Episode Details

This is one of the original Tell Me A Ghost Story calls from the early days of the show. Short, raw, and exactly where it all started. This call was later incorporated into a longer compilation episode with full host commentary if you want the complete experience.

Hey, it's Michelle, and this early episode belongs entirely to Elijah, who called in with a true ghost story that starts as a neighbor dispute and ends somewhere considerably more unsettling than any neighborhood conflict has any right to go. Elijah was not looking for a paranormal experience. He was dealing with a difficult neighbor named Deborah. What he eventually came to understand about Deborah's behavior is the part that made him pick up the phone and call this show.

Neighbor stories occupy a specific and underexplored corner of paranormal experience because they involve the particular vulnerability of sharing a building or a property line with someone whose presence you cannot avoid and whose private life you are not supposed to know about. Elijah knew Deborah was his neighbor. He knew her name. He could hear her and see her and observe the things she did that did not add up. What he did not know at first was whether what he was witnessing had a human explanation or something else entirely behind it.

The disturbing behavior Elijah describes built the way the best paranormal accounts in this archive always build, with individual incidents that each have a possible rational explanation and a cumulative weight that eventually makes rational explanation insufficient. Deborah was doing things that neighbors do not do. Then she was doing things that people do not do. Then Elijah began to understand that the question of what was driving her behavior might not have a human answer.

The title of this episode is a statement that Elijah arrived at after everything he witnessed and everything he came to understand about what was happening next door. The Devil's name is Deborah is not a metaphor. It is Elijah's conclusion and this episode is how he got there.

One caller. One true ghost story about a neighbor named Deborah and what Elijah eventually realized was living behind her eyes. This is where Tell Me A Ghost Story began.

If you have a real ghost story of your own, a haunting experience, something you heard, something you cannot explain, I want to hear it. Call 1 (701) 484-2666 or visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tellmeaghoststory.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to share your story.

You might end up on the show.

Support us with official merch at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠newmanmedia.shop⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, catch us on YouTube at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @tellmeaghoststory⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and follow along on Instagram at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@tellmeaghoststorypodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Theme music is Sexy Sax by Cool Cascade.

Production by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newman Media⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.