The Circleville Letters

Back in 1976, residents of Circleville, Ohio began receiving threatening and hatefully-worded letters from an anonymous person who accused them of scandalous ‘secrets.’ One woman in particular, Mary Gillespie, endured especially nasty treatment over a non-existent affair with a superintendent. Both she and her husband Ron weathered the letters until they zeroed in on who they thought was writing them, Mary’s brother Paul Freshour, and wrote him a threatening letter.

The letters stopped for a significant period of time until one day in 1977 their phone rang and Ron answered. Mary never figured out what was said, but it is assumed it was the phantom author as Ron stormed out to his truck extremely irritated with a pistol in hand and sped off. Later that day he was found dead from an apparent car wreck, with one single shot fired from his gun. Mary’s brother was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Despite this, the letters didn’t stop. In fact, Freshour himself received one while in prison that read:

“Now when are you going to believe you aren’t going to get out of there? I told you 2 years ago. When we set ’em up, they stay set up. Don’t you listen at all?”