Episode 16
The Bell Witch Cackled at My Father's Funeral
Up nextEp 17: The Ghost Who Testified at a Murder TrialThe documented facts
- In 1804, John Bell Sr. moved his family to the Red River country of Robertson County, Tennessee.
- John Bell Sr. died on December 20, 1820, after a strange vial replaced his medicine; the family cat died when tested on it.
- The entity called itself Kate Batts' witch, naming a neighbor the old accounts say believed Bell cheated her in a land deal.
- Captain John R. Bell's 1820 expedition journal records hearing of the voice while the haunting was still active.
The full narration
Heh heh... boils and ghouls, a TRUE terror! Adams, Tennessee, 1817. Something invisible moved into our farmhouse, and it could TALK.
It called itself Kate. It screamed through our walls all night, struck my father. No one could see it. No one could stop it. Heh heh heh!
My father wasted away before our eyes. And Kate cackled: "I poisoned Old Jack Bell! I'll kill him, and you'll bury him!"
December 1820. My father died. At his funeral, as dirt hit the coffin... we heard it. Kate. Laughing. Ah ha ha ha! Still laughing.
Dramatized for the telling. The facts above are documented; the narration is the Draugr’s retelling of them.