TELEPHONE INTERVIEW — TAPE #14, SIDE #1
Q: Mark Russell Bell (interviewer in Los Angeles)
M: Maxine Mc Wethy (the mother in Centrahoma, Oklahoma)
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: I DECIDED TO TAPE CONVERSATIONS AS AN EXPEDIENT WAY OF PRESERVING A RECORD OF EVENTS. WHEN I CALLED PARANORMAL INVESTIGATOR BARRY TAFF, HE TOLD ME THAT HE HADN’T EXPERIENCED ANY PHENOMENA THE WEEK HE WAS IN CENTRAHOMA AND THAT HE HAD GONE THERE IN ASSOCIATION WITH LMNO PRODUCTIONS. WHAT FOLLOWS ARE SOME OF THE THINGS I TOLD HIM. SOME COMMENTS WEREN’T RECORDED DUE TO LISTENING DEVICE MALFUNCTIONS.)
Q: Well isn’t it always that way? Once you find out what happened to me I don’t think you’ll be disappointed any more. I don’t know where to start. We have a lot in common because I’ve done research on poltergeists myself. Do you know a lot about the classic cases like the Isle of Man and the Bell Witch? Okay, good, because I have a lot to tell you and maybe we should have lunch or have a meeting to discuss it. Basically, it’s been in my life all my life. I didn’t realize it until it brought me to Oklahoma. So I called my uncle when I got back and I asked him if we had any Bells in our family tree. He said yes. I haven’t been able to verify it yet because my family has started treating this like a family curse all of a sudden. But, anyway, I witnessed all kinds of phenomena. I have twelve microcassettes of spirits’ voices. It let me keep my tapes. I’ve taken a sabbatical from my job at Paramount to transcribe my interviews and just come to terms with all this. Plus, I needed a break too because I’m thirty-nine years old and I’ve been working all my life. I thought I would take a year off. Anyway, I witnessed all kinds of phenomena. I haven’t had anything happen since Sunday but it’s not letting me watch TV. It just turns on the TV to give me messages and it has written a couple messages on my computer screen while I was transcribing like “ARE YOU NERVOUS?” and “FIND A SCRAPBOOK.” Well, I have all kinds of mysteries in my life so it’s helping me come to terms with them. The first time I recognized it in my life in retrospect was when I was eight years old. I was living in Pasadena and I heard this voice saying “MARK” — whispering my name over and over again. I went all through the apartment looking for it and I never could find it. When I was there in Oklahoma, Brenda said the same thing had happened to her. I didn’t immediately put two and two together but everything started adding up eventually and I figured it out. Plus, I’l becoming aware of new tie-ins with the Isle of Man case and the Bell Witch case. There are specific things that link the two and other ones like the Drummer of Tedworth. There’s parallels between all the cases. I’m definitely one of the focuses of the phenomena so it’s a lot to come to terms with. I mean it is a very loving Entity. Michael seems to be the spirit of an eight-year-old boy whose mother decapitated him. The reason why he can have conversations with people is because of reincarnation. And that’s wild. Do you believe in reincarnation? You do. Okay. I’m not quite sure how to come to terms with the alien aspects because I don’t know how they tie in. Maybe, we’re all aliens. I mean I don’t know. Who knows? But, anyway, I have plenty of material. I have cassettes. I’d be sort of interested too — I know that you have some kind of machine that sees what the vibrations around people are. I wonder if you would be willing to use that on me to just see. Magnetometer — that’s it. I’d just be curious to see if I also registered high. So what do you want to do? I have all kinds of transcripts and things that I’m working on. The family gave me all the various photos and things to help me because the Spirit had told them that I would be coming out. I live in Echo Park right across from the Angelus Temple. Get it — Angelus Temple? Plus I live on Clinton Street. I mean the synchronicity to this is just amazing. I’ve realized that it had been leading me all my life to do research in terms of the unexplained.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: BARRY’S BUSY SCHEDULE PREVENTED HIM FROM EVER GETTING TOGETHER WITH ME. THE NEXT RECORDED CONVERSATION IS WITH MAXINE WHO CALLED ME TO CHECK IN.)
M: I said, “Michael, Fae wants you to hit her with an egg.” And I didn’t think he would do it. And in a few minutes he hit her in the back of the head with an egg. Twyla and I were laughing. I said, “Oh, we better shut up. We might get it.” Sure enough. I was standing in front of Twyla over there by the sink. She was over there by the cabinet and I heard her. She hollered, “Ow.” One hit her on the back of the head, bounced off, hit me and then went in the sink. It didn’t break. That’s weird.
Q: Right. Well, (laughs) if we’re going to start calling things weird — now, as you know, I’m firmly convinced that Michael is an angel.
M: Yeah.
Q: How is Bill? Is he alright?
M: No. He’s almost bedfast now.
Q: He’s in bed again?
M: Yeah. The only time he gets up to use the bathroom. He’s feeling worse.
Q: Oh dear. Well, I don’t know what to say.
M: I don’t either.
Q: Is it the same thing as before? Because he seemed to be getting better.
M: I don’t know.
Q: We all have challenges in life. The only thing that I can recommend is praying. It seemed to help a little bit last time.
M: I’ll tell you what. There’s going to be a bunch of people at my house on Halloween. Won’t you try to come out?
Q: On Halloween?
M: I know that’s a long way to come for Halloween.
Q: Well, let’s play it by ear because the spirit has me doing lots of wonderful things here. He has me doing volunteer work at AIDS Project Los Angeles. I mean He has me doing a lot of really great things. He is part of my day-to-day life. He even — I guess I don’t have to explain it to you.
M: Nuh-uh.
Q: I realized that all of the tapes I recorded in Oklahoma have spirit messages all the way through and some of the things I was saying in the tapes I don’t remember saying when I was with you. Once we were talking about the other Bell family and I said something about an insurance policy. So it might be worth your while to look into that.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: LATER WHEN I LISTENED AGAIN TO THIS PORTION I REALIZED THAT IT WAS NOT MY VOICE BUT A SPIRIT’S, COMMENTING, “WHO HAVEN’T SEEN THEIR LIFE INSURANCE MONEY.”)
Q: I have a genealogist at work on the Bell family already. They went to Salt Lake City. We’ll see what happens. Basically, what I did is just get out the Pacific Bell yellow pages and there was only one family historian listed. This turned out to be a couple and the husband has a Bell in his family tree. (laughs) The woman said that I might be related to Benedict Arnold. I mean there’s so many people I’m related to.
M: Was he smart?
Q: I guess it depends on what side of the American Revolution you sympathize with. I also noticed that your ancestor Alexander Graham Bell was born in Scotland.
M: Well, we had a family tree that one time. Carlton’s uncle borrowed it. They never gave it back. They’re dead and I don’t know where the family tree went.
Q: You know there is a spirit voice on a tape that sounds like an old woman saying, “DADDY DADDY THAT — YOU’RE — YOU’RE GRANDPA BELL’S PEOPLES.” Then, a few seconds later the same spirit voice says, “YOU’RE GRANDPA BELL’S PEOPLES.” There’s two very distinct lines.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: THESE ARE THE ONLY TWO OCCASIONS WHEN THIS PARTICULAR SPIRIT IS HEARD ON THE TAPES.)
Q: Whatever that means — I don’t know if that means you’re a direct descendant of the Bell Witch’s family or not. Hopefully, the genealogist will be able to link it all up. I still haven’t heard back from the pitch meeting but it went very well. They do have a deal with Paramount so you just never know. Michael’s the one who’s running this show. Michael, are you there? (laughs) No.
M: What’d you hear?
Q: I didn’t here anything. I’m just saying, “Why don’t you get on the phone with me, Michael?” You know, there’s an angel named Michael in the Bible.
M: Oh really?
Q: He’s the major archangel. He’s the angel of the children. So you might ask him, “Michael, are you ready to lead the angelic forces on Judgement Day?” and see what he says. The original Bible was just impressions by people. There is no essential truth there. It’s all people’s own views and their own interpretations and impressions of historical events. So nobody really knows what Judgement Day is.
M: Not even the angels in Heaven. That’s what it says in the Bible.
Q: There’s only one Entity that knows about that. And that’s the boss. By the way, I did have a talk with Barry Taff. He got off the phone rather abruptly after I was telling him some of my impressions so he either thinks I’m nuts or he’s jealous. Or he doesn’t know what to think. (laughs)
M: (laughs) Probably all of the above.
Q: He said he was going to call me back to make an appointment with him for lunch or something. But I don’t really much care if he doesn’t. This is an opportunity for him more than it is for me. I think he’s just sort of resentful that he didn’t see anything when he was up there.
M: I think so.
Q: He was telling me about how he’s been researching this for thirty years. But he’s a very nice man. The first thing he said was that “These are benevolent entities.” As if we didn’t know that already. I enjoy transcribing but there are some words I can’t hear and I can’t always tell which of your daughters is speaking. Your voices all sound similar sometimes. So I’m doing the best I can. I did get a state-of-the-art transcribing machine to help me. Maybe I’ll come back out there after the book deal is in place. If it were up to me I’d have the book completed already but it’s out of my hands.
M: Well, I called Paul and told him to send me some copies of the contracts we signed. He said he would but he hasn’t yet.
Q: Call him back up and, as Michael says, “ROCK THE BOAT!” Just say, “How dare you?” Did you hear that tomorrow they’re going to announce the verdict in the O. J. Simpson trial?
M: Yeah. I’m going to watch that.
Q: Well, I’m just worried about riots.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: “ROCK THE BOAT!” WERE THE LYRICS OF THE LAST SONG I HEARD PLAYED ON THE RADIO WHILE AT ALHAMBRA CPC. MY STATEMENT ABOUT THE TRIAL WAS SOMETHING THAT SEVERAL PEOPLE MENTIONED TO ME ON THIS DAY INCLUDING CAROL [THE WOMAN WHO CUT MY HAIR] AND A MAN WHO BEGAN TALKING TO ME AT THE SUPERMARKET.)
M: Oh, when I called Paul a while back he said that they were trying to have the show scheduled for Halloween.
Q: Trick or treat. (laughs)
M: He said, “We sure would like it to be on then.”
Q: I don’t know how to hurry this along. Michael doesn’t want to do our work for us. You know? He has enough on His hands. (laughs)
M: Yeah. (laughs)
Q: Maybe ask Paul if he’s ever read Bleak House by Charles Dickens. I don’t know. I don’t want you to sound too impatient though. I’m going to transcribe some more as soon as we get off the phone.
Q: Well isn’t it always that way? Once you find out what happened to me I don’t think you’ll be disappointed any more. I don’t know where to start. We have a lot in common because I’ve done research on poltergeists myself. Do you know a lot about the classic cases like the Isle of Man and the Bell Witch? Okay, good, because I have a lot to tell you and maybe we should have lunch or have a meeting to discuss it. Basically, it’s been in my life all my life. I didn’t realize it until it brought me to Oklahoma. So I called my uncle when I got back and I asked him if we had any Bells in our family tree. He said yes. I haven’t been able to verify it yet because my family has started treating this like a family curse all of a sudden. But, anyway, I witnessed all kinds of phenomena. I have twelve microcassettes of spirits’ voices. It let me keep my tapes. I’ve taken a sabbatical from my job at Paramount to transcribe my interviews and just come to terms with all this. Plus, I needed a break too because I’m thirty-nine years old and I’ve been working all my life. I thought I would take a year off. Anyway, I witnessed all kinds of phenomena. I haven’t had anything happen since Sunday but it’s not letting me watch TV. It just turns on the TV to give me messages and it has written a couple messages on my computer screen while I was transcribing like “ARE YOU NERVOUS?” and “FIND A SCRAPBOOK.” Well, I have all kinds of mysteries in my life so it’s helping me come to terms with them. The first time I recognized it in my life in retrospect was when I was eight years old. I was living in Pasadena and I heard this voice saying “MARK” — whispering my name over and over again. I went all through the apartment looking for it and I never could find it. When I was there in Oklahoma, Brenda said the same thing had happened to her. I didn’t immediately put two and two together but everything started adding up eventually and I figured it out. Plus, I’l becoming aware of new tie-ins with the Isle of Man case and the Bell Witch case. There are specific things that link the two and other ones like the Drummer of Tedworth. There’s parallels between all the cases. I’m definitely one of the focuses of the phenomena so it’s a lot to come to terms with. I mean it is a very loving Entity. Michael seems to be the spirit of an eight-year-old boy whose mother decapitated him. The reason why he can have conversations with people is because of reincarnation. And that’s wild. Do you believe in reincarnation? You do. Okay. I’m not quite sure how to come to terms with the alien aspects because I don’t know how they tie in. Maybe, we’re all aliens. I mean I don’t know. Who knows? But, anyway, I have plenty of material. I have cassettes. I’d be sort of interested too — I know that you have some kind of machine that sees what the vibrations around people are. I wonder if you would be willing to use that on me to just see. Magnetometer — that’s it. I’d just be curious to see if I also registered high. So what do you want to do? I have all kinds of transcripts and things that I’m working on. The family gave me all the various photos and things to help me because the Spirit had told them that I would be coming out. I live in Echo Park right across from the Angelus Temple. Get it — Angelus Temple? Plus I live on Clinton Street. I mean the synchronicity to this is just amazing. I’ve realized that it had been leading me all my life to do research in terms of the unexplained.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: BARRY’S BUSY SCHEDULE PREVENTED HIM FROM EVER GETTING TOGETHER WITH ME. THE NEXT RECORDED CONVERSATION IS WITH MAXINE WHO CALLED ME TO CHECK IN.)
M: I said, “Michael, Fae wants you to hit her with an egg.” And I didn’t think he would do it. And in a few minutes he hit her in the back of the head with an egg. Twyla and I were laughing. I said, “Oh, we better shut up. We might get it.” Sure enough. I was standing in front of Twyla over there by the sink. She was over there by the cabinet and I heard her. She hollered, “Ow.” One hit her on the back of the head, bounced off, hit me and then went in the sink. It didn’t break. That’s weird.
Q: Right. Well, (laughs) if we’re going to start calling things weird — now, as you know, I’m firmly convinced that Michael is an angel.
M: Yeah.
Q: How is Bill? Is he alright?
M: No. He’s almost bedfast now.
Q: He’s in bed again?
M: Yeah. The only time he gets up to use the bathroom. He’s feeling worse.
Q: Oh dear. Well, I don’t know what to say.
M: I don’t either.
Q: Is it the same thing as before? Because he seemed to be getting better.
M: I don’t know.
Q: We all have challenges in life. The only thing that I can recommend is praying. It seemed to help a little bit last time.
M: I’ll tell you what. There’s going to be a bunch of people at my house on Halloween. Won’t you try to come out?
Q: On Halloween?
M: I know that’s a long way to come for Halloween.
Q: Well, let’s play it by ear because the spirit has me doing lots of wonderful things here. He has me doing volunteer work at AIDS Project Los Angeles. I mean He has me doing a lot of really great things. He is part of my day-to-day life. He even — I guess I don’t have to explain it to you.
M: Nuh-uh.
Q: I realized that all of the tapes I recorded in Oklahoma have spirit messages all the way through and some of the things I was saying in the tapes I don’t remember saying when I was with you. Once we were talking about the other Bell family and I said something about an insurance policy. So it might be worth your while to look into that.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: LATER WHEN I LISTENED AGAIN TO THIS PORTION I REALIZED THAT IT WAS NOT MY VOICE BUT A SPIRIT’S, COMMENTING, “WHO HAVEN’T SEEN THEIR LIFE INSURANCE MONEY.”)
Q: I have a genealogist at work on the Bell family already. They went to Salt Lake City. We’ll see what happens. Basically, what I did is just get out the Pacific Bell yellow pages and there was only one family historian listed. This turned out to be a couple and the husband has a Bell in his family tree. (laughs) The woman said that I might be related to Benedict Arnold. I mean there’s so many people I’m related to.
M: Was he smart?
Q: I guess it depends on what side of the American Revolution you sympathize with. I also noticed that your ancestor Alexander Graham Bell was born in Scotland.
M: Well, we had a family tree that one time. Carlton’s uncle borrowed it. They never gave it back. They’re dead and I don’t know where the family tree went.
Q: You know there is a spirit voice on a tape that sounds like an old woman saying, “DADDY DADDY THAT — YOU’RE — YOU’RE GRANDPA BELL’S PEOPLES.” Then, a few seconds later the same spirit voice says, “YOU’RE GRANDPA BELL’S PEOPLES.” There’s two very distinct lines.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: THESE ARE THE ONLY TWO OCCASIONS WHEN THIS PARTICULAR SPIRIT IS HEARD ON THE TAPES.)
Q: Whatever that means — I don’t know if that means you’re a direct descendant of the Bell Witch’s family or not. Hopefully, the genealogist will be able to link it all up. I still haven’t heard back from the pitch meeting but it went very well. They do have a deal with Paramount so you just never know. Michael’s the one who’s running this show. Michael, are you there? (laughs) No.
M: What’d you hear?
Q: I didn’t here anything. I’m just saying, “Why don’t you get on the phone with me, Michael?” You know, there’s an angel named Michael in the Bible.
M: Oh really?
Q: He’s the major archangel. He’s the angel of the children. So you might ask him, “Michael, are you ready to lead the angelic forces on Judgement Day?” and see what he says. The original Bible was just impressions by people. There is no essential truth there. It’s all people’s own views and their own interpretations and impressions of historical events. So nobody really knows what Judgement Day is.
M: Not even the angels in Heaven. That’s what it says in the Bible.
Q: There’s only one Entity that knows about that. And that’s the boss. By the way, I did have a talk with Barry Taff. He got off the phone rather abruptly after I was telling him some of my impressions so he either thinks I’m nuts or he’s jealous. Or he doesn’t know what to think. (laughs)
M: (laughs) Probably all of the above.
Q: He said he was going to call me back to make an appointment with him for lunch or something. But I don’t really much care if he doesn’t. This is an opportunity for him more than it is for me. I think he’s just sort of resentful that he didn’t see anything when he was up there.
M: I think so.
Q: He was telling me about how he’s been researching this for thirty years. But he’s a very nice man. The first thing he said was that “These are benevolent entities.” As if we didn’t know that already. I enjoy transcribing but there are some words I can’t hear and I can’t always tell which of your daughters is speaking. Your voices all sound similar sometimes. So I’m doing the best I can. I did get a state-of-the-art transcribing machine to help me. Maybe I’ll come back out there after the book deal is in place. If it were up to me I’d have the book completed already but it’s out of my hands.
M: Well, I called Paul and told him to send me some copies of the contracts we signed. He said he would but he hasn’t yet.
Q: Call him back up and, as Michael says, “ROCK THE BOAT!” Just say, “How dare you?” Did you hear that tomorrow they’re going to announce the verdict in the O. J. Simpson trial?
M: Yeah. I’m going to watch that.
Q: Well, I’m just worried about riots.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: “ROCK THE BOAT!” WERE THE LYRICS OF THE LAST SONG I HEARD PLAYED ON THE RADIO WHILE AT ALHAMBRA CPC. MY STATEMENT ABOUT THE TRIAL WAS SOMETHING THAT SEVERAL PEOPLE MENTIONED TO ME ON THIS DAY INCLUDING CAROL [THE WOMAN WHO CUT MY HAIR] AND A MAN WHO BEGAN TALKING TO ME AT THE SUPERMARKET.)
M: Oh, when I called Paul a while back he said that they were trying to have the show scheduled for Halloween.
Q: Trick or treat. (laughs)
M: He said, “We sure would like it to be on then.”
Q: I don’t know how to hurry this along. Michael doesn’t want to do our work for us. You know? He has enough on His hands. (laughs)
M: Yeah. (laughs)
Q: Maybe ask Paul if he’s ever read Bleak House by Charles Dickens. I don’t know. I don’t want you to sound too impatient though. I’m going to transcribe some more as soon as we get off the phone.
