In 1977, Mary Gillespie received an anonymous letter that would throw her life into a tailspin. She wasn't the only Circleville, OH resident to get one. For nearly two decades, an anonymous scribe unsettled the minds of residents of that town with his or her poison pen. Join Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly as they take on this murky tale and test theories about who the anonymous writer could have been.
Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands
Cite your sources:
Almazan, Stephanie. “The Sinister Mystery of the Circleville Letter Writer.” The Lineup, 1 July 2015, the-line-up.com/circleville-letter-writer.
Baragona, Justin. “Kellyanne Attacks WHO's Command of 'Facts and Figures' With Nonsensical 'COVID-1' Dig.” The Daily Beast, The Daily Beast Company, 15 Apr. 2020, www.thedailybeast.com/kellyanne-conway-attacks-whos-command-of-facts-and-figures-with-nonsensical-covid-1-dig.
Bridges, Tony. “Where Did 'Poison Pen' Come From?” Pen Vibe, 28 Feb. 2020, blog.penvibe.com/where-did-poison-pen-come-from/.
“Circleville Writer.” Unsolved Mysteries Wiki, unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Circleville_Writer.
Hewitt, Les. “Terrifying Letters: The Watcher House of Westfield, NJ.” Historic Mysteries, 7 Mar. 2020, www.historicmysteries.com/watcher-of-westfield/.
Kim, Allen. “'The Watcher' House Is Sold Years after a Family Was Terrorized with Creepy Letters.” CNN, Cable News Network, 13 Aug. 2019, www.cnn.com/2019/08/12/us/the-watcher-house-stalker-trnd/index.html.
“The Poison Pen: Who Wrote the Circleville Letters?” Medium, Medium, 26 Feb. 2020, medium.com/@truecrimetimesblog/the-poison-pen-who-wrote-the-circleville-letters-440a302d09ad.
Rees, Kieran. “Case File #0038: The Circleville Writer.” The True Crime Database - Case File, 2020, thetruecrimedatabase.com/case_file/the-circleville-writer.
Rupar, Aaron. “Trump Is Facing a Coronavirus Threat. Let's Look Back at How He Talked about Ebola.” Vox, Vox, 26 Feb. 2020, www.vox.com/2020/2/26/21154253/trump-ebola-tweets-coronavirus.
Silverman, Stephen M. “Candy Spelling Writes Poison-Pen Note to Tori.” PEOPLE.com, 27 July 2009, people.com/celebrity/candy-spelling-writes-poison-pen-note-to-tori/.
Wax, Alyse. “The Mysterious and Unexplained Incident of Ohio's Circleville Letters.” The 13th Floor, 21 Dec. 2017, www.the13thfloor.tv/2017/01/04/the-mysterious-and-unexplained-incident-of-ohios-circleville-letters/.
Williams, Patrick. “Why People Hide behind Angry, Anonymous Letters to Their Neighbours.” ABC News, 3 Mar. 2018, www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-03/why-people-hide-behind-angry-anonymous-letters-to-neighbours/9488764.