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every once in a while you come across a case that is so bizarre so unlike anything you've ever heard before it's
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hard to believe that it really happened today we're discussing one of those cases it begins with a wife and mother
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going out to get her mail like any other day and opening a letter that would begin a chain of events that would ruin
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many lives in this small pre iously peaceful town I'm Olivia Lavo Creator and host of the case File presents
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podcast the Bakersfield 3 I've teamed up with case File to bring you their stories in a new format Casey and I have
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picked some of case file's most memorable cases to be featured here where the storytelling will be a bit
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different mainly you'll have photos and videos guiding you through the case today's story is based on case number
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266 the Coville writer on behalf of case file we want to give a special thank you
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to author journalist and private investigator Martin yant for his help in putting together this wild story now it
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All Began in the quaint town of Circleville Ohio that prior to this case was most well known for its annual
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Pumpkin Show it's the type of place you he described as a tight-knit community where neighbors are close and people
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don't lock their doors it's a place where people feel safe raising a family like the gpsies one morning in 1977
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33-year-old Mary gpsy opened her mailbox and saw a letter addressed to her in distinct blocky thick handwriting there
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was no return address inside the envelope was a letter that read in part I know where you live I've been
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observing your house and know you have children this is no joke please take it serious and everything will be over soon
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what perhaps made this letter even more chilling was the fact that Mary and her family lived in an isolated area in
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their very small town on a farm their Farmhouse was the only home on the street surrounded by acres and acres of
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land there was also more to the letter something quite specific an instruction of sorts the first line of it read stay
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away from Massie don't lie when questioned about knowing him Mary knew the letter was referring to her
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colleague Gordon Massie Massie was the Logan school district superintendent Mary was a school bus driver for the
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district and shortly before the letter surfaced Mary found out there was a rumor going around the small town of
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Circleville that she and Massie were having an affair and now this letter was clearly taking this rumor as fact and
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warning Mary she better break off the affair with her married colleague but it also told her to report him to the
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school board the only thing that Mary could tell from the letter was that it was postmarked in Columbus Ohio 30 Mi
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away and that the blocky thick handwriting was distinct but not familiar to her Mary was Disturbed but
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wanted to brush it off so she didn't tell anyone about it and tried to go on with her life but a week later that
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distinctive handwriting was back this new letter to Mary Read Lady this is your last chance to report him I know
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you are a pig and will prove it and shame you out of Ohio pigs sneak around and meet other
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women's husbands behind their backs and cause families and homes and marriages to suffer the letter then mentioned
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Mary's 8-year-old daughter saying quote how is your little girl will she grow up
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to be like you but once again Mary wanted to ignore it and told no one about the letter but she wouldn't be
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able to keep it a secret for long one week later Mary's husband Ron was at work at a glass plate Factory when a
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letter showed up for him in that same thick blocky handwriting the anonymous letter told Ron that Mary had been
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sleeping with the school superintendent and said quote you should catch them together and kill them both naturally
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Ron's next move was to confront his wife Mary who was adamant the accusation about her and the affair was not true
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she came clean about the two letters she had gotten from the undoubtedly same person in addition to the matching
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handwriting all three letters were riddled with spelling and grammar errors the writer also had an odd habit of
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using semicolons instead of periods incredibly Ron and Mary decided not to say a word to anyone about the
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letters they were concerned that reporting them might add to the gossip about Mary being unfaithful but 2 weeks
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later a came addressed to Mary's husband Ron gpsy you have had two weeks and done
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nothing you are a pig Defender you are also a pig make her admit the truth and inform the school board if not I will
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broadcast it on posters signs Billboards until the truth comes out good hunting in your red and white truck on your way
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to work let her read this it's no lie I followed her in Massie for 2 weeks and have seen her meet him several times he
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knows what I want when he quits I'll go away your life is in danger and this time the letter did have a return
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address it was to none other than the superintendent Massie which appeared to be the writer just toying with Ron and
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Mary now it was the mention of Ron's red and white truck that made it clear the writer was watching them this is the
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push the couple needed to file a report with lawn enforcement but reporting the letters to the Sheriff's Department
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didn't help they kept coming and they were escalating to disturbing threats against Ron and Mary's 8-year-old
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daughter one letter read I shall come out there and put a bullet in that little girl's head and then the sheriff
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got a call from superintendent Massie it turned out he had also been getting letters and trying to ignore them the
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first note to Massie came 2 weeks before Mary found a letter in her mailbox massie's letter in this entire case is
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Thoroughly reported on by Marie Mayu in her podcast whatever remains in her series on the case Mayhew describes that
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massie's first letter accused him of harassing numerous female bus drivers remember Mary was a school bus driver
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the letter read in part to prey on another man's girl is Untouchable especially when they're out trying to
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make a living I suggest you find yourself a pimple-faced [ __ ] and start up with her and leave my girls alone the
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sheriff also discovered that not long after Massie got a letter so did numerous members of the local Board of
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Education and the superintendent of another nearby District all of the letters demanded that Massie resign and
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leave female bus drivers alone the sheriff couldn't find any information that supported the letter writer's
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claims of Massie acting in a appropriately with any bus drivers or colleagues in general and so it seemed
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everyone agreed Massie was not going to step down now here is where the letter writer turned things up a notch Mary was
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driving her school bus one morning when she noticed numerous signs put up along the side of the road on her usual route
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the signs were vulgar and of course accused Mary and the superintendent of having an affair and this part is very
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disturbing one of the signs said that Mary's Child her very young daughter was also romantically involved with the
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superintendent so now this person is targeting a child publicly and calling the superintendent a pedophile and this
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is a really sad image to think of Ron who was trying to protect his wife and daughter started waking up very early
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every single day to go drive around town looking for new signs and tearing them down before other people in town woke up
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and got on the road needless to say the harassment was starting to take a massive toll on Ron and Mary who were
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constantly looking over their shoulder waiting for the next threat and the hits kept on coming more letters more signs
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and Ron and Mary began to feel that the Sheriff's Office really wasn't doing anything so Ron Enlisted the help of his
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sister Karen and his brother-in-law Paul Paul was a former correctional officer and known for helping deescalate things
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during prison riots so Paul thought he might be able to use those same tactics with the letter writer particularly when
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Paul learned that Ron and Mary had a suspect in mind now while they didn't have proof Ron and Mary told Paul they
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were pretty sure that the writer was another bus driver named David see before the letters began this bus driver
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made an advance towards Mary despite knowing that she was married Mary rejected the bus driver and it seemed he
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never quite got over that it seemed to Mary that he had held a grudge so one day Mary Ron Ron's sister Karen and
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Ron's brother-in-law Paul sat around together and formed a plan together they helped Paul write a letter to their
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suspect the other school bus driver the letter wasn't violent but it sternly told this man to stop and initially it
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seemed that this may have worked the letters stopped coming the writer was leaving them alone or so it seemed
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spring turned to Summer 5 months had gone by since Mary received that first horrible letter with the nightmare
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seemingly over Mary and her sister-in-law Ron's sister Karen decided to go out of town for a much needed
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vacation Ron stayed at home with the kids and that's when late that night their home phone rang Ron and Mary's
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kids observed that while the phone call seemed brief it had clearly upset their dad who slammed the phone down after
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silently listening to whoever was on the other end after hanging up Ron grabbed his gun and kissed his children goodbye
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he told them the letter writer had just called and he would be back soon Ron got
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in his truck and drove off into the darkness 30 minutes later A call came into the Sheriff's Office the caller was
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frantic and said there had been a terrible accident the crash was about 7 miles from Ron and Mary's home deputies
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found Ron's smashed truck it had appeared Ron had crashed headon into a tree driving at a high speed Ron had
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died investigators quickly concluded this was a tragic accident the roads were dark Ron wasn't wearing a seat belt
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and had been speeding the county Corner decided there was no need for an autopsy
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or further investigation but for Ron's heartbroken family it was not that cut and dry for one thing the revolver he
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had grabbed before running out of the house was missing a bullet they could tell that one had been fired but
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couldn't locate it Ron's family also suspected that Ron may have been chasing someone see Ron knew these roads like
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the back of his hand so a high-speed chase seemed most probable to them as to how he could lose control of the wheel
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Ron's brother-in-law Paul was particularly vocal about being upset with the local sheriff for not
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investigating Ron's death as suspicious though the sheriff did reportedly spend some time looking into the possibility
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of Foul Play the case was ruled an accident and closed the only thing that seemed clear about Ron's death was it
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had caused the Circleville writer to stop as the years went by after Ron's death with no more letters coming a
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couple marriages in the small town of Circleville crumbled Ron's sister Karen divorced his brother-in-law Paul and the
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wife of superintendent Massie also filed for divorce once massie's divorce was finalized there was a new couple in town
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superintendent Massie and Ron's Widow Mary began officially dating this is pretty crazy of course because their
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relationship seemed to solidify all of those rumors about them having an affair but Mary was adamant that nothing
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romantic ever happened between the two of them until several years after after her husband Ron died and massie's wife
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filed for divorce and while years went by without any letters eventually they began to resurface and supposedly there
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were various other residents of Circleville who were getting these crazy letters but it seems they really weren't
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investigated and then just before Christmas 1982 5 years after the first letter was sent and Ron died Mary
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received an anonymous letter letter with an unexpected threat the writer told Mary she had 3 months to marry
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superintendent Massie who she was now dating it concluded that if the couple wasn't married by March 1st
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1983 that Mary would find signs along her bus route about her young daughter 2 months later though there was still a
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month left to make good on the writer's demand it seems the Circleville writer ran out of patience one morning as Mary
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drove her school bus near an area where her husband Ron had died 5 years earlier
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she saw a large sign that targeted her now 13-year-old daughter as some of the signs had said in the past this one was
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referring to her daughter and superintendent Massie her now boyfriend making shocking horrific allegations
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again essentially accusing Massie of being a pedophile Mary of course grabbed the sign she pulled it out of the dirt
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by the wooden stake and put it in her school bus later that day Mary took a closer look at the sign and noticed
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there was a black box of sorts made out of cardboard behind the actual sign Mary
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tore it open and found what she believed to be a fake handgun now despite the seemingly low interest from the
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sheriff's department to continue investigating the Circleville letter writer Mary handed over the replica
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handgun to deputies that's when they told her this gun was was not fake Not only was this a very real 25 caliber
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pistol but investigators told Mary that the gun had been meant to be a booby trap the gun was loaded and a trip wire
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was tied around the handle of the trigger who ever had done this had planned for the gun to go off when the
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cardboard box attached to the sign was ripped open investigators told Mary that her decision to remove the sign by
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grabbing it by the wooden AK saved her life as she just grabbed the sign and just ripped it apart right then and
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there as had been done many times to many other signs before the gun would have very likely gone off now while the
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Circleville letter writer had terrified Mary and many others in the town before this officially took things to another
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level and investigators were now finally all over it whoever did this had tried to cover their tracks by scratching off
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the gun's serial number but investigators were able to piece it back together and find the gun's owner the
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man told investigators he had just sold the Gun 3 months earlier to his work supervisor who said they needed
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protection because their family was being harassed are you ready for this it turned out that this coworker who had
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just purchased the gun was none other than Ron's brother-in-law Paul fresh hour as a refresher Mary and her husband
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Ron Enlisted the help of Ron's sister Karen and his brother-in-law Paul Paul was the one who sent the letters to
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Mary's coworker the male bus driver that they suspected might be the Circleville
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letter writer Mary and Karen also went on vacation together and later that night Ron got the call from the
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Circleville writer and went out to confront them which led to his fatal car wreck after which Paul was incredibly
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vocal about his belief that there was Foul Play involved and even accused the sheriff of being corrupt for not
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investigating the crash further in the years since Ron's death Paul and Ron's sister Karen had divorced when
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investigators pulled Paul's work records They saw that he called out sick the day
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that Mary found the sign about her daughter and superintendent Massie the one that had the gun booby trapped on it
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they also found that Paul's workplace a brewery had all the materials that were used to make the booby trap when Paul
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was questioned about this he was adamant that while he had recently purchased that gun that someone else had recently
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stolen it from his garage but the sheriff wasn't convinced particularly after Paul agreed to handwriting tests
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that when compared to the Circleville letter writer there were some striking similarities Paul also failed a
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polygraph test the circle Ville Sheriff confronted Paul with all of this which the sheriff says led to Paul confessing
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now keep in mind this was the early 88s so law enforcement did not routinely record their interviews so this
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confession is not recorded So in this case all we have is the sheriff's description of Paul's confession and
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unfortunately for all of us it seemed Paul never mentioned anything that would explain a possible motive Paul was
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charged with attempted murder of his former sister-in-law Mary he pleaded not guilty and was released on bond shortly
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thereafter after his release Paul admitted himself to a mental health facility and then entered a plea of Not
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Guilty by reason of insanity court appointed forensic psychiatrist found that Paul was mentally fit to stand
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trial and shortly before his trial started he withdrew his Insanity plea he now claimed that the sheriff was lying
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about everything specifically him making that confession in addition to Paul now
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fiercely denying having anything to do with the booby trap or any of the Circleville letters he said that if he
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had been behind the booby trap he would have never used a gun that he knew could
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be traced back to him now keep in mind Paul was only actually being tried for the booby trap incident he wasn't
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charged with writing any of those threatening letters but they were still used as evidence against him and even
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the handwriting expert hired by Paul's own defense attorney apparently testified that they believed Paul's
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handwriting indicated he was the Circleville letter writer when Mary took the stand she told jurors that she never
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suspected her former brother-in-law of being behind the letters particularly because Paul had seemingly tried to help
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Mary and her late husband Ron stop the letters and don't forget Paul was very vocal about believing that Ron's death
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involved Foul Play and pushed very hard for the sheriff's department to investigate it as such but here's a
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crazy tidbit Mary apparently did remember a conversation she had with her sister-in-law and Paul's ex-wife Karen
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where Karen mentioned how before she divorced Paul she found letters floating in their toilet that she said she
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thought resembled the handwriting of the Circleville letter writer I know there are so many questions about that one
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that I wish I could ask but that's all the details we have on that meanwhile Paul's defense team told jurors that
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Paul a highly educated man with a well-paying job would never risk it all in order to try to kill his former
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sister-in-law again there was no clear motive whatsoever and on the day of the incident with the booby trap a day that
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Paul had called out of work he claimed it was because he had work to do around the house and multiple people testified
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saying that they saw Paul at his home that day but ultimately the jury didn't buy it Paul was convicted of the
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attempted murder of his former sister-in-law Mary Paul was sent to prison and the town of Circleville
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thought their letter nightmare was over but of course it wasn't it wasn't long into Paul's prison day that Circleville
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residents started getting letters in that all too familiar thick blocky handwriting investigators believed that
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Paul was some smuggling the letters out from behind bars so he was placed into solitary confinement strip searched
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often and his mail was very very closely monitored and yet even after all of that
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the letters didn't stop investigators then shifted their theory that it must be a copycat though they also knew there
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were stunning similarities between the early letters and the new ones that seemed difficult for someone else to
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replicate now after serving 7 years Paul was eligible for parole before his hearing the letter writer doubled down
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and sent more letters than ever before members of the parole board were not convinced that Paul wasn't somehow
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involved in these new letters so his parole was denied a few days after the parole hearing Paul received a letter
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himself it read now when are you going to believe you aren't getting out of there I told you two years ago when we
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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 haha looking back
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at archived news stories on the case it's clear that the Circleville Sheriff never stopped believing that Paul was
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the culprit the sheriff believed that Paul was somehow pulling off an elaborate scheme of having the letters
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continue to go out while he was in solitary confinement he thought Paul was doing this of course in an effort to
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gain publicity and say look it really isn't me the real perp is still out there and Paul meanwhile always
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maintained his innocence to reporters in the early 90s the popular crime show Unsolved Mysteries decided to pursue the
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case and just before production began a letter was sent to their headquarters in
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the all two thick blocky writing the anonymous letter read forget Circleville Ohio do not hurt Sheriff Radcliffe if
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you come to Ohio you El sickos will pay signed the Circleville writer ultimately
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that would be the last known letter that the circle will writer ever sent now producers were not deterred by this it
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probably made them want to cover it even more and they went ahead with the story
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as planned now while Mary and Paul's ex-wife Karen declined to be interviewed Paul agreed to sit down with producers
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this after Paul was granted parole for serving 10 years behind bars now let's dig into Paul's claims that he was
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framed by the real Circleville writer Some People suspected the real culprit was a relative of superintendent Gordon
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Massie but it seems there really wasn't much credibility to this others speculated that if anyone was going to
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frame Paul it would be his ex-wife Karen who remember was the sister of Ron Mary's husband who died when supposedly
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going to conf front the circle bille writer Some pointed to the fact that Paul and Karen were divorced shortly
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before the booby trap with the sign and the gun led to Paul and that Paul was granted their home and custody of their
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child after Paul was arrested Karen got custody and got to move back into the family home journalist Martin yant
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covered the case extensively he said he's been able to review the case files and found some pretty significant
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unreleased information about 20 minutes before Mary drove past the sign that had
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the booby trap attached to it another bus driver had driven by the area and noticed a yellow El Camino parked in the
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spot where the sign was later found the bus driver said there was a tall man with a heavy build and blondish hair and
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he apparently turned away as soon as the driver passed him seemingly trying to hide from her view now that man did not
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match Paul's physical description at all but reportedly did resemble Paul's ex-wife Karen's new boyfriend
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there's no information out there that the new boyfriend drove in El Camino but apparently according to Martin yance
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sources Karen's brother did but I do not know if it was yellow now I'd like to take note here that Karen was never
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actually considered a suspect by law enforcement and it seems a lot of people really close to the in investigation
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really knowledgeable about the case think that the concept that she may have tried to frame her ex-husband for this
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is simply ridiculous but it seems that someone clearly wanted to make it seem that this was the case you see one of
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the circle Ville letters was sent to the sheriff and flat out said quote I set up
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Paul I can't hardly live with it and it was signed with Karen's name so this suggested to some that the Circleville
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letter writer was trying to frame Karen for framing her husband Paul and this is
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what stands out to me the Circleville letter writer would occasionally sign the letters by people's names
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specifically people that were considered obvious suspects like the superintendent's relative for one and
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other letters had been signed with the superintendent's name so a lot of people thought this was the way of the real
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writer toying with people people by signing the names of people who again would be natural suspects or another
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theory is that the writer was actually trying to frame them and this might be the craziest part of the entire case it
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isn't my opinion while a lot of the focus of the Circleville writer was on Mary and this alleged Affair between her
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and school superintendent Gordon Massie it turns out there were other people in town that the writer had their eye on
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and seem to know very intimate details about them one letter accused the County coroner of being a child molester and
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later on the former coroner was charged with Corruption of a minor and indecent exposure and here's another rather
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chilling detail let's go back to 1980 the circal writer had been sending letters for 3 years at that point that's
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when a 25-year-old Elementary School teacher Vicky cotch goes missing 30 days later her body was found in a cornfield
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some 35 miles away from Vicki's home investigators classified her death as a homicide and not long after the
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Circleville letter writer began sending letters out about the case claiming Vicky had been having an affair with a
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local attorney and was pregnant with their baby the writer accused the attorney of killing Vicki in order to
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keep her quiet and this part is highly disturbing in one letter the writer threatened to dig up a baby's bones and
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start mailing them to random people if Vicky's case wasn't thoroughly investigated which they were
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investigating it so whatever that means and apparently after that letter was sent an infant's grave was dug up at a
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local cemetery and letters with a white powder inside were sent to the sheriff around this same time and the writer
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claimed the powder was Ground Up Bones from an infant but testing showed that the powder was not bones which sounds
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good sounds like a relief to some extent until it turned out that the powder was
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poisonous and let's not forget an infant's grave was dug up now some people out there think that there could
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have been truth to what the circle Ville writer said about Vicki's case but there's never been any evidence to back
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it up including no evidence that Vicki was pregnant and when you look up Vicki's case online the most prevalent
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theory is that she was the victim of a serial killer all this time later though Vicki's case is still unsolved and is
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circleville's only Cold Case homicide now going back to Paul after he was released from prison he continued to try
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to prove his innocence sending extensive information to the FBI he hoped might exonerate him in 2012 Paul died died at
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the age of 70 whether or not he was the writer behind the letters is still heavily debated now the Circleville
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writer was active for 16 years during which 1,000 letters were sent to various Circleville residence that appeared to
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be the work of the writer of these 1,000 letters roughly 500 of them were found to be a match to Paul's handwriting by
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handwriting analysts now it's not clear to me what the consensus was about the other 500 letters but we know that half
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of them were linked to Paul as well as the sign with the booby trap handwriting analysis as evidence is a fairly debated
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topic as well some people think it's reliable other people say it's junk science but journalist Marie Mayhew who
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did a deep dive podcast on this case what remains well she revealed a bombshell about this case she said that
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a dozen of the Circleville letters that were sent while Paul was in prison were found to have his fingerprints on them
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but think about this how is it possible that Paul touched those letters Behind Bars and then could manage to smuggle
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them out and have them postmarked in Columbus Ohio no one has ever been able to figure that out this is one of those
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cases where despite there being a lot of information there are still so many questions and so many aspects that I
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know many people myself included would love more information on on for me I'd really like to know much more about the
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letters that were being sent to other Circleville residents throughout the years besides Mary and the school
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superintendent who all was the writer targeting did it seem that they were as obsessed with exposing other Secrets the
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same way they were obsessed with exposing Mary and massie's alleged Affair To This Day no one has ever
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officially been charged with being the writer behind the letters and the cas is considered closed by law
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enforcement I will be thinking about this one for a while until next time thank you for watching