S2 Ep42: Beneath the Haunted Dorm

Summary

Listener Evan, a sophomore engineering student at Ohio University around 2015, recounts living in room 328 of Wilson Hall, directly below the notorious haunted room 428. What began as a fun novelty of bunking beneath one of America's most legendary haunted dorm rooms reportedly came with a price. The episode explores Athens, Ohio's haunted reputation, including the cemeteries said to form a lopsided square and the history of The Ridges asylum, alongside discussion of sleep paralysis and the night hag phenomenon.

Key takeaways

• 1Wilson Hall room 428 at Ohio University is reputed to be haunted and was previously discussed in Dead Letter Office S1 Ep 52, 'The Little Old Man'
• 2The Post (Athens, Ohio) published 'Histories of hOUme: A skeptical vacancy in Wilson Hall room 428' by Bri Shaniuk in October 2015
• 3Five Athens cemeteries are said to form a lopsided square, a claim featured in local legend
• 4The Ridges, a former asylum now home to Ohio University's Kennedy Museum of Art, has more than 1,900 unidentified people buried on its grounds (WOUB, October 2025)
• 5Sleep paralysis and the night hag are discussed as possible explanations for or parallels to anomalous bedroom experiences
• 6Other haunted locations referenced include Hotel Monte Vista in Flagstaff, Arizona, and Bloody Mary's Tours and Haunted Museum in New Orleans

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