The Circleville Letters: Small Town Secrets, Anonymous Terror

1977. Circleville, Ohio. An anonymous letter writer terrorizes a town for nearly two decades. Over 1,000 letters exposing affairs, corruption, and secrets. Then attempted murder.

Mary Gillispie, a school bus driver, was accused of having an affair with school superintendent Gordon Massie. Her husband Ron received threatening letters. In August 1977, Ron told his children he knew who the writer was, grabbed his gun, and left. He never came home. His truck was found wrapped around a tree with a fired gun and blood alcohol twice the legal limit. The sheriff ruled it an accident.

The letters multiplied. In 1983, Mary found a sign along her bus route rigged to a box containing a loaded pistol designed to fire when pulled. The gun traced to Paul Freshour, Ron's brother-in-law. His estranged wife Karen Sue said he was the Circleville letter writer. He was convicted of attempted murder.

Then letters kept coming from prison. While Paul sat in solitary confinement with no writing materials. The prison warden confirmed he couldn't be sending them. He served ten years. The letters stopped after his release.

Kathryn and Gabriel investigate who the writer exposed and how they knew. The prosecutor had his affair revealed. The coroner who ruled Ron's death an accident was later charged with sex crimes against minors. Multiple suspects include Karen Sue, Gordon Massie's son, and the theory that multiple writers used the phenomenon as cover.

SOURCES:

48 Hours. "The Circleville Letters." CBS News, 2024.
Unsolved Mysteries. "Poison Pen Murder." Original series broadcast.
Crime Junkie podcast. "INFAMOUS: Circleville Letters."
Mental Floss. "Unknown Sender: The Mystery of the Circleville Letters."
Pickaway County Sheriff's Office case files on Circleville Letters investigation, 1977-1994.
FBI behavioral analysis documents regarding anonymous letter campaigns and personality disorders.
Suler, John. "The Online Disinhibition Effect." CyberPsychology & Behavior 7, no. 3 (2004): 321-326.
Zimbardo, Philip G. Research on deindividuation and anonymity in social psychology. Stanford University Press.
Ohio court records: State v. Paul Freshour, attempted murder conviction, Pickaway County, 1983.
Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction prison records, Paul Freshour incarceration 1983-1994.
Pickaway County Coroner's Office autopsy report on Ron Gillispie, August 1977.
Witness statements: Mary Gillispie, Karen Sue Freshour, Paul Freshour. Pickaway County investigation files 1977-1994.
Forensic document analysis by Beverley East examining 49 Circleville letters for 48 Hours investigation.
Ohio criminal records: State v. Ray Carroll, charges related to sex crimes against minors, 1993.
O'Toole, Mary Ellen. FBI behavioral analysis profiling of anonymous letter writer, Circleville case.
Pickaway County court records on booby trap evidence and ballistics, 1983.
Ohio polygraph examination records, Paul Freshour, 1983.
Columbus Police Department records, letter postmark analysis 1977-1994.

DISCLAIMER:

This podcast discusses unsolved crimes including a de