September 8, 2025 • 56 mins
The story of the Bell Witch stands as America's most vicious haunting—a tale so disturbing it's hard to believe it happened at all. Long before ghost hunting apps and night vision cameras, this malevolent spirit terrorized a frontier family with shocking physical power and psychological cruelty.
When respected farmer John Bell spotted a strange creature in his Tennessee cornfield in 1817, he couldn't have imagined it would lead to years of torment. What began as mysterious knocking quickly escalated into something unprecedented—an entity that could speak, recite scripture, and physically attack both family members and visitors. The Bells' teenage daughter Betsy endured the worst—being pinched, slapped, and having her hair pulled until she broke off her engagement, seemingly the entity's goal all along.
What makes this case extraordinary isn't just the physical phenomena but the intelligence behind it. "Kate," as the entity called herself, displayed preferences and vendettas. She tormented John Bell relentlessly while showing kindness only to his wife Lucy. She quoted Bible passages that stumped ministers and revealed private secrets that sent visitors fleeing. Even future President Andrew Jackson allegedly encountered her power when his wagon wheels mysteriously locked on approach to the Bell property. After witnessing his men being tormented, Jackson reportedly declared he'd "rather fight the British than the Bell Witch."
The haunting culminated with John Bell's death in 1820, when a mysterious black liquid appeared in the medicine cabinet—liquid that killed a cat instantly when tested. As mourners gathered for Bell's funeral, Kate's mocking laughter echoed through the cemetery, a final act of cruelty that cemented this case as uniquely malevolent. Whether demonic entity, vengeful spirit, or something else entirely, the Bell Witch remains paranormal history's most compelling mystery. Next time you hear knocking at night, remember—it could be more than just the wind.
Thank you for listening to the Paranormal Peeps Podcast. Check us out on Twitter @CPRParanormal on Facebook Paranormal Peeps Podcast or Coldspot Paranormal Research and on Instagram coldspot_paranormal_research
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jamey (00:00):
Between the realm of the dead and the journeys of the
living.
Join Josh, jamie and Elisa asthey delve into the vast world
of the paranormal and breathelife back into the history of
the departed.
Josh (00:11):
Hey everybody, Welcome back to the Paranormal Peeps
podcast.
I'm Josh.
Jamey (00:16):
I'm Elisa and I'm Jamie.
Josh (00:18):
And we switched it up on you all.
Jamey (00:21):
Keep you on your toes.
Mixed them up, we've got agreat episode for everybody this
week.
Josh (00:24):
You all Okay, Keep you on your toes Mixed them up.
We've got a great episode foreverybody this week.
We are going to be talkingabout what Elisa.
Jamey (00:35):
The bell witch Yay.
Josh (00:36):
So it's a witch that lives inside of a bell like a genie.
Jamey (00:39):
Sure is Cool.
Well, and the great thing aboutthis is we're kind of trying
something different.
So Elisa actually did all theresearch on it and has all the
information on it, whereas Joshand I know very little about it
because we didn't do any of theresearch.
Aleca (00:52):
So we're going to get real raw reactions.
Josh (00:56):
And a little sarcasm.
Jamey (00:58):
Okay a lot of sarcasm.
Aleca (01:00):
I actually have a little sarcasm in this, oh cool.
See, I actually have a littlesarcasm in this, oh cool.
Josh (01:04):
See, All right.
So the first question is is ita silver bell?
Aleca (01:13):
or a brass bell, or a copper bell, or is it a cow bell
?
Oh, totally cow.
More cow bell, I mean we'resetting ourselves up in like
1800s, so definitely cow bell,cow bell.
Josh (01:22):
Yes, we need more cow bell .
Aleca (01:26):
If you know, you know All right.
Paranormal peeps lean in closeto the fire.
It's late, the woods are quietand tonight I've got one of the
oldest, meanest, sassiesthauntings ever told on American
soil, classiest hauntings evertold on american soil.
(01:47):
Forget polite floating whitelady ghosts.
This one bites, slaps, mocksand straight up heckles you at
your own funeral.
This story is of the bell witch.
Are you ready?
I'm ready.
Did I set?
Jamey (01:58):
this up good enough.
Josh (01:58):
Yes, I'm invested, let's go I got my popcorn, let's do
this.
Aleca (02:05):
Okay Now, if you have heard of Every Ghost Story
before, I promise you youhaven't.
This one is different.
It's a tale from the early1800s, before electricity,
before TikTok, ghost hunters,before even Scooby-Doo, had a
van Out in Adams, tennessee.
A hardworking family thoughtthey were living the best
(02:27):
frontier life until somethingdark decided to move in and oh,
this wasn't your run of the mill.
Knock three times.
Kind of ghost.
No, this had personality,opinions and a vendetta and,
believe it or not, a sense ofhumor.
If ghosts had a Yelp review,this one would be five stars for
creativity, minus 10 stars forbeing a total nightmare roommate
.
But grab your marshmallows,maybe sit with your back against
(02:50):
a tree so nothing stinks upbehind you, because here we go,
and kids were friendly andwelcoming.
They helped neighbors all thetime, opening their door to
anyone in need.
(03:11):
John was a hard worker and knownnot to give up on a project
until the work was done, and hedid it well.
He was a farmer with a growingfamily of six children, and John
decided that their farm inNorth Carolina was too small.
So they packed up their wagon,traveled over 600 miles west to
find a good patch of land andfind it.
He did A thousand acres alongthe Red River in northern
(03:32):
Tennessee, in rural RobertsonCounty.
So picture Tennessee in theearly 1800s Wild country, big
forests, farmland stretching outand neighbors few, far in
between.
There were so few people thatthey all worked together to
create a town from literally theground up.
John started clearing out theproperty on the hill, cutting
(03:55):
down trees, and with those treeshe built the family a one and a
half story home close to theRed River.
The Red River was known as theplace to fish and play for the
people in the town, so the Bellswere always seeing the
neighborhood families and makingfriends.
Pretty quick they became prettywell known.
The Bells were well off for thetime Big farmhouse, plenty of
(04:17):
kids, which back then wasbasically Netflix before Netflix
, and they raised crops, had abig church community and John
was even a deacon.
Folks respected him and theyraised crops, had a big church
community and John was even adeacon.
Folks respected him and by allaccounts the Bells were set up
for a perfect pioneer life.
John would be the first oneawake and so he would get the
kids up and walk togetherthrough the woods to get to
(04:38):
school.
While the kids were at school,john and the older boys would
work the land.
They helped build structuresaround the town to build up the
settlement.
They would also build boatsthat they would use to transport
tobacco and meat that theyproduced on their farm for trade
.
They would go on to have threemore kids after moving to their
new home.
Not too much time passed beforethe older children started
(04:59):
getting married and buildingtheir own homes close by.
But there was the thing aboutbig, beautiful farmland.
You never know what was therebefore, whose footsteps walked
in, whose bones might be buriedunder it or who might still be
hanging around.
It all started in the summer of1817, 13 years after they
arrived in the Robertson County.
(05:21):
John Bell was alone out walkinghis property in the cornfields
by his house, where he spottedsomething strange.
Now, this is a man used towildlife Wolves, foxes, panthers
even but this, this wasdifferent.
He saw a creature crouchedbetween the rows of corn.
From the body down it lookedlike a big dog, but then, when
(05:42):
it turned its head, it almostlooked like it had the face of a
rabbit, but he chalked it up tobeing a giant dog.
It wasn't uncommon to see dogsrunning around the settlement,
but this one made him feeldifferent.
It also looked as if the boneswere broken over and over and
set wrong, making them go indifferent angles.
The dog was looking straight athim, not breaking eye contact,
(06:05):
and this made him feel totallyunsettled and started to panic.
John luckily had his rifle withhim.
So John did what any goodpioneer would do he raised his
gun, fired one bullet at thegiant dog.
When he did that, the dog tookoff, running into the forest
tree line and John watched untilhe couldn't see it anymore.
He jogged over to the placewhere the giant dog sat down and
(06:29):
he saw nothing, no impressionsin the corn.
He was fully expecting to seethe corn press down where the
dog had been.
So he looked to see if therewere any tracks of the animal.
Nothing, it's like it wasn'teven there.
Baffled at how this was evenpossible, he stopped and thought
oh well, I'm thinking too muchinto this, this is probably just
a big dog.
Confused, john just walked backhome After that sighting.
(06:54):
John would write it off, butlater would go back and say this
is where it all started.
But not long after, at night,when they would go to bed, they
started hearing knocks on theoutside walls of the house.
They would get up to see whatit was.
But then it would stop Notbeing able to find out what it
(07:16):
was.
They would just go back to bedand it would start up again.
On another side of the house itwas like there was something or
someone walking around outsideknocking on the walls.
John thought for sure that thiswas a prankster trying to scare
them.
He told all of his family tonot mention it to anyone in the
town because he didn't want theprankster to know he was onto
them.
He wanted them to come back sothat he could catch them in the
(07:39):
act.
But over the next several weeksthe tapping continued and John
would stay awake and every timethe knocking started he would
run out to see who was there.
But there would be no one andno tracks.
I mean, if it were me, I wouldbe waiting outside, yeah.
Josh (07:56):
Ambush it, trap it something right.
Aleca (07:58):
Yeah, like I wouldn't be in the house hoping to find
something out.
No Outside, I'd be out therewaiting In the house hoping to
find something out.
No Outside.
I'd be out there waitingBecause I feel like you're
gaining a step Mm-hmm.
Having to run outside when youcan already be out there, right,
but I can also see likechalking up the seeing the whole
dog thing.
Jamey (08:21):
I would probably chalk it up to and letting it go.
Well, you know, and when we seethings like that and we don't
know what it is, we try toexplain it away like, oh, it's
just a dog, or it's just a youknow what I mean.
Aleca (08:30):
So like I totally don't blame him.
Jamey (08:32):
Yeah.
Aleca (08:33):
Almost one year later from when he first saw the giant
dog in the cornfield, and a fewmonths after the knocking
started, it was May.
On a Sunday night in 1818.
Four of their sons weresleeping in bunk beds, with the
two older sons on the lowerbunks and the two younger ones
on the top.
They woke up to the sound of arat chewing on one of their
(08:54):
bedposts.
The older boys instantly got upto find this rat, but as soon
as they did, the sound totallydisappeared.
The boys searched all over theroom but they never found it.
They checked all of the bedsand there wasn't any sign a rat
had been chewing on the bedposts.
The older boys shrugged it offand went back to bed, but as
soon as they closed their eyesthe chewing sound would start up
(09:16):
again, but now it was louderand more frantic.
Like this rat was desperatelytrying to get through the
bedpost Again.
The boys hurried and got up tofind out what was making that
sound, but as soon as their feethit the floor the sound stopped
and the room was silent.
The older two boys searched theroom again, but to no avail.
(09:36):
There was no sign of any animaland no marks on the beds.
I feel like there is a pattern.
Jamey (09:44):
I'm starting to see one.
Yeah, just a little bit.
Josh (09:47):
It's like I'm going to mess with you.
Aleca (09:51):
Leaving the boys so confused and they didn't know
what to think.
The sound would continue forthe rest of the night and again
the night after that, notallowing the boys to sleep.
But after the third night theboys heard a different sound in
their room.
They go to bed totallyexhausted, not being able to
sleep because the last couplenights they hear what sounds
(10:12):
like someone under their bedsbeing choked.
They're gasping for air andclawing at the bottom side of
their bed.
Okay, that would freak me out.
The two older boys got thecourage to jump out of bed to
see what was chasing thesesounds and as soon as their feet
hit the floor, the sound stopsand the room was silent.
(10:33):
But this time the boys had hadenough.
This really freaked them out.
They woke up the rest of thefamily and the whole family
searched the entire houselooking for anything that could
have been making these sounds,but they came up empty-handed.
Nothing was out of the ordinaryno marks, no animals, no
evidence.
(10:53):
As time went on, things startedhappening with the family.
There was scratching at thewindows, invisible chains being
dragged across the wooden floors.
The kids' blankets would beripped off clean as they slept,
as if invisible hands yankedthem away.
At first the Bell familythought they were just dealing
with the bumps in the night.
But then it started talking ina raspy, croaking woman's voice.
(11:18):
It quoted scripture, it sanghymns, and sometimes it laughed
and other times it mocked andeventually it introduced itself.
It was kate.
The townspeople thought it wasall because of their
neighborhood or their neighbor,kate bats.
Kate was known to be veryeccentric and very unpleasant.
(11:39):
She was known to be cursed orunlucky.
Her, her husband had becomedisabled and all three of her
children died at a young age.
When Kate would talk she woulduse big words but use them
inappropriately.
So everything she said soundedoff and said that she was the
(12:08):
spirit of Kate Batts, thestrange neighborhood woman who
thought John Bell cheated her ina land deal.
But others said it was a demonin disguise and the family's
youngest daughter, betsy.
She started getting the worstof it.
Poor Betsy was just a teenagerwhen this thing zeroed in on her
.
It pinched her arms untilbruises bloomed.
It pulled her hair.
It slapped her across the facehard enough that her cheeks
(12:29):
would sting and wilts appeared,and when she tried to get some
rest the voice would hissinsults in her ear.
Imagine trying to be a teenagegirl in the 1800s.
You're already dealing withlong skirts, suitors with
questionable hygiene, and nowyou've got a ghost ruining your
beauty sleep.
And speaking of suitors, betsyhad a sweetheart named Joshua
(12:51):
Gardner.
The two were sweet on eachother, walking through fields,
probably carving hearts intotrees, but every time Joshua
came around, the spirit rampedup its torment.
When she became engaged toJoshua Gardner, the spirit went
ballistic.
It taunted them consistently,repeating their private
conversations and yankingBetsy's hair and threatening
(13:12):
Joshua.
Finally, betsy broke off theengagement, saying she couldn't
endure the torment anymore.
Almost immediately, the attackslessened.
It was as though this thing hadgotten what it wanted all along
.
But what is odd is Kate hatedeveryone except for Lucy.
Lucy, the mom, was spared fromtorment.
(13:33):
When she fell ill, the witchbrought her apples and hazelnuts
, urging her to eat and regainstrength.
Out of everyone in the family,lucy alone received kindness.
The spirit clearly hadfavorites Another reminder that
this wasn't a random violence.
This was personal.
But whoever or whatever Katewas, she wasn't shy.
(13:54):
She loved an audience, and theBell's Farmhouse basically
became the 1800s version of ahaunted tourist attraction.
I mean really, though, becausethey don't have anything else to
do.
You know what I mean.
Like they gotta haveentertainment somehow and this
would be perfect entertainmentfor a neighborhood.
Jamey (14:14):
I would so be like Pretending like I was sweeping
my door stoop, sweeping the hayaway Out of the threshold, and
kind of Looking over Right what?
Josh (14:23):
are you doing over there?
Aleca (14:29):
I'm not doing anything.
I'm just sweeping my thresholdhere.
What?
Josh (14:31):
you got going on over there.
Can I, can I, can I see, whichis?
It's honestly surprising,though, that they become so much
of a spectacle because, like inthat period of time the
religious nature of the country,most people would have figured
at the point it was a demon andthat they were cursed and that
there would be there'd be a lotof fear.
There'd be a lot of fear andthe like.
The church would have gotteninvolved.
Jamey (14:52):
Yeah.
Josh (14:53):
It's strange that they didn't that, didn't get involved
in that way.
Jamey (14:56):
Just wait, they treated it like Zach Bagans museum.
Josh (14:59):
Yeah, Although I would be like give me an apple.
Aleca (15:10):
Bring me an apple, and it'd say go eat an apple.
Josh (15:14):
Oh see, this is where it all started.
This is where go eat an appleall started.
Jamey (15:18):
Right.
Josh (15:18):
It started with the bell witch.
Jamey (15:20):
Yep.
Josh (15:20):
And because now she's like go eat an apple, can't bring
you one now, but go eat one, goeat one.
Jamey (15:24):
So yeah again if you like , go eat an apple.
Can't bring you one now, but goeat one, go eat one.
So yeah again, if you know, youknow, yep.
Aleca (15:31):
Now, at this point the kids couldn't sleep.
They would lay awake all nightafraid of what was going to
happen or what they would hear.
John decided it was time foroutside help.
He went to his next doorneighbor, whom he was closest to
, and confided in him what wasgoing on.
Now, john was the kind ofperson who didn't tell jokes or
make things up, and so theneighbors actually took him
(15:53):
pretty seriously.
The neighbor told him that hewould spend the night at his
house to see if he couldexperience it and hear any of
these strange sounds.
He got what he was asking for.
He would hear the knocking onthe house from outside, the
chewing on the bedposts and aperson that was choking and
gasping for air.
He was so scared he didn't evenlast the whole night and he
(16:15):
would take his things and leave.
Word of the haunting spreadfast, and because the bells were
so important to the settlement,everyone was actually really
supportive and wanted to rallybehind them to see if they could
help out this family.
They were hoping, if they couldtake turns staying over there,
(16:35):
that they would feel morecomfortable with other people
around, and also that hopefully,their presence would make it so
that the crazy things that werehappening would stop, would
make it so that the crazy thingsthat were happening would stop
now, which is happens actually alot, because when things would
ever happen to me is because Iwas alone.
But if other people came around, nothing would ever happen.
Josh (16:57):
yeah, so I can see where they would get that from yeah,
the the logic makes sense andplus it's always nice to have
someone else.
It's comforting to have someoneoutside come in and hang out
with you.
Aleca (17:09):
And also to get a break.
Hopefully, get a break so thatyou could actually sleep.
Josh (17:16):
Yeah, that would be.
They should have done a houseswap though.
Hey, I'll stay in your house,you can come sleep in my house,
that way you can sleep tonight.
Aleca (17:26):
I, I'd be down.
So enter the williams family.
They stayed over one night,probably thinking it would be a
hoot like the 19th century ghosthunting sleepover.
But as soon as the lamps wereout, the scratching and knocking
began.
Everyone lay stiff in their bed, trying to act brave and then
whap.
Miss Williams screamed and theyre-lit the lamp and a bright
(17:49):
red handprint glowed on hercheek, dude.
Josh (17:55):
Slap that one man.
Aleca (17:58):
So that was enough for the Williams crew, and they
didn't wait for sunrise.
You can take a guess, run theygrabbed their things well, most
of their things and they bolted.
The next morning the bellsfound their quilts still
crumpled on the floor where theyhad dropped them.
They literally just picked itup and ran I mean that I can
(18:19):
understand.
Josh (18:19):
I mean I think most of us have been touched like ghosts on
an investigation.
Jamey (18:26):
Yeah, but.
But to be slapped like rightacross the face To where there's
a visible hand mark on yourface and everybody hears a whack
.
Josh (18:34):
Yeah, I mean, that is hard .
Jamey (18:37):
People with you or not, I'd be out of there too.
Josh (18:40):
You ever wonder, though, if like one of the kids is like,
I'm going to get them.
Jamey (18:47):
Just walks up, sneaks up there in the middle of the night
and, just like wham, I swear itwasn't me.
Aleca (18:51):
Didn't do it no-transcript and the husband
gets up and he looks at his wife, but then he realizes oh, she's
(19:11):
sleeping.
So he's looking around likewhat blanket over her and like
I'm gonna have to try that right.
So right after the williamsfamily left the witch of so at
this time they're calling her awitch she spent the day mocking
them by repeating Mrs Williams'scream in perfect imitation.
Jamey (19:33):
That's freaky.
Aleca (19:33):
That is freaky to me because I've heard my own voice
before, yeah, a few times and itkind of throws you off guard.
But to hear someone else whohas already left and re-hear
their scream.
Jamey (19:48):
Yeah.
Aleca (19:48):
Like uh-uh, nope, nope, nope, no thanks.
Josh (19:52):
Yeah, it's creepy.
Aleca (19:55):
So another visitor, a farmer from the area.
He came by, insisting he wasn'tscared.
So he mocked the bells forbelieving such nonsense.
He wasn't scared.
So he mocked the bells forbelieving such nonsense.
And that night the witch beganloudly reciting one of his
deepest, most private secrets, asecret no one should have known
.
We don't know what it is, butthe bell said that his face
turned bright red and he stormedout, never came back and
(20:18):
refused to talk about it for therest of his life.
Josh (20:20):
And neither did his sheep.
Aleca (20:22):
And what did the witch do ?
She cackled all night like itwas the best stand-up she's ever
done.
That's always something thatwould be like make you don't
tell people's private secretsand like obviously she doesn't
care.
Josh (20:42):
No, no, no, she does not care.
Well, it does not care.
Aleca (20:48):
So, ministers came, here comes your intro to the church.
Ministers came hoping to shutthe entity down with scripture.
One preacher challenged it torecite a Bible verse, thinking
it would fumble.
Instead, the witch rattled offentire passages flawlessly, then
broke into mocking hymns untilthe minister gave up.
(21:10):
And the witch wasn't even justa ghost, it was a theologian and
a heckler rolled into one.
And it didn't matter, no matterwho came over or who tried to
help, it wouldn't stop.
Soon people would try to comeup with explanations as to what
was causing everything to happen, like maybe it was one of the
younger girls doing it to getattention, or maybe there was a
(21:32):
family or a person that reallyhated the Bell family and
targeted them, even to thestretch that maybe someone in
the town learned ventriloquismand could throw their voice to
make it sound like as if it wascoming from a different spot in
the town learned ventriloquismand could throw their voice to
make it sound like as if it wascoming from a different spot in
the room and not from their body, just to mess with the bell
family.
Now, is that even a thing?
Josh (21:53):
it is a thing, throwing your voice is a thing, but that
would mean that this individualis like hiding under their house
every night for like two yearssee I would be like, okay, who's
sleeping all day long right andnot coming out, and only coming
out at night.
Aleca (22:11):
Like who's this person?
Josh (22:12):
in town, did you check under the floorboards to see if
there's people living underthere?
Because at this point in timeyou got to wonder right.
Aleca (22:19):
so the townspeople would search the bell's house with
them, and no one ever found whatcould be causing any of what
was going on.
The townspeople even watchedeach member of the Bell family
as they slept to see if anyonewas responsible for these sounds
.
But sure enough, even thoughthey were being watched and the
(22:41):
family was asleep, the soundswould start, and they saw that
no one in the Bell family wasdoing this, so the Bell family
was just forced to deal with it.
Now, back then it wasn't likeyou could just get up and move.
That's not how it worked.
Josh (22:56):
Yeah.
Aleca (22:57):
But I would be freaking.
Working on building anotherhouse is what I'd be doing At
the very least right.
They got a thousand acres, manGo somewhere else.
Josh (23:07):
Yeah, you got some extra land, yeah.
Aleca (23:10):
Go somewhere else and find so.
A neighbor named William Portercame and said that the witch
climbed into his bed with himone night.
Horrified, he tried to wrestleit out of his sheets, describing
its body as cold and slimy andheavy.
He dragged it toward thefireplace but just as he was
about to throw it in poof, itvanished.
(23:31):
And later, while he was drivinghis mule cart, the witch struck
again and the mules froze, nomatter how hard he whipped those
reins.
Then his cart lifted into theair yes, lifted before slamming
it back down.
Porter screamed, bolted on footand abandoned the cart, and the
witch's voice trailed after him, laughing the entire way.
(23:52):
She got some power.
Jamey (23:55):
That girl's Like seriously, yeah, trailed after
him laughing the entire way.
Josh (23:58):
she got some power that girls like seriously yeah pick
up the cart seriously well yeah,and we're not talking, like you
know, a plastic wagon cart.
Aleca (24:09):
We're talking something that's probably a good 150
pounds at least, and thatdoesn't include if it's loaded
well, the person sitting on it,well yeah so you're probably
looking at probably four or fivehundred pounds well, I mean,
I've seen, I've seen where umpeople are at a table and the
(24:30):
table lifts right, but that'sprobably the heaviest object
I've seen be lifted but but atable's like 10 pounds, like
it's no, no, like a heavy woodentable, like okay so maybe like
20 pounds with a person on ityeah, it's gonna be much heavier
than a wooden table no, it's,yeah, I would say it'd be
Josh (24:51):
heavier but yeah, yeah that's crazy yeah, we're talking
10 times the weight, right.
Jamey (24:56):
She got some power.
That's even more frightening.
Aleca (24:59):
Well, the fact that she can talk, quote scripture, mimic
, you know, like all the things.
Josh (25:09):
Yeah.
Aleca (25:11):
So perhaps one of the most famous tales involved
Andrew Jackson the president.
The future president, andrewJackson.
He heard about the Bell Witchand decided to investigate.
So he rolled up with hissoldiers and wagons.
But as they neared the Bellproperty, the wagon wheels
locked tight.
The horses couldn't budge, mencouldn't budge it.
(25:33):
Jackson cursed and kicked.
The horses couldn't budge, mencouldn't budge it.
Jackson cursed and kicked.
Then a ghostly voice driftedfrom nowhere saying I'll see you
tonight.
Jackson supposedly cried out bythe Eternal.
Jamey (25:49):
this must be the Bell Witch.
Sounds like a play, Right.
Aleca (25:59):
A disembodied voice answered with laughter.
The wheel suddenly released andthe group continued.
That night.
One of the jackson's menbragged that he was a witch
tamer.
Okay, what is a witch tamer?
Josh (26:07):
I'm a witch whisperer he's got gravy in his shoe it's a
rue in his shoe.
Jamey (26:14):
I got a rue in his shoe he's got a rue.
Josh (26:16):
I got a rue.
In my shoe I'm gonna tame thiswitch.
Aleca (26:19):
I'm the witch whisperer so this witch tamer, boasting
about his silver bullet that hecarried.
The witch called this bluff.
All night he was slapped,pinched and thrown from his bed
until he begged for mercy bymorning.
(26:41):
Jackson said I'd rather fightthe British than the Bell Witch.
And they left.
Jamey (26:51):
Oh my.
Josh (26:52):
Well, I mean, think about it In that avenue right, like if
you're fighting at least anarmy, you can see them Right and
you can know what you're goingafter, 100% this thing.
You can't see.
Jamey (27:03):
No, it's just going to slap you like a doll all night
long and you're not going to beable to see it coming.
Josh (27:08):
And you're not going to know from which direction.
Jamey (27:18):
Where is his roo now, huh .
Where's his rue now huh.
Where's that room?
Your shoe, how's that working?
Aleca (27:21):
for you, oh my gosh.
Now john bell himself wasalways the witch's number one
target.
She called him old jack.
She cursed him day and night,and by this time the town even
noticed something was wrong withjohn.
He was normally very engaged.
When he would talk with people,he would make eye contact with
them and stay focused andengaged.
But soon they noticed that whenpeople would talk to him, his
(27:46):
eyes would suddenly gloss overand his jaw would go slack and
he would look like he wasstarting to stare off in the
distance.
Then his face would start totwitch and at first these
twitches were pretty minor, justaround his eyes, but after a
while it would become much worseand where his jaw would start
to quiver up and down and hiseyes would begin blinking out of
(28:09):
sync.
Then, as soon as the twitchingand blinking would stop, without
a word with who he was talkingwith, he would turn around and
walk off to his home.
He would go straight up to hisbedroom, sit on his bed for
hours just staring at the wall.
He wouldn't eat, drink or say aword.
So that makes you wonder whatwas going on in his head while
(28:34):
that was happening.
Jamey (28:37):
Also side note it sounds like me when Josh talks about
code.
Aleca (28:41):
Your eyes start twitching she does.
Your jaw starts quivering backand forth, I go slack jaw.
Jamey (28:48):
I just turn around, my eyes gloss over.
Josh (28:51):
She just walks away.
Jamey (28:52):
I walk away, go up and sit on the edge of the bed.
Stare at the wall.
Josh (28:58):
And this is why I don't talk about work at home, even
though I work from home.
Aleca (29:09):
This is why you leave the work in the basement, that's
right.
Jamey (29:12):
I leave it in the dungeon .
Aleca (29:15):
His health began to fail.
He suffered tremors, troubleswallowing, seizures, and some
thought it was a stroke.
The witch claimed it was herdoing, and by this point the
hauntings had been going on forthree years.
That would be exhausting.
Josh (29:30):
Oh so exhausting, Exhausting.
He'd probably get not a ton ofsleep in that entire time, isn't
it kind of like?
Jamey (29:36):
oppression though?
Oh, so, exhausting, ExhaustingHe'd probably get not a ton of
sleep in that entire time.
Isn't it kind of likeoppression though?
Oh yeah, Doesn't it sound likethat's what he's kind of going
through?
Josh (29:41):
is because this.
Jamey (29:42):
It's finally taken its toll, and he just like there's a
disconnect.
Aleca (29:45):
I mean, how would you not be?
Jamey (29:47):
Well, exactly, I'm surprised it took that long,
yeah, honestly.
Aleca (29:51):
It's a pretty strong fight honestly, it's pretty
strong fight, no kidding.
Yeah.
So john was only getting worseand the amount of time that john
was spending on his bed staringand not eating would go longer
and longer and longer.
One night in private, john wastalking to lucy, his wife, and
he told her that he believedthat this thing was going to
torture him to death.
(30:13):
Like I don't blame him, thatwould be really tough, yeah yeah
one night, as john was gettingsicker and sicker, their
daughter, esther, was outside togather the eggs from the
chicken coop across the roadthat was still on their property
.
As she was walking, she heardsomeone moving behind her and as
she turned around she saw awoman dressed in all black, with
(30:35):
her head down, walking slowlydown the road.
She was on towards her house,walking exactly where esther had
just come from, but she'd neversaw her.
She didn't worry about it andjust thought it was just a woman
from town, even though shedidn't recognize her.
So she turned and walked therest of the way back to the coop
and gathered the eggs.
And when she was done andwalking back on that same road,
(31:00):
this time facing her home, shestill saw that same woman slowly
walking with their head down,this time closer to her home.
As she was walking, she'slooking around to try to figure
out who this woman was.
As she got closer, sherecognized that it was someone
from town, so she yelled outhello.
But this woman acted like shenever even heard her.
(31:23):
She didn't turn around or evenreact to Esther.
So Esther picked up her paceand got a little closer.
She continued to yell hello howare you.
But the woman never reacted,just slowly walked closer to her
house.
Esther looked around and no oneelse was in sight.
(31:43):
It was just her and the womanin black.
After Esther was about 15 feetaway from the woman, she started
to feel really uncomfortable.
Feel really uncomfortable.
Esther stops walking and justwatches her, but from the moment
she stops, the woman alsostopped Her back, still facing
the ground.
Instantly the woman startedrunning her fingers through her
(32:06):
hair like she was trying to combit out.
Esther started to wonder whatthe heck she was doing.
So she started to walk closerto her.
But each step Esther took, thewoman was running her hands
faster and faster through herhair.
But as she got closer, estherwas horrified realizing that she
(32:26):
wasn't just combing her hair,she was grabbing chunks of her
hair and ripping it out.
Esther would actually hear thehair being ripped from her head.
Within just moments there washair laying all over the ground
around the woman.
Esther gets freaked out at thispoint and takes off running
around the woman without lookingat her and goes straight into
(32:46):
the house and locks the door.
Jamey (32:48):
Okay, that would freak me out yeah, well, not only that,
but just the sound of the hairtearing out of your scalp Like
ripping fabric or something youknow.
Josh (32:58):
Yeah, yeah.
Nope Well and the fact thatpulling out a hair hurts.
Yeah, ripping out giant chunkshas got to be excruciating, and
this person is just doing itover and, over and over again.
Aleca (33:12):
And fast.
Josh (33:13):
Yeah.
Aleca (33:15):
Ugh, no, over again and fast.
Yeah, oh no.
So she runs and calls for hersister and the two of them run
to the front window.
They look at the road and theysee her and the woman is still
ripping her hair out.
But this time esther makes eyecontact.
The moment that happened, thewoman freezes with her hands
still in her hair, staring atEsther.
(33:36):
The woman is staring, slowly,takes her hands down and turns
suddenly and walks to the sideof the house.
The girls scream and run to theside window to see if they can
see where she's going.
They see her climbing over thefence into the side property and
behind her were now threechildren whom they didn't see
(33:58):
before.
Together they walk into thegrove of trees that is still on
their property and one by one,starting with the oldest woman
first, they each climbed intotheir own tree.
After they were all up, theyturned and all looked at Esther
and her sister and they allbegan swaying their bodies back
(34:18):
and forth in the trees, gettingthe trees to sway hard left and
right, horrifying the girls.
Right then Esther's husbandcomes through the front door.
So Esther yells at him to comeand look through the window to
see what these people are doing.
He runs over, but he can't seethe people, only the trees swing
unnaturally back and forth.
(34:38):
Esther and her sister realizeshe isn't seeing what they are
seeing and they freak out andstart screaming.
Meanwhile Esther's husband istrying to figure out what the
heck is going on.
The three of them run out thedoor to the side to confront the
woman and the kids and whateveris happening in these trees.
But when they got to the sideto confront the woman and the
kids and whatever is happeningin these trees, but when they
got to the grove, no one wasthere.
(35:01):
The woman and children weregone and the trees were no
longer moving.
They looked around no tracks,no children, no women.
Do you see this pattern?
Josh (35:15):
that's just creepy terrifying well, the fact that
one, two people saw this womando it woman standing there and
ripping out her hair like this,is like something visual and
like action wise it's superunnatural.
Yeah, it's not something you'regonna see anybody doing well
then you got three kids thatappear out of nowhere and follow
(35:38):
her into the trees.
That's just honestly like.
This is nightmare fuel initself.
This is like a horror movie.
Aleca (35:49):
And what sucks is you always want your spouse to see
what you're seeing Right, or toexperience what you're seeing
Right, or to experience whatyou're experiencing Validation.
So that they can, yeah, havevalidation or have like empathy
towards, like the situationAbsolutely.
I mean, at least he could seethe trees moving back and forth,
right, but he couldn't see thecause of it.
But he couldn't see the cause.
Josh (36:10):
No, yeah, it's still creepy.
Aleca (36:13):
So a month later, john was walking out on the farm with
his son and John suddenlystarts to glaze over and his
body starts to contort in weirdangles and his back starts to
bend backwards and arch so farthat it looked like his back
would break.
His son was freaking out andtrying to pick him up and as he
does it, a horrifying shriekfills the air.
(36:35):
It's so loud that he can't eventell where it's coming from.
And as fast as it started, itall stopped.
John was laying on the groundand it was silent.
John would look up to his sonand say I don't have much time
left.
His son helped him up and theywould walk back to the house and
John went straight to bed.
(36:56):
Okay, in my opinion,something's happening while John
is experiencing this stuff.
Jamey (37:03):
Right.
Aleca (37:03):
Yeah, so like sleep paralysis, how you can actually
see things that you may feel isgoing on around you.
I wonder if it's something likethat where he's getting
(37:26):
information or whatever, becausesomething is freaking him out
more than just his body doingweird things Right, than just
his body doing weird thingsRight.
Josh (37:34):
Well, and the thing is he bent over backwards, but was he
forced backwards?
Like is there actually somebodylike obviously he could see it
or would be able to see, but hisson wouldn't?
There's something actuallypushing him backwards, like
actually forcing him to bendbackwards.
Aleca (37:53):
And see.
That's what I wonder if he cansee.
Jamey (38:01):
And if he can like feel the toll that it's taking on his
body.
Well, not just that, but I meanhe knows instinctually that he
doesn't have much time left.
Aleca (38:06):
Yeah, so a few weeks later, on december 19th 1820,
john slips into a coma.
The family discovers him buthe's still breathing, but they
couldn't wake him up.
Bell jr goes to the medicinecabinet but all the meds were
gone.
Only a strange vial of blackliquid was in the cupboard.
(38:28):
No one knew where it had comefrom.
They called the doctor to helpjohn and to figure out what
liquid was in this vial.
The doctor came and said youneed to test this on a farm
animal to make sure we know whatit does.
Bell Jr found a stray cat andgave it a drop, and the cat
(38:48):
dropped dead within minutes.
At that very moment Cat's voicerang out.
I fixed him, jeez.
John Bell died that nextmorning and was buried the next
day.
His funeral drew the whole town, but while the mourners sang
hymns, kate crackled, hecklingthem until the last mourner left
(39:12):
the graveyard.
The last mourner left thegraveyard.
So imagine dying, and not onlydoes the ghost eventually kill
you, but it crashes your dangfuneral, like jeez just ruins
everything with this encoreperformance right, terrible.
Jamey (39:31):
So let me ask you this At the funeral did everybody hear
it?
They said they did, but I mean,yeah, that's what I was
wondering.
Was it stated that everybodyheard it?
Yes, that attended the funeral,okay, yes.
Josh (39:48):
I mean, even if it wasn't everybody, if only the bells
heard it, that's still badenough.
Jamey (39:53):
It's still messed up, but I was just curious if everybody
heard the heckling.
Aleca (39:57):
But I think at this point most of the town had been so
involved that why wouldn't theyRight?
Josh (40:03):
Well, yeah, they all took turns sleeping at the house
trying to help everybody out,and that was not going anywhere
and it never stopped.
Aleca (40:12):
But Lucy, the wife, would stay in that house until she
passed away in 1838.
So she stayed there the rest ofthe time.
But also, it never did anythingto her, no Right?
So the witch or spirit,whatever you want to call it,
would always take care of heranyway.
But after John's death thingsquieted down, but kate wasn't
(40:37):
gone for good.
Neighbors would see mysteriouslights flying around the bell's
home and sometimes they wouldhear sing-song voices coming
from somewhere around theirproperty.
Okay, that reminds me of um.
When, oh, what's the movie?
Why can I think the threewitches?
Hocus pocus, hocus pocus, oh mygosh.
(40:58):
When, oh, what's the?
Josh (40:59):
movie.
Why can't I think the ThreeWitches Hocus?
Aleca (41:00):
Pocus, hocus, pocus, oh my gosh, when she's flying over
the little village and singingand it's just the whole town.
Josh (41:09):
Oh, that's where she's singing the kids to draw the
little children, yeah.
Aleca (41:13):
That's what that reminds me of.
Josh (41:15):
That was Bette Midler's character that did that right.
Jamey (41:19):
No, no, but saying that, no, it was what's her name.
Aleca (41:23):
I can tell you what other show she's on.
Jamey (41:26):
Sarah Jessica Parker.
Okay, it was her character.
Josh (41:29):
Yes, Gotcha yeah.
Aleca (41:33):
So Kate promised that she would return in seven years and
, sure enough, in 1828 shereappeared, this time visiting
john bell jr for weeks.
Strangely, the two actually hadconversations, deep talks about
philosophy, the bible, evenpredictions about the future,
(41:55):
including the Civil War, andthen, just like that, she left
again.
But before she vanished, katepromised that she would come
back in 107 years.
That would have been in 1935.
And while nothingheadline-worthy happened in
Adams that year, many localsswore strange knocks and voices
(42:16):
still haunted the Bell property,whether Kate returned or not,
or maybe she just never left.
Today the big hotspot in Adamsis the Bell Witch Cave that is
supposedly on, that is, on theirproperty Right.
So there's nothing left of theBell's home Right, but on the
property left of the Bills' homeRight.
(42:36):
But on the property they havethe cave.
It's a limestone cave, whichmakes it even better.
Yup, and it's near the old farm.
Tour guides love to say thatthe witch retreated there when
she wasn't busy terrorizing thefamily, and visitors claim to
hear voices, footsteps and evenfeel hands that shoved them
(43:00):
inside.
Some historians think that JohnBell was poisoned with arsenic.
Others think Betsy, overwhelmedby stress, could have been the
source of the poltergeistactivity could have been the
source of the poltergeistactivity.
There is a book that M V Ingramwrote in 1894 called An
(43:24):
Authentic History of the BillWitch.
Skeptics thought that it madepeople's imagination worse, but
believers will tell you, toomany people saw it, too many
people heard it, and you don'tget a legend this strong without
something behind it, and Iwould have to agree with that.
Josh (43:40):
I would yeah it's not just going to get made up out of
nowhere I mean, yeah, it'd betough to get a whole town
involved on a on a hoax oh yeah,really like you could get a
couple people, you could get atwo or three families involved,
(44:01):
but you're talking about anentire town, you're talking
about the church, that's there.
Yeah, that's really tough, Imean, unless the whole church,
unless the whole town wasconspiring to kill them.
Aleca (44:18):
In which they succeeded.
Well, yeah, that's the case forat least John Bell.
Jamey (44:22):
But what was the gain by doing that though?
Josh (44:24):
Well, right, exactly Because she stayed on the
property until her death.
So it's not like the propertychanged hands.
No, no.
So none of it makes.
That part doesn't make anysense to be a hoax.
Aleca (44:38):
But but I mean the possibilities of it being a
poltergeist.
That could also be, but at thesame time, if it's following you
around, is that poltergeistactivity?
Josh (44:52):
no, not usually Honestly.
This screams demonic, oh forsure, but it screams almost
Satan level demonic.
Like high, like high power.
Yeah, just because one thepower of everything but the
(45:19):
mocking of the scripture.
The force on that part right.
And like the heckling and thehings and all that Right,
exactly right, yeah, becausehere's the interesting thing,
when you think about it, right,no-transcript?
(45:42):
And the fact that it wascalling them out and they were
trying to sing hymns even thechurch leaders went in right and
even they got beat back.
It really screams at the factthat they didn't have any faith,
that their faith was.
Aleca (46:01):
Well, he was actually a priest.
Josh (46:03):
Well, right, but it doesn't mean you have faith,
right, right.
It doesn't mean your faith isstrong, um, and so it's a very
interesting concept in thatAvenue.
When you look at it in that, inthat light, I see where you're
coming from, yeah, and so that'swhy I think it's like one.
It's demonic too that it's highlevel demonic Like we've.
(46:26):
We've come across what claim tobe demons or of those things,
right, which are very low levelright things like family tree
and it's not a common thing thatwe come across and it's not a
common thing, rightbut it's pretty rare but they're
also not like this no right, noRight.
Jamey (46:45):
No, nothing like that.
Josh (46:46):
I mean and this is way, way stronger, we're talking, you
know, freezing wagon wheels onthe whim.
Jamey (46:55):
Lifting the carts.
Aleca (46:56):
Lifting carts Like this is like the no joke stuff, yeah,
but yeah, I just yeah it it'sthat stuff's terrifying well, it
makes me wonder if one of thekids wasn't welcoming it in,
(47:18):
because I've gone to tons ofhouses and investigated homes
where parents are fed up withwhat's going on in their house.
It could be anywhere frommessing with the temperature or
killing their fish tank, ormaking noises at night banging
(47:43):
on the doors, feeling likethey're being followed all the
time, things knocking over.
You know things like that andwe'll come to find out.
Their kid has a freaking Ouijaboard they've been playing with
Right.
You know what I mean.
Josh (47:59):
Right.
Aleca (48:00):
Or is it something where Go ahead.
Josh (48:04):
What if it's her?
What if it's his wife, lucy?
She's the only one that wasnever affected.
In fact, it treated her wellWith kindness, yeah, yeah.
So what are you doing, likegoing off the premises that this
is something demonic, right?
Something very evil, right?
What are you doing to have anevil spirit bring you food?
Aleca (48:27):
When you're sick.
When you're sick, good, I mean,if we're going that direction,
it could be doing her bidding.
Jamey (48:32):
Well, yeah, well, exactly question yeah so like like did
she call it?
Right interesting something tothink about.
I know I am thinking about it.
That's why I kind of wentsilent.
Aleca (48:46):
We're like wait a minute hold on, because I'm thinking
like I mean that's that's thecase, then she wants her husband
dead.
Why would she want her husbanddead?
Josh (48:56):
she's got a thousand acres , yeah, that she's got to take
care of now yeah, but let's gooff of, let's go off the time of
year, time of.
Aleca (49:07):
Pioneer Times Pioneer.
Josh (49:08):
Times 1800s.
One women have no rights.
Two even in church homes right.
Aleca (49:16):
Yeah.
Josh (49:17):
Men tended to be more oppressive right, More
authoritative.
Aleca (49:23):
Right.
Josh (49:24):
And so what if she's like?
Jamey (49:26):
look, I'm tired of this crap.
Josh (49:28):
Yeah, you're treating me like garbage.
Aleca (49:30):
I've popped out nine kids .
Yeah, right.
Josh (49:34):
I have wrecked myself for you, dude, and you just don't
care, and she could just be donewith it.
Aleca (49:43):
Yeah.
Josh (49:44):
And you know, because it didn't say like, because if you
think, think about it right.
Yeah, it came back seven yearslater, went to the oldest son.
The junior didn't attack him,just had a conversation with him
yeah so everything waseverything evil and nasty,
(50:05):
happened to the husband happenedto him well, but also it did
happen to Betsy, so Betsy wasone of the daughters.
Yeah, true, but it didn't keepup.
After he died, though.
Aleca (50:18):
No, but listen, check this out.
Okay, so Betsy is dating thisguy.
Maybe mom doesn't like this guy.
Jamey (50:26):
Oh, yeah, because it subsided after he after they
broke off the engagement.
Aleca (50:31):
Yeah, we might have something on this.
Jamey (50:36):
We need to take a look at mom.
Aleca (50:41):
So that is the story of the Bell Witch.
Jamey (50:44):
That was pretty good.
Josh (50:46):
Yeah.
Jamey (50:47):
That was fun.
Josh (50:48):
I mean, it is a well-known .
Jamey (50:50):
It is Like I'm sure a lot of people, especially
paranormal lovers, have heard ofthis.
Yeah, but maybe not in the samedetail and depth as this yeah.
Aleca (51:03):
Yeah, I tried to make it go from storyline, as if it like
not jumping around.
Jamey (51:11):
I tried to go in order as much as possible.
Josh (51:15):
Here's the thing that stinks.
Two years ago, we drove throughTennessee.
Aleca (51:23):
What you didn't want to go to the limestone cave.
Jamey (51:26):
I didn't even know that it was there, we didn't realize
that was a whirlwind trip.
Josh (51:32):
It was a whirlwind trip.
Jamey (51:33):
There was no way that was happening.
Josh (51:34):
No.
Jamey (51:35):
On the way back we got sicker and dogs.
So yeah, there was no way thatwas happening.
That was the first thing fromour mind, yeah.
Josh (51:43):
So if we went to this area to go investigate, where would
you investigate?
Because my understanding is onthe property where the Bell
Witch Cave is located right.
Yes, the house doesn't exist,but there is like foundational
markings where the house wasRight.
Would you investigate the housearea or the cave?
Aleca (52:09):
For me, I would actually go for the cave because it's
limestone.
Jamey (52:13):
Yeah, and that kind of amplifies and helps things of a
paranormal nature come through.
Josh (52:18):
Sure, but if it's a limestone cave, you're probably
underneath the property.
Aleca (52:23):
No, it's like in a hill.
Oh, it's too far down, that'sright, you just walk right in a
hill.
Josh (52:26):
Oh, it's too far down, that's right, you just walk
right in yeah.
So okay.
Aleca (52:33):
But I mean.
Jamey (52:35):
How far is the cave from where the house used to sit?
Aleca (52:39):
I don't know.
I mean it's a big chunk of land, it's a thousand acres.
Jamey (52:42):
Yeah, that's why I was asking.
Aleca (52:43):
I don't know.
Josh (52:46):
BuzzFeed went there.
Jamey (52:48):
Yeah.
Josh (52:48):
So if I remember correctly I think it's like I don't know
maybe 150, 200 yards, if I'mremembering correctly.
Then that's not far at all.
Jamey (52:58):
It is not far at all yeah , so then my answer would be why
not both?
Josh (53:03):
Right.
Jamey (53:04):
If they're that close together, why not?
Aleca (53:07):
Because I bet you could get a lot of residual.
Jamey (53:10):
Absolutely when the house was yeah.
Yeah, I would do both.
Aleca (53:17):
How cool would it be if you had one person in the
limestone cave, one person atthe foundation of the home, and
see what you can get.
Heck, yeah, see if anythingwould correspond.
Jamey (53:31):
Yep that would be interesting I mean we'd be
trying all different things,right, oh?
Josh (53:34):
totally Experiments and stuff.
Jamey (53:35):
Yeah, the Estes method, we could go nuts.
Josh (53:39):
And as long as there's not a ton of people like it's a
thousand acres, right, and Ithink the cave is locked, so
like you have to get a specialpermission to go into the yeah
but if, like you're out there Ithink nobody else is out there
like you could at least do itright on the foundation area
right, that would be so awesome,that'd be a lot of fun it would
(54:00):
be a lot of fun or unless it'slike personal property.
Jamey (54:02):
But what probably is well , I mean, we could always ask
permission.
Josh (54:07):
Right.
Jamey (54:08):
I mean it doesn't hurt to ask.
I mean the worst they're goingto say is no.
Josh (54:11):
I mean they let BuzzFeed in there.
I mean that's a lot.
Aleca (54:13):
They probably got paid for that one though.
Josh (54:15):
Well, they did, but I know BuzzFeed did it.
Jamey (54:22):
Ghost Hunters did it Like they allow they price tag.
Look like who knows.
I got $5.
I got $5.
$5, one penny.
Josh (54:32):
Can I just Just let me sit next to the foundation Just for
a minute?
Jamey (54:36):
For five minutes yeah.
Josh (54:40):
How much to lick the foundation.
Jamey (54:41):
Oh gross, We've gone too far we always go too far.
Yeah, it gets harder and harderto find places to investigate
that will let you in for areasonable price anyway.
Josh (54:56):
Yeah, paranormal tourism is a pretty big deal now.
Jamey (55:01):
Yep.
Josh (55:03):
But let us know what you guys think the Bell witch is.
Is it just an evil spirit?
Is it a human spirit?
Jamey (55:15):
is it something that the wife summoned?
Aleca (55:18):
is it the neighbor next door right?
Josh (55:21):
yeah, is it just someone human just really messing with
people?
Jamey (55:25):
that, that's some talent, man.
Josh (55:28):
Yeah.
Jamey (55:29):
That's some serious talent to be able to do all that
.
It's just the neighbor, it'stoo much work, all right, like I
would have got bored after,like you know, a week.
Aleca (55:38):
I probably I'd probably get caught laughing.
I guarantee I'd be get caughtlaughing too hard.
Jamey (55:43):
Kind of like at the Stanley when we were jiggling
the door handle.
Aleca (55:46):
I couldn't handle it.
Oh my gosh, that was so funnyit was great.
Josh (55:51):
So thank you everybody for listening and, as always, stay
ghosty my peeps almostimmediately the tax lessened,
(56:20):
pretty sure I just said taxed.
Between the realm of the dead and the journeys of the
living.
Join Josh, jamie and Elisa asthey delve into the vast world
of the paranormal and breathelife back into the history of
the departed.
Josh (00:11):
Hey everybody, Welcome back to the Paranormal Peeps
podcast.
I'm Josh.
Jamey (00:16):
I'm Elisa and I'm Jamie.
Josh (00:18):
And we switched it up on you all.
Jamey (00:21):
Keep you on your toes.
Mixed them up, we've got agreat episode for everybody this
week.
Josh (00:24):
You all Okay, Keep you on your toes Mixed them up.
We've got a great episode foreverybody this week.
We are going to be talkingabout what Elisa.
Jamey (00:35):
The bell witch Yay.
Josh (00:36):
So it's a witch that lives inside of a bell like a genie.
Jamey (00:39):
Sure is Cool.
Well, and the great thing aboutthis is we're kind of trying
something different.
So Elisa actually did all theresearch on it and has all the
information on it, whereas Joshand I know very little about it
because we didn't do any of theresearch.
Aleca (00:52):
So we're going to get real raw reactions.
Josh (00:56):
And a little sarcasm.
Jamey (00:58):
Okay a lot of sarcasm.
Aleca (01:00):
I actually have a little sarcasm in this, oh cool.
See, I actually have a littlesarcasm in this, oh cool.
Josh (01:04):
See, All right.
So the first question is is ita silver bell?
Aleca (01:13):
or a brass bell, or a copper bell, or is it a cow bell
?
Oh, totally cow.
More cow bell, I mean we'resetting ourselves up in like
1800s, so definitely cow bell,cow bell.
Josh (01:22):
Yes, we need more cow bell .
Aleca (01:26):
If you know, you know All right.
Paranormal peeps lean in closeto the fire.
It's late, the woods are quietand tonight I've got one of the
oldest, meanest, sassiesthauntings ever told on American
soil, classiest hauntings evertold on american soil.
(01:47):
Forget polite floating whitelady ghosts.
This one bites, slaps, mocksand straight up heckles you at
your own funeral.
This story is of the bell witch.
Are you ready?
I'm ready.
Did I set?
Jamey (01:58):
this up good enough.
Josh (01:58):
Yes, I'm invested, let's go I got my popcorn, let's do
this.
Aleca (02:05):
Okay Now, if you have heard of Every Ghost Story
before, I promise you youhaven't.
This one is different.
It's a tale from the early1800s, before electricity,
before TikTok, ghost hunters,before even Scooby-Doo, had a
van Out in Adams, tennessee.
A hardworking family thoughtthey were living the best
(02:27):
frontier life until somethingdark decided to move in and oh,
this wasn't your run of the mill.
Knock three times.
Kind of ghost.
No, this had personality,opinions and a vendetta and,
believe it or not, a sense ofhumor.
If ghosts had a Yelp review,this one would be five stars for
creativity, minus 10 stars forbeing a total nightmare roommate
.
But grab your marshmallows,maybe sit with your back against
(02:50):
a tree so nothing stinks upbehind you, because here we go,
and kids were friendly andwelcoming.
They helped neighbors all thetime, opening their door to
anyone in need.
(03:11):
John was a hard worker and knownnot to give up on a project
until the work was done, and hedid it well.
He was a farmer with a growingfamily of six children, and John
decided that their farm inNorth Carolina was too small.
So they packed up their wagon,traveled over 600 miles west to
find a good patch of land andfind it.
He did A thousand acres alongthe Red River in northern
(03:32):
Tennessee, in rural RobertsonCounty.
So picture Tennessee in theearly 1800s Wild country, big
forests, farmland stretching outand neighbors few, far in
between.
There were so few people thatthey all worked together to
create a town from literally theground up.
John started clearing out theproperty on the hill, cutting
(03:55):
down trees, and with those treeshe built the family a one and a
half story home close to theRed River.
The Red River was known as theplace to fish and play for the
people in the town, so the Bellswere always seeing the
neighborhood families and makingfriends.
Pretty quick they became prettywell known.
The Bells were well off for thetime Big farmhouse, plenty of
(04:17):
kids, which back then wasbasically Netflix before Netflix
, and they raised crops, had abig church community and John
was even a deacon.
Folks respected him and theyraised crops, had a big church
community and John was even adeacon.
Folks respected him and by allaccounts the Bells were set up
for a perfect pioneer life.
John would be the first oneawake and so he would get the
kids up and walk togetherthrough the woods to get to
(04:38):
school.
While the kids were at school,john and the older boys would
work the land.
They helped build structuresaround the town to build up the
settlement.
They would also build boatsthat they would use to transport
tobacco and meat that theyproduced on their farm for trade
.
They would go on to have threemore kids after moving to their
new home.
Not too much time passed beforethe older children started
(04:59):
getting married and buildingtheir own homes close by.
But there was the thing aboutbig, beautiful farmland.
You never know what was therebefore, whose footsteps walked
in, whose bones might be buriedunder it or who might still be
hanging around.
It all started in the summer of1817, 13 years after they
arrived in the Robertson County.
(05:21):
John Bell was alone out walkinghis property in the cornfields
by his house, where he spottedsomething strange.
Now, this is a man used towildlife Wolves, foxes, panthers
even but this, this wasdifferent.
He saw a creature crouchedbetween the rows of corn.
From the body down it lookedlike a big dog, but then, when
(05:42):
it turned its head, it almostlooked like it had the face of a
rabbit, but he chalked it up tobeing a giant dog.
It wasn't uncommon to see dogsrunning around the settlement,
but this one made him feeldifferent.
It also looked as if the boneswere broken over and over and
set wrong, making them go indifferent angles.
The dog was looking straight athim, not breaking eye contact,
(06:05):
and this made him feel totallyunsettled and started to panic.
John luckily had his rifle withhim.
So John did what any goodpioneer would do he raised his
gun, fired one bullet at thegiant dog.
When he did that, the dog tookoff, running into the forest
tree line and John watched untilhe couldn't see it anymore.
He jogged over to the placewhere the giant dog sat down and
(06:29):
he saw nothing, no impressionsin the corn.
He was fully expecting to seethe corn press down where the
dog had been.
So he looked to see if therewere any tracks of the animal.
Nothing, it's like it wasn'teven there.
Baffled at how this was evenpossible, he stopped and thought
oh well, I'm thinking too muchinto this, this is probably just
a big dog.
Confused, john just walked backhome After that sighting.
(06:54):
John would write it off, butlater would go back and say this
is where it all started.
But not long after, at night,when they would go to bed, they
started hearing knocks on theoutside walls of the house.
They would get up to see whatit was.
But then it would stop Notbeing able to find out what it
(07:16):
was.
They would just go back to bedand it would start up again.
On another side of the house itwas like there was something or
someone walking around outsideknocking on the walls.
John thought for sure that thiswas a prankster trying to scare
them.
He told all of his family tonot mention it to anyone in the
town because he didn't want theprankster to know he was onto
them.
He wanted them to come back sothat he could catch them in the
(07:39):
act.
But over the next several weeksthe tapping continued and John
would stay awake and every timethe knocking started he would
run out to see who was there.
But there would be no one andno tracks.
I mean, if it were me, I wouldbe waiting outside, yeah.
Josh (07:56):
Ambush it, trap it something right.
Aleca (07:58):
Yeah, like I wouldn't be in the house hoping to find
something out.
No Outside, I'd be out therewaiting In the house hoping to
find something out.
No Outside.
I'd be out there waitingBecause I feel like you're
gaining a step Mm-hmm.
Having to run outside when youcan already be out there, right,
but I can also see likechalking up the seeing the whole
dog thing.
Jamey (08:21):
I would probably chalk it up to and letting it go.
Well, you know, and when we seethings like that and we don't
know what it is, we try toexplain it away like, oh, it's
just a dog, or it's just a youknow what I mean.
Aleca (08:30):
So like I totally don't blame him.
Jamey (08:32):
Yeah.
Aleca (08:33):
Almost one year later from when he first saw the giant
dog in the cornfield, and a fewmonths after the knocking
started, it was May.
On a Sunday night in 1818.
Four of their sons weresleeping in bunk beds, with the
two older sons on the lowerbunks and the two younger ones
on the top.
They woke up to the sound of arat chewing on one of their
(08:54):
bedposts.
The older boys instantly got upto find this rat, but as soon
as they did, the sound totallydisappeared.
The boys searched all over theroom but they never found it.
They checked all of the bedsand there wasn't any sign a rat
had been chewing on the bedposts.
The older boys shrugged it offand went back to bed, but as
soon as they closed their eyesthe chewing sound would start up
(09:16):
again, but now it was louderand more frantic.
Like this rat was desperatelytrying to get through the
bedpost Again.
The boys hurried and got up tofind out what was making that
sound, but as soon as their feethit the floor the sound stopped
and the room was silent.
The older two boys searched theroom again, but to no avail.
(09:36):
There was no sign of any animaland no marks on the beds.
I feel like there is a pattern.
Jamey (09:44):
I'm starting to see one.
Yeah, just a little bit.
Josh (09:47):
It's like I'm going to mess with you.
Aleca (09:51):
Leaving the boys so confused and they didn't know
what to think.
The sound would continue forthe rest of the night and again
the night after that, notallowing the boys to sleep.
But after the third night theboys heard a different sound in
their room.
They go to bed totallyexhausted, not being able to
sleep because the last couplenights they hear what sounds
(10:12):
like someone under their bedsbeing choked.
They're gasping for air andclawing at the bottom side of
their bed.
Okay, that would freak me out.
The two older boys got thecourage to jump out of bed to
see what was chasing thesesounds and as soon as their feet
hit the floor, the sound stopsand the room was silent.
(10:33):
But this time the boys had hadenough.
This really freaked them out.
They woke up the rest of thefamily and the whole family
searched the entire houselooking for anything that could
have been making these sounds,but they came up empty-handed.
Nothing was out of the ordinaryno marks, no animals, no
evidence.
(10:53):
As time went on, things startedhappening with the family.
There was scratching at thewindows, invisible chains being
dragged across the wooden floors.
The kids' blankets would beripped off clean as they slept,
as if invisible hands yankedthem away.
At first the Bell familythought they were just dealing
with the bumps in the night.
But then it started talking ina raspy, croaking woman's voice.
(11:18):
It quoted scripture, it sanghymns, and sometimes it laughed
and other times it mocked andeventually it introduced itself.
It was kate.
The townspeople thought it wasall because of their
neighborhood or their neighbor,kate bats.
Kate was known to be veryeccentric and very unpleasant.
(11:39):
She was known to be cursed orunlucky.
Her, her husband had becomedisabled and all three of her
children died at a young age.
When Kate would talk she woulduse big words but use them
inappropriately.
So everything she said soundedoff and said that she was the
(12:08):
spirit of Kate Batts, thestrange neighborhood woman who
thought John Bell cheated her ina land deal.
But others said it was a demonin disguise and the family's
youngest daughter, betsy.
She started getting the worstof it.
Poor Betsy was just a teenagerwhen this thing zeroed in on her
.
It pinched her arms untilbruises bloomed.
It pulled her hair.
It slapped her across the facehard enough that her cheeks
(12:29):
would sting and wilts appeared,and when she tried to get some
rest the voice would hissinsults in her ear.
Imagine trying to be a teenagegirl in the 1800s.
You're already dealing withlong skirts, suitors with
questionable hygiene, and nowyou've got a ghost ruining your
beauty sleep.
And speaking of suitors, betsyhad a sweetheart named Joshua
(12:51):
Gardner.
The two were sweet on eachother, walking through fields,
probably carving hearts intotrees, but every time Joshua
came around, the spirit rampedup its torment.
When she became engaged toJoshua Gardner, the spirit went
ballistic.
It taunted them consistently,repeating their private
conversations and yankingBetsy's hair and threatening
(13:12):
Joshua.
Finally, betsy broke off theengagement, saying she couldn't
endure the torment anymore.
Almost immediately, the attackslessened.
It was as though this thing hadgotten what it wanted all along
.
But what is odd is Kate hatedeveryone except for Lucy.
Lucy, the mom, was spared fromtorment.
(13:33):
When she fell ill, the witchbrought her apples and hazelnuts
, urging her to eat and regainstrength.
Out of everyone in the family,lucy alone received kindness.
The spirit clearly hadfavorites Another reminder that
this wasn't a random violence.
This was personal.
But whoever or whatever Katewas, she wasn't shy.
(13:54):
She loved an audience, and theBell's Farmhouse basically
became the 1800s version of ahaunted tourist attraction.
I mean really, though, becausethey don't have anything else to
do.
You know what I mean.
Like they gotta haveentertainment somehow and this
would be perfect entertainmentfor a neighborhood.
Jamey (14:14):
I would so be like Pretending like I was sweeping
my door stoop, sweeping the hayaway Out of the threshold, and
kind of Looking over Right what?
Josh (14:23):
are you doing over there?
Aleca (14:29):
I'm not doing anything.
I'm just sweeping my thresholdhere.
What?
Josh (14:31):
you got going on over there.
Can I, can I, can I see, whichis?
It's honestly surprising,though, that they become so much
of a spectacle because, like inthat period of time the
religious nature of the country,most people would have figured
at the point it was a demon andthat they were cursed and that
there would be there'd be a lotof fear.
There'd be a lot of fear andthe like.
The church would have gotteninvolved.
Jamey (14:52):
Yeah.
Josh (14:53):
It's strange that they didn't that, didn't get involved
in that way.
Jamey (14:56):
Just wait, they treated it like Zach Bagans museum.
Josh (14:59):
Yeah, Although I would be like give me an apple.
Aleca (15:10):
Bring me an apple, and it'd say go eat an apple.
Josh (15:14):
Oh see, this is where it all started.
This is where go eat an appleall started.
Jamey (15:18):
Right.
Josh (15:18):
It started with the bell witch.
Jamey (15:20):
Yep.
Josh (15:20):
And because now she's like go eat an apple, can't bring
you one now, but go eat one, goeat one.
Jamey (15:24):
So yeah again if you like , go eat an apple.
Can't bring you one now, but goeat one, go eat one.
So yeah again, if you know, youknow, yep.
Aleca (15:31):
Now, at this point the kids couldn't sleep.
They would lay awake all nightafraid of what was going to
happen or what they would hear.
John decided it was time foroutside help.
He went to his next doorneighbor, whom he was closest to
, and confided in him what wasgoing on.
Now, john was the kind ofperson who didn't tell jokes or
make things up, and so theneighbors actually took him
(15:53):
pretty seriously.
The neighbor told him that hewould spend the night at his
house to see if he couldexperience it and hear any of
these strange sounds.
He got what he was asking for.
He would hear the knocking onthe house from outside, the
chewing on the bedposts and aperson that was choking and
gasping for air.
He was so scared he didn't evenlast the whole night and he
(16:15):
would take his things and leave.
Word of the haunting spreadfast, and because the bells were
so important to the settlement,everyone was actually really
supportive and wanted to rallybehind them to see if they could
help out this family.
They were hoping, if they couldtake turns staying over there,
(16:35):
that they would feel morecomfortable with other people
around, and also that hopefully,their presence would make it so
that the crazy things that werehappening would stop, would
make it so that the crazy thingsthat were happening would stop
now, which is happens actually alot, because when things would
ever happen to me is because Iwas alone.
But if other people came around, nothing would ever happen.
Josh (16:57):
yeah, so I can see where they would get that from yeah,
the the logic makes sense andplus it's always nice to have
someone else.
It's comforting to have someoneoutside come in and hang out
with you.
Aleca (17:09):
And also to get a break.
Hopefully, get a break so thatyou could actually sleep.
Josh (17:16):
Yeah, that would be.
They should have done a houseswap though.
Hey, I'll stay in your house,you can come sleep in my house,
that way you can sleep tonight.
Aleca (17:26):
I, I'd be down.
So enter the williams family.
They stayed over one night,probably thinking it would be a
hoot like the 19th century ghosthunting sleepover.
But as soon as the lamps wereout, the scratching and knocking
began.
Everyone lay stiff in their bed, trying to act brave and then
whap.
Miss Williams screamed and theyre-lit the lamp and a bright
(17:49):
red handprint glowed on hercheek, dude.
Josh (17:55):
Slap that one man.
Aleca (17:58):
So that was enough for the Williams crew, and they
didn't wait for sunrise.
You can take a guess, run theygrabbed their things well, most
of their things and they bolted.
The next morning the bellsfound their quilts still
crumpled on the floor where theyhad dropped them.
They literally just picked itup and ran I mean that I can
(18:19):
understand.
Josh (18:19):
I mean I think most of us have been touched like ghosts on
an investigation.
Jamey (18:26):
Yeah, but.
But to be slapped like rightacross the face To where there's
a visible hand mark on yourface and everybody hears a whack
.
Josh (18:34):
Yeah, I mean, that is hard .
Jamey (18:37):
People with you or not, I'd be out of there too.
Josh (18:40):
You ever wonder, though, if like one of the kids is like,
I'm going to get them.
Jamey (18:47):
Just walks up, sneaks up there in the middle of the night
and, just like wham, I swear itwasn't me.
Aleca (18:51):
Didn't do it no-transcript and the husband
gets up and he looks at his wife, but then he realizes oh, she's
(19:11):
sleeping.
So he's looking around likewhat blanket over her and like
I'm gonna have to try that right.
So right after the williamsfamily left the witch of so at
this time they're calling her awitch she spent the day mocking
them by repeating Mrs Williams'scream in perfect imitation.
Jamey (19:33):
That's freaky.
Aleca (19:33):
That is freaky to me because I've heard my own voice
before, yeah, a few times and itkind of throws you off guard.
But to hear someone else whohas already left and re-hear
their scream.
Jamey (19:48):
Yeah.
Aleca (19:48):
Like uh-uh, nope, nope, nope, no thanks.
Josh (19:52):
Yeah, it's creepy.
Aleca (19:55):
So another visitor, a farmer from the area.
He came by, insisting he wasn'tscared.
So he mocked the bells forbelieving such nonsense.
He wasn't scared.
So he mocked the bells forbelieving such nonsense.
And that night the witch beganloudly reciting one of his
deepest, most private secrets, asecret no one should have known
.
We don't know what it is, butthe bell said that his face
turned bright red and he stormedout, never came back and
(20:18):
refused to talk about it for therest of his life.
Josh (20:20):
And neither did his sheep.
Aleca (20:22):
And what did the witch do ?
She cackled all night like itwas the best stand-up she's ever
done.
That's always something thatwould be like make you don't
tell people's private secretsand like obviously she doesn't
care.
Josh (20:42):
No, no, no, she does not care.
Well, it does not care.
Aleca (20:48):
So, ministers came, here comes your intro to the church.
Ministers came hoping to shutthe entity down with scripture.
One preacher challenged it torecite a Bible verse, thinking
it would fumble.
Instead, the witch rattled offentire passages flawlessly, then
broke into mocking hymns untilthe minister gave up.
(21:10):
And the witch wasn't even justa ghost, it was a theologian and
a heckler rolled into one.
And it didn't matter, no matterwho came over or who tried to
help, it wouldn't stop.
Soon people would try to comeup with explanations as to what
was causing everything to happen, like maybe it was one of the
younger girls doing it to getattention, or maybe there was a
(21:32):
family or a person that reallyhated the Bell family and
targeted them, even to thestretch that maybe someone in
the town learned ventriloquismand could throw their voice to
make it sound like as if it wascoming from a different spot in
the town learned ventriloquismand could throw their voice to
make it sound like as if it wascoming from a different spot in
the room and not from their body, just to mess with the bell
family.
Now, is that even a thing?
Josh (21:53):
it is a thing, throwing your voice is a thing, but that
would mean that this individualis like hiding under their house
every night for like two yearssee I would be like, okay, who's
sleeping all day long right andnot coming out, and only coming
out at night.
Aleca (22:11):
Like who's this person?
Josh (22:12):
in town, did you check under the floorboards to see if
there's people living underthere?
Because at this point in timeyou got to wonder right.
Aleca (22:19):
so the townspeople would search the bell's house with
them, and no one ever found whatcould be causing any of what
was going on.
The townspeople even watchedeach member of the Bell family
as they slept to see if anyonewas responsible for these sounds
.
But sure enough, even thoughthey were being watched and the
(22:41):
family was asleep, the soundswould start, and they saw that
no one in the Bell family wasdoing this, so the Bell family
was just forced to deal with it.
Now, back then it wasn't likeyou could just get up and move.
That's not how it worked.
Josh (22:56):
Yeah.
Aleca (22:57):
But I would be freaking.
Working on building anotherhouse is what I'd be doing At
the very least right.
They got a thousand acres, manGo somewhere else.
Josh (23:07):
Yeah, you got some extra land, yeah.
Aleca (23:10):
Go somewhere else and find so.
A neighbor named William Portercame and said that the witch
climbed into his bed with himone night.
Horrified, he tried to wrestleit out of his sheets, describing
its body as cold and slimy andheavy.
He dragged it toward thefireplace but just as he was
about to throw it in poof, itvanished.
(23:31):
And later, while he was drivinghis mule cart, the witch struck
again and the mules froze, nomatter how hard he whipped those
reins.
Then his cart lifted into theair yes, lifted before slamming
it back down.
Porter screamed, bolted on footand abandoned the cart, and the
witch's voice trailed after him, laughing the entire way.
(23:52):
She got some power.
Jamey (23:55):
That girl's Like seriously, yeah, trailed after
him laughing the entire way.
Josh (23:58):
she got some power that girls like seriously yeah pick
up the cart seriously well yeah,and we're not talking, like you
know, a plastic wagon cart.
Aleca (24:09):
We're talking something that's probably a good 150
pounds at least, and thatdoesn't include if it's loaded
well, the person sitting on it,well yeah so you're probably
looking at probably four or fivehundred pounds well, I mean,
I've seen, I've seen where umpeople are at a table and the
(24:30):
table lifts right, but that'sprobably the heaviest object
I've seen be lifted but but atable's like 10 pounds, like
it's no, no, like a heavy woodentable, like okay so maybe like
20 pounds with a person on ityeah, it's gonna be much heavier
than a wooden table no, it's,yeah, I would say it'd be
Josh (24:51):
heavier but yeah, yeah that's crazy yeah, we're talking
10 times the weight, right.
Jamey (24:56):
She got some power.
That's even more frightening.
Aleca (24:59):
Well, the fact that she can talk, quote scripture, mimic
, you know, like all the things.
Josh (25:09):
Yeah.
Aleca (25:11):
So perhaps one of the most famous tales involved
Andrew Jackson the president.
The future president, andrewJackson.
He heard about the Bell Witchand decided to investigate.
So he rolled up with hissoldiers and wagons.
But as they neared the Bellproperty, the wagon wheels
locked tight.
The horses couldn't budge, mencouldn't budge it.
(25:33):
Jackson cursed and kicked.
The horses couldn't budge, mencouldn't budge it.
Jackson cursed and kicked.
Then a ghostly voice driftedfrom nowhere saying I'll see you
tonight.
Jackson supposedly cried out bythe Eternal.
Jamey (25:49):
this must be the Bell Witch.
Sounds like a play, Right.
Aleca (25:59):
A disembodied voice answered with laughter.
The wheel suddenly released andthe group continued.
That night.
One of the jackson's menbragged that he was a witch
tamer.
Okay, what is a witch tamer?
Josh (26:07):
I'm a witch whisperer he's got gravy in his shoe it's a
rue in his shoe.
Jamey (26:14):
I got a rue in his shoe he's got a rue.
Josh (26:16):
I got a rue.
In my shoe I'm gonna tame thiswitch.
Aleca (26:19):
I'm the witch whisperer so this witch tamer, boasting
about his silver bullet that hecarried.
The witch called this bluff.
All night he was slapped,pinched and thrown from his bed
until he begged for mercy bymorning.
(26:41):
Jackson said I'd rather fightthe British than the Bell Witch.
And they left.
Jamey (26:51):
Oh my.
Josh (26:52):
Well, I mean, think about it In that avenue right, like if
you're fighting at least anarmy, you can see them Right and
you can know what you're goingafter, 100% this thing.
You can't see.
Jamey (27:03):
No, it's just going to slap you like a doll all night
long and you're not going to beable to see it coming.
Josh (27:08):
And you're not going to know from which direction.
Jamey (27:18):
Where is his roo now, huh .
Where's his rue now huh.
Where's that room?
Your shoe, how's that working?
Aleca (27:21):
for you, oh my gosh.
Now john bell himself wasalways the witch's number one
target.
She called him old jack.
She cursed him day and night,and by this time the town even
noticed something was wrong withjohn.
He was normally very engaged.
When he would talk with people,he would make eye contact with
them and stay focused andengaged.
But soon they noticed that whenpeople would talk to him, his
(27:46):
eyes would suddenly gloss overand his jaw would go slack and
he would look like he wasstarting to stare off in the
distance.
Then his face would start totwitch and at first these
twitches were pretty minor, justaround his eyes, but after a
while it would become much worseand where his jaw would start
to quiver up and down and hiseyes would begin blinking out of
(28:09):
sync.
Then, as soon as the twitchingand blinking would stop, without
a word with who he was talkingwith, he would turn around and
walk off to his home.
He would go straight up to hisbedroom, sit on his bed for
hours just staring at the wall.
He wouldn't eat, drink or say aword.
So that makes you wonder whatwas going on in his head while
(28:34):
that was happening.
Jamey (28:37):
Also side note it sounds like me when Josh talks about
code.
Aleca (28:41):
Your eyes start twitching she does.
Your jaw starts quivering backand forth, I go slack jaw.
Jamey (28:48):
I just turn around, my eyes gloss over.
Josh (28:51):
She just walks away.
Jamey (28:52):
I walk away, go up and sit on the edge of the bed.
Stare at the wall.
Josh (28:58):
And this is why I don't talk about work at home, even
though I work from home.
Aleca (29:09):
This is why you leave the work in the basement, that's
right.
Jamey (29:12):
I leave it in the dungeon .
Aleca (29:15):
His health began to fail.
He suffered tremors, troubleswallowing, seizures, and some
thought it was a stroke.
The witch claimed it was herdoing, and by this point the
hauntings had been going on forthree years.
That would be exhausting.
Josh (29:30):
Oh so exhausting, Exhausting.
He'd probably get not a ton ofsleep in that entire time, isn't
it kind of like?
Jamey (29:36):
oppression though?
Oh, so, exhausting, ExhaustingHe'd probably get not a ton of
sleep in that entire time.
Isn't it kind of likeoppression though?
Oh yeah, Doesn't it sound likethat's what he's kind of going
through?
Josh (29:41):
is because this.
Jamey (29:42):
It's finally taken its toll, and he just like there's a
disconnect.
Aleca (29:45):
I mean, how would you not be?
Jamey (29:47):
Well, exactly, I'm surprised it took that long,
yeah, honestly.
Aleca (29:51):
It's a pretty strong fight honestly, it's pretty
strong fight, no kidding.
Yeah.
So john was only getting worseand the amount of time that john
was spending on his bed staringand not eating would go longer
and longer and longer.
One night in private, john wastalking to lucy, his wife, and
he told her that he believedthat this thing was going to
torture him to death.
(30:13):
Like I don't blame him, thatwould be really tough, yeah yeah
one night, as john was gettingsicker and sicker, their
daughter, esther, was outside togather the eggs from the
chicken coop across the roadthat was still on their property
.
As she was walking, she heardsomeone moving behind her and as
she turned around she saw awoman dressed in all black, with
(30:35):
her head down, walking slowlydown the road.
She was on towards her house,walking exactly where esther had
just come from, but she'd neversaw her.
She didn't worry about it andjust thought it was just a woman
from town, even though shedidn't recognize her.
So she turned and walked therest of the way back to the coop
and gathered the eggs.
And when she was done andwalking back on that same road,
(31:00):
this time facing her home, shestill saw that same woman slowly
walking with their head down,this time closer to her home.
As she was walking, she'slooking around to try to figure
out who this woman was.
As she got closer, sherecognized that it was someone
from town, so she yelled outhello.
But this woman acted like shenever even heard her.
(31:23):
She didn't turn around or evenreact to Esther.
So Esther picked up her paceand got a little closer.
She continued to yell hello howare you.
But the woman never reacted,just slowly walked closer to her
house.
Esther looked around and no oneelse was in sight.
(31:43):
It was just her and the womanin black.
After Esther was about 15 feetaway from the woman, she started
to feel really uncomfortable.
Feel really uncomfortable.
Esther stops walking and justwatches her, but from the moment
she stops, the woman alsostopped Her back, still facing
the ground.
Instantly the woman startedrunning her fingers through her
(32:06):
hair like she was trying to combit out.
Esther started to wonder whatthe heck she was doing.
So she started to walk closerto her.
But each step Esther took, thewoman was running her hands
faster and faster through herhair.
But as she got closer, estherwas horrified realizing that she
(32:26):
wasn't just combing her hair,she was grabbing chunks of her
hair and ripping it out.
Esther would actually hear thehair being ripped from her head.
Within just moments there washair laying all over the ground
around the woman.
Esther gets freaked out at thispoint and takes off running
around the woman without lookingat her and goes straight into
(32:46):
the house and locks the door.
Jamey (32:48):
Okay, that would freak me out yeah, well, not only that,
but just the sound of the hairtearing out of your scalp Like
ripping fabric or something youknow.
Josh (32:58):
Yeah, yeah.
Nope Well and the fact thatpulling out a hair hurts.
Yeah, ripping out giant chunkshas got to be excruciating, and
this person is just doing itover and, over and over again.
Aleca (33:12):
And fast.
Josh (33:13):
Yeah.
Aleca (33:15):
Ugh, no, over again and fast.
Yeah, oh no.
So she runs and calls for hersister and the two of them run
to the front window.
They look at the road and theysee her and the woman is still
ripping her hair out.
But this time esther makes eyecontact.
The moment that happened, thewoman freezes with her hands
still in her hair, staring atEsther.
(33:36):
The woman is staring, slowly,takes her hands down and turns
suddenly and walks to the sideof the house.
The girls scream and run to theside window to see if they can
see where she's going.
They see her climbing over thefence into the side property and
behind her were now threechildren whom they didn't see
(33:58):
before.
Together they walk into thegrove of trees that is still on
their property and one by one,starting with the oldest woman
first, they each climbed intotheir own tree.
After they were all up, theyturned and all looked at Esther
and her sister and they allbegan swaying their bodies back
(34:18):
and forth in the trees, gettingthe trees to sway hard left and
right, horrifying the girls.
Right then Esther's husbandcomes through the front door.
So Esther yells at him to comeand look through the window to
see what these people are doing.
He runs over, but he can't seethe people, only the trees swing
unnaturally back and forth.
(34:38):
Esther and her sister realizeshe isn't seeing what they are
seeing and they freak out andstart screaming.
Meanwhile Esther's husband istrying to figure out what the
heck is going on.
The three of them run out thedoor to the side to confront the
woman and the kids and whateveris happening in these trees.
But when they got to the sideto confront the woman and the
kids and whatever is happeningin these trees, but when they
got to the grove, no one wasthere.
(35:01):
The woman and children weregone and the trees were no
longer moving.
They looked around no tracks,no children, no women.
Do you see this pattern?
Josh (35:15):
that's just creepy terrifying well, the fact that
one, two people saw this womando it woman standing there and
ripping out her hair like this,is like something visual and
like action wise it's superunnatural.
Yeah, it's not something you'regonna see anybody doing well
then you got three kids thatappear out of nowhere and follow
(35:38):
her into the trees.
That's just honestly like.
This is nightmare fuel initself.
This is like a horror movie.
Aleca (35:49):
And what sucks is you always want your spouse to see
what you're seeing Right, or toexperience what you're seeing
Right, or to experience whatyou're experiencing Validation.
So that they can, yeah, havevalidation or have like empathy
towards, like the situationAbsolutely.
I mean, at least he could seethe trees moving back and forth,
right, but he couldn't see thecause of it.
But he couldn't see the cause.
Josh (36:10):
No, yeah, it's still creepy.
Aleca (36:13):
So a month later, john was walking out on the farm with
his son and John suddenlystarts to glaze over and his
body starts to contort in weirdangles and his back starts to
bend backwards and arch so farthat it looked like his back
would break.
His son was freaking out andtrying to pick him up and as he
does it, a horrifying shriekfills the air.
(36:35):
It's so loud that he can't eventell where it's coming from.
And as fast as it started, itall stopped.
John was laying on the groundand it was silent.
John would look up to his sonand say I don't have much time
left.
His son helped him up and theywould walk back to the house and
John went straight to bed.
(36:56):
Okay, in my opinion,something's happening while John
is experiencing this stuff.
Jamey (37:03):
Right.
Aleca (37:03):
Yeah, so like sleep paralysis, how you can actually
see things that you may feel isgoing on around you.
I wonder if it's something likethat where he's getting
(37:26):
information or whatever, becausesomething is freaking him out
more than just his body doingweird things Right, than just
his body doing weird thingsRight.
Josh (37:34):
Well, and the thing is he bent over backwards, but was he
forced backwards?
Like is there actually somebodylike obviously he could see it
or would be able to see, but hisson wouldn't?
There's something actuallypushing him backwards, like
actually forcing him to bendbackwards.
Aleca (37:53):
And see.
That's what I wonder if he cansee.
Jamey (38:01):
And if he can like feel the toll that it's taking on his
body.
Well, not just that, but I meanhe knows instinctually that he
doesn't have much time left.
Aleca (38:06):
Yeah, so a few weeks later, on december 19th 1820,
john slips into a coma.
The family discovers him buthe's still breathing, but they
couldn't wake him up.
Bell jr goes to the medicinecabinet but all the meds were
gone.
Only a strange vial of blackliquid was in the cupboard.
(38:28):
No one knew where it had comefrom.
They called the doctor to helpjohn and to figure out what
liquid was in this vial.
The doctor came and said youneed to test this on a farm
animal to make sure we know whatit does.
Bell Jr found a stray cat andgave it a drop, and the cat
(38:48):
dropped dead within minutes.
At that very moment Cat's voicerang out.
I fixed him, jeez.
John Bell died that nextmorning and was buried the next
day.
His funeral drew the whole town, but while the mourners sang
hymns, kate crackled, hecklingthem until the last mourner left
(39:12):
the graveyard.
The last mourner left thegraveyard.
So imagine dying, and not onlydoes the ghost eventually kill
you, but it crashes your dangfuneral, like jeez just ruins
everything with this encoreperformance right, terrible.
Jamey (39:31):
So let me ask you this At the funeral did everybody hear
it?
They said they did, but I mean,yeah, that's what I was
wondering.
Was it stated that everybodyheard it?
Yes, that attended the funeral,okay, yes.
Josh (39:48):
I mean, even if it wasn't everybody, if only the bells
heard it, that's still badenough.
Jamey (39:53):
It's still messed up, but I was just curious if everybody
heard the heckling.
Aleca (39:57):
But I think at this point most of the town had been so
involved that why wouldn't theyRight?
Josh (40:03):
Well, yeah, they all took turns sleeping at the house
trying to help everybody out,and that was not going anywhere
and it never stopped.
Aleca (40:12):
But Lucy, the wife, would stay in that house until she
passed away in 1838.
So she stayed there the rest ofthe time.
But also, it never did anythingto her, no Right?
So the witch or spirit,whatever you want to call it,
would always take care of heranyway.
But after John's death thingsquieted down, but kate wasn't
(40:37):
gone for good.
Neighbors would see mysteriouslights flying around the bell's
home and sometimes they wouldhear sing-song voices coming
from somewhere around theirproperty.
Okay, that reminds me of um.
When, oh, what's the movie?
Why can I think the threewitches?
Hocus pocus, hocus pocus, oh mygosh.
(40:58):
When, oh, what's the?
Josh (40:59):
movie.
Why can't I think the ThreeWitches Hocus?
Aleca (41:00):
Pocus, hocus, pocus, oh my gosh, when she's flying over
the little village and singingand it's just the whole town.
Josh (41:09):
Oh, that's where she's singing the kids to draw the
little children, yeah.
Aleca (41:13):
That's what that reminds me of.
Josh (41:15):
That was Bette Midler's character that did that right.
Jamey (41:19):
No, no, but saying that, no, it was what's her name.
Aleca (41:23):
I can tell you what other show she's on.
Jamey (41:26):
Sarah Jessica Parker.
Okay, it was her character.
Josh (41:29):
Yes, Gotcha yeah.
Aleca (41:33):
So Kate promised that she would return in seven years and
, sure enough, in 1828 shereappeared, this time visiting
john bell jr for weeks.
Strangely, the two actually hadconversations, deep talks about
philosophy, the bible, evenpredictions about the future,
(41:55):
including the Civil War, andthen, just like that, she left
again.
But before she vanished, katepromised that she would come
back in 107 years.
That would have been in 1935.
And while nothingheadline-worthy happened in
Adams that year, many localsswore strange knocks and voices
(42:16):
still haunted the Bell property,whether Kate returned or not,
or maybe she just never left.
Today the big hotspot in Adamsis the Bell Witch Cave that is
supposedly on, that is, on theirproperty Right.
So there's nothing left of theBell's home Right, but on the
property left of the Bills' homeRight.
(42:36):
But on the property they havethe cave.
It's a limestone cave, whichmakes it even better.
Yup, and it's near the old farm.
Tour guides love to say thatthe witch retreated there when
she wasn't busy terrorizing thefamily, and visitors claim to
hear voices, footsteps and evenfeel hands that shoved them
(43:00):
inside.
Some historians think that JohnBell was poisoned with arsenic.
Others think Betsy, overwhelmedby stress, could have been the
source of the poltergeistactivity could have been the
source of the poltergeistactivity.
There is a book that M V Ingramwrote in 1894 called An
(43:24):
Authentic History of the BillWitch.
Skeptics thought that it madepeople's imagination worse, but
believers will tell you, toomany people saw it, too many
people heard it, and you don'tget a legend this strong without
something behind it, and Iwould have to agree with that.
Josh (43:40):
I would yeah it's not just going to get made up out of
nowhere I mean, yeah, it'd betough to get a whole town
involved on a on a hoax oh yeah,really like you could get a
couple people, you could get atwo or three families involved,
(44:01):
but you're talking about anentire town, you're talking
about the church, that's there.
Yeah, that's really tough, Imean, unless the whole church,
unless the whole town wasconspiring to kill them.
Aleca (44:18):
In which they succeeded.
Well, yeah, that's the case forat least John Bell.
Jamey (44:22):
But what was the gain by doing that though?
Josh (44:24):
Well, right, exactly Because she stayed on the
property until her death.
So it's not like the propertychanged hands.
No, no.
So none of it makes.
That part doesn't make anysense to be a hoax.
Aleca (44:38):
But but I mean the possibilities of it being a
poltergeist.
That could also be, but at thesame time, if it's following you
around, is that poltergeistactivity?
Josh (44:52):
no, not usually Honestly.
This screams demonic, oh forsure, but it screams almost
Satan level demonic.
Like high, like high power.
Yeah, just because one thepower of everything but the
(45:19):
mocking of the scripture.
The force on that part right.
And like the heckling and thehings and all that Right,
exactly right, yeah, becausehere's the interesting thing,
when you think about it, right,no-transcript?
(45:42):
And the fact that it wascalling them out and they were
trying to sing hymns even thechurch leaders went in right and
even they got beat back.
It really screams at the factthat they didn't have any faith,
that their faith was.
Aleca (46:01):
Well, he was actually a priest.
Josh (46:03):
Well, right, but it doesn't mean you have faith,
right, right.
It doesn't mean your faith isstrong, um, and so it's a very
interesting concept in thatAvenue.
When you look at it in that, inthat light, I see where you're
coming from, yeah, and so that'swhy I think it's like one.
It's demonic too that it's highlevel demonic Like we've.
(46:26):
We've come across what claim tobe demons or of those things,
right, which are very low levelright things like family tree
and it's not a common thing thatwe come across and it's not a
common thing, rightbut it's pretty rare but they're
also not like this no right, noRight.
Jamey (46:45):
No, nothing like that.
Josh (46:46):
I mean and this is way, way stronger, we're talking, you
know, freezing wagon wheels onthe whim.
Jamey (46:55):
Lifting the carts.
Aleca (46:56):
Lifting carts Like this is like the no joke stuff, yeah,
but yeah, I just yeah it it'sthat stuff's terrifying well, it
makes me wonder if one of thekids wasn't welcoming it in,
(47:18):
because I've gone to tons ofhouses and investigated homes
where parents are fed up withwhat's going on in their house.
It could be anywhere frommessing with the temperature or
killing their fish tank, ormaking noises at night banging
(47:43):
on the doors, feeling likethey're being followed all the
time, things knocking over.
You know things like that andwe'll come to find out.
Their kid has a freaking Ouijaboard they've been playing with
Right.
You know what I mean.
Josh (47:59):
Right.
Aleca (48:00):
Or is it something where Go ahead.
Josh (48:04):
What if it's her?
What if it's his wife, lucy?
She's the only one that wasnever affected.
In fact, it treated her wellWith kindness, yeah, yeah.
So what are you doing, likegoing off the premises that this
is something demonic, right?
Something very evil, right?
What are you doing to have anevil spirit bring you food?
Aleca (48:27):
When you're sick.
When you're sick, good, I mean,if we're going that direction,
it could be doing her bidding.
Jamey (48:32):
Well, yeah, well, exactly question yeah so like like did
she call it?
Right interesting something tothink about.
I know I am thinking about it.
That's why I kind of wentsilent.
Aleca (48:46):
We're like wait a minute hold on, because I'm thinking
like I mean that's that's thecase, then she wants her husband
dead.
Why would she want her husbanddead?
Josh (48:56):
she's got a thousand acres , yeah, that she's got to take
care of now yeah, but let's gooff of, let's go off the time of
year, time of.
Aleca (49:07):
Pioneer Times Pioneer.
Josh (49:08):
Times 1800s.
One women have no rights.
Two even in church homes right.
Aleca (49:16):
Yeah.
Josh (49:17):
Men tended to be more oppressive right, More
authoritative.
Aleca (49:23):
Right.
Josh (49:24):
And so what if she's like?
Jamey (49:26):
look, I'm tired of this crap.
Josh (49:28):
Yeah, you're treating me like garbage.
Aleca (49:30):
I've popped out nine kids .
Yeah, right.
Josh (49:34):
I have wrecked myself for you, dude, and you just don't
care, and she could just be donewith it.
Aleca (49:43):
Yeah.
Josh (49:44):
And you know, because it didn't say like, because if you
think, think about it right.
Yeah, it came back seven yearslater, went to the oldest son.
The junior didn't attack him,just had a conversation with him
yeah so everything waseverything evil and nasty,
(50:05):
happened to the husband happenedto him well, but also it did
happen to Betsy, so Betsy wasone of the daughters.
Yeah, true, but it didn't keepup.
After he died, though.
Aleca (50:18):
No, but listen, check this out.
Okay, so Betsy is dating thisguy.
Maybe mom doesn't like this guy.
Jamey (50:26):
Oh, yeah, because it subsided after he after they
broke off the engagement.
Aleca (50:31):
Yeah, we might have something on this.
Jamey (50:36):
We need to take a look at mom.
Aleca (50:41):
So that is the story of the Bell Witch.
Jamey (50:44):
That was pretty good.
Josh (50:46):
Yeah.
Jamey (50:47):
That was fun.
Josh (50:48):
I mean, it is a well-known .
Jamey (50:50):
It is Like I'm sure a lot of people, especially
paranormal lovers, have heard ofthis.
Yeah, but maybe not in the samedetail and depth as this yeah.
Aleca (51:03):
Yeah, I tried to make it go from storyline, as if it like
not jumping around.
Jamey (51:11):
I tried to go in order as much as possible.
Josh (51:15):
Here's the thing that stinks.
Two years ago, we drove throughTennessee.
Aleca (51:23):
What you didn't want to go to the limestone cave.
Jamey (51:26):
I didn't even know that it was there, we didn't realize
that was a whirlwind trip.
Josh (51:32):
It was a whirlwind trip.
Jamey (51:33):
There was no way that was happening.
Josh (51:34):
No.
Jamey (51:35):
On the way back we got sicker and dogs.
So yeah, there was no way thatwas happening.
That was the first thing fromour mind, yeah.
Josh (51:43):
So if we went to this area to go investigate, where would
you investigate?
Because my understanding is onthe property where the Bell
Witch Cave is located right.
Yes, the house doesn't exist,but there is like foundational
markings where the house wasRight.
Would you investigate the housearea or the cave?
Aleca (52:09):
For me, I would actually go for the cave because it's
limestone.
Jamey (52:13):
Yeah, and that kind of amplifies and helps things of a
paranormal nature come through.
Josh (52:18):
Sure, but if it's a limestone cave, you're probably
underneath the property.
Aleca (52:23):
No, it's like in a hill.
Oh, it's too far down, that'sright, you just walk right in a
hill.
Josh (52:26):
Oh, it's too far down, that's right, you just walk
right in yeah.
So okay.
Aleca (52:33):
But I mean.
Jamey (52:35):
How far is the cave from where the house used to sit?
Aleca (52:39):
I don't know.
I mean it's a big chunk of land, it's a thousand acres.
Jamey (52:42):
Yeah, that's why I was asking.
Aleca (52:43):
I don't know.
Josh (52:46):
BuzzFeed went there.
Jamey (52:48):
Yeah.
Josh (52:48):
So if I remember correctly I think it's like I don't know
maybe 150, 200 yards, if I'mremembering correctly.
Then that's not far at all.
Jamey (52:58):
It is not far at all yeah , so then my answer would be why
not both?
Josh (53:03):
Right.
Jamey (53:04):
If they're that close together, why not?
Aleca (53:07):
Because I bet you could get a lot of residual.
Jamey (53:10):
Absolutely when the house was yeah.
Yeah, I would do both.
Aleca (53:17):
How cool would it be if you had one person in the
limestone cave, one person atthe foundation of the home, and
see what you can get.
Heck, yeah, see if anythingwould correspond.
Jamey (53:31):
Yep that would be interesting I mean we'd be
trying all different things,right, oh?
Josh (53:34):
totally Experiments and stuff.
Jamey (53:35):
Yeah, the Estes method, we could go nuts.
Josh (53:39):
And as long as there's not a ton of people like it's a
thousand acres, right, and Ithink the cave is locked, so
like you have to get a specialpermission to go into the yeah
but if, like you're out there Ithink nobody else is out there
like you could at least do itright on the foundation area
right, that would be so awesome,that'd be a lot of fun it would
(54:00):
be a lot of fun or unless it'slike personal property.
Jamey (54:02):
But what probably is well , I mean, we could always ask
permission.
Josh (54:07):
Right.
Jamey (54:08):
I mean it doesn't hurt to ask.
I mean the worst they're goingto say is no.
Josh (54:11):
I mean they let BuzzFeed in there.
I mean that's a lot.
Aleca (54:13):
They probably got paid for that one though.
Josh (54:15):
Well, they did, but I know BuzzFeed did it.
Jamey (54:22):
Ghost Hunters did it Like they allow they price tag.
Look like who knows.
I got $5.
I got $5.
$5, one penny.
Josh (54:32):
Can I just Just let me sit next to the foundation Just for
a minute?
Jamey (54:36):
For five minutes yeah.
Josh (54:40):
How much to lick the foundation.
Jamey (54:41):
Oh gross, We've gone too far we always go too far.
Yeah, it gets harder and harderto find places to investigate
that will let you in for areasonable price anyway.
Josh (54:56):
Yeah, paranormal tourism is a pretty big deal now.
Jamey (55:01):
Yep.
Josh (55:03):
But let us know what you guys think the Bell witch is.
Is it just an evil spirit?
Is it a human spirit?
Jamey (55:15):
is it something that the wife summoned?
Aleca (55:18):
is it the neighbor next door right?
Josh (55:21):
yeah, is it just someone human just really messing with
people?
Jamey (55:25):
that, that's some talent, man.
Josh (55:28):
Yeah.
Jamey (55:29):
That's some serious talent to be able to do all that
.
It's just the neighbor, it'stoo much work, all right, like I
would have got bored after,like you know, a week.
Aleca (55:38):
I probably I'd probably get caught laughing.
I guarantee I'd be get caughtlaughing too hard.
Jamey (55:43):
Kind of like at the Stanley when we were jiggling
the door handle.
Aleca (55:46):
I couldn't handle it.
Oh my gosh, that was so funnyit was great.
Josh (55:51):
So thank you everybody for listening and, as always, stay
ghosty my peeps almostimmediately the tax lessened,
(56:20):
pretty sure I just said taxed.
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