The Bell Witch: The Full Account (13 page)

Reverend Fort began saying a prayer. Tears now

rolling down his face and overtaken by fear, John

Bell interrupted Reverend Fort’s prayer with a prayer

of his own. “Why, dear God? Why is this happening

to our family? What have we done to deserve this?

What? We have always tried to live according to your

word! My family and I cannot continue living this life

of pain, delusion, and torment. If it means I must

go, then so be it; I would give my own life in but a

minute if it meant the well being of Lucy and the

children. Please, dear God, have deliver us from this

evil and sinister force before it’s too late; please, I beg

of you!”

Immediately after Bell’s prayer, a strong draft blew

through the room and put out the candles as the

voice of a small child was heard saying, “We will see

you in hell, and that’s where you will rot, Ol’ Jack

Bell.” The candles then mysteriously started burning

again all by themselves and the child’s voice faded

into the fierce and howling January wind that swept

around the outside the house.

Sounds that resembled whips popping were then

heard and John Bell fell to the floor screaming.

When Reverend Fort and Bell’s sons tried to help

him, they found his face and arms covered with

reddish, purple marks from where he had been

struck by a seemingly invisible whip. “A whip just

slapped both sides of my face and both my arms! I

have never felt such pain, and I pray that it never

happens again to Elizabeth, me, or anyone else,” Bell

cried loudly. Reverend James Gunn was in the area

later that evening and stopped to pay the Bells a

visit.

The Spirit Quotes Two Sermons

Reverend Gunn, Reverend Fort, John Jr., and

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91

Lucy Bell went to the family room after dinner for

some conversation and prayer. After they had

conversed for some time, they the Spirit spoke up

and asking Reverend Gunn about several points he

had made in a recent sermon.

Reverend Gunn angrily responded, “And just how

do you know what I preached about that morning?”

“I was present and I heard you,” replied the Spirit.

“That is impossible! You were not there, and there’s

no way you could know what my sermon was about!”

Gunn exclaimed. The Spirit proceeded to quote

Reverend Gunn’s entire sermon and closing prayer

using his own voice, word for word.

Amazed by the Spirit’s rendition of Reverend

Gunn’s sermon, Lucy Bell remarked that Reverend

Fort had the advantage because having attended

Reverend Gunn’s sermon, there was no way the

Spirit could have known anything about Reverend

Fort’s sermon. “Oh, Yes I do!” exclaimed the Spirit; “I

was there and heard him.” Assimilating the voice

and character of Reverend Fort, the Spirit quoted his

sermon and closing prayer, word for word.

The most astonishing aspect of this demonstration

was that at precisely eleven o’clock in the morning,

Reverend Gunn preached at Bethel Methodist

Church, six miles southeast of the Bell home, and

Reverend Fort preached at Drake’s Pond Baptist

Church, seven miles northwest of the Bell home.

Both ministers confirmed that the Spirit had quoted

their sermons correctly.

The Spirit Tells About a Wedding

The group began discussing a similar incident that

had taken place a few weeks prior, when Reverend

Thomas Gunn took ill and was unable to marry a

couple he had promised to. In a letter to Martin

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Ingram, Mr. Henry Pickering, son of Major Garaldus

Pickering, j relayed his father’s account of this

remarkable incident:

“While the family and guests were at supper, the

subject of a wedding that was to take place at that

hour came up. Father stated the names of the

contracting parties, which I have forgotten, but

remember the circumstance very distinctly, as it

impressed me at the time.

However, some one remarked that the hour for

the marriage had about passed, and the parties

were no doubt then man and wife.
Another

remarked that Reverend Thomas Gunn performed

the ceremony. The witch then spoke, exclaiming,

‘No, he did not marry them.’ ‘Yes, but you are

mistaken this time,’ replied one, ‘Brother Gunn

was engaged to tie the knot, and he never fails.’

‘He failed this time,’ returned the witch, ‘Brother

Gunn was taken very sick and could not go, and

the wedding was about to be a failure, but they

sent off for Squire Byrns and he married them.’

No one present believed it possible for the witch to

know the facts so soon, but this was ascertained

on the following day to be the truth of the case in

every particular.” 27

The Spirit’s recital of Reverend Fort and Reverend

James Gunn’s simultaneous sermons, along with the

discussion about Reverend Thomas Gunn’s missing

a wedding, sent Reverend James Gunn into a fit of

anger, prompting him to ask the age-old question of

the Spirit’s identity and purpose.

27 M.V. Ingram,
Authenticated History of the Bell Witch
, 1894.

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CHAPTER NINE

The Spirit’s Identities and Forms

R EVEREND GUNN SPRANG TO HIS FEET

and shouted, “So you are able to quote

sermons, argue about the scripture, and

beat people within inches of their lives; yet you will

not tell us what you are and why you are here! Like

the others present here and all over the country this

evening, I want an answer and I want it now!” The

Spirit responded, “I am a Spirit who was once very

happy, but have been disturbed and made unhappy.”

“How were you disturbed, and what makes you

unhappy?” inquired Gunn inquired.

Spirit Looking for a Lost Tooth

The Spirit then provided what seemed to be the

explanation everyone had been waiting for; changing

its voice from loud and angry to a soft, feeble tone,

the Spirit stated, “I am the Spirit of a person who

was buried in the woods near by, and the grave has

been disturbed, my bones disinterred and scattered,

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F I T Z H U G H

and one of my teeth was lost under this house, and I

am here looking for that tooth. The incident has

been long-forgotten by everyone but me.” John Jr.

and Lucy Bell quickly recalled the incident referred

to by the Spirit.

A few years earlier, the farm hands found several

Indian graves in a small mound while clearing a plot

of land near the Red River. Following John Bell’s

orders, the hands worked carefully around the

mound so not to disturb it. Several days later,

Corban Hall, a friend of Drewry’s, stopped for a visit

and Drewry told him of the new discovery. They

discussed the possibility of there being valuable

relics in the mound and decided to unearth a grave

to see what they could find.

They found nothing but the bones they had

disturbed while searching for relics. They brought a

jawbone back to the house as a souvenir, where Hall

jokingly threw it against one of the walls next to the

front porch. The impact of the jawbone hitting the

wall jarred one of the teeth loose and it fell between

the cracks of the porch. When John Bell walked

through the passageway and saw what Drewry and

Corban had done, he scolded them severely and had

one of the slaves take the jawbone back to the

mound and re-seal the grave.

After hearing the Spirit’s claim and recalling the

incident with the jawbone several years earlier, John

Jr. decided that it would be best to search the

ground underneath the porch for the missing tooth.

Early the next morning John Bell, John Jr., and

Drewry removed the porch section where the tooth

had fallen. They sifted through the dirt for hours but

found nothing. As they were putting the porch

section back into place, a loud voice exclaimed with

laughter, “I just said that to fool you. It was all a

joke, and the joke is on you, Ol’ Jack Bell!”

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This prank would later prove to be the first of

many. The Spirit once told Calvin Johnston that it

was the Spirit of a child buried in North Carolina,

and on another occasion told James Johnston that it

was the “witch” of his stepmother.

The Spirit’s false claims to an identity continued,

and it took pleasure in sending people on long and

fruitless escapades. Fearing sinister repercussions,

everyone participated in these escapades even

though they knew they were only for the Spirit’s

laughter and enjoyment. One such escapade took

place shortly after Reverend James Gunn learned

that the search for the tooth had been a prank.

A Search for Buried Treasure

After giving the Spirit’s deceitfulness much

thought, Reverend Gunn one day became angry and

visited the Bell farm for no purpose other than to

confront the Spirit. Upon his arrival, Gunn

expressed his concerns to John and Lucy Bell,

insisting that he would get the truth out of the Spirit

one way or another. They sat on the front porch and

discussed the previous day’s search for the tooth,

agreeing that even though it was probably still under

the porch, it had nothing to do with the Spirit’s claim

to have been looking for it.

Throwing his hands up and looking off into the

distance, Reverend Gunn angrily exclaimed, “I don’t

know. I don’t know what you are or why you are

here ridiculing visitors and torturing John Bell’s

family. But one day soon, we will all know the

truth.” Through the wind that blew through the

large pear trees came the voice of an old woman, who

said, “I am the Spirit of an early immigrant who

brought a large sum of money and buried my

treasure for safe keeping until needed. In the

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F I T Z H U G H

meanwhile I died without divulging the location, and

I have returned for the purpose of making known the

hiding place; and I want Betsy Bell to have the

money.” The name, “Betsy,” was the nickname given

to Elizabeth Bell by the Spirit.

“Where is this money buried?” asked Reverend

Gunn. The Spirit replied, “I shall not tell anyone

until certain conditions are met. Drewry Bell and

Alex Porter must agree to do the digging, and ‘Old

Sugar Mouth’ must go along to supervise and take

charge of the money for Betsy.” After giving the

proposition some thought, Reverend Gunn

approached Drewry Bell, Alex Porter, and James

Johnston to inform them of the Spirit’s proposition.

All agreed to the conditions and the Spirit agreed to

describe the location of the buried money. “The

money is buried under a large, flat rock at the mouth

of the spring that empties into the Red River on the

southeast corner of the farm,” the Spirit advised.

Early the next morning, the three men proceeded

to the spring and easily found everything the Spirit

had described. They spent several hours digging

around the enormous rock so they could slide poles

underneath it and move it out of the way. After lots

of hard work and continuing encouragement from

James Johnston, Bell and Porter finally managed to

move the large rock to its side. Much to their

chagrin, they found nothing underneath but dirt.

After taking a much-needed break and discussing

what their next step would be, they began digging a

hole where the rock had been, assuming the money

might have been buried several feet below the

ground. Drewry Bell sifted through the dirt as Alex

Porter dug. The hole had become almost six feet

deep by the end of the day and no money had been

found.

Very hungry and frustrated, the men returned

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home where that evening, the Spirit laughed about

how the men had been fooled into performing the

laborious task of removing the large rock and digging

a deep hole. Using the men’s own voices, the Spirit

recited the exact words said by each that day and

described how they groaned, perspired and prayed.

The Spirit gleefully told all of the Bells’ visitors over

the next several weeks about this prank.

The Spirit Assumed Many Forms

The Spirit often claimed that it could be all things

to all people, possessing the power to assume any

character or form it desired. When John Johnston

asked the question, “Where do you live?” the Spirit

replied, “I live in the woods, in the air, in the water,

in houses with people; I live in heaven and in hell; I

am all things and any thing I want to be. I am the

water you drink and the air you breathe.”

The Spirit frequently manifested itself in the form