Lets revisit some old unsolved cases: The Circleville Letters - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

XCalibur · 04-13-2019, 12:50 AM

Now that the old Unsolved Mysteries cases are readily viewable now, its bound to jog some old memories of cases and spark some new discussion, so I thought it might be fun to revisit some of these.

Starting with the Circleville Letters.

First off, its pretty obvious to me Paul Freshour even if he was partially responsible if not totally innocent, could not have acted alone. The letters obviously continued while he was in solitary confinement.

Having watched it again, I always remembered the part about the sighting of the yellow El Camino on Ms Gillespie's route. One of the people interviewed stated that one of the suspects in the case had a brother that owned a yellow El Camino.

This was definitely one of the most frustrating aspects of the story, because it was never specified who this man was or what his relationship was to the Gillespies or Freshour. Or why he was considered a suspect.

Like with many Unsolved Mysteries stories, it raises more questions than answers. Why was this man a suspect in the first place? Was he investigated further? What was his relationship to the Gillespies? Or Paul Freshour?

Also were any of the letter sent in envelopes or checked for DNA? I do realize that the period of time most of the letters were sent was before DNA really became an effective crime busting tool, but these letters continued well into the 90's supposedly, just before the story aired.

Did the letters continue after the broadcast? If they did, when did they stop?

I personally feel like this is just one of those unsolved cases where the police and those closest to the case have a pretty good idea who was responsible, but were never able to obtain enough evidence to make an arrest. I think the main reason Paul Freshour was arrested was because it was his gun in the booby trap, and he knew those targeted. Aside from that, there probably wasn't a lot of physical evidence available, and the statute of limitations on the letters may have even expired by the time DNA might have been lifted off the envelopes, so no one really bothered to investigate this later.

Also, there is some question if Ron Gillespie's death was murder or an accident. So that would be hard to build a case on too.

Based on these things, it appears the perp slipped through the cracks but people close to the case probably have an idea who he was and he eventually had to stop sending letters, but there may have been nothing left to build case against him on by the time everyone grew wise to him.

Just my two cents on this case, what do you all think?

TheCars1986 · 04-13-2019, 07:21 AM

David Longberry was the Circleville Writer. Paul Freshour's ex-wife framed Paul and then co-opted the letter writing scheme to pose as the real writer. She's the one who wrote the letter to UM, and she's the one who took Paul's gun and used it for the fake booby trap. Longberry was mad because he wanted Mary Gillespie but she rebuffed him and got with Massie instead. That's what kicked everything off.

XCalibur · 04-13-2019, 10:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

David Longberry was the Circleville Writer. Paul Freshour's ex-wife framed Paul and then co-opted the letter writing scheme to pose as the real writer. She's the one who wrote the letter to UM, and she's the one who took Paul's gun and used it for the fake booby trap. Longberry was mad because he wanted Mary Gillespie but she rebuffed him and got with Massie instead. That's what kicked everything off.

May I ask how you came by this info?

Hot Jock · 04-15-2019, 04:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by XCalibur

May I ask how you came by this info?

It’s actually pretty common knowledge to those who have done more than just cursory research on the case.

1- David Longberry was definitely the original writer.
2- Ron Gillespie’s death was an accident.
3- Paul Freshour was 100% innocent and only had the finger pointed at him and was framed by his ex-wife and ex-SIL only after he divorced said wife. At no point in time before that was he ever looked at as the writer.

TheCars1986 · 04-15-2019, 07:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by XCalibur

May I ask how you came by this info?

I found a long "report" that Freshour compiled (before he passed away, I think it's been scrubbed from the net) that had several pieces of information not included in the UM broadcast, and I took that and e-mailed Martin Yant (investigator featured in the segment) and asked him if he believed Freshour's information was correct and he pretty much confirmed everything without naming anyone.

SitcomsHeydayfan · 04-22-2019, 02:18 AM

Which season & episode is this please?

TheCars1986 · 04-22-2019, 07:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SitcomsHeydayfan

Which season & episode is this please?

Season 7, episode 6.

schmave · 04-23-2019, 12:21 AM

Watched this with a lot of interest considering that I grew up and still live only about 30 miles from Circleville. I never for a minute thought Freshour was guilty. Never made any sense for him to be, and I always thought Sheriff Radcliffe's investigation was completely incompetent.

nicoge21 · 04-25-2019, 05:12 PM

According to a bunch of podcasts I listened to on the case there were multiple writers (2? 3?), Mr. Gillespie's death was an unrelated accident and at least one of the writers committed suicide in 1999?

jbjr56 · 04-26-2019, 07:48 PM

Paul Freshour a person I really felt sorry for. 10 years in prison AND was getting letters himself. Case is like Twin Peaks or something. Maybe Peyton Place.

TheCars1986 · 05-02-2019, 08:10 PM

Podcasts like this one get on my nerves sometimes. I don't mind if people use this board, or websleuths, or reddit, etc. for sourcing but to distort reality altogether is something else. Towards the end of this podcast, the host says Yant told me that there were 2 letter writers (he did not, he only said that at the time they had 2 suspects for the original letters: David Longberry and William Massie's son), and that Yant concluded that David Longberry was the writer. Martin Yant never said David Longberry by name. I think he was leading me towards that direction ultimately, but he didn't actually give me his name (I found that in Freshour's massive PDF file that used to be online).

dynoguy88 · 05-06-2019, 11:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hot Jock

Paul Freshour was 100% innocent and only had the finger pointed at him and was framed by his ex-wife and ex-SIL only after he divorced said wife. At no point in time before that was he ever looked at as the writer.

Was there any punishment for these ladies for framing an innocent man?

TheCars1986 · 05-06-2019, 05:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dynoguy88

Was there any punishment for these ladies for framing an innocent man?

Nope because according to the courts, Freshour WAS the Circleville Writer because he was convicted. He also was paroled, not exonerated, so technically, in the eyes of the court, they already tried and convicted the CW. But no one has ever been able to come up with a satisfactory answer as to why Paul would target his ex-sister-in-law and her daughter.

justins5256 · 05-06-2019, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

Podcasts like this one get on my nerves sometimes. I don't mind if people use this board, or websleuths, or reddit, etc. for sourcing but to distort reality altogether is something else.

It seems like everybody and their brother has a podcast these days and you have to wonder how common problems like this are.

Maybe it's just my cynacism and/or old age, but I a part of me feels like we are entering an age of "crap media." Don't get me wrong, the mainstream media is certainly not infallible and makes their share of mistakes too. But, basically anyone can set up shop with a podcast, without having any training, background, or real experience at anything, and there is virtually no quality control.

Todd Mueller · 05-06-2019, 08:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by justins5256

It seems like everybody and their brother has a podcast these days and you have to wonder how common problems like this are.

Maybe it's just my cynacism and/or old age, but I a part of me feels like we are entering an age of "crap media." Don't get me wrong, the mainstream media is certainly not infallible and makes their share of mistakes too. But, basically anyone can set up shop with a podcast, without having any training, background, or real experience at anything, and there is virtually no quality control.

I know this is OT but I agree with you. I have started and stopped many podcasts because they are either really boring or it's just people regurgitating Wikipedia (or someone else's webpage). I really like good podcasts but they are hard to find. I know it takes a lot of time and effort to do a good one but far too many people don't care. It's maddening that people would just blatently steal content like that, but here we are.

That's why I appreciate RobinW's "The Trail Went Cold." (And I'm not just saying that because he posts here...

) He does extra research to give facts not already known plus his educated opinion. That's what I like to hear, and not people babbling about stuff we can all read ourselves.

As for this case, it angers me that Paul Freshour was never cleared. The letters continued after he went to prison and that didn't clue the prosecutors in that he couldn't have done this?

04-13-2019, 12:50 AM	#1
XCalibur Member Forum Regular Join Date: May 16, 2010 Location: Belfast, Va Posts: 980	Lets revisit some old unsolved cases: The Circleville Letters Now that the old Unsolved Mysteries cases are readily viewable now, its bound to jog some old memories of cases and spark some new discussion, so I thought it might be fun to revisit some of these. Starting with the Circleville Letters. First off, its pretty obvious to me Paul Freshour even if he was partially responsible if not totally innocent, could not have acted alone. The letters obviously continued while he was in solitary confinement. Having watched it again, I always remembered the part about the sighting of the yellow El Camino on Ms Gillespie's route. One of the people interviewed stated that one of the suspects in the case had a brother that owned a yellow El Camino. This was definitely one of the most frustrating aspects of the story, because it was never specified who this man was or what his relationship was to the Gillespies or Freshour. Or why he was considered a suspect. Like with many Unsolved Mysteries stories, it raises more questions than answers. Why was this man a suspect in the first place? Was he investigated further? What was his relationship to the Gillespies? Or Paul Freshour? Also were any of the letter sent in envelopes or checked for DNA? I do realize that the period of time most of the letters were sent was before DNA really became an effective crime busting tool, but these letters continued well into the 90's supposedly, just before the story aired. Did the letters continue after the broadcast? If they did, when did they stop? I personally feel like this is just one of those unsolved cases where the police and those closest to the case have a pretty good idea who was responsible, but were never able to obtain enough evidence to make an arrest. I think the main reason Paul Freshour was arrested was because it was his gun in the booby trap, and he knew those targeted. Aside from that, there probably wasn't a lot of physical evidence available, and the statute of limitations on the letters may have even expired by the time DNA might have been lifted off the envelopes, so no one really bothered to investigate this later. Also, there is some question if Ron Gillespie's death was murder or an accident. So that would be hard to build a case on too. Based on these things, it appears the perp slipped through the cracks but people close to the case probably have an idea who he was and he eventually had to stop sending letters, but there may have been nothing left to build case against him on by the time everyone grew wise to him. Just my two cents on this case, what do you all think?

04-23-2019, 12:21 AM	#8
schmave Member Forum Regular Join Date: Mar 23, 2013 Location: Reynoldsburg, Ohio Posts: 653	Watched this with a lot of interest considering that I grew up and still live only about 30 miles from Circleville. I never for a minute thought Freshour was guilty. Never made any sense for him to be, and I always thought Sheriff Radcliffe's investigation was completely incompetent.
	__________________ "hey when you're in the desert you don't complain that the champagne's not Korbel if you get my drift." - RightOnDude

04-13-2019, 07:21 AM	#2
TheCars1986 #VLSKMS Forum Fanatic Join Date: Nov 22, 2008 Location: Maryland Posts: 8,606	David Longberry was the Circleville Writer. Paul Freshour's ex-wife framed Paul and then co-opted the letter writing scheme to pose as the real writer. She's the one who wrote the letter to UM, and she's the one who took Paul's gun and used it for the fake booby trap. Longberry was mad because he wanted Mary Gillespie but she rebuffed him and got with Massie instead. That's what kicked everything off.

04-22-2019, 02:18 AM	#6
SitcomsHeydayfan Member Senior Member Join Date: Apr 19, 2018 Location: The Show Me state Posts: 2,966	Which season & episode is this please?

04-25-2019, 05:12 PM	#9
nicoge21 Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Apr 19, 2009 Posts: 176	According to a bunch of podcasts I listened to on the case there were multiple writers (2? 3?), Mr. Gillespie's death was an unrelated accident and at least one of the writers committed suicide in 1999?

04-26-2019, 07:48 PM	#10
jbjr56 Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Nov 27, 2018 Location: South Dakota Posts: 283	Paul Freshour a person I really felt sorry for. 10 years in prison AND was getting letters himself. Case is like Twin Peaks or something. Maybe Peyton Place.

05-02-2019, 08:10 PM	#11
TheCars1986 #VLSKMS Forum Fanatic Join Date: Nov 22, 2008 Location: Maryland Posts: 8,606	Podcasts like this one get on my nerves sometimes. I don't mind if people use this board, or websleuths, or reddit, etc. for sourcing but to distort reality altogether is something else. Towards the end of this podcast, the host says Yant told me that there were 2 letter writers (he did not, he only said that at the time they had 2 suspects for the original letters: David Longberry and William Massie's son), and that Yant concluded that David Longberry was the writer. Martin Yant never said David Longberry by name. I think he was leading me towards that direction ultimately, but he didn't actually give me his name (I found that in Freshour's massive PDF file that used to be online).