one night four young brothers were

sleeping in their bedroom in their

little house in Tennessee when they
started to hear what sounded like a rat
gnawing on one of their bed posts so the
two oldest Brothers climbed out of their
bed to go find this rat but the second
their feet touched the wooden floor the
gnawing sound stopped the boys checked
the room they checked the bed posts
there was no sign of any Rat and So
eventually the two oldest Brothers just
kind of shrugged it off and got back in
bed but when they closed their eyes
again the gnawing sound filled the room
again except this time it was louder and
more frantic little did they know these
sounds were just the beginning of a
multi-year-long nightmare that they and
the rest of their family would have to
endure their terrifying story is known
as the Bell Witch Haunting and it is
considered to be one of the most
frightening documented hauntings of all
time and today I'm going to share their
story with you but before we get into
the Bell Witch Haunting if you're fan of
the strange dark and mysterious
delivered in story format then you come
to the right place because that's all we
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[Music]
in 1804 a man named John Bell decided
his farm in North Carolina was just too
small for his growing family so he along
with his wife Lucy and their six kids
packed all their belongings onto wagons
and then traveled more than 600 miles
west to this Thousand Acre patch along
the red river in northern Tennessee the
area they settled was known as Robertson
County and at the time it was very rural
and basically nobody lived there and so
the Bell family when they arrived in
Robertson County fully expected to have
to work with the few families that were
there to build up the settlement
basically they wanted to build a town
from scratch but this was the kind of
work that John Bell was born for he was
raised on a farm where he had a
reputation for working extremely hard
and never giving up Jon was very
generous and excellent at working with
other people in fact when his family was
still in North Carolina John and his
very gentle and sweet wife Lucy would
open their door to anybody who needed a
place to stay or a hot meal and
sometimes John would just give money to
his neighbors when he felt like they
were down on hard times so after
arriving in Robertson County and after
the Bell family had met their few
neighbors John Bell got Right to Work
First he began clearing trees off of his
land and then with that Lumber he built
a one and a half story log house up on
this hill not far from the Red River and
in fact the Red River was a very popular
picnic spot and fishing spot for the few
people that lived in Robertson County
and so in virtue of the bell's house
being so near the river the Bell family
was always running into their neighbors
and saying hi and making friends and so
it wasn't long after John and his family
had arrived and built this house that
the Bell family became one of the most
popular families in the area and for
many years the Bell family lived a very
happy and prosperous life in Robertson
County most mornings John would wake up
first and then he would Rouse the
children who would then leave the house
and walk through the nearby Woods to go
to their school and then they'd come
back before Sunset and then while the
kids were at school during the day John
and his older Sons would go out and work
the land or help build structures around
town to build the settlement up or they
would build the boats that they would
use to transport the tobacco and meats
they produced on their Farm down South
for trade John and Lucy would have three
more kids while in Robertson County and
before long their oldest children began
getting married and starting families of
their own and building their own houses
nearby but one summer day in 1817 so 13
years after the Bell family first
arrived in Robertson County John would
have a very strange experience that at
the time he would completely write off
but years later they would look back and
say that's when it started on that
summer day in 18 17 John was by himself
he was out walking through his cornfield
near his house when he looked out and he
saw this big dog just sitting in the
middle of the cornfield now there were
lots of dogs around Robertson County so
it wasn't unusual to run into a dog
while you were out and about but there
was something off about this dog it
almost looked misshapen like its bones
had broken many times over and reset at
awkward angles and this dog just looked
way too big to be a dog it almost looked
more like a big wolf and this dog was
staring at John in a very human way not
breaking eye contact staring right at
Jon Now John was not someone who easily
spooked but standing in this cornfield
staring at this dog who was staring
right back at him John couldn't help but
feel totally unsettled and a little bit
panicked and so Jon who had his rifle
with him raised it and fired in the
direction of this dog and when he did
the dog took off running and so John he
watched as this dog galloped away from
him and disappeared into the tree line
of the forest far away and once the dog
was totally out of view John marched
forward to the spot in the cornfield
where this dog had been sitting and when
he got there he was expecting to see the
corn kind of pressed down from where
this big animal had been sitting but it
wasn't there was no sign that any big
creature had been sitting right there
and as he looked around him he saw there
were no paw prints no tracks on the
ground either coming to the spot or
going in the direction that he watched
this big dog run off Jon was totally
confused by this but after sitting there
kind of wondering how this could be he
just told himself you know what I'm
overthinking this it was just some big
ugly dog and a missed shot this is no
big deal and so Jon promptly turned
around and walked back to his house
forgetting all about the dog but not
long after John saw this dog in the
cornfield his family began experiencing
other strange things back at their house
at night after the Bell family had
climbed into bed they would start
hearing a knocking sound on the side of
their house and as soon as they got up
to go inspect it the knocking would stop
and then they'd lay back down again and
they would hear it again except it was
coming from another side of the house it
was like there was someone or something
outside of their house just kind of
circling around them periodically
knocking on their walls now John was
convinced this was not the work of some
animal this was a person a prankster and
they were hiding out in the woods
somewhere and so he instructed his
family not to mention the tapping sounds
to anybody in town because he thought
somebody in town was doing this to them
and he didn't want them to know that
they were on to them he wanted these
pranksters to come back and do it again
so he could catch them in the ACT but
over the course of several weeks the
tapping continued and every time John
would lay in wait and try to run out and
see who was there there'd be no one and
there'd be no tracks anywhere around the
house indicating that anyone had ever
been there and as unsettling as these
knocking sounds were for the family they
were nothing compared to the things that
happened next
my pet frog seagull lung is a huge fan
of the strange dark and mysterious
delivered in story format and so for his
birthday which was last week he asked me
if I would take him on a special camping
trip where all we did was sat around the
fire and I just told crazy stories and
so of course I said
sure lung I can do that for you and then
on his big day long he came bounding
down the stairs all excited for his big
camping trip and I stopped him and I
said hold on a minute long forget the
camping trip I got something even better
for your birthday and then from behind
my back I presented a gift fit for the
gods homemade fermented Norwegian
lemming liver cakes with a side of koala
stew now I know what you're thinking wow
longy must have been so happy but no he
wasn't turns out my gift was gross and
way worse than a strange dark and
mysterious themed camping trip but there
was a silver lining to this minor
birthday snafu after Lungi refused to
eat my beautiful gift I went online to
try to figure out what Lungi would eat
and so I typed into Google who has the
best food in the world and two words
popped up that changed my life hello
Fred fresh with hellofresh America's
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with hellofresh you always get top
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if you're like me and you keep gifting
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that go to hellofresh.com and use code
Mr Ballin 21 for 21 free meals and free
shipping again go to hellofresh.com and
use code Mr ballin21 for 21 free meals
and free shipping okay back to the story
[Music]
one Sunday night in May of 1818 so
roughly one year after John had seen
that big dog in the cornfield and a
couple of months after the knocking on
the walls had begun in the bell's
household four of John's Sons were
asleep in their bedroom inside of their
home when they woke up to the sound of
what sounded like a rat gnawing on one
of their bed posts now these boys were
sleeping in two bunk beds and the two
oldest brothers were sleeping on the
lower bunk and so they instinctively got
up stepped onto the floor to go find
this rat but the second they stepped
onto the floor the gnawing sound
completely disappeared the two boys
searched the room for this rat they
couldn't find it and when they checked
all of the bed posts there was no sign
that any of them had been nod on so the
two older brothers finally just kind of
shrugged it off and climbed back in bed
the moment they closed their eyes the
gnawing sound began again except now it
was louder and more frantic like
whatever was under there was desperately
trying to chew through the wood of their
bets but again when the two older
brothers leapt out of their bed to go
find whatever animal was doing this the
sound would completely stop and the room
would go still the boys searched the
room again there was no sign of any rat
or any animal there were no marks on the
underside of their beds and so they had
no idea what to make of this the gnawing
sounds would continue all that night
making it nearly impossible for these
boys to sleep and it would happen again
the next night the same way but on the
night after that so the third night the
boys heard a new sound in their room as
they're laying in their beds exhausted
from barely sleeping the last two nights
they began hearing what sounded like
someone gasping for air underneath their
beds like they were being choked they
were gulping and smacking their lips and
clawing at the underside of the beds the
two oldest boys were terrified but
eventually worked up the courage and
leapt from their bed to confront
whatever was underneath them but again
as soon as their feet Hit the Floor The
Sounds complete stopped and the room
went still but this time the boys were
so frightened they decided not to try to
just go back to sleep instead they woke
up the rest of their family and the bell
family searched the entire house top to
bottom looking for any indication of
what could have been making those sounds
but there was nothing in their house
there was no marks from some animal or
rat I mean there was no indication that
anything was other than normal now to
this point the Bell family had not told
anybody in town about either the
knocking sounds on the walls or the rat
gnawing sounds or now the gulping for
air sounds and a part of that was
because John had told the family don't
tell anyone because we're going to catch
whoever's doing this but another part of
it was the family knew as soon as they
brought this stuff up they could be the
target of ridicule because people
wouldn't believe them but after this
night with the gulping and gasping
sounds the Bell kids really could not
sleep anymore they were just up all
night terrified and so finally John went
to one of his name neighbors who he was
very close with and confided in him that
something weird was happening inside of
his house now John was not the kind of
person who made things up he was very
straightforward very honest he didn't
even tell jokes and so this neighbor as
he's listening to this unbelievable
story just takes John at face value and
says you know what I'll stay the night
in your house and I'll see if I can hear
all these strange sounds that night the
neighbor would stay with John Bell and
his family in the Bell household and
sure enough the neighbor would hear the
tapping on the walls he would hear the
rat gnawing on the wood post in the boys
room as well as that gasping and gulping
sound coming from the boys room and this
neighbor was so terrified that he did
not last the night in John's house he
left in the middle of the night to go
back to his house after this word spread
quickly around Robertson County about
what was happening at the Bell household
and the way the townspeople reacted was
very supportive I mean the Bell family
had been instrumental in building up the
settlement and John and his wife Lucy
were so kind and generous and so the
townspeople decided that they were going
to find a way to Rally around the Bell
family and try to help them so other
people in town began volunteering to
spend the night inside of the Bell
household with the Bell family one
because they wanted the Bell family to
feel some security having some more
people around them and two these people
were thinking that maybe just their
presence inside of the Bell household
would scare off whoever or whatever was
tormenting the Bells but no matter who
stayed inside of the Bell household the
noises persisted every single night
townspeople came up with all sorts of
explanations for what was happening to
the Bell family ranging from you know
John's youngest daughter must be behind
this because she wants attention or
other people said maybe there's a family
or an individual that hates the Bell
family and they're targeting them and
they're behind this there was even a
theory that someone in town had had
learned ventriloquism which is a kind of
performance where the ventriloquist
throws their voice so it sounds like
it's coming from somewhere else not from
their body and so the idea was this
ventriloquist was just a prankster and
they were screwing with the Bell family
but the townspeople searched the bell's
house with the Bell family over and over
again and they never found any sign of
what could be making these noises the
people in town even went so far as to
have people watch each member of the
Bell family as they slept at night to
make sure none of them were responsible
for these sounds and sure enough as the
bell family was being closely monitored
the noises would start and it was very
clearly not coming from anyone in the
Bell family as the months went on and
the bell family was forced to endure
whatever was going on inside of their
home the people in town started to
notice something odd about John Bell
normally John was a very engaged person
that when he spoke to you he was locked
on to you and really paying attention
but at some point after these mysterious
things began happening at his house John
would be talking to someone and then
suddenly his eyes would kind of gloss
over and his jaw would go slack and it
would look like he was staring off into
the distance and then his face would
start to Twitch and at first these
Twitches were fairly minor and were
centered just around his eyes but over
time these Twitches became much more
dramatic to the point where his jaw
would start to kind of quiver up and
down and his eyes would begin blinking
out of sync and then when the twitching
finally stopped John without saying a
word to the person he had just been
talking to would just wander back to his
house he'd go up to his bedroom and he
would sit on his bed for hours and hours
and hours just staring at the wall not
eating not drinking not saying anything
the Bell family felt like they were
hostages in their own home they had no
idea what was causing these things to
happen or why they were happening and
they were all filled with this constant
sense of dread as for the townspeople
people most of them had come to believe
that whatever was happening to the Bell
family was likely caused by their
neighbor Kate Batts Kate was known to be
very eccentric and kind of unpleasant
and she was known to be fairly unlucky
because her husband had become disabled
and her three kids had all died young
Kate also had this strange habit of
using really big complex words in her
conversations but she misused the words
and so everything she said kind of
sounded off townspeople would talk about
Kate batswitch and they started
referring to whatever was causing the
strange phenomenon at the Bell household
as just Kate however when Kate found out
about this she was totally offended and
said she had nothing to do with whatever
was happening to the Bells by September
of 1820 the terrifying happenings at the
Bell household had been going on for
three years and somehow the Bell family
had just learned to live with it however
John Bell was not doing good it was like
the longer these strange things were
happening the more and more John seemed
to become a shell of his former self his
sudden dazes and twitching fits began to
happen more and more frequently and the
time he would spend afterwards sitting
in his bedroom staring at the wall in
silence would go on longer and longer
and longer in private John would tell
his wife Lucy that he believed someone
or something was torturing him to death
and then one day as Jon was getting
MY PART

MY PART
sicker and sicker one of his daughters
Esther left the house to go gather up
some eggs in the hen house which was
across the lane from where the Bell
House was and so she left the house she
crossed over the road she began walking
up towards this Hen House and as she was
walking she heard what sounded like
someone moving behind her and so she
turned around and she saw there was this
woman dressed all in black with her head
down walking slowly down the road she
had just walked on towards her house so
she's basically walking exactly where
Esther had come from but Esther had not
seen her until just now so she wasn't
really sure how this woman had arrived
on the road but Esther wasn't worried
she looked at this woman she didn't
recognize her but just assumed she was
somebody from town and that was it and
so Esther turned away from this woman
and walked the rest of the way up to the
hen house she went inside she got the
eggs in her basket and then when she

came back outside again and she was back

on that road now facing in the direction
of her house she saw this woman in black
with her head down was still trudging
along slowly now much closer to the Bell
household and so Esther she began
walking down the road looking at this
woman trying to figure out who she was
and as she got closer and closer she
realized she recognized her as somebody
from the village this was a neighbor of
hers and so Esther yelled out a friendly
hello but this woman in black with her
head down didn't turn around she didn't
react she just kept on slowly walking
down the lane towards the Bell house and
so Esther began walking a little bit
faster getting closer and closer to the
swim woman and she yelled out a few more
times hey hello how are you but each
time this woman in black just appeared
not to hear Esther and Esther she's
looking around and there's nobody else
out it's just her and this woman who's
now about 15 feet away from her and so
Esther starts to feel really
uncomfortable about this woman and so
Esther just stops on the road and stares
at the back of this woman and the second
Esther stopped this woman who was
trudging along also suddenly stopped and
then she reached up with her hands her
back is still to Esther and she took her
Bonnet off of her head a bonnet is a
type of hat and then she dropped the
Bonnet on the ground and right away This
Woman's black matted hair kind of
tumbled down over her back and then this
woman without moving began reaching up
and stroking
her hair running her
fingers through her hair as if she was
trying to comb it out and so Esther is
watching this kind of wondering what's
going on here and so Esther began
walking slowly closer and closer to this
woman to make sure she was okay but with
each step that Esther took towards This
Woman This Woman began running her hands
faster and faster through her hair until
it almost looked impossible she was
moving so fast and then Esther realized
with horror that she wasn't just combing
her hair this woman was grabbing clumps
of her hair and pulling them out of her
head in fact Esther could literally hear
the hair being ripped from This Woman's
scalp and so before long there was hair
all over the ground around this woman
and so Esther at this point is terrified
she thinks there's something wrong with
this woman and so she runs around this
woman without looking at her charges
into her house which is right in front
of this lady she goes inside she locks
the door behind her and then Esther
calls out for one of her sisters who was
home and said come here come here and
the two of them went to the front window
and they look out onto the road and they
see the woman she's still there in the
same spot ripping her hair out but
Esther makes eye contact with this woman
and the second that happens the woman
freezes her hands are still in her hair
and she's looking directly up at Esther
and Esther and her sister they're kind
of taking it back by the way this woman
is looking at them and then this woman
slowly brings her hands down and she's
staring up at us through the whole time
and then she turns suddenly and walks
around the side of the property out of
view of Esther and her sister and so
Esther and her sister they shriek they
leave the front window and they run over
to the side window where this woman was
heading and they saw this woman climbing
up and over their fence getting into
their side property and behind her were
now three children who they had not seen
before just marching right behind this
woman in black and so this woman and
these three children in plain sight of
Esther and her sister they walk into
this Grove of trees on the Bell property
and so Esther and her sister they're
just staring they have no idea what's
happening and then one by one the woman
first then each of the children climbed
their own trees and then once all four
of them were up in these trees they
turned around so they were all looking
directly at Esther and her sister and
then they all began swaying with their
bodies in the trees getting these trees
to bend and wave hard left and right and
so Esther and her sister are horrified
and as they're staring Esther's husband
just happens to come through the front
door and so Esther yells for him to come
over here look out the window look what
they're doing out there and so Esther's
husband he runs over to the window and
he looks out but he can't see the woman
or the three kids he can only see trees
swaying unnaturally left and right and
so Esther and her sister they realize
he's not seeing what we're seeing what's
happening and before long they are
screaming the husband's trying to figure
out what's going on and finally the trio
just ran from the window went out the
back door and ran around to the side
yard to go confront this woman and these
children but when they got out to the
Grove of trees the woman the kids they
were gone and there was no tracks
anywhere on the ground to indicate that
anybody had been there recently not long
after this incident sometime in October
of 1820 John Bell and one of his sons
were out for a walk on their farm and as
they walked suddenly John stopped and
threw his hands up to his face as if he
was protecting himself from someone
trying to hit him and then all of a
sudden John's face just went totally
slack and his body began to contort into
these horrible grotesque angles and his
back began to Arch so far it looked like
his back would break and so John's son
he's watching this happen he has no idea
what to do and so he just runs over and
grabs his dad and tries to pull him
upright and as he does this this
horrifying shriek fills the air John's
son has no idea where it's coming from
but it's so loud it stops him in his
tracks and then as fast as all of this
had happened it all stopped Jon was back
to normal laying on the ground coming
too and the shrieking was gone it was
silent on their farm and so John's son
turns to his dad and he sees John is
crying on the ground and he says to his
son I don't have much time left John's
son would help him up and then the two
of them silently just walked back to the
house and John went straight to bed a
few weeks later on the morning of
December 19 1820 John didn't come down
for breakfast and so his family went up
to his bedroom to make sure he was okay
but when they found him he was still
laying in bed he was breathing but no
matter what they did they couldn't wake
him up and so one of John's Sons ran to
the medicine cabinet inside of their
house but when he opened it up all the
medicine was gone and in their place was
this strange glass vial that contained a
smoky dark liquid that the sun had never
seen before and no one in the family had
seen before and so the family
immediately called for a doctor to come
to their house both for John and also to
see what this liquid was and so the
doctor showed up he didn't really know
what to do for John it didn't make sense
that he just was not waking up and then
the doctor checked on this liquid and he
said you need to test this on some farm
animals to make sure we know what it
does and so the family went out and
found a stray cat and they force-fed it
some of this liquid and within minutes
the cat had died the Bell family swore
they had not put that vial in the
medicine cabinet they had no idea what
it was or how it got there as for John
he would not wake up that day and in
fact the following morning when he was
still in bed he died after John's death
these strange occurrences at the Bell
household basically all came to a stop
for the most part some people in town
reported after John's death seeing
strange lights floating around the Bell
property and also sometimes they
reported hearing a strange sing-song
voice kind of coming from somewhere out
around their property John's wife Lucy
would remain inside of that house until
1838 when she passed away today there's
nothing left of the Bell household
however there is a cave on their
property an underground cave and people
swear that's where whatever tormented
the bells came from
so that's gonna do it if you got
something out of today's episode and you
haven't done this already please ungold
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