Women Serial Killers of the 20th Century (14 page)

Velma, during her time on death row, became a born again Christian. Her radio was normally switched to receive Christian programs. She also vehemently expressed remorse for the years the prescription drugs had blurred her judgment. Her newly found conversion was met with skepticism by the relatives of her victims and by many others, in particular the prosecutor Joe Britt.

Many people, however, were impressed by Velma’s declaration that, for the first time in her life, she had properly found God. A Pentecostal minister, Tommy Fuquay, thought that Velma was a true, devout Christian. The famous evangelists Billy Graham along with his wife Ruth believed Velma Barfield was a real sister in Jesus. Ruth Graham corresponded frequently with Velma through letters in the mail.

Appeals are automatic in death sentences, and Velma’s appeals carried on for the next six years through various courts to spare her life. Several appeals were filed and turned down; several execution dates were set and avoided. While all the legal wrangling was going on Velma found a calling in her restricted life by aiding other prisoners. Velma was shocked to find out how many prisoners were illiterate and would write letters for them. Letter writing for herself and others consumed much of Velma’s time. She wrote to her family and to supporters she had never met. Special prison rules were applied to Velma due to her death sentence status. She was not meant to have contact with other prisoners. The prison authorities, however, frequently ignored this rule as they found Velma was a positive and beneficial influence on the other female prisoners. She led Bible classes and counseled troubled female prisoners; a skill, both she and the prison authorities, realized in which she was exceptionally proficient.

One of the many stay’s of execution over six years.

Velma, also with a pastor, worked on her autobiography,
Woman on Death Row
.

Finally, as her appeals were running out, all having being denied
, Velma wrote to Governor Jim Hunt. She argued that her born-again Christian faith should be considered as a mitigating factor for commuting her sentence to life in prison. Governor Hunt denied her requests for clemency,
unimpressed by her religious conversion
.

Velma during one of her last media interviews

Execution

Velma’s new execution date was scheduled for the 2nd
of November in 1984 at 2.00 a.m. at the Central Prison in Raleigh, N.C. four days after her fifty-second birthday. She spoke on the phone the day before her death to close family and friends, which included Billy Graham and his daughter Anne Graham Lotz, who told her to think of it as the “gateway to heaven.” She also received final visits from family and told them that, ''when I go into that gas chamber at 2 a.m., it's my gateway to heaven.''

Velma refused her last meal and only asked a guard for Cheeze Doodles and a Coca-Cola.

Velma was allowed to choose between two methods of execution: lethal injection or lethal gas. She chose injection.

In her cell, Velma took a final communion. She was then prepared for her death. She was made to wear an adult diaper before she was allowed to dress in clothes of her choice. She chose to wear pretty pink pajamas with embroidered flowers, which covered her gentle, rounded figure. When dressed
, she checked her hair in the mirror.

Guards then took her to a preparation room where she was asked if she had anything to say. She did. Velma wanted to apologize for all the hurt that she had caused and to thank everybody who had supported her for the past six years. She thanked her family for standing by her, and her lawyers and the prison department for their kindness.

She was then asked to lie down on an operating trolley (gurney) to which she was secured with straps and ankle and wrist restraints. A stethoscope and heart monitor were then taped to her chest.

North Carolina Execution Chamber

Needles connected to IV leads were inserted into her arms, and a saline drip was started before the guards wheeled Velma into the execution chamber shortly before 2.00 a.m.

Inside the confines of the prison walls, the other inmates began banging on the Plexiglas windows of their cells. Outside the prison walls, crowds gathered. Supporters of Velma’s and opponents of the death penalty held lighted candles while humming
Velma’s best-loved hymn
“
Amazing Grace,
”
while those supporting the death penalty were in a jovial mood, waving their placards in the air that contained slogans such as, “Velma’s going to hell,” and, “Good-Bye Velma and good-riddance,” and they chanted against the gently, humming of “Amazing Grace
:”
“Die, die bitch, die, die bitch!”

Some of the protestors outside the prison

In the execution chamber, three syringes were attached to each of the IV lines into Velma, and these were operated by three volunteers. One of the IV lines was a dummy so that none of the three volunteers could claim he had actually killed her. Velma first received medication to make her sleep, followed by a poison, pancuronium bromide, to stop her heart.

As she lay on her death bed, she was asked to start counting backwards from one hundred. Velma obeyed until her voice sank slurring into muteness. On November 2nd, 1984, at 2:15 a.m., Velma Barfield was pronounced dead. Velma was the first woman to be executed in America since 1962 and the first woman
to be executed since the re-introduction of the death penalty in 1976. She was also the first woman to be executed by lethal injection.

Following the execution, Velma’s body was taken away by a waiting ambulance for burial. She was buried next to her first husband and father of her children in the
Parkton Cemetery, Parkton Robeson County, North Carolina. At the funeral, her son Ronnie broke down, cried, and begged her forgiveness for not having done more to save her.

JUDIAS "JUDY" BUENOANO

The Black Widow

Judy Buenoano was born as Judias Welty on April 4th 1943, in Quanah, a small town two-hundred miles northwest of Dallas, Texas. Her father was an itinerant farm worker and her mother, after whom she was named, died of TB when she was just two-years-old. Following the tragic death of her mother, the family disintegrated. Her two older siblings were adopted, and Judy and her baby brother Robert spent their early years with various relatives and foster families in Oklahoma and Texas.

Many years later, Judy told a federal judge that she was physically abused in some homes and sexually abused in others. At the age of ten, she returned home to her father in Roswell, New Mexico and his new wife. Life with her father and new wife was hard. She claimed that they beat her, burned her with cigarettes, used her for slave labor around the house
, and starved her.

In 1957,
at the age of fourteen, her anger at her treatment exploded. She threw burning hot oil on two of her stepbrothers, badly scalded them, and physically attacked her father and stepmother with any object she could put her hands on.

She was sent to prison for sixty days. At the end of the sixty days
rather than return home, she instead chose a girl’s reformatory school in Albuquerque. Here, she stayed until her graduation in 1959, at the age of sixteen.

In 1960, she was living back in Roswell using the name Anna Schultz and found work as a nursing assistant. In March
of 1961, when she was seventeen, she became pregnant and had an illegitimate son she named Michael.

A few months later, she met James Goodyear, an air force sergeant. They married on January 21st, 1962
, and James formally adopted Michael. Four years after the wedding, on January 16th, 1966, they had a son James, Jr. Their first daughter, Kimberly, was born in 1967. By this time, the family had moved to Orlando, Florida. Here, Judias opened a Child Care Center called Conway Acres. James, as an air force officer, was often away from home. This included a year long stint in Vietnam. Judias had taken out three life insurance policies out on James in the event of anything happening to him. On his return from Vietnam, James became ill and was taken to the Orlando U.S. Naval Hospital. He passed away on September 15th, 1971 from symptoms doctors never quite identified. Judias waited for five days before cashing in his life insurance policies.

Later on in the year
, their family home in Orlando caught fire, and Judias received $90,000 in fire insurance. Following the fire, Judias moved the family to the historic beach city of Pensacola in northwest Florida. Here, the 5ft 7in tall, hazel-eyed and brown haired widow began dating Bobby Joe Morris.

Her first-born son Michael began to be a problem. At school, he scored low in school IQ tests and was troublesome. Judias had him fostered.

Bobby Joe was originally from Trinidad, Colorado, and moved back there in 1977 inviting Judias and her children to live there with him. Shortly before she moved to Trinidad to be with Bobby Joe, her home in Pensacola caught fire. She collected the fire insurance money and moved the family to Colorado in time for Christmas, after having removed Michael from foster care.

Judias, Michael, James, and Kimberly settled into Bobby Joe’s house. On January 4th, 1978, Bobby Joe suddenly became ill and was taken to San Rafael Hospital. The
doctors at the hospital were unable to explain his sudden, inexplicable illness, and he was released home on January 21st. On January 23rd, during a family meal, Bobby Joe collapsed at the dinner table and an ambulance was called which rushed him back to the San Rafael Hospital. He passed away on January 28th. The doctors attributed his death to metabolic acidosis and cardiac arrest.

In February
of 1978, Judias cashed in three life insurance policies on Bobby Joe.

Judias, following Bobby Joe’s funeral, changed her and the children’s surnames to Buenoano, which in Spanish means Goodyear. She then moved the family back to Pensacola settling into the suburb of Gulf Breeze
, one of the most popular areas in Pensacola which is surrounded by water on three sides.

Michael continued to be a problem for Judias. In his sophomore year, he dropped out of high school and then in June
of 1979 joined the army. Michael underwent basic training and was then assigned to Ft. Benning, Georgia.

After Michael’s basic training
was finished, he went to stay with his mother before going to Fort Benning on November 6th. When he arrived at Fort Benning, at the age of nineteen, he was found
shortly after arrival to be showing signs of base metal poisoning. The military doctors found seven times the normal amount of arsenic in Michael’s body. Doctors were at a loss to explain the presence of arsenic nor were they able to undo its destructive action.

He was sent to Walter Reed Hospital for three months for physical therapy treatment and then sent to a Veterans' Hospital in Tampa for occupational rehabilitation and physical therapy. A degeneration of nerves had left Michael with no muscle or nerve function below his elbows and knees. Michael could neither use his hands nor walk.

On May 12, 1980, Michael was transferred to his mother’s care to continue his treatment in Pensacola. His doctor, Dr. Barry, warned Judias and Michael that he might never regain proper function of his legs and arms. Judias and Michael were also warned that if he were to go boating safety provisions should be put in place, as he would be unable to save himself if an accident occurred.

Michael left the hospital wearing leg braces that weighed 3 1/2 pounds each and to enable him to hold onto objects, a Robbins hook was placed on his right arm weighing two pounds.

The day after Michael’s home coming, Judias took her fourteen-year-old son James and Michael out on a canoe on the East River in Santa Rosa County. In the middle of the canoe, Judias had placed a folding camp chair for Michel to sit wearing his leg braces, Robbins hook, and leather shoes. The canoe capsized. In a statement, Judias claimed that a snake had fallen into the canoe and while she was trying to deal with the snake, the canoe overturned. In the overturning of the canoe, James hit his head and became unconscious. Judias managed to rescue James from under the over-turned canoe but was unable to rescue Michael as his body, with the weight of the braces, was too heavy.

A fisherman, Ricky Hicks, who phoned the sheriff’s office, rescued Judias and James from the river. The sheriff and recue divers arrived on the scene and eventually recovered Michael’s brace-laden body.

Judias received $20,000 from her son’s army life insurance and two other amounts from other life insurance policies she had taken out on Michael.

Following Michael’s funeral, Judias opened a beauty parlor in Gulf Breeze. She also began dating a businessman
, John Gentry. In October of 1982, John and Judias became engaged and at Judias insistence took out $50,000 life insurance policies on one another. Without John’s knowledge, Judias upped John’s policy to the much higher value of $500,000. In December of 1982, Judias began giving John vitamin pills. On December 16th, John was admitted to the hospital suffering from dizziness and vomiting. He remained in the hospital for twelve days.

The following June, Judias told John she was expecting his child. She asked him to drive to the liquor store to buy some champagne so they could celebrate the good news. John never made it to the liquor store. John got into his car
, turned the ignition key, and a bomb exploded.

Ambulances rushed the seriously injured John to the hospital where surgeons succeeded in saving his life.

The police began investigating the car bombing. During their investigation, they learned about the life insurance policies. They also learned that Judias had been telling friends since November of 1982 that John had a terminal illness, that she had recently booked a world cruise for her two children and herself, and that she was not pregnant.

When doctors finally allowed the police to question John, they informed him of these things. John was horrified to discover these truths, and it made him think of the vitamin pills
Judias had been feeding to him the previous December. He told the police about the pills, and they had them analyzed. They were found to contain arsenic.

The police obtained a search warrant and searched Judias
’ house. Here, they found the tape and wire that matched what remained of the bomb found in John's car. Judias was arrested for the attempted murder of John Gentry. Her lawyer managed to get her out on bail while awaiting trial.

The police then exhumed the bodies of her first husband James Goodyear and her son Michael Goodyear. The police also alerted the police department in Trinidad, Colorado, who exhumed the body of Bobby Joe Morris. All three bodies were found to contain traces of arsenic.

On the eleventh of January in 1984, Judias was arrested again: this time for the murder of her son Michael and for grand theft of life insurance.

The murder trial for Michael’s death began on March 22nd. The prosecution alleged that she took her partially paralyzed 19-year-old son up the river in a canoe and pushed him out with 15 pounds of braces on his legs and without a life jacket. The jury found Judias to be guilty on all counts.

On June 6th, 1984, Judias was sentenced to life imprisonment with no parole prospects for twenty-five years.

On October 15th, 1984, Judias went on trial for the attempted murder of John Gentry II. The trial lasted three days, and the jury took less than two hours to find her guilty. The judge sentenced her to twelve years.

On October 22nd, 1985, Judias stood trial for the murder of her husband James Goodyear. The trial lasted a week and ended with the jury finding her guilty.

On November 16th, 1985, Judias stood with chains around her waist, wrists, and ankles and sobbed to Judge Emerson Thompson Jr.
, ''I didn't ever kill anybody, Judge Thompson. I ask the court to spare my life. I just ask you for mercy''.

Judge Thompson followed the majority recommendation of the jury that Judias die for the unlawful murder of James Goodyear. He said to Judias
, ''On the day designated, the death warrant authorizing the execution shall be read to you immediately before execution, and you shall then be electrocuted until you are dead. May God have mercy on your immortal soul''.

In the rare chance that she would be freed
, the Colorado authorities were ready to prosecute her for the killing of Bobby Morris.

Throughout all three trials
, Judias proclaimed her innocence.

Following her sentencing
, Judias was transferred to Death Row at the Broward Correctional Center. Here in a 6ft x 9ft x 9.5ft cell, she spent the next thirteen years proclaiming her innocence and appealing her sentence. Prisoners on death row are allowed visitors every weekend between 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. They are escorted everywhere in handcuffs and counted at least once an hour. They are allowed cigarettes, snacks, black and white televisions, and radios in their cells. The death row prisoners are kept in their cells almost 24 hours a day and only allowed out for showers, exercise, medical reasons, social visits, legal visits, or authority granted media interviews. They are all dressed in orange t-shirts and blue pants. It is a brutal regime. Judias spent her time crocheting baby clothes and blankets and maintaining her innocence.

Judias
’ execution date was finally set for March 30th, 1998 at 7.00 a.m. Judias had said of the electric chair that it was, "barbaric.... It belongs in Frankenstein's laboratory”.

Judias
’ final appeal was turned down on March 29
th
, 1998, and Lawton Chiles, the state Governor, signed her death warrant.

All executions in the state of Florida are conducted at the Penitentiary in Starke. Before the year 2000, all executions were by the electric chair. Prisoners built the three-legged oak chair in 1923. On May 4th, 1990, during the execution of Jesse Tafero, smoke and foot-long flames spurted from his head.

A similar scene happened in March of 1997, when a prisoner, Pedro Medina, was electrocuted. During this electrocution, smoke and a foot long high flame erupted from the headpiece atop of Pedro’s head, and the death chamber was filled with smoke. Pedro Medina’s body was also mutilated by the electrocution. Florida state officials were forced to examine whether using the electric chair was a cruel and unusual punishment. Later, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the chair was not a cruel or unusual punishment.