True Tales of Haunted Dolls

I dont claim this to be true. That is what this story says. I dont believe in ghosts but I do believe in Demons and Angels.

Dolls have long been a source of amusement for both children and adults. However, they can also bring terror as well as joy. Read on for chilling true tales of haunted dolls and possessed playthings.



The Legend of Robert the Doll

When it comes to haunted dolls, Robert is arguably America’s most famous. The Key West doll is a fixture on local ghost tours and even served as an inspiration for Chucky in Child’s Play.

Robert belonged to Key West painter and author Robert Eugene Otto. In 1906, a Bahamian maid reportedly gave the doll to Robert and then cursed the toy after Robert’s parents displeased her. Soon after the maid’s departure, strange events began plaguing the Otto household.

Young Robert enjoyed talking to his namesake, and servants insisted the doll talked back. They also claimed the plaything could change expressions at will and move about the house on his own. Neighbors reportedly saw the doll move from window to window when the family was away, and members of the Otto household heard maniacal giggles emanating from the toy.

Robert the Doll spooked plenty of folks during the day, but at night he focused on young Robert Otto. The boy would wake in the middle of the night, screaming in fear, as the heavy furniture in his room crashed to the floor. When his parents demanded to know what happened, Otto’s response was always the same: “Robert did it! It was Robert.”

Robert Otto died in 1974, and his notorious doll now sits on display at the Fort East Martello Museum in Key West. Legend has it the doll will curse anyone who takes a photo without permission, which Robert grants by slightly tilting his head. Visitors who forget can always beg for forgiveness which is what cameramen from the Travel Channel did after their HD camera mysteriously stopped working.

The Eyes Follow You

Though dolls like Robert grab headlines and spark imaginations, they’re not alone. Hundreds of haunted doll tales fill ghost blogs and forums across web, including one from an average woman in Moundsville, WV.

Years ago, the woman had a grade school friend named Emily and the two spent a lot of time at Emily’s home. The entire house had a strange feeling to it, but it was the attic that was the most unnerving.

“The attic was finished, but had that ‘death’ smell to it, like an abandoned building,” the woman writes. “It was always cold, despite the hot air that would rise from the floors below. The attic contained four small rooms, and one room was entirely devoted to dolls which I always found terrifying.”

One afternoon, the girls played with a few of the dolls until Emily’s grandmother called them to lunch. They placed the rag dolls back on the shelf, but one tumbled off just as they were about to leave. This was strange as the doll fell in a way that seemed physically impossible. Puzzled, the woman returned the doll to its shelf and went downstairs to eat. However, that wasn’t the end of the encounter.

“Later on that day, Emily and I were playing in the woods adjacent to her house, and I squatted down to pick up a pretty stone,” the woman writes. “When I went down, I felt something poking me in my pocket. I put my hand in the pocket, and I found two doll eyes …the eyes from the doll I had picked up earlier that day. Needless to say, I have been terrified of dolls ever since.”
mysteriousuniverse.org...

Haunted Doll Sites

Though most people avoid haunted dolls, some have a passion for possessed playthings and share their knowledge and interest online.

The Doll House Cam

The Doll House Cam streams videos of haunted dolls 24/7, giving armchair ghost hunters the chance to spot a possessed doll in action.

“Set in a farmhouse in rural Pennsylvania, amongst the mountains and streams, is a little known secret,” reads the title page of DollHouseCam.com. “Seven dolls that once were loved by little girls now adorn the home of a family of five. They don’t just sit on a shelf looking pretty. These porcelain beauties, for lack of a better description, have taken on a life of their own.”

David’s Haunted Dolls

AJ’s Haunted Dolls

I dont believe in ghosts but I do believe in Demons and Angels.

You can't have one without the other... I believe in Demons and Angels but not Ghosts??? Lets just pick and choose what's real and what's not.... I mean if Angels and Demons are real then a Human who dies and retorts to the spiritual world would be a Ghost and just as real as a Angel or Demon...

Voodoo Dolls, Possesed Dolls... Part of me wonders why you pulled this together for a OP.... You just watch the "Conjuring"....???

What about you??? Do you believe a past soul that was stuck inbetween capable of inhabiting a inatimate object I.E a doll as possible???

Me: I wouldn't put it off as malarcky, I've seen and experianced some strange events to dismiss the stories.

Robert above.... That is one CREEPY ASS DOLL!!! To say the least... I wish I would have known it was at a museum I would have stoped by for a quick hello and how's it feel being stuck in a doll for the past how many years???

Cool, OP SnF

sulaw

I dont believe in ghosts but I do believe in Demons and Angels.

You can't have one without the other... I believe in Demons and Angels but not Ghosts??? Lets just pick and choose what's real and what's not.... I mean if Angels and Demons are real then a Human who dies and retorts to the spiritual world would be a Ghost and just as real as a Angel or Demon...

Voodoo Dolls, Possesed Dolls... Part of me wonders why you pulled this together for a OP.... You just watch the "Conjuring"....???

What about you??? Do you believe a past soul that was stuck inbetween capable of inhabiting a inatimate object I.E a doll as possible???

Me: I wouldn't put it off as malarcky, I've seen and experianced some strange events to dismiss the stories.

Robert above.... That is one CREEPY ASS DOLL!!! To say the least... I wish I would have known it was at a museum I would have stoped by for a quick hello and how's it feel being stuck in a doll for the past how many years???

Cool, OP SnF

I'm sure not the Almighty who knows all; but Demons and Angels were never human. I dont know if a human can be trapped in an earth bound state. Someone I knew had played the Ouija Board and the guy who contacted them said he was in "Hell" and was earth bound but he also lied a lot. Strange but true.

I wouldnt choose to be stuck in some doll though! I do think some people can move objects and arent aware they are causing it.

reply to post by wonderworld


Have you ever heard of The Conjuring, the movie that came out this year? There's a doll in it, called Annabelle. Just an average Raggedy Ann doll...except that it's haunted. Severely haunted. There's a couple parts in the movie where the story is briefly told (the doll is only distantly relevant in the movie) and where reactions tell you exactly how seriously the doll is taken. It's a real doll, with a real story, kept by the same people whose cinematic counterparts conduct the investigation in the movie...and it's kept locked up in a case at all times because of the stuff that happens when it's not secured.

badassdigest.com...

Their friend Lou hated the doll. He thought there was something deeply wrong with it, something evil, but the girls were modern women and didn't believe that sort of thing. There must be an explanation, they reasoned. But soon Annabelle's actions got even weirder - Donna began to find pieces of parchment paper in the house with messages written on it. "Help us," they would say, or "Help Lou." Just to make the whole thing that much creepier nobody in the house had parchment paper. Where the hell was it coming from?

The escalation continued. One night Donna returned home to find Annabelle in her bed, with blood on her hands. The blood - or some sort of red liquid - seemed to be coming from the doll itself. That was enough; Donna finally agreed to bring in a medium. The sensitive sat with the doll and told the girls that long before their apartment complex had been built there had been a field on that property. A seven year old girl named Annabelle Higgins had been found dead in that field. Her spirit remained, and when the doll came into the house the girl latched on to it. She found Donna and Angie to be trustworthy. She just wanted to stay with them. She wanted to be safe with them.

reply to post by AfterInfinity


Bro... We musta been thinking something along the same lines... this is what I posted in my response...

Voodoo Dolls, Possesed Dolls... Part of me wonders why you pulled this together for a OP.... You just watch the "Conjuring"....??? )

Good movie! I enjoyed it! I've been watching horror and thriller flicks for so long it's numbing.... did give me a good jolt though

@ OP~

I can think of better objects to possess as well.... Though most movies portray some the of creepiest of possession's ie: The Doll...

Ever see the movie "Demonic Toys".... It's one that's up there... "The Dolls".... Another~

Maybe it's the thought that: Possessing a doll of some kind normally results in a child owning it. Some say that Children are still inbetween ie: Spirit and the "Here" and the veil isn't pulled back all the way. Just in theory, it makes it easier for a demon or lost soul to make contact to a child isn't fully in the here and "daydreams" so to say~

Still a cool topic of discussion imo~

Love your title OP.

(Not sure y my text seems so large, I'm using a public computer.)
Here's one......

Edit - ignore that comment about my text.

reply to post by sulaw


I'm still waiting for a Poveglia Island movie. Zach from Ghost Adventures was actually possessed there once. Pretty strange, given he isn't often possessed. Just tells you how strong the entities are on that island. It's a paranormal red zone - red for Paranormal (radio)Activity.

I wouldn't mind grabbing a beer with Robert the doll. I'm sure he could tell me some great stories to why he enjoys effing with strangers....

But being real for a second, that doll is creepy and for some strange reason I believe the stories that surround it.

If I lived in a house where a doll would talk back to me and would run from room to room and giggle out of view I would burn my house down... hahaha... only legit action I could take

Robert the doll blinking... Fake or real?




What's strange is that 99% of the comments on ANY robert the doll video is apologizing with "I'm sorry Robert"..... I guess people are believers

reply to post by AfterInfinity


Poveglia Island.... I can't wait!!! From your link~

the island was home to the quarantined victims of plague. Additionally, it served as a mass grave where bodies of both living and dead were incinerated and their remains buried. Aside from the island being used as a gravesite, it was also home to a psychiatric hospital in the early 1900’s.

Prior to my visit to Venice, a popular Travel Channel program featured paranormal investigators conducting an investigation on Poveglia. They perpetuated the rumors surrounding the island:

• Specifically that no one is willing to take you there, for to set foot on the island is to be cursed.
• It had been stated fisherman won’t fish the waters surrounding Poveglia for fear of pulling up human remains in their nets.
• Anecdotes suggest that the bell tower tolls even though the bell has long been removed.
• Electronic equipment such as cameras and cell phones cease to work when near or on the island.
• The island’s land mass is comprised of 50% human ash.

I could list reasons why but that initial paragraph says it all! Victims of the plague, mass graves, Psychiatric facility!!! Has all the ingrediants for a "stellar haunting of EPIC proportions"... Wanna go on a trip buddy!!! You can be my skeptic and I'll be the believer.... We can document and report our findings on ATS.... We can do a KickStarter!!!

Wanna see what's up in that bell tower, or possibly the Psych ward!!! Dun dun dun!!!

All I need is my Shotgun w/ Salt Shells (Supernatural ) Holy water Super Soaker!!! And my trusty bottle of Gentlemans Jack.... Just in case SHTF and I need to get wasted before becoming one of them.....

reply to post by jhn7537


Hrmm... I don't see blinking... I thought I did but then I realized I'm prolly looking to hard.... The story itself is creepy... I for one don't discredit it either... The doll just has that "look" to him...

Doesn't help it was given to the boy by a woman who was known for her voodoo hoodoo'n....

For some reason this whole thread is getting me excited to watch American Horror Story tonight!!!

sulaw
reply to post by jhn7537

 

Hrmm... I don't see blinking... I thought I did but then I realized I'm prolly looking to hard.... The story itself is creepy... I for one don't discredit it either... The doll just has that "look" to him...

Doesn't help it was given to the boy by a woman who was known for her voodoo hoodoo'n....

For some reason this whole thread is getting me excited to watch American Horror Story tonight!!!

LOL, me too.... This type of stuff fascinates me and scares me all at the same time.. I could only imagine being a kid and having a doll like Robert.

At 27-28 seconds he blinks... i would expand the youtube screen to full screen if you can

I don't even want to look Robert in the eye on here...terrifies me! I never liked dolls even as a little kid because I couldn't stand the illusion of their eyes seemingly following me. I finally told my mom, "No more dollies!" I did see the movie The Conjuring and yes, Annabelle is right up there with the scariest. But that Robert? I'm pretty sure I wouldn't stop in for a tourist visit to see him. He looks downright evil and I typically don't scare too easily. Fun thread, thanks for sharing.

I'm not sure what's funnier... The 99% of those who watch the Robert the Doll Youtube videos and apologize for watching it or the 1% who call out Robert and challenge him...LOL

Has anyone here seen the latest Chucky movie yet? Explains a lot, that one does.

reply to post by AfterInfinity


Watched it last week with my fiance', very nostalgic! It didn't suck and carried that "Chucky Humor" all the way through.

Grabbed it from the Red Box and recommend watching it if your a "Good Guy" fan

I don't think there is anything more creepy then haunted dolls. Maybe haunted mirrors are as creepy. But haunted dolls .... YIKES! Good thread. Really interesting.

I am really interested in the paranormal and i am actually going to see the annabelle doll soon in lorraine warrens museum in connecticut.

reply to post by wonderworld

Actually, here is an earlier ATS thread about a haunted doll I was debating about bidding on in an online auction.
The discussion was amazing, at it led to finding out this life-size porcelain doll was part of an original PAIR of haunted dolls, whose partner is owned by an ATS member here; the owner ended up sharing her experiences with her haunted doll.
I believe she is still trying to sell it.

The Haunted 'Snow Princess' Doll: To Bid...Or Not To Bid!

www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by wonderworld


My sister is terrified of dolls and she says it's because a doll growled at her when she was little. I wasn't present when it happened, so I didn't witness it myself, but she had a friend with her who supposedly heard it too. My sister isn't one to make things up and she swears it happened. It was a doll of my grandmother's. It was old and quite creepy looking. I remember part of its face looking burnt, even though it had never been near fire. My grandmother kept it because it had belonged to her grandmother. I'm not sure what happened to it, but my sister would never go around it after the growling incident.