For most little girls, dolls are a wonderful thing, but some dolls are just plain bad and some dolls serve as conduit for evil spirits. I would like to share some of the true stories surrounding some of the most famous haunted dolls in existence today.
Annabelle
The story of the doll that inspired the horror film ‘Annabelle’, begins when a mother gives her adult daughter a Raggedy-Ann doll from a shop, in the 1970’s. The daughter, Donna, and her roommate, Angie, began to notice that the doll would change positions while they were out. Believing that the spirit of a little girl, named Annabelle, was haunting them after talking with a medium, they gave the spirit permission to possess the doll. Annabelle began to move from room to room when no one was home and the women began finding notes saying things like “Help Me” and “Miss Me?” all over the house. When Donna’s boyfriend was attacked in the home by an unseen force in her room, the women had reached their breaking point. They reached out to Ed and Lorraine Warren, who told them that the spirit attached to the doll was actually a demon. The Warrens removed the doll from the apartment and put her inside a locked case in their museum, where she is today.
Robert The Doll
As a child writer and painter Robert Eugene Otto was under the care of a Jamaican nurse who practiced Voodoo. In 1904 the nurse gave young Robert a doll. Many years later the nurse, who still worked for the family, cursed the doll after being treated poorly. The family would find things missing and moved through out the house. They would also hear movement coming form the vacant room where the doll was kept along with hearing screams in the night. The family later moved from the house and left the doll behind. The next family to move into the house and found the doll in the attic. Soon they too began experiencing the same phenomena. Robert the doll was donated to a museum by the family, where he resides today, in a locked case of course. The story of Robert the doll inspired the horror film ‘Child’s Play’, though I have to say Chucky is much scarier, or is he? We will soon find out, Robert is getting a movie of his own.
The Haunted Doll of Hakkaido
In 1918 the doll of Hakkaido was purchased by a young man for his baby sister, Okiku. The little girl named the doll, dressed in a traditional kimono, with black hair, after herself. Okiku sadly passed away at the young age of three. Instead of burying the doll with the little girl, the family added the doll to their family alter. Soon the family noticed something very strange about the doll, the doll’s hair was growing. The doll no longer had a cute traditional bob, the hair grew to it’s knees before the family cut it, and again it grew out. The family believed that the little girl’s spirit was inside the doll, but it did give the family the creeps, though it had never attempted to harm them. When the family moved in the 1930’s they did not want to take the doll with them, but did not want to destroy it in case the spirit of little Okiku really did reside in the doll. The family gave it to the Mannenji temple, where the monks routinely have to trim the doll’s hair.
Joliet The Cursed Doll
Joliet, in my opinion may be the most evil doll on this list. Joilet has belonged to one family and handed down to four generations of women. Joliet is not haunted, but cursed. Each woman Joliet is handed down to has two children, one boy and one girl, but each woman, for the last four generations, has lost their son on the third day after his birth. The family believes that boys’ souls reside in the doll, where they will remain until the curse is broken. They family claims that sometimes in the night they can hear the cry of a baby coming from Joliet.
Harold The Doll
Harold’s story begins when it was purchased by a man for his baby son. A few years later the son passed away, but the man and his wife continued to hear crying, giggling and singing from the boy’s nursery, when they checked the room, they could only find the doll. Other activity plagued to family as well. The man consulted a priest who told him to burn the doll, which he tried to do on multiple occasions, but the doll would not burn. The father removed the doll and placed it in his work shed, where it remained for sixty years. One day the father took the doll, along with other items, to a flea market where he sold it (with a warning) for $20 to another man. Within two days the new owner’s cat died, his girlfriend left him, he began getting migraines and would hear the same sounds the family heard. He quickly put the doll on EBay (with the story of the doll) and sold it. You can purchase the book that details Harold’s story on EBAY .
La Isla De La Munecas Mexico’s Island Of The Dolls
If you thought one doll possessed with a spirit is bad, imagine an entire island of them. Mexico’s Island of the Dolls is located in the maze of canals in and around Mexico City. It all began when a hermit named Don Julian Santana moved onto the empty island. Santana claimed that the spirit of a little girl, who drowned in one of the canals near the island, was haunting him, soon after he moved there. In an attempt to please the spirit he began to hang dolls from the trees on the islands. Over the fifty years he spent on there the island became filled with dolls. Oddly enough, Santana was found dead in the same area of the canal as the girl was. Now tourists flock to the island to witness the creepy atmosphere. They often leave dolls themselves. Visitors and paranormal investigators who have been on the island at night report the dolls’ eyes moving and blinking. They also claim to have seen movement of the dolls themselves.
