Six years ago, a friend sent me an article from the 1970s about a woman named Linda Taylor.

It said that Taylor had committed welfare fraud to the tune of $154,000 in a single year,

using 80 different aliases.

It also said that she owned a bunch of luxury cars,

had filed a fraudulent police report about stolen furs,

and had been preparing to open a medical office posing as a doctor.

Another article I found said that Linda Taylor, the so-called Welfare Queen, could change from

black to white to Latin with a mere change of a wig.

Before I read those stories, I didn't know that the Welfare Queen stereotype had originated with a real person.

A black woman with a fur coat and fancy cars living a life of

luxury thanks to unearned government checks. That vicious caricature had been based on

Linda Taylor, then used to demonize those who could barely afford a winter coat, let alone a fur.

That caricature has persisted decade after decade, as aid to the poor has gotten slashed by Republican and Democratic

administrations. Taylor briefly became infamous in the 1970s. Newspapers

wrote up her outrageous exploits and Ronald Reagan railed against her during his first presidential campaign.

But just as quickly as she'd scandalize the nation, Linda Taylor disappeared from view.

Though the Welfare Queen archetype in Linda Taylor disappeared from view.

Though the Welfare Queen archetype endured,

nobody ever dug into who Taylor really was

and what had become of her.

I became obsessed with uncovering everything I could about Taylor.

I wanted to know how and why a single outrageous case had been used to

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