Get Your Weekly Digest

Receive the best podcast summaries and insights delivered to your inbox every week.

We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe anytime.

Stuff You Should Know

Short Stuff: The Bell Witch

Published October 29, 2025
View Show Notes

About This Episode

Josh and Chuck recount the 19th-century legend of the Bell Witch, a purported haunting of the Bell family in Adams, Tennessee. They describe the family's strange encounters, the escalation from eerie animals and noises to physical attacks and a talking witch, and the deaths and ruined relationships attributed to the entity. The hosts also cover theories about the witch's identity, the real historical records behind the people involved, and how the story lives on today as a local tourist attraction.

Topics Covered

Ghosts and paranormal experiences Haunted houses Paranormal investigation American folklore Small-town life Travel and tourism Cultural inheritance Victorian era

Disclaimer: We provide independent summaries of podcasts and are not affiliated with or endorsed in any way by any podcast or creator. All podcast names and content are the property of their respective owners. The views and opinions expressed within the podcasts belong solely to the original hosts and guests and do not reflect the views or positions of Summapod.

Quick Takeaways

  • The Bell Witch legend centers on the Bell family of Adams, Tennessee, who reported a sustained haunting starting in 1817 involving bizarre animal sightings, loud nocturnal pounding, and physical attacks.
  • Over time the entity developed a clear speaking voice, holding conversations with family members and allegedly displaying knowledge of distant events, which made the case particularly notorious.
  • The witch was said to focus her torment on John Bell and his daughter Betsy, with John ultimately believing he was poisoned by the entity and Betsy breaking off an engagement under its pressure.
  • Local lore often identifies the witch with a woman named Kate Batts, with competing stories about a bad land deal or a violent affair as motives for revenge from beyond the grave.
  • Historical and genealogical records confirm that the key figures in the legend were real people, and the town of Adams now embraces the story with a replica Bell home and cave tours as a tourism draw.

Podcast Notes

Introduction to the Short Stuff episode and Bell Witch topic

Setting up the episode

Hosts introduce a spooky October-themed Short Stuff episode[0:32]
• Josh and Chuck note that their "scary October" run of episodes is continuing with this topic
Geographic framing of the Bell Witch story[0:55]
• They say the story is rolling along the Red River of Tennessee, in what is now Adams, Tennessee
• They mention Adams is about an hour north of Nashville and is where the Bell Witch story finds its roots

Introduction of the Bell family and basic timeline

Bell family move and status[0:59]
• The Bell family moved from North Carolina to Tennessee in 1806
• They did well in Tennessee, becoming landowners and respected members of the community with a good life
Onset of haunting[1:36]
• About nine years after moving, the family began to be haunted by what was described as an angry ghost witch

Sources and historical references for the Bell Witch story

Acknowledgment of key researchers and sources

Historian Pat Fitzhugh and bellwitch.org[1:17]
• Josh calls out historian Pat Fitzhugh, who runs bellwitch.org and wrote "The Bellwitch: The Full Account"
Other referenced sources[1:29]
• They also mention Legends of America and Victoria Klein-Peter at the Tennessee State Museum as sources
• Chuck jokingly adds "Rocky top, baby" after mentioning Tennessee

Early manifestations: strange animals and noises

John Bell's first encounter: the dog-rabbit creature

Description of John Bell and his land[1:36]
• In 1817 John Bell, the patriarch, also called "Old Jack Bell," was a large planter working his fields
The bizarre animal sighting[1:57]
• John Bell saw a large animal sitting in his field that had the body of a dog but the head of a rabbit
• Josh calls this a red flag and jokes that Bell wondered if he had eaten mushrooms that morning
John Bell's reaction and the creature's disappearance[2:10]
• As a homesteader in Tennessee in 1817, Bell did what was expected and shot at the creature
• Depending on the version, the animal either vanished or scurried off into nearby woods after he fired
• Either way, John Bell let the matter go after it disappeared

Other early family sightings: Dewey and Betsy

Son Dewey/Drewry's giant bird encounter[2:59]
• One of John Bell's sons, whose name appears as Dewry or Drewry, is called "Dewey" by the hosts
• Dewey reportedly saw a giant bird unlike any he had seen before, sitting on a fence post
• As with his father, Dewey shot at the strange bird, but it disappeared into thin air
Daughter Betsy's disturbing vision[3:10]
• Betsy encountered the frightening image of a little girl in a green dress hanging from a tree
• Josh remarks that the dog-rabbit is scary, but so is the image of the hanging girl
• Chuck speculates that the implication is a girl had been hanged there as a child and returned as a ghost

First nights of pounding on the Bell house

Nocturnal pounding begins[4:06]
• The same night as the dog-rabbit sighting, the family was awakened by beating noises on the exterior walls of their home
• The pounding sounded like the house was being forcefully hit from the outside
Persistence and attempts to catch the culprit[4:09]
• The pounding continued night after night, sometimes loud and sometimes lighter
• John Bell and his sons repeatedly got out of bed to try to catch whoever was hitting the house
• Despite their efforts, they never found any trace of a person outside, leading Josh to compare it to an 1817 version of ding-dong-ditch

Escalation of haunting: sounds, physical attacks, and main targets

Interior noises and possible mundane explanations

Rat-chewing sounds on bedposts[4:27]
• The children heard sounds at night that they thought were rats chewing on their bedposts
• Chuck notes that it was probably actually rats chewing on their bedposts but that it is still a scary detail to include

Onset of physical manifestations

Sheets being pulled and Betsy being attacked[4:42]
• The hauntings escalated to physical events such as sheets being pulled off the children as they slept
• Young Betsy was reportedly slapped by an invisible force hard enough to leave welts and bruises
• She was also pinched and had her hair pulled by the unseen entity
Identification of primary targets[4:55]
• It became clear that Betsy and her father John (Old Jack) Bell were the main targets of the witch's wrath

The witch finds a voice and interacts with the family and others

Development of the witch's voice

From whispers to conversations[5:23]
• The hosts emphasize that poltergeist activity is one thing, but this witch began to speak
• At first the voice was faint-just whispers that were hard to understand
• Over time, the voice grew louder and clearer until it could hold full conversations with the family
John Jr.'s debates with the witch[5:36]
• John Jr. was known to debate the witch's voice on various topics
• Josh jokes that maybe the debates were about nuclear energy and its safety, though that is obviously anachronistic humor
• John Jr. later wrote down the conversations he had with the Bell Witch and published them in 1934, likely self-published

Experiences of enslaved people on the Bell property

Acknowledgment of enslaved people and their hauntings[6:06]
• The hosts note that the Bells, like many in 1817 Tennessee, had enslaved people on their land
• Those enslaved people also reported similar experiences with the Bell Witch
Dean's encounter with a two-headed dog[6:24]
• An enslaved man named Dean was said to have encountered the witch multiple times in the form of a two-headed dog
• Josh notes that the drawing he saw of Dean and the two-headed dog made the dog look like it was playfully hopping up to him
• In the drawing, Dean is holding a ball, but this is actually a witch ball rather than a toy

Explanation of the witch ball

What a witch ball is[6:44]
• A witch ball is described as a blown glass sphere, usually colorful
• Depending on who you ask, a witch ball is used either to trap witches or to ward them off
• Dean's wife made the witch ball for him after his first encounter with the Bell Witch, to protect him
Hosts' joke about shape and playful dog[7:05]
• Josh jokes that Dean wanted a different shape because the two-headed dog just wanted to play fetch with the ball
• Chuck continues the joke by suggesting an alternative protective object with a humorous name

Resumption after break: Betsy's engagement and John Bell's decline

Betsy's engagement and the witch's opposition

Betsy's engagement to Joshua Gardner[11:01]
• When they return from the break, Josh recaps that Betsy is being pinched and Dad is haunted, and the whole family is under attack
• It becomes clear that the witch disliked Betsy's engagement to a local young man named Joshua Gardner
• Despite efforts to keep the wedding plans, Betsy eventually broke off the engagement in 1821
Betsy's later marriage and hardships[10:37]
• After breaking off the engagement, Betsy married an older man described as "so old" by Josh
• She ended up nursing this husband for 11 years before he died
• Chuck asks if the couple had eight children during the 11 years of illness, and Josh clarifies he does not know the exact timing
• They state that Betsy had eight children in total, but only four lived to adulthood

John Bell's illness, abuse, and death

The witch's treatment of John Bell[11:06]
• The witch reserved the worst treatment for John Bell, being both verbally and physically abusive toward him
• Soon after the witch appeared, John developed an unknown illness that worsened over the years as the haunting continued
• He suffered seizures, and as he came out of them, the Bell Witch would slap him around
John Bell's death and the witch's boasting[11:06]
• John Bell died in December 1820 and believed that the witch had poisoned him
• The witch reportedly confirmed this, saying it was useless to try to relieve "old Jack" because she had him this time
• The witch claimed she had placed something there and given John a big dose while he slept, which "fixed him" so he would never get up from the bed again
• Josh describes this as a preview of their Halloween episode, implying a connection in tone or content

Community awareness and attempts to respond to the witch

Secrecy and spread of the story[12:17]
• John Bell initially swore his family to secrecy because this was not the sort of story one wanted circulating in 1817 Tennessee
• Despite this, the haunting became such a big deal that the story spread to neighbors and townsfolk
Neighbors try to confront the witch[12:34]
• Some townspeople attempted to catch the witch, including a man who tried to shoot her, but they were unsuccessful
• No one could do anything to stop or placate the Bell Witch
Legend of the witch reciting distant sermons[12:50]
• One standout legend is that the Bell Witch recited two different sermons verbatim that were being given simultaneously at two churches miles apart
• Josh presents this as an 1817 Tennessee superstition that would impress listeners with its impossibility
• They note that in that time it would be literally impossible to know exactly what was being said in two distant places at once, highlighting the folkloric nature of the claim

Aftermath: cessation of hauntings, accusations, and Betsy's silence

End of the main haunting period

Hauntings after John Bell's death[13:22]
• The hosts say that after John died-possibly at the witch's hands-the hauntings basically stopped
• They add that at his funeral, the witch was said to have haunted the event by singing drinking songs and interrupting the wake and funeral

Saturday Evening Post accusation and retraction

Publication accusing Betsy[13:44]
• In 1849, the Saturday Evening Post published a story considered the first commercial publication of the Bell Witch story
• That story accused Betsy of being behind the entire haunting
Betsy's legal threat and lifelong silence[13:57]
• Betsy threatened to sue the publication unless they printed an apology and retraction, which they did
• Josh concludes they must have made it up, and Chuck notes that as she aged, Betsy never spoke of the Bell Witch again

Identity theories: Kate Batts and possible motives

Attribution of the Bell Witch to Kate Batts

Association with a real woman named Kate Batts[14:11]
• Over time, the Bell Witch was associated with a local woman named Kate Batts
• The hosts mention that North Carolina and Mississippi also try to lay some claim to the Bell Witch story, even though the events occurred in Tennessee

Land deal revenge theory

Disputed land transaction with Benjamin[14:39]
• John Bell was a major planter and built a 300-plus-acre homestead by acquiring land from neighbors
• In one land deal with Kate Batts's brother-in-law, Benjamin, Bell is said to have taken advantage of him
• In this version, the spirit of Kate Batts haunted John Bell to the grave in revenge for the unfair land transaction

North Carolina backstory: affair and murder theory

Alleged affair and killing in North Carolina[15:06]
• Another version places the origin partly in North Carolina, where John Bell supposedly had an affair with Kate Batts
• In that story, Bell leaves for Tennessee after breaking off the affair; Kate is angry and threatens to expose him
• The legend says Bell tied her up in a smokehouse and left her there to die, after which she haunted him from that point
• The family then supposedly fled to Tennessee to escape, but Chuck jokes that Kate reminded them that ghost witches can travel across state lines

Historical grounding and modern legacy of the Bell Witch

Historical records and genealogical evidence

Real people behind the legend[16:11]
• One unsettling aspect is that the people in the story, like the Bells and Kate Batts, were real individuals living in the relevant places and times
• Genealogists have found records of Kate Batts in Edgecombe County, North Carolina, and in Adams, Tennessee
• The surname Batts is reportedly still present in Adams, Tennessee, as is the Bell family name
• The Bell family graveyard contains headstones for the people from the correct time frame covered by the legend
Impact of contemporaneous belief[16:19]
• Josh notes that people at the time believed this was happening to the Bell family, and the Bells themselves believed it too
• He argues that this makes the story feel more compelling than a purely urban-legend-style tale like the hitchhiker with a hook hand

Modern tourism and the Bell Witch site

Adams as a tourist destination[17:03]
• Chuck compares the Bell Witch story to supposed real hauntings like the Amityville house
• He says Adams, with a population of 674, now uses the legend as a tourism draw
• The original Bell house is gone, but a replica has been built in its place
Tours of the replica house and cave[17:10]
• Visitors can tour the inside of the replica house
• There is also a cave on John Bell's former property that is believed to be where the Bell Witch lives
• Tours of the cave are available and Chuck notes the cost is reasonable for a family of four
• They mention lantern-guided tours in the dark for those wanting a scarier experience
Hosts' humorous suggestion for attractions[17:40]
• Josh says that if the town does not have an animatronic rabbit-dog, they are doing it wrong
• He jokes that the whole town is saving up for such an animatronic, and Chuck agrees encouragingly

Episode close

Sign-off and production credit[18:02]
• Chuck concludes by saying this means Short Stuff is out
• A closing tag notes that Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio and directs listeners to the iHeartRadio app and other platforms

Lessons Learned

Actionable insights and wisdom you can apply to your business, career, and personal life.

1

Stories and legends often grow around real people and places, which makes them more powerful and enduring but also harder to separate from historical fact.

Reflection Questions:

  • • What local legends or stories from your hometown involve real people or locations, and how have they shaped your sense of that place?
  • • How could you more deliberately distinguish between documented history and folklore when you hear a compelling story?
  • • What is one famous story you could research this month to better understand where the facts end and the myth-making begins?
2

Communities can turn even dark or unsettling histories into shared identity and economic opportunity, as seen in how Adams, Tennessee, embraces the Bell Witch as a tourist attraction.

Reflection Questions:

  • • How does your own community use its history-positive or negative-to bring people together or attract visitors?
  • • In what ways could you reframe a difficult chapter of your personal or professional past into a source of strength or value?
  • • What is one story or asset from your environment that could be developed into a constructive project, event, or offering?
3

Legends show how easily narratives can attribute intent and motive-like revenge or jealousy-to unexplained events, reminding us to be cautious about the stories we build to explain what we don't understand.

Reflection Questions:

  • • Where in your life are you filling in missing information with assumed motives about other people's actions?
  • • How might pausing to question your first explanation of an event change the way you respond to it?
  • • What is one recent conflict or misunderstanding where you could revisit your assumptions and look for alternative interpretations?
4

Once a narrative is in print or widely shared, it can be very hard for individuals-like Betsy Bell-to correct or escape it, underscoring the importance of being responsible with what we publish or repeat.

Reflection Questions:

  • • When have you seen someone's reputation shaped by a story that was incomplete or inaccurate?
  • • How could you become more careful about verifying claims before sharing them, especially on social media or in your workplace?
  • • What is one concrete guideline you could adopt for yourself about what you will or won't share publicly going forward?
5

The Bell Witch legend illustrates how unexplained experiences get woven into broader cultural beliefs, suggesting that understanding context-time, place, prevailing beliefs-is crucial when evaluating extraordinary claims.

Reflection Questions:

  • • What beliefs or assumptions in your own cultural or professional context might be influencing how you interpret unusual events?
  • • How could you build a habit of asking about historical and cultural context before deciding what a surprising story means?
  • • Which current issue or debate could you revisit this week with more attention to the background culture and era that shaped it?

Episode Summary - Notes by Kendall

Short Stuff: The Bell Witch
0:00 0:00