Voice in a bathroom attributed to Russ Colombo at Rosemary Clooney's house
An unnamed male caller tells the host that he heard a man's voice behind him while using a bathroom at Rosemary Clooney's house, which he says once belonged to the crooner Russ Colombo. The voice asked what he thought he was doing. He says he jumped out and ran to the front room. There Rosemary Clooney's son, [name withheld], laughed and said the voice was Colombo, who he says has been dead since being shot in the head. The host thanks him and ends the call without further detail.
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 1998.mp3”, starting at 1:11:58). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
The caller asks the host for [quote withheld] and says he was at Rosemary Clooney's house. He says it used to belong to Russ Colombo, whom he describes as a crooner of “like, the 20s” and [quote withheld] He says he went into their bathroom and, while using it, heard a man's voice behind him say, [quote withheld] He reports that he [quote withheld] ran into the front room, and told the people there that there was a guy in their bathroom. He says his friend [name withheld], whom he identifies as Rosemary's son, started laughing and said [quote withheld] that [quote withheld] and that “he's been dead.” The caller then says Colombo [quote withheld] He describes it as an accident with one of “those fake cannons” bought through mail order. Someone had put a BB and a bar of marble inside it, and when it was set off it ricocheted around the room and hit him in the head. He also says he had not known at the time that the house was “hot.” He does not say when this happened, where the house is, whether Rosemary Clooney herself was present, or whether he looked behind him for a living speaker before leaving. The host thanks him for the call and moves on.
Reported events, in order
- 0:03
The caller says he was at Rosemary Clooney's house, which he says once belonged to Russ Colombo, a crooner he calls a predecessor of Bing Crosby.
- 0:15
He says he went into their bathroom.
- 0:21
He says he heard a man's voice behind him say, [quote withheld]
- 0:23
He reports jumping out of the bathroom and running into the front room, saying there was a guy in their bathroom.
- 0:37
He says his friend [name withheld], Rosemary's son, laughed and said [quote withheld] adding that he is always playing tricks and has been dead.
- 0:49
He says Colombo was shot in the head by accident, hit by something fired from a mail-order fake cannon into which someone had put a BB and a bar of marble.
- 0:17
He says he had not known at the time that the house was haunted (transcribed as “hot”).
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· 0:21
While in the bathroom of the house, the caller heard a man's voice behind him speaking to him.
- observation· 0:23
The caller reacted by leaving the bathroom and running into the front room.
- interpretation· 0:17
The caller says he did not know at the time that the house was haunted (transcribed as “hot”).
- hearsay· 0:38
Rosemary Clooney's son [name withheld] told him the voice was Russ Colombo, that he plays tricks, and that he has been dead.
- hearsay· 0:55
According to the caller, Russ Colombo died after being struck in the head by something fired from a mail-order cannon.
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.
A brief but coherent firsthand story with named people and quoted speech. It has no date, place, or other detail that can be checked, and a living speaker in the house is an easy alternative that the caller never rules out.
Evidence for and against
- The caller describes the experience directly and quotes the words he says he heard: [quote withheld]
- Specific names are given for the house and its former owner: [quote withheld] and [quote withheld]
- He reports [quote withheld] and never says he looked for a living speaker.
- The identification of the voice comes secondhand from [name withheld], who does not speak on air.
- No date, city, or location for the house is given.
- The passage from roughly 4341 to 4361 seconds into the segment is heavily garbled in the transcript.
- 0:03
- 0:21
- 0:23
What the model inferred (not said on air): Scores by part (my judgment, not transcript content): closeness to events 18 (firsthand but very brief); specifics 9 (names and quoted words, but no time or place that can be checked); consistency 15 (short, no contradictions); other explanations 5 (a living speaker fits easily and was not checked); calibration 7 (he reports [name withheld]'s conclusion rather than asserting it himself, but also says he did not know the house was haunted). Total 54.
The only support is the caller's own word and a name-based identification he says came from the householder's son, who never speaks on air. No recording, photograph, document, or mark is claimed.
Evidence for and against
- Details that could in principle be checked are given: [quote withheld] and [quote withheld]
- No physical evidence of any kind is claimed in the story.
- The person who supplied the identification does not appear on air.
- Name spellings come from an automatic transcript and are uncertain.
- No outside check was done.
- 0:03
- 0:07
What the model inferred (not said on air): The 11 to 25 range applies because details that could be checked are named but never verified. I scored it near the bottom of that range because there is no claimed object and no second witness on air.
A stranger's voice speaking to the caller inside an enclosed private room is briefly unsettling. But the story is short, no figure is seen, nothing threatening happens, and it closes with laughter and a light explanation.
Evidence for and against
- [quote withheld]
- The caller's reaction: [quote withheld]
- The episode is resolved at once by the son laughing and naming the ghost.
- No contact, injury, or lasting escalation is reported.
- Delivery, tone, and emotion are not assessed and did not influence this score.
- 0:21
- 0:38
What the model inferred (not said on air): Placed between the 30 anchor (mildly eerie) and the 50 anchor (truly unsettling), closer to the lower end given the brevity and the joking resolution.
An unseen voice in a bathroom is a stock haunted-building beat. The distinctive elements are the named celebrity house and the explanation that a former owner died in a mail-order cannon accident.
Evidence for and against
- The unusual detail of the death: [quote withheld]
- The setting is named specifically as “Rosemary Clooney's” house.
- The core event, a voice with no body and no visible source, is a very common motif.
- Novelty compared with the rest of the archive is provisional; the pilot archive is small.
- 0:15
- 0:55
What the model inferred (not said on air): The score based on content alone is 46 (familiar frame with a distinctive detail). The published originality score is recomputed from how rare the themes are in this archive and how similar the story is to others, and may differ.
Scoring confidence 0.50 · analysis confidence 0.62 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller's firsthand spoken story (no object, recording, or document claimed); Claimed secondhand identification by the householder's son, who does not speak on air. The originality score blends the model's score (46) 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 living person was in or near the bathroom and spoke. The caller reports leaving immediately and does not say he looked behind him. · [quote withheld] followed by [quote withheld]
- The voice came from elsewhere in the house, or from a device such as a television or radio, carried through the bathroom, since no visible source was checked. · The caller describes only a voice and never reports seeing anyone before leaving.
- Someone in the household may have been playing a joke, given that the son's immediate response was laughter and a mention of trick-playing. · [quote withheld] and “playing tricks.”
What stands out
The householder's son names the unseen speaker as a former owner of the house. The story also includes a specific and odd death, an object fired from a mail-order cannon, in place of the usual vague “previous occupant” explanation.
Related stories
Matched by shared recurring details, categories, and wording.