There are many accounts of this story. As with any legend, it has been expanded and elaborated over the years. However, there are several details on which all agree, so those are what I’ll include here.

It all started in 1817 when John Bell, a prominent citizen of Adams, Tennessee heard a strange noise in his field. He grabbed his shotgun and went to investigate. He encountered a strange animal, said to have the body of a dog and the head of a rabbit. The animal escaped, but that was only the beginning of the strange occurrences. Soon, the Bell family began to hear strange noises almost nightly. At first, they seemed to come from outside; the noises were best described as someone beating on the walls of the home.

The disturbance escalated very quickly. The noises moved inside; the children would wake up complaining that they heard rats gnawing on their bedposts even though no rats were ever found. The family also began experiencing kinetic phenomenon, such as pillows being tossed across the room, bedcovers pulled off or moved, windows opening on their own, and furniture moving. Eventually, something truly bizarre began to happen. They began to hear voices. The voice was weak and whispering at first, but got continually stronger.

The force then turned openly malevolent. The youngest of the Bell daughters, Betsy, began to experience physical assaults from an unseen attacker. She had her hair pulled and felt invisible slaps. The family kept it to themselves for some time before inviting a neighbor to spend the night. When the neighbor reported the same happenings, the story rapidly spread throughout the town.

The force seemed especially focused on John and Betsy Bell. John began to experience physical symptoms, as well. His throat would close up, making it difficult to breathe. He also began having facial tics and minor seizures. The voices in the house became increasingly loud and clear. It recited scripture, sang hymns, and even carried on intelligent conversation. During the attacks on Betsy and John, the voice would scream curses at them. Once, the voice described two events that were going on simultaneously in different towns which were over 13 miles apart. The attacks on Betsy continued, as well. The force seemed particularly unhappy with her engagement to a local boy named Joshua Gardener. The two apparently couldn’t go anywhere without being followed by the voice, which would curse them, warns Betsy about continuing the relationship, and physically assaulted her. Eventually, the tactics worked. Betsy broke off the engagement.

After the break-up, the attacks decreased somewhat. Betsy was left alone, for the most part. However, the force vowed to kill John Bell. The severity of his attacks became horrific. On December 20th, 1820, John Bell died. The voice spoke, saying that it had poisoned him. There was a vial of mysterious liquid next to his bed; when they fed some to the cat, it promptly died. If John Bell was indeed killed by a spirit, this would be the only recorded instance of this in history. Shortly after John Bell’s Death, the force appeared to one of the older Bell girls and promised to return in seven years. It reportedly did, talking to the younger Bell boy about many topics. It even purportedly predicted the Civil War, World War I, and World War II and the Great Depression. It then disappeared again, promising to return in 1935. No more official sightings of the Bell Witch were ever reported.

One thing that no one seems to agree on is who or what this force was or why it singled out the Bell family. Some think that it’s merely an angry ghost that had been killed on or around the Bell property. It was widely believed at the time, that the force was not a ghost, but a witch (hence the name). Many pinned the crime on a neighbor named Kate Batts, who had been in dispute with John Bell over property boundaries. Still another theory accuses a schoolteacher named Richard Powell, who had taken a special interest in Betsy Bell. He was allegedly a student of the occult and was determined to stop the marriage of Betsy to Joshua Gardner so that he, one day, could marry her. There are even some that believe the force was demonic.

Whatever the Bell Witch was, there are some who believe it never left the Bell farm area. There are several reports of strange occurrences on and around the former property of the Bell family. Reports of unexplained laughing, talking, whispering and children playing are often reported. A photo taken at a cave on the property seemed to reveal a spirit; several experts have insisted that the extra person in the photo is not the result of double exposure. This, like any photo documentation of a haunting, should be taken with a grain of salt. Though it is widely excepted that most electronic equipment doesn’t work on the property and that it’s nearly impossible to get a decent picture, even if taken with an older camera that have little or no electronic components. The Bell farm, including a replica of the cabin in which they lived and the cave on the property, has become a lucrative tourist attraction.

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