Creepy letters torment a Circleville family | Forensic Files

every once in a while you come across a case that is so bizarre so unlike anything you've ever heard before it's
hard to believe that it really happened today we're discussing one of those cases it begins with a wife and mother
going out to get her mail like any other day and opening a letter that would begin a chain of events that would ruin
many lives in this small pre iously peaceful town I'm Olivia Lavo Creator and host of the case File presents
podcast the Bakersfield 3 I've teamed up with case File to bring you their stories in a new format Casey and I have
picked some of case file's most memorable cases to be featured here where the storytelling will be a bit
different mainly you'll have photos and videos guiding you through the case today's story is based on case number
266 the Coville writer on behalf of case file we want to give a special thank you
to author journalist and private investigator Martin yant for his help in putting together this wild story now it
All Began in the quaint town of Circleville Ohio that prior to this case was most well known for its annual
Pumpkin Show it's the type of place you he described as a tight-knit community where neighbors are close and people
don't lock their doors it's a place where people feel safe raising a family like the gpsies one morning in 1977
33-year-old Mary gpsy opened her mailbox and saw a letter addressed to her in distinct blocky thick handwriting there
was no return address inside the envelope was a letter that read in part I know where you live I've been
observing your house and know you have children this is no joke please take it serious and everything will be over soon
what perhaps made this letter even more chilling was the fact that Mary and her family lived in an isolated area in
their very small town on a farm their Farmhouse was the only home on the street surrounded by acres and acres of
land there was also more to the letter something quite specific an instruction of sorts the first line of it read stay
away from Massie don't lie when questioned about knowing him Mary knew the letter was referring to her
colleague Gordon Massie Massie was the Logan school district superintendent Mary was a school bus driver for the
district and shortly before the letter surfaced Mary found out there was a rumor going around the small town of
Circleville that she and Massie were having an affair and now this letter was clearly taking this rumor as fact and
warning Mary she better break off the affair with her married colleague but it also told her to report him to the
school board the only thing that Mary could tell from the letter was that it was postmarked in Columbus Ohio 30 Mi
away and that the blocky thick handwriting was distinct but not familiar to her Mary was Disturbed but
wanted to brush it off so she didn't tell anyone about it and tried to go on with her life but a week later that
distinctive handwriting was back this new letter to Mary Read Lady this is your last chance to report him I know
you are a pig and will prove it and shame you out of Ohio pigs sneak around and meet other
women's husbands behind their backs and cause families and homes and marriages to suffer the letter then mentioned
Mary's 8-year-old daughter saying quote how is your little girl will she grow up
to be like you but once again Mary wanted to ignore it and told no one about the letter but she wouldn't be
able to keep it a secret for long one week later Mary's husband Ron was at work at a glass plate Factory when a
letter showed up for him in that same thick blocky handwriting the anonymous letter told Ron that Mary had been
sleeping with the school superintendent and said quote you should catch them together and kill them both naturally
Ron's next move was to confront his wife Mary who was adamant the accusation about her and the affair was not true
she came clean about the two letters she had gotten from the undoubtedly same person in addition to the matching
handwriting all three letters were riddled with spelling and grammar errors the writer also had an odd habit of
using semicolons instead of periods incredibly Ron and Mary decided not to say a word to anyone about the
letters they were concerned that reporting them might add to the gossip about Mary being unfaithful but 2 weeks
later a came addressed to Mary's husband Ron gpsy you have had two weeks and done
nothing you are a pig Defender you are also a pig make her admit the truth and inform the school board if not I will
broadcast it on posters signs Billboards until the truth comes out good hunting in your red and white truck on your way
to work let her read this it's no lie I followed her in Massie for 2 weeks and have seen her meet him several times he
knows what I want when he quits I'll go away your life is in danger and this time the letter did have a return
address it was to none other than the superintendent Massie which appeared to be the writer just toying with Ron and
Mary now it was the mention of Ron's red and white truck that made it clear the writer was watching them this is the
push the couple needed to file a report with lawn enforcement but reporting the letters to the Sheriff's Department
didn't help they kept coming and they were escalating to disturbing threats against Ron and Mary's 8-year-old
daughter one letter read I shall come out there and put a bullet in that little girl's head and then the sheriff
got a call from superintendent Massie it turned out he had also been getting letters and trying to ignore them the
first note to Massie came 2 weeks before Mary found a letter in her mailbox massie's letter in this entire case is
Thoroughly reported on by Marie Mayu in her podcast whatever remains in her series on the case Mayhew describes that
massie's first letter accused him of harassing numerous female bus drivers remember Mary was a school bus driver
the letter read in part to prey on another man's girl is Untouchable especially when they're out trying to
make a living I suggest you find yourself a pimple-faced [ __ ] and start up with her and leave my girls alone the
sheriff also discovered that not long after Massie got a letter so did numerous members of the local Board of
Education and the superintendent of another nearby District all of the letters demanded that Massie resign and
leave female bus drivers alone the sheriff couldn't find any information that supported the letter writer's
claims of Massie acting in a appropriately with any bus drivers or colleagues in general and so it seemed
everyone agreed Massie was not going to step down now here is where the letter writer turned things up a notch Mary was
driving her school bus one morning when she noticed numerous signs put up along the side of the road on her usual route
the signs were vulgar and of course accused Mary and the superintendent of having an affair and this part is very
disturbing one of the signs said that Mary's Child her very young daughter was also romantically involved with the
superintendent so now this person is targeting a child publicly and calling the superintendent a pedophile and this
is a really sad image to think of Ron who was trying to protect his wife and daughter started waking up very early
every single day to go drive around town looking for new signs and tearing them down before other people in town woke up
and got on the road needless to say the harassment was starting to take a massive toll on Ron and Mary who were
constantly looking over their shoulder waiting for the next threat and the hits kept on coming more letters more signs
and Ron and Mary began to feel that the Sheriff's Office really wasn't doing anything so Ron Enlisted the help of his
sister Karen and his brother-in-law Paul Paul was a former correctional officer and known for helping deescalate things
during prison riots so Paul thought he might be able to use those same tactics with the letter writer particularly when
Paul learned that Ron and Mary had a suspect in mind now while they didn't have proof Ron and Mary told Paul they
were pretty sure that the writer was another bus driver named David see before the letters began this bus driver
made an advance towards Mary despite knowing that she was married Mary rejected the bus driver and it seemed he
never quite got over that it seemed to Mary that he had held a grudge so one day Mary Ron Ron's sister Karen and
Ron's brother-in-law Paul sat around together and formed a plan together they helped Paul write a letter to their
suspect the other school bus driver the letter wasn't violent but it sternly told this man to stop and initially it
seemed that this may have worked the letters stopped coming the writer was leaving them alone or so it seemed
spring turned to Summer 5 months had gone by since Mary received that first horrible letter with the nightmare
seemingly over Mary and her sister-in-law Ron's sister Karen decided to go out of town for a much needed
vacation Ron stayed at home with the kids and that's when late that night their home phone rang Ron and Mary's
kids observed that while the phone call seemed brief it had clearly upset their dad who slammed the phone down after
silently listening to whoever was on the other end after hanging up Ron grabbed his gun and kissed his children goodbye
he told them the letter writer had just called and he would be back soon Ron got
in his truck and drove off into the darkness 30 minutes later A call came into the Sheriff's Office the caller was
frantic and said there had been a terrible accident the crash was about 7 miles from Ron and Mary's home deputies
found Ron's smashed truck it had appeared Ron had crashed headon into a tree driving at a high speed Ron had
died investigators quickly concluded this was a tragic accident the roads were dark Ron wasn't wearing a seat belt
and had been speeding the county Corner decided there was no need for an autopsy
or further investigation but for Ron's heartbroken family it was not that cut and dry for one thing the revolver he
had grabbed before running out of the house was missing a bullet they could tell that one had been fired but
couldn't locate it Ron's family also suspected that Ron may have been chasing someone see Ron knew these roads like
the back of his hand so a high-speed chase seemed most probable to them as to how he could lose control of the wheel
Ron's brother-in-law Paul was particularly vocal about being upset with the local sheriff for not
investigating Ron's death as suspicious though the sheriff did reportedly spend some time looking into the possibility
of Foul Play the case was ruled an accident and closed the only thing that seemed clear about Ron's death was it
had caused the Circleville writer to stop as the years went by after Ron's death with no more letters coming a
couple marriages in the small town of Circleville crumbled Ron's sister Karen divorced his brother-in-law Paul and the
wife of superintendent Massie also filed for divorce once massie's divorce was finalized there was a new couple in town
superintendent Massie and Ron's Widow Mary began officially dating this is pretty crazy of course because their
relationship seemed to solidify all of those rumors about them having an affair but Mary was adamant that nothing
romantic ever happened between the two of them until several years after after her husband Ron died and massie's wife
filed for divorce and while years went by without any letters eventually they began to resurface and supposedly there
were various other residents of Circleville who were getting these crazy letters but it seems they really weren't
investigated and then just before Christmas 1982 5 years after the first letter was sent and Ron died Mary
received an anonymous letter letter with an unexpected threat the writer told Mary she had 3 months to marry
superintendent Massie who she was now dating it concluded that if the couple wasn't married by March 1st
1983 that Mary would find signs along her bus route about her young daughter 2 months later though there was still a
month left to make good on the writer's demand it seems the Circleville writer ran out of patience one morning as Mary
drove her school bus near an area where her husband Ron had died 5 years earlier
she saw a large sign that targeted her now 13-year-old daughter as some of the signs had said in the past this one was
referring to her daughter and superintendent Massie her now boyfriend making shocking horrific allegations
again essentially accusing Massie of being a pedophile Mary of course grabbed the sign she pulled it out of the dirt
by the wooden stake and put it in her school bus later that day Mary took a closer look at the sign and noticed
there was a black box of sorts made out of cardboard behind the actual sign Mary
tore it open and found what she believed to be a fake handgun now despite the seemingly low interest from the
sheriff's department to continue investigating the Circleville letter writer Mary handed over the replica
handgun to deputies that's when they told her this gun was was not fake Not only was this a very real 25 caliber
pistol but investigators told Mary that the gun had been meant to be a booby trap the gun was loaded and a trip wire
was tied around the handle of the trigger who ever had done this had planned for the gun to go off when the
cardboard box attached to the sign was ripped open investigators told Mary that her decision to remove the sign by
grabbing it by the wooden AK saved her life as she just grabbed the sign and just ripped it apart right then and
there as had been done many times to many other signs before the gun would have very likely gone off now while the
Circleville letter writer had terrified Mary and many others in the town before this officially took things to another
level and investigators were now finally all over it whoever did this had tried to cover their tracks by scratching off
the gun's serial number but investigators were able to piece it back together and find the gun's owner the
man told investigators he had just sold the Gun 3 months earlier to his work supervisor who said they needed
protection because their family was being harassed are you ready for this it turned out that this coworker who had
just purchased the gun was none other than Ron's brother-in-law Paul fresh hour as a refresher Mary and her husband
Ron Enlisted the help of Ron's sister Karen and his brother-in-law Paul Paul was the one who sent the letters to
Mary's coworker the male bus driver that they suspected might be the Circleville
letter writer Mary and Karen also went on vacation together and later that night Ron got the call from the
Circleville writer and went out to confront them which led to his fatal car wreck after which Paul was incredibly
vocal about his belief that there was Foul Play involved and even accused the sheriff of being corrupt for not
investigating the crash further in the years since Ron's death Paul and Ron's sister Karen had divorced when
investigators pulled Paul's work records They saw that he called out sick the day
that Mary found the sign about her daughter and superintendent Massie the one that had the gun booby trapped on it
they also found that Paul's workplace a brewery had all the materials that were used to make the booby trap when Paul
was questioned about this he was adamant that while he had recently purchased that gun that someone else had recently
stolen it from his garage but the sheriff wasn't convinced particularly after Paul agreed to handwriting tests
that when compared to the Circleville letter writer there were some striking similarities Paul also failed a
polygraph test the circle Ville Sheriff confronted Paul with all of this which the sheriff says led to Paul confessing
now keep in mind this was the early 88s so law enforcement did not routinely record their interviews so this
confession is not recorded So in this case all we have is the sheriff's description of Paul's confession and
unfortunately for all of us it seemed Paul never mentioned anything that would explain a possible motive Paul was
charged with attempted murder of his former sister-in-law Mary he pleaded not guilty and was released on bond shortly
thereafter after his release Paul admitted himself to a mental health facility and then entered a plea of Not
Guilty by reason of insanity court appointed forensic psychiatrist found that Paul was mentally fit to stand
trial and shortly before his trial started he withdrew his Insanity plea he now claimed that the sheriff was lying
about everything specifically him making that confession in addition to Paul now
fiercely denying having anything to do with the booby trap or any of the Circleville letters he said that if he
had been behind the booby trap he would have never used a gun that he knew could
be traced back to him now keep in mind Paul was only actually being tried for the booby trap incident he wasn't
charged with writing any of those threatening letters but they were still used as evidence against him and even
the handwriting expert hired by Paul's own defense attorney apparently testified that they believed Paul's
handwriting indicated he was the Circleville letter writer when Mary took the stand she told jurors that she never
suspected her former brother-in-law of being behind the letters particularly because Paul had seemingly tried to help
Mary and her late husband Ron stop the letters and don't forget Paul was very vocal about believing that Ron's death
involved Foul Play and pushed very hard for the sheriff's department to investigate it as such but here's a
crazy tidbit Mary apparently did remember a conversation she had with her sister-in-law and Paul's ex-wife Karen
where Karen mentioned how before she divorced Paul she found letters floating in their toilet that she said she
thought resembled the handwriting of the Circleville letter writer I know there are so many questions about that one
that I wish I could ask but that's all the details we have on that meanwhile Paul's defense team told jurors that
Paul a highly educated man with a well-paying job would never risk it all in order to try to kill his former
sister-in-law again there was no clear motive whatsoever and on the day of the incident with the booby trap a day that
Paul had called out of work he claimed it was because he had work to do around the house and multiple people testified
saying that they saw Paul at his home that day but ultimately the jury didn't buy it Paul was convicted of the
attempted murder of his former sister-in-law Mary Paul was sent to prison and the town of Circleville
thought their letter nightmare was over but of course it wasn't it wasn't long into Paul's prison day that Circleville
residents started getting letters in that all too familiar thick blocky handwriting investigators believed that
Paul was some smuggling the letters out from behind bars so he was placed into solitary confinement strip searched
often and his mail was very very closely monitored and yet even after all of that
the letters didn't stop investigators then shifted their theory that it must be a copycat though they also knew there
were stunning similarities between the early letters and the new ones that seemed difficult for someone else to
replicate now after serving 7 years Paul was eligible for parole before his hearing the letter writer doubled down
and sent more letters than ever before members of the parole board were not convinced that Paul wasn't somehow
involved in these new letters so his parole was denied a few days after the parole hearing Paul received a letter
himself it read now when are you going to believe you aren't getting out of there I told you two years ago when we
set them up they stay set up don't you listen at all no one wants you out no one The Joke is on You haha looking back
at archived news stories on the case it's clear that the Circleville Sheriff never stopped believing that Paul was
the culprit the sheriff believed that Paul was somehow pulling off an elaborate scheme of having the letters
continue to go out while he was in solitary confinement he thought Paul was doing this of course in an effort to
gain publicity and say look it really isn't me the real perp is still out there and Paul meanwhile always
maintained his innocence to reporters in the early 90s the popular crime show Unsolved Mysteries decided to pursue the
case and just before production began a letter was sent to their headquarters in
the all two thick blocky writing the anonymous letter read forget Circleville Ohio do not hurt Sheriff Radcliffe if
you come to Ohio you El sickos will pay signed the Circleville writer ultimately
that would be the last known letter that the circle will writer ever sent now producers were not deterred by this it
probably made them want to cover it even more and they went ahead with the story
as planned now while Mary and Paul's ex-wife Karen declined to be interviewed Paul agreed to sit down with producers
this after Paul was granted parole for serving 10 years behind bars now let's dig into Paul's claims that he was
framed by the real Circleville writer Some People suspected the real culprit was a relative of superintendent Gordon
Massie but it seems there really wasn't much credibility to this others speculated that if anyone was going to
frame Paul it would be his ex-wife Karen who remember was the sister of Ron Mary's husband who died when supposedly
going to conf front the circle bille writer Some pointed to the fact that Paul and Karen were divorced shortly
before the booby trap with the sign and the gun led to Paul and that Paul was granted their home and custody of their
child after Paul was arrested Karen got custody and got to move back into the family home journalist Martin yant
covered the case extensively he said he's been able to review the case files and found some pretty significant
unreleased information about 20 minutes before Mary drove past the sign that had
the booby trap attached to it another bus driver had driven by the area and noticed a yellow El Camino parked in the
spot where the sign was later found the bus driver said there was a tall man with a heavy build and blondish hair and
he apparently turned away as soon as the driver passed him seemingly trying to hide from her view now that man did not
match Paul's physical description at all but reportedly did resemble Paul's ex-wife Karen's new boyfriend
there's no information out there that the new boyfriend drove in El Camino but apparently according to Martin yance
sources Karen's brother did but I do not know if it was yellow now I'd like to take note here that Karen was never
actually considered a suspect by law enforcement and it seems a lot of people really close to the in investigation
really knowledgeable about the case think that the concept that she may have tried to frame her ex-husband for this
is simply ridiculous but it seems that someone clearly wanted to make it seem that this was the case you see one of
the circle Ville letters was sent to the sheriff and flat out said quote I set up
Paul I can't hardly live with it and it was signed with Karen's name so this suggested to some that the Circleville
letter writer was trying to frame Karen for framing her husband Paul and this is
what stands out to me the Circleville letter writer would occasionally sign the letters by people's names
specifically people that were considered obvious suspects like the superintendent's relative for one and
other letters had been signed with the superintendent's name so a lot of people thought this was the way of the real
writer toying with people people by signing the names of people who again would be natural suspects or another
theory is that the writer was actually trying to frame them and this might be the craziest part of the entire case it
isn't my opinion while a lot of the focus of the Circleville writer was on Mary and this alleged Affair between her
and school superintendent Gordon Massie it turns out there were other people in town that the writer had their eye on
and seem to know very intimate details about them one letter accused the County coroner of being a child molester and
later on the former coroner was charged with Corruption of a minor and indecent exposure and here's another rather
chilling detail let's go back to 1980 the circal writer had been sending letters for 3 years at that point that's
when a 25-year-old Elementary School teacher Vicky cotch goes missing 30 days later her body was found in a cornfield
some 35 miles away from Vicki's home investigators classified her death as a homicide and not long after the
Circleville letter writer began sending letters out about the case claiming Vicky had been having an affair with a
local attorney and was pregnant with their baby the writer accused the attorney of killing Vicki in order to
keep her quiet and this part is highly disturbing in one letter the writer threatened to dig up a baby's bones and
start mailing them to random people if Vicky's case wasn't thoroughly investigated which they were
investigating it so whatever that means and apparently after that letter was sent an infant's grave was dug up at a
local cemetery and letters with a white powder inside were sent to the sheriff around this same time and the writer
claimed the powder was Ground Up Bones from an infant but testing showed that the powder was not bones which sounds
good sounds like a relief to some extent until it turned out that the powder was
poisonous and let's not forget an infant's grave was dug up now some people out there think that there could
have been truth to what the circle Ville writer said about Vicki's case but there's never been any evidence to back
it up including no evidence that Vicki was pregnant and when you look up Vicki's case online the most prevalent
theory is that she was the victim of a serial killer all this time later though Vicki's case is still unsolved and is
circleville's only Cold Case homicide now going back to Paul after he was released from prison he continued to try
to prove his innocence sending extensive information to the FBI he hoped might exonerate him in 2012 Paul died died at
the age of 70 whether or not he was the writer behind the letters is still heavily debated now the Circleville
writer was active for 16 years during which 1,000 letters were sent to various Circleville residence that appeared to
be the work of the writer of these 1,000 letters roughly 500 of them were found to be a match to Paul's handwriting by
handwriting analysts now it's not clear to me what the consensus was about the other 500 letters but we know that half
of them were linked to Paul as well as the sign with the booby trap handwriting analysis as evidence is a fairly debated
topic as well some people think it's reliable other people say it's junk science but journalist Marie Mayhew who
did a deep dive podcast on this case what remains well she revealed a bombshell about this case she said that
a dozen of the Circleville letters that were sent while Paul was in prison were found to have his fingerprints on them
but think about this how is it possible that Paul touched those letters Behind Bars and then could manage to smuggle
them out and have them postmarked in Columbus Ohio no one has ever been able to figure that out this is one of those
cases where despite there being a lot of information there are still so many questions and so many aspects that I
know many people myself included would love more information on on for me I'd really like to know much more about the
letters that were being sent to other Circleville residents throughout the years besides Mary and the school
superintendent who all was the writer targeting did it seem that they were as obsessed with exposing other Secrets the
same way they were obsessed with exposing Mary and massie's alleged Affair To This Day no one has ever
officially been charged with being the writer behind the letters and the cas is considered closed by law
enforcement I will be thinking about this one for a while until next time thank you for watching

In March 1977, school bus driver Mary Gillespie started receiving threatening letters delivered to her home in Circleville, Ohio. It wasn’t long before her husband, Ron Gillespie, also received the letters which accused Mary of having an affair with the local school superintendent, Gordon Massie.

When Mary Gillespie found a threatening sign hung from a fence post on her school bus route, she tore it down, only to find a booby trap inside, designed to kill her. Who wanted to target Mary? Investigation of the booby trap pointed to a prime suspect close to home, her brother-in-law Paul Freshour.

Based on Case 266: Circleville Letter Writer https://casefilepodcast.com/case-266-circleville-letter-writer/

CREDITS Anonymous Host - narration Jessica Forsayeth - research, writing Milly Raso - creative direction Mike Migas - production, music Andrew D.B. Joslyn - music

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Brief Summary

The Circleville writer harassed a family with letters, leading to tragedy and unresolved mysteries in Circleville, Ohio.

Key points

The Start of the Letters. A mysterious letter warns Mary about an affair, igniting chaos in Circleville.
Escalating Threats. The letters become increasingly threatening, targeting Mary and her daughter.
Ron’s Tragic Death. Ron dies in a car accident under suspicious circumstances after receiving a threatening call.
The Booby Trap. Mary discovers a loaded gun meant to harm her, escalating the danger.
Paul's Confession. Paul, Ron's brother-in-law, confesses to involvement but denies motive.
Paul's Parole Denied. Paul's parole was denied due to doubts about his involvement with new letters.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This is no joke, please take it serious.

A chilling letter received by Mary.

1:52WatchJul 2, 2024

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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