Labored breathing, darkness, and pressure in a master bedroom in McKeesport
[name withheld], calling from McKeesport, Pennsylvania, tells Art Bell a story they say is [quote withheld] In 1972, at age 22 and just back from Vietnam, they moved into their mother’s master bedroom. They report hearing what sounded like labored breathing at night, the room darkening, and a pressure pushing them into the mattress. They say they then left the room and never slept in it again. They add that a son-in-law and a niece who stayed in the house also would not stay. Art closes by calling it another haunted house.
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 1997.mp3”, starting at 3:57:00). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
[name withheld], calling from McKeesport, Pennsylvania, tells Art Bell they have a ghost story they say is [quote withheld] [name withheld] says the house was bought in 1972. A garbled exchange, “My mother did,” credits the purchase to their mother. [name withheld] says their family's practice on moving into a new house was to have a priest bless it, and that their mother did so. Their mother remarried about a year after their father died, later divorced, and moved out. [name withheld] says they decided to take the master bedroom rather than their small bedroom at the back of the house. Asked how old they were, they say they had come back from Vietnam and were 22.
[name withheld] describes lying in bed after switching off late-night talk radio, with steel mills and factories still operating in the area. [name withheld] began hearing what sounded like labored breathing, like someone with pneumonia or emphysema. [name withheld] first thought it was one of the factories, but says it grew louder and louder, and they took their .45 from under their pillow. [name withheld] notes a street light outside the master-bedroom window, and says the whole room became very dark. Then a pressure began pushing on their body, pushing them into the mattress, and they say it was almost as if they could not breathe. [name withheld] says they got out of the room, have never been back, and will not sleep in it.
[name withheld] then reports that their mother's son-in-law, described as a CIA analyst, and his wife stayed at the house, and that the son-in-law [quote withheld] [name withheld] says a niece spent one night there and would not spend another. Art closes the segment by calling it [quote withheld]
Reported events, in order
- 0:02
The caller says they are [name withheld] from McKeesport, Pennsylvania, and that they have a ghost story that is confirmed by three different people.
- 0:27
The caller says the house was bought in 1972, with the purchase credited to their mother in a garbled exchange.
- 0:31
The caller says their family's practice when moving into a new house was to call in a priest to bless the house, and that their mother did this.
- 0:55
The caller says their mother remarried about a year after their father died, later divorced, and moved out of the house.
- 1:09
The caller says they decided to move into the master bedroom instead of their small bedroom at the back of the house.
- 1:21
Asked by Art how old they were, the caller says they had come back from Vietnam and were 22.
- 1:29
The caller says they were listening to late-night talk radio, turned it off, and were getting ready for bed.
- 2:01
The caller says they heard what sounded like labored breathing, like someone with pneumonia or emphysema.
- 2:19
The caller says they first thought it was one of the local factories, and that the sound got louder and louder.
- 2:28
The caller says they took their .45 from under their pillow and said anyone coming through the door was dead.
- 2:57
The caller notes a street light outside the master-bedroom window and says the whole room got really, really dark.
- 3:06
The caller says a pressure started pushing on their body, pushing them into the mattress, and that it was almost like they could not breathe.
- 3:16
The caller says they got out of the room, have never been back in it, and will not sleep in it.
- 3:25
The caller says their mother's son-in-law, a CIA analyst, and his wife stayed at the house, and that the son-in-law [quote withheld]
- 3:52
The caller says a niece spent one night in the house and would not spend another.
- 3:56
Art closes the segment by calling it [quote withheld]
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· 2:01
[name withheld] reports hearing what sounded like labored breathing while lying in bed.
- observation· 2:10
[name withheld] describes the breathing as sounding like pneumonia or emphysema, and says it grew louder.
- interpretation· 2:19
[name withheld] says they first blamed the sound on the local factories.
- observation· 2:57
[name withheld] reports that the room became very dark although a street light was outside the window.
- observation· 3:11
[name withheld] reports a pressure pushing on their body and pushing them into the mattress, with the sensation that they could not breathe.
- interpretation· 3:19
[name withheld] says they never went back into the room and will not sleep in it.
- hearsay· 3:34
[name withheld] reports that their mother's son-in-law, described as a CIA analyst, [quote withheld] What the son-in-law confirmed is not described.
- hearsay· 3:52
[name withheld] reports that a niece spent one night in the house and would not spend another.
- host statement· 3:56
Art Bell calls the house haunted.
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 story with a place and a date and a consistent sequence. But common sleep-related explanations fit the core bedroom experience easily, and the backing the caller promises is never described.
Evidence for and against
- Firsthand story of the caller’s own experience in their own bedroom.
- Specific anchors: place, year, and age given ([quote withheld] “I was 22.”).
- Concrete sensory and situational details: a street light outside the window, a pistol under the pillow, the radio switched off before bed.
- Lying in bed, a dark room, and the sensation of not being able to breathe with pressure on the body are widely reported in sleep-related settings.
- The caller’s own first explanation (factory noise) covers the reported sound.
- The claimed backing is stated but never described: [quote withheld]
- The transcript garbles who bought the house ([quote withheld]).
- The number of people said to have confirmed the story is unclear ([quote withheld] with only two others named).
- The labels showing who is speaking are often wrong in this passage, so some sentences may be assigned to the wrong speaker.
- 0:07
- 2:01
- 3:11
- 3:34
What the model inferred (not said on air): The weighting of the components is my judgment. Closeness to the source is 20 of 25 (firsthand, but brief, with an unexamined secondhand element). Specificity is 12 of 20 (year, place, age, and sensory details, but no names or records that can be checked). Internal consistency is 14 of 20 (a consistent sequence and answers to Art’s questions, with minor garbling). Alternative explanations are 5 of 20 (sleep-related and industrial explanations fit the reported events easily). Calibration of claims is 7 of 15 (the caller frames it as a ghost story and says others confirmed it without describing how, though they do raise and then set aside an ordinary explanation). The sum is 58.
Nothing beyond the caller’s word is presented. Two other witnesses are claimed but do not speak, their experiences are not described, and no document, photograph, or recording is offered or examined.
Evidence for and against
- Specifics that could in principle be checked are given (McKeesport, Pennsylvania; 1972) but were not checked.
- Other witnesses are claimed: [quote withheld]
- The claimed witnesses do not speak on air, and their experiences are only mentioned, not described.
- No physical evidence (photograph, recording, marks) is mentioned or presented.
- The host’s remark that it is [quote withheld] is a reaction, not backing.
- It is unclear whether the three people said to confirm the story include the caller.
- The line about the son-in-law’s confirmation is abbreviated and partly garbled.
- 0:07
- 3:37
- 3:52
What the model inferred (not said on air): This falls in the 11 to 25 range because specifics that could be checked and claimed witnesses exist, but nothing was examined. No outside check was done, so the ceiling of 50 for a transcript alone is not approached.
An intrusion into a bedroom at night, with labored breathing, an unexplained darkening, and a pressure that the caller says left them almost unable to breathe, ending without explanation. But it is a single, briefly told episode, not a sustained escalation.
Evidence for and against
- Intrusion into a private, sleeping space: the master bedroom at night.
- Vivid sensory detail: labored breathing like pneumonia or emphysema, growing louder.
- Physical pressure and near-inability to breathe, and the caller’s refusal ever to go back into the room.
- The story is short and mostly explanation, with no threat aimed at a person and no visible figure.
- The caller’s own first reaction (blaming the factories) and the gun-under-the-pillow detail give the story a wry rather than grim tone.
- Art’s closing remarks end the segment on a light note ([quote withheld]).
- Whether the room darkened suddenly or gradually is not stated.
- The backing incidents involving the son-in-law and niece are never described, so their content is unknown.
- 2:10
- 2:57
- 3:11
What the model inferred (not said on air): This is my judgment of the effect on a listener only. It is not a claim about whether anything occurred.
The setup is familiar: a bedroom at night, unexplained breathing or sound, darkness, and pressure on the body. A couple of touches stand out: the breathing compared to emphysema and first blamed on steel mills, and the claimed CIA-analyst witness.
Evidence for and against
- Distinctive detail: the sound is described as labored breathing and was first blamed on local factories.
- Unusual detail about a witness: a son-in-law described as a CIA analyst who [quote withheld]
- Breathing or an unseen presence at night in a bedroom, a darkening room, and chest pressure are recurring motifs in ghost stories.
- Nothing unusual in the events, the place, or the ending beyond the familiar bedroom setup.
- The originality score is provisional: the published value depends on how rare the motifs are and how similar stories are across the archive.
- Because the backing incidents are not described, it is not possible to judge whether the story as a whole is more distinctive than the bedroom part alone.
- 2:19
- 3:37
What the model inferred (not said on air): The model score is set at 40 from the content. The published score will blend it with how the story compares with the rest of the archive once the archive is large enough.
Scoring confidence 0.60 · analysis confidence 0.60 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller’s firsthand story; Claimed backing from two other people who do not speak on air and whose experiences are not described; No physical evidence offered or examined. The originality score blends the model's score (40) 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.
- An episode while falling asleep, such as sleep paralysis, could account for the bedroom part: they were lying in bed after turning off the radio, the room seemed to darken, and they report pressure on their body with the sensation of being unable to breathe. · From the transcript: [quote withheld]; [quote withheld]
- Noise from industry nearby could account for the breathing sound. The caller first blamed the local mills and factories. · From the transcript: [quote withheld]; [quote withheld] This does not account for the reported pressure.
- The room seeming to darken could follow an ordinary change in light, such as a street light cycling, a vehicle passing, or curtains. The transcript gives no such detail. · From the transcript: [quote withheld] followed by [quote withheld]
What stands out
The caller says up front that the story is backed up by others ([quote withheld]). But the two other experiences are squeezed into a few garbled lines and never described, so what exactly was confirmed is unknown. The caller’s own story is a single nighttime bedroom episode of sound, darkness, and pressure. The caller says they had just returned from Vietnam and had a pistol under their pillow.
Related stories
Matched by shared recurring details, categories, and wording.