History’s Haunted Dolls: Annabelle, Robert, and the Stuff of Nightmares

In this delightfully disturbing episode of Inherited Hauntings, Lindsey and Nancy take on the unnerving world of haunted dolls—from the infamous Annabelle (yes, that Annabelle) to lesser-known but equally cursed toy box nightmares from around the globe.

We dig into the real story behind the raggedy origin of Annabelle, plus we explore the legends of Robert the Doll, Okiku, and a few haunted cuties you’ve probably never heard of… but might want to avoid on eBay.

And in a shocking twist, one of us would absolutely adopt a haunted doll if given the chance. The other? Not sleeping tonight.

🧸 Creepy dolls, true hauntings, questionable decisions, and mother-daughter mayhem—it’s all in a day's pod.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello, everyone. I'm Lindsay, and I'm here with my mom, Nancy, as we explore the world of the paranormal. Ghosts, cryptids, hauntings, and all the things that go bump in the night. Whether you're a true believer or just love a good spooky story, you're in the right place. So grab a cup of whatever you like, turn on the lights, and let's get into it. Welcome back to Inherited Hauntings. Today we're going to talk about haunted dolls, why they freak us out, how deep the history goes, and the dolls that have terrified people for decades. You know

SPEAKER_01 0:42

what, Lindsay? I used to have a Harlequin doll. I don't know where it came from, but it was in my room when I was like a teenager.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Just to confirm, a Harlequin is like a little jester, right? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

It had like a white face and like that weird black makeup. Okay. All right. It's

SPEAKER_00 1:07

giving clown.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Yes. And I had that in my room for quite a while. I don't know why because it freaked me out and it was just ugly. And every time it looked at me, I thought it was telling me to clean up my freaking room. Really? It was giving you that vibe? Well, you should have seen my room when I was a teenager. So finally one day I was like, I'm done with you. I'm going to throw you away and I hope you don't come back to haunt me. Well, that's good. Did she ever come back?

SPEAKER_00 1:37

No. Oh, well, that's good. That's even better. I mean, I think we'd be doing our listeners a disservice if I didn't out that you played with dolls until you were 14.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Okay, well, not dolls, dolls. I never was really into dolls, but I liked the Barbies for the fashion.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Okay, okay. She has a passion for fashion. I've never had a personal experience with a haunted doll, but that is not for lack of trying. My husband will not let me get any. I've looked on eBay, Etsy, Craigslist and found all of these beautiful haunted dolls with all these stories attached to them. But he... will not have it.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

At least somebody has some sense, Lindsay. Why would you even think of doing that? That's disgusting. I'm

SPEAKER_00 2:20

just picturing like having my own like display of haunted dolls and like people, you know, there's this idea that people who sort of adopt a haunted doll and adopt that spirit can treat them with kindness like in the afterlife and like take care of them.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

I have no words.

UNKNOWN 2:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

I don't know where all this comes from. I

SPEAKER_00 2:42

don't know why everybody's against me all the time.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Well, it does not sound very intelligent. Let me just put it that way.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

Okay, the gloves are off today, Mom. Good to know. When I mentioned to a friend today that we were doing an episode on haunted dolls, their immediate reaction was, dolls creep me the hell out. I really wonder where that comes from. So let's talk a little bit about... dolls through time and why they are so creepy.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

What's the history of dolls anyway?

SPEAKER_00 3:15

Well, the earliest account of dolls can be traced back to ancient Egypt. They use them in rituals and burial practices, but there was no record of hauntings attached to them. In Rome and in Greece, dolls were made of clay and wax and were used as offerings or toys. And in the Victoria era, I mean, we can all picture a Victorian doll, right? They were porcelain, eerily lifelike, wearing these very regal dresses. Some of them are even made with human hair. A whole generation raised on Uncanny Valley vibes. And for those who don't know, Uncanny Valley is this effect where something is like too human to be cute, but not human enough to be safe. And I think that's part of why dolls are so scary to people.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

Can you explain that again? Uncanny Valley effect?

SPEAKER_00 4:11

So the uncanny valley is a phenomenon where human-like robots or computer-generated images most often will be seemingly almost human, and it triggers these feelings of unease, disgust, or revulsion in observers. More often than not, you see this happening with avatars, dolls, puppets, robots. People are very disturbed by it.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Yeah, okay. It's like you think a robot's cute, but you know it's a robot, so that's kind of unsettling.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Since you're a nurse, think about like a CPR doll. It kind of looks like a dude, but you know it's not a dude. So it's a little weird to see half a torso kind of laying out in front of you.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

So that's how people feel about dolls. They look so human-like, but they're not, and it gives people the ick. Another reason why dolls can be so scary is the symbolism behind them. Dolls are associated with innocence, and when we think about a haunted or a creepy doll like we see in media, it sort of corrupts that image. So childlike objects behaving with malice is really not a lot of people's cup of tea.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Yes, like Chucky.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

Exactly like Chucky. And I mean, the reason we're all here today, the possession potential. They're small, human-like vessels, which is the perfect recipe for a paranormal host.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

So what's the difference between a haunted doll and a cursed doll?

SPEAKER_00 5:46

Well, here's the difference. Haunted means it's inhabited by a spirit, ghost, or other supernatural entity. Cursed means that the object was placed under a spell or a hex that causes misfortune or bad luck. Like when I think of cursed objects, I think of a lot of the valuables that were buried in the tombs with the mummies in Egypt. And when those were excavated by the English back in the late 1800s, early 1900s, they would be cursed by taking that chalice, you know, those riches out of their tomb.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

So there's a curse and if you have it, there's a hex. If you do something wrong, it causes bad luck. Sort of like taking treasure from the pirate's booty or something.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

Exactly. You could take treasure right out of their booty.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

So, okay. And then haunted is basically possessed, I guess. So we have that down. Now, what are the explanations for these so-called haunted dolls?

SPEAKER_00 6:49

Well, there's always two sides to every story, right? So we have our paranormal believer and are skeptics. So the skeptic side includes this concept of pareidolia, which is seeing faces or assuming emotions in inanimate objects. So your brain interpreting something as, oh, the doll moved a little bit. It's just your brain playing a trick on you. Another reasoning, which is actually my favorite one, is confirmation bias. So if somebody believes a doll is haunted and Everything becomes evidence. And we'll see some examples of this later when we talk about some of our haunted dolls, where, you know, this precedent is set that the doll is haunted and anybody who doesn't treat it with respect, bad things will happen to them. And then so any bad things that happen to them after they feel they've disrespected the doll is, of course, the doll's fault.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

I mean, you have to be, you know, a little bit pragmatic about all of these things. So... Yeah. I mean, if something bad happened to you after you saw the doll, is it the doll or was it just the normal course of life?

SPEAKER_00 7:57

Exactly. And I like to describe myself as paranormally, cautiously optimistic. I can't believe everything that I see, but if something has validity to me, who am I to say that it's not real?

SPEAKER_01 8:15

Yeah. So what is the paranormal believer's view of these haunted dolls?

SPEAKER_00 8:18

So there's this object attachment theory, where spirits attach themselves to familiar items, especially if loved by a child. So for example, if a child in the 1800s loved this doll more than anything, and unfortunately they passed from a fatal disease, people believe that because they loved the doll so much that they would be attached to and thus inhabit said doll. Another view is that these haunted objects work as vessels for demonic entities. You know, you think it's a little girl in the doll, but it's not really. And also, a lot of spiritual practitioners warn against keeping dolls in bedrooms or placing them near mirrors. A lot of that comes from being so vulnerable when you're sleeping and mirrors being seen as a potential portal for paranormal activity. It

SPEAKER_01 9:08

does sound kind of makes sense, though, don't you think? Because if you put a doll like facing a mirror, isn't there just something like unsettling about that? Like instinctually? Yeah,

SPEAKER_00 9:19

I don't think I would like to see a doll looking at itself in the mirror. I also think that, you know, if we talk about some of these porcelain dolls, they have very realistic glass eyes. And I don't really know if I want to see their own reflection in them I think I'm just all set

SPEAKER_01 9:39

I guess they were you know back in the olden days when they had these porcelain dolls they probably didn't little girls probably didn't have a lot to play with and that was what their moms did they stayed home and took care of all the babies so they wanted to emulate what their moms did and they that's all they had to do it with so I guess and they look probably brand new they didn't have like cracked faces and tangled hair

SPEAKER_00 10:01

yeah I guess that's kind of cute when you think of it that way I think about all all the time that back when America was first settled, kids would play with like a hoop and a stick and be like, this is so much fun.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

So I guess we've had to have some progress over the years. And now they make dolls that are insanely lifelike. I don't know if you've ever seen these reborn dolls that look like newborn babies. They actually have the weight, the look, the feel. They look like a baby. It's wild.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

I don't think I would like that. I

SPEAKER_00 10:33

don't blame you. So we all know the most famous haunted doll. And mom, I would love if you could tell us a little bit about her.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

Anna Bell is a movie star, and she did not start out that way. Right now, she is a faded Raggedy Ann. And I don't know if you've ever seen like a real Raggedy Ann, but they were very popular back in the 70s. People could make them themselves pretty easily with a sewing machine.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

People would make them themselves?

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Yeah, I had one.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

Oh,

SPEAKER_01 11:05

yeah. One of my mom's friends made it.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

I didn't know that. I thought that was like a brand.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

No, they were pretty easy to make.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

I don't think I've ever even seen one in real life, to be honest. Well, I have, but just behind a pane of glass.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

I'll tell you something, Lindsay. I had one. My mom got it for me when I was a girl. You know, the face was kind of clownish. And the hair was kind of clownish and the clothes were kind of.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

I think she is a clown. I

SPEAKER_01 11:33

guess that's why she's clown.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

With love and respect. Like she, I think that was the intention. Why

SPEAKER_01 11:38

would anybody do that? I

SPEAKER_00 11:40

don't know what happened in the course of history where people decided kids love clowns. I

SPEAKER_01 11:45

know.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

It's never worked out for anybody. Let's be real.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

Okay, so she right now sits behind glass. Her stitched smile is frozen. But before she was locked away in the Ed and Lorraine Warren's Occult Museum, Annabelle lived in a small apartment in 1970s Connecticut.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

Good for her.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

Yep. A nursing student who lived with another nursing student in an apartment was gifted the doll to her for her birthday by her mom. I don't know why her mom would think a teenage girl would want a Raggedy Ann doll, but...

SPEAKER_00 12:22

I don't know. You've probably gotten me some pretty questionable gifts over the years.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

I know. I think I bought you a beach towel one year for your birthday.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

So anyway, she was a birthday gift, but... Almost immediately, things started to happen that were kind of funny about the doll. Like, they put the doll on the bed. And then, you know, the next time they came in the room, the doll was like, on its side or on a different part of the bed.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

Okay, I mean, I could explain that away, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 12:53

Yeah. So then they, you know, started talking to each other about it. And Then she started appearing in entirely different rooms. And so the girls thought they were each like playing a trick on each other with... Oh. Or, you know, it was their imagination or, you know, maybe somebody wasn't paying attention and moved it and forgot about it. But it definitely kind of spooked them. And then one day they came home and they found handwritten notes on parchment paper in like a childlike handwriting that said, help us.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

Ew.

SPEAKER_01 13:26

And they don't have any parchment paper in their apartment. Then one day, they came home to find what looked like blood on Annabelle's, what would be her hands. And they said, this is enough. They contacted a medium. And then the medium told them that, oh, it's the spirit of a little girl named Annabelle Higgins, who used to live nearby, but she died. And now she's attached to the doll. And she is not harmful at all. She is just a little girl. I

SPEAKER_00 13:56

know she's a Raggedy Ann doll in my heart of hearts, but it's so hard to not picture the Annabelle doll from the Conjuring movies.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

Yeah, every time you see that nightmare of a doll.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

She looks, you know what she looks like? She looks like Slappy the puppet from Goosebumps. That's what she looks like, Slappy. You

SPEAKER_01 14:16

know, they have to do the drama, but it's like, who would ever think to make a doll that looked like

SPEAKER_00 14:20

that? Yeah, they made it pretty unbelievable. Oh,

SPEAKER_01 14:23

wait, no, we're going to talk about some other dolls that are pretty ugly. Anyway, so the medium told them that, oh, it's just a little spirit of a little girl. So they agreed to, you know, let the doll stay. They thought they were doing something nice. And then the activity intensified. One night, Angie's boyfriend woke up, felt like he was being choked. And when he woke up, he saw like scratches on his chest. And there was other unexplained situations that

SPEAKER_00 14:56

I'd like to know if he woke up with the doll on top of him or if they just like accused the doll. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 15:03

I think if it was on top of him, of course, you know, he would have said that. But he just kind of felt like he was being attacked. And when he woke up, he had scratches.

SPEAKER_00 15:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

So there was also some unexplained knocking. And when somebody thought they even heard like a low growl.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

Yeah. If you hear a growl and smell rotten eggs, it's time to go.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Yeah. Or if you hear get out.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

That would do it for you?

UNKNOWN 15:29

That's enough?

SPEAKER_01 15:30

Get out. Okay, so they called Ed and Lorraine Warren. Ed and Lorraine Warren lived in Connecticut. They're famous parapsychology investigators.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

The dynamic duo.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

Trailblazers. And so Ed and Lorraine Warren stepped in. Lorraine reported to be a psychic and a medium, and Ed Warren had a lot of knowledge about demonology. And so they did a lot of investigating, and they determined that there was no child spirit in this doll, that it was a demonic entity using the doll as a conduit. The whole goal was to actually kind of possess one of the girls there, so... Yikes. They took the doll and they put her in their museum of haunted objects with a warning. Do not open under any circumstances.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

If a doll has its own security detail, it's not a toy. It's a hostage situation.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

Yeah. How many dolls are unlocking key? Gosh. Yeah. Annabelle. People that have visited her, they blame her for fatal accidents involving people who mocked her or disrespected the case that she's locked in.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

She said, put some respect on my name. That's what she says.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

Yeah, there's, you know, this huge story that one man tapped on the glass and then crashed his motorcycle on the way home.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

Hmm, I guess we'll never know. Well, thank you so much for sharing that, Mom. Now you tell me. So view at your own risk. I already

SPEAKER_01 17:25

looked at the pictures.

SPEAKER_00 17:27

Well, I did too. So if we're going down, we're going down together. So long before there was Chucky or Megan, which if you haven't seen that movie, there's going to be a sequel. You absolutely should. It's lovely. There was Robert, the OG doll of nightmares. So in the early 1900s in Key West, Florida, a young boy named Eugene Otto received a doll from a servant in the family's home. The servant, reportedly skilled in voodoo and angry with the family, gave the doll to the boy as a gift. Eugene loved the doll. He named it Robert and took him everywhere. Dressed in a cute little sailor suit and stuffed with straw, Robert looked innocent, but the household soon became very unnerved. Late at night, Eugene's parents heard their son talking to someone and a deep, unfamiliar voice responding. What would you do if you heard that coming out of my room?

SPEAKER_01 18:28

That sounds like every haunted movie I've ever seen, like every horror movie where they move into a new house and the child is in the bedroom talking to somebody. But actually, this is even more haunting because then you hear like a different voice. So that's really what would I do? Well, I think I would probably get rid of the doll.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

All righty. I get creeped out when I hear those stories of people like seeing or hearing things over the baby monitor. That's a big no-no for me.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

There's a lot of, yeah, that stuff. So strange voices, deep unfamiliar voices are no bueno.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

Exactly. So strange accidents started happening around the house. Eugene blamed Robert. When furniture was knocked over or toys were broken, he'd say, Robert did it. Neighbors claimed they saw the doll move from window to window when the family wasn't home. Oh, my God. Could you even imagine? You're like, I'd be like, honey, come look. The neighbor's doll has moved again. That would be my favorite pastime. I

SPEAKER_01 19:41

don't understand why they kept the doll.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

I think he just loved it so much, you know? And maybe they thought it was all crap.

SPEAKER_01 19:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

So today, as Eugene grew up, he actually kept the doll. Even after his parents passed, he moved Robert into the turret room of his home. He had his own room. Visitors reported feeling watched, objects moved, and cameras malfunctioning, which I have to wonder if this was the early 1900s. We're even talking like the mid 1900s. How functional are these cameras to begin with?

SPEAKER_01 20:18

No

SPEAKER_00 20:18

offense to

SPEAKER_01 20:18

you. Yeah, in the early 1900s, I was a teenager. I do remember having a camera. No, I mean, they had cameras back in the 60s. So, you know, as he grew up and he was, you know, in his 50s, then there was cameras.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Okay, that's fair enough. So we're missing some info on what happened between when Eugene was no longer Robert's caregiver to today, where Robert lives in the East Martello Museum in Key West. He's inside a glass case, but guests are warned, ask his permission before taking his photo. People who forget to show respect, they say Robert punishes them. And here's an example of a letter they've received. This is from their website. And they have actual scans of the letters on their website too. So this one says, I would like to start off by apologizing to you for being rude and taking your picture without having your permission. When I initially asked you for permission and almost immediately started having chest pain, I should have known that it wasn't okay to take your picture. Again, I am truly sorry for not listening to you. Since visiting you about three years ago, my house has been struck by lightning three times. Also, a rental home I was scheduled to vacation at caught fire the night before I was to check in. Two nights later, the rental home we were actually able to stay at was struck by lightning as well. What do you think about that, Mom?

SPEAKER_01 22:02

That's a lot of lightning.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

I mean, they say lightning doesn't strike twice, but I guess if you disrespect Robert... It strikes four times. The museum receives hundreds of apology letters every year, just like this one, from people that are begging Robert for forgiveness after losing their jobs, getting divorced, or being injured following a disrespectful encounter with him.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

Well, that does sound pretty bad. I would never want to go actually see that thing or take a picture of it.

SPEAKER_00 22:35

Really? You want to be in the room with them?

SPEAKER_01 22:37

I want to be on the safe side, Lindsay. You're the one that would go buy a haunted doll.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

I want to live in a haunted house with my haunted dolls and my little ghosties. And I would be happy as a clam.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

Oh my gosh. Who are you? I

SPEAKER_00 22:51

don't know. I don't even know how I'm cut from your cloth, to be honest.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

Oh, what did I do?

SPEAKER_00 22:57

You created a monster.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

Well, there's some other haunted dolls. Have you heard about Okiku?

SPEAKER_00 23:06

Okiku.

SPEAKER_01 23:07

The Japanese doll. Around the same era. Okay. In Japan, a young boy or teenager bought the doll in Hokkaido for his little baby sister, Okiku. And she later died of an illness. Aw. The family placed the doll on an altar to remember her. I

SPEAKER_00 23:27

love that about... Eastern culture, the altars that they have for those that have passed on are so beautiful. They

SPEAKER_01 23:35

do have a lot of respect for their deceased ancestors and family members. So over time, they noticed that the doll's hair seemed longer and seemed to be growing. Excuse me? The doll had long black hair. You can look it up on the internet. Very cute little doll. And they put it on the mantle and they noticed that the doll's hair was growing. So when they moved away, they entrusted the doll to the Menengi temple and the monks there accepted it. And the monks even today claim that the hair continues to grow. They've trimmed it and it grows back.

SPEAKER_00 24:11

My eyes are literally watering right now. This is terrifying. I don't like hair growing on little dolls. I don't need it. It

SPEAKER_01 24:19

makes me think, well, Maybe the doll's hair was made of actual hair, but the monks think the spirit of the Okiku child resides in the doll.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

Hmm, okay.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

And while it sounds like folklore, there was a scientific analysis in the 2000s claiming that the hair is indeed human and that of a young child.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

Holy shit!

SPEAKER_01 24:44

Yeah, so there's a few unexplained doll things going around. There's another one. There's a doll in Canada. believed to be from 1910. I guess all the creepy dolls were made in the early 1900s. This one was donated to a museum in the 1990s, and this is kind of like one of those porcelain face dolls that, you know, you often see the faces cracked, and this is kind of not a very... Cuddly looking. But this doll reportedly wept at night when she was still in her previous owner's home. And when she was in the museum, they experienced strange occurrences as far as echoing footsteps in the hall. Electronic devices were failing near her. So they keep her in a glass case away from the other dolls because, according to Lore, she doesn't play nice with others.

SPEAKER_00 25:36

Ooh, okay, Mandy. At least she knows what she wants.

SPEAKER_01 25:41

I've seen so many paranormal videos of dolls that actually do seem to move on their own, heads turning. I really think that it's probably more common than we think. As far as, you know, spirits inhabiting a doll.

SPEAKER_00 25:57

But you know what? You know what? You don't see like a haunted My Little Pony. You don't see like a haunted Cabbage Patch or a haunted Beanie Baby. Why are they all creepy and old and terrifying? Do you think in the future we'll have haunted Beanie Babies? And if so, I'm in a lot of trouble.

SPEAKER_01 26:14

That's a good question.

SPEAKER_00 26:17

So the last doll that I wanted to talk about today is Letta the doll, which is short for Letta me out. She's located in Australia and allegedly dates back to 200 years ago. She was found under a house by Kerry Walton in Wagga Wagga, which I will say Australia does not sound like a real place. Wagga Wagga Australia sounds made up. I haven't been there, so I don't know, but I'm just saying. If anybody wants to fly me out there and prove me wrong, please do. So Letta, short for Letta Meow, is believed to have been made by a Romany. Strange events followed its discovery.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

Sorry, she was made by what?

SPEAKER_00 27:01

You can't say that word anymore. It's Romany.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

Really?

SPEAKER_00 27:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

You can't say gypsy

SPEAKER_00 27:06

either? No, you can't say gypsy. Well, you can say Romanian, but like Romanian gypsies go by Roma or Romany now.

SPEAKER_01 27:15

Oh. So what was Romany doing in Australia 200 years ago?

SPEAKER_00 27:20

Well, maybe the doll was made there and then... Or

SPEAKER_01 27:24

sold. Yeah, I guess they travel.

SPEAKER_00 27:27

Yeah. So strange events followed its discovery. Dogs barked and cowered around it. I don't know if that says much because my dog is afraid of bunnies. So people fainted near it. That's a lot. Yeah. And storms erupted when it was taken outside... The doll reportedly moves on its own and changes facial expressions.

SPEAKER_01 27:51

Oh, I hope it does, because if you have ever seen a picture of it, it looks like an angry librarian.

SPEAKER_00 27:57

Well, you better hope she's not listening to this right now. She might not be very happy with you.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

Well, that's just a few of these purported haunted dolls that we've uncovered in our history. This is from when we started recording history. Of course, you know, four or five hundred years ago, we don't have much as far as information about children's toys and those kind of superstition things. So

SPEAKER_00 28:24

there must be so much that we don't know.

SPEAKER_01 28:26

Yeah, there's so much history.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

That's been passed down orally or through song, right? or just in languages that we will never understand that have been lost.

SPEAKER_01 28:36

I would not 100% doubt that there are or have been dolls throughout history that started to, let's just say, take on a life of their own.

SPEAKER_00 28:47

A really good way to put it, I guess. Okay, so today we talked about Annabelle, Robert the doll, Okiku, Mandy the doll, and Letta the doll. So... If you had to have one as a roommate, which one would you choose? I

SPEAKER_01 29:03

think the one with the hair growing. For real? It's the least spooky. I don't think I would like to hear a doll crying in the middle of the night. I would not want a doll that moves on its own. And I wouldn't want a doll that kind of purses you if you don't pay it respect. So and then, you know, Annabelle, she moved on her own too. So yeah, let's just go with the one that grows hair.

SPEAKER_00 29:29

Okay, that's a solid choice, I guess. I would have to choose Robert simply because I love the idea of him like going window to window in my house.

SPEAKER_01 29:42

Like your

SPEAKER_00 29:43

dog. Exactly. I feel like him and my dog would keep each other company. I pull in the driveway and I see them in the window waiting for me, loving their eyes. And I think my only sort of thing that would be holding me back from it is that my husband is on the skeptical side and I wouldn't want him to accidentally disrespect Robert if I'm not home. This past weekend was Easter and we had almost the whole family together. And I went around the room and I asked everybody on a scale of one to 10, one being no way in hell and 10 being a million percent, I believe. What would you rate yourself on believing in ghosts?

SPEAKER_01 30:26

I remember that.

SPEAKER_00 30:27

And my husband was a five right down the middle.

SPEAKER_01 30:31

Yep. And I think mine was too.

SPEAKER_00 30:33

Yep. So I guess they balance us out.

SPEAKER_01 30:36

And then I think the average was probably a seven out of everybody.

SPEAKER_00 30:41

Yeah, I think so too.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

So I think more people believe in possibility, like it's more possible than not.

SPEAKER_00 30:49

I think maybe more than we've realized too. I

SPEAKER_01 30:52

mean, this is just anecdotal, but I mean, if we asked 100 people, I... I think we might get something close to the same. Who knows? So would you keep a doll that gives you a creepy feeling?

SPEAKER_00 31:05

I mean, I want a doll that keeps... I want a doll that gives me a creepy feeling.

SPEAKER_01 31:12

Lindsay, no.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

What if I just went to the flea market? Like, what if I... Don't. Don't go to the flea market. What about you and your antiques?

SPEAKER_01 31:20

I got some movies to show you about the Dybbuk box and all that kind of stuff. If you see a doll... A doll at the flea market. Don't buy it. We want to know if anybody else had weird childhood toy stories.

SPEAKER_00 31:35

And I know they do. I know there are people out there that have had creepy dolls that they didn't want, that their nana forced on them, or people who had a speak and spell that spoke to them in the night. And I want to know. Maybe you'll convince me not to get any haunted dolls. I'm sure mom would be really appreciative of that. Oh God, please don't. She's so scared. I wouldn't go to your house. Okay, I'm definitely getting a haunted doll then. Just kidding.

SPEAKER_01 32:05

I'd sneak in and throw it away. Oh,

SPEAKER_00 32:07

but then you'd touch it. What if you disrespected it and it showed up at your house?

SPEAKER_01 32:12

Oh yeah, that would make a good movie too.

SPEAKER_00 32:14

Write that down, write that down.

SPEAKER_01 32:17

So now's a good time too to remind people if you follow our show, that would really help us out.

SPEAKER_00 32:23

Of course. And as always, just remember, the scariest stories are the ones that are true.