100 Murder Cases

The Circleville Letters.

In 1976, residents of the small city near Columbus, Ohio began receiving handwritten sinister and graphic letters. Each letter included secret disturbing details about their personal lives.

One resident, Mary Gillispie, received a ton of letters, accusing her of having a nonexistent affair. The author warned Mary that he had been keeping an eye on her home and her actions. Then her husband started receiving letters.

The letters stopped for a while, until one day in 1977 when her husband was found dead in his truck, after taking a call from who he thought was the letter writer. His death was ruled an accident and the harassment continued, in the form of both letters and threatening road signs.

In 1983, Mary tried to remove one of the road signs and was faced with a booby trap – a box that contained a gun, designed to shoot whoever opened it. Luckily, Mary opened the trap in a way that didn't set the gun off, so she wasn't hurt. After investigation, Mary's brother-in-law was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the crime. But the letter writing continued while he was locked up, with hundreds of residents getting letters up until 1994.