Show Notes
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Velma Barfield: The “Grandmother” Serial Killer, Arsenic Poisonings, and America’s First Female Lethal Injection
Rae profiles Velma Barfield, a little-known serial killer who killed at least four people and became the first woman executed in the U.S. in 22 years and the first ever by lethal injection.
The episode examines competing explanations: sociopathy, addiction-driven fraud, and dissociative identity disorder. Before detailing her death row conversion, and attempted clemency by Governor Jim Hunt, and execution on November 2, 1984.
00:00 Serial Killer You Never Suspected 00:59 Velma Barfield Overview 01:58 Content Warning And Support 02:58 Abuse And Invisibility 04:24 Marriage And Medical Spiral 07:07 Bodies Begin To Pile Up 10:32 Caretaker Deaths And Fraud 11:37 Arsenic Autopsy Breakthrough 12:42 Why Did She Kill 18:51 Death Row And Execution 21:42 Monster Or System Failure 23:10 Wrap Up And Next Steps Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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The Green River Killer was also an unassuming-looking man named Gary Ridgway. He made a bet that if he killed women society had already written off, nobody would come looking. For nearly 20 years, he won and got away with it.
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Inside the ‘Vampire Cult’ Murder Case: Chet Hardin on Sydney Loofe, Aubrey Trail & Bailey Boswell.