Page 48 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

28 Ghosts and Phantoms

When two local preachers arrived to inves- ple by shouting obscenities about them in front
tigate the disturbances, the witch delivered of their friends.
each of their Sunday sermons word for word
A friend of the family, Frank Miles,
and in a perfect imitation of their own voices.
learned of the witch’s objection to Betsy’s
The Bell Witch was adept at producing engagement and resolved to stand up to the
odd objects apparently from thin air. Once, at evil spirit on her behalf. He challenged the
one of Mrs. Bell’s Bible study groups, the entity to take any form it wished, and he
ladies were showered with fresh fruits. Betsy’s would soon send her packing. Suddenly his
friends were treated to bananas at one of her head jerked backwards as if a solid slap had
birthday parties. Although the father, John stung his cheeks. He put up his forearms to
Bell, was the butt of malicious pranks and block a series of facial blows, and then
cruel blows, the witch looked after Mrs. Bell dropped his guard as he received a vicious
solicitously. Once when she was ill, the witch punch in the stomach. Miles slumped against
was heard to tell her to hold out her hands. a wall, desperately shaking his head to recover
When Luce Bell did so, a large quantity of his senses.
hazelnuts dropped into her palms. When Mrs.
Bell weakly complained that she could not Frank Miles looked helplessly at Betsy
crack them, family members and neighbors Bell, who watched the one-sided boxing
watched in wide-eyed fascination as the nuts match. Reluctantly, he picked up his hat and
cracked open and the meats were sorted from coat. A man couldn’t fight an enemy he
the shells. couldn’t see.

Next to the materialization of fruits and General Andrew Jackson (1767–1845),
nuts, the witch was especially fond of produc- Old Hickory himself, decided to have his try at
ing pins and needles. Mrs. Bell was provided defeating the witch. An old friend of John Bell,
with enough pins to supply the entire county, Jackson set out from The Hermitage accompa-
but sometimes the witch would impishly hide nied by a professional “witch-layer” and several
them in the bedclothes or in chair cushions— servants. As his party approached the Bell
points out. place, Jackson was startled when the wheels of
his coach suddenly froze and the full strength of
John Jr., Betsy’s favorite brother, was the the horses could not make them budge an inch.
only member of the family besides the mother A voice from the bushes cackled a greeting to
who received decent treatment from the Jackson and uttered a command that “unfroze”
witch. The invisible force often whipped Joel the wheels. The general and his men realized
and Richard soundly, and Drewry was so that the element of surprise was lost. The witch
frightened of the witch that he never married, knew they were coming.
fearing that the entity might someday return
and single out his own family for particular That night the witch-layer fled in terror
attention. John Jr. was the only one of Betsy’s when the witch attacked him, and General
brothers who could “sass back” at the witch Jackson’s men followed him out the door.
and get away with it. The witch even went to According to the old stories, Jackson told
special pains to get John Jr. to like it, and the John Bell that fighting the witch was worse
mysterious entity often performed demonstra- than having faced the British at the battle of
tions of ability solely for his benefit. New Orleans. Old Hickory wanted to stay for
a week and face down the spirit, but his com-
The cruelest act perpetrated on Betsy was mittee of ghost chasers had had enough, so he
the breaking of her engagement to Joshua Gard- left with his men.
ner (or Gardiner). Friends and family acclaimed
the two young people to be ideally suited for With the decisive defeat of her champions,
one another, but the witch protested violently Miles and Jackson, Betsy had no choice but to
when the engagement was announced. The give in to the witch’s demands and break her
witch screamed at Joshua whenever he entered engagement with Joshua Gardner. On the
the Bell home and embarrassed both young peo- night on which Betsy returned the ring, the

The Gale Enc y clopedia of the Unusu al and Unexplained