America’s Oldest Ghost Story: The Bell Witch

An Account Of The Bell Family’s Plight And How Their Curse Lived On To This Day

Whether it was witchery, such as afflicted people in past centuries and the darker ages, whether some gifted fiend of hellish nature, practicing sorcery for selfish enjoyment, or some more modern science akin to that of mesmerism, or some hobgoblin native to the wilds of the country, or a disembodied soul shut out from heaven, or an evil spirit like those Paul [sic] drove out of the man into the swine, setting them mad;

or a demon let loose from hell, I am unable to decide; nor has anyone yet divined its nature or cause for appearing, and I trust this description of the monster in all forms and shapes, and of many tongues, will lead experts who may come with a wiser generation, to a correct conclusion and satisfactory explanation.

An Account By Richard Williams On The Events That Unfolded In His Home

Greetings Detective, how many days has it been since our last correspondent — did you miss me? It’s been a long time, dear readers of The Criminal File, I apologize for my unannounced disappearance.

Truth be told hours of researching true crime have taken its toll on me and I had to take a step back to focus on the other areas of my life for the sake of my sanity. I thought hard about the future of this project and instead of terminating it, I will treat this as a hobby instead of a ‘career’ and produce new articles at a much slower cadence, perhaps 2–3 pieces a month. I will also be rotating between true crime and topics of the supernatural to keep things fresh.

I hope your wits are still as sharp as ever, for the foes that we will soon face are much more sinister than any of the ones that came before.

The Bell Witch Haunting is one of America’s earliest accounts of the paranormal. The folklore focuses on the 19th-century Bell family who lived in Robertson County, Tennessee. Between 1817 and 1821, Farmer John Bell Sr. and his family came under the attack of a demonic entity claiming to be an old witch by the name of Kate.

The hauntings started relatively harmless beginning with a series of knockings and strange animal noises within the house. But soon, the activities became increasingly dangerous ending with the death of John Bell himself.

Centuries have passed since the original attacks yet people in the area claim that the malevolent spirit still walks the grounds where the Bell farmhouse once stood.

In the dead of the night when all seems quiet and you think you’re safe that’s when evil comes out to play.

Criminal File investigates, Case #18 — The Infamous Bell Witch Haunting

The Start Of A Hellish Nightmare

In the winter of 1804, John Bell bought a piece of land in Tennessee and made the treacherous journey with his wife and six children to their new home nestled in an area known as the Red River near present-day Adams, Tennessee.

For 13 years, John and his family prospered in the area and became one of the more famous families in the area. But unbeknownst to them, their peaceful lives were about to be interrupted by something sinister.

Everything started in 1817 when John Bell spotted a strange dog-like creature in the cornfields, he described the creature as having the body of a canine and the head of a rabbit and the creature looked weird, almost like its body was twisted of sorts.

The creature stared straight at John almost like how a human would, feeling unsettled, John fired his rifle in the vicinity of the creature in an attempt to scare it away. After the creature took off, John walked to the spot where it stood but no tracks or marks were left on the soil. It was as if the creature just upped and vanished into thin air.

They Lived Inside The House

Soon after the appearance of the strange creature, the rest of the Bells also had their encounters with the paranormal. It started small with faint knocking sounds coming from within the walls but whenever someone went to investigate the source the knocking would stop only for it to start again from the other side of the house.

John was certain that the knocking was the work of a town prankster so he lay in wait for weeks dashing out the door as soon as the knocking started but he was never able to catch a glimpse of the person responsible and there were no tracks left in the soil either. As scary as the knockings were, things were about to get a whole lot worse for the Bells.

One night, in May of 1818, so this was about one year after the appearance of the creature, John’s four sons were jolted awake from their sleep to the sounds of what appeared to be animals gnawing and scratching at their bedposts. Two of the boys searched the room for what they assumed were rats but couldn’t find any and none of the bed posts showed signs of scratches or bite marks. They shrugged it off and went back to bed.

As soon as they were back in bed, the noises started again but this time, the animals sounded frantic and the noises were so intense that the boys stayed awake for the rest of the night. This disturbance continued into the second night and on the third night, the boys heard something even stranger.

There were the loud sounds of what appeared to be someone gasping for air coming from right underneath their beds. The eldest mustered up the courage to check but as soon as his feet touched the floor, the breathing stopped.

This time, they didn’t go back to bed but instead woke the whole family up, and together the Bells scoured the entire property for signs of any break-ins but they were unable to find anything amiss.

The Bells Finally Sought Help

Seeing how terrified his children were, John reached out to a neighbor that he trusted and confided in him about the strange things happening inside the house. Now, John was a no-nonsense type of guy so when he told his friend the story, he took John seriously and even offered to stay the night at the Bell farmhouse to hear the noises for himself. That night, the neighbor moved into one of the Bell’s guest rooms.

And just like clockwork, the knocking and gnawing noises started again in the middle of the night. This terrified the neighbor to the point where he practically sprinted out of the Bell farmhouse in the middle of the night. Word spread quickly about his experiences inside the Bells’ family home and to John’s surprise, the townsfolks of Robertson County were supportive and offered to help them find the source of the noise.

The townsfolk took turns volunteering to stay the night and watch over the Bells to give them a sense of security and they were hoping that the increase in numbers would hopefully scare whatever is causing the noise away. Of course, there was no such luck and the noises persisted.

The people came up with all sorts of theories including one where a ventriloquist is pulling a prank on the Bells but none of the theories could effectively explain what was happening within the house.

The Strange Neighbor

One day, Esther, one of John’s daughters left the house to gather some eggs from the hen house. On her way there, she spotted a woman clad in all black slowly walking towards the Bell farmhouse.

Esther assumed that it was one of the townsfolk and carried on with her errands, when Esther returned from the hen house, she saw the same woman still walking slowly towards the house only this time, the woman was much closer.

She caught up with the woman and recognized her as one of their neighbors, so she yelled out a friendly greeting but the neighbor didn’t react and just kept trudging slowly towards the Bell farmhouse. Esther tried calling out a couple more times but each time the neighbor simply ignored her. Esther suddenly felt a sense of unexplainable dread and took a few steps back, observing the strange neighbor from a safe distance.

As soon as Esther stopped, the neighbor stopped dead in her tracks. Now, with her back still facing Esther, she removed her bonnet, which is a type of hat and she began running her hands through her hair.

Esther watched in horror as the neighbor’s movement became more erratic and she soon realized that the neighbor was ripping out clumps of hair. Esther sprinted past the woman. Esther sprinted past the woman and ran into the farmhouse, immediately locking the door behind her.

She called the rest of her sisters and together they watched from the window in horror as the neighbor continued ripping her hair out while maintaining eye contact with them. The neighbor then walked to the side of the property out of view of the Bell sisters, the sisters ran to the other side of the house hoping to keep track of her.

Then seemingly out of nowhere, three children emerged behind the neighbor, and together the four of them climbed the grove trees that the Bells had planted around their property. The neighbor and the children started bending the trees with their body weight causing the trees to swap left and right.

At that point the husband of the neighbor walked out of his property so Esther yelled for him to see what was happening. When the man moved closer, he couldn’t see his wife or children, only the trees swaying.

Esther realizes that the man was unable to see what they were looking at and together the Bell children ran out to confront the strange neighbor and the children. But as soon as the Bells stepped out of their house, the neighbor and the children disappeared without a trace.

The Unfortunate Demise Of John Bell

In 1820, John and his son were out for a walk when suddenly, John stopped and threw his hands up to his face seemingly looking like he was trying to protect himself from an unseen attack.

John’s face suddenly went slack and his body contorted into grotesque angles, his son tried to grab and pull him upright, while he was trying to hold on to his father, an inhumane shriek was heard echoing throughout the air. John dropped to the ground, and almost immediately, the screams were gone. John started crying and trembling on the ground and he apologized profusely to his son, saying he didn’t have much time left.

A few weeks later on the morning of December 19, 1820, when John didn’t come down for breakfast on time like he usually did, his children went to check on him. To their horror, they found him unresponsive in his bed.

He was still breathing but it seemed like he was in a deep sleep. John’s son ran to the medical cabinet and saw that all of the medicine was gone and in their place was a small black vial filled with an unknown dark liquid.

The Bells called for the town doctor but even the doctor could not pinpoint what was wrong with John. The doctor tested the dark liquid on some farm animals which died almost immediately upon consumption. The Bells had no clue where the liquid came from.

John died the following morning and strangely, after his passing, the strange hauntings in the Bell farmhouse stopped. The knocking and gnawing noises were all gone.

Closing Out The Case

And so we have come to the end of America’s oldest ghost story. After the death of John, the townsfolk saw strange floating lights around the Bell farmhouse and heard what seemed like singing from the woods around the property. The rest of the Bell family would move out after the passing of John’s wife in 1838.

There are hundreds of accounts and theories for the Bell Witch haunting, ranging from the work of an actual demon to a case of mass hysteria but none of these theories can conclusively disprove or prove the existence of actual paranormal entities at work. And this is where we end today’s tale. Until next time, Detective.

If you have enjoyed this article, do consider following or subscribing to me on Medium, and don’t miss out on the next Criminal File!