It gets worse over time
Dark woman from the attic and phantom table-setting in a childhood home
A caller tells Art Bell about a childhood haunting in their family home. The caller says they and their brother were visited at night by a dark female figure they called the doll stall woman, who came down from the attic through a closet. They later heard table-setting sounds and saw white legs in old-fashioned pajamas moving around the dining table. Then a spirit entered their room and grabbed their legs. The caller says this is the first time they have told anyone about it.
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.
Hawaiian cemetery prank, a shaking car, and bite marks
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], from Northern California, relays a story they say their former Boy Scout leader told them about ten years earlier. The leader was a Hawaiian man named [name withheld]. As a teenager in Hawaii, [name withheld] and a friend took two girls to a cemetery as a prank. The parked car they returned to was shaking violently, with the girls screaming and “red eyes” at the windows. [name withheld] is said to have found a bite mark on his ankle that night. His older brother mocked the family’s warning, and the two returned to run over graves and kick over food. The brother is said to have had more than 200 bites counted on his body and to have needed hospital stitches. The caller ends by saying they were shown [name withheld]’s lasting bite marks years later and by discussing Hawaiian cemetery customs.
Dreams of a missing friend asking to be buried, later found in a car
A caller who gives the name [name withheld] and says the call is from [quote withheld] passes on a secondhand story from a friend named [name withheld]. According to the caller, [name withheld], [name withheld], and [name withheld] all dreamed of their missing friend [name withheld] appearing in a window and saying “bury me.” The dream image reportedly began to look like a decomposing body. Then [name withheld] was found dead by suicide in a car with a hose from the exhaust. The host sums it up as a decomposing man entering his friends’ dreams and begging to be buried.
Ouija board spirits, a ball of light, and an old man with shark-like teeth
A caller named [name withheld], from Pahrump, Nevada, tells Art Bell that at about age 17 in Houston they used a Ouija board alone and spoke with spirits, including one called [name withheld] and a dark spirit called Baal. They report a ball of light appearing near a model airplane. About three days later, they say, they saw an old man in a brown leisure suit who seemed to move instantly across the street and smiled with shark-like teeth before vanishing. The story ends with Art Bell warning against casual use of the Ouija board.
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.
Letter on deaths and reported hauntings at the Penfield Place in Illinois
The host reads a letter attributed to [name withheld] in Rockford, Illinois. It recounts the history of a house in north-central Illinois that locals call the Penfield Place. The letter tells of a series of deaths, a bride's disappearance and the later discovery of her dismembered remains, and strange events reported by later tenants. It ends by describing the house as still standing, decaying and in ruins. No document or second witness is presented on air.
Boulders thrown around a camper on the Queets River
Caller [name withheld], from Graham, Washington, describes four men playing poker in a camper beside the Queets River. Around 1:30 a.m., rocks began landing around the vehicle for about three hours, along with grunts that he and Art Bell compared with a recorded “Sasquatch” sound. In the morning, [name withheld] says, large boulders lay in a circle around the camper, and it took two trucks to move them. He dates the event to 1975, says he has never returned to the spot, and offers no cause beyond “something awfully big.”
Footsteps, a shadow at noon, and a voice saying “your brother” in an Alameda house
A caller from Alameda, California, tells Art Bell that she and her five children were hearing slamming doors, footsteps, and other disturbances in a large old house. She says each of them had kept it from the others. She reports a shadow that appeared in daylight, an unsuccessful first appeal to a priest, and a house blessing. Finally, she says, a voice said “your brother.” She then learned her brother had died about two months earlier.
Caller describes a man convulsing and speaking in multiple voices in an apartment
[name withheld], calling from Denver, tells Art Bell that a man they met asked them to check whether the man's wife had been married before. After [name withheld] gave him the information, the man reportedly came over crying. He then went into a rage, convulsed, appeared to stop breathing, and spoke in multiple voices before emergency services took him to the ER. The caller later says the man told them that two priests in a French orphanage had told him he was possessed.
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.
Waking paralysis, chest pressure, and moving curtains in upstate New York
A letter read on air by Art Bell describes a listener's experience of waking in an old upstate New York home, unable to move or speak. The writer felt as though a person were kneeling on their chest while their husky-Shepherd dog barked and growled. They say the pressure eased when they concentrated on the dog. The room's curtains were then shoved aside although the window was closed. They stayed with friends for several nights afterward.
57 more stories
- Figure at foot of bed, then a man in the laundry room five months later3 min
- Vibrating vase and mirror, and a shattering glass in a mid-1970s house5 min
- Ouija board session in a box canyon and a spirit speaking through a participant4 min
- Dolls moved overnight in an antique shop in a former Kansas City orphanage4 min
- [name withheld]’s secondhand story of a babysitter, a changing house, and a Ouija board4 min
- Furnished apartment of a deceased tenant and a door held shut7 min
- Picture of Jesus falls off a bedroom wall and strikes a girlfriend2 min
- Footsteps from the basement, a shotgun and knives moved in a childhood home4 min
- Moved tables and wheelchairs in an American Legion hall in Bremerton3 min
- Ghost called Charlie reported to follow a family through moves4 min
- Daytime sleep paralysis, a woman speaking in a man's voice, and nails in the head5 min
- Late mother-in-law appears in her former bedroom; a footprint in the carpet8 min
- Father hears lamp pull-chains jingle and a moan in his ear, 19614 min
- Lights, a door, and voices in a boarded-up plantation house outside New Orleans6 min
- Police officer recalls a dog-headed figure entering their childhood bedroom3 min
- Locked bedroom door found ripped from its hinges in an old Detroit house1 min
- Caller describes a black void figure entering a childhood bedroom6 min
- Retired sheriff's captain reports a ghost cat and a figure in an old courthouse2 min
- Man in a hat seen at window and bedside in a Nebraska rental house7 min
- Bed trembling, a whispered name, and shadows after a grandmother’s death6 min
- Cold spot, woman, and giant arm during a church overnight7 min
- Ouija board and a Portuguese message for an arriving friend3 min
- Equipment failures and a truck fire at a logging site said to be a burial ground3 min
- Computer typed overnight messages about “Vernon”; objects thrown in a house5 min
- Unseen hand presses sailor’s shoulder before hoses fall on USS Savannah4 min
- Laughing in the basement, a woman in white, and shadow figures in a family home6 min
- Childhood closet and bedroom doors, a green light, and paralysis3 min
- Orbs, a freight-train rumble, and a shadow orb in a former chicken coop5 min
- Flickering lights, a truck radio, and birthday phone calls after a brother’s death3 min
- A door, a figure on a cross, and footsteps in a rented 110-year-old house in Paw Paw, Michigan6 min
- Light switches cut power in a funeral home holding a biker's body4 min
- Automatic writing hand continues figure eights until commanded to stop4 min
- A boy, a woman's hope chest, and a furious figure above the bed4 min
- Teenage blood-curse ritual and a warning phone call from “[name withheld]”6 min
- Figure leaning over a bed in a Calgary apartment; activity ends after a note3 min
- Electrical faults and a voice in TV static in a Tucson college house3 min
- Whistling, flying knives and a figure in a TV reflection in an 1860s Stillwater house4 min
- Backyard bone find at a rented house and blessed herbs to clear it4 min
- Haunted house bought in Ohio: closet racket, knocks on a bedroom door, a bouncing cat cage, and growling6 min