Laura Wright 
Bell Witch
Many theories have emerged to explain the Bell Witch haunting.
Betsy Bell has been accused of conspiring to create the phenomena that eventually led to her father’s death. Her brothers have faced similar accusations. John Bell has been accused of sexually abusing his daughter. Lucy Bell has been accused of poisoning her husband. Kate Batts remains perhaps the most famous suspect of all.
Yet one person close to the Bell family had something very different to gain if John Bell and Joshua Gardner were removed from the picture.
His name was Professor Richard Powell.
Powell was Betsy Bell’s schoolteacher. He was considerably older than she was, took an unusual interest in her, and eventually became her husband.
The surviving circumstances do not prove that Richard Powell created the Bell Witch.
But they raise a fascinating question.
Could there have been a human intelligence somewhere behind the haunting?
A Spirit That Had to Learn
One of the peculiarities of the Bell Witch was the apparent development of its abilities.
The entity did not simply arrive fully capable of communicating.
It seemed to learn.
It developed the ability to make noises. It learned to whistle. Eventually, it learned to speak. Its manifestations and abilities became increasingly elaborate as the haunting continued.
If the Bell Witch was simply the spirit of a deceased person, why would it have needed to learn how to communicate?
The gradual development raises the possibility that something else was occurring.
Malevolent or Benevolent?
The personality of the Bell Witch was equally contradictory.
It claimed to hate John Bell and tormented him relentlessly.
Yet the entity could also be remarkably helpful.
It knew where to find berries. It advised the family about useful varieties of wood, including the best wood for making an axe handle. When Lucy Bell became ill, the spirit reportedly cared for her.
John received no such sympathy.
When he became sick, the entity laughed at him.
The Bell Witch could therefore behave almost tenderly toward one member of the household while treating another with extraordinary cruelty.
The original accounts present something with an oddly human mixture of affection, resentment, humor, cruelty, and preference.
Who Was the Witch Really Following?
The spirit claimed that its hatred of John Bell was responsible for its appearance.
It also claimed it would follow “Old Jack” wherever he went.
But according to the story, that isn’t what happened.
The entity followed Betsy.
When Betsy stayed with neighbors, the phenomena followed her. When she visited her married sister, the spirit followed her there as well.
Despite its supposed hatred of John Bell, the entity could never provide a satisfactory reason for that hatred.
Nor could it explain why Betsy should not marry Joshua Gardner.
That relationship became one of its greatest obsessions.
The Witch Knew People’s Secrets
The Bell Witch appeared to possess extraordinary knowledge.
It revealed secrets about people in the community and supposedly repeated sermons that had been delivered miles away only hours earlier.
That ability contributed enormously to its supernatural reputation.
But there is another possible interpretation.
A well-connected person within the community might also have access to a surprising amount of information.
A minister would hear private matters.
So would a schoolteacher.
If a human being was somehow involved with the phenomena, ordinary information could have been presented as supernatural knowledge.
Even the physical descriptions of the entity are interesting in this context. People who reportedly touched or shook hands with the mysterious presence described soft hands.
Those could conceivably have been the hands of someone who earned his living in a classroom rather than through manual labor.
And Betsy’s schoolteacher was Professor Richard Powell.
Who Was Richard Powell?
Richard Rowell Ptolemy Powell was born in North Carolina on December 8, 1795.
His parents were Richard and Parthenia Powell.
Despite the important role he would eventually play in Betsy Bell’s life, relatively little is known about him.
One surviving source is Powell’s ciphering book, sometimes called his computation book. It contains mathematical problems along with a small amount of Powell family history.
Powell married Esther Scott on December 7, 1815.
She was 18 years older than Richard.
Yet despite Powell’s position as a schoolteacher in the community, the people around him apparently did not know he was married.
Powell mentioned the marriage to Esther in his book, but recorded little about her or her eventual death.
His later marriage to Betsy Bell received considerably more attention.
Powell’s Interest in Betsy Bell
Powell’s interest in Betsy apparently extended beyond her ordinary classroom performance.
He frequently visited the Bell household and spoke about Betsy and her academic accomplishments.
According to Johnson family tradition, neither James Johnson nor John Bell trusted him.
Both men supposedly believed Powell’s interest in the young girl was inappropriate.
John Bell also objected to their age difference. Powell was approximately 26 and considerably older than Betsy.
The two men reportedly regarded Powell as sneaky and dishonest.
Family lore attributed an even stronger statement to John Bell.
Powell would marry Betsy only:
“Over my dead body.”
If the tradition is accurate, those words would later become remarkably ominous.
Powell and the Bell Witch
There is another strange detail.
The Bell Witch reportedly manifested for an enormous number of visitors.
But not for Powell.
According to the account, the phenomena never manifested while Richard Powell was visiting.
Powell also apparently avoided discussing the Bell Witch with other people.
That silence seems peculiar considering what was happening around him.
The Bell home had become a local sensation. Spectators came to experience the entity. Stories about the haunting circulated through the small community.
Powell was Betsy’s teacher and a regular visitor to the Bell household.
Yet the famous spirit apparently became quiet when he appeared.
Betsy and Joshua Gardner
The entity’s treatment of Betsy’s romantic life creates another suspicious pattern.
Betsy’s older sister Esther was already married.
The witch did not torment her over that relationship. Esther’s husband even reportedly shot at the spirit without producing some lasting supernatural campaign of vengeance.
Betsy was different.
Whenever she showed interest in Joshua Gardner, the entity interfered.
It repeatedly commanded her not to marry him.
Yet it never supplied a convincing reason why.
Of all the Bell children, Betsy was the one whose attempts at a romantic relationship became a recurring target of the haunting.
Richard Powell, meanwhile, wanted Betsy himself.
The Bell Family’s Enslaved Workers Suspected Powell
Another unusual aspect of the haunting was the spirit’s hostility toward the Bell family’s enslaved workers.
The entity was reportedly vicious toward them.
According to the account preserved in the Red Book, members of the enslaved community believed Powell was behind the phenomena.
They suspected that his ultimate goal was to marry Betsy Bell and obtain her inheritance.
Why the entity would have been particularly hostile toward people who suspected Powell is impossible to establish.
But for those who believe a human intelligence was involved, the behavior adds another piece to the circumstantial case.
Was Something Supernatural Still Involved?
Suspecting Powell does not necessarily provide a conventional explanation for everything reported at the Bell house.
The original theory leaves open the possibility that Powell somehow used supernatural practices rather than simply creating a physical hoax.
New Orleans, strongly associated in popular tradition with American voodoo, could be reached through the river transportation system from Tennessee.
This led some believers to speculate that the Bell phenomena involved a curse, occult practices, or even something resembling bilocation.
There is no way to establish such an explanation from the surviving circumstances.
But the Powell theory does not necessarily argue that nothing paranormal occurred.
Instead, it asks whether a human being might have been directing or manipulating whatever happened.
The Drunken Bell Witch
One of the strangest episodes associated with the spirit involved intoxication.
At one point, the Bell Witch supposedly became drunk.
That creates an obvious problem if the entity was completely incorporeal.
How does a spirit become intoxicated?
The episode has therefore been cited by those who suspect that at least some manifestations had a physical or human component.
A ghost becoming drunk is certainly stranger than a person pretending to be a ghost becoming drunk.
Could the Witch Read Minds?
The Bell Witch also claimed that it could read people’s thoughts.
According to the account, this ability was tested.
The claim failed.
That is significant because the entity often appeared omniscient without actually possessing unlimited knowledge.
It knew an extraordinary amount about the community.
But it didn’t know everything.
That distinction again raises the possibility that its information came from an exceptionally knowledgeable person rather than supernatural omniscience.
Mathematics and Cypocryphy
Two names supposedly used by spirits associated with the haunting are especially intriguing in connection with Powell.
One was “Mathematics.”
Another was “Cypocryphy.”
Powell possessed considerable mathematical knowledge. His ciphering book contained more than 270 pages of advanced mathematical problems written by his father.
The appearance of mathematically suggestive names in a haunting involving a schoolteacher with an extensive mathematical background inevitably raises questions.
It does not establish Powell’s involvement.
But it is another curious coincidence in a story already filled with them.
John Bell Dies
John Bell died in late 1820.
The Bell Witch subsequently disappeared.
Perhaps the haunting had simply run its course.
Perhaps the entity’s hatred of John ended with his death.
Or, under the Powell theory, perhaps one obstacle had been removed.
Powell’s wife Esther Scott also died sometime before August 1821.
Now both John Bell and Powell’s wife were gone.
Joshua Gardner remained.
The Fishing Party
In late 1821, the Bell Witch reportedly appeared again during a fishing party.
Betsy was there.
So was Joshua Gardner.
Powell’s whereabouts at the time are unknown.
Eventually, Betsy broke her engagement with Joshua because of the spirit’s repeated warnings.
Powell continued pursuing her.
In 1824, Richard Powell and Betsy Bell married.
The man John Bell supposedly distrusted had eventually gotten exactly what he wanted.
Richard Powell’s Political Career
Powell later became an important figure in Robertson County.
He served as Sheriff of Robertson County from 1830 until 1833.
He then represented the county in the Tennessee State Legislature for another three years.
Whatever suspicions may have surrounded him during the Bell Witch years, they did not prevent his advancement.
His fortunes eventually changed dramatically.
The Steamboat Disaster
In 1837, Richard, Betsy, and their eight children suffered an enormous financial loss in a steamboat accident.
The family reportedly lost approximately $10,000.
Powell petitioned the Tennessee Legislature for $6,000 in financial assistance.
His petition was rejected.
The financial catastrophe devastated the family.
At approximately the same period, Powell suffered a major stroke.
The prosperous former sheriff and legislator entered a long decline.
Powell’s Final Years
Richard Powell never recovered his earlier prosperity.
The family remained impoverished.
He died in 1848.
According to the account, the family was unable even to afford a headstone for him, and Powell was buried in an unmarked grave.
Betsy survived him by four decades.
She eventually moved to Mississippi and remained a widow for the rest of her life.
Betsy Bell Powell died in 1888.
Was Richard Powell Behind the Bell Witch?
Nearly two centuries separate us from the events at the Bell farm.
Nothing in the surviving evidence allows Richard Powell to be declared responsible for the Bell Witch haunting.
The case against him is circumstantial.
But the circumstances are certainly unusual.
Powell was secretly married.
He developed an interest in his young student Betsy.
John Bell reportedly distrusted him and opposed the possibility of their marriage.
The spirit never manifested while Powell was present.
The entity followed Betsy more reliably than it followed John.
It relentlessly opposed Betsy’s relationship with Joshua Gardner.
Members of the enslaved community reportedly suspected Powell.
The spirit appeared knowledgeable without actually being omniscient.
Some of its names had mathematical associations.
John Bell died.
Powell’s first wife died.
Betsy abandoned Joshua.
And Powell eventually married her.
None of those things explains the extraordinary physical phenomena attributed to the Bell Witch.
That remains the greatest weakness in the theory.
If Powell was responsible, how did he do it?
Was the entire haunting an extraordinarily sophisticated deception?
Were some events genuine and others manipulated?
Was another person involved?
Or, as some versions of the theory suggest, did Powell believe he possessed some means of manipulating phenomena that were genuinely supernatural?
The surviving information does not provide an answer.
It merely points toward an overlooked figure standing remarkably close to the center of the story.
Richard Powell was Betsy Bell’s teacher.
He wanted to marry her.
The two people standing most directly in his way were John Bell and Joshua Gardner.
The Bell Witch helped remove them both.
And when the haunting was over, Richard Powell married Betsy Bell.
About the Author
Um, Laura, if Powell had live to be over 100, he would have been a whopping 153 in 1948 (considering his birth in 1795). I presume you meant 1848? Since Betsy lived until 1888, the latter would make better sense. Just thought I’d point that out to you.
Yes, this information, or rather these details, on this story are known, but they are always interesting to read. I thought his involvement a strong possibility as well, although how he managed to create the ghostly manifestations would be another story. Also, with Powell as the suspect, how would one account for the apparent adolescent behavior you document in the previous post? Would a possible reason be that Powell incorporated such adolescent attributes as a way of throwing off suspicion? If this be case, perhaps Powell had known others suspected him. This would even account for the meanness the spirit directed at the slaves whom you say knew him to be a likely culprit.
I presume you are planning to compose a book on this subject? I look forward to reading it. 😉
Lol. TY for catching that. Yes, it was 1848. I’ve read about the Bell witch for decades, and had never heard Powell mentioned in anything. When I started doing my own research, it was like a lightening bolt. He was in many of the old accounts, but I guess somewhere along the way he just got omitted. Or dismissed.
I think Powell knew people suspected him of many things, even before the haunting started. He wasn’t from the area, didn’t have any close friends, and no one really knew anything about him. He wasn’t particularly eager to be involved in a great deal of anything, aside from the Bell house. John Bell sensed something “off” about him before the haunting started. I’m sure others noticed that nothing happened while Powell visited and that he had a very inappropriate interest in Betsy, as a student. Rumors of voodoo practice among slaves came as far (that I know of) as Northeast Tennessee, so I’m sure they would have been around Adams, Tennessee. I’d say many of the slaves in that region would be familiar with the practices and rituals, which Powell could’ve used.
Powell could’ve been a logical genius, like people with autism or savants, who are intellectually gifted, but socially and psychologically backwards. His first wife was 18 years older than he, and they were married until her death, but did not live together and Powell never involved her in anything in Adams. Yet, somehow, they remained married for years. I think that’s a good implication that he was abnormal to start with. I don’t know if he abandoned her or what. Not much is known about her, either.
Actually, I don’t know what I’m going to do with it, yet. I’m putting together another compilation of Appalachian stories and history and thought I’d include it. I guess it’s long enough though to make it’s own volume. When I get in the old books, I can’t stop. There’s so much that’s so new to me, about subjects that are centuries old. It’s amazing.