The Bell Witch: The Full Account (27 page)

they listened to the breathing sound become more

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intense and labored as it continued. After about a

minute had passed, the breathing evolved into gasps

that sounded as if the entity was fighting and

struggling for each breath it took.

After the noise stopped several minutes later and

the group had gotten outside the cave, the only

explanation that could be thought of was that both

the apparition seen by the woman and the breathing

sounds heard by the group were Kate, and, that the

breathing sounds were her way of showing them that

she had died a slow and miserable death. In

addition to her rare apparitions and frequent

rumblings in the cave, Kate has also been known to

touch people on occasion.

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Known as “Eagle Rock,” this large flowstone

sits in the back room of the cave where many

unexplained things have been encountered

over the years.

A Girl is Pushed by an Invisible Force

One summer evening, Bims took a group of

teenagers into the cave for a tour. After they had

been there about an hour looking at rock formations

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and talking in the back room, they began walking

back toward the entrance when one of the girls in the

group began making sarcastic remarks about Kate.

She cursed and said many nasty things about Kate,

most likely because she was disappointed that she

did not see or hear anything strange.

Groups must walk in single-file between the cave’s

back and first rooms because the passageway is so

narrow. As the group of teenagers made their way

between the rooms, the girl who had been cursing

and making sarcastic remarks about Kate suddenly

began to fall backwards as if she had been pushed.

Landing on the cave’s floor, she angrily exclaimed, “I

was just slapped!” Because the ceiling is very low in

the back passageway, Bims and the others suggested

that she had probably just bumped her head and

would be fine.

“No!” exclaimed the girl, “something hit me in the

jaw, and damned hard! It felt soft like velvet, but the

blow was solid.” After the girl got up and the group

reached a better-lit area, Bims and the others looked

at her face and found welts and fingerprints where

she claimed she was slapped. The whole group,

Bims included, hightailed it out of the cave — leaving

several shoes behind in the process. At least the

only footsteps in the cave that evening were those of

the group and not like the invisible ones Bims

encountered several weeks later.

Mysterious Footsteps in the Cave

One morning after a storm, Bims was in the cave

straightening out rocks that had been either

dislodged or dislocated by the water flowing through

the cave because of the recent storm. While sifting

the rocks with his shovel and hoe, he began hearing

a noise that was much different from the sounds

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coming from his tools. It sounded as if someone was

walking towards him from the cave’s back room.

This sound of what he thought to be approaching

footsteps compelled him to ask who was there and

what they needed. There was no answer, so he

asked again; and again – still no answer.

Bims gathered his tools and moved closer to the

cave’s entrance where began working again. After a

few minutes passed, he once again heard the sound

of approaching footsteps. Frightened, his german

shepherd stood motionless and stared in the

direction the sounds were coming from. The invisible

footsteps progressed down the front passageway and

past Bims – leaving behind what he later described

as “an eerie set of human footprints.” Bims’ dog

never entered the cave again.

Singing Heard Near the Red River

One Saturday afternoon in the late 1970s, a group

of people from Nashville visited the cave in hopes of

seeing Kate; however, upon their arrival they learned

that Bims was not there to give them a tour.

Knowing they wouldn’t be able to get past the cave’s

entrance, they decided to walk down the path and at

least get a look at the entrance and the Red River

below.

After talking and joking around several minutes

near the steel entrance gate, everyone began to feel a

very strange feeling they later described as like they

were being watched and were unwelcome. While

hurriedly walking up the path to their vehicles, they

began hearing what sounded like an old woman’s

voice somewhere near the cave’s entrance — singing

religious hymns in what was later described as a

beautiful, high-pitched voice but not understandable.

The singing faded away, as did the visitors.

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What makes the account of the visitors from

Nashville so significant is that noises were heard

coming from the cave by people who were some

distance away at the time. Unlike most noises,

which faded as soon as visitors left the cave, the

singing was heard all the way up the path and in

Bims’ back yard. Nevertheless, as time went on,

more events of this nature occurred — sometimes

inside or right outside of Bims’ house.

Sounds of Glass Breaking

One evening, a friend of the Eden family came to

visit and spend the night. Everyone decided to retire

after talking for a good portion of the evening. As the

woman entered the guest bedroom, she heard what

sounded like someone dropping and breaking a glass

of water on the floor in front of her. She yelled, “Hey,

something dropped right in front of me and broke all

over the floor! I didn’t even have time to turn on the

light, but I know that nobody else was in here.

What’s going on!”

Having also heard the sound, Bims and his wife

went to the room to see what happened and clean up

any broken glass. However, to their amazement,

they found no broken glass and the floor was in the

same, clean shape as it had always been.

Notwithstanding, the noise was easily recognizable

and heard by everyone in the house. No glass or

scrapes were ever found on the floor of the guest

bedroom.

In the days of John Bell, animals, dogs especially,

became agitated when Kate came around – usually

growling, tucking their tails, and letting the fur on

their backs stand straight up. Even almost two

centuries later, dogs still occasionally act this way on

and near the old Bell farm. While it is common for

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dogs to bark and chase other animals, it is very

much out of the ordinary for two dogs to suddenly

awaken in the middle of the night and begin fighting

with something “invisible.”

Dogs Attack an Invisible Entity

One of Bims’ sons was sleeping peacefully when he

was awakened by the sound of their dogs growling,

snapping, and making other vicious noises. He

sprang quickly from his bed and looked out the

window. He saw the dogs running around in circles

under one of the outside lights, trying to fight with

something that was seemingly invisible.

Because of another outside light, Bims’ son could

clearly see the front yard as well, and there did not

appear to be any other animals present. The fight

eventually died down but nothing in the form of an

animal was ever seen. The dogs remained in a

frightened, trance-like state for the next several days.

Human Figure Leaves No Tracks in the Snow

Another strange happening at Bims’ house

occurred around 4 A.M. one morning in the dead of

winter after several inches of show had fallen. After

having slept several hours, Bims was suddenly

awakened by what sounded like knocks at his front

door.

He slowly got out of bed and proceeded to the

living room where he looked out the window to see

who was knocking. It was too late — the person had

left. After giving some thought to the bitter-cold

temperature and snow that covered many roads in

the area, Bims concluded that the person would

most likely return to his front door in the next hour

or two.

After staying awake and puffing on a cigar for

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about an hour, Bims once again heard knocks at his

front door. By the time he opened the door a few

seconds later, he noticed that the person was already

walking away. He could not identify the person

because they were wearing a long, black coat with a

high collar and were walking in the opposite

direction. One strange thing Bims did notice was

that this person was wearing very wide boots, similar

to those made from partially treated leather back in

the early 1800s.

After watching the person walk toward the nearby

sinkhole and stop behind a tree, Bims yelled for his

wife to wake up. She came into the living room and

he asked her to watch the tree. They thought the

person was knocking to see if anyone was at home,

and if there was not an answer, planned on breaking

in.

Bims quickly got dressed and fetched his shotgun,

and then slowly proceeded out a door and through

the back yard to an area away from his security light.

He quietly inched his way around the yard until he

reached a place where he could see behind the tree

where the person was hiding. He found nothing

behind the tree and no sign of footprints other than

his own anywhere in the yard, even where he had

seen the person walking just minutes earlier. There

was more than four inches of snow on the ground at

the time.

Flickering Lights on the Bell Farm

On many occasions, even years earlier when Bims

was living on other parts of the old Bell farm, he has

seen flickering lights float across the fields and above

the trees that dot the banks of the Red River. On

many occasions the lights moved in the direction of

the old Bell cemetery and came to a stop, sometimes

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hovering for more than thirty minutes before

disappearing. The lights always began very faint and

seemed to pick up energy as they moved closer to the

Bell cemetery. Once the lights appeared to be in the

cemetery, they remained bright for some time before

instantaneously disappearing.

Others have reported flickering lights on and near

the old Bell farm as well. Even John Bell’s family

and their slaves reported this phenomenon in their

era. These lights typically resemble candles and

flicker as they move across the fields toward the old

Bell home site or the Bell cemetery atop the hill next

to it. It has been said that the best time to see these

lights is on cold, winter nights with a strong wind

and constant drizzle.

Unidentified Male Figure in Cemetery

One evening, a man was driving his family along

what was once known as Brown’s Ford and

Springfield Road when he saw what looked like more

than a hundred candles floating in different

directions across the field that was once John Bell’s

front yard. Being curious more so than frightened,

he stopped his car and began walking across the

field – eventually ending up near the old Bell

cemetery where the candles had seemingly led him.

Although the candles were no longer visible, the

area seemed very well lit considering it was a

moonless night. As the man looked around in

several directions, more or less just to “get his

bearings,” he noticed a male figure walking just

beyond the Bell cemetery and down the slope on the

opposite side of the hill.

He called out but received no answer, and the

figure soon disappeared over the horizon. The man

later described the figure as being about six feet tall

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