Growing up, I had (and I can till this day contest & prove – STILL HAVE) a freakish fear of dolls even though I’m a horror & supernatural fanatic. When my younger sister was 7 and I was 9, we shared a room, and she had an assortment of dolls… Some of them talked while others bobbled and stuffed with that cotton stuff. One thing they all had in common was that they looked at me, more like stared at me!! No matter where I walked, it seemed like they would stare at me in unison inside that room; it was unnerving, to say the least. One night when our mother took her and my older sister shopping, I took matters into my own hands and did what any other red-blooded chicken-scared-of-dolls brother would do, and threw them all out!! Garbage was scheduled for pick up the next morning, and I knew she would be exhausted and not notice. This was the epidemy of premeditation!
I’ll admit I felt kind of bad about it; I even tried to talk myself out of it three or four times before stuffing them into a garbage bag & walking them out to the garbage can, but they all kept staring at me as I paced back & forth!! At the end of the day, I had to do it. They had to go, and they were gone before my sister ever knew what happened. I didn’t hear the end of it from any of the women in my family, but I slept like a baby from that night forward.
The thought of what happened that fateful night sneaked up on me the other day when I noticed it was already October. Within a matter of seconds, a domino effect began to develop in my mind… The dolls; their eyes; their faces looking up at me from inside the bellows of the garbage bag… I gulped, but then another thought made itself into the realm, and the title I saw was, (thunder sounds & lightning crashes!!) “Haunted Dolls“. I knew at that moment, I needed to write about haunted dolls around the world. My experience, although nowhere near the stuff I’ve researched & heard about, was the push, nay the inspiration I needed to write what must be written about. So without further ado, let’s get on with the show, and start at the top of our list of haunted dolls with…
Famous Haunted Dolls
- Annabelle – Location: Monroe, CT – A Raggedy Ann doll claimed to be haunted by an evil demon. Annabelle is known for having killed a person. Her history is one of strife, horror, blood and gore.
Very possibly the most famous of all haunted dolls thanks mostly to The Conjuring movie franchise, not to mention the actual story behind the doll itself. In the movies, the doll looks like a ventriloquist doll, which is super creepy; but in actuality, it’s a large Raggedy Ann doll. Now I don’t know about you, but knowing that one of the most cutest dolls ever manufactured can be this, make the hair on my arm stand up, salute, and take off – literally fly away!! The doll is kept in a museum located in Monroe, Connecticut, which I have no intention in visiting. EVER! It is also said that a priest has to bless the container in which the doll is kept daily. Last but not least, although it is said the doll is possessed by the spirit of a dead child by the same name, lore has it that it’s actually a hell hound inhabiting the doll, which explains the violence left in its wake. - Robert the Doll – Location: Key West, FL – sooo frightening that even Presidents write to him asking for his blessing and not put a hex on their administration. The doll is possessed by spirits and has inspired one of the most haunted dolls in history “Chucky”
When I was younger, my family and I took a trip to Key West, where one of its most famous attractions was a home where a man-sized doll sat on a rocking chair at an upstairs room near a window. When you looked up, you could see it looking out onto the street below. I don’t quite remember exactly what the tour guide said, but it was something about a haunted doll named Robert. Here are some creepy details about Robert and its lore… When tourists walk in the room to see Robert for themselves, before they take a picture, they must ask for Robert for permission. It is said, that there once was a tourist who took a picture without first asking. As a result, this person suffered a motorcycle accident. Personally, I wouldn’t take a picture, even less walk into that house, let alone into Robert’s room. If something can possess an object like a doll, what makes us think it won’t transfer itself into a picture – case & point, Bill Stoneham’s “The Hands Resist Him” painting. No, thank you. - Okiku – Location: Mannenji Temple in Hokkaido, Japan – the doll was named for a girl named Okiku, who died. Her family believed Okiku’s ghost was occupying the doll. The doll would move around and its hair was growing. The priests of the temple the doll is residing in still cut her hair.
Unlike the previous two dolls, this particular one doesn’t seem to have a story of violence attached to it. It does, however, include a story of sadness and loss, not to mention creepyness. It is said that in the early twentieth century, a father brought home a porcelain doll for his young daughter. Soon after, the town they lived in was hit with influenza, and the father’s daughter contracted the ailement and passed away. The father and his wife, kept the doll and decided to pray to it, and as a result, the doll’s hair began to grow. (My jawline is tingling as I type this story!!) The parents of the defunct child decide their time in their town has reached its course and decide to move so as to attempt to start a new life. Before they do, they take the doll to a nearby temple, where they explain its phenomenon to a monk. The monk knowing the story behind the doll, decides to take it in and place it in an open-standing wooden box, where it can still be found today. Needless to say, the hair still till this day requires care, as it continues to grow. By the way, the hair was scientifically tested, and it is real human hair belonging to a child. Yep… It’s official… The hair on my neck just stood up. - Lily – Historians have tracked her background to the early 1600’s, discovering tales of mystical practices, pagan rituals and warding rights imported from Europe by the Dutch Colonists of Lower Manhattan. Handmade figurines like Lily were left out to scare off local spirits and new world ghosts.
Imagine for a moment certain dolls that are placed or given the placement to protect a home, a walkway, whatever, and one of these figurines begins to haunt rather than protect? This is the case with a doll named Lily from Germany, that goes way back to the 1800s. Proof of the doll’s haunting or possession goes back to an antiques dealer who found the doll in one of his outings inside an antique case. (I don’t know why I’m thinking of this right now, but I believe there to be a movie about this, I just can’t remember. I think a child finds the doll or box at a yard sale, and takes it home and something happens, anyway…) The antiques dealer begins to have nightmares that first night, and claimed they were to horrific to tell, but that it was about a little girl who was subjected to horrors. The man is an antiques dealer and decides to take the doll from out of his home (understandable) and into his antique shop where it sat on a top shelf. Zak (Zachary) Bagans, a paranormal investigator (Ghost Adventures) and of The Haunted Museum located in Las Vegas Nevada, heard about the antiques dealer’s experience with the doll and decided to purchase the doll. The clerk at the shop had to obviously reach up and touch the doll in order to bring it down, when the woman began saying repeatedly, “I must wash my hands”. Again, I can watch horror movies, and I’m a fanatic of the supernatural, but seeing this in real life, will motivate me immediately to walk out. Unlike the previous dolls, this doll looks haunted, imagine that! - Ruby – A porcelain doll with a penchant for moving from place to place. She originally belonged to a little girl who died while holding her. She was passed down through generations until coming to her residence at the Traveling Museum of the Paranormal and Occult. Visitors report experiencing an overwhelming feeling of sorrow radiating from Ruby.
Need I add anything to the above intro? I think not, BUT… There’s more to the story, and I feel having gone this far down the list without continuing, would be a travesty, and we can’t have that… Ruby is in fact a porcelain doll that’s been past on from generation to generation. It is said that the doll was just a doll up until the doll’s owner, a young little girl passed away holding it. It is also said that the doll has a tendancy to move from room to room, and that its previous owners kept the doll in attics and basements to prevent the unimaginable. In addition to moving from room to room, when picked up, it is said an overwhelming feeling of sadness envelopes people who have claimed to have this phenomenon happen to them. Some say the feeling is too much to bear, and as a result nausea kicks in. - Letta – A 200 year old wooden doll with human hair. He was discovered beneath a house in Wagga Wagga Australia. His current caretaker says he walks at night, finding scuff marks on the floor and objects mysteriously shifted.
Very much like Ruby, Letta also has a tendancy to move from room to room, the difference is in how Letta does it. Ruby was simply found in different rooms as if it manifested itself in different rooms. It is said Letta walks from room to room, and you can hear it do it (hair all over is beginning to stand up), and see the scrapes on the floor the next day!! In case that weren’t enough to make you jump ship, it is said by the owner of the doll (Kery Walton of Australia) that people have actually seen the doll move right in front of them!! No one knows the doll’s origin story, but the doll’s owner found the doll in an abandoned building in 1972 (I beginning to believe something unexplainable happened in the 1970s because it’s when these stories began manifesting!! But I digress…), and named the doll “Letta Me Out”. I’m going to pause right here, cause the sense of humor someone must have for naming a doll this after finding it in an abandoned building, let alone keeping the name after all that we’ve read, is rather odd. I mean the guy still owns the doll despite of what he’s seen and I’m sure heard, cause you can’t make scuff or scrape marks on wooden floors without noise. Another thing to point out is that earlier on the list, I forgot to mention is that a movie character was inspired by Robert the doll in Key West, and that character is Chucky. After what we’ve read here, I think Letta may have a lot to do with that inspiration as well. - Amelia – made by the Hamilton Collection in 1994. Upon investigation, an old woman was woken up every night by a crying baby. The doll originally had blue eyes, but the eyes turned green when the crying started.
We all know or have heard of the infamous Hamilton Collection, which if you hadn’t already known is a company that has been manufacturing collectible figurines like Precious Moments figurines since 1973 (1970s again, I tell ya…). Most people throughout whether it be you, parents, grandparents or freinds have purchased figurines from The Hamilton Collection. Now imagine, you purchasing a figurine, to be more specific, a baby figurine, and being woken up every night by a baby’s cry? Now, I want you to take that information, and see yourself walking around your residence trying to find the source, only to hear it coming from a figurine manufactured by a well-known super reputable company like The Hamilton Collection. Furthermore, as you stare into the eyes of the figurine, you notice the eyes to be green when you swear up & down that you saw them blue when you unpacked the baby figurine. What do you do with that information? Heck, what do you do at all? There is something I did keep from you, and that is, the figurine isn’t a figurine, it’s a porcelaine baby-sized red curly-haired baby. When you compare the size of that to an actual figurine, those eyes are considerably larger!! It is said that the woman who purchased the doll was brand spanking new with beautiful blue eyes; however, the moment those blue eyes turned green the crying started. - Peggy – possessed by an impish spirit. It is reported people have chest pains, nausea and debilitating headaches after looking at photos or videos of this doll. Some have seen visions of mental institutions and one claimed Peggy gave her a heart attack.
WOW!! - The Janesville Doll – A doll in an attic window of a home in Janesville, Minnesota. There was no death, no killing, no demon, no vindictive, child-hating townsfolk with grudges against little girls. The truth will br revealed in 2176 when the city elders open a time capsule in the city park, which has the explanation of why owner of the home, Ward Wendt put the doll up there.
What makes this story so interesting is that a time capsule is involved… But not any old time capsule, a time capsule with an origin story no one yet knows about, and won’t know about until 2176. We’re only in 2021, which means we still have 155 years to go until we know the origin of The Janesville Doll.
I certainly hope you had a great time joining me on this little adventure of hauntings of dolls… Until the next time!!
Other Halloween blogs that may interest you:
Haunted Cities in America
Haunted Hotels: A Room with a Boo
Historic Haunted Hotels You Must See in the U.S.
Halloween Traditions Around The World
Haunted Bodies of Water
Most Haunted Places in the Caribbean
