Man in a hat
Laughing in the basement, a woman in white, and shadow figures in a family home
A caller who gives the name “[name withheld]” and says they are on Long Island, New York, describes a series of incidents the caller attributes to their family home. They begin at age four, when the caller heard laughing from the basement while their sister was outside, and continue through their teens. The caller reports unexplained walking overhead at night and a woman in a long white gown at the edge of their parents’ bed. The caller also reports a voice and television sound in an empty house, and two small hatted shadow figures at their bedroom door followed by something grabbing their feet. The host cuts the call short and ends the segment.
Tall shadow figure in a bowler hat gliding through a grandmother’s basement
[name withheld], calling from Minnesota on a Halloween broadcast, says that roughly fifteen years earlier, when they were nine or ten, they saw a tall, pitch-black shadow figure in a bowler hat glide through the living room of their grandmother’s basement. They ran upstairs and say their grandmother did not believe them. They add that they and their mother had several other experiences in the house and that things were moved without the caller moving them.
Man in a hat seen at window and bedside in a Nebraska rental house
Caller [name withheld], calling from Bellevue, Nebraska, describes roughly fifteen years of activity at a rental property they and their wife bought about twenty-two years before the broadcast. They report their two young sons describing an old man with a hat looking through their window, and their wife seeing a silhouette over her bed. Doors and electronics operated by themselves. Eventually the caller saw a man in a hat walk past them in the basement bedroom. They say a deputy sheriff’s inquiry and a client’s photograph linked the figure to a man killed by a semi in the abandoned house across the street. They say the disturbances ended after the city demolished that house.
Shadow figure at a bedroom window and a child found on the roof
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], from Sarasota, Florida, tells Art Bell that at about age five, which they place around 1966, they saw a shadow figure in a hat and long coat at their bedroom window one winter night. Their parents reportedly saw the same figure crossing the schoolyard outside and found no footprints. The caller also relays, secondhand through their wife, that about a week earlier their parents had found them missing from bed and finally discovered them sitting on the roof with no apparent way up. Asked what they think happened, they say they have no idea. The call ends with a discussion of streetlights going out around them, which the story leaves unresolved.
Man in trench coat and stovepipe hat with bicycle on Phoenix street
The host reads a letter on air from [name withheld] in Phoenix, Arizona. [name withheld] reports that in the summer of 1981, at age 17, they came home about 3 a.m. They saw a silent man in a trench coat and stovepipe hat standing with an older-style bicycle, and felt very cold as they ran past. The next morning, a neighbor says the man pedaled away and vanished. [name withheld] says this left them troubled and sleepless.
Figure in trench coat and fedora at a Dallas window
A caller who says they live in Dallas, Texas, tells Art Bell that one night, after coming downstairs to get a sandwich, they looked out their grandparents’ living-room window. They say they saw a tall, faceless man in a trench coat and fedora appear at the magnolia tree outside. They say he took one step toward the window and that they felt him looking at them. When the caller blurted an exclamation, he stepped back and faded into the night. No other witness is named and no documentation is presented.
Silhouetted figure on a foggy Rhode Island bike path named “Mr. Colt”
A caller identifying himself as [quote withheld] a musician, says he was recording an album in Warren, Rhode Island, in 1997 and running his usual nightly route on a bike path. The first night, he was unable to enter a foggy wooded stretch. The next night, a silhouetted man in a long trench coat and huge boots charged at him and vanished as he reached him. The caller says the studio owner afterward told him the figure was “Mr. Colt” and that [quote withheld] He says he later found a photograph online and recognized the figure's form and coat. The host ends the call. The caller reports no injury and no resolution.
A mist and a figure in a hat photographed while praying over an elderly man
An unidentified caller says that after caring for an elderly man in his 80s, described as a retired colonel, they saw his moods darken and his voice change into blasphemy and abuse. The caller and a friend wondered whether he was possessed. While the caller recited a Bible passage over him, a gentleman at the house took instant-developing photographs. The caller reports that they show a grayish-white mist and the outline of a man in a hat with a cape. The caller says the mist later sank into the floor and disappeared, and the man never troubled them again. The caller says they still have one of the photographs, and Art asks the caller to send a copy.
Figure in a black hat standing over a bed and walking through a window
A caller who identifies themselves as [name withheld] from Iowa tells Art Bell that at age 17 they woke in bed to see a man they called a spirit standing over them. The caller describes him as wearing a black hat, a red shirt, and black jeans. The caller says they could partly see through him, and that he walked through their bedroom window. The caller then looked out and found no one. The host thanks the caller and moves on.
1965: A ten-second TV lag and a shadow man in a hat seen by children
A caller who identifies themself as [quote withheld] tells Art Bell a story the caller dates to 1965, when they were about five and their parents were working late at their pharmacy. The caller reports that the upstairs television began broadcasting about ten seconds after the downstairs set. The caller says they and their brothers saw a shadow man on the wall of the upstairs bedroom and again from their sisters’ room. The caller says their parents, on returning home, did not believe any of them.
A room in a Waterbury grandmother’s house said to bring nightmares and illness
A caller who identifies themselves as [quote withheld] recounts a secondhand story from an EMT partner whose grandmother lived in Waterbury, Connecticut. The caller says one room in the grandmother’s house gave every family member who slept there nightmares. They say their partner dreamed of a man in turn-of-the-century dress walking up the stairs, and that the family’s later description of the house’s ghost matched the dream figure. They end by reporting that the grandmother fell ill, including a case of flesh-eating bacteria, while sleeping in that room, and that her problems stopped when she returned to her own bedroom.
Bearded figure with a funny hat seen through a bedroom door
An unnamed caller on Art Bell’s wildcard line, addressed by their girlfriend’s father as “[name withheld],” describes a night about 20 years earlier. The caller was sleeping on the couch at their girlfriend’s parents’ house when they saw a transparent figure at the parents’ bedroom door. It became a bearded man in a funny hat, whose head appeared to pass through the door and who yelled at them without a sound. They say they fled to their girlfriend’s bedroom and later told her father. The father did not punish them. He said he believed them and described his own repeated mirror sightings in the house. The caller gives no location, date, or second witness. The story ends with the father’s admission and Art Bell closing the call.