Velma Barfield

AKA:
Death Row Grandma
Birth Name:
Margie Velma Bullard
Birth Date:
October 29, 1932
Birth Place:
Eastover, North Carolina
Death Date:
November 2, 1984
Place of Death:
Central Prison, Raleigh, North Carolina
Age:
52
Cause of Death:
Execution by lethal injection
Cemetery Name:
Parkton Cemetery
Claim to Fame:
Crime and their Victims
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 for 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.

The Rest of The Story …

Margie “Velma” Barfield (nicknamed “Death Row Granny”) wore pink pajamas as she was put to death on Nov. 2, 1984. Barfield was convicted of murder and had also confessed to fatally poisoning of four other people, Her last meal was a bag of Cheez Doodles and a bottle of Coke.

Velma’s body count currently stands at 7-5-1: 7 killed, 5 she confessed to and 1 first degree murder conviction. There is ongoing debate over the death of her first husband Thomas Burke. Velma claims she did not set the mattress on fire with Thomas Burke passed out drunk and died of smoke inhalation. However evidence and circumstances tell a different story.

It was very easy for the jury to recommend the death penalty for Velma. First, she showed no remorse during the trail. Second, she already fully confessed to the murder and third, she gave a round of applause to the prosecuting attorney when he finished his closing argument.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Parkton Cemetery

Cemetery Avenue

Parkton, North Carolina, 28371

USA

North America

Map:

Map of Parkton Cemetery in Parkton, North Carolina
Map of Parkton Cemetery in Parkton, North Carolina (copyright Google Maps)

Grave Location:

Section B, Burke Family Plot

Grave Location Description

As you enter the cemetery on the side road of Cemetery Avenue, drive past the new section of the cemetery on your right and drive straight to the intersection with Poplar Street. Turn left on Poplar and drive 100 feet and park on the left in the grass. Walk back towards the intersection and walk down the dirt path that bisects the cemetery and American female serial killer Velma Barfield is buried with her first husband Thomas Burke next to the dirt path and 4 spaces from the edge of the cemetery.

Grave Location GPS

34.896911, -79.011983

Photos:

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