31 Days of Halloween | Day 5: The Bell Witch — America's Most Famous Haunting
Haunted American HistoryShow Notes
In 1820, John Bell died on his farm in northern Tennessee.
According to the legend, a ghost killed him.
For years, the Bell family had supposedly been tormented by something they couldn't see. It knocked on walls, pulled blankets from beds, attacked young Betsy Bell, sang hymns, quoted scripture, answered questions from visitors—and eventually learned to speak.
It called itself Kate.
The story would become one of America's most famous hauntings, complete with a mysterious vial of poison, a visit from Andrew Jackson, and the extraordinary claim that the Bell Witch became the only ghost in American history credited with murdering a man.
But there's a problem.
Most of the story wasn't written down until seventy-four years later.
Tonight, we're telling the Bell Witch twice: first, the legend that Tennessee has been telling for two centuries—and then the story hidden in the historical record.
Welcome to Day Five of 31 Days of Halloween.
More from Haunted American History
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In 1967, the RMS Queen Mary arrived in Long Beach, California, after more than three decades crossing the Atlantic.
In Savannah, Georgia, ghost stories are everywhere.
On November 13, 1974, a young man ran into a bar in Amityville, New York, shouting that his parents had been shot.
In 1907, a wealthy Boston businessman named Thomas Lawson published a novel called Friday, the Thirteenth.