Velma Barfield

Velma Barfield
Background information
Birth name	Margie Velma Bullard
Born	October 29, 1932(1932-10-29) South Carolina
Died	November 2, 1984(1984-11-02) (aged 52)
Cause of death	Lethal injection
Killings
Number of victims	6
Span of killings	1971–June 4, 1978
Country	United States
State(s)	North Carolina
Date apprehended	1978

Margie Velma Barfield (née Margie Velma Bullard) (October 29, 1932 – November 2, 1984) was a serial killer, convicted of six murders. She was the first woman in the United States to be executed after the 1976 resumption of capital punishment and the first since 1962. She was also the first woman to be executed by lethal injection.

History

Velma Barfield was born in rural South Carolina, but grew up near Fayetteville, North Carolina. Her father reportedly was abusive and she resented her mother who did not stop the beatings. She escaped by marrying Thomas Burke in 1949. The couple had two children and were reportedly happy until Barfield had a hysterectomy and developed back pain. These events led to a behavioral change in Barfield and an eventual drug addiction.

Thomas Burke began to drink and Barfield's complaints turned into bitter arguments. On April 4, 1969, after Burke had passed out, Barfield and the children left the house, returning to find the home burned and Burke dead. Only a few months later, her home burned once again, this time with a reward of insurance money.

In 1970, Barfield married a widower, Jennings Barfield. Less than a year after their marriage, Jennings died on March 22 1971 from heart complications, leaving Velma a widow once again.

In 1974, Barfield's mother, Lillian Bullard, showed symptoms of intense diarrhea, vomiting and nausea, only to fully recover a few days later. During the Christmas season of the same year, Lillian experienced the same illness as earlier that year, resulting in her death only hours after arriving at the hospital on December 30, 1974.

In 1976, Barfield began caring for the elderly, working for Montgomery and Dollie Edwards. Montgomery fell ill and died on January 29, 1977. A little over a month after the death of her husband, Dollie experienced identical symptoms to that of Velma's mother and she too died (March 1, 1977), a death to which Barfield later confessed.

The following year, 1977, Barfield took another caretaking job, this time for 76-year old Record Lee, who had broken her leg. On June 4, 1977, Lee's husband, John Henry, began experiencing racking pains in his stomach and chest along with vomiting and diarrhea. He died soon afterward and Barfield later confessed to his murder.

Another victim was Rowland Stuart Taylor, Barfield's boyfriend and a relative of Dollie Edwards. Fearing he had discovered she had been forging checks on his account, she mixed an arsenic-based rat poison into his beer and tea. He died on February 3, 1978, while she was trying to "nurse" him back to health; an autopsy found arsenic in Taylor's system. After her arrest, the body of Jennings Barfield was exhumed and found to have traces of arsenic, a murder that Barfield denied having committed. Although she subsequently confessed to the murders of Lillian Bullard, Dollie Edwards, and John Henry Lee,she was tried and convicted only for the murder of Taylor. Singer-songwriter Jonathan Byrd is the grandson of Jennings Barfield and his first wife. Byrd's song "Velma" from his Wildflowers album gives a personal account of the murders and investigation.

Prison and execution

During her stay on death row, Barfield became a devout born again Christian. While she had been a devout churchgoer all of her life and had often attended revivals held by Rex Humbard and other evangelists, she later said she'd only been playing at being a Christian.

Her last few years were spent ministering to prisoners, for which she received praise from Billy Graham. Barfield's involvement in Christian ministry was extensive to the point that an effort was made to obtain a commutation to life imprisonment. After a Federal court appeal was denied, Barfield instructed her attorneys to abandon plans to appeal to the Supreme Court. Barfield was executed on November 2, 1984 at the Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina. She released a statement before the execution, stating "I know that everybody has gone through a lot of pain, all the families connected, and I am sorry, and I want to thank everybody who have been supporting me all these six years." Barfield declined a last meal, having instead a bag of Cheez Doodles and a 12-ounce can of Coca-Cola. Barfield wore pink pajamas and an adult diaper as she was put to death.

Barfield's execution raised some political controversies when Governor Jim Hunt, who faced a bout with incumbent Jesse Helms for his Senate seat (which Hunt lost), rejected Barfield's request for clemency.

Barfield was buried in a small rural North Carolina cemetery, near her first husband, Thomas Burke.

See also

• Blanche Taylor Moore – a similar serial killer also from North Carolina
• Capital punishment in the United States
• List of females executed in the United States
• List of individuals executed in North Carolina

Further reading

• Barfield, Velma. Woman on Death Row. Thomas Nelson Inc. (May 1985). ISBN 0-840-79531-9.
• Bledsoe, Jerry. Death Sentence: The True Story of Velma Barfield's Life, Crimes, and Execution. Dutton Adult (October 1, 1998). ISBN 0-525-94255-6.

External links

• Offender Data Screen. North Carolina Department of Correction. Retrieved on 2007-11-17.
• Noe, Denise. All about Velma Barfield. Crime Library. Retrieved on 2007-11-17.
• Velma Barfield at Find a Grave