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

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[Music] [Music] % [Music] welcome to True Crime 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 seing and it's good to see you thanks for
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Captain sign up on that mailing list if you want us to love you right back all right kiddos gather around grab a chair
grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] [Applause] crime [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 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 mail 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 pimp faed [ __ ] 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 penp
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 and 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 [Music]
garage [Music] would it be an understatement Captain to say that Unsolved Mysteries is one of
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 Mass's fa 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 Colonel opinion it has a lot of moving parts and pieces I would like to go through unsolved mystery
original overview of the case and then we can dive into it in 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 gespi a 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 gaspie 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 writer 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 CBS 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 Mcall with Convoy that 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 going to 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 task 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 fresh hour and Paul's Sister Mary had an idea about who was
sending the letters and she had a plan according to Paul fresh hour 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 letters stopped but then on August 19th 1977 Ron received a phone call the 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 yant 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 in accident but several Circleville residents soon received Anonymous letters accusing the sheriff
of a coverup Ron Gillespie's brother-in-law Paul fresh hour said the sheriff had changed his story saying
that the sheriff agre 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 would 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 telling us
from what I found Captain they didn't test for that I don't know if if GSR or 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 cuz 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 1980 83
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 remove 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 fresh hour 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 an 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 fresh hour 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 and
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 yank 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 freshh hour they said that they could
have been written by Paul fresh hour the sheriff also searched Paul's Garage Paul
fresh hour 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 fresh hour went on trial for the attempted murder of his sister-in-law
Mary Gillespie Paul fresh hour 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 fresh hour was given the
maximum sentence for attempted murder 7 to 25 years everyone assumed that he had
written the Circleville letters and everyone fig 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 freshh hour 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 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 fresh hour 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 S 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 them up they stay set up don't you
listen at all in May of 1994 Paul fresh show was finally granted parole after serving 10 years to this day he
maintains 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 [Music] Gillespie
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[Music] Freedom 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 years now I didn't lay it 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 hourong 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 ghost 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 8 or 9:00 at night night so it's not getting over till 9:00 or 10: 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 well and to be honest with the audience you would have done a better job of the breakdown if our show paid
you more yes I 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 a episode you
might be watching about a case that you're so wrapped up into and fascinated and all 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
re they 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 have 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 call
it a postcard card 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 wrer 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 being 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 talking about all 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 fresh hour as well MH 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 3x5 card and kind of cut the corners on it so it almost appears to look like like a
tag at a t 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 El sios will pay signed the
Circleville riter yeah and 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 pway County but this case expands years the letters
expand for years years and the letters were being sent to not just people in businesses in pickway 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 mil south of col the capital of Ohio and in the mid 1970s to 1980 the
population in circle Ville 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 West Fall 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 Massie so who is Gordon Massie Gordon Massie is Mary Gillespie's boss
she drives a school bus for westall 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 Massi 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 job 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
Massie 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 Southside 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 Massie 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 is 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 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 threw out the threat and told Massie to stop doing whatever the writer
thought he was doing MH but did not give him time to really stop or address the situation oh the writer's a dick 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 and it's not until after both Massie and the school board have been
contacted several times via these letters that Mary gesy 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 it this is where it is centralized it centralized around West Fall High
School Gordon Massie 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 behindth 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 Schoolboard hey you
need to talk to Gordon Massie 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 18th 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 behindth
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 gourd Massie 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 that superintendent Gordon Massie 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 Love Letter anyone's going to 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 the
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 Mis dealings for their flicky flicky the other thing that gets
tricky too is it's a threat in the sense that even if nothing is going on don't you still worry as an employee go well I
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
Massie 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 slided by this
situation if in fact it's going on it 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 fresh hour they're Incredibly Close with these two Paul says that him and Ron are best
friends and they 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
is 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
says hey we know who you are we know what you're doing you better stop it or you will be thrat right what was the
circle Ville 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 Gillespies he's also an employee of gour Massie this is an individual that may know that should
know if he's good at his job the inner workings and 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
gpies 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
his 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 believe 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 MH sometimes
there's signs most of the time there's not but when he finds them he takes them and he collects yeah well especially in
the 70s cuz 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 circle Ville 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 in
August of 1977 and she's down there on the night of August 19th her husband Ron gpie 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 Det Herman 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 ray r 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 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 of Legend 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 Meetup is set up or maybe there's something in the words
that were spoken that can confirmed his earlier suspicions Liam n and he's going
to go out and confront this writer I will find you and then I will kill you 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 Mysteries 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 ranom 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
Massie 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 seems so fishy either way everything about it seems fishy from all angles in my opinion the whole
Circleville Rider thing is fishy at all angles as well so let's look at this one
from all angles first off they run a toxicology report on the deceased on Ron gaspie they find that he has a
.6% alcohol level currently in the state of Ohio the Ohio legal blood alcohol content level level is below
8 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 at out at this
point I wish they'd 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 the 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 are 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
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 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 writer is 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 not 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 question the
phone call and what Ron's actual actions and intent was that evening right well it could have been somebody calling
saying hey hey you know how your wife said she was 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 what 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 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 for whatever reason his truck did not follow that turn in the road it started to go
off the road and it traveled 36 ft from the road crashed into the tree and continued another 7 ft 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 seat belt 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 one 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 seem a little Pi a pick them up truck
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 mhm I'm guessing that the percentage would be higher than most
people would think I'd say is that a gun in your truck are you just happy to see
me both yeah I'm happy that I brought my gun and that I saw you 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 want 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 total 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 coverup 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 burer hospital and he had already passed
by this point well 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 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 to 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 coverup 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
inh house you don't send it off to this big fancy agency who can figure out what's going on MH 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 deceased that we found and 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 is in fact an
accident sometimes a cigar is just a smoke sometimes things are what they appear to
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Circleville Writer /// Part 1 /// 501

Part 1 of 2

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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.

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses the Circleville Letters case, focusing on threatening letters sent to residents and the mysterious death of Ron Gillespie.

Key points

The Mysterious Letters of Circleville. In the 1970s, ominous letters began arriving in Circleville, Ohio, threatening residents over personal affairs.
Ron Gillespie's Tragic Death. After confronting the letter writer, Ron Gillespie died in a mysterious car accident.
Attempted Murder Charges. Paul Freshhour was charged with attempted murder after a booby trap was discovered.
Letters Continue from Prison. Despite being imprisoned, letters continued to be sent, baffling authorities.
Paul's Parole. After serving 10 years, Paul is granted parole but maintains his innocence.
The Circleville Letters. The mysterious letters stopped, but many questions remain about their origin.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

What if that paycheck stopped coming?

Reflecting on job security and family support.

4:40WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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