the bell witch

By
Bobette Bryan

One of the most notorious American ghost stories of all time is the story about the Bell Witch. The Bell Witch wasn't really a witch, but was a ghost or possibly even a demon. Tennesseans also sometimes refer to her as: "Ol' Kate." This entity plagued the home of John Bell, a Clarksville, Tennessee cotton plantation owner of the earnly nineteenth century. John and his wife, had moved to Robertson County Tennessee from North Carolina. The woman whom John Bell bought his farm from, Kate Batts, claimed, to any and all who would listen, that she had been cheated by Bell, but no one paid attention to her and dismissed her accusations as mere senile ramblings. Kate Batts then swore that she would get even with John Bell, even if she had to come back from the grave to so. But whether the entity that stalked and terrorized the Bells for years was Kate Batts is unknown. Personally, however, I'm more inclined to believe that it was a demon.

Though the problems did start around the time of her death in 1817, that could be mere coincidence. It began when John Bell was inspecting his rows of corn one day. He saw a bird that caused him alarm, for the creature had a face with human-like features. As it sit on the fencepost, staring at him, John shot at the bird, but missed. Unharmed, it flew away. Several days later, he encountered a snarling dog-like creature in the cornfield, and once again he shot at it, but this time the creature vanished before his very eyes.

The nine Bell children began seeing odd things as well. There were often sightings of creatures in the woods surrounding the farm and of a mysterious old woman sometimes wandering through their orchard. Then came the scratching, knocking sounds as if some animal were trying to burrow through the wall and get inside the house. Yet, when the Bells searched for the animal, they'd find nothing. Apparently the creature found some means of entrance for eventually the noises moved indoors, and often the family heard the loud sounds of wings flapping against the ceiling and dogs snarling and growling. These occurances sound more like a demonic manifestation rather than a typical haunting. The old saying is that you should never answer the door after three knocks, least you invite the Devil into your house. Could the Bell's have unwittingly done this?

When word of the haunting got around no one could understand why such a foul entity would pester such a devout, religious family. Among those who wanted to aid the family in this crisis was General Andrew Jackson, who had masterminded the stirring victory at the Battle of New Orleans in 1812, and later became the seventh President of the United States. When he heard about how the ghost was tormenting the Bell family, he decided that a visit to John, his long time friend, was in order.

The trouble began as soon as his army wagon drew near, for his horses stood dead in their tracks, refusing to budge an inch even when the driver shouted and ferociously whipped them. The horses reportedly strained and pulled, attempting to move forward, but to no avail. It was as if some invisble force held them at bay.

When a voice echoed from somewhere in the darkness, "Go on, old General," the horses suddenly moved again. This convinced Jackson that there really was a terrible entity residing on the Bell property. "By the eternal, Boys!" he proclaimed to his men. "It is the witch!"

Nevertheless, Jackson's determination to learn more about the spectre didn't falter, and he and his entourage spent the night at the Bell home.

They were not disappointed! Betsy Bell screamed all night from the pinching and slapping she received from the ghost, and Jackson's covers were ripped off as quickly as he could put them back on. His entire party had similar experiences, being slapped, pinched, and poked by the ghost throughout the night. Unsurprisingly, by the time morning arrived, Jackson and his men were ready to hightail it out of there. Years later, after Jackson had taken office, he said: "I saw nothing, but I heard enough to convince me that I would rather fight the British than to deal with this torment they call the Bell Witch!"

Shortly after Jackson left the home, the supernatural activitiy within the Bell house intensified. The commotion rapidly worsed, and the knocking and rapping was incessant, so violent that it broke windows and shook walls. The roof of the place was pelted with what sounded like stones, but these projectiles were invisible. The family even heard heavy, invisible chains being dragged across the wooden floors.

Even worse were the attacks on the children who were chased from their beds by the fearful noise of scratching, gnawing. One night Richard Bell's hair was harshly grabbed by an invisible hand and yanked so harshly that the boy was pulled from the comfort of his bed. This mode of attack became common place in the Belle household. Often Betsy was the victim.

When neighbor Jim Jones, a self-proclaimed exorcist heard about the haunting, he too went to the Bell Manor to see if he could help. After he performed an exorcism, the nightmare stopped for a little while, but all too soon, the spirit returned with a vengeance.

Again, it targeted the children...seeming to focus on Betsy... pulling little Betsy's hair and slapping her cheeks until they bleed. Desperate, John and his wife decided to send the girl to a neighbor's home to spend the night, but the spirit followed her there, and continued the attack.

Soon, the girl's health suffered from the abuse. As the months passed, she grew weaker and weaker, having fainting spellls and difficulty breathing, the common affects of anxiety. It was around this time that the spirit started speaking, making its voice heard to all the members of the family in clear and understandable words. Maybe the entity had learned the language in the months it had haunted the family or maybe it had somehow summoned more power.

The spirit's desire to speak became more profound as the the days passed, and it began to recite verses from the bible, or it would utter ghastly threats. Often, it would laugh maniacially over it's many foul actions.

Skeptics believed that it was 12 year old Betsy herself who was responsible for the haunting, claiming that she was using sleight of hand, ventriloquism, and other tricks in order to attract attention. But this theory was quickly ruled out when a doctor came to stay the night at the house. When the ghost starting spewing its horrible curses, he tightly covered Betsy's mouth...while the witch continued to cackle and taunt him. Betsy wasn't even in the room the night that William Porter, another neighbor who tried to help the family, stayed overnight.

As porter lay sleeping, the covers were ripped from his body and wrapped into a ball. The man bolted upright, grabbing the ball of quilting, which he intended to toss it into the fireplace, but the blanket was unusually heavy when he lifted it. While he stood there wondering what to do, a foul order permeated the air, which became so strong that he was forced to flee the room. When he returned there a few minutes later, the room was back to normal, and the ghost was gone.

Another neighbor, Frank Miles, a rather large, stout fellow, also wanted to help. He came to the Bell house with the full intention of volunteering to crush the Witch in his powerful grip. As he spent the night at the Bell home waiting for the opportunity to give the ghost the thrashing it deserved, the sheets were yanked off him. He quickly learned that he was no match for the strength of the spirit that struck him in the face and on the head. Later he claimed that they were some of the most powerful blows he had ever taken.

Even the Bells' slaves got a taste of the ghost's wickedness. It would periodically flog them.

However, the spirit wasn't always wicked to everyone. The ghost actually appeared to like Mrs. Bell and would sometimes sing to her or do household chores to help her out. It seemed like the spirit's attack on Betsy and John remained the ghost's primary focus. And it almost seemed as if the ghost was jealous of Betsy and wanted to ruin her life.

Soon Betsy grew into a beautiful young woman and had fallen madly in love with a fine young schoolteacher, Joshua Gardner. And though this match had pleased both families when the engagement was announced, the witch wasn't too happy about this turn of events! It promised Betsy that if she married Josh Gardner, she would never know a moment's peace and would be pinched and slapped until she bled. Terrified, Betsy broke-off the engagement.

It seemed that the witch was also determined to destroy Betsy's father.

John Bell's tongue would often become so thick and swollen that he couldn't eat or talk for hours at a time, and he developed an uncontrollable facial twitch, that was sometimes so severe that he'd be forced to stay in bed for days. In his last days as he tried to gain some strength by walking around his yard, but the Witch would wage an attack on him, knocking his shoes off his feet and knocking him to the ground.

His son, John Jr., would tie the shoes as tightly as possible, but that didn't deter the Witch. In fits of rage, it would beat him so terribly that he required a doctor. The doctor prescribed a potion and left, while John Jr. took to his bed, the same time that John Sr. got violently ill.

When the doctor arrived, again, he called for the medicine bottle that he had left for John Jr., but it was missing, and in its place was a thick, dark liquid that would defy analysis. As the Bell's studied the liquid, the witch laughed frantically and said that it had placed it there.

On December 19, 1820, John's family feared the end was near when they found him in a stupor bordering on a coma. As they stood around the bed, the ghost informed them that it had fed John some poison, and it added, "Old Jack Bell will never get out of his bed again!"

The next morning, John was dead in his bed.

But the ghost wouldn't leave well enough alone. It even cursed and sang profane songs during John's funeral.

Strangely, however, after John was dead and Betsy's future happiness ruined, the witch announced to the family that it was going to leave, but would return in seven years.

As promised, it returned in 1828, making a racket like before, but its visit was uneventful, maybe because only Lucy and two of her sons lived there. However, the Bell Witch wasn't finished with the Bell family yet, and it promised to return in 107 years, sometime in 1935, to bother the Bell descendants. Whether that promise was kept, no one really knows. However, in the area where the Bell Witch once haunted the family, visitors claim that they can still feel a foul presence. And perhaps they're right. I pity you if your last name is Bell. There could be a nasty ghost or demon out there looking for you. My advice would be to stay away from Tennessee.

-The End-
thanx to Underworld Classics