Faye Copeland
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| Faye Copeland | |
|---|---|
 Faye Copeland |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name: | Faye Della Wilson |
| Born: | 1921 Harrison, Arkansas |
| Died: | December 28, 2004 |
| Cause of death: | natural causes |
| Penalty: | Death |
| Killings | |
| Number of victims: | 5 confirmed; suspected to be as high as 12 |
| Country: | USA |
| State(s): | Missouri |
| Date apprehended: | October 17, 1989 |
Faye Copeland (1921 - 28 December 2004) and her husband Ray were the oldest couple ever sentenced to death in the United States at the age of 69 and 75, respectively. Faye was the oldest woman on death row, until her sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1999.
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 evidence proved her guilty. Fay had written a list of names that included the murdered drifters. As Fay was sentenced to death by lethal injection, she sobbed uncontrollably. When Ray Copeland was told about the verdict of his wife his reply 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 soon acquired for him by any means possible.
Their modus operandi was to hire unskilled drifters as farm hands, involve them in a scheme to buy cows at auction with fraudulent checks, and then kill them.
She died on December 28, 2004, of natural causes.
[edit] In other media
Their story has been fictionalized in a comic book, Family Bones, written by Faye Copeland's nephew, Shawn Granger.
[edit] References
- Book, The Copeland Killings, by Tom Miller
