American Hauntings: The True Stories behind Hollywood's Scariest Movies—from The Exorcist to The Conjuring: The True Stories behind Hollywood’s Scariest Movies—from The Exorcist to The Conjuring

by Robert Bartholomew

  While it is not possible to examine every alleged haunted house that has gained the attention of Hollywood, to our knowledge this is the first study to systematically examine the evidence for the most compelling “based on a true story” productions—creations that have undoubtedly had an impact on popular culture.12 In Chapter 8, we summarize the findings of our case studies and highlight patterns within the literature. How accurate is Hollywood in portraying “based on a true story” hauntings when compared to the original claims? What evidence is there that those claims are genuine? These are important questions, if we are to better understand the impact of Hollywood on our perceptions of the world around us. It is a question that has been around as long as Hollywood producers themselves. To what extent do their productions reflect reality, and to what extent are they creations of the human imagination?

  Robert Bartholomew, Auckland, New Zealand

  Joe Nickell, Buffalo, New York

  CHAPTER 1

  An American Haunting: Terror and Torment in Tennessee

  I ought to know by this time that when a fact appears to be opposed to a long train of deductions it invariably proves to be capable of bearing some other interpretation.

  —Sherlock Holmes1

  In spring 2006, An American Haunting opened in theaters across the United States, and it has since grossed nearly $30 million in global ticket sales.2 Set in the present, with flashbacks to the early 1800s, the backdrop to the film is rural Tennessee, where a recently divorced mother comforts her daughter, who is haunted by a series of nightmares. The mother soon finds a binder of old letters from the house’s previous occupants, which tell the story of the Bell Witch, whose vengeful spirit once haunted the family of pioneer farmer John Bell, played by Donald Sutherland, and his daughter Betsy, portrayed by Rachel Hurd-Wood. The father and daughter were tormented nearly two centuries earlier, after John got into a property dispute with an eccentric local named Katy Batts, who was rumored to have been a witch. After she vowed revenge, strange things began to happen, as the Bell family was harassed by a spirit that was believed to have been of her creation. The attacks unleashed the repressed memories of John’s wife, Lucy, played by Sissy Spacek, and of Betsy’s abuse at the hands of her father. Betsy then kills her father with poison. Fast-forward to the present, when the young woman, about Betsy’s age, is tormented by bad dreams and a series of events that are reminiscent of the Bell haunting. At the end of the film, the ghost of Betsy Bell appears and warns the mother of similar abuse.

  The movie is loosely based on the legend of the Bell Witch, which is well known to folklorists and paranormal researchers. The word “witch” was used because such happenings were typically associated with witchcraft. The film’s release was promoted as “the most documented haunting in American history”3 and an event that was “validated by the State of Tennessee as the only case in U.S. history where a spirit has caused the death of a human being.”4 Believers argue that the haunting, the subject of many books, is based on real events. Tennessee historian Fred Rolater observes that the story has developed “an almost radical following of believers” who staunchly defend its reality,5 while skeptics contend that it is either a hoax or a tall tale that may or may not have been based on an earlier alleged haunting. Neither side has been able to muster the evidence needed to conclusively document its claims.

  Long a staple of Southern folklore, stories of the Witch have frightened children and adults alike as they listened attentively to different versions of the tale at slumber parties, sitting around campfires, and huddled in college dormitories late at night. During the early nineteenth century, a series of strange happenings reportedly befell the John Bell family on and near their farm in Middle Tennessee. An invisible force would punch, pinch, and slap bemused family members and occasionally pelt them with stones and other objects. Mysterious knocks, tapping, and scratching noises frightened the family, and animals were spooked for no apparent reason. A disembodied voice was soon heard, which kept the household in a state of turmoil. It would sing, shriek, curse, and send furniture and other objects crashing to the floor. The offending spirit was said to be a witch named Katy Batts who felt cheated by Bell after he purchased land from her—or so the story goes.6 She reportedly swore that she would haunt John Bell and “his kith and kin to their graves.”7 As in the film, John Bell and his young daughter Elizabeth, popularly known as Betsy, bore the brunt of her wrath. The attacks culminated in the death of John Bell Sr. in 1820, when the spirit reportedly took credit for murdering him with a vial of poison. The anomalous events then subsided, although mysterious occurrences attributed to the Witch continue to be reported sporadically in the area where the farmstead once stood, including the nearby Bell Witch Cave.8 The first published book on the haunting did not appear until 1894, after Bell’s son Richard reportedly wrote a summary of the events and gave them to a local newspaperman, Martin Ingram (1832–1909).9 By this time, there were no living witnesses.

  The Bell Witch saga is frequently touted as one of the most credible and inexplicable cases of poltergeist activity ever. In 1894, a journalist for The Hartford Herald noted, “In its day it was the sensation of two states.”10 Over forty years later, in 1937, residents living in the vicinity of the original hauntings were reported to have been fearful amid rumors of the spirit’s predicted return,11 and they were relieved when it failed to materialize.12 A feature story on the haunting appeared in a 1955 edition of Family Weekly Magazine, with the observation, “Nobody has ever satisfactorily explained the Bell Witch mystery.”13 In 1973, Alan Spraggett wrote about the Witch in his syndicated newspaper column, “The Unexplained,” prefacing the story as follows: “And every word of it is true.”14 In his 2009 book, The Bell Witch: The Full Account, Southern U.S. mystery writer Pat Fitzhugh boldly states, “The astonishing events that took place . . . have baffled scholars and researchers for nearly two centuries.”15 Paranormal investigator Stephen Wagner also holds the episode to be significant, calling it “America’s best-known poltergeist case.” He notes that the outbreak “has remained unexplained for nearly 200 years.”16 Even geography professor Charles Stansfield Jr. of Rowan University in New Jersey describes it as one of America’s “best documented hauntings,”17 while journalist Michael Schmicker writes that it is “one of the most intriguing and believable spirit/poltergeist cases in American history.”18 Surely a case that is held in such high regard by so many researchers and writers deserves to be examined more closely. It is a remarkable story of a haunting that persisted over many years, during which time residents from hundreds of miles away flocked to the Bell farmstead to witness the strange happenings.

  The American public has long been captivated by the story. In 1948, Charles Bryan’s composition The Bell Witch Cantata helped spread the Witch’s fame when it premiered at Carnegie Hall in New York City.19 Playboy even featured a story on the legend in November 1968.20 Eight years later, hundreds of residents living in the vicinity of where the Bell farm once stood came for the opening of Audrey Campbell’s play about the Witch, Our Family Trouble,21 while 2002 saw the premier of another play: David Alford’s Spirit: The Authentic Story of the Bell Witch of Tennessee. This dramatic production has become an annual favorite in the region and is billed as a historically accurate re-creation.22 In recent years the story has become a popular Hollywood drawing card due to its association with real people and events, giving rise to a series of low-budget films promoted as based on true events. This includes The Bell Witch Haunting, released in 2004,23 and Bell Witch: The Movie, which premiered the following year.24 In 2008, the nearby Bell Witch Cave was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and was a significant boost for the local economy, averaging 117,000 visitors annually.25 The cave has been the scene of an annual Halloween party that has attracted several thousand visitors.26 The tiny city of Adams, Tennessee (pop. 633 in 2010), hosts an annual Bell Witch Festival,27 and there is even a Bell Witch Fan Club.28

  Historical Enigma

>   Historians seek out primary sources: artifacts or documents that are from the period under study. They are the gold standard of research: newspaper articles, letters, diary entries, police records, church documents, and court papers written at the time. Given the volume of people who were reported to have visited the Bells, this should prove to be fertile ground for researchers. The primary narrative of the Bell Witch story is Our Family Trouble, written, we are told, by John Bell’s son, Richard Williams Bell, in 1846.29 Born in 1811, he was a child of about six at the time the strange events reportedly began. He tells how his father, John Bell Sr., having settled his family on a farm in Robertson County, Tennessee, was plagued by what today would be called a poltergeist. The strange happenings supposedly began in about 1817. In 1894, Martin Ingram published Authenticated History of the Bell Witch and Other Stories of the World’s Greatest Unexplained Phenomenon, containing an edited version of Richard Bell’s diary. In it he added letters and interviews from area residents who recalled stories about the Witch from their ancestors. In the introduction to the book, Ingram writes that the story will be familiar “to thousands who have heard graphic accounts from the lips of the old people who witnessed the excitement and have, perhaps, also read short newspaper sketches.”30 He says that Richard Bell gave him Our Family Trouble to set the record straight, as there were rumors at the time that the story was a hoax.31 There is something odd about these claims. For such a popular story that was said to have appeared in many papers during the first half of the nineteenth century, there is not one known reference to the Bell Witch prior to 1886: no diary entries, letters, newspaper or magazine accounts, or official documents of any kind.32 Let us look closer at the Bell Witch story, using the only known primary source: the diary of Richard Bell.

  A Mystery Begins: The Witch Appears

  The episode began in classic poltergeist fashion with mysterious noises that grew more frequent and intense. There were eerie knocks at the door, but no one was there. Another noise sounded like a rat gnawing at a bedpost, yet the wood was unblemished, and no rodent was seen. Sometimes the noises sounded like heavy stones striking the floor. The racket typically stopped between 1:00 and 3:00 a.m., before which point, we are told, it was impossible to fall asleep. Even then, the children were often targeted by having their hair yanked and bedcovers pulled off. Richard Bell describes the scene in his diary: “Soon after we had all retired, the disturbance commenced as usual; gnawing, scratching, knocking on the wall, overturning chairs, pulling the cover off of beds, etc., every act being exhibited . . . and so soon as a light would appear, the noise would cease, and the trouble begin in another room.”33 The spirit harassed Betsy the most. Just twelve years old when the trouble began, Betsy was sent to stay with different neighbors, in the hope that the harassment would end, but it followed her wherever she went.34 Curiously, there are no known accounts from these homes.

  Soon the spirit began to communicate by rapping. Bell writes, “When asked a question in a way, that it could be answered by numbers, for instance, ‘How many persons present? How many horses in the barn? How many miles to a certain place?’ The answers would come in raps, like a man knocking on the wall, the bureau or the bedpost with his fist, or by so many scratches on the wall like the noise of a nail or claws, and the answers were invariably correct.”35 During this time, lights resembling those from candles or lamps were often seen “flitting across the yard and through the field.” On many occasions, Mr. Bell, his boys, and the hired hands would be returning late from work, only to be pelted with “chunks of wood and stones” as they neared the farm.36 There was no apparent source for the lights. Bell observed that some of the antics intensified—the spirit “took to slapping people on the face, especially those who resisted the action of pulling the cover from the bed, and those who came as detectives to expose the trick. The blows were heard distinctly, like the open palm of a heavy hand, while the sting was keenly felt, and it did not neglect to pull my hair.”37

  Soon the spirit began to speak—first in whispers and then in a feeble voice; later in a strong, clear tone. When someone asked aloud, “Who are you and what do you want?” there was a response: “I am a spirit; I was once very happy but have been disturbed.” As the voice gained strength, those who suspected Betsy of trickery accused her of ventriloquism.38 When pressed about its unhappiness, it said, “I am the spirit of a person who was buried in the woods near by, and the grave has been disturbed, my bones disinterred and scattered, and one of my teeth was lost under this house, and I am here looking for that tooth.”39 Mr. Bell was said to have conducted a careful search for the tooth—to the point of pulling up floorboards where it was believed to have fallen and sifting the dirt underneath—but nothing was found. Bell’s son wrote that the Witch then laughed at his father for his gullibility.

  Buried Treasure

  Bell recounts that after a skull and other bones were found to have been taken from a nearby grave, the Witch claimed that she was the spirit of an early immigrant who had hidden treasure for safekeeping but died before divulging the location. The voice proclaimed, “I have returned in the spirit for the purpose of making known the hiding place, and I want Betsy Bell to have the money.” The treasure was said to be under a “great stone” near a spring at “the southwest corner” of the farm. Soon a group of men raised the stone. Finding no treasure, they continued digging until they had opened a hole about “six feet square and nearly as many feet deep.” They found nothing and were later mocked by the witch for being easily fooled.40 Bell’s story grows increasingly bizarre and incredible, and it continues through other fantastic adventures, including attacks on John Bell, which culminate in his death at the hands of the witch. One odd incident stands out. Bell’s son wrote, “We had not gone far before one of his shoes was jerked off. I replaced it on his foot, drawing the strings tight, tying a double hard knot. After going a few steps farther, the other shoe flew off in the same manner.” The ordeal intensified, and the Witch struck him in the face.41

  There is something odd about these accounts written by Ingram and Bell, which read like breezy dime novels. While the cornerstone of Ingram’s book is the handwritten diary of John Bell’s son Richard, it is suspicious that he never produced the diary. Showing it publicly and allowing it to be examined—including the ink, paper, and handwriting—would have lent credibility to its authenticity and very existence. The remarkable aspect of the Bell Witch story is that so many modern-day writers and researchers consider the account to be credible. These investigators either have failed to read the original account or are incredibly gullible, because it is a far-fetched claim that sounds more like hearsay and folklore, with little supporting evidence. In fact, the more one scrutinizes the evidence, the more suspicions are aroused, to the point of calling into question whether the story has any basis in fact.

  A Masonic Tall Tale

  Ingram’s story about the Bell Witch and the diary supposedly given to him by Richard Bell may be a Masonic spoof. The book takes on an entirely different meaning if it is seen as representing—with a wink from those in on the meaning—key tenets of Freemasonry. Arthur Waite’s authoritative Encyclopedia of Freemasonry defines it as “a system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols.”42 An allegory is an extended metaphor in which its components carry one or more meanings in addition to the seemingly literal one—symbols that stand for something else. Waite stresses that in Masonic stories and rituals, “the significance is in the allegory which may lie behind it.”43 Masonry focuses on the Mystery of Death, whereby “the Mason is taught how to die,”44 utilizing symbols such as the skull and grave. Masonry’s Secret Vault symbolism pertains to the grave, buried treasure, and lost secrets that can never be known.45 Much Masonic symbolism is based on the stonemason’s trade, such as the Rough Ashlar—a stone in its original form—symbolizing man’s natural state of ignorance.46 Masonic rituals focus on the death of Hiram, master mason and architect of Solomon’s Temple, whose allegorical
grave measured 6  6  6 cubic feet—the cube in Masonry being a symbol of truth. Significantly, in Bell’s account of the treasure search, the cube is not quite completed. In Masonry, Hiram’s name is Hiram Abif, whose legend—including his murder—represents “the dogma of the immortality of the soul.”47

  The location of the Bell Witch treasure at the southwest corner of the farm corresponds to the southwest corner of the Masonic lodge. This is one of the four corners to which the “hoodwinked” (blindfolded) initiate is conducted in the second (or Fellow Craft) degree in search of light, being opposite to the starting and ending point.48 Near the end of Our Family Trouble, there is a most peculiar incident in which the elder John Bell has first one and then the other of his shoes yanked from his feet, presumably by the Witch.49 Surely this invokes the Masonic Rite of Discalceation—from the Latin discalceare, to pluck off one’s shoes. One does this when approaching a sacred place.50 In the Bell narrative, the pledges the men make and their agreement to maintain secrecy evoke the Masonic society’s penchant for keeping secrecy. So does the section “The Mysterious Hand Shaking,” suggesting the Masons’ secret handshake.51 Other Masonic references abound.52

  More Strange Encounters: The Andrew Jackson Affair