The Circleville Letters: When Your Neighbor Becomes Your Nightmare
We Saw the Devil: Unfiltered Political Analysis
We Saw the Devil
4.2 • 984 Ratings
🗓️ 12 November 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For over two decades, someone in Circleville, Ohio waged one of the most extensive campaigns of psychological terror in American history. Thousands of letters. Hundreds of victims. Secrets, accusations, and threats that knew too much about people's private lives.
In 1976, school bus driver Mary Gillispie started receiving letters accusing her of having an affair with her boss. The letters were graphic, detailed, and deeply disturbing...created with cut-out magazine letters like something out of a ransom note. But Mary wasn't the only target. Her husband Ron received letters too, taunting him for not stopping his wife's alleged affair.
Then in 1977, Ron Gillispie died in a single-vehicle crash after receiving a mysterious phone call. Was it an accident, or did the letter writer's harassment turn deadly?
The letters continued for years, escalating in 1983 when someone constructed a booby trap designed to kill Mary...a gun rigged to fire when she removed a sign from her bus route. Mary narrowly escaped with her life.
Paul Freshour, Ron's brother-in-law, was convicted of attempted murder and sent to prison. Case closed, right?
Except the letters never stopped. They continued while Paul sat in a cell with no way to mail anonymous letters. For years, the letters kept coming, containing the same intimate knowledge of Circleville's secrets, the same threatening tone, the same cut-out magazine style.
So who really wrote the Circleville Letters? Was Paul Freshour innocent, framed by the real letter writer who's still out there? Did he have an accomplice who continued his work? Or were there multiple letter writers all along?
Keywords: True Crime, Unsolved Mystery, Circleville Letters, Anonymous Letters, Stalking, Ohio, Cold Case, 1970s Crime, 1980s Crime, Psychological Terror, Small Town Crime, Paul Freshour, Mary Gillispie, Pickaway County, Harassment Campaign, Attempted Murder, Wrongful Conviction
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Sunny spaces, smiling faces, happy places. |
| 0:06.0 | But every sunny space holds a shadow. |
| 0:09.0 | Behind every smile are sharp teeth. |
| 0:13.0 | And every happy place has something sinister lurking just below the surface. |
| 0:18.0 | Welcome to We Saw the Devil, the podcast diving deep into the chilling realms of true crime. |
| 0:25.2 | Join your host Robin as she unravels mysteries that have left investigators baffled and |
| 0:30.3 | armchair sleuths obsessed. |
| 0:33.3 | Be forewarned, dear listener, We Saw the Devil is not for the faint of heart. Our unflinching exploration will take you to the darkest corners of the psyche |
| 0:42.3 | and through the unimaginable depths of human darkness, |
| 0:45.3 | to unearth stark secrets to the harsh light of day. |
| 0:48.3 | Nothing will be left untouched. |
| 0:50.3 | Are you ready? |
| 0:52.3 | Are you sure? We saw the devil. Hey guys, it's Robin, and you're listening to We Saw the Devil. Welcome to your HQ for all things strange and unusual, and I'm super excited about this one, because we are getting back to true crime. And don't forget, the podcast is now also |
| 1:11.7 | host to a sub-podcast slash show that I'm doing called Red, White and Bruised. And that's for more |
| 1:19.2 | left-leading individuals, I guess, who need to process the absolute mess and shit show that is |
| 1:24.9 | modern American politics. So basically all the warm and fuzzies here |
| 1:28.6 | all the way around. Before we get into it, if you are into what I'm doing here, please follow the show |
| 1:34.5 | on Instagram at We Saw the Devil podcast. You can find it on Facebook and Twitter at We Saw the Devil |
| 1:39.8 | or the website, which is currently in progress again at we saw the devil.com, if you want to reach out, |
| 1:46.6 | questions, thoughts, complaints, compliments, whatever, my email and my inbox is always open. |
| 1:52.4 | And I actually respond. But how have you guys been? How has your week been? Mine has been busy and |
| 1:59.0 | exhausting. I did put out the last episode quite literally, |
... |
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