She Devils Around the World

by Sylvia Perrini

  The marriage soon ran into difficulties when Jennings discovered his new wife’s addiction to prescription drugs. Shortly after the wedding, Jennings returned home one day to discover Velma in a semi-conscious state. He took her to the hospital where he was told she had overdosed. Following this, Velma promised Jennings she would cut down in her use of pills but within weeks after leaving the hospital it happened again, and Jennings once again had to take Velma to the emergency department.

  Jennings realized he had made a colossal mistake in marrying Velma but before he could divorce her, he died on March 22nd, 1971 from what was attributed to heart complications.

  Less than a year after her marriage, Velma was a widow again and seemed inconsolable.

  Widowhood

  Velma continued taking her pills trying to keep the depression she felt at bay. A sympathetic manager at Belks department store gave her a job. Adding to her depression was her son Ronnie’s draft into the US army who had ordered him to report to Fort Jackson in South Carolina. The Vietnam War was in full swing, and the nation’s youth were being sent to fight a war in a country most had never heard of and for reasons they didn’t fully comprehend.

  Velma finally got the sack from her job because of her obvious drug addiction and to top it all off, her house burned down again. Velma was practically hysterical wanting to know why all these dreadful things kept happening to her. Once more, Velma and her daughter moved back in with her parents’, Murphy and Lillie. Shortly after moving back in, her father was diagnosed with lung cancer and died at the age of sixty-one.

  In March of 1972, Velma forged a prescription and was arrested. She pled guilty and received a fine and a suspended sentence. Life with her mother was not going well. Her mother was demanding and was constantly complaining about Velma’s pill taking. The two women seemed to quarrel incessantly. Her daughter Kim, meanwhile, had married her boyfriend Dennis and had moved into a trailer home.

  Ronnie had been discharged from the army and had married.

  In the summer of 1974, Velma’s mother, Lillian, became ill with severe nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting and was hospitalized. The doctor’s put the cause down to a virus, and Lillian returned home.

  About two months after this incident, a man who Velma had been dating died in a car accident. He had made Velma the beneficiary of his life insurance, and she received $5,000.

  Meanwhile, just before Christmas, Lillian was fretting about a letter she had received from a finance company informing her that a loan was overdue on her car. She had not taken out a loan on her car and was mystified as to why she had received the letter. Her youngest son told her not to worry; it was most probably a bureaucratic mistake.

  On December 30th, 1974, just after a large family Christmas, Lillian became ill with the same symptoms she had displayed earlier in the year. Only this time, they were considerably more severe, and she was in agonizing pain. Olive, Velma’s older brother, called for an ambulance, and Velma accompanied her mother to Fayetteville’s Cape Fear Valley Hospital. Lillian died two hours after arriving at the hospital. An autopsy was performed after obtaining permission from the family including Velma, but the doctors were unable to diagnose Lillian’s fatal illness. No toxicological screenings were carried out.

  In 1975, Velma was arrested for writing fraudulent checks. The judge sentenced her to prison for six months, but she served only three. When she was released, she stayed with her daughter Kim whilst looking for work. Velma was still heavily addicted to pills which concerned Kim greatly; she visited Velma's doctors urging them to stop prescribing pills for her mother, all to no avail.

  In 1976, Velma got a job looking after an elderly couple, Montgomery and Dollie Edwards, in their comfortable, brick, ranch house in Lumberton. The Edwards’ agreed to pay Velma $75 a week, in addition to room and board. Montgomery was an incontinent bedridden ninety-four-year-old. Both of his legs had been amputated, and he was blind. Dollie was eighty-four and a cancer survivor who was in far better shape than her husband. Velma, still a regular church goer, began attending the First Pentecostal Church near the Edwards’ house. During Velma’s stay at the Edwards’ house, she met Dollie’s nephew, Stuart Taylor, on several occasions. He told Velma he was in the midst of a divorce.

  Montgomery died in January of 1977, and Velma stayed on to help Dollie. The two women began to argue. Dollie complaining that Velma was neglecting things around the house. Velma would retort that Dollie was a demanding nag. In February, Dollie became ill with the identical symptoms as Velma’s mother had: vomiting, diarrhea, and excruciating pains. When Dollie’s stepson, Preston Edwards, stopped by to visit on February 26th, he was appalled at her condition and telephoned for an ambulance. She was taken to the emergency room, treated, and then sent back home. The following day, she became ill again and on the 29th of February she was taken back to the hospital and died.

  Velma was once again homeless and out of work. She soon, however, found herself a new caretaking job. This job was also with an elderly couple, John Henry Lee who was eighty, and his seventy-six-year-old wife, Record. John Henry and Record lived in a rural area in a brick house just outside Lumberton, North Carolina known as the halfway point between Florida and New York. This was convenient for Velma as her son Ronnie Burke, now twenty-six-years-old, his wife, and three-year-old son lived in a duplex on the outskirts of Lumberton.

  The Lee’s paid Velma $50 a week, room and board and allowed Velma to have Sunday and Wednesday evenings free to attend church services. Record had recently broken her leg and was the one in need of help from Velma. While looking after Record, Velma began forging Record’s signature on checks. When John discovered that someone had been forging Record’s signature, neither he nor Record could think of who would do such a thing. He wanted to call in the police.

  But then in April of 1977, John became ill. He was suffering from acute stomach pains accompanied by diarrhea and vomiting. Velma nursed him and as his condition worsened she called an ambulance. After a few days in hospital, he began to recover and returned home on May 2nd. The doctors diagnosed a virus.

  Within days of returning home, John became ill again suffering from the same symptoms. His daughters and Record were immensely grateful for the amount of care Velma was giving to John, but his health continued to deteriorate and, once again, Velma called for an ambulance. John died in the hospital on June 4th from what the doctors diagnosed as "a severe stomach virus.”

  Velma attended the funeral offering comfort to Record’s and John’s daughters.

  A New Love!

  While working for the Lee’s, Velma had started seeing on a regular basis Rowland Stuart Taylor, the nephew of her previous employer Dollie Edwards. Following John Lee’s death, Velma moved in with Rowland in the autumn of 1977.

  Rowland was a big, healthy, fifty-six-year-old widower and tobacco farmer. He lived in a large, steeple-topped, white farmhouse in St. Pauls and had two grown up children: Billy and Alice. Within a short amount of time Velma, as she had done with her previous employees, began to forge checks on Rowland’s account to pay for her addiction to prescription pills. Velma lived in constant fear that Rowland would find out. When she thought he had become suspicious, shortly before they set out to attend a revival meeting in Fayetteville where the respected evangelist Rex Humbard was giving a talk, she mixed rat poison containing arsenic into his beer.

  During the meeting, Rowland began to feel ill and left the meeting hall clutching his stomach in agony. Velma followed him, helped Rowland into the truck, and drove him home. During the night, Rowland was in too much pain to sleep. The following morning, Velma phoned Rowland’s pregnant daughter, Alice, to tell her of her father’s illness. During the conversation, they both concurred that it was probably just the flu.

  Rowland’s condition worsened throughout the day and finally Velma drove him to Southeastern General Hospital in Lumberton. Here, Rowland’s children Billy and Alice joined them. The doctor on duty diagnosed gastritis, prescribed s
ome medicine, and told Velma she could take Rowland home that night.

  Back home over the next couple of day’s Rowland appeared to be getting better, much to Billy and Alice’s relief. He had started sitting up in bed, and his stomach pains were easing but then all of a sudden he took a turn for the worse. He was raked with agonizing pain and was incessantly vomiting and suffering from diarrhea. Velma called for an ambulance and alerted Billy and Alice. Within an hour of arriving at the hospital, on February 3rd, 1978, Rowland was dead.

  The doctor’s were puzzled by Rowland’s death and asked permission from Billy and Alice to hold an autopsy. Billy and Alice agreed.

  Velma and her son Ronnie sat with Rowland’s grieving family at his funeral. Velma sat comforting Alice and tried consoling her by saying, “He’s in a far better place now.”

  Velma, following Rowland’s death, moved in with an elderly citizen, Mamie Warwick, who in exchange for help around the house allowed Velma to live rent-free.

  Meanwhile, the Lumberton Police had received an anonymous tip-off that Velma had poisoned Rowland and others, as well. The police began an investigation. They first contacted the hospital and asked to be kept informed of the results of the autopsy. They then began looking into Velma’s background.

  The autopsy tests were finally completed, and the conclusion was that the cause of Rowland’s Taylor's death was arsenic poisoning.

  Velma Barfield was arrested for Rowland’s Taylor's murder. During questioning, she admitted to murdering her mother Lillian Bullard and two people she cared for: Dollie Edwards and John Henry Lee. She denied murdering Rowland saying she only “meant to make him sick.”

  For Velma’s children, especially Ronnie, it was a terrible shock. Their mother, who had clothed and fed them, bandaged their cuts, wiped their runny noses, helped them so much with her support when they had been at school, and had conscientiously escorted them to church, and taught them right from wrong was the poisoner of four people.

  The case was quickly picked up by the newspapers and TV stations, and a media circus began adding to the agony of Velma’s children.

  Trial

  Velma’s trial was booked to take place at the Robeson County Court, North Carolina but because of all the pretrial publicity, it was moved to an adjoining county. The trial began in the autumn of 1978, in Elizabethtown, North Carolina. She was being tried solely for the first degree murder of Rowland Stewart Taylor.

  The prosecutor, Joe Britt, had become known as the “world’s deadliest prosecutor." He was a passionate advocate of the death penalty. During a seventeen month period in which he had prosecuted thirteen murder trials, he had won the death penalty in all; a record in court circles which attracted Newsweek to write an article about him. He was determined to win the death sentence for Velma, as well.

  Velma's lawyer, Bob Jacobson, had never before tried a capital punishment penalty case. He had the difficult task of trying to get a lesser charge for Velma of second-degree murder and then the death sentence would not be an issue. The defense claimed that Velma had only meant to make Rowland ill so she would buy time to repay the funds she had stolen from him without him realizing she had done so and that her thinking was badly impaired by her long-term addiction to prescription drugs.

  The prosecutor argued to the judge that because the information about her other victims was crucial to showing her intent in the case of Rowland Taylor, it should be admitted as evidence. The defense argued that this was prejudicial as Velma was being tried solely for Taylor’s death. The Judge, Henry A. McKinnon, decided that the evidence connecting Velma Barfield to the deaths of Dottie Edwards, John Lee, and Lillie Bullard, her mother, should be admitted.

  As soon as the Judge made this, ruling Bob Jacobson knew Velma and he were in trouble, and he made the decision to let Velma take the stand to explain her muddled thought process to the court. Under direct examination from him, she explained that she had put poison in Rowland’s drinks to make him ill, but she had not intended him to die. Velma said she didn’t tell the doctors at the hospital about the poison as she was frightened of being sent back to prison. Bob Jacobson also brought up her substantial use of a large variety of prescription drugs. Velma did not deny forging checks. She explained that she did this because of her addiction to drugs which she could not afford on her own earnings.

  Bob Jacobson also called medical witnesses to court to testify that the combination of drugs Velma was taking was extremely dangerous and would deeply have impaired her thinking.

  The prosecutor, Joe Britt, had no hesitation in being brutal with Velma. He was determined that the jury would see her as a heartless, cold killer who pretended to be a pious Christian and a sweet little old lady. His strategy worked, and he demolished Velma’s attempts at remaining composed. Her arrogance, anger, and lack of remorse showed during cross-examination. Velma argued that it was old age, not her poison, which had killed everyone.

  What truly put the nail in Velma’s coffin was at the end of the closing speech by Joe Britt, Velma pretended to clap silently. Joe Britt was delighted with her gesture. He felt that it showed her sarcasm and contempt for the court and that Velma had in that action signed her own capital sentence. Throughout her trial, Velma had continued to be prescribed prescription drugs.

  The jury found Velma guilty of murder in the first degree of Rowland Taylor in less than an hour of deliberations. Later that day, a sentencing hearing was held before the same jury to determine if Velma’s sentence on the murder conviction would be death or life imprisonment. The jury recommended that Velma be sentenced to death on the grounds that the murder of Rowland Taylor:

  (1) Was committed for pecuniary gain.

  (2) Was committed to hinder the enforcement of the law.

  (3) Was especially heinous, atrocious, and cruel.

  Judge McKinnon upheld the Jury’s decision and sentenced Velma, at the age of forty-seven, to death to be carried out on 02/03/1979.

  Death Row

  When Velma was sentenced, she was the only female in North Carolina awaiting execution. She was placed in the Correctional Center for Women in Raleigh, North Carolina, in the section kept for inmates with mental problems and prisoners thought to be escape risks. Her first days in the prison she spent going through severe drug withdrawal. Velma suffered all the normal symptoms such as loss of appetite, cold sweats, nausea, splitting headaches, and insomnia. The doctor treating her gave her a combination of anti-anxiety and anti-depressant medications and over the course of a year he weaned her off of those.

  Velma, as much as she possibly could, made her prison cell as comfortable as possible with photographs of her children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and decorations that she would crochet. Her two children visited as often as they could and occasionally brought her grandchildren with them when Velma would give hen dolls she had crocheted for them.

  Velma, during her time on death row, became a born again Christian. Her radio was normally switched to receive Christian programs. She also vehemently expressed remorse for the years the prescription drugs had blurred her judgment. Her newly found conversion was met with skepticism by the relatives of her victims and by many others, in particular the prosecutor Joe Britt.

  Many people, however, were impressed by Velma’s declaration that, for the first time in her life, she had properly found God. A Pentecostal minister, Tommy Fuquay, thought that Velma was a true, devout Christian. The famous evangelists Billy Graham along with his wife Ruth believed Velma Barfield was a real sister in Jesus. Ruth Graham corresponded frequently with Velma through letters in the mail.

  Appeals are automatic in death sentences, and Velma’s appeals carried on for the next six years through various courts to spare her life. Several appeals were filed and turned down; several execution dates were set and avoided. While all the legal wrangling was going on Velma found a calling in her restricted life by aiding other prisoners. Velma was shocked to find out how many prisoners were illiterate and would write letters
for them. Letter writing for herself and others consumed much of Velma’s time. She wrote to her family and to supporters she had never met. Special prison rules were applied to Velma due to her death sentence status. She was not meant to have contact with other prisoners. The prison authorities, however, frequently ignored this rule as they found Velma was a positive and beneficial influence on the other female prisoners. She led Bible classes and counseled troubled female prisoners; a skill, both she and the prison authorities, realized in which she was exceptionally proficient.

  One of the many stay’s of execution over six years.

  Velma, also with a pastor, worked on her autobiography, Woman on Death Row.

  Finally, as her appeals were running out, all having being denied, Velma wrote to Governor Jim Hunt. She argued that her born-again Christian faith should be considered as a mitigating factor for commuting her sentence to life in prison. Governor Hunt denied her requests for clemency, unimpressed by her religious conversion.

  Velma during one of her last media interviews

  Execution

  Velma’s new execution date was scheduled for the 2nd of November in 1984 at 2.00 a.m. at the Central Prison in Raleigh, N.C. four days after her fifty-second birthday. She spoke on the phone the day before her death to close family and friends, which included Billy Graham and his daughter Anne Graham Lotz, who told her to think of it as the “gateway to heaven.” She also received final visits from family and told them that, ''when I go into that gas chamber at 2 a.m., it's my gateway to heaven.''

  Velma refused her last meal and only asked a guard for Cheeze Doodles and a Coca-Cola.

  Velma was allowed to choose between two methods of execution: lethal injection or lethal gas. She chose injection.

  In her cell, Velma took a final communion. She was then prepared for her death. She was made to wear an adult diaper before she was allowed to dress in clothes of her choice. She chose to wear pretty pink pajamas with embroidered flowers, which covered her gentle, rounded figure. When dressed, she checked her hair in the mirror.