The details of Reagan’s story were so outrageous even Tip O’Neill, speaker of the House, told Reagan he doubted that welfare queen existed. But the Linda Taylor of Levin’s book was far, far more outrageous: She was born Martha Louise White, but tried on a dizzying array of identities, races, addresses. She had five children, kidnapped others and abandoned some, according to Levin’s book and the Tribune’s reporting. She worked as a spiritualist and once identified herself as a heart surgeon. She was Connie Reed, and Connie Harbaugh, and Constance Wakefield, and Connie Green — and many others. She was jailed for welfare fraud and perjury, but never charged with suspected kidnappings or murders. In the mid-’70s, the Tribune linked her to the 1964 abduction of Paul Fronczak, a day-old infant at the former Michael Reese Hospital in Bronzeville. The case remains unsolved, but someone using one of Taylor’s familiar aliases visited the hospital the day of the abduction; Taylor was also seen that day wearing a nurse’s uniform. (She was never charged with the crime.)