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Velma R Cont
Velma R Cont
Velma R Cont
Dollie Edwards.[1] Fearing he had discovered she had been forging checks on his
account, Barfield mixed an arsenic-based rat poison into his beer and tea.[1] He
died on February 3, 1978, while she was "trying to nurse him back to health"; an
autopsy found arsenic in Taylor's system.[1] After her arrest, the body of Jennings
was exhumed and found to have traces of arsenic, a murder that Barfield denied
having committed.[1] Although she subsequently confessed to the murders of Bullard,
Dollie, and John Henry Lee, she was tried and convicted only for the murder of
Taylor.[1]
Singer-songwriter Jonathan Byrd is the grandson of Jennings and his first wife. His
song "Velma" from his Wildflowers album gives a personal account of the murders and
investigation.[7]
On November 21, 1789, North Carolina became the 12th state to ratify the United
States constitution. In the run-up to the American Civil War, North Carolina
declared its secession from the Union on May 20, 1861, becoming the tenth of eleven
states to join the Confederate States of America. Following the Civil War, the
state was restored to the Union on July 4, 1868.[10] On December 17, 1903, Orville
and Wilbur Wright successfully piloted the world's first controlled, sustained
flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft at Kitty Hawk in North Carolina's
Outer Banks. North Carolina uses the slogan "First in Flight" on state license
plates to commemorate this achievement, alongside a newer alternative design
bearing the slogan "First in Freedom" in reference to the Mecklenburg Declaration
and Halifax Resolves.Raleigh (/ˈrɑːli/; RAH-lee)[7] is the capital of the state of
North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-
most populous city in North Carolina, the 41st-most populous city in the U.S., and
the largest city of the Research Triangle metro area. Raleigh is known as the "City
of Oaks" for its many oak trees, which line the streets in the heart of the city.
[8] The city covers a land area of 147.6 square miles (382 km2). The U.S. Census
Bureau counted the city's population as 474,069 in 2020.[4] It is one of the
fastest-growing cities in the country.[9][10] The city of Raleigh is named after
Walter Raleigh, who established the lost Roanoke Colony in present-day Dare County.