Family moved out
Entity attacks on a child in a late-1800s house in Needles, California
A first-time caller who gives their name as [name withheld] tells Art Bell about what they call an “entity attack” that began when they were about four years old, in a family house in Needles, California. He reports a presence coming through the wall at night, grabbing and dragging them, and family-wide problems with furniture moving. In a final incident, their father was trapped in the basement under a chest freezer. They say the family moved out about two weeks after that, and that they still sleep with their head under the covers.
Woman in black, locked doors, and a priest's blessing in a Dodge City rental
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], from Sumner, Washington, describes a house their family moved into in Dodge City, Kansas, about fifteen years earlier. The caller reports flooding, a woman in a black dress seen by their daughter, doors that shut and locked family members in, whispering, a fetal-position stain on the carpet, and footsteps on the stairs. After researching records, the caller and their sister concluded that an elderly former resident was earthbound. A priest blessed the house and fell ill. The caller says they later blessed it themselves and believes the woman went to the light.
Glowing green clothed skeleton in Navy housing and a stepfather’s change
A caller the host addresses as [name withheld], calling from San Diego, describes an incident in Navy housing in 1971 (later said to be 1974). They say they saw a luminescent green, fully clothed skeleton with an evil grin inside their bedcovers while they were unable to move. They say they later learned the previous tenant, a man, had died driving home from hunting, matching the hunting cap and jacket they say the figure wore. They link the sighting to a lasting change for the worse in their stepfather’s personality. The host suggests that the figure inhabited the stepfather, and the caller says they believe so. The caller ends with a brief remark that their late mother visits them.
Basement door, a shared dream, and a slow-burning teddy bear in a country home
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], from Dayton, Ohio, describes several “spooky moments” in a country home that the caller and their husband bought in the mid-1970s. A basement door opened by itself each evening at supper time. Their son said something was coming into his room. One night the caller and their husband reportedly shared the same vision of their daughter being raised out of bed and slammed to the floor. They found the daughter asleep and unharmed on the floor. They concluded there was an entity in the home. They blessed the rooms with holy water and burned a handmade teddy bear the caller distrusted, which, the caller says, took hours to burn. The caller says they left the house with their children a few months later.
Childhood sounds and a cold presence in a Pomona house; a white figure in Ontario
An unnamed caller to Ghost to Ghost 1996 describes strange events in two childhood homes. In a house in Pomona, California, from about age five or six, they heard sounds after their mother left for a graveyard shift. They were repeatedly woken by an extremely cold presence over their bed, and they saw the family dogs escape weekly. In a later house in Ontario, California, around fourth grade, they saw a short, powdery-white glowing man in a navy peacoat walk up the hallway into their room, touch them, and seem to read their thoughts. The caller describes the figure’s face as blank and says the experience was impossible to describe. The host closes the segment with general remarks that children and animals sense such presences before adults do.
Daughters’ dreams of a “red lady” in a sublet house where a suicide occurred
A caller who gives their name as Nathan, from Sacramento, tells Art Bell that about fifteen years earlier, while their family sublet a house for a summer, both of their four-year-old daughters reported dreaming of a “red lady” in their room. Before moving out, the caller says, neighbors told the family that the previous owner’s wife had killed herself in that same children’s room. The caller explains the dreams as leftover energy from the death. The host adds his own view that suicides tend to remain behind, and the call ends with the host thanking the caller.
Friend hears crying through a bathroom wall; neighbor found dead
A caller who calls themselves [quote withheld] tells a story they attribute to a friend in Victoria in 1987. The friend rented a suite in a converted Victorian mansion. While bathing there, the friend reportedly heard the woman in the next suite crying through the thin wall on about three or four nights. Then the friend noticed the room turning cold and a bad smell coming from the other side. According to the caller, the caretaker and police entered the neighboring suite and found the woman dead in her bathtub from slit wrists. The caller says she had died about two weeks earlier. The friend moved out shortly afterward. The host reacts with surprise and offers his own suggestion that the moaning might have been a plea for the body to be found.
Tucson house after a 1977 murder-suicide: Alarm, child voices, cold room
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], of Rochester, New York, describes living in a Tucson, Arizona, house connected to their husband’s first wife. The caller says the woman killed her two children and herself in 1977. [name withheld] reports a burglar alarm sounding at exactly 2 a.m. on nights their husband was away, children’s whispering, moved objects, and a living room that stayed cold in summer. The caller says a responding policeman advised them to leave, and they did. The caller says they later concluded the dead woman had been trying to drive them and their children away from their husband.
Disturbances in a rented upstairs apartment above an old store
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], from Portland, Oregon, describes living with their wife and mother in an upstairs apartment above a store they call the Liberal Store, north of a town they pronounce Malala. The caller reports a room that stayed cool in extreme summer heat, their mother being touched and smelling lilac, dishes found dumped in the sink, a dog refusing to enter a bathroom, Bibles found on the floor open to passages about King David, and knocking on the upstairs door and windows. The caller says the family moved out and that their wife and mother still will not enter the store.
Childhood home in Granite City, Illinois, with flying plates and slamming doors
A caller who gives their location as Granite City, Illinois, says they were raised in a house from birth to age thirteen. The caller says plates and cups flew and smashed there, cold spots and strange smells occurred, footsteps and slamming doors were heard, and a dog watched unseen things. The caller says their parents brought about four people to drive out ghosts and that someone said a man had hanged himself in the basement. The caller says the activity went on until the family moved out after thirteen years. The caller says they were a child with no choice and would not live in such a house now.
Furnished apartment of a deceased tenant and a door held shut
A caller who says only that they are calling from Texas tells Art Bell that at nineteen they rented a furnished apartment. The previous tenant, an elderly woman, had died with nobody to inherit her belongings. The caller reports that cleaning supplies and dirty dishes vanished whenever the phone rang, their cat went berserk, and windows and the front door were found open despite the bolts. Finally, a door would not open against two people until they spoke a phrase they had been using. They say they packed up their cat and left.
Daytime sleep paralysis, a woman speaking in a man's voice, and nails in the head
A caller named [name withheld], speaking from L.A. and formerly of the Truckee area near Donner Pass, reports a series of daytime nap experiences over about two and a half weeks. The caller describes waking up paralyzed and feeling someone sit on the bed. It ended one afternoon, they say, when they saw a woman on the bed who spoke in a man's voice. She told the caller to pull out three nails they felt in their head, and she showed the caller their own body lying beside her. The caller says they refused, returned to their body, and the experience never happened again.
41 more stories
- Rocking chair and voices in an 1880s Ashland rental house5 min
- Rented Ohio mining-town house: footsteps, greyhounds, and a man at the door3 min
- Vibrating vase and mirror, and a shattering glass in a mid-1970s house5 min
- A voice named Harry and charred lumber in a Washington cabin5 min
- Lights, ringing phones, and footsteps at a southern Idaho radio station3 min
- [name withheld]’s secondhand story of a babysitter, a changing house, and a Ouija board4 min
- A 1964 television that kept playing after being unplugged4 min
- Letter: Face with electrical sound in a darkened Miami bedroom2 min
- Duplex poltergeist, a figure at the wall, and a hidden room of the former police chief4 min
- Stolen skull, flames, and a smoke image in a mirror in a Fort Lauderdale apartment6 min
- Ghost called Charlie reported to follow a family through moves4 min
- Man in a hat seen at window and bedside in a Nebraska rental house7 min
- A Dutch artist paints his ghost to stop it frightening him2 min
- Wailing in two bivouacked rooms in bombed Aachen, 19452 min
- Successive owners report a tall figure and a rocking-chair woman in a Victoria house5 min
- Two figures seen through sheer curtains at an old roadhouse near Prescott, Arizona3 min
- Attic thumps and old glass negatives in a Hyde Park house4 min
- Computer typed overnight messages about “Vernon”; objects thrown in a house5 min
- Spirit called Henry: pinches, a boy’s ghost, and a fallen picture3 min
- Percolator parts found reassembled on a windowsill3 min
- Woman in one color seen at a childhood bedroom window on Long Island3 min
- Gray figure and male scream in a rented Union, Missouri house4 min
- A door, a figure on a cross, and footsteps in a rented 110-year-old house in Paw Paw, Michigan6 min
- Voices, a child's closet figure, and shadows seen in a Pahrump single-wide2 min
- Voices in the basement and a touch in the shower of a rental home3 min