Some of the men grabbed the killer and took him to the basement. There they tied him up with a rope. They decided they would turn him over to the law the next day. Everyone went back to dancing and making music. The party was still going strong well after midnight. In the excitement, no one knew that the girl had dropped her candle on the bed. While they danced, flames grew overhead.

The dancers were having fun and making so much noise that they didn't notice the house was on fire. The first they knew of it, the ceiling was about to cave in on them. People began screaming and running from the burning building.

The fire had already burned so much that it was impossible to save the house. No one thought of the killer tied up in the basement it was too late to save him. As the crowd stood looking on in horror, the entire house caved in. They said that it was impossible to describe the moans and groans and cries and screams that came from the fellow's lips as he died there in that fire. People always claimed that the way he died didn't matter. They said he would have been hanged on the gallows for killing that girl in Tennessee. Either way, there was no escape for him.

Now, that was a wood frame house that burned to the ground in the fire. The Bells were rich, so they replaced it with a fine brick home. Said it was one of the finest of its time. But wait till you hear the rest of the story.

I always heard that every night at about the same hour the man had burned to death in the basement of the old house, the Bell family could hear him moaning and groaning under their new house. Finally, the Bells couldn't take it any longer, so they sold the house and moved away. It was sold several times after that, as each new owner could also hear the ghostly moans and groans coming from the basement.

Just why, I don't know, but the Christian people of the community went together and bought the old brick building and tore it down. Using the brick from the house, they built a new church on the same spot. Even that didn't stop the ghostly cries and screams. It was said that they could still hear the man under that church building groaning every night.

Now that's the story of the ghostly moans and groans. And I reckon it was true from what I've always heard.