Family account of shut cemetery gates and robed figures at Saint James
A first-time caller tells Art Bell a ghost story they say their mother and older brother told them. According to the caller, they were at Saint James Cemetery on Cal Sag in the middle of the day when the gates shut, church bells rang, and they saw translucent figures in robes coming from the church. The caller says the figures vanished and the gates opened easily when their father arrived.
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 2010.mp3”, starting at 1:49:28). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
The caller, who says they are a first-time caller, wants to relate a ghost story their mother and older brother told them. According to the caller, they went to Saint James Cemetery on Cal Sag, walked around looking for relatives on their father’s side, found them, said prayers, and headed back to the car. The caller says they found the gates shut in the middle of the day, with no clouds in sight and, in the caller’s account, no reason for them to close. They began to freak out and shook the gates, and then the church bells started ringing. At the same time, the caller says, they looked back toward the church and saw what was described to the caller as translucent figures in robes coming from the church. They freaked out more, shook the gates again, and called their father to come to the cemetery. When they looked back, the robed figures were gone. The caller says their father arrived, went to the gates, and pushed them open gently. They were no longer stuck together. The caller concludes that it was [quote withheld] The host responds with sympathy and says that being shut in and seeing ghostly figures would cause panic. He asks no real follow-up questions.
Reported events, in order
- 0:08
The caller says they are a first-time caller and want to tell a ghost story their mother and older brother told them.
- 0:17
According to the caller, their mother and older brother went to Saint James Cemetery on Cal Sag.
- 0:24
They walked around looking for relatives on their father’s side, found them, said prayers, and headed back to the car.
- 0:37
They found the gates shut in the middle of the day, with no clouds in sight and no reason given for the gates to close.
- 0:44
They began to freak out and shook the gates, and the church bells started ringing.
- 0:49
They looked back toward the church and saw what was described to the caller as translucent figures in robes coming from the church.
- 0:58
They freaked out more, shook the gates again, and called the caller’s father to come to the cemetery.
- 1:08
When they looked back, the robed figures were gone.
- 1:12
The father arrived, went to the gates, and pushed them open gently. They were no longer stuck together.
- 1:21
The caller says it was “pretty freaky” for them.
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).
- interpretation· 0:08
The caller says they want to relate a ghost story their mother and older brother told them.
- hearsay· 0:17
The caller says their mother and older brother went to Saint James Cemetery on Cal Sag.
- hearsay· 0:24
The caller says they found the gates shut.
- hearsay· 0:42
The caller says it was the middle of the day, with no reason for the gates to close.
- hearsay· 0:44
The caller says the church bells began ringing as they shook the gates.
- hearsay· 0:49
The caller says they saw what was described to the caller as translucent figures in robes coming from the church.
- hearsay· 1:08
The caller says the robed figures were gone when they looked back.
- hearsay· 1:12
The caller says their father arrived and pushed the gates open gently.
- hearsay· 1:18
The caller says the gates were no longer stuck together after their father opened them.
- host statement· 1:31
The host says being shut in and then seeing ghostly figures would cause panic.
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 secondhand family story with concrete place and sequence details, which raises it above vague hearsay. But the caller was not present, and ordinary explanations are not addressed. The cap for secondhand accounts applies.
Evidence for and against
- Named location and sequence: [quote withheld]
- Reported time and weather detail: “the middle of” and “no clouds.”
- The caller separates what they heard from what they saw: [quote withheld]
- Secondhand story: the caller was not present, and the alleged witnesses do not speak on air.
- No other explanations are addressed, and the story is very brief.
- The transcript likely contains an error: [quote withheld]
- The labels showing who is speaking appear swapped in places, so some short interjections are hard to attribute.
- No date or year is given for the events.
- The phrase “cal sag” may be the transcript’s version of a fuller road or place name.
- 0:17
- 0:49
- 1:12
What the model inferred (not said on air): I treat the caller as relaying what their mother and older brother told them, not as a firsthand witness. The score is about the internal quality of the story, not the truth of the events.
The story gives names and a location that could in principle be checked, and it claims more than one witness, but nothing was examined or confirmed. This places it in the low [quote withheld] band.
Evidence for and against
- A checkable named location is given: [quote withheld]
- The caller claims more than one witness: their mother and older brother.
- No firsthand witness speaks on air.
- No photograph, recording, document, or physical trace is claimed.
- No outside check was performed.
- The original witnesses are unnamed and unavailable in the story.
- The date of the event is unstated.
- 0:08
- 0:17
What the model inferred (not said on air): The claimed witnesses are not backed-up support under the scoring guide, because they do not speak on air and no documentation is examined.
The story combines being shut in, unexplained bells, and robed ghostly figures, which is moderately unsettling. It is brief, set in daytime, and has no direct threat or harm, so it does not reach the higher bands.
Evidence for and against
- Being shut inside a cemetery is described as “to their horror.”
- Church bells begin ringing unexpectedly.
- Translucent robed figures are reported coming from the church.
- The events happen in daylight, not at night.
- No injury, pursuit, or physical threat is reported.
- The immediate problem ends when the father arrives and opens the gates.
- How scary it feels depends on delivery and the listener, which are not considered here.
- 0:44
- 0:49
What the model inferred (not said on air): This is a judgment about the story’s atmosphere for a listener. It does not evaluate the caller’s emotional state or the truth of the story.
The story uses a familiar cemetery and church ghost-story setup with a few distinctive details: the gates shut in the daytime and then open easily for the father. This suggests a mid-range provisional originality score from the content alone.
Evidence for and against
- The daytime setting and the father easily opening the gates are modestly distinctive details.
- The figures are specifically described as translucent and robed, coming from the church.
- Cemetery ghost stories, church bells, and robed ghosts are familiar motifs.
- The core setup, witnesses trapped by a closing gate, is a common story device.
- The published originality score would normally be computed compared with the rest of the archive. Only a provisional estimate from the content is possible here.
- 0:17
- 0:49
- 1:12
What the model inferred (not said on air): No comparison with the rest of the archive is available here, so this is a provisional judgment based only on the transcript content.
Scoring confidence 0.60 · analysis confidence 0.70 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller’s secondhand story, relaying what their mother and older brother told them; No physical evidence, recording, photograph, or document; No on-air confirmation from the original witnesses. 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.
- A latch, timer, wind, or cemetery worker may have closed the gates, rather than a strange force. The father’s easy opening suggests they were not securely locked. · The caller says the gates shut in the daytime for no apparent reason, and later their father pushed them open gently.
- The bells could have been scheduled or rung by a person at the church. · The caller reports church bells starting to ring but gives no source.
- The figures could have been living people in robes, seen from a distance and later read as ghosts. · The caller says the figures were described to the caller as translucent robed figures coming from the church in the daytime.
What stands out
This is a secondhand daytime cemetery story. The strange gate closing is undone when a family member arrives and opens the gate easily. The robed figures are seen from a distance and reportedly vanish when the witnesses look back.
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