Injured, one-legged figure with a lantern on Roberts Road
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], from Chicago, tells Art Bell that about eleven years earlier they and a friend were driving home from a party at around 3 a.m. They saw a man standing by the curb with a lantern on Roberts Road. The caller says the figure stepped in front of the car and walked toward them, looking injured and see-through, with a missing leg. The caller says a following car drove right through the figure as it walked toward a cemetery. The caller says they and their friend both saw it, that they called Justice Police and later [name withheld], and that the experience unsettled them for about a year.
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 2003.mp3”, starting at 54:56). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
The caller, “[name withheld],” from Chicago, tells Art Bell that about eleven years before the broadcast they were driving home from a party with a friend at around 3 a.m., down Roberts Road. The caller states the story is not about Resurrection Mary. The caller says someone was standing by the curb with a lantern and got in front of the car. They slowed, and the figure walked toward them. It was February. The caller reports that one of the figure’s arms was out with what looked like a bandage hanging from it, stained and possibly with blood, and that it looked “really gruesome looking.” The caller describes the mouth as agape, the eyes rolled back in the head, one leg missing, and a see-through quality to the figure. The caller says they and their friend looked at each other and drove on, and the figure walked behind the car. The caller says another car [quote withheld] Asked who was with them, the caller says a friend, that they were in a car, and that they both saw it and the figure was right by the side of them. The caller says the figure continued to walk across the street toward another cemetery, which the caller names as Bethany. Another car behind them drove right through the ghost. The caller says it “blew me away” and stayed with them for about a year. Bell asks whether the caller has no doubt about ghosts. [name withheld] answers no, saying they have had many paranormal experiences but this was the most spooked out one they have had. The caller says they had a witness, that they called Justice Police, who did not want to get into it, and that they then called [name withheld].
Reported events, in order
- 0:07
The caller says the event happened about eleven years earlier, around 3 a.m., while driving home from a party with a friend down Roberts Road.
- 0:23
The caller says somebody was standing by the curb with a lantern and got in front of the car. They slowed down.
- 0:33
The caller says it was February and the figure walked toward the car with one arm out and a stained bandage hanging, looking like maybe blood and “really gruesome.”
- 0:52
The caller describes the mouth agape, eyes rolled back, a missing leg, and a see-through quality to the figure.
- 1:03
They drove on and the figure walked behind the car. The caller says another car just went right through him.
- 1:18
Asked who was with them, the caller says a friend, that they both saw it, and that it was right by the side of them.
- 1:23
The caller says the figure continued across the street toward another cemetery, which the caller names as Bethany, and another car behind drove through the ghost.
- 1:40
The caller says it “blew me away” and affected them for about a year, and that they have had many paranormal experiences.
- 2:07
The caller says they called Justice Police, who did not want to get into it, and that they then called [name 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· 0:23
A figure stood by the curb with a lantern and stepped in front of the car.
- observation· 0:38
The figure walked toward the car with one arm out and a hanging, stained bandage that looked like it might be blood.
- observation· 0:52
The figure’s mouth was agape, its eyes were rolled back, a leg was missing, and it was see-through.
- observation· 1:09
Another car drove right through the figure.
- observation· 1:31
A second car behind them also drove through the ghost as it walked toward a cemetery named Bethany.
- observation· 1:18
Both the caller and their friend saw the figure, which was right beside them.
- interpretation· 1:53
The caller has no doubt about ghosts and calls this the most spooked out experience they have had.
- observation· 2:07
They called Justice Police, who did not want to get into it, and the caller then called [name withheld].
- host statement· 1:47
The host asks whether the caller has no doubt about ghosts.
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, close-range story with several concrete details (road, month, approximate time, named cemetery, named police department) and a coherent sequence. But it is brief, no one else backs it up on air, and ordinary explanations are only weakly addressed.
Evidence for and against
- Firsthand story from the person who was driving the car.
- Concrete details that could be checked: Roberts Road, February, around 3 a.m., a cemetery named Bethany.
- The sequence is coherent, and the caller’s answers to the host’s questions fit the story.
- The story is brief and told in choppy fragments, with some lines mislabeled between host and caller.
- A car driving through the figure is the only element that rules out an ordinary living person, and the caller offers no independent check.
- The caller jumps to a general conclusion about ghosts rather than limiting themselves to what they perceived.
- Whether “Justice Police” and “Bethany” are correctly transcribed is unclear.
- The second witness is only claimed, not heard.
- 0:07
- 0:16
- 0:38
- 1:09
- 1:18
What the model inferred (not said on air): The component scores are my own judgment from the transcript content only. The caller’s manner of speaking and the host’s enthusiasm were not considered.
Only the caller’s word exists, plus a claimed but unheard second witness and several details that could be checked (road, cemetery, police department, a person the caller says they telephoned) that were not verified.
Evidence for and against
- A second witness is claimed to have seen the same thing.
- Details that could be checked are given: Roberts Road, Bethany cemetery, Justice Police, [name withheld].
- No photograph, recording, document, or physical trace is offered.
- The second witness does not speak on air. The claim rests on the caller alone.
- No outside check was done for this analysis.
- The names of the police department and cemetery are uncertain in the transcript.
- Whether any follow-up with the police or [name withheld] produced anything is not stated.
- 1:18
- 2:07
- 2:12
What the model inferred (not said on air): The score is placed in the range of 11 to 25: details that could be checked and a claimed witness, but nothing examined or independently confirmed.
The figure is gruesome and specific: an injured, one-legged, see-through man with rolled-back eyes and a blood-stained bandage, met at 3 a.m. on a roadside and walking toward a cemetery. That is vivid and unsettling, though there is no threat, contact, or harm to the caller.
Evidence for and against
- Vivid images of injury and the body: bandage, staining, mouth agape, eyes rolled back, missing leg.
- A nighttime roadside setting at around 3 a.m. with a car and a cemetery.
- The figure is said to pass through a car and then continue toward a cemetery, an unresolved ending.
- The encounter is brief and the figure makes no move against the caller.
- No physical contact, pursuit, or lasting escalation is reported.
- The caller describes the aftermath matter-of-factly, mentioning police and a researcher.
- Some descriptive lines are fragmented, so the visual picture is partly reconstructed.
- 0:47
- 0:52
- 0:11
What the model inferred (not said on air): Creepiness is judged as an entertainment quality of the story, not as evidence about whether the event happened.
The roadside-ghost frame is familiar, and the caller mentions the local Resurrection Mary tradition. But the combination of a lantern-carrying, one-legged, injured male figure walking toward a cemetery while cars pass through him is a distinctive variant.
Evidence for and against
- The caller explicitly separates the story from a known roadside-ghost story.
- Unusual details: a lantern, a missing leg, a stained bandage, and the figure walking toward a named cemetery.
- Two separate vehicles are said to pass through the figure while the caller’s car does not.
- The core motif, a ghost seen from a car on a road at night, is common in this genre.
- Elements such as a see-through figure and a cemetery are stock components.
- Comparison with the rest of the archive cannot be done from this single part of a broadcast.
- 0:16
- 0:23
- 1:23
What the model inferred (not said on air): The score is a provisional judgment based on content. A published value compared with the rest of the archive would require the wider archive.
Scoring confidence 0.60 · analysis confidence 0.70 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller’s firsthand story; Claimed second witness (friend) who does not speak on air; No documentation, photograph, or physical evidence offered. The originality score blends the model's score (58) 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.
- Part of the sighting could have been a living injured pedestrian at the roadside at night, with the rest of the details misread in headlights and darkness. · The caller says one arm had a hanging, stained bandage that [quote withheld] and that it was February, cold enough for a person to be wrapped up.
- Poor light while driving at 3 a.m. could produce an unclear or partial figure at the roadside. · The caller says [quote withheld] and describes seeing a “translucency” rather than a solid body.
- Familiarity with local roadside-ghost lore could shape how the two people in the car read an unclear sight. · The caller opens by saying [quote withheld]
What stands out
The reported ghost is not a roadside hitchhiker or a woman in white but an injured, one-legged man carrying a lantern and walking toward a cemetery. Two separate passing cars are said to drive through him, while the caller’s own car did not. The caller says outright that this is not the local Resurrection Mary story before telling it.
Related stories
Matched by shared recurring details, categories, and wording.