ECU Libraries Catalog

The Queen : the forgotten life behind an American myth / Josh Levin.

Author/creator Levin, Josh, 1980- author.
Format Book and Print
EditionFirst edition.
Publication Info New York, NY : Little, Brown and Company, 2019.
Copyright Notice ©2019
Descriptionxi, 418 pages, 8 unnumbered leaves of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm
Subject(s)
Contents A new victim -- Covert -- Page one -- Obtained by deception -- Friend -- A woman in Chicago -- Concerned neighbors -- The fashionably dressed Mrs. Taylor -- She couldn't stop -- She knows about the money -- Everything is fictitious -- Bottom rats -- The two Mrs. Harbaughs -- I'll sue the hell out of them -- A helpless child -- Clever, conniving, callous -- Beneficiary -- Deficits of memory.
Abstract "In the fall of 1974, the Chicago Tribune found a woman its readers were sure to hate. Linda Taylor had reported a phony burglary, concocting a lie about stolen furs and jewelry. The detective who checked it out soon discovered she was a scammer, a welfare cheat who drove a Cadillac to collect ill-gotten government checks. Taylor, it turned out, was also a kidnapper, and possibly a murderer. But nobody--not the journalists who touted her story, not the police, and not Ronald Reagan, who railed against Taylor during the 1976 presidential campaign--seemed to care about anything but her welfare thievery. Levin's mesmerizing book, the product of six years of reporting and research, is an empathetic work of true crime, an account of how Taylor destroyed both strangers and those close to her ... Growing up in the Jim Crow South, Taylor was made an outcast because of the color of her skin. As she rose to infamy, the press and politicians manipulated her image to demonize poor black women. This is the dazzling story of what was done to Linda Taylor, what she did to others, and what was done in her name."--Jacket.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references (pages 345-354) and index.
Genre/formNonfiction.
Genre/formTrue crime stories.
Genre/formBiographies.
Genre/formCase studies.
Genre/formBiographies.
Genre/formTrue crime stories.
LCCN 2019934174
ISBN9780316513302 (hardcover)
ISBN031651330X (hardcover)

Available Items

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Joyner General Stacks HV6692 .T39 L48 2019 ✔ Available Place Hold