In 1817, his family came under attack by a witch, who was believed to be a lady called Kate Batts.
[2] Various accounts written afterward, tell stories similar to other poltergeist legends.
It began with noises in the walls and grew to include unusual sounds; people being slapped and pinched, objects being thrown, and animals being spooked without visible cause.
Martin Van Buren Ingram, in 1894, wrote the book An Authenticated History of the Bell Witch which was created on the basis of Richard's diary.
In the late nineteenth century, Martin Ingram incorporated Richard Williams Bell's manuscript into his book, Authenticated History of the Bell Witch, in the form of a single chapter entitled, "Our Family Trouble.