WOW. Linda Taylor the original Welfare Queen.

[Wisconsin Beth]

This is from Slate.  And it's not a short story. 

The Welfare Queen

Ronald Reagan made Linda Taylor a notorious American villain. Her other sins were far worse.
By Josh Levin
“She Used 80 Names”

Ronald Reagan loved to tell stories. When he ran for president in 1976, many of Reagan’s anecdotes converged on a single point: The welfare state is broken, and I’m the man to fix it. On the trail, the Republican candidate told a tale about a fancy public housing complex with a gym and a swimming pool. There was also someone in California, he’d explain incredulously, who supported herself with food stamps while learning the art of witchcraft. And in stump speech after stump speech, Reagan regaled his supporters with the story of an Illinois woman whose feats of deception were too amazing to be believed.

www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2013/12/linda_taylor_welfare_queen_ronald_reagan_made_her_a_notorious_american_villain.html

Mods, I didn't know where to put this.  Feel free to move as necessary. 

[Deleted]

Ya, she's a typical welfare recipient

[zibazinski]

Wow. 

[Wisconsin Beth]

I know Zib.  I kept thinking of book by Charlotte Vale Allen when I was reading it. Somebody's Baby.  Which I think I'm going to have to get on my Kindle. 

[swamp]

Interesting story. I was not aware that welfare queens are murdering sociopaths.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

I feel cheated.  I saw no mention of Coach purses or crab legs.

[Deleted]

Interesting story. I was not aware that welfare queens are murdering sociopaths.

That would explain all the hate.

[Deleted]

I am surprised no one has made a movie out of her life yet. 



WHOOPS! I just checked and it looks like someone made a documentary: 

Redemption of the Welfare Queen


and it appears to cast her as a victim:

President Reagan coined her as a 'Welfare Queen' by making an example of her to help reform the welfare system. Unfortunately her need turned to greed because of something she inherited from her very own husband she was introduced at the early age of sixteen to an illegal elastic life style. Greed, fraud and deceit exploded into psychopathic behavior when her husband left her with five kids alone

[Miss Tequila]

Dec 19, 2013 10:45:33 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

I feel cheated.  I saw no mention of Coach purses or crab legs.

No...but she did drive a Cadillac..unfortuantely Cadillac didn't make Escalades back then

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

That would explain all the hate

Yep, explains a lot of what I swear is poor envy.  If their lives are so awesome why don't you quit your job and go on the dole?

The people I know who fall into this category or close to it, their lives suck.  I don't see how driving a car that barely runs and you can't afford to fix it is somehow fancy living.

No...but she did drive a Cadillac..unfortuantely Cadillac didn't make Escalades back then

Wasn't a raised Cadillac, doesn't count.

[Miss Tequila]

Dec 19, 2013 11:00:48 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

That would explain all the hate

Yep, explains a lot of what I swear is poor envy.  If their lives are so awesome why don't you quit your job and go on the dole?

The people I know who fall into this category or close to it, their lives suck.  I don't see how driving a car that barely runs and you can't afford to fix it is somehow fancy living.

No...but she did drive a Cadillac..unfortuantely Cadillac didn't make Escalades back then

Wasn't a raised Cadillac, doesn't count.

I disagree with the poor envy.  I can't speak for others but I have no poor envy.  I was raised poor.  It sucked.  But I do have a lot of contempt for people that put themselves in situations where they become dependent on the government.  Doesn't mean I want to be them.

[NancysSummerSip]

I finally finished reading the story. I don't see the welfare angle of it as the main part of the story, bad as the abuse of the system is.

Linda Taylor was an abusive person in the fullest sense - to her family, friends and total strangers. She had no issue moving from one personality to another, lying, stealing, using and making use of whatever and whomever was handy in order to take what she wanted/needed and make it part of her own life. Welfare wasn't a means, or even a means to an end, really.
She comes across as someone who would turn anything or anyone into a tool to keep her own illusions well-fixed and in good running order. She has no emotional attachments at any level - not to her own kids, not to the ones she kidnapped, not to her men, her parents or anyone in her circle. No love, no sympathy, no pity, but also it seems, not a lot of anger or hate, either. It's as if emotion either way is just a waste for her, because she'd have to pay attention to people around her.
I'll grant you that she was greedy, but the need to fill the void with money, cars, jewelry and stuff came across as more of a habit, and if someone or something got in the way of her need to take care of her habit, she dispensed with that problem.

[Wisconsin Beth]

But the author did mention that several of the people were positive he was reporting back to her and did NOT want to discuss anything.  Fear of her is implied. 

[Tennesseer]

Con artists abound.

List of Con Artists

[Wisconsin Beth]

Tenn, you just made me realize we need TT on this thread, with stories about NY fraud. 

[Tennesseer]

Dec 19, 2013 12:17:15 GMT -5 Wisconsin Beth said:

Tenn, you just made me realize we need TT on this thread, with stories about NY fraud. 

[Wisconsin Beth]

I do miss her stories.  And her fascination with mass murder.  I don't spend much time on the political threads usually so I didn't see that side of her. 

[zibazinski]

Perhaps fingerprinting all those that apply for welfare and even perhaps DNA testing might solve at least the multiple aliases applying for welfare. If she is guilty of more than fraud, that is too bad.

[NancysSummerSip]

Oh, people were afraid of her, no question. After all, she picked up and apparently disposed of children at will, like they were soft drink containers she had used and was done using. And she may very well have caused the death of several of the people she came in contact with. What strikes me is her absolute sociopathic-ness, if I may make up a word. I don't think she is crazy or insane, but I do think there is something inherently twisted or missing in her thought processes.

I am in no way defending her. I think she had the whole right vs. wrong thing straight from the start. She chose not to use it and use those people and things who were weaker, smaller, sicker and very trusting of her to form a version of her life as she wanted it, rather than the version that would simply play out normally. 

[Wisconsin Beth]

Ah, sorry, I went back and read closer.  I misread that you didn't think she inspired fear, etc. in others.  NOt that she herself didn't fear it. 

She sounds pretty cold and selfish.  I can't fathom it myself. 

I'd love to see her DNA tree, you know? 

[NancysSummerSip]

Dec 19, 2013 13:09:06 GMT -5 Wisconsin Beth said:

Ah, sorry, I went back and read closer.  I misread that you didn't think she inspired fear, etc. in others.  NOt that she herself didn't fear it. 

She sounds pretty cold and selfish.  I can't fathom it myself. 

I'd love to see her DNA tree, you know? 

There is some very odd DNA there, no doubt. Or maybe I'm wrong, and it's normal, and she just made a conscious decision to ignore it and use her wiles and intelligence as a weapon against what she perceived as forces holding her back. Yes, I did say intelligence. She clearly was not stupid. To have lived on the ragged edge of average society, with that many aliases and identities, physical locations and welfare applications and mail and the odd array of family, and always on the watch for the law, and still pretty much stayed out of jail for a long time, does take some intelligence in a cunning sort of way.

[Wisconsin Beth]

No, she wasn't stupid. 

[haapai]

I tried to take some comfort in the thought that a lot of what this woman allegedly did would be harder to get away with now.  But then I noticed that when she stopped getting checks sent to her, she appears to have switched to controlling and possibly murdering people.

What an awful woman!  I can understand why so many people were still afraid of her ten to twenty years after she died. 

ETA:  There's someone in my life who sounds a bit like her.  I wonder a lot about what the heck happened to her in her childhood to make her such a curse to anyone who has the misfortune to stumble into her in a vulnerable mode. 

But I've got the brains to leave it a mystery.  I've seen what happens to people who foolishly spend time around her trying to figure her out.  They get used and hurt.  No thanks!  I prefer being in the dark to being used. 

[Pants]

HOLY F*ING SH*TBALLS.

It scares me that we live in a world where there are people like this. One women left such a train of insane destruction. And is possibly the reason the doors on the maternity ward lock closed unless you have the bracelet that matches your baby. CRAZY!

[mmhmm]

Dayum!  That was quite a read!  Thanks for posting it, Beth.  Nothing like a blow-by-blow on the life of a classic sociopath!  

[Deleted]

Amazing.
This certainly magnifies the loopholes in the system and the people that use them.

[jeep108]

I thought I was reading a Lifetime TV movie.  The poor kids and families she ruined.

[Opti]

Sounds like a sociopath or psychopath. (I really don't remember the difference,
but she does seem to be one of those people who don't really care about
right, wrong, people, just getting what they want.)


I agree with the article writer that welfare fraud probably wouldn't be
at the top of my list especially when SS and inheritance scams might
have been more popular with her. I feel bad for the woman whose
Mom was likely murdered and her childhood damaged.

[Bonny]

Dec 19, 2013 20:02:05 GMT -5 Opti said:

Sounds like a sociopath or psychopath. (I really don't remember the difference,
but she does seem to be one of those people who don't really care about
right, wrong, people, just getting what they want.)


I agree with the article writer that welfare fraud probably wouldn't be
at the top of my list especially when SS and inheritance scams might
have been more popular with her. I feel bad for the woman whose
Mom was likely murdered and her childhood damaged.

Almost like getting Al Capone for tax evasion.

[Tennesseer]

Dec 19, 2013 18:15:23 GMT -5 jeep108 said:

I thought I was reading a Lifetime TV movie.  The poor kids and families she ruined.

If you ever get the chance to see ìt on TV, watch the movie 'An American Crime', a story about Gertrude Baniszewski.  A true story sbout the sociopath woman/mother.  She even got her own children along with neighborhood children to torture the young girl.

Gertrude Baniszewski