So Supernatural - HAUNTED: The Bell Witch

Episode Date: October 27, 2021

In 1817, the Bell family noticed strange noises in their log cabin in Red River, Tennessee. For the next four years, they’re tormented by an invisible being. Hundreds of people come to see the infamous Bell Witch… but none of them could stop her when her harassment turned homicidal.  

So we've all been in a situation like this. It's after midnight, all of the food's been eaten, the champagne's topped off, you've laughed, you've cried, and now you're cleaning up the party, dreaming of your comfy bed. But there's that one guest that just won't leave. Typically, we only have to deal with this person for a few more hours. But in 1817, a family known as the Bells had the houseguest from hell. For four years, she disturbed the Bells' sleep, harassed their friends, even beat their children. Unfortunately for the Bells, they couldn't just send their guest home. Whatever the so-called Bell Witch was, she wasn't human,

and she would only leave on her terms. This is Supernatural. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. This week, I'm talking about a mysterious, ghost-like being known as the Bell Witch. In 1817, the Bell family noticed strange noises in their log cabin in Red River, Tennessee. Hundreds of people witnessed the Bell Witch firsthand, but 200 years later, no one is sure who or what the spirit really was. I have all that and more coming up. Stay with us. It's 1817 and 67-year-old John Bell is taking an afternoon stroll through his cornfield in Red River, Tennessee. He stumbles upon what looks like a dog, but something about it is off. It's got four legs and a tail, but its head is really small and it has these really like long upright ears,

kind of like a rabbit, which doesn't sound that scary to me. But John is startled enough that he levels his gun at this animal and takes a few shots at it. When the smoke clears, the bunny dog has vanished. John assumes, well, at least it's gone. And he basically goes back to his walk and forgets all about it. He only remembers the creature later that night when something starts scratching outside his house. This time, John's not the only witness. He and his wife Lucy have nine children and a bunch of them hear something scraping and knocking on the exterior walls.

But when they check outside, there's nothing there. Over the next few weeks, the kids keep complaining about the same knocking noise. Only now it's not coming from outside. It's inside their rooms. They never see what's making the noise, even once it escalates from knocking to, well, basically every creepy sound you can think of. Like one night, four of the bell children wake up to the sound of rats gnawing on their bedposts. But when their parents come in with candles, there are no rodents,

and no sign of bite marks on the furniture. Another night, they heard dogs growling and snarling, then invisible wings flapping against the ceiling, heavy chains jangling against the floor, and eventually they hear these horrible choking noises. All of this obviously keeps everyone awake in terror, but they can't figure out where these sounds are coming from. A short time later, it gets physical. While the Bell children are asleep, unseen hands rip the blankets off their beds. Sometimes they even feel like invisible fists are hitting them. For some reason, 12-year-old Betsy seems to be getting the worst of it.

She often wakes up screaming, claiming that someone is pulling her hair or sticking her with pins. And she isn't imagining this. She has bruises and red marks to show for it, some of them in the shape of handprints. Now, John Bell either doesn't take it seriously or he's afraid other people won't take it seriously because he doesn't let his wife or kids tell anyone. He swears the entire family to secrecy. They're just going to keep living in this house and pretend the violent poltergeist just doesn't exist. But by May 1818, about a year after the haunting began, the Bells finally feel like they have to tell someone. The family is

especially close with their next door neighbors, the Johnsons. So John asks James Johnson and his wife to spend the night at the bell house. All he wants is a little reassurance that the entire family isn't losing their minds. And reassurance is what he gets. Because that night, almost immediately after everyone goes to bed, the gnawing and growling noises start as usual. Something even rips the bed covers off the Johnsons. So this isn't just a bell-specific phenomenon. This thing can and will go after anyone who enters the house. But James takes a different approach than the bells. Instead of just ignoring it, he tries asking questions. The thing doesn't talk, but it stops making noise whenever he's speaking.

So that convinces James that whatever this thing is, it's intelligent and it's listening. The next morning, John Bell finally caves and decides, okay, we have to let people into the house to investigate this. Some family friends come over to try and solve the mystery, and as the gossip spreads, the Bell House has this endless parade of visitors. Everyone wants to see the spectacle. Now that they know this thing is listening, the guests all try to ask it questions, and pretty soon, it answers back. At first, it's just through knocking.

For example, someone might ask a number-based question, like how many people are in the room or how many miles to the river. And the spirit will answer by wrapping or scratching the number on the wall. And supposedly, it always answers correctly. Eventually, it drops the knocking and the whispers start. At first, it's a low, broken sound, like an old woman whistling a tune. Then it becomes airy, indistinct words, like it's trying to speak, only it's not strong enough. Finally, after weeks, it develops into a clear woman's voice. And when the bells finally ask who it is, it replies, quote,

I am a spirit. I was once very happy, but have been disturbed. At this point, the bells don't seem to be very surprised by that. I mean, they've been living with this spirit for over a year already. At least now they can talk to her. And as time goes on, the Bells just kind of settle into this situation. They learn to live with her tantrums, her interests, and her volatile personality. And they come to realize she's actually pretty smart. She can quote any passage in the Bible.

She sings hundreds of hymns from memory. And she enjoys having religious debates with the neighbors. In fact, she takes a liking to James Johnson and nicknames him Old Sugar Mouth for how sweetly he recites scripture. But the spirit's knowledge isn't limited to Christianity. It's almost like she knows everything that goes on in Red River. One night, two preachers visit the Bell home. Both are family friends and have spoken with the spirit multiple times already. During this particular visit, the entity claims she heard one of the preacher's sermons that day. She even quotes it verbatim.

But then she starts quoting the other reverend's sermon, also word for word. And the most spectacular part is both men had given their sermons at exactly 11 a.m. that morning at two totally different churches 13 miles apart. Which means this spirit can be in two places at once. And of course, with powers like that, she lives for gossip. She's always telling secrets, tattling on the neighbors, even pulling pranks. Like on one occasion, the spirit claims she was indigenous and she's haunting the Bells because her bones have been disturbed. Specifically, she's looking for a single tooth which is under the Bells' house. The Bells freak out when they hear this, mostly because they know it's true.

A few years before, the family's son Drew and one of his friends stumbled upon a burial site in the woods. Convinced that there might be treasure hidden with the bodies, the boys dug up a grave and removed the bones. The friend brought a jawbone into the Bell's house and decided like, hey, let's like throw it against the wall. Naturally, one of the teeth dislodged and fell through a crack in the floorboards. Now, I can't stress this enough. If you want to avoid being haunted, do not disturb graves and especially don't use bones as boomerangs. After John discovered what Drew and his friend had done, he made sure the

bones were buried back in their rightful place. But he missed one important piece, that tooth. So to appease the spirit, he pries up the floorboards and spends days digging under the house looking for that one tiny tooth. Eventually, he has to give up. He tells the spirit he can't find the tooth, and to his surprise, the spirit laughs at him. Like she's howling with delight. Then she tells him there's no connection between her and that tooth. It was all just a prank. Kind of funny, sure, but imagine having to live with this thing every day. As you can imagine, this spirit is really getting on everyone's nerves.

The Bells hope that by figuring out what she wants, they can send her on her way. So finally, they ask one final time who the spirit is. And to their shock, she admits she's not a ghost at all. She's a living, breathing witch. Coming up, a neighbor is suspected of sorcery. Now, back to the story. Sometime in 1818, the entity tormenting the Bells finally gives them a name, Old Kate Batts. That name rings familiar.

Kate Batts is an actual neighbor in Red River, and she's known to be a little eccentric. She loves causing a scene. For example, one day she comes into church and finds a man sitting in her seat. Rather than moving elsewhere, Kate just sits on the man until he agrees to get up. So it's moments like this that make Kate kind of an outcast in Red River. But people are afraid of getting on her bad side. Apparently, she's got a wicked temper. And there are rumors that she dabbles in black magic. Some villagers are certain Kate has a problem with John Bell. The rumor is that the two of them had a business deal that went sour, and she's been talking trash about John

ever since. So to most of Red River, this explains everything. Kate Batts must be responsible for the Bell Witch. Case closed. But the thing is, the rumors aren't quite correct. John Bell had a dispute with her brother-in-law, not with her. The Bells are actually one of the few families in town that don't have a problem with Kate. The Bells figure the spirit has lied about its identity before, so let's not jump to any conclusions and blame the neighbor. But the name sticks anyway, and everyone starts calling the spirit, or witch, Kate. Now even after all these rumors start flying, Kate Batts isn't the only one under suspicion. Some skeptics believe the whole thing is a prank started by the Bells themselves. They suspect the ringleader is their now 13-year-old daughter Betsy,

since she's the focus of most of the witch's aggression. Supposedly, Betsy could be inflicting the wounds on herself and using ventriloquism to fake the disembodied voice as a ploy to make some extra cash. But the neighbors who actually visit the Bell house are quick to dismiss the idea that it's a hoax. For starters, the witch knows things that Betsy has no way of discovering, like the names of complete strangers who come to visit. And besides, the Bells aren't making any money from this. In fact, they're feeding and housing tons of guests and refusing any compensation for it. So if the spirit isn't sent by Kate Batts and isn't a hoax by the Bells, then what the heck is going on inside that house?

Over the next year, the visitors keep coming. Preachers, ghost hunters, witch doctors, magicians, and reportedly even future president Andrew Jackson. Which isn't as random as it sounds. Apparently, John Bell's sons fought with Jackson during the War of 1812. By 1819, Jackson is living in Nashville, so when he hears about the trouble at his old friend's farm, he takes a platoon of men to Red River. As the story goes, Jackson and his men are just a few miles away from town when suddenly their wagon's wheels get stuck. But here's the thing, there seems to be nothing wrong with the gears. There's no mud, nothing in the wheels, nothing that should be stopping the wagon. But even with the horses pulling, it won't budge. So Jackson assumes this must be the witch.

And as soon as he says this, a strange voice speaks up from some nearby bushes. It supposedly says, quote, all right, General, and his men are welcomed into the Bell residence. As they settle in, one of the soldiers claims that he's there to kill the witch. Now, this witch slayer is kind of a blowhard. He's got a big gun with silver bullets and keeps boasting about all the other witches he's defeated. Everyone makes fun of him, especially after a few hours pass and there's no sign of the bell witch. Eventually, Jackson leans over to one of his men and says that he wishes the witch would appear just to scare this guy. Before he can even finish his sentence, they hear the same disembodied voice from the woods.

It taunts the soldier to try and shoot it, and this guy actually does. At that point, Jackson and the whole platoon watch as invisible fists beat the snot out of this alleged witch hunter, sending him running out of the house. They find the whole thing hilarious. Now, I've got to admit, as far as disembodied spirits go, the Bell Witch wasn't all bad. Her pranks can be cruel sometimes, but she had a soft spot for the matriarch of the family, Lucy Bell. Sometime in September 1820, Lucy develops lung problems, and the witch basically appoints herself head nurse. She dotes on her, like if Lucy asks for anything, the witch immediately alerts someone in the house and tells them where to find it. She refuses to utter a word anytime Lucy is sleeping so it doesn't wake her up. And whenever Lucy is awake, the witch sings to her like a mother to a sick child.

But the witch's fondness for Lucy is atypical. She seems to hate everyone else, especially the family patriarch John. It's not clear why she dislikes John so much, but he seems to be one of her favorite punching bags. Supposedly, John has these episodes where his tongue swells up so badly he can't eat for days at a time. And a little while after Lucy gets sick, John comes down with even more mysterious symptoms. His face is twitching uncontrollably, and he's suffering from seizures. Nothing the doctors do can help. He is sure it's all being caused by the witch because at the height of his illness, she promises him that one day she is going to kill him. Coming up, the Bell Witch's pranks go too far. Now back to the story.

On December 19th, 1820, John Bell slips into a coma. One of his sons runs to the kitchen to grab his medicine, but when he opens the cupboard, all he finds is this weird smoky vial that nobody recognizes. It's definitely not John's prescription. The spirit can't help but spill the beans. She swapped John's medicine. She already gave him something from the mystery bottle that will, quote, fix him for good. When the family doctor arrives, he doesn't recognize the bottle and he has no idea what's inside. So he suggests an experiment. The family catches a stray cat to test the potion on and it doesn't go well. After just a few drops, the poor cat reportedly jumps up, flips over a few times and dies. Whatever is in the bottle, it isn't going

to bode well for John. Frustrated, someone throws the vial into the fireplace and the whole family watches as a blue fireball shoots up the chimney. Sadly, John passes away the next day. And to add insult to injury, the Bell Witch crashes his funeral. After the prayers are said and hymns are sung, the witch's disembodied voice starts singing these loud, boisterous drinking songs, like it's happy hour. It's just completely disrespectful, especially since the witch killed him in the first place. But maybe killing John was the spirit's objective all along. Because after he dies, her activity fades a bit. She calms down with the voices, the knocking, and the mean-spirited pranks. She claims she only wants one final thing, for Betsy to break up with her boyfriend.

Throughout all of this, Betsy has been growing close to a boy named Joshua Gardner. And despite the constant torture from the Bell Witch, Joshua's stood by her side. Eventually, Joshua asks Betsy to marry him. She's 15 and he's 20, which may sound weird today, but wasn't that unusual back in 1820. The couple excitedly shares the news that they're engaged, but like a jealous friend, the witch hates that Betsy's happy. From that point on, Betsy and Josh can't go anywhere without the witch harassing them. Like one day that spring, they go on a fishing trip to the banks of the Red River. Even when they find a secluded place to be alone, the witch follows them.

Her disembodied voice says over and over, please, Betsy Bell, don't have Joshua Gardner. Betsy realizes that if they get married, they're going to be faced with a lifetime of this invisible abuse. And Betsy's still reeling from the loss of her dad, so she's worried that the witch might escalate to hurting Joshua or even killing him. So ultimately, Betsy calls off the engagement, which is sad because she and Joshua really loved each other. The heartbroken Joshua gathers all his stuff and moves to West Tennessee, never to see Betsy again.

The good news is, this basically marks the end of their problems with the Bell Witch. With the wedding called off, she tells Lucy Bell she's leaving, but she claims it won't be the last of her. Seven years later, she'll come by for a visit. And in February 1828, she makes good on that promise. There are two versions of this story. One account comes from John and Lucy's son, Williams Bell. According to him, he, his brother Joel, and his mother Lucy are the only ones still living in the house when the witch returns. They all hear the same scratching, knocking, and gnawing as before. But weirdly enough, the witch doesn't speak this time.

She only bothers them for about two weeks before disappearing completely. But author Pat Fitzhugh claims there was more going on. He says the witch actually spent the visit talking to John Bell Jr. His son, Joel Thomas Bell, allegedly took notes on their conversation. Apparently, they had a lengthy discussion about the need to reinvigorate Christianity in America. Supposedly, she also gives a series of predictions, most of which never came true, although she does accurately guess that the Civil War will happen. Before she leaves, she declares that she'll return in 107 years to visit the Bells' direct living descendants. As for whether she actually keeps this promise, it's hard to say. 107 years later, the family's most direct descendant is John and Lucy's great-grandson, a neurologist named Dr. Charles Bell. In 1934,

the year before the witch is supposed to return, Charles actually publishes a book about the Bell Witch, including those notes from her return visit with John Jr. But it's unknown whether Charles got a visit of his own the next year. He never wrote a follow-up. So that's the story of the Bell Witch. She came, she saw, she ruined the Bell family's life. Looking back, it would be easy to chalk this all up to old-fashioned superstition. There's not much in the way of hard evidence since it all happened 200 years ago. But I want to reassert that hundreds of people supposedly witnessed the ghostly events at the bell house, including a US president. And the family was held in high regard, no one who knew them believed that they were orchestrating some giant hoax. I still really don't know what happened at that house.

But as with any cold case, there are a few good theories. Like I mentioned, some neighbors blamed the haunting on Kate Batts, but the Bells themselves didn't think Kate was responsible. There was actually someone else in town who's a more likely candidate, a man named Richard Powell. He had the means, the motivation, and the opportunity to unleash a poltergeist on the Bell family. When The Haunting begins in 1817, Richard Powell is a 22-year-old schoolteacher in Red River. He'd moved there just two years earlier, and he taught all of the Bell children. But he takes a particular liking to 10-year-old Betsy. He waives her tuition fee for four years and is often heard

praising her brilliance. As she gets older, it becomes pretty obvious that Richard's interested in more than just Betsy's intelligence, which is extremely creepy and inappropriate. But when Betsy and Joshua begin courting each other, Richard seemingly backs off. Even beyond all that, Richard is a pretty shady character. No one in Red River knows that he's already married. He ditched his wife in Dixon County 50 miles away and never actually filed for divorce. And one day, a group of school children overhear him speaking in an unfamiliar language. To them, it sounds like he's into the occult, like he's conjuring something or casting a spell. So when a malignant spirit shows up to torture Betsy right when she gets a crush on another guy, well that's highly suspicious. If it's true,

it makes sense why the witch would also be targeting John. It's hard to believe that John would approve of Betsy marrying her teacher, so Richard would probably want to get him out of the way. Of course, the poltergeist leaves when Betsy and Joshua break their engagement, but Richard doesn't. In fact, he sees the breakup as an opportunity. He becomes her shoulder to cry on. And three years later, Betsy marries Richard, her creepy former school teacher. The MO fits, but it's really hard to prove that Richard actually had anything to do with the Bell Witch. Was he a creep? Yes. But was he a powerful sorcerer who could conjure a poltergeist? You'll have to decide for yourself. Over the years, the Bell family farm was divided up between the descendants,

and all the original buildings, including the farmhouse, were torn down. But to this day, people claim that lots of spooky stuff happens at the old homestead. Mysterious lights, strange voices, creepy music. There are ghost tours of the property, and you can even visit a cave on site where the witch still supposedly lives. So if you're looking for the truth about the Bell Witch, the answer could be right there. Just head down to the farm and ask her yourself. Thanks for listening. I'll be back next week with another episode.

To hear more stories hosted by me, check out Crime Junkie and all AudioChuck originals.