TinWiki: Bell Witch

The Bell Witch is a traditional Ghost story in Southern American Folklore. The story originates from the Bell family who were a family living in Tennessee from 1817 til 1935, they said they experienced strange events. This was the precursor to John Bell Jr.'s book which was about this legend in Folklore.

This tale has inspired three very famous movies, they are the following in chronological order; The Blair Witch Project (1999), The Bell Witch Haunting (2004) and An American Haunting (2006).

According to very limited writings and mainly word of mouth, we believe that the hauntings started in 1817 and were first seen by a Mr. John Bell Sr. He claimed to encounter a weird animal made out of lots of different animals. Pat Fitzhugh retold the story a while back, in it Pat went over the possibilities of a return from the Bell witch in 1935 on the Bell property. Its said that "the faint sounds of people talking and children playing can sometimes be heard in the area".

The Bell Witch In Popular Culture

• The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Movie
  
• The Bell Witch Haunting (2004) - Movie
  
• An American Haunting (2006) - Movie
  
• Other Worlds - Book
  

ATS Discussion Topics

The Bell Witch.
Can ghosts hurt you physically? eg cuts, bruise.

Found this: www.bellwitch.org...
This site has alot of information about the Bell which. It also includes alot of pictures and background on American lore. Anyone who is interested take a look!

I'll see if i can do some digging, add some links. i LOVE researching about the bell witch! Quite literally The book, is also known as the 'red book'. The bell witch swore to return in someting like 50 years, and she did..john bell jr. He and 'her' had converstaions, she told him of hte future, things to come. The red book is not easy to find at all, but i remember finding a website few years ago, that had some detailed info about thier converstaions. She swore to return every century basically, but eventually she stopped.
Andrew Jackson himself, was reported to be helping john bell, John bell had a small army with him, as he was still a general. It was reported, him and his troops defied the bell witch outside. They heard a womans laughter going through the trees, and the horsebuggy attached to horese literally would not budge, as she laughed. Andrew jackson was scared and in awe, and its said he wrote about this incident, when he became president, in the white house.
The bell witch was racist. Thier was an incident, where one of john bells slaves(yes he was a slaveowner: ( ) showed up late. He was angry. The bell witch's voice materialized, and reffering to john as 'ol' jack. Thats what she called john bell...ol' jack. She siad something along the lines of well make sure this (racist term) is never late again. In front of both of them, a big stick levitated and continued to whip and beat the slaves back until his back bled..soemthing like 40 lashes was administered by her.
The slaves on the property, also had their own kinda book, reporting and talking about weird animals, racist womans voice in the air in thier rooms. so the bell with, wa well known. In fact, local people would often come to johns huose, to hear her voice. They had thought, it was a woman neighbor, Kate, if i remember correctly. Johnathan had made a bartering business deal with her, and he didnt repay her. It was said, according to legend, Kate was so infuriated by this, after the court session, she cursed his daughter, betsy.
But, this sounding like poltergiest activity...betsy was pretty much at an age, when puebrty starts, and thas when poltergeists usualy show up..thiers a connection between girls, and peubrty. If yuo read about poltergiest activity, its all involving girls and puebrty. Neverr really a male.
Some seem to think, the bell witch has been around for many years before the incident..theirs a river near adams tennessee thier, that even local travelers and poeple who lived thier, talked about the river truning red time to time, and hearing a womans laughter high up in the trees.
The animal, john had first seen, was described as having a dog body and a rabbits head. He got his musket and shot at it, and it disappeared in front of his eyes. I saw an american hauning, and have the dvd. Its close but not as acurate as the legend. Typical of hollywood. just like the exorcist or Amityville horror. The exorcist, in reality, was a little boy named 'robbie' whos aunt taught him about the ouija board, and soon after she passed, he was possesed. But thier was no head turning in a 360, throwing up green pea soup...and it was a boy, not a girl.
Amityville horror...the entire debunked haunting, took place in winter, not autumn, like hollywood portrayed it. The door that was ripped off the hinges, in the movie...in reality it was a screen door, not a solid wood door. The pigs eyes, seen through the window...in relaitym she did see the pig eyes, and heard it grunting. going outside, they found what lokoed like goat hoofprints in the snow. Holloywood, to me, chopped up the true sotrys, makeshifted em a little, not telling the true sotry at all, and leaving others stuff out.
Not hijacking yuor thread man...sorry about all this info, but as yuo can tell, ive done my rresearch and just wanted to add more cool info!

I also remember...during this haunting, hollywood failed to leave out...johns wife was very fond of bananas and almonds. It was reported, the bell withc very much took aliking to his wife, and often made it rain, yes rain almonds in her room, and often she would awake to find a bunch of bananas on her nightable next to her bed.
The witch poisoned johnathan, as she sore almsot every night, she was going to kill him. That one fateful day, johnathan didnt wake up. They found a small bottle of some kinda unknown black liquid on his nighttable. They fed some of the lquid to the family cat, the cact ran in a circlae and keled over and died. One of the guys their, threw the bottle into the fireplace, and imiediatly a blueish falme when up the chimney. holloywood left that out too.