Serial killer and Robber, who from October 1986 to May 1989,
killed 5 men by shooting them with a .22 caliber Marlin bolt-action rifle, in
Mooresville, Missouri, USA.
Faye was sentenced to death on April 27, 1991, along
with her husband Ray Copeland. Together they were found guilty of murdering
four men, in four separate incidents, during the late 1980s. Ray Copeland
escaped the executioner – as he died of natural causes in October 1993. But her
sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1999. She died in prison on December 30, 2003
The victims:
Paul Jason Cowart, 21
John W. Freeman, 27
Jimmie Dale Harvey, 27
Wayne Warner, age unknown
Dennis Murphy, 27
Ray (1914 - 1993) and Faye Della Copeland (1921 - 30
December 2003) were convicted of killing five drifters (and likely killed at
least seven more, though no bodies were recovered), and ultimately became the
oldest couple ever sentenced to death in the United States— Faye was 69 and Ray
was 76 at the time of sentencing. Faye was the oldest woman on death row until
her sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1999.
Prior to the murder convictions, Ray Copeland, had a long
history of crimes, ranging from petty theft to grand larceny. He was convicted
of writing bad checks on a number of occasions. The Copelands were caught and
charged with murder after a drifter spotted human remains on their land.
Evidently, Ray had hit upon the scheme of hiring drifters, having them pay for
cattle at auction with bad checks (which Ray by then was loath to do
personally, given his prior convictions), then killing the drifters once they
were no longer of any use, with a single bullet to the back of the head. It is
unclear if Faye had any knowledge of this scheme, and her lawyers argued that
she suffered from battered woman syndrome.
On November 1, 1990, 69-year-old Faye Copeland went to
trial. According to articles in the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch, Faye claimed she
did not know her husband was a murderer. Although her marriage to Ray was
fraught with abuse, the jury convicted her of four counts of murder and one of
manslaughter. Faye had written a list of names that included the murdered
drifters, each of whom had an X next to his name (as did 7 others, who remain
missing).
As Faye was sentenced to death by lethal injection, she
sobbed uncontrollably. When Ray Copeland was told about the verdict on his wife
his reply reportedly was, "Well, those things happen to some you
know"; he apparently never asked about Faye again. Ray is rumored to have
been a spoiled child, often demanding things. Although he came from a poor
family, if Ray wanted something, it was said to have been soon acquired for him
by any means possible. He was strongly disliked by neighbors, who believed he
beat Faye and their four children.
On August 10, 2002, Faye Copeland suffered a stroke, which
left her partially paralyzed and unable to speak. Weeks later, in September
2002, Governor Holden authorized a medical parole for Faye, fulfilling her one
wish that she not die in prison. She was paroled to a nursing home in her
hometown. The following year, on December 30, 2003, 82-year-old Faye Della
Copeland died at the Morningside Center nursing home in Chillicothe, Missouri,
from what Livingston County coroner Scott Lindley described as natural causes
(disease). She left behind five children, seventeen grandchildren, and (at last
count) twenty-five great-grandchildren. Ray had died (1993) previously of
natural causes while awaiting execution.
In other media:
Their story has been fictionalized in a comic book, Family
Bones, written by Faye Copeland's nephew, Shawn Granger. The case was also
documented in a Forensic Files episode and more recently in an episode of
Wicked Attraction titled "Murder at Twilight." The play
"Temporary Help" by David Wiltse, which appeared off Broadway in
2004, was also based on this story.
References
Book, Family
Bones, by Shawn Granger
***
Serial Killers Couple Ray and Faye Copeland
Ray and Faye Copeland - Their Retirement Years:
Serial killers share similar backgrounds and often begin
their killing spree when they are young adults. However, for Ray and Faye
Copeland, their lust for killing came with their retirement years. Why this
couple, both in their 70s, went from being loving grandparents to serial
killers, who used the clothing of their victims to make a warm winter quilt to
snuggle under, is both morbid and perplexing. Here is their story.
The Copeland Investigation:
In October 1989, Missouri police received a tip that a human
skull and bones could be found on farmland owned by an elderly couple, Ray and
Faye Copeland. Ray Copeland's last known stint with the law involved a
livestock scam, so as police questioned Ray inside his farmhouse about the
scam, authorities searched the property. It did not take them long to find five
decomposing bodies buried in shallow graves around the farm.
The Mystery 'X' Mark:
The autopsy report determined that each man had been shot in
the back of the head at close range. A register with names of the transient
farmhands who had worked for the Copelands helped police identify the bodies.
Twelve of the names, including the five victims found, had a crude 'X' in Faye's
handwriting, marked by the name.
More Disturbing Evidence:
Authorities found a .22-calibre Marlin bolt-action rifle
inside the Copeland home, which balistics tests proved to be the same weapon as
the one used in the murders. The most disturbing piece of evidence, besides the
scattered bones and rifle, was a handmade quilt Faye Copeland made out of the
dead victim's clothing. The Copeland's were quickly charged with five murders,
identified as Paul Jason Cowart, John W Freeman, Jimmie Dale Harvey, Wayne Warner
and Dennis Murphy.
Faye Insisted Knowing Nothing About Murders:
Faye Copeland claimed to know nothing about the murders and
stuck to her story even after being offered a deal to change her murder charges
to conspiracy to commit murder in exchange for information about the remaining
seven missing men listed in her register. Although a conspiracy charge would
have meant her spending less than a year in prison, compared to the possibility
of receiving the death sentence, Faye continued to insist she knew nothing
about the murders.
Ray Attempts an Insanity Plea:
Ray first tried to plead insanity, but eventually gave up
and tried to work out a plea agreement with authorities. The authorities were
not willing to go along and the first-degree murder charges remained intact.
The Verdicts:
During Faye Copeland's trial, her attorney tried to prove
that Faye was another one of Ray's victims and that she suffered from Battered
Women Syndrome. There was little doubt that Faye had indeed been a battered
wife, but that not was enough for the jury to excuse her cold murderous
actions. The jury found Faye Copeland guilty of murder and she was sentenced to
death by lethal injection. Soon after, Ray was also found guilty and sentenced
to death.
The Oldest Couple Sentenced to Death:
The Copeland's made their mark in history for being the
oldest couple to be sentenced to death, however, neither were executed. Ray
died in 1993 on Death Row. Faye's sentence was commuted to life in prison. In
2002 Faye was released from prison because of her declining health and she died
in a nursing home on December 2003, at age 83.
***
Now The Case of the Vanishing Vagrants:
There have always been men like this. Hobos, tramps,
vagrants. When they wander into town, out of luck, money and booze, most people
view them with suspicion, dread and occasionally sympathy. One man, Ray
Copeland of Mooresville, Mo., saw something else in the never-ending procession
of the down-and-out. He saw dollar signs. True, Copeland's scheme to make money
off these men meant that he'd somehow have to silence them, but that didn't
seem very difficult. These were people with no close ties. He never picked one
with a family or anyone who would miss him if he suddenly disappeared.
He didn't count on one getting away:
At 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 20, 1989, Crime Stoppers toll-free
hotline received a bizarre, anonymous tip. The caller accused Copeland of
murdering farm hands. He told of seeing a skull and human bones buried on the
land, then he hung up. Police were not surprised to hear Copeland's name
connected to such a horrible allegation. The old farmer had been in the sights
of the local authorities for at least three years. Folks around Mooresville,
population 130, had always viewed him a menacing oddball. "Real bitey and
snappy," recalled the owner of the local cafe. He yelled at waitresses.
Others said that they had seen Copeland intentionally run over dogs. More
disturbing was how he'd hang around places where transients could get a hot
meal and a bed, talking about big money and making job offers.
Trouble at an early age:
In addition to his temper and his peculiar behavior, the
farmer had a long history of crime, wrote Tom Miller in "The Copeland
Killings." Born in Oklahoma in 1914, Copeland had a hard childhood. He
dropped out of school and started stealing during the Depression, when he was
around 20. First hogs from his father, then government checks from his brother.
He was arrested two years later for forgery. Marriage and children did not stop
him, and he was periodically arrested for stealing livestock or writing bum
checks; that is, when he wasn't dragging his young family from one town to the
next, fleeing the law. Copeland; his wife, Faye, and their six children settled
in Mooresville in 1967. Faye took menial factory and motel jobs while her
husband worked the farm, buying and selling livestock, forging checks and
scheming.
Since the 1970s, Copeland had been known to pick up hitchhikers
to work on his farm. Uneasy neighbors watched year after year as a parade of
the scrappy, unsavory and unshaven came and went. No one ever knew what became
of them, and no one cared. They weren't the kinds of characters who were likely
to send postcards. It wasn't until late summer 1989, after the anonymous call
to the Crime Stoppers hotline, that the residents of Mooresville had their
worst suspicions confirmed. For three years, local police had been tracking a
string of bad checks passed by transients who had been working for Copeland. He
and his hired man would attend cattle auctions and bid exorbitant prices. The
hired man would write a check, and together the pair would take off with the
livestock.
By the time the checks bounced, the cattle had been resold,
and the man who signed thecheck had vanished. At least a dozen men had worked
with Copeland from 1986 to the summer of 1989. Five vanished after stealing a
total of $32,000 with phony bank accounts and bad paper. Copeland said he knew nothing about what
happened to his workers. In fact, he told police that they had bounced checks
to him, too. Then, in September 1989, cops tracked down one of his former farm
hands. At 56, boozy Jack McCormick had been drifting for years. When police
snagged him in Oregon, and charged him with bouncing checks in Missouri, he
offered details of how Copeland operated. He also boasted that he knew where
bodies were buried. McCormick, who described himself as a "common gutter
tramp and drunk," said he had been living at the Victory Mission in
Springfield, Mo., when Copeland came sniffing around for workers.
With a promise of a $20,000-a-year job, the farmer lured the
old drunk. He helped McCormick get a post-office box and a checking account.
Together, the men attended cattle auctions, McCormick bidding on the animals
Copeland wanted. Then McCormick would pay by check, fully aware that the sums
were far beyond what was in his account. This went on for a short time, until
McCormick fled after Copeland pointed a .22 at his head. "Icame close to
being killed before I got out of there," McCormick told reporters. It was
McCormick who had made the call to the hotline in August, shortly after he had
made his escape. The old drunk's story was enough to arrest both Copelands on
charges of swindling.
Soon, the 75-year-old farmer and his 68-year-old wife were
in jail, and police were swarming all over their 40 acres. "You'll find
nothing on my place," Copeland told police. The cops dug and dug and dug
some more. But Copeland was right. They came up with nothing more than a
handful of animal bones.
Looking further for more clues:
The police department's luck improved when the cops
broadened their search, moving 12 miles away to a farm in Ludlow, Mo., where
Copeland often took odd jobs. Three corpses were buried in the barn in shallow
graves. All had been shot in the head with a .22. They were identified as
Jimmie Dale Harvey, Paul Cowart and John Freeman, transients who had last been
seen working for Copeland. They were also three of the men who had written bad
checks. "He's dependable, a very hardworking guy," the farm owner
told reporters. "Very surprising to me that he had time to get into
mischief." Later, investigators uncovered another corpse in the barn,
Wayne Warner, a drifter who had spent his last moments with Ray Copeland. The
final body was Dennis Murphy, another one of Copeland's business associates,
whose remains were found in a well on another farm.
The farmer denied having knowledge of any of the killings,
except Murphy's. He told police that he had witnessed McCormick dumping a body
into the well. There were questions from the start about the level of Faye's
involvement in the cattle scam and the murders. Her husband was a brutal man,
and there was the possibility that his wife was just another one of his
victims, a battered wife too terrified of her husband to question or resist. But
one item recovered from the house suggested she had full knowledge of what was
going on. It was a list of names in Faye's handwriting. Next to the names
Freeman, Cowart and Harvey, three of the murdered men, were big "X"
marks. The Copelands were charged with five counts of first-degree murder. Faye
was first to face a jury, on Nov. 1, 1990. It took 2-1/2 hours of deliberation
to decide she was guilty, and three more hours to set the penalty at death.
When her husband went to trial the following year, the
results were the same, giving them the unique distinction of being the oldest
couple on Death Row. Ray didn't last long behind bars, dying in October 1993 in
the prison infirmary. Faye's death sentence was overturned on appeal, but not
her conviction. After suffering a stroke in 2002, the 82-year-old grandmother
was paroled and sent to a nursing home, where she died the day before New Year's
Eve 2003.
As always, stay safe !
Bird
***
