The Lady and the Dale

A fortune in fabulous prizes

may go to these people tonight

if they know when The Price is Right.

And now, here's the ultimate: a three-wheeled car!

It's the Dale,

a whole new concept in automotive design,

a three-wheeled chassis with a high-impact

plastic resistant Rosen body, top speed of 85 miles per hour.

For comfort and economy, it's the Dale

by Twentieth Century Motor Car Corporation.

...a rough-talking promoter

named Elizabeth Carmichael.

She's president and prime mover behind the Dale.

The miracle is in the mileage,

a promise of 70 per precious gallon.

ELIZABETH GERALDINE CARMICHAEL: We've taken a total concept,

integrated it, and built a whole new means of transportation.

Mrs. Carmichael is no pessimist.

Think you're going to be able to take on GM?

We're gonna whip GM.

A couple of nights ago, on the television show

The Price is Right,

the grand prize was a three-wheeled Dale automobile.

That embarrassing show was taped several months ago

when the Dale was getting reams of publicity.

But is the Dale all it's been cracked up to be?

Now state officials tell us

that Mrs. Carmichael's fingerprints

match those of a notorious conman.

Mrs. Elizabeth Carmichael

is actually Mr. Jerry Dean Michael.

And the secret life of Jerry Michael

is the stuff of wildly imaginative adventure novels.

There's so much to say about my father. I...

How long you got?

She lived as a man for a long time,

but that doesn't mean that she wasn't trans.

My father was my hero.

I'll tell you what.

There was so much cloak and dagger going on.

It was a difficult life. That's all.

The very first piece of literature I can ever remember moving me

was about in the... third grade, maybe,

a teacher reading a little thing.

It was the story of a spider who leaped from a windowsill

and failed to reach the side

where it was trying to string its web,

then climbed back up and leaped again,

climbed back up and leaped again.

And the moral of the story is if you first don't succeed,

try and try again.

That's the first thing that I can remember

being impressed by in literature.

-(TAPE RECORDER CLICKS) -(CRICKETS CHIRPING)

It's so hard to explain to people

because Liz is like two people to me.

The first part of the transition

was just calling Daddy "Jerry."

And it took several years, but eventually Jerry

became Aunt Jerry, then Aunt Liz, and then Mother.

This is a course of over probably three years.

So from that point on,

my father, Jerry Dean Michael,

became my mother, Elizabeth Geraldine Carmichael.

Jerry Dean Michael was born a farm boy,

but was too smart for his own good.

I was born on a dirt farm, very poor.

I did occasionally get to go to the movies.

Here I saw people driving fancy cars

and living in fancy buildings.

And somewhere about 15 years of age,

I realized that there was a better way to live

than on a dirt farm.

It was a brick home.

Probably one of the nicer ones around.

Three or four cars may have passed us

the whole time we was walking ten miles.

He said, "Aw, we're just unlucky."

When Jerry was young,

he had a couple marriages before he met my mother,

and was always going out for adventures,

whether they'd be business or just mischief in general.

FBI case file: Jerry Dean Michael.

1946 to 1958.

Kenneth Paul Wolf advised that he is a one-time friend

of the subject, Jerry Dean Michael,

as they both grew up together in Jasonville, Indiana.

Wolf advised that in 1946, he enlisted in the army

and came in contact with Jerry Dean Michael.

Wolf advised that he and the subject

were shipped overseas to Germany.

The problem now is future peace.

That is your job in Germany.

The next time he had occasion to see the subject

was in 1948.

At that time, the subject was married

to a German girl by the name of Marga.

Marga advised that she married Jerry Dean Michael

during his military service in Germany

and has two children by him.

Jerry Dean Michael was charged

with desertion of his wife, Marga, and their children

with a penal sum of 1,000 dollars.

The subject entered a plea of guilty,

receiving one to three years at Indiana Reformatory

plus court costs be paid by Marga

and the subject's mother.

The sentence was suspended and the subject was released

on his own recognizance.

Jerry Dean Michael married Juanita Haseman in 1954,

and her father paid the down payment

on their first apartment.

-(KNOCKING ON DOOR) -The subject appeared to be a smooth talker

and sold knitting machines which he built with the promise

that he would by the products the customer produced.

The number you are trying to reach

has been disconnected.

Juanita Haseman advised that she and the subject

changed residences twenty-one times

in the three years of their marriage,

and they resided in the states of New York,

California, Texas, Louisiana, Indiana, and Florida.

Juanita's father described the subject as "no-good,

always attempting some unethical means

of shortcutting to success."

In the spring of 1956,

Juanita had finally had enough of this marriage

and left the subject.

Juanita had two children by Jerry Dean Michael,

but he has never seen the youngest child.

The subject Jerry Dean Michael operated a small newspaper

over a local grocery store.

The subject did not enjoy a very good reputation

-in the community. -(GRUMBLING)

The newspaper had been unsuccessful,

and no paper was continued after the subject

left the small town of Elnora.

The subject changed residences frequently,

commenting that it was cheaper than paying rent.

Jerry Dean Michael worked for United Vacuum Cleaners in 1957.

The subject was an excellent salesman

and had a good mechanical knowledge

of vacuum cleaners and sewing machines.

The subject was fired,

as he was pocketing down payments made by customers.

Jerry Dean Michael considered himself a soldier of fortune,

divulging that he was going to Cuba

to join the revolutionaries,

and expressed other ideas which were considered wild

by anyone hearing them.

Jerry Dean Michael once told an acquaintance

that he hauled guns for distribution

to Castro's troops,

and that he was put in jail in Cuba by Batista

and freed by Castro's revolutionary forces.

The subject said he returned to the United States

by fishing vessel

and swam ashore at Bakers Hollow, Florida.

Mrs. Betty Sweet stated she met Jerry Dean Michael

in Linton, Indiana, during the spring of 1958,

and after acquaintance of approximately four weeks,

married the subject,

and thereafter lived with him for a period of two months,

during which time she conceived a child.

She related the subject was continually involved

in trouble with law enforcement,

and she therefore separated from him

in August of 1958.

She stated the child, a girl, was born,

and the subject has never seen her.

Vivian met Jerry when she was 16

at Pam's, where she worked.

And she probably flirted with him,

to be quite honest, you know.

She, uh, had a wit about her, and she was very intelligent.

She could talk you into things...

...if she really wanted to.