Season 3 Episode 3: The known story of Circleville

Marie Mayhew (00:09):

When discussing this season being on the Circleville Letters, response fell squarely into one of two camps. One, the case is instantly recognizable, because it was made famous, in part, by Unsolved Mysteries and remains popular to this day. This is partially due to the story itself being pretty straightforwards with all the hallmarks of a good mystery. There's small-town intrigue, a seemingly omnipresent unknown villain extracting revenge on the people of Circleville by uncovering their secrets, a mysterious death, an elaborate attempted murder, a court case, and then at the story's end, the big twist with the wrongly-convicted man framed to take the fall for crimes that he could not have possibly committed. Or two, this subject has been done to death. I mean, after Robert Stack and Unsolved Mysteries, not to mention countless other re-tellings, what else can you possibly say about it? How much more is there to uncover about what happened in Circleville? The funny thing about the story of these letters, the people involved, and even the town itself is the more we research, the less familiar this straightforward story becomes.

Marie Mayhew (01:29):

Thank you for listening to the Whatever Remains podcast. I'm your host, Marie Mayhew. This episode, before we go any further with our own series, let's review the known story of the Circleville Letters, the one that you may already recognize. This version of the story is the foundation for practically all the narratives about this event and are widely regarded as the facts about this popular case. Just remember, facts are never what they seem to be.

Marie Mayhew (02:02):

1976, the small town of Circleville, Ohio, 25 miles south of Columbus, it's a place that rarely attracts outside attention. But then, the frightening letters started to arrive.

Theron LaFountain (02:16):

The first letter was received by Mary Gillespie, a school bus driver, telling her that the letter writer was aware that she was having an affair with the superintendent of schools and that it had better stop.

Marie Mayhew (02:28):

In addition to the allegations of an affair, the letter was threatening. It 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." Postmarked from Columbus, Ohio, there was no return address, no signature, no way of telling who sent it. Then a week later, Mary received another menacing letter making the same accusations. She tried to downplay the letter and kept them to herself until her husband, Ron, began to receive them, as well.

Theron LaFountain (03:01):

And this letter addressed to Ron Gillespie told him that if he didn't do something to stop the affair, that his life was undoubtedly in danger.

Marie Mayhew (03:10):

Now, besides threatening Mary, the anonymous author had turned their attentions to Ron. He received another letter soon after. It read in part, "Gillespie, you've had two weeks and done nothing. Make her admit the truth and inform the school board. If not, I will broadcast it until the truth comes out." Mary and Ron Gillespie evidently told three people about the letters, Ron's sister Karen, her husband, Paul Freshour, and Paul's sister. Mary had an idea about who was sending the letters, and she had a plan on how to expose them, or at least to try and get them to stop. Paul Freshour, Ron Gillespie's brother-in-law said:

Theron LaFountain (03:49):

"We thought we'd scare the guy. Well, we sent him four or five letters only. There was no violence in them or anything, just that we knew who he was and what he was doing, and we sent him the letters."

Marie Mayhew (04:01):

For a while, the plan worked, and the threatening letters stopped. Then in August of 1977, while Mary was on a trip out of town, Ron received a phone call at home. The call seemed to confirm Ron's suspicions about the identity of the letter writer.

Theron LaFountain (04:18):

He told his children he was going out to confront the letter writer. He took his weapon. He did not seem to be drunk, said good-bye to his children and went out.

Marie Mayhew (04:27):

Angry and upset, Ron hurried to his red and white pickup, even though the letter writer had written saying that they were watching it, and drove off.

Theron LaFountain (04:35):

Within a short distance, at an intersection that he knew very well, he lost control of the vehicle, hit a tree and was killed. Somewhere in-between leaving the house and hitting the tree, his gun had fired one shot, and there was never any explanation for when or how at whom that gun could have been fired.

Marie Mayhew (04:54):

The police ruled Ron Gillespie's death an accident, but several Circleville residents soon received anonymous letters accusing the sheriff of a coverup. Ron Gillespie's brother-in-law, Paul Freshour said the sheriff had changed his story:

Theron LaFountain (05:08):

"The sheriff agreed with me that there was foul play, and then when I contacted him again, he had changed his attitude completely. Then he was telling me that there wasn't foul play."

Marie Mayhew (05:19):

There was another potential inconsistency, as well.

Theron LaFountain (05:22):

Gillespie had .16% alcohol in his blood, which would in Ohio, be one and a half times the legal limit. Most people I have talked to said that he was not a heavy drinker, and that they were surprised by that kind of finding.

Marie Mayhew (05:38):

Was Ron Gillespie's death an accident? Was he really drunk that night, and why had one bullet been fired from his handgun? After Ron's death the letters kept coming. Mary kept driving the school bus route, but beginning in 1983, the letter writer began to put signs along her bus route saying obscene things about Gillespie's daughter. Mary finally took action.

Theron LaFountain (06:01):

She ripped down the sign. Much to her surprise, behind the sign was this box and string, and another post that was attached to the fence post. She took it into the bus and opened it up, and there was a small pistol.

Marie Mayhew (06:16):

When she looked closer, Mary realized that it was a crude booby trap designed to fire the gun at her. Investigators discovered that someone had tried to remove the serial number off of the weapon. The gun belonged to Mary's brother-in-law, Paul Freshour. He had just split up with his wife, Ron Gillespie's sister. Paul denied any involvement:

Theron LaFountain (06:37):

"I admitted the gun was mine, but I hadn't seen it for a long time. I had no reason to check up on it or anything, and I didn't know when it had come up missing. I really didn't know what happened to it, and I told them that, and that's the truth, and that's how it was."

Marie Mayhew (06:50):

On February 25th, 1983, Sheriff Dwight Radcliff asked Paul to take a handwriting test, and Paul agreed.

Theron LaFountain (06:58):

"He would give me the actual letter and asking me to do the envelope part just as near as I could to the envelope, and then on some, he would take the actual letter out and make me to do them as near as I could on the letters. And I did them, because I knew I wasn't responsible for the letters."

Marie Mayhew (07:15):

There are questions surrounding if this was the correct method to conduct handwriting analysis.

Theron LaFountain (07:20):

That is not the proper way to test to see if someone has a certain writing style, because if they're copying from a letter, they're going to try to emulate the style and the experts said that the testing was improper, so that they didn't really say that these letters were written by Paul Freshour. They said that they could have been.

Marie Mayhew (07:39):

The sheriff also searched Paul Freshour's property, his car, home and garage. All the evidence gathered was turned over to the courts. Paul was charged with attempted murder.

Theron LaFountain (07:50):

"He called the prosecutor and told the prosecutor that it was my writing on the booby trap and that I was under arrest for attempted murder and placed on a $50,000 bound."

Marie Mayhew (08:00):

On October 24th, 1983, Paul Freshour went to trial for attempted murder of his sister-in-law, Mary Gillespie. He wasn't charged with writing the threatening letters, but they were used as crucial evidence against him. On the stand, a handwriting expert said it was his opinion that the writing on the envelope, documents and postcards were made by the same person, Paul Freshour. Paul's boss testified that he hadn't gone to work the day the booby trap was found. Freshour never took the stand in his own defense, a decision he later said he regretted. Paul Freshour was found guilty of attempted murder and was given the maximum sentence, seven to 25 years. He said that the verdict was completely unexpected.

Theron LaFountain (08:42):

"I couldn't blame the jury, because the jury didn't hear all the evidence, but I just couldn't believe it. I was really in shock."

Marie Mayhew (08:49):

Once Paul was in jail, everyone assumed that since the letter writer was arrested, the letters themselves would stop. They were wrong.

Theron LaFountain (08:57):

They were being received all over a large area of central Ohio, so a lot of people couldn't understand how Paul Freshour could be mailing all these letters from prison.

Marie Mayhew (09:06):

Following repeated complaints from law enforcement, the prison's warden had Paul placed in solitary confinement, but the letters continued. All of them were postmarked Columbus, even though Paul was in prison across the state in Lima.

Theron LaFountain (09:20):

Full-scale investigations were conducted twice, possibly three times, during which Paul Freshour was put into isolation, and the warden of the prison then wrote a letter to Paul's wife saying that as far as he was concerned, it was impossible for Paul to be writing these letters and sending them from prison.

Marie Mayhew (09:37):

For seven years, Paul was a model prisoner, but when he became eligible for parole, the board rejected his request based on the volume of letters still being sent. A few days after his hearing, Paul himself received a sadistic letter from the phantom writer. It read in part, "Now, when are you going to believe you aren't going to get out of there? I told you two years ago, 'When we set them up, they stay set up.' Don't you listen at all?" May of 1994, Paul Freshour was finally granted parole after serving 10 years. Until his death, he maintains his innocence and is sure that the real criminal is still at large.

Theron LaFountain (10:15):

"I'd like to see someone really look at this case on the letters. Reopen the letter part of it and get in and find out who wrote the letters. I'd also like someone to look at my former brother-in-law's death. Look, that's not my family any more. That's my past. I'm not even going to look back at it. I've got a new family and a new future, but I'd like to see someone look at that accident really close and the letters."

Marie Mayhew (10:39):

The Circleville Letters finally stopped, but many questions remain. Who actually wrote the letters? Was Ron Gillespie's death an accident or was he murdered? And who made the booby trap found by Mary Gillespie?

Marie Mayhew (10:56):

That recap, by and large, is the transcript from Unsolved Mysteries and are the main points of what we know about this strange event. So did Unsolved Mysteries, the gold standard for all that's strange and spooky, get it right? Did the anonymous letter writer evade capture, only to taunt Paul Freshour in his jail cell?

Marie Mayhew (11:14):

They covered the five big points of the Circleville story: one, the ongoing and prolific letters harassing Mary Gillespie; two, her husband Ron's seemingly foretold and mysterious death; three, the arrest of Paul Freshour by an ardent sheriff's office; four, the trial of his attempted murder; five, the continuation of the anonymous letters even after his incarceration. No question, it's a mystery. Each of these point, even on their own, raise a lot of questions. How could one individual know so much about an entire town's secrets? What was the cause of Ron Gillespie's death just as he was going to meet and even expose the letter writer? Did the Circleville sheriff's office get the wrong man?

Marie Mayhew (12:02):

Like any good mystery, the basic facts, the ones reiterated over and over again, aren't really all that reliable, and they seemingly shift. The more you dig, the more this story about one small town in Ohio starts to change and unravel. As soon as we think we've figured out and answered one question, that very answer calls into question something else, setting in motion a vicious circle, if you'll forgive a really bad pun.

Marie Mayhew (12:31):

Thank you for listening to the Whatever Remains podcast. I'm your host, Marie Mayhew. On the next episode, we continue our investigation, a la Robert Stack, with an examination of anonymous threateners and try to work out what drives someone to these extreme actions. We'll reintroduce the cast of characters discussed here, Mary Gillespie, her husband Ron, his sister Karen, and her husband Paul Freshour, and ask if the virus that was the Circleville letter writer could have started in this one seemingly close-knit family. Until then, remember, what goes around, come around.

Marie Mayhew (13:11):

Want to know What- Whatever Remains is getting up to next? Follow us on Twitter @WhateverRemains or online at whateverremainspodcast.com. Be sure to subscribe to the show and give us a five-star review on iTunes or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. Your reviews help others find the show, and we adore hearing from our listeners, so please reach out. Voiceover work for this episode was performed by Theron LaFountain. Our intro music is by Group Rhoda. Our closing song for Circleville is performed by Ed Grabianowski, produced by Rich [Ruse 00:14:25]. The All-Seeing Eye, or our logo, is by the super talented Desdemona, copyright, Five Orange Pips production, all rights reserved.