Emily Chan
Then, on one fateful evening in 1997, the Gillispie house received a phone call. After the phone call, Ron became angry. He grabbed his gun and told his daughter he was going to confront the letter writer.
But a few hours later, Ron was found dead in his truck as the result of crashing into a tree. Before his death, he had fired off his gun one time.
The police declared his death to be an accident, but others suspected that he was murdered. Even after Ron’s death, the letters continued to arrive.
The attacks against Mary grew increasingly violent. In 1983, Mary was nearly killed due to a baited trap. On the way to school, she spotted a sign about her daughter affixed to a fence. When she stopped the bus to tear down the sign, she found that it was tied to a box.
Inside the box was a loaded gun belonging to Paul Freshour, Ron’s brother-in-law. Investigators were able to trace the gun back to Paul through the weapon’s serial number.
Pau’s wife, Karen, told police that her husband was the Circleville letter writer. The couple had been in the middle of a divorce, and she claimed she had found letters hidden in their home.
Paul insisted that the gun had been stolen weeks ago and denied writing the letters. He was asked to provide handwriting samples, and a polygraph test declared that he was lying.
In 1984, Paul was found guilty of attempted murder and was believed to be the Circleville writer. However, the tormenting letters didn’t stop coming even after he was behind bars.
Yet there was no possible way Paul could’ve been the sender as he did not have access to pen or paper. He even received a letter himself.
Paul served ten years in prison before he was released in 1994. That same year, the letters finally stopped. Paul continued to assert that he wasn’t the letter writer, but forensic analysts found many similarities between his handwriting and the anonymous letters.
Years later, the identity of the Circleville writer is still a mystery. We may never find out who really sent those letters.
