August 20, 2024 • 27 mins
Ray and Faye Copeland were husband and wife serial killers and the oldest couple ever sentenced to death in the United States. Their known victims include at least five farmhands -- more men are still considered missing and likely also murdered, though their remains have not been found. This is a story about nearly a dozen hired laborers who disappeared from the Copeland farm in the 1980s.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
with iHeartRadio. Hey, before the show starts today, we have
a little bit of fun news to share.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
We have had a secret.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
We have been working very diligently for the past many
months on creating something that a lot of you have
been asking for, and that is a book of cocktails
and cocktails that are told right alongside the stories that.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
We talk about, plus additional ones that we have not
talked about.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
That's right. This book is about half stories you have heard,
although they've been abridged, alongside their cocktails and brand news
stories that we are telling, and brand new cocktails that
we have never had before.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
We are on pre order now so you can order
up and wait for it to hit in October.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
That's right. It is going to be out on October fifteenth,
and you can order it now just about anywhere books
are sold. Check out your local bookstores and see if
they're going to have it. All right, let's jump into
the episode.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Ray and Fay Copeland were husband and wife serial killers
and the oldest couple ever sentenced to death in the
United States. Their known victims include Dennis Murphy born in
nineteen sixty two in Normal, Illinois and killed in October
of nineteen eighty six. Wayne Warner from Bloomington, Illinois, killed
(01:31):
in November of nineteen eighty six. Jimmy Harvey born in
nineteen sixty one in Springfield, Missouri, and killed in October
of nineteen eighty eight. John Freeman born on January sixth,
nineteen sixty two in Boonville, Indiana, and killed in December
of nineteen eighty eight. And Paul Cohort born on September thirtieth,
(01:52):
nineteen sixty eight, in Dardenelle, Arkansas, and killed in May
of nineteen eighty nine. More men are still considered missing
and like also murdered, though their remains have not been found.
This is a story about nearly a dozen hired hands
who disappeared from the Copeland farm in the nineteen eighties.
Welcome to Criminalia, I'm Maria Tremarchy and.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
I'm Holly Frye. Ray Copeland was an aging farmer whose
neighbors in Moorsville, Missouri, population one point thirty had always
viewed him as a quote menacing odd ball. They reported
that he yelled at waitresses. The owner of the local
cafe described him as quote real bity and snappy. Others
(02:35):
in town said they'd personally witnessed him intentionally run over
dogs with his vehicle. He made his neighbors uneasy. Most
thought that he abused his wife and children, and most
kept their distance. But in addition to his temper and behavior,
they also told authorities that he regularly hung out around
(02:55):
places where drifters and vagrants could get a meal in
a bed for the night, and he knew that he
made them job offers. He was also known to pick
up hitchhikers to work as hired hands on his farm.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Ray had a long history of criminal activity, and he'd
spent quite a bit of time incarcerated. He was born
in Oklahoma in nineteen fourteen. He dropped out of school
when he was nine years old, and that was in
the fourth grade, and was described by friends of the
family as stubborn and insubordinate. Before the age of twenty,
(03:28):
he had started committing petty crimes to help his family
make ends meet during the Great Depression. Sometimes he stole livestock,
primarily hoggs, once stealing and selling his own father's livestock,
But his favorite criminal activity was writing fraudulent checks. He
was arrested for forgery. In fact, he was arrested and
(03:48):
jailed several times for it. In nineteen thirty nine, Ray
was arrested and sentenced to one year in jail for
forging government checks, kind of a step up the ladder
of check for us.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
He met Faye Della Wilson in nineteen forty, shortly after
his release from jail after that arrest and incarceration, and
they married and had several children. Their primary income was
Ray's ongoing offense of writing and cashing bad checks, which
was also intertwined with cattle theft. Will explain so hold
(04:22):
that thought. Ray was jailed several times while his children
were young, and the family moved from town to town.
In nineteen sixty seven, they bought a small farm with
forty acres of land in Mooresville, Missouri, their final home,
but Ray's criminal past followed them there too. Specifically, Ray
(04:42):
was barred from livestock auctions. Auction houses refused to sell
cattle to him because he was known for writing bad
checks to make those purchases.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
In the nineteen seventies, seemingly having spent more time behind
bars than at home, Ray started thinking about it new
way to buy cattle with bad checks. His scheme had
been that he hired transient workers as farm hands, and
part of their job was to sign his checks as
proxies at live auctions, and when those checks bounced for
(05:14):
insufficient funds, he would deny. He wrote them, I mean,
look the signatures and the handwriting, they don't even match his.
And Ray would sell the animals before anyone caught on
about the check fraud. But after one worker, a man
named Gerald Perkins, was loose lipped about the scam after
being caught, it was Ray who ended up spending two
(05:37):
years in prison for check forgery. Perkins had given him
up that scheme was over, sort of. He made some modifications,
and we'll lay that out in just a minute, because
first we're going to take a break forward from our sponsors.
When we're back, we will talk about an anonymous tip
that turned the authorities onto possible crimes at the Copeland Farm.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about raised new scheme
and one hired hand who got away with his life
and then tipped off authorities to possible hobicides on the
Copeland farm.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
By the mid nineteen eighties, Ray was fine tuning his
fraud scheme. Over three years, local police had been tracking
a string of bad checks passed by transients transiances who
had turned out had all worked at Copeland's farm. During
the same time, cattle houses in rural Missouri found themselves
plagued with a fraud problem. There were several men who
(06:48):
had purchased cattle with checks that were returned due to
insufficient funds, but when police tried to find those men,
they appeared to have just vanished. When questioned about the men,
Ray stated he knew nothing about what happened to his
farm hands when they left the farm. After all, he
hired transient workers, and by nature, they moved along, and
(07:10):
it just so happened that Raid never hired a farm
hand who had a family or who would be missed
if he suddenly disappeared.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Local authorities felt something suspicious was going on, but they
had no proof until August of nineteen eighty nine. On
August twentieth, nineteen eighty nine, at seven thirty pm, the
Nebraska Crime Stoppers hotline logged an anonymous tip. A male
caller accused Ray Copeland of murdering the men that he
(07:41):
hired as farm hands. The caller stated that he'd moved
from Missouri to Nebraska to escape Ray, and had, while
in Missouri witnessed events that made him fear for his
life and perhaps the lives of others. He explained that
he'd worked on the Copelands farm and there he'd seen
a skull and several human bones buried on the land.
(08:04):
He continued that initially he was unaware of the illegal
activities happening there, but he was since sure there were
illegal activities happening, and then he hung up. That man
turned out to be fifty seven year old Jack McCormick,
a transient worker who was wanted for writing bad checks
(08:24):
because he was a drifter and in recovery from alcohol addiction.
Nebraska police initially didn't think very much of the man's claims.
They just didn't think he was trustworthy. But after even
just a shallow dive into the deep criminal pool of
the farmer in question Ray Copeland, they then notified Missouri
authorities about the tip.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
When Missouri police asked about checks that had bounced at
auction houses written by people working for him, Ray told
them that they had bounced checks to him too, and
what did that prove authorities first shrugged it off because
though there was a spike in check fraud, Ray's story
sounded maybe plausible. But Jack McCormick had more to say
(09:08):
than just his anonymous tip. He had details. He told
authorities that when Ray hired him, he brought him to
the bank to open a checking account with a small
amount of money. Ray's new scheme was in place, and
it worked like this. He and his hired hand would
attend cattle auctions and bid exorbitant prices on livestock. His
(09:30):
hired hand would write a check, and together the pair
would leave with the livestock they allegedly purchased. By the
time the checks bounced for insufficient funds, Ray had already
resold the cattle, and the man who'd signed the check
was nowhere to be found. And it was a fraud
scheme he pulled off over and over. Between nineteen eighty
(09:51):
six and the summer of nineteen eighty nine, a dozen
men who'd worked for Ray Copeland accumulated a total of
thirty two thousand dollars through phony bank accounts, and then
those men vanished.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
It didn't seem strange to Jack the scam or the
disappearances until one night when Ray called for help with
a raccoon in the barn. Entering the barn, Jack found
himself with a rifle pointed at his head. He left
with his life after promising that he would leave Missouri
and that he would never speak of his time at
the farm. It was risky and frankly out of character
(10:28):
for Ray to believe him and let Jack go. He
just did not count on Jack's billing the beans.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Said Ray to detectives when they arrived at his Mooorsville
farm after the crime stopper's tip quote, you'll find nothing
on my place, but they did. Missouri investigators spent months
gathering evidence in addition to McCormick's statements to secure a
search warrant. On the morning of October ninth, nineteen eighty nine,
(10:57):
Sheriff Leland O'Dell, along with reported upwards of forty officers,
several back hose and teams of bloodhounds, arrived at the
Copelands farm. A week into their crime scene investigation, they
had turned up nothing, but then on October seventeenth, they
discovered multiple bodies buried in shallow graves, each with a
(11:19):
twenty two caliber bullet to the back of the head,
shot at close range.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
The following week, investigators also began a search of the
neighboring farm where Ray frequently worked for extra money, and
they found a grizzly scene in a barn there. It
took several hours to remove two thousand bales of hay,
which were stacked to the ceiling, but that effort was
worth it because investigators discovered a body wrapped in black
(11:47):
plastic beneath the barn floor. It was a man who
had also been killed by a single gunshot to the
back of the head. He was later identified as Wayne Warner.
Near the end of their search in the investigators made
one final discovery. The body of Dennis Murphy was discovered
in an old well not very far from where Warner's
(12:08):
body had been found, and he too had been killed
by a single bullet to the back of the head.
When questioned about Ray, the neighboring farm owner told reporters quote,
he's dependable, a very hard working guy. Very surprising to
me that he had time to get into mischief.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
The bodies were badly decomposed, and dental records were difficult
to obtain for the missing men, as none of them
had regular dental care. But one thing was clear. They
all had been killed by the same weapon, a twenty
two caliber Marlin rifle. Authorities found that bolt action rifle
inside the Copeland home, and, according to reports by the
(12:48):
Kansas City Star, ballistics testing confirmed it was the weapon
used to murder the victims. On that bombshell of evidence,
We're going to take a break for a word from
our sponsors, and when back, we'll talk about what happened
when Ray and his wife, Fay, went to trial for murder.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Welcome back to Criminalia. There were questions, at least initially,
about how much Ray's wife knew about or was involved
in the check writing slash cattle scam and the murders
that took place on their land. Let's talk about where
Fay was in this homicidal scene.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Prosecutors were quick to offer Fay a deal. If she
told investigators where more bodies might be found, they would
only charge her with conspiracy to commit murder rather than
first degree murder, and she would serve just a few
months in jail for her cooperation. Fa though claimed to
have no knowledge of any of the murders, and her
(13:55):
defense during her trial was that her husband committed the
killings without her knowledge. In court, she stated she was
an innocent bystander who was the victim of battered woman
syndrome now known as intimate partner violence. Ray, she said,
was a brutal man and that he was both physically
and verbally abusive to her and their children. She claimed
(14:18):
she had been too terrified of her husband to question
or to resist.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Said Faye, quote, I begged Ray time and time again
to please stay out of trouble. We had our home
and everything paid for. We were on Social Security, So
why would he turn around and mess all that up
just like he has? Fay explained in an episode of
Forensic Files, that was an American documentary television program that
used evidence and interviews to help solve real crimes. That quote,
(14:47):
we were just everyday people. I was taught from childhood
on that you marry and stay with him. Husband was
the boss.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
But there was one item recovered from the house that
challenge this image Fay had projected of an unknowing spouse.
A ledger containing a list of names in Fay's handwriting.
Twelve of the names had large x's by them, and
they matched the names of the men wanted for passing
bad checks at cattle houses. Five of those names were
(15:19):
of men who turned up dead on the farm, and
prosecutors believed at least three others who were missing had
also been killed by Ray Copeland. The prosecution concluded Fay
had full knowledge of what was going on and was
a co conspirator.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Investigators also found something else that's quite alarming and truly grim.
Clothing that did not belong to Ray was in the
Copeland home, and Fay had made a so called trophy
quilt that was sown from the clothing of the murdered men.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
They were tried separately. Fay, aged sixty nine, was first
to stand trial on November one, nineteen ninety for the
murders of deabt Nnis Murphy, Wayne Warner, Jimmy Harvey, John Freeman,
and Paul Cohart. According to articles published in the Saint
Louis Post Dispatch, Fay's defense was that her husband had
committed the killings without her knowledge. She told the court
(16:15):
she was a victim of battered woman syndrome. However, she
could not explain away the ledger or the quilt. The
jury felt she was likely abused by Ray, but also
stated she was culpable and she should be held accountable
for these murders. They found her guilty on all five counts,
and the judge sentenced her to death by lethal injection
(16:36):
for four of those. She received life without parole for
the fifth murder. During her sentencing, Fay, it was reported, cried.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
The next morning, a sheriff transporting Ray to a Kansas
City hospital for a mental health evaluation, asked him what
he thought about the outcome of his wife's trial. The
conversation went like this quote. You hear about the verdict. Ray,
Now what happened? Well, they found your wife guilty and
(17:07):
recommended execution for her. Ray. Well, those things happened to
some you know, Ray responded, and Ray never asked about
Fay again.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Ray's trial took place the following year. Prosecutors had Ray
evaluated at a Statementtal hospital more than once. They wanted
him incarcerated, and they wanted to avoid his skirting prison
through an insanity defense. Determined sane on March seventh, nineteen
ninety one, seventy six year old Ray went to trial.
(17:40):
After weeks of testimony and the cold hard facts of
the ballistic test results presented by the prosecution, in court,
a jury found him guilty on all five counts of
first degree murder, though authorities continued to believe that number
was likely as high as twelve. When he was sentenced
to death by lethal injection, Ray mumbling said quote, I'm okay.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Ray died two years later of natural causes at age
seventy eight at the Potosi Correctional Center while awaiting execution
on death row.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Fay was not executed either. Her death sentence was overturned
on appeal, though not her conviction. She instead served a
life sentence for each murder. Fay argued for her release
during the entire time she was incarcerated. Kenny Holshoff, United
States representative from Missouri's ninth congressional district, stated in nineteen
(18:37):
ninety nine that the list of names of the men
who'd been killed was without a doubt evidence Fay was
more of an accomplice than she claimed she'd been. Holshoff,
before he was elected to the House of Representatives, had
helped prosecute the Copelands. According to a court document regarding
the appeal of her conviction, Fay admitted she had often
(18:58):
conversed with the farm hands that she she handled. Bank transactions,
and later told those banks she did not know who
the men were when the checks bounced.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
It was reported by the Columbia Daily Tribune that Fay
loved to work in the prison greenhouse every day. Two
weeks after her sentencing, she Gaven interviewed to Lee Kavanaugh
of the Kansas City Star, and the following is excerpted
from that interview. Quote. I couldn't have flowers at home.
He didn't like me to be tending to anything other
(19:27):
than him. As long as I was with him, or
working the cattle or the tractor, that was okay. But flowers, no,
he didn't like them, she continued. Quote. I was raised
to love my husband and support him no matter what.
The man is the head of the family. The Bible
says it should be that way. It wouldn't do to
(19:48):
say if Ray was mean to me or not. Yes,
he did mess up my life, but that's not to
say that I wasn't a good wife to him. I
was never mean to him. Maybe we'd have gotten along
better if I I knocked the shit out of him
a few times and a little more of face. Thoughts
included quote. I've often thought since maybe this was for
the best. Where did I go wrong? If I went wrong,
(20:11):
I know one place was getting married at all. But
he was my life for many, many years. I didn't
know nothing else. Will I get out? I may go
out feet first, but I'll get out of here someday.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
In August two thousand and two, at the age of
eighty two, they was released on medical parole and sent
to Morningside Center nursing home after suffering a stroke that
left her partially paralyzed and unable to speak. She died
the day before New Year's Eve of two thousand and three.
While neither of the pair was actually executed, Ray and Fay, respectively,
(20:46):
hold the distinction of being the oldest couple ever sentenced
to death in the United States.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Though will likely never know why. According to a report
in the two thousand Russian Journal of Psychiatry, most elderly
murderers demonstrate a close relationship between pre snile or senile
disorders and social psychological factors, and in more than half
of these cases there is clear evidence of psychopathology. Another
(21:16):
study conducted also in two thousand, but by the Medical
Correctional Authority, found that most of those sent to prison
for the first time at age sixty or older were
there because they had committed crimes of passion, though they
may not have been in the right mindset. Ray and
Fake Hopeland's murders of their hired hands were not crimes
of passion. They were crimes to hide well other crimes.
(21:41):
Their son, Alviolee Copeland, speaking briefly with the Associated Press,
had tried to secure his mother's release since she was imprisoned,
and he was quoted saying, quote, there's no way in
the world mom could have done what they said she
had done. But in regards to his father, al stated quote,
he was guilty. I have no qualms about that. What
(22:02):
a story.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
I was alive during this story, and I have to
tell you I don't remember really hearing about it.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
I don't either, and I don't know if it's just
because this also happened when I was alive, but at
a time when I was like in college and a
young adult starting my life, and I may have just
been not paying attention to such things.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
But we don't usually have stories where I'm like, I
know crime stoppers are in their files because I remember
these shows.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Yes, are you ready to make it a double Yes?
Speaker 2 (22:45):
I am.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
This story is grizzly and it's sad. Don't worry, I'm
not gonna make a cocktail called trophy quilts. I'm not
that grim. That's not where I'm at right now. It's
one of those things that I could tell throughout this
season is probably gonna happen. I'm gonna find whatever seems
like the happiest note of it and try to go
from there. This is a drink that's called Phase Flowers
(23:10):
because I was really struck by this idea that she
had turned to gardening in prison. I have read other
stories of people who in prison find themselves really falling
in love with horticulture, and I always find that fascinating.
I'm sure it feels like a hopeful act to grow things.
It's also like meditative. That's why I like to grow things.
I'm not very good at it, but I always try so.
(23:32):
For this drink, it did seem the most right to
pick the most upbeat detail I could. And this story
is also a cousin of a drink called a Gin Daisy,
so there's a floral theme to it. And I shall
see the ingredients follow suit. So into your shaking tin
with ice, you will put a half ounce of lemon juice,
(23:52):
a half ounce of hibiscus syrup, a half ounce of
elderflower liqueur, and an ounce and a half of gin.
And I encourage you to choose a very floral gin
if you can. I have one that's honeysuckle in rows.
But if you can't find a floral gin, you can
make your own by doing a tea infusion on it.
(24:13):
Just find an herbal tea that has flowers like cam
a meal or hibiscus or something else lavender, et cetera,
and just let it steep. It doesn't need to steep
very long. It tends to infuse alcohol really quickly. I
usually do four ounces to a tea bag or the equivalent.
If you do a loose tea, let that sit for
thirty minutes, give it a couple of shakes, take out
the teas, or strain it. If you have them as
(24:34):
loose leaves. Great, you have infused gin. This is also
a good way to just up your cocktail game. We've
done it on the show before, but I want to
encourage people find those teas that you think are interesting
and infuse things like particularly gin and vodka with them,
because then when you make drinks for your friends at home.
They think you are a fancy pants when really you're like,
(24:55):
I just shook a jar on the counter. It's really
not a big deal, but it makes a great So
you will have shaken all of these ingredients together with ice,
Strain it over fresh ice, top it with just a
kiss of club soda or a little ginger ale if
you want to make it a little sweeter, and really
keep it in that sweet floral zone. This is such
a lovely drink. It's an easy, classic feeling drink. Even
(25:17):
though we're leaning heavily into flowers. I also if you
do have flowers around your house that are edible, always check.
I cut one of my zinias and just plopped it
in there, and it looked super pretty and made it
look very floral ly, very soothing. So to make it
a mocktail, you are gonna do that trick that I
said about infusing things with tea. You're gonna get your
(25:38):
tonic really flat and infuse like four ounces of a
tonic with floral tea. Obviously you'll have extra you can
use it in something else or just drink it by
itself with a syrup or whatever, and then you'll use
elderflower syrup instead of liqueur, and then you're golden. You
have made face flowers and hopefully you can shrug off
the of some of the aspects of this.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Oh, I know, I'm assuming I'm going to love a
floral drink.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
We whipped over it very quickly because I was so
icked out by the idea of someone running over dogs
on purpose. This is clearly a person who, for whatever reason,
was very broken. So let's find the flowers and soothe ourselves,
whether that is with your cocktail or your mocktail. I
(26:26):
will always, I think, in a story like this, try
to find something pretty about it. Not about the story,
but a doorway out.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
That is our season.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Where's the doorway? We need an escape patch. So we
are so thankful that you spent this time with us
talking about this and thinking about drinks that might relieve
the yick of listening to such stories. We will be
right back here next week with another tale of a
criminal duo, or maybe a trio and a drink to
go with it. Criminalia is a production of Shondaland Audio
(27:03):
in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio,
please visit the iHeartRadio, app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
with iHeartRadio. Hey, before the show starts today, we have
a little bit of fun news to share.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
We have had a secret.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
We have been working very diligently for the past many
months on creating something that a lot of you have
been asking for, and that is a book of cocktails
and cocktails that are told right alongside the stories that.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
We talk about, plus additional ones that we have not
talked about.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
That's right. This book is about half stories you have heard,
although they've been abridged, alongside their cocktails and brand news
stories that we are telling, and brand new cocktails that
we have never had before.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
We are on pre order now so you can order
up and wait for it to hit in October.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
That's right. It is going to be out on October fifteenth,
and you can order it now just about anywhere books
are sold. Check out your local bookstores and see if
they're going to have it. All right, let's jump into
the episode.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Ray and Fay Copeland were husband and wife serial killers
and the oldest couple ever sentenced to death in the
United States. Their known victims include Dennis Murphy born in
nineteen sixty two in Normal, Illinois and killed in October
of nineteen eighty six. Wayne Warner from Bloomington, Illinois, killed
(01:31):
in November of nineteen eighty six. Jimmy Harvey born in
nineteen sixty one in Springfield, Missouri, and killed in October
of nineteen eighty eight. John Freeman born on January sixth,
nineteen sixty two in Boonville, Indiana, and killed in December
of nineteen eighty eight. And Paul Cohort born on September thirtieth,
(01:52):
nineteen sixty eight, in Dardenelle, Arkansas, and killed in May
of nineteen eighty nine. More men are still considered missing
and like also murdered, though their remains have not been found.
This is a story about nearly a dozen hired hands
who disappeared from the Copeland farm in the nineteen eighties.
Welcome to Criminalia, I'm Maria Tremarchy and.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
I'm Holly Frye. Ray Copeland was an aging farmer whose
neighbors in Moorsville, Missouri, population one point thirty had always
viewed him as a quote menacing odd ball. They reported
that he yelled at waitresses. The owner of the local
cafe described him as quote real bity and snappy. Others
(02:35):
in town said they'd personally witnessed him intentionally run over
dogs with his vehicle. He made his neighbors uneasy. Most
thought that he abused his wife and children, and most
kept their distance. But in addition to his temper and behavior,
they also told authorities that he regularly hung out around
(02:55):
places where drifters and vagrants could get a meal in
a bed for the night, and he knew that he
made them job offers. He was also known to pick
up hitchhikers to work as hired hands on his farm.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Ray had a long history of criminal activity, and he'd
spent quite a bit of time incarcerated. He was born
in Oklahoma in nineteen fourteen. He dropped out of school
when he was nine years old, and that was in
the fourth grade, and was described by friends of the
family as stubborn and insubordinate. Before the age of twenty,
(03:28):
he had started committing petty crimes to help his family
make ends meet during the Great Depression. Sometimes he stole livestock,
primarily hoggs, once stealing and selling his own father's livestock,
But his favorite criminal activity was writing fraudulent checks. He
was arrested for forgery. In fact, he was arrested and
(03:48):
jailed several times for it. In nineteen thirty nine, Ray
was arrested and sentenced to one year in jail for
forging government checks, kind of a step up the ladder
of check for us.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
He met Faye Della Wilson in nineteen forty, shortly after
his release from jail after that arrest and incarceration, and
they married and had several children. Their primary income was
Ray's ongoing offense of writing and cashing bad checks, which
was also intertwined with cattle theft. Will explain so hold
(04:22):
that thought. Ray was jailed several times while his children
were young, and the family moved from town to town.
In nineteen sixty seven, they bought a small farm with
forty acres of land in Mooresville, Missouri, their final home,
but Ray's criminal past followed them there too. Specifically, Ray
(04:42):
was barred from livestock auctions. Auction houses refused to sell
cattle to him because he was known for writing bad
checks to make those purchases.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
In the nineteen seventies, seemingly having spent more time behind
bars than at home, Ray started thinking about it new
way to buy cattle with bad checks. His scheme had
been that he hired transient workers as farm hands, and
part of their job was to sign his checks as
proxies at live auctions, and when those checks bounced for
(05:14):
insufficient funds, he would deny. He wrote them, I mean,
look the signatures and the handwriting, they don't even match his.
And Ray would sell the animals before anyone caught on
about the check fraud. But after one worker, a man
named Gerald Perkins, was loose lipped about the scam after
being caught, it was Ray who ended up spending two
(05:37):
years in prison for check forgery. Perkins had given him
up that scheme was over, sort of. He made some modifications,
and we'll lay that out in just a minute, because
first we're going to take a break forward from our sponsors.
When we're back, we will talk about an anonymous tip
that turned the authorities onto possible crimes at the Copeland Farm.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about raised new scheme
and one hired hand who got away with his life
and then tipped off authorities to possible hobicides on the
Copeland farm.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
By the mid nineteen eighties, Ray was fine tuning his
fraud scheme. Over three years, local police had been tracking
a string of bad checks passed by transients transiances who
had turned out had all worked at Copeland's farm. During
the same time, cattle houses in rural Missouri found themselves
plagued with a fraud problem. There were several men who
(06:48):
had purchased cattle with checks that were returned due to
insufficient funds, but when police tried to find those men,
they appeared to have just vanished. When questioned about the men,
Ray stated he knew nothing about what happened to his
farm hands when they left the farm. After all, he
hired transient workers, and by nature, they moved along, and
(07:10):
it just so happened that Raid never hired a farm
hand who had a family or who would be missed
if he suddenly disappeared.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Local authorities felt something suspicious was going on, but they
had no proof until August of nineteen eighty nine. On
August twentieth, nineteen eighty nine, at seven thirty pm, the
Nebraska Crime Stoppers hotline logged an anonymous tip. A male
caller accused Ray Copeland of murdering the men that he
(07:41):
hired as farm hands. The caller stated that he'd moved
from Missouri to Nebraska to escape Ray, and had, while
in Missouri witnessed events that made him fear for his
life and perhaps the lives of others. He explained that
he'd worked on the Copelands farm and there he'd seen
a skull and several human bones buried on the land.
(08:04):
He continued that initially he was unaware of the illegal
activities happening there, but he was since sure there were
illegal activities happening, and then he hung up. That man
turned out to be fifty seven year old Jack McCormick,
a transient worker who was wanted for writing bad checks
(08:24):
because he was a drifter and in recovery from alcohol addiction.
Nebraska police initially didn't think very much of the man's claims.
They just didn't think he was trustworthy. But after even
just a shallow dive into the deep criminal pool of
the farmer in question Ray Copeland, they then notified Missouri
authorities about the tip.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
When Missouri police asked about checks that had bounced at
auction houses written by people working for him, Ray told
them that they had bounced checks to him too, and
what did that prove authorities first shrugged it off because
though there was a spike in check fraud, Ray's story
sounded maybe plausible. But Jack McCormick had more to say
(09:08):
than just his anonymous tip. He had details. He told
authorities that when Ray hired him, he brought him to
the bank to open a checking account with a small
amount of money. Ray's new scheme was in place, and
it worked like this. He and his hired hand would
attend cattle auctions and bid exorbitant prices on livestock. His
(09:30):
hired hand would write a check, and together the pair
would leave with the livestock they allegedly purchased. By the
time the checks bounced for insufficient funds, Ray had already
resold the cattle, and the man who'd signed the check
was nowhere to be found. And it was a fraud
scheme he pulled off over and over. Between nineteen eighty
(09:51):
six and the summer of nineteen eighty nine, a dozen
men who'd worked for Ray Copeland accumulated a total of
thirty two thousand dollars through phony bank accounts, and then
those men vanished.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
It didn't seem strange to Jack the scam or the
disappearances until one night when Ray called for help with
a raccoon in the barn. Entering the barn, Jack found
himself with a rifle pointed at his head. He left
with his life after promising that he would leave Missouri
and that he would never speak of his time at
the farm. It was risky and frankly out of character
(10:28):
for Ray to believe him and let Jack go. He
just did not count on Jack's billing the beans.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Said Ray to detectives when they arrived at his Mooorsville
farm after the crime stopper's tip quote, you'll find nothing
on my place, but they did. Missouri investigators spent months
gathering evidence in addition to McCormick's statements to secure a
search warrant. On the morning of October ninth, nineteen eighty nine,
(10:57):
Sheriff Leland O'Dell, along with reported upwards of forty officers,
several back hose and teams of bloodhounds, arrived at the
Copelands farm. A week into their crime scene investigation, they
had turned up nothing, but then on October seventeenth, they
discovered multiple bodies buried in shallow graves, each with a
(11:19):
twenty two caliber bullet to the back of the head,
shot at close range.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
The following week, investigators also began a search of the
neighboring farm where Ray frequently worked for extra money, and
they found a grizzly scene in a barn there. It
took several hours to remove two thousand bales of hay,
which were stacked to the ceiling, but that effort was
worth it because investigators discovered a body wrapped in black
(11:47):
plastic beneath the barn floor. It was a man who
had also been killed by a single gunshot to the
back of the head. He was later identified as Wayne Warner.
Near the end of their search in the investigators made
one final discovery. The body of Dennis Murphy was discovered
in an old well not very far from where Warner's
(12:08):
body had been found, and he too had been killed
by a single bullet to the back of the head.
When questioned about Ray, the neighboring farm owner told reporters quote,
he's dependable, a very hard working guy. Very surprising to
me that he had time to get into mischief.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
The bodies were badly decomposed, and dental records were difficult
to obtain for the missing men, as none of them
had regular dental care. But one thing was clear. They
all had been killed by the same weapon, a twenty
two caliber Marlin rifle. Authorities found that bolt action rifle
inside the Copeland home, and, according to reports by the
(12:48):
Kansas City Star, ballistics testing confirmed it was the weapon
used to murder the victims. On that bombshell of evidence,
We're going to take a break for a word from
our sponsors, and when back, we'll talk about what happened
when Ray and his wife, Fay, went to trial for murder.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Welcome back to Criminalia. There were questions, at least initially,
about how much Ray's wife knew about or was involved
in the check writing slash cattle scam and the murders
that took place on their land. Let's talk about where
Fay was in this homicidal scene.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Prosecutors were quick to offer Fay a deal. If she
told investigators where more bodies might be found, they would
only charge her with conspiracy to commit murder rather than
first degree murder, and she would serve just a few
months in jail for her cooperation. Fa though claimed to
have no knowledge of any of the murders, and her
(13:55):
defense during her trial was that her husband committed the
killings without her knowledge. In court, she stated she was
an innocent bystander who was the victim of battered woman
syndrome now known as intimate partner violence. Ray, she said,
was a brutal man and that he was both physically
and verbally abusive to her and their children. She claimed
(14:18):
she had been too terrified of her husband to question
or to resist.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Said Faye, quote, I begged Ray time and time again
to please stay out of trouble. We had our home
and everything paid for. We were on Social Security, So
why would he turn around and mess all that up
just like he has? Fay explained in an episode of
Forensic Files, that was an American documentary television program that
used evidence and interviews to help solve real crimes. That quote,
(14:47):
we were just everyday people. I was taught from childhood
on that you marry and stay with him. Husband was
the boss.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
But there was one item recovered from the house that
challenge this image Fay had projected of an unknowing spouse.
A ledger containing a list of names in Fay's handwriting.
Twelve of the names had large x's by them, and
they matched the names of the men wanted for passing
bad checks at cattle houses. Five of those names were
(15:19):
of men who turned up dead on the farm, and
prosecutors believed at least three others who were missing had
also been killed by Ray Copeland. The prosecution concluded Fay
had full knowledge of what was going on and was
a co conspirator.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Investigators also found something else that's quite alarming and truly grim.
Clothing that did not belong to Ray was in the
Copeland home, and Fay had made a so called trophy
quilt that was sown from the clothing of the murdered men.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
They were tried separately. Fay, aged sixty nine, was first
to stand trial on November one, nineteen ninety for the
murders of deabt Nnis Murphy, Wayne Warner, Jimmy Harvey, John Freeman,
and Paul Cohart. According to articles published in the Saint
Louis Post Dispatch, Fay's defense was that her husband had
committed the killings without her knowledge. She told the court
(16:15):
she was a victim of battered woman syndrome. However, she
could not explain away the ledger or the quilt. The
jury felt she was likely abused by Ray, but also
stated she was culpable and she should be held accountable
for these murders. They found her guilty on all five counts,
and the judge sentenced her to death by lethal injection
(16:36):
for four of those. She received life without parole for
the fifth murder. During her sentencing, Fay, it was reported, cried.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
The next morning, a sheriff transporting Ray to a Kansas
City hospital for a mental health evaluation, asked him what
he thought about the outcome of his wife's trial. The
conversation went like this quote. You hear about the verdict. Ray,
Now what happened? Well, they found your wife guilty and
(17:07):
recommended execution for her. Ray. Well, those things happened to
some you know, Ray responded, and Ray never asked about
Fay again.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Ray's trial took place the following year. Prosecutors had Ray
evaluated at a Statementtal hospital more than once. They wanted
him incarcerated, and they wanted to avoid his skirting prison
through an insanity defense. Determined sane on March seventh, nineteen
ninety one, seventy six year old Ray went to trial.
(17:40):
After weeks of testimony and the cold hard facts of
the ballistic test results presented by the prosecution, in court,
a jury found him guilty on all five counts of
first degree murder, though authorities continued to believe that number
was likely as high as twelve. When he was sentenced
to death by lethal injection, Ray mumbling said quote, I'm okay.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Ray died two years later of natural causes at age
seventy eight at the Potosi Correctional Center while awaiting execution
on death row.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Fay was not executed either. Her death sentence was overturned
on appeal, though not her conviction. She instead served a
life sentence for each murder. Fay argued for her release
during the entire time she was incarcerated. Kenny Holshoff, United
States representative from Missouri's ninth congressional district, stated in nineteen
(18:37):
ninety nine that the list of names of the men
who'd been killed was without a doubt evidence Fay was
more of an accomplice than she claimed she'd been. Holshoff,
before he was elected to the House of Representatives, had
helped prosecute the Copelands. According to a court document regarding
the appeal of her conviction, Fay admitted she had often
(18:58):
conversed with the farm hands that she she handled. Bank transactions,
and later told those banks she did not know who
the men were when the checks bounced.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
It was reported by the Columbia Daily Tribune that Fay
loved to work in the prison greenhouse every day. Two
weeks after her sentencing, she Gaven interviewed to Lee Kavanaugh
of the Kansas City Star, and the following is excerpted
from that interview. Quote. I couldn't have flowers at home.
He didn't like me to be tending to anything other
(19:27):
than him. As long as I was with him, or
working the cattle or the tractor, that was okay. But flowers, no,
he didn't like them, she continued. Quote. I was raised
to love my husband and support him no matter what.
The man is the head of the family. The Bible
says it should be that way. It wouldn't do to
(19:48):
say if Ray was mean to me or not. Yes,
he did mess up my life, but that's not to
say that I wasn't a good wife to him. I
was never mean to him. Maybe we'd have gotten along
better if I I knocked the shit out of him
a few times and a little more of face. Thoughts
included quote. I've often thought since maybe this was for
the best. Where did I go wrong? If I went wrong,
(20:11):
I know one place was getting married at all. But
he was my life for many, many years. I didn't
know nothing else. Will I get out? I may go
out feet first, but I'll get out of here someday.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
In August two thousand and two, at the age of
eighty two, they was released on medical parole and sent
to Morningside Center nursing home after suffering a stroke that
left her partially paralyzed and unable to speak. She died
the day before New Year's Eve of two thousand and three.
While neither of the pair was actually executed, Ray and Fay, respectively,
(20:46):
hold the distinction of being the oldest couple ever sentenced
to death in the United States.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Though will likely never know why. According to a report
in the two thousand Russian Journal of Psychiatry, most elderly
murderers demonstrate a close relationship between pre snile or senile
disorders and social psychological factors, and in more than half
of these cases there is clear evidence of psychopathology. Another
(21:16):
study conducted also in two thousand, but by the Medical
Correctional Authority, found that most of those sent to prison
for the first time at age sixty or older were
there because they had committed crimes of passion, though they
may not have been in the right mindset. Ray and
Fake Hopeland's murders of their hired hands were not crimes
of passion. They were crimes to hide well other crimes.
(21:41):
Their son, Alviolee Copeland, speaking briefly with the Associated Press,
had tried to secure his mother's release since she was imprisoned,
and he was quoted saying, quote, there's no way in
the world mom could have done what they said she
had done. But in regards to his father, al stated quote,
he was guilty. I have no qualms about that. What
(22:02):
a story.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
I was alive during this story, and I have to
tell you I don't remember really hearing about it.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
I don't either, and I don't know if it's just
because this also happened when I was alive, but at
a time when I was like in college and a
young adult starting my life, and I may have just
been not paying attention to such things.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
But we don't usually have stories where I'm like, I
know crime stoppers are in their files because I remember
these shows.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Yes, are you ready to make it a double Yes?
Speaker 2 (22:45):
I am.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
This story is grizzly and it's sad. Don't worry, I'm
not gonna make a cocktail called trophy quilts. I'm not
that grim. That's not where I'm at right now. It's
one of those things that I could tell throughout this
season is probably gonna happen. I'm gonna find whatever seems
like the happiest note of it and try to go
from there. This is a drink that's called Phase Flowers
(23:10):
because I was really struck by this idea that she
had turned to gardening in prison. I have read other
stories of people who in prison find themselves really falling
in love with horticulture, and I always find that fascinating.
I'm sure it feels like a hopeful act to grow things.
It's also like meditative. That's why I like to grow things.
I'm not very good at it, but I always try so.
(23:32):
For this drink, it did seem the most right to
pick the most upbeat detail I could. And this story
is also a cousin of a drink called a Gin Daisy,
so there's a floral theme to it. And I shall
see the ingredients follow suit. So into your shaking tin
with ice, you will put a half ounce of lemon juice,
(23:52):
a half ounce of hibiscus syrup, a half ounce of
elderflower liqueur, and an ounce and a half of gin.
And I encourage you to choose a very floral gin
if you can. I have one that's honeysuckle in rows.
But if you can't find a floral gin, you can
make your own by doing a tea infusion on it.
(24:13):
Just find an herbal tea that has flowers like cam
a meal or hibiscus or something else lavender, et cetera,
and just let it steep. It doesn't need to steep
very long. It tends to infuse alcohol really quickly. I
usually do four ounces to a tea bag or the equivalent.
If you do a loose tea, let that sit for
thirty minutes, give it a couple of shakes, take out
the teas, or strain it. If you have them as
(24:34):
loose leaves. Great, you have infused gin. This is also
a good way to just up your cocktail game. We've
done it on the show before, but I want to
encourage people find those teas that you think are interesting
and infuse things like particularly gin and vodka with them,
because then when you make drinks for your friends at home.
They think you are a fancy pants when really you're like,
(24:55):
I just shook a jar on the counter. It's really
not a big deal, but it makes a great So
you will have shaken all of these ingredients together with ice,
Strain it over fresh ice, top it with just a
kiss of club soda or a little ginger ale if
you want to make it a little sweeter, and really
keep it in that sweet floral zone. This is such
a lovely drink. It's an easy, classic feeling drink. Even
(25:17):
though we're leaning heavily into flowers. I also if you
do have flowers around your house that are edible, always check.
I cut one of my zinias and just plopped it
in there, and it looked super pretty and made it
look very floral ly, very soothing. So to make it
a mocktail, you are gonna do that trick that I
said about infusing things with tea. You're gonna get your
(25:38):
tonic really flat and infuse like four ounces of a
tonic with floral tea. Obviously you'll have extra you can
use it in something else or just drink it by
itself with a syrup or whatever, and then you'll use
elderflower syrup instead of liqueur, and then you're golden. You
have made face flowers and hopefully you can shrug off
the of some of the aspects of this.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Oh, I know, I'm assuming I'm going to love a
floral drink.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
We whipped over it very quickly because I was so
icked out by the idea of someone running over dogs
on purpose. This is clearly a person who, for whatever reason,
was very broken. So let's find the flowers and soothe ourselves,
whether that is with your cocktail or your mocktail. I
(26:26):
will always, I think, in a story like this, try
to find something pretty about it. Not about the story,
but a doorway out.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
That is our season.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Where's the doorway? We need an escape patch. So we
are so thankful that you spent this time with us
talking about this and thinking about drinks that might relieve
the yick of listening to such stories. We will be
right back here next week with another tale of a
criminal duo, or maybe a trio and a drink to
go with it. Criminalia is a production of Shondaland Audio
(27:03):
in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio,
please visit the iHeartRadio, app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Holly Frey
Maria Trimarchi
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