Circleville Writer /// Part 2 /// 502 | Forensic Files

thank you [Music] [Music] thank you foreign 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's not going to be scared just
because somebody's mind has jumped the tracks here is the captain but I'm deathly afraid of clowns it's gonna be
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today we are still sipping on don't worry my mom said it's cool Bourbon Barrel aged Imperial birthday cake Stout
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Ryan get you some thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend make sure you're subscribed and make sure you tell
your friends to subscribe and that is enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair
grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] [Music] where we left off yesterday Captain is
with The Accidental or what appears to be an accidental death of Ron Gillespie driving his truck august 19
1977 am I saying 100 percent there was no foul play involved no I don't think anybody can say that for
certain however the evidence shows and stacks up that this does appear to be an accident and if there was anybody else
involved the police the sheriff's department and BCI could not find any evidence of such
right and the police have to rule this an accident based off the evidence and when people talk about a cover-up again
what would be their motive what would be the whole Police Department and the sheriff and everybody else
involved coroner everybody else involved what would be their motive to cover up this accidental death for the
superintendent or a bus driver it doesn't make a lot of sense to me that there would be a cover-up And in regards
to sheriff Dwight Radcliffe I want to point something out here this name may sound familiar to our long time
listeners because we gave him a shout out in episode 396 in May of 2020 when Dwight Radcliffe
passed away we gave him a shout out because Dwight Radcliffe was not only the sheriff of Pickaway County he was
the sheriff from 1965 until 2013. he was the longest serving sheriff in the entire country in the United
States and I understand that that does not make him a perfect man or a perfect Sheriff
however what I see here Captain when we reviewed the information is rather than looking for reasons that this was a
cover-up what I found were reasons that the sheriff's department was looking to prove that
there was no foul play to themselves right by sending the gun to BCI sending the ammunition to BCI had there been
Foul Play or had they suspected Foul Play they would have followed up on that yeah because I want to solve why these
individuals are getting harassed by this letter writer and again let's go back through a couple pieces of of evidence
his blood alcohol level was 0.16 family is surprised they go hey we're surprised
by this because he's not a heavy drinker well if he's not a heavy drinker then .16 he might not be able to operate a
vehicle to the best of his ability also not wearing a safety belt yes in a basically
thrown from his truck maybe if he's wearing the safety belt he makes it through the accident
and to be clear no one should be operating a vehicle with a 0.16 especially here in the state of Ohio
where they've decided .08 half of that is past the legal limit now the next stop in our timeline would
be 1983 per the Unsolved Mysteries timeline that we reviewed earlier 1983 in February is when the attempt is made
on Mary Gillespie's life when she finds the nasty sign that has words and statements so nasty and terrible on it
that she has to tear it down and if the booby trap would have worked it would have triggered the trigger on that gun
and fired a shot in the direction of her and her head as she removed that sign however that is six years later that's
it's 77 the time of Ron Gillespie's accident it's 83 with the attempt on Mary Gillespie's life there is a lot
that goes down during that span of time and we're going to go through that and this whole time captain that whole time
frame there are letters that are continuing there are suspicions that are going on in town about who could have
tried to kill Ron Gillespie or who was responsible for that truck accident who is responsible for these letters and how
long are they going to continue for Mary Gillespie that has claimed that there is
no Affair happening but now her husband has passed away and the superintendent he is now going
to get a divorce we could assume if he had a nice relationship before these letters that
these letters made his relationship a lot more complicated yes regardless of the Dynamics of that relationship I
would guess so now it's the late 70s when Gord Massey and his wife split up and at some point
Gordon Massey and Mary Gillespie say yes we did have a relationship their statement has always been that the
relationship started after the letters a better date for when that relationship started I don't have for you it's never
been provided as far as I could find other than the simple statement of we didn't start up this relationship until
after the letters started so the other statement would be it would be after Ron Gillespie's passing
you can question that as much as you want I'm fine with it I think that there's plenty of room for speculation
there that can be a hard thing to believe I have seen situations like that witness situations like that in in my
own life so I can believe them I don't 100 believe them however I don't look at this situation and see
Mary Gillespie being responsible for Ron's death and I don't see what others are looking
for whether they say well Mary or even Gordon Massey could be sending these letters when the letter
started well that doesn't make any sense why would Gordon Massey threaten his own
career his own job by sending these letters they were sent to his boss before they were incent to marry
Gillespie Mary would be threatening her marriage or threatening her job as well if she
were sending the earlier letters yeah and again it's a small town so you screw up
it's not just as easy as getting a job somewhere else you you become a stain on that Community
the other person that we mentioned in yesterday's episode captain that was possibly tied or at least suspected to
by the Gillespies anyway to be involved in these letters is David longberry David longberry resigned from his
position with the Westfall School District as a bus driver he resigned in October of 1981 October 22nd actually of
1981. this whole time again the letters continue now two of the people that have
been very Central to this story all along are Paul freshauer and his wife who is also Ron Gillespie's sister Karen
fresh hour to this point their only involvement in the story because on our timeline we've not gotten to the
attempted murder yet is that they have been trying to help the Gillespies through their problem
through this issue of receiving these strange and threatening letters we did say yesterday
that the letters what we do know when they were being mailed were coming from Columbus Ohio
from postal Hub 430. see bus shout out to my favorite postal carrier in Columbus Tim Williams Mr Speedy Delivery
himself I'm pretty badass on the keyboards as well Paul freshauer and his wife Karen lived in Grove City Ohio they
were super tight with the Gillespies Paul worked for Budweiser at the Anheuser-Busch plant in Columbus Ohio he
worked there as a quality control officer or agent whatever you want to call them in 1982
him and his wife Karen and Paul they filed for a divorce it was an early 1983 and February when the attempt is
made on Mary Gillespie's life and I think we should go through that because there's a lot of questions there and you
both some of those questions yesterday first off we need to paint the picture she's still driving
her bus route at this point Marius correct the sign that she discovers is at the
end of the day okay this is not on her morning route this is in the afternoon a description of this sign should be
as such it's a nasty sign that she she sees spots and decides she's going to take it down however
it's rigged to this booby trap right it's a very crude booby trap she doesn't know that though at the time correct
that's exactly right but what what does it say anyways I don't know what the sign says see I don't believe there's a
sign until people tell me what what it says so until they tell me what it says nasty
sign don't buy it what do you mean don't buy that there was a sign or a booby trap no
I believe there's a booby trap I don't believe there's this horrible I mean there supposedly there was a bunch of
signs and it was there there are all on this uh street but it wasn't a main street right no this was a Main Street
this was actually not terribly far from the accident site of where Ron Gillespie
was killed well what street was it on I don't have that in my notes so but the but but you're also getting the
that there was more than one sign there was no the information I have states that there was one side see what
I heard was that there were signs on both sides of the street multiple you know a couple here a couple there like
definitely trying to get her attention or anybody's attention that would go down that road that could be the case
then the issue then becomes for me and I think other people will feel this way as
well if the booby trap was intended for Mary Gillespie the more signs that you put up makes it a little dicey that it's
going to hit its intended target the information I have states that it was one sign and a very specific
location that she would have passed through and she would have seen the sign and
anybody driving in the area should have seen this sign as well the way that it's described is that she
sees this sign and that the crude booby trap was set up as such that if she pulled the sign out or I guess anyone
for that matter pulled the sign to tear it down it would pull on a string that would pull the trigger on this gun that
is aimed at the person that would be tearing off the sign however she doesn't tear off the sign
it's attached to uh you know like a post she pulls the stake or post out of the ground and then sees the string that is
tied to this other Staker post right takes that down as well now on the second post we have what's
described as a box inside the box is where she finds the gun that has the booby trap now there's a couple
different versions of what happens after she takes this down in every version she
takes both of these items and brings them back onto her bus and some of the versions of the story she then discovers
that the gun was rigged up to shoot whoever would tear off the sign and other versions and I think this is
where it comes into question where you brought up her own personal vehicle the majority of the versions of this
story is it's not discovered the booby trap anyway until she gets home and she's done with work and as soon as
she discovers this booby trap she gets in her car and now she's driving off and she's going to report this to the
authorities what I also think that maybe that's the reason why people think there was
multiple signs was because like you said she had to take down two posts well and
there's some dramatizations of this story that do show multiple signs I think the reason why they showed that is
to increase the Threat Level some would say till midnight Michael Scott the office the other situation too is this
was not the first day nor first time in fact in years this has been going on for years where people were posting
these nasty signs and we mentioned yesterday Ron would drive around looking for them which
let's see what I used to teach guitar lessons we would send the guy out at night once
it got dark and he would put you know guitar lessons call this number all around Circleville
because normally if people you know if we put them out during the day they were going to be taken during the day but if
we put them at night at least the morning traffic would see them well a lot of these signs had to do with her
whatever relationship with Gordon Massey which is not that big of a deal at this
point they're both not married it's one of those relationships oh well you're as you're together you can keep
rubbing it in their face the the the letter writer can keep rubbing that that in their face see I
told you I was right from the beginning yeah but that's not the issue the issue is what people what is being posted is
that there's some kind of relationship between Gord Massey and Gillespie's daughter
who at this time would only be 13 years old so Mary Gillespie is tearing these down
not to save her own name nor Gordon Massey's name she's doing it in defense of her own child to me it seems like
this individual if if the letter writer is connected to whoever's putting out these signs
then their their target all along has been the superintendent it's difficult to say
I don't I don't know how to answer that or or respond to that statement with words I don't think you're wrong the
problem becomes that there are so many people that this thing let's just call it a thing because we don't know what it
is we don't know if it's multiple people we don't know if it's one individual and
if it's multiple people we don't know if they know who the others are that are doing this terrible stuff right it seems
to be targeting a lot of people from what I can see and yes it does seem to be that this started with Gordon Massey
but I have some strong opinions on who I think the writer is and I think we can address that once we
get through the events of 1983 because the way that The Story Goes per Unsolved Mysteries and the local Legend and the
story that's repeated over and over and over again for the most part to this day
is that they trace this gun back to Paul freshauer Paul says yeah that's my gun but it was stolen
from my residence the issue then becomes well why didn't you report it stolen well I didn't know
it was stolen until now right okay well if that's a good defense I know that this is not a homicide that it was an
attempted murder but if a homicide was committed with my gun and a a good defensible excuses well it was stolen
but I never reported it stolen and everybody just went along with it then we all would use that excuse all the
time it's not believable and then Dwight Radcliffe the sheriff at the time sits Paul down Paul says hey I
agreed to do this and he shows me some of the letters in the envelopes that are coming from the Circleville writer and
says you know what try to mimic this try to write like this copy it and then Sheriff Radcliffe uses this as further
evidence that he was not just the person that owned the gun that belonged in the
booby trap but the writer the letters in the envelopes coming from the Circleville writer matched what was
written on the sign of the set booby trap and Paul could not be eliminated as that
Rider in fact Radcliffe takes it a step further and says that this is proof that
he was the writer so not only is he the attempted murderer but he's also the Circleville writer
they take him to trial and in October the trial lasts about one week Paul does not testify on his own behalf and he is
sentenced to 7 to 25 years in prison which is the maximum sentence at that time then he gets jammed up even further
because he can't get paroled because the letter writer continues to write these letters and send them to businesses
churches individuals Mary Gillespie she gets more the school board keeps getting more letters in fact Paul
freshauer himself gets a letter and we know Unsolved Mysteries gets a letter yeah it's like Oprah you get a letter
you get a letter you get a letter look underneath your chair and so Radcliffe tells the warden hey you can't let this
guy out he clearly has not learned his lesson he's still writing these letters well they you know they did the
investigation to see if there was a way basically for him to get a letter out there's that's easy to do
it's easy to do do we know do you know what prison he went to well he was in Lima Ohio so this would be a Maximum
Security Prison at the time and but the letters were still coming from Columbus yes which makes it difficult one but the
other thing too it doesn't make it impossible I mean we have no but the the tricky thing Captain becomes they
monitor in these prisons they monitor the ingoing and outgoing mail no I understand that but what I'm
saying is if the mail was still coming from Columbus you would all you'd have to do is bribe
one of the officers to take the mail for you and then that officer might think well I get a I get a read the letter
beforehand all he all he's doing is talking some [ __ ] and I know he's harmless because we have him locked up
I'm just saying it wouldn't be that far-fetched to for to have him bribe somebody to hey
if I write a couple letters will you drop them off for me no and I'm glad you bring that up for a couple of reasons
because I'm on your side I want to say this though I believe the warden exactly as the warden said in his statement in
his letter that I did an investigation and it is my opinion as the warden of this prison that Paul fresh hour is not
mailing these letters through my Prison Walls I believe that statement 100 because they are checking the incoming
mail and the outgoing mail and even when the letters continued the warden said cool I'll play along Paul you want to
keep playing your game I'll put you and lock you up in solitary confinement and he kept them in solitary time and
time again three different times and the letters continued during all those times
but I again I'm with you I've seen Shawshank Redemption I've read the book uh red in there said you know what
whatever you need I can get for you guys and what did he do he got him and I know
that's fictional but let's throw this little Wrinkle in there Paul fresh hour at one point in his life worked as a
corrections officer in a prison in the state of Ohio not at the Lima prison he worked at the Ohio penitentiary which is
in Franklin County he worked that job I don't know for how many years I believe it was less than 10 this was after he
got out of the military after he went to college I always think it's funny when they they get flipped to the other side
like for so many years I was the the officer now I'm I am the prisoner so if anybody could figure out how to do it it
would be somebody in Paul's situation somebody who had worked as you said both sides both sides of the bars the other
issue though also becomes it doesn't have to be Paul freshauer writing these actual letters that
continue during this time to be connected to Paul it could be somebody for him on the outside that doesn't need
nor require any information from Paul at all and just keep sending them on his own or
her own to try to make it look like Paul is innocent because what did they tell us at trial what did they tell us in the
papers he was the writer Not only was he the attempted murderer but he was the writer
that they're one in the same so if the letters continue then maybe they got it wrong with the attempted
murder right let's dig through this attempted murder charge a bit more because there is some evidence that
magically has lost its way today when this retelling of the story continues [Music]
[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] lower back I didn't go anywhere well you should have tall cans in the
air cheers to everybody side to side oh by the way if you would like to receive some mail from us make
sure you sign up on our mailing list that's right that's right we will try not to send any booby traps so here's
some issues with Paul's guilt and with his innocent or innocence that we should point out first off we had several
people at his trial that testified as to eyewitnesses of what they saw that day where the sign and the booby trap was
set up yeah but we have issues we always seem to have issues the issue became a couple of things one Paul did not go to
work that day we know he worked in Columbus so that would have been a really good day for Paul freshauer if in
fact he was innocent to go to work yeah I know you know it would have been a 20 30 minute drive for him the
Anheuser-Busch plant is North Columbus it would have been an hour for him to get to this location
and he worked long days as a quality control officer he worked 50 hours a week up in North Columbus yeah but if he
didn't go to work things coming from his home in Grove City that's correct I'm sorry I was I thought you meant if he
was at work but yeah so it would have been a great Alibi had he been at work now he did have an alibi for portions of
that day the question then became when in fact was the sign in the booby trap set up because there are other people
that say hey I saw a tall sandy-haired man in a yellow El Camino parked right in that general area and this was before
the sign was visible to anyone else there were other eyewitnesses however that put Paul in the general area of
Circleville and Danville around the time that it is believed that the sign and booby trap were set up
so more for him being in the area rather than against and of course the damning evidence is that he did not go to work
that day there's also a lot of stuff going on in Paul's life leading up to February of 1983. in 1982 he and his
wife Karen divorce and it's not a good one it's not a clean break it's not nice and neat for everybody well they want to
shoot her one problem has always been for the case against Paul freshauer as setting the booby trap attempting to
kill his one-time sister-in-law is that he's this nice quiet man he would never do anything like this
however at the divorce proceedings it's presented at that trial at that court case Paul beat up his wife
when he suspected that she was running around on him and he beat her up pretty bad
and we know this because we have the police report she is a black guy she receives several
stitches and this is not a he said she said situation because in the court proceedings his own attorney tells the
court it's okay Paul never meant to do that he lost control but he's gone to counseling
since and he's gone because he is sorry for what he did that's admitting that he was violent against his own wife
yeah piece of [ __ ] they divorced in 1982. and at some point Paul moves on he has a
girlfriend which becomes his wife before February of 1983. Paul somehow even with
the violence is awarded the children and the house during the divorce and Karen goes to live in a trailer at
the back of Mary Gillespie's property there are signs that are being posted in darbyville and Circleville leading up to
the booby trap sign that are now making nasty statements about Karen fresh hour saying that she's a lesbian and naming
the woman that she is supposedly involved with even though she has a boyfriend [Music]
at the same time that's true I mean I mean all of the stories we cover you can have a husband
or a wife and a boyfriend and girlfriend at the same time I'm pointing part of this out though because there are a lot
of people that believe that Karen fresh hour could have been the letter writer well I mean just because there's some
nasty signs about her it's like you gotta take a couple for the team my look when I look at these letters I mean just
going off I want to know your opinion to me the the writing seems a little feminine
um possibly that's you're pointing out something that's good that we have not pointed out that the letters are not
identical no there's several different styles of writing in the handwritten letters
there's also some that are typed some are on postcards some are on these little weird looking tag things some are
on signs as we've pointed out but yeah it's like even though they're they're using they're almost like creating their
own different fonts but even the one font where they're using like really boxy letters it still looks like more
more likely that a female would have wrote that than a man I don't think you in my opinion I can't apply gender to
any of the right that's because you're not an expert okay so once you become an expert in junk science I'm just I'm in a
room full of experts I just don't I happen to be not be one of them so the the thing here though Captain would you
agree that no would you agree that saying that Paul freshauer was not the letter writer does
not then make him innocent of the attempted murder charge yeah but it's also I mean the the reason why
Karen makes sense is because she would have opportunity to get his gun all they did was uh basically shave off like part
of the number but that would have to mean there'd be some reason why Mary Gillespie's sister wanted her dead
if in fact it was actually rigged up in a way that it would work right you know that's where this story gets really
complicated the case does get very complicated because there's about 8 000 different rabbit holes that you could go
down and the problem with this case is the people again I keep going back to who is Central to this story and it's
the fresh hours it's the Gillespies it's Gordon Massey and it's the school board
where it all kind of starts and the victims if there are real victims are Ron Gillespie Mary Gillespie
and at this point Karen Gillespie you can say whatever you want to say about Karen Gillespie and people can think
whatever they want to think I'm telling you her husband beat her up we know that
to be a fact because we have a police report it's presented in court proceedings and through his own attorney
admits to it yeah so what you're saying is Karen is telling us this uh Paul right correct Paul with the shitty
mustache and the half mullet he beat her up so again if maybe look maybe she was the letter
writer and it was just she was getting kicks telling people hey you're not supposed to be doing this you're doing
this maybe she loved her sister but said hey you're doing wrong because I love my
brother-in-law he's a good guy and you're cheating on him bad for you right but then your husband beats you up maybe
and let's look if it happened once things are up in 1982 right the letters start in in 76
early 77. I understand that just I know I'm just pointing it out for all involved okay again I'm not an expert I
just that's what I'm saying I'm trying to keep up you try you when you get your certification on the wall then we'll let
you speak okay follow me on this though you pointed something out really interesting
was this booby trap even going to work it seemed like it would hypothetically right
but it didn't what a great way to frame the son of a [ __ ] that has beat you probably multiple times you see what I'm
saying you're now done you're you're out of the relationship for all you for all
we know he can't let it go he he might still be harassing her here and there and she
goes hey I'm I'm going to set this trap up with his gun and he's going to go to jail for this I
agree if Paul freshauer was set up it had to be somebody extremely close to him somebody that had access to that gun
that as he just said I don't know when it disappeared someone stole it from me that's how that's how inside the person
would have to be well if you're the letter writer and I'm right write us a note the thing is to know that we're right
you're talking to a you're talking to a room full of people and I don't mean here in the garage I mean I don't
believe for a second that there was anything short of at least half a dozen people writing these
letters really because why would Karen fresh hour why would she be the original letter writer I don't believe the person
that started the letter campaign and Back in 77 was the same person that was still writing the letters in the late
90s yeah if there's hundreds maybe a thousand of these letters yeah you're gonna have multiple writers because also
would be so easy like you hate your job your boss is a little bit of a [ __ ] muffin so you're like hey I'm going to
write him a note get all my grievances out get my point across and they'll just assume it's a part of these other
letters so I'm covering I'm going to be covering myself up well the issue for me
becomes with Karen being the letter writer for the entire campaign if if she's upset about an affair
why wouldn't she just tell her brother there's no point in mailing a letter to Gord Massey
and take it a step further yeah but if you start with that hey I know hey you stay away
it's easier to send them a threatening letter but not say stay away from you would you not want your brother to to
know you just want the affair to end and it's it's probably maybe it's better he
doesn't know yeah yeah because where my mind goes is you just tell the if you really care about them you just tell
them hey I think this is going on or I know it's going on because of a b and c the other tricky thing too is somebody
definitely had some kind of Insider knowledge of the the school buses the high school the superintendent and the
employees there I don't know unless she's being fed that information from Mary Gillespie
I don't know that Karen would know that information and it's equally difficult to believe
that Paul freshauer would know that information where I don't think that Paul I think
that Paul was the letter writer for a portion of this story but I don't think that he was the letter writer when it
first started but that's what I'm saying with so many letters it's it's it really puts law enforcement or any
armchair Detective at a loss I mean you're going to be chasing your tail we have businesses
that were written to we're talking about three or four lines sent to them on on basically a Post-It
note right I think a lot of those are just random people that knew hey as long as I go up
to Columbus and send it from Columbus it's people are going to assume this shit's coming from
the Circleville letter writer well in some cases they're just simply placed in mailboxes they weren't mailed at all
right the early letters were all coming from Columbus the letters the majority of the letters that were being sent and
received while Paul was in prison are coming from Columbus but not all 1000 are actually mailed and through the
through the system itself well the but the reason why you want to tell your brother-in-law is that you're well it's
your brother it's not your brother-in-law if you're caring yes if you're caring then it's your brother
is you're you're now taking um guilt away and and people that are they're obviously if they're having this
affair they have guilt because they're obviously not telling people they don't know exactly what they want to do with
their lives they're kind of using their spouses as they continue to have this affair and you're just you're now just
creating pain where if you can get to your sister-in-law if you can get to the other guy that's having the affair
and you can get one of them to see the light that maybe the fair will just stop he doesn't have to know about it he
doesn't have to be in pain about it um and they could just move forward but you end up telling him anyway
well because nobody nobody did anything you see what I'm saying so you kind of gave them the chance and they didn't and
so you also can't know that Mary would open the letter address to her you see what I mean it gets very
complicated very quickly when you try to assign a certain person to being the letter writer no no yeah
no and it it works that way for every single person you try to apply it to Not Just Karen it works that way for Paul
for Mary for Gordon for uh a lot of other people involved and I think the reason why it works out that way is a
the letter writer constantly contradicts themselves the threat to Gordon Massey hey if you don't do this I'm going to go
to the school board but then you don't give him time to do anything about it you just go to the school board hey if
you don't marry if you don't come out with this affair I'm going to go to the school board well you've already gone to
the school board uh and then you tell the husband but what's the husband supposed to do
he's not he's supposed to end the affair it seems to be the original letter writer was more concerned about ending
the affair rather than actual consequences for any of these people well I actually think that like I said
there's there's probably a lot of letters that we've never seen that the public has
never seen because nobody came forward and said hey I got this letter talking about this affair I had uh with
so and so because they never came forward with that letter and I think if we had all those early
letters would have a better idea of who was who was writing these but again the problem with this case is once you get
all these letters out there and like I said if I think my boss is the biggest you know douche in the world right I can
write him a letter in this style and and get away with it and how many other people in that town
decided I can do the same thing now take that same logic and go an 82 I'm beat up by this little [ __ ]
of a man that thinks he can put his hands on women whenever he wants and uh I'm tired of his [ __ ] and maybe he's
threatening her even afterwards and decides to set him up it's not impossible I find I find it difficult
there again to believe that Karen would be the letter writer based off of the nasty things that were said about
her on the sun no no did you not hear what I said has nothing to do with her being the letter writer it's now
opportunity all some people are questioning whether Paul is the letter writer let me set up
this scenario using his gun that I stole from him right and make it seem like these signs were set up
and it didn't seem like there was a lot of eyewitnesses that saw those signs there's some reports of oh yeah I think
I might saw this I might saw this but but then she collects that evidence and what did she find a booby trap that does
not work for whatever reason and she takes it back and just so happens to be Paul's gun and what a great way
for you know Karen or possibly Mary and Karen to set up ah so the son of a [ __ ] Goes to Jail
see what I'm saying oh I agree beat up my sister and she came to me and said hey we're gonna I got this little
ruse because they're not gonna put him behind bars they're not going to protect me I'm going to protect myself
I could totally see going okay yeah that makes a lot of sense and then it's his gun and if they think he's the rider
this guy goes to jail I get what you're saying and many people have thought that
and it's certainly an interesting angle to look at many people have said you know what maybe Paul is innocent here
and maybe Paul's the actual hero and Karen is the villain all along that we should have been looking for
when we thought Paul was the villain well I mean pause pause the villain in my eyes I mean you don't put your hands
on women there's a couple things that get again conveniently left out from the story along the way
one the incident of Paul actually being a violent man on record when people say he's not capable of such horrible things
so the gun itself is lab tested so they can come up with the serial number to trace where it came from they chase they
trace it to a sale at a pawn shop in Columbus and it's proven that that pawn shop sold the gun to Paul freshauer
that's not really in question because Paul admits to the sheriff yes in fact that is my gun but it was stolen and I
don't know when it was stolen why didn't you ever report it stolen uh I don't know why because I didn't know it was
stolen yes that's fair right however he does say that his home was burglarized so
I again I that's where he loses me a little bit is there a report of this burglary
it was there an insurance claim of this burger burglary those are things that I could not find if he chose not to report
the burglary why the other thing that gets lost along the way is when we go back to the writer and and
when we look at Paul's guilt again we've both agreed that whether whether or not
he was the writer at any time during this story has little to do with him actually being guilty he doesn't have to
be the writer and be guilty of this attempted murder the thing that gets really tricky with
this when you think about how many possible writers there were along the way is we have a situation where four people
readily admit we were receiving letters Ron and Mary Gillespie and the four of us took action we took
actions into our own hands and decided we are going to send some Anonymous letters to the person we think is
writing them to us right there we see a chain of events that sets into place multiple writers
how many other people received letters and thought they knew who was sending them the letter and anonymously wrote
them and then that person anonymously writes somebody else and then somebody else and it continues
on and on and on a great this reminds me of another great book Needful Things where somebody does something wrong to
one person they assume somebody else did it to him they wronged that person and then that person wronged somebody else
and somebody else and then somebody else and the circle and cycle continues and it grows and it gets more vicious as it
goes oh again that's the funny thing about where it happened Circleville the difficult thing against Paul freshauer
is one he admitted that with that group of four that they sent several letters Anonymous
letters later according to Dwight Radcliffe Sheriff Dwight Radcliffe Paul freshauer
this is before he was convicted before his trial during interrogation admits to Dwight Radcliffe as to sending 40 to 50
of the 1000 Circleville writer letters this is magically left from the story as well
Paul freshauer his original statement to the courts against the charges of attempted murder of Mary
Gillespie he pled Innocent by reason of insanity on August 8 1983 he later changed that to Simply innocent
and he decided to fight the charges and lost in court at the trial Karen his wife who may not be innocent
we don't know I I can see your point there captain and other people have brought up that scenario as well but
Karen testifies in court that on more than one occasion she caught Paul with strange letters
one that he had ripped up and tried to flush down a toilet one that she found stuff between the mattresses
she thought that Paul was the letter writer but she also didn't think that he was
doing it since 77. I wonder if there's a situation here Captain where Paul freshauer went off
the rails um do we have a situation where his life is spiraling out of control and he uses
this already existence of the letter writer in the letters themselves as something easy for him to step into to
take advantage of a situation he loved Ron Gillespie there's no doubt about that that's his own words that I'm
using there he says that Ron Gillespie was his best friend he's convinced that somebody
killed or Ron Gillespie was involved in some type of Foul Play that led to his death
is there a chance that he ultimately believed Mary Gillespie was somehow responsible for the death of his best
friend and then after his nasty divorce and after he is brought into the light and shown to be who he really is uses
this writer as an opportunity yeah to attack his to further attack his ex-wife by posting nasty signs about her
and attack Mary Gillespie posting signs about her and sending nasty letters along the way David longberry who we've
mentioned several times in these episodes he's not without fault here he's not just another innocent person
along the way he in the 90s was accused of raping or sexually assaulting an 11 year old girl
and he went on the Run I couldn't find exactly what happened to him or confirmation of such
but the story has always been that he hung himself somewhere in Texas I happen to wonder Captain I'm not going to sit
here and pretend to know who the writer was I'm not going to sit here and pretend to say that Paul was 100 guilty
or that Ron Gillespie died 100 in a in a one-car accident that involved nobody else
but it looks to me to be a situation where Paul was guilty of what he was charged with
Ron's unfortunate ending was probably just an accident I also think that there's a good strong chance David
longberry who resigned in 1981 and who worked for the school system in 76 and 77 78 leading up to 1981 knew the
inner workings of such he may have been the writer or one of the writers in the beginning
and I think Paul was probably one of the writers at some point along the way maybe in 82 83
maybe he figured out a way to continue to write them or had someone on the outside that's the other thing here too
that I think gets missed people assume because the letters continued that it couldn't have been Paul
they also assumed that he had to have been getting letters out of prison he doesn't somebody could have helped him
on the outside with getting no information from Paul at all no help from Paul at all nothing I wanted when
people say well he got a letter I mean if he was the letter writer he could just go well look guys I got a letter
he does this hey guys I got a letter I just finished writing it no but but that's what makes this case so
complicated like what like what you're saying is there one writer or multiple writers
and are the writers even not aware of each other or are they all using each other as a pawn to not get be caught as
the main writer and a lot of times we should point out the light the writer's not committing any actual crime
right to send somebody a letter saying hey I know your secrets that's not a crime sounds like a good
time you have this whole situation with this car accident was that caused or was
it an accident was it so that there that becomes a Twist and then you have this whole possible
booby trap that was set up and then how many other little stories that have just
been left behind in the past of the Circleville letter writer of other possible wrongdoings happening one of
the stories that has been left behind and I would like to highlight it before we wrap up here today Captain is that in
March of 1992 Chief McKean he's the police chief in Grove City where Paul freshauer one time lived he
actually went back there and lived after he got out of prison and he passed away
while still living in Grove City all those years later but in March of 1992 the police chief of
Grove City receives a letter that says that Mary Gillespie is responsible for the
letters but includes this tidbit of information whoever killed Ron Gillespie is also
the person who killed a woman named Vicky Koch I agree with all the people out there that say that this mystery is
super intriguing it's super fascinating what I don't love and I know that they're pushing a different product we
have True Crime here in the garage but what is often said is that the Circleville letter writer is the
greatest mystery in the history of the state of Ohio or one of the greatest mysteries in the state of Ohio
I would like to point out regardless of whatever this letter said I don't have the exact wording in front of me that
was received by The Grove City police department but it did say whoever killed Ron Gillespie also killed Vicki Koch
Vicki Koch her murder is still unsolved to this day and she was killed in Pickaway County and this is from Dave
Yost the Ohio Attorney General's List of unsolved homicides their database the details of the case are this on August
14 1980 Vicki Koch was reported missing from her residence in Circleville Ohio Vicki was last seen by friends on or
about August 10 1980 after attending an event in Ross County Ohio on Friday August 15 1980 her vehicle was
found parked approximately five blocks from her residence unoccupied neither residents nor her vehicle revealed any
evidence of a struggle or altercation on September 17 1980 a nearly skeletonized
body was discovered in an area of Madison County Ohio The Remains were identified as Vicki Koch through dental
records the cause of death is listed as death due to violence again her case is still unsolved to this
very day and she was a teacher working in that area back in 1980 before she went missing when we highlight mysteries
of Ohio or anywhere for that matter I think we need to sift through some of the sensationalized and some of the ones
that are filled with bright lights and shiny objects and confusing rabbit holes and look to
the real cases like that of Vicky coach [Music] thank you our friends for joining us
again for another fascinating case if you need more True Crime Garage in your earballs check out our bonus show called
off the Record that's on Stitcher premium Colonel do we have any recommended reading for this week this
week we are recommending a great Ohio True Crime book it's titled murder and Mayhem in Dayton in the Miami Valley
this features several different true crime stories from the Miami Valley area of Ohio which has a rich but gruesome
and bloody history so check out murder in Mayhem in Dayton and the Miami Valley by up and coming true crime author Sarah
kushal find that great title and others on our recommended page at truecrime garage.com much love to you guys see you
here in the garage next week and until then be good be kind and don't let him [Applause]
thank you foreign

Circleville Writer /// Part 2 /// 502

Part 2 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

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Brief Summary

The episode examines Ron Gillespie's death, the Circleville letter writer, and the attempted murder of Mary Gillespie, exploring various suspects and theories.

Key points

Cheers to Our Supporters. A heartfelt shout-out to listeners who contributed to this week's beer funding.
The Accidental Death of Ron Gillespie. Exploring the circumstances surrounding Ron Gillespie's death and the investigation that followed.
The Nasty Sign Incident. Mary Gillespie discovers a booby-trapped sign that could have cost her life.
Paul Freshauer's Trial. Paul Freshauer is tried for attempted murder and linked to the Circleville letters.
The Flip of Roles. The narrative shifts dramatically as the officer becomes the prisoner.
Questioning Evidence. Doubts arise about the evidence against Paul Freshauer and his innocence.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

What would be their motive to cover up?

Questioning the motives behind a potential cover-up.

3:17WatchNov 6, 2022

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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