Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
The Circleville Letters
20 Plays26 days ago
Nym goes full Charlie Day trying to unravel the secrets of the Circleville Letters.
Enter the Nightmare for show notes, sources, transcripts and more!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Content Warning
00:00:25
Speaker
Welcome to Nim and Nyleen's Nightmare Cottage, where we explore history, mysteries, and other tales of the macabre. I'm Nim. And I'm Nyleen. Let the nightmare begin.
00:00:41
Speaker
Disturbing and mature content to follow. Into the nightmare, if you dare.
Etiquette Videos and Parenting Horror
00:00:45
Speaker
You know what is a nightmare?
00:00:56
Speaker
I recently have come across these videos, this etiquette lady, and she's like telling the kids how to like, I guess it's Miss Manners kind of situation. Okay.
00:01:07
Speaker
But it's just like, yes, we need to have manners. But also like, I don't know, like, does it really matter if you introduce Freddie or Michael first? Like, that's what I want to know You know, i mean, i know. And then where do you draw the line? Right. Because you've got to teach him to introduce the lady first. Right. Like, it's a whole thing.
00:01:29
Speaker
And so it's like, where where's the line? But at the same time, like, you know, there's so many parenting guides to this, that or the other. I wonder if there's a parenting guide to horror.
00:01:42
Speaker
to horror
00:01:45
Speaker
i mean that sounds how do i scare my child the most thoroughly no how do i introduce my child to the horror genre in a way that they can embrace it without being afraid of it is more what i meant like oh yeah i get where they love it which i feel like i'm watching you do with bash with you know the baby steps with nightmare before christmas and stuff like that Yeah. Or you just scare the crap out of them when they decide they want to hide under blankets.
00:02:12
Speaker
yeah Well, you know, you have your way. Listen, an Ace warned him, though. He warned him. he told him, like, if you keep hiding when we're not playing hide and seek, I'm going to scare you.
00:02:27
Speaker
And he says, no, don't scare me. And he's like, well, then don't hide from me. And so he keeps hiding from him. and then he keeps scaring him. And then he runs to mommy. And it's really funny. so Yeah, no, I actually kind of love all of that. I condone that scaring. that's That sounds like he a has it coming. He had it coming all along. don't know if we can keep that. Sorry, you guys got to hear me sing every every episode now forever. Till the end of time, join us.
00:02:54
Speaker
Two minutes in, I'll make sure to sing. it's It's a feature, not a bug.
Strange News and Manhole Mystery
00:03:00
Speaker
Speaking of like weird stuff that's been online, have you been seeing those reports like where they were talking about they caught people on video coming in like in and out of manholes yes in New York? What the hell is that? yeah I'm like, okay.
00:03:17
Speaker
Actually, new York would be kind of interesting. So here's the thing. Anybody my age is instantly going to think something. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
00:03:28
Speaker
And in case I have to cut that out for copyright reasons, Ninja Turtle stuff. Ninja Turtles. Like, obviously. Turtle power. You know, that's where they live. That's where they live. With the giant New York rat.
00:03:43
Speaker
It's just, it's just, I never think of Splinter that way. But yeah, I mean, that's instantly what I thought of. It was like, it's, you know, is this the foot clan trying to go after the turtles? Oh, that's because I'm both 12 and 90. So, yeah. and And I mean, it's so fun because, you know, you laugh about it and then there's that, well, you know, maybe they're unhoused or forming a community like they did in what, what is it? Las Vegas or like near Nevada. I think they have like a whole underground city in a lot of the
00:04:14
Speaker
I was thinking of Futurama, but yes. Oh, yes. So that isn't real life. Not sure if you're aware of that. Are you kidding me? It's a reverse documentary. Oh, no. Oh, that's sad.
00:04:28
Speaker
But no, I mean, from what I've seen, they are guessing that it's like treasure hunter type people. Like they're I don't know what kind of valuables will be under the sewer, but that's what they're looking for. yeah And they're saying, yeah, valuables that people like lose or flush or you know, happen to throw down. And I mean, i i get it. You know, who hasn't lost some keys or something down the sewer? But.
00:04:51
Speaker
like also you weren't thinking they were trying to track their own stuff oh no no no no no no no no okay that just dawned on me but no no i think that they're just like like you said treasure hunters but oh there's got to be a better way you'd have to find something pretty darn valuable down to make it worth that because i mean what i'm not i'm thinking like hep like right like at minimum oh yeah well not just the diseases but there's like potentially like flammable gases and like oh yeah like they're like it's bad you can't you should not be you should not hey guys do not go into the sewer i don't care if there's a clown with a balloon i don't care if there's puppies i should look at sewer folklore let's see if i can talk about the the mysterious alligators in new york swamp sewers
00:05:42
Speaker
yeah
Circleville Pumpkin Festival
00:05:43
Speaker
I'm here for it. That sounds like a nightmare.
00:05:52
Speaker
Are you familiar with Circleville, Ohio? Sounds familiar. wee bit of history. Since 1906, this town has been putting on an annual pumpkin festival that has since grown enormously.
00:06:04
Speaker
it started with George Haswell in 1904, who was the mayor of Circleville at the time. He put up an exhibit of corn and pumpkins to highlight and celebrate the town's agriculture. The following year, shop owners throughout the town contributed to the display. And in 1906, they made it official and became a full-fledged festival. o It's grown over the years and hosts over 400,000 people every year with free admission. Do they do like kind of like the Apple festivals in Pennsylvania where it's like people come and they like have all kinds of like tasting Yeah, yeah. I assume have it. I haven't either, but I want to go so bad. But they judge the biggest pumpkins, which the largest one ever has been was over 2000 pounds. Oh, wow. Yeah. They have seven parades, two pageants, countless pumpkin and harvest related foods and activities. The town's water tower is even painted like a pumpkin, which is super rad.
00:06:54
Speaker
Circleville would very much love to be known for its pumpkins. In the show notes, there will be a link to this year's festival. Like I said, it's free to attend. Nice. I'm going to pivot a little bit.
Mystery of the Circleville Letters
00:07:04
Speaker
Did you ever watch Unsolved Mysteries as a kid? Oh, yes. Oh, my gosh. I loved Unsolved Mysteries. i used to watch it all the time by myself or with my parents, but mostly by myself. Same. Yeah. I didn't clock back then that I was super into it, but I watched it a lot, a lot. And I think that the majority of the episodes that I watch kind of run together and into the amalgamation of my generalized anxiety disorder. But some of them actually kind of stuck around. Like there's specific stories I remember. And yes, one of these stories took place in Circleville, Ohio. Oh, wow.
00:07:37
Speaker
I cannot. His voice was so smooth. What was his name? Robert Stack. Robert Stack. I'm Robert Stack. I've been listening to episode after episode of that while I've been painting.
00:07:49
Speaker
I love that. So it's been, man, it's been it's been a good time. But people of Circleville, Ohio may not agree. So we are, it starts in 1976. We're pre-internet, small town.
00:08:04
Speaker
It's very rural. It's an agricultural town, but it's got a population of over 12,000 people. So it's not. It's like growing, but. Yeah, it's kind of bustly. It's community driven. Everyone kind of knows everyone's situation. Absolutely. And so vibes when there's no internet, what do you do? You talk to everybody. yeah You walk around town. Yeah. Yeah, you know everybody's stuff because you are you have friends in every social circle or family members that are part of social circles. You know everything that's going on in your small town. You know, and I think there is something to be said too for small towns. And, you know, you get so comfortable. Like I found even I've lived here where I'm at pretty much most of my life in the same area. And so I feel very comfortable and very safe. You know, maybe I don't look...
00:08:48
Speaker
around the corner as often as I should or, you know, look behind me as often as I should. And I could see that in a town like this where maybe you you know, don't notice that there's people around hearing your conversation. You let your guard down 100%. Yeah. Thanks for for making that concise. I appreciate that. I was struggling to get there. But yeah, I mean, so Circleville, no exception. I mean, everybody knew each other's secrets. It's just the way it was. So this whole specific situation is very complicated.
00:09:20
Speaker
so I'm going to lay out the facts and then we're going to kind of pick them apart and add some context because it's it's it's a twisty one.
Accusations and Threats in Circleville
00:09:27
Speaker
Show me the crime facts. All right. This whole situation is known to many as the poison pen letters or the Circleville letters. Does that ring a bell? Do you feel an itch? Because it's on, like, everybody covers this. watched show called The Watcher.
00:09:43
Speaker
a show called the watcher And I think it was loosely based on this. I know it was loosely based on like some kind of weird letter stuff. But go ahead. go That's cool. OK, cool. Like I said, it started in 1976.
00:09:59
Speaker
Letters were sent to school superintendent Gordon Massey, demanding he resigned from his post due to infidelity. oh The letter writer threatened to go to the school board if he didn't step down. Like days later, like not long, not not enough time for him to have actually done anything about this. Letters also began arriving in the mailbox of his alleged mistress, the married school bus driver, Mary Gillespie.
00:10:21
Speaker
telling her to break things off and come clean. So it was like a real affair. That's allegedly. So will come back to that because that actually does kind of come into a story. But the first letter that Mary Gillespie got, if you look at this handwriting, I'm going to have some links where everybody can see the letters.
00:10:39
Speaker
Some of them, most of them are not available to find online, but they all have this really similar block style handwriting. Like so it it reminds me of like when you're in grade school and you're learning your letters and you're having to like learn how to write straight. One hundred percent. And this is actually it'll come into play. But this is actually really similar to like the block style of handwriting that's taught in like drafting classes yeah and things like that. Or yeah, i was thinking like maybe like a teacher for children or something. Yeah. Well, and it's like architect handwriting for a very specific type of. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
00:11:09
Speaker
But the first letter he sent her says, Mrs. Gillespie, stay away from Massey. Don't lie when questioned about meeting him. I know where you live. I've been observing your house and know you have children.
00:11:20
Speaker
my God. This is no joke. Please take it serious. Everyone concerned has been notified and everything will be over soon. oh So that's to kind of give you an idea of the tone that these letters will be taking.
00:11:33
Speaker
i feel like it sounds like a female. Noted. Why? It's the tone. It sounds like a female who found out of some kind of involvement and feels like they need to get their revenge.
00:11:47
Speaker
It's just, I don't know. it feels like it's It feels like the psychology of like the way a female would react. Okay. Okay. I say with all of my sex psychology credentials. Right. Yes, we're definitely armchairs here. We're not. um We are armchairs. We are not. We're just chairs. That's all we are. Yes.
00:12:08
Speaker
So Mary received letters. Her husband, Ron, received letters. The school board received letters. And then other people around town began to see receive them as well. encourage All about.
00:12:19
Speaker
Encouraging them to out these people. and yeah Oh, my gosh. For now. This is what I'm saying. So this is exactly why I think it's a female. To me, a man would probably, you know, they tend to be in their crimes more aggravated, more, more, and more of that quick, quick fire. You know what I mean? It's, it's more of that.
00:12:41
Speaker
They put together the plan and here it is. Right. Like it comes to fruition a lot quicker. I feel like women are more, let's draw this out. Let's see how this plays out. Let me make a note real quick before y'all get mad at us.
00:12:55
Speaker
We are profiling. We are not profiling. discriminating 100% yes no I'm just profiling based on like a lot of the crimes that I've read that's all this is it's my opinion based on the crimes that I've read and like the different crimes that I've like seen not in person but different crimes that I've looked into and it's just that seems to be the trend that I see that Nice.
00:13:17
Speaker
See, and that's that's I would like to hear your thoughts on this as I go through it, because oo it just was all up.
Escalation to Attempted Murder
00:13:23
Speaker
So the letters were accusing Massey, the superintendent, of harassing the female bus driving staff as a whole.
00:13:29
Speaker
They threatened to come after Mary and Ron's children. They encouraged Ron to off both his wife and her lover. There were signs placed around town talking about Mary and her children. and why the kids like I or kids i know Ron would get up early and cruise for signs to take down before his kids had a chance to see him. Oh, that's so nice. This went on for over a year before the psychological warfare turned into physical harm. No.
00:13:54
Speaker
How did no one put up signs or stay up late to see who was doing this? So there is some rolling theories about the sheriff in town. The sheriff was running for... see you me see what the actual... For super sheriff?
00:14:12
Speaker
Basically. for like a bigger 10-gallon hat over his hat. For spurs on his boots. He was campaigning to be president of the National Sheriff's Association at that time. i and And so the things that are going on... doesn't want to bring them to light. Right. And the people that get mad about a lot of the things are mad at the sheriff for not paying attention. yeah And we can probably thank him for what we know today about this case and...
00:14:40
Speaker
um So, yeah, it went over on for over a year. Well, it it didn't stop here, but this is where it really kind of crescendoed. Mary Gillespie was out of town on a trip to Florida with her sister-in-law, Karen Sue Freshour, and two other women.
00:14:52
Speaker
While she was gone, Ron received a phone call that, according to his daughter, confirmed to Ron who the letter writer was. He grabbed his gun, kissed his little girl goodbye, and left his home for the last time. yeah Spoilers.
00:15:07
Speaker
Less than an hour later, his truck was found wrapped around a tree and he was already gone. Oh. but His gun was found in the truck with one bullet having been fired. What? But there was no evidence that the gun had been fired in that spot. Like nothing in the, there was no expelled bullet, ah nothing in the truck that made it seem like it happened in there. And he was found how long after he left? Like less than an hour. my gosh.
00:15:30
Speaker
His blood alcohol level was 0.16, which is twice the legal limit. Now, his family calls bulls**t here because he wasn't a big drinker. That's kind of even more. Like, if you're not a big drinker, i feel like it's a lot easier to get to over the limit and do some really, really dumb things. His wife was out town. yeah his wife was out town, and he's just doing stuff that maybe he wouldn't normally do. Exactly. i mean...
00:15:54
Speaker
He was just whooping it up. Just having a few beers, man. His family still contests that, though. they They say that there's no way he was drinking. And then they put that as another. It might be the shame in the drinking and driving thing, maybe. Sure. But they're also pointing at the crooked sheriff. But there's more reasons why they might be upset about it.
00:16:11
Speaker
But yeah, i I don't think it was impossible he was drinking that night at all. But anyways, the the death was ruled an accident because if it had been ruled a murder, there would have been too much crime in the sheriff's town and he wouldn't be still considered for that president spot. Yeah.
00:16:24
Speaker
But yeah, so Ron's family, again, is calling bullshit. They forever claimed that there was a cover-up here and that Ron was murdered. Oof. Which, all things considered, I believe that part was an accident.
00:16:38
Speaker
But I think that also when that happened, whoever... Dare I say the original letter writer was. Ooh. Got spooked and stopped and somebody else took on is my theory. But I've got lot. There's lots of theories. So we think that when all of this happened, they they stopped and someone else picked up where they took where they where they.
00:16:59
Speaker
Yes, because the letters did not stop. OK. They continued for years after this. Years and years. But it wasn't just aimed at Mary Gillespie anymore. People throughout town were targeted. Some things were true. Some things targeted just to piss off people, like to to make people think somebody was having an affair or whatever, but to great effect. Question.
00:17:16
Speaker
Did whoever, Mary Gillespie without her name, whoever the mom was. The bus driver. Yeah. yeah The bus driver lady. Did she, the guy that she was having an affair with.
00:17:27
Speaker
Allegedly. Allegedly. Did he have kids? Yes. He was married with children. and one age A teenage son. I'm wondering if it was a kid because of He's on my list. Yeah. He's on my short list.
00:17:41
Speaker
Especially because of how long it's dragging out. It's going all over town. It involved the kids. Most adults, I don't feel like, would pick out kids into an adult, pull kids into an adult situation. I feel like if it was him, he he would have freaked out at the guy dying. Yeah. Right. And and and would have stopped there. Right.
00:18:02
Speaker
But he was vocally not happy about all of the rumors about his dad. Mm-hmm. So... Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. So there was thousands of letters that were spread through Circleville and the surrounding areas.
00:18:16
Speaker
In 1983, things get a little more twisty. At the beginning of her bus route, before she picked up any kids, Mary Gillespie came across a massive sign that claimed her 12-year-old daughter had relations with Gordon Massey. Oh.
00:18:29
Speaker
This was her breaking point. She got out of her bus, tore down the sign. And when she did so, she found a strange box attached to the sign. When she pried it open, she found a gun inside and a string attached to the trigger. Oh, my gosh. She took it to the police and they confirmed that it looked to have been rigged to go off when she pulled down the sign and that she was very lucky.
00:18:49
Speaker
my gosh. I actually did not include in my notes for some stupid-ass reason, but it had the same... writing on the booby trap whoa well I mean in all fairness like like we said the writing it seemed very like it was like penmanship classes right and so to me i feel like that would be easy to replicate no matter what yeah but there's a whole lot of like handwriting experts involved in this whole thing and it's man it's it's a whole thing Well, here's the trap, but it had writing on it as well.
00:19:22
Speaker
Oh, gosh. Yeah. I kind of expected a shotgun, not a handgun. Well, here we are. But yeah, so it had the writing on it as well. What about the gun? Was it?
00:19:35
Speaker
We are able to trace it. right But since this was clearly attempted murder, law enforcement had no choice but to actually do something here.
Paul Freshour's Arrest and Trial
00:19:42
Speaker
The serial the number on the gun had been filed down partially, but they were able to recover it.
00:19:47
Speaker
They traced the original purchase to a man who worked in nearby Columbus at Anheuser-Busch. When questioned, he very quickly let officers know that he had sold the gun to one Paul Freshour, another employee at Anheuser-Busch, and Mary Gillespie's brother-in-law. Oh my gosh.
00:20:00
Speaker
They also traced the unusual box that was used for the trap to supply item used at Anheuser-Busch, where Paul Freshour also worked. Mm-hmm. Hall claimed that this gun had been stolen a week prior the booby trap being found. He had told some other people that he knew that he thought it had been missing.
00:20:16
Speaker
That could be him creating an alibi, though. It could be. I'm going to go on note here and say that Paul and his soon-to-be ex-wife, Karen, who I mentioned earlier, were going through a very sticky divorce.
00:20:27
Speaker
There is court evidence from their divorce proceedings that he beat her and he admitted to it. It is also alleged and likely that Karen was seeing someone else while they were still married. In the end, the divorce was ruled in Paul's favor. He got the kids, the house, and everything. Oh, no.
00:20:43
Speaker
When questioned, Karen told the police that she believed Paul wrote the letters. She had found one torn up in the tank of the toilet. Oh. It was mostly illegible, but she could make out the word Gillespie. But, I mean, that could mean that he got a letter, not that he he could have gotten in a letter that he didn't want to tell anybody about. It could mean a lot of things. There are also many people that will argue that a woman scorned is going to say this guy, but she didn't say anything about any of it during the divorce proceedings. Oh, yeah, no, because, you know, she doesn't want to lose. But then afterwards... But it would, I mean, to implicate him, everybody keeps saying. Not not in court. Not in court, especially when you're trying to get custody of your kids. I've seen so many women get the shit out of the stick because the judge was like, oh, no, what whatever you're doing, you know what?
00:21:34
Speaker
I think you are being vindictive. So we're going to go with what he's saying. You know what I mean? it's It's a way to make it look like she's crazy. Like, you know, like...
00:21:45
Speaker
I left for just cause and all these things. Like, I don't know. I could see it going both ways, but. Well, they believed her and. Rude. Based on her statement, they arrested Paul Freshour for the attempted murder of Mary Gillespie.
00:21:59
Speaker
They had him make a handwriting sample by having him copy the text of one of the letters. Not by telling him to write something random, which my research made very clear is just very much not the way that handwriting analysis is done. Or anything. Like, you don't, like, show them who you think is the suspect and then go, okay, but which guy did you see?
00:22:15
Speaker
Right. Like... I mean, he had seen these letters before, but still. Still, yeah, no, not while you're... No. Ultimately, he was convicted and sentenced to 7 to 25 years in prison. Oh, my gosh.
00:22:27
Speaker
And the letters continued.
Continued Mysteries and Scandals
00:22:30
Speaker
Is there any way they could have continued from prison? Well, the letters continued until there were more than 20,000 letters. Oh. Paul's fingerprints were supposedly found on a dozen of those letters.
00:22:43
Speaker
The warden claimed this could not have been possible. All of Paul's ingoing and outgoing mail was monitored. There were large periods of time in which he was in solitary confinement. And the letters continued. Paul got out of prison in 1994 and the letters stopped.
00:22:57
Speaker
oh One more was sent when Unsolved Mysteries started poking around Circleville for their episode. It said, Forget Circleville, Ohio.
00:23:07
Speaker
Do nothing to hurt Sheriff Radcliffe. If you come to Ohio, you El-Sickos will pay. The Circleville writer. Now, everybody should watch the episode of Unsolved Mysteries because to hear Robert Stack say El-Sickos is worth every moment.
00:23:25
Speaker
But they did the episode anyway, so. Yeah, that seems kind of... like you're painting a target on yourself if anything like hey don't come digging around here and especially don't look at this guy right right right unless that was their point i mean i don't know but so that that's the basis of it but now we're gonna kind of add some more texture okay and we already talked about sheriff radcliffe and him being completely worthless sorry not sorry Most of these people, by the way, are dead now. just okay yeah
00:23:58
Speaker
Not all, but most. Some of these letters beyond the Massey-Gillespie situation called out real and disturbing scandals that were eventually proven to be true. One of these involved the town's coroner, Dr. Ray Carroll. In the letters, he was accused of sexual misconduct with patients. Oh, my God. Years later, dozens of women came forward with allegations of abuse from Carol. In 1993, he was charged with 12 counts of various sex-related crimes. Wait, no, no, no, but you said he was a coroner.
00:24:26
Speaker
He was a coroner and a doctor. Okay. I was like, how are his patients coming forward? Sorry. He was also the coroner. He was the city coroner, but he was also a doctor. That makes it a little better. i i mean, does it? I mean... His medical license was revoked, but he never served any time. Ugh.
00:24:42
Speaker
Another implication from the letters involved prosecutor-turned-Ohio-state appellate judge Roger Klein... The letters insinuated that he got a local school teacher, Vicki Cock, pregnant and had her murdered. Oh, my gosh. Her murder case is still open and unsolved. Oh.
00:24:57
Speaker
there's just like a whole bunch of stuff. all of It's like picking up a rock and all of the stuff crawling around. Yeah. So now I'm going to cover some more of the prevalent theories on what may have actually happened here, starting with the ones that don't involve the fresh hours.
00:25:12
Speaker
I will say that most people believe that multiple people were responsible for the letters. and i Yeah, i do I thought about that. Yeah. Especially with the volume of letters at some point. Yeah, seriously, that's 20,000 stamps. And like like, granted, they were much cheaper then. Right. Like, you know, this is going around town.
00:25:28
Speaker
You're 16. Your mom pissed you off. It mom, everyone knows you're wino. Like, you know. First, I'm going to say in case.
00:25:40
Speaker
Several times in my research, I would continue to follow threads until they were cut off or deleted. 404 websites, podcasts that in abruptly, like multiple episode podcasts that ended abruptly. Marie Mayhew of Whatever Remains, if you ever hear this, please reach out to me.
00:25:59
Speaker
Nightmare Cottage at gmail.com. I want to hear the end of your story. I can't find you online anywhere and I'm sure that's on purpose, but whatever. I can't find any of her stuff. What do you mean? It's this amazing podcast that, like, super covers, like, in-depth investigative stuff on this case. And it's the most recent one I found. And it, like, on episode eight, she's like, on the next episode, we're going talk about blah, blah, blah, blah. And then there's no more episode. than this was years ago now. Oh. So I'm just... Anyways, so that...
Disappearance of Case Information
00:26:31
Speaker
Like, I keep running up on, like, lots of information, lots of information, but not. Oh, my Like, it's all hidden behind deleted posts and stuff. Largely no updates since 2024.
00:26:43
Speaker
i even found a four-year-old Reddit thread that had been mentioned as one of the most complete sources of information for the case, and the main post was removed. I did read through hundreds of comments to kind of see what, because, you know, there's some people from the area and stuff that chimed in. absolutely.
00:26:57
Speaker
Everything from the original poster was deleted, and many of the comments that seemed like they had solid information were deleted or removed by a mod. Interesting. I totally understand the people of Circleville wanting to put this behind. yeah I'm sure it's annoying as hell to have it brought up all the time.
00:27:12
Speaker
So I'm sorry about that. Just the amount of struggle I'm having makes me want to find out more. The first suspect that was in this case at all was another bus driver named David Longberry.
00:27:27
Speaker
he had made several advances at Mary, but was denied time and again. The Gillespie's in the Fresh Hours believed he was behind it the whole time. But there were alibis and no evidence depended on him.
00:27:38
Speaker
He did later commit sexual assault on a minor and took his own life. could not His body was discovered in 1999, but not identified until 2009. Mm-hmm. ah Gordon Massey's teenage son, like we mentioned before, thinking he had found out about his father's affair, was thinking he could do something to stop it.
00:27:55
Speaker
It's not believed that he could have written all of the letters, but it's speculated by some that he might be responsible for the letters until Ron's death. The rest all involve the Fresh Hours and or Gillespie's.
00:28:06
Speaker
Paul had told some people that he was close to that he had suspected his teenage son, Mark, had stolen his gun about a week before the booby trap incident. It's theorized that he didn't want to get his son in trouble, so he didn't say anything.
00:28:17
Speaker
and What? But if your son stole that gun, it cannot be for a good reason. Yep. Well, and during the divorce proceedings, Mark had sided with his mom and was staying with her. oh Maybe he was afraid and he took the gun because he was afraid he was going to come. All sorts of reasons, yeah know But there's nothing conclusive here.
00:28:36
Speaker
Mark did take his own life in 2002 at the age of 39. His mother stated that he had suffered from depression his whole life. No. One of the most prominent theories involves Paul Freshour's wife and Ron Gillespie's sister, Karen Sue Freshour.
00:28:51
Speaker
People believe that because she was in a bitter divorce, she pointed law enforcement at Paul. Some thought she did that just to mess with them, but didn't expect him to go to prison. So to make it seem like he was innocent, she continued the letter-writing campaign when he was incarcerated.
00:29:04
Speaker
Others think her and Paul started all of this together, and she carried it through while he was in prison. Oh, yeah. So there are some weird details that loosely point in Karen's direction. The morning that Mary found the booby trap, one of the other bus drivers had passed by the route about 20 minutes earlier than Mary and said a large man with sandy hair was standing nearby where the sign would be placed later.
00:29:24
Speaker
He was standing next to a yellow El Camino. At this time, Karen's brother had a brown El Camino and she was dating a large man with sandy hair. So there's that.
00:29:34
Speaker
Dun, dun, dun. The theory plays out like this. Mark and Karen, both bitter from the divorce stuff and angry at Paul, decide to set him up. Mark steals his dad's gun and Karen has her boyfriend set the booby trap and frame Paul.
00:29:46
Speaker
Here's what I think. I think that the sheriff was corrupt in a way that led to incompetence. He was masking the crime level of his town for personal gain. And so the letters never got properly investigated.
00:29:57
Speaker
i believe that it's possible the Massey's Fresh Hours and Gillespie's and even possibly Longberry were involved in the initial letter writing. But that copycats took it from there.
Speculations and Theories
00:30:05
Speaker
Yeah. I think that whoever wrote the initial letters was spooked when Ron was killed.
00:30:09
Speaker
They didn't mean for it to go that far. But in a small town, I think other people took up the mantle. Yeah. It was clear someone knew a lot about a lot of things. I wish there had been more investigation into who in the town was in and of social circles to gather that kind of gossip. Yeah.
00:30:23
Speaker
Apparently, this area of Ohio still had party line phones. Do you know what that is Yeah. OK. So for those who don't know, mostly in like up until the 60s and it phased out everywhere except for rural places until like the the late 80s, way back in the original days of the telephone. hmm.
00:30:37
Speaker
One way to expand coverage quickly and cheaply was to install what they called party lines. These were telephone circuits that were connected to multiple homes. If you had one of these connected to your home, you could pick up the receiver and distantly hear another conversation going on that line.
00:30:52
Speaker
So these were being phased out and were only in rural areas, like i said, but apparently they were still in this area at that time. Mm-hmm. But I feel like the community gossip thing is a little bit more likely. Yeah, I feel like the community gossip and that's, again, what makes me think it's it's a child or a child was providing the information to an adult because i feel like children are more likely to not be seen or not seen.
00:31:16
Speaker
thought of as a threat. I found myself saying stuff in front of my kid that I'm like, oh, wait, I should. If he ever repeats that in front of that person, that could be so bad.
00:31:27
Speaker
We talked about how there's a similar type of block writing that's frequently top in shop shop class and drafting classes. And since there were over 20,000 letters, as that just really doesn't seem like a one or even 10 person thing. OK, so I think what they did, they had their kindergarten class or sorry the third grade class and they they just like gave each child an assignment of what they had to write.
00:31:49
Speaker
yeah Well, there are two conflicting expert opinions that Paul definitely wrote the letters and that Paul couldn't have written the letters. An FBI profiler concluded that he did not have the mental disposition to have executed such a campaign.
00:32:02
Speaker
A handwriting expert was so confident that Paul's personal handwriting corresponded to so distinctly that she would swear on a Bible and testify with 100 percent certainty that he was. Again, though, if it's like handwriting, though, it's.
00:32:16
Speaker
I feel like if it was just they're that person just writing normally, i feel like that's one thing. But I feel like it had to have been multiple people.
00:32:27
Speaker
And again, they used that paper and a very distinct form of writing so that multiple people could get away with it, I think. But again, speculation. Well, and a lot of people say that Paul Freshour was completely innocent. Unsolved Mysteries certainly leaned in that direction with their tone, actually. Even the 48 Hours episode that I watched has a lot of sympathy for him.
00:32:48
Speaker
Honestly, I wasn't really sure, but then I found his blog. I only read the first 20 pages of so. I only read 20 pages. Of the 164-page letter that he wrote to the FBI. oh my gosh.
00:33:02
Speaker
He seems a little unhinged to me. The website's still up. It's going to be in the show notes. Dude's unhinged, though. He like he makes some accusations about the people letters were written about in a tone that makes me think that he was very opinionated about those situations. So I'm just saying it's not definitely him or anything, but like I. He had the information whether or not he executed the letters is something else. Well, and he had the anger about the situations as well. yeah And didn't even, like in this letter, this 164 page letter he's sending to the FBI to plead for them to investigate these things and to to prove his own innocence. To me, it was a lot more indicative of somebody who could have done these things.
00:33:44
Speaker
But again, I'm not an expert in any way, shape or form.
00:33:48
Speaker
I've seen conflicting reports about Paul Freshour's death. I've seen it listed as natural causes. I've seen it listed as a heart attack. And I've seen that he took his own life. Internet failed me here. I really did
Unsolved Case and Future Evidence?
00:33:58
Speaker
try. Despite there being over 20,000 letters, very few are available to see online.
00:34:03
Speaker
You can supposedly request copies directly from the county, but I'm fairly certain they don't grant those often. No one was officially tried for the letters. It was assumed that Paul's conviction for the booby trap settled the matter, and the case remains closed.
00:34:16
Speaker
Sheriff Radcliffe never responded to any interview requests regarding the letters until his death in 2020. There has to be DNA evidence on the envelopes if they still exist, but it's assumed that this case will remain in its current status.
00:34:28
Speaker
That's crazy.
00:34:38
Speaker
In that vein, my nightmare fuel is totally unsolved mysteries. Right now it's on Peacock, I think. So it's awesome. It holds up. Most of it holds up. A lot of it doesn't. And it's hilarious in ways it doesn't. ah And the reenactments, everybody in eyes are reenactments yeah in the 80s style, man, it's just so great. So that's my nightmare. Did you have nightmare fuel?
00:34:57
Speaker
I'm going to say The Watcher. Yeah, yeah. The Watcher. Don't know what it's on, but I know there's two seasons of it at least. And it's pretty it's pretty decent. And I'm now almost completely sure this is what it's based off of.
Meteor Sightings and Episode Conclusion
00:35:14
Speaker
Yeah, so apparently, this is actually just a few days ago, but I know there's been a lot more meteors in the past few years that have been, i don't want to say discovered, but have been pointed out, right? That have been vocalized in the media, people reporting that they're seeing and and hearing a lot more of. Lots of people have dash cams now so they can catch them and and it's it's just easier to to catch them in general. Yeah. Now, there was one recently and that kicked off over Massachusetts, I think, is where it actually ended up is dissipating the right word in the atmosphere.
00:35:53
Speaker
But apparently it was heard between Delaware and Canada. Oh, wow. Yeah. So it's a pretty large area. I think it's about 512 miles between Delaware and Canada, ah which 824 kilometers. But yeah, the fragments apparently came down in Cape Cod Bay, which I thought was kind of interesting. It would be really cool, I think, to go somewhere where I know that a meteor broke up and see if I could find pieces of it. Yeah, that'd be rad. Yeah, I think that'd be really cool.
00:36:23
Speaker
But yeah, apparently the cool thing about this is you'd think that these were tracked a lot more than they are. but I mean, there's so much space noise. There is a lot of space noise. Also, funding gets cut, right? So we don't have as much eyes on it. A lot of that stuff is... Even before funding was cut, was found by amateurs. You know, people that are just stargazing and and looking for stuff. Yeah. And they find the signs and are able to report it.
00:36:47
Speaker
They track a lot of things. Most things are not a threat. And the things that they... Because most things, like like, dissipate over in our atmosphere, even if they get into our atmosphere. If they get anywhere near it yeah And anything that...
00:37:00
Speaker
comes It has to be like over a certain size. Oh, yeah, because they were saying this one was probably five feet, which sounds pretty small. It's 1.6 meters and going about 42 kilometers per hour once it hit our atmosphere.
00:37:14
Speaker
That is not that isn't one the things they would consider to be a threat. And it has to be over a certain size. And then within five million miles of or it's a little less than five million miles of our atmosphere. Yeah.
00:37:25
Speaker
But there's just there's no way to see it all. Yeah. Just no way. Yeah. Yeah. It's just. Yeah. Like you said, there's no way. And I don't know. To me, that was like a little scary because I'm like, I mean, it really could just come out of nowhere, especially with a boom that was heard. They thought that there was an earthquake from the boom. Yeah. Across that area. Have you ever seen a meteor? Not in real life. Oh, I have. I was driving once and I kind of just saw like the blue. It's just like a little blue, almost like it just burned. Right. like It reminds me of if you see a lightning bug.
00:38:00
Speaker
Right. and And you kind of just see it do that big burst. I mean, I guess. Yes, because I have seen shooting stars. So I guess so. But my brain is dumb. No. notness I mean, I know what you mean. But yeah, like, you know, the big ones that are just like, who what is that? Yeah, no, no. I haven't seen anything more than just like the the shooting star type thing.
00:38:18
Speaker
Yeah, just that. Just that. I thought that was really cool that, you know, it was seen over such a large area. And yeah, but the real nightmare, though, is that we don't have the resources and and the funding to properly look out for. I mean, but what would we do anyways?
00:38:31
Speaker
lots of things. There was, at least i don't know if there still is, I hope there still is, entire groups of science people like trying to solve that very thing. I mean, there were movies about this. Come on. I mean, there is there's diversion that they can do. they There's breaking it up. It depends on what it is and where it is. there And that's that's real science. I know that's in the movies but that is actually what they work on you can find a lot of that stuff on um the planetary society that reminds me of the futurama episode where they like there was the giant trash ball that they had catapulted like a thousand years earlier and it was coming back finally coming back yeah yeah i think that's enough nightmares for today all right guys well thank you for joining us today sweet dreams bye
00:39:20
Speaker
If you have topic requests, book or movie recommendations, or just want to say hi, email us at nightmarecottage at gmail.com or visit our website at nightmarecottage.com. Sweet dreams.
00:39:41
Speaker
Bye-bye.