‘Mysterious deaths’ surround NC woman executed 40 years ago. Who was ‘Death Row Granny?’
A series of “mysterious deaths” surrounded a woman executed 40 years ago in North Carolina, historians said.
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 at least three other people, according to the News & Observer and other news outlets.
“Interestingly, her two husbands also died under unusual circumstances,” the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources wrote in a blog post. “Though it was believed she had a hand in those deaths as well, she denied accusations to that effect.”
Here’s what we know on the anniversary of the Barfield’s execution.
Who was ‘Death Row Granny?’
Barfield was born on a South Carolina farm in 1932 and has ties to Cumberland County, North Carolina, a roughly 70-mile drive south from Raleigh.
She had been married twice before becoming engaged to tobacco farmer Stuart Taylor. But his life was cut short in 1978, when he went to a hospital with severe stomach pain and died, according to historic records and news reports.
“After her arrest and the subsequent investigation, authorities discovered a pattern of mysterious deaths around Barfield,” state historians said.
Before Taylor’s autopsy report was finalized, Barfield reportedly confessed to killing Taylor and at least three other people with arsenic, according to University of North Carolina University Libraries and news reports. Those who died in her circle included:
- Barfield’s mother, who died after complaining of a stomach illness
- Montgomery and Dollie Edwards, an older couple whom Barfield had cared for as a home heath nurse
- John Henry Lee, Barfield’s patient who died from what doctors believed was a “severe stomach virus.”
“She claimed that she had killed them in order to cover up the fact that she had stolen money from them to support her illicit drug use,” UNC University Libraries wrote on its website.
The cases brought attention to Barfield’s past husbands, who had died years earlier. Her first husband survived a serious car crash but died in a house fire in 1969. Her second husband, who died of heart failure in 1971, was later exhumed and found to have arsenic in his remains, UNC University Libraries and the Washington Post reported.
Barfield only went to trial in the death of Taylor, who died after his beer was laced with bug killer, according to The New York Times and other sources. She was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.
After the sentencing, her attorneys reportedly appealed, arguing that Barfield’s drug use made her unaware that her actions could lead to death. In prison, she “became a born-again Christian and began to minister to fellow inmates and guards,” historians wrote.
She was denied clemency and at age 52 became the first woman in the country to be put to death by lethal injection. The day of her execution at Raleigh’s Central Prison, Barfield apologized for “all the hurt I have caused” and requested a final meal of Coca-Cola and cheese puffs, according to The New York Times and The Washington Post.
This story was originally published November 1, 2024 at 7:30 AM with the headline "‘Mysterious deaths’ surround NC woman executed 40 years ago. Who was ‘Death Row Granny?’."
