Murder, Mystery & Makeup - Death Row Granny?! Did This Sweet-Looking Lady Get Away With Murder?

Episode Date: November 1, 2022

Hi Friends! Today on Murder, Mystery & Makeup, I wanted to talk about Margie Velma Bullard Barfield. Whew weee, she sure did do some damage for a long time. I believe all the fires, were her. All the husbands/boyfriends, were her. The people she took “care of”, yeah, I think she was responsible for all the chaos that was happening around her. Sad that it took so long for anyone to catch on. Love you so much and please be safe out there! Hope to be seeing you very soon x o Bailey Sarian Watch the original video here and don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube @BaileySarian! Tik Tok : https://bit.ly/3e3jL9v Instagram : http://bit.ly/2nbO4PR Facebook : http://bit.ly/2mdZtK6 Twitter : http://bit.ly/2yT4BLV Pinterest : http://bit.ly/2mVpXnY Youtube : http://bit.ly/1HGw3Og Snapchat : https://bit.ly/3cC0V9d Discord: https://discord.gg/BaileySarian

These days, I can do anything from my phone, book a vacation, order a meal from a five-star restaurant, buy and trade stocks. But maybe the most amazing thing I can do is make my dirty laundry disappear and then reappear perfectly washed and folded. I have Rinse to thank for that. I just schedule a pickup in the Rinse app or at Rinse.com. A Rinse valet comes to get my clothes, and before I know it, they're back, crisply folded, and ready to wear. They even do dry cleaning, which is returned hanging in a nice Rinse garment bag. And with Rinse, my satisfaction is guaranteed. If for any reason I'm not happy, they'll re-clean my clothes for free.

Best of all, Rinse saves me tons of time each week. That's time I get to do something I love versus something I have to do. So if you want to save loads of time by not doing loads of laundry, remember, there's an app for that. Rinse. Sign up now and get $20 off your first order at rinse.com. That's R-I-N-S-E dot com. Hi guys, how are you today? My name is Bailey Sarian, and today is Monday, which means it's Murder, mystery and makeup Monday. If you are new here, every Monday I sit down and I talk about a true crime story

that's been heavy on my noggin and I do my makeup at the same time. If you're interested in true crime and you like makeup, I would highly suggest you hit that subscribe button. This week we're going to talk about Margie Velma Bullard. Margie, it's a name you don't really hear that often, right? Margie Velma Bullard, she was born October 29th, 1932. Oh, so her birthday just passed.

Happy birthday. But yep, she was born step one in South Carolina and she was born to a poor family. They didn't really have much money. Her father, his name was Murphy and he was a cotton and tobacco farmer. And apparently he was not a good person. He was physically abusive towards her.

And also she had other siblings as well. I believe she had eight other siblings and their father was just abusive and mean. Now their mother, her name is Lillian, she never like intervened when he was being abusive towards the kids. She really just kept her mouth shut and just watched it happen.

Was Lillian being abused? Maybe, probably, but that's not a fact, it's just an opinion, I'm really not sure. But I would probably say yes. So maybe she didn't step in because she was too afraid. So Margie Velma Bullard, that's her legal name, but she mainly went by Velma, so we're gonna call her Velma, okay?

Following, cool. Okay, so growing up, Velma wasn't aware that her family was poor until she started attending school. She would constantly compare herself to classmates, her clothes, her shoes, her book bag, lunch. I mean, she became aware that her situation wasn't quote unquote, quote unquote normal to wear the same thing every day and to have dirty clothes

and to have clothes with holes in them. But of course, because kids are mean, little assholes, they quickly reminded her every day that she was poor and they would just make fun of her. Since her family wouldn't buy her new clothes and stuff, Velma decided to just steal money so then she can like afford to her new clothes and stuff. Velma decided to just steal money so then she can like afford to get new clothes or something. She would check her father's, his, you know,

his pants and stuff to find any like loose change, maybe just some money in there. And then she would take it. Eventually it got so bad that she actually ended up stealing $80 from a neighbor. The neighbor saw her do it, confronted her, and then told her father about it. Now, of course, stealing's bad and you should definitely get in trouble for it, but her father just beat the crap out of her instead.

And after that, she never stole money again. Now, in high school, Velma started dating a young man and his name was Thomas and they were you know high school sweethearts and at the age of 17 they decided to drop out of school and get married. Great idea. Yeah this was in the 50s so it wasn't like was it uncommon then? I don't know I wasn't there. So the couple got married and then in 1951, they had their first son who was named Ronald Burke. Then three years later in September of 1954, they had a daughter and her name was Kim.

So Velma was actually present in her kid's life. She was always attending any type of school function. She participated in different school events and just was, seemed to try to do like the opposite of what her father and mother did to her. Velma ended up working at a textile manufacturing business. And then in 1964, she had to have a hysterectomy

due to like related complications. And she didn't really wanna do it, but like she had to do it. So she got the surgery. And once she got the surgery, it caused severe back pain for her. And also it led to bouts of depression as well. Because she was having pain, the back pain and whatnot, she was prescribed painkillers.

And like so many people to this day, it led to her abusing the medication. A year after her surgery, her husband Thomas ended up getting into a really bad car accident. And I guess it left him with a pretty bad concussion, which then led him to struggle with like severe migraines, which if you have migraines, that shit sucks.

Now Thomas, he was fine technically, but like he was left with these really bad migraines. So in order to like cope with them, he turned to alcohol and also medication. And you know, alcohol, medication mixed together is not a good combo, but that's what he did. What seemed to be like their happy marriage, it ended up just completely falling apart.

They began to fight a lot and Thomas just drank heavily, but also Velma was still like abusing her medication. So it's just a hot mess. These days I can do anything from my phone, book a vacation, order a meal from a five-star restaurant, buy and trade stocks, but maybe the most amazing thing I can do is make my dirty laundry disappear and then reappear perfectly washed and folded. I have Rinse to thank for that. I just schedule a pickup in the Rinse app or at Rinse.com. A Rinse valet comes to get my clothes, and before I know it, they're back, crisply folded, and ready to wear. They even do dry cleaning, which is returned hanging in a nice

rinse garment bag. And with rinse, my satisfaction is guaranteed. If for any reason I'm not happy, they'll re-clean my clothes for free. Best of all, rinse saves me tons of time each week. That's time I get to do something I love versus something I have to do. So if you want to save loads of time by not doing loads of laundry, remember, there's an app for that. Rinse. Sign up now and get $20 off your first order at rinse.com. That's R-I-N-S-E.com. So then in April 1969, the two get into a pretty heated argument. Not sure what the argument was about. It doesn't really matter, I guess. But this was like the last straw for Velma. She was like, you know what, F this, I'm out.

So she took her kids, her two kids, and she packed a bag, and then she left the home. So Thomas did what he always did, and he picked up the bottle and decided to solve the argument by getting drunk. And Thomas would normally drink until he passed out. So Velma's plan was to go back to like her, her mom and dad's house and go live with them. And so she left the house and that's where she went.

That night, while Thomas was passed out on the floor, the house randomly caught fire. It's unclear exactly what caused the fire, but it caught fire. And sadly, Thomas ended up passing away because he was drunk and he was passed out on the floor. Smoke inhalation happened and he ended up dying. The fire happened, like she got word of it, yes, she was really sad,

but the fire only happened like in the room that Thomas was in, so either maybe he like knocked something over, or he left something on and it sparked the fire. So when they put out the fire, like the house was still good. Just the room where he died had some damage to it. Velma decided that she would just keep the house and then move back in with the kids since she really didn't want to live with her parents.

So a few months after the fire and the death of her husband, her and the children are just living in the home, right? And the worst happens, her house catches fire again, again. But this time Velma made sure to get the house insured. This time like that it couldn't be saved, nothing could be saved. So they were unable to continue living in the home and then they decided once again that her and the children, they would move in with Velma's mother

while they waited for the insurance payout. Not even after a year, her husband's death, Velma started dating somebody new, which, you know, that's fine, I don't know why we put so much emphasis sometimes on people moving on quickly, because I mean, whatever. So she was dating this guy, his name was Jenning Barfield. Jenning Barfield, sounds very studious.

But she is dating him. They met at like a church, church group, started dating, whatever. Then after some time, she ends up now marrying Jenning Barfield and she moves in with him. Jenning, he was 16 years older than Velma. He was a diabetic, he had emphysema, and he had also heart disease.

Now at this time, Velma was still abusing the medication. She was still taking pills. This actually became a big problem in the new relationship because she was an addict and she needed help. They started bickering, they were always fighting. The two were actually in talks to get a divorce. So things are just not working out too well for Velma. For the two of them could go through with their divorce,

Jenning, her new husband, died of heart complications in 1971. At this point, Velma decided to stay with the children inside of the home that she shared with Jenning instead of moving back out. So at 39, Velma was now or had been widowed twice and she had just sent her son Ronald off to join the military.

Not long after, Velma got news that her father was diagnosed with lung cancer. And then for the third time, I'm not kidding you, Velma's home that she once shared with Jenning caught on fire. Yep. The house was unlivable, so she went to live with her parents once again,

and not even a week after she moved in, her father died. It seems like Velma over here has some very bad luck. I mean, what the hell, right? I don't even know how she's still going on. I would have a full-blown mental breakdown. So even like her family and stuff is just watching from afar and they're like, Velma is just going through it. And I'm laughing because I'm not sure.

So we move forward. Velma is living with her mom, remember? Lillian, her mom and Velma did not get along at all. Lillian did not like that Velma was addicted to pills pretty much. And she didn't like who Velma had become. They argued almost daily about Velma's addiction. It was just constant bickering between the two.

So then the summer of 1974, Lillian, Velma's mom, was hospitalized with severe stomach pains and illness. Doctors could not figure out what was the cause of her illness, but it was ongoing testing that would hopefully help and like find a diagnosis pretty much. So at this time, it was again, 1974, Velma started dating and seeing somebody new.

So they started dating, they really liked each other and Velma made plans to move in with him. But sadly, a few months of dating and this poor man, he dies in a fatal car accident. I'm laughing because what did she do? Velma, like what the heck? What is going on? You know, like it's just like a series

of unfortunate events. I mean, it just seems like if you date Velma, you're probably gonna die. So then Velma's mom, remember she was sick in the hospital and whatnot, she was released and she seemed to be doing better. But then in December of 1974, Lillian, her illness seemed to just kind of take a turn for the worse.

And she ended up getting really sick. Same thing, she had like stomach pains. She had nausea, was just not feeling well. So they go to the hospital and two hours upon arriving at the hospital, Lillian, she ends up dying. Doctors were unable to diagnose what caused Lillian's illness and no autopsy was performed at that time. So after Lillian had passed away,

Velma, shortly after, is arrested for writing several bad checks, which were written in Jenning Barfield's name, which was her second husband. When police came to arrest her, she had a full-blown mental breakdown, and honestly, if I were her, I would have had one a long time ago.

Police still arrest her, and at that time they would not take her to jail until she was taken to a mental hospital to receive treatment. And then once they deemed her as okay, then they would take her to jail. So she stayed there for a few weeks and then was taken to jail

and she received six month jail sentence, but she ended up being released after four months due to good behavior. These days, I can do anything from my phone, book a vacation, order a meal from a five-star restaurant, buy and trade stocks, but maybe the most amazing thing I can do is make my dirty laundry disappear and then reappear perfectly washed and folded. I have Rinse to thank for that. I just schedule a pickup in the Rinse app or at Rinse.com. A Rinse valet comes to get my clothes, and before I know it, they're back, crisply folded, and ready to wear. They even do dry cleaning, which is returned hanging in a nice Rinse garment bag.

And with Rinse, my satisfaction is guaranteed. If for any reason I'm not happy, they'll re-clean my clothes for free. Best of all, Rinse saves me tons of time each week. That's time I get to do something I love versus something I have to do. So if you want to save loads of time by not doing loads of laundry, remember, there's an app for that. Rinse. Sign up now and get $20 off your first order at Rinse.com. That's R-I-N-S-E dot com. So then in 1976, Velma secured a job as a home health nurse for an elderly couple, 94-year-old Montgomery Edwards and his 84-year-old wife, Dolly. And her duties were pretty much to take care of them, help them out. And then about a year later in January of 1977,

Montgomery Edwards died. And only a few weeks later in late February of 1977, Dolly was also dead. Both of them had seemed to develop just a weird, a strange stomach virus. There really wasn't much to it. With Montgomery, you know, he was 94, so it was like anything could really take him out.

So they really didn't like look deeply into what caused their deaths. Velma then was reassigned to care for a second elderly couple, John Henry and his wife, Record Lee. Great name, Record, great name, Record. But that's not the point. Record needed assistance because she broke her leg.

So it's not like she was like really sick or anything. She just simply broke her leg and needed like extra help. John was just getting older and he also needed help as well. Velma is watching the couple and it's not funny, but it's like, how did nobody catch on to this weird pattern happening in Velma's life? But I guess if you don't ask about, yeah, I don't know. I don't know.

Anyways, so on June 4th, 1977, John Henry Lee went to the hospital with severe stomach pains and his doctors diagnosed it as just severe stomach virus. But not long after going to the doctors, he ended up, you guessed it, dying. Now it seemed to Velma's friends and even like her relatives that she was just a very, very unlucky lady. They don't question it, they just feel bad for her.

Velma is the definition of suspish and nobody seemed to really catch on, which is just weird. So then Velma started dating another guy and his name was Stuart, Stuart Taylor. And she had met him at a church meeting, like one of her previous boyfriends as well. She also started to move things into his place in 1977. When she's moving stuff into his place,

Stuart is helping her unpack, and he comes across a bunch of like letters that Velma had received when she was in prison. This, for good reason, kind of alarmed Stuart, and he was questioning Velma, like, when did you go to jail? I didn't know, I didn't know you went to jail. And it caused an argument because he felt like Velma

was hiding something like this double life, this secret life that he had no idea about. And they got in a pretty heated argument and Stuart was expressing to Velma that maybe, you know, he was having second thoughts, but they still ended up continuing the relationship. So some time goes on and then Stuart realized that some of his checks from his checkbook were missing.

He asked Velma like, "'Hey, have you seen my checks?' Because they're missing. Like I haven't done anything with them." And he finds out that Velma had been forging checks in his name, and they obviously get into an argument over it, okay? Because what the heck is she buying with this stuff? I don't even know.

I couldn't, I don't know what she was buying with this stuff, but she was buying stuff. They get into a heated argument, whatever. So that night, they still attend their, attend their church service together. And while sitting at service together, Stuart starts to complain of stomach pains and nausea. So he like turns to Velma and he's like, I don't feel too hot.

Then the couple just decide to leave. Now, when they get home, Stuart, his stomach pains and stuff got worse and worse. So then they decided to head to the hospital. Velma, she calls Stuart's family and lets them know like what's going on. He's not feeling too well. He's in the hospital.

You should come down. They were able to come down, but then Stuart ends up dying. So we've got a lot of deaths happening here. Then police get a call. Ring, ring, ring, hello. It's somebody calling in attempt to tip them off about Velma.

This caller insists that she's Velma's sister and that Velma had killed Stuart Taylor in the same way that she had killed their mother. Now, I don't know why, but not much came from this little tip off. Luckily, Stuart, his family got an autopsy report to find out what happened. And guess what was on the autopsy report?

What could it be? They find something very suspicious. Stuart didn't just die of like a stomach pain or food poisoning or anything. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. They see that he died because he had arsenic in his system. He had a lethal amount of arsenic in his body. And that was his cause of death, arsenic poisoning.

So now police are taking this tip off call a little bit more seriously. And they bring Velma into the station. Velma is saying, no, no, you got it all wrong. I didn't do anything. And then Velma's son was there. Remember her son? Okay, so he came back home and he was staying with Velma

and her son came with her down to be questioned at the police station. So then they're questioning Velma, did you have anything to do with this? We got a tip, blah, blah, blah. And Velma is swearing, no, I didn't have anything to do with this. It wasn't me.

I don't know. It could have been anybody, maybe his ex-wife. And then Velma's son intervenes and he looks at her and he says, mom, did you have anything to do with this? And Velma felt like she couldn't lie to him. She needed to come clean and tell the truth. Velma ends up confessing to the murder of Taylor, and Velma goes on to say that she didn't want to kill him,

she only wanted to make him sick, not kill him. So apparently Velma had put arsenic in his drink at some point, and that's what caused him to die. I mean, at least she confessed, right? At least we got that. She was pretty easy. She was like, fine, I did it. So Velma is then first taken to the psychiatric ward

within the prison. She was often threatening to attempt suicide. And then Velma came to a point where she just accepted the fact that she was in prison now, right? So then what do you do when you're in prison? I'm not sure, but I hear that you read a lot and there are only certain books that you are allowed to read.

I'm not sure how it works. I've never really looked into it, but based off documentaries I've seen, there's not much to choose from. Usually it's just like the Bible and that's about it. So Velma starts reading the Bible and she comes forward and says that she's found God and she's a new person now. So then on November 23rd, 1978,

Velma's trial begins in North Carolina and she is standing trial for first degree murder of Stuart Taylor. But at this time, she also admits to poisoning her mother, Lillian, the two people she was taking care of, Dolly and John. And when questioned about her first husband, she stands by the fact that she was taking care of, Dolly and John. And when questioned about her first husband, she stands by the fact that she did not kill

her first husband, that it was a tragic accident. She also goes on to say that she had nothing to do with Jenning Barfield's death. So then on November 30th, 1978, one week after the trial began, Velma was found guilty of murder and was given the death penalty, which not many women have been sentenced the death penalty.

So it was like a big deal. She was taken to the correctional center for women in North Carolina and was placed on death row. So Velma's original execution date was February 3rd of 1979, but she received a stay of execution. And this went on for years where you can like fight it, you go to court, it gets put on hold, and you can go to Supreme Court,

it gets put on hold, and they just keep going back and forth for years. But women in the prison began to refer to Velma as Mama Margie because she was much older than all of them. And she was considered a mentor to many of the younger inmates. A mentor to what? I'm not sure.

And then on November 1st, 1984, one day before her execution, Velma writes letters to the families of each of her victims. In these letters, she writes that she wanted to apologize and she asked for forgiveness. And she passed off these letters to she writes that she wanted to apologize and she asked for forgiveness. And she passed off these letters to a member of her church to then deliver them for her. Velma's last meal was a bag of cheese doodles

and two bottles of Coke. Fascinating. This is a side note. I don't think I've added any side notes today. Go me. So, but this is one. I think there's a book out there by a photographer. I'm not sure but it's like pictures of people on death row their last meals and it's really fascinating.

I don't know why. I mean obviously they made a book about it so I guess other people are interested in it as well but it's I don't know. It just is interesting to see what people pick. Cheese doodles and a bottle two bottles of coke. Cheese doodles and a bottle, two bottles of Coke. Cheese doodles. She must've really liked cheese doodles. So then on November 2nd, 1980, there's a fly. So then on November 2nd, 1984,

Margie Velma Barfield was executed by lethal injection, which is a muscle relaxant intended to stop the heart and your breathing. They said it was like a peaceful and calm death. Not fair, but whatever. That's a whole another debate. She was 52 years old at the time and was the first woman to be executed

in the United States since 1962. The letters, they were attempted to be delivered, but the families that Velma wrote the letters for, they refused to accept the apology. Maybe they, you know, they forgave her or whatever, but at that time they wanted absolutely nothing to do with her. Velma requested to be buried

near her first husband, Thomas Burke. Like this one is a roller coaster. At first, when I was reading it, I was like, Oh my God, this lady just has the worst luck. But I don't think it's luck, baby. I don't know. She didn't confess to killing a couple of people and I think she's responsible for all of them.

From my understanding, based off of some articles I read, she would mainly put arsenic in their drinks because it was the easiest, and then it would cause stomach pains, and then they would die. So that is the story of Margie Velma Barfield. She was a crazy lady who, I don't know what her deal was. She just enjoyed ending somebody's life.

I don't know. What is that? Why is she like doing that? Control maybe? Hmm, I don't know. What can we learn from this? Well, I think what we can learn is do background checks. I don't know you guys, I don't have any advice. Anyways, thank you so much for hanging out with me today. I hope you have a wonderful day ahead of you.

Make good choices, be safe out there. I'll be seeing you guys later. Bye!