Childhood “imaginary friend” Sam reported seen by family in mother’s house
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, tells Art Bell that their brother and sisters say they had an imaginary friend called Sam as a small child. Sam was a tall man in black clothes, a broad-brimmed hat, and long black hair. The caller says the same figure was later reportedly seen walking through their mother’s living room in front of family and friends, eight times. They say their wife recently reported seeing him again. The story ends without resolution. Art Bell jokes that the next sighting may be the caller’s last.
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 1999.mp3”, starting at 26:18). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
Calling from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and giving their name as [name withheld], the caller tells Art Bell that the house their mother lives in was built in 1974, the year they were born. The caller says they do not remember their early childhood. Their brother and sisters told them that as a small child, around three or four, they spoke about an imaginary friend they called Sam. They described Sam as [quote withheld] The caller says that a couple of years after they had stopped talking about Sam, their brother, sisters, parents, and a couple of friends were sitting in the living room. A man matching that description [quote withheld] Nobody saw him appear. The caller’s father got up to check, [quote withheld] and found the hall empty. [name withheld] says this happened eight times in front of at least three people each time. The figure never harmed the family. The family called him Sam because he matched [name withheld]’s description. The caller adds that their wife, whom they describe as a sensitive, sensed something in the house when they met. They have not seen Sam since they were about 14 or 15. They say that when they phoned her the night of the broadcast, she told them she had seen the figure go around a corner recently. She caught only the edge of him in her peripheral vision, and she had not mentioned it before. Art Bell replies that next time [name withheld] sees Sam it may be [quote withheld]
Reported events, in order
- 0:59
The caller says the house their mother lives in was built in 1974, the year they were born.
- 1:11
Their brother and sisters reportedly told them that, as a small child, they spoke about an imaginary friend they called Sam.
- 1:14
The child’s reported description of Sam: a tall man in all black clothes with a broad-brimmed hat and long black hair.
- 1:49
The caller says they were about three or four and do not themself remember this time.
- 2:18
A couple of years after they stopped talking about Sam, the man they described reportedly walked through the living room and down the hall in front of family and friends. No one saw him appear.
- 2:32
The caller’s father reportedly went to the hall expecting a burglar or someone on drugs and found no one there.
- 2:48
The caller says this reportedly happened eight times, before at least three people each time.
- 3:00
The caller says the figure reportedly never harmed the family.
- 3:05
The family reportedly began calling the figure Sam because he matched the caller’s childhood description.
- 3:13
The caller says their wife, whom they describe as a sensitive, knew when they met that something was in the house.
- 3:20
The caller says they have not seen Sam since they were about 14 or 15 years old.
- 3:27
They say their wife told them by phone that she had seen the figure go around a corner just the other day.
- 3:40
They describe her sighting as catching only the edge of someone going around a corner, in her peripheral vision.
- 3:51
They say she had not mentioned the sighting to them until that night’s phone call.
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).
- hearsay· 1:11
The caller says their brother and sisters told them that as a small child they spoke of an imaginary friend called Sam (not their own memory).
- hearsay· 1:14
The figure the caller reportedly described as a child was a tall man in all black clothes with a broad-brimmed hat and long black hair.
- hearsay· 2:18
Family and friends reportedly saw a man matching that description walk through the living room and down the hall. No one saw him appear.
- hearsay· 2:32
The caller’s father reportedly went to the hall expecting a burglar or someone on drugs and found no one.
- hearsay· 2:48
The caller says the walking figure was reportedly seen eight times in front of at least three people each time.
- interpretation· 3:05
The caller’s view is that the figure the family saw was the same one they had described as a child, which is why the family called him Sam.
- hearsay· 3:13
The caller reports that their wife, described as “a sensitive,” sensed that something was in the house when they met.
- observation· 3:20
The caller says they have not seen Sam since they were about 14 or 15 years old.
- hearsay· 3:27
The caller reports that their wife told them by telephone that she had recently seen the figure go around a corner.
- host statement· 4:02
The host suggests, as a joke or aside, that the next time the caller sees Sam it may be time for the caller to die.
- host statement· 0:08
The host states, in chat before the story, that Louisiana is generally a haunted place. This is the host’s assertion, not the caller’s story.
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 specific and consistent, but the central events come from family members, not from the caller’s own experience. An ordinary explanation (a person in dark clothing entering the house) fits the living-room sightings at least partly. This places it in the upper-middle range for a mostly secondhand story, with the score capped to match.
Evidence for and against
- Concrete details: the house was built in 1974, the year the caller was born, and the caller gives their location as Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
- The figure is described the same way in the childhood report and the later sightings.
- Repeated events and multiple claimed witnesses: [quote withheld]
- The story does not escalate: the caller notes the figure [quote withheld]
- No witness on air; the household sightings are relayed from the caller’s family.
- The caller says of their childhood: [quote withheld] so the core description is secondhand within the family.
- A living intruder in dark clothing is an easy explanation, and the caller reports only that the father found the hall empty, not how anyone left.
- The wife’s recent sighting rests on peripheral vision, which the caller describes as [quote withheld]
- Who is speaking is unreliable in several lines of the transcript, so it is not always clear which sentences are the caller’s.
- The caller never says whether they were present at any of the eight reported living-room sightings.
- It is not stated what time of day the living-room sightings happened.
- 0:59
- 1:49
- 2:48
- 2:32
What the model inferred (not said on air): Component estimate (not visible in the transcript): source proximity about 12 (close, named family sources relaying events; the caller’s own direct experience limited to a period without sightings), specificity about 14, internal consistency about 16, alternative explanations about 10, calibration about 10, for about 62. I lowered it to 55 because the story is mostly secondhand and no claim can be checked independently.
This sits in the range for [quote withheld] There is no physical evidence and no witness other than the caller speaking on air, so it cannot go above the low range.
Evidence for and against
- Specifics that could be checked are given: a location (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) and a house with a stated year of construction (1974).
- Multiple witnesses are claimed for the living-room sightings: [quote withheld]
- No physical evidence is claimed: no photograph, recording, document, or mark.
- No second witness speaks on air; the wife’s report is relayed by the caller.
- Family witnesses are unnamed and not produced.
- It is not stated whether any of the family members are still living, can be reached, or would confirm the story.
- No date is given for the most recent claimed sighting beyond “the other day.”
- 0:05
- 2:48
- 3:27
What the model inferred (not said on air): Scored toward the lower part of the 11–25 range because the specifics that could be checked are minimal (a city and a year the house was built), and the claimed witnesses are unnamed and absent.
An unexplained figure in dark clothes repeatedly entering a family home and vanishing when approached is genuinely unsettling, and the “hat man” description adds to that. But the story contains no threat, contact, or harm, which holds the score near the middle of the scale.
Evidence for and against
- A silent figure in black with a broad-brimmed hat reportedly walking through a family living room [quote withheld]
- The figure reportedly appears again and again, eight times, and cannot be found when pursued.
- The wife reportedly senses a presence in the house and reports a recent sighting out of the corner of her eye.
- The story is unresolved.
- The caller says outright that the figure [quote withheld]
- No bedroom, targeting of a child, or physical contact is reported for Sam himself.
- Art Bell closes with a joking remark rather than alarm.
- No sensory detail (sound, cold, smell, feeling of dread) is reported for the sightings themselves.
- 2:27
- 2:46
- 3:00
What the model inferred (not said on air): I place it slightly below the “genuinely unsettling” anchor (50) because the story is explicitly described as harmless. It has no escalation or physical intrusion into a sleeping space.
Provisionally, this is a familiar ghost-story pattern (the “hat man” figure, the figure who vanishes) with one distinctive detail: the imaginary-friend description came first and reportedly matches later sightings by others. Novelty compared with the rest of the archive cannot be meaningfully worked out at this pilot stage.
Evidence for and against
- The setup is less common: a childhood “imaginary friend” whose description is later reportedly matched by independent family sightings.
- The reported repetition across years and witnesses: eight times, then a recent sighting by the caller’s wife after a gap of decades.
- The core figure, a man in black with a broad-brimmed hat, is a well-known recurring motif.
- A figure vanishing when followed is a stock element.
- Novelty compared with the rest of the archive cannot be worked out from a single story and is provisional.
- 1:14
- 3:05
What the model inferred (not said on air): First-pass score of 55: a familiar pattern plus one distinctive detail. The published value is a weighted blend with novelty compared with the rest of the archive, and is labeled provisional.
Scoring confidence 0.60 · analysis confidence 0.70 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller’s own word about their family’s reports and about their own lack of sightings since age 14–15; Claimed multiple witnesses (brother, sisters, parents, a couple of friends) who are not on air; Claimed second witness (the caller’s wife) whose story the caller relays from a phone call; she is not on air; No photograph, recording, document, or physical trace claimed or produced. The originality score blends the model's score (55) 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 in dark clothing entered the house, which the father’s search was meant to test. The caller does not report any independent check of how the person left. · The caller says their father got up to check [quote withheld] and found the hall empty.
- A brief sighting out of the corner of the eye of a household member, a reflection, or a moving shadow, later matched to a family story. · The wife’s report is described as seeing someone [quote withheld] which the caller describes as peripheral vision.
- A childhood imaginary companion, which is common in children, was later retold within the family and linked to later reports of a figure in the house. · The caller says they were [quote withheld] at the time and that [quote withheld]
What stands out
The distinctive feature is the claimed sequence. As a small child, the caller reportedly described an “imaginary friend” named Sam. Family members later say they saw a man matching that description in the house, over several years. The figure, a tall man in black with a broad-brimmed hat and long black hair, matches the widely circulated “hat man” type, though the transcript never uses that phrase.
Related stories
Matched by shared recurring details, categories, and wording.