On a holiday, such as Halloween or Christmas
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.
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.
Halloween graveyard dare and a death in Graceland Cemetery, 1933
Art Bell reads aloud a piece he attributes to “Ron in Seattle.” It is presented as a true story about a 1933 Halloween dare in which two young women agreed to drive stakes into graves at midnight for $10. [name withheld] is said to have felt something tugging at her skirt, screamed, and been unable to get away. The reading closes with a quoted newspaper headline reporting her found dead in Graceland Cemetery with the stake through her dress. No witness speaks on air, and no document is examined.
Child figure in the Harnden house and a newspaper article of a 1958 murder-suicide
A caller recounts that in 1958, when they were 10 years old, they and their father stopped at an abandoned Tennessee house the family called the Harnden house. Upstairs, the caller says, they saw a three-year-old blonde-haired girl, who fled into a bedroom. The door resisted their father, and a search of the room found no one. The story ends with a local chief showing them a newspaper article describing a doctor's murder-suicide in the house. The host asks whether the girl's spirit remained.
Noose reported suspended from nothing in a rented former church rectory
A letter read on air, credited by the host to [name withheld] in Alberta, Canada, describes a family that rented a small-town house beside a church and graveyard in the mid-1990s. They decorated it for Halloween with headstones and a hangman's noose. The writer says a scream from downstairs woke them after midnight, and that the writer and their 11-year-old daughter saw a hangman's noose suspended from seemingly nothing on the stairs, which then fell. The writer says they learned the next day that the house had been the old church rectory and that a former pastor of the neighboring church had hanged himself there.
Vanishing shack and field of Corvairs near a suspected haunted house
A caller named [name withheld], who gives their location as Canal, Winchester, Ohio, tells Art Bell that on Halloween night about nine years earlier, the caller and friends went to look at a house they suspected was haunted. They say they saw a shack with a figure holding a shotgun. As they approached, the shack vanished and a field of thirty to fifty Corvairs appeared. Months later, a friend reportedly saw Corvairs around the house, and [name withheld] says the house was then totally destroyed.
Upside-down face at a motorhome window on a night drive near Chico
A caller identifying themself as [name withheld] from San Antonio tells Art Bell a story from when they were about four years old, living in Chico, northern California. They say that while riding in the family motorhome at night they saw an upside-down man's face with glowing eyes at the back window. After the motorhome was stopped, their father and a family friend reported a small, skinny, college-aged man on the roof who ran into a field and disappeared. They say they are still not sure what they saw, but that it seemed to have no good intentions.
College radio expedition to a reservoir reports a woman in white on the road
In a letter read on air, the host presents a story from [name withheld] in Bellevue, Washington. It describes an early-1970s college radio expedition on WPKN-FM in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The station set out on a Halloween special to look for a local “Easton monster.” Waiting in three cars by a reservoir at night, at least one person in each car reportedly shouted to leave at the same moment. Back at the station, the group wrote down separately what had frightened them, and all described a transparent woman in a long white gown on the road. The letter says the special was canceled and listeners were told there were technical difficulties.
A shove on a dark street and a figure in a photograph, Louisville
A caller the host calls [name withheld], calling from New Mexico, tells of a ghost tour in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, on Halloween weekend 2011. While lingering to photograph the Brennan House, the caller says they were shoved hard in the left shoulder with nobody in the street. The next morning, a photograph taken of the caller is said to show streaking lights and the face of a man above their head. The story ends with the photograph and the host's closing remarks before a break.
A truck pushed at San Antonio train tracks and children’s crying
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld] and their location as San Antonio tells Art Bell that on Halloween they and friends repeatedly drove a large pickup truck over the local train tracks. On the third pass, after the driver braked on the slope and released, the caller says the truck was pushed over the tracks and that they and the others heard children crying. The host warns the caller that testing it that way was going too far.
A round light moving like a walking man on a hill at Rockwoods Park
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], from Las Vegas, describes a night as a teenager at Rockwoods, a park outside St. Louis that they call an old miner's place. The caller and their companions were sitting in the dark around Halloween. They report that dogs and park animals went wild. Then a basketball-sized round light came down a hillside at roughly a man's walking pace, about 100 yards away. It went out at the bottom, came back on, and climbed back up above the ridge before turning and moving off. They say the group ran to the car and left, and that they now assume it was some kind of being or a ghost.
Deceased girlfriend reported in a mirror and a window at a Halloween party
A caller from Seattle tells Art Bell that about eleven years earlier their girlfriend, [name withheld], was killed by a drunk driver. On the following Halloween night her former roommates held a party in the house where she had lived. The caller reports that the band’s lead singer, who they say knew nothing about [name withheld], screamed in the bathroom after seeing a different face in the mirror. She then described the face as [name withheld]’s. Later that night, the caller says, they themselves saw [name withheld]’s reflection in a window and heard her voice asking them to leave. The caller says they believe she came back because she did not want people sitting there getting drunk.