Circleville Writer /// Part 1 /// 501 | Forensic Files

foreign [Music] [Music] garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for listening I'm your host
Nick and with me as always is a man that would like to point out that your neighbors are not the folks that they
appear to be here is the captain it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling
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Captain sign up on that mailing list if you want us to love you right back all right kiddos gather round grab a chair
grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] I want everyone to stop for a second
think about the life you have worked so hard to build and the relationships you have created and maintained
think about your job sure some days it's a real drag but most of the time you don't know what you or
more importantly your family would do without that job and career what if that paycheck stopped coming in
how quickly would those bills start piling up how quickly would you be at risk of
losing it all everything what would you do would your family turn their backs on
you and say you did this to yourself or would they stand by you and support but even if they did would you be able
to face them now I want all of our male listeners to stop and think about their situation
and this will hit even harder for the husbands and fathers in that group picture this
you are at work and you receive the following letter it is addressed to you by name at your
workplace the letter has no return address but you can tell from the postmark it
was mailed from a nearby City it reads dear sir according to my girlfriend you have
asked her to go out many times and have asked the other female co-workers too due to your position and their jobs you
should not do this this must stop at once for the good of all involved if this does not stop I will be forced
to write to the board members and I'd hate to do that to pray on another man's girl is
untouchable especially when they are out trying to make a living there's also talk of you dating a
married woman and taking advantage of them do you need time and names again please think
I suggest you find yourself a pimple-faced [ __ ] and start up with her and leave my girls alone
now to all the ladies listening who share all of the same concerns as the men picture this
you are at home after a long day at work you walk out to your mailbox to retrieve
the Daily Mail you pull the short stack from the box and see the usual catalog advertisement
the electric bill and then what is this on the bottom of the stack it's a letter addressed to you
with no return address but you can tell from the postmark it was mailed from The
Busy City not too far up the highway from your town you open the envelope it is a handwritten letter
that reads stay away from your boss don't lie when asked about knowing him I know where you
live I have been observing your house and I know that you have children this is no joke
please take it serious everyone concerned has been notified and everything will be over soon
now regardless of which Camp you fall into receiving such an ominous letter and from an anonymous source no doubt
would be of concern to any of us even the most honest and innocent of us would want to know why they received the
letter and why the threatening pen pal refused to sign a name or leave a return address
even if you could just brush it off what do you do when you receive another letter and then one after that
and regardless if the implied or otherwise allegations are true or false most of us have a secret
some more than one or two would you want to be outed at work would you want your secrets brought into
the light and again even if the allegations are false you will wonder why me why did I receive these letters
why did I receive this threat how can I stop something that is not happening and then it occurs to you
maybe I'm not the only person who's received such letters and if I'm not the only one who else
what do the other letters say and is it about me and more importantly why does the writer know where I work in
my job title why does the writer know where I live and why is the writer watching me and my
children this is true crime garage foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] would it be an understatement Captain to
say that Unsolved Mysteries is one of the most True Crime Buffs favorite shows of all time yeah and if you don't know
you better ask somebody ask somebody just some random person you better call Tyrone in season 7 episode 6 of Unsolved
Mysteries this is back in the Robert Stack days the good old days as they say Unsolved Mysteries ran a segment titled
poison pen which nowadays most people refer to that case that they were talking about under several different
names and these would be the Circleville writer or the Circleville letters or the
letter writer it has many names when you start to dive into this case and I have seen online many people
saying that this is one of the masses favorite Unsolved Mysteries episodes of all time which makes sense it's a very
intriguing mystery right here in our own home state of Ohio and I remember seeing
this episode when I was a kid and who doesn't like a mystery where there's letters involved that's correct
everybody likes a mystery with letters involved now because this is such a complicated case in my humble kernel
opinion it has a lot of moving parts and pieces I would like to go through Unsolved
Mysteries original overview of the case and then we can dive into it and further
detail starts off Circleville Ohio is a small town south of Columbus it's a place that
rarely attracts outside attention but in the 70s frightening letters started to arrive
the first letter was received by Mary Gillespie school bus driver telling her that the letter writer was
aware that she was having an affair with the superintendent of schools and that it had better stop in addition to
allegations of an affair the letter carried an ominous threat it read in part I know where you live I've been
observing your house and I know you have children this is no joke please take it
serious the envelope was postmarked Columbus Ohio there was no return address no
signature inside no way to tell who sent it now a week later Mary received another
letter with a similar tone Mary kept the letters to herself though until her husband Ron also received one
according to journalist Martin yant quote this letter addressed to Ron Gillespie told him that if he didn't do
something to stop this affair that his life was undoubtedly in danger end quote the alleged Affair became the talk of
Circleville the mysterious Rider understood the power of Gossip the next letter was even more threatening it read
in part quote Gillespie you have had two weeks and done nothing make her admit the truth and inform the school board if
not I will broadcast it on CBS posters signs and billboards until the truth comes out
so this one sounds to me Captain like it would be a letter again addressed to Ron
Gillespie he is the husband of the woman accused of having the affair with the superintendent in this letter the writer
is threatening hey I told you about this affair you've had two weeks to tell the
school board or to uh yeah to inform the school board and you've not done that if you don't do something soon I'm going
to broadcast this on CBS which back in the day more people had Seabees than they have today not just in their
vehicles but some people kept them in their homes or their garages and would turn them on listen to them and even
talk on there people even had big musical hits like CW McCall with Convoy they would discuss these CB radios and
the lingo and how to conduct yourself while on the CB Radio and such but this is also a threat
right this is hey if you don't do this I'm writing you to tell you about this affair you've been made aware you
haven't done what I've asked you I'm going to announce this on CB radios I'm gonna put up these posters and signs
everybody's going to know the truth will come out well and here's what's kind of
confusing to me you would think that the writer would be mad at the superintendent or
the wife for having an affair but it seems like he's targeting the guy that's a victim in all this yes
it's weird it's like I've wrote to your wife threatened her she didn't do anything so now I'm writing to you and
I'm giving you tasks right to complete now according to Unsolved Mysteries Mary and Ron evidently told three people
about the letters that they were receiving this would be Ron's sister Linda fresh hour her husband Paul
freshauer and Paul's Sister Mary had an idea about who was sending the letters and she had a plan according to Paul
freshauer Mary and Ron Gillespie's brother-in-law quote we thought we'd scare the guy we sent him four or five
letters there was no violence in them or anything just that we knew who he was and what he was doing and we sent him
the letters end quote for a while they say the plan worked the threatening letter stopped but then on August 19 19
1977 Ron received a phone call seemed to confirm Ron's suspicions about the identity of the letter writer
according to journalist Martin yant quote he told his children he was going out to confront the letter writer he
took his weapon he did not seem to be drunk said goodbye to his children and went out
now angry and upset Ron hurried to the family's red and white pickup truck even though at one time the letter writer had
said he was watching that vehicle according to Martin yamp I we should point out who Martin yant is since we
keep referencing him from Unsolved Mysteries he worked in the Greater Columbus area for decades he's a very
good journalist and reporter and has done lots of great work over the years here in our area so he's interviewed at
length on Unsolved Mysteries and this is another quote from him within a short distance this is in regards to Ron
leaving that night within a short distance at an intersection that Ron knew very well he lost control of the
vehicle hit a tree and was killed somewhere between leaving the house and hitting that tree his gun had fired one
shot and there was never any explanation for when or how or at whom that gun could have been fired
the police ruled Ron Gillespie's death an accident but several Circleville residents soon received Anonymous
letters accusing the sheriff of a cover-up Ron Gillespie's brother-in-law Paul freshauer said the sheriff had changed
his story saying that the sheriff agreed with him with Paul that there was Foul Play and
then when Paul contacted the sheriff again the sheriff changed his attitude completely
then he was telling Paul that it wasn't Foul Play and that a suspect had passed a polygraph test well wouldn't they know
if he fired a gun that day or not will there be evidence of that there would be if you test for that
there also could be other ways of finding that that evidence so we don't know if they tested for that or if they
did test for that they're not homeless from what I found Captain they didn't test for that I don't know if if uh GSR
gunpowder residue or whatever you want to call it if that was available it was I talked to the source saying that would
have been available and my because my argument is if he fired the gun at at somebody and then he ran off the road
and hit this tree and died to me that that leans towards Foul Play If the gun was never shot and it was
just found within the car and he hit a tree okay you know possibly just an accident
exactly you're exactly right there so everyone at the time wanted to know and still to
this day was Ron Gillespie's death an accident or was it Foul Play and of course why had one bullet been
fired from his handgun after Ron's death the letters kept coming his wife Mary and the super
his wife Mary and the superintendent of schools eventually admitted to a relationship but said it began after the
letters were sent Mary kept her job driving a school bus but beginning in 1983 the letter writer
began putting signs along her bus route so let's point out here though captain that the truck accident involving the
death of Ron Gillespie was 1977. now on the Unsolved Mysteries overview of this case we are at 1983 on the timeline the
letters have continued for all of this time and at this point in 83 the letter writer began putting signs along Mary
Gillespie's bus route Mary's daughter was being targeted with some of the slander and nasty things that were being
put on these signs again according to Martin yant Mary finally took action she ripped down a
sign much to her surprise behind the sign was a box and string and also another post that was attached to a
fence post she took it into the bus and she opened it up and there was a small pistol
when she looked closer Mary realized that it was a crude booby trap designed to fire the gun at her or whoever
removed the sign investigators discovered that someone had tried to rub the serial number off of the gun but
when lab tests were able to read it accurately the case took an incredible turn the gun belonged to Mary's
brother-in-law Paul freshauer of course Paul denied any involvement according to Paul quote I admitted the
gun was mine but I hadn't seen it for a long time I had no reason to check up on
it or anything and I don't know when it had come up missing I really don't know what happened to it and I told them that
and that's the truth and that's how it was end quote do you know if other people saw these signs on the road if
there was eyewitnesses to this or if it was just she had a car full of signs and and this booby trap
um it sounds like there may have been there's also a eyewitness to say that there was no trap setup or no sign that
they saw 20 minutes to 30 minutes before it was supposedly found the other thing that's
also not clear is if she was the only one on her bus at the time that it was found
but what ends up being the result Captain is on February 25th 1983 Sheriff Dwight Radcliffe asked Paul freshauer to
take a handwriting test Paul agreed to this and says quote he would give me an actual letter and ask me maybe to do the
envelope part just as near as I could to the envelope and then on some he would take the actual letter out and have me
to do them as near as I could on the letters and I did them because I knew I wasn't responsible for the letters end
quote Martin yant said that this is not the correct way to conduct handwriting analysis of course that's not the
correct way to conduct handwriting analysis Martin yet goes on to say that is not
the proper way to test to see if someone has a certain writing style because if they're copying from a letter they're
going to try to emulate the style so they didn't really say that these letters were written by Paul freshauer
they said that they could have been written by Paul freshauer the sheriff also searched Paul's Garage Paul
freshauer was charged with attempted murder and Paul goes on to say he meaning the
sheriff called the prosecutor and told the prosecutor that it was my writing on the booby trap and I was under arrest
for attempted murder later that year in October of 1983 Paul freshauer went on trial for the attempted murder of his
sister-in-law Mary Gillespie Paul freshauer never took the stand in his own defense it was a decision he would
come to regret Paul was found guilty of attempted murder he said the verdict was completely
unexpected Paul freshauer was given the maximum sentence for attempted murder 7 to 25 years everyone assumed that he had
written the Circleville letters and everyone figured that they would stop once Paul was in prison everyone was
wrong journalist Martin Yan quote they were being received all over a large area of Central Ohio so a lot of people
couldn't understand how Paul freshauer could be mailing all these letters from prison
following repeated complaints from Sheriff Radcliffe the warden of the prison had Paul placed in solitary
confinement but the letters still continued all of them were postmarked from Columbus even though Paul was
imprisoned across the state in Lima Martin yance said the warden became convinced that Paul was not writing the
letters saying that a full-scale investigation was conducted twice possibly three times during which Paul
freshauer was put into isolation and the warden of the prison then wrote a letter
saying that as far as he was concerned it was impossible for Paul to be writing these letters and sending them from
prison for seven years Paul was a model prisoner but when he became eligible for
parole the parole board rejected his request based on the letter still being sent a few days after his hearing Paul
himself received a sadistic letter from The Phantom writer it read in part now when are you going to believe you aren't
going to get out of there I told you two years ago when we set him up they stay set up don't you listen at all in May of
1994 Paul freshauer was finally granted parole after serving 10 years to this day he maintained his innocence
he's sure that the real criminal is still at Large the Circleville letters finally stopped
but many questions remain who actually wrote the letters was Ron Gillespie's death an accident or was he murdered and
who made the booby trap found by Mary Gillespie [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh foreign
[Music] [Applause] [Music] all right we're back cheers mates he's back I'm back we're all back cheers to
my friend Jerry Reeves he partied more than most of them but he was always the life of the party
cheers to you my friend you will be sadly missed we will pour a little out for you that was the rundown captain
from Unsolved Mysteries when they covered this case titled it the poison pen and it's one of people's favorites
favorite segments of the show and it had so many great segments to choose from over the years now I didn't laid out
there as well as uh Robert Stack would have or the wonderful people over at the program would have back in the day but
that was their General Overview at Unsolved Mysteries back then if you've only watched the
current ones you're unaware of this but back then they did segments you would tune in it was an hour-long show they
would cover often cover a couple different cases and a lot of times the cases had nothing to do with one another
that's why the show was so great and so interesting if one case didn't catch your interest the next one would and
sometimes they're not just talking about True Crime they're talking about ghosts
or aliens or Bigfoot and one quote or I'm sorry one post that I saw online that I thought was
absolutely brilliant a guy that nailed it he said you know I used to watch this show when I was a kid and the worst
thing in the world was after you would watch Unsolved Mysteries I think it aired at eight or nine o'clock at night
so it's not getting over till nine or ten depending on where you lived but he said the worst thing in the world was to
watch Unsolved Mysteries and at the end of the program being told by your parents that you had to take the trash
out to the street he said he was terrified every time that that would happen one to be honest with the
audience you would have done a better job of the breakdown if our show paid you more yes I've been asking for more
for more pay one of the best things and I think you probably can agree with me by watching the old Unsolved Mysteries
was towards the end of the episode you might be watching about a case that you're so wrapped up into and fascinated
and all of a sudden change of music sound of the alarms update and it would be an update on the case that they were
just talking about because sometimes they had the sometimes they had recorded and
filmed that segment months in advance and the case had moved along since their production of that case which was always
really exciting in this case because there's such a mystery of who was writing these letters was it one
individual was it a group of people but they cover the story almost 10 years later
and then they receive a letter themselves yes so they are covering the story after
Paul fresh hour is released from prison so many years after the fact and they're
covering it because not only is there this mystery writer that's out there but now we have the story of okay well this
guy that everybody thought that did it that tried to kill this woman that was writing all these letters he was locked
up and he couldn't have possibly been writing these letters while he was locked up for practically 10 years
so in December of 1993 Unsolved Mysteries received a postcard at their offices and the postcard was they called a
postcard but I'll describe it here in a minute it was as they say a threat designed to keep them from telling the
story of the Circleville writer and what I'm a little curious about here Captain is the way that they word that
is that they must have done some of the production if not all of the production for this segment
and then received this threat VIA mail snail mail before actually airing it because it would be a little weird if
they hadn't even done any of the production yet how would this writer or whoever sent this postcard as they call
it even know that they were going to cover the story yeah my suspicion is that they had a crew go to Circleville
and it'd be in such a small town word would get out quickly oh by the way I mean and Unsolved Mysteries was a huge
hugely popular show Unsolved Mysteries down in our little town what are they talking about oh they're asking about
the Circleville letters and at the very least they would have been in the Greater Columbus area because we know
that they recorded interviews with Martin yant and with Paul freshauer as well so what they called a postcard I
don't know that that's the best description at least not the one that I would give it what it looks to me is
like somebody took almost like a three by five card and kind of cut the corners on it so it almost appears to look like
like a tag at a tag sale an old school tag sale yeah and somebody wrote in small block letters all capitalized
forget Circleville Ohio do nothing to hurt Sheriff Radcliffe if you come to Ohio you L sickos will pay signed
the Circleville writer then all the letters that we do have I will try to post those on our
Instagram Facebook or Twitter and there's some people that might not be familiar with this case captain and
they're going what do you mean all the letters that you quote do have well they're depending on the sources
it's listed as high as 1 000 letters that were sent throughout the years and the thing is as great of coverage as
Unsolved Mysteries did on the case we need to open it up because their little segment sounds very centralized makes
the case very compact that we have these few people that were involved in this case that this writer
was writing letters to Mary Gillespie her husband and we also have the involvement of
their brother-in-law and Ron's sister we have the mention of the superintendent of the schools where Mary worked for and
it's all very centralized in Pickaway County but this case expands years the letters expand for years
and the letters were being sent to not just people in businesses in Pickaway County this involves Franklin County
Madison County Ross County and several cities uh throughout and I think we should dive into that and the
cities that you're going to hear the most will be Columbus which is the capital city here Grove City and
Circleville now Circleville Ohio is 25 miles south of Columbus the capital of Ohio
and in the mid 1970s to 1980 the population in Circleville is just under 11 700 people within that general area
Captain we have Westfall School District which operates one Elementary School one
middle school and Westfall High School the way that Unsolved Mysteries tells the story is that Mary Gillespie starts
receiving these letters when in fact there were earlier letters Mary Gillespie was not the first Target
for the letters if you will yeah so some of these people were receiving letters and there would be like little unknown
facts about them but it'd be normally bad stuff like I know you're doing this or I know you're doing that and so it's
really you know like you said maybe there's a thousand letters out there but some of these people that received
letters never came forward because they didn't want to share maybe this dark secret with everybody
right if the letter writer is warning you about a secret that you're keeping you don't want to present that to
everybody and say hey look I received this letter so the first letters you know it's very
quickly in the series that Mary Gillespie is sent a letter but however the first letter is sent to Gordon
Massey so who is Gordon Massey Gordon Massey is Mary Gillespie's boss she drives a school bus for Westfall and
he is the superintendent of Westfall School District he's the first one to receive a letter
this letter was addressed to Westfall High School attention superintendent Massey no return address and it says
Dear Sir according to my girlfriend you have asked her to go out many times and have asked the other female bus drivers
too due to your position and their jobs with you you should not do this this must stop at once for the good of the
school and Families if they are not stopped I will be forced to write to the school board I'd hate to
do that to pray on another man's girl is Untouchable especially when they're out
there trying to make a living there's also talk of you dating a married woman and taking advantage of
them do you need time and names again please think I suggest you find yourself a pimple-faced [ __ ] and start up with
her and leave my girls alone so that's the real version of the letter we mentioned that in the trailer earlier
but kind of generalized it so we could tell this story later superintendent Massey receives this again it's not
addressed to to anybody other than him and at the Westfall High School there is no return address however we know that
it's postmarked from Columbus Ohio 25 miles up the road and it came from the postal Hub 430
which at the time in 1977 was the only postal Hub in the city of Columbus meaning
you could mail that letter from anywhere in the big city of Columbus and it's going to have to go through that Hub so
all we can say is we know that that letter was mailed somewhere in the city of Columbus right
but it could have been South Side North Side East Side West Side we have no clue
correct now think about what the threat is and what's stated in this letter to Gordon Massey it says hey you're hitting
on these female bus drivers you're taking advantage of them these are people that are out trying to work for a
living you're taking advantage of your position it also mentions that there's even talk of you having a relationship
with a married woman it doesn't necessarily name anybody there but we can assume by later letters
maybe they are referring to Mary Gillespie and it also says this is one thing that
I think is weird it it says well there's two things that I think are very weird about this letter right one it says hey
if you don't put this to an end if you don't stop what you're doing I will be forced to write to the school board
and I'd hate to do that it's like it's right it's like the writer is giving him a warning hey I
know you're up to no good but if you stop what you're doing nobody has to know about it we'll we'll just let it be
but then he ends the letter I say he we don't know if it's a she or he that wrote this letter but the person ends
the letter with leave my girls alone almost like they're referring to the female bus drivers as their girls I was
popular with the school bus driver the tricky thing here Captain is the second letter goes to the school board it's
addressed to the school board remember the writer threatened to tell the Board of Education down there what
was going on however this letter is received two days later meaning the writer throughout the threat
and told Massey to stop doing whatever the writer thought he was doing but did not give him time to really stop
or address the situation well the writers if you if you don't stop I'm going to tell on you but boom two days
later a letter arrives that is in fact telling on him to the school board it's not until after both Massey and the
school board have been contacted several times via these letters that Mary Gillespie starts to receive the letters
and then when she's keeping them to herself eventually Ron Gillespie starts to receive them
the weird thing too here that we see early on in these letters is this is where it is centralized it's centralized
around Westfall High School Gordon Massey the superintendent and the female bus drivers
that's the world that this writer is writing about and the person whoever is writing this or persons
seems to have some good working knowledge of the behind the scenes stuff for the bus drivers in the school system
right and we know this because in the fifth letter that is written and this one is
addressed to the school board it's telling the school board hey you need to talk to Gordon Massey tell him
to stop doing what he's doing and if you want to verify what I'm saying is true talk to the drivers talk to the female
bus drivers ask driver number this is very interesting this one's received March 18
1977. it says ask driver number 62917 my favorite driver well driver number 62917 is Mary Gillespie right I
don't think that John Q public walking down the street somewhere in Circleville will know that
Mary Gillespie is driver number 62917 that seems like a very behind the scenes piece of information
yeah it's tough one here because we don't know exactly who he wrote to before but like you said it becomes Mary
Gillespie almost becomes his singular Focus for a time period yeah with Gord Massey being the original receiver of
the letters and then the board members and you're right I technically we don't know for certain only the writer
themselves would know when they actually started but the general consensus seems
to be the superintendent Gordon Massey was the first to receive a letter right or at least publicly acknowledged that
this was the first letter to be sent well look if I was sent a letter in the mail like this a threatening letter
anyone's gonna sit back and go who is doing this who's doing this who would I know
that is capable of writing a letter or or who maybe am I pissing off by being involved
in this situation and that's the other tricky thing too being involved in the situation implies
that you are doing what the writer thinks you are doing and what the writer is saying is
basically I mean without putting the exact words on paper it's a threat of oh I'm going to go to your boss and anyone
would think that hey this inappropriate relationship if in fact it is going on would warrant firing the superintendent
firing the bus driver for their misdealings for their flicky flicky the other thing that gets tricky
too is it's a threat in in the sense that even if nothing is going on don't you still worry as an employee go well I
ca it's hard for me to prove something is not going on they may fire me anyway yeah or what are
the repercussions of her husband finding out is is he considered a hot head and he is
he going to you know take matters into his own hands kill the superintendent kill his wife
we've seen people do worse for less and as we said the writer eventually addresses Ron Gillespie
saying hey you've got to end this affair because I've already told Massey about it I've already told your wife about it
they're not going to stop you need to be the one to stop it and threatens which you pointed out
earlier Captain is bizarre to threaten Ron Gillespie who if in fact this stuff is happening he is a victim
as well yeah and you would think that the writer feels slighted by this situation if in fact it's going on
it appears that the writer believes it to be going on whether it is or not that is Up For Debate but what we are later
told is that the Gillespies tell the people that are closest to them about these letters hey we're receiving these
weird letters and they tell Ron's sister Karen and her husband Paul freshauer they're
Incredibly Close with these two Paul says that him and Ron are best friends and they devised this plan of well you
know what we think we know who's doing this again very centralized right Captain
it's all behind the scenes involving the school the school system and the bus drivers yeah Mary Gillespie's going to
tell that group I think that this guy David longberry could be the author of these letters that was my nickname in
high school so they devised this plan of you know what we're going to write these
letters back to David longberry and essentially they're sending him the letters similar type letters that they
are receiving this is hey we know who you are we know what you're doing you better stop it well you will be thrashed
right what was the Circleville writer saying I know what you're doing you better stop it
who is David longberry he's a bus driver he's a co-worker of Mary Gillespie's he's also an employee of Gordon Massey
this is an individual that may know that should know if he's good at his job the
inner workings in the behind the scenes stuff over there so they say that they sent him a few
letters and the letters they're getting stop briefly but then they start back up
again like we stated before Circleville is a very small community so just by the
Gillespies telling a couple people a small fire can spread rapidly but there's other letters that are being
sent to other individuals and businesses and what's interesting here Captain is it starts to become somewhat
general information within Circleville that these letters are being sent and received and I think
part of that is because either what the writer is accusing these people of is false or the people
receiving them don't really care in the long run that the information gets out so it kind of becomes general
information that they're receiving these strange letters and remember the threats of Hey Ron if
you don't do something about this I'm going to start broadcasting this business on CB Radio and putting up
posters everywhere and signs telling the general public airing our Grievances and
your dirty laundry along the way about what is going on what's truly going on it's like question is manhood
because if it's true that his wife is cheating on him that questions his manhood but
that now you have this letter writer saying hey I'm questioning your manhood that you're that you won't even come out
and do something about this you won't even stop it that shows you how little of a man you are yeah I guess if the if
the writer is the the end-all be-all of what is right and wrong at the end of the day then they've decided what is
wrong and right and drawn the Line in the Sand and Ron's on the wrong side according to the writer
so what goes on at this point captain now we are about Midway through 1977. someone is in fact putting up these
signs or at least has threatened Ron and Mary to the point that they believed that they would put up these signs
so Ron is getting up every day a little bit earlier than he needs to and on his way to work he's driving around town for
about an hour looking for any signs that may be put up sometimes there are signs
most of the time there's not but when he finds them he takes them and he collects
them well especially in the 70s because I used to teach in Circleville but obviously not in the 70s
but back then to get around the whole town maybe 20 minutes and you can go through pretty much every Major Street
in Circleville yes and this to to paint a picture for anybody that's going to look this up on a map to paint a better
picture is the case is often referred to as the Circleville writer again notice that we said that this is going to
expand in other into other counties not just Pickaway County but we're also talking about the
majority of the activity that seems to be surrounded this case is Circleville all the way out to
darbyville which is to the west of Circleville but some sources will say that there were some letters that were
very similar to the Circleville letters that were sent to other states so I don't know I couldn't find any
confirmation of that but I saw several sources that would State oh well there was letters that were addressed to
people in other states so by August of 77 we have a situation that's escalated and Ron Gillespie is
busy looking for signs the Gillespies are trying to figure out who the letter writer could be
well now we have Mary Gillespie who goes to Florida and this would be in August of 1977 and
she's down there on the night of August 19th her husband Ron Gillespie is at home he's at their home where they've
received these letters the way that the legend goes the local Legend the story is that he is there
that night and late that night after the sun goes down he receives a phone call it's believed that the phone call is
from the letter writer and Ron is able to determine or at least his suspicions that he already had are
confirmed by the phone call of who the letter writer is he decides that he's going to go out and
confront the writer he goes upstairs grabs his gun tells his children goodbye hops in the
truck and drives off in a mad tear looking for this letter writer the local Legend is one of several
different stories but a couple of them are either Ron was chasing someone at a high rate of speed
or he was being run off the road or he was being shot at and he was shooting at the at someone else
the result is him crashing his truck into a tree and he's dead at the scene well for people who haven't maybe seen
the old Unsolved Mysteries this reminds me of the Rivera case where in the newer seasons of Unsolved
Mysteries where he receives this mysterious phone call and leaves right away in a rage
and again Circleville is a small area so if the guy told him well meet me over at
this park or meet me over you know you know behind this bar or what wherever you could get there within 15-20 minutes
no problem and we don't know who the phone call was from we don't know what was said on the phone
call we don't know 100 in my opinion if the phone call even took place right but
let's say that it did stuff the caller doesn't even have to say hey meet me here
according to the legend Ron is able to determine who the writer is based off of that phone call maybe he recognized The
Voice or as you pointed out Captain maybe a meet-up is set up or maybe there's something in the words that were
spoken that confirmed his earlier suspicions Liam Neeson and he's going to go out and confront this writer I will
find you and then okay well he crashes his truck into a tree and unfortunately Ron Gillespie died that night
and it is determined by the sheriff's department Pickaway County Sheriff's Department that this was a vehicular
accident resulting in the death of Ron Gillespie at the scene inside his truck they find Ron Gillespie's gun
a revolver which goes along with the story that we've been told per local legend by the children that he grabbed
his gun and ran off and there has been one shot that was fired you heard the unsolved mystery's description of the
shot fired the other local Legend and rumor was that his wife was conveniently out of
town may have been having this affair leading up to this event frisky in Florida and that she is somehow
responsible for what was an actual murder or somebody that kind of set up this accident ran them off the road was
firing at his truck we know with his revolver that there was a spent shell casing and eight live
rounds found in the revolver meaning that at some point that gun was fired and it shot that bullet right this
is what everybody at the time would point out to say well he fired at somebody that means that there was Foul
Play later the letter writer then accuses the Pickaway County Sheriff's Office of
covering it up claiming it was an accident when in fact that it was an all it was all set up it
was set up for Ron to die that night or something bad to happen to Ron that night why would the police or the
sheriff want anything bad to happen to this guy not that they would want something bad to happen to him but some
of the rumor was that they were covering it up for either Mary Gillespie or for Gordon Massey or for both or maybe
somebody that's not named doesn't really make sense let's dive into that a little
bit because there's a lot to chew through in this situation because the way that that picture has been painted
for many years is in fact that it was either covered up or they just the sheriff's department got it wrong and
Ron was killed or harm was meant to be done to him that night you know like I said before if he fires a shot I lean
more towards Foul Play but now that we're talking about it just seems very suspicious anyways and if he
had a really bad traffic history maybe that people would brought that up as a proof that that that this was just
an accident the whole thing just seemed so fishy either way everything about it seems fishy
from all angles in my opinion the whole Circleville writer thing is fishy at all angles as well
so let's look at this one from all angles first off they run a tox ecology report on the
deceased on Ron Gillespie they find that he has a .16 percent alcohol level currently in the state of Ohio the Ohio
legal blood alcohol content level is below 0.08 so anyone over the age of 21 or anyone
of any age with a BAC of 0.08 or higher can be charged with operating a vehicle impaired or OVI
so by the state law he's drunk driving right this is general information this comes out to the public
at the time well friends and family of Ron Gillespie say well he wasn't a big drinker
I don't know that that answers the question of whether he was drinking that night or not right like you said the
report proves that he was drunk the other thing that doesn't make any sense is the story that we get all these years
later and I want to be clear here I'm not accusing his children of making up a story or misremembering or anything we
are hearing this story second third fourth fifth hand who knows how many hands we're out at this point I always
said wash them but at at this point Captain the story that we are left with is he receives this mysterious phone
call he tells his children I know who their letter writer is runs upstairs grabs his gun runs out to his truck and
speeds off into the night now when Ron Gillespie was found crashed into that tree it was 10 28 p.m today
is 2021 if I have my year correct to this day the area where he crashed his truck is not well lit there's hardly
any lights if any in the very in that very specific area a lot of people say hey this is not an
area that this is an area that he knew well that he would have traveled many times he wouldn't have crashed his truck
that night but you're saying that people were saying he didn't drink often and so
maybe he wouldn't be able to handle his liquor as well as or handle the alcohol level as well as somebody else that was
a daily Drinker or weekly drinker so to address the elephant in the room first off you have a situation where stole my
penis Ron Gillespie may or may not believe the letters he's receiving that his wife is having an affair and his
wife is down in Florida out of town out of state that night okay so let's assume he doesn't believe
the letters his wife should be free to go and do whatever she wants she should be free to go and do whatever she wants
anyway but couldn't you see a situation if he does believe the letters that he says I don't feel comfortable with you
going out of state right I don't feel comfortable with you going out of town now let's take it a step further by this
point he and his wife have been told in several letters that the letter writers watching their vehicles their house
their property they have a fairly big property by the way and their children some of the threats have even been
directed to their daughter who depending on what source you read at this point in our story that night that
Ron died would have been seven or eight years old I cannot fathom a situation where I
would be the father of a small child and be receiving threats to my family where I decide one night I know who's
making those threats I'm going to go off and get them and leave you two kids here
that's why I questioned the phone call and what Ron's actual actions and intent was that evening right well it could
have been somebody calling saying hey you know how your wife said she's in Florida I think I just saw her in a car
with some guy or I think I just saw her walk into some bar with a guy it could have been anything you know I mean and
then it was like oh well I'm going to catch her now the other situation then becomes the spent round we've kind of
been circling around that the police couldn't figure out if he shot the gun that night or not so a lot
of the times when this story is retold it's told to say that between the time he left his home and crashed his truck
into that tree he fired that gun well it's a revolver that spent casing stays in there until
you physically remove it he could have fired that shot between leaving his house and crashing into the
tree he could have fired it the day before a week before a year before we do not know when that gun was fired to
leave behind that spent casing what we do know is inside the revolver they find a spent casing in eight live
rounds what they also find in the truck now the tricky thing is the gun is found as
described in the police report from the accident mind you this is a lengthy police report probably about 10 pages
roughly it says that the that the gun was found underneath of him this crash was horrible his truck what
happened Captain is the road turned and for whatever reason his truck did not follow that turn in the road it started
to go off the road and it traveled 36 feet from the road crashed into the tree and
continued another seven feet but it wasn't just the gun that they found inside the vehicle
mind you it almost threw Ron completely from the truck out the window he's halfway out
the window when they find him yeah he had no soup hold on so to say that the gun was found under him really is a
loosey-goosey description of where the gun was actually found in my opinion considering he's halfway out the truck
but also found in the in the truck Captain is a full box of 22 caliber Winchester Western Wildcat ammo right
which is not included in the local Legend not included in the story from the children that we've heard second
third 50th hand all these years later they say he ran upstairs and grabbed his gun
no mention of grabbing a box of ammunition my other question then becomes if he did grab both why how many times
did he intend to shoot this person he has nine bullets in his gun I wonder if he kept the gun in the truck
and it was found at the scene of his death at the scene of this vehicle accident because that's where it should
have been found because that's where he kept it well the bullets could have been
kept in the truck as well exactly think of this it's 1977 in the glove box underneath your seat and also this is
you know this is a a city yes but it's it's a rural community this it's 1977. you own a
pickup truck yeah doesn't it take a little a big Em Up Truck Yeah I would love to go back in time and interview
guys that lived in the area especially guys that are around Ron's age and ask them hey do you keep a gun
in your truck I'm guessing that the percentage would be higher than most people would think
I'd say is that a gun in your truck or are you just happy to see me both yeah um
I'm happy that I brought my gun and then I saw you yeah that brings up another thought could he have lost control see
this is all that it means it doesn't mean that he crashed into this truck tree or somebody ran him into this tree
he very quickly could have lost control of this truck as soon as he went off the
road if he's drunk if he's traveling at a high rate of speed in a an area that's not well lit
it's very conceivable that he lost control of the vehicle and this is just sadly an accident
a fatal accident then people point out well the truck was towed immediately and destroyed shortly afterwards and
that is more point of a cover-up that there were bullet holes in his truck and nobody wanted that to be seen well maybe
they just didn't want this scene to be seen by the public in general well it's signed off by his wife Mary
Gillespie it's her property at this point you know the other thing too is the truck was
totaled there's no use for the truck at this point and your loved one just died in the vehicle
doesn't seem like something you would really want to keep a hold of or have much use for right
so here's the other problem with it being a cover-up if Sheriff Radcliffe got it wrong or
the Pickaway County Sheriff's Department decided to cover it up first off there were multiple agencies
involved in this situation and analyzing and determining what they believed happened that night first of all you
have the coroner who has to sign off on the Fatal injuries the coroner decided not to do an autopsy
it was not necessary unfortunately the deceased arrived at Burger hospital and he had already passed by this point but
also at this point um some of the sources say that this guy wouldn't have done the autopsy anyways
they normally took murder cases and things of that nature and actually sent them to Columbus where they had more
experience well and we have a situation too where this is not just Sheriff Radcliffe showing up and determining
that it's an accident we have detective Phil Brown who arrives on the scene he's actually the lead at
this accident scene so now we have to have two people covered up and of course Phil Brown
works for Radcliffe so that's not too hard to believe but where did Pickaway County Sheriff's Department get the call
from they got the call from Mount Sterling Police Department okay so now Mount Sterling has to be in on it oh and by
the way they were curious about the gun and they were curious about the spent casing as well
so they sent the gun and the ammo off the BCI Bureau of Criminal Identification and investigation here in
Ohio in London Ohio a much bigger more capable agency than the Pickaway sheriff's department at that time still
to this day so BCI has to be involved in the cover-up usually when people decide to cover
things up Captain I'm not one that covers things up myself so I don't know this from experience but I'm guessing
that when you choose to cover something up you like to keep most of that stuff in-house you don't send it off to this
big fancy agency who can figure out what's going on they sent it off for all the right reasons they sent it off
because they wanted to ask BCI can you tell us anything about this gun did it belong to the decease that we found and
is there any reason that we should think that this that this spent casing was involved in any other incident they look
for information this goes on for months and determine very quickly that no this this spent casing is not related to any
other incident that we can find so I like local Legend as much as the next guy I like the folklore as much as anybody
else but the evidence here Stacks up that this is in fact an accident sometimes a cigar is just a smoke
sometimes things are what they appear to be what are your thoughts so far we want to
hear them go to True Crime garage.com and leave your comments on the blog we will see you back in the garage
tomorrow until then be good be kind and don't let her foreign [Music]

Circleville Writer /// Part 1 /// 501

Part 1 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

Circleville, Ohio appears to be a town where everyone knows everyone’s secrets, or at least one person did. For over a decade anonymous letters were arriving in the mailboxes of residents, businesses, local city officials, schools and churches. These letters were demanding, accusatory and often threatening. Then one of the recipients dies a mysterious death. Afterwards, the local unsolved murder is mentioned time and time again in the letters. The author was claiming to know who was responsible for this unsolved murder of a local lady. Vulgar signs started to appear on the sides of busy roads and a murder attempt is made. A man is locked up for the attempted murder and yet the letters continued. Unsolved Mysteries featured this case and they too received strange and ominous letters. Many have called the Circleville Writer case - Ohio's greatest unsolved mystery. Join Nic and the Captain at your favorite spot on the Garage couch and hear the rest of the story.

Beer of the Week - Don’t Worry, My Mom Said It Was Cool by Hoof Hearted Garage Grade - 4 and a half bottle caps out of 5 Our show - True Crime Garage “Off the Record” is available only on Stitcher Premium. For a FREE month of listening go to http://stitcherpremium.com/truecrimegarage and use promo code GARAGE

Brief Summary

The episode discusses the Circleville letters case and Ron Gillespie's mysterious death linked to threatening letters in Ohio.

Key points

The Circleville Letters. A mysterious writer sends threatening letters to residents, sparking fear and intrigue.
Ron Gillespie's Tragic Death. After confronting the letter writer, Ron Gillespie dies in a mysterious accident.
The Booby Trap Discovery. Mary Gillespie finds a crude booby trap designed to harm her, escalating the threat.
Paul Freshauer's Trial. Paul Freshauer is charged with attempted murder but maintains his innocence.
The Letters Continue. Despite Paul's imprisonment, the threatening letters keep arriving, raising suspicions.
Tribute to Jerry Reeves. A heartfelt toast to a friend who was the life of the party.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

What would you do?

3:50WatchNov 6, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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