WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:05.200
This episode may contain content of a
graphic nature, including descriptions of physical and

2
00:00:05.240 --> 00:00:10.560
sexual violence against adults, children,
and animals. Listener discretion is advised.

3
00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:17.199
Hi everyone, I'm Talia and I'm
Tanya, and together we are Crimes and

4
00:00:17.239 --> 00:00:37.679
Consequences, a true crime podcast.
Welcome back, everyone to another episode of

5
00:00:37.719 --> 00:00:42.399
Crimes and Consequences. I'm Tanya and
I'm Tealia, and this should be the

6
00:00:42.439 --> 00:00:46.960
first episode that we have put on
our YouTube channel. Yes, so,

7
00:00:47.320 --> 00:00:51.119
if you found us on YouTube,
thanks for watching. Please hit the like,

8
00:00:51.719 --> 00:00:57.200
subscribe whatever button. And if you're
listening to us audio, then also

9
00:00:57.320 --> 00:01:02.399
you hit like and subscribe and thumbs
up to yeah, thumbs whatever. That's

10
00:01:02.560 --> 00:01:07.000
like. So that's like I call
it thumbs up, thumbs ups up.

11
00:01:07.760 --> 00:01:12.280
So today I have a story about
Ray and Faye Copeland and I don't know

12
00:01:12.319 --> 00:01:19.480
it. She doesn't know it.
Ray Copeland was born December thirtieth, nineteen

13
00:01:19.840 --> 00:01:23.879
fourteen. It's a little bit of
an older story to parents, Jess and

14
00:01:23.959 --> 00:01:30.239
Laney Copeland. He was raised in
Oklahoma in the Ozark Mountains. The Copelands

15
00:01:30.280 --> 00:01:36.000
were poor and they moved around quite
a bit, so Ray didn't really complete

16
00:01:36.040 --> 00:01:40.319
school. He just worked a lot, like to help his family. He

17
00:01:40.439 --> 00:01:44.840
was known to be very stubborn and
he never paid attention to anyone that was

18
00:01:44.840 --> 00:01:48.879
in charge. He was that kind
of kid. Ray's mom, Laney,

19
00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:52.319
had given birth to two more children. So, like I said, he

20
00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:55.959
dropped out of school when he was
in the fourth grade, and that's when

21
00:01:55.959 --> 00:02:00.599
he began working. Fourth grade.
I know, Coplands ran a tiny farm.

22
00:02:01.079 --> 00:02:06.359
So he began his life a crime
by stealing cattle when he was a

23
00:02:06.439 --> 00:02:12.280
kid in livestock and then he would
steal them from his father's farm, sell

24
00:02:12.319 --> 00:02:16.759
them, and then give the money
to his family without I guess his parents

25
00:02:16.800 --> 00:02:25.439
knowing what I know. Eventually he
did move on to stealing other people's other

26
00:02:25.479 --> 00:02:30.439
people's cattle instead of stealing his dad's. Maybe his dad caught on, who

27
00:02:30.479 --> 00:02:35.080
knows, Like I got cattle missing
and you're giving me money. Yeah,

28
00:02:35.319 --> 00:02:38.319
So I don't know, but that
was the extent of most of his petty

29
00:02:38.360 --> 00:02:42.840
crimes. Is just you know,
stealing cattle. Don't even know how to

30
00:02:42.879 --> 00:02:46.520
steal a cow, but I don't
either. So when Ray was in his

31
00:02:46.560 --> 00:02:51.719
early twenties, he found other ways
to make money and this these methods were

32
00:02:51.719 --> 00:02:54.680
a lot more serious. When he
was twenty two, which was nineteen thirty

33
00:02:54.719 --> 00:02:58.199
six, so we are in the
heart of the Great Depression. I think

34
00:02:58.759 --> 00:03:02.719
he was arrested for forging checks and
he was sentenced to serve one year behind

35
00:03:02.719 --> 00:03:07.280
bars at the local jail in Harrison
County. Soon after he was released in

36
00:03:07.360 --> 00:03:13.000
nineteen forty, he moved back in
with his parents at their farm, and

37
00:03:13.719 --> 00:03:15.360
it would appear that he stayed out
of trouble for at least a little while.

38
00:03:15.879 --> 00:03:20.680
But one day, when Ray was
at a routine doctor's appointment, he

39
00:03:20.759 --> 00:03:25.280
met nineteen year old fay Della Wilson. Fay was born in nineteen twenty one

40
00:03:25.360 --> 00:03:31.000
to her parents, Rufus and Gladys
Wilson. Wilson's were from Harrison, Arkansas,

41
00:03:31.360 --> 00:03:36.599
and they were known to be just
really hard working people. Like the

42
00:03:36.599 --> 00:03:42.719
Copelands, the Wilsons were poor,
but they somehow succeeded in raising seven children

43
00:03:43.400 --> 00:03:47.919
while living in a cabin that had
dirt floors. Oh so Ray meets Faye

44
00:03:49.360 --> 00:03:52.879
and it is instant, right,
and he's like, what twenty one,

45
00:03:53.199 --> 00:03:57.360
she's nineteen, Yeah, you know, he's about seven years older than she

46
00:03:57.479 --> 00:03:59.800
is. Oh, it is yeah, he was born nineteen fourteen and she

47
00:03:59.840 --> 00:04:02.759
was in nineteen twenty one, so
he's a little bit older. But after

48
00:04:02.840 --> 00:04:10.439
meeting the connected like instantaneously, she
just you know, still his heart.

49
00:04:10.639 --> 00:04:15.159
They were smitten. Ray made a
promise to her during their relationship and he

50
00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:18.959
said that he was always going to
protect her. Okay, So a few

51
00:04:18.959 --> 00:04:24.439
months later, Ray and Fay got
married and within a year of marriage,

52
00:04:24.879 --> 00:04:29.720
they started a family. Their first
child was a son named Everett, and

53
00:04:29.759 --> 00:04:31.879
within the next two years, Fay
would give birth to another son that they

54
00:04:31.959 --> 00:04:39.040
named Billy Ray. Four years into
their marriage, the Copeland family relocated to

55
00:04:39.079 --> 00:04:45.079
California in Fresno County, and within
the next two years the family would get

56
00:04:45.120 --> 00:04:48.639
even bigger with the birth of their
first and only daughter, named Betty Lou.

57
00:04:48.839 --> 00:04:51.920
She was born in nineteen forty five. Betty Lou, Billy Ray,

58
00:04:53.160 --> 00:04:57.759
Beutdy Lou and Billy Ray. Yep. They had a third son named Elvia

59
00:04:58.399 --> 00:05:02.480
A l v I A Elvia Alvia. He was born in nineteen forty seven,

60
00:05:02.879 --> 00:05:10.279
and so Ray and Fay have this
blossoming family with all of these children.

61
00:05:10.319 --> 00:05:15.160
Right, they have four kids and
in nineteen forty nine, Ray decided

62
00:05:15.199 --> 00:05:18.199
he needed to go back to his
old ways to make extra money. Then

63
00:05:18.240 --> 00:05:21.800
to steal some cattle. Yeah,
he was suspected of stealing a couple of

64
00:05:21.879 --> 00:05:28.800
horses, Yeah, from another farm
who was close to where they lived.

65
00:05:29.480 --> 00:05:33.759
Although no charges were ever filed against
Ray for horse theft, his entire reputation

66
00:05:33.920 --> 00:05:40.959
now around the county, it was
just shattered. It's like a Yellowstone episode.

67
00:05:41.040 --> 00:05:45.519
Yeah, I'd never watched yellow Stone. You should, I should.

68
00:05:45.879 --> 00:05:48.480
A few months later, Fay gave
birth to another child. Now it's their

69
00:05:48.600 --> 00:05:55.000
fifth, and this is William Wayne. And since Ray's reputation is garbage,

70
00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:59.800
he can't find a job and farming
was really all he knew, but nobody

71
00:05:59.800 --> 00:06:04.560
try trusted him around their livestock.
So no money's coming in to this household

72
00:06:04.600 --> 00:06:10.199
of seven, and the Copelands decide
to leave California and go back to Arkansas

73
00:06:10.439 --> 00:06:16.199
for a fresh start. However,
this fresh start didn't go as planned because

74
00:06:16.360 --> 00:06:20.920
Ray is a criminal, and he
was arrested within the first month of being

75
00:06:20.959 --> 00:06:26.519
there for stealing cattle. With his
arrest, he was charged with grand larceny

76
00:06:26.839 --> 00:06:30.199
and he had to serve a year
behind bars. So what is she supposed

77
00:06:30.240 --> 00:06:34.319
to do? I know, rightis
what do you do? I don't know?

78
00:06:34.959 --> 00:06:39.439
I mean, she had to do
something right. I'm sure she got

79
00:06:39.439 --> 00:06:43.360
a job she had to of Hopefully
there was family that could help to since

80
00:06:43.360 --> 00:06:46.800
they moved back to Arkansas. True. Once he was released from this now

81
00:06:46.879 --> 00:06:51.639
second year long stint that he's had
in his life, the family moved from

82
00:06:51.759 --> 00:06:56.920
Arkansas to Missouri, you know,
fresh start, And in nineteen fifty one,

83
00:06:57.000 --> 00:07:02.199
Ray was arrested again surprise, seiling
cattle. Surprising, and instead of

84
00:07:02.240 --> 00:07:06.879
going to prison, he was sentenced
to hard labor. But the hard labor

85
00:07:08.040 --> 00:07:15.600
was working on the Judges farm for
a year. Isn't they crazy? You're

86
00:07:15.639 --> 00:07:17.399
not going to ja. Sorry,
that's funny as how, Yeah, you

87
00:07:17.439 --> 00:07:20.439
need to do some physical labor to
work for me. You're gonna work at

88
00:07:20.439 --> 00:07:26.040
my farm and for none of my
cattle better. Yeah, I'm gonna count

89
00:07:26.079 --> 00:07:31.000
them every night stolen. After another
release, Ray felt, okay, we

90
00:07:31.040 --> 00:07:34.319
need another fresh start. I gotta
do it again. You gotta move again,

91
00:07:34.360 --> 00:07:39.680
gotta move again, and they went
to Illinois. And in Illinois they

92
00:07:39.720 --> 00:07:43.199
would move from town to town over
the next eight years. On three different

93
00:07:43.199 --> 00:07:47.319
occasions, Ray was arrested for forging
checks. Even more of jail time he

94
00:07:47.399 --> 00:07:51.519
had to pay fines. I mean, nothing stopped him. He would continue

95
00:07:51.560 --> 00:07:56.240
forging checks, and in nineteen sixty
one he wrote a check, a bad

96
00:07:56.319 --> 00:07:59.879
check for a little over twenty nine
hundred dollars, which would be a lot

97
00:07:59.879 --> 00:08:03.759
of money. Yeah, and it
was for a herd of twenty cows,

98
00:08:03.839 --> 00:08:07.399
so it was a lot of money. They think he's gonna get away with

99
00:08:07.399 --> 00:08:11.160
that. He's gonna bounce and he's
gonna have He's gonna sell them, right,

100
00:08:11.319 --> 00:08:13.800
Yeah, he sold the cows.
Well, his thing was he would

101
00:08:13.839 --> 00:08:16.879
sell them right away, like before, like the bank caught up with him

102
00:08:16.920 --> 00:08:20.399
and everything. So by the time, you know, yeah, the time,

103
00:08:20.480 --> 00:08:22.000
by the time they were come to
him, he had already made the

104
00:08:22.040 --> 00:08:28.759
money. But obviously, yes,
he's being a resident a restitution and oh

105
00:08:28.839 --> 00:08:31.879
yeah. He had to go back
to prison for another nine months, and

106
00:08:33.080 --> 00:08:37.879
after he was released, Ray finally
came to the conclusion that he needed to

107
00:08:37.879 --> 00:08:43.279
get his shit together, like,
okay, we like this ain't working anymore.

108
00:08:43.519 --> 00:08:46.399
I need to do something different.
So he was in jail more than

109
00:08:46.440 --> 00:08:52.600
he was out living free. So
getting his shit together he had a different

110
00:08:52.639 --> 00:08:58.279
meaning that it would mean to you
or me. Usually, you know,

111
00:08:58.360 --> 00:09:01.000
it means somebody, Okay, I'm
gonna turn over a new leave I'm going

112
00:09:01.080 --> 00:09:05.600
to turn my life around. Straight
path. Yeah, straightened my path out.

113
00:09:05.639 --> 00:09:09.840
But you know that didn't happen.
Ray had a different plan. He

114
00:09:09.919 --> 00:09:13.679
was still going to commit crimes,
but he was going to use a different

115
00:09:13.720 --> 00:09:18.360
method. Okay, So while he's
ironing out these details of his new game

116
00:09:18.399 --> 00:09:22.279
plan, you know, he did
remain on the straight and narrow until he

117
00:09:22.440 --> 00:09:26.960
got this plan together. It's now
the summer of nineteen sixty six, and

118
00:09:26.039 --> 00:09:30.960
Ray decided, okay, we need
to move one more time, one more

119
00:09:30.960 --> 00:09:33.440
time, I promise, Yeah,
this is it. So they landed on

120
00:09:33.480 --> 00:09:39.840
a forty acre farm in a town
called Moorsville in Livingston County, and I

121
00:09:39.840 --> 00:09:45.080
believe this is still in Missouri.
The six thousand dollars farm consisted of a

122
00:09:45.080 --> 00:09:50.360
small farmhouse where his family lived.
There's a few barns, and Faye decided

123
00:09:50.399 --> 00:09:54.279
to get a job working at Midwest
Quality Glove Corporation. I'm not sure what

124
00:09:54.399 --> 00:10:01.360
she did, but forty acres and
a farmhouse for six grand nineteen sixty six.

125
00:10:01.879 --> 00:10:05.360
So while finding their way to the
farm, Ray and Fay got to

126
00:10:05.360 --> 00:10:11.480
know the owners of the neighboring farms
and they these neighbors started to notice some

127
00:10:11.519 --> 00:10:16.480
things about the Copelands, and it
became known years later that Fay and their

128
00:10:16.519 --> 00:10:22.840
five children were being abused physically by
Ray. And Faye was raised in a

129
00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:28.159
good Christian home. She stayed with
them. Yeah, she'd been raised to

130
00:10:28.200 --> 00:10:31.879
believe that divorce wasn't an option and
that it was sin. She was raised

131
00:10:31.879 --> 00:10:37.720
by her parents to love and support
her husband no matter what, and that

132
00:10:37.840 --> 00:10:41.320
the man was always the head of
the household. And you know, the

133
00:10:41.320 --> 00:10:45.879
Bible says she needed to submit to
her husband. So Fay said, even

134
00:10:45.879 --> 00:10:52.399
though Ray was mean and you know, beat her, she remained a good

135
00:10:52.399 --> 00:10:56.440
and loyal wife to him, even
though he would end up at some point

136
00:10:56.519 --> 00:11:03.039
ruining her life. But that's spoiler
alert. Since Ray knew he wasn't getting

137
00:11:03.080 --> 00:11:07.240
anywhere writing bad checks, he was
still sorting out this new plan that this

138
00:11:07.440 --> 00:11:11.200
brainchild, I guess that he's going
to hatch. In the early seventies,

139
00:11:11.879 --> 00:11:16.360
he had an eye for cattle,
obviously, since that's really all he knew.

140
00:11:16.840 --> 00:11:20.440
But his issue was that he never
had money to do anything with them.

141
00:11:22.159 --> 00:11:24.600
He had, you know, spent
a lot of money bert purchasing this

142
00:11:24.960 --> 00:11:30.159
farm that they were living on,
and they needed cattle for the farm.

143
00:11:30.519 --> 00:11:33.120
But he was adamant that he wasn't
going to go back to jail. The

144
00:11:33.159 --> 00:11:39.240
potential of getting arrested again was not
something that Ray was ready to risk because

145
00:11:39.240 --> 00:11:43.360
if he went back to jail,
it would definitely have been longer than like

146
00:11:43.559 --> 00:11:46.000
nine months or a year long,
because now he's got like this record,

147
00:11:46.200 --> 00:11:50.159
right, But if he got a
job and saved his money, yeah,

148
00:11:50.200 --> 00:11:54.679
you know, to buy some cattle. A job is too boring to want.

149
00:11:54.120 --> 00:11:58.639
You need instant money when you have
these problems, apparently, right,

150
00:12:00.240 --> 00:12:03.240
it's much easier to steal it.
I guess, is it. I don't

151
00:12:03.279 --> 00:12:07.399
know. I don't steal. The
consequences you've described seem easy to me.

152
00:12:07.279 --> 00:12:13.879
One fucking day jail. Look,
I tell on every crime I ever knew

153
00:12:13.879 --> 00:12:18.120
anybody Tony went through a stop sign. Yes, thanks, Lea, sell

154
00:12:18.200 --> 00:12:22.799
me out. So eventually he comes
up with this devious plan. Ray knew

155
00:12:22.919 --> 00:12:28.399
he needed to find someone else to
write the bad checks for him, and

156
00:12:28.440 --> 00:12:31.360
this person needed to be someone that
nobody had ever seen before and that nobody

157
00:12:31.440 --> 00:12:37.080
knew. This person also needed to
be able to disappear immediately after the deed

158
00:12:37.200 --> 00:12:39.960
was done, and he knew exactly
where to find such people on the side

159
00:12:39.960 --> 00:12:43.759
of the road hitchhiking. Oh yeah, you know, you're just blowing through

160
00:12:43.759 --> 00:12:46.759
town. He's got a job for
you. And as crazy as this sounds,

161
00:12:48.120 --> 00:12:52.159
Ray was able to pull this scheme
off several times. He'd get the

162
00:12:52.240 --> 00:12:56.840
various men to go to auctions for
cattle and he would hire them, obviously

163
00:12:56.879 --> 00:13:00.919
to work for him. He would
pay them fifty dollars a day, which

164
00:13:00.919 --> 00:13:03.559
I think was probably really good money. Yeah, And after all the details

165
00:13:03.559 --> 00:13:07.559
were ironed out, Ray and the
mystery man, you know, they started

166
00:13:07.559 --> 00:13:13.240
showing up to these auctions once the
cattles were brought. Once the cattle was

167
00:13:13.240 --> 00:13:18.240
brought out to be shown, Ray
and you know, mister Mystery they would

168
00:13:18.320 --> 00:13:22.919
be on separate ends of the corral, they wouldn't stand together. And Ray

169
00:13:22.960 --> 00:13:26.440
would give him like a signal like
these are the ones we want to buy,

170
00:13:26.799 --> 00:13:33.159
okay, So he would bid on
them and win them in the auction,

171
00:13:33.960 --> 00:13:39.279
and the mystery man would then write
out a check from Ray's checkbook and

172
00:13:39.480 --> 00:13:45.480
sign Ray's name to the check.
So each check that was written when he

173
00:13:45.559 --> 00:13:48.879
pulled this off was between one thousand
and fifteen hundred dollars. So he's still

174
00:13:48.960 --> 00:13:52.600
using Ray's checkbook though. Yeah,
but it's not Ray writing the check.

175
00:13:52.639 --> 00:13:56.679
It's the guy now committing this crime. Right, Oh, Ray didn't do

176
00:13:56.720 --> 00:14:00.639
anything wrong, right, checkbook was
probably still yeah, then put the guy

177
00:14:00.720 --> 00:14:03.919
up to it, right. The
check would be handed over to the auctioneer.

178
00:14:03.399 --> 00:14:07.399
Ray would take the newly purchased cattle
home. He would you know,

179
00:14:07.559 --> 00:14:13.519
sell the cattle by the time that
the check bounced, and you know he

180
00:14:13.559 --> 00:14:16.840
didn't do it. I wasn't me, and the guy who wrote the check

181
00:14:16.879 --> 00:14:22.759
would be gone. So when this
happened one time, law enforcement comes to

182
00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:30.279
Ray's house about another bad check.
But Ray just played stupid and he acted

183
00:14:30.320 --> 00:14:33.039
like, you know, it's not
my handwriting. I don't know what happened.

184
00:14:33.600 --> 00:14:37.039
And since the hitchhiker signed Ray's name, Ray just pointed out, you

185
00:14:37.080 --> 00:14:39.600
know, that's not my handwriting.
I didn't do it, so I didn't

186
00:14:39.600 --> 00:14:45.799
do anything wrong, but that no
charges could be filed against Ray since he

187
00:14:45.919 --> 00:14:52.279
wasn't the person who wrote it out. But everybody knows, I mean,

188
00:14:52.360 --> 00:14:56.759
yeah, it's pretty much his m
out right steel cattle whatever. So after

189
00:14:56.960 --> 00:15:01.879
each of these and there was like
a he did this dozens of times,

190
00:15:01.639 --> 00:15:05.559
you know, they would completely vanish
as Ray had previously instructed them to do.

191
00:15:05.600 --> 00:15:09.639
They would just blow out of town
and that would be that. After

192
00:15:09.720 --> 00:15:13.519
Ray pulled this off too many times
to count, he thought he was in

193
00:15:13.559 --> 00:15:18.480
the clear. Like he thought he
had now committed like the perfect crime he

194
00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:22.279
he had planned it. Never catch
me, Yeah, they'll never catch me,

195
00:15:22.679 --> 00:15:26.200
Like this is this is gold This
is a golden plan. He had

196
00:15:26.200 --> 00:15:30.120
planned out everything so perfectly, every
little detail. It's always when you get

197
00:15:30.159 --> 00:15:33.320
too greedy and you'd just stop,
Yeah, taking the cattle. Then had

198
00:15:33.879 --> 00:15:39.320
built a nice farm, Yeah,
you'd think keep going. And I'm thinking,

199
00:15:39.360 --> 00:15:41.360
he's got to have a lot of
money, Like, what are they

200
00:15:41.360 --> 00:15:45.799
blown? They've blown through all this
money, thousands of dollars and they got

201
00:15:45.879 --> 00:15:48.720
cattled. Yeah, but they sell
them right, but they keep some on

202
00:15:48.759 --> 00:15:52.720
their farm too, I think probably. Anyway, it doesn't matter. But

203
00:15:52.840 --> 00:15:58.919
Ray wasn't counting on was that a
local police officer was catching up to one

204
00:15:58.960 --> 00:16:04.919
of the hitchhikers that had did the
scheme with Roy Ray. The hitchhiker was

205
00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:11.440
named Gerald Perkins. So Gerald was
asked about Ray, what Ray had asked

206
00:16:11.480 --> 00:16:15.360
of him, and he cooperated with
law enforcement. He blabbed, he just

207
00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:21.320
told him the whole story. So
Gerald led the police back to Ray's house

208
00:16:21.399 --> 00:16:26.799
and Ray was arrested yet again,
and he was sentenced to serve two years

209
00:16:26.840 --> 00:16:30.879
in prison for forgery. So he's
gone these two years, and once he

210
00:16:30.960 --> 00:16:37.639
was released, he still working on
fine tuning the scheme because okay, it

211
00:16:37.759 --> 00:16:41.080
was almost perfect, and now what
can I do? I already know what

212
00:16:41.120 --> 00:16:44.399
he can do? Yeah, Now
what can I do to make it absolutely

213
00:16:45.240 --> 00:16:49.559
perfect? Yes? Right? Yeah? And he was banished from attending auctions,

214
00:16:49.840 --> 00:16:56.399
so he needed to find a new
way. By nineteen eighty five,

215
00:16:56.519 --> 00:17:00.679
Ray had come to the conclusion that
he completely fine tuned this scheme and he

216
00:17:00.759 --> 00:17:03.440
was excited to test it out.
This has been like what forty years?

217
00:17:03.480 --> 00:17:07.000
Yeah, this has been like yeah, thirty years of stealing for sure,

218
00:17:07.279 --> 00:17:11.559
right. Yeah. By this time
in his life, Ray was in his

219
00:17:11.640 --> 00:17:17.480
seventies. Jesus Us, yes,
and Ray, Ray and Fay were empty

220
00:17:17.519 --> 00:17:23.559
nesters. Here he's still going at
it to see him just get some so

221
00:17:23.880 --> 00:17:30.480
securedy and honestly it's the truth.
What the hell his hearing was going.

222
00:17:32.160 --> 00:17:36.200
Both of them are growing older.
They needed help around the farm, so

223
00:17:36.240 --> 00:17:41.599
they began to hire men as farm
hands. Oh boy, Rai's new plan

224
00:17:41.279 --> 00:17:47.119
still had drifters writing bad checks,
but the checks wouldn't have Ray's name on

225
00:17:47.240 --> 00:17:51.640
them. Ray would take the men
to the local post office to get to

226
00:17:51.720 --> 00:17:55.680
get a PO box in their name. The next step Ray would then take

227
00:17:55.720 --> 00:17:59.640
him to the bank and they would
open checking accounts in their own name.

228
00:18:00.599 --> 00:18:03.599
And the final step with Zen to
make them write a check from their new

229
00:18:03.640 --> 00:18:07.839
account. You know that's going to
bounce. And Ray lied to the men

230
00:18:07.880 --> 00:18:12.599
and told them, you know,
they would be writing checks for him because

231
00:18:12.640 --> 00:18:15.759
he'd cover it. Yeah, he
was going to cover it. Yeah,

232
00:18:15.839 --> 00:18:18.200
cover it because he's not allowed to
go you know, the people at the

233
00:18:18.200 --> 00:18:22.119
auction hated him, so he's not
allowed to go there anymore. So once

234
00:18:22.200 --> 00:18:26.720
this transaction was complete, Ray had
a plan to make sure that the police

235
00:18:26.720 --> 00:18:30.559
would never catch up to another one
again. He began murdering, as you

236
00:18:30.640 --> 00:18:36.720
probably have guessed, murdering these farm
hands that he bought, that he brought

237
00:18:36.839 --> 00:18:41.279
to his farm. So once he
got them to complete the scheme, he

238
00:18:41.480 --> 00:18:45.279
shot each man and he killed them
so there'd be no possible way that they

239
00:18:45.319 --> 00:18:51.039
could blab to the police ever again
in nineteen I still have these checks,

240
00:18:51.119 --> 00:18:53.799
m h. And you don't have
those people, And so the police are

241
00:18:53.799 --> 00:18:57.759
going to investigate, maybe where those
people are? You would think, right,

242
00:18:59.079 --> 00:19:02.880
That's what I would think. I
would think in nineteen eighty nine,

243
00:19:02.920 --> 00:19:06.440
So about four years later, this
has been going on about four years.

244
00:19:06.839 --> 00:19:11.480
The Copelands hired a farm hand and
his name was Jack McCormick and he was

245
00:19:11.559 --> 00:19:15.200
fifty seven. Ray initially found him
at the Victory Mission, which is a

246
00:19:15.240 --> 00:19:22.039
nonprofit organization whose mission is to help
those who are struggling and in need of

247
00:19:22.119 --> 00:19:25.559
food and shelter. So it's like
a shelter. Jack had been recovering from

248
00:19:25.640 --> 00:19:30.480
alcoholism and when Ray offered him a
job, he jumped at it like this

249
00:19:30.559 --> 00:19:34.240
is his chance for his fresh start. Ray knew he could take advantage of

250
00:19:34.279 --> 00:19:41.559
the situation and you know, use
these guys. So Jack had been hired

251
00:19:41.599 --> 00:19:45.279
to open a checking account. He
was instructed to put a small deposit that

252
00:19:45.400 --> 00:19:49.480
Ray gave him into the account to
start. Jack was told that Ray needed

253
00:19:49.519 --> 00:19:55.160
help at the auctions because Ray was
hard of hearing. Oh, so Jack's

254
00:19:55.240 --> 00:19:59.480
job was to bid for him.
Under Ray's instructions, Jack went to the

255
00:19:59.519 --> 00:20:04.759
post. You know, he got
his po box and he began using Ray's

256
00:20:04.839 --> 00:20:10.599
money like for the starter tucks so
then, you know, Jack went to

257
00:20:10.640 --> 00:20:15.799
the auction and he bought cattle for
Ray. After the auction, Ray convinced

258
00:20:15.880 --> 00:20:18.920
Jack to come back to the house
because he said, there is a raccoon

259
00:20:18.960 --> 00:20:22.640
in the barn and I need your
help trapping it. So as they're walking

260
00:20:22.640 --> 00:20:27.200
to the barn, Ray had his
rifle with him, and Jack noticed that

261
00:20:27.240 --> 00:20:33.200
one of the tractors from the farm
was backed up close to the barn with

262
00:20:33.279 --> 00:20:36.839
a small trailer attached to it.
And He's like, hmm, I'm a

263
00:20:36.839 --> 00:20:41.039
small trailer. There was a shovel
along with a big sheet of plastics.

264
00:20:41.079 --> 00:20:45.960
Oh okay, all right, So
Jack's like, oh, thank you.

265
00:20:45.960 --> 00:20:49.119
You know, Ray had every intention
of killing Jack because this transaction is over,

266
00:20:49.720 --> 00:20:53.480
and digging his grave, wrapping his
corpse up, you know, burying

267
00:20:53.519 --> 00:21:02.079
it. So after Jack set up
the recoup the raccoon trap, he turned

268
00:21:02.079 --> 00:21:07.319
around and Ray was pointing a rifle
directly at his head. Somehow, though

269
00:21:07.480 --> 00:21:11.559
I'm not sure how, Jack was
able to convince Ray not to shoot him.

270
00:21:11.039 --> 00:21:15.599
Jack said, I'm going to leave
Missouri. I'm gonna, you know,

271
00:21:15.720 --> 00:21:18.640
hi, tail it out of here. I'm out and I'm never going

272
00:21:18.720 --> 00:21:22.559
to talk about this to anyone,
and if you're wondering where Fay is during

273
00:21:22.599 --> 00:21:26.599
this, she had left to go
to work at her part time job.

274
00:21:26.680 --> 00:21:32.680
She worked at a holiday inn.
And but she she's not I have a

275
00:21:32.680 --> 00:21:37.599
feeling she knows what's going on and
she just doesn't want to be there when

276
00:21:37.599 --> 00:21:41.039
it all comes down. How could
you not figure out? I know,

277
00:21:41.359 --> 00:21:45.559
right, obviously got a life of
crime because this was an issue when they

278
00:21:45.680 --> 00:21:48.480
when when the law finally catches up
with them, it was how much does

279
00:21:48.519 --> 00:21:52.279
Fae know? And I'll tell you
a little bit later. So after Jack

280
00:21:52.319 --> 00:21:56.359
promised to leave Missouri. Oops,
wait a minute, sorry, After Jack

281
00:21:56.400 --> 00:22:00.599
promised to leave Missouri, Ray agreed
to shake Jack where you needed to go,

282
00:22:00.759 --> 00:22:03.960
like I'll drop you off wherever.
But they were going to make a

283
00:22:03.000 --> 00:22:08.000
quick stop at the courthouse that was
located in that county. When the two

284
00:22:08.039 --> 00:22:11.599
of them got to the courthouse,
Fay was waiting there, so when she

285
00:22:11.680 --> 00:22:15.519
saw Jack, she seemed shocked because
he should be dead and buried. At

286
00:22:15.559 --> 00:22:21.960
this point, Ray told Faye that
he and Jack were headed to the bank,

287
00:22:22.599 --> 00:22:27.160
and so Faye followed them. Once
Jack and Ray got to the bank,

288
00:22:27.480 --> 00:22:32.480
the checking account was closed, even
though there was an outstanding check for

289
00:22:32.559 --> 00:22:37.480
a little over eleven hundred dollars.
Jack told Ray that there was no need

290
00:22:37.519 --> 00:22:40.079
for him to head back to the
farm. You know this is good.

291
00:22:40.119 --> 00:22:44.119
I've closed this account. Yeah,
just let me go. Yeah, even

292
00:22:44.119 --> 00:22:47.640
though he still had clothes and other
belongings there. He's just like, I

293
00:22:47.839 --> 00:22:49.480
don't care if I go back to
that farm, he's going to kill me.

294
00:22:49.559 --> 00:22:52.960
Y I'm dead. Yeah, he
wasn't. He wasn't really willing to

295
00:22:53.039 --> 00:22:59.119
risk his life. So Ray and
Fay leave, They go home. Jack

296
00:22:59.240 --> 00:23:02.160
is now on his own and a
little bit later that day, he meets

297
00:23:02.160 --> 00:23:06.880
a friend named Rose at a nearby
bar. The two of them Jack Jack,

298
00:23:07.480 --> 00:23:11.119
two of them are chatting it up, and Jack told her everything he

299
00:23:11.200 --> 00:23:15.359
had just experienced at Ray's farm.
Even though he promised not to tell anyone,

300
00:23:15.039 --> 00:23:19.559
I know, he told her,
you know I would. I missed

301
00:23:19.640 --> 00:23:23.200
my deaf by this much. Right. He's like, if I go back

302
00:23:23.240 --> 00:23:26.960
there there, he's probably gonna kill
me. But he's still in town.

303
00:23:26.279 --> 00:23:30.279
Yes, he's still in town.
He's supposed to be leaving Missouri. So

304
00:23:30.400 --> 00:23:33.400
Rose told Jack, Okay, let's
go back to the house together to get

305
00:23:33.400 --> 00:23:37.480
your belonging. No, yeah,
no, part of what I've just told

306
00:23:37.519 --> 00:23:41.319
you, are you not understanding?
And they go back I will be killed.

307
00:23:41.400 --> 00:23:42.559
Yeah, I'd be like, no, that's okay, I can leave

308
00:23:42.559 --> 00:23:45.799
it. What's wrong with Rose?
I'm not going back to a house where

309
00:23:45.799 --> 00:23:49.319
I think someone could be murdered.
But she maybe she thinks because she's there,

310
00:23:49.359 --> 00:23:55.279
they won't do it. No,
no, down right, no no

311
00:23:55.279 --> 00:24:00.359
no no no no no no no
no. So they when they right to

312
00:24:00.400 --> 00:24:07.000
the house, they were greeted by
both Fay and Ray and they were just

313
00:24:07.440 --> 00:24:11.000
cursing Jack and Rose up and down, like what are you doing here?

314
00:24:11.640 --> 00:24:15.440
Jack introduced Rose to them. He
told them that she was his sister,

315
00:24:17.200 --> 00:24:21.480
but Fay wasn't buying it. She
kept trying to make Rose tell her her

316
00:24:21.559 --> 00:24:25.720
name for some reason, and she
wrote it down along with the license plate

317
00:24:25.880 --> 00:24:30.759
from the car that they came in. They ended up leaving with their lives

318
00:24:30.799 --> 00:24:36.440
still, Jack and Rose. But
the very important no, they didn't know

319
00:24:36.640 --> 00:24:40.839
any of Jack's belongings because I think
they get there and they have this confrontation

320
00:24:41.079 --> 00:24:47.279
and they leave, and Jack did
move. He left Missouri and he went

321
00:24:47.319 --> 00:24:52.599
to Nebraska good. And after Jack
left, Ray tried to use the same

322
00:24:52.640 --> 00:24:56.240
scheme on two other men. One
caught on and left as fast as he

323
00:24:56.279 --> 00:25:00.519
could, but the other did as
he was instructed, but before Ray could

324
00:25:00.640 --> 00:25:07.000
kill him, he was arrested.
So we have Jack in Nebraska and he

325
00:25:07.039 --> 00:25:11.519
gets there and he is thinking about
what happened, and he's really feeling like

326
00:25:11.559 --> 00:25:15.920
he needs to expose Ray. So
he makes a call to crime stappers in

327
00:25:15.960 --> 00:25:19.319
Nebraska, and while on the phone, he said, you know, I

328
00:25:19.400 --> 00:25:25.319
was working on this farm and while
I was there, I accidentally uncovered some

329
00:25:25.440 --> 00:25:30.839
bones and I think they were human. Okay, okay, he said.

330
00:25:30.559 --> 00:25:36.200
On August sixth of that year,
he took a little stroll behind one of

331
00:25:36.240 --> 00:25:40.079
the Copeland's barns, and while he
was making his way, Jack looked down

332
00:25:40.519 --> 00:25:47.039
and thought he saw a human skull
along with either an arm or a leg

333
00:25:47.119 --> 00:25:49.519
bone, and get the fuck out
of there, amen, right, I

334
00:25:49.519 --> 00:25:53.279
don't know. He saw these bones
coming out of the soil behind the barn,

335
00:25:55.160 --> 00:25:59.880
and Ray and Fay must have seen
him walk back there, because when

336
00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:03.000
he went when he got back to
the house, both of them were extremely

337
00:26:03.079 --> 00:26:07.319
upset at him and the fact that
he walked behind the barn, and he

338
00:26:07.440 --> 00:26:11.720
was angrily told that he was not
allowed to walk over there again. So

339
00:26:11.960 --> 00:26:15.319
he tells the hotline in this story, this Crime Stoppers hotline, and they're

340
00:26:15.319 --> 00:26:18.000
a little skeptical. They're like,
hmm, I don't know, Like,

341
00:26:18.119 --> 00:26:22.839
Okay, you came across some human
bones. But because you know, the

342
00:26:22.920 --> 00:26:26.359
Copelands are elderly, so they're thinking, hmm, he's got to be in

343
00:26:26.400 --> 00:26:30.599
his mid to late seventies, right, yeah, right, And but but

344
00:26:30.759 --> 00:26:33.839
I think what crime suppers does is
they take the tip and they pass it

345
00:26:33.880 --> 00:26:38.400
along to law enforcement. And that's
exactly what they did. They passed it

346
00:26:38.440 --> 00:26:44.799
along to Missouri's law enforcement for that
area so that they could check it out.

347
00:26:45.640 --> 00:26:48.880
After the Missouri detectives heard about what
Jack had seen on the farm,

348
00:26:49.440 --> 00:26:56.799
they took this information really serious because
Ray had a criminal record, and so

349
00:26:56.920 --> 00:27:03.240
they they would then spend two much
gathering all the information that they could find

350
00:27:03.240 --> 00:27:07.400
out about the Copelands. After taking
this time to secretly investigate them, they

351
00:27:07.400 --> 00:27:11.039
were able to use everything they found, along with the Jack statement, to

352
00:27:11.039 --> 00:27:14.839
get a search warrant for the farm. Oh, I can't wait to hear

353
00:27:14.880 --> 00:27:18.279
what you tell me they find.
The raid of the Copelands farm took place

354
00:27:18.359 --> 00:27:22.759
in October of nineteen eighty nine,
and since this was such a large area

355
00:27:22.799 --> 00:27:26.960
to cover, like it's forty acres
forty acres a lot. The sheriff,

356
00:27:26.039 --> 00:27:32.799
along with forty officers, units of
bloodhounds, and a full bulldozers took Ray

357
00:27:32.839 --> 00:27:37.799
and Faye by surprise. They show
up with a search warrant and they're like,

358
00:27:37.880 --> 00:27:41.880
oh shit, we're fucked. Yeah. The team of officers and bloodhounds

359
00:27:41.920 --> 00:27:45.920
scoured the farm for an entire week
and they came up with nothing, not

360
00:27:47.119 --> 00:27:51.000
even by the barn, He said, what happened. They went as far

361
00:27:51.039 --> 00:27:55.079
as searching the property that surrounded the
farm, but they still came up empty.

362
00:27:55.480 --> 00:27:59.599
Many of the officers then thought that
tip was bullshit, right and this

363
00:27:59.720 --> 00:28:03.119
was how all just either wild goose
chase, some kind of misunderstanding. But

364
00:28:03.279 --> 00:28:07.200
a few days later their luck would
turn around because the bulldozers come out.

365
00:28:07.359 --> 00:28:14.240
So a few few bulldozers went into
the nearby farm that Ray often used,

366
00:28:14.720 --> 00:28:19.640
and when police started digging, three
bodies were unearthed. These bodies were of

367
00:28:19.680 --> 00:28:26.480
twenty seven year old Jimmy Dale Harvey, twenty one year old Paul Jason Cohort,

368
00:28:26.960 --> 00:28:30.680
and twenty seven year old John W. Freeman. Each of these men

369
00:28:30.720 --> 00:28:36.960
had died from a single gunshot to
the back of their head. Two bodies.

370
00:28:37.599 --> 00:28:41.039
Two more bodies were found a little
bit later. The body of Dennis

371
00:28:41.119 --> 00:28:47.400
K. Murphy had been found in
a well located on the property and his

372
00:28:48.000 --> 00:28:53.200
body was badly decomposed and it was
chained to a forty pound block of concrete.

373
00:28:53.279 --> 00:28:59.599
Oh man, so yeah, so
somebody tossed that concrete into the well

374
00:28:59.680 --> 00:29:03.599
and down went Dennis. It's like
a bad mood, scary moon well with

375
00:29:04.079 --> 00:29:10.920
my right. The other body was
of Wayne Warner, and his body had

376
00:29:10.960 --> 00:29:15.119
also been found near the barn,
but instead of being buried next to the

377
00:29:15.160 --> 00:29:19.240
other three, his body was placed
in the barn under just bales of hay

378
00:29:19.519 --> 00:29:23.599
that had been stacked Florida ceiling.
Now they're getting careless, yeah right,

379
00:29:23.759 --> 00:29:29.119
like not even burying the victims.
And all the men had been shot with

380
00:29:29.160 --> 00:29:34.440
a twenty two caliber rifle. Is
that six? Then six? According to

381
00:29:34.480 --> 00:29:40.319
court records, each of the victims
were homeless men who were hired by Ray

382
00:29:40.440 --> 00:29:45.559
to participate in his illegal livestock dealings. At the auctions, because you know,

383
00:29:45.680 --> 00:29:48.000
Ray's not giving this up. Ray
would put in some of his own

384
00:29:48.039 --> 00:29:52.680
money into their newly created checking counts, but before the checks bounced, the

385
00:29:52.759 --> 00:29:59.839
victims were murdered, so there'd be
no trace of them, and he got

386
00:30:00.039 --> 00:30:04.039
away with this. I mean,
yeah, he's already lived out a huge

387
00:30:04.079 --> 00:30:08.640
chunk of his life. Yeah,
exactly. And I'll tell you a little

388
00:30:08.640 --> 00:30:14.960
bit about some of the evidence that
was found. When police searched, they

389
00:30:15.079 --> 00:30:18.880
found two blank checks that were inside
a phase purse when she was arrested.

390
00:30:19.599 --> 00:30:23.440
One of them was from Jack and
the other one was the last man that

391
00:30:23.559 --> 00:30:29.799
Ray used con people. His name
was James Page. All of these findings

392
00:30:29.960 --> 00:30:34.039
showed, you know, they knew
she participated, They knew in these financial

393
00:30:34.119 --> 00:30:41.480
transactions. She knew every detail right, including the murders. Funny enough,

394
00:30:41.599 --> 00:30:47.119
Fay had gone to the bank on
her own after a check after John Freeman's

395
00:30:47.559 --> 00:30:52.480
mail from the bank was sent to
the Copeland address. John had had some

396
00:30:52.599 --> 00:30:55.880
remaining cash in that account and he's
one of the victims that they found,

397
00:30:56.440 --> 00:31:00.440
but the amount was obviously not enough
to cover that check that was written for

398
00:31:00.480 --> 00:31:03.640
the cattle. So after the check
bounce, the bank took it upon themselves

399
00:31:03.720 --> 00:31:08.119
to close the account, and then
they sent a check for the money that

400
00:31:08.200 --> 00:31:14.960
John had in the account and sent
it to Ray and face House. So

401
00:31:14.960 --> 00:31:18.200
fake out her hands on this check
and she actually sent it back to the

402
00:31:18.200 --> 00:31:21.880
post office. But then you know, she goes to the post office and

403
00:31:21.920 --> 00:31:25.279
she's like, I don't know who
this John Freeman is. Where did he

404
00:31:25.359 --> 00:31:29.519
get my address? She just you
know, trying to deny any kind of

405
00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:36.200
knowledge of that. Also, while
searching the home, police found a handwritten

406
00:31:36.200 --> 00:31:41.640
list of names and they were the
names of the victims. Why well,

407
00:31:41.839 --> 00:31:47.640
Ray couldn't read or write. The
list was in phase handwriting. She wrote

408
00:31:47.640 --> 00:31:52.000
the name the point I have no
idea because next to their names she would

409
00:31:52.079 --> 00:31:57.519
mark an ax next to their names, and like I said, they correlated

410
00:31:57.559 --> 00:32:02.839
with the men that were hired murdered. There were twelve names on the list,

411
00:32:04.160 --> 00:32:07.240
but only five of them had an
axe. All other names listed are

412
00:32:07.359 --> 00:32:13.480
names of people who are still missing. They're missing and no remains of theirs

413
00:32:13.799 --> 00:32:21.039
have been ever been found. Wow, these are two right alleged cerial alleged

414
00:32:21.079 --> 00:32:25.759
serial killers. The murder weapon that
twenty two caliberal caliber rifle that was found

415
00:32:25.880 --> 00:32:30.519
inside of Ray and Faye's farmhouse,
and after ballistics tests were done it was

416
00:32:30.640 --> 00:32:35.759
determined that yes, it was the
murder weapon. Okay, this is kind

417
00:32:35.799 --> 00:32:38.519
of weird. Another thing that they
found. Okay, it was a quilt

418
00:32:38.680 --> 00:32:44.279
that Fay had sown. It wasn't
just an ordinary quote though, it was

419
00:32:44.319 --> 00:32:50.279
made from clothing that didn't belong to
either Ray or Faye. They had taken

420
00:32:50.359 --> 00:32:55.000
the clothes from the victims and sown
them into a quilt. When police found

421
00:32:55.000 --> 00:33:00.319
this quilt, they felt like it
proved she's involved. Yeah, she's totally

422
00:33:00.359 --> 00:33:05.160
involved, and that she acknowledge again
because you know, when they get arrested,

423
00:33:05.200 --> 00:33:07.880
she denies. And that's weird shit, I know who to make a

424
00:33:08.000 --> 00:33:13.440
quilt out of victims clothes, out
of victim's clothes, Like what you're snuggling

425
00:33:13.519 --> 00:33:15.160
up at night with that quilt?
Fuck? Why would you do that?

426
00:33:15.160 --> 00:33:20.480
Why would you want to remember that? Right? You were against it and

427
00:33:21.880 --> 00:33:24.079
horrified you what your husband was doing. And let's say she didn't know,

428
00:33:24.400 --> 00:33:30.319
like, okay, you're coming up
with clothing that doesn't belong to you,

429
00:33:30.480 --> 00:33:32.200
or you just show up with some
clothes on, help me to make a

430
00:33:32.279 --> 00:33:37.880
quilt? Add all the little things
up, I mean thing, Yeah,

431
00:33:37.880 --> 00:33:40.880
I don't know them. Checks are
coming to her place, right, people's

432
00:33:40.960 --> 00:33:45.720
names, and you don't ask Ray
about it? You don't she's not asking,

433
00:33:45.799 --> 00:33:49.880
I mean maybe not but come on
now, I know that's a weird

434
00:33:49.880 --> 00:33:52.920
thing. So eventually, when they
are arrested, they get charged with five

435
00:33:53.039 --> 00:33:59.519
counts of murder in the first degree. Bays trial began November one, nineteen

436
00:33:59.599 --> 00:34:04.240
ninety and during the trial, her
attorneys did everything that they could to show

437
00:34:04.279 --> 00:34:07.960
that she was suffering from battered wife
syndrome. That's right, she was,

438
00:34:07.239 --> 00:34:10.559
she had been been mm hm.
They also made it a point to make

439
00:34:10.639 --> 00:34:15.000
sure that the court was fully aware
that she was in her right mind and

440
00:34:15.079 --> 00:34:20.599
she didn't have any mental disease or
defect. According to Fay, she had

441
00:34:20.599 --> 00:34:25.360
no knowledge of the murders and she
was just an innocent bystander. However,

442
00:34:25.400 --> 00:34:30.760
the jury didn't believe that, and
she ended up being found guilty on all

443
00:34:30.800 --> 00:34:36.000
five counts. She was sentenced to
death whoa by lethal injection, I know,

444
00:34:36.760 --> 00:34:39.159
for four out of the five counts. For the fifth count, she

445
00:34:39.239 --> 00:34:45.719
was sentenced to life in prison without
the possibility of parole. After Fay heard

446
00:34:45.760 --> 00:34:50.440
her sentence, she uncontrollably cried her
eyes out, Oh hell yeah, and

447
00:34:50.559 --> 00:34:54.000
loud sobs were heard throughout the courtroom. That makes sense, mm hmm.

448
00:34:54.280 --> 00:34:58.639
On the morning after Fay had been
sentenced, Ray was taken in for a

449
00:34:58.679 --> 00:35:04.320
mental evaluation at a Kansas City hospital. On the way to the hospital,

450
00:35:04.480 --> 00:35:08.559
the sheriff began to ask Ray if
he'd heard about Fay's verdict, and Ray's

451
00:35:08.599 --> 00:35:12.800
like, no, I haven't heard
a year. No, I'm surprised.

452
00:35:12.800 --> 00:35:15.519
He's like, well, what has
happened. The sheriff told Ray about her

453
00:35:15.559 --> 00:35:21.320
being sentenced to death, and Ray
responded, quote, well, those things

454
00:35:21.360 --> 00:35:25.000
happened to some you know, un
quote, and he never asked about Fay

455
00:35:25.599 --> 00:35:30.639
ever. Again. Well, I
thoughs he might be real worried, right.

456
00:35:31.000 --> 00:35:36.119
His trial started March seventh, nineteen
ninety one, and the prosecution brought

457
00:35:36.199 --> 00:35:40.800
forth many witnesses along with the ballistics
tasks on the rifle the bullets that were

458
00:35:40.840 --> 00:35:45.800
found. There was a bullet found
lodged in one of the victim's skulls.

459
00:35:45.239 --> 00:35:50.679
The testimony went on for weeks,
and after the jury heard everything, they

460
00:35:50.800 --> 00:35:54.760
also found Ray guilty on all five
counts. He too, was sentenced to

461
00:35:54.800 --> 00:36:00.239
death by lethal injection for all five
of them. When Ray heard a sentence,

462
00:36:00.280 --> 00:36:05.480
he muttered, I'm okay, No, you're not No, you're not

463
00:36:05.800 --> 00:36:09.639
no body. Yeah, you're not. No. Ray and fake Copeland are

464
00:36:09.679 --> 00:36:15.199
the oldest people to ever be sentenced
to death in the history of the US.

465
00:36:15.440 --> 00:36:21.039
Oh Ray died on death row two
years after he'd been sentenced. Yeah,

466
00:36:21.159 --> 00:36:24.840
see that's not there. No.
In Faye's death sentence was overturned on

467
00:36:24.880 --> 00:36:30.599
August sixth, nineteen ninety nine,
her lawyer came forward and said that ray

468
00:36:30.280 --> 00:36:36.000
Or Fay was barely guilty of anything. He continued, Yeah, she didn't

469
00:36:36.360 --> 00:36:40.039
at the standard, and she's barely
She's just a little bit guilty. He

470
00:36:40.119 --> 00:36:45.599
continued to say that she was just
there when the murders took place, and

471
00:36:45.639 --> 00:36:47.880
she never killed anyone, Like I
just happened to be there. She's kind

472
00:36:47.880 --> 00:36:52.119
of confessing to what happened though,
right, yeah, because she's saying,

473
00:36:52.039 --> 00:36:54.519
yeah, people were murdered. I
mean yeah, I was just there.

474
00:36:54.519 --> 00:37:00.119
I didn't participate in it. Her
appeal centered around the fact that the Duram

475
00:37:00.320 --> 00:37:04.480
were not given the opportunity to hear
any evidence that could prove that she suffered

476
00:37:04.480 --> 00:37:08.599
from battered wife syndrome. Although the
death penalty was taken off the table,

477
00:37:09.039 --> 00:37:13.719
she was still ordered to spend the
rest of her natural life behind bars.

478
00:37:14.719 --> 00:37:19.400
In November the following year, the
Missouri Attorney General tried to get phased death

479
00:37:19.440 --> 00:37:23.599
sentence reinstated, and at the proceedings, Fay was asked if she had anything

480
00:37:23.639 --> 00:37:28.559
to say, and she did.
She said, quote, God will forgive

481
00:37:28.559 --> 00:37:32.079
me for everything I've said or done? End quote. Oh well, why

482
00:37:32.079 --> 00:37:36.639
don't you share with us? Yeah? Everything you yeah, please please do

483
00:37:36.760 --> 00:37:44.000
tell. The judge upheld the overturned
death sentence, so the death penalty was

484
00:37:44.000 --> 00:37:50.800
not restored. She's old anyway,
right, Yeah. On August tenth,

485
00:37:50.840 --> 00:37:54.000
two thousand and two, she suffered
from a massive stroke and it paralyzed her.

486
00:37:54.519 --> 00:37:59.400
She was never able to speak again. So she was given parole,

487
00:38:00.159 --> 00:38:01.880
yes, and released to a nursing
home. I don't know if it was

488
00:38:01.920 --> 00:38:07.559
Pearl, but they released her to
a nursing home in her hometown, where

489
00:38:07.559 --> 00:38:12.440
she died December thirtieth two. Sometimes
when you're gonna die, yeah, they

490
00:38:12.519 --> 00:38:15.960
let They let her die at the
nursing home. And that is the story

491
00:38:15.960 --> 00:38:22.719
of Fan Ray Copeland, the oldest
people sentenced to death Here, crazy stupid

492
00:38:22.760 --> 00:38:28.519
story. Cattle over Yeah, like
the horses. I mean, I like

493
00:38:28.599 --> 00:38:30.480
that. He just worked years and
years on the scheme, Like, well,

494
00:38:30.519 --> 00:38:34.920
you got I mean he got away
with it a lot. I mean,

495
00:38:34.960 --> 00:38:37.880
he did time but as much as
I mean he managed to survive and

496
00:38:38.360 --> 00:38:43.800
support a family. Yeah, I
mean, I guess stealing and stealing and

497
00:38:43.800 --> 00:38:47.760
then eventually murdering murdering. Well yeah
yeah, So anyway, that's horrible.

498
00:38:49.000 --> 00:38:52.199
It is horrible, And I wonder
about the other where the body, the

499
00:38:52.239 --> 00:38:57.280
other missing people, Yeah, the
missing people, Like it's just coincidental that

500
00:38:57.320 --> 00:39:00.119
their names happened to be on a
list, and then again they were training.

501
00:39:00.199 --> 00:39:04.199
It sounds like they were transient,
so yeah, I could anything could

502
00:39:04.199 --> 00:39:08.679
have happened to them. You're right, but it's awful coincidence, yeah,

503
00:39:08.880 --> 00:39:16.159
kind of h Anyway, Well,
thank you all for listening or watching us

504
00:39:16.239 --> 00:39:21.880
on our own YouTube channel, which
is what Crimes and Consequences on YouTube.

505
00:39:22.599 --> 00:39:25.400
Yeah, you'll find us, typick
Crimes and Consequences on YouTube and you'll find

506
00:39:25.480 --> 00:39:31.320
us. Yeah, don't forget to
hit the like or subscribe a button on

507
00:39:31.360 --> 00:39:36.960
whatever app you're listening to us,
whether it's YouTube, whether it's Apple Podcasts,

508
00:39:37.000 --> 00:39:40.239
whatever, it doesn't matter. You
can if you enjoyed this episode.

509
00:39:40.280 --> 00:39:44.079
I know, enjoy it is really
a weird word, but you know what

510
00:39:44.119 --> 00:39:46.360
I mean. If you've hung in
long enough to watch us and you want

511
00:39:46.360 --> 00:39:51.400
to see us again and you're interested
in more. You're interested in more,

512
00:39:51.519 --> 00:39:55.119
yes, thank you. You can
go to Patreon dot com slash t nt

513
00:39:55.440 --> 00:40:02.079
Crimes, where we release one episode
a week that is not released to the

514
00:40:02.119 --> 00:40:07.719
public, and you can also go
to Apple Podcasts. Additionally, part of

515
00:40:07.920 --> 00:40:15.199
the benefits that you get is this
episode ad free in early release. You

516
00:40:15.199 --> 00:40:19.840
can go to our website, Cryingsoconsequences
dot com. Yep, there's merch if

517
00:40:19.840 --> 00:40:23.159
you're interested in that. They check
it out. Facebook and Instagram, but

518
00:40:23.280 --> 00:40:29.000
we haven't updated those in a long
time anymore. I don't know yecause I

519
00:40:29.079 --> 00:40:32.119
got my account got hacked. That's
oh, that's right, Yes, Lea's

520
00:40:32.119 --> 00:40:37.239
account got hacked, so can't link
it anyway. Well, thank you for

521
00:40:37.280 --> 00:40:47.679
watching, and until our next episode, don't kill each other. Bye bye