A Baseball Coach Makes a Fatal Error
(“Broken Promises,” Forensic Files)
Barbara Stager demonstrated a recurring Forensic Files theme: People who get away with murder once just can’t stop pushing their luck.
Like fellow Forensic Files hall of shamers Jill Coit and Mark Winger, Barbara Ford Stager killed a spouse for financial gain and didn’t face any legal consequences at first. But, like the other two, she was too greedy to stop scheming and eventually landed behind razor wire.
Four-eyed girl. For this week, I checked around to find out whether Barbara, whose two marriages ended in gunfire and insurance claims, is still in prison and whether she has a chance of getting out on two feet. I also looked into what the North Carolina native, who looks more like a librarian than a free-spending femme fatale, did with the money she squeezed out of both of her husbands.
So let’s get started on the recap of “Broken Promises,” along with extra information culled from internet research:
Barbara Terry was born in Durham, North Carolina, on Oct. 30, 1948, the daughter of a secretary and a longtime Duke Power Company employee.
She had to wear thick eyeglasses from early childhood and was described as shy and sexually repressed, according to the book Before He Wakes by newspaper reporter Jerry Bledsoe, who viewers may remember from his appearance on Forensic Files.
Open house. Barbara married at a young age and had two sons. She crossed paths with Allison Russell Stager III, known as Russ, after her first husband died.
Russ was a well-liked driver’s ed teacher and baseball coach at Durham High School. He cared about the school kids and even paid for some of his students’ baseball uniforms himself, according to a 2015 Fatal Vows episode titled “No Accident.”
His first marriage, to Jo Lynn Snow, didn’t work out, but the two of them remained friends after their divorce.
Barely a year later, Russ met Barbara when she came to look at a house he had on the market.
Newly formed family. No real estate transaction occurred between them, but a red-hot romance did after Barbara, 31, ended up buying a place near Russ’ house. Russ proposed after just a couple of months and they married in 1979.
Russ adopted her sons, ages 6 and 11, from her previous husband.
The newlyweds were both devout Baptists and involved in their local church’s activities.
Auto lovers. Although Forensic Files portrays Barbara as the spendthrift of the pair, Fatal Vows depicts both of them as frequent and enthusiastic shoppers. They loved outfitting themselves in new clothes and even sported matching Rolex watches, according to the show.
They liked larger items as well. Friends joked that instead of changing the oil, the Stagers would get a new car. The couple also bought a beach getaway.
Barbara, who was in charge of the couple’s finances, worked as a secretary at Duke University and an ad salesperson for a radio station. She was also an aspiring author.
Regular June Cleaver. Except for the fact that friends couldn’t figure out where the couple’s seemingly limitless supply of disposable income came from, everything seemed great on the surface.
Neighbors described Barbara Stager as a “perfect homemaker, loving mother of two, valued employee, and staunch Baptist,” according to a Knight Ridder account.
At some point, however, Russ discovered that he and Barbara were deeply in debt. Barbara, it turned out, had been running a mini-Ponzi scheme, whereby she’d borrow money from a bank, then pay it off with a loan from a different bank. Russ found out that she had been forging his name on financial paperwork.
Paper hanger. She had also lied about the manuscript of her novel being purchased for $100,000. The letter from a publishing house that Barbara showed off to Russ turned out to be a convincing fake — she’d created it by cutting out a logo from a rejection notice and then used the document as collateral of sorts to secure bank loans.
Barbara also wrote a lot of bad checks, according to Before He Wakes.
It’s not clear how she duped Russ into thinking the family could afford the many extravagances, but my guess would be that she exaggerated the amount of the windfall from her first husband’s estate.
Cover story accepted. Whatever the case, Russ reportedly forgave Barbara for botching their finances — but he insisted on taking control of the couple’s bill-paying himself. To get back on their feet budget-wise, the Stagers quit their country club and moved to a smaller house. As for the existing debt, Russ’ parents agreed to help the couple pay it off, according to Fatal Vows.
Then, on Feb. 1, 1988 — shortly after the austerity plan went into effect — Barbara Stager called 911 to report that she’d accidentally shot Russ. He kept a loaded gun under his pillow for protection and it went off when she tried to move it because she thought she heard an intruder.
Russ was still alive when the EMTs arrived, but died hours later from a bullet wound to the back of his head.
Barbara’s story about the gun accident sounded plausible enough to police, who had all but closed the case until Jo Lynn came knocking at the lead detective’s door.
Jo Lynn filled in a little history about Barbara — namely, that the grieving widow’s first husband, James Larry Ford, known as Larry, had died of an accidental shooting in High Point, North Carolina, where the couple were raising their sons. They’d been married for nine years.
Victim’s premonition. Barbara claimed that Larry’s gun had gone off while he was cleaning it.
At the time, Larry Ford’s parents encouraged the police to investigate the shooting extensively, but they declined. The authorities bought Barbara’s explanation that it was a tragic mishap and closed the case.
After Russ’ death, Jo Lynn told police that Russ had confided in her that Barbara mistreated him and he was afraid of her.
Now, armed with the knowledge of Barbara’s track record, the police began to dig a little deeper into the circumstances surrounding Russ Stager’s death.
‘Wake up, you need to sleep.’ Fortunately, a tantalizing piece of evidence came to light, and it backed up Jo Lynn’s claims.
A student cleaning out a locker at Durham High came across an audiocassette that Russ had recorded on Jan. 29, 1988 — just three days before his own death.
In a voice from the grave, Russ Stager explained that Barbara had been cheating on him (by this time, she had apparently broken free of any sexual inhibitions of her youth) and that he suspected Barbara’s previous husband’s death was no accident. And Barbara’s behavior had been suspect. Russ recounted that, on two occasions, Barbara woke him up during the night to offer him some pills to help him sleep.
On a prior occasion, Russ had told Jo Lynn that if anything awful happened to him, Barbara probably did it.
Friends blindsided. After a thorough investigation of the forensics, police theorized that Russ’ pistol was actually kept in a drawer — he belonged to the army reserves and knew better than to leave a gun under a pillow. He also didn’t keep his guns loaded.
Ballistic tests showed that pulling the trigger on that particular .25-caliber model would require 4 pounds of pressure — way too much to have occurred accidentally as Barbara contended.
Police noticed the placement of the casing didn’t jibe with Barbara’s version of how the shooting took place.
Nonetheless, friends and neighbors of the couple were “astonished” when the seemingly ideal wife and mother in their midst was arrested for murder, according to a Knight Ridder account.
The Stagers’ church held a fundraiser to pay Barbara’s bail.
No agonizing wait. The prosecution contended that Barbara sneaked the gun out of the drawer, loaded it, shot Russ, lay a shell casing near his pillow, and called 911.
Barbara was in a hurry to rid herself of Russ because she wanted his $170,000 life insurance payout fast, investigators believed. Apparently, the lower-budget lifestyle the couple had adopted was cramping her style.
After a highly publicized trial in May 1989, a jury deliberated less than an hour before convicting Barbara Stager of murder.
She received a death sentence and the execution date was set for just two months later — they like to do things speedily in North Carolina, or at least try to.
Possibility of release. The state Supreme Court later voided that death sentence over a technicality. At the 1993 resentencing trial, Barbara’s younger son, Jason Stager, testified that he felt his mother was innocent.
This time, she got a life sentence, which allowed for the possibility of parole. (North Carolina lawmakers revoked parole eligibility for lifers the following year, but Barbara was grandfathered in.)
Sources vary as to the reason the authorities decided not to try Barbara for Larry Ford’s death. Either they thought it unnecessary under the original death sentence or they didn’t have enough evidence.
So where is Barbara Terry Ford Stager today?
She’s safely tucked away in the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women in Raleigh.
Not walking the line. The facility notes that she’s committed a few infractions while incarcerated.
She disobeyed orders in 1989. In 1994, she attempted an unspecified “Class C offense,” a category including such misdeeds as failing to show up for work or fighting with other inmates. In keeping with her pattern of not learning her lesson the first time, she disobeyed orders again in 2017.
In 2018, she was denied parole.
As for what happened to Barbara Stager’s sons after her imprisonment, the younger one went to live with an uncle and the other was old enough to get by on his own.
Russ Stager’s first wife, Jo Lynn Snow, married again, to a kitchen remodeler whom she helps run his business, according to the News & Observer.
Blast from the past. In an interview with the Raleigh-based newspaper, Jo Lynn said that she’s haunted by the fact that Larry Ford — whom she didn’t know — never got justice.
Jo Lynn went on to appear in Fatal Vows. Unfortunately, there aren’t any quality uploads of the Fatal Vows episode available online for free, but you can see a decent upload of the made-for-TV movie version of Before He Wakes on YouTube.
The dramatization got so-so reviews, but it stars Jaclyn Smith — that’s right, one of the original Charlie’s Angels — as the character based on Barbara Stager.
That’s all for this post. Until next time, cheers. — RR
Watch the Forensic Files episode on YouTube
This happened in my home town, and interestingly enough, a few days before I was born on the 24th..
I guess people were still talking about it by the time you came into the world…
Why on earth was Jaclyn Smith cast for the role in this movie ???
Let’s by face it, the real macoy was NO beauty by any stretch of the imagination ! Typical American televised glamoriziation, sad! True, class adaptions portray FACT as close to reality as is possible.
Agreed that this chick wasn’t a beauty but there are other sexual things that people appreciate …
Thanks, Rebecca. An extraordinary case, given the cassette (and its creation just a few days before the death-date that he couldn’t have known of… but thought might come). What can be said of this woman except that she’s a frozen-hearted psychobitch – yet one who seemingly fooled so many around her that she was the opposite. But that’s narcissists for you, who can feign emotion without feeling it (although maybe earlier she DID love, or thought she loved, these men – yet if she loved her children, how could she take their father away???)
I find myself often on this site replying to those (family/relatives/friends) who say ‘X would/could never do Y’. Stager’s surely a fine example of X who did do Y – twice… We THINK we know people. In most cases we’ll be right, but in some cases profoundly wrong.
My opposition to the death penalty aside, she surely is a fine candidate? Very likely two murders, necessarily premeditated, for financial gain. That she got life in a DP state is lucky, but she should never be paroled, which would be a travesty of justice and appalling for the victims’ loved ones. If her children believe she’s innocent they’re deluded. Of course their love is understandable and fitting – but it must accept that it’s entirely right she remains incarcerated. It’s painful for them to accept that she is, or was, evil, and if they need to reconceptualise her commissions as that of mental illness, so be it.
She killed both her children’s fathers…biological and adoptive. Definitely needs to stay right where she is.
Absolutely – but looking at the parole possibilities she’s already had, there’s every possibility she’ll be out soon. I don’t imagine she’s much of a danger now (she’s infamous – would anyone trust her?), just that she doesn’t DESERVE freedom.
Some people aren’t aware of this case and there is always someone out there for someone like her to manipulate and then murder again.
Amen to that. She should never get out.
Call me a wag, but women murderers make me wax poetic:
I Like Her A Whole Lot
Barbara Stager
made impressive wagers
and won more often than lost
shooting one’s spouse
is the work of a louse
yet bullets come at low cost
Her kind of bet
leaves her all wet
now she’s in jail getting bossed
At least she knew what it felt like to win
before all the razzing begins
Thanks — you’re on it with the sonnet!
Is it really true that the police initially declined to investigate it as a murder, or were they just keeping their cards close to their chest? You’d think they’d at least
a) check the gun (accidentally pressing a 4lb trigger is very improbable).
b) look into Stager’s marital history (losing her second husband in a row to accidental gun discharge does seem a coincidence too far).
@Robert: They did not believe she was a murderer. Mrs. Stager was a white, middle class woman who was active at her Baptist church. In 1980s Durham, women like that were above reproach. Thankfully, Ms. Snow had the courage to speak up.
I wonder if it’s more a case of the police initially accepting that this was the claimed accident than the more ad hominem explanation that Stager was believed because she was a white Christian living in a more credulous time? That is, was it the immediate circumstances, rather than the ‘players’, that didn’t raise suspicion? It was a case of incompetence more than of believing her account, because investigation of the ease with which the weapon could be fired, the trajectory of the bullet, etc should have been routine at that time – suspicion of the person or not. When police were ‘prompted’ by Snow, they finally got their act together and were able to show the implausibility of Stager’s claim (quite aside from the other evidence that came to light which strengthened the case).
Those who investigated this and initially accepted Stager’s claim should probably have been reprimanded for a lazy, incompetent job (perhaps they were) that may never have uncovered the truth were it not for Snow and/or the cassette’s discovery ‘handing’ her over.
Hi Robert, The police and Sheriff’s Dept held a lot of their cards very close to their chest for a good while building the case against her. Russ was a fantastic guy and dated one of my classmates. One of his adopted sons used to hang at my home with my daughter and mutual friends. As I understand it, Barbara was involved with one of the law officers in the area where she and Larry resided and that is why everything was kept hush hush. Barbara is one woman who doesn’t need to be released from prison as long as she is still breathing because she would kill again. I pray the two sons that Russ adopted and adored have gone on to live successful lives.
Thanks much for writing in — interesting stuff about the police liaison.
Amen…
You have some insight into this case and I think you are right on her having an affair with a police officer. She can never be trusted outside the walls of prison. She is an evil woman.
Here’s another interesting N. Carolina case of a potential serial murderess of husbands – Betty Neumar (another church-goer):
https://murderpedia.org/female.N/n/neumar-betty.htm
Five dead husbands – three of whom were shot – and a son lost to suicide…
I am going to ask; why did Russ Stager continue to stay with Barbara if he had thoughts that she was going to harm him?
Good question. He’d said she mistreated him and he was afraid of her to another (as well as the tape), and she SEEMS to have been the cause of significant debt and the problems it created. The big red light was there… I can only imagine he thought he couldn’t afford to move out at that time, and against his better judgement he stayed. Yet given how serious he seems to have thought the situation was – she was dangerous – I can’t understand why he wouldn’t go to his parents or friends. Perhaps, therefore, he was weak-willed and malleable in the face of, say, her apologies and pleadings.
It’d seem that no-one knows why he remained… and if he was planning to leave (perhaps he told her on the night of the murder that he WAS leaving…)
Good theory. Or maybe he felt so beaten down that he couldn’t up and leave.
Absolutely – we can understand how someone in his situation – a nasty marriage and severe debt – could be too depressed to walk away, opting for inertia instead. That this was the second failed marriage can’t have helped; and moving out would’ve removed him from the children that he may have thought he needed to protect (from her reckless spending, at least).
There’s no saying whether, had he moved out, she’d still not have sought him out to murder if the insurance remained in place for her – though she’d perhaps be aware that it would look more suspicious than the ‘accidental death at home.’
When did he record that cassette tape that was found?
Good question: did he date it? The answer’s likely not much before he actually died, unless she’d been trying different ‘suspicious’ methods for weeks or months… My guess: a couple of weeks-to-days before.
David: Just seen the ep and can answer: he says on the tape ‘This is Jan 29th ’88’ – three days before the murder.
Good question.
Maybe he didn’t want “another failure” marriage and was hoping things would change.
According to the book, his mother suggested he leave her. He said he couldn’t because of the boys. He loved them and said they had lost one father, he couldn’t let them lose another one.
So sad!
As he recorded the tape only three days before the murder – so suspicious of her intention, would a decent father leave children to the mercy of a ‘psychobitch’ wife? I wouldn’t; I’d want them with me, in case she turned on them; and if I couldn’t get them away I’d stay to try to protect them.
It’s a shame he didn’t go with his intuition and either involve police or flee with them. To have recorded that tape suggests to me that he was fairly sure she was trying to harm him – indeed the tape may he been made as evidence post mortem – in which case it’s odd he wasn’t more proactive, taking, in context, a fatally passive stance. I wonder, therefore, whether he was so worn down by this loony and the problems she caused that he just had no energy to do much about it? Still, if not thinking of himself, there was the question of the children’s safety around her…
Because he loved the two sons he adopted.
I just watched this case on an episode of Forensic Files. The narrator stated that, given her current life sentence, prosecutors saw no need for further prosecution (for the death of Larry Ford, which was ruled an accidental death). Investigator Buchannan stated the forensic evidence in the Ford death case was very weak, with little likelyhood of a conviction, (hence not worth the trouble).
The closing caption read, “BARBARA STAGER HAS BEEN DENIED PAROLE, BUT IS ALLOWED TO LEAVE PRISON FOR SHORT PERIODS OF TIME UNDER APPROVED SUPERVISION.”
Yikes. Let’s hope she’s not dating.
Has been the case for some time, causing consternation – see this from c three years ago:
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article174912241.html
Ironic she can go out and spend – presumably her own – money on supervised shopping trips. It was the spending that seems to’ve elicited the murder…
Although her probable guilt of Ford’s murder can’t be considered for parole purposes, assuming she’s committed two she certainly deserves no parole, even if it could be apt for one.
The News & Observer article was well written; thank you for sharing. I’m glad the decedent’s mother, ex-wife, lead investigator, & prosecutor are concurrently opposing parole, lunch outings, etc., & maintaining contact in general during Mrs. Stager’s incarceration. I am of the opinion that convicted cold-blooded murders, such as Barbara Stager, serving life sentences, should remain incarcerated for the duration of their period of incarceration; the notion of supervised lunch outings is not only ridiculous, but a genuine slap in the face to the survivors of the decedent…
I appreciate that where the perp’s not a lifer and has been incarcerated for a many years, it makes sense to prepare them for ‘normal’ living to maximise successful transition – but it depends what such ‘inculturation’ is. What’s changed since she was imprisoned? PCs, cellphones, online banking – so an introduction to these, etc. But she knows very well how to shop as a non-impaired adult, so why is she afforded such trips? She was sent to prison for a (very sound) reason, and I see no place for leisure visits dressed up as prep for release unless she’s assessed as having something like anxiety disorder and may need introducing to larger society again. But I imagine this isn’t the case and these trips are some some liberal initiative supported by psychobabble.
I have, never in my life, heard of “supervised” lunch outings for someone who is in prison for life. What’s up in North Carolina, anyway? I know Mayberry, NC is a fictitious town, but Raleigh was referred to all the time…that was a big outing for folks from Mayberry? Who’d have ever thought that there were such goings-on in Raleigh where prisoners are allowed to venture outside the prison walls for “supervised” luncheon dates? Prisoners can be very wily and sneaky creatures that could easily escape the clutches of their “supervisors” whilst out and about town on one of these outings. She’s in prison for a reason…she is a VERY dangerous woman. Shame on the NC authorities. She could easily take out one of their family members if she were to escape on one of these outings!
They happen here in UK as ‘rehabilitation’ for risk-assessed inmates heading for release. By my reckoning she’s due a parole hearing this years, having been refused many times. Now 72, I’m guessing she’ll be paroled by 75 (not least because prisons don’t like old people they have to provide enhanced – expensive – care for).
Russ’s first wife, Jo Lynn, had been informed of her prison leaves by a friend who had spotted Stager at a restaurant having lunch, which (rightfully) enraged Jo Lynn. She, Doris Stager, the prosecutor and some others sent letters in opposition to these freedoms, as well as an effort by Stager in August ’17 for further undisclosed freedoms.
As two-thirds of the jury wanted the death penalty, which she was lucky to escape, it is indeed a slap in the face of her victim’s (victims’) loved ones that she should be indulged like this. What sort of liberal shit are murderers being offered in that system? She doesn’t deserve rehabilitative initiative.
I know, right? They say, “The 3rd time’s a charm.” – I pray there won’t be a 3rd time. Her history is definitely against her. She’s murdered at least once, & most likely twice, for financial gain to support her lavish lifestyle & extramarital affairs. With opportunity, who’s to say she wouldn’t do it again? A leopard can’t change its spots…
Having just seen the (unmentioned) excellent City Confidential episode on this “miserable little witch” & its 2 victims, I went looking for updated info & was horrified that this whatzis of an individual was actually allowed to ooze outside the prison grounds for LUNCH! “Positively outrageous. That’s why when they deservedly get the chair, such objects need to be sent on their way to the REAL Southlands the sooner the quicker – it is to note that that sentence was overturned on 1 of them famous “technicalities,” not an O’Ma Goodniz revelation that it was innocent, cause it wasn’t & it AIN’T. I dare not approach whether A. Russell Stager’s poor mother Doris has ascended to join him by now, but her stated hope at the end of the “CC” segment about “this … person here” never getting out comes indeed to pass. Even though it’s hardly going to be able to con anybody else into marrying it in its shriveled up state – & its dirty record – a hideous entity like that right out of a horror movie needs to be locked up until it gets dragged out feet first, to an eternity or 4 of Hot Lunches with the Devil’s current #2 – the Eel Presidente after Carter, that is.
I can’t believe they are allowing her out to go to restaurants, etc. This would infuriate me if she killed one of my family members. Where is the justice for them?
i know – crazy she gets to take supervised visits to go out to eat, etc. That is real punishment for her crime!!
the reason people r in prison is because we only know what they are capable of so far. and an indication of future behavior is only written in the past. 2 dead husbands should be enough indication for ANYONE of average intellect!!!
“Wake up, you need to sleep”! Best paragraph title EVER.
Glad to know readers notice the lead-ins — thanks so much for the kind words!
And it highlights how curiously passive the vic was: deeply suspicious of her homicidal inclination per strange behaviour but waits around for her to do what he feared…
PS And this when she’d nearly ruined him with lies and deceit over money. What more did he need on this mad birch before he left…?
I’m very curious on how Jesus will Judge her for taking two lives before their time. Not counting the other men she may have killed ! For all anyone knows she may have killed way before this. She’s definetly not a Christian woman ! I believe Thou Shall Not Kill is one of Gods 10 Commandments !
Hi,
If she repents and ask God for forgiveness she has a possibility of salvation. This story is so sad and tragic. She cared nothing about anybody but herself. The devil played her like a fiddle. He made her think she could get by with her evilness then he dropped her. Now she knows it just wasn’t worth it. By the way, many people claim to be Christians but in reality are totally the opposite.