Tennessee

John Fell lived with his wife, four sons and a daughter on a farm in rural Tennessee. Betsy, the daughter, became the focus of the hauntings of a spirit now referred to as the ‘Bell Witch’, The disturbances started in 1817 and were, initially, no more than the sound of scratching and the occasional knock. Soon, however; bedclothes were being pulled from people as they slept and there were odd noises as though of someone choking.

Furniture began to move, stones were thrown and then the spirit started to slap Betsy across the face. She would hear the noise of a blow and her face would redden in the pattern of a hand, On many occasions her hair was pulled violently and painfully. Obviously now the target of the spirit’s malevolent attacks, Betsy was soon tired out and eventually John Bell sought help for his daughter from a neighbour, James Johnson, who was a much liked and respected lay preacher. Johnson very quickly came to the conclusion that it was not practical jokes that were being played, and he decided that the only thing to do was to try to contact the spirit.

It became apparent after a while that the spirit was trying to commu nicate, and according to one account, ‘It commenced whistling when spoken to, in a low, broken sound, as if trying to speak in a whistling voice, and in this way progressed, developing until the whistling sound was changed to a weak, fluttering whisper uttering indistinct words. The voice, however, gradually gained strength in articulating and soon the utterances became distinct in a low whisper so as to be understood in the absence of any other noise.’

Now that it could form words, it started to tell stories that were Sometimes contradictory. It was the spirit from a body that was bur ied in the surrounding forest; it came from a settler who had hidden his fortune in the woods and had died before he could retrieve it; and it was an evil conjuring by a local woman, Kate Batts, who had the reputation of being a witch, Then John Bell started to suffer attacks. The ghost declared that it would give him a dose of such a medicine that he would die from it.

His jaw then swelled, and he suffered violent spasms and convUIsiOflS, until one day he fell into a coma from which he never awoke. When he eventually died, the spirit filled the house with cries of triumph that were repeated at his funetal a few days later. For a short period after this, the remaining members of the Bell family had peace, and then, in 1821, one evening as they sat around the supper table, a large 5 sphere rolled from the grate and gradually vanished as it turned into smoke. The spirit’s voice cried out, ‘I am going and will be gone for seven years.’ it never returned.

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