It was a very analog Gossip Girl.
It was a very analogGossip Girl, but with divorce, murder and false imprisonment.
The identity of the Circleville writer is one of the most bizarre mysteries in true crime history.
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It started in 1976 when people in Circleville began receiving letters that contained information about their personal lives.
Many of these letters were about the recipients private sex lives.
The letters were postmarked from Columbus, Ohio.
At the time, Mary said the affair never took place.
The letter writer said they were watching Marys house and her children and told her to stop the affair.
Make her admit the truth and inform the school board.
An example of one of the Circleville letters.
From the beginning, Mary had a suspicion a fellow bus driver named David Longberry was the letter writer.
Mary had previously rejected David romantically and he still acted resentfully toward her.
Mary and Ron Gillispie asked Rons sister and her husband, Karen and Paul Freshour, for help.
Letter from the Circleville writer received by Unsolved Mysteries
The five people decided that Paul would write the David Longberry a letter of their own.
In the letter, Paul said he knew David was writing threatening letters to Mary and Ron.
They believed the plan worked as the letters stopped coming for a few weeks.
On August 19, 1977, Ron Gillispie received a call and became angry.
Before he died, he had fired his gun.
Many of the signs accused Gordon Massie of raping the Gillispies 12-year-old daughter.
When Mary Gillispie stopped the bus to tear one of the signs down, she was almost killed.
The sign had been crudely booby-trapped to shoot whoever tried to take the sign down.
Police discovered the gun in the boobytrap was registered to Paul Freshour.
He was asked to perform handwriting samples so that his handwriting could be compared to the Circleville letters.
Paul Freshour was arrested and tried for the attempted murder of Mary Gillispie.
Paul was found guilty of attempted murder and thought to be guilty of writing all the letters as well.
However, while Paul was in prison the letters kept coming.
I told you two years ago.
When we set em up, they stay set up.
Dont you listen at all?.
The letters also became more cruel, one accusing the prosecutor in Pauls trial of havingmurdered a pregnant woman.
Paul Freshour was released from prison on parole in May 1994 after ten years.
He maintains his innocence of both the letter-writing and the attempted murder.
Whats especially creepy is how omnipotent the Circleville letter writer seems.
They knew so many peoples secrets in town.
That rumor about the prosecutor in Paul Freshours trial?
It turned out to be at least half true.
So who was the Circleville letter writer?
There are a few theories:
Paul Freshour.He served 10 years in prison for Mary Gillispies attempted murder.
He died in 2012 maintaining his innocence and that he had been falsely imprisoned.
you might read Pauls website about the casehere.
Mary Gillispie.It almost seems like Maryhasto be in on it.
How did she know to stop her bus and pull down the one sign that had been boobytrapped?
And she was able to discover it was boobytrapped without getting hurt.
David Longberry.This is the bus driver Mary Gillispie initially suspected.
In 1999, he raped an 11-year-old girl and was on the run beforedying by suicide.
Karen Freshour.Pauls wife and Ron Gillispies sister.
Their divorce was not amicable and she had access to Pauls gun and could have framed him.
William Massie.Gordon Massies son.
A man Karen Freshour was dating at this time drove a similar vehicle.
Perhaps once the letters started, multiple people used the opportunity to air their grievances.
In that case, Im surprised they ever died down.
No one has heard from the Circleville letter writer since 1993 when theUnsolved Mysteriessegment aired.
