Velma Barfield was born on October 23, 1932, on a small farm in rural South Carolina. Velma was one of nine children and was raised in a strict Christian household. At the age of 17, Barfield dropped out of school and moved to Parkton, North Carolina, marrying her love, Thomas Burke, and eventually raising two…
The “Taco Bell Strangler” Terrorizes Charlotte
In 1994, black women were becoming victims of violent crimes, including murder, in Charlotte, N.C. There were 11 victims, in total, of Henry Louis Wallace, who eventually earned the nickname “The Taco Bell Strangler.” Henry Louis Wallace was born in Barnwell, South Carolina, on November 4, 1965. Wallace excelled academically and was a member of…
The North Carolina Black Widow
Many in Alamance County knew Blanche Kiser Taylor Moore as a godly woman who regularly attended church, with a grandmotherly appearance. Still, something more sinister lurked deep within the North Carolina woman. In many ways, Moore would be the last person you’d suspect to be a convicted murderer and a possible serial killer. But today,…
The Folly Beach Serial Killer
Many may not remember the name of Richard Valenti or his crimes, but Valenti is in the same league of killers as the “Gaffney Strangler.” In 1973, Valenti killed 14-year-old Sherr Clark and 13-year-old Alexis Latimer in Folly Beach, South Carolina. Valenti was quoted as saying, “The Lord told him to kill them.” Valenti was…
The Gaffney Strangler Terrorizes Upstate, South Carolina
Lee Roy Martin, also known as the “Gaffney Strangler,” terrorized Gaffney, South Carolina, between 1967 and 1968. However, the killings weren’t Martin’s first brush with the law. The textile mill employee, turned serial killer, would eventually murder four people, two women and two girls, during his reign of terror. Martin was described as a family…
Snapped: Tyler Terry and Adrienne Simpson
Tyler Terry and Adrienne Simpson went on a killing spree in May 2021, which ended with Simpson being arrested on May 17, when the duo fled from law enforcement. Terry, on the other hand, had other plans, as he escaped to a wooded area off Highway 9 in Chester County, between Richburg and Fort Lawn….
The Devil: Susan Smith
On October 25, 1994, Susan Smith reported to law enforcement that she had been the victim of a carjacking by a black man in Union County, South Carolina. Smith was driving a 1990 Mazda Protégé with her two sons, Michael Daniel and Alexander Tyler, strapped in the back seat, at the time of the report….
Patrick Tracy Burris’s Crime Spree in the Summer of 2009
It has been 16 years since Patrick Tracy Burris went on a crime spree in Gaffney, South Carolina. For more than a week in the summer of 2009, serial killer Patrick Tracy Burris terrorized Cherokee County. His crime spree took many back to the late 1960s, when the Gaffney Strangler wreaked havoc on the same…
Todd Kolhepp and the 2003 Superbike Murders
On November 6, 2003, the unthinkable occurred in Chesnee, South Carolina, when four people were killed at Superbike Motorsports. The case remained as cold as ice for 13 years, until a local serial killer confessed to the horrific slayings. The killings provoked much fear, not only in Spartanburg County, but also in neighboring counties in…
The Valentine’s Day Murders in North Carolina
On February 12, 1971, a young couple, Patricia Mann and Jesse McBane, disappeared after they left a Valentine’s Day dance at Watts Hospital in Durham, North Carolina, and would never be seen alive again. The pair had planned to return to Mann’s dorm by the 1 am curfew time, but when they failed to show,…