Situated on the Scioto River in south-central Ohio, the city of Circleville, twenty-five miles south of Columbus, is named for its original layout created in 1810 within an 1,100 foot diameter of a circle. The Pickaway County seat of 14,000 people is known for its annual Pumpkin Show, a four-day event held each October that is touted as the biggest festival in the United States dedicated to the winter squash. Billed as the “Greatest Free Show on Earth,” the pre-Halloween party has attracted as many as 400,000 visitors from across the country.

As Halloween ended in 1976, someone was still in the spirit of spooking Circleville. Later that year, a local school bus driver received an oddly written threatening letter. She was soon deluged with others and many Circleville residents and businesses were also finding they had hate mail awaiting them in their mailboxes.

The terrorizing letters circulated through Circleville for nearly eighteen years, totaling in the hundreds. The pre-Internet troll has never been unmasked.

Thirty-three-year-old Mary Gillispie, a married mother of two, worked as a bus driver for Circleville’s Westfall School District. Of the hundreds of people who were ultimately mailed ominous letters, she appeared to be the greatest source of the writer’s ire.

In the first letter, sent in late 1976, the writer claimed to be aware of an affair Mary was having with school superintendent Gordon Massie.

Mary Gillispie And Gordon Massie

The envelope, postmarked from Columbus, bore no return address or signature. The writer got right to the point, warning Mary the extramarital shenanigans had better cease. The letter ominously 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.”

It could not be conclusively determined if the letter had been written by a man or a woman as it was written entirely in capitalized block letters.

The Initial Letter

Mary received a second letter of a similar nature just over a week later.

The Second Letter

In another even more menacing letter received shortly thereafter, the writer threatened to harm Mary’s thirteen-year-old daughter, Traci.

Mary did not tell anyone, including her husband Ron and their children, of the letters.

The Writer Threatens Mary’s Daughter

Another ominous letter arriving in the Gillispie mailbox approximately one week later was addressed to Ron. The writer told him of his wife’s infidelity and again warned of consequences if no action were taken.

Three weeks later, Ron received another letter in which the author threatened to go public, writing, “Gillispie, you have had two weeks to talk and have done nothing. Make her admit the truth and inform the school board. If not, I will broadcast it on CB’s, posters, signs, and billboards until the truth comes out.”

Letter Addressed To Ron Gillispie

When Ron confronted Mary, she adamantly denied the extramarital affair.  By all indications, he believed her.

Ron Gillispie

Within weeks, several Circleville residents had also received similar anonymous letters alleging an affair between the bus driver and the superintendent. Mary suspected one of her coworkers was writing the letters. Fellow bus driver David Longberry was said to be infatuated with her.

Mary and Ron confided their suspicions to three family members: Ron’s sister, Karen, her husband, Paul Freshour, and Paul’s sister. The group decided to give the man they believed to be the writer a taste of his own medicine. Together, they composed several letters which were sent to David Longberry, saying they knew he was writing them.

Initially, the tactic appeared to work as neither the Gillispies nor anyone in Circleville received additional threatening letters for several months.

Mary Suspects A Coworker

On August 19, 1977, however, while Mary and her sister-in-law were vacationing in Florida, the writer appeared to have ended his or her vacation and to have changed tactics.

That evening, Ron received a telephone call at home. Who phoned and what was said is unknown, but the call apparently confirmed his suspicions about the letter writer’s identity.

In haste, Ron grabbed his gun and told his children he was going to confront the letter writer. He jumped into the family pickup parked outside his garage, even though the writer had warned the vehicle was being watched. A short distance from his home, the thirty-five-year-old Ron lost control of the pickup and was killed after hitting a tree.

Ron’s Wrecked Truck

The Pickaway County Sheriff Department’s investigation determined a bullet was missing from Ron’s gun. It was surmised that sometime between leaving his house and hitting the tree, he had fired it, but the reason is unknown, and no one reported hearing the shot.

Additional Photos Of The Scene

An autopsy found Ron had .16% alcohol in his body at the time of his death, one-and-a-half times the legal driving limit in Ohio. The finding surprised many because Ron was not a heavy drinker and his children said he did not appear drunk when he dashed out of the house.

Ron Was Drunk

Both Mary Gillispie and her bother-in-law Paul Freshour said Pickaway Country Sheriff Dwight Radcliff initially told them foul play was involved in Ron’s death. One week later, though, after saying he had investigated and cleared a suspect who had passed a polygraph test, the Sheriff ruled Ron’s death an accident.  It seems probable, but I did not find anything specifically stating that the suspect he cleared was David Longberry.

Mary and her family did not accept the official ruling of her husband’s death as accidental.

Dwight Radcliffe

Pickaway County Sheriff

Mary Gillispie and Gordon Massie eventually acknowledged a relationship but oddly claimed, for reasons that have not been explained, the affair began only after the letters were mailed.Mary retained her job as a bus driver.

Massie’s taking a position with another school district and moving from Circleville brought an end to the affair, but not an end to the letters.

Affair Acknowledged

A new wave of anonymous mailings circulated throughout Circleville following Ron Gillispie’s death. In addition to more residents, recipients included local businesses, government offices, schools, and even the Sheriff’s Office.

This round of letters, most of which were again postmarked from Columbus, alleged Sheriff Radcliff had perpetrated a cover-up in his investigation into Ron’s death.

The New Wave Of Letters Begin

The letters continued sporadically for the following five years before the harassment against Mary Gillispie escalated on February 7, 1983. While driving her bus at 3:30 p.m. after the school day had concluded and all of the children had departed the bus, Mary noticed several signs posted in a Burma Shave style along her route.

Several of the signs contained vulgar language about Traci; one written on a 2 x 4 fence post contained particularly obscene language about the youth. The writing was the same distinctive block type as the letters.

Mary’s Daughter Is Again Threatened

An irate Mary pulled over and tore the sign from the fence post. Behind it, she found a twine box. Inside was a small pistol. Mary thought the device looked like a booby trap, but nevertheless, in her anger, ripped it from the post.

Upon examination, authorities confirmed her suspicions. The device was designed to fire the .25 caliber gun; Mary was fortunate it had not detonated.

An amateur attempt had been made to rub off the serial number. After lab tests retrieved it, Mary, as well as investigators and the city of Circleville, were shocked to learn who owned the gun in the booby trap.

The Booby Trap

The gun was registered to Paul Freshour, who had recently separated from Ron Gillispie’s sister Karen.

Paul, a Quality Control Supervisor at an Anheuser-Busch factory, had purchased the gun from a co-worker; the industrialized sized chalk box that held the weapon was found at the factory. He said he had not seen the gun for some time and contended it must have been stolen, but he had never reported the theft.

Paul Freshour

Mary Gillispie’s Former Brother-In-Law

Eighteen days later, on February 25, Paul agreed to take a polygraph test and to be questioned by Sheriff Radcliff at the Pickaway County Station. He was told only that the gun was linked to the letters and, under the impression he was helping another family member, he consented to a handwriting test. The method in which the test was administered was unusual and has been criticized.

Freshour said Radcliff showed him one of the letters and asked him to copy the handwriting as nearly as he could. Radcliff then verbally dictated another letter, asking Freshour to write it in the same manner. Analysts say these procedures for administering handwriting tests are improper.

Freshour Is Given Odd Handwriting Tests

Afterwards, Freshour showed Radcliff where he had stored the gun at his home. The men then returned to the courthouse where the Sheriff told the prosecutor that Freshour’s handwriting matched that in the letters and that he had failed the polygraph test. Radcliff also said Freshour confessed to him that he wrote between forty and fifty of the letters.

Paul Freshour was arrested for the attempted murder of his former sister-in-law, Mary Gillispie.

Freshour Is Arrested

Mary now believed her former brother-in-law was the Circleville writer. They had had a great relationship prior to Ron’s death, but it eroded afterwards as Freshour was infuriated over her affair with Gordon Massie.

Mary And Paul’s Relationship Deteriorates

Paul Freshour’s trial began on October 24, 1983. Mary Gillispie testified she had not suspected him of writing the letters until August 1982, five years after she received the first letter, when his wife Karen, Ron Gillispie’s sister, told her she believed he may be the author.

Karen testified she had found one letter torn up in a commode and two more hidden in their house. She said she could make out the name Gillispie on them, but she was unable to produce them for the police.

When the letters began surfacing in 1976 and 1977, Paul and Karen were happily married and she had never mentioned any suspicions of his having written the letters. Both had helped Mary draft the letters to David Longberry, the person Mary initially suspected of harassing her.

By the time of the trial, however, Paul and Karen were going through a contentious divorce and the cash-strapped Karen was living in a trailer on Mary’s property.

Karen Freshour 

Paul’s Former Wife

David Wilson, the personnel manager at the Anheuser-Busch factory, testified Paul Freshour had not worked on February 7, the day the booby trap was found. Freshour, however, had an alibi for nearly the entire day. He had told people he was taking the day off to do work around his home, and multiple people testified they saw him doing such work throughout the day.

In addition, no one saw Freshour in the area where the bobby trap was found, and his fingerprints were not on the gun or the booby trap.

Nothing Links Freshour To The Booby Trap

Paul Freshour was not charged as the letter writer, but Judge William Ammer allowed thirty-nine of the letters to be admitted as evidence. Two handwriting experts, one of whom had originally been with Freshour’s defense team, testified the writing on the bobby trap showed similarities to the defendant’s handwriting.

On his attorney’s advice, Freshour did not testify at his trial.

The Letters Are Used Against Freshour At His Trial

Paul Freshour’s previous employment as a prison guard helped land him a role as an extra in the 1980 Robert Redford prison drama film Brubaker. He was about to get a fresh view of prison from the other side.

Paul Freshour In Brubaker

Paul Freshour was found guilty of attempted murder. He was given the maximum sentence of seven-to-twenty-five years in prison. The Circleville community assumed his imprisonment would mark the end of the harassing letters, but they soon learned that “assume” means “u” make and an “ass” out of “me.”

Circleville was again soon littered with letters, and the authorities were figuratively running in circles trying to find the source.

Convicted . . .  

Instead of abating, the vulgar letters increased in volume and vicinity, with upwards of one hundred being received not only in Circleville, but throughout central Ohio. The writer had broadened his or her horizons by including lewd artwork with the foul-language. In addition to more residents, local businesses, and schools, recipients included elected officials and newspapers.

Whereas Mary Gillispie had been the primary focus of the writer’s ire for seven years, these letters accused many Circleville citizens of partaking in frowned–upon activities, ranging from extra-marital affairs to embezzlement and even murder. The factor that remained the same was what baffled authorities the most: the majority of the letters were still postmarked from Columbus.

Paul Freshour, the presumed writer of the earlier letters, was imprisoned in Lima, over ninety miles away. After repeated requests from Sheriff Radcliff, Freshour was put in solitary confinement. He was without any writing materials, his mail was closely monitored, his visitors were not allowed to bring him anything, and he was not allowed to give them anything.

Still, the letters continued in bulk.

. . . But The Letters Continue

And Increase In Volume

After serving seven years in prison, Paul Freshour became eligible for parole in 1990. In the weeks leading up to his parole hearing, the letters increased in volume. Although he was regarded as a model prisoner, Freshour was denied parole, based on the abundance of letters still being sent. The parole board believed he was somehow sending the letters from behind bars.

A few days later, Freshour himself was on the receiving end of a sadistic letter.

Freshour Is Denied Parole . . .

A letter mailed to the inmate read in part: “Now when are you going to realize that you are not going to get out of there? I told you two years ago, when we set them up, they stay locked up. Don’t you listen at all? No one wants you out there. No one. The joke is on you. HA! HA!”

. . . And Is Himself Taunted In The Letters

Several investigations were conducted. Arthur Tate, the Warden at the Lima Correctional Institution where Paul Freshour was confined, wrote letters to the inmate’s new wife, Mary Gillispie, Sheriff Radcliff, and the Pickaway County Prosecutor saying he believed it was impossible for Freshour to have written the letters and to have mailed them from prison.

Both the bus driver and the sheriff, although probably glad to receive a letter that was non-threatening for a change, were not convinced.

The Warden Insists Freshour Could Not Be The Writer

It was announced in December 1993 that the popular television series Unsolved Mysteries would do a segment on the Circleville letters and come to the town for filming and interviews. Several residents soon received letters threatening harm if they spoke to anyone associated with the show, and people working for Unsolved Mysteries also became subject to the writer’s wrath.

While filming the story, several UM producers received postcards reading, “Forget Circleville Ohio: Do Nothing to Hurt Sheriff Radcliff: If You Come to Ohio You El Sickos Will Pay: The Circleville Writer:”

The UM producers did not scare so easily. The story aired on November 11, 1994. It generated leads but failed to unmask the Circleville writer.

The Writer Warns Unsolved Mysteries

In reviewing Sheriff Radcliff’s files, investigative journalist Martin Yant uncovered evidence he believed may have exonerated Paul Freshour.

When she was questioned by Sheriff Radcliff after discovering the booby trap, Mary Gillispie said another bus driver had told her she had driven on the same bus route approximately twenty minutes before the device was found. The first bus driver had noticed an individual near a yellow El Camino parked at the intersection where Mary later found the booby trap. The individual was a large man with sandy hair who did not resemble Paul Freshour. As the bus driver neared him, she said the man turned around quickly and pretended to urinate; she believed he was trying not to be recognized.

Yant says Sheriff Radcliff made no attempt to follow up on this lead and contends that had he done so, he would have found that Paul Freshour’s former wife Karen was dating a man of such physical stature and sandy hair whose brother had a yellow El Camino.

Martin Yant

Investigative Journalist

In May 1994, Paul Freshour was released from prison after serving ten years, still maintaining his innocence.

In their most unamicable divorce prior to his incarceration, Paul fared much better than Karen, in being granted custody of their two daughters, Dawn and Scena, and given the couple’s house and most of their joint assets. As Karen was left virtually penniless, Paul believes his embittered former wife set him up, hoping to get everything he owned in the event he went to prison.

Freshour Fingers His Former Wife

Following Paul’s arrest for the attempted murder of Mary Gillispie, one daughter supported him while the other daughter and son Mark sided with their mother.

Several weeks before the discovery of the booby trap, Paul had told a few people he suspected Mark of having stolen his gun. For years, Paul had had a strained relationship with his son, which he hoped to repair. Martin Yant believes the reason Paul had not reported his gun as stolen is because he suspected Mark was the thief.

On September 11, 2002, the body of thirty-nine-year-old Mark Freshour was found in the Scioto River in Portsmouth, Ohio, sixty miles south of Circleville. He had shot himself. Nothing I found said he was ever suspected of being the Circleville writer.

Mark Freshour

Paul’s Son

Multiple sources state the letters stopped shortly after Paul Freshour was released from prison in 1994, although some sources state they continued sporadically, the last one being received in 2003.

Paul Freshour died at age seventy in 2012, still maintaining he had neither written the letters nor told Sheriff Radcliff he had written many of them.

Freshour Dies

 Still Proclaiming His Innocence

In his over forty-seven years as Pickaway County’s top lawman, Sheriff Dwight Radcliff had a mostly exemplary record. Many, however, believe he developed tunnel vision about Paul Freshour as the author of the letters while others go farther, saying he orchestrated a cover-up that led to the wrong man’s imprisonment.

At the time of his retirement as Pickaway County Sheriff in 2013, Radcliff was the longest-serving Sheriff in the United States, having assumed office in 1965. His son, Robert, succeeded him.

As sheriff and in retirement, Radcliff declined all requests for interviews regarding the Circleville letters. He died in May 2020, at age eighty-seven.

Did The Sheriff Cover-Up?

Martin Yant says his investigation leads him to believe at least three people wrote the Circleville letters, none of them being Paul Freshour. One is David Longberry, Mary Gillispie’s coworker who she initially suspected. He later sexually assaulted a young girl and then committed suicide.

Yant believes Paul Freshour’s contention that his former wife Karen was also involved. The third writer, Yant feels, is William Massie, the then-teenage son of Superintendent Gordon Massie, with whom Mary had had the affair.

All three held grudges against different people in the saga: Longberry was angry at Mary for rebuffing his advances; Karen Freshour was embittered at her former husband for getting nearly everything following their divorce; and young William Massie was a troubled teen who was angry at his father for the affair. I could not find pictures of David Longberry or William Massie.

Or Writers?

Former FBI profiler Mary Ellen O’Toole and forensic document expert Beverly East disagree with Martin Yant. Both women believe the hundreds of Circleville letters were written by the same person. Beyond that, they disagree.

After examining ninety-eight of the letters, O’Toole believes the writer is most likely a female who is callous and had fun writing them. She may have a personality disorder but is not insane; she knows the difference between right and wrong and chooses the latter. O’Toole believes she is a bully in her daily life who thrives on intimidation. The syntax used in the letters is unnatural and leads the profiler to believe the writer does not have much education.

Paul Freshour had a master’s degree. O’Toole doubts he is the writer but cannot definitively say so.  She also does not believe the writer would risk exposing himself or herself by setting a bobby trap in public. She believes the device found by Mary Gillispie was placed by someone other than the writer of the letters.

Forensic document expert Beverly East disagrees with Mary Ellen O’Toole about the letter writer’s gender. Whereas O’Toole says she cannot conclusively say that Paul Freshour was not the letter writer, East leaves no wiggle room in saying she is 100% certain he was the writer of all the letters.

                          Mary Ellen O’Toole                 Beverly East

The Experts Disagree

If Beverly East is correct, Paul Freshour likely wrote a large amount of letters before he was imprisoned and had someone mail them over the course of the decade he was behind bars.

The possibility seems enforced by the case file recently made available to a researcher, which says Freshour’s fingerprints were found on approximately a dozen letters postmarked and mailed while he was incarcerated.

Did Paul Freshour Have A

 Phantom Mailer?

The Pickaway, County, Ohio Sheriff’s Office considers the case of the Circleville Letters to be closed.  Although Paul Freshour was never charged with writing them, they believe he was the culprit and was rightly imprisoned.

Case Closed

The Circleville writer(s), whoever he or she was or whoever they were, apparently knew at least one of the town’s dirty secrets.

Among the many accusations mentioned in the letters was that Pickaway County Physician and Coroner Ray Carroll was a pedophile. In December 1993, he was charged with twelve counts of sex crimes including corruption of a minor, gross immorality, possession of child pornography, and indecent exposure. All charges stemmed from incidents against young girls.

Carroll’s medical license was revoked the following year, but he was never criminally charged with any of the sexual abuse allegations. By the time most of the young girls were old enough to realize they had been molested, the statute of limitations had expired. Subsequent laws were passed in Ohio expanding the statutes to allow a greater time period to bring charges.

Ray Carroll died in 2007 at age eighty-six. I could not find a picture of him.

In a later batch of letters, the writer also accused lawyer Roger Kline, who had prosecuted Paul Freshour, of impregnating and murdering school teacher Vicki Koch. The twenty-five-year-old remedial reading teacher at Circleville’s Jackson’s Elementary School had been beaten to death in 1980. The writer threatened to dig up her bones and mail them to the police unless Kline confessed to the murder.

As far as I can find, these accusations against Kline were without merit and were never addressed by him. He later became an appeals judge on Ohio’s Fourth District Court, serving until retiring in 2013.

The murder of Vicki Koch is unsolved.

                                       Roger Kline             Vicki Koch

Several articles have identified the photo of the blond-haired younger-looking woman on the right as also being Mary Gillispie. Some have spelled her surname with the more traditional “Gillespie.” She could have later dyed her hair and changed her hair style, but the two women do not look the same to me.

My guess is that the blond-haired woman is named Mary “Gillespie” but is mistaken in the articles as the Mary “Gillispie” involved in the Circleville letters.

They Are Not The Same Woman

Sources:

• Cincinnati Enquirer
• Circleville Herald
• 48 Hours
• Columbus Post-Dispatch
• Unsolved Mysteries
• Xenia Daily Gazette