004 THE BELL WITCH - Was it a Poltergeist or Was Everyone Microdosing Syphilis

A feisty witch and a cursed Tennessee farm make up America’s earliest haunting legend. This episode dives into the wild, weird, and often hilarious story of the Bell Witch. Henchmen Michelle, Bobby, and Greg unravel ghostly voices, rabbit-dog cryptids, family insanity, and the chaos behind one of the strangest paranormal cases in American folklore. Did this witch smack Andrew Jackson? Listen now to find out! 

The Bell Witch Project by By Sean Casteel is available on ConspiracyJournal.com and amazon.com

Transcript

Reggie 0:15

The transmission.

Michelle 0:20

If you can believe it, this is me warmed up. Yeah, that's what I really sound like. Hi, I'm Michelle, and welcome to the Conspiracy Journal Podcast. What's your name?

Bobby 0:28

Bobby. Bobby! What's your name?

Michelle 0:30

Greg. Greg.

Bobby 0:32

Greg.

Michelle 0:35

Okay. So two.

Bobby 0:37

What are we doing?

Michelle 0:37

Today?

Bobby 0:38

Yeah, where are we going? What are we doing? Who are we talking?

Michelle 0:40

Okay, we're gonna go to Tennessee. It's um like the 1800s, the early 1800s. That's my favorite. Welcome to Tennessee. Tennessee. Oh yeah. Great time.

Greg 0:49

Southern Wats.

Michelle 0:51

Uh sorry, the Southern What? Watts. Watts. Okay. Okay.

Greg 0:57

The 1800s? That's Greg's favorite part of Tennessee.

Michelle 1:02

Okay, so this tale that I'm about to tell you, it starts with the book called The Authenticated History of the Famous Bell Witch. Now we know it's not authenticated if that's in the title, right? We know this because it also didn't come out until 75 years after the Bell Witch haunting happened.

Bobby 1:25

Also, who be authenticating witch books. Yo, this guy's body. Yeah.

Michelle 1:31

This guy's name is Wild. Um, so they just abbreviated it to an MV Ingram. Okay. But like his real name is way longer than that. Oh, but we ain't got time for that. Okay. So, all right. There's a lot of really interesting things about the Bell Witch. It's like basically the first American haunting. Like when we think about like haunted houses and witches and whatnot, like they all started with this bitch.

Bobby 2:01

Can I ask you some questions? Absolutely. Hit me. Okay. Are we is she a witch like is a she? Is she a witch like actually no? Okay. Okay. Okay, well, that kind of answers my question, a little foreshadowing. I was gonna ask if it was a witch like in Salem, where they're like, Sandy's a witch, killer, or if she's a witch like uh evil spirit that haunts people.

Michelle 2:22

Great question. Great question. So the bell witch says she's a she, but she's an invisible entity.

Bobby 2:29

Okay, okay, okay, okay.

Michelle 2:31

But she be tricky.

Bobby 2:34

Do we sorry?

Michelle 2:35

No, hit me. You got questions. I'm ready. I'm here.

Bobby 2:38

Was she a human person at one point and is now the spirit of is she a real bitch?

Michelle 2:44

She is a real bitch, she's a bell bitch, that's for sure.

Bobby 2:48

Okay, I got that okay, okay.

Michelle 2:49

Okay, but uh to answer your question, yes, cool, and no.

Bobby 2:53

Okay.

Michelle 2:53

How about that?

Bobby 2:54

Yeah, okay, authenticated.

Michelle 2:56

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Okay, so um, one of the interesting things about the Bell Witch, first of all, is her name wasn't Belle. The area of Tennessee we're talking about, not Belle, it's the family she haunts. Their name is Belle. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That's a little unexpected.

Greg 3:14

I thought maybe it was like a haunted bell.

Michelle 3:16

Yeah, or yeah, yeah, totally. Witchy ass bell. Yeah, nope. There's no bells in this story except for the family.

Bobby 3:22

This is a good lesson about attachment with the family. This is our witch. And when you do that, it's harder to let things go. That's true. That's maybe why they got so haunted.

Michelle 3:31

That's probably the whole reason, actually. Thanks. Yeah, you're right. You right. We're in the 1800s. We're in the 1800s, but again, like, here's okay. This is like, woe is me. I'm a podcaster now and I have to do research on stories. So I think every single time I research a story that I'm gonna be able to find some facts and tell you guys, like, here's the proof, and da da. Never. I never have the proof because this is again the first account of this written is 75 years after it happened. So everybody's already dead, and so nobody can say which part of this happened and which part didn't. So I'm just gonna go ahead and say, all this shit happened, all of it is true. Here we go.

Greg 4:15

It is authenticated, so yeah, yeah, that's true.

Michelle 4:17

That's right. You're right. Um, but there's a lot of haters out there who think that Ingram was just, you know, uh oops, telling a story.

Bobby 4:26

Yeah, guys, stop hating on this dead guy.

Michelle 4:28

I know, that's what I always say. Okay, so let's meet Mr. John Bell. He is living in North Carolina. I know I said we're in Tennessee, but first we're in North Carolina. It's 1782. John Bell is 32 years old, which for the 17 1782, I feel like that's pretty old.

Bobby 4:47

Old man.

Michelle 4:48

He's an old ass guy.

Bobby 4:48

Yeah, you know, grandfather.

Michelle 4:50

Yeah, old John Scoops of his lovely wife named Lucy, who's 12, you know. Child bride. Prime, yeah, exactly. Prime wife age. Um, so John is child bride, have a bunch of kids. Some of them die because it's the 1700s, and like, you know, your chances are bad.

Bobby 5:12

Yeah, you gotta have some extras.

Michelle 5:14

Yeah, absolutely. So, like, you know, we didn't get to keep all of them, but they end up with like six or seven, which is like that's a lot.

Bobby 5:20

That's a lot that's a good job. Good on that. Big on the extra thing.

Michelle 5:24

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think they had like nine or ten or something. Anyway, listen, we end it with six or seven, and we've we've got a farm, but our crops fail, right? Which is like possibly the beginning of a curse. Just saying, like, this is the mindset of the time. This also, it's like a hundred years after the salem which trial, but like everything's still like spooky, you know what I mean?

Bobby 5:47

So, like sounds like John should have done a little less fucking, a little more hoeing. You know what I mean?

Michelle 5:51

Oh, good job. Um, so uh okay, our crops fail, and we're like, we're out of here, and we move to Tennessee and we thrive by 1816. John Bell is one of the wealthiest and most influential men in the entire community. Um, okay, sidebar. So one of the other things that makes this interesting is like this family is being haunted, and like, sure, it's the time period, everything's a little spooky. We blame stuff on witches, we blame stuff on the devil and whatever. But like, if a white man from a wealthy doing great, as we know, if you have a job, what you're saying is true, right? But mostly if your house is haunted, you're a lunatic, you know? So, like, this is one of the first accounts where it's like a respectable person is where it is like uh it's not just it's not just someone making something up to like be sensational.

Greg 6:47

Like this this dude had something to lose, like if he was gonna be labeled as being crazy.

Michelle 6:51

Exactly.

Bobby 6:52

Exactly with the alien sighting thing. If you have a job, you're believable.

Michelle 6:56

Exactly, exactly. So that's exactly right, guys. Thank you for the assist on that. Um, so everyone knows John Bell, respectable guy, says he's haunted, so we believe him, and now the devil is real.

Greg 7:11

That's a good way to get to that point. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Michelle 7:14

Okay. Um, Hell Fain, you're welcome. Okay, so everybody in town loves him. He goes to church, everybody loves church. You know, it's the South. Also, P.S. You guys, it's the time period we're in Tennessee. Everybody owns slaves in this story. So that is horrific, and we hate that. But the slaves did have their own encounters with the entity, the Bell Witch. Um, and in the book published by the Conspiracy Journey Journal called uh The Bell Witch Project, there's a great chapter written by our founder, Timothy Green Beckley, about this specific thing and how um kind of the Bell Witch like didn't discriminate against anyone. Like, usually uh these entities are said to like affix themselves to a certain family or do this or do that. And like the Bell Witch loved and hated everyone equally. That's definitely what's going on. Oh, anyway, everyone in town loves the bells, they're great stand-up family. We love them, except one person hates them. Her name, Kate Bats.

Bobby 8:18

Katie Bats.

Michelle 8:18

Katie Bats is awesome.

Bobby 8:21

Yeah. Um, okay, so for some reason, when you were like one person hates him, I was like, I'm into this lady.

Michelle 8:26

Dude, she's awesome. All right, so uh okay. Let's meet Mary Catherine, aka Kate Bats. Great, last name. We love her. She's married to a man named Frederick Bats. Okay, so Fred gets crushed by a tree or is mentally ill.

Greg 8:43

So one of those two things happens. This is authenticated. Either or and or is just dead. Okay.

Michelle 8:52

Yeah. Okay. Either way.

Bobby 8:54

He's not around. Either way, he's out of the picture. Yeah.

Michelle 8:57

And Kate is head of the household.

Bobby 8:59

The trifecta.

Michelle 9:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Crushed, mentally ill and dead.

Bobby 9:03

Yeah, crushed by a tree specifically.

Michelle 9:06

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um so yeah, either anyway, he's not in the picture. She is running shit. And in 1816, this is unheard of. Like a woman's not the head of the household, you know? And so, like, not only is she running the farm and her family and everything, she's gotta like make deals, you know, and be all that.

Greg 9:28

She's a landowner now.

Michelle 9:30

What do you mean? What are you nuts? That's not happening. But she's gotta, you know, she's gotta uh be in the room and have the conversations with men. And this, she's like a big lady too. So uh some people describe her as uh uh intense and uh you know, she was just like holding her own, and she was also like mouthy, you know, and she was really paranoid that all the men were trying to take advantage of her, not sexually, but like steal from her or like get over on her in some way, and she was probably right. So sure, for sure.

Bobby 10:06

Also, yeah, it like tracks up a woman who can who can speak and dares to speak publicly. They're like, look, get a load of this lady. I know, and then they're like, let's fuck her over.

Michelle 10:15

That's right. That's right. What didn't help her is she was super feisty and mouthy, but she was known as like talking in a really strange way, kind of like Shakespeare, you know, and like using really big words, but like mispronouncing them, just making up words, using them wrong. So she would get out there and like really fucking try to tell you some business, but like what she said was idiotic. So it was like really conflicting.

Greg 10:41

It was like back in the day when uh like when Tyson was in prison and he was like actually learning to read, he would just like use these giant words he just learned that didn't really apply to the conversation.

Michelle 10:51

Prognosticalation, yeah, that's exactly right scenario.

Bobby 10:54

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Michelle 10:55

That's what she was about. Um, so it was like it was a little crazy. Also, people um talked about her as being like a powerhouse lady, but also like super weird, you know. So they were like eccentric. Exactly, exactly. And she was also like 40. Um, so she was old as old, yeah, old hag, you know? Yeah, you know, um, I just want to say that she probably was just in perimenopause, all right? She was like really hot and upset, and like our brains malfunction in our 40s, and she was she was probably like, I know a word, and like she said it with confidence, and that's what tricks them, you know, into thinking that like what she's saying is right, except people were on to her and her faulty brain. But I just want to say I got some empathy for her because like a 40s is hard, you know? Okay, okay, anyway, and you're your dude's dead or not.

Bobby 11:54

Also, like historical accounts like this, authenticated or not, you know, there was often like, and this person went insane, yeah, they had syphilis. Yeah, you know, like it's a lot of times it's the account is just about how the person descended into madness, or the reality is they had a severe medical condition.

Michelle 12:09

Um, so the haters say that. And I just want to say that like the haters have a lot of opinions about everybody in the story and how they all probably just have syphilis, right? And there is no witch. There's an outbreak of syphilis in Tennessee.

Greg 12:23

I like that. It's almost uh the the salem witch trials, and like everyone attributes it to like ergot and stuff. Yeah, where everyone was just tripping and pointing fingers.

Michelle 12:31

Everyone's a witch! Yeah, I'm high, is actually the answer.

Greg 12:35

But it was syphilis.

Michelle 12:36

Um, yeah, everyone's on syphilis, everyone's on it.

Greg 12:41

Amen.

Michelle 12:43

Yeah.

Greg 12:43

We're trying like like microdose syphilis.

Michelle 12:46

Yeah. See what happens.

Greg 12:48

Trying to build up my immunity here.

Michelle 12:50

Everybody's doing it. Um, okay, so the townspeople are like, this lady does not fit the child bride mold. And so therefore, she's a witch. Everyone's like, she's she's a little witchy. We all know it, right? And uh, I think what one of the things that really sparks the like everyone thinks she's a witch thing is that wait, hold on. Do you guys know about spoiling the butter?

Greg 13:13

Oh, that sounds perverted as hell. Here it does.

Michelle 13:17

Okay, it may be the way I said it, but they mean it. Like um a big indicator of being a witch is that you spoil the farmer's butter. Like that's how you uh, you know, uh that's the first attack. You know, if I'm a witch.

Bobby 13:34

Farmer's butter spoils, there's a witch. We got witches.

Michelle 13:37

We got witches. Yeah, witches is fucking with us. And you know, if I'm a witch, that's my first, like, first move.

Bobby 13:42

Fuck with her butter.

Michelle 13:43

Yeah, it's my opening move in chess. You know what I mean? I spoil your butter.

Bobby 13:46

You think back to my original theory that John is bad at farming?

Greg 13:53

Just saying, or just making his own butter.

Michelle 13:56

I just want to say John's butter is not getting spoiled.

Greg 13:59

Okay. Uh-huh.

Michelle 14:00

It's different butter.

Bobby 14:01

It sounds so sexual. Yeah, it does. It really does sound sexual. And that's nobody was spoiling John's butter, and that was the problem.

Michelle 14:07

Okay.

Bobby 14:08

He wasn't getting his butter spoiled often enough. And back in, he got real mad about it. To make it worse. You play your cards right. I'm gonna spoil that butter. I like that you have your finger up or whatever. That's right.

Michelle 14:23

We have to start doing a video components of this podcast because you guys is funny.

Bobby 14:27

Yeah, then you gotta get your butter spoiled.

Michelle 14:29

That's right. That's right. Um, okay, so this whole thing we got going on here right now with the sexual butter is not gonna get any better.

Bobby 14:40

The first song, isn't it? Sexual butter. Fuck yeah, dude. Big hit.

Michelle 14:45

So there's a young girl, um a maiden, if you will. A young maiden who's in her farm near the the bat's farm.

Bobby 14:55

Because we're in a different time, I need a little context. Is this young maiden like seven or twenty one?

Michelle 14:59

How young is the if you were 21, you would no longer be young.

Bobby 15:02

You're disgusting.

Michelle 15:03

Yeah, yeah. You're probably she's probably that prime ripe. I wish I didn't say that, age of 11.

unknown 15:09

Okay.

Michelle 15:10

Okay. Okay. So she's I know. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. You know what? I know it felt so bad. I hated it, but that's where we're at in time. Okay. Okay. So our our prime lady is churning butter in her farm. So she's like cute as fuck, churning her butter, but it won't churn. Whatever that means. You know what I mean? She can't get past the point and make it into butter.

Bobby 15:39

Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's made cream and then that's about it.

Michelle 15:42

Yeah, that's it. And it's like, this is not her first rodeo. She's churned some butter before, and she's like, What is happening to my butter? She gets super frustrated. She's there all day churning, churning, churning, no butter. So she sticks a hot poker in it. Now, this is an experiment. Um, I think what happens is blows the butter. You know, the butter just like spoils and like, you know, goes all over the barn. That's my vision of what happens when you stick a hot poker into cream.

Greg 16:11

Yeah, they they call it a bukaki.

Michelle 16:14

That's what it feels like. I feel like she bukaki the barn. Um, but this she did it for a reason, turns out. Then she hustles her little self over to the bats farm to see old Kate. That's what they called her, old Kate because she was 40. Um so she guess what, guys? She's nursing a wounded hand because it's set that she pulled the poker through the butter or some shit. And that proved that Kate's a I mean, that's reasonable. Yeah, totally. Understanding singularity. Yeah, fuck yeah, dude. Yeah, yeah, I get it. You know?

Greg 16:51

Yeah, black hold the butter.

Michelle 16:52

That's right. That's exactly what happened. Okay, so now we know what's on the other side of the butter. It's a witch.

Bobby 16:59

Is there something in this butter? Is there something weird with this butter? Yeah, there's a witch in it.

Michelle 17:03

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Knew it the whole time. Okay, so townspeople are like Kate's a witch, but our buddy John Bell is like, yo, Kate, I heard your husband is something. Sums up with your husband. Underwater under a tree. Yeah, under a tree, dead or mentally ill. We don't know. But I heard you're having some husband trouble, you're having a hard time, and I'm here to save you. And Kate's like, actually, I don't need saving. Go fuck yourself. But John was like, No, no, no, hear me out. You got all this land you're not using. So, like, why don't you sell me some? And they apparently negotiate for a while because apparently Kate was like really hard to talk to. What they end up with is using a lot of non-English words. Yeah, she's using a lot of big made-up words, and he's having a hard time. And he's just like, dude, I want your land. And she was like, Check it out. I will trade you that parcel of land for a person. And he's like, No problem. But she was like, but also a bunch of cash, like a loan. You know what I mean? Okay. So, like, you give me a person and a bunch of cash. And he's like, Cool. And so when she goes to start making payments on this loan, he's applied some like wild interest. Like, she is like, You're robbing me. She's like screaming at this dude.

Greg 18:19

Nobody wants to pay the VIG.

Michelle 18:20

Come on, dude. Nobody wants to pay the VIG, but also about 10 points on this.

Greg 18:24

What the fuck?

Michelle 18:25

No, dude, he was like, the over-under's fucked up, and like, you bet bad, and you owe me so much money. And she was like, Fucking hell no. And she's yelling at him in church because that's where people hang out.

Bobby 18:35

This is that stuff where it's like you loan somebody money and then they come to repay it. And you're like, actually, it's this now.

Michelle 18:40

Yeah, exactly. And she was like not trying to have it. Also, P.S. The Boston Tea Party happened like 20 years before this.

Bobby 18:48

Okay.

Michelle 18:49

Okay. So, like, we hate taxes. We are fucking prime ripe to throw you in the river, buddy. Like, no, dude, this ain't happening. Anyway, I don't know what I'm talking about, but you know what I mean. You know what I mean? So, his okay, the townspeople are like, okay, maybe John's not that legit, you know, because like he is trying to rob that lady, and that ain't nice. We we don't love that, but like, he's a man, she's not, so like, we're gonna let it slide. And she will not let it slide. She is a bad mouth in him every chance she can get. There's a wild day at church where this man is having uh like he whatever that is called, where you try to get the demons out or whatever.

Greg 19:33

Exorcism.

Michelle 19:34

No, like uh, it's not confession, but like whatever. He was having his moment, and the people were trying to help him exercise his sin out.

Bobby 19:41

And he was like, they're like, he's like, okay, they're in one of those churches.

Michelle 19:45

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're having like a spectacle. Yeah, you know? Okay. And Kate shows up. Now, Kate was like notorious for being late to church for some reason, but she comes in, she's got no context about what's going on here.

Bobby 19:56

Uh she coming in hot. It sounds like she's coming in hot. Late, late and hot.

unknown 20:03

Totally.

Michelle 20:04

She's classic. This guy is on the floor exercising his demons in a fucking weird way. And uh, she comes over, it sits on his chest, and she's like a big girl, you know. She sits on his chest, pins him down, starts like yelling her fucking big made-up words at him.

Greg 20:21

Talking about spoiling her butter. You're gonna spoil my butter now.

Michelle 20:25

This one guy, Powell, who like we'll talk about him later. I don't love him, whatever. Um, he's like, You should get off him, and she's like, No, you know, and she's like, everybody's kind of yelling at her, and she's yelling at him, and everybody's yelling. And then um John says some shit to her, and while she's sitting on this man's chest, and he's just kind of laying there, like, I wish she would get off me, and she's just like, um, John says some shit to her and uh calls her a witch, and this is what she says. Which I am, that let me I don't think that was her accent. Which am I? That let me offer you a witch's malfaction, old John Bell. You may have your broad acres as well as mine purchase that appendices. You may have your big house and your sub lubricated health right now, but just wait and see. The sad changes shall soon descend upon you and more than you among the bells. That's how that lady spoke. Like, whoa. Okay, you're welcome. I uh sub lubricated health.

Greg 21:31

I like it.

Michelle 21:32

I'll be here all week. Don't worry.

Greg 21:34

Yep.

Michelle 21:34

Everything I said was real. Yeah, okay. So that happened, and then everyone's like, All right, that was crazy. Let's all just go home.

Bobby 21:44

Yeah.

Michelle 21:45

Mm-hmm. She gets off the guy, everybody goes home, whatever. We're gonna not talk about it. Shortly after this, some scary witch shit starts happening over at the bell farm.

Bobby 21:54

I don't know if I'm jumping ahead, but like I mean, she was like, I'm a witch and I'm cursing you.

Michelle 21:59

Yeah, that's what I mean. She she did ramble about it. You go get it. You go get it, John. For sure. For sure. Okay. So scary shit starts to happen in. The first thing that happens is John sees a big black dog with a rabbit head.

Greg 22:16

As one does. Yeah. This is Tennessee in the 1800s. Yeah, that's right. They're rampant.

Michelle 22:20

Yeah. It's got big green eyes. A big dog rabbit head guy is there. And John's like, well, shit. You know, that ain't right. What do I do? I shoot it. But if we think about it, it's probably like a musket. It'd probably like took him a little while if I can get the gunpowder down there and do all the shit. And so, like, the dog rabbit gets away, you know? And he's like, Whoa, that was fucked up. Then his son is like, yo, you guys, I just saw a giant bird. Like a really, really big one. Like the big, you know, you guys know the big scary bird that some people say is the Mothman.

SPEAKER_04 22:51

Yeah, a harpy eagle.

Michelle 22:52

Harpy Eagle. Yeah, yeah. That's what he probably saw. It sounds scary as fucking too big. And then you Google that, everybody Google that shit right now is crazy.

Greg 23:00

There's a wild video of a harpy eagle snatching like a sloth out of a tree. Like and sloths are big. Like they're like a dog. They're so cute. But it's just like, yeah, this eagle is just huge.

Michelle 23:11

Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. This was like a big black bird like on the fence being being scary.

SPEAKER_04 23:17

Witches.

Michelle 23:17

Witches devil everywhere. So then the girls, because remember, we got like six, seven kids running around. There's like a couple little girls, and they see a lady in a green dress in the woods. Apparition, though, disappears when you like, you know, you can't see it, then you see it, and then it's gone, and then whatever. She was wearing a green dress, and green means the devil because swamp gas. Oh, yeah, totally. Fucking A.

Bobby 23:39

Um Swamp Gas lady.

Michelle 23:43

That's gonna be in my head forever. Um, so at this time, green means devil, not red. We changed it at some point, but like before it was red, it was green.

Bobby 23:54

So marketing.

Michelle 23:55

Yeah, exactly. Fucking PR got involved. Um, okay, so now that kind of stuff happens, and now the house starts getting haunted. And so no one has just remember you guys, nobody has a haunted house story to reference, you know, like they're the first haunted house. So this is crazy, you know.

Bobby 24:16

Like word is not traveling fast at these times. So the pretty insular community.

Michelle 24:21

Exactly, exactly. You know, like if you um, you know, you see something in your house and you're like, oh, that was a ghost, you know, because you've heard ghost stories, you've heard haunted house stories, like this is the first one. Yeah, that's crazy.

Bobby 24:32

The only ghost story they know is the Bible, right?

Michelle 24:35

Exactly. I mean, are there besides the Holy Ghost? Is there any other ghosts in there?

Bobby 24:40

I mean, Jesus came back from the dead, dude. That's a good point.

Michelle 24:44

Yeah, good point. So uh the house starts getting haunted, some spooky shit starts happening in the house, such as knocking, right? They're at dinner, somebody knocks on the door. They're like, legit, we have visitors. Dope. They open the door, nobody there, you know. Then there's like sounds of people walking on the roof. Like, what's that? What is that? Then there's this is gross. The kids say that they hear chewing on their bedpost. I hate that. That's disgusting. That's so gross. Why, why that? Oh, I hate you guys. Ew. Um, I don't know if any of you have ever had mice, but the sound of like gnawing and scratching is enough to drive you insane.

Greg 25:24

You know, yeah, even just a little bit. Like you hear something, like we're all like finely tuned to like pick up on stuff like that.

Michelle 25:30

Right.

Greg 25:30

So like when you see something out of the corner of your eye, you're like, what the book.

Michelle 25:33

Wow. Yeah.

Greg 25:34

Like you'll you'll see it. Yeah. But yeah, when you hear just like a tiny bit, like I have this uh picture frame on my wall at my apartment that the neighbors next door will do something, and it just rattles a little, just a little bit, and it constantly does it. And I have it drives me insane. And it's just this tiny little sound, but it's not supposed to be there, and it bothers me so much.

Bobby 25:56

You get some double-sided tape.

Greg 25:57

Let's get you a little bit. Yeah, no, I've I've since punched a hole in the wall. But no, it's like I just know that that idea of just this like that gnawing sound of just like it's so minuscule, but you can't help but notice it and it drives you crazy.

Michelle 26:16

Yeah, for sure. Um, but okay, so some of the stuff you're like, oh well, they have mice myth busted.

Bobby 26:22

I thought when you when you were like knocking on the door and walking on the roof, I was like teens.

Michelle 26:26

I was like raccoons. Oh, actually local teens. Actually, John Bell was convinced that it was Kate Bats had sent her slaves over to haunt him. Um but go haunt. Yeah, but they would look outside and there was no one there. So myth busted, you know they're getting haunted. Um, they got ghost mice because there's no sign of rodent, but it sounds like rodents. What's that? You know? It's a ghost. Okay, so right. Sorry, I just I blacked out for a second because this is where it starts to get crazy. So you there's so many crazy parts, right? Because witches don't aren't ghosts, witches are witches, you know? So why am I blaming this all on poor old Kate? You know, I'll tell you why. The ghost starts talking at this point, which is kind of crazy. So it's like uh, you know, invisible, just a disbodied, disembodied voice, you know? And they're like, Who are you? What do you want? What is this? Blah blah blah. And she's like, My name's Kate. And I feel like that's a setup because Kate is still alive and she's like right down the road.

Greg 27:33

Well, she can astral project.

Michelle 27:34

Apparently, she can.

Greg 27:35

That's okay.

Michelle 27:36

Um, so is it Kate that we know, or is it like a ghost demon spirit entity?

SPEAKER_04 27:42

Ghost demon spirit entity. Who's speaking on behalf of Kate?

Michelle 27:46

Or just pretending to be Kate because this ghost demon spirit entity's mischief. She does. Yeah, she does. She just be fucking with everybody. So now that she can talk, now that she's like escalated from being like a dog rabbit to knocking and being a ghost mouse, now she can talk and she's having so much fun. She sends some of the kids on a treasure hunt. She's like, I buried some shit, blah, blah, blah. Go get it, you know? And they're like, What are you doing here? And she's like, I'm here because my treasure is buried here, and they go to get it, and they come back and they're all mad, like there's no treasure there, and she just laughs, she just laughs and laughs in their face.

Bobby 28:22

I do kind of like a generally a malevolent spirit in that.

Michelle 28:25

She's fun. But listen to this psychological warfare. So there's like a bunch of kids in the house, right? So she picks favorites, and so she fucking hates John Bell. Dad, big trouble. And the youngest girl, Betsy, great name. That was the name of my car when I was a kid. You know, my mom would be like, Getting everybody getting a Betsy we're going, you know? So anyway, we love Betsy, but the ghost hates Betsy. But all the other kids, like uh, the ghost loves the mom for some reason. And so there was a lot of like touching, you know. The ghost would like fucking pull Betsy's hair, you know, poke John in the eye and pull his nose. I thought that was like a real old timey pull his nose, you know. Um, but she would like try to brush the mom's hair and be like really gentle with the mom.

Bobby 29:12

And I think one of the sons what for some reason I thought child bride got like left in the other state. She's still around.

Michelle 29:20

She's the mom. Okay. She birthed all these children. She's like 20 years old right now. Okay.

Bobby 29:24

Yeah. She's just been chilling until now, getting her hair brushed.

Michelle 29:27

You know, I gotta admit, we don't love the mom. Lucy, I think her name was. Okay. Um, she's not looking out for Betsy like she should be. Okay. I'm just saying interschulliver.

Bobby 29:35

I didn't know she was looking out for anybody. No, I didn't know she was still. She kind of wasn't. Still there. Okay.

Michelle 29:39

All right. So the ghost is doing all kinds of shit. She would um it it's all old timey shit. Like she would spill the milk, which was like a big deal. Yeah. Um, she would one of the things that she did that was like really freaked me out is she would pull all the blankets off all the beds. So the kids would all be asleep, and she would just like rip through the house stealing everybody's blankets. And that's gotcha. Yeah. The kind of go she was. You know what I mean? Um, all right. So Betsy, she fucking hates Betsy. So she will pin Betsy down. Um, she will smack her across the face, back and forth. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Really violent against Betsy. I don't know what the fuck Betsy did. Um, other than Betsy is right now, she's like 11, 12 years old. She's like getting her first period. Um, so we all know what that means. She's now engaged. But this time she's engaged to like an age-appropriate schoolboy from town. But for whatever reason, I don't know if the ghost said specifically, I hate your boyfriend, but there's this understanding that the ghost hates this relationship. So Betsy's like, fine, I'll break up with him. Just stop pulling my hair and punching me in the face, you know. Now the bells go from this like respectable family to like everyone's got like scratches on them and like bags that they haven't slept, you know. They're like cold, they don't have any milk, you know.

SPEAKER_04 31:06

Disheveled as fact.

Michelle 31:07

Yeah, they're looking, they're looking rough. So John calls one of his homies and he's like, bro, I'm being haunted. And his homie's like, uh, let me see. I'm gonna sleep over. Fuck it. Homie gets haunted, runs out of there. He's like, dude, the bells are haunted. So word is spreading. Remember when word spread it really slow before? And now it's ramping up, it's spreading fast. Okay. So also around this time, John Bell starts experience experiencing paralysis in his mouth. So the way that this is explained is that it's like half it's like if your tongue went hard.

Greg 31:46

This is a really perverted episode.

Michelle 31:49

Yeah. Only in your sick minds. I'm just talking about a witch churning butter with hard tongue. Listen. Listen.

Bobby 31:57

Um spoiling that butter with that hard ass tongue.

Michelle 32:00

I'm gonna throw up. Ew. Okay.

Greg 32:09

I'm gonna spray butter all over the ball.

Michelle 32:11

All right, all right, guys. You shut your dirty mouth. Yeah, I mean, that's it. Just like take hard tongue. Yeah, just like take that in. Take that into your heart. He can't. Whatever you're asking me, he I mean, he has a really hard time talking. He like, you know, imagine your tongue was hard as a rock. Like, you can't you can't eat good, you can't talk good, you're you're fucked up. He's so fucked up. This witch is fucking him up. He is in a bad way.

Greg 32:35

And we're sure it's not syphilis.

Michelle 32:37

No, we ain't sure. We ain't sure. But right now we think it's a witch for sure, but also it could be like, I don't know, Lou Gehrig's disease or something before Lou Gehrig was alive. I don't know. Maybe John Bell invented a disease. I'm not sure. Because I'm not a hater, I'm a believer. All right, is the Bell Witch. Okay, so James, James Johnston is uh the homie that comes over, and he is the guy who goes back to town and says, like, okay, definitely they're haunted. I tried to sleep there, and it was like super paranormal and crazy. So that dude's son is like, I'm gonna investigate. He's like the first fucking Ghostbuster. And he comes over and he starts asking the voice questions that only he would know, you know, like, what does my grandma say about blah blah, whatever? You know, actually, I did that on purpose. It's like it's it's racist. He asks it to be racist, and it is. Um, but it responds in his grandma's voice, which really scares me, you guys.

Bobby 33:41

I hate that. His grandma's very racist.

Michelle 33:44

His grandma's really racist, and so now this voice is uh, you know, it's doing an impression of the grandma with the grandma's voice. Oh, can you do the impression? I didn't hear it. I didn't hear it, but next time I'll do better research. I'll do better research next time and I'll get that really. You know what? I wasn't even gonna tell you guys about that part. I was just gonna avoid it because it was racist. I didn't want to talk about it. But you know what? I tell the truth, everybody's racist. Um, and okay, so now he's like, holy shit, this ghost is real, you know? So he wasn't a ghostbuster, he's now a ghost believer. He goes back to town, he's telling everybody crowds start coming to the house. Like, people wanna see the ghost, they wanna know they're nosy. They bring out the ghost. Yeah, show us the ghost. I came here for the ghost place, and then this one homie, um Powell is his last name. We hate him so much. So he comes to the house and he like just like inserts himself into the situation and is acting really uh, sorry, he's a school teacher and he has taught some of the Bell kids. So he's they fool us every time. He's respectable, he's got a job, he's in a position of power, and he's there trying to help you with your ghost problem. But really, he's got his eye on 11-year-old Betsy. That's what's going on here. Puke. I know your faces really dropped, it got serious. Yeah, anyway. Um, there's this other really scary story that I heard, and so I want to share with you. So this Englishman, on-named Englishman, rolls up at the house and he's like, Bro, can I sleep over and uh investigate your ghosts? And they're like, sure.

Bobby 35:28

Also, he's like, I already got some daughters.

Michelle 35:30

No, the Englishman was very behaved. Um, it's only the American men who want to sleep with all the 11-year-old girls. Well, no, probably not. Actually, we did learn that recently people get arrested. Anyway, British they actually don't get arrested for that though. But anyway, listen, that's not why we're here. Back to the witches. So this lady, I mean this man, sorry, this English man was like, I'm gonna sleep over and it's gonna be dope.

Greg 35:56

As one, you know, as you would do, yeah.

Michelle 35:59

Yeah, it seems like the um the real like man manly men, if you will, are like, Oh, I'm gonna go fix this problem for this, these people. These people have a ghost problem, I'm gonna go handle it, you know? And he gets there and he's there, and the disembodied voice starts talking about his family, and he is from England or somewhere overseas in Europe, somewhere, and so it's like talking in in their accent, and all of a sudden it sounds just like his parents, and this really fucking spooks him. And so he notes the fuck on out of there. He leaves, he goes back to England, and later, you gotta wait for it. This is like this takes months, you know, maybe even years. But eventually the bells get a letter from that guy who says that when he got home, his parents said that a witch was here when you were gone and said that you were in America or whatever it said. And he said, I apologize that I didn't believe you. So this is the first time we see a witch that can be in two places at the same time um and be fucking with people's heads across the pond, you know?

Greg 37:08

Well, it's that it's that black hole in the butter, though.

Michelle 37:10

Yeah, no, actually, you're right. This is the second time that she's done this. Einstein Rosie and Butter. Yeah, that's right. This time she went really far though, you know. First time she just went from like the farm next door, and this time she was like on the other side of the world. But also, look, I don't know what to say. She she is good at what she does, you know? Yeah. Okay, so now um he he apologizes, and there is, like I said, like uh news is spreading around town, but it's starting to like get outside of town. And what's interesting about this time period is I'm like, okay, nothing was published until 75 years after all of this happened. Like, how is this news spreading, you know? But somehow, I guess word of mouth, people are just talking about it and like people are excited, you know. Again, like no one's ever had a haunted house like this before. Nothing like this has ever happened. You know, they're like, holy shit. And there's a specific famous military hero to some named Andrew Jackson, who would later become president, who's like, he hears about this and he's like, I'll fix it. I'm gonna go there and like slay the bell witch. It's gonna be Andrew Jackson. Yeah, here I come to save the day. He's problematic, but whatever, he goes down. And this is what happens when he gets there, and it's so lame. What a wuss, is all I gotta say. Andrew Jackson's a wuss. So his wagon becomes paranormally stuck in the mud. Like there's no mud, but the wagon won't move. The horse won't move, everybody's stuck. And so he, of course, travels with like a posse, you know, he's got like a bunch of his men, you know, and his men start getting slapped, like out of the air, you know, like it by an invisible force. And so they don't know how to deal with that. Like they're like, hold on. I know you said that there was an invisible force slapping bitches around here, but like, nah-uh, you know, and so they freak out. Uh, this I found really funny is apparently the ghost said some shit to Andrew Jackson, but like I can't find out what she said. But he was like, fuck you about. So he leaves.

Greg 39:22

Um Andrew Jackson was just a big pussy.

Michelle 39:24

It sounded a really big wuss. Um guys, let's get out of here. I know. It's uh it sounds like uh one of the But how'd you get out of there?

Bobby 39:32

The wagon wouldn't move. It reminded me of like an old time Scooby-Doo gang. Yeah, but then they're like, Well, we gotta go.

Michelle 39:38

Yeah, if it wasn't for you and your damn kids.

Bobby 39:40

Yeah, but they never just smoke pouring out of his like courage.

Michelle 39:43

They didn't solve shit, they just ran away. But when I was trying to find out what she said to him, you know, because she was like, she was feisty, you know. Um, it just says she mocked him and his men, which I guess was like a big deal back then. Like you can't be mocking Andrew Jackson or he's gonna leave. So he leaves, but he did have a famous quote, which is I'd rather fight the British again than deal with that bell witch.

Bobby 40:08

Wow.

Michelle 40:08

Mm-hmm. Didn't I just sound like Andrew Jackson? Yeah.

Bobby 40:12

So I mean, you really gotta you gotta slide in on the British there. Yeah, sure, sure, yeah. You gotta zinger on.

Michelle 40:18

Yeah, zing him, zing him. Okay, so at this point, um, people are coming over. The myth is not busted, right? People are like, dude, you're haunted. Why don't you leave? You know, like what's going on here? You guys should get out of here. This is crazy. You guys went from this like respectable family to like lunatics. Now you're nuts. Go home. Not to your actual house to find a new home. Get out of here. And all right, this gets kind of dark. There is maybe something to John maybe was molesting Betsy. We don't really know about that. I started researching it and it just felt so bad that I stopped Andrew Jackson to right out of that. And I was like, you know what? I'm not gonna go down that hole, and instead, I'm gonna stay in positivity. So he gets excommunicated from the church. Why? Right? Why would he get excommunicated?

Bobby 41:14

Why?

Michelle 41:15

Why? Um, because he was found guilty of usury and coveting his neighbor's land because of that shit that went down with Kate Bats. She won. He needs to go. So kudos to you, Kate Bats. You were right, he was wrong, but also maybe he was molesting his daughter and they just said it was usury and like blamed it on the Kate Bats thing.

Bobby 41:37

But like Kate Bats wrote this. You were usury.

Michelle 41:41

Usery and covering thy neighbor's land, and thy neighbor is me, so you must leave.

Bobby 41:47

User are a usurist.

Michelle 41:48

Yeah, you are excommunicated. So okay. About a year or so after he's excommunicated, he's still here. Like, why didn't you leave? He's still here. His tongue is hard as fuck. He's in only getting harder. He's in a really bad way, you guys. Um, he's literally on his deathbed, you know, in the whole family. We got seven kids here. We got a lot of family. Whole family's around.

Greg 42:14

They're all now like 25.

Michelle 42:15

No, it's only a 25. His wife might be like 25 by now.

Greg 42:19

He's in like mid 30s now, and he's I think Betsy's like 15.

Michelle 42:23

Oh no, he's old as fuck, bro. He's 70 because he's like 25 years older than his wife, you know, or more.

Greg 42:30

It'd have to be way more.

Michelle 42:32

Sorry, yeah. I'm so good at math.

Greg 42:34

There's a lot of numbers. Well, um I'm sorry, he was 40. He's old as fuck.

Michelle 42:39

I'm sorry. Kate was 40, she was old as fuck, but on Wikipedia it does say he died when he was 70. But now I'm feeling that math didn't really add up so good, but whatever. He was actually old.

Bobby 42:51

I mean, this would have been 28 years from when the story opened, because he was 32 years old when they lived in the other state.

Michelle 42:57

Yeah, you see how the math is bad there? Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Somebody's wrong, and it's probably me.

Bobby 43:02

How many years are you positing has transpired?

Michelle 43:05

Uh the haunting's like three years.

Bobby 43:09

Three, twenty-eight, whatever. Dude, okay. Well, I mean, we still we This is the authenticated record. See? Don't worry about it.

Michelle 43:18

Listen, they didn't do good math back then, and that's why it's a little off, all right?

Bobby 43:22

Yeah, yeah. You know, records were they didn't know scarce.

Michelle 43:26

Yeah. Look.

Greg 43:27

They had like ledgers for their farms and stuff, but not really cataloged.

Bobby 43:30

They kept it pretty loose, like three or twenty-eight.

Michelle 43:33

That's right. Years, you know what I mean? Okay, anyway, December 20th, 1820. John dies in bed at home.

Bobby 43:41

Which is not 40 or 70. That's correct.

Michelle 43:47

Okay, in my defense, when I started the story, he was still in North Carolina. This is like year that was years before the witch.

Bobby 43:53

I think and the erg Irving needs to account for themselves, not you. That's right.

Michelle 43:58

Authenticate this, bitch. You know what I mean? So okay, they're in all right. Set the scene. He's in his deathbed. He dies. He passed hard tongue fucking dead by hard tongue. Anyway, he's dead. He does have a son named John Jr. who is outraged by his death, even though like this dude's been dying hard tongue death for like two years already. Like, I don't know why you're surprised he's dead, because he should have been dead a long time ago. So John Jr. is like, he must have been poisoned. And now the witch is like, ha ha ha ha, I poisoned him. She says something like, I gave old Jack the black or something. I don't know how to remember. Damn. I know she called him old Jack, but she was just like she says something like that. Oh, I gotta. She says, I fixed him. And that's supposed to mean she killed him. Whatever. Gave him the black was a little bit better. Anyhow, um, John Jr. is like, what he finds this like sus vial nearby, the bed, or like whatever by the food or something. He's like, What's this vial? You know, and like the witch is laughing, and he's like, I think he's been poisoned or whatever. So he gives a drop of the liquid from the vial to the house cat, and the house cat dies. And now I'm so upset, you know? Like, I'm like, John Jr., you can eat a fucking bag of dicks. Why did you just kill the cat, dude?

Greg 45:26

Well, he's gonna he's running a science experiment.

Michelle 45:28

I know, but don't they pumpkin? That's my cat. I can't. I just I can't.

Bobby 45:33

Also, I mean, John Jr. is he's a dick. Yeah, he is a stabler. He's a dick, but the witch really liked him, so those two were he's in a house that's haunted, molesting house, and like he's fine with all that. I like that he's his dad dies and he's like, I am outraged. Yeah, it's true. Now you're outraged.

Greg 45:48

He's the one that found the vial, and he's like, This must be poison, and then poisons the cat as well. Like, yeah, you know, I poisoned my father, but you know, fuck the cat too.

Michelle 45:57

You're right, you're right. John Jr. is a fucking killing ass motherfucker.

Greg 46:00

Yeah.

Michelle 46:00

So then he wanted to take over the the land and yeah, probably, probably. Yeah.

Bobby 46:04

Um, or coveted his father's land.

Michelle 46:07

Yeah.

Bobby 46:07

Yeah. He's a usury.

Michelle 46:09

Yeah, he was. So he that usury uh runs in the family. He throws the vial into the fire. You know, he's like, kills the cat, and he's like, Oh, it's poison, and he throws it in the fire and it bursts into blue flames, which I feel like is really cinematic and fun. And also means arsenic, apparently. Oh, but well, whatever. We don't know that at the time. Duh. We don't know that at the time, but you make that out of apple seeds. Yeah, that's site night.

Greg 46:38

Oh, yeah. Um I like that we've both kind of understood what we were talking about. That like it is just like you can make it up.

Michelle 46:49

Yeah. Somebody's gonna write in and be like, both of you are fucking deadass wrong, but whatever. Um, so okay, if this is true.

unknown 47:00

Sorry.

Michelle 47:01

I just realized what I just said. But if this is the first time a witch has ever killed a person, you know, like that doesn't happen. Witches don't kill people, they fucking, you know, rattle chains and shit, but they don't kill people. Oh, I forgot to tell you guys. Um in the very beginning, when it was still just like a haunted mouse situation, there were chains being dragged around. Yeah, that's really scary. Jacob Marley. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Um so anyway, this all right, after all the shit that this entity has done, for some reason, this is my most favorite. So everyone's at the house mourning, you know, however, they did it back then. He's probably still his dead body is probably still in the bed.

Bobby 47:45

They really like to declare stuff, so they'd be like, We're in mourning.

Michelle 47:48

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They declared mourning. People are there to visit the body and the family and whatever.

Bobby 47:55

We're here to mourn.

Michelle 47:56

Yeah, they're all there mourning, and she starts singing the she being the fucking entity, the disembodied entity.

Bobby 48:03

What is she singing, dude?

Michelle 48:05

She's singing dropkick Murphy songs. Like she's singing drinking songs. I don't know why, and I can only conjure dropkick Murphys when I think about drinking songs, and so she's having a fucking party while these people are trying to mourn the death of their father.

Bobby 48:23

Yeah.

Michelle 48:23

And I just think this is epic.

Bobby 48:26

Yeah. Yeah, she's doing stomp and holler at the at the at the Shiva.

unknown 48:31

Exactly.

Michelle 48:32

Exactly. Um, and then right after this, right after John dies and she's fucking done with her circle pit, she goes, she declares that she's leaving and that she's gonna be back in seven years. So you guys better all watch your fucking dicks, and I'll be back in seven years.

Bobby 48:50

Does she say where she's going?

Michelle 48:52

She doesn't, but we find her. We find her. She's in the cave. She's in the bell witch cave, just right down the way.

Bobby 48:59

I knew it.

Michelle 49:01

So they say that she's just hiding out in the cave, being chilled. There's um, you know, sometimes she's like really nice for no reason.

Greg 49:08

Oh, so people found her there within that like seven-year span. They or is this just like after the fact, never came back after the seven years, and then just people This is a great question.

Michelle 49:19

We cannot authenticate this part of the story.

Greg 49:21

Okay.

Michelle 49:22

All right. So I believe that during the seven-year period she was radio silent, except there is a story of this one young boy who gets stuck in the cave, and he says that a woman's voice, who was very nice to him, and I think said her name was Kate, said that he was gonna be okay and comforts him and whatever, and somehow or another gets him out of the cave. And now, did this happen during that seven-year period or did it happen after? I cannot authenticate because no one knows how to do math until like a hundred years later. And so, anyway, seven years go by and she comes back, and now she comes back to the house. The bells are still living there. Betsy is now uh, I don't know, 21, 22, I don't know. Two years old. No, she's married. Guess to who?

Greg 50:07

That uh that that creep.

Michelle 50:08

Yep, yep. And so she, the ghost, makes fun of them and then leaves. Oh, okay. And they it is that's literally So she liked Betsy, so no, she hated Betsy. Oh, she hated Betsy. She hated Betsy, she hated uh Betsy's the only one she hated, besides John.

Bobby 50:24

It seems like the haunting is kind of like a job for her. Yeah. She's she's like a gus witch. Yeah, and then she was like, You guys, I'm gonna take a sabbatical. Yeah, I don't really need a recharge. Yeah, for example. I'm actually kind of an introvert if you knew that about me.

Michelle 50:36

Yeah, and I have to haunt for my job.

Bobby 50:37

Yeah, I just I just need some time.

Michelle 50:39

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm gonna go to my cave. Yeah.

Bobby 50:42

Then she comes back and she haunts Betsy for a little bit.

Michelle 50:45

Yeah, but she really doesn't. When she comes back, like there's nothing, there's no like she doesn't do shit. Like, she's lost all her fire. She's just like, You gotta be fucking kidding me, Betsy. You married that guy, you're a dumb idiot. I'm leaving again. I'm going back to my cave. I can't even with you. I can't even with you, Betsy. And she leaves and she never comes back. But it is said that she is still in the cave to this day.

Bobby 51:10

That's gotta be she really must not have liked that guy because she loved to haunt Betsy. Right.

Michelle 51:15

Yeah, and now it's not even fun. She's like, you know what? I can't stand this guy. Totally, because he's such a piece of shit. I'm going to the cave. Mm-hmm. That's right. So today, as in, you know, like actually today, you can go to the cave and visit it and see if uh, you know, old Kate's still there.

Greg 51:31

And where is this at? Where is it? Tennessee. Well, yeah.

Michelle 51:34

Oh, that's a big space. Fuck you guys. That's a great ass question to ask me on the spot like that. Jesus.

Bobby 51:42

It's in Adams, Tennessee.

Michelle 51:43

Thank you. That's what I said. Adams, Tennessee.

Greg 51:46

Go to the Bell Cave. Yeah.

Bobby 51:48

Adams, Tennessee. You can uh find the coordinates online.

Michelle 51:50

Yep, yep.

Bobby 51:52

Do some zip lining straight into the cave. 430 Keysburg Road, Adams, Tennessee. 37010. Sorry. Big apologies to the people that live close by there.

Michelle 52:01

Oh no, I watched um an episode. I did a lot of weird research for this one. Um I watched an episode of some Tennessee show on PBS, and they did their like Halloween spooky uh episode was about the Bell Witch and some other shit. And uh it's a big thing. Every year, a lot of people come there, they want to see it. There's a museum, Halloween's their big fucking time. People get witchy around Halloween, so they wanna go and see the Bell Witch.

Greg 52:25

Yeah, forget Salem, everybody. Don't go to Salem, Massachusetts anymore. Yeah, you know, it's so crowded. How about we all head to Tennessee? Adams, Tennessee. Adams, Tennessee. And that's where we're gonna head for Halloween from this point forward.

Michelle 52:40

Every year.

Greg 52:41

Yeah.

Michelle 52:41

Yeah, absolutely. Also, um, one of the things that I used for the research is the Bell Witch Project, that is uh one of our books you can find on the Conspiracy Journals website. That book goes through a lot of the things that I was hinting on, not just like the actual haunting and the things, the accounts that happened and whatever, but like where this story lives in myth and folklore, and how it was like the first to do this and the first to do that, and how it's like it's I like that it covers cryptids a little bit too. Yeah, it does. You know, that's how she started, you know, as a start off as a cryptid rabbit dog. Yeah, that's right. Um, and so there's not a lot of these stories where she's everything, you know, but she's also supposedly this woman who's still alive right down the road, you know. Like, was it Kate Bats the whole time, or was this a you know, demon ghost cryptid entity who was just I kind of hope it was Kate Bats because it seemed like Kate Bats would like it to be Kate Bats.

Bobby 53:41

Yeah, for sure. Fuck this guy. Yeah, I would love to.

Greg 53:44

And it's a hell of a story for her to like have like a reputation as being the the one that like outed all of this crazy bullshit with this family. Don't fuck with her anymore.

Michelle 53:53

Yeah, for sure. For sure.

Greg 53:55

Gonna take her serious. I know she's a woman and a landowner, but she will fuck you up, but she's gonna come for you.

Michelle 54:00

Yeah, you know what? She's gonna scare Andrew Jackson right the hell out of here.

Bobby 54:04

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fucking Andrew Jackson. Andrew Jackson cameo in there.

Michelle 54:07

Super weird. Yeah. A great story, you guys. I like the Bell Witch a lot. She's feisty and fun, you know?

Bobby 54:13

I've looked at some pictures of the cave. Great cave. Yeah, great cave. I did see some pictures too. Yep, yep, yep. Scary. Yeah. You know?

Michelle 54:20

Yeah. Um, so I don't know, you know, if you're uh if you're the bell witch, or if you know about the bell witch, or if you had a haunting or or anything, if you know anything about anything, you give us a call at the Strange Exchange and you tell us about it. 929-445-3705. We want to know.

unknown 54:38

Yeah.

Greg 54:38

Also, a quick reminder on that, that the Strange Exchange currently is limited to about three minutes. So yeah, just fill us in, give us some uh cliff notes and small details, and we'll go from there.

Bobby 54:49

I know that like you a rabbit dog, I was there. I heard that. Yeah, uh, also disembodied voice. I like heard that. Yeah. But was there did she manifest as a human never. Okay. So there's no like it was just a voice of the bell witch. Nope. Oh, interesting.

Michelle 55:05

Yep, I know.

Bobby 55:06

But creepy when she was in the cave, did she have no?

Michelle 55:10

She just came through. Like the only story we really have in the cave is the little boy, and he just heard her voice.

Greg 55:15

Well, the kids also said there was a woman in green, right?

Michelle 55:18

There was a lady in the woods. Um, there was also maybe a lady who was hanging from a tree one time who was clearly dead but still crying, and that's a little bit weird, but maybe she had on green dress too.

Bobby 55:29

Um, you know, she definitely sounded like a big time shapeshifter.

Michelle 55:33

Yeah. Also, you know, she can astro project to the other side of the world. Uh also, I mean, she could do it all, really. What can't what can't she do?

Bobby 55:42

And I mean, I guess if I want to know what she looked like, I just need to look at what Kate Bats look like.

Michelle 55:46

Oh, yeah, good luck with that.

Bobby 55:48

Yeah. Yeah, there's some Oh, there's a pretty cool illustration of the rabbit dog.

Michelle 55:52

Sick, zick, zick, zig. Um yeah, I mean, I can't, I I gotta say, I was really blown away. I thought the bell witch was oh, also the bell witch has inspired everything we know about hauntings, really. All this the haunted movie, haunted houses.

Greg 56:10

I'm looking at you, Zach Baggins.

Michelle 56:12

That's right, that's right. You fucking ripped off the bell witch real hard. She um, yeah. So I mean, uh, she was the first. She was the first, and she she did it all.

Bobby 56:25

She did it all.

Michelle 56:26

Yeah, good honor.

Bobby 56:28

All of it.

Michelle 56:28

You guys have any more questions?

Greg 56:30

Because I'm just thinking now of how like Ed Gean inspired like essentially all serial killers, all the great serial killers. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Michelle 56:38

He had it all, dude. He did it all. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Greg 56:42

Cool to know that was the Bell Witch. Didn't know that. I didn't know the story. It's awesome.

Michelle 56:46

Yeah, I mean, why don't we know her story? You know?

Greg 56:50

We all do now.

Michelle 56:51

Yeah. Apparently they teach it in like history class, and if you live in Tennessee.

Greg 56:55

And I also know what it means, know what it means to spoil the butter. Oh, yeah, that's some. Spoil. Yeah. Spoil.

Michelle 57:02

Spoil the butter is like step one in witching somebody, you know?

Bobby 57:07

Yeah. Who knew? Passage to get your butter spoiled.

Michelle 57:11

You guys are gonna hear all about it every time I do a witch story. I'm gonna be like, and then she fucking spoiled the butter, you know it.

Greg 57:17

It's weird that that's like the a go-to thing. Like, how do you how do we know that's the first step?

Bobby 57:22

Yeah, I did like that narrative that she's like, uh so the butter was being weird, and I touched it with a poker. Yeah, and the witch was in there and she grabbed the poker. Yeah, obviously. It's exploded everywhere.

Michelle 57:33

That's right.

Bobby 57:34

And people were like, Whoa, no way. She's like, Yeah, they're like, That's crazy. Witches, whoa, yeah, yeah.

Greg 57:40

Then this lady had an injury on her hand. Obviously, it was her. She is the witch.

Michelle 57:46

That's how we find out who the witch is. Like I said, like I said, yeah. I mean, I thought it was good detective work, I'm just saying.

Greg 57:54

Yeah, I mean, like, that's an obvious conclusion.

Michelle 57:57

Yeah, all the guys didn't have real experiments. All the guys just were like, I'll sleep over and see if I get haunted, and then I'll run away.

Bobby 58:03

Yeah, all those guys were just trying to get uh Betsy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know.

Michelle 58:08

Fucking school teacher got her in the end. Bummer. Poor Betsy. Betsy, you know what? I blame the mom, dude. I'm like, I said it earlier. She like really wasn't doing a good mom job, you know.

Greg 58:19

Yeah, she too was a child bride, and her husband had a hard tongue, so you know.

Michelle 58:23

I know. This is how she gonna do. Yeah, this is you know, it's it's generational trauma.

Bobby 58:28

I guess you know, I mean, I was surprised in the middle of the story when she popped back up because it she was like conspicuously absent in all the haunting. You know what I mean? Yeah, so like what maybe there's a little something going on there. Yeah, actually, but also we've seen some documentaries about some terrible moms doing terrible things with their daughters.

Michelle 58:47

So we know that's the one who like fucking food protects her, yeah, dude. Like years ago, that mom, dude, jail, jail, jail, jail, jail, jail, forever jail. Ugh, god, that mom's so bad. It's the worst mom. So um one okay, remember when I was like, maybe he was molesting his daughter? But I'm not gonna talk about it. I still don't want to talk about it, but like maybe this whole thing is like a manifestation, and like Lucy, the child bride mom, was like haunting her own family to like try to get him to stop molesting the children and whatnot. So that's also that's you know what, you're not wrong, you know. People have had that thought before too, and I decided that I didn't want to research it because it it felt bad. And you know what was more fun? Crazy ghost witches, you know?

Bobby 59:37

Yeah, but no, I mean it's still pretty fun, not fun in the traditional sense, right?

Michelle 59:42

Um, yeah, but if tell me how how it's fun.

Bobby 59:44

If it was the mom the whole time.

Michelle 59:46

Oh, yeah, that would be fun. Haunting her own kid. Yeah, yeah, that would be fun. You're right, you're right. And if it was syphilis, if uh he was just microdosing. Everybody, the whole town had syphilis, yeah, and that's what happened. And that's that's what happened.

Greg 59:59

Yeah.

Michelle 1:00:01

Thank you.

Greg 1:00:02

All right, yeah. See you guys later.

Michelle 1:00:05

All right, goodbye.