Collected on the Internet, 1998

The Vanishing Hitchhiker

A dozen miles outside of Baltimore, the main road from New York (Route Number One) is
crossed by another important highway. It is a dangerous intersection, and there is talk of building
and underpass for the east-west road. To date, however, the plans exist only on paper.Dr.
Eckersall was driving home from a country-club dance late one Saturday night. He slowed up for
the intersection, and was surprised to see a lovely young girl, dressed in the sheerest of evening
gowns, beckoning him for a lift. He jammed on his brakes, and motioned her to climb into the
back seat of his roadster. “All cluttered up with golf clubs and bags up here in front,” he
explained. “But what on earth is a youngster like you doing out here all alone at this time of
night?”

“It’s too long a story to tell you now,” said the girl. Her voice was sweet and somewhat shrill —
like the tinkling of sleigh bells. “Please, please take me home. I’ll explain everything there. The
address is ___ North Charles Street. I do hope it’s not too far out of your way.”

The doctor grunted, and set the car in motion. He drove rapidly to the address she had given him,
and as he pulled up before the shuttered house, he said, “Here we are.” Then he turned around.
The back seat was empty!

Smith, 1983

The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs

A young couple living in a large isolated house had gone out to a dinner party one evening and
left the baby-sitter in charge of their two children. The children had been put to bed and the
baby-sitter was watching the television when the phone rang. She answered but all she heard was
a man laughing hysterically and then a voice saying, “I’m upstairs with the children, you’d better
come up.” Thinking it was “one of those phone calls” or a practical joke she slammed down the
receiver and turned the television sound up. A short time later the phone rang again and, as she
picked it up, the unmistakable hysterical laughter came down the line and the voice once again
said “I’m upstairs with the children, you’d better come up.”
Getting rather frightened she called the operator and was advised they would notify the police
and, should he phone again, could she keep him talking in order to give them time to trace the
call and have him arrested. Minutes after she replaced the receiver the phone rang again and,
when the voice said, “I’m upstairs with the children, you’d better come up,” she tried to keep
him talking. However, he must have guessed what she was trying to do and he put the phone
down.
Only seconds later the phone rang again, this time it was the operator who said, “Get out of the
house straight away, the man is on the extension.” The baby-sitter put down the phone and just
then heard someone coming down the stairs. She fled from the house and ran straight into the
arms of the police. They burst into the house and found a man brandishing a large butcher’s
knife. He had entered the house through an upstairs window, murdered both the children and was
just about to do the same to the poor baby-sitter.
 Collected on the Internet, 1998

Phone Call From the Grave

One of the Ball Brothers, of the canning jar family, had a great fear of being entombed alive.
Anyway, he had a telephone installed in his so he could call out if this happened to him.
As the story goes, he dies…this story is to have happened in the late 1930’s. A few days later,
some of his wife’s family got worried because they could only get a busy signal on her phone.
Upon entering her home, they found her dead, a look of fright frozen on her face, clutching the
phone. When they went to entomb her after the funeral a couple of days later, you can guess
what they found…yep, the phone was off the hook INSIDE the crypt.