June 5, 2025 • 21 mins
We dive into the hidden histories of southern women branded as witches, exploring the conjurers, root workers, midwives, and healers whose legacies live on in Southern folklore despite attempts to bury their stories and silence their power.
• Julia Brown of Frenier, Louisiana, whose prophecy "I'm gonna die and take the whole town with me" came true when a hurricane destroyed the town on the day of her funeral
• The Witch of Yazoo City, Mississippi, who cursed the town to burn 20 years after her death—and whose grave remains chained to this day
• Molly Dyer of Hood County, Texas, whose burning death created a haunted hillside where her spirit still manifests
• The influential Root Doctor of the South Carolina Low Country whose powerful hoodoo practices earned both fear and respect
• New perspectives on the famous Bell Witch haunting that suggest it may have been about female power, not supernatural entities
• Mama Dell of Monroeville, Alabama, a mysterious midwife who vanished when threatened, yet whose presence is still felt in the swamps
If you enjoyed tonight's episode, share it with someone who's got crystals in their car, a tarot deck in their bag, and isn't afraid of a little swamp smoke. Send your own haunted family tales to vividnightmarespod@gmail.com or find me on Instagram and TikTok @VividNightmaresPod.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey y'all, welcome back to Vivid Nightmares.
I'm your host, Bridget Denise,and tonight we're going deep
into the stories.
Southern history tried to burythe women it feared.
The healers it turned intomonsters, the conjurers it
whispered about but never trulyforgot.
Some were midwives, somepracticed root work, but never
(00:25):
truly forgot.
Some were midwives, somepracticed root work, some just
had the nerve to stand tall,smart and unbothered, in a time
when that was enough to get youbranded dangerous and when
something went wrong the cropsfailed, the baby got sick, the
storm rolled in.
These women were the first tobe blamed and the last to be
mourned.
This episode is about thesouthern witches, root workers
(00:46):
and wise women who left a legacysoaked in moss, mist and
mystery.
Some of them were feared forwhat they did.
Some were feared for what folksimagined they could do, but
either way, they made sure theirnames were never forgotten.
Grab your salt, light yourcandles and, whatever you do,
(01:06):
don't break the circle.
Let's start with a woman whosang her own prophecy and
brought a storm with her finalbreath, way down in the swampy
stretch between New Orleans andBaton Rouge, where Spanish moss
drips like whispers and the landhums with old secrets.
Strips like whispers and theland hums with old secrets.
(01:27):
There lived a woman named JuliaBrown.
Now, depending on who you ask,julia was either a healer or a
hex.
She lived in the tiny settlementof Frenier in the early 1900s,
a town surrounded by swamps,sawgrass and silence.
Julia was a root worker, awoman who understood herbs,
poultices, prayers.
(01:48):
She delivered babies, healedsnake bites, made teas that
cured coughs, and teas thatmaybe kept your man faithful.
But over time the people ofFrenier started treating her
more like a tool than a neighbor.
They came to her when theyneeded something and then they'd
turn their backs.
So Julia, being Julia, startedsinging Not church hymns, not
(02:13):
lullabies.
She'd sit on her porch, rockingback and forth and sing things
like one day I'm gonna die andtake the whole town with me,
creepy, right.
But folks didn't listen, or ifthey did, they laughed it off.
Old woman talk, swampsuperstition.
(02:33):
Until September 29, 1915, theday Julia Brown died, a
hurricane hit, and not just astorm a monster.
Winds over 100 miles per hour,waves that swallowed the land.
Whole towns, Frenia included,were wiped off the map.
Almost every resident waskilled.
(02:54):
The cemetery was destroyed.
Bodies were never recovered,and guess whose funeral they
were preparing when the stormhit hit Julia Brown's.
Rescue workers later said hercoffin was found floating in the
swamp alone, upright untouched.
I mean, if that's not power, Idon't know what is.
(03:20):
To this day, the land whereFenya once stood is ghost town
quiet.
To this day, the land whereFenya once stood is ghost town,
quiet.
Locals say you can still hearhumming in the trees, especially
near the old cypress grove.
Sometimes it's soft, sometimesit's right behind you.
Paranormal teams have picked upwhispers, emf spikes and sudden
drops in temperature around theold train tracks near Lake
(03:42):
Pontchartrain.
Some say Julie's still therewatching, not mad, not vengeful,
just reminding folks not toforget her.
Julia warned them and when sheleft she made sure they
remembered who had the realpower.
Next we're heading toMississippi, where a chained
grave still tries to hold back awoman the whole town feared,
(04:04):
even in death.
Next stop on this hex littletour Yazoo City, mississippi.
Now look, if a town chains downsomeone's grave, that's usually
a clue that something went very, very wrong and in this case
it's a whole legend built aroundone woman, one curse and a
(04:26):
whole lot of fear.
Let's rewind Back in the late1800s.
There was a woman who livedalone in the swamps just outside
of Yazoo.
No name, no church records,just stories.
Locals said she was strange,didn't talk to anyone, never
came to town unless it was forsupplies, and even then she'd
(04:49):
vanish before sundown.
And of course, because she wasa woman alone and confident,
folks started calling her awitch Shocking I know A woman
who minds her business.
Definitely gotta besupernatural.
Anyway, one day two boys gomissing.
(05:10):
A search party goes out intothe swamp and they say they find
the witch's shack Inside theboys' bodies.
Now listen, there's no proofthis ever happened, it's pure
legend.
But the story goes that thetownspeople chased her through
the swamp and just before theycaught her she cursed them With
(05:32):
her last breath.
She screamed in 20 years I willreturn and burn this town to
the ground.
They caught her.
They caught her, hanged her,buried her in Glenwood Cemetery
in an unmarked grave, but justin case, they chained it shut,
literally wrapped heavy ironchains around the tomb.
(05:56):
And then, 20 years later 1904, amassive fire broke out in Yazoo
City.
The flames tore through 200homes and almost every business
downtown.
The courthouse burned, the bankcollapsed, even the jail went
up in smoke.
No known cause, no lightning,no faulty wiring, just fire and
(06:25):
chaos.
Townsfolk rushed to thecemetery the next morning.
They found the chains aroundthe witch's grave snapped,
twisted metal stone cracked openand y'all they replaced the
chains.
To this day, glenwood Cemeterykeeps the witch's grave locked
down Fresh chains.
Glenwood Cemetery keeps thewitch's grave locked down, fresh
chains bolted tight.
(06:46):
The city even leans into thelegend.
Tour guides will walk youstraight to it, but folks who've
lingered too long Say they feelwatched.
Phones die, voices whisper andone woman a paranormal
investigator said she caught avoice on her recorder that
simply said I warned youHonestly, if she did burn the
(07:08):
place down, she was punctual,real witch, angry spirit or just
a woman who got tired of beingunderestimated.
Either way, the chain stayedComing up.
Next we're heading west toTexas, where another woman's
story ended in fire, but herghost never left the land that
(07:28):
betrayed her.
We're heading west now into thehill country of Texas, where
fire and fear turned a womaninto a ghost and a ghost into a
legend.
This is the story of Molly Dyer,a name still whispered in and
around Hood County, especiallynear Granbury.
Now, like a lot of Southernwitch stories, this one has
(07:51):
layers Truth, legend, a littleof both.
What's clear is that Mollylived out past town in a small
wooden cabin alone.
She was a healer, a midwife and, some say, a witch.
The people came to her whenthey needed help Sick babies,
bleeding wounds, wives in laborand she helped Every time Until
(08:16):
something went wrong.
One story says a prominenttownsperson's child died after
Molly treated them.
Another says the crops failedand folks needed someone to
blame.
It's always the women who don'tbeg for approval that end up
blamed.
Whatever the reason, thewhispers turned violent.
A group of townsfolk stormedher cabin one night, dragged her
(08:39):
out, accused her of witchcraftand, according to legend, burned
her alive on the hillsidebehind her home.
Some say she cursed them withher dying breath.
Others say she didn't speak atall, just screamed and screamed
until the wind swallowed hervoice.
(08:59):
The next morning her charredbody was found sprawled across
the hilltop, ashes scattered,eyes still open.
And that hill has never been thesame.
Locals call it Molly's Hill.
Animals won't go near it, fireswon't light there, some say.
(09:19):
At night you can see hersilhouette, arms outstretched,
flames licking her skin, stillcrying out for justice.
Ghost hunters have picked uphigh EMF readings and
disembodied females sobbing.
Visitors report sudden heateven in the dead of winter and
more than one person claimsthey've seen a woman, burned and
(09:42):
blackened, just standing in thetree line waiting.
And then there's the windPeople say it howls differently
on that hill, sharp, personal,like it's, carrying her voice.
There's no grave for Molly Dyer, no marker, no apology, but the
town remembers her, whetherthey admit it or not, and the
(10:03):
land, the land, never forgot.
Sometimes the fire doesn'tcleanse, it scorches the truth
so deep into the earth you canstill hear it scream.
Next we're heading to the LowCountry, where conjure and
communion are sacred traditionsand one woman held power in the
(10:24):
roots and the bones.
Our next story brings us to theSouth Carolina Low Country, a
place thick with Spanish moss,gullah, tradition and ancestral
memory, and in the town ofBeaufort.
If you listen to the rightfolks, they'll tell you about
the Root Doctor.
Now, there wasn't just one.
(10:45):
Root Doctor is a title passeddown, not just a name, but one
woman in particular.
She left a mark so deep thesoil still won't let it go.
They say she was born sometimein the 1930s, maybe earlier, on
St Helena Island.
No birth certificate, no formaleducation, but she knew things.
(11:06):
Things about people, about pain, about power.
She practiced hoodoo not to beconfused with voodoo, by the way
.
Root work passed down throughAfrican native and black
southern traditions.
She used herbs, chants, bibleverses, bones, oils and
(11:26):
intention.
People came to her foreverything love spells,
protection, hex removals, evenbusiness success.
And listen, church folks wouldtalk trash about her on Sunday
but visit her by Monday whentheir luck turned bad.
Southern hypocrisy, immaculate,truly.
(11:47):
Now.
She never advertised, neverwrote anything down.
If she didn't like you, youdidn't get help.
Some say she kept her tools ina hollowed out Bible.
Others say she wore white andnever touched anyone without
praying over them first.
And some folks feared her, notbecause she hurt people but
(12:10):
because she could.
There's one story that gets tolda lot around Beaufort.
A man tried to stiff her, saidshe was a fraud after she cured
his daughter of an unknownillness.
Two days later he lost hisvoice, literally.
Doctors found nothing wrong.
He could whisper, grunt, butnever speak again.
(12:31):
And when someone asked herabout it she allegedly said I
didn't take his voice.
He gave it away when he calledme a liar After she passed in
the early 2000s.
Folks say the energy around hercabin never settled, lights
flicker, owls gather at nightthere's even an old iron kettle
(12:53):
out back, rusted shut, that noone's been able to move.
Some say her spirit is stillwatching, making sure no one
uses her name in vain, andothers, well, they still leave
offerings, coins, candles,crossroads, dirt.
Because in the low country youdon't play around with root work
(13:15):
and you always respect the oneswho know the earth better than
you do.
She didn't need a broom or ablack cat, just her roots, her
rituals and the spine to usethem Up.
Next we're heading back toTennessee, where the infamous
Bell Witch may not have actedalone.
You've probably heard of theBell Witch.
(13:38):
One of the most famouspoltergeist stories in American
history Takes place in Adams,tennessee, early 1800s.
But tonight we're not justtalking about the haunting.
We're talking about the womenbehind the whispers, because
maybe, just maybe, this wasn'tabout a ghost at all.
(14:04):
Maybe it was about power, andthe kind of power women weren't
supposed to have.
Let's go back.
John Bell was a wealthy farmerin Tennessee In the early 1800s.
His family began experiencingstrange occurrences Knocks on
the walls, blankets pulled offthe bed, whispers at night.
His daughter, betsy Bell, wasthe main target.
She claimed to be slapped,pinched, even stuck with pins by
(14:29):
an invisible force.
They called it the Bell Witch.
The entity supposedly spoke andget this.
It talked a lot scripture,gossip, curses.
It hated John Bell, wanted himdead, said it out loud and
eventually John Bell did die,foaming at the mouth with an
(14:49):
open vial of mysterious blackliquid nearby.
And that should have been theend of the story.
But here's where it getsinteresting.
There was a woman in town namedKate Batts.
She was strong-willed,outspoken and owned property
which you know in the 1800sbasically made her public enemy.
(15:11):
First she had a long-standingfeud with John Bell over land
and after the haunting startedthe voice reportedly called
itself Old Kate.
Now some historians and, let'sbe real, some deeply suspicious
neighbors thought Kate Batts wasbehind it all, Not by magic but
(15:32):
by manipulation.
They believed she might haveinfluenced Betsy.
Encouraged whispers in the darkplayed into a tale that
unraveled the Bell family fromthe inside out.
Others say no, kate was just ascapegoat, that the real root
was abuse inside the Bellhousehold and the witch was a
way to scream without usingwords.
(15:54):
But here's another layer.
There's evidence that Betsy'smother, lucy Bell, may have
known more than she ever said.
She was quiet, gentle, butduring the haunting.
The spirit always protected her, brought her fruit when she was
sick, sang to her and y'allspirits don't usually play
(16:15):
favorites.
Was Lucy the real voice behindit all, trying to shield her
daughter from something darker?
Was this a poltergeist or arebellion wrapped in ghost story
clothing?
We'll never know for sure.
But what we do know is this theBell Witch never targeted the
men.
After John died, it faded awaylike its work was finished.
(16:37):
Maybe it was a spirit, maybe itwas revenge, maybe it was the
only way a woman could speaktruth without being punished for
it.
And we're closing out tonightwith one last story, a haunting
from Alabama, about a midwifewho brought life into the world
until the world turned on her.
(16:58):
Down in the marshes justoutside of Monroeville, alabama,
there's an old tale folks usedto tell when the nights got too
still, about a woman known onlyas Mama Dell.
About a woman known only asMama Dell.
Now nobody knows if that washer real name or just what
people started calling her.
What they do remember is thatshe was a midwife, a healer and,
(17:22):
to some, a witch.
Mama Dell lived deep in theswamp, a single-room cabin
half-sunk into the earth, builtfrom driftwood and rusted nails.
She didn't go into town unlesssummoned, didn't take money,
didn't speak unless spoken to.
But when babies wouldn't turn,when fevers wouldn't break, when
(17:44):
the preacher's prayers fellshort, they called Mama Del and
she came.
Mama Dell, and she came.
She'd show up barefoot with aburlap bag of herbs and tools,
her silver hair wrapped in redcloth and eyes that didn't blink
when she looked at you.
And the thing is, she gotresults.
Women stopped bleeding, sickchildren walked again.
(18:05):
Some even say she touched thedead and they breathed.
But the more she healed, themore they whispered, said she
talked to trees, kept bones injars, could steal your shadow if
you crossed her.
And when the crops failed oneyear they turned on her, said.
She cursed the land, blamed herfor miscarriages, bad luck, even
(18:28):
a pastor's heart attack.
A group of men came to hercabin one night, torches in hand
.
They say she stood there silentuntil the flames reached her
porch.
Then she looked up and said Ibrought life into this world and
y'all gonna repay me with fire.
They say she vanished just likethat, gone into the mist.
(18:50):
The cabin burned but nobody wasfound no bones, no ash, just
smoke and a red cloth floatingon the water.
The next morning.
Today, the land where Mama Delllived is fenced off, but people
still leave offerings on thegate Tiny shoes, bundles of
(19:11):
rosemary, a doll wrapped incloth, and if you walk too close
to the tree line, you mighthear humming or see a woman in
red standing just beyond the fogwatching waiting.
And if you're pregnant, turnaround, because Mama Del never
forgot a child, even the oneswho never made it out.
She delivered life, theydelivered fear, and when she
(19:36):
left this world she took theswamp with her.
And that y'all wraps up thisweek's circle of stories here on
Vivid Nightmares.
We walked with the cursesinging Julia Brown in the
Louisiana swamps, stared downthe chained grave of the Witch
of Yazoo, watched fire swallowthe legacy of Molly Dyer,
(19:57):
witnessed quiet power in thehands of a low-country root
doctor, listened for the truthbehind the Bell Witch legend and
paid our respects to the ghostof Mama Del, whose hands brought
life and still carry echoes ofjustice.
These women weren't justwitches.
They were healers, caretakers,outsiders, mothers, warnings,
(20:20):
and whether or not they hadmagic, they had power, and
that's always been enough toscare people.
If you enjoyed tonight'sepisode, share it with the
person who's got crystals intheir car, a tarot deck in their
bag and ain't afraid of alittle swamp smoke.
Subscribe review.
(20:40):
Send a voice memo of your ownhaunted family tale.
You know, I'd love to hear it.
You can find me on Instagramand TikTok and Vivid Nightmares
Pod, or email your story tovividnightmarespod at gmailcom.
I'm your host, bridget Denise,and whether it's a hex, a hush
or a name carved into the wind,these women made sure they were
(21:04):
remembered.
But before you go, next weekwe're taking things roadside
abandoned gas stations, hauntedhighways, hitchhiking phantoms.
That's right, we're diving intoroadside horror in the South.
So keep your high beams on andnever pick up a stranger near
mile marker 13.
I'll see you next Friday.
(21:25):
Good night, y'all, and sweetvivid dreams.
Hey y'all, welcome back to Vivid Nightmares.
I'm your host, Bridget Denise,and tonight we're going deep
into the stories.
Southern history tried to burythe women it feared.
The healers it turned intomonsters, the conjurers it
whispered about but never trulyforgot.
Some were midwives, somepracticed root work, but never
(00:25):
truly forgot.
Some were midwives, somepracticed root work, some just
had the nerve to stand tall,smart and unbothered, in a time
when that was enough to get youbranded dangerous and when
something went wrong the cropsfailed, the baby got sick, the
storm rolled in.
These women were the first tobe blamed and the last to be
mourned.
This episode is about thesouthern witches, root workers
(00:46):
and wise women who left a legacysoaked in moss, mist and
mystery.
Some of them were feared forwhat they did.
Some were feared for what folksimagined they could do, but
either way, they made sure theirnames were never forgotten.
Grab your salt, light yourcandles and, whatever you do,
(01:06):
don't break the circle.
Let's start with a woman whosang her own prophecy and
brought a storm with her finalbreath, way down in the swampy
stretch between New Orleans andBaton Rouge, where Spanish moss
drips like whispers and the landhums with old secrets.
Strips like whispers and theland hums with old secrets.
(01:27):
There lived a woman named JuliaBrown.
Now, depending on who you ask,julia was either a healer or a
hex.
She lived in the tiny settlementof Frenier in the early 1900s,
a town surrounded by swamps,sawgrass and silence.
Julia was a root worker, awoman who understood herbs,
poultices, prayers.
(01:48):
She delivered babies, healedsnake bites, made teas that
cured coughs, and teas thatmaybe kept your man faithful.
But over time the people ofFrenier started treating her
more like a tool than a neighbor.
They came to her when theyneeded something and then they'd
turn their backs.
So Julia, being Julia, startedsinging Not church hymns, not
(02:13):
lullabies.
She'd sit on her porch, rockingback and forth and sing things
like one day I'm gonna die andtake the whole town with me,
creepy, right.
But folks didn't listen, or ifthey did, they laughed it off.
Old woman talk, swampsuperstition.
(02:33):
Until September 29, 1915, theday Julia Brown died, a
hurricane hit, and not just astorm a monster.
Winds over 100 miles per hour,waves that swallowed the land.
Whole towns, Frenia included,were wiped off the map.
Almost every resident waskilled.
(02:54):
The cemetery was destroyed.
Bodies were never recovered,and guess whose funeral they
were preparing when the stormhit hit Julia Brown's.
Rescue workers later said hercoffin was found floating in the
swamp alone, upright untouched.
I mean, if that's not power, Idon't know what is.
(03:20):
To this day, the land whereFenya once stood is ghost town
quiet.
To this day, the land whereFenya once stood is ghost town,
quiet.
Locals say you can still hearhumming in the trees, especially
near the old cypress grove.
Sometimes it's soft, sometimesit's right behind you.
Paranormal teams have picked upwhispers, emf spikes and sudden
drops in temperature around theold train tracks near Lake
(03:42):
Pontchartrain.
Some say Julie's still therewatching, not mad, not vengeful,
just reminding folks not toforget her.
Julia warned them and when sheleft she made sure they
remembered who had the realpower.
Next we're heading toMississippi, where a chained
grave still tries to hold back awoman the whole town feared,
(04:04):
even in death.
Next stop on this hex littletour Yazoo City, mississippi.
Now look, if a town chains downsomeone's grave, that's usually
a clue that something went very, very wrong and in this case
it's a whole legend built aroundone woman, one curse and a
(04:26):
whole lot of fear.
Let's rewind Back in the late1800s.
There was a woman who livedalone in the swamps just outside
of Yazoo.
No name, no church records,just stories.
Locals said she was strange,didn't talk to anyone, never
came to town unless it was forsupplies, and even then she'd
(04:49):
vanish before sundown.
And of course, because she wasa woman alone and confident,
folks started calling her awitch Shocking I know A woman
who minds her business.
Definitely gotta besupernatural.
Anyway, one day two boys gomissing.
(05:10):
A search party goes out intothe swamp and they say they find
the witch's shack Inside theboys' bodies.
Now listen, there's no proofthis ever happened, it's pure
legend.
But the story goes that thetownspeople chased her through
the swamp and just before theycaught her she cursed them With
(05:32):
her last breath.
She screamed in 20 years I willreturn and burn this town to
the ground.
They caught her.
They caught her, hanged her,buried her in Glenwood Cemetery
in an unmarked grave, but justin case, they chained it shut,
literally wrapped heavy ironchains around the tomb.
(05:56):
And then, 20 years later 1904, amassive fire broke out in Yazoo
City.
The flames tore through 200homes and almost every business
downtown.
The courthouse burned, the bankcollapsed, even the jail went
up in smoke.
No known cause, no lightning,no faulty wiring, just fire and
(06:25):
chaos.
Townsfolk rushed to thecemetery the next morning.
They found the chains aroundthe witch's grave snapped,
twisted metal stone cracked openand y'all they replaced the
chains.
To this day, glenwood Cemeterykeeps the witch's grave locked
down Fresh chains.
Glenwood Cemetery keeps thewitch's grave locked down, fresh
chains bolted tight.
(06:46):
The city even leans into thelegend.
Tour guides will walk youstraight to it, but folks who've
lingered too long Say they feelwatched.
Phones die, voices whisper andone woman a paranormal
investigator said she caught avoice on her recorder that
simply said I warned youHonestly, if she did burn the
(07:08):
place down, she was punctual,real witch, angry spirit or just
a woman who got tired of beingunderestimated.
Either way, the chain stayedComing up.
Next we're heading west toTexas, where another woman's
story ended in fire, but herghost never left the land that
(07:28):
betrayed her.
We're heading west now into thehill country of Texas, where
fire and fear turned a womaninto a ghost and a ghost into a
legend.
This is the story of Molly Dyer,a name still whispered in and
around Hood County, especiallynear Granbury.
Now, like a lot of Southernwitch stories, this one has
(07:51):
layers Truth, legend, a littleof both.
What's clear is that Mollylived out past town in a small
wooden cabin alone.
She was a healer, a midwife and, some say, a witch.
The people came to her whenthey needed help Sick babies,
bleeding wounds, wives in laborand she helped Every time Until
(08:16):
something went wrong.
One story says a prominenttownsperson's child died after
Molly treated them.
Another says the crops failedand folks needed someone to
blame.
It's always the women who don'tbeg for approval that end up
blamed.
Whatever the reason, thewhispers turned violent.
A group of townsfolk stormedher cabin one night, dragged her
(08:39):
out, accused her of witchcraftand, according to legend, burned
her alive on the hillsidebehind her home.
Some say she cursed them withher dying breath.
Others say she didn't speak atall, just screamed and screamed
until the wind swallowed hervoice.
(08:59):
The next morning her charredbody was found sprawled across
the hilltop, ashes scattered,eyes still open.
And that hill has never been thesame.
Locals call it Molly's Hill.
Animals won't go near it, fireswon't light there, some say.
(09:19):
At night you can see hersilhouette, arms outstretched,
flames licking her skin, stillcrying out for justice.
Ghost hunters have picked uphigh EMF readings and
disembodied females sobbing.
Visitors report sudden heateven in the dead of winter and
more than one person claimsthey've seen a woman, burned and
(09:42):
blackened, just standing in thetree line waiting.
And then there's the windPeople say it howls differently
on that hill, sharp, personal,like it's, carrying her voice.
There's no grave for Molly Dyer, no marker, no apology, but the
town remembers her, whetherthey admit it or not, and the
(10:03):
land, the land, never forgot.
Sometimes the fire doesn'tcleanse, it scorches the truth
so deep into the earth you canstill hear it scream.
Next we're heading to the LowCountry, where conjure and
communion are sacred traditionsand one woman held power in the
(10:24):
roots and the bones.
Our next story brings us to theSouth Carolina Low Country, a
place thick with Spanish moss,gullah, tradition and ancestral
memory, and in the town ofBeaufort.
If you listen to the rightfolks, they'll tell you about
the Root Doctor.
Now, there wasn't just one.
(10:45):
Root Doctor is a title passeddown, not just a name, but one
woman in particular.
She left a mark so deep thesoil still won't let it go.
They say she was born sometimein the 1930s, maybe earlier, on
St Helena Island.
No birth certificate, no formaleducation, but she knew things.
(11:06):
Things about people, about pain, about power.
She practiced hoodoo not to beconfused with voodoo, by the way
.
Root work passed down throughAfrican native and black
southern traditions.
She used herbs, chants, bibleverses, bones, oils and
(11:26):
intention.
People came to her foreverything love spells,
protection, hex removals, evenbusiness success.
And listen, church folks wouldtalk trash about her on Sunday
but visit her by Monday whentheir luck turned bad.
Southern hypocrisy, immaculate,truly.
(11:47):
Now.
She never advertised, neverwrote anything down.
If she didn't like you, youdidn't get help.
Some say she kept her tools ina hollowed out Bible.
Others say she wore white andnever touched anyone without
praying over them first.
And some folks feared her, notbecause she hurt people but
(12:10):
because she could.
There's one story that gets tolda lot around Beaufort.
A man tried to stiff her, saidshe was a fraud after she cured
his daughter of an unknownillness.
Two days later he lost hisvoice, literally.
Doctors found nothing wrong.
He could whisper, grunt, butnever speak again.
(12:31):
And when someone asked herabout it she allegedly said I
didn't take his voice.
He gave it away when he calledme a liar After she passed in
the early 2000s.
Folks say the energy around hercabin never settled, lights
flicker, owls gather at nightthere's even an old iron kettle
(12:53):
out back, rusted shut, that noone's been able to move.
Some say her spirit is stillwatching, making sure no one
uses her name in vain, andothers, well, they still leave
offerings, coins, candles,crossroads, dirt.
Because in the low country youdon't play around with root work
(13:15):
and you always respect the oneswho know the earth better than
you do.
She didn't need a broom or ablack cat, just her roots, her
rituals and the spine to usethem Up.
Next we're heading back toTennessee, where the infamous
Bell Witch may not have actedalone.
You've probably heard of theBell Witch.
(13:38):
One of the most famouspoltergeist stories in American
history Takes place in Adams,tennessee, early 1800s.
But tonight we're not justtalking about the haunting.
We're talking about the womenbehind the whispers, because
maybe, just maybe, this wasn'tabout a ghost at all.
(14:04):
Maybe it was about power, andthe kind of power women weren't
supposed to have.
Let's go back.
John Bell was a wealthy farmerin Tennessee In the early 1800s.
His family began experiencingstrange occurrences Knocks on
the walls, blankets pulled offthe bed, whispers at night.
His daughter, betsy Bell, wasthe main target.
She claimed to be slapped,pinched, even stuck with pins by
(14:29):
an invisible force.
They called it the Bell Witch.
The entity supposedly spoke andget this.
It talked a lot scripture,gossip, curses.
It hated John Bell, wanted himdead, said it out loud and
eventually John Bell did die,foaming at the mouth with an
(14:49):
open vial of mysterious blackliquid nearby.
And that should have been theend of the story.
But here's where it getsinteresting.
There was a woman in town namedKate Batts.
She was strong-willed,outspoken and owned property
which you know in the 1800sbasically made her public enemy.
(15:11):
First she had a long-standingfeud with John Bell over land
and after the haunting startedthe voice reportedly called
itself Old Kate.
Now some historians and, let'sbe real, some deeply suspicious
neighbors thought Kate Batts wasbehind it all, Not by magic but
(15:32):
by manipulation.
They believed she might haveinfluenced Betsy.
Encouraged whispers in the darkplayed into a tale that
unraveled the Bell family fromthe inside out.
Others say no, kate was just ascapegoat, that the real root
was abuse inside the Bellhousehold and the witch was a
way to scream without usingwords.
(15:54):
But here's another layer.
There's evidence that Betsy'smother, lucy Bell, may have
known more than she ever said.
She was quiet, gentle, butduring the haunting.
The spirit always protected her, brought her fruit when she was
sick, sang to her and y'allspirits don't usually play
(16:15):
favorites.
Was Lucy the real voice behindit all, trying to shield her
daughter from something darker?
Was this a poltergeist or arebellion wrapped in ghost story
clothing?
We'll never know for sure.
But what we do know is this theBell Witch never targeted the
men.
After John died, it faded awaylike its work was finished.
(16:37):
Maybe it was a spirit, maybe itwas revenge, maybe it was the
only way a woman could speaktruth without being punished for
it.
And we're closing out tonightwith one last story, a haunting
from Alabama, about a midwifewho brought life into the world
until the world turned on her.
(16:58):
Down in the marshes justoutside of Monroeville, alabama,
there's an old tale folks usedto tell when the nights got too
still, about a woman known onlyas Mama Dell.
About a woman known only asMama Dell.
Now nobody knows if that washer real name or just what
people started calling her.
What they do remember is thatshe was a midwife, a healer and,
(17:22):
to some, a witch.
Mama Dell lived deep in theswamp, a single-room cabin
half-sunk into the earth, builtfrom driftwood and rusted nails.
She didn't go into town unlesssummoned, didn't take money,
didn't speak unless spoken to.
But when babies wouldn't turn,when fevers wouldn't break, when
(17:44):
the preacher's prayers fellshort, they called Mama Del and
she came.
Mama Dell, and she came.
She'd show up barefoot with aburlap bag of herbs and tools,
her silver hair wrapped in redcloth and eyes that didn't blink
when she looked at you.
And the thing is, she gotresults.
Women stopped bleeding, sickchildren walked again.
(18:05):
Some even say she touched thedead and they breathed.
But the more she healed, themore they whispered, said she
talked to trees, kept bones injars, could steal your shadow if
you crossed her.
And when the crops failed oneyear they turned on her, said.
She cursed the land, blamed herfor miscarriages, bad luck, even
(18:28):
a pastor's heart attack.
A group of men came to hercabin one night, torches in hand
.
They say she stood there silentuntil the flames reached her
porch.
Then she looked up and said Ibrought life into this world and
y'all gonna repay me with fire.
They say she vanished just likethat, gone into the mist.
(18:50):
The cabin burned but nobody wasfound no bones, no ash, just
smoke and a red cloth floatingon the water.
The next morning.
Today, the land where Mama Delllived is fenced off, but people
still leave offerings on thegate Tiny shoes, bundles of
(19:11):
rosemary, a doll wrapped incloth, and if you walk too close
to the tree line, you mighthear humming or see a woman in
red standing just beyond the fogwatching waiting.
And if you're pregnant, turnaround, because Mama Del never
forgot a child, even the oneswho never made it out.
She delivered life, theydelivered fear, and when she
(19:36):
left this world she took theswamp with her.
And that y'all wraps up thisweek's circle of stories here on
Vivid Nightmares.
We walked with the cursesinging Julia Brown in the
Louisiana swamps, stared downthe chained grave of the Witch
of Yazoo, watched fire swallowthe legacy of Molly Dyer,
(19:57):
witnessed quiet power in thehands of a low-country root
doctor, listened for the truthbehind the Bell Witch legend and
paid our respects to the ghostof Mama Del, whose hands brought
life and still carry echoes ofjustice.
These women weren't justwitches.
They were healers, caretakers,outsiders, mothers, warnings,
(20:20):
and whether or not they hadmagic, they had power, and
that's always been enough toscare people.
If you enjoyed tonight'sepisode, share it with the
person who's got crystals intheir car, a tarot deck in their
bag and ain't afraid of alittle swamp smoke.
Subscribe review.
(20:40):
Send a voice memo of your ownhaunted family tale.
You know, I'd love to hear it.
You can find me on Instagramand TikTok and Vivid Nightmares
Pod, or email your story tovividnightmarespod at gmailcom.
I'm your host, bridget Denise,and whether it's a hex, a hush
or a name carved into the wind,these women made sure they were
(21:04):
remembered.
But before you go, next weekwe're taking things roadside
abandoned gas stations, hauntedhighways, hitchhiking phantoms.
That's right, we're diving intoroadside horror in the South.
So keep your high beams on andnever pick up a stranger near
mile marker 13.
I'll see you next Friday.
(21:25):
Good night, y'all, and sweetvivid dreams.
Host
Bridgett Denise
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