THE BELL WITCH HAUNTING

The Bell Witch haunting is the name given to a series of supposedly real events associated with the family of John Bell in Adams Station, Tennessee (Robertson County), between 1817 and 1821. It is alleged that many of these events were witnessed and documented by hundreds of people - among them future President of the United States Andrew Jackson - and that the episode represents one of the most famous and heavily documented instances of a haunting in history, although this view has been seriously challenged by skeptical investigators.

The Bell Witch is believed by some to be the spirit of Kate Batts, an old neighbor of John Bell who was involved with him in a dispute of the sale of a slave or piece of land. She swore on her deathbed to get even and after she died, the haunting began. Rumor has it that the spirit once referred to itself as "Kate Batts' witch". There is no documentation of this, however, and many now believe that the ghost had nothing to do with Kate Batts. Indeed, modern researchers have found that Mrs. Batts actually outlived Mr. Bell. The stories of a piece of land or slave sale conflict involving John Bell have documentation although in neither case is there any connection to Kate Batts. One has a connection to a distant cousin of hers.

The problems started around 1817, after the death of Kate Batts. As John Bell was inspecting his rows of corn one day, he saw an odd bird with almost human features sitting on a fencepost. He raised his shotgun and shot at the creature, but it remained unscathed and flew off unharmed. Several days later, he encountered a snarling dog-like creature in the corn, and once again shot at it, but the creature just disappeared before his eyes. The Bell children began seeing odd creatures in the woods surrounding their farm and a mysterious old woman could be seen sometimes wandering through their orchard. Then came scratching, knocking sounds as if some animal were trying to get inside their house, but upon opening the door saw nothing. Eventually the noises moved indoors, including the loud sounds of wings flapping against the ceiling and dogs fighting.

The "witch" reportedly manifested herself as an invisible presence at first, gnawing on the bedposts, scratching at the walls, and jerking the blankets off of sleeping family members and guests. Two of those guests were one of John Bell's closest friends and his wife, who spent the night after John Bell disclosed the witch's haunting. Later, those in the house heard horrid noises, like that of someone strangling or choking, lips smacking, and loud gulping. Eventually the spirit began trying to speak, first whispering faintly, then later gaining power, enabling this entity to speak directly to anyone in the room. Often she would converse, sing, shriek, curse, and physically interact with the Bell family and other witnesses - most times with a high degree of physical violence.

'Kate', as everyone eventually called her, did not hesitate to slap, pinch, or claw those whom she considered deserving of her wrath. Once, during the haunting, an entire 'family' of spirits, who called themselves a 'witch family', appeared to arrive and began speaking with those in the house. It is notable to see that in our recorded history, this is one of few poltergeist cases where the entities could actually speak.

The spirit also seemed to have a divine knowledge of things, such as being able to quote any scripture in the Bible flawlessly, predict the future, sing any hymn or song requested of it, or see events unfolding great distances away, accurately reporting the events later. Guests at the Bell farm were often horrified when the spirit would attack them verbally and divulge the most secret events of their lives to onlookers.

The earliest written account is in the Goodspeed History of Tennessee published in 1886. No author is given, although Albert Virgil Goodpasture (1855-1942) is a suspected author. Page 833 gives an example of phenomena when they were at their height: “A remarkable occurrence, which attracted widespread interest, was connected with the family of John Bell, who settled near what is now Adams Station about 1804. So great was the excitement that people came from hundreds of miles around to witness the manifestations of what was popularly known as the "Bell Witch." This witch was supposed to be some spiritual being having the voice and attributes of a woman. It was invisible to the eye, yet it would hold conversation and even shake hands with certain individuals. The freaks it performed were wonderful and seemingly designed to annoy the family. It would take the sugar from the bowls, spill the milk, take the quilts from the beds, slap and pinch the children, and then laugh at the discomfiture of its victims. At first it was supposed to be a good spirit, but its subsequent acts, together with the curses with which it supplemented its remarks, proved the contrary. A volume might be written concerning the performance of this wonderful being, as they are now described by contemporaries and their descendants. That all this actually occurred will not be disputed, nor will a rational explanation be attempted. It is merely introduced as an example of superstition, strong in the minds of all but a few in those times, and yet not wholly extinct.”

This ongoing attack on the Bell family is also described in the Guidebook for Tennessee, published in 1933 by the Federal Government's Works Project Administration: “The Bells were tormented for years by the malicious spirit of Old Kate Batts. John Bell and his favorite daughter Betsy were the principal targets. Toward the other members of the family the witch was either indifferent or, as in the case of Mrs. Bell, friendly. No one ever saw her, but every visitor to the Bell home heard her all too well. Her voice, according to one person who heard it, "spoke at a nerve-racking pitch when displeased, while at other times it sang and spoke in low musical tones." The spirit of Old Kate led John and Betsy Bell a merry chase. She threw furniture and dishes at them. She pulled their noses, yanked their hair, poked needles into them. She yelled all night to keep them from sleeping, and snatched food from their mouths at mealtime.”

Old Kate tormented the family, especially John and his youngest daughter Betsy, while being indifferent to others and even especially fond of Mrs. Bell. She often referred to Mrs. Bell as 'Luce', and often said to others in the house, "Luce is a good woman." Later during the haunting, when Mrs. Bell became gravely ill with pleurisy, the spirit even deigned to stop the more terrifying antics so that Mrs. Bell could rest more easily. She would offer to sing hymns to her, or any song Mrs. Bell requested in the hopes of making her feel better. Once, when the afflicted woman was especially ill and others feared for her life, she stopped eating completely. The spirit pleaded with her to eat something, and when she wouldn't, the spirit offered to get her some walnuts from the nearby forest, in hopes of tempting her to eat. Minutes later, those in the room witnessed Kate return, and heard her ask Mrs. Bell to hold out her hands. When she did, they reported a shower of walnuts fell into her outstretched palms. When she did not eat them right away, the spirit asked her, " Say, Luce...why don't you eat the nuts? " To this Mrs. Bell responded, " I have no way to crack them, Kate." Seconds after this, witnesses reported hearing cracking sounds, and saw the shells crumbling beneath some unseen force. Later, Mrs. Bell recovered from her illness, and Kate soon went back to her normal antics.

In 1818, John Bell came down with a mysterious illness that affected his tongue and jaw and made chewing and swallowing difficult for him. Word soon got out about the spirit’s activity. People came in droves to witness this phenomena. Those who spent the night were subjected to derisive laughter and having the sheets yanked off them. One man from the area, Frank Miles, a rather large, stout, person came to the Bell house and volunteered to crush the Witch in his powerful grip. He spent the night at the Bell home waiting for the opportunity to give the witch a thrashing, but instead had his sheets yanked off as well and the witch struck him on the face and head with some of the most powerful blows he had taken. The witch then screamed at him to give up, because he could not win a struggle with a spirit.

Another visitor was Andrew Jackson, who was to later become president. At the time, Jackson was living about 35 miles away on the outskirts of Nashville, and Jackson apparently decided that he could "tame this monster." Jackson, along with some friends, were riding on horseback and following along to the rear of a wagon as they approached near the farm, discussing the matter and planning how they were going to deal with the witch. Just then, traveling over a smooth level piece of road, the wagon halted and stuck fast. The driver popped his whip and shouted to the team, and the horses pulled with all of their might, but could not move the wagon an inch. It was stuck as if welded to the earth. Gen. Jackson commanded all men to dismount and put their shoulders to the wheels and give the wagon a push, but all in vain; the wagon would not budge. The wheels were then taken off, one at a time, and examined and found to be all right, revolving easily on the axles. Gen. Jackson, realizing that they were in a fix, threw up his hands exclaiming, "By the eternal, boys, it is the witch." Then came the sound of a sharp voice from the bushes, saying, "All right General, let the wagon move on, I will see you again to-night." The men in bewildered astonishment looked in every direction to see if they could discover from where the strange voice came, but could find no explanation to the mystery. The horses then started unexpectedly of their own accord, and the wagon rolled along as light and smoothly as ever.

They were not disappointed when they arrived at the Bell’s. Betsy screamed all night from the pinching and slapping she received from the Witch, and Jackson's covers were ripped off as quickly as he could put them back on; his entire party were slapped, pinched and had their hair pulled by the witch until morning, when Jackson and his men decided to hightail it out of Adams. Jackson was later quoted as saying, "I'd rather fight the British the New Orleans than to have to fight the Bell Witch."

The character of the Witch was enigmatic. While she tortured John and Betsy Bell, and the slaves the Bell owned (she would periodically flog them), she was also known to sing hymns and preach not only to the Bells' but others in the community. Young Betsy was madly in love with a neighbor, Joshua Gardner, and it pleased both families when they announced their engagement. But the Witch said if she married Josh Gardner, she would never know a moment's peace and proceeded to pinch and slap Betsy until she bled, and also tied her hair in knots. Finally, Betsy called off the engagement. The Witch was somewhat appeased saying that there were good reasons. For reasons unknown, however, “Kate” allowed Betsy to marry her schoolteacher Richard Powell. This leads some to claim that perhaps the haunting was a hoax perpetrated by Powell. It seems Powell was deeply in love with the young Betsy and would do anything to destroy her relationship with Gardner. Through a variety of pranks, tricks, and with the help of several accomplices, it is theorized that Powell created all of the "effects" of the ghost to scare Gardner away.

Indeed, Gardner was the target of much of the witch's violent taunting, and he eventually did break up with Betsy and left the area. It has never been satisfactorily explained, however, how Powell achieved all these remarkable effects, including paralyzing Andrew Jackson’s wagon. Nor was it explained how Powell could have managed to slap, pinch and claw people without being noticed. No theories were forthcoming for other miraculous events that fascinated those who witnessed them, such as the moving of objects, predicting the future, divulging secrets, and the eventual poisoning of John Bell. But guilty or not, Powell did come out the winner. He eventually married Betsy Bell.

In 1820 John Bell, while wlking to the pigsty of the farm, was once again stricken with the ailment of the jaw and tongue except now much worse. His face was constantly contorted in pain. Some believe that he suffered a stroke, since thereafter he had difficulty speaking and swallowing. In and out of bed for several weeks, his health declined. At times his condition seemed to be improving, but the Witch said she would kill him. In his last days as he tried to walk around his yard, the Witch would knock his shoes off his feet and knock him too the ground. His son, John Jr. would tie the shoes to his feet as tight as possible, but that did not deter the Witch who in fits of rage would beat him terribly, sending him to bed and needing a doctor. "I've got Old Jack this time!", she laughed to the others, "He'll never get up from that bed again!"

The Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee, tells what happened next: “On the morning of December 19, John Bell failed to awake at his regular time. When the family noticed he was sleeping unnaturally long, they attempted to arouse him. They discovered Bell was in a stupor and couldn't be completely awakened. John Jr. went to the medicine cupboard to get his father’s medicine and noticed it was gone with a strange vial in its place containing a dark liquid. No one claimed to have replaced the medicine with the vial. A doctor was summoned to the house. The witch began taunting that she had place the vial in the medicine cabinet and given Bell a dose of it while he slept. Contents of the vial were tested on a cat and discovered to be highly poisonous. John Bell died on the following day, December 20. "Kate" was quiet until after the funeral. After the grave was filled, the witch began singing loudly and joyously. This continued until all friends and family left the grave site.”

The Bell Witch left the Bell household in 1821, saying that her work was finished and that she would return in seven years time. She made good on her promise and "appeared" at the home of John Bell, Jr. where, it is said, she left him with prophecies of future events, including the Civil War, and World Wars I and II, and the Great Depression. (However it should be noted that this was not mentioned until a book written by a descendent of the Bells in 1934 and many believe it to be something that was added to make the story more exciting.) The Witch came in the same manner as before, with scratching noises and shreiks, but stayed only a few weeks The ghost said it would reappear 107 years later – in 1935 – but if she did, no one in Adams ever came forward as a witness to it.

A 2004 investigation by the Middle Tennessee Skeptics concluded that the tale of the Bell Witch is almost entirely a fabrication founded entirely on later elaborations of the diary of Richard William Bell. Bell's diary was written some 30 years after the events they purport to describe, which took place when the author was a child of 5-10 years old. The investigation turned up no evidence that any of the other alleged participants in the events ever recorded anything of their experiences. In particular, there is no record in Andrew Jackson's journals of his ever having visited the Bells, or of any encounter by him with a supernatural being. This directly conflicts with claims of Bell Witch supporters that the story is the most documented haunting in history.











Today, the "spirit" which haunted the Bell family nearly 200 years ago is believed by many to be the source of numerous manifestations in the area where the legend allegedly took place. Some believe that when "Kate" returned in 1935, "she" took residence in a cave on the old Bell property. Sometimes, the faint sounds of people talking and children playing can be heard near the back of the cave. A picture recently taken of a sinkhole near the cave revealed rising ectoplasm in the shape of a face exhibiting great pain. In the mid-1990's, a picture was taken of a girl sitting on a rock outside the cave's entrance. When the picture was developed, there appeared to be a man standing behind her. Upon expert examination, it was determined that the man-like image was not a double-exposure, but an entirely separate entity.

Several years ago, one of John Bell's descendants was hunting near Springfield, TN. While searching under some dense brush, he felt a large rock. The rock turned out to be part of the tombstone of his great-great grandfather, Joel Egbert Bell. It also has been said that if you visit the fields of the old Bell farm on dark, cold and rainy nights, you can sometimes see small lights, gliding over the fields and dancing in a sinister way - just as they did back in 1818. Pictures taken near the cave and the old Bell farm have shown various anomalies such as orbs, people who are not there, and face-like symbols on the walls of the cave. There are many other similar stories of late nineteenth and twentieth century encounters with the so-called "Bell Witch." It was said to have been the inspiration behind the "Blair Witch Project" (1999) and a film in its own right, "An American Haunting" in 2006. The events surrounding the Bell household continue to be hotly debated today nearly two centuries after the fact.