Has the nameless creator of the notorious Circleville letters been unmasked?

This story beforehand aired on August 6, 2022.

For almost twenty 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]: One thing 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 the whole lot about everybody … and knew everybody’s secrets and techniques.

Robin Yocum: They have been vicious and … ugly. Somebody with extreme psychological issues, I might hazard to guess.

The threatening, nameless letters stored coming — lots of of them. Most have 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 below siege. When only a stroll to the mailbox may set off terror, particularly for one girl who lived there, a faculty bus driver by the identify of Mary Gillispie. 

Marie Mayhew: Mary Gillispie goes out to her mailbox. She receives a letter. … She opens it. It is 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, avoid Massie. I have been observing your home and I do know you have got kids.”

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

Robin Yocum: These letters have been being despatched to newspapers, elected officers, non-public residents.

Marie Mayhew: And so 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 effectively.

MARIE MAYHEW [reading a letter]: “Mr. Gillispie, your spouse is seeing Gordon Massie. … It’s best to catch them collectively and kill them each. … He does not need to dwell.”

Janet Cassady: Properly, he received letters saying that if he did not do one thing about this affair, his life can be at risk.

MARIE MAYHEW [reading a letter]: “We all know what sort of automobile you drive … We all know the place your youngsters go to high school …” 

MARIE MAYHEW [podcast]: By August of 1977, the whole lot adjustments when Ron Gillispie will get a name late one evening. 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 pace … 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 may find yourself useless. After which he ended up useless.

MARIE MAYHEW [podcast]: Was Ron Gillispie’s dying 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 an enormous cover-up.

Martin Yant: Turned out to be fairly a thriller. 

4 many years later, the controversy over the author’s id continues. May a forensic doc knowledgeable have the reply?   

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

Beverley East | Forensic doc knowledgeable: Sure, I do.

A MYSTERY BEGINS

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

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

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

Janet Cassady: Properly, it was a very good place to dwell. … pretty peaceable ’til all these items 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 cities have huge secrets and techniques buried deep below these freshly mowed lawns …” 

It caught the eye of Marie Mayhew, who researched the story for her podcast “No matter Stays.” 

MARIE MAYHEW [reading from podcast]: “This nameless creator was hell-bent to show each ugly little secret in Circleville.” 

At first, the author appeared fixated on the married faculty 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 have been accusing her of adultery. 

Erin Moriarty: You have received the superintendent probably having an affair with a faculty bus driver? Wasn’t that form of the discuss of city? 

June Whitehead: Yeah, it was, undoubtedly. 

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

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

Janet Cassady: She was. 

Mary married her highschool sweetheart Ron Gillispie. 

Janet Cassady: And also you would not discover a higher individual than Ronnie Gillispie. 

The couple had two kids and settled in Circleville. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

However 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 youngsters at dwelling and drove to Florida along 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 downside whereas they have been in Florida. 

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

Martin Yant: Though numerous individuals informed me that he was not a heavy drinker, he had nearly twice the authorized restrict of alcohol in his blood.

Additionally suspicious, below 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.

However Paul Freshour stored pushing the Pickaway County sheriff to take a more in-depth look. Pam Stanton was near the Freshours.

Pam Stanton: He wished the reality about Ron’s dying. He wished to know who was writing the letters too. 

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

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

Mary had all the time denied having an affair with Massie, however after Ron’s dying, she says, they started seeing one another. That is when the threats towards her grew to become much more vicious.

ROBIN YOCUM [reading a letter]: “Everybody is aware of what you have got performed. For those who do not imagine us, simply make them mad and discover out for your self.”

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

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

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

On February 7, 1983, at 3:30 p.m., Mary Gillispie was driving her empty faculty bus, heading to select up youngsters. She was about to show left on 5 Factors Pike, when she appeared over and noticed a home made signal on a fence. It talked about her 13-year-old daughter and it was obscene. She pulled the bus over. However when she tried to drag the log off the fence, she realized it was rigged with twine and a field. She says she took that field dwelling; she then opened it and received 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 received out. 

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

Particularly if there was a dramatic twist.

EVIDENCE AND THEORIES

MARIE MAYHEW [reading from podcast]: “There’s small city intrigue, a seemingly omnipresent unknown villain extracting revenge on the individuals of Circleville by uncovering their secrets and techniques, a mysterious dying, an elaborate tried homicide …” 

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

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

Marie Mayhew: It does. … there is a forged of characters … the letters would maintain coming. … After which … the inevitable tried homicide. However it is rather a lot an Agatha Christie really feel to it. 

And identical to considered one of Christie’s mysteries, the gun discovered within the booby entice offered the primary clue. Firearm examiners at BCI — Ohio’s Bureau of Felony Investigation — have been in a position to 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 offered 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 form of an prolonged household that appeared to socialize collectively. 

However by 1983, when sheriff’s investigators went to speak to Karen Sue, the Freshour’s have 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 mentioned Paul had thought the world of Ron and Mary earlier than Ron died. However after his dying Paul hated Mary — hated her over the ‘Massie deal’.” 

After which 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 or he 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: Properly, they ask him … how the gun ended up within the booby entice. … and he mentioned, “I do not 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 look like 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. However he failed a polygraph. So, Paul Freshour was arrested for the tried homicide of Mary Gillispie. 

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

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

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

Pam Stanton: I imply, was he nervous … His life was on the road, his freedom … Yeah, he was scared. Anyone can be. 

Freshour was by no means charged with sending any of the threatening, harassing letters. However, 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 an enormous deal. 

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

Robin Yocum: You recognize, he was the mastermind behind this alleged booby entice. … however nearly the whole lot 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 obtained. 

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, in order that they weren’t related to the case however the decide 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, type 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: That they had handwriting analyses that indicated that the letters may have been written by Paul Freshour. And a second knowledgeable — 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 wish 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 apart from he admitted that was his gun. 

There was circumstantial proof. Freshour had taken the time without work 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: That they had his gun and the booby entice, and so they had the chalk field … So, they thought they’d loads of proof. 

However 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 dwelling. He was having work performed on his home. The explanation, he mentioned, he took that time without work. 

Robin Yocum: Because the trial progressed … I am considering numerous these items simply does not add up. You recognize, the place are the fingerprints? … The place’s the bodily proof?

Nevertheless 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 exhausting, is not it? 

Pam Stanton [crying]: I received dwelling, and everyone was only a basket case. They have been crying. Everyone was upset.

He obtained 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 is 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 will get this man out of our neighborhood, get him in jail … Every part will form 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 legislation … mainly, he misplaced the whole lot. … misplaced his dwelling, misplaced his job, went to jail. 

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

Pam Stanton: It is simply preposterous. … there is not any means. 

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

Even at the moment, former investigative journalists Martin Yant and Robin Yocum query whether or not Freshour’s verdict was truthful. 

Robin Yocum: Can I let you know I am 100% positive that he did not do it? No, I am unable to. … However I can let you know … had I been sitting on that jury I might have by no means despatched a man to jail based mostly on that flimsy proof. 

Martin Yant: The extra I received 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. However as soon as he was locked up, how did menacing nameless letters maintain coming? 

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

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

Martin Yant: His warden insisted that might be inconceivable. They stored him in isolation. They didn’t permit him to have pens or paper. 

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

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

Martin Yant: The letter author bragged about setting him up. … He mentioned, “after 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 chance throughout his closing argument: “Who hated Paul sufficient to attempt to get him into bother … when you learn the divorce decree, who stands to revenue financially, if Paul is convicted goes to jail.” 

Pam Stanton says, throughout that divorce battle, Karen Sue misplaced her dwelling, 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 received all of it. 

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

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

Erin Moriarty: May she present them these letters? 

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

Erin Moriarty: Does that make sense? 

Martin Yant: To not me … why would not she run off instantly to the sheriff’s workplace and say, look, that is from my husband. He is 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 person stole his gun to set him up, and it labored. 

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

Martin Yant: There was one other bus driver … who noticed what I believe could be very vital. …. 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 … However the man turned away from her and acted like he was going to the lavatory … So, she did not get a very good have a look at him. 

The outline did not appear to match Paul Freshour. 

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

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

Martin Yant: Sure. 

And what in regards to the El Camino? 

Martin Yant: There is no proof that any inquiries have been made about who may need an El Camino. 

Erin Moriarty: Did not in actual fact … Karen Sue’s brother have an El Camino? 

Martin Yant: That is what I have been informed. 

However Marie Mayhew believes making an attempt to attach the booby entice to Karen Sue is tenuous at finest.

Marie Mayhew: There’s somebody who appeared like the person she was relationship driving a automobile that appeared prefer it may 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 answerable for it. 

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

MARTIN YANT: [reading postcard] “Neglect Circleville, Ohio. … For those who come to Ohio, you el sickos can pay. The Circleville author.” 

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 might actually prefer to see somebody actually have 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 comfortable “Unsolved Mysteries” was on the town, or that Stanton agreed to be interviewed. 

Pam Stanton: I received 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 response to Stanton, she stored monitor of everybody who did. 

Pam Stanton: She sat in a automobile on the opposite aspect 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 such a lot of twists and turns on this case … all-of-a-sudden one thing … will floor and makes you rethink what you have been considering. 

Martin Yant is correct. And there is one other twist to return.

A NEW TWIST IN THE CASE

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

Erin Moriarty: Did individuals when he received out nonetheless suppose he was the letter author? 

Pam Stanton: Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

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

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

Pam Stanton: He was so loyal to his mother. … However he liked his dad, too. However with Sue … you have 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. 

Based on 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: Earlier than the booby entice. 

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

Martin Yant: Household loyalty meant extra to him, regardless 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 performed that. 

Erin Moriarty: However he knew he may 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 means that may by no means be mounted. 

Simply 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 despair. 

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

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

Robin Yocum: As he informed me …”I did not write the letters. … I did not do that.” 

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

The FBI by no means responded, says Yant. However almost three many years later, considered one of its former star profilers agreed to look at the Circleville letters for “48 Hours.” Mary Ellen O’Toole has explored a few of the darkest felony minds from the Inexperienced River Killer to the Unabomber. 

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

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

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

Erin Moriarty: Do you suppose it is male or feminine? Are you able to inform? 

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

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

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

She went all the way in which again to the author’s first letters in 1977, attempting to find hints about gender and located some. 

Mary Ellen O’Toole: The letter author stored referring to, “I am the boyfriend of a girl.” … They wished to make you imagine, “I am not a girl, I am a person.” 

Mary Ellen O’Toole: And seeing … how they have been making an attempt to cover who they have been makes me suppose there could possibly be a … good chance, it is a feminine. 

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

Erin Moriarty: How educated is that this author? Are you able to inform? 

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

Important, 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 may see the letter author is basically havin’ a very good time. 

Erin Moriarty: What does that say about that individual? 

Mary Ellen O’Toole: The letter author is fairly callous. … This individual … must know, “I am hurting individuals and that is OK with me.” 

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

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 aspect to him or something? 

Pam Stanton: By no means. Uncle Paul was by no means bitter, by no means indignant. 

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

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

Mary Ellen O’Toole: Sitting right here at the moment, I might say I am unable to rule him out. However I am … different causes that inform me … it’d in actual fact be any person 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 implies to me which will have been performed by any person else who took benefit of the state of affairs. 

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

Beverley East: 100% positive.

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. 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 individuals believing he was the author. However not sisters, Janet Cassady and June Whitehead. 

Erin Moriarty: What’s one factor that you simply actually wish 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 could possibly be somebody apart from Paul Freshour, it calls into query the testimony of these two handwriting consultants at his trial linking him to the letters. So, “48 Hours” turned to forensic doc knowledgeable Beverley East, searching 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. On this case, letters he wrote to a pal. 

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

Erin Moriarty: And that is uncommon? 

Beverley East: That is very uncommon. 

She then studied a choice of 49 of the nameless letters — spanning from after they first began in 1977 by 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 received 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 is like he is unsure if it is 4-2-1-1 2 or 4-3-1-1-3. …Within the nameless letters on the zip code …I discovered the identical mistake. 

Whereas East admits there are writing patterns within the nameless letters that do not appear like Paul Freshour’s, after exhibiting “48 Hours” nearly 100 examples of his distinct quirks that she was in a position to determine, she is satisfied one individual was accountable. 

Beverley East: I might 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 might say one individual wrote all of those. And the one individual is that this individual. 

Erin Moriarty: Paul Freshour. 

Beverley East: Paul Freshour. 

Erin Moriarty: And when you noticed {that a} doc examiner at the moment thought, in actual fact, he did write these letters, would that change your thoughts? 

Pam Stanton: No. 

And there’s a historic foundation for skepticism. 

Erin Moriarty: You recognize that some doc examiners have been improper previously. 

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

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

Whereas learning the hundreds 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: These fingerprints are there and so they’re his. 

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

Marie Mayhew: Sure, I actually do. 

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

Mary Ellen O’Toole: If a criminal offense continues on and you’ve got somebody … in custody for a protracted time frame … it’s a must to say, “Any person else is sending these letters. … they are not taking place by magic. Any person else is writing the letters.” 

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

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

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

No matter 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]: “Once I’m useless and in my grave, individuals are going to imagine I am sending these letters.” Sadly, Paul died. … and we’ll by no means know. We’ll by no means know. 

Nobody 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 chief story editor. Judy Tygard is the chief producer. 

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