Smells with no source
Perfume, tobacco, flowers, rot, or sulfur.
Gray-eyed man on a friend’s couch after a Ouija session
A caller from Colorado says a high school friend, with whom they had once used a Ouija board, phoned them at about 3:30 a.m. in December. The friend was crying and standing outside their own house in the snow. The friend said they had come home to a smell of sulfur and found a well-kept man sitting on their couch with entirely gray eyes. The friend had broken their bedroom window to escape. The caller and their mother later entered the wrecked house and had priests bless it.
Six nights in an abandoned rural house: Odors, Ouija board, and footsteps
A caller who says they are a county fraud investigator tells Art Bell they spent six nights with their girlfriend and her daughter in an unoccupied house about 25 miles up a dirt road in Northern California. Local people had told them it was haunted. They report a rotting-flesh smell, cold spots, a chair that flew back and injured the girlfriend’s knee, a door handle turning, footsteps and a slammed door upstairs, a child’s “help me” captured on a tape recorder, and orbs in several hundred photographs. The call ends with the host asking for the caller’s e-mail and website link.
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.
A cloud at a mother-in-law's death and ongoing house disturbances
A caller who says they are calling from Santa Rosa tells the host that in 1989, on Thanksgiving Day, their mother-in-law died. The next day, they say, they and their husband watched a large brown mist cloud dissipate on the sidewalk outside. They go on to describe a series of household disturbances: objects moved, a music box starting by itself, and odd smells. They also describe family upheavals involving their husband and their son. They blame all of it on demons. They say the situation is still going on. The host closes by telling them he believes they are in a dangerous situation.
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.
Family house in Syracuse: man on the telephone, bed presence, and deceased parents
[name withheld], from Syracuse, New York, tells Art Bell that their family home, owned by the family since 1950, has been the setting for a series of strange events. Both their parents died there. The caller reports a 1989 ghost of a young man talking on their telephone and walking through a wall. The caller also describes a presence that got into bed with them, a phone call in which a doctor’s office said it had spoken to a man named [name withheld], a green film, a smell of spaghetti sauce, and a later vision of their mother. The call ends with the host closing the segment after the mother’s reported insurance detail.
Rocking chair and voices in an 1880s Ashland rental house
A letter read on air, from a writer named [name withheld] in Ashland, Oregon, describes moving into an 1880s rental house in 1989. Later a rocking chair moved by itself beside the writer's infant daughter. The letter also reports baby pictures balanced on their sides, odd noises on the baby monitor, a white mist, the voices of two elderly women, and a sweet smell. The family moved out, and the letter says the current residents report nothing unusual.
Dark figure in a hallway after a husband's remark about selling his soul
A caller who says they are [name withheld] in Chicago tells the host a secondhand story about a friend and the friend's husband. About 32 years earlier, the caller says, they were woken at night by a smell of something burning. Then they saw a large dark figure in the hallway of their apartment. The friend told the caller that the friend and the friend's husband knelt, prayed, and cried until the figure vanished. Earlier that day, the friend said, the friend's husband had said he would sell his soul to the devil over financial troubles. The friend was convinced the devil had come to collect. The host replies that such a deal, once made, is done, and moves on to the next caller.
Voice in the kitchen, a loosened bulb, and a face in a burnt furnace
A caller who gives the name [name withheld], from Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, describes several events in an old farmhouse they shared with their husband and two small children. A voice in the kitchen said the caller's name. A range-hood bulb had to be tightened again every night for a month, the caller says. A garbage bag moved, with a smell of perfume. After a January 1996 house fire, the caller says, a face was burned into the furnace. The story ends with Art Bell asking the caller to send photographs of the furnace face.
Cold bedroom, tall figures, and cigarette smoke in a moved mobile home
[name withheld], from Woodbridge, New Jersey, calling on the wild card line, describes the mobile home the caller and their family moved into in 1984. They say one bedroom stayed freezing and their 11-year-old daughter refused to sleep in her own room. A black kitten would not come inside. They report seeing tall figures in the dark hallway, along with cigarette and rubbing-alcohol smells. They say they later learned the previous occupants had both committed suicide. Art Bell cuts them off before they can tell what they call “part two,” a “visitor.”
Letter: Transparent old man and smell of dirt, rot, and alcohol in a Missouri house
A letter read on air, attributed to [name withheld] in Anchorage, Alaska, describes events when the writer was 24 and stationed at an Air Force base at Knob Noster, Missouri. The writer lived in a roughly 150-year-old remodeled house. Over successive nights the writer reports being woken by a smell of dirt, rot, and alcohol. On the third night the writer saw an old man described as transparent sitting at the foot of the writer's bed. A co-worker whose father owned the house told the writer about the previous elderly couple and the husband's death in that bedroom. The writer says they then told the figure to leave. The writer reports that he disappeared and never returned, and neither did the smell.
19 more stories
- An 1880 house with chairs moving, a door opening, and rose and tobacco scents3 min
- Scent of carnations in a van on Highway 99 after a grandmother's death4 min
- Letter: A shadow resembling the writer’s late father, popcorn and cigar2 min
- A small limping figure, a 1932 diary, and a drowned boy identified6 min
- Perfume smell aboard a Navy ship at the reported time of an aunt’s death8 min
- Grandparents' handbuilt Sacramento house: light switches, toilet, cigar smoke (part 1)2 min
- Cigar smoke, a cement mixer, and moved chairs in a grandfather’s house4 min
- Attic noises and a presence in a family’s Victorian house4 min