Small Towns, Killer Secrets

from DEVIANT · host Cold Open Media

In small towns, fear doesn’t always hide in the shadows. Sometimes it writes letters. Sometimes it carries a shotgun. In this episode of DEVIANT, host Dan Szematowicz takes you inside two real American nightmares. In Circleville, Ohio, thousands of anonymous letters turn a quiet town inside out, exposing secrets, destroying lives and leaving behind a mystery that’s never solved. In Skidmore, Missouri, a man named Ken Rex McElroy terrorizes his neighbors for years while the law looks away. And then, one July afternoon, the town decides to take justice into its own hands. Two towns. Two reckonings. One truth: when fear becomes unbearable, silence breaks. Follow on Instagram and TikTok @deviant.podcast. SOURCES: State of Ohio v. Paul Freshour (1983); Columbus Dispatch archives; Circleville Herald archives; Unsolved Mysteries (NBC, 1993); CBS 48 Hours (2021); In Broad Daylight by Harry N. MacLean; Kansas City Star and Washington Post archives; FBI and Missouri State Highway Patrol case summaries. Copyright 2025, Cold Open Media LLC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Nov 11, 2025

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