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From possessed dolls and Bloody Mary to the Bunny Man and the Jersey Devil, here are the origins of 18 famous scary stories, adapted from an episode of The List Show on YouTube.
1. The Bell Witch
Ten years before he became president, Andrew Jackson heard a story that had spread from the town of Adams, Tennessee, about a ghost witch that was supposedly haunting the Bell family. It began in 1817 with knocks on their door and escalated to singing, bed covers being pulled off, objects moving, physical injury to young Betsy Bell, and even the death of the father John Bell. The entire family claimed to witness these paranormal events.