The Circleville Letters Mystery | Why can't we solve this?

we all keep secrets for most of us these. are nothing more than minor embarrassing. details about ourselves but some of us. have dark secrets which if discovered. could destroy lives for years the. residents of circleville ohio received. bizarre threatening letters from someone. who somehow knew every salacious detail. of their personal lives the letters cost. people their jobs their marriages their. freedom and sometimes their lives over a. thousand letters were sent over 20 years.

yet somehow whoever wrote them got away. with it. let's find out why. [Music]. circleville ohio is about 25 miles south. of columbus in the late 70s it was the. typical small american rural town with a. population of 13 000 circleville has. been described using cliches like nobody. locks their doors and everybody knows. everybody a problem with small towns is. that it's hard to keep secrets this.

story begins in 1976 circleville. residents started receiving anonymous. letters postmarked from columbus. handwritten in strange block letters and. the letters were full of details of. their private lives there was never. return address but the writer was. clearly someone with intimate knowledge. of the town's residence and their. secrets gordon massey was the. superintendent of westfall schools in. circleville when he got to work on the. morning of march 3rd 1977 there was a.

letter waiting for him dear sir. according to my gf you have asked her to. go out many times and have asked the. other female bus drivers too this must. stop at once for the good of the school. and families if they are not stopped i. will be forced to write to the school. board and i would hate to do that the. prey on another man's girl is. untouchable i suggest you find yourself. a pimple face and start up with her and. leave my girls alone. and more letters followed each with. escalating threats one even said they. would cut the brake line in his car if.

he didn't stop sleeping with his. employees that same day a letter arrived. with a school board describing how. massey approached assaulted and. sometimes carried on extramarital. affairs with the female bus drivers the. writer demanded massey be fired he. wasn't he denied everything and there. was no proof of any wrongdoing but a. couple of weeks later the school's vice. principal received a letter near school. talk to gordon massey about his affairs. i shall warn you i know the truth i want.

to protect your school it has a good. reputation you should keep it like that. i shall send you proof about driver. number 62917. she has a child in school there now i. shall prove this shortly i expect him. then to be discharged you'll see that i. am telling the truth. that letter was oddly specific. though he didn't name anyone he used an. employee number only someone with. intimate knowledge of the school and its. employees would have that information. they looked up the number 62917.

it belonged to bus driver mary gillespie. [Music]. mary gillespie was not someone you'd. suspect of a scandal she had a nice. group of friends and a close family who. lived nearby and according to everyone. who knew her mary was a good friend an. attentive mother to her two children and. a loving wife to her husband ron mary. led a quiet life but that would all. change in march 1977. mary opened her mailbox and found a.

strange anonymous letter and written in. eerie block letters stay away from. massey don't lie when questioned about. knowing him i know where you live and. have been observing your house and know. you have children this is no joke please. take it serious everyone concerned has. been notified and everything will be. over soon. this is upsetting but rather than tell. her husband ron she kept this to herself. and over the next few weeks more and. more letters came in and each one was. more threatening than the last and each.

revealing more personal information the. writer obviously knew where she lived. but also what bus she drove and the. names of her husband and her children. still she ignored the letters so the. writer raised the stakes he wrote. directly to mary's husband ron gillespie. the circle the letter was gaining. confidence the letter to ron described. his wife's affair with massey and. threatened to kill him if he did nothing. about it the writer claimed to know. where ron worked and described his. vehicle a red and white pickup truck ron.

and mary were definitely being watched. and when ron confronted mary about the. letter she denied having an affair with. gordon massey but she admitted she'd. been receiving similar letters for a few. weeks they decided once again to ignore. them but two weeks later ron received. another the letter writer had now. changed the handwriting to be even. blockier probably to make it harder to. trace and this letter informed ron that. he knew that he had done nothing about. mary's affair with massey and if she. didn't admit the truth the writer. threatened to put up signs and.

billboards and broadcast the truth on cb. cb radio yeah the buses communicated. with each other with cb wow cb takes me. back it does oh yeah i used to drive. truck in the 80s really. this is hecklefish at the chop express. and i'm talking to whoever's listening. out there it's like i told my last wife. i says honey i never drive faster than i.

can see besides that it's all in a. reflexes. you're called classic that was a good. one anyway besides the letters mary and. ron started getting phone calls from the. person they believed was writing them. they didn't know what to do or who to. tell about the threatening letters and. calls so they went to the people they. trusted the most their family this. turned out to be a huge mistake.

to fight back against the anonymous. letter writer ron and mary gillespie. enlisted the help of ron's sister and. her husband karen and paul freshhauer. they put together a list of suspects. from the beginning mary suspected. another school bus driver named david. longberry david made a few passes at her. and became resentful when she rejected. him so they decided that paul freshhour. would write to david longberry in their. letters they told david that they knew. what he was doing and threatened to go. to the police if he didn't stop. immediately.

they stopped and everyone's life went. back to normal oh boy what this is the. part where you say everything was fine. until in august 1977 the letters and. phone calls had stopped but now. signs appeared suddenly ron and mary. began seeing signs posted all over the. town. written in the same crude block letters. they accused gordon massey of having an. affair with mary some even accused. massey of having an affair with mary's. daughter tracy who is only 12 years old. yeah this isn't cute anymore i hate this.

guy i get it so did ron and mary in fact. every morning ron would get up early and. drive around town removing all the signs. he could find so his wife and daughter. wouldn't see them on their way to school. but things get worse. mary gillespie went out of town to clear. her head ron stayed home in circleville. with the kids on the evening of friday. august 19th the gillespie's home phone. rang the caller said he was watching the. gillespie house and he knew what ron's. truck looked like this set ron off he.

started ranting that he recognized the. voice as the letter writer and was. finally gonna put a stop to this so he. grabbed his pistol kissed his daughter. goodbye hopped in his red and white. pickup and tore out into the night he. find the guy ron gillespie never made it. home oh no. [Music]. around 10 25 pm just a few minutes after. ron gillespie left his house on his way. to confront the letter rider his red and.

white 1971 ford pickup crashed into a. tree though just a few miles away from. his house on familiar roads ron. apparently failed to make a turn he was. partially thrown from the truck and. declared dead on arrival at the hospital. when pickaway county sheriff dwight. radcliffe arrived at the scene something. looked strange a bullet had been fired. from ron's gun but there was no bullet. hole anywhere and no actual bullet just. an empty casing the gillespie family was.

convinced this was no accident they. believed ron had caught up with the. letter rider took a shot at him and lost. control of his truck while in pursuit or. they thought maybe ron was run off the. road but an autopsy showed ron's blood. alcohol level was 0.16 twice the legal. limit as far as the sheriff was. concerned this was the answer ron had. too much to drink left the house in a. rage and lost control of his vehicle. case closed the gillespie family wasn't. having it ron wasn't much of a drinker.

and he wouldn't leave his kids in the. house alone unless he was dealing with. something urgent they wanted the sheriff. to investigate further but he wouldn't. sheriff radcliffe called the whole thing. an accident ron's family demanded to. look at the truck but they couldn't it. was sent to a junkyard and crushed just. days after the incident it was later. learned that there was a suspect in. custody but they passed a polygraph test. it's assumed the suspect was david. longberry but his name was never. released the town now had more questions.

than answers why did the sheriff. suddenly change his mind who was the. suspect why was the car quickly disposed. of and why is the sheriff refusing to. investigate the town of circleville now. had a conspiracy on its hands and the. letters kept coming now people were. receiving letters claiming the sheriff. was covering up the truth. nobody was more vocal about this than. paul freshhauer ron's brother-in-law but. sheriff radcliffe wouldn't budge and two. years later we get a twist.

two years after the death of her husband. ron mary gillespie finally admitted to. having a relationship with gordon massey. but but but but but she said the affair. started in 1979 after receiving the. letters oh come on. she said the stress and the trauma. brought them together look i ain't. buying whatever she's shoveling hey.

that's what she said well she did the. time might as well do the crime eh. that's one way of looking at it mary. hoped that finally being open about her. relationship with gordon massey the. letters would stop they didn't stop did. they they kept coming over the next. seven years mary gillespie received. almost 40 letters she was called a. cheater a homewrecker a murderer some. letters threaten the lives of her. children the signs continued too graphic. images and vulgar language about her. were posted all over town specifically. placed on her bus route so she and her.

children would see them in 1983 mary had. enough she was driving her school bus. near the intersection where her husband. ron died a few years earlier there she. saw a sign posted that talked about. massey and an inappropriate relationship. with mary's daughter using very obscene. language she stopped the bus and went to. grab the sign. then she noticed a piece of string. connecting the sign to a box about the. size of a shoebox and inside the box was. a handgun propped up by styrofoam blocks.

and the string was connected to the. trigger when the police examined it they. told her the gun was loaded and set to. fire if mary had pulled on the sign by. standing in front of it she would have. been shot in the face or chest point. blank the circle of the letter writer. was no longer just a nuisance he wanted. to trade ink for blood but whose gun was. this don't tell me the serial number was. filed off it was but one of the. forensics technicians was able to.

recover it the gun belonged to a man. named wes wesley uh who the hell is wes. wesley wesley worked at enhancer bush in. columbus when police asked them about. the gun he said yes it was his but he. recently sold it to his supervisor at. work it was a supervisor paul fresh hour. what. so the gun belonged to paul fresh hour. the man who kept trying to find answers. to mary's husband's death the man mary. and ron first went to to help with the.

letter writer when the police questioned. ron fresh hour about the gun he freely. admitted that it was his but it had been. stolen a few weeks earlier. he just forgot to report it. according to company records paul had. taken the day off the day the trap was. placed but he had an alibi still the. sheriff brought him in for questioning. paul insisted he was being framed and. the letter writer was behind everything. and if the sheriff had done his job and. caught whoever was writing the letters.

mary would have never been in danger and. ron would still be alive well the. sheriff showed paul fresh hour a few of. the circleville letters he asked paul to. copy them as best as he could which he. did he then asked paul to write a few. sentences using that same handwriting if. he could so paul did the sheriff looked. at what paul had written and claimed. this was a perfect match and placed paul. fresh hour under arrest for the. attempted murder of mary gillespie. [Music]. what the sheriff told him to copy the. lettuce yup and that's how the.

handwriting matched uh-huh no any judge. would throw that evidence right out well. paul fresh hour was found guilty and. sentenced to seven to 25 years in prison. what. that's some sloppy police work but at. least they finally got the guy and while. fresh hour was in prison don't tell me. the letters kept coming oh no. [Music]. while in prison paul freshauer continued.

to claim that he was innocent he was. imprisoned in lima ohio over 100 miles. from circleville yet somehow the letters. kept coming and like always they were. anonymous written in that weird blocky. handwriting and postmarked columbus ohio. by now the letters were going all over. central ohio not just circleville the. prosecutor in paul's case was accused of. corruption the coroner who did ron. gillespie's autopsy was accused of child. abuse which actually turned out to be. true so who knows maybe there was a.

cover-up over a thousand letters went. out and some were even dusted with. poison. sheriff radcliffe demanded that the. warden get paul fresh hour under control. the warden insisted there was no way. paul could be writing these not even. putting paul in solitary confinement. stopped the letters so in 1990 after. being in jail for seven years paul fresh. hour was up for parole the parole board. said that his ongoing campaign of hate. mail proves he's not ready to enter. society the warden even spoke up for.

paul and said he was a model prisoner. and absolutely could not be writing the. letters still his parole was denied and. shortly after that paul received a. letter of his own fresh hour 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. hell no one of this letter i saw the. paper great news great the sheriff loved.

it. do you believe it now do you. wait wait did they say when we set him. up yeah it did interesting isn't it they. finally released paul fresh hour from. prison in 1993 after 10 years he. proclaimed his innocence until his death. in 2012. around the same time paul was. released from prison the circleville. letters stopped and there hasn't been. one since when paul fresh hour was. arrested this case was officially closed. but there are so many unanswered. questions but even after all these years.

the case is still fascinating every. major true crime tv show blog and. podcast have covered the circle of the. letters case even the show unsolved. mysteries did two episodes on it in 2021. the cvs program 48 hours had two fbi. experts examine the letters one said. paul definitely wrote them the other. said paul definitely didn't write them. so let's look at the evidence and see if. we can figure out who done it.

[Music]. there are a few theories here are the. primary suspects some think the answer. is simple paul fresh hour did it it was. his gun his handwriting that's it now. could paul have sent hundreds of letters. from prison unnoticed all postmarked. columbus ohio over 100 miles away no. sure i guess it's possible nope some. think it was david longberry the bus. driver who made a pass at mary who. rejected him longbury was troubled he.

got caught abusing a young girl and left. town in 1993 to avoid prosecution it was. around this time that the letter stopped. but there is a large group of people. including professional investigators. like martin yant who think paul's wife. karen deserves a closer look while all. this was going on paul and karen. freshhour were going through an ugly. divorce really really nasty when martin. yant was investigating the case he said. he'd never seen someone hate another. person as much as karen hated her.

ex-husband paul fresh hour yet. discovered a witness that could have. possibly exonerated paul and she made. herself available to the defense but was. never called she was also a bus driver. who had the same route as mary about 20. minutes before mary found the trap this. witness says she saw a tall man with. sandy brown hair near the sign and. parked next to the sign was a yellow el. camino why is this important well first. of all paul was short with dark hair but.

at the time karen freshhour was dating. someone and he was described as tall. with sandy brown hair any chance karen's. boyfriend had an el camino no. but karen's brother did oh no the wife. did it paul was framed maybe. karen had multiple motives mary had. cheated on her brother ron who is now. dead and if she could frame paul for the. murder well that solves two big problems. for karen if you read the divorce decree. paul pretty much got everything the.

house retirement savings the kids but if. paul goes to jail. karen gets everything in fact paul. insisted this was her plan all along. paul even believed his son mark stole. his gun a few weeks before the incident. paul didn't report it because he didn't. want to see his teenage son go to jail. and paul's son mark became severely. depressed and took his own life in 2002. and some have speculated that he just. couldn't deal with the guilt anymore and. karen testified against paul that she. had found dozens of letters in her home.

that she claimed paul wrote when the. court asked her to produce those she. said she threw him away also during the. divorce proceedings karen visited paul's. sister and asked to borrow a typewriter. and paul's sister thought this was an. odd request yet at about the same time. the circleville letters were no longer. handwritten they came typed martin yant. does not paint a very nice picture of. karen freshhour but others come to her. defense saying she was a victim of. domestic abuse and that paul was the.

culprit all along okay so who did it. well nobody really knows but i think it. started with gordon massey's son william. and potentially david longberry the. early letters were very specific and. contained details that you'd only know. or even care about if you worked in the. school district karen and paul freshhour. knew mary but they wouldn't know her. employee number and once mary and ron. gillespie shared the letters with the. fresh hours i think the fresh hours. found a way to wage an anonymous war.

against each other while going through. their bitter divorce things quickly got. out of control as they tend to do and. lots of people got hurt but i can. understand why all the players in this. story are portrayed the way they are the. story of the circle of the letters has. so many layers of mystery it's only. natural that if we can't solve the. puzzle let's at least try to put some. pieces in place and every good story. needs a hero that's paul freshhour a. husband a father wrongfully accused and. sent to prison the villain is karen a.

vindictive wife obsessed with destroying. her husband mary is cast as deceitful. and unfaithful who had an affair that. set the entire story in motion ron is a. victim a man trying to protect his. family who had the courage to confront. his attacker and whether by accident or. not was killed but the more you look. into the story and i encourage you to do. so there is a ton of material about it. you'll see that each of these characters. is not so black and white. everyone is a shade of grey now i have a.

hard time believing paul fresh hour was. the only letter writer but also he. wasn't the saint that a lot of the. podcasts claim him to be. and karen isn't as awful as is widely. reported in my opinion the circleville. mystery has no villains it also has no. heroes all this story has is victims and. if you want to solve this mystery. because of curiosity i think that's okay. everyone loves a puzzle but there are. some people who want to solve the.

circleville letters because they think. justice wasn't served and they want. someone to pay. i'd encourage those people to really. think about what these families and the. community endured for 20 years before. demanding punishment they should ask. themselves. haven't these people been through enough. thanks so much for hanging out with me. today my name is aj that's hecklefish. this has been the y files if you had fun. or learned anything do me a favor and. like subscribe comment share all that.

stuff really helps a small channel until. next time be safe. be kind and know that you are. appreciated. did i hit that is that on there look. it's i'm leaving it. [Music].

you.