Customer Reviews

Woman on Death Row

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I would love to find another copy to share with others. Velma's life story changed my thinking toward people who are prescription drup abusers. I will never be the same. Everyone needs to read it.

...Velma Barfield's life in her own words....She was very honest and straightforward--yet, confused about certain parts of her life, as if they were so awful that she had blotted them out.

It was hard to believe that the unassuming, faith-filled mother and grandma who was sharing her story with me could be the same one who had killed so many people.

Yet, the people were dead and buried--and, long before I read this book, so was Velma Barfield.

But was it the arsenic-giving woman that was legally-murdered by the state of North Carolina? Or had they killed a new creation who could have lived much longer and could have continued to help and support others.

The one who committed the crimes was a woman with a lot of emotional scars that had surfaced after she had been given both an unnecessary hysterectomy and pain-killers to help her through her recovery from being hit by a hit-and-run driver.

The one who was killed several years later had come out of her drugged haze and had rededicated her life to Jesus--and knowing Him in a more mature and real way than she ever had in her entire life!

I oppose capital punishment. Always have and always will. Don't tell me that I'd feel differently if somebody I knew and loved was murdered, because it has already happened--several times, with one of those times being a man I used to date!

We need to be better than the criminal in how we treat others--and we need to also realize that people CAN change, even if they can only make a difference from a prison cell for the rest of their lives. Life has value!

As I read this book, I thought how wonderful it would be if Velma Barfield were still reaching out and encouraging people from her prison cell, and I wonder how her kids and grandkids are doing now...

That's the question this book made me ask. Velma Barfield's case reminded me a great deal of the heavily publicized lead-up to the execution of Karla Faye Tucker of Texas who admitted her crimes, and by all outward appearances reformed, (found religion) but it was not enough to save her life.

Velma or "Mama Margie" fully blames the pills that she was addicted to for her actions. She glosses over her crimes, blaming her hazy drug-blurred memory. Her victims are never characterized as anything more than irritating alcoholics, or overbearing elderly crones who demanded too much from her. We don't get any sense of their suffering or pain. She wants us to believe that there was no premeditation or really much thought at all given to the murders.

Overall the book is very well written but left me scratching my head, I was hoping to get a look inside a killer's mind, but I came away with very little insight.

My grandmother grew up with Velma. Unfortunately, she passed away last year. I had always heard her speak of Velma and purchased this book to learn more. In my grandmother's last days she had a bit of dimensia from the drugs she was given, (mainly an allergic reaction to steroids, but anyway) I arrived at the hospital one day and she told me Velma had come to visit her and had been "sittin in that chair." My grandmother was somewhat rattled by this, & after reading this book I can see why!

I was hoping this book would be a biography, it is more of a book full of excuses for horrible atrocities. Prescription drugs or no prescription drugs, she conned and murdered anyone that seems to trust her. Family and friends were her target - it's disgusting! I found it VERY difficult to sympathize with the woman. I was rather disappointed.

It was sent to someone else but I imagine that the company handled it well.

this womans life story was sad and gripping in many ways. its told in a straight forward and frank manner. but the fact remains is that she killed many people in cold blood and deserves to die. the story focuses on aspects of her life, the murders and her religous beliefs. she may have grown up in an unhappy household, been addicted to painkillers, or had an unfulling life. but this does not give you the right to take another life. woman murderers are not so common so if you are looking for a different kind of story, this will be a good one for you.