In 1961, she was arrested for counterfeiting U.S. currency in the Los Angeles, California, area. She jumped bail and went on the run in 1962 with Vivian and their children. While on the run, Carmichael faked a serious car accident in an effort to shed her identity as a man. She often introduced her wife, Vivian Barrett Michael, as her secretary. In 1973, still on the run from her 1961 arrest, Carmichael was working at the United States Marketing Institute (USMI), in Los Angeles. Carmichael falsely promoted herself as being widowed (her husband "Jim" had supposedly died in 1966), and holding degrees in mechanical engineering and business from
Ohio State University and
Miami University, respectively. Twentieth Century Motor Car Corporation would ultimately prove to be fraudulent and was only in existence for four years. Following accusations of financial impropriety at the Twentieth Century Motor Car Corporation, Carmichael was charged with 31 counts of
grand theft, fraud, and corporate securities violations. She went into hiding, and was featured in a 1989 episode of
Unsolved Mysteries, which detailed the fraud behind the Dale, for which she was a wanted fugitive. Roughly two weeks after the episode aired, a tip from a viewer led police to
Dale, Texas, where Carmichael was eventually found working at a flower shop under the alias Katherine Elizabeth Johnson. tried and sent to prison. She served 18 months in a men's prison, despite having been recognized as a woman by the courts. Carmichael died of cancer in February 2004. ==In popular culture==