The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

In the early 1800s, John Bell moved his family from North Carolina to the Red River bottomland in

Robertson County, Tennessee, settling in a community that later became known as Adams. One day

in 1817, John Bell was inspecting his corn field when he encountered a strange-looking animal

sitting in the middle of a corn row. Shocked by the appearance of this animal, which had the body of

a dog and the head of a rabbit, Bell shot several times to no avail. The animal vanished. Bell thought

nothing more about the incident--at least not until after dinner. That evening, the Bells began hearing

"beating" sounds on the outside walls of their house.

These mysterious sounds continued with increased force each night. Bell and his sons often hurried

outside to catch the culprit but always returned empty-handed. The noises were soon followed by

more problems. The Bell children began waking up frightened and complaining of sounds much like

rats gnawing at their bedposts. It wasn't long until the children began complaining of more terrifying

things--having their bed covers pulled and their pillows were tossed onto the floor by a seemingly

invisible force.

As time went on, the Bells began to hear more strange noises. Only this time, they sounded like faint,

whispering voices--too weak to understand--but sounded like a feeble old woman crying or singing

hymns. The encounters escalated, and the Bell's youngest daughter, Betsy, began experiencing

physically brutal encounters with the entity. It relentlessly pulled her hair and slapped her, often

leaving visible prints on her face and body for days at a time. The evil disturbances escalated over

the next year to the point it was time for John Bell to share his "family trouble" with his closest

friend and neighbor, James Johnston.

Johnston and his wife spent the night at the Bell home, where they were subjected to the same

terrifying disturbances that the Bells had been. After having his bedcovers repeatedly removed, and

being slapped, Johnston sprang out of bed, asking, "I ask you in the name of the Lord God, who are

you and what do you want?" There was no response of any type, but the remainder of the night was

peaceful.

As word of the Bell disturbances spread throughout the community, so did the entity's antics. Over

time, the its voice strengthened to the point it was loud and understandable. It sang hymns, quoted

scripture, carried on intelligent conversation, and once quoted, word-for-word, two sermons that

took place at the same time thirteen miles apart. During none of this time did anyone know who or

what the entity was, or its purpose for tormenting the Red River Settlement.

Word eventually spread outside the settlement, even as far as Nashville, where one Andrew

Jackson became interested.

John Bell, Jr. and Jesse Bell fought under General Andrew Jackson in the Battle of New Orleans, and

had developed a good rapport with him. In 1819, Jackson got word of the disturbances at the Bell

home and decided to pay a personal visit. Jackson and his entourage, consisting of several men and

a large wagon, journeyed from Nashville to the Bell home. As the entourage approached the Bell

property, the wagon suddenly stopped. The horses tried pulling but to no avail--the wagon simply

would not move.

After several minutes of cursing and trying to get the wagon to move, Jackson exclaimed that it

must have been the "witch." As soon as Jackson uttered these words, an unidentified female voice

spoke, telling Jackson and his men that they could proceed, and that "she" would see them again

later that evening. The men were finally allowed to continue.

Jackson and John Bell had a long discussion about the Indians and other topics while Jackson's

men patiently waited to see if the "spirit" was going to manifest itself. One of the men in Jackson's

entourage claimed to be a "witch tamer." After several uneventful hours, this man decided to "call"

the "spirit." He pulled out a shiny pistol and made his intent to kill the "spirit" known to all that were

present.

Almost immediately, the man began screaming and moving his body in many different directions. He

said he was being stuck with pins and being severely beaten. The man quickly ran out the door.

Jackson, a hero in the Battle of New Orleans four years earlier, was quoted as later having said, "I'd

rather fight the entire British Army than to deal with the Bell Witch." Jackson later became the

President of the United States.

Over time, Betsy Bell became interested in Joshua Gardner, a young man who lived not far from her.

With the blessings of their parents, they agreed to engagement. Nevertheless, despite their evident

happiness, the "spirit" repeatedly told Betsy not to marry Joshua Gardner.

It is interesting to note that their schoolteacher, Richard Powell, was noticeably interested in Betsy

and wanted to marry her when she became older. Powell was believed to have been a student of the

occult, and had been secretly married to a woman in nearby Nashville for some time. Betsy and

Joshua could not go to the river, the field, or the cave to play, without the "spirit" following along and

persistently taunting them. Betsy and Joshua's patience finally reached critical mass, and on Easter

Monday of 1821, Betsy met Joshua at the river and broke off their engagement.

The encounters decreased after that heartbreaking Easter Monday, although the "spirit" continued

to express its dislike for "ol Jack Bell," and relentlessly vowed to kill him. As Bell's health grew

worse, the "spirit" would torture him more severely, sometimes removing his shoes from his feet

and relentlessly slapping his face while he was experiencing seizures.

On the morning of December 20, 1820, after a long battle with a crippling nervous system disorder,

John Bell breathed his last breath. Immediately after Bell's death, the family found a small vial of

unidentified liquid that Bell had partaken of the evening before his death. John Bell, Jr. gave some of

the liquid to the family's cat, and the cat died almost instantly. The "spirit" suddenly spoke up

exclaiming, "I gave Ol' Jack a big dose of that last night, and that fixed him." John, Jr. quickly threw

the vial into the fireplace, where it shot up the chimney in the form of a bright, blue flame. As family

and friends began to leave John Bell's burial site, the "spirit" laughed loudly and sang a cheerful

song about a bottle of brandy.

In April of 1821, the "spirit" visited Lucy Bell and told her that "it" would return in seven years for a

visit. Seven years later, in 1828, the "spirit" returned as promised. Most of this visit centered around

John Bell, Jr. The "spirit" discussed with him such things as the origin of life, Christianity, the need

for a mass spiritual reawakening, and other in-depth topics. Of particular significance were the

"spirit's" predictions of the Civil War, World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II.

After three weeks, the "spirit" bade farewell, promising to visit John Bell's most direct descendant

in 107 years. The year would have been 1935, and the closest direct living descendant of John Bell

was Charles Bailey Bell, a physician in Nashville. Charles Bailey Bell himself wrote a book about the

"Bell Witch," but it had been published prior 1935. No follow-up was published, and Bell died a few

years later in 1945.

Today, the "spirit" which haunted the Bell family nearly 200 years ago is believed by many to be the

source of numerous manifestations in the area where the story took place. Some believe that when

the "spirit" returned in 1935, it took residence in Adams, Tennessee, once a part of the Bell farm.

The faint sounds of people talking and children playing can sometimes be heard in the area. It is also

very difficult to take a good picture there..