The Copeland Killings

by Tom Miller

As seen on "60 Minutes"--the bizarre, true account of Ray and Faye Copeland, the oldest couple ever sentenced to death in America. From 1986 to 1989, the Copelands undertook a calculated scheme: hiring impoverished men to unknowingly defraud farmers of their livestock with bad checks, and then murdering the men to avoid discovery. 16 pages of photos.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.

Reviews

[Fishface · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't even finish this one. Didn't hold my attention. We didn't learn enough about either the victims or the killers to make it more interesting to read than a run-of-the-mill news article.

[♥ Marlene♥ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finished this book this morning. Not the best true crime I must say. The book is definitely not badly written at all. No the writing is good but it lacks depth.
By that I mean we hardly get to know more about the killers and their family but it is the same for the victims. They get a few lines but that is about all. The author was not able to make them come alive for his readers.(No pun intended)
Yes I can get if there is not much to tell about the killing couple because they did not lead very interesting lives(or so we thought) but I am sute the family of the victims would have loved to tell the author about their loved ones and how they were like so that is on him.

Still worth 3 stars because of the writing which I thought was good.

[Ronnie Cramer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid account of a gruesome check-fraud-and-murder scheme in 1980s Missouri (though the description of local politics is simplistic and one-sided).

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've seen the poor reviews on here, and while I understand where they're coming from, I wholeheartedly disagree. I very much enjoyed this book! It is well-written and covers well the parts of the story that are the most fascinating, particularly the scheme.

Other reviewers have mentioned that the victims' characters and back stories were not developed well enough, but I give this author credit for leaving needless detail from the narrative. So many authors do not.
If their individual stories had bearing on the plot, I'm sure they would have been included. Cheers to the editor if he/she had any role in that.

This is a fast, and fascinating read.

[Blake Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably the best book depicting a true-crime I've ever read. It reads like a crime novel by the likes of John Sanford, James Patterson, Sydney Sheldon and others of the genre who are renowned as masters of their craft.
If you're interested in crime novels and true-crime depictions, then I highly recommend this book.

[Stephanie Cox · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the story was intriguing, too many extraneous details were added, only for the purpose of making the book longer.

[Ben Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining but I don't find it to be entirely accurate to the real case.

[Tanya Simpson · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I read this book because it’s personal. Faye and Ray Copeland are my great grandparents. I know the story. While the book was well written, it could definitely have gone deeper and been more developed. Our family primarily chose to stay out of this book writing but there was more opportunity to celebrate the victims, their lives and their families, as well as deepen the local political/law enforcement angle.