She also furnished a pair of Lawrence Wakefield’s heretofore-undiscovered wills. Though her birth to Lawrence and Edith did not appear in contemporaneous records, she procured a delayed birth certificate from the doctor who she claimed had delivered her. In this and many of her other battles, Linda Taylor’s weapons were documents, paperwork of uncertain provenance that buttressed her version of events. a telephone bill addressed to Sherman F.a receipt for a safety deposit box in the name Linda C.a mortgage notice, for the same address, for Linda C.birth certificates for children named Willie and Hosey.membership card for Epsilon Delta Chi in name Dr.

membership document of “Epsilon Delta Chi” certifying Connie R.

Veterans Administration letter to Jessie L.

auto insurance policy in the name of Linda C.

Veterans Administration letter to Mrs.

business letter from Martin Fertal attorney at law to Mrs.

coroner’s death certificate for Frank Brown.

a department store credit card in the name Patricia M.a Chicago Motor Club card for Linda C.Chicago Motor Club document bearing the name Yepez Juventino.phone bill carrying the name Mary Stevenson, c/o Willtrue Loyd.

She also had “three new cars, a full-length mink coat, and her take is estimated at a million dollars.” In October 1976, Reagan-who had lost that year’s GOP nomination to Gerald Ford-devoted one of his regular radio commentaries to updating the story of the “welfare queen, as she’s now called.” (While I haven’t found any examples of him saying “welfare queen” on the stump in 1976, he did use the term in this radio address.) According to Reagan, it had now been revealed that this woman (he still didn’t identify her by name) had operated in 14 states using 127 names, claimed to be the mother of 14 children, was using 50 addresses “in Chicago alone,” and had posed as an open heart surgeon. The yawning chasm between “probable” and “indictable” was wide enough for Reagan to label Linda Taylor a public scourge, and for the candidate’s critics to claim she was a media myth. Taylor’s welfare fraud case stalled in the courts for long enough that her 1974 indictment remained campaign fodder for Ronald Reagan in 1976.

Girls in Trouble by Linda Michaels