a criminal's mind

a collection of known serial killers, what they did, who their victims were, and their stories.

warning: may contain nudity and gorey images

Margie Velma Barfield

Velma Barfield was born in rural South Carolina, but grew up near Fayetteville, North Carolina. Her father reported was abusive and she resented her mother who did not stop the beatings. She escaped by marrying Thomas Burke in 1949. The couple had two children and were reportedly happy until Barfield had a hysterectomy and developed back pain. These events led to a behavioral change in Barfield and an eventual drug addiction.

Thomas Burke began to drink and Barfield’s complainst turned into bitter arguments. In April 1969, after Burke had passed out, Barfield and the children left the house, returning to find the home burned and Burke dead. Only a few months later, her home burned once again, this time with a reward of insurance money.

In 1970, Barfield married a widower, Jennings Barfield. Less than a year after their marriage, Jennings died from heart complications, leaving Velma a widow once again.

In 1974, Barfield’s mother, Lillian Bullard, showed symptoms of intense diarrhea, vomiting, and nausea, only to fully recover a few days later. Approximately two months afterward, a man whom Velma had been dating was involved in a fatal car accident. During the Christmas season of the same year, Lillian experienced the same illness as earlier that year, resulting in her death only hours after arriving at the hospital.

In 1976, Barfield began caring for the elderly, working for Montgomery and Dollie Edwards. In the winter of that year, Montgomery fell ill and died. A little over a month after the death of her husband, Dollie experienced identical symptoms to that of Velma’s mother and she too died, a death to which Barfield later confessed.

The following year, 1977, Barfield took another caretaking job, this time for 76-year old Record Lee, who had broken her leg. On June 4, 1977, Lee’s husband, John Henry, begain exeriencing racking pains in his stomach and chest along with vomiting and diarrhea. He died soon afterward and Barfield later confessed to his murder.

Another victim was Stuart Taylor, Barfield’s boyfriend and a relative of Dollie Edwards. Fearing he had discovered she had been forgin checks on his account, she mixed an arsenic-based rat poison into his beer and tea. He died on February 3, 1978, while she was trying to “nurse” him back to health; an autopsy found arsentic in Taylor’s system. After her arrest, the body of Hennings Barfield was exhumed and found to have traces of arsentic, a murder that Barfield denied having committed. She subsequently confessed to the murder of Lillian Bullard.

Singeer-songwriter Jonathan Byrd is the grandson of Jennings Barfield and his first wife. Bryd’s song “Velma” from his Wildflowers album gives a personal account of the murders and investigation.

  • 9 July 2011
  • 9