WEBVTT - Ray and Faye Copeland: America's Oldest Serial Killers 0:00:02.240 --> 0:00:06.559 Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:12.240 with iHeartRadio. Hey, before the show starts today, we have 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:13.880 a little bit of fun news to share. 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:15.040 We have had a secret. 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:19.480 We have been working very diligently for the past many 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:23.000 months on creating something that a lot of you have 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:26.000 been asking for, and that is a book of cocktails 0:00:26.000 --> 0:00:28.840 and cocktails that are told right alongside the stories that. 0:00:28.760 --> 0:00:31.159 We talk about, plus additional ones that we have not 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:31.880 talked about. 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:35.320 That's right. 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All right, let's jump into 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:03.960 the episode. 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:12.880 Ray and Fay Copeland were husband and wife serial killers 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:16.480 and the oldest couple ever sentenced to death in the 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:22.200 United States. Their known victims include Dennis Murphy born in 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:26.040 nineteen sixty two in Normal, Illinois and killed in October 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:31.279 of nineteen eighty six. Wayne Warner from Bloomington, Illinois, killed 0:01:31.319 --> 0:01:35.600 in November of nineteen eighty six. Jimmy Harvey born in 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:38.920 nineteen sixty one in Springfield, Missouri, and killed in October 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:43.199 of nineteen eighty eight. John Freeman born on January sixth, 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:46.880 nineteen sixty two in Boonville, Indiana, and killed in December 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:52.240 of nineteen eighty eight. And Paul Cohort born on September thirtieth, 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:55.720 nineteen sixty eight, in Dardenelle, Arkansas, and killed in May 0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:59.600 of nineteen eighty nine. More men are still considered missing 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:03.240 and like also murdered, though their remains have not been found. 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:07.320 This is a story about nearly a dozen hired hands 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:10.320 who disappeared from the Copeland farm in the nineteen eighties. 0:02:10.840 --> 0:02:13.880 Welcome to Criminalia, I'm Maria Tremarchy and. 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:18.240 I'm Holly Frye. Ray Copeland was an aging farmer whose 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:22.519 neighbors in Moorsville, Missouri, population one point thirty had always 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:26.760 viewed him as a quote menacing odd ball. They reported 0:02:26.800 --> 0:02:29.799 that he yelled at waitresses. The owner of the local 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:35.000 cafe described him as quote real bity and snappy. Others 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:39.639 in town said they'd personally witnessed him intentionally run over 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:44.240 dogs with his vehicle. He made his neighbors uneasy. Most 0:02:44.360 --> 0:02:47.120 thought that he abused his wife and children, and most 0:02:47.320 --> 0:02:51.640 kept their distance. But in addition to his temper and behavior, 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:55.160 they also told authorities that he regularly hung out around 0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:57.960 places where drifters and vagrants could get a meal in 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:00.680 a bed for the night, and he knew that he 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:03.880 made them job offers. He was also known to pick 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:07.000 up hitchhikers to work as hired hands on his farm. 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:11.639 Ray had a long history of criminal activity, and he'd 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:14.800 spent quite a bit of time incarcerated. He was born 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:18.560 in Oklahoma in nineteen fourteen. He dropped out of school 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:20.680 when he was nine years old, and that was in 0:03:20.720 --> 0:03:23.600 the fourth grade, and was described by friends of the 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:28.320 family as stubborn and insubordinate. Before the age of twenty, 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:31.000 he had started committing petty crimes to help his family 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:35.120 make ends meet during the Great Depression. Sometimes he stole livestock, 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:39.560 primarily hoggs, once stealing and selling his own father's livestock, 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:45.440 But his favorite criminal activity was writing fraudulent checks. He 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:48.680 was arrested for forgery. In fact, he was arrested and 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:52.640 jailed several times for it. In nineteen thirty nine, Ray 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:55.600 was arrested and sentenced to one year in jail for 0:03:55.600 --> 0:03:59.240 forging government checks, kind of a step up the ladder 0:03:59.320 --> 0:03:59.960 of check for us. 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:05.280 He met Faye Della Wilson in nineteen forty, shortly after 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:09.280 his release from jail after that arrest and incarceration, and 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:13.880 they married and had several children. Their primary income was 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:18.320 Ray's ongoing offense of writing and cashing bad checks, which 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:22.360 was also intertwined with cattle theft. Will explain so hold 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:26.120 that thought. Ray was jailed several times while his children 0:04:26.200 --> 0:04:28.880 were young, and the family moved from town to town. 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:32.440 In nineteen sixty seven, they bought a small farm with 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:36.360 forty acres of land in Mooresville, Missouri, their final home, 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:42.440 but Ray's criminal past followed them there too. Specifically, Ray 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:47.080 was barred from livestock auctions. Auction houses refused to sell 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:50.200 cattle to him because he was known for writing bad 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:52.000 checks to make those purchases. 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:56.799 In the nineteen seventies, seemingly having spent more time behind 0:04:56.920 --> 0:05:00.320 bars than at home, Ray started thinking about it new 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:04.760 way to buy cattle with bad checks. His scheme had 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:08.320 been that he hired transient workers as farm hands, and 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:10.680 part of their job was to sign his checks as 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:14.880 proxies at live auctions, and when those checks bounced for 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:18.080 insufficient funds, he would deny. He wrote them, I mean, 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:21.400 look the signatures and the handwriting, they don't even match his. 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:25.520 And Ray would sell the animals before anyone caught on 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:29.599 about the check fraud. But after one worker, a man 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:34.039 named Gerald Perkins, was loose lipped about the scam after 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:37.000 being caught, it was Ray who ended up spending two 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:40.480 years in prison for check forgery. Perkins had given him 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:46.520 up that scheme was over, sort of. He made some modifications, 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:48.599 and we'll lay that out in just a minute, because 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:51.680 first we're going to take a break forward from our sponsors. 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:55.000 When we're back, we will talk about an anonymous tip 0:05:55.080 --> 0:06:11.080 that turned the authorities onto possible crimes at the Copeland Farm. 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:15.479 Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about raised new scheme 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:18.440 and one hired hand who got away with his life 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:22.800 and then tipped off authorities to possible hobicides on the 0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:23.720 Copeland farm. 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:29.080 By the mid nineteen eighties, Ray was fine tuning his 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:33.239 fraud scheme. Over three years, local police had been tracking 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:36.960 a string of bad checks passed by transients transiances who 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:41.400 had turned out had all worked at Copeland's farm. During 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:45.200 the same time, cattle houses in rural Missouri found themselves 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:48.880 plagued with a fraud problem. There were several men who 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:51.920 had purchased cattle with checks that were returned due to 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:55.960 insufficient funds, but when police tried to find those men, 0:06:56.320 --> 0:07:00.559 they appeared to have just vanished. When questioned about the men, 0:07:00.760 --> 0:07:03.040 Ray stated he knew nothing about what happened to his 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:06.159 farm hands when they left the farm. After all, he 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:10.880 hired transient workers, and by nature, they moved along, and 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:13.560 it just so happened that Raid never hired a farm 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:16.440 hand who had a family or who would be missed 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:18.080 if he suddenly disappeared. 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:24.000 Local authorities felt something suspicious was going on, but they 0:07:24.040 --> 0:07:29.160 had no proof until August of nineteen eighty nine. On 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:33.040 August twentieth, nineteen eighty nine, at seven thirty pm, the 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:38.119 Nebraska Crime Stoppers hotline logged an anonymous tip. A male 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:41.520 caller accused Ray Copeland of murdering the men that he 0:07:41.640 --> 0:07:45.280 hired as farm hands. The caller stated that he'd moved 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:49.160 from Missouri to Nebraska to escape Ray, and had, while 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:52.760 in Missouri witnessed events that made him fear for his 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:57.120 life and perhaps the lives of others. He explained that 0:07:57.160 --> 0:08:00.200 he'd worked on the Copelands farm and there he'd seen 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:03.520 a skull and several human bones buried on the land. 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:08.120 He continued that initially he was unaware of the illegal 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:12.160 activities happening there, but he was since sure there were 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:17.680 illegal activities happening, and then he hung up. That man 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:20.520 turned out to be fifty seven year old Jack McCormick, 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:24.520 a transient worker who was wanted for writing bad checks 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:28.400 because he was a drifter and in recovery from alcohol addiction. 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:32.679 Nebraska police initially didn't think very much of the man's claims. 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:36.360 They just didn't think he was trustworthy. But after even 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:39.400 just a shallow dive into the deep criminal pool of 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:44.120 the farmer in question Ray Copeland, they then notified Missouri 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:45.600 authorities about the tip. 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:49.600 When Missouri police asked about checks that had bounced at 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:53.600 auction houses written by people working for him, Ray told 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:56.319 them that they had bounced checks to him too, and 0:08:56.520 --> 0:09:00.800 what did that prove authorities first shrugged it off because 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:03.400 though there was a spike in check fraud, Ray's story 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:08.120 sounded maybe plausible. But Jack McCormick had more to say 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:12.480 than just his anonymous tip. He had details. He told 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:15.480 authorities that when Ray hired him, he brought him to 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:18.240 the bank to open a checking account with a small 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:22.280 amount of money. Ray's new scheme was in place, and 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:25.440 it worked like this. He and his hired hand would 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:30.760 attend cattle auctions and bid exorbitant prices on livestock. His 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:34.360 hired hand would write a check, and together the pair 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:37.600 would leave with the livestock they allegedly purchased. By the 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:41.320 time the checks bounced for insufficient funds, Ray had already 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:43.880 resold the cattle, and the man who'd signed the check 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:47.280 was nowhere to be found. And it was a fraud 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:51.920 scheme he pulled off over and over. Between nineteen eighty 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:55.080 six and the summer of nineteen eighty nine, a dozen 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:58.000 men who'd worked for Ray Copeland accumulated a total of 0:09:58.040 --> 0:10:01.800 thirty two thousand dollars through phony bank accounts, and then 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:03.559 those men vanished. 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:07.320 It didn't seem strange to Jack the scam or the 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:11.520 disappearances until one night when Ray called for help with 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:15.200 a raccoon in the barn. Entering the barn, Jack found 0:10:15.240 --> 0:10:18.320 himself with a rifle pointed at his head. He left 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:21.360 with his life after promising that he would leave Missouri 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:23.839 and that he would never speak of his time at 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:28.559 the farm. It was risky and frankly out of character 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:32.680 for Ray to believe him and let Jack go. He 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:36.679 just did not count on Jack's billing the beans. 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:39.920 Said Ray to detectives when they arrived at his Mooorsville 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:43.800 farm after the crime stopper's tip quote, you'll find nothing 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:49.000 on my place, but they did. Missouri investigators spent months 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:53.040 gathering evidence in addition to McCormick's statements to secure a 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:57.240 search warrant. On the morning of October ninth, nineteen eighty nine, 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:02.040 Sheriff Leland O'Dell, along with reported upwards of forty officers, 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:06.720 several back hose and teams of bloodhounds, arrived at the 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:10.920 Copelands farm. A week into their crime scene investigation, they 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:15.240 had turned up nothing, but then on October seventeenth, they 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:18.960 discovered multiple bodies buried in shallow graves, each with a 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:21.280 twenty two caliber bullet to the back of the head, 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:24.439 shot at close range. 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:28.280 The following week, investigators also began a search of the 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:32.800 neighboring farm where Ray frequently worked for extra money, and 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:36.840 they found a grizzly scene in a barn there. It 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:40.000 took several hours to remove two thousand bales of hay, 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:43.120 which were stacked to the ceiling, but that effort was 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:47.400 worth it because investigators discovered a body wrapped in black 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:50.959 plastic beneath the barn floor. It was a man who 0:11:51.040 --> 0:11:53.640 had also been killed by a single gunshot to the 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:57.520 back of the head. He was later identified as Wayne Warner. 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:00.920 Near the end of their search in the investigators made 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:04.880 one final discovery. The body of Dennis Murphy was discovered 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:08.200 in an old well not very far from where Warner's 0:12:08.200 --> 0:12:11.480 body had been found, and he too had been killed 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:13.760 by a single bullet to the back of the head. 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:18.320 When questioned about Ray, the neighboring farm owner told reporters quote, 0:12:18.440 --> 0:12:22.560 he's dependable, a very hard working guy. Very surprising to 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:24.840 me that he had time to get into mischief. 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:30.160 The bodies were badly decomposed, and dental records were difficult 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:32.839 to obtain for the missing men, as none of them 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:37.160 had regular dental care. But one thing was clear. They 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:40.000 all had been killed by the same weapon, a twenty 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:45.120 two caliber Marlin rifle. Authorities found that bolt action rifle 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:48.520 inside the Copeland home, and, according to reports by the 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:52.920 Kansas City Star, ballistics testing confirmed it was the weapon 0:12:53.080 --> 0:12:56.760 used to murder the victims. On that bombshell of evidence, 0:12:56.800 --> 0:12:58.360 We're going to take a break for a word from 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:02.120 our sponsors, and when back, we'll talk about what happened 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:05.960 when Ray and his wife, Fay, went to trial for murder. 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:22.040 Welcome back to Criminalia. There were questions, at least initially, 0:13:22.200 --> 0:13:25.800 about how much Ray's wife knew about or was involved 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:29.520 in the check writing slash cattle scam and the murders 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:32.720 that took place on their land. Let's talk about where 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:35.040 Fay was in this homicidal scene. 0:13:35.520 --> 0:13:38.880 Prosecutors were quick to offer Fay a deal. If she 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:42.400 told investigators where more bodies might be found, they would 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:45.800 only charge her with conspiracy to commit murder rather than 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:48.880 first degree murder, and she would serve just a few 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:52.960 months in jail for her cooperation. Fa though claimed to 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:55.679 have no knowledge of any of the murders, and her 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:58.760 defense during her trial was that her husband committed the 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:02.719 killings without her knowledge. In court, she stated she was 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:05.920 an innocent bystander who was the victim of battered woman 0:14:06.040 --> 0:14:10.640 syndrome now known as intimate partner violence. Ray, she said, 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:13.920 was a brutal man and that he was both physically 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:18.200 and verbally abusive to her and their children. She claimed 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:20.960 she had been too terrified of her husband to question 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:22.320 or to resist. 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:26.640 Said Faye, quote, I begged Ray time and time again 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:29.320 to please stay out of trouble. We had our home 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:32.960 and everything paid for. We were on Social Security, So 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:35.280 why would he turn around and mess all that up 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:38.960 just like he has? Fay explained in an episode of 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:43.040 Forensic Files, that was an American documentary television program that 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:47.400 used evidence and interviews to help solve real crimes. That quote, 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:51.080 we were just everyday people. I was taught from childhood 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:54.560 on that you marry and stay with him. Husband was 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:55.160 the boss. 0:14:56.280 --> 0:14:59.440 But there was one item recovered from the house that 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:03.840 challenge this image Fay had projected of an unknowing spouse. 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:08.239 A ledger containing a list of names in Fay's handwriting. 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:12.240 Twelve of the names had large x's by them, and 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:15.320 they matched the names of the men wanted for passing 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:19.360 bad checks at cattle houses. Five of those names were 0:15:19.360 --> 0:15:21.880 of men who turned up dead on the farm, and 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:25.440 prosecutors believed at least three others who were missing had 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:29.720 also been killed by Ray Copeland. The prosecution concluded Fay 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:32.240 had full knowledge of what was going on and was 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:33.280 a co conspirator. 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:40.920 Investigators also found something else that's quite alarming and truly grim. 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:44.200 Clothing that did not belong to Ray was in the 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:48.000 Copeland home, and Fay had made a so called trophy 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:51.480 quilt that was sown from the clothing of the murdered men. 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:56.520 They were tried separately. Fay, aged sixty nine, was first 0:15:56.520 --> 0:15:59.200 to stand trial on November one, nineteen ninety for the 0:15:59.280 --> 0:16:03.560 murders of deabt Nnis Murphy, Wayne Warner, Jimmy Harvey, John Freeman, 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:07.400 and Paul Cohart. According to articles published in the Saint 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:11.000 Louis Post Dispatch, Fay's defense was that her husband had 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:14.920 committed the killings without her knowledge. She told the court 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:18.200 she was a victim of battered woman syndrome. However, she 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:22.960 could not explain away the ledger or the quilt. The 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:26.320 jury felt she was likely abused by Ray, but also 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:29.560 stated she was culpable and she should be held accountable 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:33.840 for these murders. They found her guilty on all five counts, 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:36.560 and the judge sentenced her to death by lethal injection 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:40.360 for four of those. She received life without parole for 0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:45.440 the fifth murder. During her sentencing, Fay, it was reported, cried. 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:50.920 The next morning, a sheriff transporting Ray to a Kansas 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:54.960 City hospital for a mental health evaluation, asked him what 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:58.160 he thought about the outcome of his wife's trial. The 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:03.240 conversation went like this quote. You hear about the verdict. Ray, 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:07.840 Now what happened? Well, they found your wife guilty and 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:12.720 recommended execution for her. Ray. Well, those things happened to 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:16.879 some you know, Ray responded, and Ray never asked about 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:17.480 Fay again. 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:23.200 Ray's trial took place the following year. Prosecutors had Ray 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:27.439 evaluated at a Statementtal hospital more than once. They wanted 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:31.000 him incarcerated, and they wanted to avoid his skirting prison 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:36.320 through an insanity defense. Determined sane on March seventh, nineteen 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:39.199 ninety one, seventy six year old Ray went to trial. 0:17:40.240 --> 0:17:43.440 After weeks of testimony and the cold hard facts of 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:46.960 the ballistic test results presented by the prosecution, in court, 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:50.280 a jury found him guilty on all five counts of 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:54.280 first degree murder, though authorities continued to believe that number 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:57.680 was likely as high as twelve. When he was sentenced 0:17:57.680 --> 0:18:03.679 to death by lethal injection, Ray mumbling said quote, I'm okay. 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:09.200 Ray died two years later of natural causes at age 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:13.440 seventy eight at the Potosi Correctional Center while awaiting execution 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:14.480 on death row. 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:19.480 Fay was not executed either. Her death sentence was overturned 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:23.879 on appeal, though not her conviction. She instead served a 0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:27.800 life sentence for each murder. Fay argued for her release 0:18:27.880 --> 0:18:32.359 during the entire time she was incarcerated. Kenny Holshoff, United 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:37.200 States representative from Missouri's ninth congressional district, stated in nineteen 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:39.360 ninety nine that the list of names of the men 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:42.960 who'd been killed was without a doubt evidence Fay was 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:46.959 more of an accomplice than she claimed she'd been. Holshoff, 0:18:47.040 --> 0:18:49.840 before he was elected to the House of Representatives, had 0:18:49.880 --> 0:18:54.240 helped prosecute the Copelands. According to a court document regarding 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:58.040 the appeal of her conviction, Fay admitted she had often 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:01.840 conversed with the farm hands that she she handled. Bank transactions, 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:04.400 and later told those banks she did not know who 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:06.280 the men were when the checks bounced. 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:10.840 It was reported by the Columbia Daily Tribune that Fay 0:19:11.040 --> 0:19:14.440 loved to work in the prison greenhouse every day. Two 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:17.840 weeks after her sentencing, she Gaven interviewed to Lee Kavanaugh 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:21.320 of the Kansas City Star, and the following is excerpted 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:24.920 from that interview. Quote. I couldn't have flowers at home. 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:27.840 He didn't like me to be tending to anything other 0:19:27.880 --> 0:19:30.720 than him. As long as I was with him, or 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:34.720 working the cattle or the tractor, that was okay. But flowers, no, 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:39.119 he didn't like them, she continued. Quote. I was raised 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:41.639 to love my husband and support him no matter what. 0:19:42.440 --> 0:19:45.240 The man is the head of the family. The Bible 0:19:45.320 --> 0:19:48.280 says it should be that way. It wouldn't do to 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:50.800 say if Ray was mean to me or not. Yes, 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:53.280 he did mess up my life, but that's not to 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:56.040 say that I wasn't a good wife to him. I 0:19:56.160 --> 0:19:59.320 was never mean to him. Maybe we'd have gotten along 0:19:59.359 --> 0:20:01.120 better if I I knocked the shit out of him 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:04.200 a few times and a little more of face. Thoughts 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:07.960 included quote. I've often thought since maybe this was for 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:11.119 the best. Where did I go wrong? If I went wrong, 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:14.560 I know one place was getting married at all. But 0:20:14.640 --> 0:20:17.600 he was my life for many, many years. I didn't 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:20.720 know nothing else. Will I get out? I may go 0:20:20.800 --> 0:20:23.560 out feet first, but I'll get out of here someday. 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:27.000 In August two thousand and two, at the age of 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:30.360 eighty two, they was released on medical parole and sent 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:33.760 to Morningside Center nursing home after suffering a stroke that 0:20:33.840 --> 0:20:37.960 left her partially paralyzed and unable to speak. She died 0:20:37.960 --> 0:20:41.120 the day before New Year's Eve of two thousand and three. 0:20:41.160 --> 0:20:46.359 While neither of the pair was actually executed, Ray and Fay, respectively, 0:20:46.840 --> 0:20:50.560 hold the distinction of being the oldest couple ever sentenced 0:20:50.600 --> 0:20:53.440 to death in the United States. 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:57.000 Though will likely never know why. According to a report 0:20:57.119 --> 0:21:01.240 in the two thousand Russian Journal of Psychiatry, most elderly 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:06.400 murderers demonstrate a close relationship between pre snile or senile 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:11.280 disorders and social psychological factors, and in more than half 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:16.560 of these cases there is clear evidence of psychopathology. Another 0:21:16.640 --> 0:21:19.840 study conducted also in two thousand, but by the Medical 0:21:19.880 --> 0:21:23.399 Correctional Authority, found that most of those sent to prison 0:21:23.440 --> 0:21:26.400 for the first time at age sixty or older were 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:30.040 there because they had committed crimes of passion, though they 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:32.480 may not have been in the right mindset. Ray and 0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:35.879 Fake Hopeland's murders of their hired hands were not crimes 0:21:35.880 --> 0:21:40.240 of passion. They were crimes to hide well other crimes. 0:21:41.040 --> 0:21:45.159 Their son, Alviolee Copeland, speaking briefly with the Associated Press, 0:21:45.480 --> 0:21:48.640 had tried to secure his mother's release since she was imprisoned, 0:21:49.160 --> 0:21:51.639 and he was quoted saying, quote, there's no way in 0:21:51.680 --> 0:21:53.760 the world mom could have done what they said she 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:58.280 had done. But in regards to his father, al stated quote, 0:21:58.400 --> 0:22:02.119 he was guilty. I have no qualms about that. What 0:22:02.720 --> 0:22:03.400 a story. 0:22:04.640 --> 0:22:07.879 I was alive during this story, and I have to 0:22:07.920 --> 0:22:11.360 tell you I don't remember really hearing about it. 0:22:12.359 --> 0:22:15.280 I don't either, and I don't know if it's just 0:22:15.320 --> 0:22:18.560 because this also happened when I was alive, but at 0:22:18.600 --> 0:22:21.959 a time when I was like in college and a 0:22:22.000 --> 0:22:24.240 young adult starting my life, and I may have just 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:27.080 been not paying attention to such things. 0:22:27.119 --> 0:22:30.480 But we don't usually have stories where I'm like, I 0:22:30.520 --> 0:22:35.520 know crime stoppers are in their files because I remember 0:22:35.560 --> 0:22:36.160 these shows. 0:22:36.760 --> 0:22:45.640 Yes, are you ready to make it a double Yes? 0:22:45.680 --> 0:22:46.119 I am. 0:22:46.720 --> 0:22:50.320 This story is grizzly and it's sad. Don't worry, I'm 0:22:50.359 --> 0:22:53.639 not gonna make a cocktail called trophy quilts. I'm not 0:22:53.720 --> 0:22:56.720 that grim. That's not where I'm at right now. It's 0:22:56.800 --> 0:22:58.920 one of those things that I could tell throughout this 0:22:59.040 --> 0:23:02.880 season is probably gonna happen. I'm gonna find whatever seems 0:23:02.920 --> 0:23:05.840 like the happiest note of it and try to go 0:23:05.920 --> 0:23:09.680 from there. This is a drink that's called Phase Flowers 0:23:10.040 --> 0:23:13.480 because I was really struck by this idea that she 0:23:13.640 --> 0:23:16.800 had turned to gardening in prison. I have read other 0:23:16.840 --> 0:23:19.800 stories of people who in prison find themselves really falling 0:23:19.840 --> 0:23:22.800 in love with horticulture, and I always find that fascinating. 0:23:22.920 --> 0:23:25.919 I'm sure it feels like a hopeful act to grow things. 0:23:25.960 --> 0:23:29.320 It's also like meditative. That's why I like to grow things. 0:23:29.320 --> 0:23:32.000 I'm not very good at it, but I always try so. 0:23:32.320 --> 0:23:35.560 For this drink, it did seem the most right to 0:23:35.640 --> 0:23:39.439 pick the most upbeat detail I could. And this story 0:23:39.480 --> 0:23:42.720 is also a cousin of a drink called a Gin Daisy, 0:23:42.800 --> 0:23:45.160 so there's a floral theme to it. And I shall 0:23:45.200 --> 0:23:48.880 see the ingredients follow suit. So into your shaking tin 0:23:48.920 --> 0:23:52.439 with ice, you will put a half ounce of lemon juice, 0:23:52.960 --> 0:23:56.159 a half ounce of hibiscus syrup, a half ounce of 0:23:56.200 --> 0:23:59.400 elderflower liqueur, and an ounce and a half of gin. 0:23:59.640 --> 0:24:03.800 And I encourage you to choose a very floral gin 0:24:03.960 --> 0:24:06.960 if you can. I have one that's honeysuckle in rows. 0:24:07.040 --> 0:24:09.000 But if you can't find a floral gin, you can 0:24:09.040 --> 0:24:13.000 make your own by doing a tea infusion on it. 0:24:13.040 --> 0:24:15.600 Just find an herbal tea that has flowers like cam 0:24:15.720 --> 0:24:18.639 a meal or hibiscus or something else lavender, et cetera, 0:24:19.040 --> 0:24:21.040 and just let it steep. It doesn't need to steep 0:24:21.119 --> 0:24:24.119 very long. It tends to infuse alcohol really quickly. I 0:24:24.200 --> 0:24:27.560 usually do four ounces to a tea bag or the equivalent. 0:24:27.600 --> 0:24:30.240 If you do a loose tea, let that sit for 0:24:30.280 --> 0:24:32.480 thirty minutes, give it a couple of shakes, take out 0:24:32.480 --> 0:24:34.400 the teas, or strain it. If you have them as 0:24:34.440 --> 0:24:37.920