Death Sentence: The True Story of Velma Barfield's Life, Crimes, and Punishment

Jerry Bledsoe

Jul 2015 · Lantern Audio · Narrated by Kevin Stillwell

About this audiobook

A shocking true story of a double life undone by murder. When North Carolina farmer Stuart Taylor died after a sudden illness, his 46-year-old fiancée Velma Barfield, was overcome with grief. Taylor’s family grieved with her—until the autopsy revealed traces of arsenic poisoning. Turned over to the authorities by her own son, Velma stunned her family with more revelations. This wasn’t the first time the born-again Christian and devout Sunday school teacher had committed cold-blooded murder. Tried by the “world’s deadliest prosecutor,” and sentenced to death, Velma turned her life around and gained worldwide attention. With chilling precision, New York Times bestselling author Bledsoe probes Velma’s stark descent into madness. From her harrowing childhood to the shocking crimes that incited a national debate over the death penalty, to the dark, final moments of her execution—broadcast live on CNN—Velma Barfield’s riveting life of crime and punishment, revenge and redemption is true crime reporting at its most gripping and profound.

About the author

Jerry Bledsoe was born July 14, 1941, in Danville, Virginia. Bledsoe is a newspaperman. He writes true crime stories as well as humor columns. He has won several awards, including the National Headliners Award (1969) and the Young Newspaperman Award from the International Newspaper Promotion Association (1971). As a writer Beldsoe focuses on North Carolina's land and people. Some of his titles include Some Funny Things Happened on the Way Back to the Land (1976), Visitin' with Carolina People (1980), and Blood Games: A True Account of Family Murder (1991). Blue Horizons: Faces and Places from a Bicycle Journey along the Blue Ridge Parkway was published in 1993. Before He Wakes: A True Story of Money, Marriage, Sex and Murder appeared in 1994. Bledsoe lives in Ashboro, North Carolina.