Halloween graveyard dare and a death in Graceland Cemetery, 1933
Art Bell reads aloud a piece he attributes to “Ron in Seattle.” It is presented as a true story about a 1933 Halloween dare in which two young women agreed to drive stakes into graves at midnight for $10. [name withheld] is said to have felt something tugging at her skirt, screamed, and been unable to get away. The reading closes with a quoted newspaper headline reporting her found dead in Graceland Cemetery with the stake through her dress. No witness speaks on air, and no document is examined.
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 1994.mp3”, starting at 41:49). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
The host reads a piece he attributes to “Ron in Seattle,” introduced as [quote withheld] In it, [name withheld] and [name withheld] are said to have been friends since August 1918. On October 31, 1933, they dared their girlfriends [name withheld] and [name withheld] to each drive a stake into a grave at midnight on Halloween, for $10. On October 24, 1933, the girls were said to be excited about a Halloween barn dance and hayride. On the night itself the four attended the dance, where the men repeatedly asked whether the girls were sure. The girls were said to be positive. During the hayride the group leader told of a jealous husband who murdered his wife, cut her into small parts, and disposed of the body, with only her two arms found. They were said to be buried in Graceland Cemetery, the cemetery the girls were headed for. [name withheld], described as alarmed, went along anyway. The group planned to meet at the general store at 1 a.m. [name withheld] was assigned grave number 12 and [name withheld] number 56. [name withheld] pounded her stake, whistled, and left. [name withheld] pounded her stake and got up to leave. [quote withheld] She screamed and no one came, and she could not get away. At 1 a.m. the others worried, decided it was too dark to search, and assumed she had gone home. The reading ends with a quoted headline from November 1, 1933: [quote withheld]
Reported events, in order
- 0:04
The host begins reading a piece he presents as true, about [name withheld] and [name withheld], said to have been friends since August 1918.
- 0:11
The piece describes a prank the two men played on their girlfriends [name withheld] and [name withheld] on October 31, 1933.
- 0:23
On October 24, 1933, the girls are said to be excited about an upcoming Halloween barn dance and hayride.
- 0:44
The men dare the girls to each drive a stake into a grave at midnight on Halloween, for $10.
- 1:07
On the night of October 31, 1933, the four attend the dance, and the girls confirm they will go through with the dare.
- 1:19
During the hayride, the group leader tells of a jealous husband who murdered and dismembered his wife, whose two arms are said to be buried in Graceland Cemetery.
- 2:07
[name withheld] and [name withheld] reach the graveyard. [name withheld] is assigned grave number 12 and [name withheld] number 56.
- 2:20
[name withheld] pounds her stake, whistles as a signal, and heads back.
- 2:27
[name withheld] pounds her stake and gets up to leave. Something is said to tug at her skirt, and she screams for help, but no one comes.
- 2:38
At 1 a.m. [name withheld] and the men worry about [name withheld], decide it is too dark to search, and conclude she went home.
- 2:55
On November 1, 1933, a headline is quoted reporting a girl found dead in Graceland Cemetery with the stake through her dress.
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).
- host statement· 0:00
The material is said to be a true story, in the wording of the piece the host reads.
- hearsay· 1:29
A story told on the hayride: a jealous husband murdered his wife and dismembered her, and the only remains found were her two arms, buried in Graceland Cemetery.
- hearsay· 2:31
As [name withheld] got up to leave after pounding her stake into grave 56, something tugged at her skirt.
- hearsay· 2:35
[name withheld] screamed for help, no one came, and she could not get away.
- hearsay· 3:01
A newspaper the next day reported the girl found dead in Graceland Cemetery with the stake through her dress.
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.
Parts of the score: closeness to the events 3 out of 25 (the writer is not presented as a witness, and the material reads as a retold local legend); detail 14 out of 20; consistency 15 out of 20; other explanations 6 out of 20 (the reading that her skirt snagged fits the events well); care in what is claimed 7 out of 15. The sum is 45. The cap of 60 for secondhand or legend material does not apply.
Evidence for and against
- Concrete detail: names, two dates, grave numbers 12 and 56, a named cemetery, and a named newspaper (“Jonesboro Morning Bee”).
- A sequence that holds together: dare agreed, dance, hayride story, separate graves, the tugging, the 1 a.m. decision, the next-day report.
- No one who took part in the events speaks. The story arrives as a piece read by the host and attributed to a third party ([quote withheld]).
- The most vivid detail, the stake through her dress, is also what makes the ordinary reading of a [quote withheld] fit easily.
- It is not stated whether “Ron” claims any connection to the events or simply forwarded a story.
- The newspaper headline is quoted, but the paper is not produced or checked.
- 2:10
- 3:01
What the model inferred (not said on air): The low marks for closeness to the events and for other explanations are my reasoning about the structure of the story, not statements in the automatic transcript.
This falls in the 11 to 25 range. Details that could be checked (paper, dates, places, grave numbers) are stated, but nothing is verified, and no evidence is produced or examined. Without an outside check the hard cap of 50 applies, and the story is not near it.
Evidence for and against
- Details that could be checked are given within the story: a named newspaper ([quote withheld]), a named cemetery, and specific dates (October 31, 1933, and “November 1st, 1933”).
- Nothing is examined on air: no letter text shown, no clipping, no recording.
- No second witness speaks. The host's line naming the source is the only sourcing.
- Whether such a newspaper item exists is unknown from the automatic transcript alone.
- 2:55
What the model inferred (not said on air): I treat “in principle checkable” as different from “checked.” Nothing here is backed up on air.
The setting, the unanswered scream, and the fatal outcome produce steady unease. But there is no described ill-willed figure or graphic detail, so it sits in the “genuinely unsettling” range rather than higher.
Evidence for and against
- A young woman alone in a cemetery at midnight ([quote withheld]).
- Helplessness and isolation: [quote withheld]
- A death, reported only as a headline the next day.
- No threatening figure is seen or described, and nothing is said about what tugged the skirt.
- The reading has the tone of a recited folk tale rather than a first-person account of terror.
- The automatic transcript does not describe how she died, which limits how far the disturbing content develops.
- 2:33
- 2:27
What the model inferred (not said on air): This is a judgment about the story as entertainment, not a claim about what happened.
The provisional score is 30. The pattern and the punchline are stock legend material, and only the specific details (grave numbers, the buried-arms story, the quoted paper) depart from the familiar version. The score compared with the rest of the archive will be computed separately.
Evidence for and against
- Distinctive details: grave numbers 12 and 56, a $10 wager, a hayride story about a dismembered wife whose arms are buried in the same cemetery, and a named newspaper headline.
- The core is the widely told “graveyard dare” legend: a midnight wager, a stake driven into a grave, and a fatal outcome.
- With a small pilot archive, the published originality score is labeled provisional.
- 0:48
What the model inferred (not said on air): Recognizing the pattern as a familiar legend is my judgment based on the structure of the story. The score compared with the rest of the archive is not mine to compute.
Scoring confidence 0.75 · analysis confidence 0.80 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: Text read by the host and attributed to a letter or piece from “Ron in Seattle.” The underlying document is not shown, quoted, or examined on air.; No firsthand witness speaks. No photograph, recording, or document is described as examined.; Details that could be checked are stated within the story (named newspaper, dates, cemetery, grave numbers), but nothing is checked.. The originality score blends the model's score (30) 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.
- The pulling could have been her own skirt or dress caught on the stake she had just driven into the grave, mistaken in the dark for something holding her. This is the same detail the story uses to explain the stake being through her clothing. · [name withheld] had just driven a stake into the ground and was standing over it ([quote withheld]), and the closing detail is that the stake was “through her dress.”
- Fright and physical effort in the dark could in principle fit a sudden collapse, though the automatic transcript gives no medical or autopsy detail at all. This is offered only as a possibility about the events, not as a judgment about anyone. · Night, an isolated cemetery, a frightening story told earlier on the hayride ([quote withheld]), and the report that she screamed and then was found dead with the cause unstated.
What stands out
The story is a recited legend rather than a witness report. Its punchline is delivered as a quoted 1933 newspaper headline naming the town paper. The fatal detail, the stake through her dress, is also the detail that most plainly supplies an ordinary reading of the tugging.
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