Short Stuff: The Bell Witch  ## Metadata - Author: [[Stuff You Should Know]] - Full Title: Short Stuff: The Bell Witch - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/03e78117-7151-467a-9f45-b9576445fc8c ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **First Strange Sightings On The Bell Farm** - John Bell and his family began experiencing uncanny animal apparitions like a dog with a rabbit head in 1817 on their Tennessee land. - Those sightings escalated into persistent nighttime pounding on the Bell home that no one could trace. Transcript: Josh Yeah. And before we get too much deeper into it, I want to shout out a historian named Pat Fitzhugh, who runs bellwitch.org and wrote the book The Bell Witch, colon, the full account, Legends Of America, Victoria Klein Peter at the Tennessee State Museum. OK? Got it. Chuck Rocky top, baby. Josh So the haunting of the Bell family began in 1817 when John Bell, the patriarch of the family, sometimes called Old Jack Bell, because remember this is 1817 in Tennessee. Yeah. He was in his fields. He was a huge planter in the area. And he was in one of his fields at one point, and he noticed a big animal sitting in his field. So he looked at it a little closer, and he found that it was quite disturbing. This large animal had the body of a dog but the head of a rabbit. Okay. Red flag. And John Bell was like, did I eat mushrooms this morning? I was like, no, I didn't. And he said, well, I'm going to shoot at this because I'm a homesteader in Tennessee in 1817. And when he did, the animal either vanished or scurried off to the nearby woods, depending on who's telling the story. But either way, John Bell let it be. ([Time 0:01:11](https://share.snipd.com/snip/107c7bed-0699-4fbb-b6a2-025d70188695)) - **Physical Torments Target Family Members** - The Bell children reported physical assaults: sheets pulled, hair yanked, pinches and welts left on Betsy. - The disturbances focused on Betsy and John Bell, escalating from noises to direct physical harassment. Transcript: Chuck And the hauntings, or the sounds continued, rather. The children I know were haunted by the sounds of what they thought was rats chewing on their bedposts at night, which was probably just rats chewing on their bedposts at night. Josh Right. But you've got to toss that one in. Chuck You've got to toss that in because it is scary. The hauntings would turn physical. Sometimes the sheets were pulled off of the kids while they slept. Young Betsy was ghost slapped, apparently hard enough to leave welts and bruises. She was ghost pinched. She was ghost hair pulled. And it became pretty clear that Betsy and old Jack, the dad, were the main targets in this family. Josh Yes. And we'll see why in a few. But I think probably what makes the whole thing the most disturbing is that the witch began to talk. It's one thing for poltergeist activity. Poltergeists don't talk, everybody. Ask your parents. The witch started speaking, the witch ghost. And at first it was faint. They were just barely whispered. You couldn't really make out what the ghost was saying. But over time, the voice grew louder, clearer, and would sometimes hold conversations, like entire conversations with the Bell family in their home, so much so that John Jr. Was known to debate the witch voice. Sure. I don't know over what. ([Time 0:04:19](https://share.snipd.com/snip/b6cdb02a-e3b5-4375-8996-4137576922e8)) - **Enslaved People Also Encountered The Witch** - Enslaved people on the Bell property, notably a man named Dean, also encountered the witch as a two-headed dog. - Dean's wife made a witch ball to protect him after his encounters, showing local folk responses to the phenomenon. Transcript: Chuck On their land. And they also had similar experiences, the most famous of which was an enslaved man there named Dean, who encountered the witch multiple times in the form of a two-headed dog with ostensibly Dog heads. Josh I saw a drawing of it, of this, Dean being met by a two-headed dog. And it actually kind of missed the mark because it looked like it was hopping up to like play with them. Well, maybe it was. Because in this in this picture, the drawing, Dean is holding a ball, but it's not supposed to be like a ball that the two headed dog wants to him to toss for it. It was a witch ball that Dean's wife made. And that's a real thing. A witch ball is a blown glass sphere, usually kind of colorful. And depending on where you're using this or who you ask, it's either used to trap witches or ward off witches. And Dean's wife made it for him, I think after the first time he saw the bell witch, to protect himself. ([Time 0:06:02](https://share.snipd.com/snip/6b1051c6-cb75-4016-92be-a6233b980b8c)) - **Haunting Upended Betsy's Life** - The witch interfered with Betsy's engagement to Joshua Gardner and thwarted the marriage, leading her to wed an older man. - Betsy later endured hardship, raising eight children while the haunting's fallout shadowed her life. Transcript: Chuck And it became pretty clear that Betsy was getting haunted because this bell witch did not like the fact that she was engaged to a guy named Joshua Gardner, local kid. And she tried to keep this wedding on, but eventually would break it off in 1821 and marry an old guy, so old. How old was he? He was so old that she ended up nursing the man for 11 years before he eventually died. Josh Yeah. Betsy fell on hardships of her own. Even after she moved out of her father's house, she had eight children and four of them. In that 11 years with the old sick guy? I don't know if it was during or before. I don't know how long they were married before he fell ill. I don't know. But yes, they had eight children for sure. But only four made it to adulthood, sadly. So Betsy had her own troubles because of the Joshua Gardner thing. But John Bell, the witch saved the worst for him. Like she was verbally abusive to him. She was physically abusive to him. Shortly after she appeared, John Bell was afflicted by some unknown illness and just kept getting worse and worse over the next few years as the haunting wore on. He would have seizures sometimes, Chuck. And as he came out of the seizures, the Bell Witch would slap him around. She was really mean and ruthless toward John Bell. ([Time 0:09:35](https://share.snipd.com/snip/3cad707b-0001-4691-96b4-c959bb8cbdbe)) - **Old Jack's Decline And Death** - John Bell fell ill with seizures and progressive decline while the witch verbally and physically abused him. - He died in December 1820 and the witch claimed responsibility, saying she had poisoned him. Transcript: Josh But John Bell, the witch saved the worst for him. Like she was verbally abusive to him. She was physically abusive to him. Shortly after she appeared, John Bell was afflicted by some unknown illness and just kept getting worse and worse over the next few years as the haunting wore on. He would have seizures sometimes, Chuck. And as he came out of the seizures, the Bell Witch would slap him around. She was really mean and ruthless toward John Bell. She hated John Bell. Can you imagine that? Chuck Like he comes out of a seizure and she's like, hey, what do you think of this? Smack, smack, smack. Josh I've been waiting for you to come out of it. Chuck Boy, he sadly passed on in December 1820. He believed that the witch had poisoned him, and apparently the witch confirmed this, and the day before he died said, It's useless for you to try and relieve old Jack. I've got him this time. He will never get up from that bed again. I put it there and gave old Jack a big dose of it. Last night while he was asleep, which fixed him. ([Time 0:10:28](https://share.snipd.com/snip/a22fd363-3a11-4769-8381-2c4915f1eb3c)) - **Community Witnesses And Folklore Amplified It** - The Bell Witch story spread through the region and attracted neighbors trying to confront it, but no one could stop or injure the entity. - Reports of the witch reciting distant sermons added to the legend's supernatural credibility in local folklore. Transcript: Josh Yeah. So he swore his family, John Bell swore his family to secrecy. This is just kind of not the thing that you wanted your fellow townsfolk in 1817 Tennessee to know about. But it just became such a big deal that it spread and got out. And so some of the townsfolk tried to catch the witch. They tried to, one guy tried to shoot the witch to no avail. Right. No one could do anything to assuage the bell witch. They even came up with their own legends, too. The one that stood out to me the most was that at one point, the bell witch recited two different sermons verbatim that were being given, delivered at two different churches at that moment, Miles away from one another. And I mean, if that's not an 1817 Tennessee folk superstition that you'd be like, damn, when somebody told you that. Yeah. I don't know what is. Chuck Yeah, because that's literally impossible in that time to know exactly what was being said in two different places at once. There's a lot. ([Time 0:11:38](https://share.snipd.com/snip/eb33bcf0-cfd8-4420-91ad-8e33d4ecdb8f)) - **Real People Anchor The Legend** - Researchers have verified real historical people and graves connected to the Bells and Kate Batts, giving the story tangible roots. - That verifiable context makes the legend more unsettling because it ties to actual lives and places. Transcript: Josh So the Bell Witch, I'm pretty sure even at the time, but certainly shortly afterward in Tennessee, in the parts of Tennessee, it was attributed to a local woman named Kate Batts. And there's a couple of different explanations for why Kate Batts would care about the Bell family so much that she would hound them beyond the grave. The first one takes place entirely in Tennessee, because we didn't say but not just Tennessee, but also North Carolina and Mississippi put some claim on the Bell Witch, even though It all happened in Tennessee. But in the first explanation, John Bell, remember we said he was one of the bigger planters, he had a 300 plus acre homestead that he built by acquiring land from neighbors. And there was one land deal that he had with the brother-in of Kate Batts, a man by the name of Benjamin. And Bell is said to have taken advantage of Benjamin on the deal. And that in her death, Kate hounded John Bell to the grave in revenge for this land deal. Chuck Why would he do Benjamin Bratt like that? Josh I don't know. Chuck Such a fine actor. Josh Yeah. Chuck The other version, like you said, takes place also in North Carolina because they also do lay claim. And this is that Bell, well, seemingly he had sex with Kate Batts and had an affair with Kate Batts. And that is why he left to go to Tennessee, because he had had this affair, broke it off. Kate was really sore at this, obviously, and threatened to tell everybody, including the family. And so as the legend goes, Belle tied her up in a smokehouse and left her there to die. And she haunted him there. And so they had to pack up and leave the Tennessee. And she was like, oh, no, I don't think you know how ghost witches work. We can travel interstate. Tennessee's not that far away. Josh Yep. The whole way she just kept going, are we there yet? Are we there yet? So one of the things that makes the story so unsettling, aside from all the details of it, and if you really want to dive into it, check out Pat Fitzhugh's website. Bellwitch.org really has a lot of exhaustive research on it. But one of the things that that makes it unsettling, like I was saying, is that these people like really did live in North Carolina and Tennessee at the time this legend covers. Like genealogists have found Kate Batts in Edgecombe County. They found Kate Batts in Adams, Tennessee. Apparently Batts's still live in Adams, Tennessee. And there's Bell's as well. ([Time 0:13:27](https://share.snipd.com/snip/0d392867-2c63-4960-8244-81cb3e3217c2)) - **Haunting Became A Local Attraction** - Adams, Tennessee, turned the Bell Witch story into a local tourist attraction with a replica house and tours. - The site remains accessible and commercially important to the small town's economy. Transcript: Josh Yeah, you can tour it inside the replica of the house. There's also a cave on John Bell's property that they believe the Bell Witch lives in. And you can tour that cave as well. I can't remember how much it was, but it was reasonably priced. It's not going to break you for a family of four. And again, it's just an hour north of Nashville. It looks quite neat. They also offer lantern-guided tours in the dark. So if you're really feeling scary, maybe do that one. Yeah. Chuck And if they don't have some sort of animatronic rabbit dog, they're doing it wrong. That's right. Josh The whole town's saving up for it. Don't you worry. Tell them, Chuck. ([Time 0:16:39](https://share.snipd.com/snip/976862ad-9406-4cb2-9559-56d4af21ca98))