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Margie Velma Barfield (née Margie Velma Bullard) (October 29, 1932 – November 2, 1984) was an American serial killer, convicted of one murder, but she eventually confessed to six murders. She was the first woman in the United States to be executed after the 1976 resumption of capital punishment〔 and the first since 1962. She was also the first woman to be executed by lethal injection. ==History== Velma Barfield was born in rural South Carolina, but grew up near Fayetteville, North Carolina. Her father reportedly was abusive and she resented her mother who did not intervene in 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 complaints turned into bitter arguments.〔 On April 4, 1969, after Burke had passed out, Barfield and the children left the house, returning to find the home burned and Burke dead.〔〔Vronsky, Peter. ''Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters'', p.197-98. Berkley Books, 2007, ISBN 0-425-21390-0〕 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 on March 22, 1971 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. 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 on December 30, 1974.〔 In 1976, Barfield began caring for the elderly, working for Montgomery and Dollie Edwards. Montgomery fell ill and died on January 29, 1977. 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 (March 1, 1977), 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, began experiencing 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 Rowland Stuart Taylor, Barfield's boyfriend and a relative of Dollie Edwards.〔 Fearing he had discovered she had been forging 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 arsenic in Taylor's system.〔 After her arrest, the body of Jennings Barfield was exhumed and found to have traces of arsenic, a murder that Barfield denied having committed.〔(【引用サイトリンク】publisher=Office of the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney )〕 Although she subsequently confessed to the murders of Lillian Bullard, Dollie Edwards, and John Henry Lee, she was tried and convicted only for the murder of Taylor.〔 Singer-songwriter Jonathan Byrd is the grandson of Jennings Barfield and his first wife. Byrd's song "Velma" from his ''Wildflowers'' album gives a personal account of the murders and investigation.〔Druckenmiller, Tom, "Off the Beaten Track: Jonathan Byrd – ''Wildflowers''", ''Sing Out!'', 45:4 (Winter 2002) p.134〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Velma Barfield」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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