MIDDLE TENNESSEE SKEPTICS

Giving Common Sense a Chance    

RESEARCH BEGINS WITH BOOK BY PAT FITZHUGH

    Our research into the legend began with Pat Fitzhugh's book, "The Bell Witch: The Full Account," M.V. Ingram's book (the version on the Internet), and the Mississippi Legend (also on the Internet).  With Fitzhugh's book we hoped, because of its title and author's claim to include previously undocumented material, we had a good source for references to collaborate Ingram's tale, such as historical newspaper reports or Andrew Jackson's journals.  The author lived in Nashville, had been studying the legend for thirty years, and lectured on the subject.  He even had the "official" Bell Witch site on the Internet. 

   Unfortunately, his only significant references were to Ingram's book.  In the first half of his four-hundred page book, he repeated folklore and footnoted Ingram's rendition.  He introduced in a couple tidbits (with source references) about the Bell family's North Carolina origins as Mississippi oral tradition told them.

BOOK ADDS VERY LITTLE CREDIBLE KNOWLEDGE TO EXISTING FOKELORE

   He immediately lost credibility in the first part of the second half of his book, when he dove, rather matter-of-factly, into aspects of the occult, relating levels of ghosts, poltergeists, etc without any evidence, critical thought, or apparent objectivity. His paranormal ramblings and anecdotes sunk to the level of "Amazing Stories," the comic book.

    In the final quarter of the book, he provided a brief biography of the people involved in the legend.  Surprisingly many were educated and able to write.  There were church journals, court records, newspapers, a cipher book, and a president of the United States.  Surely, a researcher should be able to find something to collaborate aspects of the legend.

    We have researched his footnotes (in the first half), hoping to find something of value.  Nowhere did we find a reference to documentation by any objective eye-witness.  His extensive notes regarding public records were limited to the noncontroversial, non-haunting matters of the Bell family.  That verification does not substantiate the haunting.  Skeptical analysis required each aspect of the story to stand independently on its own merits.

     Our search of library catalogs in North Carolina (original home of John Bell), the Nashville Public Library, and Andrew Jackson's journals has provided no validating evidence.  We know of no researcher who has found the Saturday Evening Post article that supposedly examined the events related to the Bell Witch and blamed the entire thing on mental illness of Betsy Bell.  We began to wonder - doesn't the nearly total absence of independent record about the haunting itself suggest something?

INTERESTED IN THE REAL HISTORY?   SEARCH ELSEWHERE

    Fitzhugh made an insightful statement on his book's copyright sheet -

   "The stories contained herein are the product of the author's imagination and folklore that has been

      presented in various written and verbal accounts over the years." 

Disappointedly, in this claim we concur.