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Stuff You Should Know

Short Stuff: The Bell Witch

29 Oct 2025

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the Bell Witch legend and its historical background?

0.031 - 3.763 Unknown

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4.435 - 17.328 Stephen Curry

I'm Stephen Curry, and this is Gentleman's Cut. I think what makes Gentleman's Cut different is me being a part of developing the profile of this beautiful finished product. With every sip, you get a little something different.

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17.949 - 34.986 Unknown

Visit Gentleman'sCutBourbon.com for your nearest Total Wines or BevMo. This message is intended for audiences 21 and older. Gentleman's Cut Bourbon, Boone County, Kentucky. For more on Gentleman's Cut Bourbon, please visit Gentleman'sCutBourbon.com. Please enjoy responsibly. Hi, Kyle.

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35.006 - 45.559 Unknown

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46.06 - 64.243 Evan Ratliff

But there was no link. There was no business plan. I hadn't programmed Kyle to be able to do that yet. I'm Evan Ratliff, here with a story of entrepreneurship in the AI age. Listen as I attempt to build a real startup run by fake people. Check out the second season of my podcast, Shell Game, on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

69.337 - 79.469 Josh Clark

Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. It's Josh and Chuck here in our scary October rolls on. It's rolling along with a short stuff on the Bellwitch.

79.489 - 100.582 Unknown

That's right. Rolling along the Red River of Tennessee, because that's where the Bellwitch is now Adams, Tennessee. But that's where the Bellwitch story finds its roots about an hour north of Nashville. And there was a family, the Bells, that moved from North Carolina in 1806 to Tennessee and did pretty well. They were landowners. They were very respected. They had a pretty good life.

101.363 - 108.355 Unknown

And about nine-ish years after they moved there, they started to get haunted by an angry ghost witch.

108.79 - 125.82 Josh Clark

Yeah. And before we get too much deeper into it, I want to shout out a historian named Pat Fitzhugh, who runs bellwitch.org and wrote the book, The Bell Witch, colon, the full account. Legends of America, Victoria Klein Peter at the Tennessee State Museum. Okay.

Chapter 2: What strange occurrences did the Bell family experience in Tennessee?

242.284 - 247.073 Unknown

I mean, if it was haunting, it had to be like that girl was hanged there as a child or whatever and came back.

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247.474 - 273.679 Josh Clark

Yes. So these appearances seem to portend all of the haunting that followed. Haunting by the ghost of a witch, don't forget. That's the worst kind. Yeah. Because I think the same night after John Bell saw the rabbit dog or the dog rabbit, I guess, depending on your perspective. Yeah. The family was awakened by beating noises on the outside of the walls of their home like it was being pounded on.

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273.659 - 295.178 Josh Clark

And that was just the first night. These things continued night after night after night. Sometimes they would be pounding really hard, sometimes kind of light. But either way, Bell and his sons, he had several sons, they would get out of bed and try to catch the person who was pounding on their house. This is basically like 1817 Ding Dong Ditch, I guess. But they never found a trace of anybody.

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296.153 - 308.975 Unknown

Yeah, and the hauntings or the sounds continued rather. The children I know were haunted by the sounds of what they thought was rats chewing on their bedposts at night, which was probably just rats chewing on their bedposts at night.

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308.996 - 311.039 Josh Clark

Right. But you got to toss that one in.

311.239 - 335.003 Unknown

You got to toss that in because it's scary. The hauntings would turn physical. Sometimes the sheets were pulled off of the kids while they slept. Young Betsy was ghost slapped, apparently hard enough to leave welts and bruises. She was ghost pinched. She was ghost hair pulled. And it became pretty clear that Betsy and old Jack, the dad, were the main targets in this family.

335.573 - 358.992 Josh Clark

Yes. And we'll see why in a few. But I think probably what makes the whole thing the most disturbing is that the witch began to talk. It's one thing for poltergeist activity. Poltergeists don't talk, everybody. Ask your parents. The witch started speaking, the witch ghost. And at first it was faint. They were just barely whispered. You couldn't really make out what the ghost was saying.

359.493 - 374.272 Josh Clark

But over time, the voice grew louder, clearer, and would sometimes hold conversations, like entire conversations with the Bell family in their home. So much so that John Jr. was known to debate the witch voice. Sure. I don't know over what.

374.572 - 375.473 Unknown

Nuclear energy?

Chapter 3: How did the Bell Witch's hauntings escalate over time?

444.771 - 457.228 Josh Clark

And depending on where you're using this or who you ask, it's either used to trap witches or ward off witches. And Dean's wife made it for him, I think, after the first time he saw the Bell Witch to protect himself.

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457.613 - 476.415 Unknown

Yeah, and he was like, you know, I know tradition says it's got to be a ball, but this two-headed dog just wants to get that ball. Can we go with something else? She's like, sure, how about a witch's dick? Right, exactly. Shall we take a break? All right, we'll come back and finish up with the Bell Witch right after this.

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489.878 - 503.377 Stephen Curry

I'm Stephen Curry, and this is Gentleman's Cut. I think what makes Gentleman's Cut different is me being a part of developing the profile of this beautiful finished product. With every sip, you get a little something different.

0

503.397 - 525.611 Unknown

Visit Gentleman'sCutBourbon.com for your nearest Total Wines or BevMo. This message is intended for audiences 21 and older. Gentleman's Cut Bourbon, Boone County, Kentucky. For more on Gentleman's Cut Bourbon, please visit Gentleman'sCutBourbon.com. Please enjoy responsibly. Who would you call if the unthinkable happened? I just fell and started screaming.

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526.532 - 550.996 Unknown

If you lost someone you loved in the most horrific way? I sat through with y'all 22 times. The police, right? But what if the person you're supposed to go to for help is the one you're the most afraid of? This dude is the devil. He's a snake. He'll hurt you. I got you, I got you, I got you. I'm Nikki Richardson, and this is The Girlfriends Untouchable.

552.038 - 574.662 Unknown

Detective Roger Golubsky spent decades intimidating and sexually abusing Black women across Kansas City, using his police badge to scare them into silence. This is the story of a detective who seemed above the law until we came together to take him down. I told Roger Golubsky, I said, you're going to see my face till the day that you die.

577.105 - 613.022 Unknown

Listen to The Girlfriends, Untouchable, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, so where we left off, there were two headed dogs wanting to play with that witch ball. Betsy's getting ghost pinched. Dad is getting haunted. The whole family's getting haunted.

613.042 - 637.588 Unknown

And it became pretty clear that Betsy was getting haunted because this bell witch did not like the fact that she was engaged to a guy named Joshua Gardner, a local kid. And she tried to keep this wedding on, but eventually would break it off in 1821 and marry an old guy, so old. How old was he? He was so old that she ended up nursing the man for 11 years before he eventually died.

637.906 - 662.303 Josh Clark

Yeah. Betsy fell on hardships of her own. Even after she moved out of her father's house, she had eight children and four of them died. In that 11 years with the old sick guy? I don't know if it was during or before. I don't know how long they were married before he fell ill. I don't know. But yes, they had eight children for sure. But only four made it to adulthood, sadly.

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