You're listening to the Paranormal UK Radio Network and this is Seventh Sanctum. This
is Carry Anne and you're listening to Seventh Sanctum on the Paranormal UK Radio Network.
Thank you for joining me this evening. Following on from my previous podcast,
I have looked and explored the stories of witchcraft and applied them to true
crime cases of which that can be observed in newspapers and media outlets, and
you can go back and see these things for yourself, and a lot of
them are mysteries. Some of them are unsold, but a lot of them
kind of talk about what's happening in those areas at that time to perpetuate the
fear of witchcraft and how that becomes entwined in what essentially is a terrible,
terrible, terrible thing that's taken place, steeped in superstition. So I'm not
steering too far off of that topic when I talk about this one. However,
we're no longer in the UK, I mean theatrically theoretically should I say
we are going where A lot of the cases that are spoken about in previous
podcasts have been within the UK. The reason for that is because I find
that there is so much history and so much lots of things that have gone
on within the UK, but we often talk about things that go on in
America, and you know, when we talk about infamous hauntings and the people
that are involved, they tend to be heavily linked to America. And as
much as I've ever said that, I don't I'm coming away from that or
I've steered away from that focus on those stories and things that have gone on
in the UK. This particular story is in America. I have been on
and off fascinated with it over the years, and it's the story of the
Bell which now my interest is not just the haunting that is alleged to be
there now, but what happened, Where did it happen, what was a
build up to it, How was this able to take place? These are
the kind of questions that I asked when I talk about witchcraft linked to hauntings,
and yeah, politicoise activity and paranormal research. I like to look at
the environmental factors and that the environment that's happening in the context of that community,
in the context of that home, within the context of that person,
rather than the context of the haunting, if that makes sense. So that's
where we're at. We're going to look at what happened and where it happened,
and how it happened and who was involved. But one of the main
things, or the main kind of titles I don't know that I've found linked
to the Bell, which is often that it's called Americans Greatest ghost story.
And I think that is because and I can't say for definite, but it
is alleged that it is the first known haunting that has been linked directly to
a homicide or murder. We since then, we've seen, you know,
for example, Charles Wharton's case, when we've done the ghost on the Mystery
of Hagleywood's again you know, talking about witchcraft and stuff, but the direct
linked to murder to a ghost. But then I'll ask I challenged this because
one in one essence, they say that this is the act of witchcraft,
so therefore it would be something that's connected to witchcraft, and it is linked
to witchcraft. In fact, there is a two characters in particular that I've
come across that there has been alleged to be the witch that sent this force,
and in some instances it's been referred to as So whether it was a
ghost that's been linked to it, or whether it's a witchcraft has been linked
to it, I'll leave it up to you to decide, but it is
safe to say it has been decades since the the entity the witch or the
spirit first manifested around their Bell family on their farm in Robinson County, and
it was early nineteenth century. Now, like I said, the Bell Witch
story has been something that has fascinated me for years, so I know that
this is I've watched documentaries on it. I've watched documentaries that I've looked at
ancestors that still say they have been affected by the curse of the Bellwitch.
I've looked at different theories of how that come about from all sorts, and
we go over some of that in this. But also there was an inform
of the film that would come out the American Haunting that kind of come away
from the fact that it was from something outside of the house, but a
manifestation of the young person and the young girl that was being directly affected it
because of her innocence has been robbed. So yeah, there's lots and lots
of different perceptions and concepts and theories of to what had taken place. But
to say the least, it has caught a lot of attention of paranormal researchers
and skeptics, supernaturalists, religious believers, storytellers, authors, historians, and
curious people from all over the world have had some kind of interest in this
story. So when we look at the context within the community that no no
no name name, and the context of that time. When you think about
the earlier sources of the world which legend, I mean, it was at
a time where reading and writing wasn't paramount. There was only a few that
really could do it academically, I guess, so being able to get a
good understanding of what was happening at that time. We haven't got resources from
direct resources that could give us an insight. What we do have, though,
is storytelling, and the prevalence and the perpetuation of this has gone through
the years and the progression of the story as well. There is two famous
sources that are linked to us. An authenticated history of the Famous Bell Witch
by mv. Imrand And that was published in eighteen forty nine. The second
is a mysterious spirit the Bell Witch of Tennessee by Charles Bailey Bell, and
they kind of have the same narrative. It's just a different style of storytelling,
I guess. However, I will say that both really draw from the
Bell Witch folklore and it's the basis of a lot of the stories that went
forward. So I could have a chance and you fent you a little bit
of light reading assume to suggest you go and have a look at those to
get a deeper kind of understanding of them. I think for me, it's
about understanding what was happening at that time. And although it gives you the
story of the Bell, which does give you an insight of everything else that
was happening with the different components that come together that kind of created that perfect
storm somewhat. So it does kind of give you that as well. But
I will tell you a bit about the Bell family just for kind of reference.
So he had John Bell who was born in Haifex County, North Carolina,
and that was in seventeen fifty. He was the son of William Bell
and of Anne Jones. And in seventeen eighty two John Bell married lu See
williams. Lucy was a daughter of a prominent farmer called John Williams in North
Carolina, So that's where Lucy was from. And what happened was they got
married and they decided that they wanted to start a family and have a farm
of their own. So they brought a farm in Edgecombe County and it was
a great success. They started accumulating a lot of wealth and in turn they
had a lot of influence in their area as well, which when we talk
about the wealth and the kind of land that they had. There was a
story that I've not really been able to find much. I'm going to go
into it a little bit later, but in terms of research, I've not
really been able to come across much about it. I'm not actually sure where.
Like I said, I've watched so many documentaries from different perspectives concerning this
particular haunting. I'm not actually sure of the the origins of where I found
this story or what I where it come from. But I'm going to give
you that information on the basis that I don't know the origin, and again
I suppose that gives you an insight of how these stories get perpetuated, I
guess, and how they get built up over time and added to and how
they managed to managed to live for so long, the stories themselves within the
communities in the world, in the wide world as well. This was at
a time where we didn't have globalization, so the sharing of information wouldn't have
been that great at that time. So understanding that, let's understand or put
into perspective, how this word of this story in this one family that didn't
move about very much as well. I'll go on to what happened to the
children now rather than at the end, So you have an idea of they
didn't move very fast, It didn't go very far. They kind of just
say, within their area. And a lot of them married into the same
family as well. So how did this story move around so quickly? And
it reminds me of the story of Sarah Moore in Essex in leon c.
Not so much that the story has traveled far and wide. It has not.
It's not one that has done that. However, it is the idea
of a community being able to not only keep a story alive, but then
perpetuating it into other communities. At that time, we didn't have globalization,
you know it, So like I said, it didn't travel very far.
However, what we do see is this common theme in psychology. For those
that haven't watched my podcast before, I do enjoy a psychology. But we
have this this ideology, this theory called the false collective memory. What this
is essentially says is that a story that doesn't lack in evidence or facts can
be perpetuated and added to within the context of a community because it is linked
to stereotypes. So that's how people remember a story. It's because it's linked
to a stereotype. Now what happens is because it's linked to a stereotype,
it's prone to being adapted to other themes linked to the same stereotype. And
it is something that is then perpetuated with the movement of people traveling and stuff.
And I will go through with this story about how the story travels within
that larger wider community of the southern and Midwestern states, because that's part of
the story. But for it to be perpetuated and outlive a lifetime. It's
an idea that might kind of give an understanding to how that takes place.
And I link it to Sarah Moore because Sarah Moore is alleged witch that lived
in Neon Sea and there was a great flood and she was it was said
that she was the causation of that flood. However, she had died seven
years prior. Now, even though the facts were remained that Sarah Moore was
not alive when this took place, there is a number within the community and
within the wider context. I believe that I believed that she was the reason
why it happened because it links to the fact that this happened through witchcraft.
There was a witch in the area. She is the person that had done
that, and the stereotypes that attached above marry each other. So therefore it
makes sense where the facts are kind of removed from the situation, is that
she actually had passed away at that point. So yes, so that is
kind of understanding why that might take place. But I'm going to tell you
a little bit about now at the beginning, what happens to the family or
the children? Should I say in the end? So of the children Benjamin,
So he died as a young child. So I will say that I'm
unsure whether Benjamin passed away when the disturbance has happened, or whether this happened
before they'd moved into the Robinson County farm. I will say the documentary that
I watched regarding the bell which and the curse that was still affecting the families.
The ancestors of the Bells years and years years after, stated that he
affected the firstborn sons, and there was a theme of bad things happening to
the firstborn sons of the family. So I'm not sure whether that is something
that's connected. Zadoc become a lawyer and he moved to Mississippi, where he
also died relatively young esther moved and married Bennett Porto. In eighteen seventeen.
Jesse married Martha Gunn, who's the daughter of Reverend Thomas Gunn, and later
moved to Mississippi. John Bell Junior married Elizabeth Gunn, also daughter of reverend
Reverend Thomas Gunn, and become a successful farmer in Robinson County and Drewy.
Again, I don't know if I'm pronounced his name correctly, so I'm sorry
if I'm not. Never married, but did own a farm on the north
side of Red River. Elizabeth, who the story really does focus on as
we got into the nitty gritty of it, or Betsy Bell is what she
was known as, married her former teacher Robert who was Richard Powell, and
they moved together and missed to Mississippi. She was actually eleven years younger than
him. Well, I'm sure we'll get into that later. And Richard Williams
Bell was married three times, so Sally Gunn, daughter of Reverend Thomas Gunn,
Susan Gunn, daughter of Reverend Jane daughter of Reverend Jane's Gunn, and
Eliza owned Off. He lived out his life in Robinson County, and the
youngest child, Joel Egbert, married twice and moved to Springfield. So again,
like I said, they stayed remaining within them kind of southern Midwestern states.
And despite what the family had gone through, and they referred to this
our family troubles, the family did continue to flourish and some of the descendants
of the Bells, as I said before, they still live in Tennessee and
some other southern and Midwestern states. Let's talk about where the disturbances began.
It's such a mystery, the origins of the spirits, the witch's there's no
real one theory that kind of gives credence to how or why or what took
place. Again, the earliest accounts was storytelling. There's not a lot of
documentation, but it is said that although the origins are officially unknown, the
spirit itself did provide an origin. Story is stated, I am a spirit.
I once was a very was very happy, but I have been disturbed
and made unhappy. I am the spirits of a person who was buried in
the woods nearby, and the grave has been disturbed. My bones have been
scattered, and one of my teeth was lost under this house. I'm here
looking for that tooth. Of course, it can't really be verified. However,
a number of Indian burial mounds can be found in that region. And
when you think about some of our most loved fictional stories and as well,
when we think about the bigger hauntings, alleged hauntings, especially in America,
even the Amityville horror was linked to this. And when they spoke about the
Charles Munson crimes in the Hollywood Hills, they were apparently, you know,
influenced by disturbing the American the Native American burial site sets. So it's not
something that's new. This isn't a new theory of how how a spirit might
appear or or why there might be alleged poltographs activity in another event, the
witch claimed to be a spirit from everywhere heaven held the earth, from the
air, the houses and place at any time I have been created millions of
years. I jump from the spirit being alleged spirit or alleged witch, because
that literally is what's happening in the research that I'm doing around this story.
So it's yeah, I'm not saying it's either or, but I'm acknowledging that
it. In the context of this story, it seems that they are both.
It's one of the same, even though they are separated a lot of
the time. Now, when we look as well at the first appearance or
the you know, the first unusual disturbance around the Bell family, there is
a number of it being reported as an incident that happened on the farm where
John Bell fired a shot at a dog like creature which vanished. Now,
when I did some research around this, it was alleged that this was a
big black dog. And when we look at the Charles Walton case and the
Hagney Hills, the Cotswolls, you know that's seen from us, you're the
big black dog that were seeing a hellhand, the creature that would disturb sermons
and attack people while they were praying. So again we're looking at a theme
that is quite common when we look at hauntings, especially when they're looking at
one that are linked to witchcraft, especially witchcraft linked cases. It said that
in one instance, I read that he shot the dog, the rabbit head
and the dog body, that he shot the creature and even though three of
these shots, you know, landed, the creature didn't flinched, didn't it
wasn't harmed and just disappeared. And others have said that he fired a shot
and the creature disappeared. Drewy and Betsy also began to see strange creatures around
the property, and the sightings were accompanied by strange sounds around the house.
There was an instance where they were all in the house and they started hearing
what they sounded like banging on the walls, and when they went outside there
was nothing there. And as well as other peculiar noises in the woods that
kind of surrounded the farm. Let's see, during John began to hear unaccounted
for knocking on the doors and windows, and their sounds of wings flapping against
the ceiling and a sound of rats gnawing on bed posts. They were actually
woken up to this. The children were woken up to the sound of gnawing
on the bed posts, expecting to see rats, and there was nothing there.
I also know there or I've read, I don't know personally. I
will say that I read that John went outside and he saw this huge bird,
absolutely huge, a peculiar looking bird, and as it were closer,
it took flight and the wingspan was huge. I want to say that these
people have clearly lived on part of these people, the Bell family, had
lived on farms, two separate farms in particular, all of their life.
So seeing animals in these local areas isn't going to be new for them.
This isn't something that's you know, they're just turning up somewhere and they're experiencing
this kind of wildlife that's native to this area for the first time. So
they're seeing new creatures in an area they're familiar with and at this point as
well, other than we know what's happened, and we know what's happening that
happened after in terms of the writings and stuff, but at this point they're
not aware of what's happening next. So these are things that they're experiencing without
the context of what's happening. Further down the line, more disturbingly, the
sound of choking and strangling could be heard, with chaine dragging and heavy objects
hitting the floor. The sounds would sound like they're coming from the bedroom,
as if the beds were suddenly and roughly being pulled apart. Apart to which
was added the sounds of fighting dogs that were chained together and making the most
definitely noises, So these sounds were almost like they were inside the house with
them as well. At some point. In all cases, a source of
the noise was never ever found. There was no rats found in the home,
and despite looking rather thoroughly, there was no damage on the furniture either.
These demonstrations, the family refused to speak of the events to their neighbors
whilst this was happening. It's believed that this was because John Bell it was
only I say only, it's three hundred years since the Salem witch trials,
which is a lot of time, but it isn't when you think of how
far at that point, how far they hadn't really moved away from that strong
Christian religious backbone of the community. It was believed that if he was to
experience any kind of entity spirit energy, then it's because you've basically been dubbling
with something that you shouldn't so therefore you've brought you on yourself. So it's
this fear of being accused of doing something they haven't been doing. It's the
fear of being ostracized from the community. It's the fear of because he was
massive, like he was a church elder, John Bell. John Bell was
a church elder, so he was massive from the community, and he had
the family. Him and his wife had quite an influence in the community as
well. So it was that reputation of this and also having the fear that
maybe they would be perceived like maybe there was something wrong with them in their
understanding of their reality and being able to interpretate that properly, and the fear
of being ostracized for that reason as well. So there was lots of reasons.
He says always been alleged that he says that he didn't tell anyone about
these this activity that was taking place in the family home. Lucy Bell and
John Junior were left relatively unharmed by the witch. The entity Lucy was proclaimed
by the spirit to be the most perfect woman living, and the witch showed
a great deal compassion towards her, even caring for her and singing to her
while she was ill. John Junior had the long intense conversation with the witch,
but he never fell to show animosity for it, declaring it to be
the spirit of the damned. So, before I go on to the interactions
between the alleged the alleged haunty and activity with Betsy, who suffered the worst
in terms of interaction with the spirit, and there's a couple of other interactions
that I'm just going to go over. This will give you an overview of
the things that were happened within the context of this situation. These are just
examples an alleged example. This happened on more than one occasion, allegedly.
However, this will give you a kind of a little bit of a window
into that. So one of the alleged activity that happened was sermons where the
spirit the witch would recite sermons, would sing hymns to anyone that listened.
There was a build up to this. I will say that when the first
this first started happening, after the noises and after all the sounds and the
dogs and the rats and the birds and all the other things that were happening.
They began to hear whispering. They weren't quite sure what was being said.
That you could just hear that something was being said. Over time,
that got to where they were able toward hear it quite well. And it
would recite sermons, it would sing hymns, it would yeah to recite passages
within the Bible. It would do this on a number of occasions. However,
there was one example where the spirit. But as I said before,
the witch says that it's in all the houses and all the places at once,
and has been here many many times, and was created using years ago.
But an example of that being documented was that in one instance the entity
was able to recite perfectly a sermon that was given by Reverend James Gunn of
the Methodist Church, and then also a sermon that was given by a sub
fault, And despite that there had been twelve miles apart, the spirit had
been in both of those sermons at the same time and was able to recite
both of them. There was a family friend called William Porter, and he
claimed that the witch climbed into bed with him, allowing him the opportunity to
seize the spirit in the bedclothes and attempt to throw it into the fire,
saying only the immense weight and terrible smell of it prevented him from succeeding.
So in this particular example, what happened was it got so bad John Bell
finally gave in and spoke to a neighbor that he trusted. He this,
William Porter and his wife actually encouraged John Bell to go to the church and
seek for help and speak to the elders. And John again, room Bell
didn't want to do it. Didn't want to go through that and expose his
family for what was happening because he was worried about how his family would be
reprimanded for it. So he William Porter and his wife decided that they were
going to stay over one night, and the wife got woken up originally by
her hair being pulled really tightly and then wrapped around bed posts and held down,
and William Pauter jumped up and said, in the name of Jesus Christ,
I don't mind you tell me your name. And this is when he
had the opportunity to wrap the spirit in bedsheets and try and throw it into
the fire, and after this William Pauters again said he believed that it was
the spirit of the damned, or spirit that he likened to those that were
in a Bible, and suggested that he went to the church. John Bell
would go to the church and speak to someone and ask for some advice.
At this point he did. He went to a preacher, and the preacher
agreed that he would keep the conversation private. However, rumors began to spread
within the village and the community, and we get a little bit of an
insight of how people began to be aware of the spirit. However, we
will go into that further a little bit later on. So now this is
a I will talk about a theory that I've come across and I've not actually
been able to find anywhere else. But at the time that John Bell had
the farm, it was the time where families did have slaves, and it
was alleged that the witch had a dislike for the family slaves and tormented them
relentlessly, beating them and refused them to allow them into the house. A
particular gentleman called Dean stated Dean counted the witch several times, and he appeared
frequently in form of a large black dog or wolf, sometimes with two heads,
sometimes with no head. Dean also claimed to have been turned into a
mule and attacked several times by the witch. He carried with him all times
his axe and a witch ball made by his wife as protection from the witch's
influence. Now, I will say I did some research into it, and
the only thing I can think that this might be is a form of a
witch's bottle, which in paganism, in Wickanism, a witch's bottle, which
is ball, is something that a witch creates to protect themselves from the influences
of others. However, back in the day, back when this happened,
what would happen is people would create witches balls or creature witches bottles. And
we're talking about those that felt like they were being afflicted by witchcraft because they
felt if they made the witch's bottles they will then burn in fire. They
would it would be more like a like like a junk thing and put all
the ingredients in and contain it and then burn it in the In the case
that the witch would feel so uncomfortable, the one that had afflicted the person
woul feel so uncomfortable, they would bring themselves to them and they will be
able to form a deal. So I think this is what they're talking about,
because again this is a story that did come up before when we were
talking about I think it was Charles Woolton. But yeah, so this is
what I think they're referring to. So his wife had created or watched his
bottle to keep him safe. The witch didn't like visitors and neighbors, and
in one instance, the witch that three dogs, Caesar, Taj and Bulger
on traveling shakers who never traveled by the farm. Again, in the instance
there's a there's an instance with a silver bullet, a neighbor and husband of
Vestibule Bennett Porter fired a shot at a knotty log that had been conjured upon
by the witch. She struck the bark and cut into it, but the
conjuration vanished, only the bentry and bullethole remained. So again we have lots
of So what we have here is the community story went far and wide,
and we started having people come to the home to experience the spirit themselves,
conjuring the biblical performances, the sermons that were taking place. Everyone were coming
far and wide through the Midwest States, to see for themselves this biblical spirit
that had manifested or which that had manifested in the Bell home. Even a
exorcist had come, Doctor Myers, a conjurer from Simpson, Kentucky, had
come to exercise the witch and was mocked and frightened away. So everyone,
for if lots of different agendas come to have a look at the Bell's home.
But what is the most interesting aspect of the story is how and I
say interesting just because of the interactions and the progression of the attacks that were
taking place. It was focused on Betsy Bell. John Bell Senior and Betsy
Belle seemed to be the two most frequently abused by the witch or spirit.
However you want to view the alleged haunting, and it was really unclear.
However, there is a theory that Betsy was at the brunt of it because
the energy was against the union of the childhood sweethearts Betsy Bell and Joshua Gardner.
It seemed that Betsy would have any used to get out of the house
and whenever she would spend time with Joshua. When she got back, the
what she experienced amplified massively. It was in terms of like ruthless taunts and
physically being harms. She shed her hair pulled, and she was scratched,
and she was pricked with invisible pins, but it would make her skim bleed,
she would be bitten. These are all things that would happen to her
anyway, but it got worse whenever she would spend time with him. Joshua
and Betsy remained attached, but she was put off marriage and fear of the
spirits response. It wasn't always related to their relationship, However, the effects
that this had on her would be that she would become prone's fainting and smothering
sensations. She would often be really exhausted and lifeless. Her experiences were not
confined to the Bill property Eva. Betsy later described one instance, this is
what she said, or when the spirit becomes so tantalizing and filling my mind
with horror and causing me to become so nervous, my parents often sent me
to a neighbor's to rest for the night. My first night away from the
house was spent with Bernie Fawn. When we retired, there came a loud
knocking on our outside door, which seemed to fly open, and a great
gust of wind was felt. Thaney sprang up once with lick handle, and
to our surprise, the door was not open. Then a voice so spoke
softly, Betsy, you should not have come over here. You know I
can follow you anywhere. Now get a good night sleep. A soft hand
patted my cheek, and the voice again assured me that we would not be
disturbed anymore that night. The rest of the family often attempts to give Betsy
relief and family from Frank. Miles promised to protect Betsy from any further abuse
from the spirit. Basi said Frank was the most powerful man of any of
us ever saw, and just as fearless as any living man. One time
he said to me, come sit by me, little sister. Nothing will
bother you while I'm here. The Witch responded, you go home. You
can do no good here. The witch then began abusing Betsey, slapping her,
pulling her hair, before turning the Miles, knocking him over and enraging
him. Betsy continued to endure the spirit's abuse, and after calling off the
marriage to Gardener, Betsy was eventually caught it and married to a former school
teacher, Richard Powell. Despite the apparent bratement of the witch's torments. In
eighteen twenty, she left the area of her husband and settled in Mississippi.
Now again, when I talk about her old school teacher, he was eleven
years older than her. And when you actually look at how the relationship has
documented in other ways, he is seen to be the one that documents her
story as well. Yeah, I mean that itself is a bit, but
then they all as well. When you look at anyway, it's gonna say
the fact that some of the brothers of Betsy married I think one person married
the same woman as another brother, and one married one sister after another sister
after. Yeah, it's just yeah, of different families, of course,
but they were sisters of the same family. So we get to the death
of John Bell, and one of the central goals of the Bell, which
seemed to be the death of him. Old Jack Bell, as a spirit
called him, was blasted with curses, heinous frets, and serious physical torment.
As abuse continued, it actually affected his psyche. Bell took it to
his bed and was cared for by John Junior. And on December nineteenth,
eighteen twenty, John Bell failed to leave his bed and John Junior went to
the cupboard to retrieve his medicine for his care. Instead of the free medicine
vows, he only found one vial. It was one third full of a
dark, smoky liquid of unknown origin. The voice of the witch gloated,
iss useless for you to try to relieve old Jack. I have got him
this time. He will never get up from that bed again. She claimed
of the vial that she gave old Jack a big old dose of it last
night while he was fast asleep, which fixed him. The contents of the
vial were thrown into the fire and erupted into blue blaze. On December twenty,
eighteen twenty, John Bell had died the bell which had crashed the funeral,
disrupting the service and singing drinking songs whilst it all took place. The
interactions with the bell, which did not stop there the origins is really unclear.
One story in particular was that he made someone homeless and she put a
coat curse on his land. Another was that a slave had put a curse
on him and his land. There's lots and lots of theories. However,
the experiences with the bell which did not stop with John Bell or his family.
It's alleged that the future President Andrew Jackson also owned a property on the
Red River and desired to visit the Bell Farm after hearing the stories. Whilst
there, it is alleged that his cut his wagon sorry become stuck and could
not be thought moved in this unseen substance. And it was, you know,
the cart was pushed by men. The horses were whipped to get them
moving. They checked the wheels, if there's anything from the wheels, and
yeah, there was no reason for this to be taking place. It was
alleged that he said, by the eternal boys, this is the witch,
to which the witch replied, all right, General, let the wegon move
on. I will see you again tonight. And with that the weagon allegedly
started moving on its own accord and continued on their journey. When they were
at the camp that evening, a witch layer or witch hunter self proclaimed like
which finder General of the UK, He shared his stories with all that would
listen, and it would be it would be Jackson, and would whispered to
his colleague, I'll bet this fellow is an errant coward by the eternals.
I do not wish that thing to come. I want to see him run,
followed with silence, But that was not for very long, because suddenly
you would hear the light sound of footsteps on the floor. All right,
General, I am on hand and ready for business. Of where stated,
it was alleged that the spirit, the entity the witch baded the witch hunter
to shoot a gun, but he did not fire. The hunter was struck
by an invisible, unseen force. He then claimed that he could feel they
prick of unseen needles, then alleged that he had been grabbed by the nose,
and he fled from the tent, and the witch exclaimed how the devil
did run and beg I bet he won't come through here again with this old
horse pistol to shoot me. I guess that was fun enough for tonight,
General, and you can go to bed too. I will come tomorrow night
and show you another rascal in the crowd. Jackson was eager to stay,
but his party had had enough. It would be shortly after this that they
returned to Nashville. As I said, there is no real knowing who the
bell witch or the spirit was, but there is one person that does keep
propping up, and that is Mary Katherine Kate Bates. She is the wife
of Frederick Bates and was believed to have been the culprit behind its services known
as the Bell Witch. She wasn't a poor woman. She was often mocked
by others throughout the Red River settlement in Robinson County. She had the improper
use of words, and she sometimes had strange ways about her, which made
others believe that she was practicing black magic or other fault forms of occultism,
which, let's be honest, that didn't take very much. Back in the
day. It was believed that any early years, Benjamin Bates, who was
the brother of Frederick, had a dispute with John Bell over the cell of
some slaves. The dispute or were later tangled and become the source of a
rumor to affect that John Bell and Kate Bates had the quarrel and that the
Bell which was created by a Kate to get revenge on Bell. There are
plenty of stories that do connect to Bell, which to Kate Bates and some
sort of disagreement that existed between her and John. There is recent evidence that
suggests she had nothing to do with it. In fact, contrary to reports
of her claiming she would get even with John Bell on her deathbed. Kate
Bates actually outlived John Bell by many years. Again, we go back to
the story of Sarah Moore, and you know how we have this false collective
memory and the different stories. So the Cell of land is something that I
saw him short changing someone or making someone homeless because he was putting up the
rent of the lad up that she was renting. Again, the Cell of
Slaves, Like, there's a lot, but they all seem to have us
a reoccurring Yeah, it seems to have a real carr of theme. So
for all the paranormal researchers and those that have an interest in looking for the
paranormal. In terms of the Bell Which there is the well Which Cave,
which has a very relatively one role in the actual story of the early nineteenth
century. The cave is on John Bell's property and has since become quite a
focal point for visitors they do hope to go and grab themselves a bit of
a haunting experience. It has been added to the National History Registreet in two
thousand and eight, and it's the only feature from the legend that can be
still seen today that hasn't really changed from the way the Bell family would have
seen it back then. There are a couple of eerie events that have been
reported by visitors to the cave Cave, which include difficulties in taking photos at
the site. There's nothing really on the scale in terms of what was actually
experienced by the Bell family at all, and the actual property itself has long
gone. It's been it was torn down, and that was had been reported
to have taken place in the early eighteen hundreds. Following the death of John
Bell, the witch activity and the spirit activity significantly dropped. It was alleged
that the spirit was still active through the winter and spring of eighteen twenty one,
but it was just to say farewell to the family as they left.
Lucy, Richard, William and Joel claimed that the witch did return in February
eighteen twenty eight, reappearing in much the same way as it had originally appeared,
with shaking birds and unexplained noises. Basically vanished again kind of returned to
haunt the Bell descendants once again in nineteen thirty five, which according to documentaries
that I've mentioned on a number of occasions, this happened. So yeah,
yeah, so that is the story of the Bell Witch. The information that
I found interesting, there is so much more. Like a lot of the
podcasts that I've done previously, there is always so much more to the stories
and that can be fitted into one podcast. I always recommend doing your own
research into the cases you find interesting and always having an open mind to the
alternative theories that you were once brought or was the reason why you was interested
in the case in the first place, because it's always good to learn other
perspectives. This gives you a best for understanding of what was happening at that
time for something like this to take place or for it to occur anyway.
And I haven't mentioned this, but when you look at again, you have
a similar case of the haunting being associated with a young girl who was at
school. I know I didn't mention that, but she was at school.
So you have that young person that he is going through development, that is
having all those all the things that happened to a teenager at that time.
And you see this in fictional stories, for example the Exorcystem, but you
also see them in alleged hauntings like the end Filled Haunting as well as Pontifract
thirteen strive again fixates on a young girl that's you know, going through all
the teenage stuff that they go through. There is that reoccurring theme of a
young person being at the center of hauntings, and there is lots and lots
of research around this. I always recommend you do your own research again and
why this happens, and it is to do with the biological changes and the
projection, the manifestation or amplification, however you want to look at it.
There's lots of different reasons and lots of different arguments where it takes place,
depending on your stance. So I would say have a look at that as
well. So that's the end of me sharing the bell which I have so
much more, but I haven't enough time. Maybe I will have a discussion
about this again. Maybe next time it would be good to be able to
do it with a guest, because again it's always great to have different perspectives
and a conversation. But yeah, I hope you enjoyed it and I look
forward to seeing you next time. M h five five five five