Old-fashioned clothing
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.
Ghost with a bone knife in a father-in-law’s Florida house
A caller who gives their current location as southeastern Oregon tells Art Bell that about fifteen or sixteen years earlier, when they were roughly twenty and newly married, they saw a figure in a ceremonial headdress enter the back room of their father-in-law’s house in central Florida and raise a bone knife toward them. They report screaming and reaching out, after which the figure was gone, and a search of the house found no intruder. They say they later understood it as a ceremonial sacrifice. They also say they later learned the area had once been Seminole and Creek hunting ground and a reservation for tribes moved into the tip of Florida.
Letter: Transparent figure of a deceased grandfather in a spare bedroom
A letter from a writer the host identifies as “[name withheld]” from Springfield, Illinois, read aloud on air, describes seeing a transparent figure resembling their grandfather coming out of a wall in a spare bedroom about three weeks after his death in February 1978. They say they told no one at the time. They say that twenty years ago they learned their son had seen the same ghost roughly three months later in a front bedroom. They also report other family members seeing dark forms and lights and doors behaving oddly. The letter ends with the writer saying they will never know whether it was a ghost or a demon, but that they believe they saw it.
A caped figure, a skeleton, and two strangers at Redondo Beach
A truck driver who calls themselves [name withheld], phoning from a truck stop in Milan, New Mexico, tells Art Bell a story they date to the late 1970s at Redondo Beach, California. The caller says they and their girlfriend chased a fast-moving black cape-like figure on their motorcycle at dusk. It turned and looked like a skeleton. When it vanished around the corner of a building, two oddly dressed strangers were suddenly standing there. One of them grabbed their girlfriend’s hands and repeated a warning. The caller ends by passing on a friend’s opinion that they had met something supernatural. The host calls it not easily explained.
A woman in 1800s dress, a boulder death, and a disturbed forest circle
Mary, calling from Salem, Oregon, tells Art Bell a story they call [quote withheld] about their brother-in-law, [name withheld]. Mary says that during a birthday party they went out for burgers and, waiting out front, saw a woman in 1800s clothing whose feet they could not see. When they looked back, the woman was gone. Mary reports that while they were away, [name withheld] was struck by a boulder on a forest trail and died. Months later, Mary says, an acquaintance said a ceremony [name withheld] had been performing was interrupted when the acquaintance stubbed out a cigarette in his circle and a growling, monster-like sound came down the hill. Mary says some of them think that whatever it was came and got him.
Smoke-like ghosts and an aggressive figure in a Fulton, Missouri, home
A caller who gives his name as [name withheld], in Portland, tells Art Bell he had a “ghost experience” in 1988 while a student at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. He was in his cousin’s home with his cousin [name withheld] and a friend, [name withheld]. He says smoke-like, see-through figures appeared one after another in the living room: an older woman, three boys playing jacks, then a girl doing cartwheels. Then an angry man burst in and swung at him without making contact. He says he remembers little afterward, that the friends were whimpering, and that one of them quit school. He says it changed their lives.
Civil War figures reenact a bayonet killing in an aunt's basement
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], from Virginia, describes a childhood night spent in their aunt's furnished basement, in an area they say was a Civil War battlefield. They report seeing a woman in a gown and a man in a blue uniform embrace. Then a man in gray ran up and bayoneted the man in blue again and again, with faint crying and groans audible. They say the figures vanished instantly, and the call ends.
E-mail: Floating woman in nightgown crossing road by old church, 1978
An e-mail read on air from an unnamed listener who describes themselves as a longtime shortwave listener and Coast to Coast AM fan. They recount a night in 1978. They say they were driving their date home in a secluded rural area after midnight when they saw what appeared to be a woman in an old-style nightgown and nightcap cross the road in front of the car by an old church with a graveyard. She was floating above the ground, with no legs and eyes that were “just dark holes.” The woman continues through roadside vines, their date is nearly hysterical, and the writer insists it was [quote withheld]
A key in the door and a solid figure in a Reno apartment
A caller the host addresses as [name withheld] tells Art Bell that they had rented a small apartment in Reno for three months when a noise woke them on their couch. They say someone entered with a key, made a phone call about a deal, packed clothes, and took a banana from their refrigerator. They then saw that he had no hands or feet. Police found no one. The next morning the chain lock was on, the windows were locked, and a banana peel was in their trash. The previous tenant's mail stopped arriving. They say the apartment manager identified the man they described as the tenant who had lived there before them.
A Confederate figure in a log hospital on the Pleasant Hill battleground
[name withheld] in Shreveport, Louisiana, a Civil War relic collector, tells what the caller says the reenactment commander told them about staying overnight in an old log house used as a hospital at Pleasant Hill. According to [name withheld], a ragged Confederate figure came in and gave the commander a guard-duty order. Then the figure lay on a cot and dissolved. The host responds that battlefields have long been haunted.
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.
Figure in an old Portland house points to the door and says “get out of my house”
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], from Eugene, Oregon, and originally from Portland, tells Art Bell about visiting a century-old house in what they call the Selwood District of Portland. A chiropractor friend named Art had invited them. The caller reports that while walking through an upstairs room they saw a large bald man in a brown suit and white shirt. He was translucent and had no feet. He pointed at the door and said [quote withheld] The caller says they fled downstairs and their friend then wanted to meditate for the spirit to leave. During the meditation, the caller says, they both heard footsteps leave the room and come down the stairs, and they ran out. The caller says they never went back in.
34 more stories
- Police officer reports a man and dog who vanished on a foggy road near an old homestead3 min
- Walking boots without a body on a logging road near Knoxville3 min
- Faceless woman in period clothing walking on a snowy road near Yellowstone3 min
- Clairvoyant medium’s message and apparitions of deceased aunt and uncle4 min
- Spirit called Henry: pinches, a boy’s ghost, and a fallen picture3 min