World's Most Evil Killers - Season 6, Episode 18 - Velma Barfield - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[daunting music] NARRATOR: In February 1978, 56-year-old Stuart Taylor suffered a slow and painful death.
With the consent of his family and partner, doctors performed an autopsy to find
out what had led to the sudden downturn in his health. They decided to do that in that case
simply because of his reaction and found out that he had been poisoned with arsenic.
NARRATOR: Stewart had been targeted by his partner, 45-year-old grandmother Velma Barfield.
The kindly looking churchgoer had been leading a secret double life, funding a drug addiction by stealing from others
before killing them. Barfield is a chameleon. She simply blends in to her surroundings,
so much so that nobody ever suspects that she's defrauding the people that she's caring for.
She is this good Christian woman. And nobody would ever think that she's capable of the things
that are going on. NARRATOR: The murder of Stuart Taylor would expose Barfield's life of crime.
She had poisoned and killed five people, including her own mother. This is a serial killer who knows no bounds
and also is perfectly happy to do whatever it needs to sustain the image that she
wants to project of herself. NARRATOR: Velma Barfield had been unmasked as one of the world's most evil killers.
[daunting music] In November 1984, 52-year-old Velma Barfield was executed via lethal injection
in Raleigh, North Carolina. Years earlier, the so-called Death Row Granny had confessed
to killing four people. But evidence linked her to at least five, one of whom was her own mother.
Journalist Dennis Patterson visited the killer while she awaited her fate on death row.
When you sat down to talk to her, she's very quiet and very soft-spoken and very sincere.
And you could almost believe she was a victim of something. She would talk about being ready to meet God
and that she had tried to help others. And I believed her. It wasn't a question of whether I thought
she was not telling the truth. It just-- it didn't make up for the crime. NARRATOR: Dennis went on to witness Barfield's execution
firsthand. He'd followed the story since her arrest for the murder of her partner, Stuart Taylor, in 1978.
Barfield had poisoned him slowly. DENNIS PATTERSON: How do you make their cereal
in the morning and put in the cereal and the milk and the rat poison and then sit there across the table from him
and eat year cereal and watch them eat theirs and it not guilt you right to the limit that you're watching
yourself kill somebody. I can't get my mind around that. NARRATOR: This killer story begins in Cumberland
County, North Carolina. Margie Velma Bullard was born on the 29th of October 1932.
The eldest girl in a family of nine children, life was difficult from the outset.
Barfield's childhood was peppered with tragedy. Some of her siblings died in infancy.
Another sibling was quite disfigured because of polio. So all of these things will have had an impact on her.
This was not the idyllic American childhood. These were the years after the Great Depression.
The family were literally dirt poor. The house had no electric heating, no hot water.
It was a really tough existence. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: She felt a sense of shame because her family weren't very well to do.
The children at school would make fun of her clothes and the kind of foods that she took in to eat for lunch.
I think that shame cemented itself. And I think it impacted on the woman she'd become.
NARRATOR: Growing up, Barfield tried to avoid being on the wrong side of her hot-tempered father,
whom she feared throughout her young life. Looking at Barfield's parents, her father was very
dominant, very patriarchal. And her mother was incredibly submissive. So she comes from this very traditional set-up.
And when we look at her father's behavior, he seems to be quite abusive in terms of the control
that he has over the family unit. And Barfield's mother feels like she's constantly
treading on eggshells the whole time, trying not to upset her husband. And Barfield becomes quite frustrated at her mother
when she sees how submissive she's being and that she's not standing up for herself.
I think she thought her mother should have done better, that she should have fought back, protected her children
more against this violent man with a bad temper, who did what he wanted. NARRATOR: Barfield found church to be a refuge
from her wretched home life. And in 1948, the 16-year-old found another possible escape route from her tyrannical father.
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Barfield meets Thomas Burke as part of the baseball games that her father
used to organize. He was involved in these, too. And when Barfield's father finds out
that she has this relationship with Thomas Burke, he wants to put a stop to it. He doesn't want her dating before she's 16 years old.
But Barfield is absolutely determined. And when she's 17, she does start dating him again.
But there are some strict conditions on it. She's always got to go out and double
date with another couple. She's always got to be home by 10:00 PM. So even though she's getting what she wants,
there are still those restrictions on her. And I think that is part of what fuels her to want to get
married so young. She wants out of this family unit. And she thinks that marriage is the pathway to independence.
NARRATOR: The two teenagers eloped in December 1949 and went on to have two children together.
But married life was far from ideal for Barfield. Her husband was a drinker, which went
against her Christian beliefs. And in April 1969, tragedy struck. GEOFFREY WANSELL: According to the legend,
he'd gotten drunk, fallen asleep on the sofa. And a cigarette has fallen onto the floor.
Velma is out. The children are out at school. The house burns down. And Thomas Burke loses his life in the fire.
NARRATOR: As the 1960s became the 1970s, Velma Barfield was widowed and hiding a growing addiction.
Back in 1962, a hysterectomy had left her in constant pain and suffering from depression.
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: What actually happens then is that her imbalance in personality
seizes on prescription medicine as a way of easing the pain. And she goes from doctor to doctor
to get different drugs at different times so that she can increase her own use. So rather than become an alcoholic,
she becomes effectively a drug addict. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: I think for the first time in her life,
she's found something that numbs her, that kind of takes away the pain and the depression
and all of those issues over which she has no control. So I think this is a problem which
is just going to escalate. It's only going to get worse. NARRATOR: Less than 10 years after losing her first husband,
Velma Barfield's life had spiraled out of control. By March 1978, she was working as a carer in Lumberton, North
Carolina, and had begun to fund her painkiller addiction by stealing from the people
she was meant to be protecting. And Barfield was hiding an even bigger secret. DENNIS PATTERSON: I was covering,
if I remember correctly, a meeting, government meeting, in the courthouse of Robeson County.
And a law enforcement fellow that I knew passed me in the hallway and asked if I had checked
the arrest sheets that evening. I said, no, I hadn't. And he said, well, you might want to go by and check.
And of course, for a reporter, that's always a sign that you ought to do what somebody suggests you do.
So I went back and checked. And sure enough, going down through the sheet, and here
is this older woman who's been charged with first-degree murder. NARRATOR: A post-mortem on 56-year-old Stuart Taylor
revealed that his body had been riddled with arsenic. Investigators believed he'd been poisoned
by his partner, Velma Barfield. DENNIS PATTERSON: The investigation was very high profile.
It was just so unusual having a woman with a sterling reputation, who worked for elderly patients,
who was a regular churchgoer, wouldn't even work on the evenings or days that church
was going on because of her religious beliefs. It was just a very unusual case. NARRATOR: A deeper delve into Barfield's backstory
suggested that maybe Stuart Taylor wasn't her only victim. DENNIS PATTERSON: So I started getting calls
from people saying she's been associated with a number of deaths that are sort of unusual.
I know one fellow had said she had at least one, two husbands that had died under unusual circumstances.
Her mother had passed away sort of unexpectedly. NARRATOR: As the rumor mill continued to turn,
Barfield had more secrets to reveal to detectives. After she's charged, Velma surprises
the authorities by confessing to three other killings-- her mother, Dolly Edwards, and John Henry Lee.
DENNIS PATTERSON: And that sort of just cemented it to the investigators that, yeah, we're
dealing with somebody here who, this is not a one-off, a personal situation. This is a practice that's been going on.
NARRATOR: Velma Barfield's confessions had stunned detectives. She had admitted to killing her mother, her partner,
and two of the vulnerable people she was meant to be looking after. Investigators were only just beginning
to scratch the surface on the deathly past of the 45-year-old, a life of fraud, lies, and murder.
In March 1978, 45-year-old Velma Barfield was charged with the murder of her partner, Stuart Taylor.
But her life of crime had begun eight years previously. In August 1970, she married the man
whose name she would take on in the future, Jennings Barfield. Jennings suffered from emphysema and diabetes.
And his new wife effectively became his carer, too. GEOFFREY WANSELL: During her marriage to Jennings Barfield,
it could best be described as a tempestuous relationship. She was still overdosing on drugs.
He would take her to hospital. They were going to divorce. And then how convenient, he dies.
NARRATOR: In April 1971, after less than a year of marriage to his wife, 54-year-old Jennings Barfield
developed a sudden illness and died. GEOFFREY WANSELL: No one pays very much attention.
He had been ill for a long time. It was obviously natural causes. And Velma is just now a widow, in fact now twice widowed.
NARRATOR: Later that same year, 39-year-old Velma Barfield's prescription drug addiction
was reeling out of control. She lost her job, her home, and, not long after, the man
who'd made her childhood so traumatic. Her father, Murphy, dies of lung cancer in 1972.
And before long, Velma moves back in with her mother, Lily. They have a very combative relationship
to put it politely. Barfield always had a very antagonistic relationship with her mother, Lily, because she felt that she was put upon.
She felt that Lily was making demands of her, that she should be running around for her,
doing chores, looking after her. And there's a particular period of time in 1974
where that had indeed been going on. And it's at this time that Lily becomes quite ill.
She develops really bad stomach cramps. She's vomiting. She has diarrhea. She's very, very unwell indeed.
And Barfield takes her to hospital. And she spends a few days in hospital. And then she's discharged.
And that seems to be the end of the matter. NARRATOR: As a way of funding her addiction,
Barfield began to forge her mother's signature on loan applications. And by late 1974, she'd successfully
racked up $2000 worth of debt in the name of Lily Bullard. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Her mother is a perfect mark.
She can take out a loan on something that her mother owns, whether it's a house or a car.
And she wants to cover up the stealing to sustain the drug addiction. You have a woman literally in a spiral of addiction.
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Then, suddenly out of the blue, something a bit strange happened.
Barfield's mother receives a letter saying that she has a car loan that is overdue.
And the car is going to be repossessed if she doesn't pay the loan off. And she thinks, well, this is nonsense.
It's surely some kind of admin error. I haven't taken out a car loan. GEOFFREY WANSELL: When her mother discovers or gets
letters saying that she owes money or that they're going to reclaim the house or they're going to reclaim the car,
Velma is determined that should never come to the surface. NARRATOR: Soon after the letter arrived,
Lily Bullard fell ill once more. But this time, she wouldn't recover. She again becomes very ill with similar symptoms to
the ones that she had before. GEOFFREY WANSELL: She complains of terrible problems,
awful pain, terrible diarrhea. She's in a terrible state. She's taken to hospital and dies on the 30th of December 1974.
NARRATOR: Lily Bullard officially died of a heart attack. But in truth, she'd become the second victim
of Velma Barfield. The 40-year-old prescription drug addict had poisoned her second husband, Jennings Barfield, with arsenic
in 1971. And now, she'd done the same to her own mother. But nobody had any idea.
STUART HAMILTON: What's really interesting about the arsenic is that while it's an effective poison,
it's something most people think only really exists in old Agatha Christie novels.
It's not something that's at the forefront of the average pathologist's mind. NARRATOR: Barfield continued to fund her addiction with crime.
After five checks forged in her dead husband's name bounced, she attempted to take her own life.
But she was unsuccessful. And investigators soon caught up with her. Barfield goes to prison.
She's sentenced to six months for a series of bad checks. But she doesn't serve that full six-month sentence.
She's released after three on the grounds of good behavior. NARRATOR: In November 1975, Barfield was out of prison
and had found a new career for herself. She was hired as a live-in caretaker for
93-year-old Montgomery Edwards. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Montgomery was very disabled.
Indeed, he was bedridden. He had sight problems. He was a diabetic. He was an amputee.
His wife, Dolly, was slightly more mobile. But they needed help nonetheless. So Barfield takes on a job looking after them.
She essentially moves in. She gets involved in their care. NARRATOR: In January 1977, Montgomery Edwards passed away.
But Barfield continued to live in the house with Montgomery's 85-year-old wife, Dolly.
Dolly was somebody who was quite meticulous. And she wanted a good service from Barfield for the money
that she was paying her. And she picks up on the fact that Barfield could sometimes
be a bit lazy, a bit sloppy. And Dolly was quite a direct person. And she would tell Barfield about this.
And Barfield did not like this whatsoever because this compromised her feelings of control
within this household. GEOFFREY WANSELL: So in the end, Dolly, for the same reason
as her mother, has got to go. Otherwise, she may well blow the whistle on Velma.
NARRATOR: Be it for money or just out of spite, Barfield began to poison Dolly in February 1977.
When Dolly became incredibly unwell with vomiting and diarrhea, she told her stepson,
I think it's the flu. And she did look like she had flu. She was very weak. She was very pale.
But Barfield was quite keen to go to the hospital with her when she was admitted, Barfield is a constant presence here.
Whenever she seems to be around, Dolly's health seems to decline. And that's no coincidence.
GEOFFREY WANSELL: Once again, she's a lady in her 80s. She's just lost her husband.
Well, doesn't look unnatural to anyone. And the fact that the single thread through all these deaths
is Velma Barfield is, well, coincidence. In fact, Velma Barfield has murdered Dolly Edwards.
Once again, Velma Barfield has taken the ultimate action of killing someone who might just
reveal her own difficulties. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Barfield preys on the weak and the old and the innocent.
And this tells me that she is a predator. She looks out for people's vulnerabilities.
And she exploits them. She lives a very parasitic kind of lifestyle. So she will take what she wants from people.
And then she will move on. And it takes a certain kind of person to be able to do this time and time again.
It takes somebody with no compassion, somebody with no empathy, somebody who is only
looking out for themselves. NARRATOR: Once again, Velma Barfield's crimes went undetected.
She'd now claimed three victims. And people were none the wiser. Just a month after the death of Dolly Edwards,
Barfield found another couple to live with and care for, John and Record Lee. They reached quite a nice, amicable arrangement, whereby
Barfield would have time off on particular days of the week so she could go to church and she could engage in the things
that she wanted to do because she very much came across as this nice Christian woman.
NARRATOR: Just days after moving in with the elderly couple, Barfield forged a check for $50.
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: It's this mysterious check that emerges that apparently Record has signed.
And she has no recollection of signing this check whatsoever. So her husband John calls the police in.
But the case doesn't go anywhere because they don't know anybody who could possibly
have done this to them. And the last suspect on the list is this good Christian woman
who's come to care for them. NARRATOR: By embezzling such small amounts, Barfield was able to keep her thefts under the radar.
DENNIS PATTERSON: It was just a few dollars here and there. And when they went back and checked,
they came across $100, $200 checks that had been written that obviously hadn't been signed by the person.
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: She's taking little bits because that gives her a little kick.
It makes her feel that she's the one that's in control in these households. And that control is something that she's become addicted to.
So she's not going to just take a load of money and then disappear because then her control and her power
is gone. And that is something that she's addicted to at this point in time. NARRATOR: Concern that the Lees were onto her,
Barfield dealt with the situation just as she'd done previously. She began to poison 80-year-old John.
GEOFFREY WANSELL: That same way of thinking is in Velma's mind. These two are in danger of revealing me
for what I truly am. And so John Henry Lee, I'm afraid, she decides has to die. NARRATOR: In an attempt to cover up her crimes,
Velma Barfield had once again taken a life. But official record stated that John
Lee had died of a heart attack. It's so calculating, so scheming, so ruthless that it almost takes my breath away.
She doesn't hesitate for a moment. And yet, there's still this cycle, this spiral
going on in her life. She's still grappling with her own demons. And yet, she chooses to solve the demons
by killing, not by admitting it, not by saying anything to anyone, but just sustaining this corrupt agonizing
lifestyle by her actions. NARRATOR: Barfield was stuck in a vicious circle of addiction,
theft, and murder. And she was getting away with it. By October 1977, she'd killed four people.
But her next potential victim would be a step too far. Velma Barfield's life of crime was about to be exposed.
By the autumn of 1977, Velma Barfield had killed four people, including her own mother, in an attempt to cover up her fraudulent crimes.
The 44-year-old was addicted to painkillers. And theft was the only way to pay for her habit.
In October, Barfield began dating a man named Stuart Taylor. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: When we look at Stuart Taylor's background,
he'd had quite a turbulent time. So his first wife had died. He'd been married another couple of times after that.
And those relationships hadn't worked out. I think this was a guy who wanted that long-term, committed, stable relationship.
And I think Barfield really sensed that in him. And she saw here another vulnerability
that she could prey on. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Velma decides that this is the perfect relationship for her.
Yet again, a mark, someone to be taken advantage of, someone who can look after her while she sustains
this outrageous but secret life of drug addiction and stealing. NARRATOR: 56-year-old Stuart had no idea he was getting involved
with an active serial killer. From all accounts, Stuart Taylor was a very kind, nice, genuine man.
But he got together with Barfield. And her version of the relationship would be very different indeed.
She was a magnet for drama. And when that drama wasn't present, she would create it.
NARRATOR: Nothing could have been more dramatic than Barfield's plot to make Stuart Taylor fall for her.
She staged an attack on herself. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Police are called. A man's broken in.
She's tied up. She's been attacked. And of course, Stuart Taylor, not realizing that this is an incredible piece of manipulation, falls for it
and says, oh, well, I want to protect you. You can come and live with me in my house.
NARRATOR: It wouldn't take long before Barfield was up to her old tricks again. In November 1977, she began forging
checks in Stuart Taylor's name. Barfield writes some checks from Stewart's account.
And they're for quite small sums of money. She uses one to pay a bill. She uses another one for some prescription drugs.
And she's taking this money because she feels entitled to it. She feels that she has this man under her control now.
And this is a pattern that we've seen before with her. She will just take what she feels is owed to her.
NARRATOR: This time, however, Barfield was caught in the act. DENNIS PATTERSON: He were to come across this check
that he knew he didn't write and with his forged signature to it and had told her it better not happen again
or he would turn her into the police. You know, he wasn't going to have her stealing money from him.
NARRATOR: Sensing the game might be up, instead of walking away from Stuart Taylor,
Barfield instead decided he had to be silenced. And so in February 1978, she starts to poison Stuart Taylor.
She uses arsenic and rat poison. Taylor starts complaining of all kinds of pain and difficulty.
And he's not an old man. He's not like John Henry Lee. He's comparatively young.
He's not even 60. NARRATOR: Just as she'd done before, Barfield began lacing Stuart's food with a deadly poison.
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Poisoning requires close access to your victims. It requires you to be in a relationship with them.
It requires that regular contact. But it's also quite a remote form of murder. So it's not one that involves a huge amount
of physical violence. And women, on the whole, are generally weaker than men. So it is quite an advantageous method
for a female multiple murderer. NARRATOR: In February 1978, Stuart Taylor and Velma Barfield attended a gospel meeting.
But the 45-year-old's intentions were far from holy. When they get to the event, Stuart starts
feeling incredibly unwell. He's got terrible stomach pains. He starts feeling really nauseous.
So what happens then is that Barfield has to drive them home in the car. And the whole time, Stuart is becoming increasingly unwell.
And when they get home, one of Stuart's friends actually calls for an ambulance because they're so
concerned at how unwell he is. And he goes to hospital. But unfortunately, he dies not long afterwards.
NARRATOR: Just like Barfield's other victims, there was no obvious sign of foul play.
But unlike the others, Stuart Taylor was just 56 years old when he died. It was thought that it was likely he'd
died of gastroenteritis. But alarm bells do ring this time because he's a young person.
You don't expect a young man to succumb to that sort of problem in the way that somebody who's older, with other health problems, might.
NARRATOR: Doctors ask Stuart's family if they'd like an autopsy to find out the underlying
reason for his death. They all agreed it was a good idea, including his partner, Velma Barfield.
And this would appear to be a really bizarre thing to say because clearly she knows how he died.
But her performance as the grieving girlfriend is the most important thing to her at this point in time.
She has to maintain this facade. So if she was the one saying, no, I think an autopsy is a bad idea, that would raise suspicion.
So while she's going along with it, there is still the chance that she could get away with his murder.
GEOFFREY WANSELL: I think that Velma believed that she could probably tough it out, that she could probably
say, fine, conduct an autopsy. I'm perfectly innocent. NARRATOR: While the family awaited
the results of the autopsy, the funeral for Stuart Taylor took place. And front and center was his grieving partner.
They treated her very much as another family member, a grieving family member over the death to the point
that at the funeral, the family invited Velma to ride in the family car to the gravesite.
She seems to be at the heart of this family. And that's where she wants to be because that's
where she's in control. That's when she's finding out information that the family might know about him, about his death.
And it is that need for power, that need to be dominant, that need to be right in the middle
of everything. I think the worst thing that she could do at this point in time is to distance herself from this family
because then that cuts off her knowledge. That cuts off her information. And that is what she's thriving on.
DENNIS PATTERSON: I never could quite get my mind around that as a reporter because that, to me,
is the sort of thing that's awfully cold, to be able to sit with people and grieve with people when you
know in the back of your mind that you're the reason they're grieving. I'm not sure I could do that.
NARRATOR: On the 6th of March 1978, the pathologist who carried out the autopsy on Stuart Taylor
revealed his findings. The autopsy reveals that Stuart Taylor has been given arsenic.
And attention turns, for the first time in this case, to Velma Barfield. I talked to people who were in the emergency room
when Stuart Taylor died. And the pathologist I talked to said, this is a particularly painful and gruesome way to die.
It's not neat, clean poison where you go to sleep and you just don't wake up again.
This is eating away your insides slowly. And nothing you can do about it. And he died screaming for his life.
NARRATOR: Four days later on the 10th of March 1978, Velma Barfield was brought in for questioning by the Robeson
County Sheriff's Department. She would never be free again. Velma is charged with the murder of Stuart Taylor,
first-degree murder. The evidence is compelling. There's no doubt about it. NARRATOR: Barfield confessed her crimes to detectives
and was sent off for a psychiatric evaluation to see if she was fit to stand trial.
A court order led to the exhumation of the bodies of John Lee, Dolly Edwards, and Lily Bullard.
All three were found to contain traces of arsenic. Arsenic will stay in your system for a very long time
indeed. It will be incorporated into hair and nails as they grow. And it won't disappear until that hair is cut
or that nail is clipped. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Here is a woman who is, I think, one of the coldest hearted killers
I've ever really looked at. She has ice in her veins. She is concerned about no one but herself.
She is fierce and fiercely protective of herself. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Barfield is one
of these female multiple murderers who will create a dynamic of care and of nurturing
and of looking after people and then will completely destroy that. She will use that position of trust
to kill people who are within her care. And the fact that she does this time and time and time
again shows that she is addicted to those feelings of power. NARRATOR: The 45-year-old killer didn't
confess to the murder of her second husband, Jennings Barfield. But after his body was exhumed in May 1978,
it too indicated that arsenic was present. GEOFFREY WANSELL: The facade Barfield
has created for herself is beginning to fall apart. She is revealed for what she has always been,
which is a ruthless, merciless killer. NARRATOR: Psychiatric evaluations ruled that Barfield was fit to stand
trial for the first-degree, premeditated murder of Stuart Taylor. A guilty verdict could lead to a death sentence.
The tables had turned for Velma Barfield. Suddenly, it was her life that was on the line.
In November 1978, 46-year-old Velma Barfield was on trial for the murder of her partner, Stuart Taylor.
If found guilty, a death sentence would be a real possibility, especially considering the formidable district
attorney she was up against. The fellow who was the prosecutor, Joe Freeman Britt,
at the time was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the deadliest DA.
He had put more people in the death chamber than any other prosecutor in the world at that point.
NARRATOR: Barfield's defense was somewhat bizarre. Although only on trial for the murder of Stuart Taylor,
she openly admitted to killing three other people, John Lee, Dolly Edwards, and her own mother,
Lily Bullard. Barfield claimed that all their deaths were an unfortunate accident.
DENNIS PATTERSON: At trial, she all but confessed on the stand about how she didn't really
mean to kill these people. She just meant to make them sick. Well, you know, that's pretty close.
I don't know how much closer you could get to saying I did it without saying "I did it."
GEOFFREY WANSELL: I have never been swayed by that argument and neither was the jury.
She wasn't trying to make them ill. She was trying to kill them. And she succeeded.
This is the work of a heartless, wicked woman. NARRATOR: On the 2nd of December 1978,
Velma Barfield was found guilty of the murder of Stuart Taylor. She has never been tried for the murder of her mother
or of the people she was paid to look after. DENNIS PATTERSON: The guilt factor for the families
was horrible because they had gone out and hired this woman. And some of them, I know I talked to them years later.
And they'd say, if I had not hired her, I don't know how much longer my mother might have lived.
And it was just sort of an unknown for them. And even getting a conviction, I'm not sure that would have relieved that kind of guilt.
NARRATOR: The judge recommended the death sentence for Velma Barfield. And the jury rapidly agreed.
And it took the jury very little time, a couple of hours if I remember right. They came back and sent her to the death chamber.
NARRATOR: Capital punishment had been reintroduced in the US in 1976. Barfield was in line to be the first woman
to be executed in decades. The woman the press had dubbed the "Death Row Granny" awaited
her fate at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women under the watchful eye
of warden Jenny Lancaster. You're responsible for everything that happens. The buck stops with the warden.
So needless to say, the idea of even having the possibility of an execution of the first female inmate
in the United States in almost 40 years was pretty overwhelming. But it was also unheard of at that point for any state
in the United States. And that's the position North Carolina was in. NARRATOR: While on death row, Barfield
reconnected with her Christian faith and presented herself as a model prisoner. During the years that Barfield is in prison,
she seems to do a complete 180. So she becomes the prison grandmother. She is the inmate who others go to for advice.
She mentors the young women who find themselves in prison with her. So it appears that she's completely reformed.
GEOFFREY WANSELL: She's been involved in Christianity throughout her life. But now it serves a very real purpose.
She wishes to try and convince the authorities that she should not face the death penalty.
And the way she chooses to do so is to present herself as, oh, I've discovered my sins.
I am a new woman. And I should not face the ultimate penalty. DENNIS PATTERSON: I hope that she indeed had a change
and made a change in her life and a spiritual change. But any change that was made in prison
really didn't make up for what she had done before that. It didn't countermand a jury who had convicted her
and said this woman deserves to die. NARRATOR: Due to appeals and legal wranglings,
execution dates came and passed. Barfield's plight became infamous across the US.
DENNIS PATTERSON: Here's a woman and a grandma. And it drew just worldwide, nationwide attention.
A lot of the bigger city, urban folks were, of course, absolutely convinced that her death sentence would be commuted.
NARRATOR: By 1984, Barfield's legal team were running out of road. As another proposed date loomed, the 51-year-old
gave an interview from Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she'd been moved to in preparation
for her execution. I'm sorry for the hurt that I've caused so many people. Today, if it was possible, I wish that I could take
every bit of hurt on myself. It is enough to send a shiver down your spine because she presents as though she's
everybody's favorite Granny. 'Oh, I may have done dreadful things. But I've seen the errors of my ways.'
I think Velma told me once or twice, I don't want to die. But I understand I am guilty.
NARRATOR: By late 1984, Barfield was out of options. Her execution date was set for the second of November.
And journalist Dennis Patterson was in attendance. DENNIS PATTERSON: It is, I can tell you, a very daunting
feeling to walk into a room, knowing full well that when you walk out somebody's going to be dead.
You have to have a certain mindset and a professional view of things in order to be able to do that.
It's not your everyday type of assignment for any reporter. NARRATOR: Behind the scenes, warden Jenny Lancaster tended
to Barfield's last requests. Dignity is important for both male and female inmates.
And dignity for her meant-- and I had to get permission from the very top; some people would laugh--
but she wore her pink pajamas. And she wore a bra. DENNIS PATTERSON: She had a choice
then in North Carolina of either cyanide gas or lethal injection. And she chose lethal injection.
And so when we're standing at the back of the witness room, and all of a sudden the curtains just pull open.
And she is there on a gurney with a sheet over her. NARRATOR: Just after 2:00 AM, Velma Barfield
became the first woman in US history to be executed via lethal injection. Our rule is there has to be five straight minutes
uninterrupted of no heartbeat-- five. If it's four minutes and 55 seconds, you have to start the count again.
There has to be no action of the heart for five straight minutes. DENNIS PATTERSON: There was no reaction or anything
that you could tell. Just her breathing got slower and slower. The sheet's going up and down.
And then it just stopped. And the color, what color there was, drained slowly away from a pinkish to a gray.
JENNIFER LANCASTER: Once it's a flat line, then the medical professional says, this is a flat line.
The warden goes around to the witness room. They pull the curtain in where the inmate is.
The warden goes around and says the execution is over. Miss Barfield died at 2:15 AM.
GEOFFREY WANSELL: I can't say I would shed a single tear for Velma Barfield. I've always been reticent about the death penalty.
But there is something about the sheer wickedness of these killings that literally leaves me speechless.
DENNIS PATTERSON: A person died because of her actions and died horribly. And she paid the penalty for that.
And that, to me, sounds like justice. NARRATOR: Velma Barfield, the so-called "Death Row Granny,"
had been executed. She was 52 years old. The killer had paid the ultimate price for her crimes.
GEOFFREY WANSELL: What makes Velma's crimes all the more chilling is that she pretended to be a carer
when actually she was a killer. They weren't people she was looking after. They were her victims.
So here's an individual with no compassion, with no remorse. And had she not been caught, more people would have died.
NARRATOR: Barfield may have played the role of a godly grandmother behind bars. But she killed at least five people,
including her own flesh and blood, to get what she wanted. She was a drug addict who could have asked for help.
But instead, she decided to cover up her own sins by eliminating the people around her, which confirms
Velma Barfield's status as one of the world's most evil killers. [music playing]

She became the first woman to be executed by lethal injection after taking six lives. What drove her to commit these callous murders?

An in-depth look at the lives and crimes of some of the world's most evil killers. New episodes including Lee Ford, Pawel Relowicz, John Shaw, John Allen Muhammad, Derrick Todd Lee and more.

Brief Summary

Velma Barfield, a serial killer, poisoned five victims, including her partner and mother, before being executed in 1984.

Key points

The Double Life of Velma Barfield. Velma Barfield, a seemingly kind churchgoer, led a secret life as a serial killer.
The Death Row Granny. Velma Barfield was executed in 1984, revealing her dark past of murder and deceit.
Confessions of a Killer. After being charged with murder, Barfield confessed to multiple killings, shocking investigators.
Velma Barfield's Manipulation. Barfield stages an attack on herself to manipulate Stuart Taylor into caring for her.
The Grieving Girlfriend. Barfield maintains her facade as a grieving partner while knowing the truth about Stuart's death.
Execution of Velma Barfield. Velma Barfield becomes the first woman executed in the US via lethal injection.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This is a serial killer who knows no bounds.

Describing Velma Barfield's ruthless nature.

1:18WatchAug 10, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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