Betsy Bell's Tale of the Tennessee Bell Witch

The Tennessee Bell Witch

Introduction: Once, a long time back, there was a family by the name of Bell. This family was made up of John and Lucy Bell and their seven children. Actually, there were nine children in all, but only seven of them lived beyond their prime. Only two of these children were girls, and it concerns the third to the youngest child, Betsy Bell, that this story is mainly about.

Back in 1817, when the story begins, Betsy's father owned about 1000 acres in Robertson County, Tennessee. This area is forty miles north of what is now known as Nashville. Betsy was quite young when strange things began to happen to her family.

Betsy will tell what happened:

My name is Betsy Bell. When I was almost thirteen years old, we began having a very strange visitor. We couldn't see it, but we surely could hear it and feel it. Sometimes, one of us in the family would see a strange animal with a forked tail. Sometimes, we'd see a white rabbit with a black spot on its left rear foot. Sometimes we'd hear someone knocking on our door, but when one of us went to answer it, no one would be there.

The night I turned thirteen, I woke up suddenly. There was someone or something yanking hard on my hair. It really hurt and felt almost as if this something was going to yank my whole head off. I began screaming with fright. Mother and Father and some of my brothers came running. They searched carefully, but no one was there. I spent the rest of the night in my parents' bed.

From then on, my brothers and I would find that getting our hair yanked and pulled was a nightly occurrence. We also would hear chairs banging, loud knocking on the walls, weird scratching noises, and the sound of chains being dragged across the floor. We even heard the sound of someone making loud swallowing, slurping, and gulping noises. It was very hard to sleep with all that going on. We were all getting very frightened. Father called this "our family trouble" and ordered us not to mention this to another soul.

Most nights, this spirit would come in and slowly drag the covers off every member of the family. Sometimes, we would feel something cold and clammy tickle our feet. If we tried to hold on tight to the covers to prevent them from being dragged away, we would feel this "whatever it was" spitting on us until our face would be covered with spittle. Or sometimes, we would be pinched severely until we let go. And other times, even if we didn't try to hold the covers down, this "something" would slap our face hard. We couldn't see that hand, but nevertheless, a handprint could sometimes be seen on our stinging faces.

One night, I awoke suddenly to the feel of sharp claws clinging to me. I was so terrified that I couldn't even scream at first. But finally, I managed to get my voice back, and I can tell you, I let out a whopper of a scream. Mother and Father came running. They lit a candle and saw a large, dead rat clinging to my leg. Ugh!

After nearly a year of this, Father decided that we could ignore this phantom-being no longer. He called in our good friend and neighbor, Mr. James Johnson and his wife. Father told the Johnsons all about it, and then he asked them to spend the night. They most kindly agreed.

Mr. Johnson ended the evening with a prayer and some readings from the Bible. Then we all went to bed. At about midnight, the Johnsons began to experience what we'd been enduring all along. They were shocked and very sympathetic with what we'd been going through. Mr. Johnson questioned the spirit but could get no response. However, the spirit's strange actions pretty much ceased for the night.

Mr. Johnson urged Father to let it be widely known what was happening at our house, so that perhaps, from some source or another, we could get help. All our friends were shocked and extremely sympathetic. Many of them offered to come and spend the night, for in this way, they could help us bear our burdens, and they could offer their support.

Mother saw that I seemed to be getting the worst treatment of all the family. She was afraid to let me sleep alone. So most nights, one of my two best friends, Theny or Becky, would come to spend the night with me. They were witnesses to all the strange happenings that my family and I were experiencing.

Eventually this strange spirit began to speak. It sounded more like a woman than a man. Mr. Johnson and other neighbors kept trying to get this spirit to tell what it wanted and why it came. We never could get a true answer. Once it said that it was one of the long buried Indians from the mounds that had been disturbed four years back. Its grave had been broken into and a tooth was lost underneath the house. Father had the floorboards removed, but no tooth could be found. The spirit laughed and jeered at our gullibility.

Another time, the voice said that it was a spirit who couldn't rest because it had to guard a treasure which the spirit directed two of my brothers to dig up. Mr. Johnson was to stand guard and count the money to go into safekeeping for me. I was puzzled and excited! This spirit wanted me to have its treasure. But after digging where it had directed for several hours, no treasure was found. Once again, the spirit laughed and jeered at us for being taken in.

Eventually, it told us that it was Cate Batts's witch. We didn't believe that, but some folks did. The real Cate Batts* had become very put out when some neighbors had been very rude to her. But witch or spirit or whatever 'it' was, the name 'Kate' stuck and that's what we called her ever after.

*Kate - Three years later, I discovered that the real Cate Batts was actually Cate Williams Batts, the niece of Betsy Bell's mother. Since Cate was so much older, Betsy would call her 'Aunt Cate' out of courtesy. Also out of courtesy to Cate, Lucy directed that they change the spelling of the spirit to Kate with a K.

And then came the hard part. What had been happening on nearly a nightly basis for well over a year was puzzling and terrifying, to say the least; however, it didn't affect the integral part that made up my spiritual self. I suffered from fear, lack of sleep, and physical pain, yes, but my spirit was still intact.

But gradually, things began to change. Kate claimed that she wouldn't leave until she had harried Father into his grave. And she seemed intent on doing exactly that. Kate loved Mother and would do and say all kinds of nice things to her. But Kate hated Father and caused him endless pain and anguish. We were all terrified for Father! I was especially terrified, as I felt that Kate must hate me too. And after she finished Father off, I felt sure she planned to do me in next.

Still I managed to bear up even under this strain. But there was something else that was happening that absolutely was breaking my heart and trampling my spirit. You see, I was in love with Joshua Gardner. Josh was five years older than I. He was so strong and handsome. He was intelligent, and he loved me too. My family liked and approved of him. There was nothing to stop us from getting married in a year or two; that is, nothing to stop us but Kate. Kate was determined that we would never wed. And she did all kinds of things to stop us.

When we were alone together or around other folks, Kate would tell embarrassing secrets about me, hoping to cool Josh's ardor. She became furious when she found that this only made Josh love me more. Oftentimes, when Josh and I were together and nearly every night when I was in bed, Kate would come and say,

"Please, Betsy Bell, don't have Joshua Gardner.
Please, Betsy Bell, don't marry Joshua Gardner."

When she found that this didn't work, she became extra vicious. She would stick pins in my body. She would pinch and bruise my flesh. She would yank my hair and slap my face. She would jerk my tucking comb out of my hair and instantly tangle up my long blond hair. She would unlace my shoes and slip them from my feet. And finally, she would try to smother me. I began having fainting spells. Life was becoming unendurable!

And then on December 20, 1820, Father died. Kate claimed that she fatally poisoned him. I was heartbroken and terrified! I felt sure that I would be next. I almost began to long for death to come and release me from the heartbreaking torture that I was encountering.

But slowly, Kate's treatment of me became less severe, and I began to take heart. Josh was urging me to accept an engagement ring. I longed to accept but didn't quite dare. I told Josh that we must wait to see what Kate would do. But finally on Easter morning of 1821, Josh slipped a beautiful engagement ring on my finger. I was so happy and so in love. I was fifteen years old. The next few hours were the most thrilling of my life.

And then Kate made her maddening presence known. Again she pleaded and again she wailed,

"Please, Betsy Bell, don't have Joshua Gardner.
Please, Betsy Bell, don't marry Joshua Gardner."

I pleaded with Kate to let us alone and let us marry. But Kate threatened to do terrible things to Josh if we went ahead without her consent. I couldn't stand the thought that Kate might do to Josh what she had done to Father or to me.

So, finally, I gave the ring back to Josh, though it broke both our hearts. He left our house that afternoon, and he left Robertson County in a few days. And I never saw Josh, my first love, again.

After that, Kate became kinder to me. And before she left our house for good, she begged me to think kindly of her for saving me from a marriage that was doomed to fail. She suggested that I marry my former school teacher, Richard Powell, who had always been sweet on me. And eventually, I did. He was a good man, and we had seventeen very happy years together before he died. But never will I quite recover from those three years of tyranny and abuse from Kate. And never will I quite recover from the heartbreak of losing my father and Josh, my first love, all in one year.

Epilogue: This story was written in 1990. Through some rather strange circumstances, I spent from 1993 to 1995 researching and writing the real story of what happened to the family of John and Lucy Bell. This book also proves the innocence of Cate Williams Batts who was wrongly accused of being the poltergeist who haunted this family from 1817 to 1821, even though she was a living woman at the time. After meeting with actual descendants of Cate Williams Batts and her husband Frederick, visiting courthouses and libraries in four states, consulting psychics, and twice visiting the Bell Witch Cave in Adams, Tennessee, the book practically wrote itself. This book made up of 85 chapters and 365 pages is called "The Bell Witch Unveiled At Last! The True Story Of A Poltergeist" written under my pen name of DJ Lyons. For more information about this book and my one-woman show, please visit http://bellwitchunveiled.com.