Uneasy feeling and a pull to leave an empty Victorian house in San Francisco
A caller who says only that they are in Las Vegas now tells Art Bell, at the host’s invitation, about a night in the late 1960s. They stayed in an unoccupied Victorian house in San Francisco, offered to them by a stranger they had just met in a piano bar. They report growing unease on entering and moving through the house. A back door opened onto a ten-foot drop with no stairs, and they could not enter either of two upstairs bedrooms. They say they finally had to leave. The host cuts the call short before the story is finished, and the caller offers no cause.
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 1:08:03). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
The caller, who says only that they are “in Las Vegas” at the time of the call, says that some years earlier, [quote withheld] they were living in Los Angeles. They had met two acquaintances, a writer and a printer and artist, who had made a poster ([quote withheld]). The caller says they agreed to sell the poster around Los Angeles, and the acquaintances then suggested they try the Bay Area. The caller says they traveled to San Francisco during the Haight-Ashbury period, ate in a restaurant, and then went to a piano bar to listen to music. There, they say, a man sitting next to the caller learned they were up from L.A. and told them they did not need a hotel room. The man had the key to an unoccupied house and offered it to them. The caller says they went to the house, on a street of old Victorian homes, mid-block, the only one in the row set in from the others. They say they went up the porch, unlocked the door, turned on a light, and went inside. At once they felt [quote withheld] that grew stronger as they went further in. In the kitchen at the back, with multi-windows and a windowed door, they say they opened the door to step out, paused, and saw there were no stairs and roughly a ten-foot drop. They say they then went into the living room and felt much more uneasy. They say they went slowly up the stairs, found two bedrooms at the head of the stairs, and could not enter either of them. They say it became unbearable to stay even though their mind told them nothing was wrong, and that they had to leave. The host cuts the call off at that point. The caller never states a cause or an ending.
Reported events, in order
- 1:01
The caller says that some years earlier, in the late 1960s, they were living in Los Angeles and met two acquaintances, a writer and a printer and artist, who had made a poster.
- 1:26
They say they agreed to sell the poster around Los Angeles and were then asked to try the Bay Area.
- 1:44
They say they traveled to San Francisco during the Haight-Ashbury period, ate in a restaurant, and then went to a piano bar.
- 2:01
They say a man sitting next to them at the piano bar offered them the use of an unoccupied house for which the man had a key.
- 2:20
They say they went to the house on a street of old Victorian homes. It was mid-block and the only one set in from the others.
- 2:41
They say they went up the porch, unlocked the door, turned on a light, and went inside, immediately feeling very uneasy in their gut.
- 2:54
They say the feeling grew stronger as they went further into the house.
- 3:24
They say they went into the back kitchen, opened a windowed door to step out, paused, and saw there were no stairs and a drop of about ten feet straight down.
- 3:35
They say they then went into the living room, where the uneasy feeling was much stronger.
- 3:44
They say they went slowly up the stairs, found two bedrooms at the head of the stairs, and could not enter either of them.
- 3:49
They say they had to leave. It became unbearable to stay although their mind told them nothing was wrong.
- 3:58
The host cuts the caller off before they finish, thanks them, and then speaks to the audience about being compelled to leave a place.
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· 2:46
On stepping through the front door of the empty house they felt a strong uneasiness ([quote withheld]).
- observation· 2:54
The uneasy feeling increased the further they went into the house.
- observation· 3:32
They opened the back kitchen door intending to step out and found there were no steps, only a drop of about ten feet.
- observation· 3:35
In the living room the uneasy feeling became much stronger.
- observation· 3:44
At the head of the stairs they found two bedrooms and could not enter either of them.
- interpretation· 3:51
They say staying became unbearable and they had to leave. They describe their own mind saying that nothing was wrong.
- hearsay· 2:13
The stranger at the piano bar, as the caller reports it, said he had the key to an unoccupied house and offered it for the caller’s use.
- host statement· 4:04
The host describes the story to the audience as being compelled to leave by something telling you something is profoundly wrong.
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.
This is a firsthand account that is specific about place and order of events, but it is brief, cut off, and entirely subjective. Ordinary explanations tied to the situation (fear in an unfamiliar empty house, an unsafe back-door drop) fit easily. The caller’s clear separation of feeling from reasoning suggests they are not overclaiming.
Evidence for and against
- Firsthand and direct: the caller says they personally entered and walked through the house ([quote withheld]).
- A concrete sequence of places: porch, kitchen with multi-windows and a windowed door, ten-foot drop, living room, stairs, two bedrooms.
- The caller separates their feeling from their own reasoning ([quote withheld]).
- No names, street, or dates are given ([quote withheld]), so little can in principle be checked.
- The host ends the call before any conclusion, or any follow-up question about cause, is answered ([quote withheld]).
- The report is entirely a feeling. No sight, sound, smell, temperature change, or physical trace is described.
- The story is interrupted, so consistency and calibration cannot be judged against an ending or against the host’s usual follow-up questions.
- Several lines are labeled as the host’s but clearly contain the caller’s words, so who said what within the story is uncertain.
- 1:01
- 2:41
- 3:51
What the model inferred (not said on air): Component judgment: source proximity 21, specificity 12, internal consistency 15 (coherent but not completable), alternative explanations 7, calibration 11, for 66. I reduced it toward the middle because the story is cut short, giving about 58.
This is the standard case of only the caller’s word. Places are named but not specifically enough to check, and no other person or object is offered.
Evidence for and against
- The caller’s own firsthand account is the only support.
- General places are named (Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Haight-Ashbury), but nothing within them can be checked.
- No documentation, recording, photograph, or physical trace is claimed.
- No second witness speaks on air. The caller says they were alone in the house.
- No street, address, names, or verifiable record is given.
- No outside check was done, and nothing in the request supplies verification.
- 2:20
- 3:49
What the model inferred (not said on air): This sits at the low end of the [quote withheld] range because the places named are broad and the date is no more exact than a decade.
A growing sense of wrongness in an empty old house, ending with the caller having to leave, is unsettling. But the lack of any strange sight or sound, threat, or contact keeps it below the middle of the scale for frightening material.
Evidence for and against
- The unease grows step by step: unease at the door, stronger further in, “much more uneasy” in the living room, then unbearable.
- Being unable to enter two bedrooms at the head of the stairs is an image of intruding on a private space.
- The host’s closing comments raise the tone for listeners: [quote withheld]
- Nothing is seen, heard, smelled, or touched. The story is a feeling only.
- No threat, harm, physical contact, or named being appears.
- The caller themself reports their mind saying nothing was wrong, which undercuts an ominous reading.
- The host’s comments are his own, not part of the caller’s story, and are weighted accordingly.
- 3:35
- 3:44
- 4:04
What the model inferred (not said on air): Placed around the [quote withheld] range. The growing unease and the images of bedrooms, which are normally safe places, raise it from the bottom. The lack of any being that they saw lowers it from the middle.
A familiar pattern, a growing sense of wrongness in an old empty house, carrying two distinctive concrete details: the back door with no steps and the set-back house in a Victorian row.
Evidence for and against
- The back kitchen door opening onto a ten-foot drop with no steps is an unusual, concrete detail.
- The house is described as the only one in the row of Victorian homes set in from the others, a distinctive detail of the building.
- Getting the house for the night from a stranger met at a piano bar is an uncommon setup.
- At its core this is a stock [quote withheld] story with nothing strange perceived.
- Growing unease and an inability to enter rooms are familiar haunted-house beats.
- The story is unfinished, so a distinctive later development may be missing.
- 3:32
- 2:29
What the model inferred (not said on air): This is a provisional model score. Originality compared with the rest of the archive is not worked out here and should be treated as provisional.
Scoring confidence 0.55 · analysis confidence 0.60 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller’s firsthand account by telephone, cut off by the host before any conclusion; No names, street address, dates, or documents given. No photograph, recording, or physical evidence claimed; No second witness speaks on air. The caller describes being alone. 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.
- Apprehension in an unfamiliar vacant house at night, entered alone, could itself produce growing physical unease that the caller then experiences as being pushed to leave. This is a hypothesis about the situation in the house, not about the caller. · The caller describes an unfamiliar, unoccupied house at night, whose key they were given by a man they had just met ([quote withheld] and [quote withheld]).
- Meeting an unsafe or strange architectural feature in the dark may have raised a general alarm response that the caller blames on the house rather than on the layout. · The back kitchen door had no steps and dropped about ten feet ([quote withheld]), and the house was [quote withheld]
- In a large old empty building, ordinary house noises, drafts, or darkness could be read as wrongness even where no specific source is identified. · The whole story rests on unstated sources: the caller reports no sights, sounds, smells, or temperature change, only a “feeling.”
What stands out
The story contains no strange sight, sound, smell, temperature change, or physical trace. It has only a reported, growing bodily unease and an inability to enter two upstairs bedrooms. The caller contrasts the feeling with their own reasoning that nothing was wrong. The one concrete oddity is the building itself: a back kitchen door that opens onto a ten-foot drop with no steps.
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