MIDDLE TENNESSEE SKEPTICS
Giving Common Sense a Chance
2007 UPDATE
The Amityville Horror is back (2005) and somewhere out there in cinema land is the Bell Witch - the Movie (2004). What's the difference between these two stories? Not much, except a few miles and 200 years. Both claim to be a TRUE story. Both have very similar story lines. Both are preposterous.
In either case, that claim of being true is NOT true. In the former case the authors have admitted to their fabrication; in the latter case no one is around to admit to the yarn.
About five years ago, we investigated the Bell Witch Story after watching a stage play in Hendersonville, TN. We heard that it was one of the most documented hauntings in America and it happened right in our own back yard. In fact the ads for the movie claim over 100,000 Web sites and the involvement of an American President, Andrew Jackson. With so much information we felt sure we would be able to validate the reality from the myth.
We searched and searched. We read all the popular stuff. We read hundreds of Web pages. We put out a challenge on this Web Site nearly four years ago. What did we find?
The 1894 book by Marvin Ingram, based in large part on Richard William Bell's Diary: My Family's Troubles. This book was written nearly three-quarters of a century after the fact and the diary was written at least a quarter of a century afterwards by a person who was only six to ten years old during the incident.
- People associated with the incident were quite capable of recording evidence, BUT have written NOTHING.
Not the family tutor Richard Powell, not Andrew Jackson or ANY of his biographers, and not the minutes of the Red River Baptist Church at which John Bell was an Elder. Powell scribed notes in his cipher book about the Bell's and the Church records the John Bell's usury sin. But NOTHING is written about the spectacular events described by Ingram.
Nevertheless, never let FACTS dissuade a person from what they choose to believe. It is a fun story with all the elements that stand the hair up on the back of your neck. But for the most part, no more factual than Hanzel and Gretel.
E-MAIL
We have received many e-mail letters in response to our brief examination of the Bell Witch Legend. Virtually, all supported our theories about this phenomenon. We appreciated your comments (and help to correct a few typo's). We thought of putting them on this page, put since we never asked the writer's permission before they sent their messages, we can't post them.
We have also received a copy of the TV episode that aired on Mystery Hunters on Discovery Kids. They did a nice job. Watch your TV. Mystery Hunters is on Cable and Satellite.
The author has not been back to Adams since the TV shoot and has nothing further planned. As far as he is concerned, the Bell Witch Legend is a grand old story kept alive by people who want to believe and not by any facts. Not much more is to be found in a myth that has been exhumed for over a century.
Something out of the ordinary for that time and place most likely happened to the Bell Family and reports of it have been exaggerated beyond reality. Nobody in all his/her searching has been able to validate any of the paranormal aspects of the tale.
SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHS
The WEB Site Praireghosts has published a photo taken by Chris Kirby at a sink hole near the Bell Witch Cave on her property. The photo has a copyright so you will have to visit it by clicking on the link above. Because the photo appears in the Spirit Photograph section of this Web Site, it is obvious what they are implying. Chris says the image was not visible to the eye.
I guess ghosts follow me around. Over my many years of taking photographs I have been unfortunate to have had similar pictures. However, when I researched what happened I found one of three sources: light leak in my camera, front-light reflection off the lens of my camera, or an accident during development. I suspect that had Chris taken this photo any place, other than her farm, she would have concluded similarly as I.
Looking closely at this photo it appears she has taken it with the sun head-on at about 30 degrees in the sky (slightly above her image). Some of the "ghosts" are also crescent shaped, kind of like the curvature of the lens. Without a doubt, she will protest to the contrary.
