The Legend of the Bell Witch

where the tales of cryptids or ghostly apparitions every community has its own folklore this week we pay a visit to a small town in Tennessee which was plagued by a spirit so vengeful that it was the first in US history to receive blame for an actual recorded death the legendary Bell Witch [Music] [Music] nestled on the outskirts of metropolitan Nashville lies the small town of Adam's Tennessee like thousands of other small towns in the United States it is quiet peaceful and easily overlooked by travelers if you look beyond its humble exterior however you will find

a dark past stories of a haunting which began little over two hundred years ago and which reportedly continues to this day in 1804 John Bell along with his wife Lucy Williams bowel and approximately 10 other families began an arduous trek from educating North Carolina to Red River Tennessee over the next several years the bells would become successful farmers and prosper in their new home although widely respected and well-liked by the wider community a scandal would arise in the mid eighteen tens that would call the character of John Bell into question one of the other groups

that had also made the move from North Carolina was the batts family and they would come to hate the bowels after a traumatic accident in 1816 Frederick batts the head of his household was seriously injured whilst working on his farm and would spend the rest of his life physically impaired as a result as Frederick was no longer able to work the family situation became desperate he would be forced to sell parts of his property in order to make ends meet some of this land was purchased by John Bell the transaction which would begin a never

ending conflict between the two families Frederick's wife Kate accused Belle of exploiting their unfortunate situation as he had bought the land for much less than it was worth she swore to Belle that she would make him and his family pay for the supposed misdeed further escalating the tension between the two clans Bell had also purchased the young slave girl from Frederick's brother Benjamin Bell felt that the girl was too young to take with him at the time of purchase however and decided to leave the youngster with her mother for a while longer when he eventually

came to collect her Benjamin reneged on the agreement feeling that she was worth more than had already been paid after much bickering Belle sold the girl back to Benjamin for more than the purchase price thus extorting even more money from the bat's family at this point Belle believed the issue to be concluded and hoped that his dealings with the bats were well and truly over unfortunately nothing could have been further from the truth shortly after the deal with the slave girl was settled and unbeknownst to John Bell Benjamin batts filed a lawsuit against him for

extortion Belle had no idea the lawsuit even existed and so failed to attend the hearing without bail being present to contest the claims the court sided with Benjamin the judgment soon found its way back to Red River and was heard by the local church although Belle protested the ruling it would nonetheless lead to his eventual excommunication which some say would open the door for evil to invade his home due to her husband's immobility Kate batts became the prominent member of her family boisterous harsh loud and spiteful she was widely disliked by others in the community

and because of some questionable behavior in church they also believe that Kate was practicing witchcraft they suspected that the tragedy which befell her husband was punishment from God for practicing such evil although none of them dared to confront her directly with these accusations most people chose instead to avoid her as much as possible Kate it seems was far too intimidating in 1817 not long after his excommunication Bell was hunting on his land when he encountered a creature that he had never seen before he described it as having the body of a large dog the head

of a rabbit and being covered in black fur startled at seeing such an abomination he fired his musket at the animal but when he looked to see if he'd killed or injured the creature it was nowhere to be seen no trace of the animal was ever found not wishing to alarm his family Bell kept the matter to himself shortly after the incidents however strange activity started to occur at the family home during the evenings the bells began hearing what sounded like stones being thrown against the exterior of the house despite constantly checking for trespassers there

were none to be found after a while Bell suspected this to be the work of the batts family that was until the sounds began occurring inside the household loud thuds scrapings on the floors and walls and the sounds of rats snoring at the legs of beds were heard throughout the home at all hours of the night but they were never able to track down the source of these disturbances and suffered as it began to affect their sleep although it was a frustration the family simply tried to ignore it nevertheless the activity soon escalated to physical

attacks one night their fourteen-year-old daughter Elizabeth Betsy boul was awoken by the now-familiar sounds when she tried to investigate she found that her hair had been tied in knots around the bedpost unable to get up she was then slapped repeatedly by an unseen force responding to her screams the family rushed in to find Betsy with red hand shaped welts all over her face terrified she described what had happened and it wasn't long before the youngest sons would also show the same hand shaped welts on their legs and faces not wishing to make this a public

affair and possibly tarnished the reputation of the family any further Belle advised everyone to keep quiet about the activity they began praying begging to be released from the evil that was tormenting them all to no avail over the next few weeks visual apparitions began to appear the slaves reported seeing strange birds and animals some of which they claimed could talk while walking in a field betsy saw the apparition of a girl in a green dress hanging by her hands from a tree limb before she disappeared without trace the specters sounds and physical abuse escalated daily

and the terror and lack of sleep became too much for the family to handle on their own Bal confided in his friend and neighbor James Johnston asking him for help Johnston agreed he and his wife arrived at the Belle home shortly afterwards and prayed with them to rid the house of the evil presence one evening Johnston demanded to know the name of the entity and a disembodied voice was heard to say hmm after several nights of trying unsuccessfully to cleanse the home Johnston advised his neighbor to reach out to the wider community and reluctantly Bell

agreed news of the haunting spread quickly and far wider than anyone anticipated many people from surrounding areas and some from quite far away came to the Bell family home to witness the poltergeists activity the entity who was initially quiet would later have no qualms about making its presence known it especially made its feelings towards John Bell apparent eventually news reached Army General and future United States President Andrew Jackson Jackson decided to take a small group of his troops to the Belle home and make camp there for a few days one of Jackson's men claimed to

have brought along silver bullets and bragged to his fellow soldiers that he planned to use them on the witch and kill her as the group neared the Belle property the wheels of their wagons seized and would not move despite the repeated efforts of the troops and horses almost at the point of abandoning the wagon and returning to Nashville Jackson supposedly apologized for the behavior of his soldier immediately after this the wagon began to move freely as if nothing had happened and Jackson's troops arrived without further incident despite planning to stay several nights the group returned

to Nashville after only one and although it is not written in any official document Jackson is reported to have said I would rather face the whole of the British Army than spend another night at the Bell house not all of the Bell family received such harassment from the so called Bell which however lucy-belle John's wife was treated in the opposite manner in 1820 she was diagnosed with a severe case of pleurisy an inflammation of the lining of the lungs and there was some question as to whether or not she would survive the illness whilst Lucy

was bedridden Kate would often sing comforting gospel hymns and would also leave hazelnuts and grapes on her bed apparently materializing from thin air gradually Lucy's condition improved and she would make a complete recovery at the same time that Lucy's health was improving her husband's was declining rapidly on the morning of December the 20th John Bell was found deceased in his bed the strange pungent scent was coming from Belle's mouth and a vial with an unknown cloudy liquid was discovered nearby giving off the same odor speculation as to who poisoned Bell was rife and when it

was suggested that Lucy may have been responsible Kate's disembodied voice apparently spoke up replying I fixed his medicine last night and gave him a big dose of it he'll never get out of that bed again for the first time in US history an actual documented death was blamed on a supernatural entity not content with simply killing John Kate was said to have made an appearance at his memorial during the burial service she further tormented friends and family by mocking Bell laughing and singing drinking songs after the funeral the activity began to diminish catered apparently achieved

her goal of tormenting and killing her nemesis and the family believed her to be gone for good that was until the spring of 1821 when Betsy Bell received a proposal of marriage from a well-respected young man by the name of Joshua Gardiner Betsy once again saw the apparition of the little girl in the tree who warned her not to marry this man then vanished as she had done previously not daring to take a chance on the poltergeists returned Betsy broke off the engagement and Gardner moved away from the area so what are we to make

of this story due to the scant record-keeping of the day we'll never know the full truth of the matter regarding the incidents one has to remember that most people of this era were unable to read or write so many of the stories were passed on verbally for many years after the supposed events took place it is impossible to determine how many of the stories were embellished upon or even completely fabricated before they were finally written down the bell which haunting went on for many years and there were far more tales and other occurrences than we

have time to recount here but it is entirely possible that many of the supposed incidents were concocted to cover up the murder of John Bell it should be noted that Lucy Bell John's wife was the younger sister of John Williams Jr who was the father of none other than Kate Williams batts cut Bell's death have been the result of a conspiracy between Kate and Lucy it would certainly explain why Lucy was excluded from the witch's wrath but then what would Lucy gain by torturing her own children Kate batts was reported as alive in the 1830

census so it certainly was not her spirit that was responsible for the hauntings it is also worth noting that Richard Powell Betsy's eventual husband was very highly educated and could have created some of the strange happenings that would not have been well understood by the people at the time this may in turn have led to mass hysteria Powell had a documented fondness for Betsy even when he was still married to his wife Esther who died in 1821 the same year that gardener proposed to the youngster could he have been responsible for these incidents as a

way of getting close to her it's unlikely but not beyond all possibility on the other hand there are those who believe the whole saga was completely genuine and the Kate batts had conjured up a spirit or demon in order to avenge the perceived wrongdoings against her family even today there are still incidents that occur in the area the local towns folk including the modern-day Belle family have experienced many strange events that are not so easily explained as a young boy Bob Bell who is still alive today recalls an incident involving his grandmother in a state

of terror she made a phone call to Bob's father asking him to come and investigate a disturbance and check for intruders when they arrived they found nothing out of place until they went into the kitchen the cabinet in which the family's China was locked away was now open and the dishes were thrown about all over the floor oddly not a single dish had been broken or damaged in the least another recent incident involved Tim Henson a local historian and curator at the town's Museum according to him people who visit the Belle property are advised not

to take anything home with them Henson spoke of a man who took a rock from the cave that is located there and who then apparently lost his wife his job and his home within three days of his visit it is entirely possible that these events would have happened anyway and that his taking of the rock was mere coincidence but then again who knows still if you ever happen to visit Red River or the town of Adams as it is known today and talk to the people who live there he may not walk away a believer

but hopefully he'll be wise enough to give the old Bell property the respect it deserves [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]