“America’s Greatest Ghost Story”

About the Bell Witch

Americans continue to affirm their fascination with the unknown by making scary movies, paranormal shows, and live ghost hunts a favorite modern pastime. Despite the frights and thrills such movies and events bring about, people want something more, and different–something that intrigues them, something they can focus on and give intelligent thought to. Enter well-documented, well-researched historical hauntings, where serious, unbiased researchers pave the way for learning so that people, like you, can draw their own conclusions.

The legend of the Bell Witch centers on the John Bell family of Red River, Tennessee, now Adams, and the spiritual haunting they endured between 1817 and 1821. Unlike many films and ghost stories, the early-1800s Tennessee haunting involved real people and places. No one has yet to solve it–or even come close. These distinctions led Dr. Nandor Fodor, a noted lawyer-turned-parapsychologist, to call the legend, “America’s Greatest Ghost Story.” Fast forward 200 years, and the Bell Witch legend is still making waves. There are numerous Bell Witch books, several Bell Witch movies and documentaries, and there are always several more “in the works.” Regardless of whether the case’s origin was spiritual or human, it remains an epic, classic American haunting, and a “who-done-it” mystery like no other.

The purpose of the Bell Witch story presented below is to provide a brief overview of the legend. For the full account of the Bell Witch legend (North Carolina + Tennessee + Mississippi; from the early 1800s to present-day), including annotations, charts, footnotes, historical endnotes and discussions, and other resources, please buy a signed, personalized copy of The Bell Witch: The Full Account, by Pat Fitzhugh. You can also get the book from Amazon and other retailers. If you have questions about the legend that are not answered at The Bell Witch Site, please ask the site’s owner, 40+-year Bell Witch researcher, Pat Fitzhugh, your questions about the legend.

The story presented below is the “classic version,” covering only Tennessee and the 1817-1821 period. It is only a story, and a very controversial one at that. For researched historical information pertaining to the legend’s characters, please see the Real Character Biographies section of this site. For an in-depth, researched look at the legend’s key background elements, please see the Bell Witch Essays section. To learn more about the legend in general, please see the Frequently Asked Questions page. And, above all else, thank you for visiting The Bell Witch Site.

The Bell Family Prior to the Haunting

In the early 1800s, John Bell moved his family from North Carolina to the Red River bottomland in Robertson County, Tennessee, settling in the Red River community, which later became the present-day Adams, Tennessee.  Bell purchased some land and a large house for his family. Over the next several years, he acquired more land, increasing his holdings to 328 acres, and cleared a number of fields for planting. He also became an Elder of the Red River Baptist Church. John and his wife, Lucy Bell, had three more children after moving to Tennessee. The Bells had a very happy and successful early life at the Red River Settlement.

The Bell family homestead, the alleged “ground zero” of the Bell Witch haunting.

Strange Occurrences Commence

One day in 1817, John Bell was inspecting his corn field when he encountered a strange-looking animal sitting in the middle of a corn row. Shocked by the appearance of this animal, which had the body of a dog and the head of a rabbit, Bell shot several times. The animal vanished. This was the first documented manifestation of the entity. Bell thought nothing more of the incident, at least not until after dinner. That evening, the family began hearing “beating” sounds on the outside walls of their log home.

The mysterious sounds continued with increased frequency and force each night. Bell and his sons often hurried outside to catch the culprit but always returned empty-handed.  In the weeks that followed, the Bell children began waking up frightened, complaining that rats were gnawing at their bedposts. Not long after that, the children began complaining of having having their bed covers pulled from them and their pillows tossed onto the floor by a seemingly invisible entity.

The entity allegedly turned a man into a mule.

The Bell Witch Develops a Voice and Becomes Violent

As time went on, the Bells began hearing faint, whispering voices, which too weak to understand but sounded like a feeble old woman singing hymns. The encounters escalated, and the Bells’ youngest daughter, Betsy Bell, began experiencing brutal encounters with the invisible entity. It would pull her hair and slap her relentlessly, often leaving welts and hand prints on her face and body.  The disturbances, about which John Bell had vowed his family to secret, finally escalated to the point that he shared his “family trouble” with his closest friend and neighbor, James Johnston.

Skeptical at first, Johnston and his wife spent the night at the Bell home. Things began peacefully, but once they retired for the evening, they were subjected to the same terrifying disturbances that the Bells had been experiencing. After their bedcovers were yanked off and James was slapped, he sprang out of bed, exclaiming, “In the name of the Lord, who are you and what do you want!” The entity did not respond; the rest of the night was peaceful. The next morning, Mr. Johnston explained to the Bells that the culprit was likely an “evil spirit, the kind that the Bible talks about.”

The entity’s voice strengthened over time and became loud and unmistakable. It sang hymns, quoted scripture, carried on intelligent conversation, and once even quoted, word-for-word, two sermons that were preached at the same time on the same day, thirteen miles apart. Word of the supernatural phenomena soon spread outside the settlement, even to Nashville, where then-Major General Andrew Jackson became interested in the so-called Bell Witch.

Read More – The Story of the Bell Witch

Comments

Leave a Reply