The Strange Legend of the Bell Witch

In the early 1800’s, a man named John Bell moved with his wife Lucy and their children from North Carolina to the Red River bottomlands of present-day Adams, Tennessee. He bought several plots of land, totaling 328 acres, along with a large wooden cabin. He cleared out several fields to grow his crops on. As an Elder of Red River Baptist church, he was a well-established man within his community and his family lived a very comfortable and happy life.

One day, in 1817, John was walking through his corn fields, inspecting his crops. As he walked along, he was started by a strange animal staring at him from the center of one of the corn rows. It had the body of a dog and the head of a rabbit. As it stared at him unmoving, he unholstered his gun and shot at it several times, terrified of the intimidating creature. The creature then vanished, darting through the rows of corn and into the woods. John would not pay it any mind until later that evening.

After the Bell family had cleaned up after dinner that evening, they sat conversing in the living room. Suddenly, loud banging was heard on the outer walls of their large cabin, almost as if someone was trying to beat the walls down. This occurrence continued night after night, getting more and more intense as the family’s fear and confusion grew. John and his sons tried many times to capture the culprit, but were never able to find the source of whatever was banging on the walls.

Soon after the occurrences began, the Bell’s youngest children started waking up crying in the middle of the night, complaining of rats gnawing at their bedposts. Before long they were terrified of the “invisible entity” that would rip their bedsheets and pillows to the floor each night. As the strange terrors continued, the family began to hear faint, unintelligible whispering around the house, as well as what sounded like a feeble old woman singing hymns. After their youngest child, Betsy Bell, began crying about being beaten and receiving welts and bruises in the shape of handprints all over her body, John went to his neighbor and friend, James Johnstone, for advice and support.

James and his wife spent the night in the Bell’s home, where they were subjected to the same horrors. After James’ covered were ripped away from him and he was slapped in the face, he jumped out of bed and shouted: “In the name of God; who are you?!” He did not receive a reply, but the abuse stopped for the rest of the night. The next morning over breakfast, James explained that the culprit must be an evil spirit, “the kind the Bible talks about”.

After the Johnstons left to return home, the activity ramped up to alarming levels. The whispering had increased to full blown talking, as the entity recited verses, sang hymns, and carried on intelligent conversation with the family. At one point, the entity even recited word-for-word two sermons that had happened at the same time 13 miles away from each other. As word of the infamous ‘Bell Witch’ spread throughout Tennessee, it caught the attention of then Major General Andrew Jackson. John Bell and his brothers, Jesse and Drewry Bell, had fought under Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans. When Jackson heard of the Bell Witch, he formulated an entourage and went to go investigate the property.

Jackson’s entourage consisted of several men and horses, as well as a large wagon. As they approached the Bell property, the wagon became stuck in a muddy creek bed, and the horses refused to pull it out. After several minutes of cursing and attempting to coax the horses through the mud, Jackson threw up his hands and said “By the eternal, boys! This must be the Bell Witch!” No sooner had he said that, a disembodied voice of a woman spoke to Jackson and told him he and his men could proceed, as she would be seeing them later that evening. The horses began to walk, pulling the carriage out of the mud with no issue and continuing the rest of the way to the Bell’s house.

As Jackson and his men were setting up camp in the Bell’s yard, one of his men began to brag about the silver bullet he had been carrying in his gun. He claimed that his silver bullet would banish any evil spirit it came in contact with, and that the Bell Witch was too afraid to mess with them for fear of being killed. Suddenly, the man dropped to the ground, writhing and screaming in pain. He claimed he was being stabbed with pins and beaten severely. An unseen force threw him out of the front door of the home, before the woman’s voice came again. She said that there was yet another fraud in Jackson’s party, and she would reveal him the following evening. At this point, Jackson’s men begged to leave but Jackson refused, wanting to find out who the other fraud was.

The events of the rest of the evening are unclear, but Jackson and his men were spotted in Springfield, Tennessee the following morning, on their way back to Nashville. Jackson later proclaimed that he “would rather fight the British in New Orleans than fight the Bell Witch.” Jackson would never return to the haunted homestead.

After Jackson’s departure, the Bell Witch set her sights on John. She claimed repeatedly that she was going to kill him. Her voice could be heard all over the family’s farm, cursing and making fun of “Old Jack Bell”, the nickname she had given him. Around this time, John began suffering from a severe facial twitch, and he was having trouble swallowing. This malady went on for about a year before it escalated to frequent seizures. The Bell Witch would slap his face as he recovered from his many seizures, and she would yank his shoes from his feet as he tried to walk.

On December 19, 1820, John Bell fell into a coma. He was dead by the next morning. Immediately following his death, John’s family found a vial of black liquid in the cupboard that none of them had ever seen before. John Bell Jr. Gave two droplets of the thick liquid to the family cat, who promptly yowled and died on the spot. As the family stood in disbelief, the Bell Witch spoke up, saying she had given John a “big ol’ dose of that last night to fix him up”.

John’s funeral was huge, with nearly everyone in the surrounding cities showing up to support his family. Three preachers eulogized him, two Methodists and one Baptist. After his burial in the church’s graveyard, the Bell Witch could be heard all around, loudly singing a song about a bottle of brandy. She carried on until the last mourner left the graveyard.

The supernatural activity all but vanished after John’s death, almost as if the Bell Witch had fulfilled her purpose. She wasn’t heard from again until April of 1821, when she visited the now-widowed Lucy Bell. She told her she would return in seven years, before disappearing. Sure enough, seven years later, the spirit returned to John Bell Jr. She discussed the origin of life and civilization, as well as Christianity and the dire need for a major spiritual awakening. Three weeks later, she disappeared again, this time promising her return in 107 years to the most direct Bell descendant.

The most direct descendant would be Dr. Charles Bailey Bell, great-grandson of John Bell Jr. In 1934, Charles wrote a book on the Bell Witch, recalling the stories his father had told him growing up. It is unclear whether the Bell Witch returned in 1935, and unfortunately, we’ll never know. Charles Bailey Bell died in 1945, leaving the legacy of the mysterious and terrifying Bell Witch for all to ponder.