Velma Barfield
Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox serial killer
Margie Velma Barfield (née Bullard; October 29, 1932 – November 2, 1984) was an American serial killer who was convicted of one murder but was linked to seven murders in total. She became the first woman in the United States to be executed after the resumption of capital punishment in 1976,<ref name="clark"/> and the first since 1962.<ref name="first">Template:Cite news</ref> She was also the first woman to be executed by lethal injection.
Life and murdersEdit
Velma Barfield was born on October 29, 1932, in Eastover, North Carolina,<ref>Crimes of the Centuries: Notorious Crimes, Criminals, and Criminal Trials in American History Template:ISBN p. 59</ref> but was raised near Fayetteville. Her father was reportedly physically abusive and her mother did not intervene.<ref name="news">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Barfield escaped her tumultuous household by marrying Thomas Burke in 1949.<ref name="obit">Template:Cite news</ref> The couple had two children and were reportedly happy until Barfield had a hysterectomy and developed back pain.<ref name="news"/> These events led to a behavioral change in Barfield and an eventual addiction to prescription drugs.<ref name="news"/>
Burke's escalating alcoholism and Barfield's resultant complaints turned into bitter arguments.<ref name="news"/> On April 4, 1969, after Burke had passed out, Barfield and their children left the house; when they returned, they found the house burned and Burke dead.<ref name="news"/><ref>Vronsky, Peter. Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters, pp. 197–98. Berkley Books, 2007, Template:ISBN</ref> In 1970, Barfield married a widower, Jennings Barfield, but the union lasted less than a year until Jennings died of heart complications on March 22, 1971.<ref name="lib unc">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Citation needed
In 1974, Lillian Bullard, Barfield's mother, showed symptoms of intense diarrhea, vomiting and nausea, only to fully recover a few days later. Later that year, during a Christmas visit, Bullard fell ill again with the same symptoms but died after being hospitalized on December 30.<ref name="clark"/> The following year, Barfield was convicted of seven counts of writing bad checks and sentenced to six months in prison. She was released after serving three months.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 1976, Barfield began caring for the elderly, working for Montgomery and Dollie Edwards in Lumberton. Montgomery fell ill and died on January 29, 1977. Just over a month later, Dollie experienced symptoms identical to those of Bullard and died on March 1. Barfield later confessed to Dollie's murder.<ref name="clark" /> The following year, Barfield took another caretaker job, this time for 76-year-old Record Lee, who had broken her leg. On June 4, 1977, Lee's husband, John Henry, died after he had begun experiencing wracking pains in his stomach and chest along with vomiting and diarrhea. Barfield later confessed to his murder.<ref name="clark" />
Another victim was Rowland Stuart Taylor, Barfield's boyfriend and a relative of Dollie Edwards.<ref name="clark" /> Fearing he had discovered that she had been forging checks on his account, Barfield mixed an arsenic-based rat poison into his beer and tea.<ref name="clark" /> Taylor died on February 3, 1978, while Barfield was "trying to nurse him back to health"; an autopsy found arsenic in Taylor's system.<ref name="clark" /> After her arrest, Jennings' body was exhumed and found to have traces of arsenic, a murder that Barfield denied having committed.<ref name="clark">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Although she subsequently confessed to the murders of Bullard, Dollie, and John Henry Lee, she was tried and convicted only for the murder of Taylor.<ref name="clark" />
Singer-songwriter Jonathan Byrd is the grandson of Jennings Barfield and his first wife. His song "Velma" from his Wildflowers album gives a personal account of the murders and investigation.<ref name=so>Druckenmiller, Tom, "Off the Beaten Track: Jonathan Byrd – Wildflowers", Sing Out!, 45:4 (Winter 2002) p. 134</ref>
Imprisonment and executionEdit
Barfield was imprisoned at Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina, in an area for escape-prone and mentally ill prisoners, as there was no designated area for women under death sentences at the time of her incarceration. She was the state's only female death row inmate.<ref>"Death Row for One" (Archive). Velma Barfield. Crime Library. Retrieved on March 3, 2013. "Like most states, North Carolina had no "row" of women waiting to be executed. When she was sentenced, Velma Barfield was the only female in the state doomed by the law. She was housed in the Central Prison's section for mental cases, especially assaultive inmates, and prisoners considered prone to escape."</ref> A death row unit for female inmates in North Carolina was subsequently established at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women.<ref>North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women – North Carolina Department of Public Safety (Archive)</ref>
During her stay on death row, Barfield became a devout Christian.<ref name="born">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Her last few years were spent ministering to prisoners, for which she received praise from evangelist Billy Graham.<ref name="graham">Template:Cite news</ref>
Barfield's involvement in Christian ministry was extensive enough that an effort was made to obtain a commutation to life imprisonment.<ref name="news"/> A second basis for this appeal was the testimony of Dorothy Otnow Lewis, Professor of Psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine and an authority on violent behavior, who claimed that Barfield suffered from dissociative identity disorder. Lewis testified that she had spoken to Barfield's other personality, "Billy," who told her that Velma had been a victim of sexual abuse and that he, Billy, had killed her abusers. The judge was unconvinced. "One of them did it," Lewis quoted him as saying "I don't care which one."<ref>Nelson, Polly. Defending the Devil: My Story as Ted Bundy's Last Lawyer. 1994, William Morrow, New York. Template:ISBN. p. 153.</ref>
After Barfield's appeal was denied in federal court, she instructed her attorneys to abandon a further appeal to the United States Supreme Court, having accepted her upcoming execution and wanting to "die with dignity."<ref name="first" /> Barfield was executed on November 2, 1984,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> at Central Prison.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She released a statement before the execution: "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."<ref name="first" /> Barfield chose as her last meal Cheez Doodles and Coca-Cola.<ref name="first" /> She was buried in a small, rural North Carolina cemetery near her first husband, Thomas Burke.<ref name="obit"/> Barfield had requested that her organs be used for transplant purposes, but this was not possible since her heart could not be restarted. However, her corneas and some of her skin tissue were donated.<ref name="clark" />
Barfield's execution raised some political controversies when Governor Jim Hunt, who was challenging incumbent Jesse Helms for his U.S. Senate seat, rejected Barfield's request for clemency.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
See alsoEdit
- Blanche Taylor Moore – a similar murderer who was from North Carolina
General:
- List of people executed in North Carolina
- List of serial killers in the United States
- List of women executed in the United States since 1976
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
- Barfield, Velma. Woman on Death Row. Thomas Nelson Inc. (1985). Template:ISBN.
- Bledsoe, Jerry. Death Sentence: The True Story of Velma Barfield's Life, Crimes, and Execution. Dutton Adult (1998). Template:ISBN.
External linksEdit
- Noe, Denise. All about Velma Barfield. Crime Library. Retrieved on 2007-11-17.
- Template:Find a Grave