The Death Officially Linked to a Haunting

Hi everyone, before today's episode, we want to tell you about What the Fact. It's a new show from Conor Tomlinson, who you know from Netflix's Love on the Spectrum, and Carter Roy from Murder, True Crime Stories. Every week they take three unbelievable true facts from history and tell you the full story behind them. Conor's infectious energy will make you realize history is the most fascinating thing on Earth. Follow What the Fact, wherever you listen, or subscribe on YouTube at What the Fact on. This is Crime House. This week's episode is a juicy one, and it's one that we covered on Two Realms One Ghost, and so I'm so excited to dig into it even deeper. It is about one of the most famous paranormal events in U.S. history, and it's also about a place we have visited ourselves. We have stepped inside of this place. So let's start things off with a game of, Would You Rather? Okay, so if you've been listening to This Season of Crime's Ev, you know the drill, because before we jump into every story, we like to pick two shocking moments from the story ahead of time, and see which one you think is the lesser of two evils. Today we're covering the story of the bell witch, a spirit that terrorized a man named John Bell and his family from 1817 to 1821, and even beyond. Here are the two choices. You find yourself alone in the woods. Would you rather come across a strange Frankenstein-like creature? Or a creepy little girl playing "Oh, buy herself." I would much rather come across a strange little creature. The Frankenstein creature? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I also agree with that. There's just something so ominous about a little girl in the middle of the woods. Like a Frankenstein creature, you can just immediately be like, "Nope, that's bad news." And you can run. But I feel like there's some conflicted feelings when seeing a little girl because you're spooked. But then it's also like, "But does she need help?" Right. And it's like, "But is that a little girl or is this something luring me?" But then what if I abandoned this little girl, and then she's missing on the news, and I could have done something. And then by then, if it's a little demonic entity, you're dead. Right. I thought too hard for too long. So please let us know what you would pick. But when it comes to the Bell family, they didn't have a choice. They actually met both of these horrifying entities just before the Bell which appeared and began haunting them for years. And it wasn't just members of the family who suffered her wrath. But almost anyone who stepped into the Bell family left with their own dark and twisted tale. Yeah. And that included the skeptics and possibly the future president, Andrew Jackson too. Many of whom came to the Bell household hoping to debunk the family's accounts of this malevolent spirit. But instead, every single one of them left the house believing that the Bell witch was very, very real. Welcome to Crimes of the Paranormal, a crime house original powered by paved studios, where your hosts Sabrina Deanna Roga and Corinne Vien. Every Tuesday, we're exploring a different corner of the true crime universe, examining cases that left a permanent impact on society. This season, we're diving into cases where the evidence doesn't end up blood stains and fingerprints, but drifts into the unexplainable, into the unknown. If you're loving Crimes of, please follow, rate, and review us wherever you listen. It helps us build this community and we love hearing from you. You can also catch us on YouTube where we include visuals that bring every case to life. Subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts for ad-free early access. And if you can't get enough true crime, go search and follow Crime House Daily. Our team's twice a day show bringing you breaking cases, updates, and unbelievable stories from the world of crime that are happening right now. Today, we are talking about the legend of the Bell Witch, a very intriguing yet terrifying malevolent spirit that haunted the Bell family of Robertson County, Tennessee. The height of the hauntings occurred between 1817 and 1821, but they extended beyond that too. And as the story goes, this entity could speak, move things around, and even kill. To this day, people still talk about the Bell Witch and the power she held, and many wonder if she'll make a reappearance in Tennessee any time soon. A warning before we begin. This episode contains descriptions of the endangerment of children, violence, and the threat of murder, so please listen with care. The legend of the Bell Witch is a crucial part of folklore and the southern parts of the United States. Whether or not you believe the Bell Witch is real, it remains a huge part of the region's cultural history. And it's a story that is still told to this day. Still told to this day so much so that we've covered it so many times before. It's one that we constantly go back to, and astrologist Aliza Kelly read the stars for what was happening. Yeah. At one point, yeah. It's wild. We physically walked into the cave, which you will learn about soon. Yeah. We survived the cave. We did. We didn't encounter the Bell Witch, but that doesn't mean she wasn't watching. Okay. So imagine this. A family suffering for years and years of torment and terror and unexplained events. A house that became more like a prison than a home. And a family that was at the mercy of an invisible evil force. As people heard the tale of the Bell Witch, they couldn't help but travel to the house to see for themselves. Many of them entered the homes as skeptics, but they all left as believers. Especially after the Bell Witch took a life. It's late December of 1820 and Robertson County, Tennessee. The Bell family is draped in black, mourners stand, shoulder to shoulder, the breath turning to mist in the cold air. They've come to say goodbye to John Bell. As somber as the day is, it's impossible to ignore the whispers amongst the crowd. Everyone in town has heard about the strange, outrageous circumstances surrounding John's death. Snippets of conversations say something about the Bells being cursed and unseen force stalking their halls, that a witch herself came back from the grave to torment them. Some say her spirit rose from the woods behind the Bells farm, disturbed by a careless hand. Or perhaps it was an old neighbor, back from the beyond, back for vengeance. Others swear the land has been cursed long before the Bells even arrived, a resting place for the dead that was never meant to be touched, the land stolen from the need of people. Whatever the truth is, one thing is for certain. This spirit hated John Bell most of all. He, more than his children, more than his wife, had endured the worst of the spirit abuses. John bore the brunt of her rage, night after night. Until the morning his son found John's lifeless, cold body. John had been poisoned by the Bell witch. His fate now sealed John Bell's body is lowered into the dirt and the preacher calls for a moment of silence. And as the crowd begins to hush, a terrifying sound shreds through the sky, it's a woman singing drinking songs, with a voice both sinister and cruel. Every head turns, and soon they realize it's her, the Bell witch. She's here, right now amongst them mocking his untimely demise. I could just picture the witches laughter. Yeah. It's like, everyone's there to pay their respects to John, and I know that this isn't the song she was singing, but I'm like, 99 bottles of beer. Just so out of place, but yeah, she's mocking them because she's the powerful one and chickie do whatever she wants. She's the Bell witch, and she just murdered John. And the question is, is it because she's evil? Or is there more to that story? Hmm. Let's explore. But people truly believe the Bell witch was responsible for the death of John Bell. And for years, people claim that they themselves had seen or hurt her. And that, yeah, the Bell witch did make an appearance at his funeral celebrating his demise. It seems like her ultimate goal was to see John Bell die, for after his funeral, stories of the Bell witch seem to die down, but she didn't vanish altogether. To this day, people claimed have made contact with the Bell witch in all other parts of Tennessee, mainly though, in the Bell witch cave, which we went and visited, which is located near the Bell family house property. And I do have to say, the cave itself is quite beautiful. Like you walked a path from the property and you're like going up on a cliff along this stream. You can see kayakers below you. It's very peaceful. It is. Yeah. But then it's quite jagged. There's a lot of almost like light rock climbing inside the caves. Yeah. So you wouldn't want to get lost in there by yourself when it started. Well, and you wouldn't want to encounter the Bell witch because there's not an easy exit. You don't just simply run. There's a lot of sliding on your butt trying to navigate the rocks in there. But it's interesting because the cave itself wasn't a part of the original legend. It's something that it kind of grew into more recently. But it just shows how big this legend has. become and how important it is to the locals there. Which also probably leads to a larger conversation about energy and how it manifests. And we know that rocks and water are good conduits for the paranormal. So maybe she just was like, this is a good place for me to hardest my energy. I'll just stick right here. We all experience petty grievances in life. A bachelor at party that resulted in a runaway bridesmaid. A neighbor who has trained their dog to poo in your yard. An ex-friend who writes a semi autobiographical book about your friend group and then kills off your character. Maybe these aren't completely relatable. But they are all petty crimes we've investigated on our podcast. I'm Griff, your average biracial farm-raised queer actor and retired model who's living and looking for love and Los Angeles. And I'm Kira, I'm an SNL writer, a movie writer, a comedian, and I'm the only person pettyer than Griff. Petty crimes is a true crime comedy podcast that exclusively investigates non-crimes, meaning real-life, low-stakes petty drama that's submitted each week by our listeners and ruled on by us. Some weeks we're joined by comedian friends like Ego Wodom, Gianmarco Sarasi, Chloe Fineman, Sarah Sherman, Jeremy Colhane, Carl Tarte, Lacey Mosley. But most of the time, you're just stuck with us. If you're the type that tells your boyfriend to shh, so you can ease drop on the T-Unfolding at the table next to you, you've found your people. Subscribe to Petty Crimes, wherever you get your podcasts. Let's rewind so that you can get some context. Learn about who the bell which was and is and also why she had it out for John Bell. - Yeah. - And to do that, we definitely need to go back to the beginning. So let's do that. It's 1817, a farmer by the name of John Bell moves his family to Red River, Tennessee, which is now Adam's Tennessee. John Bell was married to a woman named Lucy, and together they had nine children. - That's a lot. - Oh my God. - Do you remember the names? - Like that's a lot. - Right, my mom. - Already confuses my name with my sister and brother. - Oh yeah, my dad used to confuse our dog wrinkles with my brother Christians, so that's especially bad. - Got wrinkles. - Going to your son wrinkles. - It's kind of cute. - Okay, so the bells they want to get a nice piece of property to raise their large family on. And so John, he initially buys the small piece of land in 1804, but over time, he continues to buy more and more and eventually ends up owning 300 acres of land. Many sources will tell you that John Bell was a well-liked and quite a respected member of the community, hence why he had so many people at his funeral. - Almost all the sources will tell you that. - Yeah, but there's a lot more information that is conveniently left out of many of those sources, we believe, like how he was ex-communicated from his church because he was charging excessive interest in land deals. Like he was literally kicked out of his church, which is a big deal back then. Like your whole community is your church or your religion. - I was fucking people over with their land, right? Like I'm sure he was intimidating and bullying people out of giving them his land or their land, giving him their land 'cause he wanted it to be his. He wanted it to be his and then anytime someone like negotiated a deal where they got to keep something, he was charging them up the wall too. I know, I almost did it up the ass. Like I'm not allowed to swear, I don't know. I feel like I do a blabbed. - Or blabbed, blabbed. - But yeah, so I think that's an important context that is often left out of this story that you should all keep in mind as we continue. - So John Bell was an extremely prosperous guy. His farm yielded great crops and he was also squeezing a lot of money out of people with this insane interest. So he was a rich guy succeeding at the cost of others as rich as do. Yeah, so like you were saying, you'd think that being excommunicated by your church, maybe he'd learn a lesson, start to suffer flags, be like, oh my gosh, why am I being such a horrible person? Let me change. But now he kept doing life as he was doing. He was John Bell and that's what John Bell did. And life was good until one day John was walking through a cornfield when something strange caught his eye. There, sitting in one of the corn rows wasn't animal. But this was no ordinary animal. This was unlike any animal that John had ever seen before. From far away, it looked like a dog. - Cute, wrinkles. - Oh, but then he calls, wrinkles, I think. - But then John takes a couple more steps closer to this animal and he realizes something is wrong with its face. The snout was way too short and the ears were way too long. And the body of the animal? - Yeah, it looked like a dog, but its head looked like a rabbit. Whatever it was, John was like, nope, not a cute dog anymore. I do not like this and he does not take a beat. He literally grabs his gun, pulls it out and immediately starts to shoot over and over towards this animal. And there are some reports that say like he shot it but it ran away unharmed. Others say that he missed it entirely and it escaped through the field out of sight. Whatever this entity was, whatever happened, John was like, me no like he, I feel like he word for word verbatim, what he said. He felt unsettled. - Yeah, but also at the same time he's a working man. He has to farm his land. He continues working for the rest of the day and doesn't think about it, tries to put it in the back of his head until someone else in the Bell family has a bizarre experience. - His daughter, Betsy Bell, she was out in the woods. She was playing with her siblings when she saw something. She saw a little girl. This girl was dressed in green. She was swinging by her hands from one of the big branches of the oak tree and she was a little deeper into the forest from where Betsy and her siblings were. But there was something really strange about this little girl. Strange enough, the Betsy didn't approach her. She didn't see her as like another potential playmate to bring into the group. The Bells did not have any neighbors close by. They had 300 acres of land. So also, why would there be this little girl in the middle of the forest out here playing by herself with no one else around? So Betsy turned around quickly and ushered her siblings to go back towards her house. And that night, Betsy told her father what she had seen. But he waved it away, thinking, okay, this is just my kids imagination, like, ha ha. - Right. Or because especially nothing, yes, it's strange, but nothing really happened. So it's like, oh, imagination. Or yeah, another kid was playing in the woods, who cares. - Right, moving on, moving on. And for a while, that's kind of what happened. The Bells moved on and they didn't really give this much thought. But it was soon thereafter that everything changed. So one night, the Bell family had gone to bed, like they do every night. All the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse, named that book. And suddenly, bang, bang, bang. The house shuttered with violent banging. So intense that everyone in the Bell family, John, Lucy, and the nine kids, all wake up, terrified. And John thinks that someone is either breaking into the house, like it sounded like slut Chambers being taken to the wall. So he gets out of bed, Lucy's right behind him. The banging is continuing. The children are calling out in terror, trying to calm the nerves. John decides to light a candle to go investigate. The second he lit the candle, the banging stopped. I hate it. It's like it's hiding, you can't find out, you can't see. Or it lives only in the dark. Oh, fuck, I don't like that. Also, just like in terms of paranormal activity, I feel like this is escalating so quickly, there was very little buildup. It's even something in the field and then all of a sudden. Well, this like thing can sound like creature too. Like that's also kind of an intense, right? First sighting of the paranormal. It is. John was ultimately concerned that someone was breaking into the house, made sense. So carefully, he moves to the house, trying to figure out if he can find the source of this terrible noise. Yeah, but there's nothing. Eventually, he and Lucy calmed all of their kids down. Everyone returns to bed and they're like, OK, maybe we'll solve this mystery in the light of the day. We'll check back tomorrow. However, when tomorrow came, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. But that next night, the banging happened again and the night after that. And the night after that. What about the night after that? And also the night after that. It kept going. Over time, the family heard way more than just the banging noises. The noises became more and more terrifying. Like, Allah Scrooge, they heard chains dragging against the floor. Dogs fighting viciously, which is also just very unsettling, because it feels reminiscent of the entity that he saw on the field. Right. And also it is just confusing when talking about the paranormal. And we were alluding to this earlier. Like, is this just a piece of land who already had-- they already had the stained history and your catching glimpses of what previously happened? And it's not-- I don't know. Supposed to be this intelligent haunting, but rather just a residual look into what once was. It's not that we know it is not, but we know it's not that. And also, John initially bought the land in 1804. I don't know exactly when they moved into the house, but presumably they were there for some time, and then this all happened. Yeah. But OK, the most creepy noise escalation, in my opinion, was that all of these sounds started being accompanied by faint whispering voices, speaking so softly, that you couldn't really make out what they were saying, but you knew it was multiple voices. And again, any. time anyone with light a candle to go investigate any noise that was happening would suddenly stop. And then everyone would go back into bed, lights would be turned off, the sounds would resume, making it impossible for anyone to sleep. So John Bell may have been able to wave away that strange animal that was in the field, but now this was no hallucination and every member of the bell family was experiencing it. And these tears were happening nightly. So John believes it's the work of some malevolent spirit haunting the family. And they were to soon find out it was just the beginning. After a few weeks, the family started experiencing physical manifestations of this bizarre haunting. It would pull the bed covers off of the bell family children. It slapped them, hinged them physically pulled them to the ground like abusing them. It even sent rats to chew at their bedposts. But most of the torment did seem to be focused on two particular people in the bell family. And it's the same two people who had the two sightings out in the field. John Bell and his daughter Betsy Bell. Yeah. And for reasons unknown, we don't really know why Betsy Bell suffered some of the worst abuse, but she reported feeling invisible hands poking, pinching and pulling her hair. She even felt like someone was sticking her with pins, which feels very voodoo doll. Yeah, I hate that. And it also kind of is reminiscent of one of the things we're going to be talking about next week. She endured beatings that left visible welts and handprints all over her body. And her parents, John and Lucy were obviously super concerned. They're worried about Betsy. But soon John's own health begins to decline. And this starts out small. John would notice an odd sensation in his mouth, like a weird paralysis. And he would go through periods where he couldn't even eat or speak. He described it like there was a small plank of wood sitting crosswise in his mouth. So any food he tried to eat would hardly make it past his teeth. It was as if some invisible force was pushing it back out of his mouth onto his plate. His body grew weak and he started suffering daily. Yeah. And you would think that him suffering, his daughter, his whole family suffering that he would seek out some help. But he did not ask for help from anyone outside of the family. And I do wonder if part of that sort of like maybe like a pride thing or maybe he didn't feel like he could ask. Well, he was also communicated. Yeah, it was just going to say. Yeah, so it was like this awkward thing where maybe he felt like he had to do it all on his own. It does kind of remind me of the beginning of the witch. Oh, yeah. Because that family is pretty much all ex-communicated from their town and then everything that they deal with they are on their isolated. They're completely alone, yeah. So in John's mind, this haunting is something that will eventually resolve. They just have to wait it out, right? You want to believe that? Yeah, in any haunting, right? Yeah. This isn't normal. So John made his family promise to keep what was happening to them a secret. Don't tell anyone, we don't want anyone to think that you know, this is happening here. And for months, maybe even a year, the bell family endured this litany of terrors night after night and they told no one about it. But as more time passed, the bells started to wonder if this malicious spirit would ever leave them be. It didn't seem to be on that trajectory. And unlike many haunting cases, this entity started communicating very clearly, which is wild because most hauntings, especially that we've covered in the past, like you get knocks, you get scratches, maybe things moving, maybe a shadow figure or two, but eventually in this story, the bell family is having like full-on conversation. Two-way conversation with this disembodied entity. The entity would sing loudly. It would recite hymns and it expressed its intent to kill John Bell. 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After a year of living in silent torment, John Bell has finally invited in his friend, a neighbor, James Johnson, on this fateful night of 1880. So James and his wife have decided, "Okay, let's go spend the night inside this supposedly haunted bell home." So James and his wife lie in the guest bedroom of the bell home, the air feels charged, and the tales of moving furniture and screams in the night run marathons through James's mind as he tries to drift to sleep. He has no reason to believe his friend is lying, and John Bell, he thinks, is a good, honest man. So if he claims that there are supernatural events taking place in his home, James trusts that this must be true. So when John asked James to come stay at the house to witness it all for himself, James was more than happy to come bear witness. That evening, the house seemed perfectly normal. But just to be safe, James had led the family in an evening prayer where he asked the spirit to leave the bells alone once and for all. James is just about to dose off, confident that his short prayer has done the trick, but just as James drifts to sleep, the quiet confidence is shattered. A heavy knock echoes down the hallway, James's eyes fly open, another knock follows, and then another, and then sounds crawling from one end of the hallway to the other, getting closer and closer to his bedroom, and then suddenly a new sound. Drowning out the banging, it's snarling, it's gnawing, like some terrible beast is chewing at the bedposts. So James jumps out of bed, he lights a candle, and as he does this, the sounds abruptly stop, just like John told him they would. Silently, James blows out the candle, and like clockwork, the noises erupt again, but this time it's not just noise. In horror, James watches as the chair in the corner of the room moves on its own, dragged along the floor by unseen hands. With the righteous conviction, James calls out to the spirit itself, he screams into the dark room, demanding that this entity make itself known. And suddenly, all the commotion stops. For a few unsettling seconds, the house is completely silent, and then the sign returns. More vicious this time around, it's like the entire foundation of the house is shaking, like it's been cracked open from the inside. Whatever this spirit was that was haunting the house, it does not like James speaking to it, and it's angrier than ever before, and soon the spirit would reveal a name. The spirit's name is Kate. Okay, so now by 1818, two main things are happening in the case of the bellwitch hauntings. One, finally, someone outside of the bell family is witness to the paranormal events, first hand, and two, the spirit had a name. More specifically than just Kate, we get the name Kate Bats. I also just love that the name is Kate, like it's just such an unexpected name. I know. Right. Like it's not, it's not a spooky name. Definitely not. No. But who is Kate? Yeah, who is Kate Bats? We'll tell you. Okay, according to legend and historic retellings of this like, grander, larger haunting, Kate Bats was a neighbor who felt cheated in a land deal with John Bell, and given how he was excommunicated from the church due to his land dealings. I'm not surprised that there are people who were mad at deals that they did with John. So back in 1818, they believed that the spirit of Kate Bats had come back from the grave to enact revenge on John Bell. I actually personally have a lot of beliefs and thoughts on Kate Bats. One, I think especially because we covered the con drink before where it's like this woman Bathsheba in that case was accused, but in reality, she was just an eccentric old lady who lived by herself. Right. She just escaped a woman living on her own who maybe didn't fit into society and they're like, oh, it's that woman who was weird, she's now a witch. Or two, if this spirit really is Kate Bats coming back from the grave and John Bell really is as shady as history tries to ignore, she probably had a good reason to want to enact revenge. Yeah, what I feel like the only qualm I have with that theory is that what good reason would she have to attack Batsy who is a child? Well, we'll debate that in a bit. Okay. Now I have a theory. We're gonna get into a fight. We're gonna do a fight. Okay. So it's 1818 and finally, John Bell and his family decided that they can no longer battle this poltergeist amongst themselves. So John Bell is like, okay, we need to start telling people, we'll loop people in. Clearly, there are these hauntings and we need help. So he starts to spread the news and the news goes far and wide because this is so bizarre, right? Like these paranormal events are just overtaking this guy's home so people are intrigued. And at the time, the bells and the townspeople believe that the spirit showed many qualities of a witch, the mocking nature, the poltergeist activity, the potential shape shifting after they heard about the girl that Batsy saw in the woods and then the animal creature. Yeah. But John saw. So they started to refer to this entity, stalking the bells as the bell witch. People all over town heard stories about this terrifying witch, her unexplained sounds in the night and a family left fearing for their lives, right? But the stories were also wildly fascinating. So people from town began to go to the bell house to visit in hopes of witnessing this entity firsthand. And the bells welcomed anyone who wanted to come by. And I feel like a lot of people when it comes to paranormal stories are like, oh, they did it for attention or they did it for money. The bell family is not charging at this time to have people come encounter the bell witch. And they're genuinely concerned and they want to get rid of it. Yeah. And people are like, well, let me check those out for myself. So they would cheer up at the house. And they would encourage the bell witch to respond. So they asked numerical questions like, how many horses are in the barn? Or how many miles does it take for us to travel from the next town to here? And they would pause and they would wait. And the bell witch would respond with nox on the wall. And the nox would correspond with like the number, for example, they ask how many horses are in the barn. Say there are four. The bell witch would respond with four nox. And so people are doing these tests trying to like understand how intelligent the entity is. But it seemed like the bell witch didn't like all of the questions that was asked of her. The more people who came to the house, the more the bell witch started to act out. Which I understand because I'm like, I'm not a monkey. Don't make me dance for you. I have one intention and it's not to like play around with you guys. It's to kill John Bell. You're getting in the way. But visitors reported being slapped in the face by unseen hands. They had objects thrown at them from an invisible assailant. And the spirit of the bell witch would speak intelligibly and even repeated sermons word for word. There was one occurrence where she starts repeating and reciting two sermons basically word for word. And she says that these are sermons that were said today at the exact same time in two different places in Tennessee. Yeah. They were like, I'm going to bunch of this, but I think they were like 13 or 14 miles apart the churches. Yeah. 13 miles apart. Yeah. Do we write it? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. 13 miles apart. Which has spooky. It's like how was she everywhere all at once? Which reminds me of a lot of similarities that we hear in demonic cases. So I understand why people will be like, this is evil. You're defying rational thought and using religion like you're, you're using religion in like a mocking way almost like to threaten our safety. But my favorite part is that she also knew gossip. So she would like tell scandalous details to people. So she knew gossip from all over town, yeah. Back of the pews collecting all that good gossip. Yeah. From 1818, well into 1819, the bell which became a bit of a celebrity, more and more people rushed to the bellhouse to talk to her and also to test her, but not everyone came to the bellhouse as a believer. So of course, some people are coming in, being like, oh, let me like, disprove this so cold haunting. You're thinking it's a parlor trick, like it's some sort of performance that the bell family themselves have perfected. Right. So people traveled miles to talk to this witch to see if they could prove her spiritual powers or that the bells were tricking everyone. The bell which seemed to pass every single test given to her and any suspicions about the bell family were quickly forgotten because the spirit was basically accepted as being very much real. This was the real deal. There was no sort of tom foolery happening, no trickery, no parlor tricks. But when it came to talking about the circumstances that brought her ghost to the bellhouse, she wasn't always consistent, which is why this is kind of like a weird part of the story. But like if you're a ghost who's trying to harm someone in the family, like, I'm not going to show all my cards. I'm not going to be like, yeah, so I'm actually so and so, and I'm back from the dead to I'm not going to give you everything. And you really broke the parts, I am back for you. Yeah, you don't say everything. So sometimes she stuck to her original story, which was that she was buried nearby and her grave was disrupted. Other times she talked about being a spirit from a defiled need of American burial ground in the area. But despite her inconsistencies, the bell which became a fixture in this community and a torsed attraction that still exists to this day. You know what I'm thinking? It's the first time I thought of it, but based on what we do know about the bill of which in like more details, we'll share in a minute, it does feel like she's gotten stronger and stronger and she's almost like gaining energy from other things in the world that I'm curious if like she is partnering up with the spirit that now she's like this amalgamation of everything that's happened. And they're all kind of like, it's almost like the amalgamation of redemption. Yeah. Because when we first originally talked about this years and years and years ago on Two Realms and Ghost, we were talking about the idea that this is a woman who just like, it doesn't mean that Kate bats herself is doing this, but rather this like angry piece of her soul had chipped off and festered and created this sort of pultergeist energy. So it's not truly Kate, but it's a piece of her. Right. So like, yeah, what's to say that like all those angry pieces that are looking for vengeance aren't. Don't absorb together into this one like crazy dark cloud of power. This is actually such a fun fact. It's hard to validate for certain, but it is rumored that even future president Andrew Jackson wanted to visit the Bellwitch House himself. And according to the authenticated history of the Bellwitch, which is written by Martin V. Ingram in 1894, it is written that in 1819 Andrew Jackson, who was a general at that time, had heard of the Bellwitch hauntings from two of the bell sons because they had served under him in some battle. So Andrew Jackson and his posse were like, let's load up the carriage and head to the Bellwitch farm. And almost immediately the hauntings began. So they near the property, like they're at the property line about to go up to the driveway, when suddenly the wagon just stopped. Even the horses are trying to continue forward, but the wagon stopped as if the carriage was like being seized by unseen hands. Jackson supposedly cried out in that moment, "By the eternal boys, it is the witch." The witch then spoke as a disembodied voice coming from everywhere and nowhere. She told the men, "You may proceed, but I will see you later this evening." And she kept her promise. That evening Jackson and his men were settled in when one of the men posted that he could conquer this evil spirit. And I can't remember exactly what he said, but I feel like it was something, some threat with like his silver bullet. Yeah. Again, it was like some big like, "Look at me, mama, mama, come on, come on, come on." Yeah. Vampire Hunter. Yeah. And so the men are laughing. And they're like, "Oh, oh, oh, they're encouraging him." Oh, oh, oh. You know, as the men do. Yeah. But like booty tap. You got this brother. That's what the spank is asked when he walks by, "We love you, man, bra." But just then the man who challenged the spirit and was encouraged by all of these other guys around him is suddenly and viciously picked up and thrown across the room. His body is ripped into the air by this unseen force and he later said as though it felt like his entire body was being stabbed repeatedly and then he was shoved out the door. And then the witch spoke and said that there was a fraud amongst them and she will return for the fraud the next day. And so all these guys are like begging Andrew Jackson to leave because holy crap. Are they going to be the next one thrown against the wall? This is so scary. Andrew Jackson is like, "Well, I kind of want to see who the fraud is." Right. So he does not let the man leave until the next morning or so the plan was to leave. That was the plan. Yes. But they fled in the middle of the night. And while the details of what exactly happened that night are not known, Andrew Jackson supposedly declared, quote, "I'd rather fight the British than the bellwitch." Which is a very catchy sentence. I know. Yeah. So it seemed now that the bellwitch was gaining more and more power and her intent on violence even more keen. And it wasn't long until her energy proved to be deadly. Behind the crowds, John is fighting something more personal. An illness that no doctor could explain. Tonight, John helps his wife set the table for their guest, Reverend Sugg Fort. It's not often that a man of God enters their home. But now, with everything going on, they could really use more holy support than ever. Dinner begins pleasantly enough. Though Reverend Fort can see that these years of torment have really taken their toll on John Bell specifically. The jovial, happy man that Reverend once knew has now turned into a shell of himself. John looks haggard, exhausted, just really generally unwell. At some point during the meal, John grimly pushes his plate away. According to the Reverend, he explains the strange paralysis that he's been experiencing in his mouth. The workings of the bellwitch, of course. But John reassures his guests that it comes in waves and will eventually pass. But before he could say another word, John's chair shoots out from under him, sending him crashing down to the floor. His body starts convulsing, choking, his hands clawing at his throat, and John begins vomiting uncontrollably. The room fills with the disembodied sounds of laughter, and through the noise, the familiar, spine tingling sound of the bellwitch herself cuts through. The Reverend is terrified. He prays in hopes that he can cast the spirit out. Slowly, John begins to regain his faculties. He cries out into the room, asking the bellwitch and God himself why this is happening to him. But the bellwitch isn't moved by his plea. Instead, she laughs again. And she tells him there's a special spot in hell reserved just for him. And she's going to take him there herself. A sudden gust of wind blows through the house, and one by one, every candle is snuffed out. Now swallowed by darkness, the family listens in terror, as John bell shrieks in pain as if he's being beaten, over, and over again. Finally, the family is able to light a candle or two and race to John bell, and they see his body is covered in terrible red waltz, as if he had literally been whipped. It is very clear that the bellwitch wanted to hurt John bell. And after this dinner, John's health rapidly declined. It was clear to anyone who saw John that something was physically wrong with him, and it was only going to get worse. In early December of 1820, John went out for a walk through the fields with his sons. The morning was calm and pleasant until John felt like someone had stuck out a leg to trip him. He fell to the ground. It was just like this terrible night at dinner. He was getting flashbacks. He started to hear the disembodied laughter of the bellwitch. She was sneering. She was cruel. And then it whispered to John, as he laid there on the ground, "Your place is in hell, old John bell." She's rhyming. I like it. Yeah. It was just a little bit of a sense of juice, though which his voice grew stronger and the whispers turned into a scream. And then suddenly John just felt like she was screaming from everywhere all at once. Every bit of space was taken up by her shrieking Bible verses at him. And the voice started speaking one word over and over again. John bell convulsed on the ground, helpless against the spirit, as his sons are watching above him and terror. Right. And eventually the spirit does leave and John slowly regained his strength. So again, just like that night at dinner. And it's one of those things where you hear how much she was tormenting him. And in my mind, I'm like, just killed a guy. Like why are you prolonging this? But it's very clear she is savoring, enjoying the torture. She feels he deserves to be tortured for whatever reason it may be. Yeah. So with the help of his sons, John does stand up and he makes his way back to the house, but his body is, it's just suffered this extreme shock, right? And his health is already declining. And it is now after this event, taking a serious nose dive. John couldn't get out of bed and he relied completely on his family to care for him. Local physician prescribed him three separate medications to help him with these episodes. And it was up to his son, John Jr. to administer this medicine. But on the morning of December 19th, 1820, John Jr. went to go to the medicine cabinet to grab the three tinctures. There's always this is what he does every day to take care of his father, but he's confused because apparently instead of the three tinctures, there's only one in there. And this is a bottle he had never seen before. It doesn't look like the other three bottles he's confused. And inside he sees this like strange muddy liquid in there. John Jr. stares at this bizarre new discovery. And all of a sudden, he hears that menacing voice of the bellwitch once more. He told John Jr. that there was no use trying to care for his father anymore. Because the night before, she gave him a helping dose of that strange liquid. And that quote fixed him. John Jr. is reading between the lines, right? He knows the bellwitch's intentions. And if the bellwitch is telling the truth, then that vile that he had just seen that she supposedly gave to him, that is poison. And she had just killed his father. So he rushes to his dad's bedside, obviously, and shakes him violently, but sure enough, his father, John Bell, will not budge. By December 20th, 1820, John Bell was pronounced dead. And honestly, this is one of my least favorite details of the story, but it's like reported everywhere. So I'm just going to say it. John Jr. apparently upon discovering his dad's lifeless body decides to like use that tingsure bottle and give some of it to the cat, the family cat, be like, my dad's dead, the witch that I poisoned him. Let me just make sure that this is poison gives it to the cat, the cat died. It's like, what is the point? It's horrible. It's terrible. Yeah. Okay. So we sure are at the beginning of the bellwitch's spirit appeared at John's funeral to glow that her mission had been accomplished. She killed John Bell. Mm-hmm. People say that the haunting ceased after John Bell's death, but that is not true. Nope. She continued to torment one other family member, Betsy Bell, his daughter. So following her father's death, Betsy was still tormented by the witch who continued to demand that she end her relationship with her fiance, Joshua Gardner. The bellwitch chastised Betsy, beat her, truly physically abusing this poor girl, leaving welts and marks all over her body and years after years of being berated over and over by the bellwitch, Betsy finally gave in and she was like, okay, fine, I'm going to break off my engagement. And then only then did the spirit leave. Okay. So this is what brings me to my whole opinion about how I don't believe the bellwitch spirit was an evil entity. Sure, she killed John Bell and killing is bad. We can all agree there. And she was beating, and she was beating. And that's terrible, but I do have a couple theories. One, in like allah American haunting, is that what it's called the American haunting, where the abuse that's happening, like maybe the bellwitch wasn't actually physically assaulting Betsy and Betsy's fiance, Joshua was, but she was embarrassed or scared to tell her family and she said that the bellwitch, or she convinced herself it was the bellwitch is made a cope with it, which if you've seen the American haunting, that movie, that's what. That's the idea. Sorry to ruin it. There. But it is said in like a lot of the reports about this story that most of the assaults from the bellwitch happened when Betsy was with Joshua. So it's interesting timing. Second theory, maybe the bellwitch knew something would happen if Betsy married Joshua, that she was just like, at first it started out, it was like, "Hey, don't marry him. Hey, don't marry him." And then Betsy wasn't listening. And it was like, "I have to show how serious I am about this." Well, I don't agree with abusing a young girl. It worked. Yeah. And she didn't marry Joshua. It's hard because these are theories because like, what if Joshua was perfect in it? But you don't know. We have a marriage. We don't know. And also, why not just like turn your intents on Joshua? Beat up Joshua? It's all just so confusing. Yeah. But whatever it is, whatever the truth, I genuinely don't believe the spirit was evil. I do think she was trying to protect the bell family from John and from evil or evil men who would maybe later do harm to them. Well, that's an interesting theory because I feel like the bellwitch, obviously, she took a lot out on John. Well, she killed him. She took a lot out on him. She more than took things out on him. She poisoned him. She took his life. Two death. But she had this intense soft spot for his wife, Lucy. She loved Lucy. She would sing her hymns, she would shower her praise, and at one point this is my favorite sheet. She said about Lucy, quote, "The most perfect woman to ever walk the face of the earth." it's like the bell which was Lucy's number one fan. - She loves Lucy. She wanted Lucy to herself. - Yeah. - It's interesting. In my mind, it was like almost romantic, but then there are theories that they were related. - Right. - And so that there was some sort of connection with the bellwitch trying to protect her and maybe Betsy and just like the women of the family from the men. - The men. - We can't say for certain. - We can't. - Yeah, we're here. What do you guys think? - Yeah, let us know. - What do you know? - The bellwitch, the bell spirit, she disappears in 1821. But before she leaves, she tells the family that she would return in seven years. (laughing) Sure enough, in 1828, the bellwitch returned and immediately began haunting the bell family all over again. But this time it's different. And not in a violent haunting, her energies are focused on John Bell Jr. But she's talking to him about like philosophy and predicting the future. She apparently predicted several major wars, the Civil War and even potentially the World Wars. She also allegedly spoke on machines that would fly through the air and carriages that would move without horses. And after two weeks, the bellwitch is like, great, you and I, John Bell Jr. We've pontificated enough a plenty. I'm gonna leave again. My business here is done. But again, before she leaves, she tells John Bell Jr. I will return this time in 107 years, which would have been 1935. But there are no reported sightings from 1935, right? And now that we know the history and the retellings of the bellwitch, we're left with some questions. One, is any of this true at all? Great question. Well, it's really hard to say, because travel back in time. This story has really only been shared in oral retellings up until 1894. So some 70 plus years after the hauntings began, did we start getting some written account? Documentation, right. Martin Van Buren, Ingram, was a newspaper editor, not far from where the bells lived, and he made a career at printing local history and moral tales. So he'd long heard of the bellwitch in this area, 'cause he grew up in the area. But there had never been any formal documentation of the history of this legend. So apparently Ingram got his hands on a personal diary that belonged to Richard Williams Bell, John Bell's youngest son. And this diary was what he used to basically publish the first written details of the hauntings. And using this diary, Ingram wrote the book, authenticated history of the bellwitch, and that was released in 1894. And I love this idea. I love the idea of growing up with this legend and being like, I want to document it and write it down so it doesn't get lost to history. Intent, great. But there are a couple of problems. One, Richard Bell was only six years old when all of this started happening. So is a six-year-old writing "Dear Diary," my father was fermented in the woods today. I was like, I don't know. He said to me, quote, "I want to kill your father." Secondly, no one has seen this diary, the supposed a diary or manuscript, except for Martin Ingram. Convenient. That is very convenient. And there's no record of Andrew Jackson ever visiting the bellhouse outside of Martin Ingram's book, which you would think, especially Andrew Jackson, at the time, having been a general, going with his posse, and then also becoming a president. Like, you would think that there would be some more documentation regarding him. Yeah, although he was on the career path to try to be president, so running from a witch could have ruined his family's farm. Like, that is not the reputation you want of a general leader. Bad rep, it is. But okay, so then this is the most interesting piece that kind of came to me recently because, on Two Girls One Ghosts, we recently covered the story of Mother Shipton, who is this amazing witch who has said to have lived in the 1500s in York, England. I just started to see there were so many ties between the bellwitch story and the story of Mother Shipton, even going as far as the cave. And that kind of just hit me. Like, because Mother Shipton was born in a cave, Mother Shipton existed in the 1500s, but her story and her prophecies that she made were not published, like, or written until 1862. And in that text, her prophecies were documented, which those prophecies very, very strangely echo. Almost verbatim, the prophecies that Martin Ingram wrote in his book in 1894. Yeah, so 30 years later. Yeah, so he got the book. Right, 'cause it's literally like cars will fly, something about planes. It's also Mother Shipton made prophecies about wars. I feel like he just altered them to fit a different text. And as we know, the story of the bellwitch has nothing to do with the cave up to this point, right? Yeah. But it's not even mentioned. It's not even mentioned, but Mother Shipton was born in a cave, and I feel like those two stories kind of started to meld together. There's a cave on the bellwitch property. Yeah, it's like a walking distance, easy walking distance from where the actual house was, so maybe it just all kind of came together. Right. Interesting. Well, the bellwitch, where is she? We don't know. We don't know. She may have disappeared, but her story lives on, and it even inspired one of the most famous modern horror movies to date. The Blair Witch Branch. I didn't know. I don't think I knew this either. I was like, what? Let me look that up and double check it, sure enough. Yeah. So the movie tells the story of a group of filmmakers who go into the woods and search for the Blair Witch, a local legend that's pretty similar to the bellwitch. And some have even speculated that the bellwitch inspired some parts of the 1982 movie "Polter Guest." So good and so creepy, the idea that a family is being haunted by the spirits of a burial ground. The legend has also extended far past the bellhouse itself, which is like we're saying, the bellwitch cave, which now sits on the land that was once owned by the bell family, remains a popular tourist destination for people interested in the story. People like us. And despite having nothing to do with the original legend, the bellwitch cave is considered by some to be one of the most haunted places in America. People flock to the cave, even now, two centuries after the original haunting, to see if they might catch a glimpse of the bellwitch herself. But we did not catch her. And no, though when we were there, the tour guide had said that in the couple months before we were there, there was a group in the cave. And all of them suddenly heard this woman shriek from the back of the cave. And people were like fumbling and scratching into walls, trying to get out of the cave, everyone runs out. And then within that week, they caught a mountain lion on some of their cameras set up, their trail cams, and realized that there was a mountain lion in the cave with them, and that's what was shrieking. So not the bellwitch, but honestly, it's potentially scarier. Yeah. I also feel like, did you ever watch the outsider that it's based on Stephen King novel, It's on HBO Max? The whole family did, actually. Doesn't it kind of remind you of that? There's this energy in the cave. And there's a longer cave system that's happening. It's paranormal. It is paranormal. Well, if you're a believer in the paranormal like we are, then the bellwitch is an extremely important and also a very scary story. It's one of the most well-documented cases of poltergeist activity in history. But not everyone felt that way. Lots of questions still hang in the air. Was the bell family really tormented by a disembodied spirit? Did John Bell really die at the hands of a ghost? Or was it nothing more than a very successful trek? The answer to those questions might have been lost to time. But we do know these things. Four years, the bell family reported horrifying supernatural events at their home. And during that time, countless people came to visit the house and witnessed these happenings themselves. Many skeptics tried to disprove the hauntings, but nobody was able to. And when John Bell died, everyone believed that it was at the hands of the bellwitch. So was the bellwitch a real spirit who was responsible for years of torment? Well, I guess now that's up to all of you and each of us to decide for ourselves. And until next week, Mommies, we love you. Thanks for joining us. [MUSIC PLAYING] Thanks so much for listening. We are your host, Sabrina Diana Broga, and Corinne Vien. Join us next Tuesday for another peek inside another crimes of the paranormal. And if there are any cases you would like us to cover, please let us know in the comments. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. And if you like what you heard today, reach out on all social media at Crime House. Don't forget to rate, review, and follow crimes of wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference. Bye, Mommies. [LAUGHS] Looking for your next podcast? Check out what the fact. It's a new show from Connor Tomlinson, who know from Netflix's love on the spectrum, alongside Carter Roy. 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