Batgirl
was a silver Mercedes 450SL. He thought that it was unusual to transport a car in the back of a truck and questioned the two occupants, who turned out to be Cummiskey and a friend, twenty-six-year old, Crystal Annette Li. The two were apparently on their way to Miami to work at a strip club when they were spotted by the officer. The officer found a small amount of marijuana on the pair. He ran a warrant check and found that Chumminsky was the wanted Batgirl. She was arrested and held at the Harrison County Detention Facility in Gulfport on charges of murder and grand theft auto. Sacramento homicide detectives got on the first flight in the morning to make their way to Mississippi. On May 13, 1991, television, radio and newspaper reporters, along with dozen of cameramen, waited at the Sacramento Airport for the exotic murderer with the name of a cartoon hero. They hoped to get a glimpse of her athletic build, blue-black hair, and heavily made-up eyes, not to mention the bloody vampire bite on her neck and the flying bats that danced on her left bicep. Instead they saw a frightened twenty-year-old freckle-faced woman, who looked more like a college student than a murdering, coke-loving, weedsmoking, vodka-drinking, itinerant good-time girl. When Cummiskey saw the brigade of reporters and cameras, she leaned her head into her police escort’s shoulder and broke into tears. Cummiskey tried to explain what happened the night of Inhofer’s murder the best her emotionally and intellectually-stunted brain could. She told police she had taken LSD, then took a shower with Inhofer. When the LSD kicked in, she thought Inhofer was the devil and that she had to slay him. She also thought Satan wanted her to be the best evil machine possible, and wanted to protect her. She stated she had lost her soul because she had hurt someone (Inhofer) she loved. Given the testimony of her “friends,” her two ex-husbands, and a treasure trove of incriminating evidence—such as a ledger of her Johns, love letters from duped servicemen stationed overseas, and juvenile ramblings about cutting and killing people—Michelle Cummiskey faced a possible death sentence. In a plea bargain, she admitted to the murder of Philip Inhofer. At the sentencing, Michelle Cummiskey wore a cotton dress with tiny purple and blue flowers on it. For the first time in years, her hair was its natural color of brown. Her curly long hair covered her vampire bite tattoos.
35