Voices from the basement and footsteps on the stairs in a rented Atlanta room
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], a trucker from Houston, Texas, tells Art Bell that a few years earlier they were renting a room in a house in Atlanta, Georgia. They say they heard voices from the basement and then the stairs creaking as something came up toward them. They say something unseen came close to them while they were in bed. They prayed until it seemed to leave. They later learned, they say, that the house was said to have been the site of a killing in the basement. Art thanks them and remarks on the poor quality of cell-phone audio.
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 2007.mp3”, starting at 1:44:58). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
The caller gives their name as [quote withheld] and says they are a trucker. They say that [quote withheld] they were on a business trip and rented a room in Atlanta, Georgia, from “acquaintances of acquaintances.” One night they were on the phone with their girlfriend in Texas when [quote withheld] The caller say that when their girlfriend got home, she told them she thought there had been [quote withheld] and that she had “rebuked it.” The caller say they then hung up and turned over to go to sleep. They say they were the only person in the house that night, and they began hearing what they describe as voices from the basement. They compare them to voices heard across a lake on a calm day, where the words cannot be made out. Art comments that sound “carries very well” over water. [name withheld] says the stairs then creaked and that [quote withheld] The caller say they were frightened, that the bedroom doors were shut and they could still hear it, and that [quote withheld] The caller say they never saw it manifest, but their skin crawled and their hair stood on end. They say they began to pray, and after a few minutes it seemed to have left, though they remained frightened. They end by saying they had no idea the house was haunted. They say there had evidently been an incident in Atlanta, Georgia, in which “a minister” at a church had a male lover whom the minister killed in the basement of the house. That left [quote withheld] and they believe they experienced [quote withheld] Art thanks them and says the cell-phone connection made the caller hard to understand.
Reported events, in order
- 0:13
[name withheld] says they were on a business trip and rented a room from acquaintances of acquaintances in Atlanta, Georgia, a few years before the broadcast.
- 0:25
While telephoning their girlfriend in Texas one night, the line goes dead.
- 0:28
They say their girlfriend later told them she thought there was a demon on the line and that she rebuked it.
- 0:40
They hang up, turn over to sleep, and say they are the only one in the house that night.
- 0:49
They begin hearing voices from the basement, which they compare to voices carrying across a lake without being understandable.
- 1:05
They hear the stairs creak and say something is slowly coming up the stairs.
- 1:18
With the bedroom doors shut they still hear it, and say something unseen comes close to them. They never see it manifest, but they say their skin crawled and their hair stood on end.
- 1:40
They pray, and after a few minutes it seems to have left, though they say they are still badly frightened.
- 1:49
They say they had no idea the house was haunted and relay a story of an incident in Atlanta, Georgia, in which a minister killed a lover in the basement.
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· 0:25
The telephone line went dead while the caller was speaking to their girlfriend in Texas.
- hearsay· 0:28
The caller's girlfriend told the caller she thought a demon had been on the line and that she rebuked it.
- observation· 0:49
The caller heard voices coming from the basement that they could not make out.
- observation· 1:13
The caller heard the stairs creak and something coming up them.
- observation· 1:18
Something unseen came close to the caller in the bedroom, though they never saw it.
- observation· 1:27
The caller says they never saw the presence manifest.
- observation· 1:40
The caller says they prayed and after a few minutes it seemed to have left.
- interpretation· 1:49
The caller says they had no idea the house was haunted.
- hearsay· 2:09
The caller relays that there had been an incident in Atlanta, Georgia, in which a minister killed a lover in the basement of the house.
- interpretation· 2:23
The caller takes what they experienced to be leftover energy from that killing.
- host statement· 1:02
Art says that sound carries very well across water.
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 but brief and heavily garbled story, with one clear location (Atlanta, Georgia) but no names, dates, or address. The sequence is consistent enough. But ordinary explanations, such as house noise, sound carrying from elsewhere, and an experience while falling asleep, fit easily. The caller also nearly admits they never saw anything, which limits how much independent detail there is.
Evidence for and against
- It is firsthand. The caller describes lying in the rented room during the events.
- Some concrete anchors: [quote withheld] and [quote withheld]
- The caller separates what they perceived from what they concluded about not seeing it: [quote withheld]
- No date, street, or names of the people the caller stayed with.
- The closing history is delivered in heavily broken lines of one or two words that are hard to follow.
- The caller gives a comparison (voices across a lake) that itself suggests sound carrying from another source.
- The transcription is badly degraded, especially in the final minute.
- What the “Straight Lace Church” reference means is unclear from the transcript.
- 0:13
- 0:40
- 1:27
What the model inferred (not said on air): Estimate by component: closeness to the source about 20 (firsthand, though only sound and bodily sensation), specificity about 8, consistency about 12, alternative explanations about 4 (ordinary options fit), calibration about 5. The total is in the mid-forties. The score reflects content only, not the caller's delivery.
Nothing beyond the caller's own word is presented. A few specifics that could be checked are named (Atlanta, Georgia; a church name; a rented room), but none is examined or verified. The girlfriend, who is said to have had a related telephone experience, does not speak on air.
Evidence for and against
- A named city and state for the location (Atlanta, Georgia).
- A named (though garbled) church is referred to in the history of the house.
- A second person, the girlfriend, is claimed to have had a related telephone experience.
- No photograph, recording, document, or physical trace is claimed.
- The girlfriend is a claimed witness only and is not heard.
- No address, date, or name of the property owners is given.
- The church name is transcribed as “straight lace church” and may be inaccurate.
- It is not clear whether the killing is something the caller read, was told, or guessed.
- 0:13
- 0:28
What the model inferred (not said on air): The girlfriend's story would be a claimed witness only, not independent backing, so the score stays in the range of 11 to 25 for specifics that could be checked but were not. No physical evidence is claimed.
The story builds an unseen approach toward a person lying alone in bed, with voices below, stairs creaking, and a presence arriving within arm's reach. It closes on a claimed killing in that same basement. No physical contact or harm is reported, and the story is short, which keeps it below the frightening range.
Evidence for and against
- An unseen presence approaches the caller in bed: [quote withheld]
- Bodily dread is described: skin crawling and hair standing on end.
- The closing detail of a minister killing a lover in the basement of the same house.
- The caller says the presence seemed to leave after a few minutes.
- Nothing is seen manifesting, and no injury or later event is reported.
- The final section is heavily garbled, so the strength of the closing revelation is uncertain.
- 1:18
- 1:40
What the model inferred (not said on air): The score is a judgment about the story's effect on a listener, not about whether the events happened.
The core elements are familiar ghost-story furniture: unexplained voices from a basement, creaking stairs, and an unseen presence approaching in a rented old house with a violent history. The distinctive touches are the telephone-line detail relayed by the girlfriend and the comparison of the voices to voices across water.
Evidence for and against
- A distinctive comparison of the basement voices to voices carrying across a calm lake.
- A separate telephone problem reported by the girlfriend, framed in religious terms.
- Basement voices, creaking stairs, an approaching presence, and a house with a violent past are stock elements.
- The killing-in-the-basement backstory is a common way to frame a story.
- Novelty compared with the rest of the archive cannot be judged from a single story.
- 0:54
- 0:49
What the model inferred (not said on air): This is a provisional model score based on how familiar the motifs are against the few distinctive details. The published originality would be adjusted compared with the rest of the archive.
Scoring confidence 0.40 · analysis confidence 0.50 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller's firsthand story (sound and bodily sensation, nothing seen).; A claimed account from the girlfriend, not on air.; An unnamed house history relayed by the caller.. The originality score blends the model's score (45) 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.
- Ordinary house noise: settling timbers, plumbing, or heating in an older house could account for creaks and low sounds that are hard to place. · The caller says they heard the stairs creak and voices they could not make out, in a house they were renting while they were the only person there.
- Sound carrying from outside or from another part of the building was wrongly placed in the basement. · The caller's own comparison to voices heard across a lake, and Art's remark [quote withheld]
- An experience while falling asleep, since the caller had just turned over to go to sleep. · [quote withheld] (the caller describes the events after lying down to sleep).
What stands out
The story combines a telephone-line problem reported secondhand by the girlfriend with an unseen approach known only by sound (basement voices, creaking stairs) and a killing later said to have happened in the same basement. The caller says outright that they never saw the presence, so the story rests almost entirely on sound and bodily sensation.
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