Storage-room door opens in an old Pittsburgh house, 1956
A caller tells Art Bell their own story of an event in 1956 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, when they and their husband rented the third-floor rooms of an old house. One night, while alone, they heard the latch of a closed storage-room door click open and the door squeak open. They fled to a bathroom until their husband returned. The caller later reports that the elderly landlord died within a year after they moved out and that a baby on the second floor died in its crib. The caller takes this as evidence of a very evil spirit looking for a victim.
This clip comes from the source recording. AI chose where it starts and ends, so it may start or end a little early or late. The word-for-word transcript is not published. You can hear the source recording on the Internet Archive (file “Ghost to Ghost 1993.mp3”, starting at 27:26). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
The caller says that in 1956 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, they and their husband, a young couple, had moved into rented third-floor rooms in a very old house, probably built around the turn of the century. An old couple in their eighties were the landlords on the first floor, and the second floor was empty. Of their four rooms, the caller says, one small room gave them a very strange, eerie feeling, so they used it for storage and kept its door closed. One night when their husband was away on business, the caller came home from work about six o'clock. The landlords were downstairs with their doors closed, and the caller felt very much alone. The caller says they were upstairs for a couple of hours with a terrible feeling that something or someone was in the little room. They went down to use the bathroom on the empty second floor, and while there, something seemed to tell them not to go back upstairs. They went anyway. Climbing the long flight of steps, almost at the top, they heard the latch of the storage-room door click open. The door then opened with a loud squeak. They raced back down to the bathroom, locked themselves in, and stayed about two hours until their husband came home. The caller told their husband what had happened, and they went back upstairs. The door was open about a foot, and they saw no one and nothing inside. The caller says they cannot explain why it opened that night. As a postscript, the caller says that within a year after they moved out, the old man downstairs in his eighties had died, and a young couple on the second floor lost a baby in its crib. The caller believes the house held a very evil spirit looking for a victim, and says they could have been that victim.
Reported events, in order
- 0:09
The caller says that in 1956 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, they had a brush with something eerie.
- 0:15
The caller reports that they and their husband, as a young couple, moved into the third-floor rooms of a very old house, probably built around the turn of the century.
- 0:24
The caller says they rented the third-floor rooms. An old couple in their eighties were the landlords on the first floor.
- 0:30
The second floor was empty.
- 0:34
Of their four rooms, the caller says, one small room gave them a very strange, eerie feeling. So it was used for storage, and its door was always kept closed.
- 0:47
One night, the caller's husband was away on business.
- 0:52
The caller came home from work about six o'clock.
- 0:55
The old couple were downstairs with their doors closed, and the caller felt very much alone in the house.
- 1:06
The caller says they were up there for a couple of hours and kept having a terrible feeling that something or someone was in the little room.
- 1:24
The caller went down to use the second-floor bathroom. While there, they say, something seemed to tell them not to go back upstairs.
- 1:37
The caller says they went back upstairs anyway.
- 1:46
While climbing the long flight of steps, almost at the top, the caller heard the latch of the storage-room door open.
- 1:59
The caller says the door opened with a loud squeak, and they raced back down to the bathroom three steps at a time.
- 2:13
The caller locked themselves in the bathroom and stayed there about two hours until their husband came home.
- 2:20
When the caller heard the front door open, they were relieved. They told their husband what had happened, and the two went back upstairs.
- 2:28
They found the door open about a foot or so. They looked inside and saw no one and nothing.
- 2:45
The caller says that within a year after they moved out of the house, the old man downstairs in his eighties had died.
- 2:55
The caller says a young couple had moved into the second floor, and read in the paper that their baby had died in its crib.
- 3:06
The caller says they had the strangest feeling that there was a very evil spirit in the house looking for a victim, and that they could have been that victim if they had gone upstairs.
Claims
Each claim is labeled as something the person telling the story noticed (observation), what they made of it (interpretation), something others told them (hearsay), or something the host said (host statement).
- observation· 0:09
The caller says they had a brush with something eerie in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1956.
- observation· 0:34
The caller says they had a strange, eerie feeling about one small room in the rented third-floor rooms.
- observation· 1:06
The caller says they kept having a terrible feeling that something or someone was in that little room.
- observation· 1:24
The caller says something seemed to tell them not to go back upstairs.
- observation· 1:46
The caller says they heard the latch of the storage-room door open.
- observation· 1:59
The caller says the door opened and made a loud squeak.
- observation· 2:28
The caller says that when they and their husband went back upstairs, the door was open about a foot, and they saw no one inside.
- hearsay· 2:52
The caller says that within a year after they moved out, the old man downstairs in his eighties had died.
- hearsay· 2:55
The caller says they read in the paper that a young couple's baby on the second floor had died in its crib.
- interpretation· 3:06
The caller believes the house held a very evil spirit looking for a victim, and says they might have been that victim.
Scores, with reasons
An AI model gave these scores using a fixed set of scoring rules (scoring-v1). They are editorial judgments and rough guides, not the odds that anything paranormal happened. How scoring works.
Firsthand and consistent, with specific details. But the main physical event has an easy ordinary explanation, and the evil-spirit conclusion rests on deaths the caller heard about later. Scores for each part: closeness to the source 22, specific detail 15, consistency 17, other explanations 5, and how carefully the claims are stated 7, for a total of 66.
Evidence for and against
- A firsthand story with a concrete setting: 1956, Pittsburgh, a third-floor rental, an old house, and an empty second floor.
- A clear sequence of events and consistent answers to the host's questions.
- The caller separates what they felt and heard from what they concluded about an evil spirit.
- The central event is a door opening, and an ordinary old-house explanation is easy to suggest.
- The later deaths are secondhand and are linked by timing, not by any reported cause.
- No independent witness to the door opening speaks on air. The husband only saw the door open afterward.
- No name or address is given for the house or the caller.
- The husband is a claimed witness but does not speak on air.
- The labels showing who is speaking are automatic. One question at 1741.4 reads like a host question.
- 0:09
- 1:46
- 2:28
What the model inferred (not said on air): The scores for each part are my editorial judgment. The transcript supports the scores for specific detail and consistency. The low score for other explanations reflects that a door opening in an old house can be explained in ordinary ways.
Essentially only the caller's word, with a few checkable details such as Pittsburgh and 1956, but no names, records, or examined evidence. The caller's husband is mentioned as a witness but does not speak on air himself.
Evidence for and against
- The caller gives a location, a year, and a general setting.
- The caller says their husband was a witness, though he does not speak on air.
- No physical evidence is produced or examined.
- No second witness to the door opening speaks on air.
- The later deaths are reported as something read in the paper, with no documentation.
- No house address, caller name, newspaper name, or date of the later deaths is given.
- The husband's role as a witness cannot be checked from the transcript.
- 0:09
- 2:20
What the model inferred (not said on air): The score is low because there is no independent check, not because the story is judged untrue.
The story is unsettling because it intrudes into a home, isolates the caller, and ends with deaths and an evil spirit looking for a victim. Still, nothing is seen, and nothing physically threatens the caller in the moment.
Evidence for and against
- A door opens by itself in an old rented home while the caller is alone.
- The caller describes a strong sense of something or someone in a closed storage room, and a warning not to go upstairs.
- The postscript adds two later deaths and the caller's belief in an evil spirit looking for a victim.
- No figure, voice, injury, or physical contact is reported.
- The central event is brief: a latch click and a squeaking door.
- The host thanks the caller and moves on without dwelling on the story.
- The transcript does not describe the caller's emotional state beyond what they say about feeling afraid and relieved.
- The story gives no sensory description of any presence.
- 1:06
- 1:59
- 3:06
What the model inferred (not said on air): Creepiness is a judgment about the story's effect on a listener, not about whether the events happened.
The story uses a familiar haunted-house frame, with a distinctive focus on a single door latch and a victim interpretation made after the fact. The provisional score from content alone is 45. It has not been recalculated against the rest of the archive here.
Evidence for and against
- The specific detail is a storage-room door in rented third-floor rooms, rather than a full ghost sighting.
- The caller says outright that they could have been a victim, not only a witness.
- An old-house setting, a closed storage room, an eerie feeling, and a door opening by itself are familiar ghost-story elements.
- The later-death postscript is a common way of reinforcing a haunting.
- In the pilot, the weight given to comparison with the rest of the archive is provisional.
- No value comparing the story with the rest of the archive was supplied.
- 0:42
- 1:46
- 3:06
What the model inferred (not said on air): The originality score is my estimate based on content. The published value, compared with the rest of the archive, would require the full archive calculation.
Scoring confidence 0.85 · analysis confidence 0.88 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller's firsthand story; The caller's husband, claimed as a witness after the event, but he does not speak on air; No documentation, photograph, recording, or newspaper item produced or examined; No outside check performed. The originality score blends the model's score (45) with how rare the story's details are across the archive. This method is still provisional.
Ordinary explanations to consider
These are possibilities only. None is a finding about what happened.
- A loose, worn, or badly fitted door latch, along with ordinary air movement or vibration in an old house, could have made the click and let the door swing open. · The caller describes a very old house and says they heard the latch click before the door opened. No person or figure is reported inside afterward.
- Being alone in a large old rented house, with an unused floor and closed-off rooms downstairs, could make ordinary house sounds or the sense of isolation more noticeable. · The caller says the second floor was empty, the landlords' doors were closed, and they felt very much alone in the house.
- The later deaths could be unrelated events that were linked to the earlier unease after the fact. · The later deaths are reported only by their timing after the couple moved out and as something read in the paper. No causal link is described beyond the caller's interpretation.
What stands out
The main reported event is not a figure or voice but the sound of a latch and a storage-room door opening by itself. The caller later links that single event to two deaths that followed and takes it to mean the house held an evil spirit looking for a victim.
Related stories
Matched by shared recurring details, categories, and wording.