It was September nineteen ninety eight when the Cobb family first brought the bed into their home. Parents Al and Leela had slowly made their way about the auction house, running their eyes over the various lots, while their two fourteen year old twins, Jason and Lee, flitted about the place looking for a potential bargain of their own. Though Lee enjoyed the world of antiques, it was really more Jason,
who'd taken on his dad's love for it. As a gallery owner himself, these trips for Al were usually more about finding a bargain to sell on than for something to take home themselves. It was Jason who spotted it first, the single honey oak bed propped up in the corner of the room. He guessed it was late eighteen hundreds, perhaps, with its finely carved headrest and fancy molding on the feet. Seeing how enamored their son was with it, Al and Leela agreed to leave a bid for the bed as
a possible early Christmas present. Al was at work the next morning when he received the call informing him the bid had been successful. The family lived in a modest, two story home in the picturesque suburbs of the Isle of Hope in Savannah, Georgia. It is often said that the US city of Savannah, a majestic port town located at the north of Georgie's Atlantic coastline, is one of its most beautiful. It is also said to be one
of its most haunted. With its live oak lined streets dripping with Southern moss and grand architecture a colorful mix of almost every style since it was founded in the eighteenth century, it's impossible to escape the air of the Southern Gothic, for perhaps nowhere else in the United States is the gulf between esthetic beauty and the horror and brutality with which much of it was forged. So vast
you're listening to Unexplained, and I'm Richard McClain smith. The story of Savannah is, in many ways the story of the United States, in all its complex, thrilling and terrifying glory. First established in seventeen thirty three by British politician James Oglethorpe, it was intended as a second chance opportunity for anyone stuck in the misery of the British debtors prison system.
Oglethorpe was effectively offering an opportunity to those less fortunate than others to escape the drudgery of life in Britain in return for a chance at prosperity in the New World. Unlike many others in his position, Oglethorpe was keen to avoid any hostility with the local Native American tribes, maintaining friendly relations with the Yamacraw tribe, most notably through his friendship with the tribe's leader, Chief Toma chi Chee, though
not above utilizing them himself. Oglethorpe also outlawed slavery. It's thought, however, that this was done less out of concern for slaves and more out of concern for how it might corrupt the colonists. Since the settlement was only ever intended as a buffer to provide a first line of defense for other more prosperous colonies like the South Carolinas, any arguable need for slave labor was non existent. Everything changed, however,
when Oglethorpe eventually returned home ten years later. As the colony grew in size and began to take on its own identity, the desire amongst residents to compete with other settlements, the prosperity of which was greatly enhanced by slave labor, only grew more intense. By the time of the American Revolution in seventeen sixty five, there were sixteen thousand slaves in Georgia, most abducted from West Africa and arriving through
the port of Savannah. Over the course of the next hundred years, cotton plantation owners from Savannah were the third highest exporters of cotton in the South, the number of slaves registered in the state by then numbering almost half a million. In eighteen o three, a ship carrying seventy five enslaved people from what is now Nigeria docked in Savannah. The people members of the Ebo community, were then packed into another vessel and sent a hundred kilometers on towards
Saint Simon's Island. At some point, the captives managed to overthrow the ship's crew, forcing the ship to run aground at a place called Dunbar Creek. Stranded and with no hope of returning home, rather than phase a life in captivity, the group decided to make a final stand. Under the guidance of one of the group, thought to be a high Ebo chief, they marched together solemnly into the water,
from where they did not return. In eighteen fifty nine, at a racecourse two miles west of Savannah, in what is locally referred to as the Weeping Time, over the course of two days, four hundred and thirty six children, women and men were sold into slavery. It is thought to be the largest single sale of people in US history.
Throughout the history of Savannah, being as it is surrounded by extensive marsh and swampland, there have also been multiple outbreaks of yellow fever, claiming the lives of many local residents, most famously perhaps in eighteen twenty, when seven hundred people lost their lives, many of which were collected and buried
in mass graves in the city's Colonial Park Cemetery. Savannah also played host to one of the bloodiest battles of the American Revolutionary War, with hundreds thought to have died in the skirmish. Then, in nineteen o nine the Worth of Savannah Acts murders, and in nineteen eighty one the murder of Danny Hansford, a young tradesman who was shot dead by his employer, Jim Williams, at his mansion home
on Bull Street. Hansford's murder and the subsequent trial of Jim Williams would form the basis of the city's most famous book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, And in nineteen eighty four, the discovery of Francis Campbell's body in the Tremont Park area of the city. Campbell was thought to be one of nearly one hundred people killed by Samuel Little, one of the country's most prolifick serial killers. All of which is to say Savannah is
not a town short on ghosts. After hearing that their bid for the bed had been successful, Al jumped into his Volvo and made the short trip from his shop on Whittaker Street to pick it up, with Lilah, spending the afternoon lovingly putting it together. When Jason arrived back from school, he was overjoyed to find it waiting for
him in his bedroom, just as beautiful as he'd remembered it. Later, Jason thanked his parents again for the wonderful gift before saying good night and retiring to his bedroom, looking forward to his first night alone in the new bed. He just turned the light off when he felt something strange at the back of his neck, as if someone were breathing on it. Hurriedly, switching on his bedside i'd light, he looked around to find himself completely alone. Only there
was one place he couldn't see, stealing himself. He edged toward the side of the bed and slowly peered underneath, relieved to find the space was completely empty. Looking up, he caught sight of the air vent just above him in the ceiling. Realizing he'd most likely just let his imagination get the better of him, Turning back over, he switched off the light and nodded off back to sleep.
A few nights later, Jason was drifting off to sleep again when this time he was certain he felt a weight shift in his pillow, as if some one had just laid their elbows either side of his head, and then came those breaths again. Jason shot up and switched on the light once more, only to find again that he was completely alone. It was then that he noticed with surprise that the photo of his grandparents that usually stood upright on the table next to him, was now
lying face down. Confused, Jason writed the picture before turning off the light once more and heading back to sleep. The next morning, Jason awoke to find the photo was again lying face down. Over the next few weeks, Jason continued to experience a number of peculiar events, sometimes even waking in the middle of the night to find all
his pillows had somehow ended up on the floor. Having avoided telling his parents for fear of being ridiculed, Jason eventually plucked up the courage to tell his mum about it. Knowing her son wasn't one to make something up like that, Lillah wondered if perhaps Jason's brother Lee was playing some kind of cruel trick on him. With the activity seeming to center on the photo of Jason's grandparents, she suggested that the next time it was placed down that she
put it back and wait to see what happened. One morning, after waking to find it lying down again, Jason due placed it upright, and, together with Lila, then waited outside the bedroom door to see what might happen. With al upstairs and Lee playing outside, the pair listened with alarm at the sound of something scraping across the floor. Opening the door. Moments later, they were shocked to discover the
picture lying face down once more. Lila cautiously stepped toward it, and picking it back up, let out a pained gasp the front of it had been smashed. After racing to tell his dad exactly what had happened, Jason returned to his bedroom, shocked to find that someone had now placed a pile of toys in the middle of his bed. After yelling for Al and Lila to take a look, the couple joined him moments later, with Al feeling compelled to ask if they had a casper in the house.
Remembering something he'd seen before, Al suggested that if it was a ghost, they should try and communicate with it. That night, the family placed a pencil and paper at the foot of the bed and waited to see what might happen. It was one thirty in the morning, with Jason having elected to spend the night in Lee's room, when the family peered into Jason's bedroom to find a short message had now appeared on the paper. Written in
a childish scrawl, it said simply Danny, aged seven. Soon after, a second note was found that dread mum sick in bed died eighteen ninety nine. Love toys. A little unnerved. With Jason and Lee returning to bed, Alan Lila closed the door to Jason's room and also headed off to bed. A short time later, they were woken by the terrified screams of their sons yelling for them to come back down, and the pounding sound coming from inside Jason's room. The
place had been completely trashed. Over the next few weeks, the family claimed they continued to communicate with what they took to be the ghost of seven year old Danny. In one message left for the family, he demanded that nobody sleep in his bed again. Angered at being put out of his room, one night, Jason called out to ask if Danny was there, Getting no reply. Out of defiance, he took a moment to lie down on the bed.
Having got up again to pick up some clothes from the floor, a colossal smash rang out around the room. All about the floor was littered with shards of a terra cotta wallpiece that had somehow been dislodged and sent
flying to the floor. That night, Alan Lila made the decision to take the bed apart and sell it on After another bout of violent activity the following day, with a lamp knocked over, curtains pulled off their rods, and clothes ripped from their hangars al Julie took the bed to the nearby Cramer Sadler Gallery and put it up for auction. With word beginning to spread of their apparent haunting,
the Cobb family were contacted by local journalist Jane Fishman. Fishman, who worked for the Savannah Morning News, was at first skeptical of the story. After speaking to the family, however, and being shown the apparent communications with Danny, she was no longer sure. Fishman's article was released on October sixteenth, and later that day the bed was put up for auction and eventually bought by Deborah Brogden, who ran a
second hand furniture shop in nearby Pembroke. Thanks to Fishman's article, Deborah was soon inundated with calls from prospective owners hoping to catch a glimpse of the seemingly possessed artifact. Growing tired of the interest, she sold it a few days later for five hundred dollars to Faith Demea. Demea, a financial manager for a local car company, had become intrigued after reading Fishman's article and was keen to meet Danny herself.
Her plan was to keep the bed in its own bedroom in the hope that she might coax Dannie into becoming a regular resident in her home. However, after living with the bed for a few days, Danny failed to materialize, and less than a week later, Demea had a change of heart. The following Friday, the bed was back at the Cramer's auction house. That weekend, a motion detective at the auction house was repeatedly set off, despite no one
being in the shop at the time. The following Monday, the bed was sold to Detective Joey Warrenzac of the Chatham County Vice Squad. Warrenzac was the last known owner of the bed. As for Danny, however, and perhaps the reason why he never showed up at Faith to Me's home, it appeared he'd never left the Cobs. It was October the eighteenth, just two days after the bed had been removed, that Jason, feeling relieved to finally be rid of Danny, had just stepped out of the shower when he heard
his bedroom door slam shut. He stood for a moment, aghast at what sounded like somewhat or something moving about inside. Hurriedly, he opened the door, only to find at the end of his bed a small note written again in that strange, childish scrawl that said simply Danny Sorry. A week later, Jason was woken in the middle of the night by a soft clunking sound. Lying still in the dark, he peered over toward the closet, which he could just make out in the dim light, to see its door was
inexplicably gently opening and closing of its own accord. When he looked up from the base of it, there seemed, for a moment to be the shadow of a small figure standing next to it. Danny, is that you, he asked, but there was no reply. The family claimed that over the next few days they were able to communicate with Danny once more. When they asked where he was staying now, he replied that he was sleeping above Jason. A few weeks later, Al bumped into Detective Warrenzac at the auction house.
Although he planned to sell it, Warrenzac had set the bed up out of curiosity, installing it in his garage. Ever since, his dog had not stopped growling at it, while he'd been unable to shake the feeling that something in his house was watching him. It was shortly after the new year when Al received a call at work from Jason, who had been sent home from school after
feeling ill. As Jason explained, the fear palpable in his voice, a man had just appeared in the living room, standing by the fireplace, dressed like a mountaineer from the nineteenth century. Jason had only time to look up and see him before he'd vanished. Just then, the sound of cabinet being flung open and slammed shut rang out from Jason's end of the phone. It was followed by Jason yelling out
in terror before everything went completely silent. Having heard nothing more from Jason, al raced home to find the place in a complete mess and Jason lying barely conscious on the floor underneath a chair that appeared to have fallen on top of him. A week later, it was Leela's turn to receive a call from Jason. It was happening again, he said, from underneath the kitchen table as he tried
to shelter from the maelstrom breaking out around him. As the same crashing sounds rang out from Jason's end of the line. Leela demanded to know what was going on. As her son explained the mysterious mountaineering figure had returned again, but this time he was looking for something. For some reason, Jason had sensed he was looking for his baby that
had been under the house. Just then, as another crash rang out, the line went completely dead, but when Leela tried to call Jason back, it appeared all the lines at her work had also gone dead. By the time she made it home to Jason, who was unharmed but shaken by the ordeal. The disturbances had stopped after this latest terrifying event. However, it was clear to the family
they were severely out of their depth. In early nineteen ninety nine, al contacted famed parapsychologist William Rowell at Georgia College, who in turn passed the case on too a doctor Andrew Nichols, director of the Florida Society for Parapsychological Research based out of City College Gainesville in Florida. Nichols was working with another family at the time that seemed to
be suffering from a similar haunting. The family in Albany, New York, had also been communicating with their apparent spirit, using a chalkboard to talk to it. Unlike Danny, however, whatever had been plaguing them was far warm align supposedly writing curse words and throwing knives into the walls. At one point, it had even allegedly levitated their baby out of its cot. After driving five hours to meet the family, Nichols was given a rundown of everything that had happened
so far. Nodding along as the family detailed everything from the written communication with Danny to the loud disturbances and recent appearance of the second apparent entity, doctor Nichols was left in no doubt that they were dealing with some kind of poltergeist. Nichols took some equipment from his bag
and the family led him into Jason's room. If indeed this were a to guist, he explained, it was likely that Danny had died in the bed, and in so doing something of the young boy had somehow seeped into the material. Nicholls held out one of his instruments and moved in closer toward the back wall, asking if that was where the bed had been positioned. The family nodded in agreement as Nicholls made a series of further measurements.
He suggested that perhaps a concentration of electromagnetism had somehow energized Danny's ghost into existence, although he would need to make further tests to be sure. After two days of inspecting the property, Nicholls concluded that the activity was most likely a combination of the unusual concentration of electromagnetism in the bedroom and the psychokinetic energy created by Jason and Lee,
exacerbated by their relationship as twins. Shortly after Nicholls left, Al was inspired to make a tape recording of the empty bedroom, hoping to try and capture some of the activity. One night, with the family out of the house for the evening, the recorder was left running in the property. Later, Al sat quietly on his own as he listened back to what he'd recorded. With a loud click, the tape word into action, and a quiet hiss began to emanate
from the speakers. Hearing little more than the gentle drone of the air conditioner humming away in the background, Al stayed and rapped as the hypnotic sound continued uninterrupted, minute after minute, until suddenly something else jumped out. Al rewound the tape and let it play out again, and there again he heard it what sounded like the squeaking of a drawer or a footstep, perhaps followed by the clear sound of some one or something moving across the floor.
Over the next few months, as Al wrote in his book Danny's Bed, detailing the family's experiences, things became increasingly fraught. After the supposed arrival of Danny, the family apparently found themselves contending with the number of other ghosts, from a little girl thought to have lived around the same time as Danny, to a woman dressed in Victorian era clothes,
as well as the peculiar vision of the mountaineer. At times, the family would come home from a night out to find all the lights in the house had been turned off, despite leaving them on when they left. They would frequently have the sensation that they were being observed by something invisible. Once Jason and Lee returned home to the sound of
something running up the stairs into their attic. Following the noise, they found themselves standing up there staring at a mannequin that Al had brought Jason one time as a practical joke. When the mannequin's head had then moved in their direction, the pair was sent to scarrying back down in horror. In one incident, Jason was said to have come home one day to find two knives impaled in the ceiling of his parents bedroom, with a note telling them all
to leave, pinned under one of them. After this incident, however, it seems whatever was occurring came to an abrupt end, with little else happening after. Rare is the household without at least one ornament or piece of furniture that once belonged to someone else. Many of us will have something that once belonged to those that are no longer withers to remind us of their existence, or just simply because
they meant something special to us. You certainly don't have to believe in literal ghosts to feel the weight and warmth of someone you miss return instantly the moment you take hold of something that once belonged to them, or conversely, should an object hold less palatable memories for you, feel the weight of that person slip from your shoulders once the object has been dispensed with. Though such is life with or without such objects, there is no guarantee that
something of them won't continue to remain. If you enjoy Unexplained and would like to help support us, you can now do so via Patreon to receive access to add free episodes. Just go to patron dot com Forward Slash Unexplained Pod to sign up, or if you'd like to make a one time donation, you can go to Unexplained podcast dot com Forward Slash Support. All donations, no matter
how large or small, are greatly appreciated. Unexplained, the book and audiobook, featuring ten stories that have never before been covered on the show, is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Waterstones, among other bookstores. All elements of Unexplained, including the show's music,
are produced by me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and rate the show wherever you listen to podcasts, and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like to share. You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com, or Twitter at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at Facebook dot com, Forward Slash Unexplained Podcast