Circleville Letters

On October 24^th 1983 Paul Freshour went on trial for the attempted murder of Mary Gillispie, a school bus driver in the town of Circleville, he was found guilty and sentenced to seven to twenty-five years. During his eleven-year imprisonment he maintained his innocence and continued to do so after he was paroled in May of 1994. Paul began a blog and gave many interviews, including to Unsolved Mysteries when they covered the case of the Circleville Letters in 1994.

Why was he called upon by Unsolved Mysteries regarding the Circleville Letters case rather than that of the attempted murder of Mary? Well, because these two cases were tightly interwoven, and Paul knew that if he could prove he was not the letter writer then the case against him for Mary’s attempted murder could well fall apart. The evidence against him when it came to the crudely built booby trap intended to kill Mary was flimsy at best so, at the time, the Sheriff’s department and the prosecution team relied heavily upon proving that Paul Freshour was indeed the poison penman who had shattered the community of Circleville for eighteen years.

It is believed that the first letter was received by a Circleville resident in the spring of 1976, it is unclear if Mary Gillisipie was indeed the first but she was certainly an early victim of the writer. She also seemed to become somewhat of an obsession for them, with the campaign against her quickly escalating; including threats against her and her family’s lives.

The first handwritten letter Mary found in the mailbox accused her of having an affair with the School Superintendent, Gordon Massie. The note demanded that she immediately stop seeing him, warning that the writer knew where she lived, was observing her house and was aware that she had children. Deciding to ignore the letter, Mary hid it away from her husband and never mentioned it. A second letter would arrive two weeks later pretty much stating the same demands, again Mary kept it a secret.

However, this tactic would not work for long as soon after another letter arrived, this time addressed to her husband Ron. Informing him of the affair, the writer ordered him to put a stop to it and to report it to the school board. Learning of her husband’s letter, Mary then produced her own all the while denying that she was having an affair with Gordon Massie, or anyone else. Coming to an agreement, Mary and Ron hid the letters away and kept quiet. Unfortunately, the next note to appear in their mailbox would force their hand, this time the writer was threatening to go public with their secrets.

Deciding to confide in someone they spoke to Ron’s sister, Karen Freshour, and her husband Paul. During the discussion Mary mentions that she believes the anonymous writer is a man called David Longberry, a fellow bus driver, who’s attention she rebuffed in the past. The four of them agree that Paul will write several letters to David stating that they know who he is and if he doesn’t stop, they will expose him.

For a while this seems to work, everything goes quiet on the mail front in Circleville and people begin to relax. Sadly, this would not last long. On the evening of 19^th August 1977 Ron receives a phone call, apparently from the alleged writer. It isn’t sure what was said but the call seems to confirm whatever Ron’s suspicions were and rouses his temper, grabbing his gun he jumps into his pickup truck and drives off. At around 10.30pm his truck is found, crashed into a tree. Ron has sadly not survived the collision, later it will be determined he died from massive internal injuries. To begin with the Sheriff, Dwight Radcliff, suspects foul play and even interviews a suspect (they have never been named), this was in part due to the manner in which Ron left his house, the fact that his gun was lying under his body and also that he had fired at least one shot before he had died.

But soon the Sheriff had a change of mind. The suspect who was interviewed passes a polygraph with flying colours and then the coroner, Dr Ray Caroll, informs him that Ron’s blood alcohol level was .16, way above the legal limit. Sheriff Radcliff declares the death to be accidental, caused by drunk driving.

This ruling is heavily disputed amongst the Circleville residents, many of them stating that Ron was not a big drinker and, knowing the poison-pen nightmare they are all currently living in, believe that he finally uncovered the identity of the letter writer and was killed because of it. The biggest supporter of this theory is Paul Freshour, and he seems to be proved correct when people begin receiving letters stating that Sheriff Radcliff had been involved in a coverup.

In the wake of Ron’s death, Circleville was not allowed any respite from the poisonous notes, if anything they began to ramp up again, the writer seemingly becoming more erratic and angry. People were terrified to fetch their mail in the mornings as it appeared no one was spared from these letters, not only would they be sent to homes but also to newspapers, schools and businesses. During this time Paul Freshour was still trying to push the investigation into Ron’s death, even filing a report with the FBI requesting that they become involved.

Prior to Ron’s death, and soon after Mary began receiving the letters, signs had also started to appear along her bus route in a similar vein to the notes. When Ron was alive, he would get up early to rip them all down so the children riding the school bus, including his own, wouldn’t see them. Now, these signs have not stopped either and, just like the letters, are becoming more explicit and threatening. They even target Mary’s twelve-year-old daughter, stating that she too is having a sexual relationship with Gordon Massie.

So on 7^th February 1983, when Mary spots one of these signs whilst driving her bus, she decides that she has had enough. Pulling over, she gets out and goes to rip the sign down. However, as she pulls on it Mary realises that it is attached to a cardboard box with some twine, taking the box with her she later opens it at home. This is when she finds a gun inside. After taking it to the Sheriff’s department, Mary discovers that the gun was rigged to fire as she pulled on the sign, it is only by luck and the fact that the trap had been very crudely built that she is still alive and unhurt.

The gun is soon traced back to Paul Freshour and, well, we know how that went for him. During questioning, Paul admitted that the gun was his but it had gone missing weeks before. An easy lie to make up on the spot, but apart from the ownership of the weapon there was no other physical evidence to prove without doubt that he had indeed set the trap. In fact, he even had a pretty solid alibi for the day when the trap was found.

Paul fully cooperated with the police during the investigation of the attempt on Mary’s life, and he was only connected to the letters based on an accusation from his, now, ex-wife Karen. She stated that Paul was the one who had been sending the letters to Mary and even that she [Karen] had access to letters that were never mailed. Strangely however, she never produced them. Because of her accusations Paul was asked to take a handwriting test, an expected request, however he was asked to try to emulate one of the actual letters and was also asked to write them whilst reading them out. A good lawyer would jump on that in an instant, stating that Paul should never even have gotten to see a letter not least be asked to try to copy it. That fact alone could destroy a case from either side of the courtroom.

Sadly for Paul the jury never got to hear about this mistake, or about the acrimonious divorce he and Karen went through after she had cheated on him; which had resulted with him being awarded custody of their three children whilst she had ended up living in a trailer on Mary’s property. Karen’s testimony, the copied letters, the gun and a failed polygraph were enough to convict him of attempted murder. Ironically, he would never be charged in connection to the Circleville Letters and that case remains officially unsolved.

Strangely though, whilst Paul languished in prison, the letters continued to arrive. Not only to Circleville’s residents but to Paul himself, locked away in Lima, Ohio. Because of this Paul was moved to solitary confinement, supposedly to stop him from continuing with the letters, but still they wouldn’t cease. Paul had no access to pen, paper or the mail, his cell was swept regularly and he was strip-searched at random intervals. Eventually the prison wrote to Karen, stating that it was impossible for Paul to be writing the letters from his cell. Despite this he was still denied parole in December 1990 due to the ongoing harassment of Circleville, even with the assurance of the prison that he could not be sending them.

The last Circleville Letter is believed to have been sent in 1994, this time to Unsolved Mysteries during their filming of the documentary. It read;

‘Forget Circleville Ohio: Do Nothing to Hurt Sheriff Radcliff: If You Come To Ohio You El Sickos Will Pay: The Circleville Writer:’

Undeterred they went ahead and no more has been heard from the Circleville Writer.

Some believe there were several different writers over the years, perhaps Mary was right and the first was David Longberry but once he was scared off someone else saw an opportunity and took over. There is a theory that at one point Karen Freshour was writing the letters, perhaps to help keep her ex-husband in jail. Unfortunately, the identity, or identities, of the Circleville Writer will probably never be truly known.

There is some question over Gordon Massie’s involvement; despite there being a proven romantic relationship with Mary Gillispie (apparently started after the letters and Ron’s death), being the focus of several potentially damaging accusations and named in the booby-trapped sign there is barely a mention of him in the investigation or subsequent interviews etc. Did he very effectively distance himself or was someone looking out for him?  

Well-known journalist, and private investigator, Martin Yant also looked into the Circleville case and ended up interviewing a potential witness. Another bus driver on Mary’s route had passed by the spot where the booby trap was set roughly twenty minutes before she (Mary) did. He claims to have seen a suspicious man standing next to a yellow El Camino; one of Karen’s relatives had owned that type of car at the time and Yant believed that the man was in fact her boyfriend.

Whoever the writer/s were, and however terrible their deeds, they do sometimes appear to be right though. One of the most notable ‘exposures’ is perhaps that of Dr Ray Caroll, you remember the coroner who helped to bring about Ron’s ‘accidental death’ ruling? Well, the writer targeted him too, accusing him of child molestation, and in December 1993 he was charged with twelve counts of various crimes against children. So, was Ron really drunk? Or was the coroner blackmailed into giving that result?

Paul Freshour passed away in 2012 apparently never knowing the identity of the Circleville Writer.

Link to Paul Freshour’s blog – https://circlevilleletters.wordpress.com/