The Circleville Writer: Less Bizarre Than it Appears

[TheCars1986]

I know there are other threads about this topic, and if the mods think this shouldn't be a new thread, feel free to close it and merge with one of the other threads. I just wanted to share how I've came to a better understanding of the case as a whole, and that how I now believe this case is not as bizarre as it appears on the surface.

It started when I saw a thread on reddit about the case, which piqued my interest back up in it. I went back and reread the threads on this forum, as well as the 164 pages of documents that Paul Freshour himself uploaded to a website prior to his death. I guess I should preface this and say that I've always believed Paul Freshour to be completely innocent of not only the crimes he was convicted for, but for also the things he was accused of doing (writing the threatening letters, targeting the Gillespie's). So I contacted Martin Yant, the reporter/investigator who was featured on the Unsolved Mysteries segment.

(And for those who need a refresher on the case, here's the link to the Unsolved Mysteries website which gives it a rundown:
http://unsolved.com/archives/poison-pen-murder)

My personal working theory at the time (prior to talking with Martin Yant) was that there were several different people using the "Circleville writer" moniker as a way to spread gossip and innuendo around the town about various businesses and residents. It appears now that that theory is incorrect. The very first "CW" letter that was received was by Mary Gillespie sometime in 1976, telling her to end her affair with the superintendent of schools (Gordon Massie). She at first ignored it until more letters came in. Then her husband started to receive threatening letters. This is when Ron and Mary contacted Paul and his then wife (Ron's sister) about what was going on. It's interesting to note here that the letters they were receiving were written in two differnt forms. Some were written with the large block style writing (featured in UM), and others were written with a more normal style and were signed "W". Gordon Massie's son was named William. They wrote, according to Paul, 4 or 5 letters to him, and that "there was no violence in them or anything, just that we knew who he was and what he was doing, and we sent him the letters." Then the letters stopped. The next year in the summer of 1977 is when Ron Gillespie received a phone call which ultimately resulted in his death. He was drunk at the time, and went out to confront the person whom he thought was responsible. He crashed his car, and the death was ruled accidental. The police ruled out a "suspect" (according to UM), and this was probably the guy whom Ron suspected of placing the call. Nothing has ever surfaced (besides the firing of his gun) to suggest otherwise. I honestly believe this was an accidental death.

Fast forward to 1983, which is when Mary Gillespie would see signs along her bus route that targeted her daughter. This is when she eventually found the booby trap attached to a sign, for which Freshour's gun was found inside and what ultimately led to his conviction. It should be noted that in 1982, Freshour and his wife went through a messy divorce, and Freshour kept their house and custody of their children. Not once during the proceedings did his wife mention anything about him being the writer. Then after the divorce was finalized, his ex-wife moved into a trailer on the property where Mary Gillespie lived. And it was only after finding the booby trap that his ex began to claim he was responsible for writing the letters.

On the day the trap was found, another bus driver (20 minutes prior to Mary Gillespie) drove by and saw a man standing near a yellow El Camino. Freshour had an alibi during this time (around noon that day) and did not match the description of the man given. But Paul's ex-wife's boyfriend (and eventual husband) did look like the man seen at the El Camino. And the ex wife had a relative with a yellow El Camino. The picture became clearer.

After discussing the case with Martin Yant, I think I have a better understanding of the case now. Another worker for the school system had repeatedly made advances to Mary, which she rebuffed. When she began the affair with the superintendent, this made the guy jealous. All of the initial letters targeted the affair. And the initial letters were written in two different forms. IMO, the son of Gordon Massie wrote some, while the jealous coworker wrote the others. It should be noted that Paul Freshour lived in a different county altogether, and worked at a beer plant 50 hours a week. There's just no way he would have known the numerous people in Circleville, let alone know intimate details about their lives. But back to the main story. I believe the coworker was the one responsible for the block style letters written to Ron and Mary, and also for the threatening call to Ron. Keep in mind that Gordon Massie's son was only a teenager at the time. I don't think he would have had the time or patience to devote this much of his life to this letter writing campaign about not only an affair involving his father, but other people around town. And the letters always seemed to center around the school system. Which all leads back to the coworker. I think the letters died down initially because Mary and Gordon Massie stopped their affair for a time. Gordon divorced his wife in 1979, and eventually they admitted that they started a relationship after the divorce and death of Ron (I don't believe this). Then the letters started again, which escalated to the signs being placed along Mary's bus route. This just so happens to coincide with a time that Paul and his wife had went through their bitter divorce. I think his ex-wife enlisted her then boyfriend to make a decoy booby trap with Paul's gun (Martin Yant described the boyfriend as a "tinkerer" and that Freshour was a "mechanical klutz") to frame Paul and make him look like the "CW". And because Paul did admit to writing the 4 or 5 letters to the person they initially suspected, he became the prime suspect. With the help of his ex-wife, they built a case around, and eventually convicted Paul Freshour. It should also be noted that around the divorce proceedings, Paul's ex-wife had asked Paul's sister if she could use a typewriter that Paul had loaned to her because she was planning on writing a book. The sister was confused because she never knew his ex-wife to be a typist, and because they were going through a divorce at the time, found it odd that she would want one of Paul's items. His ex assured the sister that Paul was okay with it, so she relented and let her use it. Not so coincidentally was there a typewriter used in some of the letters that the people in Circleville had been receiving around the same time.

So what does this all mean? I firmly believe that this whole thing started out of jealousy, with a guy who wanted to be with Mary Gillespie who spurned his advances and hooked up with Gordon Massie instead. The coworker then took to letter writing to voice his displeasure and began to threaten people (mostly Mary and Ron Gillespie) with the intention of ending the affair, or Mary and Ron's marriage. I think Ron drank up the courage to confront this guy, and legitimately died because of an accident on his way. His family contends he wasn't a strong drinker, so for someone who isn't much of a drinker, his BAC at the time (.16) would make him completely wasted. The only "mystery" is with the fired bullet. For all we now, Ron could have fired the weapon out the window as he was driving out of anger, or it could have discharged accidentally once he crashed into the tree. I then think that after Freshour and his ex-wife divorced, she used the "CW"'s little game of leaving signs (as well as writing letters) as a way to set up Freshour as the writer to get back at him over a bitter divorce dispute. Martin Yant description of her, "she was a very, very angry, manipulative woman who was still planting negative stories about Paul in the early 1990s.", is very telling. What was initially bizarre seems more clear now. Still a weird case, but overall, something that I feel comfortable with having a finality to it. I am also firmly in the belief that Freshour's ex-wife wrote the "el sickos" letter to UM.

One final tidbit: the coworker (the one whom I now believe to be the "CW") was charged with the rape of a young girl, and while on the run, committed suicide.

[cherryblues]

Great work! I almost started a similar thread a few months ago, after doing the same as you: reviewing the entire PDF, previous threads, etc. I wanted to approach it from the angle of answering each question posed by Unsolved Mysteries (e.g. "Who drove the yellow car?" which is answered in the PDF), but could never give a satisfactory answer to the big question: who wrote the original letters?

Your communication with Yant has added some excellent details to the story and I'm happy you took the time to summarize it. Thank you!

[Charlie99909]

I've only been saying this for years.

[Thiussat]

I've always wanted to contact Mr. Yant, so I am glad someone here got a hold of him.

One question, though, who was the man in the El Camino? Yant said in the segment that "a suspect in this case had a brother who drove an El Camino." Who was this person?

EDIT: Nevermind. I see you addressed it in your post. Somehow I missed it.

[alistaircranium]

I can't stand people who like to take the fun out of mysteries.

[LooksLikeCRicci]

Originally Posted by alistaircranium

I can't stand people who like to take the fun out of mysteries.

[RobinW]

Excellent work! It's fascinating to hear all this new info about the case, though admittedly, learning a detailed explanation for all these events does take a little buzz out of the mystery.

I'm curious if Yant mentioned anything about Sheriff Dwight Radcliff. The UM segment always kinda gave the impression that he was colluding with the perpetrators to frame Paul Freshour and orchestrating a cover-up. But after reading about all this personal drama, I can't imagine why he'd bother, unless he had some sort of personal connection with any of the people involved. It's possible Radcliff might have gotten tunnel vision about Freshour and the whole conviction was just lousy police work.

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

I think Ron drank up the courage to confront this guy, and legitimately died because of an accident on his way. His family contends he wasn't a strong drinker, so for someone who isn't much of a drinker, his BAC at the time (.16) would make him completely wasted.

There's one thing I've always been confused about here. Ron's kids were home at the time he received the phone call and he told them he was going out to confront someone before he got into his accident. Shouldn't they have been able to verify if he was actually drunk that night or not?

I remember Paul saying that Sheriff Radcliff originally thought there was foul play, but changed his ruling to an accident after ruling out a potential suspect who passed a polygraph. Since someone started sending out letters accusing Radcliff of a cover-up, I wonder if this "suspect" was the aforementioned jealous coworker, Gordon Massie's son, or someone else who legitimately wasn't involved.

[TheCars1986]

Originally Posted by RobinW

I'm curious if Yant mentioned anything about Sheriff Dwight Radcliff. The UM segment always kinda gave the impression that he was colluding with the perpetrators to frame Paul Freshour and orchestrating a cover-up. But after reading about all this personal drama, I can't imagine why he'd bother, unless he had some sort of personal connection with any of the people involved. It's possible Radcliff might have gotten tunnel vision about Freshour and the whole conviction was just lousy police work.

I asked him what his thoughts were about Ron's death, and he never really answered that one. I mentioned Radcliff a couple of times, and the impression I got from Yant was that after the divorce, Paul's ex began "co-opted" the original writer's scheme to steer the investigation towards Paul. His ex-wife led the investigation to Paul. Now my personal opinion is that once the gun was matched to Paul Freshour, Radcliff did everything he could to pin the crimes and letters on him to quell the public's fears and to quickly "solve" the case. I don't think he anticipated the letters continuing once Freshour was in prison. When they did, in order to save face, he had to keep insisting (despite how ridiculous it is) that Freshour was somehow smuggling the letters out of prison. Basically just lousy police work which then in turn made them stubborn into never admitting that they got the wrong guy.

Originally Posted by RobinW

There's one thing I've always been confused about here. Ron's kids were home at the time he received the phone call and he told them he was going out to confront someone before he got into his accident. Shouldn't they have been able to verify if he was actually drunk that night or not?

Again, he didn't really address my questions about Ron's death, but from everything I've read, Ron was definitely intoxicated that night. I don't know how they could have (or why at the time, this was still less than a year since the Gillespie's started receiving letters) fudged Ron's BAC that night. Despite what UM has in their re-enactment, I don't think Ron necessarily rushed out of the house once he got the phone call. I think he sat around and contemplated what to do, and then with the help of some liquid encouragement, went out to confront the guy. His kids may have only seen him for the very brief exchange of him telling them that he was going out to confront the guy, without them noticing that he was drunk.

Originally Posted by RobinW

I remember Paul saying that Sheriff Radcliff originally thought there was foul play, but changed his ruling to an accident after ruling out a potential suspect who passed a polygraph. Since someone started sending out letters accusing Radcliff of a cover-up, I wonder if this "suspect" was the aforementioned jealous coworker, Gordon Massie's son, or someone else who legitimately wasn't involved.

In one of Paul's documents, he mentions Mary Gillespie taking plastic cups from the school to Radcliff to test them for fingerprints to see if the coworker (presumably these were discarded cups touched by the coworker) was involved with the case. During Paul's trial, his attorney tried to get it out of Radcliff that 1 year after Ron's death, Paul met with him to discuss the letters and to reopen the investigation into Ron's death. The implication being, of course, that if Paul was the "CW", why would he want to re-open an investigation into a death he was directly involved in?! I think the suspect at the time was the coworker, who was questioned about Ron's death, and since his death was actually an accident, he passed a polygraph and the death was ruled accidental.

[TheCars1986]

Originally Posted by Charlie99909

I've only been saying this for years.

Well I've had a similar theory too prior to contacting Martin Yant, but had no idea about the jealous coworker angle. I just thought it was something interesting to pass along to the forum.

[TheCars1986]

I guess I should have also noted that it's possible that the coworker was deliberately writing two different styles of writing in an effort to conceal his identity, and that by signing the letters "W", he may have tried to make them think it was William Massie. Unless UM was vague, and they sent letters to multiple people who they thought was responsible (maybe they sent them to the coworker and Massie), Massie very well may have had nothing to do with them.

Martin Yant simply stated that Paul's ex-wife was the one who came up with the idea and used Paul and "others to smoke out the original writer".

ETA: I found this case (https://casetext.com/case/gallucci-v-freshour#!) appeal from the 90's which involves a dispute between Freshour and his ex-wife over property that they had owned together. Since this is dated 1994, I could see now why, according to Yant, his ex-wife was still spreading negative stories about him into the 90's. And in one of Yant's articles, he mentions (not by name but it's implied) that the ex-wife and her husband threatened his life after he wrote an article leaning heavily on the side of Paul's innocence.

[TheCars1986]

Originally Posted by Thiussat

I've always wanted to contact Mr. Yant, so I am glad someone here got a hold of him.

One question, though, who was the man in the El Camino? Yant said in the segment that "a suspect in this case had a brother who drove an El Camino." Who was this person?

EDIT: Nevermind. I see you addressed it in your post. Somehow I missed it.

I was confused about this too, and in my correspondence with him, he repeatedly referred to them as "my prime suspect". When watching UM, when he says "a suspect", I automatically assumed he meant a suspect as the identity of the CW. But I think he was referring to the main suspect (Paul's ex-wife) as to who planted the booby trap.

And, like Yant, I now believe that Mary Gillespie was not involved in the framing of Freshour. Apparently, Ron's parents lived on the property with Ron and Mary, and after Ron's death, Mary Gillespie evicted them (and eventually Paul's ex-wife moved into the trailer they had lived in). More motive for the ex-wife to not only frame Paul, but also take out Mary Gillespie.

[bigsir58]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

The very first "CW" letter that was received was by Mary Gillespie sometime in 1976, telling her to end her affair with the superintendent of schools (Gordon Massie). She at first ignored it until more letters came in. Then her husband started to receive threatening letters. This is when Ron and Mary contacted Paul and his then wife (Ron's sister) about what was going on. It's interesting to note here that the letters they were receiving were written in two differnt forms. Some were written with the large block style writing (featured in UM), and others were written with a more normal style and were signed "W". Gordon Massie's son was named William. They wrote, according to Paul, 4 or 5 letters to him, and that "there was no violence in them or anything, just that we knew who he was and what he was doing, and we sent him the letters."

So Cars, I'm unclear if you think the letters were written entirely by the co-worker, or both the co-worker and William Massie? Thanks.

[TheCars1986]

Originally Posted by bigsir58

So Cars, I'm unclear if you think the letters were written entirely by the co-worker, or both the co-worker and William Massie? Thanks.

Some may have been written by William Massie, or the coworker could have tried to write in 2 different styles to disguise his identity and signed them "W" to make them think it was Massie. Martin Yant thinks it's just one original CW. I think it's possible that William Massie wrote some letters to Mary Gillespie, but not the threatening ones.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Very nice work. I always had a feeling it was something like this. Paul's ex-wife was always entirely overlooked in this mess.

[MissFit29]

Originally Posted by RobinW

There's one thing I've always been confused about here. Ron's kids were home at the time he received the phone call and he told them he was going out to confront someone before he got into his accident. Shouldn't they have been able to verify if he was actually drunk that night or not?

Maybe he didn't drink at the house, but stopped at a bar or a liquor store on the way to the confrontation?
How much time passed between the time Ron left until the time they found the truck? Maybe he was drinking after meeting with someone and crashed on his way home?