
"Mr. Carlson,
I've told you, uh, twice now
to stop calling Mrs. Carmichael,
uh, by male pronouns.
Please refer to her as 'ma'am'
or 'Mrs.' or something."
And I would say,
"Right. Yeah. Sure, Your Honor.
Okay. Of course.
I certainly will."
And then I wouldn't do it,
uh, because I thought
it was ludicrous
and I didn't think I had to.
ABRAMS: Liz being transgender
probably was
the single most important
motivating issue
in why they went after her
so diligently.
It tainted the entire trial.
I think all the jurors
were kind of
aghast at what was going on.
It was really a circus.
STRYKER: Technically,
Liz Carmichael was on trial
to determine whether or not
she had committed a fraud
in promoting the Dale,
but it's pretty clear that
she was on trial
as a trans person.
When they couldn't decide
if the car was real or not,
they started focusing on Liz.
If she was a fraud,
then the car was a fraud.
GRANAT:
WILLIAMS:
GRANAT:
YAMAMOTO: Because she was
a transgender woman,
that immediately put a barrier
between her
and virtually every other person
on that jury,
and allowed the people
on that jury
to base their view of her
and her testimony
and her argument
in a way that was colored
by their view
of transgender people.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
REPORTER 4: I think
most people are interested
in your personal life
and your--
your sex change,
to be perfectly candid.
Well, whatever
claim to fame I have
is as a producer of automobiles,
not as a sex change artist.
REPORTER 4: Can you give us
a little personal insight
on what this ordeal
has been about with you?
I think it's a combination
of industrial,
political, uh, pressure
being brought to bear
against individuals who
don't want me to build a car.
MACCARLEY:
She saw this as an opportunity
to address not only the jury,
but she saw this as a way
of justifying what she did.
Well, I'm not
the Lone Ranger in this.
This has happened
to others before.
I expected it.
It's anybody who's attempted
to start in the United States
to produce a car
in mass production
has been either forced out,
put in jail, harassed
I came to the belief
that she thought
that she would be
the next Henry Ford.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
ANCHOR 4: Testimony in the trial
of Elizabeth Carmichael
has concluded
after seven months
in one of the lengthiest cases
to be tried
in the new
Criminal Courts Building.
After closing arguments,
a verdict is expected
early next year.
MACCARLEY:
There are very few attorneys
who have ever gone through
a nine-month jury trial.
Liz Carmichael,
for the most part,
represented herself.
Almost every single argument,
anything
that was really important,
Liz was right in there,
and she was making
that argument.
Her defense was,
"This was absolutely credible.
I was taking on General Motors,
Ford, and Chrysler,
because I was doing something
that would be good for America."
It was the state interfering
with her right
to be an extraordinary
entrepreneur and a woman.
-(MUSIC STOPS ABRUPTLY) ♪
-Pretty powerful message.
(TAPE CLICKS)
CARMICHAEL: Most people
who believe in free enterprise,
number one, think
that they're totally alone.
I did.
I believed that I was a freak
in my philosophical beliefs
up until just a few months ago.
The majority
of the American public
wants free enterprise.
I think that they want
total freedom.
But they've been brainwashed
into believing
that it's not possible.
And there's been nobody
with enough stature
willing to stand up and say,
"Hey, it is possible."
Free enterprise has never
had an opportunity.
(TAPE CLICKS)
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(PENCIL SCRIBBLING)
WILLIAMS:
YAMAMOTO:
Mary Thayer was probably
the most interesting juror
on the case
because she was convinced
that Carmichael was innocent
and was going to hold out
for that verdict to the end.
The jury foreman said,
"We've taken many votes,
and no matter what,
we're not gonna be able
to come to any conclusion."
And that's when we found out
what the jury count was:
eleven to one.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-(CAMERAS CLICKING)
REPORTER 5: Ms. Carmichael.
No, I'm disappointed.
I expected
a "not guilty on all counts"
within the first
three or four days.
REPORTER 6:
Are you saying, then,
that this is not in your
WILLIAMS:
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(MUSIC STOPS ABRUPTLY) ♪
-(COUGHING)
-Mary Thayer,
it was determined, got sick
and was sent to the hospital.
WILLIAMS:
(COUGHING)
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
I had a terrible headache
that day.
We had come
to a complete deadlock.
And I kept going through the--
the books and the records
and everything else,
and the headache kept getting
worse and worse.
REPORTER 7: Knowing it was
at a crucial point,
why did you agree to go
to the hospital?
I thought
I was under court order.
ANCHOR 5: Juror Mary Thayer
was present for the trial,
but the final jury vote occurred
while she was hospitalized
for a short time.
She was taken off the case
despite her wish
to remain on the jury
and cast her vote.
Thayer was pressured
off the case
by court officials
and other jurors,
asserts Liz Carmichael
and her counsel.
MACCARLEY:
Liz questioned whether or not
this juror was truly ill.
She thought that something
untoward was taking place.
If you have a situation where
juries come back eleven-one,
then that juror falls ill,
what the prosecution is gonna do
is get the judge to replace
the sick juror
with somebody else,
and then in about five minutes,
we'll have a twelve-zip.
ABRAMS:
Some of the defense attorneys
found information
that perhaps
some of the bailiffs
and some doctors
stated things to the judge
about Thayer's condition
that were not true.
Everybody in the court
was misled
as to what
her actual condition was.
We all thought she was, uh,
dying or desperately ill.
And it turns out that
the doctor's note
that we relied on
was not written by a doctor.
Half of it was written
by a nurse,
and the other half
was probably written
by the bailiff and the court.
The bailiff admits
that she may have altered
the medical slip
excusing Mrs. Thayer.
And if she did, of course,
this is tantamount to forgery.
She claims that, if she did--
"If" she did.
She just said she may have.
She isn't sure. Draw your own
conclusions from that.
But she said that if she did
alter the medical slip,
it was because
she heard the doctor say
that she would possibly
be out longer than three days.
I wasn't there.
You weren't there.
What hard testimony do you have
except Mrs. Thayer, apparently,
who has indicated
that that's her position?
But, uh, is there any evidence
to support that position?
ABRAMS:
During the jury deliberation,
we actually had hope
that maybe it'll be a hung jury.
Because you hang the jury,
you can probably get
a plea bargain.
(PAPER RUSTLING)
After juror Mary Thayer
was excused
and the jury received
an alternate juror,
they came back four days later
with "guilty."
WORON: The jury found
the five defendants guilty
of 137 charges out of 155.
G. Elizabeth Carmichael
has been found guilty
of grand theft, conspiracy
to commit grand theft,
and of selling securities
fraudulently
and without a permit.
-I've got nothing to say.
-WORON: All were judged guilty
of the conspiracy
and securities violations.
Each defendant faces
a possible one to ten years
for each guilty verdict,
applied consecutively.
Walt Woron, Automotive News.
Uh, I would have liked
a heavier sentence,
but until, throughout the state,
we have all the courts
giving heavier sentences
for serious white-collar crimes,
until that actually occurs, uh,
you'd have to say
this was a very fair sentence.
All through the trial,
she thought
it would be "not guilty"
and the car company would go on.
REPORTER 8: What do you think
it'll do to you emotionally,
to be housed in either a man's
or a woman's prison?
I'm a strong person.
It won't do anything to me.
REPORTER 9:
Which would you prefer?
-Women's prison.
- REPORTER 9: Why?
'Cause I'm a woman.
REPORTER 9:
What would happen if they
sent you to a man's prison?
I'd be in solitary confinement.
Nobody knew
how they were gonna do it,
but she really thought that
they would never convict her.
(MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
(TYPEWRITER CLACKING)
("FLAT BED RHYTHM"
BY AL HAZAN PLAYING) ♪
WORON: December 4th, 1980.
Remember transexual
G. Elizabeth Carmichael?
Scheduled to appear
in a Los Angeles court
on December 3rd
for final sentencing,
she apparently skipped town.
A bench warrant has been issued
for her arrest.
Well, I got a rhythm
Seated in my head ♪
Same kind of rhythm
That you get ♪
When you're riding
On a Santa Fe flatbed ♪
Got a little tingle
It's a tingle down in my toes ♪
Same kind of tingle
That makes me tickle ♪
When you wanna
Picka the Van Gough ♪
Well the only thing bad
About riding the track ♪
If you miss that handle
Gonna break your back ♪
But I'll cheat death
And I'll take a crack ♪
At riding on the railroad
Free forever now ♪
Got a rhythm
Gonna give you some ♪
It's a free riding river
Over railroad bum ♪
Take your freedom
And gimme some ♪
I'll take the freedom
Of a railroad bum ♪
Oh I've been stagnant
In this town too long ♪
Every time I think
I'm gonna be happy ♪
Everything starts
Going wrong ♪
Had a little lady that
I thought could love me too ♪
When it came to men
I guess she had ♪
That flatbed rhythm too ♪
Well the only thing bad
About riding the track ♪
If you miss that handle
Gonna break your back ♪
But I'll cheat death
And I'll take a crack ♪
At riding on the railroad
Free forever now ♪
Got a rhythm
Gonna give you some ♪
It's a free riding river
Over railroad bum ♪
Take your freedom
And gimme some ♪
I'll take the freedom
Of a railroad bum ♪
(SONG CONCLUDES) ♪
(JAZZY MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
SPEAKER: Her number one goal.
Family must always be together.
ELIZABETH CARMICHAEL:
I decided to give
the flower sowing idea a try.
SPEAKER 2: Liz broke laws.
However I think the way
things went down was wrong.
SPEAKER 3: Everything's
completely off the book.
CARMICHAEL: They work there
out of their own free will.
SPEAKER 3: Liz is trying
to justify what is done.
I had the story of the year.
(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING)
CARMICHAEL: The world will know
my name before I am through.
I can do anything a man can do.
I will run the auto industry
like a queen.
SPEAKER: This three-wheeler
flew in the face of tradition.
People were flocking
to make deposits.
SPEAKER 2: She
brought in thirty-grand a day.
There was so much
cloak and dagger going on.
We didn't have
the equipment to make a car.
SPEAKER 3: People
weren't getting their paychecks.
She was getting nervous,
and she hired bodyguards.
You're not telling me
this wasn't the mafia.
SPEAKER 4: In the shop,
there was a briefcase
full of cash and a revolver.
SPEAKER 5: Bad things
were going to happen.
We were driving when
it came on the radio.
We thought that
Liz had been killed.
(TIRES SCREECHING)
(SYNTHESIZER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(TAPE RECORDER CLICKS)
G. ELIZABETH CARMICHAEL:
And, um
(TAPE CLICKS)
(MUSIC ENDS) ♪
(RINGING)
VERN VIHLENE: I got a call
from Liz one day
that they had chartered
an airplane
and they were going to take
some of their prototype cars
and do television commercials
in Dallas.
I was supposed to get
an advance payment
of three thousand dollars.
But the day before the shoot,
I still had not received
my deposit.
And I wasn't happy about it,
so I just walked
into her office.
(OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
VIHLENE: There was a bunch
of gentlemen in there,
and they were in some sort
of a meeting,
and Liz was behind
her giant desk.
I have no idea
who these people were,
but they were serious
businessmen.
They were dressed to the teeth,
as was Liz.
What they were discussing,
what was going--
I have no idea,
but I was very uncomfortable.
I knew I should not have been
in that room.
And I put a copy of the invoice
on her desk, and I said,
"If we're going tomorrow,
I gotta have this."
And she opened her desk drawer
and counted out
thirty 100-dollar bills for me.
I left the room feeling
a little bit apprehensive,
but as far as I was concerned,
we were heading to Dallas
the next day
to film a commercial.
It was probably two hours later
someone started shooting.
(GUNSHOT)
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
RADIO ANCHOR:
Late this afternoon,
someone was shot to death
in the showroom
of the Twentieth Century
Motor Car Company.
CANDI MICHAEL:
I remember pulling over
and frantically talking,
"What do we do? What do we do?"
Vivian was scared to death.
We thought it was Liz.
When we got to Dallas,
Liz was at home.
-(GIRLS GIGGLING)
-CANDI: Liz had already flown
to Dallas. We didn't know this.
We were all just happy Liz
was there, and we didn't care.
You know, "Mommy's all right.
Life goes on."
And that's when she said that
it was between the bodyguards.
There's been no official
explanation as to what happened,
but we have learned
the victim was a man
identified as Bill Miller.
It's believed that Miller
and another man
got into a heated argument
in a small office
next to the showroom.
One suspect has been jailed
on suspicion of murder,
47-year-old Jack Oliver
of Huntington Beach.
And it so happens
that the murdered man,
William Miller, first met Oliver
at San Quentin.
They were cellmates together.
JACKIE POWELL: William Miller
was my dad Jack's cellmate
at San Quentin Prison.
He and my dad were bodyguards
for Liz Carmichael.
There was an investigator
from the Security Exchange
coming to look through
the books of the company.
To quiet the investigation,
Bill Miller had come up
with a plan
to assassinate
this investigator.
My dad said,
"No, this isn't gonna work.
This isn't what we should do."
They wrestled over the gun,
and according to my dad,
the gun went off,
and he shot Miller four times.
(GUNSHOTS)
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
DICK CARLSON:
Mrs. Carmichael can't be
reached for comment today.
According to
a company spokesman,
she is currently in Texas.
She's trying to negotiate
a deal for an assembly plant
she says was abandoned
by the Ford Motor Company.
Carmichael had a perfect alibi.
She'd left an hour before
from Burbank Airport
to fly out to Texas,
where she was opening
another facility.
All of this, of course,
makes one wonder
why Mrs. Carmichael didn't take
her bodyguard along with her,
why she had one
in the first place.
Of course,
it's a little late for that now.
MARK MACCARLEY:
Up until the homicide
that took place
in the Encino office,
it was only after that,
and very quickly,
law enforcement agencies
start taking a closer look
and the press turned on her
and said, "This is a scam."
CARLSON: We decided
once again this morning
to pay a visit to
the Dale headquarters in Encino
to see if they were still
selling options on their cars.
They did yesterday.
They weren't doing that,
but they weren't doing
anything else either.
GERRY MCGUINNESS:
Things started to fall apart.
It happened rapidly.
One thing after another.
Boom, boom, boom.
You couldn't turn on the TV
without seeing
a negative report.
CARLSON: Lots of irritated
Dale investors were in the lobby
trying to get somebody
to pay attention to them,
mostly to get their money back.
I was told that I would receive
the money within 10 days,
but I--
I'm a little dubious about it,
and I came here to collect it,
and they're closed.
People had begun
to show up at the showroom
asking for their money back.
INVESTOR: Let me get my money,
that's all I want.
Money, here. Twentieth Century.
I called them last night
at nine o'clock, and they--
they said, "Come on in,"
you know,
"we'll do what we have to."
And then I came in,
and they wouldn't do anything.
So we pounded on the windows,
and they still
wouldn't do anything.
CARLSON: Now, we tried to get
some reaction from the people
out at Twentieth Century
Motors in Encino,
but all the company officers,
including Mrs. Carmichael,
are in Dallas,
promoting the Dale in that city.
So we can't very well present
their side of the story
at this time.
("TRAVELIN" BY JIMMY CARTER
AND DALLAS COUNTY GREEN PLAYS) ♪
CANDI: I remember
when we came to Dallas,
there was a lot
of media attention.
I just remember there was
a whole bunch of people
with cameras at the airport,
and the family was all together,
all the kids and Liz,
and we were waiting
for the airplane to arrive
that was bringing the Dale
from Los Angeles.
When they finally got it out,
there was a big
round of applause.
(APPLAUSE)
CANDI:
It was just awesome.
It was just really amazing,
the whole thing.
Begged me
To take her with me ♪
GERRY BANKS:
Once she got to Dallas,
Liz got a lot
of television coverage,
was shown
on all the local stations.
At the time this happened,
I had been
assistant district attorney
for about three years.
There was a vehicle that
was supposedly the prototype
that had been brought
from California,
and it was kept in a garage
out in Addison.
And we went out there
and looked at it.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
BANKS: And it was a large
toy kit car at the very best.
If Liz wasn't there on the scene
and wasn't convincing you,
and you started looking
at this critically,
it was a house of cards.
Liz, you did this
in California.
If you think you're gonna screw
millions of dollars
out of people in Texas,
not going to happen.
We're gonna prosecute it.
ANCHOR 1: This late development
from Dallas, Texas.
The district attorney of Dallas
has issued criminal complaints
against 10 officers
of the Twentieth Century
Motor Car Company of Encino,
manufacturers of the
controversial Dale automobile.
They're accused of conspiracy
to commit grand theft
in the sale and promotion
of the Dale.
Among those charged
is Mrs. G. Elizabeth Carmichael,
president of
Twentieth Century Motors.
CANDI:
It just suddenly came to a head.
The house was full of
all the people from the office,
and they were discussing,
"Do we stay and fight
or do we leave?"
And they took a vote.
Liz did not decide.
And I remember sitting
on the stairs
when the last salesman
came in the room
with a briefcase.
And that last man had just
closed out their account,
and they divvied up the money,
and everybody went
their separate ways.
It was Sam she worried about
the most.
And she was in tears
when she told him,
"Don't worry about it.
Do what you've got to do."
Liz thought of Sam
as a father figure.
Even as a child,
I knew she loved Sam.
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
In probably
less than 10 minutes,
the whole family was in the car
and we were on the road,
and that was the end.
("SOONER OR LATER"
BY HOT KNIVES PLAYING) ♪
BANKS: As we used to use a lot
in file argument,
"the guilty fleeth
when no man pursueth."
CARLSON: Meanwhile, downtown
at police headquarters
at Parker Center,
five top executives
at Twentieth Century Motor Cars
were booked on fugitive warrants
from Dallas, Texas.
They're all accused
of conspiracy
to commit grand theft.
I believe that,
as any good criminal was,
she was thinking
several moves ahead.
CARLSON: Investigators say
that official records
of her existence
before March of 1973
could not be found.
Whatever the facts of her past,
the mystery
of Geraldine E. Carmichael,
or who she is,
is not going to be solved
until it's discovered
where she is.
To have done it
three or four times
and gotten away with it,
why wouldn't she think
she could keep on?
And time ♪
(MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
(INSECTS CHIRPING)
We went to a judge and obtained
a probable cause arrest warrant
and a probable cause
search warrant.
(BANGING)
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
BANKS: Place was abandoned.
No one was there.
Um, we found a lot
of female undergarments,
but a lot of things, and again,
I don't know the names for 'em,
that would suppress
the male part
so that, uh, she looked
more like a female
and some literature on
completely making the change
to a female.
I didn't realize that there's
a possibility that she
uh, she might be
of another gender.
It made the case
more interesting. (CHUCKLES)
There were some personal papers
of Liz Carmichael
of her being from Indianapolis,
and some information there
that she had contacts
at the local utility company.
I flew to Indianapolis
and went to the utility company.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CHARLES RICHARD BARRETT:
I was over at my office
at the phone company
when Mary Jo, my secretary,
she said, "Mr. Barrett,
there's some strangers here."
She says,
"I don't know who they are.
Charlie, are--
are you in trouble?"
I said, "I think I know
what's going on."
I go in there
and I shook everybody's hand,
and they said, "Now,
you probably know
why we're here."
And I said, "I don't know,
but I got an idea."
And he said, "Well, we think
you know where she is."
And I said,
"Well, I ain't got a clue."
And they said, "We've been
talking to your neighbors.
We've been talking
to your wife.
You're not being honest
with us."
And I thought, "You know,
you're trying to build a case
on me, and" (STAMMERS)
"I'll be truthful as I can."
And that's what I told them,
just like I'm talking today.
They said, "Where is she?"
And I said,
"Well, she's at this address."
So
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CLARENCE MEE: He said,
"I've known her
for a long time
and she dresses as a female."
That's when we discovered
that Liz Carmichael
was actually
Jerry Dean Michael.
We contacted our Dallas office
and asked them
to run the name
Jerry Dean Michael.
And they got back on the phone
and said,
"Y'all get back to Dallas
right away."
(CAR ENGINE REVS)
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CARLSON: After I gave the glass
that the informant
had given to me
to the LAPD,
I was on the set at ABC
and the phone rang.
(RINGING)
It was a sergeant at the LAPD.
And he said, "Dick,
you're not gonna believe this.
This glass belongs to a guy
who's a fugitive
from a counterfeiting arrest
in 1961.
And he's been on the lam
all these years,
and his name
is Jerry Dean Michael."
There was the proof.
All along, we had this feeling,
but you can't operate
on feelings.
And so we decided
we weren't gonna tell
the management
about this discovery
because we were afraid
that they would stop us.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
ANCHOR 2: Dick Carlson tonight
has some answers to those
very intriguing questions
about the mystery woman
who vanished completely
after promoting
a three-wheel car
that really never was.
CARLSON: Introduced the story
as another Dale car story,
and then I ran a picture
of Mrs. Carmichael,
then I did a slow dissolve
into the crew-cut
Jerry Dean Michael.
CARLSON: (IN STUDIO)
Mrs. Carmichael's fingerprints
match those
of a notorious con man.
Geraldine Elizabeth Carmichael
in reality is a 47-year-old guy
by the name
of Jerry Dean Michael.
(MUSIC STOPS) ♪
(BIRDS SINGING)
(QUIET MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CANDI: Several months after
the exodus from Dallas,
we wound up in Florida
on the run from the law.
And we were all sitting
on the couch,
and Brian was in and out
of the house.
-(DOOR OPENS)
-CANDI:
And he'd come in and said,
"There's a strange delivery van
acting weird two doors down."
Wendi and I went outside
and I saw the delivery van,
and then I saw the mail truck.
And I came in and I said,
"The mailman's here again."
Liz and Vivian
just looked at each other,
and then all of a sudden,
Liz jumped up and was gone.
(FOOTSTEPS RUNNING)
And within seconds, the police
started swarming in the house.
-(SIREN WAILING)
-OFFICER 1: Police! Quick!
Get down! Get down!
Everybody down!
CANDI:
I was trying to catch Michael.
Michael was running around
in the kitchen,
and I'd just picked him up
coming around a corner,
-and a cop had his gun
-OFFICER 2: Freeze!
You're under arrest.
CANDI: pointing right at me.
(METAL CLICKING)
Why would you be bringing
guns drawn like that
in a house
full of little kids
against people that have never
been accused of violence?
Jerry Dean Michael had never
been accused of a violent crime,
had never been accused
of carrying a weapon. Never.
Liz, same thing.
And we're just sitting there
in shock.
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CANDI:
The whole family was sad.
We figured
we'd never see Liz again.
None of us could figure out
how she did it.
She ran out the house
just wearing her bodysuit.
Day goes by,
and we're all sitting around
quietly discussing
what's going to happen.
And then Liz creeps out
from behind a curtain.
She came back
to say goodbye to us.
We were trying to whisper,
and everybody's saying
their goodbyes.
-OFFICER 3: Hold it there.
-CANDI: Then the cops busted
through the house again.
OFFICER 3: You're under arrest.
CANDI:
And that's how they got her,
'cause she came back
to say goodbye to her kids.
Not exactly happily ever after,
but it started a whole new
episode of our lives.
(MUSIC FADES) ♪
(ENGINE REVS)
CARLSON: Elizabeth Carmichael
was officially unmasked
over the weekend
when she, or rather he,
was caught by the FBI
in Miami, Florida.
Carmichael is
in actuality a man,
and he spent the weekend
in the men's lockup
in the Dade County Florida Jail.
I saw that and I thought,
"My gosh.
Look what they're doing to Liz."
It angered me.
CARLSON:
Looking harried, bedraggled,
and wearing the pink pantsuit
he had on
when arrested late Friday,
Carmichael was handcuffed
and taken off to arraignment.
I know Liz.
(CHUCKLES)
That had to be just terrible.
(INDISTINCT CLAMOR)
I was notified at home
that they had arrested her
that evening in Miami.
I, along with Gerry Banks,
flew out of Dallas that night
and interviewed her
the next morning.
BANKS: We knew there was
about six million dollars
that we could account for
that had come in
from California to Texas.
(CHUCKLES) So I said,
"Well, Liz, what happened
to that 10 million dollars?"
I deliberately inflated it.
And she immediately said,
"It was only three."
The way she said it and the way
she looked at you, you know,
and just--
With the smile. (LAUGHS)
And we-- and we both
just started laughing.
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
BANKS: She told me that
she had gone to Mexico
and had started the surgery
to become a female.
As part of this, she had
had her testicles removed.
I think you gotta be
pretty brave
to do something like that.
That, you know,
certainly life-altering,
body-altering change,
I-- I--
I don't think a weak-hearted,
faint-hearted person
would do something like that.
Trans people would do
what they could do
outside the-- the medical
establishment.
Maybe they could get hormones
on the street
or on the black market,
or maybe
they would inject silicone.
The doctors would say,
"We don't want
to essentially sterilize you."
And that would be an argument
against surgical transition.
People would go to Mexico for
the first step of the procedure
to simply be castrated,
and then they would look
for a plastic surgeon in the US
who would operate on them
once they had already, um,
had their testicles removed.
That was so common
that the slang term for it
was the Tijuana Two-Step.
(MUSIC FADES) ♪
(CAR APPROACHING)
(PEACEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CANDI: The first time
we went down there,
we went down with Jerry,
even though at home,
Jerry was dressing as Liz,
but out in public,
it was still "Jerry."
And I remember him wearing
black dress pants,
a white button-down shirt,
and a black blazer.
And this was for
the breast implants.
Even though Liz already
had some breasts,
hormones only get you so far.
If you wanna look
like Dolly Parton
(CHUCKLING)
you need some inserts.
Wendi and I sat
in the waiting room,
and Jerry went
into the doctor's office.
We were coloring,
we played board games
while we were waiting,
and then
she came out, wear--
dressed as a woman,
and we went on.
She never went back
to wearing men's clothes again.
Never.
BANKS: She told me she wanted
to be known as a trailblazer.
Making the change
from male to female,
and yes, it can be done.
I said, "All this stealing,
all this money you got,
would detract from that."
And her answer was,
"No, I don't think it will."
(MUSIC FADES) ♪
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CARLSON: I flew to Miami,
and I went to the sheriff
who ran the jail.
And I asked him,
"Where did you put this guy?
Is he a male or a female?
He-- he's been saying
that he's a female,
but does he have, uh,
male equipment or female?"
He said, "Oh no.
He's-- he's equipped
just like you and I are.
He's a male.
So," he said, "I put him
in a cell by himself."
The feds brought him back
on a plane.
I rode on the plane with him.
He really disliked me,
I have to say.
Pete Noyes and I
were always bothered
by the fact that she looked
so much like a man.
That was my first thought,
but I couldn't impart that
to the rest of the crew
'cause I couldn't say that
in front of her.
DENNIS SMITH:
There was something off
from the moment he met her.
Dick's alarm went off
when he shook her hand.
And he went back to Pete
and told Pete,
"I think this woman
needs looking into."
CARLSON: People have been asking
why we wanna know so much
about the Dale, and
Well, they have been asking.
In fact, you know,
a lot of people have asked me
if we have an obsession
-here on Eyewitness News
Wants To Know.
-COHOST: Do we?
No, we really don't, but, uh,
we're convinced
there are an awful lot
of questions about the Dale
that ought to be answered.
And new ones, in fact,
pop up every day.
Till we get the answers,
we're gonna continue
to ask the questions.
SANDY STONE:
Whenever a trans story surfaced,
the media would take it
and run with it
in the simplest possible terms,
which was
a man masquerading as a woman.
So when someone like Liz
appears in the media,
then you already have
that way of framing it.
And it sells much more
than trying to tell
the truth would be.
Liz had to combat
the narrative in the media
that she was not a woman.
How do you combat
the media's narrative
that you are not a woman?
And the answer is
you don't.
The secret life of Jerry Michael
sounds a little like
a second-rate grade B movie.
In 1961, he jumped bail
in Los Angeles.
He'd been arrested on
a counterfeiting charge
at the time.
He's been arrested
about seven times, in fact.
And for the last 14 years,
he has been a federal fugitive,
moving from house to house
It was all some version
of what now gets called
the "evil deceivers
and make-believers"
trope or stereotype,
that we're pretending to be
something that we're not,
and that it's a deceitful act.
CARLSON: In the mid-1950s,
Michael was a gunrunner.
He was supplying
the pre-Castro Cuban government
of Fulgencio Batista with arms.
Now I ask you, would you buy
a used Dale from this fella?
CARLSON: (IN PRESENT)
Elizabeth Carmichael
was a supreme egomaniac.
The fact she posed as a woman,
it was a-- a manner
of disguising herself
as a fugitive,
but also was a way
for her to garner publicity.
It was very effective.
You may recall
my introduction to Jerry,
or Geraldine if you prefer,
earlier this year
when we began our investigation.
Carmichael made a lot
of fantastic claims,
then he vanished.
SUSAN STRYKER: There was a lot
of using the language
of "also known as,"
which suggests it kind of like
it's a criminal pseudonym
of some kind.
There was a lot of misgendering.
They would say, "A man who
was pretending to be a woman,"
or "Liz Carmichael,
really Jerry."
To be non-consensually outed,
it has to be considered
as very, um--
as a violation.
Something was disclosed
about them
without their consent
that is gonna have
really powerful
negative consequences for them.
CARLSON: To teach the children
that their father
was to be called their mother,
that their real mother
was to be called their aunt,
and to train them in that,
I can't imagine
that any shrink wouldn't say
that this is, like, kind of
a bad idea to be doing this.
CANDI: (CHUCKLES)
She really was a great mom.
Liz and Jerry
loved being parents.
BARRETT: When people say
my sister and Liz
were leading their children into
a terrible thing and so forth,
I really have
a problem with that.
Those children were loved
very much by both parents.
CARLSON: She used them,
just like she used
her real wife, Vivian,
pretending to be the aunt,
living in some, uh,
sister-to-sister relationship.
If you didn't think
that was kind of sick,
you wouldn't think--
you wouldn't think--
you would think Jeffrey Dahmer
was a normal person,
is what I think, you know.
Jerry chose to become Liz
and transition to that end.
And in the process,
she kept the children informed
all the time,
and they had conversations.
I think she did a good job.
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
When they took Liz into custody,
they wind up
flying her back to LA,
and we've got no money.
And Vivian was trying
to figure out
how do we get back to LA?
(INDISTINCT CLAMOR)
CANDI: Reporters were constantly
hounding Vivian,
and a reporter
offered her 500 dollars
if they'd let him come in
and do an interview,
so she did.
And that's how
we got back to Los Angeles.
Five hundred dollars was enough
money to drive back to LA.
(CRICKETS CHIRPING)
(MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
In 1974, I joined
the Public Defender's office.
I was familiar
with the Carmichael case,
and I was very familiar
with the jail
wherein she was being housed.
She was taken
to the Men's Central Jail,
which is the central location
for prisoners
who come to Los Angeles.
In the 1970s, there were really
no spoken guidelines
or written guidelines
with the way
that transgender people
were treated in the jails.
In this particular instance,
thrown into
the general population
dressed and grooming themselves
totally as a woman
was an invitation to disaster.
-(TYPEWRITER KEYS CLACKING)
-VIVIAN MICHAEL: Dear Sis,
it looked as though March was
going to better for all of us,
but disaster struck.
(FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING)
On Sunday, Liz was being
escorted to pill call.
That's where prisoners
receive medication.
At all times
when she's out of her cell,
-she's accompanied by a deputy.
-(JEERING AND WHISTLING)
VIVIAN: She wears a blue band
on her wrist,
which is visible at all times,
and the guards
and prisoners alike
all know what it means:
"A woman in a men's jail.
Keep away."
Sunday, around noon,
the deputy came for her,
and they went the normal route
from the 13th floor
to the 14th floor.
(OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
VIVIAN: Liz suddenly realized
she didn't have the deputy
escorting her.
He had disappeared
and was nowhere to be seen.
The first blow she received
was in the center
of her forehead,
and laid her wide open,
tearing a vein.
She said
the blood went everywhere,
and she was blinded by it
and couldn't see
to defend herself.
He just pounded her face
over and over.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
STRYKER: She was beaten.
She was beaten really severely.
In the US, we say
you're not supposed to have
cruel
and unusual punishments,
but I think incarcerating
trans people in prisons
that are not the one
that they should be in,
it is a form of cruel
and unusual punishment.
It would've happened to me,
it would've happened to her,
it would've happened to any
number of different people.
What Liz went through
was not uncommon.
The only reason
hers was reported
was because she was
a high-profile defendant
that the press
was interested in.
And that was part of the problem
that existed then,
still exists today.
VIVIAN: When Liz had been
brought into the courtroom,
the judge looked at her.
both her eyes
were bulging and black,
and did a double take.
The prosecutor winced,
and everybody
in the courtroom gasped.
-(JURORS WHISPERING)
-JURY MEMBER: Oh, my God.
VIVIAN:
The reporter, Walt Woron,
he has been following this case
since the beginning
and is kinda partial
to Liz and me.
I almost thought I could see
tears forming in his eyes.
I know they were in mine.
(WATER SPLASHING)
VIVIAN:
I'm tired, I'm worried,
but Liz says,
"Pray and keep your chin up."
And I'm trying.
I've noticed that when I do,
things go right
even though they look bad
to anyone else.
(TYPEWRITER KEYS CLACKING)
VIVIAN: You'll have
to forgive her for not writing,
but she has no time for anything
but working on this case.
She is determined to win,
and out of all the lawsuits
pay back anyone and everyone
who lost money in the company.
Give my love to all.
Love, Vivian.
(MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
WALT WORON: The courtroom
was relatively small,
with molded wooden benches
to accommodate
but 70 witnesses
and spectators.
The dark-haired, handsome figure
at the right of a long table
unwound from his chair.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
WORON: He began to read
from a several-page indictment.
"G. Elizabeth Carmichael,
Edward J. Comstock,
Samuel Schlisman,
Andrew Farrell,
Jay Gardner,
you are charged with conspiracy
to commit grand theft,
with the sale or offer to sell
a security without a permit,
with sale or offer to sell
a security
by means of false statements
or omissions."
The defendants could be seen
uneasily shifting in their seats
from time to time,
looking at the jurors.
Walt Woron, Automotive News.
KIT GRANAT:
RON ABRAMS:
Liz was the only defendant
that requested a jury trial.
The rest of us would like
a court trial
because it would've been shorter
and the judge would've been
able to separate out
the defendant's culpability.
My client, Sam Schlisman,
I thought I could
get a deal for him
because Sam was really not
the main character
in the company.
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(TAPE SCRATCHES)
MACCARLEY: I will say
that I was impressed
by my client, Jay Gardner.
He absolutely believed
in what Elizabeth Carmichael was
talking about and developing.
Bob Youngdahl,
career prosecutor.
The best description is
very competent and methodical.
He was machine-like
in terms of his presentation
to the court and jury.
Liz felt that Bob Youngdahl
was nothing but a foot soldier
for the big government,
the big government
that was out to knock her down
and crush any entrepreneur
who dared challenge
the big three.
ANCHOR 3: Liz Carmichael
says she doesn't want
her court-appointed attorneys
to handle her case
because, as she puts it,
they were picked by her enemies.
To have my attorneys appointed
by those people
who are prosecuting me,
uh, to me,
is not the best way to go.
So I would prefer to have
an attorney of my own choice,
even if he were less competent,
than have an attorney
of somebody else's choice,
taking the chance that I'm
not getting
the best counsel possible.
WORON: Though she has
no formal law training,
she says she has spent
the last 14 months in jail
studying law so as to be
able to defend herself
when the time came.
She took it upon herself
to defend herself
in front of the jury.
She was never gonna end up
having some lawyer
represent her
and speaking for her.
She had to speak for herself.
She'd been like that
her whole life.
ABRAMS: If she had an attorney,
she wouldn't have
drawn attention to the fact
that she's six foot two
and weighs over 200 pounds.
That taints the jury's
perception of this lady.
REPORTER 1:
There were some deceptions
involved here though,
weren't there?
They claim there were.
In my opinion, there were not.
REPORTER 1:
Why, for example, did you decide
to pose as a woman
in this transaction?
Well, it wasn't
in this transaction.
I'm a transsexual.
Had nothing to do
with Twentieth Century
Motor Car Corporation.
I've been living as a woman
for eight years.
My children regard me
as their mother.
Uh, totally legitimate,
so far as fraud is concerned.
This was, uh--
I happen to, uh,
have a medical problem,
uh, which is not totally unique.
I'm sure you've heard
of Christine Jorgensen,
very similar.
STRYKER: Christine Jorgensen
was the first person to become,
I would say, globally famous
for being trans
when news of her sex
reassignment surgery
uh, was trumpeted
on the, you know, headlines
of newspapers around the world.
Thank you very much.
STRYKER: Trans women
who followed in her footsteps,
like her,
were able to assimilate
and go unnoticed in society.
But those who were unable
to navigate the medical system,
those who had only
partial surgeries, like Liz,
were much more likely
to be characterized
not as women but as men
masquerading as women.
REPORTER 1:
And you had a sexual operation?
I had the first one.
I still have another one to go.
STRYKER: Just because
she had not had
the second step of that process,
the conversion of a penis
into a vagina,
that she was considered
to still be a man.
But she'd been on hormones,
she had breasts,
she didn't have testicles.
But the press would say, like,
"Oh, you're still a man
because you have this
sort of non-functioning penis."
PATRICK COLEMAN: She prefers
to be known as Liz Carmichael.
She has requested me,
which I have done on her behalf,
is try to see if she could wear
women's clothing
in the courtroom
itself properly.
She's been a woman
the last eight years.
That's the way she wants it.
Doesn't wanna change.
STRYKER: In 1976,
there was actually a hearing
about Liz's gender identity.
You know, could she be
considered a woman?
Based on her self-statements,
the hormones,
the-- the castration,
she was taken seriously
as a transsexual,
therefore she could be
presented as a woman.
The judge asked Liz,
"What name are you known by?"
And she says, "I am
Geraldine Elizabeth Carmichael.
I'm world-famous."
(INSPIRING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
And it was official
at that point.
She was
Geraldine Elizabeth Carmichael
in the eyes of the law.
CARLSON: Judge Malcolm Lucas
ruled that Michael could wear
-women's clothes for the trial.
-("A NEW DAY" BY THE NOTATIONS
PLAYING) ♪
CARLSON: So he carried
a blue pantsuit
and a pink blouse with him.
Michael's wife
and four small children
waited inside the courtroom
for the person they call
"Mommy Liz."
MACCARLEY:
That was the beginning
of the trial of Liz Carmichael,
which continued
for almost nine months,
one of the longer cases
in the Los Angeles
Supreme Court history.
Would it be appropriate
for me to say
Channel Two
is my favorite channel?
Liz sought out the media
as much as she possibly could.
She felt that
the more she explained herself
and her case,
the better it was for her.
MACCARLEY:
Every time we stepped
out of the courtroom,
there were representatives
from the major networks,
CBS, NBC, ABC,
that were covering this
every single day.
REPORTER 2: What's your reaction
to what happened today?
-Very frustrated.
-MACCARLEY: She knew
that every word that she put out
would be recorded or taken down
by a member of the press,
as well as the jury.
Thank you for a new day ♪
ABRAMS: She was a true believer,
in the sense that
if she said it,
it must be true.
REPORTER 3: Ms. Carmichael,
the obvious question.
Where is the money?
What money?
MACCARLEY:
If she had really wanted
to engage in a big fraud,
all she would have had to do
is collect all these deposits
and not even spend the money
for all those employees
that she hired.
This is good evidence. It says
she didn't take that money
and run off with all this cash,
never to be seen again.
It won't be bad ♪
WORON: Liz Carmichael
is exhibiting more optimism
than at any time
during the trial.
The longer the trial
has gone on,
the more assured
she has become.
MCGUINNESS: I was called up.
She said to me the one question,
"Tomorrow, if I wanted you
to come back and work for me,
would you do it?"
"Well, of course!
But I would like
a little more money."
(LAUGHS)
-(SOBBING)
-MCGUINNESS:
Other guys had gone up after me
and bawled like babies,
just going,
"Liz, I'll follow you
to the end of the world!"
That's how powerful she was.
MACCARLEY: This is a woman
who knew how to inspire.
Someday ♪
MACCARLEY: You listened,
even for five or ten minutes,
to Liz Carmichael,
and even I could have
become a believer.
The prosecution put on
over a hundred witnesses.
Every one testified
that we were building the car.
Uh, prosecution would like
to have you believe
that we never intended to.
Their own witnesses testified
that we were building it.
There'd have been
a quarter million Dales
on the road today
if they'd have left us alone.
MACCARLEY: The jury did want
to inspect the vehicle,
and so we went down
to a facility
to look at the car.
(WAVES SLOSHING)
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
ABRAMS: The car looked terrible.
It was kind of off-balance,
it was dirty,
it was in a dingy garage.
The prosecution had this car
for a long time.
The district attorney
made sure it didn't look
like a presentable vehicle.
MACCARLEY: The one that we saw
was the mock-up.
No engine in that vehicle.
Now, of course, this was
Bob Youngdahl's decision.
He wanted the jury to see
that the car
that was touted as the greatest
vehicle since the Model
had nothing inside of it.
It was purely a piece of,
uh, prefabricated fiberglass.
Somebody, I think,
opened the front hood.
There was nothing inside.
That's extremely damaging.
If you want, I'd call that
one of the low points
in the trial
for Liz Carmichael.
(JURORS MUTTERING)
MACCARLEY: Youngdahl went back
and said, "You saw what you saw
in that maintenance yard.
And did you see something
that could actually
even get itself outside
of the maintenance yard?"
No.
(SEAGULLS CALLING)
CARLSON: I was notified that
they were gonna put her on trial
and they wanted me to testify.
And I was picked up by
Bob Youngdahl, the prosecutor.
On the way out in the car,
Youngdahl said
that the Los Angeles
Police Department
had arrested a minor criminal.
In the course
of interrogating him,
he offered up some information
that would perhaps
get him out of the charge
that he was facing.
He had been hired
to murder Youngdahl
and Pete Noyes and me.
Ten thousand dollars each,
and another 15
for doing the deed.
G. Elizabeth Carmichael
had offered them
the money to do this.
MIA YAMAMOTO:
Jailhouse snitches invariably
are trying to
get out of the crimes
for which
they are legitimately culpable.
The very use
of the jailhouse snitch,
in many ways, shows how
desperate the prosecution is,
and it undermines
their credibility.
They went and saw the judge
to tell the judge
that the defendant,
who was also her own attorney,
has been charged with a plot
to murder
some of the witnesses.
The judge said,
"I can't listen to all of this
unless you bring in
the defense attorney,
who is Mrs. Carmichael."
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
ABRAMS: Because she was
representing herself,
Liz had the ability
to cross-examine every witness.
That means that everybody
that testified
could be questioned by Liz.
YAMAMOTO:
This individual, he found out
that he was going to be
cross-examined
by Liz Carmichael,
and decided to take the fifth.
None of that testimony
ever came out.
And that actually showed
a fairly sophisticated
understanding
of the criminal justice system
by Liz Carmichael.
When something
that inflammatory would come in,
it would completely taint
the entire proceedings.
It would have called,
at least, for a mistrial.
If there had been a verdict,
that verdict
would have been overturned.
It was so tainted,
they dropped the entire effort.
And that was the end
of the investigation.
Mrs. Carmichael
was a thoroughly bad person
from my point of view,
and the irony
of having to be interrogated
by her on the stand
is infuriating.
I sat on that stand for at least
a day, maybe two days,
and I would say something
that was completely prejudiced,
because I was
completely prejudiced.
I would periodically, uh,
refer to her as "sir"
or some other male designation,
and the judge
would interrupt me and say,
"Mr. Carlson,
I've told you, uh, twice now
to stop calling Mrs. Carmichael,
uh, by male pronouns.
Please refer to her as 'ma'am'
or 'Mrs.' or something."
And I would say,
"Right. Yeah. Sure, Your Honor.
Okay. Of course.
I certainly will."
And then I wouldn't do it,
uh, because I thought
it was ludicrous
and I didn't think I had to.
ABRAMS: Liz being transgender
probably was
the single most important
motivating issue
in why they went after her
so diligently.
It tainted the entire trial.
I think all the jurors
were kind of
aghast at what was going on.
It was really a circus.
STRYKER: Technically,
Liz Carmichael was on trial
to determine whether or not
she had committed a fraud
in promoting the Dale,
but it's pretty clear that
she was on trial
as a trans person.
When they couldn't decide
if the car was real or not,
they started focusing on Liz.
If she was a fraud,
then the car was a fraud.
GRANAT:
WILLIAMS:
GRANAT:
YAMAMOTO: Because she was
a transgender woman,
that immediately put a barrier
between her
and virtually every other person
on that jury,
and allowed the people
on that jury
to base their view of her
and her testimony
and her argument
in a way that was colored
by their view
of transgender people.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
REPORTER 4: I think
most people are interested
in your personal life
and your--
your sex change,
to be perfectly candid.
Well, whatever
claim to fame I have
is as a producer of automobiles,
not as a sex change artist.
REPORTER 4: Can you give us
a little personal insight
on what this ordeal
has been about with you?
I think it's a combination
of industrial,
political, uh, pressure
being brought to bear
against individuals who
don't want me to build a car.
MACCARLEY:
She saw this as an opportunity
to address not only the jury,
but she saw this as a way
of justifying what she did.
Well, I'm not
the Lone Ranger in this.
This has happened
to others before.
I expected it.
It's anybody who's attempted
to start in the United States
to produce a car
in mass production
has been either forced out,
put in jail, harassed
I came to the belief
that she thought
that she would be
the next Henry Ford.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
ANCHOR 4: Testimony in the trial
of Elizabeth Carmichael
has concluded
after seven months
in one of the lengthiest cases
to be tried
in the new
Criminal Courts Building.
After closing arguments,
a verdict is expected
early next year.
MACCARLEY:
There are very few attorneys
who have ever gone through
a nine-month jury trial.
Liz Carmichael,
for the most part,
represented herself.
Almost every single argument,
anything
that was really important,
Liz was right in there,
and she was making
that argument.
Her defense was,
"This was absolutely credible.
I was taking on General Motors,
Ford, and Chrysler,
because I was doing something
that would be good for America."
It was the state interfering
with her right
to be an extraordinary
entrepreneur and a woman.
-(MUSIC STOPS ABRUPTLY) ♪
-Pretty powerful message.
(TAPE CLICKS)
CARMICHAEL: Most people
who believe in free enterprise,
number one, think
that they're totally alone.
I did.
I believed that I was a freak
in my philosophical beliefs
up until just a few months ago.
The majority
of the American public
wants free enterprise.
I think that they want
total freedom.
But they've been brainwashed
into believing
that it's not possible.
And there's been nobody
with enough stature
willing to stand up and say,
"Hey, it is possible."
Free enterprise has never
had an opportunity.
(TAPE CLICKS)
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(PENCIL SCRIBBLING)
WILLIAMS:
YAMAMOTO:
Mary Thayer was probably
the most interesting juror
on the case
because she was convinced
that Carmichael was innocent
and was going to hold out
for that verdict to the end.
The jury foreman said,
"We've taken many votes,
and no matter what,
we're not gonna be able
to come to any conclusion."
And that's when we found out
what the jury count was:
eleven to one.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-(CAMERAS CLICKING)
REPORTER 5: Ms. Carmichael.
No, I'm disappointed.
I expected
a "not guilty on all counts"
within the first
three or four days.
REPORTER 6:
Are you saying, then,
that this is not in your
WILLIAMS:
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(MUSIC STOPS ABRUPTLY) ♪
-(COUGHING)
-Mary Thayer,
it was determined, got sick
and was sent to the hospital.
WILLIAMS:
(COUGHING)
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
I had a terrible headache
that day.
We had come
to a complete deadlock.
And I kept going through the--
the books and the records
and everything else,
and the headache kept getting
worse and worse.
REPORTER 7: Knowing it was
at a crucial point,
why did you agree to go
to the hospital?
I thought
I was under court order.
ANCHOR 5: Juror Mary Thayer
was present for the trial,
but the final jury vote occurred
while she was hospitalized
for a short time.
She was taken off the case
despite her wish
to remain on the jury
and cast her vote.
Thayer was pressured
off the case
by court officials
and other jurors,
asserts Liz Carmichael
and her counsel.
MACCARLEY:
Liz questioned whether or not
this juror was truly ill.
She thought that something
untoward was taking place.
If you have a situation where
juries come back eleven-one,
then that juror falls ill,
what the prosecution is gonna do
is get the judge to replace
the sick juror
with somebody else,
and then in about five minutes,
we'll have a twelve-zip.
ABRAMS:
Some of the defense attorneys
found information
that perhaps
some of the bailiffs
and some doctors
stated things to the judge
about Thayer's condition
that were not true.
Everybody in the court
was misled
as to what
her actual condition was.
We all thought she was, uh,
dying or desperately ill.
And it turns out that
the doctor's note
that we relied on
was not written by a doctor.
Half of it was written
by a nurse,
and the other half
was probably written
by the bailiff and the court.
The bailiff admits
that she may have altered
the medical slip
excusing Mrs. Thayer.
And if she did, of course,
this is tantamount to forgery.
She claims that, if she did--
"If" she did.
She just said she may have.
She isn't sure. Draw your own
conclusions from that.
But she said that if she did
alter the medical slip,
it was because
she heard the doctor say
that she would possibly
be out longer than three days.
I wasn't there.
You weren't there.
What hard testimony do you have
except Mrs. Thayer, apparently,
who has indicated
that that's her position?
But, uh, is there any evidence
to support that position?
ABRAMS:
During the jury deliberation,
we actually had hope
that maybe it'll be a hung jury.
Because you hang the jury,
you can probably get
a plea bargain.
(PAPER RUSTLING)
After juror Mary Thayer
was excused
and the jury received
an alternate juror,
they came back four days later
with "guilty."
WORON: The jury found
the five defendants guilty
of 137 charges out of 155.
G. Elizabeth Carmichael
has been found guilty
of grand theft, conspiracy
to commit grand theft,
and of selling securities
fraudulently
and without a permit.
-I've got nothing to say.
-WORON: All were judged guilty
of the conspiracy
and securities violations.
Each defendant faces
a possible one to ten years
for each guilty verdict,
applied consecutively.
Walt Woron, Automotive News.
Uh, I would have liked
a heavier sentence,
but until, throughout the state,
we have all the courts
giving heavier sentences
for serious white-collar crimes,
until that actually occurs, uh,
you'd have to say
this was a very fair sentence.
All through the trial,
she thought
it would be "not guilty"
and the car company would go on.
REPORTER 8: What do you think
it'll do to you emotionally,
to be housed in either a man's
or a woman's prison?
I'm a strong person.
It won't do anything to me.
REPORTER 9:
Which would you prefer?
-Women's prison.
- REPORTER 9: Why?
'Cause I'm a woman.
REPORTER 9:
What would happen if they
sent you to a man's prison?
I'd be in solitary confinement.
Nobody knew
how they were gonna do it,
but she really thought that
they would never convict her.
(MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
(TYPEWRITER CLACKING)
("FLAT BED RHYTHM"
BY AL HAZAN PLAYING) ♪
WORON: December 4th, 1980.
Remember transexual
G. Elizabeth Carmichael?
Scheduled to appear
in a Los Angeles court
on December 3rd
for final sentencing,
she apparently skipped town.
A bench warrant has been issued
for her arrest.
Well, I got a rhythm
Seated in my head ♪
Same kind of rhythm
That you get ♪
When you're riding
On a Santa Fe flatbed ♪
Got a little tingle
It's a tingle down in my toes ♪
Same kind of tingle
That makes me tickle ♪
When you wanna
Picka the Van Gough ♪
Well the only thing bad
About riding the track ♪
If you miss that handle
Gonna break your back ♪
But I'll cheat death
And I'll take a crack ♪
At riding on the railroad
Free forever now ♪
Got a rhythm
Gonna give you some ♪
It's a free riding river
Over railroad bum ♪
Take your freedom
And gimme some ♪
I'll take the freedom
Of a railroad bum ♪
Oh I've been stagnant
In this town too long ♪
Every time I think
I'm gonna be happy ♪
Everything starts
Going wrong ♪
Had a little lady that
I thought could love me too ♪
When it came to men
I guess she had ♪
That flatbed rhythm too ♪
Well the only thing bad
About riding the track ♪
If you miss that handle
Gonna break your back ♪
But I'll cheat death
And I'll take a crack ♪
At riding on the railroad
Free forever now ♪
Got a rhythm
Gonna give you some ♪
It's a free riding river
Over railroad bum ♪
Take your freedom
And gimme some ♪
I'll take the freedom
Of a railroad bum ♪
(SONG CONCLUDES) ♪
(JAZZY MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
SPEAKER: Her number one goal.
Family must always be together.
ELIZABETH CARMICHAEL:
I decided to give
the flower sowing idea a try.
SPEAKER 2: Liz broke laws.
However I think the way
things went down was wrong.
SPEAKER 3: Everything's
completely off the book.
CARMICHAEL: They work there
out of their own free will.
SPEAKER 3: Liz is trying
to justify what is done.
I had the story of the year.
(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING)
CARMICHAEL: The world will know
my name before I am through.