#mail bag

i like your cat

Larissa is being paid tribute to in my Halloween decor this year. Her tombstone says “dearly departed Miss Weems, always en pointe.”

This time Cody tells Garth about a legend from Tennessee, a tale of poltergiest-like shenanigans, Gef The Mongoose akin mischief, and MURDER? Hear the tale of The Bell Witch. "The Most Documented Haunting in history"*  Also take a trip to Garth's Corner to learn about Barnard's Star! 

* "Most" is a relative term...

As always, please come join the episode discussion on the Least Haunted Discord!

Enjoy the images and videos below!

Historical marker in Adams, Tennessee

Modern Replica of The Bell House

This kind of rough hewn log home was common on the frontier in those days as well as along Appalachia and The Smokey Mountains. It is called a "Dog Trot". Note that on the bottom floor there is a corridor open on both sides that separates the two sides.

Book from the Cody Franks personal Library

This is all that remains from the last "original structure" on the farm. So not a part of the original house, but contemporary. Note that it would be made up of one of the sides of the Dog Trot. It was relocated to The Adams School in Adams Tennessee in the 1980's. Nothing remains on the Bell farm from the time of the Bell Witch Story.

The "first" time the story appeared in print was this book by Martin Van Buren Ingram in 1891.

It contained many exaggerated and inspire pictures from the tale... "The family slave Dean encounters a black two headed dog on his way home from visiting his wife." The Bell family owned slaves. A fact of the story that provided cultural context to the events and setting. The slavery is usually brushed under the rug, or politely ignored by most paranormal fans who talk about this story. But not with us! Fuck slavery! And fuck slave owners- that includes wage-slavers too!

Another illustration depicts Dean being turned into a mule by the witch and onother spirit. This, as far as I know, never really happened. Or if it did, he got better.

"Elizabeth Bell and her siblings see a girl in green swinging from a tree" One of the insighting incidents in the Bell Witch saga.

Young Elizabeth "Betsy" Bell. Around 13 when the events began. She became a particular target of the witch and suffered physical attacks.

It was claimed that the hauntings of the Bell Witch became so famous that Andrew "Genocidal Slave-Owning Piece of Shit" Jackson himself came to witness it. This is a complete fabrication. But he is still a Genocidal Slave-Owning Piece of Shit. That is verifiable fact.

Headstone of John Bell, allegedly killed by the Bell Witch

In 2001, Austin Peay State University Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Dr. Meagan Mann came up with a theory that could partially explain the death of John Bell in 1820 at the hands of the Witch.

In the 20th century The Bell Witch Cave became a part of the legend. An actual limestone Karst on one corner of what once was the Bell Farm, it is claimed now to be the source of the haunting, or maybe just where "Kate" liked to go when not tormenting the Bell Family. It is now a privately owned tourist attraction and you can visit it. Info can be found here: https://www.bellwitchcave.com/.

The community of Red River, Tennessee where the Bell Witch legend transpired eventually became Adams, Tennessee. That is where Kate, the Bell Witch has become the source of much prosperity in the form of tourism.

The legend became widely known again in 2006 with the movie "An American Haunting" being based on it.

GARTH'S CORNER! GARTH'S CORNER! GARTH'S CORNER!

Einstein at Yerkes Observatory.

MAIL BAG!

Two letters from.. Gef the Mongoose?

Jack has a crush on Dora 🎤

a/n: jack’s residence during the war was listed as new rochelle so it’s entirely feasible that he meets dora. let’s pretend the air force gave jack two weeks at home.

“Does Rosie know you’re writin’ his woman?” Hazel asks, sliding another letter from Ms. Montgomery across his desk.

“She’s a friend,” replies Jack as he pulls his letter opener from his desk drawer, a letter opener that Hazel tracked down for him.

She turns to a filing cabinet with a sniff. “It was two weeks. How friendly could you’ve gotten?”

“Alright,” Jack says, standing to his full height before moving to her left, propping an elbow on the top metal shelf, “out with it.”

Hazel blinks as she shoves a drawer closed, a pained smile on her face. “With what?”

He crosses his arms and she deflates. “Sergeant Johnson mentioned it when I went to pick up the mail. You barely wrote once a month before you left and now you’re back and poppin’ out two a week.”

It’s quiet for a moment — for too many moments, really — and she feels like an idiot for bringing it up. Jealous and childish and in the middle of a war and she seems like a nice girl and—

Jack takes her hand, turning it over in his long and gentle fingers, and presses a kiss into the heel of her palm. The warmth of his lips zaps up her arm and straight to her heart, wiping away the bitterness that had been festering since this morning. Closing her eyes, she exhales and lingers in his touch, grateful that he’d thought to shift his back to the windows and wrap them in this instant.

He clears his throat. “I can start writing you letters.”

“Jack,” she starts. Why does she let her heart run away with itself? “You don’t—“

“I’m sorry I didn’t write.” It comes out in a rush, heavy and guilty, and she knows this has sat with him since he came back, flaring every time she drops his post at his desk.

She risks bringing a hand up to cup his cheek, bone and ruddiness under her fingers. “You were enjoying a well-deserved break.”

“I missed you.”

And she doesn’t know how to respond to that. They stand, face-to-face, a bit too tangled, until Cros knocks and they break apart.

So some friend of mine on Discord who liked my AU Batstarion/AA fic….

Gifted me a copy of Baldur’s Gate 3 for the PS5.

Now I’m PS5 Hunting on Black Friday.

This is not what ive been up to, but i have also been recently given a monthly column at Riso/zine/mixtape shop BURN ALL BOOKS (AND FRIENDS's MAIL BAG. Its a mail bag of riso prints and columns from a variety of different artists/writers/cool people. Guess that's me now!!!