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thank you [Music] [Music] thank you foreign garage wherever you are whatever you're
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doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that's not going to be scared just
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because somebody's mind has jumped the tracks here is the captain but I'm deathly afraid of clowns it's gonna be
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seen it's good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend [Music]
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today we are still sipping on don't worry my mom said it's cool Bourbon Barrel aged Imperial birthday cake Stout
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and it doesn't have to be anybody's birthday to celebrate and drink a few of these but it's 12 ABV so drink these at
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home in your garage we put a four and a half bottle caps on this one let's give some thanks and praise where it is most
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certainly due right here first up we have a big cheers to Beth and Cleveland Ohio I think we like your chip goes to
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Melanie and Winfield West Virginia next up we have a double fisted cheers to Trish and Nicole in Canonsburg
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Pennsylvania and a big shout out to Andrew from Oregon next to cheers to Abigail in Milan Tennessee we also have
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Daniella in Astoria New York and last but certainly not least we have Sally and Dorset United Kingdom everyone we
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just mentioned they helped us out with this week's beer funding for that we thank you yeah b-we double r u n beer
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Ryan get you some thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend make sure you're subscribed and make sure you tell
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your friends to subscribe and that is enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair
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grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] [Music] where we left off yesterday Captain is
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with The Accidental or what appears to be an accidental death of Ron Gillespie driving his truck august 19
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1977 am I saying 100 percent there was no foul play involved no I don't think anybody can say that for
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certain however the evidence shows and stacks up that this does appear to be an accident and if there was anybody else
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involved the police the sheriff's department and BCI could not find any evidence of such
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right and the police have to rule this an accident based off the evidence and when people talk about a cover-up again
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what would be their motive what would be the whole Police Department and the sheriff and everybody else
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involved coroner everybody else involved what would be their motive to cover up this accidental death for the
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superintendent or a bus driver it doesn't make a lot of sense to me that there would be a cover-up And in regards
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to sheriff Dwight Radcliffe I want to point something out here this name may sound familiar to our long time
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listeners because we gave him a shout out in episode 396 in May of 2020 when Dwight Radcliffe
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passed away we gave him a shout out because Dwight Radcliffe was not only the sheriff of Pickaway County he was
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the sheriff from 1965 until 2013. he was the longest serving sheriff in the entire country in the United
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States and I understand that that does not make him a perfect man or a perfect Sheriff
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however what I see here Captain when we reviewed the information is rather than looking for reasons that this was a
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cover-up what I found were reasons that the sheriff's department was looking to prove that
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there was no foul play to themselves right by sending the gun to BCI sending the ammunition to BCI had there been
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Foul Play or had they suspected Foul Play they would have followed up on that yeah because I want to solve why these
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individuals are getting harassed by this letter writer and again let's go back through a couple pieces of of evidence
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his blood alcohol level was 0.16 family is surprised they go hey we're surprised
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by this because he's not a heavy drinker well if he's not a heavy drinker then .16 he might not be able to operate a
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vehicle to the best of his ability also not wearing a safety belt yes in a basically
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thrown from his truck maybe if he's wearing the safety belt he makes it through the accident
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and to be clear no one should be operating a vehicle with a 0.16 especially here in the state of Ohio
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where they've decided .08 half of that is past the legal limit now the next stop in our timeline would
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be 1983 per the Unsolved Mysteries timeline that we reviewed earlier 1983 in February is when the attempt is made
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on Mary Gillespie's life when she finds the nasty sign that has words and statements so nasty and terrible on it
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that she has to tear it down and if the booby trap would have worked it would have triggered the trigger on that gun
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and fired a shot in the direction of her and her head as she removed that sign however that is six years later that's
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it's 77 the time of Ron Gillespie's accident it's 83 with the attempt on Mary Gillespie's life there is a lot
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that goes down during that span of time and we're going to go through that and this whole time captain that whole time
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frame there are letters that are continuing there are suspicions that are going on in town about who could have
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tried to kill Ron Gillespie or who was responsible for that truck accident who is responsible for these letters and how
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long are they going to continue for Mary Gillespie that has claimed that there is
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no Affair happening but now her husband has passed away and the superintendent he is now going
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to get a divorce we could assume if he had a nice relationship before these letters that
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these letters made his relationship a lot more complicated yes regardless of the Dynamics of that relationship I
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would guess so now it's the late 70s when Gord Massey and his wife split up and at some point
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Gordon Massey and Mary Gillespie say yes we did have a relationship their statement has always been that the
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relationship started after the letters a better date for when that relationship started I don't have for you it's never
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been provided as far as I could find other than the simple statement of we didn't start up this relationship until
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after the letters started so the other statement would be it would be after Ron Gillespie's passing
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you can question that as much as you want I'm fine with it I think that there's plenty of room for speculation
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there that can be a hard thing to believe I have seen situations like that witness situations like that in in my
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own life so I can believe them I don't 100 believe them however I don't look at this situation and see
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Mary Gillespie being responsible for Ron's death and I don't see what others are looking
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for whether they say well Mary or even Gordon Massey could be sending these letters when the letter
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started well that doesn't make any sense why would Gordon Massey threaten his own
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career his own job by sending these letters they were sent to his boss before they were incent to marry
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Gillespie Mary would be threatening her marriage or threatening her job as well if she
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were sending the earlier letters yeah and again it's a small town so you screw up
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it's not just as easy as getting a job somewhere else you you become a stain on that Community
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the other person that we mentioned in yesterday's episode captain that was possibly tied or at least suspected to
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by the Gillespies anyway to be involved in these letters is David longberry David longberry resigned from his
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position with the Westfall School District as a bus driver he resigned in October of 1981 October 22nd actually of
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1981. this whole time again the letters continue now two of the people that have
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been very Central to this story all along are Paul freshauer and his wife who is also Ron Gillespie's sister Karen
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fresh hour to this point their only involvement in the story because on our timeline we've not gotten to the
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attempted murder yet is that they have been trying to help the Gillespies through their problem
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through this issue of receiving these strange and threatening letters we did say yesterday
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that the letters what we do know when they were being mailed were coming from Columbus Ohio
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from postal Hub 430. see bus shout out to my favorite postal carrier in Columbus Tim Williams Mr Speedy Delivery
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himself I'm pretty badass on the keyboards as well Paul freshauer and his wife Karen lived in Grove City Ohio they
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were super tight with the Gillespies Paul worked for Budweiser at the Anheuser-Busch plant in Columbus Ohio he
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worked there as a quality control officer or agent whatever you want to call them in 1982
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him and his wife Karen and Paul they filed for a divorce it was an early 1983 and February when the attempt is
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made on Mary Gillespie's life and I think we should go through that because there's a lot of questions there and you
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both some of those questions yesterday first off we need to paint the picture she's still driving
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her bus route at this point Marius correct the sign that she discovers is at the
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end of the day okay this is not on her morning route this is in the afternoon a description of this sign should be
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as such it's a nasty sign that she she sees spots and decides she's going to take it down however
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it's rigged to this booby trap right it's a very crude booby trap she doesn't know that though at the time correct
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that's exactly right but what what does it say anyways I don't know what the sign says see I don't believe there's a
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sign until people tell me what what it says so until they tell me what it says nasty
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sign don't buy it what do you mean don't buy that there was a sign or a booby trap no
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I believe there's a booby trap I don't believe there's this horrible I mean there supposedly there was a bunch of
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signs and it was there there are all on this uh street but it wasn't a main street right no this was a Main Street
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this was actually not terribly far from the accident site of where Ron Gillespie
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was killed well what street was it on I don't have that in my notes so but the but but you're also getting the
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that there was more than one sign there was no the information I have states that there was one side see what
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I heard was that there were signs on both sides of the street multiple you know a couple here a couple there like
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definitely trying to get her attention or anybody's attention that would go down that road that could be the case
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then the issue then becomes for me and I think other people will feel this way as
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well if the booby trap was intended for Mary Gillespie the more signs that you put up makes it a little dicey that it's
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going to hit its intended target the information I have states that it was one sign and a very specific
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location that she would have passed through and she would have seen the sign and
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anybody driving in the area should have seen this sign as well the way that it's described is that she
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sees this sign and that the crude booby trap was set up as such that if she pulled the sign out or I guess anyone
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for that matter pulled the sign to tear it down it would pull on a string that would pull the trigger on this gun that
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is aimed at the person that would be tearing off the sign however she doesn't tear off the sign
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it's attached to uh you know like a post she pulls the stake or post out of the ground and then sees the string that is
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tied to this other Staker post right takes that down as well now on the second post we have what's
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described as a box inside the box is where she finds the gun that has the booby trap now there's a couple
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different versions of what happens after she takes this down in every version she
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takes both of these items and brings them back onto her bus and some of the versions of the story she then discovers
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that the gun was rigged up to shoot whoever would tear off the sign and other versions and I think this is
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where it comes into question where you brought up her own personal vehicle the majority of the versions of this
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story is it's not discovered the booby trap anyway until she gets home and she's done with work and as soon as
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she discovers this booby trap she gets in her car and now she's driving off and she's going to report this to the
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authorities what I also think that maybe that's the reason why people think there was
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multiple signs was because like you said she had to take down two posts well and
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there's some dramatizations of this story that do show multiple signs I think the reason why they showed that is
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to increase the Threat Level some would say till midnight Michael Scott the office the other situation too is this
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was not the first day nor first time in fact in years this has been going on for years where people were posting
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these nasty signs and we mentioned yesterday Ron would drive around looking for them which
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let's see what I used to teach guitar lessons we would send the guy out at night once
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it got dark and he would put you know guitar lessons call this number all around Circleville
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because normally if people you know if we put them out during the day they were going to be taken during the day but if
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we put them at night at least the morning traffic would see them well a lot of these signs had to do with her
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whatever relationship with Gordon Massey which is not that big of a deal at this
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point they're both not married it's one of those relationships oh well you're as you're together you can keep
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rubbing it in their face the the the letter writer can keep rubbing that that in their face see I
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told you I was right from the beginning yeah but that's not the issue the issue is what people what is being posted is
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that there's some kind of relationship between Gord Massey and Gillespie's daughter
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who at this time would only be 13 years old so Mary Gillespie is tearing these down
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not to save her own name nor Gordon Massey's name she's doing it in defense of her own child to me it seems like
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this individual if if the letter writer is connected to whoever's putting out these signs
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then their their target all along has been the superintendent it's difficult to say
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I don't I don't know how to answer that or or respond to that statement with words I don't think you're wrong the
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problem becomes that there are so many people that this thing let's just call it a thing because we don't know what it
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is we don't know if it's multiple people we don't know if it's one individual and
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if it's multiple people we don't know if they know who the others are that are doing this terrible stuff right it seems
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to be targeting a lot of people from what I can see and yes it does seem to be that this started with Gordon Massey
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but I have some strong opinions on who I think the writer is and I think we can address that once we
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get through the events of 1983 because the way that The Story Goes per Unsolved Mysteries and the local Legend and the
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story that's repeated over and over and over again for the most part to this day
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is that they trace this gun back to Paul freshauer Paul says yeah that's my gun but it was stolen
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from my residence the issue then becomes well why didn't you report it stolen well I didn't know
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it was stolen until now right okay well if that's a good defense I know that this is not a homicide that it was an
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attempted murder but if a homicide was committed with my gun and a a good defensible excuses well it was stolen
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but I never reported it stolen and everybody just went along with it then we all would use that excuse all the
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time it's not believable and then Dwight Radcliffe the sheriff at the time sits Paul down Paul says hey I
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agreed to do this and he shows me some of the letters in the envelopes that are coming from the Circleville writer and
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says you know what try to mimic this try to write like this copy it and then Sheriff Radcliffe uses this as further
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evidence that he was not just the person that owned the gun that belonged in the
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booby trap but the writer the letters in the envelopes coming from the Circleville writer matched what was
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written on the sign of the set booby trap and Paul could not be eliminated as that
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Rider in fact Radcliffe takes it a step further and says that this is proof that
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he was the writer so not only is he the attempted murderer but he's also the Circleville writer
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they take him to trial and in October the trial lasts about one week Paul does not testify on his own behalf and he is
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sentenced to 7 to 25 years in prison which is the maximum sentence at that time then he gets jammed up even further
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because he can't get paroled because the letter writer continues to write these letters and send them to businesses
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churches individuals Mary Gillespie she gets more the school board keeps getting more letters in fact Paul
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freshauer himself gets a letter and we know Unsolved Mysteries gets a letter yeah it's like Oprah you get a letter
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you get a letter you get a letter look underneath your chair and so Radcliffe tells the warden hey you can't let this
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guy out he clearly has not learned his lesson he's still writing these letters well they you know they did the
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investigation to see if there was a way basically for him to get a letter out there's that's easy to do
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it's easy to do do we know do you know what prison he went to well he was in Lima Ohio so this would be a Maximum
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Security Prison at the time and but the letters were still coming from Columbus yes which makes it difficult one but the
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other thing too it doesn't make it impossible I mean we have no but the the tricky thing Captain becomes they
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monitor in these prisons they monitor the ingoing and outgoing mail no I understand that but what I'm
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saying is if the mail was still coming from Columbus you would all you'd have to do is bribe
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one of the officers to take the mail for you and then that officer might think well I get a I get a read the letter
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beforehand all he all he's doing is talking some [ __ ] and I know he's harmless because we have him locked up
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I'm just saying it wouldn't be that far-fetched to for to have him bribe somebody to hey
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if I write a couple letters will you drop them off for me no and I'm glad you bring that up for a couple of reasons
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because I'm on your side I want to say this though I believe the warden exactly as the warden said in his statement in
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his letter that I did an investigation and it is my opinion as the warden of this prison that Paul fresh hour is not
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mailing these letters through my Prison Walls I believe that statement 100 because they are checking the incoming
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mail and the outgoing mail and even when the letters continued the warden said cool I'll play along Paul you want to
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keep playing your game I'll put you and lock you up in solitary confinement and he kept them in solitary time and
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time again three different times and the letters continued during all those times
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but I again I'm with you I've seen Shawshank Redemption I've read the book uh red in there said you know what
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whatever you need I can get for you guys and what did he do he got him and I know
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that's fictional but let's throw this little Wrinkle in there Paul fresh hour at one point in his life worked as a
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corrections officer in a prison in the state of Ohio not at the Lima prison he worked at the Ohio penitentiary which is
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in Franklin County he worked that job I don't know for how many years I believe it was less than 10 this was after he
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got out of the military after he went to college I always think it's funny when they they get flipped to the other side
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like for so many years I was the the officer now I'm I am the prisoner so if anybody could figure out how to do it it
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would be somebody in Paul's situation somebody who had worked as you said both sides both sides of the bars the other
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issue though also becomes it doesn't have to be Paul freshauer writing these actual letters that
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continue during this time to be connected to Paul it could be somebody for him on the outside that doesn't need
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nor require any information from Paul at all and just keep sending them on his own or
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her own to try to make it look like Paul is innocent because what did they tell us at trial what did they tell us in the
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papers he was the writer Not only was he the attempted murderer but he was the writer
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that they're one in the same so if the letters continue then maybe they got it wrong with the attempted
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murder right let's dig through this attempted murder charge a bit more because there is some evidence that
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magically has lost its way today when this retelling of the story continues [Music]
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[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] lower back I didn't go anywhere well you should have tall cans in the
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air cheers to everybody side to side oh by the way if you would like to receive some mail from us make
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sure you sign up on our mailing list that's right that's right we will try not to send any booby traps so here's
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some issues with Paul's guilt and with his innocent or innocence that we should point out first off we had several
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people at his trial that testified as to eyewitnesses of what they saw that day where the sign and the booby trap was
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set up yeah but we have issues we always seem to have issues the issue became a couple of things one Paul did not go to
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work that day we know he worked in Columbus so that would have been a really good day for Paul freshauer if in
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fact he was innocent to go to work yeah I know you know it would have been a 20 30 minute drive for him the
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Anheuser-Busch plant is North Columbus it would have been an hour for him to get to this location
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and he worked long days as a quality control officer he worked 50 hours a week up in North Columbus yeah but if he
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didn't go to work things coming from his home in Grove City that's correct I'm sorry I was I thought you meant if he
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was at work but yeah so it would have been a great Alibi had he been at work now he did have an alibi for portions of
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that day the question then became when in fact was the sign in the booby trap set up because there are other people
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that say hey I saw a tall sandy-haired man in a yellow El Camino parked right in that general area and this was before
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the sign was visible to anyone else there were other eyewitnesses however that put Paul in the general area of
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Circleville and Danville around the time that it is believed that the sign and booby trap were set up
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so more for him being in the area rather than against and of course the damning evidence is that he did not go to work
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that day there's also a lot of stuff going on in Paul's life leading up to February of 1983. in 1982 he and his
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wife Karen divorce and it's not a good one it's not a clean break it's not nice and neat for everybody well they want to
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shoot her one problem has always been for the case against Paul freshauer as setting the booby trap attempting to
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kill his one-time sister-in-law is that he's this nice quiet man he would never do anything like this
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however at the divorce proceedings it's presented at that trial at that court case Paul beat up his wife
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when he suspected that she was running around on him and he beat her up pretty bad
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and we know this because we have the police report she is a black guy she receives several
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stitches and this is not a he said she said situation because in the court proceedings his own attorney tells the
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court it's okay Paul never meant to do that he lost control but he's gone to counseling
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since and he's gone because he is sorry for what he did that's admitting that he was violent against his own wife
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yeah piece of [ __ ] they divorced in 1982. and at some point Paul moves on he has a
00:28:07
girlfriend which becomes his wife before February of 1983. Paul somehow even with
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the violence is awarded the children and the house during the divorce and Karen goes to live in a trailer at
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the back of Mary Gillespie's property there are signs that are being posted in darbyville and Circleville leading up to
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the booby trap sign that are now making nasty statements about Karen fresh hour saying that she's a lesbian and naming
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the woman that she is supposedly involved with even though she has a boyfriend [Music]
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at the same time that's true I mean I mean all of the stories we cover you can have a husband
00:28:56
or a wife and a boyfriend and girlfriend at the same time I'm pointing part of this out though because there are a lot
00:29:02
of people that believe that Karen fresh hour could have been the letter writer well I mean just because there's some
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nasty signs about her it's like you gotta take a couple for the team my look when I look at these letters I mean just
00:29:15
going off I want to know your opinion to me the the writing seems a little feminine
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um possibly that's you're pointing out something that's good that we have not pointed out that the letters are not
00:29:29
identical no there's several different styles of writing in the handwritten letters
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there's also some that are typed some are on postcards some are on these little weird looking tag things some are
00:29:41
on signs as we've pointed out but yeah it's like even though they're they're using they're almost like creating their
00:29:47
own different fonts but even the one font where they're using like really boxy letters it still looks like more
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more likely that a female would have wrote that than a man I don't think you in my opinion I can't apply gender to
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any of the right that's because you're not an expert okay so once you become an expert in junk science I'm just I'm in a
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room full of experts I just don't I happen to be not be one of them so the the thing here though Captain would you
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agree that no would you agree that saying that Paul freshauer was not the letter writer does
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not then make him innocent of the attempted murder charge yeah but it's also I mean the the reason why
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Karen makes sense is because she would have opportunity to get his gun all they did was uh basically shave off like part
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of the number but that would have to mean there'd be some reason why Mary Gillespie's sister wanted her dead
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if in fact it was actually rigged up in a way that it would work right you know that's where this story gets really
00:31:01
complicated the case does get very complicated because there's about 8 000 different rabbit holes that you could go
00:31:08
down and the problem with this case is the people again I keep going back to who is Central to this story and it's
00:31:17
the fresh hours it's the Gillespies it's Gordon Massey and it's the school board
00:31:21
where it all kind of starts and the victims if there are real victims are Ron Gillespie Mary Gillespie
00:31:29
and at this point Karen Gillespie you can say whatever you want to say about Karen Gillespie and people can think
00:31:36
whatever they want to think I'm telling you her husband beat her up we know that
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to be a fact because we have a police report it's presented in court proceedings and through his own attorney
00:31:48
admits to it yeah so what you're saying is Karen is telling us this uh Paul right correct Paul with the shitty
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mustache and the half mullet he beat her up so again if maybe look maybe she was the letter
00:32:05
writer and it was just she was getting kicks telling people hey you're not supposed to be doing this you're doing
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this maybe she loved her sister but said hey you're doing wrong because I love my
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brother-in-law he's a good guy and you're cheating on him bad for you right but then your husband beats you up maybe
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and let's look if it happened once things are up in 1982 right the letters start in in 76
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early 77. I understand that just I know I'm just pointing it out for all involved okay again I'm not an expert I
00:32:39
just that's what I'm saying I'm trying to keep up you try you when you get your certification on the wall then we'll let
00:32:46
you speak okay follow me on this though you pointed something out really interesting
00:32:53
was this booby trap even going to work it seemed like it would hypothetically right
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but it didn't what a great way to frame the son of a [ __ ] that has beat you probably multiple times you see what I'm
00:33:12
saying you're now done you're you're out of the relationship for all you for all
00:33:17
we know he can't let it go he he might still be harassing her here and there and she
00:33:23
goes hey I'm I'm going to set this trap up with his gun and he's going to go to jail for this I
00:33:32
agree if Paul freshauer was set up it had to be somebody extremely close to him somebody that had access to that gun
00:33:39
that as he just said I don't know when it disappeared someone stole it from me that's how that's how inside the person
00:33:46
would have to be well if you're the letter writer and I'm right write us a note the thing is to know that we're right
00:33:54
you're talking to a you're talking to a room full of people and I don't mean here in the garage I mean I don't
00:34:00
believe for a second that there was anything short of at least half a dozen people writing these
00:34:06
letters really because why would Karen fresh hour why would she be the original letter writer I don't believe the person
00:34:14
that started the letter campaign and Back in 77 was the same person that was still writing the letters in the late
00:34:21
90s yeah if there's hundreds maybe a thousand of these letters yeah you're gonna have multiple writers because also
00:34:27
would be so easy like you hate your job your boss is a little bit of a [ __ ] muffin so you're like hey I'm going to
00:34:33
write him a note get all my grievances out get my point across and they'll just assume it's a part of these other
00:34:41
letters so I'm covering I'm going to be covering myself up well the issue for me
00:34:46
becomes with Karen being the letter writer for the entire campaign if if she's upset about an affair
00:34:56
why wouldn't she just tell her brother there's no point in mailing a letter to Gord Massey
00:35:03
and take it a step further yeah but if you start with that hey I know hey you stay away
00:35:10
it's easier to send them a threatening letter but not say stay away from you would you not want your brother to to
00:35:16
know you just want the affair to end and it's it's probably maybe it's better he
00:35:21
doesn't know yeah yeah because where my mind goes is you just tell the if you really care about them you just tell
00:35:28
them hey I think this is going on or I know it's going on because of a b and c the other tricky thing too is somebody
00:35:35
definitely had some kind of Insider knowledge of the the school buses the high school the superintendent and the
00:35:44
employees there I don't know unless she's being fed that information from Mary Gillespie
00:35:51
I don't know that Karen would know that information and it's equally difficult to believe
00:35:56
that Paul freshauer would know that information where I don't think that Paul I think
00:36:01
that Paul was the letter writer for a portion of this story but I don't think that he was the letter writer when it
00:36:07
first started but that's what I'm saying with so many letters it's it's it really puts law enforcement or any
00:36:16
armchair Detective at a loss I mean you're going to be chasing your tail we have businesses
00:36:24
that were written to we're talking about three or four lines sent to them on on basically a Post-It
00:36:31
note right I think a lot of those are just random people that knew hey as long as I go up
00:36:38
to Columbus and send it from Columbus it's people are going to assume this shit's coming from
00:36:44
the Circleville letter writer well in some cases they're just simply placed in mailboxes they weren't mailed at all
00:36:50
right the early letters were all coming from Columbus the letters the majority of the letters that were being sent and
00:36:57
received while Paul was in prison are coming from Columbus but not all 1000 are actually mailed and through the
00:37:06
through the system itself well the but the reason why you want to tell your brother-in-law is that you're well it's
00:37:12
your brother it's not your brother-in-law if you're caring yes if you're caring then it's your brother
00:37:19
is you're you're now taking um guilt away and and people that are they're obviously if they're having this
00:37:31
affair they have guilt because they're obviously not telling people they don't know exactly what they want to do with
00:37:37
their lives they're kind of using their spouses as they continue to have this affair and you're just you're now just
00:37:44
creating pain where if you can get to your sister-in-law if you can get to the other guy that's having the affair
00:37:53
and you can get one of them to see the light that maybe the fair will just stop he doesn't have to know about it he
00:38:01
doesn't have to be in pain about it um and they could just move forward but you end up telling him anyway
00:38:09
well because nobody nobody did anything you see what I'm saying so you kind of gave them the chance and they didn't and
00:38:17
so you also can't know that Mary would open the letter address to her you see what I mean it gets very
00:38:24
complicated very quickly when you try to assign a certain person to being the letter writer no no yeah
00:38:31
no and it it works that way for every single person you try to apply it to Not Just Karen it works that way for Paul
00:38:39
for Mary for Gordon for uh a lot of other people involved and I think the reason why it works out that way is a
00:38:47
the letter writer constantly contradicts themselves the threat to Gordon Massey hey if you don't do this I'm going to go
00:38:53
to the school board but then you don't give him time to do anything about it you just go to the school board hey if
00:38:59
you don't marry if you don't come out with this affair I'm going to go to the school board well you've already gone to
00:39:04
the school board uh and then you tell the husband but what's the husband supposed to do
00:39:12
he's not he's supposed to end the affair it seems to be the original letter writer was more concerned about ending
00:39:20
the affair rather than actual consequences for any of these people well I actually think that like I said
00:39:26
there's there's probably a lot of letters that we've never seen that the public has
00:39:31
never seen because nobody came forward and said hey I got this letter talking about this affair I had uh with
00:39:39
so and so because they never came forward with that letter and I think if we had all those early
00:39:44
letters would have a better idea of who was who was writing these but again the problem with this case is once you get
00:39:52
all these letters out there and like I said if I think my boss is the biggest you know douche in the world right I can
00:40:01
write him a letter in this style and and get away with it and how many other people in that town
00:40:09
decided I can do the same thing now take that same logic and go an 82 I'm beat up by this little [ __ ]
00:40:20
of a man that thinks he can put his hands on women whenever he wants and uh I'm tired of his [ __ ] and maybe he's
00:40:28
threatening her even afterwards and decides to set him up it's not impossible I find I find it difficult
00:40:35
there again to believe that Karen would be the letter writer based off of the nasty things that were said about
00:40:42
her on the sun no no did you not hear what I said has nothing to do with her being the letter writer it's now
00:40:49
opportunity all some people are questioning whether Paul is the letter writer let me set up
00:40:56
this scenario using his gun that I stole from him right and make it seem like these signs were set up
00:41:04
and it didn't seem like there was a lot of eyewitnesses that saw those signs there's some reports of oh yeah I think
00:41:11
I might saw this I might saw this but but then she collects that evidence and what did she find a booby trap that does
00:41:18
not work for whatever reason and she takes it back and just so happens to be Paul's gun and what a great way
00:41:27
for you know Karen or possibly Mary and Karen to set up ah so the son of a [ __ ] Goes to Jail
00:41:36
see what I'm saying oh I agree beat up my sister and she came to me and said hey we're gonna I got this little
00:41:45
ruse because they're not gonna put him behind bars they're not going to protect me I'm going to protect myself
00:41:52
I could totally see going okay yeah that makes a lot of sense and then it's his gun and if they think he's the rider
00:41:59
this guy goes to jail I get what you're saying and many people have thought that
00:42:02
and it's certainly an interesting angle to look at many people have said you know what maybe Paul is innocent here
00:42:08
and maybe Paul's the actual hero and Karen is the villain all along that we should have been looking for
00:42:15
when we thought Paul was the villain well I mean pause pause the villain in my eyes I mean you don't put your hands
00:42:21
on women there's a couple things that get again conveniently left out from the story along the way
00:42:27
one the incident of Paul actually being a violent man on record when people say he's not capable of such horrible things
00:42:36
so the gun itself is lab tested so they can come up with the serial number to trace where it came from they chase they
00:42:43
trace it to a sale at a pawn shop in Columbus and it's proven that that pawn shop sold the gun to Paul freshauer
00:42:50
that's not really in question because Paul admits to the sheriff yes in fact that is my gun but it was stolen and I
00:42:57
don't know when it was stolen why didn't you ever report it stolen uh I don't know why because I didn't know it was
00:43:04
stolen yes that's fair right however he does say that his home was burglarized so
00:43:11
I again I that's where he loses me a little bit is there a report of this burglary
00:43:17
it was there an insurance claim of this burger burglary those are things that I could not find if he chose not to report
00:43:24
the burglary why the other thing that gets lost along the way is when we go back to the writer and and
00:43:33
when we look at Paul's guilt again we've both agreed that whether whether or not
00:43:38
he was the writer at any time during this story has little to do with him actually being guilty he doesn't have to
00:43:46
be the writer and be guilty of this attempted murder the thing that gets really tricky with
00:43:52
this when you think about how many possible writers there were along the way is we have a situation where four people
00:44:02
readily admit we were receiving letters Ron and Mary Gillespie and the four of us took action we took
00:44:11
actions into our own hands and decided we are going to send some Anonymous letters to the person we think is
00:44:16
writing them to us right there we see a chain of events that sets into place multiple writers
00:44:23
how many other people received letters and thought they knew who was sending them the letter and anonymously wrote
00:44:30
them and then that person anonymously writes somebody else and then somebody else and it continues
00:44:37
on and on and on a great this reminds me of another great book Needful Things where somebody does something wrong to
00:44:44
one person they assume somebody else did it to him they wronged that person and then that person wronged somebody else
00:44:51
and somebody else and then somebody else and the circle and cycle continues and it grows and it gets more vicious as it
00:44:59
goes oh again that's the funny thing about where it happened Circleville the difficult thing against Paul freshauer
00:45:08
is one he admitted that with that group of four that they sent several letters Anonymous
00:45:16
letters later according to Dwight Radcliffe Sheriff Dwight Radcliffe Paul freshauer
00:45:24
this is before he was convicted before his trial during interrogation admits to Dwight Radcliffe as to sending 40 to 50
00:45:33
of the 1000 Circleville writer letters this is magically left from the story as well
00:45:41
Paul freshauer his original statement to the courts against the charges of attempted murder of Mary
00:45:48
Gillespie he pled Innocent by reason of insanity on August 8 1983 he later changed that to Simply innocent
00:45:59
and he decided to fight the charges and lost in court at the trial Karen his wife who may not be innocent
00:46:08
we don't know I I can see your point there captain and other people have brought up that scenario as well but
00:46:17
Karen testifies in court that on more than one occasion she caught Paul with strange letters
00:46:22
one that he had ripped up and tried to flush down a toilet one that she found stuff between the mattresses
00:46:29
she thought that Paul was the letter writer but she also didn't think that he was
00:46:36
doing it since 77. I wonder if there's a situation here Captain where Paul freshauer went off
00:46:44
the rails um do we have a situation where his life is spiraling out of control and he uses
00:46:52
this already existence of the letter writer in the letters themselves as something easy for him to step into to
00:46:59
take advantage of a situation he loved Ron Gillespie there's no doubt about that that's his own words that I'm
00:47:07
using there he says that Ron Gillespie was his best friend he's convinced that somebody
00:47:13
killed or Ron Gillespie was involved in some type of Foul Play that led to his death
00:47:20
is there a chance that he ultimately believed Mary Gillespie was somehow responsible for the death of his best
00:47:27
friend and then after his nasty divorce and after he is brought into the light and shown to be who he really is uses
00:47:36
this writer as an opportunity yeah to attack his to further attack his ex-wife by posting nasty signs about her
00:47:48
and attack Mary Gillespie posting signs about her and sending nasty letters along the way David longberry who we've
00:47:56
mentioned several times in these episodes he's not without fault here he's not just another innocent person
00:48:02
along the way he in the 90s was accused of raping or sexually assaulting an 11 year old girl
00:48:10
and he went on the Run I couldn't find exactly what happened to him or confirmation of such
00:48:18
but the story has always been that he hung himself somewhere in Texas I happen to wonder Captain I'm not going to sit
00:48:25
here and pretend to know who the writer was I'm not going to sit here and pretend to say that Paul was 100 guilty
00:48:31
or that Ron Gillespie died 100 in a in a one-car accident that involved nobody else
00:48:39
but it looks to me to be a situation where Paul was guilty of what he was charged with
00:48:46
Ron's unfortunate ending was probably just an accident I also think that there's a good strong chance David
00:48:53
longberry who resigned in 1981 and who worked for the school system in 76 and 77 78 leading up to 1981 knew the
00:49:04
inner workings of such he may have been the writer or one of the writers in the beginning
00:49:09
and I think Paul was probably one of the writers at some point along the way maybe in 82 83
00:49:16
maybe he figured out a way to continue to write them or had someone on the outside that's the other thing here too
00:49:23
that I think gets missed people assume because the letters continued that it couldn't have been Paul
00:49:28
they also assumed that he had to have been getting letters out of prison he doesn't somebody could have helped him
00:49:34
on the outside with getting no information from Paul at all no help from Paul at all nothing I wanted when
00:49:40
people say well he got a letter I mean if he was the letter writer he could just go well look guys I got a letter
00:49:49
he does this hey guys I got a letter I just finished writing it no but but that's what makes this case so
00:49:59
complicated like what like what you're saying is there one writer or multiple writers
00:50:06
and are the writers even not aware of each other or are they all using each other as a pawn to not get be caught as
00:50:14
the main writer and a lot of times we should point out the light the writer's not committing any actual crime
00:50:21
right to send somebody a letter saying hey I know your secrets that's not a crime sounds like a good
00:50:27
time you have this whole situation with this car accident was that caused or was
00:50:33
it an accident was it so that there that becomes a Twist and then you have this whole possible
00:50:41
booby trap that was set up and then how many other little stories that have just
00:50:47
been left behind in the past of the Circleville letter writer of other possible wrongdoings happening one of
00:50:56
the stories that has been left behind and I would like to highlight it before we wrap up here today Captain is that in
00:51:03
March of 1992 Chief McKean he's the police chief in Grove City where Paul freshauer one time lived he
00:51:12
actually went back there and lived after he got out of prison and he passed away
00:51:16
while still living in Grove City all those years later but in March of 1992 the police chief of
00:51:23
Grove City receives a letter that says that Mary Gillespie is responsible for the
00:51:29
letters but includes this tidbit of information whoever killed Ron Gillespie is also
00:51:36
the person who killed a woman named Vicky Koch I agree with all the people out there that say that this mystery is
00:51:43
super intriguing it's super fascinating what I don't love and I know that they're pushing a different product we
00:51:51
have True Crime here in the garage but what is often said is that the Circleville letter writer is the
00:51:58
greatest mystery in the history of the state of Ohio or one of the greatest mysteries in the state of Ohio
00:52:05
I would like to point out regardless of whatever this letter said I don't have the exact wording in front of me that
00:52:12
was received by The Grove City police department but it did say whoever killed Ron Gillespie also killed Vicki Koch
00:52:20
Vicki Koch her murder is still unsolved to this day and she was killed in Pickaway County and this is from Dave
00:52:30
Yost the Ohio Attorney General's List of unsolved homicides their database the details of the case are this on August
00:52:39
14 1980 Vicki Koch was reported missing from her residence in Circleville Ohio Vicki was last seen by friends on or
00:52:48
about August 10 1980 after attending an event in Ross County Ohio on Friday August 15 1980 her vehicle was
00:52:58
found parked approximately five blocks from her residence unoccupied neither residents nor her vehicle revealed any
00:53:06
evidence of a struggle or altercation on September 17 1980 a nearly skeletonized
00:53:13
body was discovered in an area of Madison County Ohio The Remains were identified as Vicki Koch through dental
00:53:20
records the cause of death is listed as death due to violence again her case is still unsolved to this
00:53:30
very day and she was a teacher working in that area back in 1980 before she went missing when we highlight mysteries
00:53:39
of Ohio or anywhere for that matter I think we need to sift through some of the sensationalized and some of the ones
00:53:49
that are filled with bright lights and shiny objects and confusing rabbit holes and look to
00:53:56
the real cases like that of Vicky coach [Music] thank you our friends for joining us
00:54:12
again for another fascinating case if you need more True Crime Garage in your earballs check out our bonus show called
00:54:21
off the Record that's on Stitcher premium Colonel do we have any recommended reading for this week this
00:54:28
week we are recommending a great Ohio True Crime book it's titled murder and Mayhem in Dayton in the Miami Valley
00:54:35
this features several different true crime stories from the Miami Valley area of Ohio which has a rich but gruesome
00:54:44
and bloody history so check out murder in Mayhem in Dayton and the Miami Valley by up and coming true crime author Sarah
00:54:52
kushal find that great title and others on our recommended page at truecrime garage.com much love to you guys see you
00:55:02
here in the garage next week and until then be good be kind and don't let him [Applause]
00:55:28
thank you foreign