Andrew Silow-Carroll writes: “There is zero evidence that Florence Mendheim (right) was the inspiration for Batgirl. But the real-life Jewish woman from the Bronx and the fictional daughter of Gotham City’s Commissioner Gordon were both librarians who led secret double lives fighting bad guys. In Mendheim’s case, the villains were German-American Nazi sympathizers, who met in taverns and beer gardens throughout New York City in the mid-1930s.”