R.J. Parker: The Serial Killer Compendium

While being interrogated, Margie Barfield confessed to the murders of Taylor, her mother, second husband, Dollie Edwards, and John Lee. A jury deliberated for less than an hour and convicted Barfield of first-degree murder. She was executed by lethal injection on November 2, 1984.

“I sometimes wonder how long it takes the authorities to add two and two together. Lovely lady wasn’t she.”

Martha Beck and

Raymond Fernandez (Couple)

The Lonely Hearts Killers/Honeymoon Killers

Martha Seabrook, born in 1920, was raped by her brother by the time she was thirteen. She had already grown prodigiously obese by that time. This horrible experience may explain her appetite for peculiar sex and her yearning for a life of romance. It may also have been at the root of her progressively callous outlook of other people. Martha was educated as a nurse and worked as an undertaker's assistant before being selected the superintendent of a home for crippled children at Pensacola, Florida.

Raymond Fernandez was six years older than Martha, born in Hawaii, but raised in Connecticut by his Spanish parents. They did live a spell in Spain where he had married and fathered four children, all of whom he had long since abandoned. He had served with the British Intelligence Service during World War II and in 1945 sustained a head injury, which disturbed an already not so stable personality.

He began studying black magic and claimed to have an overwhelming power over women. Whatever the reason, Fernandez was considered to have worked his way into more than a hundred women’s hearts, homes, and bank accounts, over the next few years, draining them all dry. All the victims had been chosen from notices in a newspaper called the Lonely Hearts Clubs, where he eventually met up with Martha Beck, and together added murder to fraud and deception.

Martha placed demands on Raymond's faithfulness, going to excessive and often parody lengths to make sure that he did not accomplish any other lonely heart connections. One time, Martha demanded that she sleep with one of the victims herself to make sure there was no nighttime fun and games. Nevertheless, Fernandez found it difficult to control his lothario urges and often became the focal point of Martha's violent rage. Fernandez met another woman, sixty-six-year-old, Janet Fay, from New York, and squandered her savings with the promise of marriage. He invited her to his apartment to meet his so-called sister, who happened to be Martha, where he then strangled and beat her to death. Only weeks after the disposal of Janet Fay, next up was Delphine Downing, a very young widow who had a two-year-old daughter. Fernandez did not waste any time and moved into Downing’s house in Michigan, which really upset poor Martha. After stealing what money and possessions she had, the killing duo forced sleeping pills into Delphine and then shot her in the head. In order to stop the baby from crying, Martha Beck drowned her in the bathtub.

Neighbors of Delphine and Rainelle Downing reported them missing. Eventually they were found buried in the cellar under newly poured cement. The neighbors told police she had a live-in boyfriend, and police immediately obtained an arrest warrant as a person of interest.

Because Michigan does not have the death penalty, once Beck and Fernandez were caught, they were extradited to New York for the murders, where they confessed to the Downing and Fay killings, but denied the other seventeen deaths they were suspected of causing.

The Lonely Hearts Killers were found guilty of three murders and subsequently sentenced to death. Old Sparky fried both of them on March 8, 1951 at Sing Sing prison in New York City.

Apparently, the last words of Fernandez were: "I wanna shout it out, I love Martha! What do the public know about love?" - Raymond Fernandez.

“Well, this author can’t speak for the public but I bet most would agree that love has nothing to do with murdering people for money or any other reason.”

Lizzie Borden

The Lizzie Borden case has bewildered and mesmerized people who are interested in true crime for many decades. Very few cases in American history have attracted as much attention as the hatchet murders of her parents, Andrew and Abby Borden. Despite the horrific nature of the crimes, the unexpected temperament of the accused was not that of a hatchet maniac, but that of a churchgoing Sunday school teacher who was highly regarded.

The accused was eventually found not guilty for the violent and bloody murders of two people due to unusual circumstances. It was an era of swift justice and vast newspaper coverage. And as evidence against her was almost entirely contingent, and the prosecution considered incompetent, public opinion was divided to the guilt or innocence of Lizzie.

Lizzie Borden lived her life where she was born in Fall River, Massachusetts. Lizzie’s mother, Sarah, died when Lizzie was less than three years old. Lizzie had another sister, Emma, who was nine years older than she. Her father, Andrew, remarried to Abby Gray and lived a quiet and uneventful life. Until 1892. That year, Lizzie was active at church, including teaching Sunday school and a being member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). In 1890, Lizzie Borden traveled abroad briefly with some friends.

Andrew Borden became somewhat wealthy, and was notoriously tight with his money. In 1884, when Andrew presented his wife's half-sister a house, his daughters Lizzie and Emma objected and fought with their stepmother, Abby, refusing after that to call her "mother," and started simply calling her "Mrs. Borden." Andrew tried to make harmony with his daughters, giving them some funds, and allowed them to rent out his old family home.

In early August of 1892, Andrew and Abby became ill and had an attack of vomiting. Abby Borden told a friend that she suspected poisoning. Lizzie’s uncle came to stay at the house, and on August 4, her uncle and father went into town together. Andrew returned alone and lay down in the family room. The house cleaner, who had earlier been ironing and washing windows, was taking a nap when Lizzie called to her to come downstairs. Lizzie said that her father had been killed in the barn. He had been hacked in the face and head with an axe or hatchet. Shortly after, Abby was also found dead in a bedroom, also hacked many times with an axe or hatchet. Later tests showed that Abby had died one to two hours before Andrew.

As Andrew had died without a will, this meant that his estate, worth between $300,000 and $500,000, would go to his daughters, Lizzie and Emma, and not to Abby's heirs.

As she was the only one with a motive, and her sister was away, Lizzie Borden was arrested.

Evidence included a report that she had tried to burn her dress one week after the murder, and reports that she had attempted to buy poison just before the murders. The murder weapon was never found; however, a hatchet head that may have been washed and intentionally made to look dirty was found in the cellar.

Lizzie’s trial, commencing on June 3 1893, was covered by local and national news. Lizzie did not testify, having told the inquisition that she had been searching the barn for fishing equipment and then eating pears outside during the time of the murders. She said, "I am innocent. I leave it to my counsel to speak for me."

The jury was not convinced that Lizzie had killed her father and stepmother as there was not any direct evidence and therefore acquitted her on June 20, 1893.