Thank you for asking me about G. Elizabeth Carmichael.
G. Elizabeth is, in my opinion, the greatest con artist of the 20th century. Unfortunately, she and her incredible scam seem lost to the collective public memory.
G. Elizabeth came to California with her revolutionary, two-seater, three-wheeled Dale car in the early 1970s, during the first energy crisis. The Dale was purported to get about 70 mpg. It was said to be capable a 50 mph head-on crash, sustaining only minimal damage and protecting its occupants from all but the most minor injuries. It could cruise at 80 mph. Its price was a mere $1969.
G. Elizabeth quickly became a regular on LA area talk and news shows, talking up the Dale. The car was once offered as a prize on "The Price is Right." It was a featured car at the LA Auto Show. She had a factory and showroom in Encino, California, and was generous to the media with press conferences and tours of her factory. She collected a great deal of money from investors and potential buyers for the Dale car. Every other Angeleno, so it seemed, wanted a Dale and/or a piece of the company which was sure to be the next big winner.
Thing is, there was no car--only prototypes.
When her scam was exposed, it was covered on live TV, replete with the authorities charging the Encino factory, like something right out of Gangbusters, finding mostly confused, low-level employees and Dale cars in various states of assembly, made entirely of . . . plywood. G. Elizabeth? She was nowhere to be found and had disappeared with the money.
Amazingly, she went on to perpetrate the same scam in Texas, to an equally enthusiastic group of investors and potential buyers. According to a fellow SI threadster, she and the Dale hit the East Coast too.
She remained at large until "Unsolved Mysteries" did a piece on her in the late 1980s, resulting in her subsequent apprehension in the early 1990s. Of course, there was no money to be recovered.
In retrospect, it is clear that the media were G. Elizabeth's unwitting accomplice, and this may explain to some degree why she and the Dale scam were never given the cautionary publicity they merited and why they are now largely forgotten or unknown.. The SEC and the California Department of Corporations also played into the scam. Records reveal that they gave their very best almost to the investigation of the Dale and G. Elizabeth, as did other government policing agencies.
No, I was not a Dale investor or potential buyer. I had no interest whatsoever in the Dale. In fact, I still drive the same gas guzzler I drove back then. I am but an observer who remains fascinated and utterly awed and bowled over at a master scammer and her masterful scam. And I thank her for giving me cause to reflect on how how really good it can get.
Holly |
