The Bell Witch Redo
Nestled deep within the rural landscapes of Tennessee, the Bell Witch legend is steeped in a rich history of paranormal phenomena. Dating back to the early 19th century, the haunting began with the Bell family, who encountered a malevolent entity that soon became known as the Bell Witch.
As we unravel the tale, we’ll uncover the eerie occurrences that plagued the Bells. From disembodied voices and unexplained physical attacks to the torment of young Betsy Bell, who seemed to be a primary target of the witch’s wrath, the haunting took a toll on the family’s sanity and reputation.
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Transcript
Welcome to this episode of horrific history in Hauntings. I'm Beth.
Ramie:And I'm Ramie. We're your host, here to talk about the stories that the history books ignore.
Beth:From horrific epidemics and ghostly hauntings to the catastrophes and tragic events that have sickened humanity. In this episode, we will discuss what is known as America's greatest ghost story, the Bell Witch. It is one of the most documented hauntings.
There are many intriguing aspects within this old folklore.
Ramie:Until you mentioned this, I hadn't heard of the bell Witch.
Beth:I would like to go ahead and mention that I got most of this information from the book, the truth exposed by Camille Moffitt Headley. We have an Amazon affiliate link in the description below the paperback is dollar twelve. It's a great book. I read it in one day.
I wish I would have known to start my research there because it would have saved me a lot of time. It's also on Kindle Unlimited.
Ramie:That's a pretty good service. Okay, well, Beth, tell me about this bell witch.
Beth:We've done this before, but I drank a little and I fucked it all up. So we're redoing it because it was horrible. It was trash. I tried to listen to it and I couldn't even listen to my own episode. So we are fixing it.
Ramie:I was sober, so I had to edit it, though it was a nightmare.
Beth:Oh, yeah, it was garbage.
Ramie:Yeah.
Beth:And I admit it. And no more drinking when it's work on podcast day.
Ramie:I mean, we're replacing the old one with this one, and so, you know, it's our second episode. She learnt really quick not to do that. The rest aren't like that.
Beth:Lesson learned.
Ramie:Yeah, the rest are pretty good.
Beth:This is why you don't drink and go to work, people. This has the only known death to have been associated with the supernatural causes. It has a haunted cave which you can visit in tour.
It has a witch and ghosts and a few other mysterious or unknown creatures. It also has a part of it with a president of the United States before he became president.
Ramie:Mister President, you're in a ghost story now. Good news is, I've forgotten almost all this.
Beth:Well, it was a long time ago. So did I, for other reasons.
Ramie:You didn't remember doing it.
Beth: In:I'm sorry if I mispronounce. Please. As in every other episode, I will ever do or have done, but I can't help it.
John Bell moved his wife, Lucy, and their five children at the time from North Carolina to the property in Adams, Tennessee. Over three years, he had three more children, including Betsy, which you'll learn more about later. The family lived peacefully for 13 years.
In: Ramie:Well, I remember calling this thing a drabbit. Yeah, yeah, the drabits.
Beth:Yeah. After John shot at it, it ran away.
Ramie:I would, too.
Beth:That's a normal reaction. That evening, John and his family were having dinner and heard knocking from outside.
Ramie:Those pesky drabbits.
Beth:John's sons found nothing when they ran outside to see what it was. In the next few weeks, they saw apparitions and heard unexplained noises. One son saw an enormous bird he thought was a turkey.
I think it was a buzzard or a vulture of some sort. Isn't there a turkey buzzard or a turkey vulture or something like that?
Ramie:I have heard of that, yeah. But I don't know what it looks like. Probably a turkey.
Beth:I think that's supposed to be one of the bigger ones, if I'm not mistaken. If I'm right, it flew away and he realized it was not a turkey.
Ramie:Turkeys can fly.
Beth:Yes, I know.
Ramie:Okay. If you like.
Beth:I think when he went to get a gun from the house because he wanted to shoot it and eat it and it started to fly away, is when he realized it wasn't a turkey, is what that meant. I'm assuming. I don't think they can fly from very far, but they can fly. Betsy saw a little girl in a green dress hanging from a tree branch.
Ramie:I remember asking, I can't recall, was she as in playing or dead?
Beth:I don't know.
Ramie:Okay. There's a big difference.
Beth:I'm assuming she was dead.
Ramie:I mean, she could be just hanging from her arms, swinging and cackling or something. That'd be creepy.
Beth:Yeah.
Ramie:Come play with me.
Beth:No, thank you. You need to get out of my yard.
Ramie:All 120 acres of it. Back in these days.
Beth:Yep. One of John's enslaved workers, who John trusted, saw a large black dog following him.
Later on, he would say a black dog forced him to give up a witch ball. His wife made him out of her own hair. After the witch ball got destroyed, he would take his axe and cut the dog's head in two.
And the dog would later return with two heads.
Ramie:A hydra pup. He could have very well been a drabbit.
Beth:The hauntings began to increase in frequency and violence. They began to hear choking noises, invisible dogs fighting outside, rats gnawing on bedposts, chains dragging across the floor.
And the spirits began to talk and would quote the Bible.
Ramie:Now, that's the weirdest part.
Beth:Once it quoted word for word two different sermons that had been given at the same time 13 miles apart.
Ramie:And that's bizarre in general. Just what. And how'd they even find out that.
Beth:That is also what I was just thinking, because back in these days, didn't know that.
Ramie:Texting them about it, you know?
Beth:Yeah. No videos. That's weird.
Ramie:Perhaps they just had a huge rat infestation and thought they had a rabbit problem, a drabbit problem.
Beth:Rats talk?
Ramie:No. Perhaps the rats have gave them some sort of infection.
Beth:Mm hmm.
Ramie:Because these are just very bizarre things.
Beth:Poison. But the infection makes sense, too. The spirit especially, made it known that it despised John Bell. Some physical attacks.
The house would shake violently as if there was an earthquake.
Ramie:That's just the rabbits and the rats eating away.
Beth:At the foundation, children had their bed sheets ripped off and pillows thrown.
Ramie:Rats have to make nests.
Beth:They endured scratches and hair pulling. Betsy suffered the most, though. She got pinched, slapped, stuck with invisible pins. Red handprints and large welts appeared all over her body.
I wonder if she lived with Elizabeth Valtteri. Was it the spirit of Elizabeth Valtteri?
Ramie:There could have been fleas from all the drabits and rats.
Beth:Please slap people and leave red hand prints and large welts. Well, the large welts, I guess they.
Ramie:Could, but they would. Yeah, the welps, the whelps, and the sticking with invisible pins. And two parts of this makes sense. She's slapping at herself in her sleep.
Beth:The family tried to keep it a secret, but eventually, John confided in a family friend and neighbor, James Johnston.
Ramie:And he told everybody. Now she's the most famous haunted house. He's a bit of a gossip.
Beth:James spent a few nights at the Bells farm. He heard all the noises and had his bed sheets ripped off as well.
He confirmed that the family had been being terrorized by something the worst hosts ever.
Ramie:Bad Yelp review.
Beth:Would. Would not recommend.
Ramie:I woke up slapped and cold.
Beth:Didn't get a wink of sleep.
Ramie:All the chains rattling, those drabbits fighting in the yard. God, we're laughing at this. But it could have been horrible.
Beth:Yeah. Even if it was poison and they were imagining it, it had to have been torture.
The story spread, and soon the home became a tourist attraction because that gossip. At it again, Andrew Jackson made a visit to the Bell farm.
Ramie:Of course he did.
Beth:Said to have made a visit to the Bell farm. It's not proven, allegedly.
Ramie:So says the town gossip.
Beth: Yeah. In:Different sources say different things as to why he decided to visit the bell farm. Some say he knew one of John's sons from the battle of New Orleans.
Some say he owned property nearby and happened to stay at the bell's farm along the way. And then there's also the one that says he heard the stories of the bell witch and decided to investigate himself.
Ramie:That's the most bizarre I've ever heard. This general's coming along. I heard about this haunted house of rabbits and people getting slapped. I wanna have a go at that.
Beth:I would just keep on riding right onto my own property.
Ramie:You survived a war. Why would you dare come visit this mess?
Beth:Then again, I really just don't like staying in people's homes. I don't even like going in people's homes.
Ramie:No.
Beth:As soon as Jackson and his men stepped on the bale property, one of their wagons got stuck.
Ramie:That's those drabith holes.
Beth:They made multiple attempts to get it unstuck, but no matter how hard they tried, the wagon wouldn't budge. Jackson commented that it must be the witch. And a. Allegedly, a disembodied voice said, all right, general, let the wagon move on.
I'll see you tonight.
Ramie:I wouldn't know what to say to something like that.
Beth:I gotta go. The wagon can stay. I'm walking home.
Ramie:These stories are wild. I can see why it caught on. Yeah, especially back then.
Beth:Later that evening, one of Jackson's men bragged about how he was a witch hunter and had killed witch before and had a silver bullet that would kill any evil spirit. Jackson bet that the witch Hunter was a coward and said, I wish the thing would come. I'd like to see him run.
And the voice said, all right, general, I'm here and ready for business.
Ramie:We'll go get her, this witch.
Beth:Let's get to work. They heard violent blows striking the witch hunter in the face and head. He cried out, oh, lordy, the devil has me by the nose.
Ramie:That must be humiliating.
Beth:Imagine, it's a shame they didn't have video cameras.
Ramie:Yeah, if that was true, imagine seeing and hearing this and then choosing to stay.
Beth:The witch hunter ran out of the house while still screaming. Oh, lordy, oh, lordy.
Ramie:The whole lord deals. Embarrassing.
Beth:Jackson and his men were seen rushing out of the town the next morning saying, I would rather fight the British at New Orleans than fight the bell witch.
Ramie:I bet Jackson didn't like this rumor.
Beth:I don't know.
Ramie:I mean, if it ever got back to him, if town gossip had anything.
Beth:To say about it, I'm sure it probably did. Cause it's a very popular story.
Ramie:It got around somehow, didn't it?
Beth:One of the sources said they could find no evidence in any of Andrew Jackson's journals or diaries about his stay at the bell farm.
Ramie:Beth, would you have ever wrote about this?
Beth:Yeah, I absolutely. If I would have seen somebody going, oh, Lordy, ol Lordy. The devil has me by the nose and running out.
Even if I didn't, if I thought this person was a complete nutcase, I'd still be writing about it. Because it would be funny. I'd want to remember that.
Ramie:I don't know. I wouldn't want to go through this whole mess. It would be awkward, and I would be afraid I'd catch the plague or something from those fleas.
Beth:I'm gonna talk a little bit about John Bell now. The spirit especially hated him, as I mentioned before.
Ramie:Yeah.
Beth:The witch's nickname for John was old Jack. So if I mention old Jack, that's who I'm talking about. The spirit insisted he was a very bad Mandev. And the spirit apparently gave details as to why.
But the family refused to say what the witch supposedly said. And insisted that the spirit's reasons were not true.
Ramie:It's a conspiracy. It's all about John. Started by his gossipy neighbor.
Beth:The bells couldn't move to get away because the spirit said it would follow old Jack.
Ramie:I wouldn't let that stop me if I found somebody to buy that place and head out.
Beth:John Bell killed a man in North Carolina before moving to Tennessee. Just a few things about him that.
Ramie:May have led him to being haunted.
Beth:Yeah. As to why the witch would hate him, it was determined to have been self defense or justifiable homicide.
And he was also kicked out of the Red River Baptist church because it was proven that he had charged a neighbor an unreasonable high amount of interest rates on the rental of a slave.
Ramie:He wasn't a very good guy regardless.
Beth:No. John was 32 when he married Lucy at the age of twelve.
Ramie:Oh, goodness.
Beth:Back then, I'm assuming that was probably normal. Twelve, not okay, but I'm assuming that was normal. Back then he was 32, not 22. 32. Lucy was not even a teenager.
She was almost a teenager, but not even a teenager.
Ramie:She's the baby.
Beth:Mm hmm. After a few years of the haunting, John Bell began to suffer more and his health began to decline.
His shoes would mysteriously fly off of his feet even after being put back on and tied with double knots. One of the things mentioned was he was walking at one point, and it wasn't a rainy day. There was like, no mud, the ground wasn't wet.
It was like a flat area. So there was no reason that his shoes should have kept flying off.
Ramie:How does that even happen without dragging you with them if they're tied on?
Beth:Well, I just take them off and go barefoot, throw them around.
Ramie:Now that would make sense. That would be even funnier, though. If he literally got pulled around by his feet before they went flying, he.
Beth:Would sometimes feel like a stick was stuck in his mouth. He had difficulty talking and eating and swallowing, and his tongue would also swell. I wonder if he was allergic to something.
Ramie:Drabits fur, drabbit meat, drabbit allergy.
Beth:He also experienced muscle twitches in his face.
Ramie:This seems more like theres other problems.
Beth:Than just ghosties that soon progressed to migraines and tingling sensations.
Ramie:Neuropathy.
Beth:He also experienced fatigue and seizures.
Ramie:He has quite a few problems.
Beth: ,:He died the next day at age 70.
Ramie:For that time, it's not.
Beth:Yeah, that's normal.
Ramie:Yeah. Especially considering where he's at and everything. All the stuff he's been through.
Beth:Sounds like a good time to die. I think 60 is a good time.
Ramie:I say he was miserable.
Beth:His shoes kept flying off. Yeah, it felt like he had a stick in his mouth. And seizures and migraines.
Ramie:He doesn't seem like a great man, but he had it rough all the same.
Beth:Yeah. The family found a vial filled with dark liquid.
John Junior tested a drop on the cat's tongue cause he wanted to be an asshole and hurt the cat, which caused it to fall over dead. I will always take the animal side over a human's.
Ramie:I like kitties.
Beth:I've never had. Well, I've had a cat scratch me and bite me. But it's my own fault cause I forced my love upon it.
But other than that, I have not been hurt by an animal. Oh, I've been bit by a dog, but that was my own fault cause I was breaking up a dog fight. But other than that, I will still take an animal side.
Ramie:I find it hard to choose against.
Beth:The animals as well, the bell witch said, I gave old Jack a big dose of that last night, which fixed him.
Ramie:Was the previous doses not enough? That's why he got so bad. She just dropped it in his food. Whatever he was eating tried to slowly.
Beth:Poison him, but it didn't work. As she wanted, John Junior threw the vial into the fire, and it exploded into a blue flame. Arsenic can do that.
During John Bell's funeral, nothing unusual happened. But after the funeral, everyone started to leave. The spirits sang roam me up some brandy o oh, that's a song.
Ramie:We never could figure it out.
Beth:Yeah, we looked it up, and I never could find it.
Ramie:Surely nobody thought to accuse his much younger, unhappy wife of this, right?
Beth:I didn't mention this, but the slave's wife, Kate. Eventually, the witch will answer to Kate. And they said it's because of a neighbor that John had done wrong.
Ramie:The gossipy one.
Beth:But the slave's wife's name that gave him the witch ball to protect him. Her name was also Kate. And I feel like she would have had motive as well.
Ramie:Because she was a slave.
Beth:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I. Good motive.
Ramie:Yeah. Great, great motive.
Beth:Which that was never mentioned or she was never accused of, which I thought was strange.
Ramie:It's hard to tell what had happened since then, though.
Beth:Yeah. Now, I'm gonna mention some things about Elizabeth.
Betsy Bell, the bell witch insisted she wouldn't stop until Betsy Bell broke off her engagement with Joshua Gardner.
When Betsy went out with her Joshua Gardner, the witch would pull her hair, beat her sometimes leaving her unconscious, shout threats and curses at the couple.
Ramie:Are we just sure Joshua wasn't a bad guy?
Beth:Well, I have it here in my own little thoughts. Did Joshua hear those threats and curses being shouted at them, or was it just her?
She told Betsy not to marry Joshua Gardner and said it would surely bring her a life of pain and misery.
Ramie:Well, lady, you're doing that yourself.
Beth:Betsy's health began to decline. She would have episodes which resembled seizures. She was unable to breathe. Again, unconscious at times, these seizures would.
Ramie:Someone's going on a murdering spree at Forestnik.
Beth:Yeah, but they also used poisons in medicines at that time as well. Yes, so that's a possibility as well.
Ramie:There's a whole series about that if you want to listen to sawbones, the medical tour of misguided medicine. It's a good podcast to listen to. It's a lot like ours. Have a lot more medical stuff about the bad things doctors you should try.
Beth:To do to fix you when she tried to get away for a night of peace by staying at her friend's house. The witch would follow her and torture her.
Ramie:Still, that made for a bad houseguest.
Beth:While at one friend's house, they had the blankets ripped off of them as well.
Ramie:That's when things would get embarrassing. I am so sorry. Like we said, this is a redoing of this episode. At least we forgot a lot of it.
But I say this a lot in the later episodes when you get to them to be an occasional ghostly podcast. I am quite the skeptic, mainly because of all the wackier stories out there. Yeah, they're fun to listen to. That's the point.
I can give stories, and I feel bad for the people going through this, if they actually are going through this or feel like they're going through this, whatever the case may be.
Beth:Yeah. After her father's death, Betsy broke off her engagement to Joshua Gardner. A little bit about Joshua Gardner.
He settled in Henry County, Tennessee, became a successful farmer and owned a lot of land, and got married and had two kids.
Ramie:Well, good for him.
Beth:So he seemed to have a pretty decent life.
Ramie:He probably dodged a bullet.
Beth:Well, yeah, maybe she would have had a decent life if she would have married him. And the witch was like, no, no, we can't have that.
Ramie:I feel bad for her then.
Beth:Then again, maybe she would have started torturing Joshua Gardner as well if she married him.
Ramie:Yeah. There's no way to find out.
I feel bad for all of them if they lost out on this, that they had to go through this, because tourism back then wasn't what it is now. So I don't think it was all just for that.
Beth:Yeah. Cause it was a home. It's not like it was a bed and breakfast where they would make money or anything off of it that I know of.
Betsy married her former schoolteacher, Richard Powell. He was eleven to 17 years older than her. Different sources said different things. That's why I put that that way again.
Ramie:That's quite an age gap. Our grandmother married her grandpa at the age of 13, so. And he was 19 or 18, so it happens. They were happily married all their lives.
Beth:I mean, it still nowadays would definitely be weird, but that's still only seven years. This was eleven to 17 years older. They moved to Mississippi, had eight kids, and the seizures and hauntings had seemed.
Ramie:To have stopped because the poison wasn't around.
Beth:Betsy's life remained full of incredible misery, though four out of her eight kids died while still small due to various illnesses and accidents and only two of the four who made it to adulthood outlived her.
Ramie:That's sad. I feel bad for Betsy.
Beth:Yeah.
Ramie:It could have been long lasting poison effects, like some of that stuff sticks around in your blood and causes you ill.
Beth:Even some medicines.
Ramie:Yeah.
Beth:Richard and Betsy invested most of their money in a cargo shipment. The ship overturned and sank. They never recovered and spent most of their lives in poverty.
Ramie:Poor Betsy.
Beth: She died in: Ramie:She lived quite a while.
Beth:Yeah.
Ramie:To be a miserable woman.
Beth:Lucy Bell, John Bell's wife. Though the bell witch did not like John and Betsy, it seemed that it liked Lucy.
Ramie:Okay. I knew there was one girl it liked.
Beth: September:Allegedly, the witch would come in her room and stay with her while she was sick in bed. Allegedly, several neighborhood women were sitting with her one day and they witnessed a handful of hazelnuts drop from above the bed.
The spirit urged her to eat the nuts.
Ramie:I remember saying this or thinking this at the time when I done this before.
Could these rats and pests, they have just stored the food above them like they do occasionally, and then just the ceiling broke through and they all fell out.
Beth:They said they never found rodents, but.
Ramie:And who goes around talking about their infestations? Tell the town gossip. The guy next door.
Beth:Then grapes fell the same way. And she ate those as well.
Ramie:I mean, that's a drabbit's favorite food, so I can make up what I want about drabbits. I made them.
Beth:Hey, apparently John saw them first. So you didn't make them?
Ramie:Oh, he didn't call them drabbits.
Beth:You just get to name them.
Ramie:I named them and so I can say what they eat.
Beth:The area above the bed was investigated, but nothing was found to explain how the nuts and grapes had fallen. And soon after, Lucy regained her health and was up and about living her life.
Ramie:That's good.
Beth:The witch told Lucy she was going to leave, but that she would return in seven years.
Ramie:Very specific.
Beth: lk a little bit about him. In:She stayed for three days, spoke to him about the past, present, and future, and then said she would return in 107 years. But no records have been found at that time. She made predictions, or it made predictions regarding the US and the world.
It predicted the Civil War, world War one, the US involvement in world War two, the Great Depression, discovery of Atlantis, and the world's destruction by fire. Obviously, we have not discovered Atlantis. Hopefully, we will. I believe or want to believe that it exists.
Ramie:And I think they found this.
Beth:Obviously, the world has not been destroyed by fire yet. Well, it might be here recently. Everything's on fire.
Ramie:Yeah. California is always on fire.
Beth:Parts of Canada.
Ramie:Maui, Utah.
Beth:There was another. I want to say Houston, Texas. Or at least somewhere in Texas.
Ramie:We live in the appalachian region of Virginia. And you can see smoke all the time. Just in the valleys here. Cause it all seems to blow our way. No matter how far away it is. I mean, not Maui.
I don't think we've seen smoke from Maui.
Beth:Yeah, well, I mean, maybe she's right.
Ramie:We don't really.
Beth:It seems like everything's on fire now. The middle class would be obliterated. Whether the US falls or not is not predestined.
According to the witch, this will be determined by the thoughts and actions of its people. And about Atlantis. It said if scientists dig under the right parts of the earth's surface.
They will bond remains of a civilization destroyed hundreds of thousands of years ago.
Ramie:That's very vague.
Beth:The spirit talked as if Atlantis was a full continent. She also talked about the destruction of other worlds. We're supposed to be going to Mars.
Ramie:Here's hoping Elon makes it.
Beth:Yeah. The world's destruction by fire. Christians will be greedy and put money into buildings. Elaborate church buildings.
Rather than using it to aid the poor.
Ramie:You have those humongous churches already that do that?
Beth:Some theories is that it was the schoolteacher Richard Powell. Who married Betsy Bell. Somehow fabricated the eerie phenomenon.
Ramie:It just needed pastime in between taking care of all these children.
Beth:Supposedly, he may have done this so that Betsy would leave her betrothed and marry him instead.
Ramie:It worked.
Beth:It's rumored that he had knowledge of the occult and ventriloquism.
Ramie:I always envy those people.
Beth:The poison theory. Modern scientists believe John Bell was slowly poisoned with arsenic. So do I.
Ramie:Seems like the most reasonable theory.
Beth:This would explain many of his symptoms. Arsenic was commonly used poison at the time. And it burns blue.
Kate Batts, the neighbor and Lucy's niece, was still alive when the rumor that it was her came about.
Ramie:She must have been a real unpleasant biddy.
Beth:That she was the bell witch. Kate said John Bell cheated her in a cell of land. Eventually, the spirit would answer to Kate.
You also hear about how spirits will lie about who they are sometimes to make you think that it's somebody you know. Really. It's a demon that wants to hurt you.
Ramie:I've seen it in the conjuring.
Beth:Yeah. A spirit whose remains had been disturbed is another theory. The farm was built on an old native burial ground. While plowing, they found remains.
One of John's sons went to the area and took a human jawbone back to the house.
Ramie:It's a wonder the drabbits didn't already dig it up.
Beth:Well, the thing about that is it said that the hauntings didn't start until after that happened. They want their jawbone back.
Ramie:Yeah, that could have been mentioned earlier, I'd say.
Beth:And this one's a warning. It's a little bit more disturbing theory. It is believed that children who are abused are often more likely to be affected by a poltergeist.
Betsy Bell was twelve years old when the hauntings started. And John Bell married Lucy when she was twelve and he was in his thirties. Some have considered that maybe John Bell was molesting his daughter.
The reason being the witch was torturing Betsy and hated John, saying he was a very bad man and even possibly murdered.
Ramie:Him or his wife could have done all that because of what he's doing to her daughter.
Beth:Yeah, but why would she torture Betsy, too? I guess that's also a possibility. Maybe it was a jealousy thing. If this is even, we don't know. It's just a theory.
This could explain why William didn't want what the witch said. Her reasons for calling him a very bad man.
Ramie:Yeah, that's a pretty good reason.
Beth:The reasons were actually written in the journal that the witch said, but they wouldn't allow that part to be public for some reason.
Ramie:It does sound kind of bad on their side. Yeah, it sounds bad no matter what. If the family isn't doing it and a witch is doing it because of somebody else, they're wrong.
Half of them are just seem like pretty bad people. But all you ever hear about is the bad in people.
Beth:The thing is, we don't know if that's what was in the journal. They wouldn't allow that to be public. It's just a theory that this may have been.
William Bell realized the story of the bell Witch kept changing and wanted the truth to be written down. So that's why he kept a diary. He decided not to publish it until the last immediate member of John Bell Sr's family had passed.
Ramie:I guess that is respectful. Yeah, I guess.
Beth:Now I'm gonna talk a little bit about the bell witch cave. The cave that was on the property. You can tour it so still is. The bell witch cave is located on what is now property of the Kirbys.
Ramie:Oh, that's right. I remember the Kirbys. Like the Nintendo character.
Beth:It is thought to be the home of the bell witch.
Ramie:It'd be a funny name if it wasn't.
Beth:Native american burial grounds are above the cave. It did have the tomb of a native american girl inside who died from a gunshot wound to the chest, but her remains were stolen.
Ramie:The devoid drag it home.
Beth:I don't know. Chris Kirby took a picture of a sinkhole where a portion of the cave collapsed hundreds of years ago, and it showed a white ghostly images.
Ramie:Well, at least it wasn't an orb.
Beth:Chris had a psychic visit the cave, and the psychic said there were multiple spirits in the cave. One described as a young boy wearing overalls. And a photo was taken later which shows an image of a boy wearing overalls.
Not all the spirits lived or died in the area is another thing the psychic said. And the cave was likely a portal.
Ramie:Kind of like the house off of the poltergeist.
Beth:Yeah. The Kirbys gave paranormal investigators permission to set up equipment in the cave.
The thermometers showed sudden drops in temperature two different times. Generally, the cave is 60 degrees, and then it suddenly plummeted to 52 degrees. I feel like that's normal.
Ramie:Caves are notoriously drafty. Yeah, depending on how they work out. I've been in caves and they were drafty. Yeah, it was nice. Refreshing draft, actually.
Beth:Yeah. They felt as if something passed through them during these times.
Other occasions this happened, flashlights and cameras stopped working and the family dog of the Kirbys began to growl or back away from the area, drab its worst enemies as a dog, which was actually a black dog. A photograph taken during a time like this. A glowing orb was seen near the ceiling.
Ramie:Oh, a bat flew by or, you know, a moth followed light into the cave. I've never heard of a dusty cave. There's no way it could be dust.
Beth:It could have been moisture. Caves tend to have water dripping down. That's how I forgot which one's which.
Ramie:Stalactites are up above you, holding on top.
Beth:Stalactites? Yeah. Oh, I never heard. I'll be able to remember that now. Low, light sensitive video cameras were set up overnight.
The film captured a doorway suddenly appeared. Appear and slide open. Two human shaped forms passed through the doorway and then the door shut and vanished.
Ramie:We know it was a little eerie. I don't really know what to say.
Beth:About that, me being completely stupid. I would probably be curious and I would sit there and I'd wait for this doorway to come back and I would try to go in it. Just see what was up.
There are black marks from torches on the cave walls. Mound builders, spiritual leaders performed spiritual rituals with torches in the cave. Which is where this came from.
Ramie:Yeah.
Beth:The purpose was to open a passageway between the world of the living and the world of the dead.
Ramie:Doesn't sound safe.
Beth:No. You probably shouldn't mess with that, ever.
Ramie:If I could avoid it for all my life, I would.
Beth:A woman that toured the cave asked if she could take a pebble as a souvenir. Chris told her yes, but the others did this and immediately brought the object back.
About an hour later, she returned with the pebble while crying, blood was streaming down both her legs and her arms were scraped. She claimed something shoved her to the ground.
Ramie:So don't leave of souvenirs.
Beth:No. Some sounds in the cave have been heavy breathing as if choking chains dragging footsteps on gravel and voices.
Ramie:What's above all the chains?
Beth:The witch saved a little boy who was stuck in a hole in the cave. The other kids heard a voice saying, I'll get him out. And invisible hands pulled the boy out of the hole.
Ramie:That's friendly.
Beth:The Kirby family and other parts of the property is where I'm getting into next. Several weeks after moving to the farm Chris entered an old smoke house on the property and she found human legs, arms and part of a skull.
They were all adult sized and belonged to more than one person.
Ramie:Maybe you shouldn't mess with those.
Beth: gists and was estimated to be: Ramie:I'm not familiar with that. I'd actually forgot about it since the last recording.
Beth:Mound builders inhabited the area for thousands of years. I did a little bit of looking them up because I had no idea. I'd never heard of it before.
steriously vanished more than:And they buried their dead upright with their heads towards the sky not covering them with a tumor covering.
Ramie:I think this is the kind of stuff that got us on our next episode that we done.
Beth:Yeah, I think so. The witch was great at mimicking voices which continued with the Kirby family skinwalker.
Ramie:Yeah.
Beth:Walter Kirby woke up to the sound of his father's voice whispering in his ear. His father had just been put in his grave four days before.
He was walking towards the house when he heard a loud crash one day coming from the Barnab. There was only supposed to be a calf in the barn at the time. So we went to check it out, and the calf was sick and wouldn't move.
He believed the crash was something trying to get his attention and wanting him to help the little cow.
Ramie:That's cute. At least he took care of it, didn't he?
Beth:Oh, yeah. He called the vet, and the calf was fine. Well, I mean, the calf, they fixed it, they gave it medicine, then it turned out to be fine.
So the calf was fine. That's all that matters. Some other interesting things.
Lucy Bell Butler, a descendant of John Bell and his family, claims she and her daughter have seen the black dog and the giggling little girl that runs through their house, like the one Betsy saw swinging from the tree limb. The spirit didn't like Butler's father. He was allegedly involved in the mafia.
Ramie:Allegedly.
Beth:Allegedly.
Ramie:That gossiping neighbor's family's still next door.
Beth:He bought a new stereo. And Lucy Bell Butler claimed that she saw thousands of crickets crawling into the stereo system and ruined it.
Ramie:Not because she accidentally dropped a drink on it or something. And electronics draw insects, mostly cockroaches, because they're warm. I ain't gonna accuse them of having infestation again of crickets.
Beth:She believes the bell witch punishes the bad people that need to be punished and takes care of those who are good that she likes, I guess.
Ramie:More power to her. It seems like a pretty harsh sentence, though. Eternal torment for these people.
Beth:At one point, John Bell's gravestone was stolen. The teens that stole it were driving away. They lost control of the vehicle and crashed. The driver was killed, and other two were severely injured.
One of them was paralyzed.
Ramie:Um, you shouldn't be still on gravestones.
Beth:Yeah, if you're a teenager, you should know better. You know right from wrong. And that's the end.
Ramie:It's nice to hear this story again. I will now remember it for a few more days.
I might put the old episode up as a special bonus episode or something that people can listen to if they want to. I'll hold onto it for now. And if somebody reaches out and suggest that, yeah, but if somebody reaches out and asks for it, I don't want to.
Beth:If somebody asks for it, then sure.
Ramie:Anyway, if you like this podcast, we have a few more. We're part of a podcasting network called Gruesome Gaming Group. We have a podcast that me and Beth do called Brother nose Quest.
It's a podcast where I bring a random tabletop role playing game off my shelf and tell her about it. See if she'd like to play it. We discuss some of the setting, the rules, and about every week we'll have a different game we talk about.
Another one that I do is with my friend Dakota, who I've known almost all my life. We talk about video games and how they've affected us in our life and usually for the best and just different games we played over the years.
I've been talking about Starfield here lately, getting excited about it coming out here soon. But if you want to listen to those, we'll put the link in the description of this episode for all that.
I'll put the link to the book that Beth used for this in the description of this episode as well, along with our socials. Beth has a email. Beth, what is your email?
Beth:Horrifich history dot hauntingsmail.com.
Ramie:If you want to critique her or tell her you want that tipsy episode back up or something, let her know. We have a Twitter account called Gruesome Gaming G. We have a YouTube account called Gruesome Gaming Group.
If you want to look us up there, I've got a few clips of episodes we've done. We're thinking about putting streams up or actual plays. We have a TikTok account, gruesome gaming G. As well.
Beth:I also have one that is horrific history and hauntings. I say you could probably just search that, but I it, the name has a few numbers in it. I don't remember it.
Ramie:Please leave us a review.
If you have a podcasting app that will let you do that, and any links to anything you can buy, like the books or anything in the description will be an Amazon affiliate link. They won't charge you anymore, but anything you buy off of them at that moment will give us a little kickback, a little bit of money from it.
And like I said, it won't be charging you anymore for it, but it will help us out if you do it that way, I guess that's it. Beth, thanks for retelling the story to me.
Beth:Glad to.
Ramie:Yeah, just happy to get the old one off.
Beth:I've been Ramey and I'm Beth.
Ramie:Thank you for listening to H h and H. Bye.
