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foreign [Music] [Music] garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for listening I'm your host
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Nick and with me as always is a man that would like to point out that your neighbors are not the folks that they
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appear to be here is the captain it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling
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a friend [Music] this week we are more than excited to be featuring don't worry my mom said it's
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cool by our friends at hoof hearted brewing in Marengo Ohio this is a Bourbon Barrel aged Imperial birthday
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cake Stout brewed with astronaut ice cream ABV 12 that's right my mom said it's cool cool
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enough to earn four and a half bottle caps out of five and you know who else is cool our friends right here first up
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a cheers to Jessica on Long Island and a big shout out to Krista in Huntington Beach California next up we have a shout
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out to Carolyn in Toronto and a big we like your tip to Kell in cicane Pennsylvania next up here we go with the
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cheers to Veronica and Minneapolis Minnesota and last but certainly not least we have a cheers and a big Ron
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Swanson please and thank you that goes out to Jennifer in Atlanta Georgia everyone we just just mentioned they
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helped us fill up the fridge for this week's case here in the garage yeah bwr-u-n Beer Run go to our website true
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crimegargarans.com sign up on our mailing list if you want discounts on the store Page also if you need more
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man while you're at it are you thinking about how great this show is leave us five stars
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it really helps it really goes a long way to support the show and that's enough of the business that's right
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Captain sign up on that mailing list if you want us to love you right back all right kiddos gather round grab a chair
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grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] I want everyone to stop for a second
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think about the life you have worked so hard to build and the relationships you have created and maintained
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think about your job sure some days it's a real drag but most of the time you don't know what you or
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more importantly your family would do without that job and career what if that paycheck stopped coming in
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how quickly would those bills start piling up how quickly would you be at risk of
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losing it all everything what would you do would your family turn their backs on
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you and say you did this to yourself or would they stand by you and support but even if they did would you be able
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to face them now I want all of our male listeners to stop and think about their situation
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and this will hit even harder for the husbands and fathers in that group picture this
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you are at work and you receive the following letter it is addressed to you by name at your
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workplace the letter has no return address but you can tell from the postmark it
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was mailed from a nearby City it reads dear sir according to my girlfriend you have
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asked her to go out many times and have asked the other female co-workers too due to your position and their jobs you
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should not do this this must stop at once for the good of all involved if this does not stop I will be forced
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to write to the board members and I'd hate to do that to pray on another man's girl is
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untouchable especially when they are out trying to make a living there's also talk of you dating a
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married woman and taking advantage of them do you need time and names again please think
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I suggest you find yourself a pimple-faced [ __ ] and start up with her and leave my girls alone
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now to all the ladies listening who share all of the same concerns as the men picture this
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you are at home after a long day at work you walk out to your mailbox to retrieve
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the Daily Mail you pull the short stack from the box and see the usual catalog advertisement
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the electric bill and then what is this on the bottom of the stack it's a letter addressed to you
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with no return address but you can tell from the postmark it was mailed from The
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Busy City not too far up the highway from your town you open the envelope it is a handwritten letter
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that reads stay away from your boss don't lie when asked about knowing him I know where you
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live I have been observing your house and I know that you have children this is no joke
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please take it serious everyone concerned has been notified and everything will be over soon
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now regardless of which Camp you fall into receiving such an ominous letter and from an anonymous source no doubt
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would be of concern to any of us even the most honest and innocent of us would want to know why they received the
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letter and why the threatening pen pal refused to sign a name or leave a return address
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even if you could just brush it off what do you do when you receive another letter and then one after that
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and regardless if the implied or otherwise allegations are true or false most of us have a secret
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some more than one or two would you want to be outed at work would you want your secrets brought into
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the light and again even if the allegations are false you will wonder why me why did I receive these letters
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why did I receive this threat how can I stop something that is not happening and then it occurs to you
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maybe I'm not the only person who's received such letters and if I'm not the only one who else
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what do the other letters say and is it about me and more importantly why does the writer know where I work in
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my job title why does the writer know where I live and why is the writer watching me and my
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children this is true crime garage foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] would it be an understatement Captain to
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say that Unsolved Mysteries is one of the most True Crime Buffs favorite shows of all time yeah and if you don't know
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you better ask somebody ask somebody just some random person you better call Tyrone in season 7 episode 6 of Unsolved
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Mysteries this is back in the Robert Stack days the good old days as they say Unsolved Mysteries ran a segment titled
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poison pen which nowadays most people refer to that case that they were talking about under several different
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names and these would be the Circleville writer or the Circleville letters or the
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letter writer it has many names when you start to dive into this case and I have seen online many people
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saying that this is one of the masses favorite Unsolved Mysteries episodes of all time which makes sense it's a very
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intriguing mystery right here in our own home state of Ohio and I remember seeing
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this episode when I was a kid and who doesn't like a mystery where there's letters involved that's correct
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everybody likes a mystery with letters involved now because this is such a complicated case in my humble kernel
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opinion it has a lot of moving parts and pieces I would like to go through Unsolved
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Mysteries original overview of the case and then we can dive into it and further
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detail starts off Circleville Ohio is a small town south of Columbus it's a place that
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rarely attracts outside attention but in the 70s frightening letters started to arrive
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the first letter was received by Mary Gillespie school bus driver telling her that the letter writer was
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aware that she was having an affair with the superintendent of schools and that it had better stop in addition to
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allegations of an affair the letter carried an ominous threat it read in part I know where you live I've been
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observing your house and I know you have children this is no joke please take it
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serious the envelope was postmarked Columbus Ohio there was no return address no
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signature inside no way to tell who sent it now a week later Mary received another
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letter with a similar tone Mary kept the letters to herself though until her husband Ron also received one
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according to journalist Martin yant quote this letter addressed to Ron Gillespie told him that if he didn't do
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something to stop this affair that his life was undoubtedly in danger end quote the alleged Affair became the talk of
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Circleville the mysterious Rider understood the power of Gossip the next letter was even more threatening it read
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in part quote Gillespie you have had two weeks and done nothing make her admit the truth and inform the school board if
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not I will broadcast it on CBS posters signs and billboards until the truth comes out
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so this one sounds to me Captain like it would be a letter again addressed to Ron
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Gillespie he is the husband of the woman accused of having the affair with the superintendent in this letter the writer
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is threatening hey I told you about this affair you've had two weeks to tell the
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school board or to uh yeah to inform the school board and you've not done that if you don't do something soon I'm going
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to broadcast this on CBS which back in the day more people had Seabees than they have today not just in their
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vehicles but some people kept them in their homes or their garages and would turn them on listen to them and even
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talk on there people even had big musical hits like CW McCall with Convoy they would discuss these CB radios and
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the lingo and how to conduct yourself while on the CB Radio and such but this is also a threat
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right this is hey if you don't do this I'm writing you to tell you about this affair you've been made aware you
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haven't done what I've asked you I'm going to announce this on CB radios I'm gonna put up these posters and signs
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everybody's going to know the truth will come out well and here's what's kind of
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confusing to me you would think that the writer would be mad at the superintendent or
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the wife for having an affair but it seems like he's targeting the guy that's a victim in all this yes
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it's weird it's like I've wrote to your wife threatened her she didn't do anything so now I'm writing to you and
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I'm giving you tasks right to complete now according to Unsolved Mysteries Mary and Ron evidently told three people
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about the letters that they were receiving this would be Ron's sister Linda fresh hour her husband Paul
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freshauer and Paul's Sister Mary had an idea about who was sending the letters and she had a plan according to Paul
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freshauer Mary and Ron Gillespie's brother-in-law quote we thought we'd scare the guy we sent him four or five
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letters there was no violence in them or anything just that we knew who he was and what he was doing and we sent him
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the letters end quote for a while they say the plan worked the threatening letter stopped but then on August 19 19
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1977 Ron received a phone call seemed to confirm Ron's suspicions about the identity of the letter writer
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according to journalist Martin yant quote he told his children he was going out to confront the letter writer he
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took his weapon he did not seem to be drunk said goodbye to his children and went out
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now angry and upset Ron hurried to the family's red and white pickup truck even though at one time the letter writer had
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said he was watching that vehicle according to Martin yamp I we should point out who Martin yant is since we
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keep referencing him from Unsolved Mysteries he worked in the Greater Columbus area for decades he's a very
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good journalist and reporter and has done lots of great work over the years here in our area so he's interviewed at
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length on Unsolved Mysteries and this is another quote from him within a short distance this is in regards to Ron
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leaving that night within a short distance at an intersection that Ron knew very well he lost control of the
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vehicle hit a tree and was killed somewhere between leaving the house and hitting that tree his gun had fired one
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shot and there was never any explanation for when or how or at whom that gun could have been fired
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the police ruled Ron Gillespie's death an accident but several Circleville residents soon received Anonymous
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letters accusing the sheriff of a cover-up Ron Gillespie's brother-in-law Paul freshauer said the sheriff had changed
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his story saying that the sheriff agreed with him with Paul that there was Foul Play and
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then when Paul contacted the sheriff again the sheriff changed his attitude completely
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then he was telling Paul that it wasn't Foul Play and that a suspect had passed a polygraph test well wouldn't they know
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if he fired a gun that day or not will there be evidence of that there would be if you test for that
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there also could be other ways of finding that that evidence so we don't know if they tested for that or if they
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did test for that they're not homeless from what I found Captain they didn't test for that I don't know if if uh GSR
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gunpowder residue or whatever you want to call it if that was available it was I talked to the source saying that would
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have been available and my because my argument is if he fired the gun at at somebody and then he ran off the road
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and hit this tree and died to me that that leans towards Foul Play If the gun was never shot and it was
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just found within the car and he hit a tree okay you know possibly just an accident
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exactly you're exactly right there so everyone at the time wanted to know and still to
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this day was Ron Gillespie's death an accident or was it Foul Play and of course why had one bullet been
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fired from his handgun after Ron's death the letters kept coming his wife Mary and the super
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his wife Mary and the superintendent of schools eventually admitted to a relationship but said it began after the
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letters were sent Mary kept her job driving a school bus but beginning in 1983 the letter writer
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began putting signs along her bus route so let's point out here though captain that the truck accident involving the
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death of Ron Gillespie was 1977. now on the Unsolved Mysteries overview of this case we are at 1983 on the timeline the
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letters have continued for all of this time and at this point in 83 the letter writer began putting signs along Mary
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Gillespie's bus route Mary's daughter was being targeted with some of the slander and nasty things that were being
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put on these signs again according to Martin yant Mary finally took action she ripped down a
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sign much to her surprise behind the sign was a box and string and also another post that was attached to a
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fence post she took it into the bus and she opened it up and there was a small pistol
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when she looked closer Mary realized that it was a crude booby trap designed to fire the gun at her or whoever
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removed the sign investigators discovered that someone had tried to rub the serial number off of the gun but
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when lab tests were able to read it accurately the case took an incredible turn the gun belonged to Mary's
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brother-in-law Paul freshauer of course Paul denied any involvement according to Paul quote I admitted the
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gun was mine but I hadn't seen it for a long time I had no reason to check up on
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it or anything and I don't know when it had come up missing I really don't know what happened to it and I told them that
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and that's the truth and that's how it was end quote do you know if other people saw these signs on the road if
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there was eyewitnesses to this or if it was just she had a car full of signs and and this booby trap
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um it sounds like there may have been there's also a eyewitness to say that there was no trap setup or no sign that
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they saw 20 minutes to 30 minutes before it was supposedly found the other thing that's
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also not clear is if she was the only one on her bus at the time that it was found
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but what ends up being the result Captain is on February 25th 1983 Sheriff Dwight Radcliffe asked Paul freshauer to
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take a handwriting test Paul agreed to this and says quote he would give me an actual letter and ask me maybe to do the
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envelope part just as near as I could to the envelope and then on some he would take the actual letter out and have me
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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 end
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quote Martin yant said that this is not the correct way to conduct handwriting analysis of course that's not the
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correct way to conduct handwriting analysis Martin yet goes on to say that is not
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the proper way to test to see if someone has a certain writing style because if they're copying from a letter they're
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going to try to emulate the style so they didn't really say that these letters were written by Paul freshauer
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they said that they could have been written by Paul freshauer the sheriff also searched Paul's Garage Paul
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freshauer was charged with attempted murder and Paul goes on to say he meaning the
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sheriff called the prosecutor and told the prosecutor that it was my writing on the booby trap and I was under arrest
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for attempted murder later that year in October of 1983 Paul freshauer went on trial for the attempted murder of his
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sister-in-law Mary Gillespie Paul freshauer never took the stand in his own defense it was a decision he would
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come to regret Paul was found guilty of attempted murder he said the verdict was completely
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unexpected Paul freshauer was given the maximum sentence for attempted murder 7 to 25 years everyone assumed that he had
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written the Circleville letters and everyone figured that they would stop once Paul was in prison everyone was
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wrong journalist Martin Yan quote they were being received all over a large area of Central Ohio so a lot of people
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couldn't understand how Paul freshauer could be mailing all these letters from prison
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following repeated complaints from Sheriff Radcliffe the warden of the prison had Paul placed in solitary
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confinement but the letters still continued all of them were postmarked from Columbus even though Paul was
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imprisoned across the state in Lima Martin yance said the warden became convinced that Paul was not writing the
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letters saying that a full-scale investigation was conducted twice possibly three times during which Paul
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freshauer was put into isolation and the warden of the prison then wrote a letter
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saying that as far as he was concerned it was impossible for Paul to be writing these letters and sending them from
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prison for seven years Paul was a model prisoner but when he became eligible for
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parole the parole board rejected his request based on the letter still being sent a few days after his hearing Paul
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himself received a sadistic letter from The Phantom writer it read in part now when are you going to believe you aren't
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going to get out of there I told you two years ago when we set him up they stay set up don't you listen at all in May of
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1994 Paul freshauer was finally granted parole after serving 10 years to this day he maintained his innocence
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he's sure that the real criminal is still at Large the Circleville letters finally stopped
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but many questions remain who actually wrote the letters was Ron Gillespie's death an accident or was he murdered and
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who made the booby trap found by Mary Gillespie [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh foreign
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[Music] [Applause] [Music] all right we're back cheers mates he's back I'm back we're all back cheers to
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my friend Jerry Reeves he partied more than most of them but he was always the life of the party
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cheers to you my friend you will be sadly missed we will pour a little out for you that was the rundown captain
00:24:47
from Unsolved Mysteries when they covered this case titled it the poison pen and it's one of people's favorites
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favorite segments of the show and it had so many great segments to choose from over the years now I didn't laid out
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there as well as uh Robert Stack would have or the wonderful people over at the program would have back in the day but
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that was their General Overview at Unsolved Mysteries back then if you've only watched the
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current ones you're unaware of this but back then they did segments you would tune in it was an hour-long show they
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would cover often cover a couple different cases and a lot of times the cases had nothing to do with one another
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that's why the show was so great and so interesting if one case didn't catch your interest the next one would and
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sometimes they're not just talking about True Crime they're talking about ghosts
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or aliens or Bigfoot and one quote or I'm sorry one post that I saw online that I thought was
00:25:46
absolutely brilliant a guy that nailed it he said you know I used to watch this show when I was a kid and the worst
00:25:53
thing in the world was after you would watch Unsolved Mysteries I think it aired at eight or nine o'clock at night
00:25:59
so it's not getting over till nine or ten depending on where you lived but he said the worst thing in the world was to
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watch Unsolved Mysteries and at the end of the program being told by your parents that you had to take the trash
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out to the street he said he was terrified every time that that would happen one to be honest with the
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audience you would have done a better job of the breakdown if our show paid you more yes I've been asking for more
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for more pay one of the best things and I think you probably can agree with me by watching the old Unsolved Mysteries
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was towards the end of the episode you might be watching about a case that you're so wrapped up into and fascinated
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and all of a sudden change of music sound of the alarms update and it would be an update on the case that they were
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just talking about because sometimes they had the sometimes they had recorded and
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filmed that segment months in advance and the case had moved along since their production of that case which was always
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really exciting in this case because there's such a mystery of who was writing these letters was it one
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individual was it a group of people but they cover the story almost 10 years later
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and then they receive a letter themselves yes so they are covering the story after
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Paul fresh hour is released from prison so many years after the fact and they're
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covering it because not only is there this mystery writer that's out there but now we have the story of okay well this
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guy that everybody thought that did it that tried to kill this woman that was writing all these letters he was locked
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up and he couldn't have possibly been writing these letters while he was locked up for practically 10 years
00:27:47
so in December of 1993 Unsolved Mysteries received a postcard at their offices and the postcard was they called a
00:27:59
postcard but I'll describe it here in a minute it was as they say a threat designed to keep them from telling the
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story of the Circleville writer and what I'm a little curious about here Captain is the way that they word that
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is that they must have done some of the production if not all of the production for this segment
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and then received this threat VIA mail snail mail before actually airing it because it would be a little weird if
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they hadn't even done any of the production yet how would this writer or whoever sent this postcard as they call
00:28:38
it even know that they were going to cover the story yeah my suspicion is that they had a crew go to Circleville
00:28:44
and it'd be in such a small town word would get out quickly oh by the way I mean and Unsolved Mysteries was a huge
00:28:53
hugely popular show Unsolved Mysteries down in our little town what are they talking about oh they're asking about
00:29:00
the Circleville letters and at the very least they would have been in the Greater Columbus area because we know
00:29:06
that they recorded interviews with Martin yant and with Paul freshauer as well so what they called a postcard I
00:29:15
don't know that that's the best description at least not the one that I would give it what it looks to me is
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like somebody took almost like a three by five card and kind of cut the corners on it so it almost appears to look like
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like a tag at a tag sale an old school tag sale yeah and somebody wrote in small block letters all capitalized
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forget Circleville Ohio do nothing to hurt Sheriff Radcliffe if you come to Ohio you L sickos will pay signed
00:29:45
the Circleville writer then all the letters that we do have I will try to post those on our
00:29:52
Instagram Facebook or Twitter and there's some people that might not be familiar with this case captain and
00:29:59
they're going what do you mean all the letters that you quote do have well they're depending on the sources
00:30:07
it's listed as high as 1 000 letters that were sent throughout the years and the thing is as great of coverage as
00:30:17
Unsolved Mysteries did on the case we need to open it up because their little segment sounds very centralized makes
00:30:26
the case very compact that we have these few people that were involved in this case that this writer
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was writing letters to Mary Gillespie her husband and we also have the involvement of
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their brother-in-law and Ron's sister we have the mention of the superintendent of the schools where Mary worked for and
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it's all very centralized in Pickaway County but this case expands years the letters expand for years
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and the letters were being sent to not just people in businesses in Pickaway County this involves Franklin County
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Madison County Ross County and several cities uh throughout and I think we should dive into that and the
00:31:18
cities that you're going to hear the most will be Columbus which is the capital city here Grove City and
00:31:25
Circleville now Circleville Ohio is 25 miles south of Columbus the capital of Ohio
00:31:32
and in the mid 1970s to 1980 the population in Circleville is just under 11 700 people within that general area
00:31:42
Captain we have Westfall School District which operates one Elementary School one
00:31:47
middle school and Westfall High School the way that Unsolved Mysteries tells the story is that Mary Gillespie starts
00:31:55
receiving these letters when in fact there were earlier letters Mary Gillespie was not the first Target
00:32:03
for the letters if you will yeah so some of these people were receiving letters and there would be like little unknown
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facts about them but it'd be normally bad stuff like I know you're doing this or I know you're doing that and so it's
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really you know like you said maybe there's a thousand letters out there but some of these people that received
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letters never came forward because they didn't want to share maybe this dark secret with everybody
00:32:32
right if the letter writer is warning you about a secret that you're keeping you don't want to present that to
00:32:39
everybody and say hey look I received this letter so the first letters you know it's very
00:32:45
quickly in the series that Mary Gillespie is sent a letter but however the first letter is sent to Gordon
00:32:52
Massey so who is Gordon Massey Gordon Massey is Mary Gillespie's boss she drives a school bus for Westfall and
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he is the superintendent of Westfall School District he's the first one to receive a letter
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this letter was addressed to Westfall High School attention superintendent Massey no return address and it says
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Dear Sir according to my girlfriend you have asked her to go out many times and have asked the other female bus drivers
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too due to your position and their jobs with you you should not do this this must stop at once for the good of the
00:33:33
school and Families if they are not stopped I will be forced to write to the school board I'd hate to
00:33:41
do that to pray on another man's girl is Untouchable especially when they're out
00:33:45
there trying to make a living there's also talk of you dating a married woman and taking advantage of
00:33:51
them do you need time and names again please think I suggest you find yourself a pimple-faced [ __ ] and start up with
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her and leave my girls alone so that's the real version of the letter we mentioned that in the trailer earlier
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but kind of generalized it so we could tell this story later superintendent Massey receives this again it's not
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addressed to to anybody other than him and at the Westfall High School there is no return address however we know that
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it's postmarked from Columbus Ohio 25 miles up the road and it came from the postal Hub 430
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which at the time in 1977 was the only postal Hub in the city of Columbus meaning
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you could mail that letter from anywhere in the big city of Columbus and it's going to have to go through that Hub so
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all we can say is we know that that letter was mailed somewhere in the city of Columbus right
00:34:54
but it could have been South Side North Side East Side West Side we have no clue
00:34:58
correct now think about what the threat is and what's stated in this letter to Gordon Massey it says hey you're hitting
00:35:06
on these female bus drivers you're taking advantage of them these are people that are out trying to work for a
00:35:12
living you're taking advantage of your position it also mentions that there's even talk of you having a relationship
00:35:19
with a married woman it doesn't necessarily name anybody there but we can assume by later letters
00:35:28
maybe they are referring to Mary Gillespie and it also says this is one thing that
00:35:34
I think is weird it it says well there's two things that I think are very weird about this letter right one it says hey
00:35:41
if you don't put this to an end if you don't stop what you're doing I will be forced to write to the school board
00:35:47
and I'd hate to do that it's like it's right it's like the writer is giving him a warning hey I
00:35:54
know you're up to no good but if you stop what you're doing nobody has to know about it we'll we'll just let it be
00:35:59
but then he ends the letter I say he we don't know if it's a she or he that wrote this letter but the person ends
00:36:07
the letter with leave my girls alone almost like they're referring to the female bus drivers as their girls I was
00:36:16
popular with the school bus driver the tricky thing here Captain is the second letter goes to the school board it's
00:36:24
addressed to the school board remember the writer threatened to tell the Board of Education down there what
00:36:30
was going on however this letter is received two days later meaning the writer throughout the threat
00:36:38
and told Massey to stop doing whatever the writer thought he was doing but did not give him time to really stop
00:36:46
or address the situation well the writers if you if you don't stop I'm going to tell on you but boom two days
00:36:52
later a letter arrives that is in fact telling on him to the school board it's not until after both Massey and the
00:37:01
school board have been contacted several times via these letters that Mary Gillespie starts to receive the letters
00:37:08
and then when she's keeping them to herself eventually Ron Gillespie starts to receive them
00:37:15
the weird thing too here that we see early on in these letters is this is where it is centralized it's centralized
00:37:23
around Westfall High School Gordon Massey the superintendent and the female bus drivers
00:37:31
that's the world that this writer is writing about and the person whoever is writing this or persons
00:37:39
seems to have some good working knowledge of the behind the scenes stuff for the bus drivers in the school system
00:37:48
right and we know this because in the fifth letter that is written and this one is
00:37:54
addressed to the school board it's telling the school board hey you need to talk to Gordon Massey tell him
00:38:02
to stop doing what he's doing and if you want to verify what I'm saying is true talk to the drivers talk to the female
00:38:09
bus drivers ask driver number this is very interesting this one's received March 18
00:38:16
1977. it says ask driver number 62917 my favorite driver well driver number 62917 is Mary Gillespie right I
00:38:28
don't think that John Q public walking down the street somewhere in Circleville will know that
00:38:36
Mary Gillespie is driver number 62917 that seems like a very behind the scenes piece of information
00:38:45
yeah it's tough one here because we don't know exactly who he wrote to before but like you said it becomes Mary
00:38:55
Gillespie almost becomes his singular Focus for a time period yeah with Gord Massey being the original receiver of
00:39:04
the letters and then the board members and you're right I technically we don't know for certain only the writer
00:39:10
themselves would know when they actually started but the general consensus seems
00:39:15
to be the superintendent Gordon Massey was the first to receive a letter right or at least publicly acknowledged that
00:39:22
this was the first letter to be sent well look if I was sent a letter in the mail like this a threatening letter
00:39:30
anyone's gonna sit back and go who is doing this who's doing this who would I know
00:39:37
that is capable of writing a letter or or who maybe am I pissing off by being involved
00:39:44
in this situation and that's the other tricky thing too being involved in the situation implies
00:39:51
that you are doing what the writer thinks you are doing and what the writer is saying is
00:39:56
basically I mean without putting the exact words on paper it's a threat of oh I'm going to go to your boss and anyone
00:40:04
would think that hey this inappropriate relationship if in fact it is going on would warrant firing the superintendent
00:40:12
firing the bus driver for their misdealings for their flicky flicky the other thing that gets tricky
00:40:19
too is it's a threat in in the sense that even if nothing is going on don't you still worry as an employee go well I
00:40:28
ca it's hard for me to prove something is not going on they may fire me anyway yeah or what are
00:40:36
the repercussions of her husband finding out is is he considered a hot head and he is
00:40:43
he going to you know take matters into his own hands kill the superintendent kill his wife
00:40:49
we've seen people do worse for less and as we said the writer eventually addresses Ron Gillespie
00:40:58
saying hey you've got to end this affair because I've already told Massey about it I've already told your wife about it
00:41:04
they're not going to stop you need to be the one to stop it and threatens which you pointed out
00:41:10
earlier Captain is bizarre to threaten Ron Gillespie who if in fact this stuff is happening he is a victim
00:41:19
as well yeah and you would think that the writer feels slighted by this situation if in fact it's going on
00:41:26
it appears that the writer believes it to be going on whether it is or not that is Up For Debate but what we are later
00:41:33
told is that the Gillespies tell the people that are closest to them about these letters hey we're receiving these
00:41:42
weird letters and they tell Ron's sister Karen and her husband Paul freshauer they're
00:41:50
Incredibly Close with these two Paul says that him and Ron are best friends and they devised this plan of well you
00:42:00
know what we think we know who's doing this again very centralized right Captain
00:42:04
it's all behind the scenes involving the school the school system and the bus drivers yeah Mary Gillespie's going to
00:42:11
tell that group I think that this guy David longberry could be the author of these letters that was my nickname in
00:42:19
high school so they devised this plan of you know what we're going to write these
00:42:22
letters back to David longberry and essentially they're sending him the letters similar type letters that they
00:42:30
are receiving this is hey we know who you are we know what you're doing you better stop it well you will be thrashed
00:42:36
right what was the Circleville writer saying I know what you're doing you better stop it
00:42:41
who is David longberry he's a bus driver he's a co-worker of Mary Gillespie's he's also an employee of Gordon Massey
00:42:49
this is an individual that may know that should know if he's good at his job the
00:42:55
inner workings in the behind the scenes stuff over there so they say that they sent him a few
00:43:01
letters and the letters they're getting stop briefly but then they start back up
00:43:07
again like we stated before Circleville is a very small community so just by the
00:43:13
Gillespies telling a couple people a small fire can spread rapidly but there's other letters that are being
00:43:21
sent to other individuals and businesses and what's interesting here Captain is it starts to become somewhat
00:43:28
general information within Circleville that these letters are being sent and received and I think
00:43:34
part of that is because either what the writer is accusing these people of is false or the people
00:43:43
receiving them don't really care in the long run that the information gets out so it kind of becomes general
00:43:50
information that they're receiving these strange letters and remember the threats of Hey Ron if
00:43:57
you don't do something about this I'm going to start broadcasting this business on CB Radio and putting up
00:44:02
posters everywhere and signs telling the general public airing our Grievances and
00:44:07
your dirty laundry along the way about what is going on what's truly going on it's like question is manhood
00:44:15
because if it's true that his wife is cheating on him that questions his manhood but
00:44:22
that now you have this letter writer saying hey I'm questioning your manhood that you're that you won't even come out
00:44:29
and do something about this you won't even stop it that shows you how little of a man you are yeah I guess if the if
00:44:36
the writer is the the end-all be-all of what is right and wrong at the end of the day then they've decided what is
00:44:45
wrong and right and drawn the Line in the Sand and Ron's on the wrong side according to the writer
00:44:52
so what goes on at this point captain now we are about Midway through 1977. someone is in fact putting up these
00:45:02
signs or at least has threatened Ron and Mary to the point that they believed that they would put up these signs
00:45:09
so Ron is getting up every day a little bit earlier than he needs to and on his way to work he's driving around town for
00:45:17
about an hour looking for any signs that may be put up sometimes there are signs
00:45:23
most of the time there's not but when he finds them he takes them and he collects
00:45:28
them well especially in the 70s because I used to teach in Circleville but obviously not in the 70s
00:45:36
but back then to get around the whole town maybe 20 minutes and you can go through pretty much every Major Street
00:45:44
in Circleville yes and this to to paint a picture for anybody that's going to look this up on a map to paint a better
00:45:52
picture is the case is often referred to as the Circleville writer again notice that we said that this is going to
00:46:00
expand in other into other counties not just Pickaway County but we're also talking about the
00:46:07
majority of the activity that seems to be surrounded this case is Circleville all the way out to
00:46:14
darbyville which is to the west of Circleville but some sources will say that there were some letters that were
00:46:22
very similar to the Circleville letters that were sent to other states so I don't know I couldn't find any
00:46:29
confirmation of that but I saw several sources that would State oh well there was letters that were addressed to
00:46:36
people in other states so by August of 77 we have a situation that's escalated and Ron Gillespie is
00:46:45
busy looking for signs the Gillespies are trying to figure out who the letter writer could be
00:46:51
well now we have Mary Gillespie who goes to Florida and this would be in August of 1977 and
00:47:00
she's down there on the night of August 19th her husband Ron Gillespie is at home he's at their home where they've
00:47:08
received these letters the way that the legend goes the local Legend the story is that he is there
00:47:15
that night and late that night after the sun goes down he receives a phone call it's believed that the phone call is
00:47:23
from the letter writer and Ron is able to determine or at least his suspicions that he already had are
00:47:31
confirmed by the phone call of who the letter writer is he decides that he's going to go out and
00:47:38
confront the writer he goes upstairs grabs his gun tells his children goodbye hops in the
00:47:46
truck and drives off in a mad tear looking for this letter writer the local Legend is one of several
00:47:57
different stories but a couple of them are either Ron was chasing someone at a high rate of speed
00:48:03
or he was being run off the road or he was being shot at and he was shooting at the at someone else
00:48:13
the result is him crashing his truck into a tree and he's dead at the scene well for people who haven't maybe seen
00:48:22
the old Unsolved Mysteries this reminds me of the Rivera case where in the newer seasons of Unsolved
00:48:32
Mysteries where he receives this mysterious phone call and leaves right away in a rage
00:48:39
and again Circleville is a small area so if the guy told him well meet me over at
00:48:45
this park or meet me over you know you know behind this bar or what wherever you could get there within 15-20 minutes
00:48:54
no problem and we don't know who the phone call was from we don't know what was said on the phone
00:49:00
call we don't know 100 in my opinion if the phone call even took place right but
00:49:06
let's say that it did stuff the caller doesn't even have to say hey meet me here
00:49:11
according to the legend Ron is able to determine who the writer is based off of that phone call maybe he recognized The
00:49:19
Voice or as you pointed out Captain maybe a meet-up is set up or maybe there's something in the words that were
00:49:26
spoken that confirmed his earlier suspicions Liam Neeson and he's going to go out and confront this writer I will
00:49:33
find you and then okay well he crashes his truck into a tree and unfortunately Ron Gillespie died that night
00:49:41
and it is determined by the sheriff's department Pickaway County Sheriff's Department that this was a vehicular
00:49:49
accident resulting in the death of Ron Gillespie at the scene inside his truck they find Ron Gillespie's gun
00:49:59
a revolver which goes along with the story that we've been told per local legend by the children that he grabbed
00:50:06
his gun and ran off and there has been one shot that was fired you heard the unsolved mystery's description of the
00:50:13
shot fired the other local Legend and rumor was that his wife was conveniently out of
00:50:21
town may have been having this affair leading up to this event frisky in Florida and that she is somehow
00:50:28
responsible for what was an actual murder or somebody that kind of set up this accident ran them off the road was
00:50:36
firing at his truck we know with his revolver that there was a spent shell casing and eight live
00:50:44
rounds found in the revolver meaning that at some point that gun was fired and it shot that bullet right this
00:50:52
is what everybody at the time would point out to say well he fired at somebody that means that there was Foul
00:50:59
Play later the letter writer then accuses the Pickaway County Sheriff's Office of
00:51:07
covering it up claiming it was an accident when in fact that it was an all it was all set up it
00:51:14
was set up for Ron to die that night or something bad to happen to Ron that night why would the police or the
00:51:23
sheriff want anything bad to happen to this guy not that they would want something bad to happen to him but some
00:51:29
of the rumor was that they were covering it up for either Mary Gillespie or for Gordon Massey or for both or maybe
00:51:38
somebody that's not named doesn't really make sense let's dive into that a little
00:51:43
bit because there's a lot to chew through in this situation because the way that that picture has been painted
00:51:51
for many years is in fact that it was either covered up or they just the sheriff's department got it wrong and
00:51:58
Ron was killed or harm was meant to be done to him that night you know like I said before if he fires a shot I lean
00:52:04
more towards Foul Play but now that we're talking about it just seems very suspicious anyways and if he
00:52:11
had a really bad traffic history maybe that people would brought that up as a proof that that that this was just
00:52:21
an accident the whole thing just seemed so fishy either way everything about it seems fishy
00:52:27
from all angles in my opinion the whole Circleville writer thing is fishy at all angles as well
00:52:36
so let's look at this one from all angles first off they run a tox ecology report on the
00:52:43
deceased on Ron Gillespie they find that he has a .16 percent alcohol level currently in the state of Ohio the Ohio
00:52:55
legal blood alcohol content level is below 0.08 so anyone over the age of 21 or anyone
00:53:03
of any age with a BAC of 0.08 or higher can be charged with operating a vehicle impaired or OVI
00:53:13
so by the state law he's drunk driving right this is general information this comes out to the public
00:53:22
at the time well friends and family of Ron Gillespie say well he wasn't a big drinker
00:53:28
I don't know that that answers the question of whether he was drinking that night or not right like you said the
00:53:35
report proves that he was drunk the other thing that doesn't make any sense is the story that we get all these years
00:53:42
later and I want to be clear here I'm not accusing his children of making up a story or misremembering or anything we
00:53:50
are hearing this story second third fourth fifth hand who knows how many hands we're out at this point I always
00:53:56
said wash them but at at this point Captain the story that we are left with is he receives this mysterious phone
00:54:02
call he tells his children I know who their letter writer is runs upstairs grabs his gun runs out to his truck and
00:54:09
speeds off into the night now when Ron Gillespie was found crashed into that tree it was 10 28 p.m today
00:54:17
is 2021 if I have my year correct to this day the area where he crashed his truck is not well lit there's hardly
00:54:29
any lights if any in the very in that very specific area a lot of people say hey this is not an
00:54:36
area that this is an area that he knew well that he would have traveled many times he wouldn't have crashed his truck
00:54:42
that night but you're saying that people were saying he didn't drink often and so
00:54:47
maybe he wouldn't be able to handle his liquor as well as or handle the alcohol level as well as somebody else that was
00:54:54
a daily Drinker or weekly drinker so to address the elephant in the room first off you have a situation where stole my
00:55:01
penis Ron Gillespie may or may not believe the letters he's receiving that his wife is having an affair and his
00:55:08
wife is down in Florida out of town out of state that night okay so let's assume he doesn't believe
00:55:14
the letters his wife should be free to go and do whatever she wants she should be free to go and do whatever she wants
00:55:19
anyway but couldn't you see a situation if he does believe the letters that he says I don't feel comfortable with you
00:55:25
going out of state right I don't feel comfortable with you going out of town now let's take it a step further by this
00:55:31
point he and his wife have been told in several letters that the letter writers watching their vehicles their house
00:55:38
their property they have a fairly big property by the way and their children some of the threats have even been
00:55:45
directed to their daughter who depending on what source you read at this point in our story that night that
00:55:52
Ron died would have been seven or eight years old I cannot fathom a situation where I
00:56:00
would be the father of a small child and be receiving threats to my family where I decide one night I know who's
00:56:11
making those threats I'm going to go off and get them and leave you two kids here
00:56:16
that's why I questioned the phone call and what Ron's actual actions and intent was that evening right well it could
00:56:24
have been somebody calling saying hey you know how your wife said she's in Florida I think I just saw her in a car
00:56:32
with some guy or I think I just saw her walk into some bar with a guy it could have been anything you know I mean and
00:56:39
then it was like oh well I'm going to catch her now the other situation then becomes the spent round we've kind of
00:56:45
been circling around that the police couldn't figure out if he shot the gun that night or not so a lot
00:56:52
of the times when this story is retold it's told to say that between the time he left his home and crashed his truck
00:56:59
into that tree he fired that gun well it's a revolver that spent casing stays in there until
00:57:06
you physically remove it he could have fired that shot between leaving his house and crashing into the
00:57:12
tree he could have fired it the day before a week before a year before we do not know when that gun was fired to
00:57:21
leave behind that spent casing what we do know is inside the revolver they find a spent casing in eight live
00:57:28
rounds what they also find in the truck now the tricky thing is the gun is found as
00:57:35
described in the police report from the accident mind you this is a lengthy police report probably about 10 pages
00:57:43
roughly it says that the that the gun was found underneath of him this crash was horrible his truck what
00:57:53
happened Captain is the road turned and for whatever reason his truck did not follow that turn in the road it started
00:58:01
to go off the road and it traveled 36 feet from the road crashed into the tree and
00:58:08
continued another seven feet but it wasn't just the gun that they found inside the vehicle
00:58:15
mind you it almost threw Ron completely from the truck out the window he's halfway out
00:58:23
the window when they find him yeah he had no soup hold on so to say that the gun was found under him really is a
00:58:30
loosey-goosey description of where the gun was actually found in my opinion considering he's halfway out the truck
00:58:36
but also found in the in the truck Captain is a full box of 22 caliber Winchester Western Wildcat ammo right
00:58:45
which is not included in the local Legend not included in the story from the children that we've heard second
00:58:52
third 50th hand all these years later they say he ran upstairs and grabbed his gun
00:58:58
no mention of grabbing a box of ammunition my other question then becomes if he did grab both why how many times
00:59:05
did he intend to shoot this person he has nine bullets in his gun I wonder if he kept the gun in the truck
00:59:15
and it was found at the scene of his death at the scene of this vehicle accident because that's where it should
00:59:22
have been found because that's where he kept it well the bullets could have been
00:59:25
kept in the truck as well exactly think of this it's 1977 in the glove box underneath your seat and also this is
00:59:34
you know this is a a city yes but it's it's a rural community this it's 1977. you own a
00:59:42
pickup truck yeah doesn't it take a little a big Em Up Truck Yeah I would love to go back in time and interview
00:59:49
guys that lived in the area especially guys that are around Ron's age and ask them hey do you keep a gun
00:59:56
in your truck I'm guessing that the percentage would be higher than most people would think
01:00:01
I'd say is that a gun in your truck or are you just happy to see me both yeah um
01:00:07
I'm happy that I brought my gun and then I saw you yeah that brings up another thought could he have lost control see
01:00:15
this is all that it means it doesn't mean that he crashed into this truck tree or somebody ran him into this tree
01:00:20
he very quickly could have lost control of this truck as soon as he went off the
01:00:26
road if he's drunk if he's traveling at a high rate of speed in a an area that's not well lit
01:00:35
it's very conceivable that he lost control of the vehicle and this is just sadly an accident
01:00:42
a fatal accident then people point out well the truck was towed immediately and destroyed shortly afterwards and
01:00:51
that is more point of a cover-up that there were bullet holes in his truck and nobody wanted that to be seen well maybe
01:00:58
they just didn't want this scene to be seen by the public in general well it's signed off by his wife Mary
01:01:06
Gillespie it's her property at this point you know the other thing too is the truck was
01:01:13
totaled there's no use for the truck at this point and your loved one just died in the vehicle
01:01:20
doesn't seem like something you would really want to keep a hold of or have much use for right
01:01:27
so here's the other problem with it being a cover-up if Sheriff Radcliffe got it wrong or
01:01:34
the Pickaway County Sheriff's Department decided to cover it up first off there were multiple agencies
01:01:43
involved in this situation and analyzing and determining what they believed happened that night first of all you
01:01:51
have the coroner who has to sign off on the Fatal injuries the coroner decided not to do an autopsy
01:01:59
it was not necessary unfortunately the deceased arrived at Burger hospital and he had already passed by this point but
01:02:08
also at this point um some of the sources say that this guy wouldn't have done the autopsy anyways
01:02:14
they normally took murder cases and things of that nature and actually sent them to Columbus where they had more
01:02:22
experience well and we have a situation too where this is not just Sheriff Radcliffe showing up and determining
01:02:29
that it's an accident we have detective Phil Brown who arrives on the scene he's actually the lead at
01:02:37
this accident scene so now we have to have two people covered up and of course Phil Brown
01:02:42
works for Radcliffe so that's not too hard to believe but where did Pickaway County Sheriff's Department get the call
01:02:49
from they got the call from Mount Sterling Police Department okay so now Mount Sterling has to be in on it oh and by
01:02:57
the way they were curious about the gun and they were curious about the spent casing as well
01:03:02
so they sent the gun and the ammo off the BCI Bureau of Criminal Identification and investigation here in
01:03:12
Ohio in London Ohio a much bigger more capable agency than the Pickaway sheriff's department at that time still
01:03:19
to this day so BCI has to be involved in the cover-up usually when people decide to cover
01:03:27
things up Captain I'm not one that covers things up myself so I don't know this from experience but I'm guessing
01:03:33
that when you choose to cover something up you like to keep most of that stuff in-house you don't send it off to this
01:03:40
big fancy agency who can figure out what's going on they sent it off for all the right reasons they sent it off
01:03:47
because they wanted to ask BCI can you tell us anything about this gun did it belong to the decease that we found and
01:03:57
is there any reason that we should think that this that this spent casing was involved in any other incident they look
01:04:04
for information this goes on for months and determine very quickly that no this this spent casing is not related to any
01:04:14
other incident that we can find so I like local Legend as much as the next guy I like the folklore as much as anybody
01:04:21
else but the evidence here Stacks up that this is in fact an accident sometimes a cigar is just a smoke
01:04:30
sometimes things are what they appear to be what are your thoughts so far we want to
01:04:44
hear them go to True Crime garage.com and leave your comments on the blog we will see you back in the garage
01:04:51
tomorrow until then be good be kind and don't let her foreign [Music]