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A terrifying ghost storyBy ALLEN SPHAGGETT(Copyright 1973. Toronto Sun Syndicate)Of all the eerie tales ever told, none is more terrifying than the sinister story of the Bell Witch. And every word of it is true.General Andrew Jackson —* Old Hickory, as he was affectionately called — eventually became President of the United States. But before reaching that exalted office he made the personal acquaintance of one of the most malevolent personages ever reported — the Bell Witch herself.Andrew Jackson visited the home of Mr and Mrs. John Bell in 1821. The Bells — friends of Jackson andknown as God-fearing, hard-working people — lived in Robertson County, Tennessee. They had a large family of lovely children.However, four years before Jackson s visit — in 1817 — a nightmare had started which terrorized the family. An invisible personality calling herself “Kate ', and claiming to be a witch, plunged the household into misery by tormenting mainly Betsy, the pretty teenager who was the youngest member of the family.The Witch pulled bedcovers off, smashed dishes, uttered streams of curses and obscenities during family prayers, and apparently caused strange physical afflictions.Betsy was subject to tainting spells and fits. And then her father, John Bell, began to suffer an unaccountable swelling of his tongue which at times grew so large it threatened to choke himThe hysterical ravings of superstitious hillbillies?It might be easy to say that, except that numerous witnesses of the day, including Andrew Jackson, left testimony that they heard the W;tch s hollow, metallic voiceand saw her sinister depredations.Moreover, noted researchers such as the late Dr Nan-dorFodor. a distinguished New York psychoanalyst, said after studying the case that the evidence for the reality of the Bell Witch was as good as for any other generally accepted historical fact.Clergymen were among those who saw' objects flying around the room while the Bell family scrambled for cover. More than one doctor who came to the house had his medicine thrown in his face, apparently by unseen hands. As many as a hundred people at a time cowered as the Witch's hate-filled cackling and shrieking filled the houseFinally the Witch got her announced desire: John Bell, weakened by the torment of four years of ghostly threats and maledictions, took to his bed and died, his tongue by that time so swollen that he virtually choked todeath.Even after his death the Witch lingered, but her visitations became more infrequent. And finally she left, never to return ...However the mystery she left lingers to this day.Who was the evil intruder who terrorized John Bell into his grav e?Was the Witch a disembodied spirit?Or a vicious hoax perpetrated by some evil prankster for inscrutable reasons of his own?Or possibly, as Nandor Fodor speculated, a psychic projection from the disturbed mind of some member of the Bell family — Betsy, perhaps? A bundle of raw, r€-pressed emotions stemming from some unmentionable trauma which John Bell had inflicted on his daughter?We do not know.The mystery remains, and. unlike the Bell Witch herself, probably will always be with us . . .
Newspaper Details
Port Arthur News
Port Arthur, Texas, US
Sat, Sep 08, 1973
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Boyd C.
KY, USA 13 Nov 2018
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