You're in the place where mysteries and the missing meet, where conspiracies lurk around
every corner. Welcome to the deep dark Truth. Welcome back to the deep
dark Truth, where the true crime is serious. But absolutely no other episode
is I'm mo, I'm Chip, and I'm Mikey. Today We're going to
be kicking off spooky season with the Tail of the Bell Witch. Not to
be confused with who put Belle in the Witch elm like I did, because
why would you ever confuse those two things. The Bell Witch is one of
the US's most historical hauntings, so much so that there's even allegedly the involvement
of a former US president, but more on that leader. It's also unique
because, unlike more modern hauntings and haunted places, the Belle family didn't want
anyone in their community to know what was happening to them at the time.
In fact, it wasn't until after most of the family had died that Martin
Ingram, a friend of the youngest child of the Belle family, published what
is called an authenticated History of the Bellwitch, the first complete retelling of the
Belle family struggles. This was due to Martin Ingram making an agreement with the
family members to wait until after their deaths to publish. I also really quickly
want to give a special shout out to Pat fitz Hugh, who operates bellwitch
dot org. He's been researching the Belle family for decades and has managed to
source everything from genealogical data to first person writings from the time to end.
Depth analysis is on the lives lived of all of the Bell children and everyone
else involved, all the way up until their deaths. It is a sight
to behold, and you can find that link in the show notes with all
of our other sources. Let's get to it, shall we. In eighteen
oh five, what is currently named Adams, Tennessee was at the time called
Red River, Tennessee, and a man by the name of John Bell and
his family had just newly settled there after having moved to the Red River Valley
from North Carolina. By the time all is said and done, John has
acquired over three hundred acres of land and a rather large family home for him,
his wife, Lucy, and their children. John was gaining a reputation
in the community for his farming and land cultivation, as well as for being
a church elder. At the Red River Baptist Church. John and his wife
Lucy eventually had three more children while living on their Tennessee homestead, bringing their
children to eat in total and bringing us to our first side note. Interestingly
enough, Wikipedia states the couple is having six children. However, Belwitch dot
Org cites the genealogical information of eight children. I also confirm this through another
genealogical site that is in the show notes, so don't at me their children.
That the couple's children were as follows Jesse, who was twenty seven at
the time, born in seventeen ninety, John Junior born in seventeen ninety three,
who was twenty four, Drewy who was born in seventeen ninety six and
is twenty one. Esther was born in eighteen hundred. She is seventeen at
the time of this. Starting Zadoc who was born in eighteen o three,
it is fourteen, Betsy who was born in eighteen oh six and as eleven,
Richard who was born in eighteen eleven and a six, Joel who was
born in eighteen thirteen and as four, as well as Benjamin, who appears
to have died in childbirth before reaching his first birthday, as there is very
little, if anything at all to verify his birth or death records. As
people who are not having children in hospitals at the time, miscarriages, babies
that didn't reach their first year, and stillborn birth were oftentimes not documented.
Who's the other one that Wikipedia? How do they just leave off? So
Zadoc I believe is not listed? And I believe neither as Benjamin. How
dare they? Because you love Zadoc Gun you I already have a favorite character,
and they left out my favorite one event I knew you would like him.
So overall, life for the Bells was good, that is until eighteen
seventeen. On an otherwise normal day, John Bell was inspecting his crops when
he noticed a strange animal in his field. But this was no ordinary animal.
This creature, in particular, was a terrifying sight to behold. It
had the body of a dog, but its head was that of a rabbit.
John shout at the animal several times, and while he did not strike
it, he did manage to scare it off. While in the moment,
John didn't dwell on this incident, he would later look back on this event
as the first of a number of strange occurrences that would come to be known
as the Haunting of the Bell Witch. That's because or the same night would
be the very first night of strange sounds in the family's home, including what
sounded like someone knocking on the sides of their home, whispers, etc.
We'll get a little bit more into detail in a minute, but first,
what are you guys thinking right now? Because when I first heard the story
of the Bellwitch, I was in junior high. I've did papers on it
in junior high, I did one in high school, I did one in
college. The bell Witch is kind of my jam. But now as an
adult, my immediate thought is that this sounds similar to a skinwalker. We'll
be talking more about skinwalkers in an upcoming episode. The very short definition for
the purposes of this is that skinwalkers into Nay or Navajo culture, they are
shamans that have sort of turned bad, and they have this ability to disguise
themselves or turn into animals that oftentimes don't look very natural currance, So they
will be sort of mismatch of different animals, and it's a very bad omen
to have such a thing on your farm, does it? It sounds like
a mutt dog like a German shepherd or a great day and cross with a
chuahua, just as a chuahua head. And that's why he thinks it's a
rabbit. Is that what you're saying? Yeah, that's what I'm assuming is
that it was like a wild dog or a wild wolf that was just crossbred
with another domestic dog or something and just came up with this weird thing with
bigger ears that he presumably seen from one hundred feet away and thought it was
a rabbit's head when it was really just some wild have you seen fast ears?
I don't know anything about Belwich at all, so this is all completely
new to me. Well, that's exactly what we want, so it's As
time went on, the noises only became louder and more frequent, but despite
John patrolling around the home, he did not find any reasonable explanation for the
noises. Around this time, the Bell children started making varying complaints and waking
up in terror. These complaints range from things written off easily by childhood imaginations,
such as the sounds of rats gnawing at the bedposts also could be rats
chewing at their bed posts also could be rats chewing at the bedposts, to
having their blankets pulled off of them in the dead of the night. But
soon after the family began hearing whispers, which is just an absolute, absolute
note for me, no, thank you do not want whispers. I'd rather
have something yell at me. Eventually, their daughter Betsy began having experiences of
a more violent nature within invisible assailant. In fact, over the course of
the next several years, from eighteen seventeen to eighteen twenty one, John seemed
to become the favored target of the entity, though by no means the only
target. Betsy was frequently targeted as well. Is she the oldest daughter.
So Betsy is the youngest daughter, but not the youngest child, but at
this time she is around eleven ash years old. The kid who died,
did he already exist and die at this point, Yes, So Benjamin died
before the family had moved to Tennessee from North Carolina. It wasn't long before
Betsy started actually complaining of an entity slapping her and pulling her hair, and
she would often have physical welts and bruises on her after these encounters. That
does kind of bring us to this question of why is this entity so fixated
on John and also Betsy, And that's where we come to the possible identity
of the Bell Witch. Years before John Mary Lucy, he had a previous
engagement to a woman by the name of Kate Bats. Their engagement was broken
off. Allegedly, Kate became further and further embittered. She allegedly went so
far as to try and break up the couple's marriage, and when the happenings
increased, at some point, fingers were pointed in Kate's direction for cursing John
and by proximity, his family. That's just parents being talking about Kate and
absorbing it. Very possible. Though Kate did later marry. Other versions of
the tales say that her husband, Frederick, was also helping her to make
the Bell's lives very unpleasant. Also, just while we're here, I choose
to believe that Kate's husband, Frederick, is the X of the Wife and
so that's why they got together to team up and torture these two. That
sounds like a theory you would have, yes, So, whether the happenings
were in any way linked to Kate or not, the entity became known by
the name the Bell Witch, a moniker that was allegedly dubbed by a former
US president. More on that in a minute, but from here on I
will likely refer to the entity slash phantom slash ghost as the Bellwitch because frankly,
there are not enough spooky synonyms and I am very tired cool Sorry,
just to interject, what the children was it all? Pretty much all of
the children had their own encounters, Like it wasn't just the girls, right,
so all of the children had various encounters. We are going to be
jumping forward in time that he wants you to know that. Most of the
children's encounters are documented on Bellwitch dot org, which I recommend everyone check out.
I would love to go through all of them, but we would be
here for a very long time. I believe the youngest on, Joel,
is the only one that did not have an encounter of some sort. And
at this point, some of the children are actually in their twenties, so
whether or not they are in or out of the house is or are just
visiting at certain times is kind of hard to decipher. Over the next several
years, the entity only appeared to become stronger with the passage of time.
What was once whispers and knockings became the loud singing of hymns and quotings of
scriptures from a female voice. The voice even seemed to be intelligent and follow
conversations happening around it, and on some occasions was able to quote sermons that
were given not on the family's property, but at a church a number of
miles away, leaving the implication that the spirit was following the family or had
a supernatural knowledge of other places. The voice seemed to despise John specifically and
wanted him dead, going so far as to threaten him. Betsy was likewise
only receiving further terror from the entity Betsy Belle had recently. Betsy Belle had
recently become engaged to a man by the name of Joshua Gardner, which had
only increased the spirit's ire. So this started when she was eleven, so
now she's like thirteen, which was not uncommon. In fact, Lucy,
her mother, became engaged to John when she was around twelve, and he
was like a disgusting thirty two years old. It's oh, so we do
want John dead, is what I'm hearing. I mean, you aren't wrong,
but it was very common at this time for twelve thirteen year olds to
become engaged to secure that family connection, even if they weren't immediately married off.
And to this point, the Bellwitch starts warning Betsy to end this engagement
and starts promising the ruin of her line should she not end it. An
alleged quote by the entity quote you will not have happiness which have a gardner
and future generations. We'll see it true. But hold onto that thought before
we further discussed the happenings at the Bell family farm, I do want to
discuss some other witnesses to these happenings that were not a part of the Bell
We are going to start with the Johnston's. So things were escal leading quickly,
and john was at a loss for how to protect his family. As
a church elder, it appears that he may have been hesitant to tell others
what was happening, either from embarrassment or from fear that his family would be
ostracized by the church, or even that the family themselves would be blamed for
the appearingly evil happenings at the Belle family farm, which chiles and stuff.
Yeah, but he did eventually come to confide in one James Johnston, his
closest friend and neighbor. The Johnstons and the Belle families were close, and
in John's time of need, James and his wife came to stay at the
Belle family farm. Whether to confirm for themselves at the happenings or to give
moral support, we can't be sure. It's said that in the dead of
the night, the Johnstons were assaulted by the entity, first having their covers
torn from them, and again when James was slapped. James then allegedly shouted,
quote, in the name of the Lord, who are you and what
do you want? While he received no answer, James express James express concern.
James express concerned to the Bells that the entity was demonic. James and
John were both heavily religious, and James express belief that this sort of evil
seeping into the foundations of the Bell farm was so harmful as to be biblical
in nature. The next witness from outside the family that is worthy of discussion
is none other than seventh President of the United States, Andrew Jackson. And
you may be wondering how the hell Andrew Jackson has entered the picture. And
I'm going to tell you. The Bell Boys, John, Jesse, and
Drury had all served at the Battle of New Orleans under then General Andrew Jackson.
When Andrew Jackson heard about the happenings at the Bell farm, he decided
to pay a visit, bringing with him a company of several men, one
of whom identify themselves to be a witch hunter slash witch tamer and claimed that
the silver bullet in his chamber could kill any witch. I was just going
to say, my boyfriend's a witch tamer. That's a term that should have
stuck around the witch tamer. But as soon as they set foot on the
property, things began to go awry. The wagon was instantly stuck in the
mud of the property, and, most likely jokingly, the General shouted by
the Eternal Boys that must be the Belle Witch, only to be met with
a voice telling them that they would be allowed to proceed, but that she
would see them later. The men set up camp on the property and for
a number of hours all seemed well. That is until the man with the
silver bullet started to complain of being pricked by pins and needles and eventually physically
struck a multitude of times. The voice of the Witch shouted yet again,
marking the man as a fraud and swearing she would root out other frauds in
the party as well. Jackson wanted to stay at the farm to hear more
of this potential fraud in his company, even though his men wanted to leave.
However, we don't know if any other fraud was ever revealed to be
a part of the party, as the next morning, General Jackson had left
the property. The gossip mongers in Springfields, where he was sighted the next
morning quoted him as saying, quote, I would rather fight the British at
New Orleans than fight the Bell Witch. Now there's no proper evidence that Andrew
Jackson said this very specific thing, but we do know from his other writings
that he did own property in the Red River Valley and serve with the Bellboys,
And there is some type of diary or ledger that jests that he was
going to meet with somebody named John around this time. So, grains of
Salts, let's go back to the happenings at the Bellhouse. Fast forward to
the autumn of eighteen twenty. John's been getting increasingly ill from a mysterious illness.
At least one of the conditions he's suffering from we modernly understand as Bell's
palsy, which is ironic as his name is John Bell. He had difficulty
swallowing and facial twitching, and Bell's palsy wouldn't be named until years later for
the doctor who discovered it, who was unrelated to John Bell. As his
health worsened, he was given no respite as the reign of terror continued.
The unknown entity whom taunted him and referred to him as old Jack Bell,
allegedly removed his shoes when he tried to walk and slapped him on multiple occasions.
John had also begun suffering seizures. The timing of his mysterious illness and
the seizures obviously only strengthened the eventual tale of the Bell Witch, especially for
the Bell family who was living there, and of course the Johnstons who actually
knew what was happening. By Christmas of that same year, just a short
time later, John Bell had perished in his home, whereupon John Junior found
a vial of unknown dark liquid. John Junior then gave two drops to the
cat instead of testing it on himself, which was fortunate for him, as
the cat reportedly jumped into the air and died before he landed. The entity
then exclaimed, quote, I gave old Jack a big dose of that last
night, which fixed him. When John Junior threw the remainder of the violin
to the family's hearth, it exploded in a blue flame that made its way
up the chimney. Shortly after John's death, Betsey broke off her engagement with
Joshua for fear that he would go the way of her father, and once
she had, the entity promised to leap the family alone, but also warned
that it would return in seven years. It's interesting to note that, if
Kate Bats was indeed the Bell Witch, that this entire series of events,
for the most part, started and ended with a broken engagement. So seven
years later, during what is called the eighteenth twenty resurgence, the entity seemed
to have changed a little. Most of its interactions seemed to have focused on
John Junior, but but this time it didn't seem to be as malevolent.
We're listening to the story of the domestication of a witch, correct, and
it seems like John Junior's conversations with the entity also were very different. Instead,
John was speaking with the entity on religion, philosophy, the rise and
fall of civilizations, the predictions of a civil war which would happen years later.
And so this is a weird one. It's very strange. It's very
different than the previous seven years bell Witch almost like maybe it's not the same
bell Witch. I don't know, just thrown it out there. After just
a few short weeks, the bell Witch went on her way and promised to
revisit John's descendants in one hundred and seven years, which would take us to
nineteen thirty five. In nineteen thirty five, John's closest living descendant, it's
his great grandson, doctor Charles Bailey Bell, who is a neurologist. To
our knowledge, the Bellwitch never appeared to doctor Bailey Bell, but he did
end up writing a book about the subject, and that's partially because he was
raised with this belief that at some point he would be visited by the bell
Witch. That's quite a family legend to deal with. Yeah, it's very
much like the prophecy, but evil. Yeah, could you imagine? I
hate it. There's also all these side rabbit holes, like the bell Witch
Cave, which is on the Bell family farm property. It's actually a historical
landmark. There's various rumors that either the witch lived there, or if Kate
Batts was in fact the Bellwitch, that after she died, her spirit went
there, or they were just working out of this cave, this secretive place
on the property, to be able to hide in there and attempt to make
the family think that there was a ghost, or John in particular, think
that there was a ghost, that there was more practical things at play,
like real poison or other things that were causing this madness that were very intentional.
Overall, the legend of the Bellwitch is over two hundred years old,
and when the book was eventually published by Martin Igram, a firsthand account by
Richard Bell was included. The foreword was titled Our Family Trouble, The Story
of the Bellwitch of Tennessee. So Richard in particular would have been between the
ages of six and twelve during this time, so some of it is a
core memory probably and some of it was likely influenced by the family. And
interestingly, almost all the siblings lived really long lives, which is part of
why the book wasn't published until their desk, because they didn't want people to
know about this they didn't want to deal with the potential ridicule, and they
kind of viewed it as a stain on the family legacy, like a skeleton
in the closet. I mean, I fully support that have it published when
you're dead, but don't deal with them one you're alive. That is someone
else's problem, unless you're trying to create this entire thing as a family to
make it seem that way. So you could have a three hundred year old
legend. But here's the thing, who thinks they're going to have a two
hundred year old legend. They aren't trying to run out the houses B and
B or do ghost tours or profit off it like modernly how we would see
something. And it makes me think at the very least that the family really
did believe this, because they could have waited until mom was dead, so
they didn't like shame her and just tell everybody about how the bell Witch killed
their dad and get famous have notoriety in that way, like Bellwitch killed dad.
The goal was though, to torture their descendant in one hundred and thirty
odd years. Seriously, though, can you imagine that being your family legacy
and you're just waiting for a ghost to show up over your shoulder. I
think at some point I would just be like, let's not tell this story
because I don't want to freak them out, don't prepare them at all,
live their lives normally, because they're constantly like, let's not prepare them.
Let's just let the Bellwich show up and we'll see what happens. We'll see
if things get spicy. Also, it would not have worked because Martin Ingram
published in eighteen ninety four, I believe, authenticated history of the Bellwich,
So that's not going to work. He would have found out eventually anyway through
other means, probably anyway, they who were quite long lived. They were,
and actually Martin was friends with Joel, and through Joel and hearing different
stories that Joel had about the family, he ended up talking to the other
family members and that led to the creation of the book. The other thing
that I find kind of interesting is that he was interested enough, is that
he was interested enough in the story to write a book about it and interview
the family members, but then agreed to sit on all of that information until
most people in the family had passed. And so that is just so interesting
and like loyal as hell to me, just like trying really hard not to
die in some freak accident or of scarlet fever or whatever else is going on
during this time. Yeah, that would sting on your sick on your deathbed.
You're like, get him here, I need to kill him. Did
the descendant ever say that things happened to him or No, he did not,
But he did write a book and kind of it seemed like talked about
what it was like growing up with the legend of the bell Witch and this
legacy and what that was like in the expectations that the bell Witch would be
back potentially for him, and I just find it so interesting. I would
love to know what that is like, because that is a weirdly heavy burden.
I'll tell you what it's like, not being able to sleep at fucking
night. That's That's exactly what it is. It's just hardcore insomnia and paranoia,
That's what it is. I mean, probably honestly. Also, this
man went to medical school, and I'm pretty sure during this period of time
you had to source your own bodies for like autopsies and to practice on.
So like there were other ghosts coming for him, like the ghosts of little
old ladies who he had dug up to perform autopsies on most likely are coming
for his life. He didn't need to worry about the belt Witch new theory
that goes it did visit him and was killing people for him, and he
kept it secret because he needed bodies like, Hey, she's kind of a
bitch down the street, and I bet her organs are interesting. I bet
her organs are interesting. You think that's a thing that even doctors during this
time period we're saying, I bet her organs are interesting. It's nineteen thirty
five and I'm talking to me. I thought that, Yeah, I thought
they said interesting after like every other sentence back in that time. So we're
going with a heartbroken lover couple that tortured this family slash demon. But that's
not the vibe that I got for once just built right in. It was
built righted. But also there's something that isn't brought up a lot. It's
not explicitly stated. They there's a lot of the you know, the broken
engagement rumors, but there's also rumors of a broken affair. And the thing
I find interesting about that is during this time, if she would have been
having an affair with him. And let's say she's even close to the age
that Lucy was when they became engaged. So let's say she's a teenager.
For my sanity, she's not twelve. That if they would have had an
affair and somebody found out, it would have ruined her, like absolutely ruined
her prospects for marriage. And that is more of a motive to me.
I feel like that the broken engagement, although people don't talk about how full
circle the whole broken engagement is like if it starts and ends with it.
And I love continuity, love it, love to see it, but just
very interesting little point. That's something. Here's what I think. I think
that he was not mentally saying. I think that he tortured his family.
I think maybe not even knowing he was doing so. I think this guy
was office rocker. I don't know if we need the villain as they should
have mental illness to just have him be abuser, Yes, but I also
understand what he's saying. Basically, to go that far, there had to
be like other things at play, such as mental illness, because I don't
think anyone tortures their family in like the waitch is haunting us, and it
put a curse on the family and is gonna kill me. And also I
think that he really believed it, So I do understand what he's saying.
But also, yes, you definitely have a point that mental illness is vilified.
Also, the first thing that happened Jackson was just his wagon got caught
in the mud, so like not. But to be very clear, it
seems like Jackson said this must be the bell witch, ha ha ha,
in relation to the wagon, like it was a big joke. But then
but then, oh, you think all I can do is sink your wagon
in the mud? Just you wait, do you think it could have been
Lucy Lucy as the mother? I mean, it could have been Lucy,
It could have been anyone. Yeah, I mean, aspects of it feel
very like Missus Dolloway, like I don't know, somebody's in the attic.
It feels like there's more to this. Yeah, it's it's It sounds like
there's somebody living in the house, somebody who was in on it, somebody
was doing something, somebody was purposely torturing these people. But I am like,
I don't even know. Gut instinct is telling me it was it was
one of them too, one of the parents. I don't know what it
is, but that was just my feeling that I got from the entire story
that I knew nothing about going into impelling. Wife poisons her husband. Wife
starts drugging the family, They start losing their minds, they start going back
crazy. She's not happy, she's pissed that she got married at twelve years
old to a sack of old harry balls, valid, valid, Valid.
It just spirals down from there. That's why she named kils. That is
a very compelling theory, though it really is women could be abusers to the
children too. Let's also put it this way. What if he was an
evil man and was pulling the covers off his daughters and bruising them and abusing
them, and she was like the one who poisoned him because she finally figured
it all out like and didn't want to bring that type of that's worse to
sparage to bring to the family name than anything that he was a religious man
in abusing his children. And I think you're living in the wrong century as
far as that reputation is concerned. But don't you think in that case,
if they were being abused that they wouldn't say anybody ripped the covers off of
them, but or talk about it at all, if like it's a secret
between them and their dad, or like their dads like, don't tell anyone.
I can't imagine that they'd be like, hey, an invisible like ghosts
pulled my covers off. Yeah, but it could have been not direct abuse,
like it could have been done at nighttime where he was just fucking with
them. I'm not sure how you can hit someone hard enough that they bruise
but they don't wake up. But also, kids absolutely need to make up
an excuse when someone's like, what happened to your arm? Like it was
a ghost. That's very valid, and I won't say that it couldn't be,
but I will say that all of the information is presented as if the
kids are waking up in the middle of the night screaming or their parents versus
their mother confronting them like, hey, what's that bruise on her arm?
For? If that makes sense. So it's very valid. And also,
like you know, history, the story that we hear isn't necessarily how it
happened in any way. It's what we hear from John from Martin Ingram after
he interviews family members, etc. But then why if they didn't want anyone
to know, and they still think it's a ghost as an adult, why
would they then tell Martin Ingram if they're so ashamed of this, like ghost
story family legacy feels like they would know that they were abused and that's what
really what happened, Like why tell this story at all at that point?
I don't know. Well, that's my story on the legend of the Bell
which. If you have any theories or any spooky stories from your personal experience
to share with us, please send them to the tipline at three one three
three five three four one one or text them to the Deep Dark Truth podcast
at gmail dot com. Until next time, We'll see you soon. I'm
Mo, I'm Chip, and I'm a pell witch. You just listened to
the Deep Dark Truth podcast. See you next time, and remember your local
cryptids want to meet you.