The writer George Orwell wanted to call his classic novel “The Last Man in Europe,” until his publisher suggested he change it for marketing purposes. The author agreed and came up with the new title, “1984.”
He never said why he picked that particular year, and many theories exist about the title of the famous story about a dystopian society whose actions and even thoughts were watched over by the god-like dictator known as “Big Brother.”
Orwell wrote it in 1948, and many think he just switched the last two numbers, to perhaps give the reader a close enough time in the distant future for his unimaginable horrors to seem possible.
Now the famous year is nearly a quarter century past, and the world of 2014, with all of its imperfections, looks like a utopia compared to what Orwell dreamed up.
Looking back to 1984 - the real one - technology was beginning its incredible growth period of speed when we were introduced to a new computer, with an apple for its brand. And a week or so later, a fast-food selling little old lady asked us, “Where’s the beef?”
Speed was absent when the Milwaukee Brewers and the Chicago White Sox began a May game at 7:30 at Comiskey Park. Twenty-five innings later the White Sox finally won 7-6. The eight hour and six minute contest is the record for the longest game in major league history.
A few months later, out west in San Ysidro, Calif., a 41-year old out of work welder told his wife one morning that he was going out “hunting humans.” James Oliver Huberty found his prey at a nearby McDonalds, where over the next 77 minutes he would kill 21 of them before being taken out by a sniper.
A little over three months later, another American killer sitting on Death Row was about to pay for her crimes. Velma Margie Barfield first encountered the death of someone close to her when her husband Thomas Burke died of smoke inhalation after the family’s house caught on fire. She recovered from the tragedy, and in 1970 married Mr. Jennings Barfield, who would die a year later died of heart complications.
It’s believed that Velma’s first attempt at murder was on her mother, Lillian Bullard. Sometime in 1974, Lillian became very ill with intense vomiting, but a few days later she had fully recovered. Later that year, around Christmas, her mother’s illness returned and she died. Velma is believed to have poisoned her. During that same year a man Velma had been dating was killed in a car wreck.
In 1976, Velma began taking care of an elderly couple by the names of Montgomery and Dollie Edwards. Montgomery soon became ill and died. A few months later, Dollie developed the same symptoms Velma’s mother had, and she also died.
The next year Velma found another caretaking job for a 76-year old woman named Record Lee, who had recently broken her leg. Soon after, Mrs. Lee’s husband became violently ill and died.
Velma was executed by lethal injection on Nov. 2, 1984, in Raleigh, N.C., for the death of another victim, her boyfriend, Stuart Taylor, who was also a relative of Dollie Edwards.
Velma had mixed an arsenic-based rat poison into Taylor’s beer. After her arrest, the body of her late husband, Jennings Barfield, was exhumed and was found to have arsenic in it.
While on death row, Velma became a born again Christian. She spent the last remaining years of her life ministering to prisoners and guards.