Ray was near 75, his wife Faye, 69.  Nevertheless, the in 1980's in Missouri they used their farm's need of labor to look for victims.

They would hire drifters and then kill them.   Each victim was shot in the back of the head with a .22 Marlin rifle.  Faye even made a large quilt out of the victim's clothing.  The Copelands kept records, a log, of all drifters that were hired.   Once the Copeland's killed a hired hand, they would place an "X" next to the victim's name in their log.