Synopsis
The author of Before He Wakes describes how, after her husband died of arsenic poisoning, Velma Barfield became the prime suspect in the case and was convicted of the crime, and how, during the police investigation into her past, it was discovered that she had struck before. 30,000 first printing.
Reviews
In 1978, 52-year-old grandmother Velma Barfield admitted to poisoning four people, including her own mother. While she would be convicted of only one murder?that of her fiance, Stuart Taylor?it would be enough for her to die by lethal injection in 1984, the first woman to be executed in the U.S. after the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1974. Relying mostly on anecdotes from Barfield's two children, veteran true-crime writer Bledsoe (Before He Wakes; Blood Games) glides smoothly through Barfield's history, from a brief look into her own poor, brutalized childhood through the love and stability she provided for her own young children and finally to her decline into the prescription-drug addiction, which Barfield's lawyer would argue compromised her judgment and her responsibility. Bledsoe's account of the trial itself, particularly of the courtroom antics of district attorney Joe Freeman Britt ("the world's deadliest prosecutor"), is so vivid that it is hard to believe he was not there. Likewise, the tortured ambivalence of Barfield's son Ronnie for a mother whose drug problems destroyed his life, but whom he still remembers as his class mom, adds a depth of feeling that is often difficult to capture in true-crime literature. It is only when Barfield becomes a born-again Christian that Bledsoe's narrative gets a bit heavy-handed; although he tries to balance the testimonials to Barfield's newfound faith with interviews with the victims' families, the former far outnumber the latter. But ultimately, for Bledsoe, Barfield's story seems to be a cautionary tale that discredits the death penalty because it offers no possibility of redemption, no second chances.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
A highly active murderer whose victims included her fianc? and her mother, Barfield was the only woman executed in America between 1962 and 1998. This account from a best-selling true-crime author promises revelations from Barfield's son.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Poisoning fianceStuart Taylor only began Velma Barfield's last round of troubles. "I only meant to make him sick," she told son Ronnie Burke. Imagine his chagrin when he turned his mom in and then found she was in the crosshairs of county attorney (and minion of justice extraordinaire) Joe Freeman Britt's prosecutorial sights. Thus a woman with lots of problems was pitted against a crusading, highly successful death penalty proponent. Barfield had a history of polite drug dependency and mild-to-moderate financial indiscretion when her propensity for poisoning came to light. Her conviction for murdering Taylor (she also murdered her mother in what amounts to a subplot here) comes about halfway through the book, the rest of which concerns her and her family's travails in dealing with her crimes and the imprisonment, appeal processes, and execution plans that followed her conviction. This may not be instructive reading, but it is certainly taut and engrossing on the nature of justice and the death penalty as well as on guilt and responsibility. Mike Tribby
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