Timothy O'Bryan

popular name: Velma Barfield

date_of_death: November 2, 1984

age: 52

cause_of_death: Execution by lethal injection

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Velma Barfield was an American female serial killer and is remembered for being one of the first women to be executed in the United States after the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Barfield was 1 of 9 children born in South Carolina into abject poverty. As the eldest girl, she was expected at a young age to cook, clean and mend clothes for the entire family (no easy task in a house with no electricity, no running water and no toilet facilities). A childhood marked by abuse and a difficult relationship with her family, she met and married Thomas Burke in 1949 and had two children. It was during her marriage to Burke that she developed a debilitating addiction to narcotics to treat depression and pain from several surgeries. Over a period of 16 years, Velma Barfield poisoned several victims when they discovered she was forging checks to fund her drug habit. Those victims include her own mother, her fiancé, and her mother-in-law, among others. She used arsenic to kill them, often claiming they had died from natural causes. After the death of Stuart Taylor (Barfield's boyfriend and a relative of victim #6 Dollie Edwards) the local police were tipped-off by Barfield's sister in 1976, thus investigators were able to link the deaths to her through forensic evidence. Upon her arrest and without a lawyer present, she confessed initially to 3 of the murders. In 1978 she was convicted of the death of her fiancé, Stuart Taylor, and sentenced to death. After 2 appeals and 6 years on death row, the "Death Row Granny" Velma Barfield was executed on November 2, 1984, by lethal injection in North Carolina. Her execution was notable because she was the first woman to be executed in the U.S. since 1962 and one of the few women executed in the 20th century. She was buried next to her first husband in a grave that remains unmarked in Parkton Cemetery in Raleigh, North Carolina.

popular name: Frank Dolezal

date_of_death: August 24, 1939

age: 51

cause_of_death: Hanging; murdered by police while in custody

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: A Cleveland, Ohio resident who was suspected and awaiting trial as the Cleveland Torso Serial Killer when he was murdered in prison. His name was cleared almost 70 years after his death.

popular name: Rocco Marinucci

date_of_death: March 15, 1982

age: 30

cause_of_death: Murdered - mob hit

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Rocco Marinucci was a pizza restaurant owner (Pop’s Pizza in South Philly) and a Philadelphia crime family associate. He was responsible for planting a bomb under mob boss Philip Testa's porch, killing him instantly. Rocco Marinucci worked as Peter Casella's chauffeur and bodyguard within the Philadelphia crime family, and he was recruited into the conspiracy to whack Philip Testa. On March 15, 1981, he planted a bomb on Testa's porch, killing him. Testa's son, Salvatore Testa, was given permission by Nicky Scarfo to kill those responsible for his father's death. Marinucci was killed by Testa on March 15, 1982 - exactly one year to the day since his father's murder. Marinucci's body was found on Federal Street in Southwark, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with bullet wounds to the neck, chest, and head. His mouth was stuffed with three firecrackers. But don't feel too sad for Rocco - one of his associates flipped and confessed to helping Marinucci murdering his neighbors for playing their music too loud. Upon his death, he was interred at Grave of Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon, PA.