???
- Story everyone knew growing up - Wife did college halloween there
- Story of the haunting of a family in the 1800s (1817-1821)
- Became extremly popular and still referenced today
- In 1817, near the town of Adams
- Bell family
- John Bell Sr., who was a farmer
- Betsy - Youngest daughter
- Others - Lucy (wife), John Jr (youngest son)
- John Bell and slaves see a "strange creature resembling a dog" Bell fired at the animal but it disappeared.
- Drew Bell sees a bird of "extraordinary size"
- Daughter Betsy observed a girl in green dress swinging from the limb of an oak tree
???
- Weird ecause they should know the animals and people in the area
- Bell shot @ animal
- Started with knocking heard along the door and walls
- Then sounds of gnawing on the beds, invisible dogs fighting, and chains being drug across the floor
- Became physical
- Sheets were pulled from beds when the children slept
- Pulled hair and scratched the children
- Betsy who was slapped, pinched and stuck with pins
- John Bell began having paralysis in his mouth ??? Ghost really had it out for John
- Family friend James Johnston
- After going to bed at the Bell home, Johnston was woken up by the same
- That morning he told John Bell he wasn't crazy
- The ghost/witch/thing started talking. They asked it, "Who are you and what do you want?" and the ghost responded, "I am a spirit; I was once very happy but have been disturbed."
- They called her Kate, after she claimed to be "Old Kate Batts' witch," and continued answering to the name
- The ghost gossiped about other families, and would sometimes leave to check on other homes.
??? Soon word of the haunting spread with some traveling great distances to see the witch Various reasons for her being there - indian burial ground, mistreated slave
- News of the haunting spread with some people traveling hundreds of miles to see the witch
- People created "tests" for the ghost, asking it only things they would know. The ghost would reply correctly and in the voice of one of their family members
- Several articles
- Andrew Jackson
??? John Johnston, a son of James, devised a test for the witch, something no one outside his family would know, asking the entity what his Dutch step-grandmother in North Carolina would say to the slaves if she thought they did something wrong. The witch replied with his grandmother's accent, "Hut tut, what has happened now?" In another account, an Englishman stopped to visit and offered to investigate. On remarking on his family overseas, the witch suddenly began to mimic his English parents. Again at early morning, the witch woke him to voices of his parents worried as they had heard his voice as well. The Englishman quickly left that morning and later wrote to the Bell family that the entity had visited his family in England. He apologized for his skepticism. Several accounts say that during his military career, Andrew Jackson was intrigued with the story and his men were frightened away after traveling to investigate. Multiple deaths
- The ghost threatens John Bell, saying she'll kill him. John Bell dies shortly thereafter from poisoning
- Ghost says she'll come back in 7 years
- She does, but they ignore her and she leaves
- Massive cultural impact, esp in movies
- Charles Faulkner wrote a cantata, "The Bell Witch", premiering at Carnegie Hall in 1947
- Still relevent in the area, Bell Witch fall festivals and numerous plays.
- https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/nation-now/2015/10/27/psychic-bell-witch-story/74713998/