A bizarre fight is unfolding over Batman creator Bob Kane’s $52 million fortune. His elderly widow is trapped at the center of a real-life tale of villains and vigilantes, featuring a silver-tongued boy toy, a crusading distant relative and a conservator under fire.

Elizabeth Sanders Kane, 82, is so synonymous with the superhero franchise that she’s played cameo roles in Batman Returns, Batman Forever and Batman and Robin.

But her gilded Hollywood life took a dark turn in 2015 when concerned relatives noticed she’d grown increasingly distant.

They learned of the disturbing reason why.

The childless widow became infatuated with her new companion, a much younger, apparently handsome construction worker, Candelario Lomeli. Lomeli struck up a kinship with Sanders Kane after she hired him to paint her home in the Pacific Palisades some years earlier.

Lonely after Kane’s death in 1998, she welcomed the company, and Lomeli eventually became a fixture in the home.

Sanders Kane’s cousins, with whom she’d once been close, believed Lomeli was trying to drive a wedge between her and her family.

Suspicious of his motives, they hired a private investigator to dig into Lomeli’s past and allegedly discovered a trail of elderly women he’d been sweet-talking across Los Angeles.

Fearful that he was striking to swindle Sanders Kane out of her comic book multi-millions, they filed a restraining order against Lomeli, and within days, he was gone.

During their intervention, it was discovered that the widow was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Determined to protect her from any winsome grifters, her family placed her under a conservatorship.

Despite their efforts, one relative believes Sanders Kane was handed over to even more insidious manipulators: the very people entrusted with her care.

‘There’s a new villain in the Batman franchise,’ Lori Murphy, 59, a first cousin once removed of Sanders Kane, told the Daily Mail of the widow’s conservator, Jeffrey Siegel.

‘His [nick]name is Jeffrey the Seagull, and he scoops in and flies away with your family member and all their money,’ Murphy said.

Siegel has not returned the Daily Mail’s request for comment, but he has repeatedly denied Murphy’s accusations in numerous court filings and hasn’t been officially accused of any wrongdoing.

For almost 10 years, Murphy has been locked in a legal battle against Siegel and the other attorneys overseeing her cousin’s estate.

Murphy says she now fears she’ll ‘only’ receive $1 to $2 million of Sanders Kane’s vast eight figure fortune upon her death.

In various court filings, Murphy has accused Siegel of elder abuse, isolating Sanders Kane from her family, and mismanaging her fortune and assets.

Twice, Murphy has filed to remove Siegel as Sanders Kane’s conservator, but both of her requests have been denied by a judge for lacking merit.

Sanders Kane is believed to be nearing the end of her life. She is now bed-bound and needs 24-hour care from a team of nurses, court filings show.

In a January filing, Murphy sensationally accused Siegel of prolonging her cousin’s life for his own financial gain.

‘Elizabeth deserves to spend her years with family and friends, not being kept in a prison-like isolated environment,’ Murphy wrote in the filing.

‘The conservator is not doing a good job. Nobody in our family has been able to see her, but we were told she is being kept alive by a feeding tube and still living in her condo, so that Jeffrey Siegal [sic] and Associates can continue to take her money and maintain her conservatorship.’

Siegel countered by calling the allegations unfounded, unsubstantiated and lacking ‘any foundation’ whatsoever.

The judge sided with Siegel, and he was permitted to continue as conservator.

It was another of Sanders Kane’s cousins, Dr. Edward Spievack, a Florida-based orthopedic surgeon, who requested that Siegel take control of her assets and care in 2015.

In court documents obtained by the Daily Mail, it shows that Spievack’s request for a conservatorship came because of growing concern about Lomeli, and Sanders Kane’s deteriorating health.

Spievack did not return the Daily Mail’s request for comment.

The boy toy

Lomeli swanned into Sanders Kane’s life in the early 2000s.

The handyman, then in his mid 40s, presented himself as a hero of sorts, warning Sanders Kane that one of his colleagues was trying to overcharge her for a mantle, and he didn’t want her getting ripped off, Murphy said.

Sanders Kane was moved by Lomeli’s gesture and, having suffered with profound loneliness since Bob’s death, welcomed the attention of a younger man – despite warnings from loved ones to proceed with caution.

‘She would just call him her companion,’ said Murphy. ‘I’m not sure if it was romantic… but I heard he was living with another woman, but he basically dumped his other relationship to be her “friend.”’

Spievack grew concerned for his cousin’s well-being in 2014 after he observed a sharp decline in her cognitive health, noticing she seemed extremely confused. She was also becoming increasingly harder to reach by phone.

In court filings, Spievack accused Lomeli of monitoring his cousin’s communications and screening their calls to isolate her from her family so he could take advantage of her vulnerable condition unchecked.

Murphy said Spievack had previously confronted Sanders Kane over the nature of her relationship with Lomeli, warning her she was being taken advantage of, which caused a rift between the pair.

Murphy said the family also heard a rumor that Sanders Kane had paid off Lomeli’s mortgage – the Mail was unable to verify this claim.

Spievack hired a private investigator, who allegedly discovered through records that Lomeli had a network of elderly admirers and unearthed rumors of shady dealings.

He called Lomeli in December 2014, and the handyman told him Sanders Kane’s condition had worsened and she ‘needed help,’ court records show.

During the call, per court records, Lomeli told him he’d been writing checks for her, that he knew all of her banking information and that she didn’t have a will.

It was a call from Adult Protective Services that prompted the family’s panic to reach its peak.

A social worker who cared for Sanders Kane contacted Spievack to report that ‘something was wrong’ at the home, claiming Lomeli had been acting suspiciously, court papers show.

Both the social worker and Spievack contacted the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Department to report Lomeli for elder abuse. The Daily Mail has requested a copy of that report, but has not yet received it.

Spievack also contacted Wells Fargo, the bank his cousin had been keeping her fortune at for more than 30 years.

He claimed the bank said they’d recently spoken with Sanders Kane about putting some safeguards in place to protect her money, but, shortly after, ‘all of her assets were withdrawn and transferred’ to a different bank, US Bank.

He then flew to California to visit his cousin. When he arrived at her home, he was disturbed to find numerous pieces of her late husband’s original Batman artwork, which had once lined the walls of the home, taken down and stacked up on the floor as if they were about to be moved or sold.

According to court filings, Lomeli became increasingly evasive when questioned about the sprawled artifacts and later canceled a scheduled dinner – last minute – on her behalf, telling Spievack that she was meeting ‘with her attorney.’

In his conservatorship filing, Spievack wrote of Lomeli: ‘I am concerned that he is transferring her assets and may be disposing of the artwork.’

The conservatorship was approved within a month, and Sanders Kane was placed under Siegel’s care per Spievack’s request.

The family filed a restraining order against Lomeli, and he quickly vanished from her life.

Lomeli has not returned the Daily Mail’s request for comment.

But Lori Murphy claims her cousin’s brush with Lomeli was only the beginning of the alleged nightmare that has consumed what will likely be the final 10 years of her life.

It didn’t stop with Lomeli

Murphy lives in North Hollywood with her longterm partner, Marc Friedlander, 66. They run a dog-boarding service out of their home.

She steamrolled into the Sanders Kane saga in 2018, when she filed a petition for visitation with the Superior Court of California, claiming Siegel had ‘refused’ her any visitation with her cousin for three years.

Murphy told the Daily Mail she shared an incredibly close bond with Sanders Kane, who took her under her wing in the early 1990s when she moved to LA to escape the dysfunction of her immediate family.

Bob had a daughter from a previous marriage, but he and Sanders Kane couldn’t have children of their own. Murphy said she became the couple’s surrogate daughter, attending swanky events, ritzy dinners and mingling with the stars by their side.

‘They always paid,’ said Murphy, who often brought Friedlander along. ‘They never wanted to go to any Olive Garden. They treated us to the nines and never expected us to pick up the bill… we couldn’t have afforded it otherwise.’

Murphy claims Bob once took her to the side and told her that, though he wanted to take care of her financially, he didn’t want to do her a ‘disservice’ by making her rich too young.

Murphy claims Bob said that when he died, he would ensure she was ‘taken care of’ in his will – he saw her as a second daughter.

‘I always expected that I was going to be in the will based on that, and I counted on that,’ she said.

Murphy did not receive any inheritance after Bob’s death, but says she is set to inherit over $1 million from Sanders Kane, which is less than she’d anticipated.

‘Bob told me he was going to leave me enough money that I would never have to worry about money again.’

When Bob died, Murphy claims she and Friedlander became Sanders Kane’s closest companions. She was the only relative who lived in LA, but their visits became less frequent when her cousin met Lomeli.

The last time she saw Sanders Kane before the conservatorship was at her birthday dinner in 2012 – Murphy said she appeared happy and healthy.

A few years later, after the conservatorship began, Murphy claims Sanders Kane asked her to become her full-time carer, but Siegel allegedly denied the request.

In conversation with the Daily Mail, Murphy accused Siegel of being ‘threatened’ by her close relationship with their aging cousin, believing her presence would disrupt his ability to access and manage her money however he saw fit.

Under the conservatorship, scheduled visits to see Sanders Kane had to be approved by Siegel and her physician.

In a 2018 filing, Murphy described previous visits where Siegel’s team cultivated an uncomfortable environment and often cut their meetings short or canceled last minute.

‘He is isolating her from her only local family member, someone who brings her joy and comfort,’ wrote Murphy.

In a filing objecting to Murphy’s visitation petition in 2019, Siegel claimed it wasn’t in ‘the best interests’ of Sanders Kane to see Murphy.

Siegel also accused Murphy of acting erratically in her presence, and of harassing her – he filed numerous bogus police reports claiming she was being abused and malnourished, which were proven to be false.

One of Sanders Kane’s nurses told police that Murphy was ‘crazy’ and appeared not to be ‘in her right mind.’

Siegel also claimed that Murphy smelled bad during a 2019 visit with Sanders Kane at an IHOP, during which she reportedly gripped her beloved cousin’s hand too tightly and made her ‘uncomfortable.’

Murphy blamed the reported stench on her 5-pound Yorkie, who accompanied her on the lunch and had recently undergone life-saving surgery for a bacterial infection.

Siegel asked the judge to forbid any future visitations at Sanders Kane’s LA condo on the grounds that, during prior meetings, she’d refused to leave and claimed she wanted to move in because she was ‘homeless.’ He said the police had to be called.

Murphy admitted to being ‘displaced’ at the time, but insisted to the Daily Mail her desire to visit her cousin was not motivated by money.

‘They all formed a team against me because they’re all on the payroll and they’re all getting a piece of the pie, and it’s to their advantage to discredit me and make me look crazy so that they can keep the power and the money,’ she claimed in her interview with the Mail.

Murphy hasn’t seen her ailing relative for almost six years.

She once again filed for unrestricted visitation with Sanders Kane in March.

In handwritten testimony shared in the filing, Murphy claimed Siegel and his team rejected or cancelled dozens of visitations.

Murphy’s attempts to oust Siegel as conservator have been unsuccessful, as have her attempts to gain unrestricted visitation.

With her cousin’s life seemingly nearing an end, Murphy is desperate to see her and says ‘it’s draining and painful’ not to be able to spend time with Sanders Kane as her life ebbs away.

‘I told my family I wasn’t going to go after the money. I just wanted to be with her.’ Murphy added.

In March, Siegel petitioned the courts to allow him to create a financial trust for Sanders Kane’s estate, to arrange her financial affairs and streamline inheritance proceedings in the event of her death.

A hearing has been set for June 12.

Murphy believes she is among 18 to 23 family members who stand to inherit Sanders Kane’s estate, but she is worried about Siegel’s latest petition.

‘I think what he’s doing now is he’s trying to go back to court to gain control of all her money and her paintings so that he can then turn around and pull the plug on her, and then he can screw the family one final big f*** you,’ she alleged to the Daily Mail.

Aside from Murphy’s accusations, Siegel has not been accused of any wrongdoing during his time serving as conservator.

Sanders Kane’s estate was valued at $52 million as of January 2025.

For now, Murphy says, she clings to life with the help of a feeding tube at her LA condo, with no friends or immediate family at her side.