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Transcript

The Bell Witch · Flabberghosted

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Flammer Ghosted.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Meg.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Jen.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: And before we get started, I have a quick question for you.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: When you think of a witch, what do you think of?
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: Typically, I would think of like the hat and like, you know, the black dress and like the like the you know the cackle and you know broomsticks.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like the green lady with the wart on her nose.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like the I'll get you my pretty, like, you know.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: So what if I told you that today I'm gonna be telling you the story of a witch, but instead of what you're thinking, it's more of a poltergeist.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, I'm wondering how the two can be combined.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: So, today our story takes place.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna start in 1817.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Now, for a little bit of context, the same year, that's when the Erie Canal started being built.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: 1817 is also the year that Mississippi officially became a U.S.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: state.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: And another concept, the earliest form of a bicycle, was also invented in 1817.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: Just, you know, a little bit of context for the year we're talking about here.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: But we're not gonna be in Mississippi.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna be in northern Tennessee.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: Specifically Robertson County, Tennessee, near the town of Adams.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: We're about 40 minutes north of Nashville.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: And this area was often referred to as the Red River Sub.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: The Red River what?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: Settlement.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: Settlement.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: So, one day in 1817, John Bell, who owns a little farm outside of this area, he was just, you know, chilling through his cornfield.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: When he sees this creature, he claims it was like a dog, but with the head of a rabbit.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, naturally, you know, he got his rifle, he shot at this creature.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: It could be eating his corn, and his corn is his livelihood.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: But instead of hitting this rabbit dog thing, the creature just vanishes into thin air.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: And now the craziest part is he thinks nothing of this.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like, this man, he has other priorities.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: You say, Well, that takes care of that.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: That takes care of that.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: The thing's gone.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, we wouldn't be talking about this if things went back to normal.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Soon his son, Drury Drury.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my god, I'm not gonna be able to say this kid's name because of an accent.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, his son, Drury Bell, soon saw this massive bird chilling on a fence before it flies off.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: Now, this could just be like a really big curl or something, you know.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: But the bird was big enough that he mentioned it to other people.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: And then the Belle's youngest daughter, Betsy, she says she saw a girl in a green dress swinging from a tree.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: Again, could be nothing.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: We don't know.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: Swinging like how?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't say, it just says swinging on a tree.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know if it's like a swing swing or if you know swinging like a monkey.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then we have another sighting of this dog.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: The family slave Dean was walking back to his cabin, followed by this black dog.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: But when he got to his cabin door, the dog just disappears.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: Into thin air, into thin air.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: And if you didn't know, black dogs in folklore are an omen.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, like the hellhound type deal.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, kind of like a hellhound.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like in folklore, black dogs are regarded as like sinister or move with.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: And some say that this dog means that bad things are coming.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: Think of like Harry Potter, remember where everybody's like, oh, the grim, you know, death is coming.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: So, like, that's kind of how black dogs are seen in folklore.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: And soon after these sightings, the family starts hearing things, like banging on the walls of their cabin, like someone's like trying to knock down the cabin wall.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: And the sound, it keeps continuing and it starts escalating, both in like how often they hear it and also how loud it is.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like to the point that one night the peam was so loud that John and a couple of his sons go outside to see what's causing this, and there's nothing there.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: Jeez.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: So, like, it sounds like an actual person is like, you know, trying to big bag a wolf blow down the cabin.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: And then the children they start complaining that it sounds like someone's like scratching their bed post in something like in a previous episode was pulling the blankets off their bed in the night.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_02: You all already know Jen doesn't like Jen does not like this.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: And they found whole entire family start seeing this black dog again.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: And then it doesn't stop there.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: They start hearing this whispering happening around them.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: It sounds like a voice, but it's just too quiet to understand what she's saying.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: But reportedly, it sounds like an old woman singing church hymns.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: How would you react if you start hearing this?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_02: I guess I'm it would freak me out because I don't like when thing, you know, religious comfort is a big thing when people are scared.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: So when that is kind of flipped upside down, I do find it very unsettling.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: So it's funny that you say that because the family would start praying and would start singing church hymns to, like, you know, get whatever this is to leave them alone.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: But they would hear this disembodied female voice repeat the words back to them in like a perfect imitation of what they said.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_02: Mm-mm.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely not burned out in the cabin, right?
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: That that's freaky.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: And this is the point, whatever this is, started getting physical with the family.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like we're talking that children would feel like pinched or stopped or have their hair.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes they would have hand prints on their body and like welts would appear because that's how hard whatever this thing is was hitting me.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: Jeez.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: And poor Betsy, we've mentioned her previously.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: Or poor Betsy.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: That whatever this is started like targeting her specifically.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: Like the attacks on her would be worse than any of her siblings.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: Why?
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: I have a theory.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: We'll talk about that in a little bit.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: And up until this point, John Bell, he's like, nobody in this family is allowed to talk about what's going on.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like, we have to keep this on the deal.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: What if everybody thinks they're crazy and they're just like, that's the crazy bells?
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they're children, nobody's gonna want to play with them, that kind of thing, you know?
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: But it kind of gets to this point where John Bell is like, I gotta tell somebody about this.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you won't believe what's happening.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like, and I are we crazy.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: So they tell their close friend and neighbor, James Johnston, every day.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: And like, James Johnston, he's like, I don't know, this is kind of weird.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like, maybe you're just imagining things, but you know what?
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'll spend the night at your house and we'll see what's going on.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: So he and his wife decide to spend the night.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: And everything's going fine.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: They have a great dinner, you know, they're chilling, having a good old time.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: But once they went to bed, the same things start happening to the Johnstons.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking, their bedding was ripped off the bed.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: James will slap, and purportedly he proclaims in the name of the Lord, who are you and what do you want?
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: Which I feel is very valid.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately for James, nothing responds.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Aww.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: He was ghosted.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Quite literally, he was ghosted.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, luckily though, for him, after he like yells this into the void, the thing sleeps for the night.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: So he does get some sleep.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know for sure.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: So in the morning, when they're fixing to leave, James looks at the bells and he's like, your house is haunted by an evil spirit.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like the kinds of evil that the Bible talks about.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: If you were the bells, what are you thinking right now?
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_02: Go to church, get the priest, bless the house, exorcism.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: You need religious help.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like get the Pope involved at this point.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_02: No, literally.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_02: Like, well, I mean, what was their religion?
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: Because if it's like the 1860s, Catholicism, or not even 1817, Catholicism wasn't really like prevalent at the time, so it's more That's fair.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: But it is typically Catholic priests that do exorcism, so that's why I said that.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_02: Valid.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_02: That's why I was like, wait, do they can they even go to the Pope with this?
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_02: Because I mean, I mean, okay.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: I mean they could, but I don't think the Pope would do anything.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_02: Because, like, you know not, you know, he's not.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: He's got other things.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: James, I don't think he kept his mouth shut on things, because word starts to spread.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: James.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: James.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: It could have been one of the bells, but I'm gonna blame James because he's the one the new person involved.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: So word starts to spread.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: And do you remember when we talked about the Winchester Mystery House and like how the occult and stuff was kind of on the rise in the 1800s?
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: So instead of being ostracized, instead of being ostracized by the community, everybody's fascinated.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: It turns into like they fascinate, it turns into this like tourist attraction.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: People are coming from miles away just to experience this haunting for themselves.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: The spirit, the entity, whatever you want to call it.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'm probably gonna refer to it as the witch now because this is the story of the bell witch.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: Her voice starts to strengthen and becomes unmistakable.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like it becomes its own person almost.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: The witch is singing hymns, quoting Bible passages, and having intelligent people who come to the farm to see the witch in action.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: Having intelligent conversation.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: Having intelligent conversations.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna talk about this.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking hundreds of people are coming to visit.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: And this is 1817.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: We don't even have a bicycle.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: Mississippi just became a state.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, I think this is before, like right before Mississippi.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: So Mississippi's not even a state yet.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_02: Mississippi's trying to get its statehood.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_02: The Erie is canal, no bicycle.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: No bicycle?
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: People, there's no bicycles.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: People are traveling by horse or foot to get here.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: Oh god, I didn't even think about that.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's why I said it.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: People would ask, obviously, they're gonna ask the witch questions.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: They're gonna be like, what do you know?
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: has the witch's powers.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: And the witch, she would respond, usually with like a riddle though.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: So or it would just give a vague answer, which led some people to be like, Oh my gosh, this is an oracle from the future.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah, I don't see it, but whatever floats your vote, right?
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, whatever makes you feel taller.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: So you know how I just said that people were like trying to test this witch?
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: John Johnston, one of the self-sons of James, he decided he came up with a specific text.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: He asked the witch what his Dutch grandmother, who lived in North Carolina, would say to her slaves if she thought they did something wrong.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: Now, this is something only the Johnston family, no one else would know this information.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: And the witch replied, in the grandmother's voice, in her Dutch accent, Hut tut, what happened now?
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-mm.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: Which, how would this entity know this unless it was a spirit?
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: And another story comes from a man who immigrated to the US from Britain.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: He stopped by the phone, and when he was talking with the bells, he mentioned you know he has family still back in England.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: And the witch starts to mimic his parents.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: What the fuck?
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: He was woken up then in the morning by the witch set mimicking his parents, sounding worried for him.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: And he would later get a letter from his parents saying they heard his voice in England.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my god.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: So not only is the spirit having intelligent conversations, she apparently can travel thousands of miles.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: That is.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: I'm really I don't even know if this would be categorized as a poltergeist at this point.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: That is a fair point.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: I was just trying to give you like an idea of Yeah.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: Now, again, this is all a legend.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: So, but another instance of this witch's power was apparently she once quoted word for word, two separate sermons that were preached at the same exact time, 13 miles apart.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: So not only can she travel vast distances, but she can be in two places at once.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know how to feel about this.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's insane.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_02: It is.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: Now, obviously, as the witch's powers grow, this story starts to spread through Tennessee and the surrounding area.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: And eventually in 1819, these stories reach General Andrew Jackson.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: Does he sound kind of familiar?
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the future president?
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United States, voted for office in 1830.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: Same guy who was responsible for the trail of tears 13 to 16,000 Native Americans.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: Same dude.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: That's why he sounds familiar.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the reason this piqued his interest is because when he was fighting in the Battle of New Orleans, some of the Bell's sons were under his command.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: So he knew them personally.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: And for those of you who don't know, because I also had to look this up, the Battle of New Orleans was one of the final battles in the War of 1812.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: Basically, just trying to prevent um English forces from taking control of New Orleans.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: Quick summary.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, you could do like an entire podcast on the Yeah.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: But that's what this is.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: So he's like, hey, wait, I know that family.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: Let's go pay him a visit, see what this is all about.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: So reportedly he makes the journey out to the bell farm.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: Again, this is about a 40-minute journey today by car.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: And he takes a couple mamma pams and horses and a wagon.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: But as he got closer to the farm, this big giant wagon just became stuck in the mud.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: And no matter how hard they just could not get it unstuck.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, and Andrew Jackson, he's like, Well, must be the glitch, right?
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know, making a joke of it.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, after he said that, they heard a disembodied female voice that was like, see a soon voice.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: Oh.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: And then after they heard that, the wagon was free.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_02: Oh.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_02: They said, here comes the general.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: Rise up.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: Now, nothing else happens on their journey until they get to the farm, right?
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, you could just write this off.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the men in the traveling party did.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: He was like, nothing's happened because you know, he takes out his gun and he's like, I got silver bullets that will kill any spirit.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: So, like, don't cross me.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: That's what werewolves.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, silver bolts are typically werewolves in you know, pop culture, but okay.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: All right, okay, I'll go with it.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: And then, you know, like a scene out of a comedy movie, he immediately begins screaming and jerking his body around.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, something's happening to me.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm being pricked with pins and like something's beating me up.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: And then comedy movie moment, he's kicked out the door.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: Oh.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: She was not happy about this.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: She was so agitated, and she's like, there is another fraud in this party, and I'm gonna tell you tomorrow night.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, she said come back for more.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: Stay tuned.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: And wait, there's more.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_02: Lock in bitches.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so obviously, everybody in this traveling party is like, we yesterday, like, we need to not be here.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: But General Jackson, he's like, I fought the British.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: This can't be any worse than the British.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: So they stay the night.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: I couldn't find anything on what exactly happened that night.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: But what we do know is early the next morning, General Jackson and his men were 13 miles away.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_02: Further down?
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like they left in the middle of the night.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: They said see ya.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know what happened, but like to travel that far that quickly, something must have happened.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_04: Mm-hmm.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: And some people even claim that General Jackson, when asked about the spirit, said that he would rather fight the British at New Orleans than fight the Bell Witch.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_02: Damn.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: Crazy.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_02: Hmm.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: It was after this that the witch shifted her focus almost exclusively onto John Bell.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: She started saying that she was gonna kill him.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: And coincidentally, throughout 1819 and 1820, his health began to deteriorate.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: Like he stopped being able to move the muscles in his face.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: He had difficulty swallowing.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and like it got to the point that he like couldn't leave the house because his health was that bad.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my gosh.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: And instead of letting the man die in peace, the witch she was like trying to take off his shoes while he walked around the house.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: She was slapping his face repeatedly, she was cursing and chastising him, and she actually referred to him as old Jack.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: So his kids would be on the field and then she'd be like, Oh, there goes old Jack again.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_03: What the heck?
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like, let the man die in peace.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: And this all came to a head on December 20th, 1820.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: John passed away after falling into a coma the previous day.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: And then, like, right after he dies, you know, he takes his last breath.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: Family's in mourning, right?
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: They find this really weird vial filled with some kind of black liquid near the body.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: And trigger morning for animal testing.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: John Jr.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: decided to drop a few drops.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: Cat.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: And reportedly the cat jumped into the air, did a barrel roll, and was dead before it hit the floor.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_02: He dropped liquid from the vial on the cat.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, in the cat's mouth.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, evil.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's why the trigger warning is there.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: And after this, they heard the witch's booming voice exclaiming, I gave old Jack a big dose of that last night.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: We fixed him up.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: What the hell?
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: She poisoned him?
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: She poisoned him.
• 23:23
  unknown: What the fuck?
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_02: Where did the poison even come from?
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: We don't know.
• 23:31
  unknown: Okay.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's never said in the original legend.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: Umly, then John Jr., you know, he's like, oh no, this is the thing that killed my dad.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like, get it away.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: And he tosses it in the fireplace.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: But when the vial hit the fire, it exploded into a bright blue flame.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: Like, think of like, you know, a gas stove top that color.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I looked it up.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: Fire only turns blue when there's total combustion happening in the chemical.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: So the fire has to get really, really hot for it to do that.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: And this is just like, again, this is 1820.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: So they host a funeral, obviously.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: This funeral is one of the biggest funerals at the time.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking three preachers were there.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: Two Methodists and one Baptist.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: All three of them gave eulogies, which is pretty unheard of.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: Even by today's standards.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: You typically only have one person.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_02: You get one priest.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: And one eulogy.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: That's it.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: This guy got three of them.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: Jeez.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: And when the mourners were starting to leave the graveyard, the witch could be heard singing a drinking song.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: And she didn't stop singing it until the last person left the graveyard.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: So she's ecstatic that he was dead.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, clearly.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_02: And a drinking song of all things, with it being poisoned.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: Hmm.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: The witch wasn't finished with the bell family yet.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: So shortly after or sometime around this is when Betsy announces her engagement to Joshua.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_02: Her engagement to Joshua Gardner.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: Gardner, okay.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: Now, Joshua Gardner, he was a young man who lived near the bells, and you know, they were childhood friends who fell in love with each other.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: Super cute story.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: Childhood friends to lovers.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody loved them together, right?
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: Both parents were like, yes, you all have our blessing to get married.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um except the witch.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: She wasn't happy about this.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: Hmm.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: She became furious with this announcement.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: And she just wouldn't stand out.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: Betsy and Joshua, they couldn't hang out.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like if they went for like a walk by the river, oh, there's the witch talking to them.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: Hmm.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: And it got to the point.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: Betsy broke off her engagement on Easter Monday, 1821.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: And the witch stopped holding her.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_01: So not only has she killed her father, not only has she killed Betsy's father, she also broke up her relationship.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_02: And Betsy was the source of a lot of the um spirit aggression.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_02: The attacks, right?
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: This poor girl.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_01: Honestly, I feel so bad for that.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I guess after the engagement got broken off, the witch was like, okay, my time here is done.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: I guess she checked off everything on her list.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because she paid one last visit to Lucy Bell.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: And apparently during this visit, she told Lucy that she was gonna leave.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: But she would be back in seven years.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna skip ahead a little bit to 1828.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: Seven years later, she visits John Bell Jr.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: And apparently they have a very long philosophical conversation.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: They're talking about the origins of life, they're talking, you know, about Christianity, and she's also making predictions about the civil war.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: Wouldn't happen for another 35 years at this point.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: And then she leaves.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: For good?
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: Forever?
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: So that's where things get a little murky.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: The um original legend, that is where it is.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: You know, she rides off into the sunset, never to be heard from again.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: However, if you're like me and you watch Paranormal Investigation Show, you might have heard of the Bell Witch Cave.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I have not.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: Totally fine.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: For those of you who don't know, the Bellwitch Cave is this karst cave located on the Bell family farm.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: And it's said that this is actually where the witch came from.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_01: Is an inhabitant of this cave.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: Ah and you know, paranormal investigation shows they've come here, they've ever from like EVPs to like shadows on the wall.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: Some report feeling this like heavy presence.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: So this cake, it doesn't appear in the manual, right?
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: Some people say, and I don't know where this rumor started, but some people say that when the bell witch left the bell family alone for the last time, she fled to the cave.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm not entirely sure if it's like she came from the cave and went, or if she came from somewhere else and then went to the cave.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: And one particular legend of the Bell Witch, she actually came about because Betsy Bell and some of her friends have into this cave on the Bell family farm to just explore it, you know?
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_01: But you know that that's how caves are found.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's not that out of the ordinary, right?
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: But apparently, one of her friends he crawled into a hole and got stuck.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: Which why would you crawl into a hole in a cave?
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_01: I have no idea.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_02: I've seen too many horror videos like stories.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: I am too claustrophobic for that.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_01: I would never.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: He's like stuck in this hole.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_01: And then he hears this voice, and it's like, I'll get him out.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: And then he felt like someone like pulling on his legs to get him stuck.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: And then allegedly, this unseen voice was like giving them like a lecture, like, hey, don't go do dangerous stuff, don't go being exploring caves.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, that is kind of how the cave fits into it.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: But take that with a grain of salt.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: Cause yeah.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: You did ask earlier what was up with the bell witch.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like, why was she targeting this fan?
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_01: And they actually did ask her at one point, according to a book written in 1894.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: The witch told the bells that she is a spirit and she was once really happy, but then she was disturbed.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_01: The bells asked, obviously, like what disturbed you?
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: Because you know, maybe they could fix whatever happened.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_01: But she never gave one answer.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: She was like, tens of thousands of reasons, what disturbed her.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, apparently, one of these stories was that a Native American burial located on the farm was disturbed.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: And this story sent one of the bell signs on a treasure hunt.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_01: So that might have been what disturbed.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_01: We don't know.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: Now, there is something I find very interesting about the stories of the witches haunting of Betsy after her father's death.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna take you a little bit back in time now, though, because we have to talk about their school teacher, Professor Richard R.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: P.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: Powell.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_01: He moved to Nashville sometime around 1815, and you know, he's looking for a job about this teaching position that's open in the That's open in the Red River settlement.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_01: So he's like, yeah, I can go do a teaching up there.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_01: A job's a job.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_01: So he's first teaching in the small schoolhouse, which is actually not that far away from the bell farm.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: He naturally befriends John and Lucy Bell.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: And also, he teaches some other children.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: Now, this next part is a little icky, I'm gonna admit.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_01: Reportedly, Professor Powell took a fancy to Betsy, especially as she started growing up and going through puberty.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_01: Some say he every time he visited the f pay her and was like, you know.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: You know, yeah.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: Creeper.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you get one, yeah.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, when her courtship with Joshua Gardner, which by the way, is an age-appropriate relationship.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_01: Let me put that out there.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_01: Professor Powell is not happy about this.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of like how the witch wasn't very happy about it.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_01: And after Betsy broke off her engagement, Professor Powell reportedly would visit her, like, oh, let me go cheer her up.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe you know.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I don't even want to say it out loud.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: And disgustingly, they ended up getting married in 1824.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: No, Betsy.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_01: And what's even more interesting about how Professor Powell relates to the Bell Witch is some people actually allege that he was involved in the occult during this time.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: Calvin and John Johnston, you know, remember James Johnson?
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_01: They saw his signs.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_01: They say they're walking past the schoolhouse one evening and they and they saw what coming from the schoolhouse?
• 34:24
  unknown: Sorry.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_01: Light.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like someone's in there.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_01: So they're like, oh hey, let's just go pay the professor.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_01: Small town neighbor.
• 34:32
  unknown: Right?
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_01: You see their home.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, hey, let's go have a chat with them.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_01: They go up to the building, and you know, they're like, hey, we want to know what's up.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_01: Why are you at, you know, why are you at work so late?
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what's going on?
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_01: And they knock on the door, no answer.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: But they know someone's in there because of the light.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_01: They knock again.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_01: No answer.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_01: So they're starting thinking maybe something wrong happened.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_01: So they open the door and there's no one in there.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_01: They're looking around, they see some books.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_01: And there's one book in particular open up on the teacher's desk.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_01: And that caught Calvin's eye.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: But before he could investigate, the professor shows up and he like runs into the room and he like shuts that book and puts it away.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_01: But you know what Calvin noticed?
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, didn't look like Latin, and I know Latin.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_01: It didn't look like Greek either, and I know Greek.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_01: So obviously, this is his witch book.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_01: Witch book, confirmed.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_01: Witch book.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I gotta say this: there is a bell witch historian named Pat Fitzhugh.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, he wrote several books on this legend, and he said he was able to specific book mentioned in this story, and there wasn't, it was like a math book, right?
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_01: It was just like, you know, the standard Greek symbols, you don't get a math equation.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_01: Gotcha.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_01: I I couldn't find pictures of the book itself, so there's no way of knowing who's right in this instance.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_01: But then Joshua Gardner's younger brother, John, he also alleges that he caught Professor Powell engaged in the occult.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_01: He says that one day him and a group of other kids walking home from school, they're discussing this homework problem that we're given.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, sometimes when like you're working through a difficult problem, and then you just keep going in circles, and then you just confuse yourself, and you're like, what was I even doing in the space?
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's what they did.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_01: So naturally they turn around and they're like, we're just gonna go ask the teacher what what you know is happening here.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_01: So they get to the schoolhouse, door's locked.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think that's that weird.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_01: But what was weird is they heard Powell inside the building speaking in a language they didn't know.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_01: They knock on the door, and then the professor's he stops speaking, opens the door, and then he tells the kids, like, oh, you must be hearing things.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_01: But I mean, obviously the kids are gonna talk to the other kids about what they heard.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_01: So these rumors of his incantations continued for months later.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_01: And the rumor is that Professor Powell would severely punish anybody he got talking about.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_01: Jeez.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_01: So, was he covering something up?
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_01: Or were the kids just being annoying?
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_03: Could go either way.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_03: It could go either way.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_01: Now, was the bellwood real?
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_01: I kind of want to say yes, but also there's just really no way of telling for sure.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know because it just seems like such an evolved spirit.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_02: That I don't quite understand how like a spirit of this magnitude that had this much power that could travel overseas has just suddenly disappeared.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_02: Did she just have her fun and then decide, okay, I'm actually a happy spirit now, and I'm not disturbed anymore, and I'm going back to sleep?
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_02: Was she ever actually so because it was a disembodied voice, I'm hesitant to believe that she ever actually left the cave if that truly is her home?
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_02: And what if it was just like a projection?
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, you can go to the Bellwitch Cave website and they have links to like paranormal investigations that have happened there.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_01: So, like, obviously, people are still experiencing stuff in this case.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_01: I just don't know if that's actually the bell witch or if that is something else.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_02: And then it's just like for there to be so many like accounts and like like sightings or like encounters with this witch, it's kind of it's kind of insane.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_02: Like she was singing, she was uh sermons, hymns, Andrew Jackson, drinking songs, drinking songs, like apparently she could poison people.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_02: Where did she get the poison?
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_01: Right, there's just so many things that happened.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_02: I just I don't know for sure.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_02: If you like the story and you would like to hear more spooky content, follow us on Instagram at Flabberghosted Podcast or send us an email at flabberghostedpodcast at gmail.com.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for tuning in.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_02: Stay spooky, y'all.