# The Bell Witch HAUNTING - MrBallen

An episode of [Crime and Horror](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6813298400), 22 Sep 2026, 29 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74775990/the_bell_witch_haunting_mrballen_64k.mp3

The Bell Witch HAUNTING - MrBallen

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: One night, four young brothers were sleeping in their bedroom
[0:03] Speaker 1: in their little house in Tennessee when they started to
[0:06] Speaker 1: hear what sounded like a rat gnawing on one of
[0:09] Speaker 1: their bedposts. So the two oldest brothers climbed out of
[0:13] Speaker 1: their bed to go find this rat. But the second
[0:15] Speaker 1: their feet touched the wooden floor, the gnawing sound stopped.
[0:19] Speaker 1: The boys checked the room. They checked the bedposts. There
[0:21] Speaker 1: was no sign of any rat. And so eventually, the
[0:24] Speaker 1: two oldest brothers just kind of shrugged it off and
[0:27] Speaker 1: got back in bed. But when they closed their eyes again,
[0:30] Speaker 1: the gnawing sound filled the room again, except this time
[0:34] Speaker 1: it was louder and more frantic. Little did they know,
[0:37] Speaker 1: these sounds were just the beginning of a multi-year-long nightmare
[0:42] Speaker 1: that they and.
[0:42] Speaker 2: The rest of their family would have to endure.
[0:45] Speaker 1: Their terrifying story is known as the Bell Witch Haunting,
[0:49] Speaker 1: and it is considered to be one of the most
[0:51] Speaker 1: frightening documented hauntings of all time. And today, I'm going
[0:55] Speaker 1: to share their story with you. But before we get
[0:57] Speaker 1: into the Bellwitch haunting, if you're a fan of the strange, dark,
[1:01] Speaker 1: and mysterious Delivered in Story format, then you've come to
[1:04] Speaker 1: the right place because that's all we do, and we
[1:06] Speaker 1: upload once a week. So, if that's of interest to you,
[1:09] Speaker 1: please un-gold the Like Button's Goldfish Crackers.
[1:13] Speaker 2: Also, please subscribe to our.
[1:14] Speaker 1: Channel and turn on all notifications so you don't miss
[1:17] Speaker 1: any of our weekly uploads.
[1:18] Speaker 2: Okay, let's get into today's story.
[1:21] Speaker 1: In 1804, a.
[1:22] Speaker 2: Man named John Bell decided his farm in North Carolina
[1:25] Speaker 2: was just too small for his growing family.
[1:27] Speaker 1: So he, along with his wife Lucy and their six kids,
[1:30] Speaker 1: packed all their belongings onto wagons and then traveled more
[1:49] Speaker 1: than 600 miles west to this thousand-acre patch along the
[1:53] Speaker 1: Red River in northern Tennessee. The area they settled was
[1:57] Speaker 1: known as Robertson County, and at the time, it was
[2:00] Speaker 1: very rural, and basically nobody lived there. And so the
[2:03] Speaker 1: Bell family, when they arrived in Robertson County, fully expected
[2:08] Speaker 1: to have to work with the few families that were there,
[2:11] Speaker 1: to build up the settlement. Basically, they wanted to build
[2:14] Speaker 1: a town from scratch. But this was the kind of
[2:17] Speaker 1: work that.
[2:17] Speaker 2: John Bell was born for.
[2:19] Speaker 1: He was raised on a farm where he had a
[2:20] Speaker 1: reputation for working extremely hard and never giving up. John
[2:24] Speaker 1: was very generous and excellent at working with other people.
[2:28] Speaker 1: In fact, when his family was still in North Carolina...
[2:31] Speaker 1: John and his very gentle and sweet wife, Lucy, would
[2:34] Speaker 1: open their door to anybody who needed a place to
[2:36] Speaker 1: stay or a hot meal. And sometimes John would just
[2:40] Speaker 1: give money to his neighbors when he felt like they
[2:42] Speaker 1: were down on hard times. So after arriving in Robertson
[2:45] Speaker 1: County and after the Bell family had met their few neighbors,
[2:49] Speaker 1: John Bell got right to work.
[2:51] Speaker 2: First, he began clearing trees off of his land.
[2:54] Speaker 1: And then with that lumber, he built a one and
[2:56] Speaker 1: a half story log house up on this hill, not
[2:59] Speaker 1: far from the Red River. And in fact, the Red
[3:02] Speaker 1: River was a very popular picnic spot and fishing spot
[3:05] Speaker 1: for the few people that lived in Robertson County. And
[3:08] Speaker 1: so in virtue of the Bell's house being so near
[3:10] Speaker 1: the river, the Bell family was always running into their
[3:13] Speaker 1: neighbors and saying hi and making friends. And so it
[3:16] Speaker 1: wasn't long after John and his family had arrived and
[3:19] Speaker 1: built this house. that the Bell family became one of
[3:21] Speaker 1: the most popular families in the area. And for many years,
[3:25] Speaker 1: the Bell family lived a very happy and prosperous life
[3:28] Speaker 1: in Robertson County. Most mornings, John would wake up first,
[3:31] Speaker 1: and then he would rouse the children, who would then
[3:33] Speaker 1: leave the house and walk through the nearby woods to
[3:36] Speaker 1: go to their school, and then they'd come back before sunset.
[3:39] Speaker 1: And then while the kids were at school during the day,
[3:42] Speaker 1: John and his older sons would go out and work
[3:44] Speaker 1: the land or help build structures around town to build
[3:47] Speaker 1: the settlement up. or they would build the boats that
[3:50] Speaker 1: they would use to transport the tobacco and meats they
[3:53] Speaker 1: produced on their farm down south for trade. John and
[3:56] Speaker 1: Lucy would have three more kids while in Robertson County,
[4:00] Speaker 1: and before long, their oldest children began getting married and
[4:03] Speaker 1: starting families of their own and building their own houses nearby.
[4:06] Speaker 1: But one summer day in 1817, so 13 years after
[4:11] Speaker 1: the Bell family first arrived in Robertson County, John would
[4:15] Speaker 1: have a very strange experience that at the time he
[4:19] Speaker 1: would completely write off. But years later, they would look
[4:22] Speaker 1: back and say, that's when it started. On that summer
[4:25] Speaker 1: day in 1817, John.
[4:27] Speaker 2: Was by himself.
[4:28] Speaker 1: He was out walking through his cornfield near his house
[4:31] Speaker 1: when he looked out and he saw.
[4:33] Speaker 2: This big dog just sitting in the middle of the cornfield.
[4:36] Speaker 1: Now there were lots of dogs around Robertson County, so
[4:39] Speaker 1: it wasn't unusual to run into a dog while you
[4:42] Speaker 1: were out and about.
[4:43] Speaker 2: But there was something off about this dog.
[4:45] Speaker 1: It almost looked misshapen, like its bones had broken many
[4:49] Speaker 1: times over and reset at awkward angles. And this dog
[4:53] Speaker 1: just looked way too big to be a dog.
[4:55] Speaker 2: It almost looked more like a big wolf.
[4:58] Speaker 1: And this dog was staring at John in a very
[5:02] Speaker 1: human way, not breaking eye contact, staring.
[5:04] Speaker 2: Right at John. Now, John was not someone who easily spooked.
[5:08] Speaker 1: But standing in this cornfield, staring at this dog who
[5:12] Speaker 1: was staring right back at him, John couldn't help but
[5:14] Speaker 1: feel totally unsettled and a little bit panicked. And so John,
[5:18] Speaker 1: who had his rifle with him, raised it and fired
[5:21] Speaker 1: in the direction of this dog.
[5:23] Speaker 2: And when he did, the dog took off running.
[5:26] Speaker 1: And so John, he watched as this dog galloped away
[5:28] Speaker 1: from him and disappeared into the tree line of the
[5:31] Speaker 1: forest far away. And once the dog was totally out
[5:34] Speaker 1: of view, John marched forward to the spot in the
[5:38] Speaker 1: cornfield where this dog had been sitting. And when he
[5:40] Speaker 1: got there, he was expecting to see the corn kind
[5:43] Speaker 1: of pressed down from where this big animal had been sitting.
[5:47] Speaker 2: But it wasn't.
[5:48] Speaker 1: There was no sign that any big creature had been
[5:51] Speaker 1: sitting right there. And as he looked around him, he
[5:54] Speaker 1: saw there were no paw prints, no tracks on the
[5:57] Speaker 1: ground anywhere. either coming to this spot or going in
[6:00] Speaker 1: the direction that he watched this big dog run off.
[6:03] Speaker 1: John was totally confused by this, but after sitting there
[6:06] Speaker 1: kind of wondering how this could be, he just told himself,
[6:09] Speaker 1: you know what, I'm overthinking this. It was just some
[6:12] Speaker 1: big ugly dog and a missed shot.
[6:14] Speaker 2: This is no big deal.
[6:16] Speaker 1: And so John promptly turned around and walked back to
[6:18] Speaker 1: his house, forgetting all about the dog. But not long
[6:22] Speaker 1: after John saw this dog in the cornfield, his family
[6:25] Speaker 1: began experiencing other strange things back at their house. At night,
[6:30] Speaker 1: after the Bell family had climbed into bed, they would
[6:33] Speaker 1: start hearing a knocking sound on the side of their house.
[6:37] Speaker 1: And as soon as they got up to go inspect it,
[6:39] Speaker 1: the knocking would stop. And then they'd lay back down
[6:41] Speaker 1: again and they would hear it again, except it was
[6:43] Speaker 1: coming from another side of the house. It was like
[6:46] Speaker 1: there was someone or something outside of their house just
[6:49] Speaker 1: kind of circling around them, periodically knocking on their walls. Now,
[6:53] Speaker 1: John was convinced this was not the work of some animal.
[6:56] Speaker 1: This was a person, a prankster, and they were hiding
[6:59] Speaker 1: out in the woods somewhere. And so he instructed his
[7:02] Speaker 1: family not to mention the tapping sounds to anybody in
[7:05] Speaker 1: town because he thought somebody in town was doing this to.
[7:08] Speaker 2: Them and he didn't want them to know that they
[7:10] Speaker 2: were on to them.
[7:11] Speaker 1: He wanted these pranksters to come back and do it
[7:13] Speaker 1: again so he could catch them in the act. But
[7:17] Speaker 1: over the course of several weeks, the tapping continued and
[7:20] Speaker 1: every time John would lay in wait and try to
[7:22] Speaker 1: run out and see who was there, there'd be no one.
[7:25] Speaker 1: And there'd be no tracks anywhere around the house indicating
[7:28] Speaker 1: that anyone had ever been there. And as unsettling as
[7:32] Speaker 1: these knocking sounds were for the family, they were.
[7:35] Speaker 2: Nothing compared to the things that happened next.
[7:43] Speaker 1: My pet frog, Seagull Lung, is a huge fan of
[7:46] Speaker 1: the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format.
[7:50] Speaker 2: And so for his birthday, which was.
[7:51] Speaker 1: Last week, he asked me if I would take him
[7:54] Speaker 1: on a special camping trip where all we did was
[7:56] Speaker 1: sat around the fire and I just told crazy stories.
[7:59] Speaker 2: And so, of course, I said... Sure, Lung. I can
[8:03] Speaker 2: do that for you.
[8:04] Speaker 1: And then, on his big day, Lungy came bounding down
[8:07] Speaker 1: the stairs all excited for his big camping trip.
[8:11] Speaker 2: And I stopped him and I said, hold on a minute, Lung.
[8:13] Speaker 2: Forget the camping trip. I got something even better for
[8:17] Speaker 2: your birthday.
[8:17] Speaker 1: And then, from behind my back, I presented a gift
[8:21] Speaker 1: fit for the gods. Homemade fermented Norwegian lemming liver cakes
[8:26] Speaker 1: with a side of koala stew.
[8:29] Speaker 2: Now, I know what you're thinking. Wow. Lungy must have
[8:31] Speaker 2: been so happy.
[8:33] Speaker 1: But no, he wasn't. Turns out my gift was gross
[8:37] Speaker 1: and way worse than a strange, dark, and mysterious themed
[8:40] Speaker 1: camping trip. But there was a silver lining to this
[8:43] Speaker 1: minor birthday snafu. After Lungy refused to eat my beautiful gift,
[8:48] Speaker 1: I went online to try to figure out what Lungy
[8:51] Speaker 1: would eat. And so I typed into Google, who has
[8:54] Speaker 1: the best food in the world? And two words popped
[8:58] Speaker 1: up that changed my life. HelloFresh. With HelloFresh, America's number
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[9:39] Speaker 1: So if you're like me and you keep gifting your
[9:42] Speaker 1: loved ones terrible exotic food dishes for their birthday.
[9:45] Speaker 2: Then you need to sign up for HelloFresh today.
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[10:04] Speaker 2: Okay, back to the story.
[10:11] Speaker 1: One Sunday night in May of 1818, so roughly one
[10:15] Speaker 1: year after John had seen that big dog in the
[10:18] Speaker 1: cornfield and a couple of months after the knocking on
[10:21] Speaker 1: the walls had begun in the Bell's household, four of
[10:24] Speaker 1: John's sons were asleep in their bedroom inside of their
[10:27] Speaker 1: home when they woke up to the sound of what
[10:29] Speaker 1: sounded like a rat gnawing on one of their bedposts. Now,
[10:33] Speaker 1: these boys were sleeping in two bunk beds and the
[10:36] Speaker 1: two oldest brothers were sleeping on the lower bunk.
[10:39] Speaker 2: And so they instinctively got up stepped onto the floor
[10:42] Speaker 2: to go find this rat.
[10:43] Speaker 1: But the second they stepped onto the floor, the gnawing
[10:46] Speaker 1: sound completely disappeared.
[10:48] Speaker 2: The two boys searched the room for this rat. They
[10:50] Speaker 2: couldn't find it.
[10:51] Speaker 1: And when they checked all of the bedposts, there was
[10:54] Speaker 1: no sign that any of them had been gnawed on.
[10:57] Speaker 1: So the two older brothers finally just kind of shrugged
[10:59] Speaker 1: it off and climbed back in bed. The moment they
[11:02] Speaker 1: closed their eyes, the gnawing sound began again. Except now
[11:06] Speaker 1: it was louder and more frantic, like whatever was under
[11:09] Speaker 1: there was desperately.
[11:10] Speaker 2: Trying to chew through the wood of their beds.
[11:13] Speaker 1: But again, when the two older brothers leapt out of
[11:16] Speaker 1: their bed to go find whatever animal was doing this,
[11:19] Speaker 1: the sound would completely stop and the room would go still.
[11:22] Speaker 1: The boys searched the room again. There was no sign
[11:24] Speaker 1: of any rat or any animal. There were no marks
[11:27] Speaker 1: on the underside of their beds. and so they had
[11:29] Speaker 1: no idea what to make of this. The gnawing sounds
[11:31] Speaker 1: would continue all that night, making it nearly impossible for
[11:35] Speaker 1: these boys to sleep, and it would happen again the
[11:38] Speaker 1: next night the same way. But on the night after that,
[11:41] Speaker 1: so the.
[11:42] Speaker 2: Third night, the boys heard a new sound in their room.
[11:46] Speaker 1: As they're laying in their beds, exhausted from barely sleeping
[11:49] Speaker 1: the last two nights, they began hearing what sounded like
[11:52] Speaker 1: someone gasping for air underneath their beds, like they were
[11:55] Speaker 1: being choked, they were gulping and smacking their lips and
[11:58] Speaker 1: clawing at the underside of the beds. The two oldest
[12:01] Speaker 1: boys were terrified, but eventually worked up the courage and
[12:04] Speaker 1: leapt from their bed to confront whatever was underneath them.
[12:08] Speaker 1: But again, as soon as their feet hit the floor,
[12:10] Speaker 1: the sounds completely stopped and the room went still. But
[12:13] Speaker 1: this time, the boys were so frightened, they decided not
[12:16] Speaker 1: to try to just go back to sleep. Instead, they
[12:19] Speaker 1: woke up the rest of their family and the Bell
[12:21] Speaker 1: family searched the entire house, top to bottom, looking for
[12:25] Speaker 1: any indication of what could have been making those sounds,
[12:29] Speaker 1: but there was nothing in their house. There was no
[12:31] Speaker 1: marks from some animal or rat. I mean, there was
[12:34] Speaker 1: no indication that anything was other than normal. Now, to
[12:37] Speaker 1: this point, the Bell family had not told anybody in
[12:40] Speaker 1: town about either the knocking sounds on the walls, or
[12:44] Speaker 1: the rat gnawing sounds, or now the gulping for air sounds.
[12:48] Speaker 1: And a part of that was because John had told
[12:50] Speaker 1: the family, don't tell anyone because we're going to catch
[12:52] Speaker 1: whoever's doing this.
[12:54] Speaker 2: But another part of it was the family knew as
[12:56] Speaker 2: soon as they.
[12:56] Speaker 1: Brought this stuff up, they could be the target of
[12:59] Speaker 1: ridicule because people wouldn't believe them. But after this night
[13:02] Speaker 1: with the gulping and gasping sounds, the Bell kids really
[13:06] Speaker 1: could not sleep anymore.
[13:07] Speaker 2: They were just up all night, terrified.
[13:09] Speaker 1: And so finally, John went to one of his neighbors
[13:11] Speaker 1: who he was very close with and confided in him
[13:14] Speaker 1: that something weird was happening inside of his house. Now,
[13:18] Speaker 1: John was not the kind of person who made things up.
[13:21] Speaker 1: He was very straightforward, very honest. He didn't even tell jokes.
[13:24] Speaker 1: And so this neighbor, as he's listening to this unbelievable story,
[13:28] Speaker 1: just takes.
[13:29] Speaker 2: John at face value and says, you know what?
[13:31] Speaker 1: I'll stay the night in your house and I'll see
[13:33] Speaker 1: if I can hear all these strange sounds. That night,
[13:36] Speaker 1: the neighbor would stay with John Bell and his family
[13:39] Speaker 1: in the Bell household.
[13:40] Speaker 2: And sure enough, the neighbor would hear the tapping on
[13:43] Speaker 2: the walls.
[13:44] Speaker 1: He would hear the rat gnawing on the wood post
[13:46] Speaker 1: in the boys' room, as well as that gasping and
[13:49] Speaker 1: gulping sound coming from the boys' room. And this neighbor
[13:52] Speaker 1: was so terrified that he did not last the night
[13:55] Speaker 1: in John's house.
[13:55] Speaker 2: He left in the middle of the night to go
[13:57] Speaker 2: back to his house.
[13:58] Speaker 1: After this, word spread quickly around Robertson County about what
[14:02] Speaker 1: was happening at the Bell household. And the way the
[14:05] Speaker 1: townspeople reacted was very supportive. I mean, the Bell family
[14:09] Speaker 1: had been instrumental in building up the settlement, and John
[14:13] Speaker 1: and his wife Lucy were so kind and generous.
[14:16] Speaker 2: And so the townspeople decided.
[14:18] Speaker 1: that they were going to find a way to rally
[14:20] Speaker 1: around the Bell family and try to help them. So,
[14:22] Speaker 1: other people in town began volunteering to spend the night
[14:26] Speaker 1: inside of the Bell household with the Bell family. One,
[14:29] Speaker 1: because they wanted the Bell family to feel some security
[14:32] Speaker 1: having some more people around them. And two, these people
[14:35] Speaker 1: were thinking, that maybe just their presence inside of the
[14:38] Speaker 1: Bell household would scare off whoever or whatever was tormenting
[14:43] Speaker 1: the Bells. But no matter who stayed inside of the
[14:46] Speaker 1: Bell household, the noises persisted every single night. Townspeople came
[14:51] Speaker 1: up with all sorts of explanations for what was happening
[14:54] Speaker 1: to the Bell family. ranging from, you know, John's youngest
[14:58] Speaker 1: daughter must be behind this because she wants attention, or
[15:01] Speaker 1: other people said maybe there's a family or an individual
[15:04] Speaker 1: that hates the Bell family and they're targeting them and
[15:07] Speaker 1: they're behind this. There was even a theory that someone
[15:10] Speaker 1: in town had learned ventriloquism, which is a kind of
[15:13] Speaker 1: performance where the ventriloquist throws their voice so it sounds
[15:18] Speaker 1: like it's coming from somewhere else, not from their body.
[15:21] Speaker 1: And so the idea was this ventriloquist was just a
[15:24] Speaker 1: prankster and they were screwing with the Bell family. But
[15:27] Speaker 1: the townspeople searched the Bell's house with the Bell family
[15:30] Speaker 1: over and over again, and they never found any sign.
[15:34] Speaker 2: Of what could be making these noises.
[15:36] Speaker 1: The people in town even went so far as to
[15:39] Speaker 1: have people watch each member of the Bell family as
[15:42] Speaker 1: they slept at night. to make sure none of them
[15:46] Speaker 1: were responsible for these sounds. And sure enough, as the
[15:49] Speaker 1: Bell family was being closely monitored, the noises would start,
[15:53] Speaker 1: and it was very clearly not coming from anyone in
[15:56] Speaker 1: the Bell family. As the months went on, and the
[15:59] Speaker 1: Bell family was forced to endure whatever was going on
[16:02] Speaker 1: inside of their home... The people in town started to
[16:05] Speaker 1: notice something odd about John Bell. Normally, John was a
[16:08] Speaker 1: very engaged person, that when he spoke to you, he
[16:11] Speaker 1: was locked onto you and really paying attention. But at
[16:14] Speaker 1: some point, after these mysterious things began happening at his house,
[16:18] Speaker 1: John would be talking to someone And then suddenly his
[16:21] Speaker 1: eyes would kind of gloss over and his jaw would
[16:23] Speaker 1: go slack and it would look like he was staring
[16:26] Speaker 1: off into the distance.
[16:27] Speaker 2: And then his face would start to twitch.
[16:29] Speaker 1: And at first, these twitches were fairly minor and were
[16:32] Speaker 1: centered just around his eyes.
[16:33] Speaker 2: But over time, these twitches became much more dramatic.
[16:36] Speaker 1: To the point where his jaw would start to kind
[16:38] Speaker 1: of quiver up and down, and his eyes would begin
[16:41] Speaker 1: blinking out of sync. And then, when the twitching finally stopped, John,
[16:45] Speaker 1: without saying a word to the person he had just
[16:47] Speaker 1: been talking to, would just wander back to his house,
[16:50] Speaker 1: he'd go up to his bedroom, and he would sit
[16:52] Speaker 1: on his bed for hours and hours and hours, just
[16:55] Speaker 1: staring at the wall, not eating, not drinking, not saying anything.
[16:59] Speaker 1: The Bell family felt like they were hostages in their
[17:01] Speaker 1: own home. They had no idea what was causing these
[17:04] Speaker 1: things to happen or why they were happening, and they
[17:07] Speaker 1: were all filled with this constant sense of dread. As
[17:10] Speaker 1: for the townspeople, most of them had come to believe
[17:13] Speaker 1: that whatever was happening to the Bell family was likely
[17:17] Speaker 1: caused by their neighbor, Kate Batts. Kate was known to
[17:20] Speaker 1: be very eccentric and kind of unpleasant, and she was
[17:24] Speaker 1: known to be fairly unlucky because her husband had become
[17:27] Speaker 1: disabled and her three kids had all died young. Kate
[17:30] Speaker 1: also had this strange habit of using really big, complex
[17:34] Speaker 1: words in her conversations, but she misused the words, and
[17:38] Speaker 1: so everything she said kind of sounded off. Townspeople would
[17:42] Speaker 1: talk about Kate Batswitch, and they started referring to whatever
[17:45] Speaker 1: was causing the strange phenomenon at the Bell household as
[17:49] Speaker 1: just Kate. However, when Kate found out about this, she
[17:52] Speaker 1: was totally offended and said she had nothing to do
[17:55] Speaker 1: with whatever was happening to the Bells. By September of 1820,
[17:59] Speaker 1: the terrifying happenings at the Bell household had been going
[18:03] Speaker 1: on for three years, and somehow the Bell family had
[18:07] Speaker 1: just learned to live with it.
[18:08] Speaker 2: However, John Bell was not doing good.
[18:11] Speaker 1: It was like the longer these strange things were happening,
[18:14] Speaker 1: the more and more John seemed to become a shell
[18:17] Speaker 1: of his former self.
[18:18] Speaker 2: His sudden dazes and twitching.
[18:20] Speaker 1: Fits began to happen more and more frequently, and the
[18:23] Speaker 1: time he would spend afterwards sitting in his bedroom staring
[18:26] Speaker 1: at the wall in silence would go on longer and
[18:29] Speaker 1: longer and longer.
[18:30] Speaker 2: In private, John would tell his wife.
[18:32] Speaker 1: Lucy, that he believed someone or something was torturing him
[18:37] Speaker 1: to death. And then one day, as John was getting
[18:40] Speaker 1: sicker and sicker, one of his daughters, Esther, left the
[18:43] Speaker 1: house to go gather up some eggs in the hen house,
[18:46] Speaker 1: which was across the lane from from where the bell
[18:48] Speaker 1: house was.
[18:49] Speaker 2: And so she left the house, she crossed over the road,
[18:51] Speaker 2: she began walking up towards this hen house. And as
[18:54] Speaker 2: she was walking, she heard what sounded like someone moving
[18:57] Speaker 2: behind her.
[18:58] Speaker 1: And so she turned around and she saw there was
[19:00] Speaker 1: this woman dressed all in black with her head down,
[19:03] Speaker 1: walking slowly down the road she had just walked on
[19:06] Speaker 1: towards her house. So she's basically walking exactly where Esther
[19:11] Speaker 1: had just come from, but Esther had not seen her
[19:13] Speaker 1: until just now. So she wasn't really sure how this
[19:16] Speaker 1: woman had arrived on the road, but Esther wasn't worried.
[19:19] Speaker 1: She looked at this woman, she didn't recognize her, but
[19:21] Speaker 1: just assumed she was somebody from town and that was it.
[19:24] Speaker 1: And so Esther turned away from this woman and walked
[19:27] Speaker 1: the rest of the way up to the hen house.
[19:29] Speaker 2: She went inside, she got the eggs in her basket.
[19:32] Speaker 1: And then when she came back outside again and she
[19:34] Speaker 1: was back on that road, now facing in the direction
[19:36] Speaker 1: of her house, she saw this woman in black with
[19:39] Speaker 1: her head down was still trudging along slowly, now much
[19:43] Speaker 1: closer to the Bell household. And so Esther, she began
[19:46] Speaker 1: walking down the road, looking at this woman, trying to
[19:48] Speaker 1: figure out who she was. And as she got closer
[19:51] Speaker 1: and closer, she realized she recognized her as somebody from
[19:55] Speaker 1: the village. This was a neighbor of hers. And so
[19:57] Speaker 1: Esther yelled out a friendly hello. But this woman in
[20:00] Speaker 1: black with her head down didn't turn around.
[20:02] Speaker 2: She didn't react.
[20:03] Speaker 1: She just kept on slowly walking down the lane towards
[20:06] Speaker 1: the bell house. And so Esther began walking a little
[20:09] Speaker 1: bit faster, getting closer and closer to this woman.
[20:11] Speaker 2: And she yelled out a few more times, hey, hello,
[20:14] Speaker 2: how are you?
[20:15] Speaker 1: But each time this woman in black just appeared not
[20:17] Speaker 1: to hear Esther. And Esther, she's looking around and there's
[20:21] Speaker 1: nobody else out.
[20:22] Speaker 2: It's just her.
[20:23] Speaker 1: And this woman who's now about 15 feet away from her.
[20:25] Speaker 1: And so Esther starts to feel really uncomfortable about this woman.
[20:29] Speaker 1: And so Esther just stops on the road and stares
[20:31] Speaker 1: at the back of this woman.
[20:33] Speaker 2: And the second.
[20:34] Speaker 1: Esther stopped, this woman who was trudging along also suddenly stopped.
[20:38] Speaker 1: And then she reached up with her hands. Her back
[20:40] Speaker 1: is still to Esther. And she took her bonnet off
[20:43] Speaker 1: of her head. A bonnet is a type of hat.
[20:45] Speaker 1: And then she dropped the bonnet on the ground. And
[20:48] Speaker 1: right away, this woman's black matted hair kind of tumbled
[20:51] Speaker 1: down over her back.
[20:53] Speaker 2: And then this woman without moving.
[20:55] Speaker 1: Began reaching up and stroking her hair, running her fingers
[20:59] Speaker 1: through her hair as if she was trying to comb
[21:01] Speaker 1: it out. And so Esther is watching this kind of
[21:03] Speaker 1: wondering what's going on here. And so Esther began walking
[21:06] Speaker 1: slowly closer and closer to this woman to make sure
[21:09] Speaker 1: she was okay. But with each step that Esther took
[21:12] Speaker 1: towards this woman, this woman began running her hands faster
[21:16] Speaker 1: and faster through her hair until it almost looked impossible.
[21:19] Speaker 2: She was moving so fast.
[21:21] Speaker 1: And then Esther realized with horror that she wasn't just
[21:24] Speaker 1: combing her hair. This woman was grabbing clumps of her
[21:28] Speaker 1: hair and pulling them out of her head. In fact,
[21:30] Speaker 1: Esther could literally hear the hair being ripped from this
[21:34] Speaker 1: woman's scalp. And so before long, there was hair all
[21:37] Speaker 1: over the ground around this woman. And so Esther at
[21:40] Speaker 1: this point is terrified. She thinks there's something wrong with
[21:42] Speaker 1: this woman. And so she runs around this woman without
[21:45] Speaker 1: looking at her, charges into her house, which is right
[21:48] Speaker 1: in front of this lady.
[21:49] Speaker 2: She goes inside. She locks the door behind her.
[21:51] Speaker 1: And then Esther calls out for one of her sisters
[21:53] Speaker 1: who was home and said, come here, come here. And
[21:56] Speaker 1: the two of them went to the front window and
[21:58] Speaker 1: they look out onto the road and they see the woman.
[22:00] Speaker 1: She's still there in the same spot ripping her hair out.
[22:03] Speaker 1: But Esther makes eye contact with this woman. And the
[22:07] Speaker 1: second that happens.
[22:08] Speaker 2: The woman freezes.
[22:09] Speaker 1: Her hands are still in her hair and she's looking
[22:11] Speaker 1: directly up at Esther. And Esther and her sister, they're
[22:13] Speaker 1: kind of taken aback by the way this woman is
[22:15] Speaker 1: looking at them. And then this woman slowly brings her
[22:17] Speaker 1: hands down and she's staring up at Esther the whole time.
[22:20] Speaker 1: And then she turns suddenly and walks around the side
[22:23] Speaker 1: of the property out of view of Esther and her sister.
[22:26] Speaker 1: And so Esther and her sister, they shriek, they leave
[22:28] Speaker 1: the front window and they run over to the side
[22:30] Speaker 1: window where this woman was heading. And they saw this
[22:33] Speaker 1: woman climbing up and over their fence, getting into their
[22:37] Speaker 1: side property. And behind her were now three children who
[22:40] Speaker 1: they had not seen before, just marching right behind this
[22:43] Speaker 1: woman in black. And so this woman and these three
[22:46] Speaker 1: children in plain sight of Esther and her sister were
[22:49] Speaker 1: they walk into this grove of trees on the Bell property.
[22:52] Speaker 1: And so Esther and her sister, they're just staring. They
[22:54] Speaker 1: have no idea what's happening. And then one by one,
[22:57] Speaker 1: the woman first, then each of the children climbed their
[23:01] Speaker 1: own trees. And then once all four of them were
[23:03] Speaker 1: up in these trees, they turned around so they were
[23:06] Speaker 1: all looking directly at Esther and her sister. And then
[23:09] Speaker 1: they all began swaying with their bodies in the trees,
[23:12] Speaker 1: getting these trees to bend.
[23:14] Speaker 2: And wave hard enough left and right. And so Esther
[23:17] Speaker 2: and her sister are horrified.
[23:19] Speaker 1: And as they're staring, Esther's husband just happens to come
[23:23] Speaker 1: through the front door.
[23:24] Speaker 2: And so Esther yells for him to come over here
[23:26] Speaker 2: and look out the window. Look what they're doing out there.
[23:28] Speaker 1: And so Esther's husband, he runs over to the window
[23:30] Speaker 1: and he looks out, but he can't see the woman
[23:34] Speaker 1: or the three kids. He can only see trees swaying
[23:37] Speaker 1: unnaturally left and right. And so Esther and her sister,
[23:41] Speaker 1: they realize he's not seeing what we're seeing, what's happening.
[23:45] Speaker 2: And before long, they're screaming. The husband's trying to figure
[23:47] Speaker 2: out what's going on.
[23:48] Speaker 1: And finally, the trio just ran from the window, went
[23:51] Speaker 1: out the back door and ran around to the side
[23:54] Speaker 1: yard to go confront this woman and these children.
[23:57] Speaker 2: But when they got out to the grove of trees,
[23:59] Speaker 2: the woman, the kids, they were gone. And there was
[24:01] Speaker 2: no tracks.
[24:02] Speaker 1: Anywhere on the ground to indicate that anybody had been
[24:05] Speaker 1: there recently. Not long after this incident sometime in October
[24:10] Speaker 1: of 1820, John Bell and one of the sons were
[24:13] Speaker 1: out for a walk on their farm. And as they walked,
[24:16] Speaker 1: suddenly John stopped and threw his hands up to his
[24:18] Speaker 1: face as if he was protecting himself from someone trying
[24:21] Speaker 1: to hit him. And then all of a sudden, John's
[24:23] Speaker 1: face just went totally slack and his body began to
[24:26] Speaker 1: contort into these horrible, grotesque angles and his back began
[24:30] Speaker 1: to arch so far it looked like his back would break.
[24:33] Speaker 1: And so John's son, he's watching this happen.
[24:35] Speaker 2: He has no idea what to do.
[24:36] Speaker 1: And so he just runs over and grabs his dad
[24:39] Speaker 1: and tries to pull him upright. And as he does this,
[24:42] Speaker 1: this horrifying shriek fills the air. John's son has no
[24:46] Speaker 1: idea where it's coming from, but it's so loud, it
[24:48] Speaker 1: stops him in his tracks. And then as fast as
[24:51] Speaker 1: all of this had happened, it all stopped. John was
[24:53] Speaker 1: back to normal, laying on the ground, coming to, and
[24:56] Speaker 1: the shrieking was gone.
[24:57] Speaker 2: It was silent on their farm.
[24:59] Speaker 1: And so John's son turns to his dad, and he
[25:01] Speaker 1: sees John is crying on the ground.
[25:04] Speaker 2: And he says to his son, I don't have much
[25:06] Speaker 2: time left.
[25:07] Speaker 1: John's son would help him up, And then the two
[25:09] Speaker 1: of them silently just walked back to the house and
[25:12] Speaker 1: John went straight to bed. A few weeks later on
[25:15] Speaker 1: the morning of December 19th, 1820, John didn't come down
[25:20] Speaker 1: for breakfast. And so his family went up to his
[25:22] Speaker 1: bedroom to make sure he was okay. But when they
[25:25] Speaker 1: found him, he was still laying in bed. He was breathing,
[25:28] Speaker 1: but no matter what they did, they couldn't wake him up.
[25:30] Speaker 1: And so one of John's sons ran to the medicine
[25:33] Speaker 1: cabinet inside of their house.
[25:34] Speaker 2: But when he opened it up, all the medicine was gone.
[25:37] Speaker 1: And in their place, was this strange glass vial that
[25:41] Speaker 1: contained a smoky, dark liquid that the son had never
[25:45] Speaker 1: seen before and no one in the family had seen before.
[25:48] Speaker 2: And so the family immediately.
[25:50] Speaker 1: Called for a doctor to come to their house, both
[25:52] Speaker 1: for John and also to see what this liquid was.
[25:55] Speaker 1: And so the doctor showed up. He didn't really know
[25:57] Speaker 1: what to do for John.
[25:58] Speaker 2: It didn't make sense that he just was not waking up.
[26:01] Speaker 2: And then the doctor checked on this liquid. And he said,
[26:04] Speaker 2: you need to test this on some.
[26:06] Speaker 1: Farm animals to make sure we know what it does.
[26:08] Speaker 1: And so the family went out and found a stray
[26:10] Speaker 1: cat and they force fed it some of this liquid.
[26:14] Speaker 1: And within minutes, the cat had died. The Bell family
[26:17] Speaker 1: swore they had not put that vial in the medicine cabinet.
[26:20] Speaker 1: They had no idea what it was or how it
[26:22] Speaker 1: got there.
[26:23] Speaker 2: As for John, he would not wake up that day.
[26:25] Speaker 1: And in fact, the following morning when he was still
[26:28] Speaker 1: in bed, he died. After John's death, these strange occurrences
[26:32] Speaker 1: at the Bell household basically all came to a stop,
[26:35] Speaker 1: for the most part. Some people in town reported, after
[26:39] Speaker 1: John's death, seeing strange lights floating around the Bell property,
[26:43] Speaker 1: and also sometimes they reported hearing a strange sing-song voice
[26:47] Speaker 1: kind of coming from somewhere out around their property. John's wife, Lucy,
[26:51] Speaker 1: would remain inside of that house until 1838, when she
[26:55] Speaker 1: passed away. Today, there's nothing left of the Bell household. However,
[27:00] Speaker 1: there is a cave on their property, an underground cave,
[27:04] Speaker 1: And people swear that's where whatever tormented the bells came from.
[27:12] Speaker 2: So that's going to do it. If you got.
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