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The Bell Witch HAUNTING - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

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
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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
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Speaker 1: of view, John marched forward to the spot in the
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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.
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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
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7:50
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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
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8:04
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8:07
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8:11
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8:13
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8:17
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8:21
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8:26
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8:29
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8:31
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8:33
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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
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