It's late at night in rural 19th-century Tennessee. You're in your electricity-free cabin, trying to go about your business. Then, the noises begin. Or, if you're really unfortunate, that's when the disembodied slapping starts. Such was the fate of the Bell family. 

According to the Tennessee State Library and Archives, the trouble actually began with the manifestation of an odd canine. Or, well, at least father John Bell thought that he had shot at a dog. Soon, the sounds of chewing, flapping, and knocking began to happen throughout the Bell house. The spirit grew more violent, moving furniture and then moving on to strike family members. Daughter Betsy became the locus of the activity, with some of the hardest slaps and pinches reserved for her.

Eventually, the family couldn't pretend that everything was hunky-dory, and word got out of the so-called "Bell Witch." Visitors came to the farm to converse with the spirit, which had started to talk though it didn't deign to materialize. Ultimately, the Bell farm turned into something of a haunted house attraction, though people who dared to taunt the spirit, tried to exorcise it, or simply got in its way stood to be seriously frightened or even harmed by the Bell Witch. As the legend maintains, John Bell was eventually killed by this spirit after years of mental torment and physical attacks. At his funeral, it's said that the witch's disembodied voice sang vulgar songs throughout the service.

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