Mary Kay McBrayer (28:39)
Just before the break, I mentioned that Linda Taylor had sued the school with the gas line explosion without success. She didn't let it go though. Linda remarried in 1969 to Willie Walker, her third husband. He drove a cab in Chicago for work and to my knowledge he was not a veteran, so I'm not sure how she did this next part. But Linda convinced the Veterans Administration that her daughter Sandra was, quote, a helpless child due to the explosion at the elementary school. I'm also not clear on the details of this, but Willie only stayed at home on the weekends. In the meantime, 19 year old Charles Bailey stayed with Linda. Linda got to know Charles when she was advertising her services as a spiritual advisor and reader of the Unknown in the Chicago Defender. His aunt Francie had gone to get a theatrical reading full seance vibe, and Linda had told her that she had the feeling Charles wouldn't live much longer. She called him up within an hour and she told him that his family was plotting his demise. Linda described the exact clothes he was wearing at that moment, which she had learned from his aunt earlier, and in that way she convinced him to come stay with her when Willie was home. Charles didn't sleep in Linda's bed. He minded the three children in the house, although he couldn't figure out how the three white children belonged to Willie, who was black. If he asked questions about any of the errands she ran, like applying for benefits at child services or cashing government checks that she stored in the closet at the currency exchange. Linda told him to, quote, leave it alone. And when she brought home another infant, a little black boy, without any explanation, he knew better than to ask. If you recall from the very top of the episode, investigator Jack Sherwin thought Linda seemed familiar when he showed up to her house regarding the Burglary, she reported that was because he actually had met her before. In 1971, Linda divorced Willie and she sent Charles out to mind some land she had on a farm. She was alone when Jack Sherwin showed up to investigate a robbery she reported. And she couldn't say exactly what had been stolen. Jack thought it was fishy, so he asked around to her neighbors. When he turned up nothing, he was certain that she was committing insurance fraud and he called up her insurance company to report her. Linda Taylor left Chicago before they could get her on insurance fraud. She found a nice guy real estate agent in Van Buren county in Michigan and introduced herself as Dr. Connie Walker, a heart surgeon from Chicago. He showed her a new built house and Linda told him it was Perfect. She put $400 down and said she'd pay the rest in full in two months. He never saw that money, not even as checks from the state of Michigan arrived in Linda's mailbox. She was receiving $81 in food stamps and an additional $236 every two weeks through the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program. Because Linda reportedly had seven dependent children, she did not. The children who were there did not have their origins accounted for, and she was accused of stealing children. Later, though, those charges did not stick. When another social worker reviewed Linda's case, she got so overwhelmed just looking at the names. So overwhelmed that she didn't notice the set of twins and the subsequent set of triplets were born just five days apart. What finally brought the law's attention to her in Michigan was purchasing a new Cadillac. Not only that, but she had Charles Bailey park it in the neighbor's garage. The garage of a neighbor who did not know her. The neighbor asked for it to be moved, and when no one moved the car from his own garage, he called the police to tow it. That's when they opened an investigation on the woman who owned it. They learned about the unpaid for house, the government assistance and the car. Not to mention the fraudulent Social Security checks her underage nanny was receiving at her behest. In February of 1972, when Linda was loading up a moving van, the police arrested her and booked her in a Michigan jail. She was charged with the felony of welfare fraud to the amount of $610. A district court judge determined that she was a flight risk. I mean, she was loading up a moving van at the moment they came to arrest her and set her bail at $10,000. After the preliminary examination, another judge reduced her bond to $1,000. Linda paid it, got out of jail, Left Michigan, and never showed up to trial. The next two years saw two marriages and two divorces for Linda. That brings us to 1974, the year Jack Sherwin came out to investigate another burglary and recognized her when he got a warrant to search her place. He found multiple public aid identification cards, and he discovered her outstanding felony warrant. Jack arrested Linda on behalf of the state of Michigan. That's when her story went viral. She was the welfare queen. As I mentioned before, Linda became one very hot topic for Ronald Reagan's rallies When he was campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination in 1974. And even though Reagan was not the Republican nomination in 1974, people remembered the welfare queen. Linda was for sure committing fraud, but the amount she was accused of stealing at this time was $610. In today's money, that's about $4,000. I don't want to say that $4,000 is not a lot of money. I know I personally could do a lot of damage with $4,000. But to the government, it seems like nothing. Granted, there could be a lot of reasons For a low number like that, Other than that's all she stole. Maybe that's all they could link to her. Maybe that's all she stole from the state of Michigan. Maybe that's all she stole from the state government of Michigan. Maybe that's all she stole through welfare. Regardless, welfare fraud was and always would be her claim to fame. Even when her crimes escalated, Linda fled again. But they found her in Tucson, Arizona. That's the first time she was referenced as the welfare queen. To be fair, Reagan never called her that. He just detailed her frauds and then added some more. Police removed Linda back to Illinois, the state having jurisdiction of the crime. To my knowledge, she did not bring any of her children, biological or otherwise, with her. It seems like they were either residing with other family members or were wards of the state at this time. Then she moved in with her friend, Patricia Parks. And this is where the story gets sadder. The women had met at mass, Although Linda was not necessarily a catholic, and she saw that Patricia Parks needed help. Patricia was 36, a former teacher with a master's of education. She had three children, nine, seven, and five. And she was in the middle of a bad divorce. She also had multiple sclerosis and recurrent bladder and kidney problems, and her husband did not help with those medical bills. Patricia was an immigrant from Trinidad, and she had no family to lean on. She was a perfect victim. Linda invited Patricia to a seance where she predicted that Patricia would die in six months. But of course, Linda could change that. She packed her stuff and moved into Patricia's house. She told the nine year old Bridgetta, I'm here to take care of you. But Linda had no interest in kids. I mean, aside from how much she could get from the government for claiming them as her dependents. She just wanted them to stay out of the way while she nursed Patricia. And just in case her health didn't improve, Patricia wrote up her last will and testament, which left her estate to a trustee who would provide for her children. She also named an executor to manage any real estate in their favor. She named Linda Taylor for both roles. Meanwhile, detectives were building a case against Linda and her bill was stacking up to be much more than $610. She was now charged with stealing $7,600, even though she had likely stolen much more. Linda was flamboyant too. She did not fit in with Patricia's ring of refined teacher friends. And her now ex husband boiled at the sight of Linda. He knew something wasn't right. Patricia's health did decline. And when her multiple sclerosis started to affect her speech, doctors prescribed her tranquilizers. She also tried the West Indian remedies her mother recommended in her letters. Nothing helped. As she got worse, Linda put her in isolation. Patricia took Bridgetta's room. Bridgetta slept in a twin bed in her brother's room. While the boys shared another bed. Linda moved herself into the primary bedroom. In some of her dying moments, Patricia had her lawyer change the beneficiary on her life insurance policies from her ex husband to her children. And on April 30, 1975, Patricia gave Linda the quitclaim deed to her house. Both of these signatures happened in her hospital bed. On June 11, Patricia was released from the hospital. Four days later, she was found unconscious at home and she was pronounced dead on arrival to the er. A later article in the Chicago Tribune stated that investigators found an excessive amount of medical drugs, including barbiturates, in her blood. It didn't prove murder, but a barbiturate overdose like this one definitely raised questions about Patricia's caretaker. The name that said caretaker signed on the informant line of Patricia's death certificate was Linda C. Wakefield. Patricia's three kids moved to three different terrible foster homes. They missed their own mother's funeral. Finally, a Cook county judge granted their father custody. He and his parents were astonished when they saw the kids. They were all emaciated and the youngest one had Taken to hoarding food, which many children do when they don't know when they'll eat again. Their father barricaded himself in his and Patricia's home. He blamed himself for letting Linda take over, but he wouldn't let her take their house. And he was convinced that this was murder. Police did launch an investigation into this claim, but Linda was never arrested nor charged with a crime. The obvious question here is why not? And I don't have a good answer. When Josh Levine went to interview John Parks, Patricia's ex husband, in 2013, he said, Boy, you waited a long time to come. It had been 37 years. In his book about Linda, the Queen, Josh Levine writes, in terms of the bottom line, there was little value in marching cheaters into court. George Lindbergh, the former state comptroller whose signature adorned the front of Linda Taylor's welfare checks, said in 1977 that trying to extract cash from fraudsters was pointless. They didn't have any, so the state wasn't getting any. Taylor cost the state money. As both a public aid recipient and a criminal defendant, I'm sure that's true. But the decision not to press her for murder because the welfare case was more indictable, that doesn't seem right to me, especially because the sentencing was pretty light. But before we get to that welfare fraud trial, first, more crime. In January of 1976, Linda married Sherman Ray in Chicago. In case you're counting, this is marriage number six. In February, she was charged with stealing from her ex roommate a television, a fur coat, an electric can opener, and other household goods. She also effectively kidnapped Sherman's niece. In brief, Sherman was his niece Diana's default babysitter. Diana knew Linda from the times when they'd eat peanut butter sandwiches and watch soap operas. So when Linda kept up the babysitting routine, Diana was not alarmed at all. Not even when Linda babysat her at a different house for several days, maybe a week. Diana wasn't alarmed, but her grandfather Raymond sure was. That was Sherman's dad. He never liked Linda. Raymond showed up with police to the house where Linda was holding Diana, even though Diana never knew about it. And Raymond carried her to the car because she didn't have any shoes. Later, Raymond Diana learned that her uncle Sherman told her granddad Raymond where Linda was, even though he stood by Linda after she abducted his niece. Raymond did his best to keep Linda away from Diana, but Raymond never pressed charges against her. I'm assuming that's for two reasons. One, police aren't always trustworthy, and two, she was his son's wife. Finally, in 1977, her welfare fraud trial began. The process was very drawn out and hard to follow, so I will just summarize its outcome after I tell you about what she wore to court. I know that this is a tacky red carpet question that only women get asked, but it's so interesting to me, so I need to tell you about it. I told you before that she was flamboyant. Don't forget that this was also the 70s, so flamboyant is relative. Linda completely ignored the dress code her counsel advised to her first indictment back in 1974. She'd worn a thigh length leather coat with shearling trim, a black hat and leather gloves. Fantastic. A few months later, she wore a white top with a cleavage cutout, another leather coat, white satin slacks, and a white tam o'shanter which if you didn't know, is the kind of traditional Scottish hat that Dougal and Myrto wear in Outlander Bold. Love it. Next, she wore a denim pantsuit and a ginger Afro wig and her new husband, Sherman Ray wore faux crocodile shoes with goldfish in the plastic heels. This woman sucks, but her outfits are marvelous. After a drawn out process involving more deception, Linda was convicted of theft and perjury and she was sentenced to three to seven years in state prison. She also pleaded guilty to burglary charges from 1976, so she served a concurrent five and a half year prison term. Just over two years later, in 1980, the Illinois Parole Board released Linda from prison and Ronald Reagan after campaigning on welfare reform again and this time winning the Republican Presidential nomination, went into to the White House.
