Last Podcast On The Left - Episode 428: The Bell Witch Part II - Uncooked Sausage

Episode Date: October 17, 2020

We end our series on the Bell Witch with John Bell's demise and along the way we meet some of the witch's friends. Then we attempt to answer the question: What exactly *is* the Bell Witch anyway?Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

There's no place to escape to this is the last on the left You know I can't wait for 2021 to begin yeah, and when we get out there We're back on the road in the first show we we already planning on this Oh, yeah, you can call the satire if you want, but I'm saying that this is a wish and it's a hope We're gonna go down to Adams County, Tennessee really, and we're gonna do a show just for them We're gonna set up a stage Adam's County. Oh, yeah, beautiful beautiful Adams County And you know what's you know what's kind can see kissle asleep in his bed at night Oh, yeah, and we'll probably have to sleep in some sort of shanty town or burnout 7-11

Absolutely, I can see I can see the feather going up and down as I breathe in next hail. Yeah And Benjamin Grant kissle. Hmm. I see that you are sleeping long companion of the 7-11 I was yeah, but yeah Most excellent you were sleeping. Tell me Benjamin Grant kissle. Oh my tell me, you know I can be anywhere in an instant. It is I hold Kate bats whoa from next door No No But I would tell you I can be anywhere in an instant. I have all knowledge at my disposal

Benjamin Grant kissle Tell me of all the queries of all the knowledge that you seek What is the question that I will answer for you this night? If the moon simply reflects off the Sun, why do we even need it? What's it doing Well, you mean the moon the moon. What the hell is it doing? We give it all the credit in the world all it It's just a mirror So that doesn't do anything you could have asked any question. What's the point of the moon?

It's just it's just bullshit I'm going to leave Oh, yeah, it's the most googleable question the tides it controls the tides What horrible pictures of the protuberance beneath your sweatpants What's up everyone welcome to the last podcast on the left I am bed hanging out with Henry hanging out with Marcus while we are we are going to answer the big questions today Aren't we today's episode? This is going to be earth shattering mind-altering. You're never going to be the same again Yeah, you're gonna quit your job good

You're gonna throw your headphones off and you're gonna go to your significant other and you're gonna make sweet love to them in the middle of your family Look at that many places. That's a common event just to make sure that they can get a grand kid on the way Let's go Yes, indeed, but this episode we're gonna get a little bit more a spooky because last week I think we were kind of setting it up and I think in all the fun of the bellwitch We kind of forget that at the heart of it like in my mind. I See these things like a movie so in the beginnings of the haunting like in my mind

I see like a gritty version of the like, you know anti-bellum South It's real intense and then you've got you don't see a really like fun version of the antebellum South You know why because they didn't like the good they did have some good time They did invent roller coasters would be different story all together they invented roller skates Just a position there would be hard to deal with exactly all the the short shorts and all the field work But the imagining the little girl the bell family like being snapped up in the night and going Like I can see that in like a modern horror day movie equivalent. Yeah, absolutely. It's very exorcist The haunting of Connecticut is actually very similar. Well, no kidding. And of course Vince McMahon is the major ghost of

Connecticut Headquarters are located. Oh, I was actually gonna bring up that the billy or witch project actually was inspired by this story Well, no kid we could do this all day Part two of the bell So when we last left the bell family their own personal poltergeist had been haunting them for two years Having evolved from a creature of simple knocks outside the walls of their home to a full-blown Communicative spirit with the ability to physically harm the living. Yeah, it's getting older. It's learning. It's learning That's nice

But where the poltergeist had focused most of its energy on the young Betsy Bell during the first half of the haunting It was about to switch most of its malevolent focus to the patriarch John Bell no second half. This is where it gets very dark And I also want to address the fact that I have been there's been a lot of corrections this week and pronunciations sure with side stories It's my or it's supermarket. We know that we know that now and also it's monarchy Not monarch Yeah, how is that any better? I don't think it's better. It's just correct. It's just but again the first monarchy sounds like someone who Goes door-to-door collecting Monarch. That's his job. He works for the Census Bureau

Do his job But how many bleeders do you have in the house? Well, you could have asked the age in a different way Couldn't you tell you what I got one bleeder and I got one that's about to be a bleed Oh, that's disgusting But this story it does come from the first egg Because they said so they say a lot of times is that the poltergeist is Born from the first egg that comes from a little girl that is again when she becomes a little chicken Really? Okay now as we said the Bellwitch have become a sort of tourist attraction in Tennessee by simple virtue of word-of-mouth

But while most people showed up wanting some measure of a ghostly experience Some skeptics just couldn't help but try and run a good time. It's cuz they weren't invited Absolutely, and you know the Tennessee competition when it comes to when it comes to just fun attractions is very intense You got the world's biggest shoe 25 which is a big shoe and these skeptics always show up with rulers and say I've seen bigger shoes Yes, indeed cheese wedge from outer space Yeah, they just painted it black. Yes indeed see a detective known only as mr. Williams who was from Baltimore had heard about the Bellwitch phenomenon and for some reason offered to travel almost

800 miles to solve the mystery hold on a second. So he's a detective in Baltimore. Uh-huh. Well, he didn't have enough work to do This man was done doing homicides and it was just like I ain't gonna go investigate the Go this was before Baltimore was Baltimore Okay, now he is just trying to get away from his family cuz I think at some point He's like I gotta get out of this house and find a go somewhere cuz I'm getting a divorce Well, mr. Williams went into the case already determined that the bells were frauds and upon his arrival He essentially announced that he thought that this whole scene was a fucking sham Saying that he didn't believe in the supernatural and was furthermore an expert in detecting illusions

Slight of hand and other forms of trickery. I've ruined three kids birthday parties Nothing worse than a magician heckler Nothing worse than that on the first night mr. Williams heard no more than a few faint scratches and knocks Which he took as evidence that the bells were indeed flimflam artists who were afraid to bring out the full show in front of such An intelligent man as he look at how big my next high is This is where the I want to see the folklore end of the bell which story We're gonna get into a little bit later on But this is where the story of the bell which features another first in the lexicon of haunting stories is that we have an expert

Showing up to solve the whole thing like we had the religious experts show up and it got laughed at then we had ghost bro I'm trying to wrestle the ghosts in a submission again all first first And then now we have the first like it's the nerd guys from the conjuring Showing up trying to figure out how to nip this thing in the bud But also show that it is perchance a sham and they did a good job in the conjuring of providing comic relief They did they did and also their demise was quite entertaining But the second night after mr. Williams went to sleep He was woken up by a great force pressing down on his chest and stomach while his arms were pinned above his head

And his face was punched and scratched. Oh my god. Am I making a custom video? I haven't paid for this yet. Whoa, that'll cost you extra. He then heard a voice so Mr. Detective Which of the barrels do you think is on top of you right now? Oh Before he was able to answer he was punched again. Yeah, you bitch But when the family heard the commotion and entered the room they found him unassailed

Instead mr. Williams was giving the Bell family a Powerful glare as if they had somehow engineered his invisible pummeling The voice then came back saying quote don't go blaming room now Go sit in that chair like a good boy, and maybe I won't knock off your head. Oh, I love this video ghost. Cuck This is gonna be a lot of fun. Yeah I am to fuck your wife Black ghost Oh

You're getting me going Mr. Williams then did as he was told and sat in a chair trembling in fear whilst clutching a candle and Listening to taunts from the witch and tell dawn when he called for his horse and left for breakfast Oh, what was that boss? Hey, I'm on a union break here It's all with your cigarette tape to my hooves That'll be hard for something with hooves to smoke a cigarette, but maybe better for them in the long run when it comes to health No, just Despite all this hubbub Betsy Bell had been able to carry on a courtship with the age-appropriate

Joshua Gardner remember he was the kid who was 18 Right and by this point in the story the youngsters have been seeing each other for about two years But Richard Powell Betsy's 33 year old school teacher was completely in love with the now 14 year old Betsy and for reasons and For reasons that might become clearer later the bell which had a vested interest in making Richard's dreams a reality Oh, so the teacher is gonna get the daughter Well, the teacher is gonna be gifted the daughter by the ghost to ahead of ourselves here Rough when you're the daughter all of a sudden you're monarchy and whatever it's called

Yeah, you're not eggs everywhere and you can't sell them no matter how many times because it's you're not living in Japan in the 1920s so your options are an age-appropriate 18 year old a Teacher who has to be what probably in his 30s or so 33 and then another person and how old was that other dude in his 40s No, this is that guy. This is only two. Yeah, there's only two. Oh, yeah. All right. Got it Well one afternoon Richard was walking along a road when he felt a smack on the jaw the witch then spoke and said Betsy and Joshua will soon announce their engagement. You must act now before it happens To this Richard said and why should I do that?

Because you love Betsy bell if I were to step in and press my suit what I succeed with Betsy most surely And what proof can you offer me? I offer you nothing Except the promise that I will not beat you into a simpleton if you do Intervalis you've got to get your vibe on man Yeah, it's me your buddy ghost hitch up here to get you in a suit and teach you how to dance Kevin James of Tennessee Very cool. So this ghost is trying to hook it up. It's really strange and I don't know why

This entity in this telling has so much invested in the marriage I really don't know why but it's more so it's it seems to be about control because one book I started reading thanks to the heliocrew the Newman's the trickster in the paranormal George P. Hansen this book is a really interesting study about the idea of Paranormal energies entering in as a Distabling force during a time when things are really up in the air like Just when you need it the most when everything is going to hell you're like we could add some more fire to this They talked about the jump up of go. There's one good cool example of talking about the the high activity of ghost Reporting and sightings during the fall of the USSR and how it like spiked and there's something about how like the family unit is

starting to fall apart and Some it's in for some converse way Whatever the poltergeist is is also building in strength as the family falls apart What you see now in every modern haunted house story, right? You see it in Amityville horror You see it in the Conjuring Silver this idea that one society really starts like shaking up That's when ghosts like start jamming their fingers two knuckles deep in there Yeah, and the great great grandson of the bell, which turns out he's an ESPN ghost reporter

And he had a lot of tough questions for LeBron James about what's next? Los Angeles Lakers and be a champion. No, I know I know but it's like does it ghost reporter for ESPN? Go up to LeBron and say LeBron. I've got a message Kobe says fuck you No, it's why every fucking haunt like paranormal horror movie these days is some boring fucking metaphor for grief Every single one So tired of it. Yeah, sometimes I just want to like that. I want to see a happy couple get murdered. Yeah, that's true Well the ghost coming in and talking about Richard which you know Some people say was just the ghost that the bell which could not stand for Betsy to be happy in any way whatsoever

And they say well, she would have been happier with Joshua, so you know let's push her towards Richard and the witch started interfering in Betsy's love life even more a Few months later the community was gathered on the bell property for a picnic Daring a lull in the conversation Joshua Gardner whacked the spoon on the glass and asked for everyone's attention Most likely to announce his intentions for Betsy Bell This is like a scene from a Rupert ever comedy where he's just like about to be in like he cuz he's like the slick Young guy that's kind of gonna be with the Betsy Bell Meanwhile, oh, she over he always overlooks that cute nerdy man who's 25 years her senior because she's a child

Well, yes indeed I want to know the sentence that happened before the weird silence at the picnic where it's like and that's when Samantha was like Can you get the pineapple out of there? Anyway, but before Joshua Gardner could say a word the witch Interrupted saying that marrying Betsy and whisking her way to another land would be a fool's errand Because the witch could and would follow Betsy Anywhere in the world she then signed off saying quote Please don't marry him Betsy Bell

No, don't marry Joshua Gardner What is this reality show ghost that who cares Ghost you're a ghost you're a witch. Why do you care could be in Kris Jenner But the interesting thing about this is that the witch had seemed to move on to Emotional matters when it came to Betsy Bell and the realm of the physical the witch was focusing more and more attention on Betsy's father John see from the moment the witch arrived John Bell had been afflicted with an Intermittent stiffness of the tongue and a sensation that someone was punching him in the jaw now This is there's something about the idea of like old school dental problems that

Besides like if it's ghost or not there's something about like the like 1820s tooth pain Oh Something else you just pull it get get rid of it, but then you don't have anything to pull it But they didn't have any hard food back then Mush it's weird actually I think there was sorghum There's a lot of sorghum, but I also think that there's a lot of hard tack So it's actually opposite. There's incredibly hard food and mush I said there's a very little in between unless you were at the time in the far east where they were inventing noodles

No kidding, isn't that nice fucking great? I love it fucking great It is great you stole the noodles from the Chinese really I've had a lot of spring-hill jack coffee this morning That's have I thank you to the folks over at spring-hill jack coffee for also sending me a couple of bags and goddamn That's good. Well, this will be fun to keep this show together Now first these spells would last for only a brief moment So John was able to hide the symptoms from everyone including his wife Yeah, because he wasn't like he was doing a lot of conolingus During that five minutes of the day. Yes

But as time went on these spells grew longer and more serious What began as a slight inconvenience soon became the bane of John's existence Sometimes his tongue would stiffen for 10 to 15 hours at a time making eating or talking Impossible and his face would contort and twitch God, and you still have to like work the field Yeah, I mean like you still have to go every day Tongue or not a stiff tongue There's something about this is very specific. I don't know why this is so triggering to me There's something about what it means. It's dental. It is like imagine if your tongue can't move at all

And it's like a rock in your mouth Yeah, it becomes like a rock it becomes stiff and covered with little boils and it becomes Like you can't move it and and in your tongue the side of your mouth and your tongue are swelling So you're sitting there. You're in constant pain. Huh, meanwhile in order to just go outside This is the time when everything was buttons. You had to wear like three different layers of clothes too many clothes Yeah, there's a lot of shit going on then you have to go outside and everything takes work You can't go to the piggly wiggly and get milk You're gonna go pull the milk out of the breasts of a 2,000 pound animal isn't that something so you had a stiff tongue

Yeah, well he also said that sometimes he felt as if an invisible double pointed stick was shoved Cross-wise into his mouth so that it stabbed into his jaws a constant stabbing pain Yeah, like a pretzel rod kind of like that and a visible fungus began growing on the back of his tongue That's swelled his throat. I don't know what it is, but I just don't feel like my wife loves me anymore There's also a time period, you know What a time period that could have used mouthwash. Oh, yeah, good Lord But that's not to say the paranormal activity left Betsy Bell completely on one occasion in which the family was Celebrating the return of brothers John, Jr. and Drury who had just taken a trip to New Orleans the family

I thought you were gonna say the war. They just went to New Orleans? Okay, you just went to New Orleans I was like what war is going on now? Technically, yeah, there were trip-trip from New Orleans is very rarely celebrated. It's often a slinking into a dark house when you sit and wonder like what exactly you did the four or five days previous Right, yeah But as they were celebrating the family saw lights outside their window a By counts the lights were beautiful and flickered slowly as if the lights were dancing and John Bell, Sr. Thought that the lights were at the slaves having fun

So he went outside to give them compliments on the display I gotta say y'all don't normally get points for presentation But I want to say that I really appreciate the flair that y'all been putting into being forced to work for me Yeah, no nothing nothing more fun than that. Isn't that exciting? But once John returned after seeing that there was nobody outside. Oh turns out the slaves are not having fun I can't even believe that I thought they would be having fun. Honestly, I just hope that one day they kind of wake up and be like You know what? I want to be here, but it doesn't seem to happen. No, they don't have fun too often Well once he entered he heard a loud whisper fill the family room

And so they knew the entity had showed up and John, Jr. Tried asking what do you want this time? But the whispering only grew louder until a cold draft filled the room and John was thrown to the floor Fed up with the whole fucking business John, Jr. Jump from his seat and said quote you are nothing but a demon that was cast out from the depths of hell Here to humiliate our family and torture father and Elizabeth If you are so strong and mighty then leave father and Elizabeth out of it And torture me instead. I'm not a coward, but you are

Very cool The John, Jr.'s blustery display seemed to have worked because the cold wind and whispers stopped immediately Okay, if you're serious I was trying to have fun you blew up the whole vibe of the whole room After that the bells sat back down to resume their conversation because by this point these sorts of interruptions Is just an everyday part of life back to court This is our soft food, it's our food Wednesday and Friday we'll go back to hard food I love this conversation about what we're eating

The thing came a scream It was coming from Betsy's room and when John, Jr. And Drury burst in they found Betsy crying and trembling saying that a physical entity completely Engulfed in flames had walked into our room and sat down on her bed burning and burning, but giving off no heat Burn it out of sleep That's fucking trippy as hell. You've had like nine periods in a row. You're making ghosts everywhere All of a sudden a full like what's his name up from hereditary Gabriel Burn Oh, yeah, he just like walks in because going like do you want to talk about school like he's absolutely covered in flames

That's intense. I was thinking more of the fantastic four and the father saying it could be worse could be the thing hanging out in your room Then with that guy is didn't it was Michael P. Jordan Michael B. Jordan I believe was the last human torch and can you imagine then the fire goes out Then you got Michael B. Jordan in your room and it's like you're just like a 14 year old girl And you're just like oh, you're nice Flip it Yeah, well John jr. After Betsy told her story John jr. Argued with the witch a little bit more and then shouted that the

Entity should go back to hell and never return at which point the witch ended her performance for the night I see you and I get a one-star review And it's time for me to go home. They could have just leaned in make a stage enjoy the performance What else is going on is radio even around yet? Oh god? No, no No, that's the whole thing is that they have their nightly conversations. That's how they entertain themselves They sit around the table and they talk and they talk and they talk and they talk and talk and talking with with one another one Father and a mom be like how was your day? Like what I guess somebody probably made at some point some kind of xylophone built out of the bones of one of their uncles and

We play it. I know they had guitars. Oh Oh Now around the same time as the appearance of the flame creature Reverend Thomas Gunn visited the bell home and asked the witch again what it was and what it wanted with the bells That was the number one question every everyone asks. What are you and what do you want? I asked myself that question Fucking three times a week. Absolutely never an answer though. Nope. No answers But instead of giving Reverend Gunn the runaround the witch was surprisingly Frank saying that she was indeed Kate bats his witch man

You know what that sound is somebody got thrown over the fucking bus Yeah, why that's not good Now upon this revelation the room gasped but Reverend Gunn wasn't so quick to believe When he asked the witch why everyone should think she was telling the truth the witch said quote Because I am tired of lying and you deserve the truth more than any other man in this room I am old Kate bats witch for certain. It was she dancing around a pindicap Who conjured me here but cheeks can do a lot I am going to admit I could not pick myself up by my own boots raps. I actually did come from other help

Okay And when the Reverend Gunn asked why Kate summon the witch she said quote Why to torment her enemy John Bell to torment him to his death Honestly, that's pretty freaking cool dude. I would love to get a couple of witches and stuff Oh, yeah, I have spices, but I always get drunk and I put them in my spaghetti That's cooking. That's just cooking food. Well, I know but I'm saying I have a bunch of spices Yeah, that's for the kitchen that could possibly be used in spells Have you started but like boiling spaghetti and making meals for yourself? I'm I'm boy. Oh, how else do you make spaghetti?

You don't bake it. I'm boiling spaghetti. Yes, you actually can bake spaghetti. I am not doing that Yes, you can't spaghetti pie Whatever, yes, I boil water. I put spaghetti in it and then I put never there Yeah Good plug. Yeah That they need they need the help and so after that exchange the witch would always answer to the name old Kate Now by late 1819 the witch expanded her repertoire and introduced four new characters to the show with suitably cryptic names The boss was black dog a

Take charge character who bossed around the others with a harsh tone and harsh language cool Yeah, I see things like Yes You get the ass out of here and you bring the ass expensive reports to me man. I respect you but Under black dog was Sypocrophy the jokester and town gossip who spoke in a high-pitched Feminine voice you got something bad to say you just come sit next to me

All right, I'll tell you what's going on because I know the whole town will hear about it. Oh My next came mathematics who discussed logic and religion. I Create dry pussy. Yeah, I'm just gonna go hang myself by my underwear on the hook on the door There you go. You got it saves us a lot of trouble And at the bottom was Jerusalem who had a boys voice and insisted that he always told the truth And therefore was usually berated by the others back to children's voice A long time ago. I used to do more child It's not vulnerable it's disgusting

It's this is the way this is I went into the bathroom the other Dean. Why was it bigger? Give you into the men's room. Perhaps it wasn't dead your kinder Teach me how to play naked So that's actually some very serious what's happening there Well, but the problem here was that at the very least mathematics had quite the drinking problem. Yeah Although all of them drank and they often gotten a drunken arguments from time to time Are they what are they drinking these is it ghost ghost booze? It's a whole Performance that is highly strange. We see we saw a little bit again

Go back into Jeff going back to Jeff the talking longus like they would kind of sit and you'd see these sort of Massive it's gonna become like deeper and deeper The idea that they would sit and in this interpretation of the story there would be like a sonic Like show where they would see and hear like all of these voices talk to each other and they hear like Glasses clinking and I'm going go go go and clink clink clink. I'm like, so they were round table a gentleman Usually it would start with black dog and mathematics slurring at one another in surly tones and pretty soon the others Also drunk would join in but it wasn't like they were drinking their own imaginary liquor This usually only happened when there was booze in the bell house and anytime John Bell brought even a little bit of whiskey home

The four voices would soon begin boozy brawls while the sounds of animals and clattering pots and pans filled the air Seriously, it's a murder fist rehearsal When one person had a handle of Jim being back in the day and how that was like Gold it was gold and we never like because we could never pull enough resources to get It's a lot of money man. It's 28 bucks or something like that any idea and then when one guy had it And then all of a sudden you're like give it up. This is for us now It's for the group is not funny how that works. Yes. Yeah, but before you say just stop bringing booze into the house Yeah, what is this some kind of or shit? Tell me I got a problem

I never thought you had a problem until you start to started screaming telling me that I have a problem I never said that you had a problem. You are seeming to tell me that you have a problem I saw a really funny but true thing on an ice cream cone popsicle sick I don't have a drinking problem. I got a drink Exclusion and I just laughed and loud and loud and loud and loud. This is just some happy. You're my dad. I'm happy You're my dad. You're my son But before you say just stop bringing booze into the house the force sometimes stole whiskey from the neighbors or so they said They said they usually stole it from John Gardner lived about four miles away

And when they did that they'd show up at the bell home Modeling and sentimental why the worst kind of drunk. Why are we talking about the haunting of John Gardner? That's the only horror that I've heard so far this poor bastard's four miles away He can't get any freaking booze because all these goddamn ghosts from the other fucking Belfarp Are drinking all of his freaking juice and then they show up and they're not even like fun drunks They're all just being like things were better before Yeah, y'all do you even remember how good weezer used to be back when we were young? Oh my goodness way back in the day Weezer and flaming lips saw that concert together. They were together on mushrooms gonna say on mushrooms flaming lips a little bit better than weezer

Weezer almost Offensively it almost treats the almost treat the audience is the force so stupid Content yeah, they write music for it. They started writing music for stupid people and then got mad that stupid people started showing up What did you expect with Beverly Hills? What did you expect I don't know Corner that conversation yeah, yeah, so now that the bells had five characters to deal with instead of just the one John figured it was time to give up and just fucking leave just leave the farm but the witch insisted That she would follow old Jack as she called him to the ends of the earth Oh my god

So while some neighbors abandoned the bells completely because they were either scared or just fucking bored of the whole situation Other neighbors pitched in Every night no less than four people would drop by to engage the four voices or the witch herself in Conversation just so John Bell could get a little relief As far as the four went they treated these visits like performances Every evening each voice would introduce itself with a song It does sound fun The first night, what are you talking about? It's like living with the Carter family. You don't think the song

Is like let it be the Carter family, but they also were they were filled with trauma The songs don't change so the first time your audience changes Henry No, it's like being on the carousel of progress where every day you go to the job and yeah I do I love the carousel of progress. Yes, I do better Yeah, and sometimes you sit in the carousel of progress because it's 95 degrees outside and you just need a chance to like get away From the heat so you just sit in there for hours and hours and hours on end and eventually you begin to see how your brain begins The fall apart as you start going just against your own will just it's a great big beautiful tomorrow Shining at the end of every day and then you do this every night and your daughter's got the monarchy and you got tongue fungus

Wow, it's a tough life, but somebody's got to live it also not nearly as hard as the slaves have it But after the song the voices would usually just argue with each other using obscene language and blasphemy and the whole thing Would end only when black dog threatened to murder the other three. What is this a modest mouse concert? Drinking problem. Yes, and sometimes it comes to stage performance, but I gotta say love that modest mouse We're good one time Have we become a Gen X podcast? Yeah, but at the end of each argument black dog would give commands ordering each spirit to commit quote errands of devilry

Across the land, but would always save one spirit to do devilment amongst the bells However, it wasn't all bad Sometimes the voices would stay sober and treat the house to a delightful concert Singing hymns as a quartet and delightful rich harmonies that could rival the most talented singers in Tennessee You can see how stories like this must actually have inspired Stuff like the Haunted Mansion and this like the idea of because there's a folksy-ness To the story that it's a part of I guess why we kind of I'm Americanized it like this idea that it has to be like a Balls to the wall full entertainment force that's not only slapping and harming and doing all this other shit

But it also it puts on a show and it creates money for the Bell family because people show up Even though John Bell senior was specifically saying stop giving us money. I don't want money. I don't want to do this It's interesting, but that was the reverse that was he he wanted the money. That's how he got it Yes, you'd be like, I'm just a humble man My tongue is as stiff as my penis is not oh poor guy You imagine if you have a tongue for a penis and a penis for a tongue can you imagine to imagine that I don't know But I guess we're gonna have to cut to that sketch now

Now even though most of the community who stuck by the bells were resigned to keep the status quo Others wanted to get proactive with the situation because John Bell was getting visibly worse by the day The face twitches were starting to spread to the rest of his body whereas arms would contort and they would just snap up He had no control Okay, not to be a downer here, but is it Lou Gehrig's? Does he have ALS? Does he have some kind of condition? Well one well, I was gonna talk a little bit later on But the truth is is that he might have suffered from it's this specific Syndrome that he might have gotten it's like osteoporosis. I forgot what the name it is

It's like you got a bone and it sounds like a bone infection in his face So he is In a tremendous amount of pain, okay, and they talk about how when we've been I've warned you kissle and that Dental problems lead to massive systemic health failures in the body. This is the first time you've told me that I will say it again to you It's a dental problems thing and sometimes it leads to heart failure at least I know that shit So I wonder if the is actually like the infection is spreaded Yeah, it could be and we'll talk later on how you know a lot of this stuff might have had real-world explanations Well the friends who wanted to get proactive tried talking the poltergeist out of the haunting believing if they only found the right

Combination of words the right argument the witch would simply see the folly of its ways and vanish. Good luck One neighbor John Johnston actually built quite the rapport with the spirit and presented here is a Recreation of one of their conversations starting with mr. Johnston Why do you want to see John Bell dead? Let us just say that I dislike him enough to kill him Do you not know Kate that John Bell is one of the most respected well-liked men in all of this land? I do and that is why he needs killing and do you propose to kill Betsy Bell as well? No

Why do you think that I would kill Betsy? Because you torture her and follow her wherever she goes shout at her slap her and pull her hair You have forbidden her to marry. I certainly think that proves you hate her Perhaps I am jealous as a suitor would be don't love us often bat each other about playfully I have never known any man who loves a woman to act as such Now do you know I am a man? Well, you're certainly not a woman the way you curse and hit and act like you're drunk. Are you a man? I am a spirit

I live in the wind and in the water Inside houses and out in heaven and hell. I am all things and nothing Hell yeah, man Honestly, it sounds like having a debate It does indeed it sounds like a very intense debate so no gender here just a spirit Mm-hmm. Now really that conversation didn't accomplish a whole lot and it actually made and it actually made things worse Really because the day after that conversation John was struck with some of the worst stabbing pains in his mouth that he'd yet encountered and his throat swelled so much

He could barely breathe Now if you'll remember from the last episode John Johnston wasn't the only one who tried to help You had ghost bro Frank Miles who tried to beat the ghost to death and he returned to the house around this time to try and Convince John Bell to leave the Red River Listen, dude, it's kind of like cutting weight when you're trying to build muscle Sometimes it's like look at your situation and you have to like think about like do I cut carbs right now? I do I carve up all right now for me if I was gonna say this if I was gonna make sort of nutritional plan for you before like Ghosts and you look situation to leave in I would like cut the carbs of this situation and like move out

I think that makes all the sense in the world But as Frank made his case he was struck by the witch so hard. He was thrown out of his chair Whoa, no witch herself then gave a summation of this escape plan directly to John Bell saying quote If you think you can avoid me then you better have for I mean to give you a lot worse on the morrow Try your best to hide from me and all together. We will prove to all Jack Whether or not a person can escape. Well, you know which that is the problem, isn't it? The way that you're so mean to me there I am getting used to it

Yeah, however the bells weren't the only ones on the plantation being harassed by the witch as we said last episode the witch for Some unknown reason hated the enslaved people living on the Bell's land and they began taking measures to protect themselves One man named Zeke started making what were known as witch balls for everyone to carry Which were reportedly vile smelling things made of animal excrement human semen spit Sulphur fox fire and camphor and all these things together was supposed to ward off evil spirits Interesting the old spicy baseball Yes, just slathered and maybe better and a lot of shit and but you know what ghosts go away Yeah, I mean if it works it works who am I to judge these witch balls

However failed to do their job for an enslaved man named Dean He was walking along the Red River one day when the dog creature that had first appeared to John Bell at the beginning of all this returned But this time it spoke and reprimanded Dean for carrying a witch ball. I tell you what you've been a bad boy You're holding that which won't be because a good boy wouldn't do that good boy We bring a big black dog's cheeks or a bongo the big black dog. You're so cute The Dean's charm then began to swell until he could no longer hold it And when he placed it on the ground the charm burst into flames

Then the creature snarled and prepared to pounce But Dean took the axe he was carrying and brought it down on the specter's head Putting it into and sending blood splattering all over the riverbank Whoo, and even though it disappeared just after John split its head open when Dean saw it again The creature had adapted to its wounds by growing an extra head Multiple heads. I gotta tell you but thank you so much for split my head in half because now I got a friend You do have a friend isn't that nice? What do you do when you have to go to the bathroom though? It's kind of uncomfortable

You guys got to go to the bathroom together even if you don't have to go to the bathroom You know what me my new friend we don't judge each other and sometimes a friend's got a fault And you just got to be okay with it because it's your friend. Oh bongo the wonder dog What's the name of your other friend? Adolf Hitler Well that name's gonna come come back and have a role in history. It's a very nice name It technically was at one point. Yeah, it's sort of got ruined there Now by 1820 the witch had become kind of just a constant tedious presence in the house that sometimes tortured everyone's father

And it took no new voices or personalities. In fact when the bells had their nightly discussions The witch would join in with reasonable contributions It just gets to a point where I mean the son. I never had all the women on the view at some point have to agree They really do they won't though not good for TV. Wow that show is hard to watch it is The witch would also sing often and sing well and by this point in time the witch's voice had actually become much sweeter As if it had grown fond of everyone in the Bell family except of course John Bell Well at this point the life of a father I mean even today, but especially in the 1800s was to suffer you make money for the family and you suffer

Yeah, and then there's a family you're doing the family is doing fine I think this guy's just got to suck it up and just be like kids are happy miserable I wonder because but at the time we're still like in a deeply patriarchal society So I wonder because they do feel like the family also is kind of working to please the father in some way shape or form as well But for the most part fathers just die of cancer. Of course they do. Yeah Then the witch began actually saving lives particularly the lives of people around Betsy in

In May of 1820 the witch saved Betsy and Richard Bell from being crushed by a tree By appearing when the siblings were riding through a storm and giving them an alternate safer route in which no trees would fall like ways Yeah Very nice Then one of the most infamous elements of the Bell Witch legend was introduced Although this location played a small part in the original saga the 20th century Bell Witch sightings would revolve around Bell Witch cave on the LPN show this week I spoke with Jay Wasley from Ghost Adventures and they talked about there

He and he talked about his experiences at the Bell Witch cave and he's he is assured that it's legit really Yes, very cool conversation So about a month after the storm a few youngsters along with Betsy Bell were exploring a cave on the Bell property when a nine-year-old boy Named Johnny Yoze broke from the group walked into a small passageway and dislodged a bunch of dirt that soon buried him alive I mean there were so many ways to die in 1825 so so many ways Yeah Now Betsy immediately tried finding the child but had no way of knowing where he was and it was at that moment that the room lit up and Betsy heard the witch say quote

She became lassie Fetch him out of there. Wow. That's amazing now from Johnny Yoze perspective He was suffocating under a mound of dirt when he felt a pair of strong hands take hold of his ankles and pull him a dozen feet past the opening of the collapsed passageway The boy was saved whoa Betsy gave all the credit to the witch Making sure to tell Johnny Yoze that he'd better keep his goddamn mouth shut if he wanted to keep coming back to the obviously Deadly cave. Well now why couldn't he talk about how the witch was good? Well, it's because number one it would make her father mad because her father was getting tortured by the witch

But I also wonder because Betsy seems to start creating She's starting to spin her own version of the witch story And I think that's gonna factor into why this activity whatever this activity is it seems to be that she is Kind of setting it up that maybe the bell which is not all that bad and the bell Which maybe just kind of exists as a means to an end for some other purpose. Yeah, so far I mean, it's really just messing with the dead and there's some some fun shows going on It keeps slapping Betsy I mean like it's been slapping her for two years now

And by this point Betsy was pretty much out of the woods when it came to attacks from the witch because the attention had been placed Almost completely on John Bell, but where Betsy's attacks were relatively mild Because slaps are survivable John Bell was dying from his attacks So the family decided to get weird with it and brought in Kentucky's premier necromancer Dr. Solomon Mice Yes, it's like mice, but cool Indeed Now Mice was a bit of a character a bearded little fat man who were a front coat a size too big and a broad brimmed hat

That cast a shadow over his face that he used for dramatic effect It's the priest from the exorcist. I love that. But yeah, he is dressed like this from the exorcist That's that that guy's way too cool. This is fucking Ignatius J. Riley if you use a fucking paranormal I'm sticking up for him Technically had the same exact fashion sense as the wind-up clock dude from the return to Oz That dude scared the shit out of me like that movie. I'm actually gonna watch that in October I'm gonna rewatch that movie that movie in scary as hell. It's a good one. It's solid now The reason why Dr. Mice showed up on the Belfarm was because Drury and James Johnston traveled all the way to Kentucky

To petition the wizard personally Oh, and so 10 days later, Dr. Mice arrived at the bells with all the accoutrements of a 19th century Ghostbuster, this is so cool. I think there's something about the the historical precedent of the Ghostbuster As a part of this where it's like now. It's like it's time for science And you can see the kids going through his briefcase. He'd be like what this you'd be like that's a stethoscope He'd be like what's this? Ooh, that's to monitor the air and then they're like what this he's like. That's just a sausage I always travel with my sausage That's Dr. Sausage

Dr. Sausage is the best because they know they're doing something naughty. Yeah, they know it. It's for cheat day Now Dr. Mice brought a small wooden windmill that was supposed to spin when the spirit passed But it was so sensitive that just walking by it would activate the mechanism He also had a box filled with tubes of different colored liquids that he said would change color when the witch was present I hope the Newkirks are listening to this episode because it legitimately sounds like all of their tech It really does sound like modern like the old ancient old tiny versions of modern-day ghost hunting technology He's gonna find a witch or throw one hell of a rave either way. It's gonna be a good time. None of it worked It was all bullshit. Yeah

None of it worked I guess I go back home now But it's stuff we're like I am so torn about ghost boxes because they are both Interesting, but they also just sound like I know the whole point is that they're supposed to be random And if you do read the trickster and the paranormal the whole thing is about embracing The random and embracing the chaos in the middle and trying to decide whether or not you're going to apply meaning Because this book gets it a whole long thing about how like we just assume words like it goes on in words having meanings So they say that like you know, oh

This can means can like you label a can as a can and therefore it is the can even though technically the word can It's just this label and technically what it would need is a sense of telepathy in order to adhere Meaning to the can and the word can at the same time You're one step away from yelling at an ash at an ashtray like in that Scientology documentary Interesting though indeed But actually yeah, but none of his little toys worked and the witch gave him absolutely nothing for three days Oh, come on You explain this away

Dr. Mice declared that his aura was so powerful that the spirit had been scared off by his mere presence I want to find out if his name was changed and he's not as a brow ski Even so dr. Mice continued with the conjuring and the spells burning various pungent herbal mixtures while reciting Bible passages to no effect And finally as a way to appear as if he'd done something Dr. Mice took a shotgun belonging to the bells that no longer worked and declared it Hexed this this is the problem. This is the fuck shit shot And I'm gonna take this fuck shit outside of my fuck shit lodge. No kid. I'm gonna reverse it Well, wow, you're gonna reverse that, huh?

Well, you then cleaned the gun and physically repaired it himself and tell it fired perfectly. He just fixed the gun But he's actually that's important. That's actually way more useful than stopping the ghost absolutely But he still claims that it only worked because he had removed the hex by ways of biblical sorcery Actually, I mean this guy was the opposite of science He was a midget he declared himself a magician and all of his power came from the Bible from Jesus Well, he seems like a mechanic. He's a mechanic. He's got a mechanic mind spiritual mechanic Yeah, he's like some guy from somewhere in Alabama. I love him. I prayed for your car That's gonna be five hundred dollars, please. Well, they do charge for it

But on the fourth day the witch after getting a good idea of what Myse's game was Made herself known by appearing behind the wizard and yelling boo Whoa, is this the first time anyone's ever said boo? Is this the first because now it's just like boo everybody Some which had to say it let me actually say I'm first the first example of the word boo It's such a great word. It's a great word. It's boo. It really gets you according to the dictionary It's it's just an expression. It's an express to express contempt or disapproval I don't want to know boo the boyfriend the boyfriend term. Oh

and Halloween ooh Boo oh to actually it was used in writing as early as the 1500s. No, no, okay that fucking fascinating It is kind of fascinating when the witch said boo the tiny sorcerer jumped up in the air and fright at which point Black dog appeared and the battle of wits began. You're so fat. You stood around the house How fat are you? You're gonna die a little earlier than most people who aren't as fat That's the true roast the spirit started by asking dr. Mice if he was truly a conjurer and when he said he was the wizard and the spirit began arguing over their knowledge of

ancient rituals and Bible passages with mice claiming that his powers spells incantations and potions all relied on biblical power man I just don't understand all the cultists are exactly the same They just take it to spiritual Twitter to fucking argue but black dog Dismissed dr. Mice's power by saying that many had already tried banishing the spirit with Christian energies and all Had failed. Hmm. It then began criticizing dr. Mice's sorcery itself saying quote I have smelt your incense in your potions. You've mixed them incorrectly. You've left out critical ingredients You fucking noob. What is this fool us with pen and tellin' why are you doing this to me?

Jeez Of course, Mice was insulted and Incredulously asked black dog if it knew both about being a demon and the spells to get rid of demons How do you know about both? Hmm black dog then called him a piece of dog shit and compared him to an uncooked sausage Oh my god, you call me an uncooked sausage one more time and I am burning this house down This is all in an authenticated history that they wrote like he was called a dog dropping called them an uncooked sausage This is fucking brutal. He's being a real Greg Geraldo. I had no roast mode I had no idea how hurtful it would be to be called an uncooked sausage until this deity told this man this

I didn't even know that could be a slur, but my god, that's in the repertoire now It is then you an uncooked you uncooked sausage You get out how dare you say it holds wads in front of my wife Use the sports bar this year Then the ghost black dog just fucking railed on the poor little magician skills and what seems to be one of the ghost longest Communications have not hundreds better than you strive to move me from where I choose to abide Have I not heard all the spells in my centuries of life? Where in your mixtures are black bones and honey?

Where's the flypulp the blind worm blood even to back it what you could pluck right outside the door Where are your knots your belt book and candle? Why call me a bitch if you think I don't know all the charms Why don't you get that blunderbuss and blow the room apart with it you rotten heap of donkey meat Then I'll give your fat bottom a ride in my foot And what a ride that would be The witch then kept the wizard up all night with a torrent of insults about his abilities and his appearance You look like the un-fuckable version of Wario

Oh, isn't that sad Wario had a lot of power. I bet you he also pulled down a quite a bit of wonderful friendships But there was one final indignity in store for the marvelous dr. Mice The next morning when dr. Mice was getting on his horse ready to go Leaving a defeat with his horse, getting on his little pony. I don't know why I'm a cook, I'm a cook, I brought all my vials of colored liquid And I had a windmill and you're sitting here telling me I'm fat and I'm a dog poop. I'm not a dog poop. I'm not a dog poop But the horse wouldn't budge and that's when dr. Mice heard the witch one more time. She said quote Do you need help? Oh, honorable doctor, let me give your horse a slap and say look quickly on her way

And maybe I'll come along with you a piece The horse then reared off and took off like a shot with dr. Mice hanging out for dear life And the witch afterward bragged for weeks about the torments she'd placed upon poor old dr. Mice It just seems like the dad needs to die and everyone will be having fun I feel like if the bell which is real the bell which has got to be like the fucking like Malcolm X for ghosts You know, I mean like this fucking uncompromising like bell witch every single ghost hunter comes in there fucking humiliates them like The bell which really has to be like an inspiration for other hauntings. Absolutely

Now after dr. Mice the season of the witch was coming to an end for the bells But before that was to happen. They had one more notable visitor in late summer of 1820 future president Andrew Jackson Well, I like what you've done here when it comes to the quarters and the keeping of the people They don't want they want to leave but you keep them under Andrew Jackson visited the bell farm to experience the witch for himself And he brought along seven friends one of whom was so unsavory that Richard Powell who later wrote of the experience He neglected to make record of his name But he did go so far as to say and there was one especially unsavory one that I will not mention

But the unsavory ones they love that Yes, they do they work in the shadows So in that day Jackson and his seven 19th century frat boys all showed up at the bell farm on a wagon pulled by four horses But as they approached the property the horses refused to move to which Jackson laughed and said the witch had already come to visit The witch then appeared released her hold on the horses and said that she was glad the general understood and that she would speak with him again later that night And so that evening the future president sat around the Bell's dinner table and heard stories about the witch This is literally like back in the day the equivalent of like that's the kind of guy. I want to have a beer with like

After hearing a suitable amount the aforementioned unsavory companion began bragging that he'd beaten off spiritual forces in the past By killing a cat and using its tail to ward off spirits and he wasn't afraid to do it again I hate cats and I hate ghosts and I hate Underwear and I hate women By beating off the ghost now. What exactly do you mean you jerked off the ghost? Do you beat it off there and you jerked it off? I'll jerk it off again. I'll jerk you off. I'll jerk me off You got my vote This man then pulled the dead cat's tail out of his pocket and pressed it close to his nose

Claiming it would warn him when the witch was near all while saying that situations such as this one right here Was wise pistol was always loaded with silver bullets What was the situation? This is what's known in back in the day as being I believe that medical term is a douche a douche Douche the idea of saying that you have been like yeah, and that's why I always got silver bullets in case where we'll try to come And make me gay again Yeah, well you want to be careful for that At this point Andrew Jackson told him to shut the fuck up because he was bored and the unsavory fellow was a coward and a braggart

Besides and Jackson wished that the goddamn witch would just show up already He's got a lot of time he knows got a lot of think about you know when it comes to taking people's freedoms away And that's when the witch showed up she said quote General first of all fuck you Throughout history what general I am here as promised and ready for business And that business would be this bag of hot wind With that tail up against your nose your little pocket mouth looks like the cat's asshole I thought it was this is not even me

Improvising from the authenticated history I thought it was supposed to warn you when I was near I've been standing behind you for the past quarter hour Yeah, I guess my cat asshole is broken I'm gonna have to go get another cat asshole that probably isn't broken putting head is another good term It really is you want sausage. Yeah, what would you know you uncooked sausage? Oh once the witch made this threat the unsavory fellow Started shaking and pulled out his pistol the witch dared him to shoot, but when he pulled the trigger

Didn't fire It's a silver bullets in it. No silver bullets fire. I think I don't think they actually I don't know I think it's over tipped bullets. That's what it's not this bullet casings. They're silver. It's the tips. They fire silver sure I've seen monster squad, but I didn't know if that was real or not. Well, it's definitely real. Yeah Yeah, it doesn't have to be a bullet. It could be a silver tipped arrow It could be a silver tipped anything as long as it enters the creature with force Silver tipped anything After dread shooting once he tried again and still no shot came and that's when the witch said it was her turn

Using the same force she'd used hundreds of times before the witch pulled the braggart up into the air by his nose and slapped him Before dropping him back down to the floor. She then picked him up by the nose again this time sticking her invisible fingers up His nostrils causing them to flare out. This is fun as hell I love it. He needs to be taught a lesson the witch then led him around the room by his nose Holding him up just high enough where he could twiddle along on his tiptoes Flailing his arms and crying about how she was gonna break his nose by those he got a break They're going me. This is a really good idea This is a really good way to just fucking demolish somebody's entire ego

There's just something instinctively and I don't know why this is or maybe it's just in me But when people are complaining about how you're hurting them it makes it funny You're gonna break my nose and I'm like that makes it so much better like if they would be like I don't even care about this I'd be like go down I don't want to mess with your nose But the fact that they get so upset about it. It really is half the fun. It's when it's like when a bully meets a bully And then a bully gets bullied and then they go like It's such a funny thing a Christmas story. Yes. Yes, don't lick the cold pole

I don't want to think about Christmas Well the front door then swung open and the braggart was escorted outside and released He ran down the road as everyone in the house doubled over and laughter and the braggart never returned to the Belfarm or Andrew Jackson's side ever again. So Jackson did lose a vote though He did lose a constituent there It's us very it's just very telling to see a guy that does the same thing where he calls all of the people that are closest to him Losers and like fuck faces and then they they always like flip on him It's like this weird thing about like yeah history where it seems to like repeat itself. It could it

No, not too long after the visit from Jackson Matriarch Lucy Bell came down with a terrible case of pleurisy, which is a painful condition pleurisy It's a painful condition in which the lungs become inflamed and it hurts to breathe. You can still get pleurisy I thought she was I thought she was forced to say everything in in I don't even know how to do this joke I want to make a joke about doing like plural you're trying to make a phonics I'm trying to make a phonics joke be like oh she has to call all she has to call all if she sees them out She calls it a mice and if she sees it She sees them the artist when he approaches his work every day

And this is the truth is that every day you want to reinvent yourself and you want to figure out who what kind of artist So I want to be today This all wants to be the the the leading comedian on verbiage and phonics use and yeah Hey, it's not your day. It's not my day. No, there's there's one hippo in the field, but look at those hippos I guess I've been hit with pluralism pleurisist I've getting hit with pleurices You're getting kicked off the show you want to cook sausage Some thought that the witch had turned her attentions to Lucy

After Lucy had done kind of like a come at me ghost in the hopes that the witch would stop killing her husband take me instead Get me But to the contrary the witch actually took care of Lucy It's sweetly saying to Lucy often and offered advice and when neighbors brought food the witch sent them away Saying that they brought food that they liked instead of Lucy's favorites, which Lucy's favorites was grapes and hazelnuts Because I'm sorry to bring grapes and hazelnuts Freaking troll this level of haunting is true You're so used to the witch being like the worst version of mr. Belvedere that you just don't even know like you're just like okay

Whatever okay ghost sure And sure enough when no one brought grapes and hazelnuts the witch according to legend made grapes and hazelnuts appear from thin air And it was with these tasty snacks that Lucy nursed herself back to health. That's what I'm really excited for Oh, no, it's bar version of hospice where you just sit there and just a doctor just throws nuts at your face So while they'll play off, sir. Hmm. Oh, that would be nice. Yeah, we haven't cured anything Nobody at the same time aren't you mad that they're wearing pink shoes? Well where the entity showed kindness to Lucy it increased the cruelty shown to John and in October of 1820 The bell which delivered what many believe was the fatal blow to John Bell? Oh

That fall John who was now 71 years old had had spent a week in bed with a spell of swelling pain and twitching But he felt good enough on this particular day to work out in the hog pens with his son William You know what I might fake still be in sick I'm just well enough to go work in the hog pit. What is that? Oh, I just have a twitch Well suddenly though as they were in the pens John Bell was pushed to the ground and the shoes flew off his feet It was just weird. It's a hard push and one just I find this very strange honestly Yeah, it's very strange and if it was one to be like, okay, that's kind of funny But when William helped them back up and tied a double knot moments later, it happened again

Then after doing a double-double knot as tight as they could it happened a third time and as John lay on the ground He was slapped in the face. There's something in There's something very demeaning about this That is the ghost is knocking him down in a pig shit over and over again and then throw in his shoes So he has to go walk in pig shit again and again to go get his shoes. Is this ghost from Texas? Is it a relative of yours? This is totally a Marcus Parks punishment He then John then sat down on a log in defeat where first his face then his entire body began jerking and contorting John then heard aggressive singing coming from the sky mixed with demonic shrieks and triumphant rejoicing as John cried and

Proclaimed that this was the end of his life, but the witch was finally coming to finish the job But John did not die there in the hog pen Instead his son took him home where John Bell crawled into his death bed as the witch continued to fill the room with screaming cursing and singing John Bell lingered in that bed for two months in these conditions And when a doctor came to help doctor had no idea what to diagnose So the doctor checked the house and found that the bell which just might have gotten a little help

Looking in the kitchen cabinet with John Jr. The doctor found a bottle half filled with an awful smelling black potion The witch then appeared and claimed that she'd been feeding it to John senior and that she'd finally given him enough to kill him Whoa So to test this claim of poison the doctor fed the suspected concoction to the Bell's cat and sure enough The cat raced around the room fell into a stupor and died about an hour after it was given the poison Oh my goodness, yes, and then of course the doctor had to go back on infowars.merch.com The doctor then smelled John's breath and found the same scent that had been emanating from the bottle

Finally, he said there was nothing you could do at this point. So he just asked for his pay and left What no? That's it. That's what doctors do. I don't if you don't kill their family cat Said there's nothing I can do and then just fucking said pay me bitch and then left I'm not president, but okay. Hear me out. If I die, you don't get paid You feel like any of you still did your job looking at your mouth and going I think he's about to die I am about to die though. You're supposed to save me. All you did was kill the cat Then maybe I have sex with

Don't have sex with the cat. We've learned that Well that night after the doctor left on December 29th 1820 John Bell died and the witch to the relief of everyone Skipped the funeral and this is one of the first homicidal hauntings. We've seen if this is indeed true This is the one that shows that the witch was trying to Trying to kill John Bell and yes, yes I having done what it obviously come to do the witch said after the funeral that it would soon bid the house Goodbye for the time being and it wouldn't be heard from again for a great long while. It's like the end of Mary Poppins

Yes After that the witch stuck around until the spring of 1821 Although the displays didn't quite have the same panache as they did when John was still alive Finally the witch left although its tenure had a lingering influence even outside of John Bell's death as it turned out Betsy Bell finally took the witch's advice and married her teacher Richard Powell when Betsy Bell turned 18 Nice! What about the 18 year old? The young strapping lad that she was gonna hook up with? He wasn't enough. What do you mean he wasn't enough? He wasn't. I mean from what people said Betsy Bell was Extraordinarily happy for the rest of her days. Well, you don't want to get to talking about how sometimes money might change somebody's affection for you

I don't know maybe the 18 year old boy had a lot of work to do, but maybe he was a good guy at the end of the day Dude's got to have a job if it's gonna work. That's why I was a teacher who was grooming her But when Jackie was single I was saying I want to see all these guys bank accounts before he starts getting involved in the family Yeah, of course the current the Zabrowski crime family The witch only appeared on the Bell farm one more time seven years after the death of John Bell The witch scratched at the walls and removed sheets from the bed But after the bells decided to just ignore this time around she disappeared after two weeks It's like a troll on Twitter. Well now we're saying essentially

Or did it disappear from there and did it move deep into the bellows of the bell witch cave? Which is what people say it did that it changed locations back to where maybe its origins were maybe kind of cool So now that we're here at the end We're faced with the question of just what the bell witch was if these events did indeed happen and even the loosest sense But supposing that these events were indeed paranormal in origin. There are a few possibilities We'll go through those first First there's the possibility that was indeed Kate Bats's witch that it was a demon summon from hell to dispatch a man who'd wronged her Even though she'd already gotten restitution for the slight but to us this seems the most unlikely they're passing the buck on to Kate

Bats. I don't think that she is an actual witch. I think that she was a lowercase witch I think that you'd call her a witch talk witch. I would not call her a full full-on like this is not They basically have said that the authenticated history blew up the story of Kate Bats and and John Bell's their their Relationship like that that was not really it was contentious But not so much because John Bell had made a bunch of enemies also at the time He was not necessarily the nicest man who ever lived and so these the he If it could have come from a number of people not just Kate Bats It just seemed like whatever it was if it did have if indeed had a voice

Just blame Kate Bats and how unlikable must he have been in a world where Andrew Jackson was considered charming We had H.H. Holmes. You remember how he was handsome in German handsome, man Yes, then you've got the hallowed ground theory on one occasion near the beginning of the haunting Reverend Sugg asked the spirit who it was and what it wanted and the witch said quote I am the spirit of someone who is once happy and who was disturbed Hmm and when Reverend Sugg asked him what ways was it disturbed the spirit said I am the spirit of a Person who was killed close by here in buried my grave has been disturbed My bones have been dug up and scuttered

One of my teeth was lost under this very house and I am here This whole thing's over a tooth, huh? Well the truth. There is a little bit of truth here Yeah, I mean this claim seemed to be closer to the truth because apparently the bells had encountered either a Chickasaw or a Cherokee burial mound not too long before the witch appeared while they were clearing some land for crops But the bells left the burial mound alone because most farmers in the area did on account of the bad juju But jewelry Bell and a friend of his just couldn't help themselves Channeling their inner Joseph Smith the boys dug up the grave for treasure, but found only bones Kind of treasuring its own right though isn't it for Marcus indeed. Hmm. Yeah, even so as a trophy

They took a human jawbone and once they got home drew his friend bored of the whole thing Through the jawbone against the wall of the bell house and dislodged a tooth which fell under the porch Hmm now John had reburied the jawbone to avoid the juju But supposedly it was the tooth left behind that the spirit was after But once the bell family searched under the house for this missing tooth and found nothing the bell witch Admitted she'd made the whole thing up and when asked why she said quote Why the get-hold Jack of course, and I did get you Jack didn't I but not one tenth so bad as I will get you Well, I am dead

All right But that death threat along with all the others begs the question of why the bell witch Eventually focused on John Bell to the point of killing him if the story is indeed true And we think that in answering that why we might answer the what mm-hmm the bell which because I want to see first off There is a source. I found that did a really good breakdown of the Intellectual fallacies of the story of the bell which now we know and we I think we said this at the beginning of last episode This is a very very old story Yeah, and it had a lot of folklore

Injected into it and it seems like where it might have started was that it goes as according to last gas Paranormal which is a website I found and they did really good research and I just want to say that Kyle T Cobb jr. Who did this? I love this little essay He wrote about the bell which and one thing that he said is that it seemed like the person the author of the Authenticated history of the bell which the very first story like first time we saw all of the personalities of the bell Which all of these different things they came from this author named M. Ingram now M. Ingram It seems at the same time. He said that he received this diary You receive this diary from a member of the bell family and it had all of these details in it

But it seems like that Ingram Might have written the diary himself because there are words that the diary uses that and basically an uneducated Farmer from the 1800s might not have used these words He used very specific terms of phrases that were very similar to things that Ingram had already used in other chunks of the books So we don't know whether or not the all of the color all the details We're saying are like true or they fabrication But it seems like there are real bones for there being poltergeist activity in this story And that absolutely activity was a part of this whole the tapestry of this whole this whole thing

Well, I wonder that this next explanation to me. I think is very interesting Yeah, I mean the poltergeist activity it showed up in a lot of other like books that cover like the history of Tennessee It showed up and still in the 1800s and long before authenticated history came about and it also could be like as far as the Diaries go it could be that Ingram just rewrote the diaries to sound better You know to have a better sounding narrative. That's also absolutely And then there was also we asked a question last week to some of our listeners was their literature that talked about poltergeist activity Where they could know about it and there was one novel and a listener sent to me I forget that they listen to sent to me

Thank you so much for sending me this information about a novel called violent Which was written by Charles Brockton Brown Which is like the first example of the American Gothic style of storytelling that involved people weaponizing ventriloquism To create a haunting, but it's interesting because at that time they said this is so hack ventriloquism is stupid Okay, let's get into this explanation As we said Richard Powell and Betsy Bell were married in 1823 and the two of them lived in happiness without a peep from the witch But 12 years into the marriage the thumps on the roof that began the whole saga in the first place

reappeared So trying to end it before it even began Richard took Betsy to see a hypnotist to see if maybe just maybe The key to all of this was within Betsy herself Hmm and lo and behold once Betsy was under she answered in the voice of Jerusalem the little boy who had been one of the four alter egos of the bell witch So while Betsy was in her hypnotized dream state the hypnotist began asking questions about the bell witch's origins Hoping to finally get an answer of where it came from and why it did what it did and Finally the bell witch revealed would have been going on the whole time

According to what Betsy said under hypnosis the bell witch had been created to protect Betsy After her father had begun molesting her at the age of 12 This you guys are really gonna do that to us This whole thing is just about molestation well not quite You guys drug us through four hours To get to the point where it was molestation all of this came out After the fact right like as they could like all of the story was told and at the very end of the thought of the authenticated history He kind of drops this bomb saying that Betsy was claimed because number one because remember his wife when they met was 12

So as soon as she started getting gross and all like 25 years old He has a new 12 year old in the house. Yeah, you can shift to I see what you're trying to do. I get it. We all get it So thing think about the here the clues Yeah Well the voice said that it had originally pulled sheets from beds in an attempt to mock the way John Bell had pulled the bed covers From Betsy's bed every night after everyone had gone to sleep. It's disgusting. I'm very upset This is like a what's SNL should do Yeah, this is sketch. Well, I feel like I'm watching SNL because I'm not laughing at all

In fact, it seemed as if most of the witches early actions were an echo of John's foul deeds Concerning the massive pressure This was the entity's way of mocking John's crushing weight on Betsy's body as he clamped her hand over her mouth to keep her quiet Could have had a trigger warning As far as why Betsy was attacked with slaps hairpoles and drags The entity said it was because Betsy should have told her mother and the ministers what her father was doing But since she held back the truth, she was essentially punishing herself for allowing the community to believe John Bell was a good man Not saying it's right, but she said that was the explanation

Okay, in other words, she was supposed to tell the world about Bob Making Betsy Bell an almost Laura Palmer like character who created her own tulpa to fight the evil that men and most specifically her father Do it's an interesting concept my idea that it came The call was coming from inside the house. Yeah, and that you had a Poltergeist that you if this is completely saying if it's real in my mind I feel like that there's there's evidence to show that this type of trauma We've seen this in other stories the this kind of trauma can trigger Psychic events. This is if you believe it and at all in any way shape or form

But it's the it's the truth is the energy of it and that it kind of Exteriorized into the house what she was experiencing Looked out from this perspective Betsy Bell's fits could be seen as the entity basically Siphoning energy from a living host in order to build up its strength and once it had enough it turned that energy on Betsy's tormentor and then once the entity had the appropriate amount of juice it took on a mind and Personality of its own feeding off both Betsy's emotional torment and the overall evil energies that permeated the antebellum south But the killing blow for John Bell actually came from Betsy herself when it became clear that Mouth stabbings face twitching and throat swelling wasn't gonna cut it the quote-unquote which

Finally possessed Betsy to finish the job Under hypnosis the voice of Jerusalem said that it was Betsy who had picked the berries and made a deadly Nightshade tincture in order to finally murder her father although Betsy remembered none of it This is a cool twist to the story It really is and it's so cute when you do think about I know she's getting like poison But you put the berries in your little shirt, you know You're talking about how we cause play as field workers Four relaxing times during the fall. It's kind of fun though

And finally as far as why the witch was so insistent on Betsy being with Richard instead of Joshua It was because she actually loved Richard more but feared attention from older men because of what her father had done to her However looking at this confession another way as Henry pointed out to me in one of our pre-show conversations There is the possibility that this whole story was a case of undiagnosed Disassociated identity disorder that ended in revenge murder and through a century's long game of telephone It became the story of the bell witch in my mind Imagine this like they don't maybe they don't really experience obviously We don't know how long DID has been around and this concept of it has been around

I don't know but the idea of someone like maybe someone breaking into multiple personalities because of trauma Yeah appears like ghost activity You see someone break into different characters and you assume that they were being possessed and you're doing I mean obviously This is just a completely uneducated shot in the dark I've seen inside the actor studio. I know what happens with these tormented actors out there But you have somebody who then the passion of it and like this thing comes out of you that people can't even really see it They just assume there are voices in the air and they don't know it's like someone who is like deeply Traumatized and and they are also maybe suffering some form of mental illness and they're just shooting out into the world

I don't know you need the shotgun holster that goes by the side of the bed Ready to go Shotgun holster on the side of the bed you see those infomercials. Oh, yeah, it's fun I'm getting ready for that. Yeah, I'm gonna give that one. I'm gonna have a super soaker full of piss But either way after the hypnotism session Betsy was free and the Bell Witch never bothered the Bell family ever again However, that's not quite the end of the story Since it's such a good fucking yarn the Bell Witch passed into Tennessee legend And it said that the witch still has the ability to kill and to this day in Tennessee

Fathers are still molesting their daughters Every day Canvas as artists 1951 a bunch of boys from Nashville drove down to the Bell farm on what sounds like a drunken joy ride and Decided it'd be a good idea to steal the gravestone of John Bell But on their way back to Nashville they came upon a curve called the devil's elbow Cool every town has that it's the devil's taint Maybe we just need to fix the road. Could we fix? No, no that pot hole. That's the taint

And either because they were too drunk or because the Bell Witch had followed their car They smashed through the guardrail and plunged a hundred feet into the ravine below killing the driver and maiming the other two boys But really the place where you can still find a bit of Bell Witch action is the cave where the boy was supposedly Saved which the witch supposedly haunts because it's close to where the bells disturbed the Indian burial ground By accounts if one enters the cave You can hear the sounds of an old lady laughing moaning Grasping wheezing and whispering and those that brave the depths are sometimes choked Slapped had their hair pulled or feel as if a great weight is on their chest and as legend has it if one were to take

But a single stone from this cave the Bell Witch will follow bestowing misfortune and misery upon the thief until they finally meet the same fate as John Bell Damn, it's kind of like marrying a cougar. It is you never know what's gonna happen Courtney Cox holy hell that was incredible the Bell Witch story Can you turn for the worst that was a three-hour wind up to a massive I feel like I just this is the audio version of the movie The crying game This is just a there's a big hook here at the at the end the twist the twist of course

Thank you all so much for listening to our series on the Bell Witch Hopefully it provided you some spook entertainment here in the month of October We have a couple of little announcements number one. We love when you guys make shirts make make fan are and sell them We fucking love it and we support we love it I we don't give a shit But we wanted to make one announcement was that if you see a shirt or any type of merch that has our logo on it That does like something that we design that's from the last podcast merch comm website on another website if it's on Amazon It's not a real shirt and it's gonna be shit. Well, the quality is gonna be bad. That's what we mentioned it

And so just be cautious of that and of course by anything else It's just if you see our obviously the stuff that we have developed Yeah on the more our merch site on somebody else's site. It's not real We love it when people we love it when our fans make Original art when you do your own thing, you know, and there's a lot of people out there that are making merch That is stealing art from like our Instagram, you know from our fans and there's a lot of people out there making bootleg Uh, bullshit. So know that the only place for official last podcast merch is last podcast merch Yes, and we say this because we want the product that you receive to be high quality and we really really tried hard

And we do quality are very high And we don't want to fuck with our fan art either because it's so important us It's so cool. It means so much to how many talented listeners we have that make shit and sell shit And of course if you have anything that you're selling on Etsy or whatever tag me on Instagram I'd be more than happy to promote it and get you selling out of mugs or cups or whatever the hell you Because obviously again, that is that is why we love our community so much because you guys are unbelievably talented and That's very cool. But yes, just let you know so you get the best quality product possible But you have to create it you can't just slap our logo on a coffee cup and say I created this that is you're correct

Though didn't they create it It is weird. It's what I was getting into with the idea of meaning and I'll start screaming it about it later But this weekend you were continuing to get spooky with hauncher house on twitch.tv slash last podcast network 6 p.m. Pacific Standard Time 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. What do you got this Saturday Henry watching the original? We're watching the original nose ferrato And it is me Natalie Jane my beautiful wife. We got Amber Nelson and Holden McNeely. We're gonna be having fun We're starting on time the stream will start on time. Yes, there you go nose ferrato It must have been difficult not to eat the nails. I'm a nailed chomper. He must have had a lot of patience his own nails

Yeah, I thought he said he was eating nails and I thought you were just eating nails, which is bad No, not nails. For this week's charity We are doing the we are covering the Midnight Mission Which is a great organization that it does like they are completely homegrown like they're working for people that are unhomed I we love the Midnight Mission, and we're really excited to raise money for them this week. Absolutely Thank you all so much for supporting all the shows here on the LP and Network Make sure you check out Marcus's music show no dogs in space at least I hope not because the one they sent into space died Yeah, you did. Yeah, like it did not come like it did not come back. He didn't even do anything

No, he was a good boy. He sat still just died You don't send dogs into space because they don't come back. They never come back or if they do they're not real They're not real. It's happening And next we'll watch the thing later on today It is really good, and we are getting a spookier and a spookier this week and this coming months next week We're gonna have a throwback to something. We haven't done it all quiet a bit of time. I'm really excited It's spooky with us. Oh, we're getting Italian and then This time we're gonna get spooky with it. It's this time. We are gonna get

Italian horror And then afterwards we're got the we have a fucked up story Yeah, for Halloween that I'm very very excited for the tease for the Italian story. There was just like New munchie munchie munchie munchie grabbing your breast. They can't see that Henry, but we can yep So that's what I do it for I do it for my friends. I know buddy All right everyone also a patreon if if you have a chance to get to our patreon Thank you so much for that We have a funny interview this week with with the son of Frank Herbert who is the author of

It's fucking huge. I don't even know what you're even saying or it's Brian Herbert. It's Frank Herbert son This is huge. We talk about doing for an hour saying I know it was very fun And and also Kevin Anderson joins us. So thank you all so much for that and check that out and all right That's about it. Hope everyone's hanging in there the best you can sure keep on trucking along. Hail Satan Okay, we'll give us the laces everybody. Hell me, huh? Oh, hey, go ahead. Hey, what happened to you? You have auditions coming up next year you better get on your cockney accent and you have to start working again Oh my god. I don't money for the family. How do I act? I don't know. Oh my god. I'm your job I'm just so used to sitting now

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