In 1952, mental patient Cletus Reese was sent home from the Cambridge State Hospital on trial release. He was to live by himself on his family's old farm near Newcastle, along the Coshocton and Knox County border, with his sister checking in regularly on his progress. That turned out to be a mistake, as the unstable Reese became delusional, fearing that communist spies were overrunning the farm and that US First Lady Bess Truman was sending him telepathic messages urging Cletus to defend his nation against the spies. At least, that's what Cletus said when he finally confessed to the police, three victims having already been discovered on Reese's farm.

Author Mark Sebastian Jordan will examine the story of Cletus Reese, illustrating his talk with numerous pictures, and looking into the secret that may have motivated much of Reese's bizarre behavior. Jordan, a regular speaker at the Cleo Redd Fisher Museum, is well-known as the author of The Ceely Rose Murders at Malabar Farm and the weekly History Knox column.

This program is free and open to the public. The event will be held in the lecture hall of the Cleo Redd Fisher Museum, located at 203 E. Main Street in Loudonville, OH. Doors open at 6:30, while the event begins at 7:00 pm.