Bell Witch Cave

Between 1817 and 1821, the family of farmer John Bell in Robertson County, Tennessee, reported escalating disturbances: scratching and knocking sounds, bedclothes pulled from sleeping family members, and eventually a disembodied voice that identified itself by several names, sang hymns, conversed with visitors, and reportedly predicted future events. The entity — which became known as the "Bell Witch" — was said to focus its torment particularly on John Bell and his daughter Betsy, and according to the most widely repeated version of the story, John Bell died in 1820 after the entity poisoned him, with the voice afterward boasting of the act — making it, in American folklore, the only instance of a spirit allegedly causing a human death.

The case attracted attention well beyond the local area; later accounts claim that General Andrew Jackson, en route to Nashville, brought a party to investigate and that his wagon inexplicably became stuck and would not move until the witch's voice granted it permission to proceed — though this and most other details derive from a single 1894 book by Martin Van Buren Ingram, written more than 70 years after the events and drawing on local oral tradition with no contemporaneous written corroboration. The cave on the former Bell property, through which the entity was said to travel, is now a private tourist attraction offering guided tours.