Velma Margie Barfield was born on October 29, 1932. Barfield gained infamy by being the first woman in the United States to be executed since 1962.
Velma's first known encounter with a death close to her was her first husband, Thomas Burke, who died of smoke inhalation when the family's house caught fire. Strangely enough, only a few months later, their house burst into flame again, this time with a reward of insurance money.
In 1970, she remarried to a widower by the name of Jennings Barfield. Not even a full year after their marriage, Jennings would die from heart complications leaving Velma a widow once again. According to friends and family, this spurred her already blooming addiction to prescribed medications, resulting in numerous hospital visits.
It is believed that Velma's first attempt at murder was at her very own mother, Lillian Bullard. In 1974, Lillian possessed symptoms of intense diarrhea, vomiting and nausea, only to recover fully a few days later. A couple months afterward, a man who Velma had been dating ended up in a fatal car accident. During the Christmas season of that year, Lillian experienced the same illness of earlier that year, finally resulting in her death only hours after arriving at the hospital. Velma's mother was to be her first victim through poison.
In 1976, Velma began an occupation caretaking for the elderly, working for Montgomery and Dollie Edwards. In the winter of that year, Montgomery fell ill and passed away. A little over a month later, Dollie experienced identical symptoms to Velma's mother's and died herself.
The following year, Velma took another caretaking job, this time for 76-year old Record Lee, who had broken her leg. That June 4, Lee's husband began experiencing racking pains in his stomach and chest along with vomiting and diarrhea. Soon after, he passed away.
Velma was executed on November 2, 1984 at the Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina for the murder of yet another victim, Stuart Taylor, her boyfriend and a relative of Dollie Edwards. Fearing he found out that 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 tried to "nurse" him back to health; an autopsy found arsenic Taylor's system. After her arrest, the body of Thomas Barfield was exhumed and found to have traces of arsenic.
She was pronounced dead at precisely 2:15 am.
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Last updated: 09-12-2005 02:39:13
