In the quiet community of Circleville, residents began receiving anonymous letters filled with intimate secrets, accusations, and threats. Affairs were exposed. Families were torn apart. Reputations were destroyed. And when one man tried to stop the letters, he ended up dead.

Even after an arrest and conviction, the letters didn’t stop.

In this episode of Three Voices One Crime, we unravel the chilling mystery of the Circleville Letters — a case involving obsession, small-town paranoia, a suspicious death, and a question that still lingers decades later: Was the real letter writer ever caught… or was the truth hidden in plain sight the entire time?

This isn’t a story about violence at first.

It’s a story about fear, control, and how words alone can ruin lives.

Sources

• Keel, John A. The Circleville Letters: A Mystery of Ohio. Gray Barker Enterprises.

(One of the earliest deep dives into the case; often referenced despite its age.)

• Unsolved Mysteries, Season 4, Episode 5 (1989).

Segment: The Circleville Letters. NBC.

(Widely credited with bringing national attention to the case.)

• Dateline NBC. Secrets of the Poison Pen.

(Explores the letters, the conviction, and lingering doubts.)

• Columbus Dispatch.

Coverage of the Circleville Letters case and Paul Freshour conviction.

(Local reporting provides historical context and court details.)

• Pickaway County Court Records.

State of Ohio v. Paul Freshour.

(Trial, conviction, and sentencing documentation.)

• Ohio Supreme Court & Appellate Court Records.

Appeals filed by Paul Freshour related to the Circleville Letters case.

• FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit (Referenced in media).

Profiling discussions on anonymous letter-writing and poison-pen cases.

• History.com.

“The Circleville Letters: Ohio’s Poison Pen Mystery.”

(General overview used by many documentary productions.)