The life of Velma Barfield serves as a haunting reminder of the intersection between personal trauma, addiction, and the ultimate reach of the justice system. Born Margie Velma Bullard in 1932 on a modest farm in Eastover, South Carolina, she was the second of nine children in a family defined by crushing poverty. Her childhood was marked by a complete lack of modern amenities, with the family home lacking electricity and running water, forces that would leave a lasting mark on her psyche.
Her father, Murphy Bullard, was a man whose presence in the home was often defined by a volatile, unpredictable temper. Lilly Bullard, Velma’s mother, was frequently the target of this domestic violence, creating a home environment that was characterized by fear rather than security. Velma learned early on that the world was a harsh place, a reality she attempted to mitigate by occasionally stealing small amounts of pocket money from her father, a habit that invited brutal physical punishment.
By her teenage years, the trauma of the Bullard home had deepened significantly. Velma would later allege that she was subjected to persistent sexual abuse by her father throughout her adolescence, a claim that was later echoed by her sister. The failure of her mother to intervene in this cycle of violence left Velma feeling fundamentally abandoned, creating a desperate need to escape the only environment she had ever known.
Marriage presented the only viable path to independence for a young woman in rural North Carolina during the late 1940s. Upon moving to Robeson County, she met Thomas Burke, a steady young man who represented a future far removed from the instability of the Bullard farm. Embracing the religious community of the local Baptist Church, Velma found a sense of belonging that she had lacked at home, eventually dropping out of school to marry Thomas when she was just seventeen.
The early years of their marriage provided the normalcy she had craved, as they moved into their own home and eventually welcomed two children, Ronald and Kim. For over fifteen years, the Burke household appeared to be a stable unit. Thomas worked for a Pepsi distributor, and Velma dedicated herself to the domestic life of a mother and homemaker. However, the internal damage from her past remained, eventually manifesting in medical complications that would alter her life’s trajectory.
In her early thirties, Velma underwent a hysterectomy that left her with persistent, chronic back pain. Her subsequent interactions with the medical establishment introduced her to the world of prescription painkillers and tranquilizers. These medications, initially intended to address legitimate physical discomfort, soon became a crutch for her underlying emotional turmoil. She discovered that these pills could dull the edges of her anxieties and the stresses of her domestic life, marking the beginning of a life-long dependency.
The situation worsened dramatically in 1965 when Thomas Burke was involved in a severe automobile accident. The head injuries he sustained led to chronic headaches and a subsequent descent into alcoholism. The once-peaceful household became a theater of bitter arguments and financial strain. As Thomas became unable to work, Velma took on the role of the primary breadwinner, only to find herself retreating further into a cocktail of prescription drugs to manage the mounting pressure.
On April 4, 1969, the conflict within the Burke household reached a tragic conclusion. Following a day of heavy drinking by Thomas, Velma left the home with their two children. Upon their return, they discovered the house engulfed in flames. Thomas, left unconscious by his alcohol intake, perished in the fire. At the time, the death was ruled an accidental incident caused by a discarded cigarette, and no one questioned the narrative.
Velma soon found herself married again, this time to Jennings Barfield, a man struggling with diabetes and emphysema. Their marriage, however, was immediately strained by money troubles and Velma’s escalating drug abuse. Within seven months of their wedding, Jennings died, with heart failure cited as the official cause. As with her first husband, no autopsy was conducted, and the small community accepted his passing as the natural consequence of his chronic health conditions.
The period following Jennings’ death was marked by Velma’s deeper descent into addiction. Between 1972 and 1975, she suffered four separate overdoses, each requiring hospitalization. As her addiction grew, so did her need for money, leading her to forge checks and commit various acts of fraud. In 1975, she was convicted of writing bad checks and served four months in a correctional center. This incarceration forced her into a painful withdrawal, but it did little to address the root causes of her behavior.
Upon her release, Velma found legitimate employment difficult to secure due to her criminal record. She eventually turned to private nursing, a role that required no formal credentials but offered intimate access to the homes and finances of the elderly. In 1976, she began caring for Montgomery and Dolly Edwards, an elderly couple in Lumberton. She quickly reverted to her old habits, forging checks on their accounts to fund her continued reliance on prescription medication.
In early 1977, Montgomery Edwards died at the age of ninety-four. While his age made the death seem natural, the discovery of financial irregularities by his wife, Dolly, put Velma in a position of extreme risk. Shortly after her husband’s death, Dolly also fell ill with mysterious, severe symptoms and passed away. Velma then moved on to the home of John Henry and Record Lee, where she again assumed caregiving duties and began siphoning money from their accounts.
When John Henry Lee noticed the financial discrepancies, Velma’s position became precarious once more. In June 1977, John Henry died after a short, violent illness marked by severe stomach pain and vomiting. Again, his death was attributed to heart failure and a suspected stomach virus. By this point, Velma had established a chilling pattern: she would manipulate her way into the homes of vulnerable people, steal from them, and when her crimes threatened to be exposed, she would resort to poisoning.
The next victim was someone closer to home: her own mother, Lillian Bullard. After moving back into her mother’s house in 1974, Velma had again begun forging documents and taking out loans in her mother’s name. When Lillian fell ill with symptoms mirroring those of Velma’s previous victims, the end came quickly. She died in December 1974, and once more, the death was treated as natural. Velma had essentially murdered the woman who raised her, all to protect the secrets of her addiction.
The turning point in Velma’s life of crime arrived with Stewart Taylor, a tobacco farmer she began seeing in 1977. Stewart was a man of character and integrity, and his relationship with Velma initially seemed to provide her with a measure of stability. However, the familiar pattern soon reasserted itself when Velma began forging checks on his account. Unlike her previous victims, Stewart became aware of the theft, and Velma realized her freedom was on the line.
In February 1978, while attending a religious revival meeting, Stewart suddenly became severely ill. Over the next three days, his condition deteriorated into a state of agony, eventually leading to his death. This time, however, his daughter Alice demanded answers. An autopsy was ordered, and toxicology results eventually confirmed the presence of lethal levels of arsenic in his liver tissue. The medical mystery had become a murder investigation.
Following the confirmation of poisoning, the police investigation moved swiftly. Velma’s sister contacted authorities to share her suspicions about other deaths in the family. Confronted with the evidence of Stewart’s death, the forged checks, and the growing trail of deceased acquaintances, Velma eventually confessed. She admitted to poisoning Stewart, John Henry Lee, Dolly Edwards, and her own mother. The extent of her serial crimes was finally revealed to the public.
Velma Barfield was charged with the murder of Stewart Taylor and pleaded guilty, a move that surprised many. District Attorney Joe Freeman Britt, a man noted for his aggressive prosecution of capital cases, chose to focus the trial on the death of Stewart Taylor to ensure that the death penalty would be a viable outcome under North Carolina’s reinstated capital punishment laws. The trial in November 1978 became a media spectacle, pitting the state against a woman who had once been viewed as a model of grandmotherly devotion.
The defense, led by attorney Bob Jacobson, focused on the argument that years of prescription drug abuse had effectively destroyed Velma’s capacity for rational decision-making. However, this strategy failed as Velma herself took the stand and grew increasingly argumentative under cross-examination. Her refusal to accept full responsibility, coupled with a moment of sarcastic defiance toward the prosecutor, left the jury with little sympathy.
The jury returned a verdict of first-degree murder, and in the subsequent sentencing phase, recommended that she be given the death penalty. Velma was transferred to Central Prison in Raleigh, where she became the only female occupant of the state’s death row. For the next six years, she navigated a grueling legal process, exhausting all direct appeals as her lawyers attempted to leverage claims of mental instability and the effects of drug withdrawal during her trial.
As the years passed, Velma underwent a profound shift in her perspective, claiming to have found God and accepting her situation with a quiet resolve. Her case sparked national debates about the role of gender in sentencing, the ethics of capital punishment, and the systemic failures that allowed her crimes to remain undetected for so long. By 1984, after twenty-one judges had reviewed her case, the legal avenues had reached a dead end.
In the final days before her execution, Velma made a surprising decision to stop the legal battles, explaining that she had accepted her fate and wished to die with dignity. She spent her final hours with her children and grandchildren, reading letters from supporters, and preparing for what she described as a transition to heaven. She requested a simple final meal of cheese doodles and Coca-Cola, a choice that underscored the surreal nature of her final moments.
On the morning of November 2, 1984, Velma Barfield was led to the execution chamber. Wearing pink pajamas, she was strapped to a gurney and subjected to lethal injection. In her final statement, she apologized for the pain she had caused to the families of her victims and expressed gratitude for those who had supported her through her imprisonment. At 2:15 a.m., she was declared dead, becoming the first woman in the United States to be executed in twenty-two years.
The execution was met with polarized reactions across the nation. While some saw it as the necessary conclusion for a serial killer who had preyed on the most vulnerable, others viewed it as an act of vengeance that failed to address the complex circumstances of her life. Her attempted final act of donating her organs for transplant was thwarted by the chemicals used in the injection, though her corneas and some tissues were eventually preserved.
The legacy of Velma Barfield remains a complex tapestry of crime, faith, and the brutal reality of the death penalty. She was a woman who lived a life of quiet desperation, only to inflict unimaginable suffering on those who had offered her care and companionship. Her story serves as a testament to the fact that evil often wears a mundane face, and that the motivations behind such acts are frequently as broken and fragile as the perpetrator themselves.
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