Haunted telephone numbers
kat...@my-deja.com
In the October issue of Fortean Times i read a
letter that interested a great deal. I'd never
heard of anything like it before and i wondered
if anyone could shed any light on it.
The author of the letter (a Mr. R Dickinson),
claims that around 1975, he and a few friends
dialled a telephone number that may have been
made up of zeros, ones and twos (they were
calling from a public payphone and did not insert
any money), they then heard a 'curiously monotone
voice' saying "help me, help me, Susie's dying"
over and over. Some of his friends who dialled
the number regularly said that sometimes the word
dying was changed to drowning.
Mr Dickinson hoped that someone could shed some
light on the matter, and suggests that maybe it
was some kind of bizarre test signal.
I too am very interested in this, and if anyone
else has had similar experiences i would like to
hear about it.
I have tried searching the internet for details
and browsed through the archives of several Urban
Legend websites, but nothing similar crops up at
all.
Many thanks for any information anyone can supply.
yours,
Katy Stephenson
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
tadchem
<kat...@my-deja.com> wrote in message news:8rnth2$klr$1...@nnrp1.deja.com...
<snip>
> The author of the letter (a Mr. R Dickinson),
> claims that around 1975, he and a few friends
> dialled a telephone number that may have been
> made up of zeros, ones and twos (they were
> calling from a public payphone and did not insert
> any money), they then heard a 'curiously monotone
> voice' saying "help me, help me, Susie's dying"
> over and over.
<snip>
Did anybody bother to record the number?
Tom Davidson
Brighton, CO
kat...@my-deja.com
However, the author does say he was only 9 years old at the time, so it
maybe didn't occur to him to write down the number. And as this
alledgedly occured in 1975, i doubt that the number would be valid
today with the changes in codes etc.
I may check with BT today and see if they have any ideas.
Lemming
>In article <9QRD5.2230$D81....@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net>,
> "tadchem" <tadche...@earthlink.net> wrote:
>>
>Apparently not.
>
>However, the author does say he was only 9 years old at the time, so it
>maybe didn't occur to him to write down the number.
Is this perhaps a "false memory" - i.e. a memory "invented" after
years of repetition of a story? I know I have such a memory - I'm
embarrassed to say - of meeting a "gnome" when out walking with my
parents - I was around 5 years old - and wandering off. It's certain
that I made up the story of my encounter with this entity to excuse my
absence (the similarity with the person encountered, and a plastic
garden toy are quite telling) but through repeating the story and
having it retold to me, it became a "memory" which I can't dispute.
>And as this
>alledgedly occured in 1975, i doubt that the number would be valid
>today with the changes in codes etc.
Surely, haunted numbers are always invalid?
> I may check with BT today and see if they have any ideas.
It's rare for BT to have ideas of any kind in my experience :).
Regards,
Derek Sorensen
--
Curiosity *may* have killed Schrodinger's cat.
Frank Adey
kat...@my-deja.com wrote on 07/10/2000 8:28 pm:
> Hello,
>
> In the October issue of Fortean Times i read a
> letter that interested a great deal. I'd never
> heard of anything like it before and i wondered
> if anyone could shed any light on it.
<snip>
There was an urban legend propogating itself in the far east recently to the
effect that if you dial 8888-8888 you can get through to the world of the
dead. Apparently this story has only become current since the Chinese
started burning paper mobile phones along with the usual offerings at
funerals (such as the well known 'hell money', banknotes with the lord of
the next world on them, spendable in his domain).
Not much to do with FT story, I know, but at least I remembered the number!
Frank Adey
Shez
>There was an urban legend propogating itself in the far east recently to the
>effect that if you dial 8888-8888 you can get through to the world of the
>dead.
I just tried this number and a disembodied female voice said,
"the number you have dialled has been changed to 020 77 2 44 4 44".
She repeated this over and over like a mantra until I hung up.
I didn't have the guts to try it though, I'm not very good at making
conversation with dead people.
-Shez.
--
______________________________________________________
"When the going gets tough, the tough get empirical"
-- Jon Carroll
______________________________________________________
Take a break at the Last Stop Cafe: http://www.xerez.demon.co.uk/
Use PGP: my key is at http://www.xerez.demon.co.uk/p/Shez.asc
fifes...@gmail.com
This was in a phone box around 1979 in a village called Fence near Burnley. Strangely enough there are other stories like this that are from people in Burnley. I can hand on heart remember this clearly so all I've stated is fact and not blurred memories!
goodgi...@gmail.com
1976/6/7 on Nelson , Lancs
goodgi...@gmail.com
ammarah...@gmail.com
> Hello,
>
> In the October issue of Fortean Times i read a
> letter that interested a great deal. I'd never
> heard of anything like it before and i wondered
> if anyone could shed any light on it.
> claims that around 1975, he and a few friends
> dialled a telephone number that may have been
> made up of zeros, ones and twos (they were
> calling from a public payphone and did not insert
> any money), they then heard a 'curiously monotone
> voice' saying "help me, help me, Susie's dying"
> the number regularly said that sometimes the word
> dying was changed to drowning.
> Mr Dickinson hoped that someone could shed some
> light on the matter, and suggests that maybe it
> was some kind of bizarre test signal.
> I too am very interested in this, and if anyone
> else has had similar experiences i would like to
> hear about it.
> I have tried searching the internet for details
> and browsed through the archives of several Urban
> Legend websites, but nothing similar crops up at
> all.
>
> Many thanks for any information anyone can supply.
>
> yours,
> Katy Stephenson
>
>
hyperrobin...@gmail.com
Arthur (MrDachshund99)
