Humming voice and a namesake tombstone in Covington, Georgia
A caller who gives their name as Mary tells Art Bell they once lived in a garage apartment in Covington, Georgia. It stood behind a mansion and overlooked the cemetery on Elm Street. Alone there one night in early 1975, they report the television acting strangely, an apartment that would not stay warm, a face seen in a small window at the top of the landing, and a humming they describe as a voice, not anything mechanical. The next morning, walking the cemetery, they say they found a tombstone for a young woman named [name withheld] who died in 1873 at sixteen. They note their own maiden name was Robin. They say they got out of there.
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The story as told
A caller who gives their name as Mary says they are originally from Houston, Texas, and had lived in a small town just outside Atlanta called Covington, Georgia. Their home was a garage apartment behind a mansion, overlooking the cemetery on Elm Street. They report that when they moved in, the caller's brother-in-law joked that the caller would never be alone there. Their husband worked out of town and came home only on weekends, so they say they were in the apartment by themselves much of the time. They say they are not prone to let their imagination run wild. Early in 1975, alone one night, they report the television started acting funny and was picking up Houston, Texas, advertisements. They say they could not get the apartment to stay warm and were restless, wandering back and forth between the bedroom and the living room. At the top of the landing, which they say had thirteen steps down to the front door and a small window, they report that they saw “like a face” in the window. They also report hearing humming. They say they turned off the television to listen and decided it was not the heater, the air, or anything mechanical or electronic. They describe it as [quote withheld] They say they stayed up all night and could not sleep. The next morning they went for a walk past old Confederate tombstones. Returning, they found a small sectioned-off area with about six tombstones. One was for a young lady they believe died in 1873, named [name withheld], who died at sixteen. They note their own maiden name was Robin. They say they got out of there, and the host calls it too strange and too frightening.
Reported events, in order
- 0:27
Mary says they lived in a garage apartment in Covington, Georgia, behind a mansion and overlooking the cemetery on Elm Street. Their brother-in-law joked they would never be alone there.
- 0:50
They say their husband worked out of town and came home only on weekends, so they were alone in the apartment most of the time.
- 1:10
Early in 1975, alone in the apartment, they report the television acting funny and picking up Houston, Texas, advertisements.
- 1:24
They report they could not get the apartment to stay warm and were restless, moving between the bedroom and the living room.
- 1:41
At the top of the landing (thirteen steps down to the front door, with a small window), they report seeing “like a face” in the window.
- 1:46
They report hearing humming. They say they checked that it was not the heater, the air, or anything mechanical or electronic, and describe it as like a voice humming.
- 2:02
They say they stayed up all night and could not sleep.
- 2:20
The next morning they took a walk and looked at the old Confederate tombstones in the cemetery.
- 2:44
Returning, they found a small sectioned area with about six tombstones. One was for [name withheld], who they believe died in 1873 at sixteen. Their own maiden name was Robin.
- 3:01
They say they got out of there. The host calls it too strange and too frightening.
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· 1:41
The caller reports seeing what they describe as a face in the small window at the top of the landing.
- observation· 2:09
The caller reports hearing humming that they say was not mechanical or electronic and was like a voice humming.
- observation· 1:24
The caller reports they could not get the apartment to stay warm that night.
- observation· 1:13
The caller reports the television acting strangely and picking up Houston advertisements while they were in Georgia.
- observation· 2:51
The caller reports finding a tombstone for [name withheld], who they believe died in 1873 at sixteen, and says their own maiden name was Robin.
- hearsay· 0:37
The caller reports their brother-in-law joked that they would never be alone in the apartment.
- host statement· 3:07
The host says graveyards are very strange places and calls the story too strange and too frightening.
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.
The story is firsthand and specific about time and place (Covington, Georgia; the Elm Street cemetery; early 1975; a named tombstone and date). But it rests on a single night reported decades later, and several easy ordinary explanations are not fully addressed.
Evidence for and against
- Firsthand story: [quote withheld]
- Concrete setting: [quote withheld]
- Concrete detail of the building: [quote withheld]
- Named tombstone: [quote withheld]
- A small window at night is a plausible place for a reflection or a shape read as a face.
- A cold apartment and humming have common ordinary sources, and the caller offers only their own ruling-out of them.
- The similar names ([name withheld] and Robin) and the caller's uncertainty about the year leave a coincidence reading open.
- The labels showing who is speaking are jumbled in this part of the broadcast, so some lines may be the host rather than the caller.
- No sequence of events is given for the days before or after. Only one night and the following morning are described.
- 1:03
- 2:09
- 2:44
What the model inferred (not said on air): The point awards are my own judgment: high closeness to events (firsthand witness), moderately high specifics (named places, dates, a named grave), middling consistency, low resistance to other explanations, and moderate calibration. The transcript does not supply any verification.
Nothing was checked and no object was produced. The story contains details that could be checked (a named town, a street, a cemetery, and a named grave with a date), but they remain unverified.
Evidence for and against
- Details that could in principle be checked: Covington, Georgia; a cemetery on Elm Street; the tombstone of [name withheld], 1873.
- No second witness speaks on air, and the caller says they were alone.
- No photograph, recording, or document is mentioned.
- The caller gives the year of death only as a belief ([quote withheld]).
- The transcript of the tombstone details is partly garbled.
- 0:27
What the model inferred (not said on air): The range follows the scoring guide: details that could be checked are named but not checked (11 to 25), with no one backing it up on air and no object examined.
The story is quietly unsettling rather than frightening: a lone woman in a rented apartment by a cemetery, with a face at the window and wordless humming through the night, closing on a grave with a similar name and an unexplained exit.
Evidence for and against
- Isolation: [quote withheld]
- A night without sleep: [quote withheld]
- A face glimpsed in a window at the top of a staircase.
- A grave with a similar name found the next morning.
- No threat, contact, or harm is reported.
- No escalation and no further incidents are described.
- The caller's “quiet neighbours” remark and the host's light closing exchange lower the intensity.
- It is unclear where the story ends. The final exchange is fragmentary.
- 1:41
- 2:04
What the model inferred (not said on air): My own judgment of the story's tone for a listener. The caller does not describe terror beyond nervousness and sleeplessness.
Provisional: a familiar frame (a rented apartment beside a cemetery, a cold room, a restless night, a face at a window) with one distinctive element. That element is humming described specifically as a voice, followed by the discovery of a grave with a name close to the caller's maiden name.
Evidence for and against
- Distinctive detail: [quote withheld]
- Distinctive pairing with the discovery of the tombstone with a similar name.
- A rental home beside a cemetery, a cold room, TV interference, and a face at a window are common motifs in this genre.
- Novelty compared with the rest of the archive cannot be judged from a single transcript. With a small pilot archive, that comparison carries little weight.
- 2:09
- 2:51
What the model inferred (not said on air): The score is my provisional judgment of how new the themes are. The published originality figure is computed by the project's software relative to the archive.
Scoring confidence 0.60 · analysis confidence 0.60 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller's firsthand telephone story only; A named place, cemetery, and grave that could in principle be checked, but nothing was checked; No photograph, recording, or document mentioned or examined. The originality score blends the model's score (50) 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 “face” in the small window could be the caller's own reflection in the glass, or a shape they read as a face, given that they say they were moving back and forth between rooms at night and looking at a small window. · They report wandering [quote withheld] and then seeing “like a face” in the window.
- The humming and the inability to keep the apartment warm could have ordinary sources, such as a heating system, plumbing, wind, or sound from a neighboring building, despite the caller's statement that they ruled out mechanical and electronic sources. · They say [quote withheld] and that it was not [quote withheld]
- The match between the tombstone name [name withheld] and their maiden name Robin could be coincidence, since the caller gives the date only as a belief ([quote withheld]) and the two names are similar, not identical. · [quote withheld] and [quote withheld]
What stands out
The story pairs a long, wordless sound ([quote withheld]) with the next-day discovery of a grave with a name close to the caller's own maiden name. The caller presents the two together but does not connect them outright. The caller also rules out mechanical and electronic sources for the humming, and heating for the cold, which is more specific than many brief stories.
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