Velma Barfield the “Death Row Granny”

Velma Barfield was the first woman executed in North Carolina after the death penalty was reinstituted in 1976 and the first woman to die by lethal injection.

Born in 1932 on a small tobacco and cotton farm in rural South Carolina, she was one of nine children. At the age of 17, Barfield dropped out of school in order to marry her boyfriend Thomas Burke. They had two children together and lived in Parkton, N.C. In 1965, Thomas was in a car accident and had a concussion. From that point on he suffered severe headaches and his drinking increased as a way to deal with his pain. In 1969, while Velma was away attending to errands, the couple’s house mysteriously caught fire. Thomas died in the fire from smoke inhalation. A few months later, a second fire engulfed the house, burning it to the ground.

A few months after Thomas Burke’s death, Velma began dating a widower named Jennings Barfield. The two married in August 1970, but their marriage only lasted a few months. Jennings Barfield died in 1971 of heart failure. In the summer of 1974, Velma’s mother began complaining of severe stomach pains. She was admitted to an area hospital but sent home when her symptoms subsided. In December of that same year, Velma’s mother, Lillie McMillian Bullard, again showed symptoms of a serious stomach illness. She was rushed to the hospital and was pronounced dead only two hours after being admitted. The doctors were unable to diagnose Lillie Bullard’s fatal illness, nor was an autopsy performed.

In 1975, Velma Barfield served six months in prison for writing several bad checks. Upon her release, Velma secured a job as a home health nurse for an elderly couple, 94-year-old Montgomery Edwards and his 84-year-old wife Dollie. In January 1977, Montgomery Edwards died. A few weeks later, Dollie Edwards died, having developed a “strange stomach virus.” Velma Barfield was reassigned to care for a second elderly couple: John Henry and Record Lee. John Henry Lee died in June 1977, his doctors diagnosing it only as “a severe stomach virus.”

Shortly thereafter, Velma moved in with her boyfriend Stuart Taylor. One day Stuart began to complain of severe stomach pain. He was later admitted to the hospital and was dead within a matter of days. An anonymous tipster later revealed to be Velma’s sister, notified police that Velma had killed others in a similar way that she had killed Stuart. Barfield was arrested and later confessed to poisoning with arsenic Montgomery and Dollie Edwards, John Henry Lee, and her mother, Lillie Bullard. She claimed that she had killed them in order to cover up the fact that she had stolen money from them to support her illicit drug use. She later confessed to poisoning Stuart Taylor. Despite her confessions, Velma continued to refute claims that she had also killed Thomas Burke and Jennings Barfield, and was convicted only for the murder of Taylor.

Velma was given a death sentence. She was imprisoned at Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina, in an area for escape-prone prisoners, as there was no designated area for women under death sentences at the time and she was the state’s only female death row inmate.

Velma Barfield was executed on November 2, 1984, at Central Prison in Raleigh. She was 52 years old at the time of her execution.