Has the anonymous author of the infamous Circleville letters been unmasked?

This story beforehand aired on August 6, 2022.

For practically 20 years, an nameless letter author terrorized the city of Circleville, Ohio, by sending threatening letters that uncovered alleged secrets and techniques about neighbors and associates. The thriller has lengthy intrigued TV exhibits, podcasters and now “48 Hours” within the quest to lastly unmask the author.

MARIE MAYHEW [“Whatever Remains” podcast]: Something fairly disturbing occurred in Circleville, beginning small and flourishing over many years. … Residents … started to obtain letters that accused the residents of being concerned in some fairly horrible issues — embezzlement, home violence, affairs, and even homicide.

Marie Mayhew: The Circleville letter author … knew all the things about everybody … and knew everybody’s secrets and techniques.

Robin Yocum: They had been vicious and … ugly. Someone with extreme psychological issues, I’d hazard to guess.

The threatening, nameless letters saved coming — tons of of them. Most had been postmarked from Columbus, Ohio, about 30 miles north, which is the place “48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty grew up and was residing in March 1977 — when small city Circleville started to really feel beneath siege. When only a stroll to the mailbox might set off terror, particularly for one lady who lived there, a college bus driver by the title of Mary Gillispie. 

Marie Mayhew: Mary Gillispie goes out to her mailbox. She receives a letter. … She opens it. It’s an nameless letter … distinct handwriting, and it is telling her to finish the affair … with the superintendent of the college there, Gordon Massie:  

ERIN MORIARTY [reading a letter]: “Mrs. Gillispie, stay away from Massie. I’ve been observing your house and I know you have children.”

ROBIN YOCUM [reading a letter] It’s your daughters flip to pay for what you have finished. … I shall come on the market and put a bullet in that little woman’s head.”

Robin Yocum: These letters had been being despatched to newspapers, elected officers, personal residents.

Marie Mayhew: And they’re all saying the identical factor, that mainly Gordon Massie, the superintendent … he must be uncovered. He must be fired.

Marie Mayhew: Her husband, Ron Gillispie, begins to obtain them as nicely.

MARIE MAYHEW [reading a letter]: “Mr. Gillispie, your wife is seeing Gordon Massie. … You should catch them together and kill them both. … He doesn’t deserve to live.”

Janet Cassady: Well, he bought letters saying that if he did not do one thing about this affair, his life could be at risk.

MARIE MAYHEW [reading a letter]: “We know what kind of car you drive … We know where your kids go to school …” 

MARIE MAYHEW [podcast]: By August of 1977, all the things adjustments when Ron Gillispie will get a name late one night time. Enraged, he picks up a gun, will get in his truck … and drives off. 

Martin Yant: And informed the … daughter that he … was going to confront the letter author. 

Martin Yant: He was touring at a excessive velocity … misplaced management of the truck … went off the street, hit a tree … and was killed.

Martin Yant: The letter author had made threats to … Ron Gillispie that …. he might find yourself lifeless. And then he ended up lifeless.

MARIE MAYHEW [podcast]: Was Ron Gillispie’s loss of life an accident or was he murdered? 

Pam Stanton: Murdered. 

Erin Moriarty: This case has actually left its mark. 

Pam Stanton: Yeah, it has destroyed lots of people. 

June Whitehead: I believe there was a giant cover-up.

Martin Yant: Turned out to be fairly a thriller. 

Four many years later, the controversy over the author’s id continues. Could a forensic doc skilled have the reply?   

Erin Moriarty: Do you suppose you already know who wrote these nameless letters?   

Beverley East | Forensic doc skilled: Yes, I do.

A MYSTERY BEGINS

Circleville, Ohio, has the appear and feel of a quaint Midwestern city.

Martin Yant: In some ways it is kind of an all-American city. … Still has a reasonably rural character to it. … And some households have been there for many years. 

Its main attraction, says journalist Martin Yant, is the annual Pumpkin Show. 

Janet Cassady: Well, it was an excellent place to dwell. … pretty peaceable ’til all these things began [laughs].

Janet Cassady is speaking about that barrage of nameless poison pen letters that started arriving in mailboxes throughout Circleville in 1977.

MARIE MAYHEW [reading from podcast]: “Small towns have big secrets buried deep under those freshly mowed lawns …” 

It caught the eye of Marie Mayhew, who researched the story for her podcast “Whatever Remains.” 

MARIE MAYHEW [reading from podcast]: “This anonymous author was hell-bent to expose every ugly little secret in Circleville.” 

At first, the author appeared fixated on the married college district superintendent and his rumored relationship with the college bus driver. 

Marie Mayhew: Gordon Massie … was a well-thought-of man in Circleville. 

Marie Mayhew: Mary Gillispie was a spouse and a mom … they had been accusing her of adultery. 

Erin Moriarty: You’ve bought the superintendent probably having an affair with a college bus driver? Wasn’t that type of the discuss of city? 

June Whitehead: Yeah, it was, undoubtedly. 

June Whitehead grew up in Pickaway County together with her sister Janet.

Janet Cassady [referencing a yearbook photo of Mary]: Have you seen Mary’s image? … She was Miss Jackson.
Erin Moriarty: She appears actually engaging there.

Janet Cassady: She was. 

Mary married her highschool sweetheart Ron Gillispie. 

Janet Cassady: And you would not discover a higher particular person than Ronnie Gillispie. 

The couple had two youngsters and settled in Circleville. 

Erin Moriarty: I imply, this needed to be very awkward … for Mary Gillispie, her youngsters … for Gordon Massie, for his spouse, for his son … 

Marie Mayhew: It should have been terrible … I imply it was simply kind of this all-invasive poison. … there was no one that was off limits to this letter author. 

And it wasn’t only a marketing campaign of letters. There had been telephone calls and offensive indicators that started showing alongside Mary’s bus route. 

Marie Mayhew: Ron must exit and … he must discover and decide up all of the signage about his spouse and children round Circleville.

Determined to cease the author, the Gillispies introduced their letters to the sheriff’s workplace. 

Marie Mayhew: There was an ongoing investigation. … They had been tapping telephones. They had been watching homes. … They tried to work with the USPS to … verify the mail. 

But the letters continued, and small-town Circleville was consumed with hypothesis. Was the author male or feminine? Did the author dwell on the town? 

Then in August 1977, Mary left her husband and kids at residence and drove to Florida together with her sister-in-law. 

Marie Mayhew: Ron had informed her he knew who the letter author was and he was going to care for this drawback whereas they had been in Florida. 

They had been en route after they discovered Ron had crashed his truck right into a tree after getting that mysterious telephone name. The coroner dominated his loss of life an accident, however Ron’s brother-in-law, Paul Freshour, believed he’d been murdered. 

Martin Yant: Although quite a few folks informed me that he was not a heavy drinker, he had virtually twice the authorized restrict of alcohol in his blood.

Also suspicious, beneath Ron’s physique, police discovered a .22 caliber revolver.

Martin Yant: The gun had been fired as soon as. So, then the query was, was he capturing on the letter author? … The sheriff did not give that any credence in any respect.

But Paul Freshour saved pushing the Pickaway County sheriff to take a better look. Pam Stanton was near the Freshours.

Pam Stanton: He needed the reality about Ron’s loss of life. He needed to know who was writing the letters too. 

The assaults on Mary Gillispie and Gordon Massie did not cease. Now, letters had been additionally being despatched to native companies, authorities places of work, colleges and individuals who lived within the space. 

Martin Yant: This particular person was, at that time, fairly unbound, not afraid to say something. … And it scared lots of people … you already know, is he coming after me or is she coming after me?

Mary had at all times denied having an affair with Massie, however after Ron’s loss of life, she says, they started seeing one another. That’s when the threats in opposition to her turned much more vicious.

ROBIN YOCUM [reading a letter]: “Everyone knows what you have done. If you don’t believe us, just make them mad and find out for yourself.”

Robin Yocum writes mysteries, however again within the early 1980’s he was against the law reporter for The Columbus Dispatch. 

Robin Yocum: There had been obscenities and threats … to do hurt to Mrs. Gillispie’s daughter. 

ROBIN YOCUM [reading a letter]: “It’s your daughters flip to pay for what you have finished … 

On February 7, 1983, at 3:30 p.m., Mary Gillispie was driving her empty college bus, heading to select up children.
She was about to show left on Five Points Pike, when she regarded over and noticed a hand-crafted signal on a fence. It talked about her 13-year-old daughter and it was obscene. She pulled the bus over. But when she tried to tug the log out the fence, she realized it was rigged with twine and a field. She says she took that field residence; she then opened it and bought a stunning shock. 

Marie Mayhew: It was a gun, and it was able to go off. 

When Mary introduced the field to the sheriff’s workplace, investigators shortly realized it was a booby entice. Yocum was within the newsroom when phrase bought out. 

Robin Yocum: And I bear in mind the joy … From a newspaper perspective, it is an ideal story — a lady who had been the goal of all these letters finds a booby entice with a .25 caliber handgun rigged to it. … All reporters would need to cowl that story.

Especially if there was a dramatic twist.

EVIDENCE AND THEORIES

MARIE MAYHEW [reading from podcast]: “There’s small town intrigue, a seemingly omnipresent unknown villain extracting revenge on the people of Circleville by uncovering their secrets, a mysterious death, an elaborate attempted murder …” 

To at the present time, there is a fierce debate about who that villain is — or was. So, we’ll take you again by way of the proof and theories and you may determine. 

Erin Moriarty: This seems like one thing out of an Agatha Christie novel, would not it? 

Marie Mayhew: It does. … there is a solid of characters … the letters would preserve coming. … And then … the inevitable tried homicide. But it is vitally a lot an Agatha Christie really feel to it. 

And similar to one in every of Christie’s mysteries, the gun discovered within the booby entice supplied the primary clue. Firearm examiners at BCI — Ohio’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation — had been capable of restore the partially filed off serial quantity.   

Martin Yant: And after they traced the gun, it got here to a co-worker of Paul’s … And he mentioned, “yeah, I sold that to Paul Freshour.” 

On the floor, says Martin Yant, it was stunning as a result of Paul Freshour and his spouse, Karen Sue, had been near Mary Gillispie and her late husband Ron — Karen Sue’s brother. 

Martin Yant: It was type of an prolonged household that appeared to socialize collectively. 

But by 1983, when sheriff’s investigators went to speak to Karen Sue, the Freshour’s had been within the midst of a contentious divorce. 

Martin Yant: Karen Sue gave them fairly an earful. 

She informed investigators Paul had turn out to be infuriated with Mary. 

MARIE MAYHEW [reading from podcast]: “Karen said Paul had thought the world of Ron and Mary before Ron died. But after his death Paul hated Mary — hated her over the ‘Massie deal’.” 

And then Karen Sue informed them that her estranged husband was behind Circleville’s nameless letters. 

Martin Yant: She had discovered one letter torn up in a commode. And she had discovered a few different letters hidden in the home. 

When investigators went to see Paul Freshour, Marie Mayhew says, he was very cooperative. 

Erin Moriarty: Did he demand to have a lawyer? 

Marie Mayhew: No. … he answered all of their questions. 

And readily admitted the gun belonged to him. 

Martin Yant: Well, they ask him … how the gun ended up within the booby entice. … and he mentioned, “I don’t know.” 

Freshour informed investigators his gun had been stolen weeks earlier and allowed them to go looking his home and his automobile. He even gave them samples of his handwriting. 

Marie Mayhew: It undoubtedly does seem to be he has completely nothing to cover at that time. 

He denied being the letter author and mentioned he had nothing to do with the booby entice. But he failed a polygraph. So, Paul Freshour was arrested for the tried homicide of Mary Gillispie. 

Erin Moriarty: Were you shocked when he was charged with tried homicide? 

Pam Stanton: Yes. Yes. Yeah, I used to be. 

This was the person Pam Stanton known as “Uncle Paul,” and says their households had been so shut she considered him as a second father. 

Pam Stanton: I imply, was he frightened … His life was on the road, his freedom … Yeah, he was scared. Anybody could be. 

Freshour was by no means charged with sending any of the threatening, harassing letters. But, in Circleville, there was an assumption that the letter author was lastly behind bars. 

On October 24, 1983, Paul Freshour went on trial on the Pickaway County Courthouse in Circleville. 

Robin Yocum: It was a giant deal. 

Robin Yocum did not cowl the trial, however he adopted all of the news protection. 

Robin Yocum: You know, he was the mastermind behind this alleged booby entice. … however virtually all the things targeted on the letters. 

First up was the meant sufferer: Mary Gillispie. She testified about discovering the booby entice after which, over the protection objections, she was requested in regards to the nameless letters she had acquired. 

Erin Moriarty: How damaging was that to Paul Freshour at his trial? 

Marie Mayhew: That was very, very damaging. 

The protection argued there was no direct risk to Mary’s life and the letters, so that they weren’t related to the case however the choose allowed in 39 of them. 

It was a break for the prosecution, which claimed the writing on the booby entice shared similarities to these letters. 

Marie Mayhew: The letter and the writing that was on the 2×4 … was the identical block handwriting, kind of the identical cadence and the identical message because the nameless letter author. 

The state introduced within the BCI handwriting analyst who in contrast the writing on the booby entice to the letters despatched to Mary after which to samples of Paul Freshour’s handwriting. 

Martin Yant: They had handwriting analyses that indicated that the letters might have been written by Paul Freshour.
And a second skilled — initially a protection witness — agreed. 

Erin Moriarty: I imply, that is fairly damaging, is not it, when a witness employed by the protection finally ends up testifying for the prosecution? 

Marie Mayhew: I can solely think about it was one thing you’d need to keep away from [laughs]. 

It was far tougher for the prosecution to show Freshour made the booby entice. 

Erin Moriarty: Was Paul Freshour’s fingerprints discovered on the gun or the field that held the gun? 

Martin Yant: No. … and so they did not have a complete lot of proof in regards to the booby entice aside from he admitted that was his gun. 

There was circumstantial proof. Freshour had taken the time off from work the identical day the booby entice was discovered. And that field that held the gun  — an industrial sized chalk field — was simply discovered at Anheuser Busch the place Paul labored. 

Martin Yant: They had his gun and the booby entice, and so they had the chalk field … So, they thought that they had loads of proof. 

But nobody noticed Freshour close to the booby entice. 

Martin Yant: He had a reasonably good alibi for a lot of the day. 

Paul Freshour did not take the stand, however a number of protection witnesses testified to seeing him at residence. He was having work finished on his home. The motive, he mentioned, he took that time off. 

Robin Yocum: As the trial progressed … I’m pondering loads of these things simply would not add up. You know, the place are the fingerprints? … Where’s the bodily proof?

But it was sufficient proof for the jurors. They discovered Paul Freshour responsible of tried homicide. 

Erin Moriarty How did you hear the decision? [Pan Stanton cries] Even in any case this time, it is nonetheless laborious, is not it? 

Pam Stanton [crying]: I bought residence, and everyone was only a basket case. They had been crying. Everybody was upset.

He acquired the utmost sentence: 7 to 25 years in jail.

Erin Moriarty: When Paul Freshour was convicted, did everyone on the town breathe a sigh of aid? The letter author is caught. It’s over. 

Robin Yocum: I believe that is a good evaluation. … they’ve linked him to the letters, they linked him to the booby entice. We’re going to get this man out of our group, get him in jail … Everything will type of return to regular, besides it did not as a result of the letters by no means stopped.

QUESTIONS REMAIN

Robin Yocum: Paul was residing a reasonably good life. … had by no means had any issues with the regulation … mainly, he misplaced all the things. … misplaced his residence, misplaced his job, went to jail. 

It was inconceivable to Paul Freshour’s household and associates that the person they so admired may very well be convicted of tried homicide. 

Pam Stanton: It’s simply preposterous. … there isn’t any approach. 

Janet Cassady: He wasn’t dumb sufficient to place his personal gun in a booby entice [laughs]. Anybody might have gotten that gun. 

Even at this time, former investigative journalists Martin Yant and Robin Yocum query whether or not Freshour’s verdict was honest. 

Robin Yocum: Can I let you know I’m 100% certain that he did not do it? No, I can not. … But I can let you know … had I been sitting on that jury I’d have by no means despatched a man to jail primarily based on that flimsy proof. 

Martin Yant: The extra I bought concerned within the case and … the extra I noticed, there have been simply too many query marks. 

At trial, the prosecution had branded Paul Freshour the Circleville letter author. But as soon as he was locked up, how did menacing nameless letters preserve coming? 

Robin Yocum: I’m not speaking about one or two letters … there have been tons of of letters that went out after he was in jail. 

The Pickaway County sheriff could not say how Freshour was capable of write and ship these letters, however he was sure Paul was accountable. The jail warden disagreed. 

Martin Yant: His warden insisted that might be unattainable. They saved him in isolation. They didn’t enable him to have pens or paper. 

Robin Yocum: He was strip searched … All his incoming and outgoing mail was inspected. … There is completely, positively no approach Paul Freshour was writing these letters and smuggling them out from jail. No approach. 

After Yocum and Yant wrote articles about Paul Freshour, additionally they acquired letters. And, inexplicably, so did Paul Freshour whereas behind bars.

Martin Yant: The letter author bragged about setting him up. … He mentioned, “when we set him up, we set him up good.”
Erin Moriarty: And who did Paul suppose had set him up? 

Martin Yant: Karen Sue. 

Erin Moriarty: His ex-wife. 

Martin Yant: His ex-wife. 

Paul Freshour’s lawyer raised that very risk throughout his closing argument: “Who hated Paul enough to try to get him into trouble … if you read the divorce decree, who stands to profit financially, if Paul is convicted goes to prison.” 

Pam Stanton says, throughout that divorce battle, Karen Sue misplaced her residence, custody of their daughters, and was residing in a trailer on Mary Gillispie’s property. 

Pam Stanton: If Uncle Paul was out of the image, she bought all of it. 

And Karen Sue was one of many first to hyperlink Paul to the nameless letters. Remember, she informed investigators she discovered some at their residence, together with that one within the commode. 

MARIE MAYHEW [podcast]: Karen tried to piece it again collectively when Paul was not at residence and mentioned she might make the title of Gillispie out on the letter. 

Erin Moriarty: Could she present them these letters? 

Martin Yant: No. … she did not preserve the letters. 

Erin Moriarty: Does that make sense? 

Martin Yant: Not to me … why would not she run off immediately to the sheriff’s workplace and say, look, that is from my husband. He’s the letter author. … she did not do any of that till after the booby entice was discovered. 

Erin Moriarty: Do you imagine that Paul Freshour did arrange the booby entice and tried to kill Mary Gillispie? 

Martin Yant: No, I do not. I believe any individual stole his gun to set him up, and it labored. 

In the early Nineteen Nineties, when Martin Yant started investigating Freshour’s case, he found proof in police reviews of an alternate suspect. 

Martin Yant: There was one other bus driver … who noticed what I believe could be very important. …. It was one thing that by no means got here up at trial and it factors in a complete totally different path. 

Investigators by no means adopted up, however Yant did. The feminine bus driver informed him that 20 minutes earlier than Mary discovered the booby entice, she had pushed by the identical spot. 

Martin Yant: She mentioned … she noticed a person standing beside an … El Camino … But the person turned away from her and acted like he was going to the toilet … So, she did not get an excellent take a look at him. 

The description did not appear to match Paul Freshour. 

Martin Yant: She mentioned he was a big man with sandy hair. And Paul was not massive, and he had very darkish hair. 

Erin Moriarty: And wasn’t Karen Sue at that time relationship a person who was massive with sandy hair? 

Martin Yant: Yes. 

And what in regards to the El Camino? 

Martin Yant: There’s no proof that any inquiries had been made about who might need an El Camino. 

Erin Moriarty: Didn’t actually … Karen Sue’s brother have an El Camino? 

Martin Yant: That’s what I’ve been informed. 

But Marie Mayhew believes attempting to attach the booby entice to Karen Sue is tenuous at finest.

Marie Mayhew: There’s somebody who regarded like the person she was relationship driving a automobile that regarded prefer it might have been her brother’s…. none of that factors again to Karen Sue. 

Marie Mayhew: I do not imagine that she framed her husband for this or was chargeable for it. 

Ten years after Paul Freshour went to jail, the intrigue surrounding the case caught the eye of the tv collection “Unsolved Mysteries.” But in December 1993, earlier than filming even started, the present acquired a postcard with an ominous risk. 

MARTIN YANT: [reading postcard] “Forget Circleville, Ohio. … If you come to Ohio, you el sickos will pay. The Circleville writer.” 

It did not deter the present from going to Circleville. Even Paul Freshour, who had simply been launched on parole, agreed to speak. 

PAUL FRESHOUR [“Unsolved Mysteries” interview]: I’d actually wish to see somebody actually take a look at this case, on the letters. Reopen the letter a part of it and get in and discover out who wrote the letters. 

Pam Stanton says Karen Sue was not completely satisfied “Unsolved Mysteries” was on the town, or that Stanton agreed to be interviewed. 

Pam Stanton: I bought a telephone name and her telling me it could be in my finest curiosity to not go. 

Karen Sue did not take part in this system, however in keeping with Stanton, she saved monitor of everybody who did. 

Pam Stanton: She sat in a automobile on the opposite facet of the intersection and took footage of everyone going out and in for the interviews. 

If true, Marie Mayhew says that does not show something. What’s extra, Karen Sue has by no means been thought of a suspect by police. 

Marie Mayhew: I believe she’s a really handy villain. 

“48 Hours” reached out to her, however she didn’t reply to our requests for an interview. 

Martin Yant: There are so many twists and turns on this case … all-of-a-sudden one thing … will floor and makes you rethink what you had been pondering. 

Martin Yant is true. And there’s one other twist to come back.

A NEW TWIST IN THE CASE

It took practically 20 years, however in 1994 the Circleville letters abruptly stopped when Paul Freshour was launched from jail. 

Erin Moriarty: Did folks when he bought out nonetheless suppose he was the letter author? 

Pam Stanton: Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Martin Yant: He was very harm. And he was harm with what it did to his household. 

A really uncivil warfare had been raging for years between Paul Freshour and his ex-wife, Karen Sue. Even their two daughters had been divided over their dad. And caught within the center was their son, Mark. 

Pam Stanton: He was so loyal to his mother. … But he liked his dad, too. But with Sue … you had been going to be her son or his son. 

Pam Stanton says Mark selected his mother, and by no means as soon as visited his father in jail. 

Pam Stanton: He would not inform me why. He simply mentioned he could not. 

It was Paul Freshour’s gun found within the booby entice that helped land him behind bars. 

According to Martin Yant, Freshour strongly suspected that the thief was his personal son. 

Martin Yant: He did inform some folks that the gun had been stolen. And I did interview one man that mentioned he particularly informed him that he thought it was Mark, the son. 

Erin Moriarty: And this was earlier than there was any discuss of a booby entice? 

Martin Yant: Before the booby entice. 

Freshour saved his suspicions about his son to himself, says Yant. 

Martin Yant: Family loyalty meant extra to him, despite the fact that his son had completely rejected him. 

Erin Moriarty: Why did not he … level the finger at his son? 

Pam Stanton: Paul … get his son in bother? No, Uncle Paul would’ve by no means finished that. 

Erin Moriarty: But he knew he might go to jail. 

Pam Stanton: No, I do not care. … Uncle Paul would have died earlier than he had seen Mark go to jail. 

Pam Stanton: All this destroyed Mark. … The divorce, the letters … all of it destroyed him in a approach that may by no means be mounted. 

Just earlier than dawn on September 11, 2002, in Portsmouth, Ohio, a person’s physique was discovered floating within the Scioto River. It was 39-year-old Mark Freshour. He had shot himself. His mom, Karen Sue, later informed police her son had suffered for years from melancholy. 

Pam Stanton: And I firmly imagine when Mark took his life, he couldn’t take care of the guilt any longer. 

If Paul Freshour really had nothing to do with the booby entice, is it additionally potential he had nothing to do with the letters? 

Robin Yocum: As he informed me …”I didn’t write the letters. … I didn’t do this.” 

Martin Yant: Even after he bought out of jail, he approached the FBI and requested them to … examine the case. 

The FBI by no means responded, says Yant. But practically three many years later, one in every of its former star profilers agreed to look at the Circleville letters for “48 Hours.” Mary Ellen O’Toole has explored a number of the darkest prison minds from the Green River Killer to the Unabomber. 

Mary Ellen O’Toole: Whoever the author is, they’re flying beneath the radar display screen …coming throughout as very regular … and other people wouldn’t suspect them. 

Who was the Circleville author? Or had been there a number of writers? O’Toole believes one solitary creator churned out each letter. 

Mary Ellen O’Toole: When you may have one particular person and one particular person solely … that particular person can take the key to the grave. 

Erin Moriarty: Do you suppose it is male or feminine? Can you inform? 

Mary Ellen O’Toole: All proper [laughs]. I knew that might be one in every of your first questions. … When it involves the letter author, gender could be very tough to discern. 

That’s as a result of the author was intelligent, persistently misleading, and manipulative, says O’Toole. 

Mary Ellen O’Toole: You see the manipulation proceed all through these letters. 

She went all the best way again to the author’s first letters in 1977, looking for hints about gender and located some. 

Mary Ellen O’Toole: The letter author saved referring to, “I’m the boyfriend of a woman.” … They needed to make you imagine, “I’m not a woman, I’m a man.” 

Mary Ellen O’Toole: And seeing … how they had been attempting to cover who they had been makes me suppose there may very well be a … good risk, it is a feminine. 

Altogether, O’Toole inspected 98 letters, discovering the phrase decisions and the grammar revealing. 

Erin Moriarty: How educated is that this author? Can you inform? 

Mary Ellen O’Toole: I’d say this isn’t a extremely educated particular person. … due to the standard of the sentences and the way they had been put collectively. 

Significant, says O’Toole, contemplating that Paul Freshour had a job as a supervisor at Anheuser Busch and a grasp’s diploma. She says there have been different figuring out clues from the nameless author. 

Mary Ellen O’Toole: As you learn these letters, you’ll be able to see the letter author is actually havin’ an excellent time. 

Erin Moriarty: What does that say about that particular person? 

Mary Ellen O’Toole: The letter author is fairly callous. … This particular person … must know, “I’m hurting people and that’s OK with me.” 

An indication the author might need been affected by a character dysfunction, says O’Toole, that means that she or he knew the distinction between proper and unsuitable, however merely selected “wrong.” 

Mary Ellen O’Toole: So, that might counsel to me that of their common on a regular basis life, they sought methods to be a bully … to be intimidating.

If that is the case, Pam Stanton says that doesn’t sound like her Uncle Paul. 

Erin Moriarty Did he have like a darkish facet to him or something? 

Pam Stanton: Never. Uncle Paul was by no means bitter, by no means offended. 

Erin Moriarty: Do you suppose the letter author was Paul Freshour? 

Mary Ellen O’Toole: Right now, I’ve my doubts. 

Mary Ellen O’Toole: Sitting right here at this time, I’d say I can not rule him out. But I’m … taking a look at different causes that inform me … it would actually be any individual totally different. 

And O’Toole doesn’t imagine the secretive author would danger publicity by setting a booby entice in a public place. 

Mary Ellen O’Toole: That suggests to me which will have been finished by any individual else who took benefit of the state of affairs. 

The thriller appeared to solely deepen. But one skilled is satisfied she does know the id of the Circleville author. 

Beverley East: 100% certain.

THE LETTER WRITER REVEALED?

When the 1980 Robert Redford jail drama “Brubaker” wanted extras within the Columbus space, Paul Freshour channeled expertise as a former jail guard to play one on the massive display screen. Little did he know he’d ultimately serve a decade for tried homicide. And though by no means charged with terrorizing Circleville with the letters, he needed to dwell with folks believing he was the author. But not sisters, Janet Cassady and June Whitehead. 

Erin Moriarty: What is one factor that you just actually need to see corrected? 

June Whitehead: I do not suppose Paul’s responsible. I believe he served these 10 years in jail, and I do not suppose he was responsible of the tried homicide. And I do not actually suppose he was the letter author. 

And with former FBI profiler Mary Ellen O’Toole believing the author may very well be somebody aside from Paul Freshour, it calls into query the testimony of these two handwriting specialists at his trial linking him to the letters. So, “48 Hours” turned to forensic doc skilled Beverley East, on the lookout for her impartial evaluation. 

Beverley East: I do not wanna hear the story ‘trigger … the paperwork inform me the story. 

That story, says East, begins by figuring out distinct writing patterns in Paul Freshour’s recognized writing. In this case, letters he wrote to a buddy. 

Beverley East: The “G” in Grimer is a really uncommon G. Looks like a six, a quantity 6. 

Erin Moriarty: And that is uncommon? 

Beverley East: That’s very uncommon. 

She then studied a collection of 49 of the nameless letters — spanning from after they first began in 1977 by way of the Nineteen Nineties — and located that uncommon “G” formed like a quantity 6 in a number of of the Circleville letters, together with one despatched whereas Paul Freshour was in jail. 

Beverley East: So Gillispie, Gillispie, gettin’, Gillispie, and Gordon, you have bought that quantity 6. 

East says numbers can inform a narrative of their very own, pointing to this zip code written by Paul … there’s an ambiguous quantity “3” that may even be a “2.” 

Beverley East: Numbers do not lie. Numbers do not lie. 

Beverley East: It’s like he is unsure if it is 4-2-1-1 2 or 4-3-1-1-3. …In the nameless letters on the zip code …I discovered the identical mistake. 

While East admits there are writing patterns within the nameless letters that do not appear like Paul Freshour’s, after exhibiting “48 Hours” virtually 100 examples of his distinct quirks that she was capable of establish, she is satisfied one particular person was accountable. 

Beverley East: I’d go into courtroom and swear on the Bible on the proof that I discovered. 

Erin Moriarty: And whenever you say you’d swear on the Bible, what would you say? 

Beverley East: I’d say one particular person wrote all of those. And the one particular person is that this particular person. 

Erin Moriarty: Paul Freshour. 

Beverley East: Paul Freshour. 

Erin Moriarty: And for those who noticed {that a} doc examiner at this time thought, actually, he did write these letters, would that change your thoughts? 

Pam Stanton: No. 

And there’s a historic foundation for skepticism. 

Erin Moriarty: You know that some doc examiners have been unsuitable previously. 

Beverley East: I can not … converse for others … there are at all times gonna be instances the place individuals are inaccurate. And it is not as a result of the science just isn’t correct. It’s as a result of … that specific examiner has not finished due diligence to reach on the opinion that they need to do. 

Beverley East: You cannot be unsuitable [laughs]. You — ‘trigger … any individual’s life and livelihood is on the finish of your opinion. So, I’m not unsuitable.

While learning the 1000’s of pages of the case file, Marie Mayhew made a discovery that helps East’s findings. Investigators had discovered Paul Freshour’s fingerprints on a couple of dozen letters postmarked whereas he was incarcerated. 

Marie Mayhew: Those fingerprints are there and so they’re his. 

Erin Moriarty: Do you suppose that Paul Freshour is the Circleville letter author? 

Marie Mayhew: Yes, I actually do. 

Former FBI profiler Mary Ellen O’Toole says she can not clarify these letters. But she additionally can not ignore that in Freshour’s decade in jail, the phantom author mailed tons of of letters. 

Mary Ellen O’Toole: If against the law continues on and you’ve got somebody … in custody for a protracted time period … it’s a must to say, “Somebody else is sending these letters. … they’re not happening by magic. Somebody else is writing the letters.” 

Erin Moriarty: If actually Paul Freshour was the letter author, is it potential that he mass-produced letters, went to jail, after which had any individual else ship them whereas he was in? 

Mary Ellen O’Toole: Anything is feasible. … That must be investigated and dominated out. 

Paul Freshour died June 28, 2012, at age 70, nonetheless combating to show his innocence. Instead, what’s left behind is an unfinished portrait. Was Paul Freshour the profitable, loving household man he gave the impression to be? Or was he a merciless, even harmful, prison mastermind? 

Whatever your conclusion, Paul Freshour predicted — when interviewed by author Robin Yocum 36 years in the past — that his notoriety because the Circleville letter author would lengthy outlive him. 

ROBIN YOCUM [Reading]: “When I’m dead and in my grave, people are going to believe I’m sending those letters.” Unfortunately, Paul died. … and we’ll by no means know. We’ll by no means know. 

No one has ever been charged with writing the Circleville letters, however the Pickaway County Sheriff’s workplace says the case is closed.

---

Produced by Lisa Freed and Richard Fetzer. Mead Stone is the producer-editor. David Dow and Tamara Weitzman are the event producers. Jud Johnston, Ken Blum and Diana Modica are the editors. Lourdes Aguiar is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the manager story editor. Judy Tygard is the manager producer.