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Learn more by visiting acast.com slash advertise. Hi and welcome once again to History2Weeps. I am Tim. Welcome to the podcast where we take a lighthearted look at the dark side of history.
And the title of our podcast today is Death Row Granny, serial killer Margie Velma Barfield. Velma Barfield was a 52 year old grandmother who killed a bunch of people and ended up on death row. So we're going to talk about all of her. I'm going to talk about all her dastardly deeds.
But before I do, let me remind you that we are a true crime comedy podcast. And we use adult language. So if adult language offends you, then we're going to fuck up this tough world out there. People starve into death and you'd be worried about language.
Please check out one of the other fine podcasts. Our spotlight podcast today is Kiwi Crime. Crime stories from New Zealand. Colonel, I know you're right.
That's some crazy motherfucker's over. So please check out Kiwi Crime. I got it right. You did get it right this time.
Check it out. It's a good podcast. You like true crime, then you're going to love Kiwi crimes. So check it out.
I would like to introduce our panel. I'm joined as always by the very lovely and talented a woman who is known throughout the land as Brandy de Benevolit. The very, how would you describe it? Colonel, if you had one word, Richard, Queen Brandy the first.
How are you today, Brandy? That's hurtful. You didn't use my word. I know.
I just let you say it. Oh, okay. That leaves him being the good guy and you being the asshole. Fucker.
I think that there's a lot of people who would agree with me, but they're afraid to speak up. I speak truth to power to me. Do you have any? He hasn't been introduced yet.
Do you third asshole? Do you speak truth to power? We're going to hear about all his drama in a minute. Let's say how you're drama first.
Well, okay. Let's start with, first of all, again, I had to have another mammogram by 110 pound girl with an a cup. What do you get one a week? I mean, is that really?
Is that why my healthcare cost is going up? Because you're getting a teddy's looker. You're looking at a bar like that. I am.
You fucked up a bar like that. It's like when the Hubble tells us to go take a picture of the sun, it has to take multiple pictures over days to get the entire thing. All right. So I had to do that and that was bullshit.
And then my fucking 18 year old kid who thinks my just got him grows on trees. You can't just say you have to have to transition from there. You can't just step over to breast bar a little bit. So are you saying other than sagging more, your breasts change over time?
What are you doing with your hand motions there? You look like I don't feel good about it. Nothing to tell you that. I'm just saying he's getting rid of squeeze brandy in it.
I'm just saying you're saying your breasts are back enough. Your breasts change over time is what you're saying. I mean, I know they gravity has an impact on them and they're, you know, they're pointing south now, but because you're over 40. But first of all, my breasts are just fine.
Thank you very much. Okay, I'll take your word for that. But but you're saying the brush you had on Monday aren't the same as the brush you have on Tuesday. That's what I'm not understanding.
So they found a spot when they took my first mammogram. So then I had to go back and have another one done so that they could see what that spot was. And then after I had two more mammograms and they couldn't figure out what the spot was, I had to have an ultrasound. And so now I have to go back in six months to see whatever spot it is, if it has changed or whatever gone away.
Could it be part of a broken off stake when somebody tried to drive it to your heart? Completely possible. I rule nothing out. Could it be an apple?
It could not be. Do you have? Just throw that out there. Thank you.
No. Do you have to take your piercings out before you have the mammogram? Yeah, they don't like that. Okay.
Just didn't know I didn't know because I know an MRI is up warm right off. Yeah, no, it's not. I don't have any piercings. On a mammogram, I don't know if you took them out or not.
That's a good question. Well, yeah, next time I see a little miss size two, I will let her know as she struggles to set my tent up on this tray. Like, can I help you out? Didn't get a card jack or something to just...
Well, we're glad that you're being proactive and getting out. Thank you. But what else is... What are the drama you got?
My fucking kid spends $40 in one day at the goddamn school cafeteria. What kind of fucking bullshit is that? I'm throwing money in his fucking account every week and not a little bit of money, like $75, $100, $100. This is your 18 year old.
This motherfucker... Well, the six year old doesn't eat anything from the cafeteria. That's crazy talk. This motherfucker is going through...
He's spending more money in the cafeteria than I spend on groceries. What? He's a growing bull. What kind of fucking bullshit?
Six goddamn sandwiches in one day at one time. Have you never smoked the weed? It makes you hungry. It does make you hungry.
It was a little early for Wakenbake. Never mind the fact that he's been riding in with my mom, so unless they're blazing up in the car... Well, maybe your mom ate two of the sandwiches. Yeah, there was a bad one.
I don't think so. No. Yeah, you haven't investigated any of this. You're just throwing out allegations.
Yeah, exactly. Seems a little irresponsible. Let me tell you something. If my mother ate two of those sandwiches, she better fucking pay for her own goddamn sandwiches.
That bitch has got more money than God. And even so, that still leaves Jake with four motherfucking sandwiches. Hold on. So, so, for her and her aunt, she's called her son a motherfucker and her mother a bitch.
Yeah, and a whore, I believe. But is this the lady that... I love my mother. You're ready to do that.
I love my mother. This is the lady that's letting you live in her basement, correct? Yes, she is. But she's a bitch and an evil doer and a heathen and whatever.
Do you love it that Brandi is the actual person who's living in the body? I know. Is that not the saddest thing ever? Well, and then I told you I felt that...
What awful is I'm turning into my grandmother and lived in there? Because I fell down the stairs the other day. And so, I'm like son of a bitch. So, I'd hurt my back and I hurt my shoulders.
So, I thought, well, I'll go in. I'll sit down and in my armchair and watch what's on my DVR. So, I got... Did you have a shawl where you did you have a shawl where you did me?
I didn't have a shawl, but I had an afghan that I put on over me. Okay. I had my heating pad on. I had my glasses with my glasses chained going.
Watch it, Dr. Phil, in the middle of the afternoon. You DVR, Dr. Phil.
That's where I'm at in my life. I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. You sit right over your mother. You're right now your grandmother.
I'm told my grandmother. And the thing is, no, I don't like Dr. Phil. I don't punch Dr.
Phil right in the damn mouth. And if you do, that's fine. I don't like Dr. Phil to stare at me.
He has the most fascinating motherfuckers. He has the most amazing people on there. Like, I don't even know where his... Whoever is his booking agent is a fantastic job.
Do you know what I heard Dr. Phil say one time? Sex is not a reward. Now, how in the fuck are you gonna get to grab?
I ain't gonna grab... I ain't gonna grab... If sex ain't a reward. If sex is off the table.
If sex is off the table. If sex is off the table, I ain't going shit. Last night, I come home. I fix the dryer.
My wife is becoming more and more wretched. Because last night, I come home and she said, the dryer don't work. I said, what's wrong with the dryer? She said, well, I used to take clothes out of the washroom and it would do this.
Oh, magical thing. Magical thing. And it'd come out dry. Now it goes...
And it'd come out wet. I was like, okay, I had that coming. But you won't tell me what it's doing. But let me tell you...
Wait, you haven't been in the newspaper? You're a brainer. I'm sorry. He hasn't brainy time.
No, but anyway, it's not quite a bit. It was the... mammograms. It was a responsible thing to do.
It was. So all ladies go have your mammograms. Sorry that your son is bleeding you dry, but I'm glad you... What is that?
I'm glad you have a nice old cozy place to come. I love him, but God dum. I love that song too. What?
I love that song. What song? That... Oh, Blackbitty.
Mammogram. Oh, Blackbitty. That one. Blackbitty.
Head of child. Let me introduce the loud one. Most dangerous man in podcasting. No.
A man who has been described as an oasis in the desert of the spare. I know one. The very honorable. Nope.
The Reverend Colonel Charles Oregard-Hawk, Walters III, affectionately known as the Seven Gentlemen. How are you today, Colonel? Well, I got a couple grievance. Of course you do.
All right. First of all, and you know I love my Jewish friends, right? What? But how is this starting?
Okay. How is this starting this way? And I don't want anybody to take no offense. No, but those people have a lot of holidays.
A lot of holidays. They have fewer holidays than Christians, but go ahead. No, they have a lot of holidays. They have a lot of holidays to dig your whole.
What they have is a lot of holidays that inconvenience him. Yeah. Yeah. I'm supposed to have all kinds of stuff down there.
Girl tells me Friday, you know what we're going to do this Wednesday, Wednesday or Thursday. And then she calls me back on Monday and says, you know what? The doctor promised you Tuesday, but he forgot that it's a Jewish holiday. I was like, well, I'm not Jewish.
So go ahead and do it. I'm good. But apparently he's Jewish. And it's like the Jewish New Year.
Uh huh. Rasha, Sean, are you on good for? It's one of those crazy holidays. One of those crazy holidays.
Isn't it September? It's not the 12 days Christmas. I don't know. But anyway, all I know is I got to now wait till Tuesday.
It might be Yanko for. I will look that up. Well, this is the only two you know, isn't it? Yes.
There you go. I believe it's Rasha, Sean. Okay. So that, you know, kind of inconvenient.
But they have a lot of holidays. And you know what? They don't have fun holidays like we do. They have like grim holidays.
I just don't think I would like that. Okay. So you've offended our Jewish friends. I love if you if you're out there and you're Jewish, I just wish you wouldn't have some work through the holidays.
I work through the holidays. I come into work on how do you not have surgery on Christmas? That have Christmas. I'd have surgery on Halloween.
I'd have surgery on Columbus day. I'd have it's a holiday for us. No, it's not Halloween is not. Well, you know what I mean.
No. Anyway, let me tell you this though, Timmy. Let me tell you this now. I can't.
I just because there's there's one maybe two people in the world that would consider this. Now two years ago, my driver breaks, right? Oh, we're back to the driver. We're out talking about looking at new dryers.
And I say to the guy, he's like, this one's got steam and all this. And I said, you know, if I take the clothes out of the washer and I put it in his $400 machine, they come out of half hour later dry. And if I put it in his $1,100 machine, they come out of half hour later dry. Why would I buy no $1,100 machine?
But you know what I did? Because he aggravated me. He treated me like a little stupid. That was a side street that we didn't need to go down.
Yeah, you're right. No, we're getting into something good. Are we getting into something good? Can we?
OK, so you know what I did? I said, how would this? Because I know where a used appliance store is. Of course you do.
So I went and bought a dryer exactly like the one I had, because the drum broke on my dryer. Exactly like the one I had stripped every single part of it, that dryer left the metal out for the sheet metal collector. Is it? And last night, I said, well, could you give me a description of?
Could you tell me what's ailing the dryer? What it's doing? And when they said, well, it's heating up, but then it stops heating. And then it'll heat up 10 minutes later.
It'll get hot again. Then it'll get not hot again. And I said, do you know what that sounds like to me, Renee? That sounds like the gas coil valves on there.
Let me go back to down into the garage to my box so parts. Get the exact gas coil valves that I pulled off the old dryer. Put them on. I got to work in dryer.
Well, that's fascinating. And you know, the point of this podcast is to be entertaining. I'm waiting. I'm like a goddamn YouTube video just waiting to have.
But it's not. I lied. It was Russia, China, and October. So I think they just lied to you.
Sons of bitches. Let's take out my gallbladder. And let's talk about it. I told you, let me do it.
Let's talk about Death Road Granny, shall we? I got a screwdriver. We got to have Jewish listeners out there. Somebody tell us what holiday it is.
Because this is bugging me now. OK, Death Road Granny. Known as Death Road Granny, Brandy. I heard.
Velma Barfield was a 52-year-old grandmother who poisoned many people in her day. That was her main weapon, poisoned. All right. She used arsenic.
I don't know if she used all of these. Oh, lace or not. Yeah, it's hard to tell. I'm going to use old spice.
On November 2nd, Colonel, 1984. Velma was the first woman executed after the death penalty was re-estuted in 1976. This is Russia, China, to me. In North Carolina.
Russia, China's in October. Russia, China this year, September 21st. She is the first woman to die of lethal injection, lethal injection since the death penalty was re-estuted. All right.
Let me tell you about her life, Brandy. I know you're dying to know. Margie, Velma, Voljord. Somebody didn't love her.
Was born in South Carolina on October 29, 1932. Her parents were Murphy and Lily. Hey, Murphy. Velma, as she would be, come known, she might buy her a milling Velma, like Scooby-Doo.
The lesbian and Scooby-Doo. I don't lie. Why? Oh, she was a lesbian.
Why? He told me she was a teen. She played on a softball team? He has connections.
Yeah. Had that little short picture haircut. Little box on it. She's an intellectual because she had the glasses.
She's looking really smart. That makes her a lesbian? No, she was a lesbian. No, she was a lesbian.
Everybody knows she was a lesbian. That may be, but that's profiling. No, who was the redheaded? Trixie on her?
Daphne was a whore. Daphne, yeah. Her and Daphne used to get together. Daphne was all dead.
Daphne was climbing in French tree. How is Scooby and Scrabby-Doo related? They're cousins. Dozens.
I never see the rest of the family. Well, no, his mother's been on there before. What's his mother's name? Mrs.
Scooby? Me. Mrs. Do.
Oh, lady do. Scooby mama. All right. Dooby dooby.
Yeah, we don't know if Emma was a lesbian on Scooby. We're pretty sure she was. I mean, never since speculation by the Colonel. Yeah.
By nobody else but the Colonel. I mean, you're going to tell me how to, and Fred. You know, and I ain't mean in disparage. She was killing that ascot.
He was killing the ascot, but how? I know one person would ask her. That's my son Tanner. My son Tanner?
Those are not like girls. Fred has an ascot. Do the math. You were like Sherlock Holmes.
They were the powers of your production. I mean, they were just completely conversant of him. You could maybe take off his mask, and it might be. That's true.
It could have been Farmer Bill. Oh, man, Winter. Yeah. No, but no, they had a lot of diversity on there.
They had stoners on there. There went a lot of diversity. They were stoners. They could have cut right to the chase and just pulled a person's mask.
It was a scene. It was a scene thing every show. Someone had a mask. But it didn't matter because every show you tuned in and watched and never knew who it was.
I figured it out. No, you didn't. Oh, I figured it out. Dick.
Usually it was always the second person introduced, second new person introduced to the show that was the person that was guilty. Look at it. Go back and look at the shows. There was always one.
There was a person who was a little bit puzzled by what was going on. And then they come in and be like, Sheriff Bob, you know, oh, this shit. We're going to find this guy. It was always a good guy.
It was the guy. Yeah. What was somebody who called them in sometimes? Yeah.
The amusement park episode was scary as hell. Well, here's the thing. They like stumble onto shit. Where are you driving around that you just stumble onto mystery?
Mystery. Yeah. There's a lot of mystery. There's a monster in it.
You know what I know. They never paid them. Mystery machine. Nobody ever paid them.
How did they pay for gas? Well, I believe that. Daphne was a hooker, I believe. Maybe Vama was.
Is that Daphne was a sex worker? Maybe Vama was. No, Vama was a lesbian. She did some porn when she was young, when she needed the money.
You're an idiot. Stop ruining my childhood. Just saying. Maybe Scooby-Doo will be reality film.
Ew. No. No. Why you got to push it, Dad?
Timmy? Why? Let me talk about Marjie Velma. Marjie Velma.
Marjie Velma has a ring to it. Anyway, it's a family. The family lived in Wade, North Carolina. Her father had a small phone.
You haven't been there, Colonel? I have been outside Wade. Well, we're outside Wade now, you idiot. The barbs.
I haven't been in the suburbs of Wade, North Carolina. Have you? What's a close to? You can see the skyline from where you are.
What's it close to? It's close to me, North Carolina. Uh-huh, uh-huh. Yeah, you wait.
Raleigh. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mount Carmel.
Nice. Mm-hmm. Jackass. Mayberry.
No. All right. So they lived on the farm. They had no electricity or running water.
I know outhouse. They asked if they needed to release a radio take. Oh, oh, no! They gave that to the police.
A radio say. I have no electricity for them for this. It's a big deal, because they used to relieve herself. What?
They have an outhouse. Why can't they build an outhouse? I don't know. They did.
That's the big deal right there. It's a little shit. Murphy was not good with his hands. You only got to dig a ditch.
That's what I'm saying. But you've got to have some work for a thirdage to drop to. Right. I have to dig a big hole.
I mean, you've got to dig a big hole. I get that but then there's a little compartment. poop over the whole. Well, this is 1932.
I'm not sure they had a porta potty around. No, I'm saying it's like a porta pot. It looks it's the same basic concept as a porta pot. She's like, what's the difference?
She went into the woods and well, a price. There could be a bear in the woods. Exactly. I was like a chamber pot.
Oh, hey, this 90 line to you now. My uncle used to live when I was a kid. We used to stay with my uncle. I go, you know how they only had cold running water.
Explain a lot about ocean. No, they truly did. Only had cold running water. They had a chair that had like a five gallon bucket underneath it had two handles on the side me and my cousin Jeff every night.
We had empty that some bit that was the toilet. I am not lying. Remember when we did it with the goofy and big birthday through the chamber pot? Only when he was serenading her.
I cut that shit out. Because you know what? You got to get synchronized because when that's on bitches full and you're watching, you do not want splashes onto you, Jim. My trip to Goshen would be few and far between.
All right. Had I been you. All right. Let's talk about Belma.
Come on. Come on. Let's get to the left. She slept in the same room with her parents throughout high school.
That's not creepy. Her father physically abused her mother. He was hot tempered and went on drinking binges. Was she an only child?
No, I think she had kids. I mean sisters. And she was not. Yeah.
She was second out of nine children and she was not slept with her parents. She was the oldest girl. That seems sketchy. She slept me out.
It gets worse. She feared him. She feared her father throughout her childhood. She was a good student though, Brandy.
She liked school and her teacher said that she worked very hard at achieving her grades. Belma's father worked late shift at the textile mill, Colonel. Uh oh. She didn't seem much of him.
To her parents, Belma's chores on the farm took priority over her education. Her chores included cleaning the house, washing and ironing, mending of the family clothes and cooking for every member of her family. They were 11 people in her family. She had a lot of responsibility.
What was her mother doing? Thanks. Her mother's doing things. I don't think she's getting beat by the old man.
She's just aggressive. They were running wild. Other fuckers don't do anything. What was that?
So Harold school kind of got in the way. So her father would have her dismiss from school early on days that she needed to do extra laundry because they were they used to work sport and it took a long time. Well yeah. My husband acts like he has to do that every time he has to do a little laundry.
Yeah. So I mean it could be worse. She could be using rocks, right? Yes.
She was in the back. She was in the back that she had to leave because she loves school. She loves school. No, she got to cook.
Please ungrateful and great. By the time by the time she was 12 Velma was cooking all of her family's meal meals each day. All her family's meals. Yeah.
She was responsible for cooking and cleaning. You know, for people basically. And what's her mother doing beside popping out kids? I didn't follow her around.
I don't know. Bullshit. Sorry. What's your doctor feel?
And I don't blame her. What all women do? Whatever. At school, Velma also proved to be bright, a bright, attentive student.
But she was socially rejected by her peers because of her impoverished style. So she wasn't wearing a flater. She's wearing a feet sack. Yeah.
She didn't know what's. I mean she she really would be like, Hey, she was cooking. She was carrying a bathroom pass. Yeah.
Let me tell you something. She's always wanting to take it. She walks right afterwards. My grandmother, people kids be looking out the most window at her.
My grandmother had this unbridled hatred for Loretta Lynn because evidently she wasn't poor. They grew up close to each other. And she knew that kind of knew of that family that bitch has never seen poor. But she knows poor when she has to walk around and other people's shoes and a feed sack and got holes in her shoes.
She never had to do that. Hated her with not by Western oil because she hated Sissy Spasic because she's facing later in a movie and probably the Star Wars and better. Well, better still. Well, she had to say it's his basic.
She hated the lady in field of dreams. We got that redhead hated her because she looked like Sissy Spasic who played Loretta Lynn. Oh my gosh. She was a little kid.
She hated Kevin Bacon. She yeah, probably she hated everybody else. But oh yeah, she didn't know poor. I had to do that.
I'm not a big fan of Loretta Lynn's either. I don't give a flying crap about Loretta Lynn. I saw the place where my grandmother grew up with like, I don't know how many umpteen kids. There's like six or seven of them.
One room, maybe an outhouse sometimes. Sometimes they had to move it and that took time. And so then in between when they had to move it because you could only put it someplace for so long before the shit overflows. Really?
And anytime they were card and at night they slept because they were card. Exactly. She had to sleep with I don't know how many of her brothers in Cisco. Well, this is almost like a few.
And there were snakes in the house. Oh, that's bullshit. And they put this is sweetie. Sweetie.
They didn't care. She loved having snakes in the house because the snakes would eat the mice. Oh yeah. Yeah.
I told you this. I went to Cabrini Green in Chicago. Chicago. Chicago.
It's a housing project and we had to go through for a graduate school. And so she worked in a there's interviewing this couple when they had these cats and these couples like it's chaos. They like three kids in this two-bedroom or one-bedroom apartment. It was just a mess.
But anyway, these cats were like huge. And then in my mind, I mean, a little judgmental thinking, you know, you have nothing. You got these kids, you know, but you got these two cats, whatever. And they said, you know, they had never fed those cats once.
They just lived them to mice in this housing project. And you were being Judge Judy. Yeah, well, I didn't. Mr.
Suburban Portsmouth boy. Uh-huh. Being Judge Judy. I would have been a ten spoon in his mouth.
Judge and these people in Cabrini Green. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Also, I missed a better than somebody. From Portsmouth. We have from Portsmouth. All right.
Let me get back to Vama. Mm-hmm. You know, I lost my place. Got my own confused.
Yeah. Well, that was a difficult to do. So, Vama, yes, she's a bright student. Didn't well in school, but you know, parents wouldn't let her fully take her.
Wouldn't let her thrive, yeah. At school, as I said, she was in tears. She was stinky. She was head-bad hygiene.
I think she was just shitting in the woods, Timmy. You think there's not splashback from that? I mean, you can't get yourself clean after you've got to go in the rain and like go out there in the rain. That's like having a bidet.
No, it's not. Not unless you stick your ass up to the sky. And then the barrel is like clonic. Huh?
Like a clonic. If it's raining a little bit. Well, yeah. If you get a downpour, it might be.
All right. So anyway, she felt inferior because she didn't have the, you know, the nice clothes the other kids had. So she started stealing. Was she any good at it?
Well, she began stealing coins from her father's coin collection. Oh, and she was caught stealing from an elderly neighbor. Her punishment was severe. Damn right, stealing from old people.
Tipper early, cured her from stealing her father, be your basically. As you should. No, you don't steal no shit from old people. You steal shit from young people.
You steal from young healthy people. You steal shit from old people. You got a beat and come. In 1945, Randy.
Yes. When she was 13 years old, you were born. Belma's body. Journal started to mature.
Oh, she blossom to me. Blossom like a spring flower on the bank. She got babies. I was trying to be a little more tactful.
People started to notice. These are the big movies, including her father. There you go. Nice.
That's not good. I don't think I like what is said in the summer 1945. Her father surprised her. I bought her an expensive pink ruffle gown.
Oh, Kerry at the prom. And she said that it was the happiest day of her life until. No, it was just happy because it was the only time he ever bought or anything. So yeah, he was rewarding the titties.
Well, yes, but she in turn, I'm sure had to reward him. Well, let's stay tuned. Yeah, it's not it's not a good story. I don't like what it's not.
No, it's not. It's not good. In the fall of 1945. Okay.
You're paying attention. Belma was feeling ill one day at school. She had her period. She was just so bad.