Legend of the Bell Witch

Nashville station WKRN News 2 posted this report from Robertson County in September 2025. The reporter joins guide Candy Hooton at the Bell Witch Cave property in Adams, where tours begin in a log cabin – with the story told first – before visitors go down into the cave the Bell family is said to have used for storage.

The segment retells the legend as locals tell it: tapping that grew into a voice, a spirit that went to church and claimed different identities, its stated aims of stopping Betsy Bell’s engagement and killing John Bell, a visit by Andrew Jackson, and the claim that this is the only known case of a spirit killing someone. Staff describe footsteps, knocking and books found scattered on the gift-shop floor, visitors arrive from as far as the Czech Republic, Australia and Japan, and the report closes on the October hayrides, festival and plays that keep the legend – and local tourism – going.

The segment presents the legend largely as its keepers tell it. Almost everything known about the Bell Witch comes from Martin V. Ingram’s 1894 book, published more than 70 years after the events, and episodes such as Andrew Jackson’s visit have no support in the historical record. The claim that the spirit killed John Bell, who died in December 1820, rests on the same late sources.

The closing remark about preserving oral tradition is the most useful lens: the Bell Witch is a living piece of Tennessee folklore that a small community has turned into an annual festival and a working attraction.