CONTACT US Email: paranaughtica@gmail.com Twitter: @paranaughtica Facebook: The Paranaughtica Podcast Today we will be going over the story of Robert the Doll, the doll reported to be the most haunted doll on earth. Is it? It very well could be. Maybe not though. Who knows? Well, we dive into it and it...is....crazy.....and funny. We think you might actually laugh out loud at least once. Maybe, maybe not though. Who knows!? Alright, really though, just listen in and have a good time in whatever it is you're doing. Thanks for listening in!***If you’d like to help us out with a donation and you’re currently listening on Spotify, you can simply scroll down on our page and you’ll see a button to help us out with either a one-time donation or you can set up a monthly recurring donation. You can also go to our Facebook page where we have a link to our Ko-Fi account and Pay-Pal account if you'd like to help out the show. We would greatly appreciate it and give you a massive shoutout on the show if you'd like! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oi, kill the chicken to scare the monkey, because half the life is better than no, Brett.
But it probably didn't matter anyway, since it was broken in the first place, and wasn't even the right part.
Not even close, actually, but...
Man, but don't tell them that, you know?
Wow, I don't even know what any of that means.
Oh. Oh, hey, man.
Um, it means...
What it has always meant, Coop, since the beginning of time.
Alright, sure.
Well, let me ask you this, Lord Byron.
Ask away, Don Juan.
You played with toys as a child, right?
Did Hillary Clinton kidnap Batboy and use his cave to stash the bodies that make a forever-growing body count that continues even as I speak right this moment?
Well, I'd have to say yes.
Yes, sir.
I did play with children's toys as a young child, in which, as I grew older, I would play with the toys in direct proportion to the target age range of those toys being marketed, and to my exact age at that particular time, as time progressed.
Mathematics of it are, you know...
They're fairly complicated.
I'd rather not.
Let's just pass over that, you know, if we could just move on.
I don't want to bore you.
Yeah, yeah, that sounds incredibly complicated.
We can certainly pass right over all of that.
But, so did you play with toys as a child?
Of course!
They were some of the best and most memorable times of my life.
Freaking loved playing with toys as a kid, man.
Super fun, super exciting, super cool, and I had super rad toys to play with.
If I may add, and, and, Coop, I do say so.
Myself. That is really fantastic.
And thank you for that insightful information.
It adds a lot of color and flair to everything, so thank you.
It's all about the structured use of varying adjectives, really.
And just a little bit of panache for an extra coat of tartness.
And the tartness is what people love.
This is truly incredible stuff here.
I think we're well on our way for a People's Choice Podcast Award with just this intro alone.
Oh man, we're there, dude.
There's no ands, ifs, or buts about it.
Anyway. So, tell us, what were your favorite toys to play with when you were around the age of, like, seven or eight?
At seven and eight, I was definitely still deep into my Lego face.
Had a couple of bins of Legos as a kid, just sifting through.
They weren't very expensive back then.
Dude, yeah, time a dozen.
But, yeah, and I just, I had a ton of, like, just random-ass Legos, and I'd make these fantastical devices and warships, and then I'd...
Destroy them all, then I build them back up.
That was great.
Yeah, I was playing with a fat stash of pogs.
You remember pogs?
Oh, man.
Pogs, bro.
Slammers? Slammers, yeah.
If anyone doesn't know what a pog is, just go Google pogs, or actually DuckDuckGoPogs.
You take stacks of basically little cardboard discs, tiny little cardboard discs, super thin, and you stack those discs to make a tower.
You take a slammer, which is usually a heavy metal pog, right?
It's just thicker.
Yeah, right, right, right.
It's thicker and heavier.
It usually has some kick-ass design on it.
Yeah, some kick-ass design, the imprint.
And then you take the slammer, and you just slam it on top of that stack of pogs, and then whichever pogs are upside down, you get a keep, right?
Is that how it was?
Yeah, dude.
That's how we played it anyways, except for I played it to where...
The person sets up the stack, and then I just take the stack and be like, why don't you take it back?
Oh, shit.
Like the kids on the playground?
Just any kid.
Any adult, even.
And they're just so intimidated.
Jesus. I don't want to get into a memory.
Let's pass over that one, too.
Yeah. But I was also played with Tonka Trucks.
Hot Wheels, of course.
Everyone likes Hot Wheels.
And I was a madman with the regular Nintendo.
And probably most fun of all, though, was riding the old radio flyer down steep hills.
Extremely recklessly.
My parents can attest to that.
Yeah, we had one of those old school sleds.
You know, you control it with your feet.
Not a toboggan, but we kind of grew up a little bit on a hill.
And I used to love sledding around down that shit every winter.
For sure.
So you agree, though, Scott, that toys were pretty awesome back in the day, right?
Most. Most.
Pretty much all of them, really.
Well, except for those stupid...
Barbie dolls!
Oh, man.
Waste of time.
Money. Yes.
Even that, what was that dude one?
Was it Len?
Lenny? It was the Len doll, right?
Right. Len?
The Len doll?
Like, I don't know, man.
Pretty ridiculous.
Yeah, Len doll.
And we wonder why we have a whole generation of people suffering from various dysphoria.
You know what I mean?
That, my friend, is not a bad point.
Like, from our early childhoods, we are kind of force-fed these ideas of what beauty or perceived perfection is.
You know, quote-unquote, supposed to be, right?
From... Yeah, like what you're saying, I think.
I think.
That as kids, we're given these dolls that resemble the human form, but they are supposed to be the personification of what attractiveness is in beauty, right?
Like, the slim body, the mile-wide thigh gap, the large breasts on women, the six-pack abs on men with nice toned muscles that are sensually oiled, glisten in the summer sun.
That's what you're saying, right?
Whoa, dude!
Why don't you get a hold of yourself, man?
Step into a cold shower for a second.
But yeah, exactly.
But it's also everywhere you look.
You know, TV, movies, advertising, sides of buses.
It's everywhere.
That's definitely true, man.
Subliminal messaging is literally everywhere.
It's not even subliminal anymore.
Right, it's not even.
It's like in our faces.
Yeah, that's so true, man.
There's nothing subliminal about it.
It's just like fat ass.
You're like, whoa.
Can they even put that on the side of a...
They just did.
There it is.
It's on a bus.
Yeah, that's just an ad for toothpaste.
Yeah, totally.
Look at this fat ass jiggle as she brushes her teeth with Colgate.
Yeah. Jesus.
Oh, yes.
I'm buying it.
Yeah, I want that.
Let's go to the store, honey.
Yeah, get two tubes.
For the price of one.
But there have been decades and decades of behavioral scientists and psychologists who have studied the use of subliminal messaging, specifically for advertising, but I'm sure it goes much deeper than that.
Oh, for sure.
And you know the first report of subliminal messaging in an ad was way back in the year of the Roswell crash, 1947.
Goes back that far, dude.
Really? What was it?
Well, it was actually a Daffy Duck cartoon, and in the background you can see the sign, and it just says...
Buy war bonds.
And it's like, oh, yeah.
I mean, if you look at it now, you're like, well, they're not even trying.
But back then, that was like cutting-edge subliminal messaging.
Yeah, straight to the youth.
Buy war bonds.
Why would they be...
Yeah. That's for the kids.
Mom, Dad!
That's for the kids.
Can I buy some war bonds?
Have you bought some war bonds?
What do you want for...
Hey, Johnny, what do you want for Christmas this year?
How about some war bonds?
You got it, buddy.
Huh. Well...
I already bought several, but I guess I could buy a few more.
You see that present over there?
That square box wrapped in gift wrap inside?
Stack of war bonds.
Go ahead, Charlie.
Open it up.
Oh, thanks, Dad.
Opens it up.
Oh, just what I wanted.
War bonds.
Mommy, look at all these war bonds, Daddy Bobby.
Oh, honey.
That's our capitalist.
Oh, look at you with all your war bonds.
Oh, how cute you are.
Go upstairs.
Yeah, go upstairs and put those war bonds on.
War bonds on.
Yeah, man.
I know there were a shit ton of cartoons jumping on that bandwagon of war propaganda and all sorts of weird post-war shit.
Oh, you know, there definitely was.
Where there's media, there's propaganda and a whole lot of fear-mongering just to get the Americans to hate on the next group of people.
That's just kind of how it goes.
So true.
So true.
Anyway, okay, so you played with toys.
That's good.
Oh, thanks.
What about an imaginary friend?
Did you have an imaginary friend?
Imaginary friends.
Friends, plural.
Okay. Yeah.
Alright. I mean, why just have one, you know?
When you can have them all.
It's not very exciting.
Exactly. Well, I personally don't recall having an imaginary friend or friends, plural.
My parents never told me.
I talked to someone who wasn't there or anything like that.
They did tell me, however, that when I was little...
Four or five or so.
I would sleepwalk and open our front door and go outside before they finally installed a deadbolt so I couldn't do it.
But we lived in the woods where actually my dad had shot this really large black bear that was on our porch eating dog food.
I mean, so yeah, you can imagine the fear that my parents had with me just going out there.
Yeah, I had something similar.
I would sleepwalk, and then I would wake up in the morning.
This is a small child, and my hands would be covered in blood.
I'd have another name scrawled on the top of my bunk bed, just like, you know, blood dripping from it.
Still dripping.
My parents started putting a deadbolt on my house, too.
You can imagine the fear that they had.
Yeah, didn't they put three just on your bedroom door?
That was never enough.
Anyways. Skip over that one.
Skip over that.
That was actually the house that I grew up in too where I experienced that UFO or UAP, whatever.
That loud hum.
Oh, right.
Hear and feel and all that shit.
So, Scott, the reason I ask you if you had a relatively normal childhood that involved playing with a collection of toys and if you had an imaginary friend or friends, plural, is because today...
We are going to slip into our seasonal sweaters with our favorite Bolero cardigan snugly pulled over the top of that.
I like that.
We're going to kick off our Velcro strap shoes that we usually wear for this sort of thing so we can more easily slide our dry bunion feet into our Velcro fastened sandals.
And then we can hop into our pastel colored golf cart so we can 18 hole it to our destination.
That being the booty capital of the United States.
Key West, Florida, baby.
Oh, man.
The booty capital of the United States, is it?
You know it, man.
I'm not sure what that has to do with me playing with toys as a kid or having an imaginary friend or friends, plural, but there's booty just all over that area, just hanging out all along the coastline, bro, all along it.
Yeah, sure.
But what about, you know, the toys and imaginary pirates booty?
Lots of treasure out there that is still to be found.
We just need to go find it.
Yeah, I mean, I'm totally game to do that, but what about the toys and imaginary friends, and what does Key West Florida have to do with it?
I'm actually genuinely curious.
I find it a little odd.
I have to repeat myself, actually.
Oh, that?
Yeah, man.
Well, you just have to wait and see.
All right, fair enough.
I'll just say this really quick as an aside, though.
In order to have the full Key West experience, other than literally inhaling handfuls of raw shrimp and grouper and spending at least one week at one of the five-star nudist colonies that thrive there, we've got some of the best bed and breakfasts that side of the Kissimmee River.
I believe it.
But there's something else a person needs to do to get that full.
Key West experience.
We've just been talking about quarter and half experiences so far.
Aside from those two things you just listed, what could that possibly be?
Well, I'm glad you asked.
Now, I don't know if they've updated the history books or whatever, but it's a proven fact, scientific actually, that one must smoke methamphetamine with any one Of the homeless people who call Key West their home,
which is where their heart is.
And only then can you come back to your own hometown and gleefully say, with the utmost confidence at this point, that you had indeed had the full Key West experience when all of your expectant friends are porking and prodding you for all the excited stories.
I think it's poking and prodding, not porking and prodding.
Well, you'd be right, man.
If it was poking that I was literally talking about.
All right.
I'll add.
Apparently, if you smoke meth once, your entire life is already in shambles before you even realize it.
It's like you don't even have to smoke it and it's already too late, you know?
Yeah, your life's already over.
You know, you haven't even smoked meth.
You're like, what?
What? Just being near it can get you addicted.
Hey, do you remember that commercial from the 80s where that doofus guy in the kitchen by the stovetop with a frying pan?
Remember he held up like an egg and he's like sort of a Dick Cheney-like demeanor.
He's like, this is your brain.
And then he's like, and this is your brain on drugs.
Right after I shoot you in the face with a shotgun because I thought you were a pheasant flying right at me.
That's when he cracks the egg and fries it in the pan.
That was some Dick Cheney?
Was that some Dick Cheney?
Yeah, that's kind of what I was channeling there.
Yeah, I got it.
And of course, yeah, that was a troubling.
Very troubling anti-drug ad, and I'm pretty certain that it actually led to more drug use than less.
Just how depressing it was.
Yeah, people were like, really?
I don't think so, man.
Let me try that out.
No, no, I'm good.
Was there more on that Brain on Drugs commercial?
No, it was just a really depressing commercial ad thing, man.
The 80s.
Really strange time.
It was a depressing time, for real, man.
For everybody, too.
That entire decade, it was just one giant manic depressive episode.
Right, right.
Fueled by cocaine and quaaludes.
Yes. And the one thing they had going for them back then, though, was...
That the drugs are actually better.
Oh, I mean, they were pure, 100%.
And if you think about it, the government only worsened the problem of drug use, especially recreationally.
And what I mean is that people had a steady supply of decent drugs to use before the government really started to clamp down on regulations and all that shit, which made people go after shittier drugs, made of shittier products, which encouraged a bigger, shittier black market.
I mean, look around you.
You got all that fake weed, what, spice or whatever?
Oh, yeah, I think it's called K2, and it can cause, like...
Depersonalization and derealization, disorientation, hallucinations, delusions, strokes, seizures, heart attack.
Not good, bro.
Just stay away from all that.
Right. And you got Kratom, which can at its worst, I guess, cause you to become addicted to it, which leads to psychotic symptoms of hallucinations, delusions, confusion.
Again, not good.
Yeah, and we got bath salts or Flocka, which seemed super fun.
Seen some of the videos of that, otherwise known as gravel.
Side effects are getting violent, having violent outbursts, aggression, self-harm, psychosis, delusions, paranoia, and delirium.
Definitely super fun, man.
Basalts are frightening.
Uh, yeah.
And you have that, what is that shit?
That skin-rotting shit.
Crocodile? Oof, that's probably the worst one.
Yeah, dude.
Yeah, man.
People literally walking around with the skin and ligaments and tendons and everything but the bone all rotted away and gone, so it's just like the bone exposed.
Pretty fucking bad.
But the injuries are not really limited to the localized wounds, which are typically caused by injecting the substance into the bloodstream.
And they include, you know, pneumonia, sepsis, meningitis, osteomyelitis, and osteonecrosis, neurological injuries such as motor and memory impairment.
There's also the ulceration and tissue damage at sites distant from the actual infection site.
And obviously you get some liver injuries in there, some renal impairment.
And death.
Yeah, it's so gnar.
The chemicals they put in a crocodile are so harmful to the human that it creates a flesh-eating response, which turns people's skin into a hardened texture resembling that of a crocodile.
For those of you that don't know.
And then it just starts to rot that skin away, and soon enough, the limb, or whatever, you know, maybe an arm or a leg, will soon decompose, and the skin will literally rot away.
And what comes with that rotting flesh, Scott?
Well, brings them birds out here.
Brings out them's vultures, you know what I'm saying?
Sure. There are some birds that will be around.
Yeah, yeah.
Picking away.
But I'm talking about the insects that feast on rotting flesh.
Maggots. Yeah.
You can't keep the flies away from rotting flesh, man.
I've never been able to.
No. It's hard.
And the vast majority of these people are homeless, so they're out there laying on the grounds, you know, with the insects and rodents, you know?
Yeah. Say, you know what, Scott?
What's that?
I think now would be a perfect time for the segment of the show that has recently been the cause of numerous email complaints due to several people having to suddenly pinch off their poops to fully pay attention to the segment.
Yeah, we have been getting increasing reports of that.
Yeah, super fast, unpredictable clenching can lead to a serious injury and people are reporting to have had to make emergency pinches.
That's never fun, so we do apologize for that, but...
And that's a butt with two Ts.
We also cannot stop that from happening.
And, as the old 19th century asaphorism goes, or, you know, expression, the show must go on.
Despite all of the injured circus performers currently being eaten alive by tigers and monkeys, and as the oversized and mistreated for life elephant tramples upon the panicked spectators trying to flee, the highly flammable silk cotton mesh tent catches fire.
Jesus. Regardless.
Of that overwhelming chaos, the show simply must go on.
It's that simple.
Yeah, you heard it.
So folks, clench those biscuits off right now because Scott is about to be the hand that keeps the world spinning.
That's right.
The world is my globe.
And now, ladies and gentlemen, it's time for another edition of your weekly taint waxing that is trade.
Pour. It's good.
Zip! *Music*
Love it.
Our first story comes to us from HTTPSnews.sky.com.
No, I'm just kidding.
But apparently a Tennessee woman, and now you gotta tell me if you saw this one coming, but a Tennessee woman sets the record for the world's longest female mullet.
Hey-o!
What do you think about that?
Yeah, I didn't see it coming.
Tennessee woman, longest female mullet.
That's correct.
Apparently a woman of 33 years has grown a mullet longer than she is tall.
It took her 33 years without a haircut, actually.
To the back of her head.
It took her that long to do it.
But it did set a new Guinness World Record.
Wow. That's insane.
Her name is Tammy Maness.
She's from Tennessee.
Tammy Maness.
It's grown to 172.72 centimeters, which is about 5 feet 8 inches.
Holy crap.
She's 58. She was inspired to start growing in her hair in the 80s.
She saw a video by Tilt Tuesday called Voices Carry.
And like, this is her quote.
The singer had a rat tail, and I really wanted one of those.
Yeah. End quote.
So the barber convinced her to cut off the actual rat tail.
She regretted it, and then she started regrowing her hair in force.
And now it's a Guinness World Record setting.
Mullet, good for her, man.
Yeah. I wonder if she uses, like, instead of your regular shampoo, like Miracle-Gro.
Probably. I mean, that's, yeah.
I could see that working.
And not totally sterilizing all of the follicles on her head.
But yeah, she did it.
She figured out the magic formula.
That's pretty sweet.
I want to feel it.
It's got to be nice and soft.
I can see that.
I'm sure there's somebody somewhere that would pay money for that.
But moving right along, our second story.
And I'm going to take it down a dark note.
Uh-oh.
Yeah. Apparently eight people were killed in Moscow under the sewer on a tour.
After being trapped underground during a flash flood.
People were taking a tour?
In a sewer?
Yeah, so...
A sewer tour.
This article comes to us from the NewYorkPost.com.
Apparently, a guide and seven people were killed while touring the Moscow sewer system, which, I mean, that would probably be low on my list of must-do tourists.
Why would you do this?
But they became trapped underneath the city during severe flooding.
All eight of them were killed.
A search effort was launched after they went missing, and divers finally located most of them in the Moskva area near Zedra Park in the center of the city, and all of the eight participants were eventually found during the excursion.
And the article just goes on to say, simply, they all died.
An investigation's been opened into the tour group.
They're like, hey man, what are these guys doing?
So far, some of the identities have been released, including, unfortunately, a 15-year-old and a 17-year-old as well.
So it's really unfortunate.
I guess it says here that over 20 people originally planned to join the sewer tour.
But most backed out specifically because of the weather reports.
Well, boy.
But these eight intrepid journeyers.
Journeyers? Yeah.
Is that a word?
Journeyists? These eight intrepid journeyists didn't fare so well.
No. Should have stayed home.
Which actually is a great segue into this darker story that I'm going to end with here.
This is NBC2 News.
A Florida mom is accused of leaving her son with a dead man after a drug-fueled threesome.
Yikes, alright.
I'm gonna let that one soak in for a second.
Yeah. Apparently this is in Flagler County, but a Florida mother was arrested after she allegedly left her 11-year-old son in a hotel room with a dead man for several hours following an overnight drug-fueled threesome.
Amazing. Wait, drug-fueled threesome?
Yes. With her son?
Uh, no.
And the dead man?
Oh, man.
Let me clarify a few things.
The 60-year-old man was pronounced dead by medical responders after they received calls from the hotel saying that there was an unconscious man, and then there were a bunch of drugs found.
The 32-year-old woman, Amy Kemper, said that they had been doing drugs.
Deputies began the investigation and learned that her 11-year-old son had actually been in the room overnight but didn't engage in any of the sexual activities.
There was another man on the scene who has not been identified yet at this time.
So she was in there.
They were in this motel room.
They had a threesome.
The 11-year-old son was in there hanging out watching TV or something while they were doing their thing.
All these drugs.
Yeah, he was watching TikTok.
Yeah. Doing drugs and having sex.
That's... I'm sorry for that kid.
Man. Me too.
And then what, the woman just took off?
So one man left, and the woman left his 11-year-old son in the room with this guy.
Yeah, so she left with the other man.
Police tracked her down.
Obviously, the kid was still there.
He was still in the room.
So, like, he didn't know where to go.
So... Wow.
Yeah, they were like, who's your mom?
And that's how they found out.
She was arrested and she faces charges of child neglect without great bodily harm.
Let me rephrase that.
And she was already booked and she's being held on a $15,000 bond.
So yeah, that'll be an interesting one and a tense family reunion down the line.
Well, man, this 11-year-old kid's going to have some stories to tell and probably put on a pretty good talent show for the school.
Yeah, he's probably going to...
Write a book and become a movie director, I'm guessing.
Damn. Wow.
That's a crazy story, man.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And that's it for our Trey Portray.
And once again, another banger.
Yeah, dude.
They get better and better every week.
Thank you, sir.
Yeah, you know, I'm trying to scrounge around in my pockets to pay the band a little bit.
Just throw them a little more from time to time, you know what I'm saying?
Yes, any spare change, toss it their way.
They need it.
Exactly. All right, well, now, Scott, now I can tell you what you playing with toys and having imaginary friends, plural, has to do with Key West, Florida.
Everyone's favorite place to go for a little debauchery and a bit more disappointment.
Well, it's about time.
Key West, Florida is home to a certain toy, a certain doll, Scott, that is reputed to be the most haunted doll known to the entire world.
Dude, I gotta say it.
Out of all the weird and strange and creepy things in the paranormal world, I have to say that dolls take the cake in the creep factor.
Like the idea that this...
What's supposed to be an inanimate object is possessed by something that we don't understand and is autonomous and can do whatever the hell it pleases, when it pleases and how it pleases, mind you.
I mean, that's so freaky.
And they can literally just, like, chill in one spot forever, just being, like, evil, you know?
Yeah, or so you think.
Well, right, right, yeah.
It's like they know every movement and every thought of ours, you know?
Yeah, yeah.
It kind of seems like that, doesn't it?
With all the portrayals of haunted dolls we've seen in the movies and TV shows and books and literature or whatever, it seems that, yeah, they tend to have this, like, omniscient and omnipotent and, like, this omnipresent feel to them, right?
Like, they're all knowing, all seeing, and ever-present everywhere around you as they terrorize you and literally, for lack of a better word, scare the shit out of you.
Yeah, that's exactly my point, right?
Like, these little bastards or bastardettes can just run around the house and just, like, fuck with things, like, move stuff around and...
Disappear only to reappear at the foot of your bed, and then you wake up from some weird-ass nightmare of being choked out by, like, I don't know, Danny Trejo or something?
Danny Trejo!
Not Danny.
Well, you know, like, just dolls are creepy, man.
That's all I'm trying to say.
That's what I'm trying to say here.
No, I agree.
I agree, bro.
I wholeheartedly agree.
Like, I've seen some ghostly apparitions and stuff, like, you know, straight-up cloaked specter with some weird glowing orb in its chest on these train tracks, twice in the same night with the witness who saw the same exact thing.
So I know I'm not crazy.
And I've experienced some UFO shit, but I've never experienced a haunted doll, and I can say with a little bit of confidence that I don't want to have that experience.
Hell to the no, dude.
Hell to the frickin' no.
And suffice it to say, the experiences I had with those things I just mentioned, they didn't necessarily frighten the actual shit out of me, you know?
But if I was in a house, and there was this haunted doll running around fucking with me, I'm pretty sure I'd be shitting myself.
Or extremely close to it.
Yeah, I mean, you know, I can't rule out anything at this point if that were the case.
Yeah, definitely.
The doll who we are talking about today is a very well-known doll.
Aren't we talking about Chucky by any chance?
Nope. No, not Chucky.
Although the Chucky doll in that entire franchise, it was created and based off of none other than the doll that is the topic of today's story.
Whoa, no shit.
Robert the doll.
You know, really quick here.
I don't know if you remember or if you've seen how many of the Chucky movies and whatnot, but if you remember in Child's Play 2, 1990, at the Chucky doll factory, remember when that mechanic guy almost gets pressed to death?
Oh, yeah.
But he doesn't, and he's thanking his lucky stars or whatever.
But then Chucky sneaks up and cuts his face with a knife and then forces him under the machine that puts the eyes on the dolls like, woo!
So gnarly, man.
There's that one scene in the original Child's Play, 1988.
The apartment scene at Andy's apartment, the kid.
The mother's friend is there and she's babysitting him.
It's just Andy and the mom's friend or whatever.
The director makes it perfectly creepy.
All low to the ground camera movements.
The friend is noticing weird shit going on.
You know, stuff being moved or whatever?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And all of a sudden, like, Chucky pops up and puts a hammer to the friend's face, like, smacks her right in the face, and she falls backward out of the window or whatever, like, onto a truck below.
I mean, also in that same one, the original 1988, the classic doll, right, that operates without batteries, Chucky turns his head in a full 180 and says the iconic Wanna Play.
Oh my god, yeah.
That is, like, the iconic Chucky scene right there.
Classic. Exactly.
Super creepy, man.
That's definitely been seared into my brain, for sure.
Or that one, there's another one that really got stuck in my brain, too.
I think at Child's Play 3 in 1991, I believe, when Chucky switches all the fake rounds with the live rounds and the guns.
Yes. So the teenagers go out to do a training exercise, so they split in two teams, they're against each other, and they're practicing, shooting each other, whatever.
But it's real rounds.
Oh, man.
I have never forgot that, ever.
Anytime I would go paintballing when I was younger, I would always think of that.
Always. I think in Child's Play 3 also, there's a scene that has stuck with me.
I think it's that movie.
It's a scene with the sewing machine, and Chucky forces the person's hand underneath the sewing machine, and the needles just go...
Just brutal, man.
Obviously, you can't get your hand underneath the sewing machine either like that, but the visuals of it as a child, just horrifying.
Yeah, there's a number of things that I've grown up being wary of, specifically because of those movies.
So, on to Robert the Doll.
Ah, yes, the story begins.
This story begins with the boy who had come to acquire the doll.
His name was Robert Eugene Otto, and he was born in Key West, Florida, on the 25th of October, in the famed year of 1900.
We will be referring to him as Gene, as that was what he went by.
He was one of at least three brothers and had at least one sister and was born to parents Thomas Osgood Otto Sr. and Minnie Elizabeth Watkins, who were said to be well-traveled.
Thomas' father, or Gene's grandfather, Dr. Joseph Otto, had emigrated to the United States from Prussia in the mid-1800s and had apparently done pretty well for himself financially.
Thomas Otto was born on the 11th of January, 1865 in Key West, Florida.
Which is where he would ultimately meet and marry Minnie Watkins.
The wealthy couple would come to build the home that is the location of today's story between the years of 1890 and 1898, which still stands today on 534 Eaton Street.
The house was notably large for its time and built in the colonial Queen Anne style with fancy verandas and eye-catching columns.
But the real sex appeal is what's called the turret, which sits atop the home and beckons for the eye to gaze upon it.
The turret itself is in the shape of an octagon with a window on each wall.
I'm looking at pictures right now, and it kind of looks like what the offspring might look like if a gingerbread house and one of those extra-large lollipops from back in the day had a kid.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, definitely.
It's super colorful.
Yeah, yeah.
The couple were said to be strict disciplinarians who were extremely rude to the staff that they had hired to help run and clean their home.
In the years to come, the house would take on the moniker The Artist's House.
It would take on this name because later in life, Robert the Boy, not the doll, would eventually inherit the house and he, by this time, had become a pretty good painter after studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Chicago and the Art Students League in New York before traveling abroad to Europe.
Where he practiced his painting all along the countryside in what I presume were the 1920s.
It was in Paris where he met his own wife who was studying music, Annette Parker, and who was born in Boston, Massachusetts.
The couple would marry in Paris on the 3rd of May, 1930.
Well, you gotta hand it to him because that sounds pretty romantic, actually.
Pretty idyllic, some might say.
Yeah, if he had the money, he was wealthy, yeah.
Yeah. Traveling around, going to Paris in the 1920s.
That's what I'm saying.
Jean and Annette, who went by the name Anne, would move to New York from Paris right after Anne finished her studies, which would literally be right before the Nazis' unfortunate rise to power, which was not all that long ago.
Right, right.
Man, that would be...
I mean, I'm sure you're getting reports of this stuff happening, and you're thinking, should we leave?
Right. We should get the hell out of here.
Seriously. In New York...
And would be an accomplished pianist who performed at places like the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center and other places famous for their opulence, glamour, and prestige.
After a short time doing some fun gigs and having some good times in the Big Apple, the couple would move to Gene's childhood home in Key West, Florida, which would remain their home for the next 40 years.
But we need to back up, like, really far.
Way back to when Gene was just a little lad playing with his own toys in the 1900s.
And then we'll bring it back around to this point.
You know, some of my favorite playthings, knickknacks, baubles, if you will, came from the year 1900.
You had the string tied to a bolt that you dragged behind you.
Woof! Yep.
Hours of fun.
Makes a really cool sound.
Right. It's great.
Good one.
And then, you know, you also had that string tied to a stick.
Not quite as fun.
Nope. But it's still past the time.
It would do in a pinch when time needed some passing.
I don't know if you remember.
Those ones.
Oh, I do.
And those were excellent pastimes.
But I think there was a lot of hoop trundling as well.
Oh, yeah, man.
Stick in the wheel thing and you roll it until you can't roll it anymore or something like that.
Yeah, well, the trick was to take your stick and shove it in the spokes of your adversary's wheel.
Right, right, right.
The first competition back in the day.
Yes. Watch the roller flip over the wheel.
I hear that was the predecessor of MMA.
It definitely was.
Of UFC.
That is how it all began.
It all evolved from there.
They don't tell you that story, though.
Dana White's not going to come out and tell you that.
No, no, it's not in the history books, but, you know, bring the truth out.
That's what we're here for.
So let's back up to the year of 1904.
Little four-year-old Robert Eugene Otto would be kicking back the house, doing some casual hand painting, some little finger painting.
When all of the sudden, his grandfather would reach down and grip Little Gene's shoulder, which shocked the boy out of his stern concentration on how the verdigris elegantly blended ever so slightly with the gamboge and how the burnt sienna ran together with the cadmium green.
True beauty to his young eye.
His grandfather had just returned from a trip to Germany and had brought with him a little gift that he bought for Little Gene for his fourth birthday.
Well, it wasn't exactly little, seeing that it was pretty much the same size as the boy himself.
As the doll stands at about three and a half feet tall, weighs in at about six pounds, and its body is fairly proportionate to its size.
Pretty human-like in shape and form, as far as dolls go.
Now, to me, that's like a pretty major doll.
For real.
Right? Like, that's a doll among dolls.
That's extreme.
Yeah, it actually is.
It's like, whoa.
Yeah, that's pretty crazy.
Maybe they didn't have the technology to make them smaller.
I don't know.
But sounds pretty oversized, if you ask me.
Oh yeah, we're going to get into all that.
But of course, little Gene was overwhelmed with amazement and joy as he stood before this massive life-size doll made of thick fabric and stuffed with what's known as Excelsior, which is a wood wool or a material made from the fibers of shredded timber.
So Gene was far too excited to continue with this hand painting, which, by the way, were the prerequisites that influenced Jackson Pollock in his own works later on.
And he immediately lugged the large doll up to his room where the two would begin to get to know each other behind closed doors.
This relationship would literally last the rest of Gene's life all the way up until his own death on the 24th of June, 1974, at the age of 74. Wow.
That's a man who loves his doll.
You know, they say guys and dolls, right?
Well, there you go.
Gene was instantly latched onto the doll and would give it the name Robert after himself.
Well... I mean, what kid doesn't name his dolls after himself, you know?
And his fish.
Right. And his dog or cat or both.
Yeah. And his G.I. Joes or various rocks.
And his imaginary friend.
Oh, yeah.
Right. Right.
All of them.
That's right.
All named the same name.
Yeah. It can get difficult to keep track of who's who.
You know, you're like, oh, hey, Scott.
Oh, what's up, Scott?
Thanks, Scott.
How you doing, Scott?
Oh, I'm good, man.
I'm good, Scott.
Thanks. Just a loop.
Stay like that for hours.
So Gene would spend every waking and non-waking moment with the doll, or so he thought.
The small sailor's uniform that Robert the doll wears today is the same uniform that Gene put on it all those years ago, and is believed to be one that Gene himself had worn.
It's unclear if that was Gene's idea or Robert's.
It was definitely Robert's.
I think so.
Robert's doll face, like the rest of its body, is made of fabric and has weird little marks that resemble these scars all about it and holds a strange smirk.
With its solid black eyes set a little too far apart, its ears are more like those of an elf's ears than human-like, and its nose is barely raised from the face and has two tiny holes for nostrils.
It's got short blonde hair under its sailor hat, which has been tested and is not human hair.
It's mohair or some shit.
Man, it's just a little too creepy just already without any of the other story, but yeah, weird.
From the very moment that Gene and Robert the doll were effectively introduced, an otherworldly bond was formed when Gene set his own eyes upon the beady eyes that only a mother could struggle to love, which are those of Robert's.
At first, the two could not be separated.
Anywhere Gene went, Robert was right next to him.
If it was time for breakfast, there would be two seats set for two people.
Or one person and one doll.
And it would be the same for lunch and dinner.
They'd spend a lot of time inside of Gene's bedroom with the door shut and locked.
And to anyone who heard the faint sounds coming from inside as they passed by would think that Gene was just playing with his toys and being the voice or voices of those toys.
Just innocent boy and his life-size doll relationship talk.
Nothing weird.
Just two really good friends who were eager to get to know each other all that much more.
No, I know what you mean.
Right? They realized that the best way they could form the best relationship ever is that they'd consistently work on it using techniques that Gene had learned from Tony Robbins, Dale Carnegie, Jen Cinsero, Louis Hay, Wayne Dyer,
and for a while the relationship skill building behind closed doors seemed to work.
Not a whole lot, but there was still some progress being done.
Believe it or not.
Oh, definitely.
Yeah. And Gene's parents...
We'd often hear Gene talking to Robert through the walls of his room, and sometimes it sounded like Gene was just having a good old time playing with his toys.
Other times it sounded like whatever games they were playing, the voices had to be more secretive.
And other times, they'd hear very clearly what could be described as yells and screams through the walls.
And it was at times like these that they would rush into Gene's room, where they would just see Gene chilling with a frightened look on his face as Robert sat nearby.
That's really disturbing on many levels.
Parents are just like, okay, we will come back at another time.
Just slowly shut the door?
Yeah, exactly.
And this would be a reoccurring thing in the household.
Gene's parents would often hear two distinct voices in his room when there should only have just been one.
And for a while, they gave Gene the benefit of the doubt and figured he was just doing really good voices for both himself and the doll.
Just doing a really good job at it.
But over time, and after all this weird shit was happening to him and them, they paid more attention and were finally convinced that there was actually two very distinct voices being heard through those walls.
Of course, there would never be a witness to any of the strange occurrences that went on between the two.
There were many other times when Gene's other real toys would be annihilated, just torn to pieces, limbs ripped and tossed around.
Things around the house would be moved.
And all those little things that can drive a person crazy were being done, you know?
I can't tell you how many times I get up in the morning to take a pee-pee, you know?
And I'm just about to go full Unleash the Fury style.
And then I have to stop before I even begin because I notice that something has put the toilet seat down when I always leave it up.
I don't get it, man.
Every time.
That is truly haunting.
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, one night, Scott.
After a long evening of critiquing the paintings of John von Icke and Hieronymus Bosch, two 15th century painters who did mind-blowing work in which left little four-year-old Gene totally pooped.
I can imagine.
He decided that he would hit the hay and wake early for another fun-filled day.
Gene quickly fell asleep.
Soon, though, he would be awakened by something making slight movements at his feet.
At first, he thought nothing of it.
But as it kept moving, it gave room for Gene to grow concerned.
Gene opened his eyes and looked toward his feet.
There, sitting at the foot of the bed, looking directly at him, were the small, jet-black, beady eyes of Robert, the doll, just staring at him while remaining completely still.
And after only a few seconds of this, the entire house would echo with the violent burst of chaotic energy in Gene's room, which flipped over chairs, turned over a couch, dressers in their drawers were tossed about,
and the bed was moved aside with ease.
The ensuing disaster would beckon Gene's parents who ran to see what had happened and after having to break through the locked door they would discover an unsettling scene.
Amidst the wreckage strewn about in the room there on the bed was Gene dripping with fear and Robert at the foot of the bed totally unmoved and still glaring straight.
Now could you imagine, just for a second, Walking in.
Like, you hear all these noises, right?
You come upstairs, walk in, and you see this scene.
Like, not only is Robert or Gene not around the room, like, breathing hard, like, after just doing this, but he's on the bed.
The doll is at the foot of the bed.
I mean, that's insane.
I couldn't imagine.
No, man.
You're a parent.
You go into that.
Like, all this shit's tossed over, upended.
The bed's moved away from the wall, and the doll is just perfectly chilling there, and the kid is like, no, freaking out in fear.
Couldn't even move.
Just the look on his face was just a complete shock.
It's insane.
But yeah, like you said, the kid's not...
If the kid was the one that ran around flipping shit over in one instant, you know, that caused...
They'd be breathing hard.
They'd be sweating, maybe.
I mean, something.
Well, it takes physical exertion.
You'd be like, oh, well, they clearly just did that.
Yeah, exactly.
That's what I'm saying.
Yeah. And to see that, look, wow.
Nope. Something's up.
It's reported that Gene's parents promptly attempted to rid of the doll by putting it up in the attic, which was an extra room on the upper floor, I guess.
But the next day, it would be back in Gene's room.
And this would be a common theme throughout the years of Robert's addition to the family.
There would be other incidents, like what happened in Gene's room in the subsequent years, of course, and his parents would always blame it on poor little Gene.
Because what parent in the early 1900s, or any time for that matter, would believe a kid who blamed all sorts of mischievous shepherds?
Yeah, I mean, it sounds like the typical made-up excuse that a kid would use.
Like, it was the doll's fault!
You know, like, as a young kid or something.
And you're like, come on now, Billy.
Like, just admit it.
You did it.
You know, as a parent, there's no way you'd ever believe that.
No. But every time something happened, Gene was quick to remark, B-b-b-b-b-b-Robert did it!
Still, Gene loved Robert.
Some say too much.
And at today's standards, we'd say it was a toxic relationship.
Oh, man.
Yeah, right?
Like, these doll and a person get involved, and eventually, like, the relationship just sours.
The people are like, yeah, dude, it's...
It's with a doll, but the person's taking it way too serious.
You're talking about a companion doll?
Yeah, a companion doll.
Say you're an adult.
You have a friend who has a companion doll and he's talking to you about it like, you know, I just don't understand.
Sheila just sits there, same expression on her face, mouth open, just looking at me and I'm like, Sheila, why don't you make me a sandwich?
Talk to me.
And then he's just kind of getting pissed, like describing, I think I'm going to leave her.
You're like, dude, it's a fucking doll, man.
What's wrong with you, bro?
Yeah. He's like, Sheila, I work my ass off all day and I come home and nothing gets done.
You don't have food prepared for me.
Still sitting there.
Still sitting there with this stupid look on your face.
Exactly. Mouth wide open like that?
My God, Sheila.
It's going to be coming.
Sorry, Sheila, I'm going to go to the store.
What? Don't look at me like that, like I'm just going to go hang out with my friends and leave you here.
Yeah, I'm a man.
I need a friend, too, you know.
I gotta go do things.
You also told me I need to go do my own things.
I mean, I'm here all the time with you.
You said, hey, Doug, this relationship's getting kind of rocky, you know.
You need to go have friends.
And you tell me to go have friends, and I try to go leave, and you say, where are you going?
You gotta stay here with me?
You work all day?
I'm here alone?
Look at my mouth!
Yeah, you told me we needed healthy boundaries.
All jokes aside, the conversations between Gene and Robert the doll continued behind closed doors, and his parents continued to be weirded out by it.
And I'll point out here as well that Gene would always address Robert as if Robert the doll was an actual living being, never as a doll.
And his parents would start to pay more attention to the sounds coming from Gene's room after all these strange little occurrences had accumulated over time.
Including times when the maids and even the parents would spot the doll out of the corner of their eye moving past them in a distant hall or bedroom, but not finding anything when they went to look.
There were other times when they would know that Robert the doll was in a different spot than where it was before, and there was just no way that anyone else could have moved it.
And finally, after so many little things added up, they were just like, what in the actual fuck is going on here?
Which, I mean, that, you know, speaks kind of a lot.
The parents are, like, starting to actually wonder.
They're not, like, this is all Robert.
They're just sort of like, what if it's not?
Yeah. It's starting to catch on.
This is all Gene.
Sorry. Yeah, like, this is all Gene.
And they're like, well, is it, though?
And things would clearly escalate and Gene's parents would place their heads near Gene's door and listen to Gene talk to Robert.
While at first, early on, they didn't think much of what they assumed to be Gene's other voices he had while he played in his room with the door shut and locked, but now, as they actually paid attention, they could easily make out a completely different voice responding to Gene while having conversations.
Oh man, so spooky.
And of course, his parents would listen in more than once, like this was ongoing, and it just wasn't that one time.
It's also said that Gene's parents would even witness Robert's face change expressions from time to time, and its mouth would appear to move as if it was actually speaking to Gene.
And as you can imagine, living in a large house with a haunted doll, there were many nights when Gene's parents would wake up to the sound of the pitter-pattering footsteps of a small being, much smaller than Gene for sure.
Because keep in mind, Gene was like, what, eight when he was giving Robert?
And people are heavy.
Even at Gene's age?
Yeah, you can still be like, oh, well that's a child clearly walking down the hallway.
Yeah, because he's like, what, 80 pounds at that age?
Pretty heavy.
Yeah, right, right.
That doll sound, pitter-pattering is going to be a lot different than an 80-pound human running around.
So scary.
And what about the maids, right?
I imagine at least one of them was a live-in, so obviously they had to be witnessing things too.
I mean, they'd have to be.
They're there 24-7.
For sure, yeah.
They were witnessing shit for sure.
Many of the maids would actually quit after they'd experienced some of this weird shit happening, and you can't really blame them.
Oh, I'd be out of there.
Yeah, I'd be like, oh, see you later.
Peace out.
I will sweep chimneys or something.
Yeah. One day, the autos had to call for a plumber.
Due to some small issues with their 1900s plumbing system.
Not a big deal, right?
Right, right.
Wrong! The plumber arrived and was showing what needed to be worked on and was then left alone.
As he was making his repairs, he was suddenly shocked when he heard the sound of a child's laughter coming from the same room, even though there were no children around.
This definitely filled his plumber's crack with sweat.
But what really got him drenched was the fact that there was a creepy-ass doll sitting next to a window.
He didn't pay a whole lot of attention to it at first, not until he realized that the doll was definitely on one side of the window, but later on was on the other side.
He also noticed that the doll had a few smaller objects, like smaller stuffed animals or something, resting in its lap when he first arrived at the house.
But after he had been focused on his work for a while...
He saw that those objects were no longer in the lap, but were seemingly tossed to the other side of the room without making any sound.
This is a professional in the house.
Comes in, you know, big deal, and then even starts noticing things, like this person from outside the house.
That's when you know.
Like, something's really going on.
It would finally come to the point when his parents would lock Robert up in the attic of the home.
And would otherwise leave the doll to its own devices.
I would have burned the damn thing, like, way before now, but, I mean, that's pretty gracious of them.
Not to just, like, destroy it, you know.
It's Gene's favorite toy.
I know, I understand, I understand.
He'd put up quite a fuss, I'm sure, if they attempted Gene.
Oh, man, huge fuss.
Now, regardless of being locked in the attic, there are reports that Robert the doll would be found outside of the attic on occasion, but would always be placed back inside.
Robert's favorite place to hang out, though, was in the turret itself, which had the best view, of course.
Okay, Scott, I'm going to set a scene here for you, and I want you to fully immerse yourself into it.
I want you to be there, okay?
Yeah, absolutely.
Take me there, Mr. Piano Man.
All right.
Imagine that you're a school kid, say, roughly nine years old, all right?
Okay, sure.
I'm with you.
And you're a girl with pigtails with those big hair ties and oversized butterflies on them.
We're good so far.
Got the visuals going on?
All right.
So you just got out of school.
It was a long day.
You're super unimpressed with the teacher's performance that day.
You just didn't feel challenged.
You're super bummed.
This is exactly what my childhood was like.
And you're walking home.
And remember, this is like 1910.
Anyway, you're walking along and decide to stop by the store and grab yourself a pint of rum and some smokes, right?
Maybe a pint for grandma.
Right, right.
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Just walking and drinking home from school as a child.
Definitely. Okay.
So, yeah, so you're walking along the street and you can't help but look up toward the turret as you're taking a swill from the rum.
But you notice up in one of the turret windows, it's Robert the doll just sitting there rocking in the rocking chair looking directly down at you.
I mean, that would be spooky, especially this, like, three-foot doll, right?
Yeah. It's, like, rocking in a chair.
You're like, is that a human?
What is that?
Yeah, you just look up as you're swilling.
It's like you...
Yeah. Yeah, he admits drink.
You're kind of looking up.
You're like, wait.
You're just kind of standing there like, you know, hiccuping for a second.
You're like, what am I looking at?
And then, as you're staring back up at it, it disappears from sight as it slides off the chair and scampers off.
You just see it get down all like kind of herky-jerky.
Yeah, it just jumps off.
You know, right?
Yeah, right.
Just stiffly, like doll-like, you know?
Like, um, did I just see that?
Yeah, so that's what many people were starting to talk about all around town.
That precise scenario.
Minus the kid drinking and smoking, of course.
And obviously the Otto family was well aware of all the activity, but the town was only now finding out about it through their first-hand experiences.
Right. You got the plumber and shit.
Right, right.
People on the outside coming in going, uh, no, something's going on there.
Like, it's getting around.
Right. You know.
And when Gene's parents found out about what some of the school kids were seeing and talking about at school, they went to check the attic where Robert should have been, you know, but only to find Robert wasn't there.
The doll would be found in Gene's room, sitting in Gene's rocking chair.
Of course it would.
Like, where else would it be, honestly?
And this would be the pattern for the subsequent years until Gene would pursue his education in art, and during his time away, Robert would actually remain at the family home for safekeeping.
And this brings us back to when Gene and his new wife, Anne, would move back to Gene's childhood home, where his childhood buddy, Robert the Doll, had been patiently waiting for his eventual return, years after his parents' death.
Oof. Coming back home.
See, there's another issue.
He leaves, the doll stays, they come back, the doll's still there, like, you know.
I said it once, I'll say it again, there's been ample opportunities for Robert to be disposed of.
I guess no one was interested in that.
And almost immediately upon his return, Robert would pick up where he left off.
Anne felt that something was off about the doll and was not a personal fan of it.
Jean, however, felt that Robert needed his own room upstairs that had a window for it to look out over the street below.
Like, he literally made this room all perfectly for Robert the doll.
So, I mean, as the wife, you'd be like, what?
No! Like, our kid doesn't even have its own room.
Yeah. No, yeah, right.
Yeah, we're all sharing one room in this six-room mansion, and the doll gets a room?
Yeah, exactly, bro.
Anne quickly grew to detest the doll and demanded that Gene put the doll in the attic and lock it there.
Soon, Gene would concede, and he would place Robert back.
But it's said that time and again, Robert would be found outside of the locked attic room.
And again, school kids and neighbors would report seeing Robert hanging out in the turret, staring back at them.
Some of the school kids said that Robert would full-on mock them as they walked by.
I mean, could you imagine being a kid and you see, oh, check out this creepy doll, and the doll's sitting there, and then it points at you, and it starts laughing, like the jaw that's hingable, but...
It's not actually moving.
It's just like pointing at you.
Yeah, I'm wondering how.
I remember that too.
How would this doll be mocking these kids as they walked by?
That's just my guess on how a doll would mock someone, but I don't honestly know.
Like Robert would get up by the window and start puffing up his chest and acting like he's walking.
Oh yeah, right.
You know what I mean?
Doing what they're doing.
Putting his shoulders up really high to make it just really emphasizing the walk.
Right. But not only that, but while Robert was locked in the attic, Anne would consistently be plagued with the noise of those tiny footsteps running around above her, accompanied with a malevolent giggling that would freak anybody out.
Robert would then make one more demand that would make it easy for everybody.
Robert the Doll demanded that he be left in the turret, the area of the home he enjoyed the most.
And this seemed to work out, for better or for worse.
Yeah, I guess when you're left with no other option, put the doll where the doll is most comfortable.
Listen to the doll.
It's got to come to a point.
What does the doll want?
What does the doll want?
What does it want?
What does it want?
What does the doll want?
Exactly. Just listen to the doll.
It'll tell you.
It'll tell you what it wants.
Just go put your ear up really close to its mouth and listen closely.
Exactly. At some point during all of that, Gene decided that he would make the turret his art studio and would spend most of the time there doing his painting with Robert nearby, either watching him paint or looking out the windows.
And this, this is what it would be like for the remainder of his years.
Robert Eugene Otto would die on the 24th of June, 1974, at the age of 74. Anne would pass away two years later.
And I can only imagine Anne being there all alone in this dark mansion at night with Robert the Doll running around just scaring the shit out of her for two years.
For real though, she's old at this point, right?
There's just next to no clinch left in her at all.
One small fright and that's it.
Done. Oh yeah, done.
Man, next to no clinch left.
The artist house would then be purchased by a woman named Myrtle Rauder.
Myrtle would come in and become the full-time caretaker of the property.
She also had a ten-year-old daughter who immediately took to Robert the doll upon finding him upstairs lounging in its rocking chair.
Robert didn't seem to care much about her and would soon begin to torment her with all the usual haunted doll antics.
When guests would come over and stay for the night or weekend or whatever, They'd often report the sound of those tiny footsteps running around the floors above them, mostly in the attic.
And they'd hear the sound of faint giggling coming from the same area.
Some guests said that they watched as Robert's facial expressions changed from its normal grin to a more sinister grin, which appeared to exhibit malice whenever someone would speak negatively about Gene Otto.
Guests would also claim that Robert would disappear from his usual spot and reappear in a different location within the house, which seemed to be a regular occurrence.
For 20 years, Myrtle kept Robert the doll, even taking it with her when she moved to a different house six years later over on Von Pfister Street.
Something like that, yeah.
As for the 10-year-old daughter of Myrtle, she would say that Robert would routinely haunt her during the night.
And Myrtle would often wake during the middle of the night to hear her daughter screaming bloody murder.
By this time, Myrtle was aware of the reputation of the doll, but obviously no one could control this unruly thing that had unspeakable powers.
The daughter would say that Robert would regularly run throughout the entire house, but what scared her the most is that the doll would run around her room at night.
To her, she was convinced that Robert the doll wanted to harm her.
Myrtle took note, eventually, and would donate the doll to the East Martello Museum in Key West, Florida at 3501 South Roosevelt Boulevard in 1994, where it remains to this day.
The museum gladly accepted the doll with a reputation, and soon enough, employees and visitors alike would begin to experience strange happenings which is to be expected.
People claimed to have seen the doll's chest rise and fall as if it was breathing.
People claim to feel something touch them when they're around Robert.
People say that they've photographed orbs flying around the same room where Robert is kept inside of a glass case.
Some of the staff have said that they've discovered small footprints inside of the case and that they've heard the same pitter-pattering footsteps running amok as the Otto family heard on a regular basis so many years before.
That right there would do it.
If anyone told me, like, oh, by the way, you might hear the pitter-patter of little feet.
At night.
Be like, yep.
Not going.
Not going, man.
No, thanks.
Oh, dude.
I used to live in this house when I was in 9th or 10th grade.
We lived in this.
It had a main floor and a small, kind of like a half basement.
You know, there's kind of a basement down in the ground.
And you have a window right where the ground floor is.
So we had a basement, ground floor, and then a top, a second floor.
And my room was...
The first bedroom on the right as you went up the stairs.
It was like, I think, eight stairs.
Eight or nine stairs.
And one night, I was laying in bed.
I was home alone.
I was home alone a lot at this house.
And it was a school night.
And I'm laying there.
Lights off.
Everything's off.
And I'm trying to go to sleep.
And I hear footsteps go up the freaking stairs, man.
I had a dog with me that I always kept in the room with me.
Because that house is creepy.
I've lived in a lot of creepy houses.
I think shit just follows me.
I don't know.
But the dog was even looking toward the door with his ears all perked up, and I'm freaked out.
But the footsteps stopped, and I had to go to bed, you know?
Those moments happen.
You just have to accept it, you know?
Yeah. You have to be like, well, I'm just going to try to go to sleep.
I couldn't do it.
And later I found out.
That an old woman lived in the house, and she died in that house.
Oh, no way!
Yeah. Whoa.
So, I'm adamant that that was an old woman.
And downstairs in the basement was creepy.
I don't know why, but anytime you went down those stairs, and it was like a carpeted...
It was like a living room down there.
It was like a common room, basically, and there's one bedroom and a closet thing.
The bedroom was a computer room we made.
But anytime you went down those stairs...
Like, you felt something was watching you.
You felt something was always there.
Yikes. Super creepy.
Fuck that.
Yeah. That's a little side story, though.
That's legit.
Yeah. Anyway, anyone can go visit Robert the doll, or you can visit the Facebook page that the museum created for it.
But what is perhaps the most important thing to consider if you do so choose to visit the most haunted doll in the world in person is to ask permission before taking Robert's photograph.
And once the photo has been taken, Robert likes to be thanked for his time.
Maybe even give him some candy or something.
The reason is this.
There have been numerous people who did not ask for such permission or thank Robert who would report all sorts of bad luck happening to them afterward.
The museum has received at least 2,000 letters and emails at this point from such people, and the museum curator says that they receive up to three every day.
One of those emails came from a young girl who said that she had started to be bullied at school.
after she herself took a picture without asking Robert first.
Oh, should have done it.
Other people report getting into car accidents.
They break up with their partners or get divorced.
They become ill with sickness or disease.
Or, you know, they...
Go to turn the light switch on, but the light doesn't come on because the bulb is out.
Right, or the hot water was too hot in the teapot.
Or you get in the car, but your back tire is deflated.
Or the dog took a perfect little duke right in their shoe, like just perfectly right inside the shoe.
Or you just finish a duke, but there's no more toilet paper.
Shit! Oh, that's the worst, man.
Oh, the worst, yeah.
Fuck, all sorts of just bad luck unfolding for these people.
But why, Scott?
Why is the doll so haunted?
Why? Tell us why, Scott.
Oh, I mean, if I could, I would.
Oh, I don't know.
Oh. Well, I think I do.
Before we touch on possible reasons as to why the doll, known worldwide, is haunted, we should start with where the doll originated from.
Oh, definitely.
Earlier, I mentioned that little Jean's grandfather had purchased the doll while visiting Germany in 1904, and that is the accepted story.
But there's also the possibility that Jean's mother had purchased the doll in Germany, also as a birthday present for Jean.
There is documented evidence, reportedly, that Minnie, Jean's mother, took a trip to Hamburg on the 4th of September, 1904.
Her name is apparently listed on the passenger list for the commercial sailing line Hamburg, America, on the vessel named the SS Graf Waldersee.
That trip occurred a little over one month before Jean's birthday, which was the 25th of October.
And I don't know if that was her return trip or what, but a typical journey like that back then on a ship of that make and model would take anywhere between 6 to 14 weeks.
Either way, it's generally accepted that the doll was brought to Florida from Germany in 1904.
An intrepid paranormal investigator, David Sloan, was able to look over a bunch of Otto family documents such as diaries and letters, including some of the caretakers who had lived there, and he was able to find out who made the doll.
This would turn out to be a company called the Steiff Company, based out of a town called Gangen, Germany.
It was founded by a woman named Margaret Steiff in 1880 and is still in operation today.
In fact, Scott, this is the same company that made what came to be known as the Teddy Bear.
Whoa, the original companion, right?
A little side note on the Teddy Bear.
In 2000...
Louis Vuitton teamed up with the company to make a bear which sold at auction for $2.1 million.
Pretty stupid.
Jeez, that's crazy.
Anyway, yeah, the company is still going strong with its doll making.
You know, I wonder if they'd ever branched out to make sex dolls, right?
Or companion dolls, I should say.
Because they definitely deserve respect and admiration.
Honestly, I couldn't agree with you more, man.
The whole industry is freaking crazy now with, like, super realistic dolls for both sexes.
Like, AI has been introduced, so now you can, like, have conversations with them.
You don't have to make up the voices for them.
Yeah, exactly.
They have heating elements within them.
I mean, they're super anatomically correct.
And, I mean, you can find any shape or size you want.
And there are some where you can actually switch the heads around.
That could be, I could see there's some situations where that could be convenient.
Right, like if you wake up one morning and you roll over and open your eyes to see who's next to you and you realize, oh man!
Right, you made a huge mistake the night before.
But, no worries, you can just remove the head and put on a different one.
Make yourself feel a little bit better.
Yeah, right, right.
So that is where the doll originated from.
The Stife Company.
The company actually worked with Sloan to figure out if it was actually theirs, and they are pretty adamant that it is.
They found another doll in their catalog from back in the day that is very similar to this one.
But it's believed that the doll, that is Robert the doll, was not mass-produced and may very well have been made as a window display due to its lifelike anatomical proportions.
And some say it accompanied a group of life-sized clown dolls, frozen as if in mid-scene.
It was also noted that the doll would have been extremely expensive.
That I believe, since it was so large.
Alright, so now we know where the doll came from.
Why the hell is it haunted?
We all want to know.
Yeah, why?
Why is it?
We keep getting the emails.
But Scott Coop, why is the doll haunted?
What could possibly be haunting this?
This doll is an inanimate object to cause it to become renowned for being the world's most haunted doll.
Tell us now, we want to know!
Yes, yes, we'll give the people what they want.
Well, there are a few theories.
One theory says that two of the maids, or servants, were a married couple, William and Emmeline Abbott.
There is evidence to suggest that Thomas Otto was having an affair with Emmeline, and it's speculated that the two conceived of a child who died in infancy, and it's that child spirit that possesses the doll.
Others think that it's the spirit of a deceased child that Emmeline had with her husband, but in either story, it said that Emmeline used magic to trap her child spirit inside the doll.
So that's one theory.
Another theory is that there was another servant from Haiti who practiced voodoo and who grew to become a sort of motherly figure to Jean.
They say that she attempted to use her rituals to create a protector spirit for Jean, but something went wrong, and instead of bringing in a positive force, she brought in a negative force which just wreaks havoc when it wants.
A third theory is that a servant or maid had been slighted somehow, and out of an act of revenge, this woman used voodoo to possess the doll of an evil spirit It would punish those who crossed paths with it.
A fourth theory is that it wasn't the doll that was cursed.
It was the clothes that it wore.
Some say that Millie Otto had purchased the outfit from one of the many boutiques in the area, and it was that same outfit that a boy who was around the same age as Gene had been wearing when he died from yellow fever.
And a final theory that we will present here, the fifth theory.
Right, and that kind of sort of piggybacks on the theory that a lot of poltergeist activity is from, you know, like, teen presence or, like, angst in the household.
You know, like, when these things happen, it's like the restless teenage spirit kind of gets infused into the home, and so you have these, like, outbursts and, like, these things happening, like, angry.
Angry energy, just tense energy, you know?
They can't, like, cope or deal with it, and it's just kind of the way how they cope with this energy, this built-up angst.
It's basically this energy that gets released into the quantum mechanical vacuum, and things happen.
Right. But that's pretty much what some say was going on with Gene and Robert.
So, what do you think, Scott?
Haunted? Or just a really long and ongoing case of mass hysteria?
I'm gonna go with, you know, I'm not, this is my non-traditional, but I'm gonna go with Haunted on this one.
You think?
Absolutely. I think I agree.
I do not trust dolls one bit.
Nope, never have, never will.
And of course, the story of Robert the Doll has proliferated television with numerous ghost hunting and paranormal reality TV shows.
We already mentioned that the Chucky franchise was based off of Robert the Doll, which up to this point has had like five or six movies, right?
At least.
Actually, wait, no.
Eight! I was just looking this up the other day.
Holy shit.
Yes, there's eight.
Yeah, because you have Child's Play, right?
Yeah. The original.
Then Child's Play 2. Yeah, and then 3. Right, 3, and then after that it was...
It was The Bride of Chucky.
Yes, yeah.
And then The Seed of Chucky came after that in like 2004.
Fuck. Seed of Chucky.
Was it like Glenn and Glenda?
Yeah, dude.
Shitface. Shitface.
That's what they call it.
Right. Like they're being forced to be ventriloquist dolls as dolls, which that's pretty great.
Who thinks of that?
That's crazy.
Yeah, dude, that's hilarious because they're not ventriloquist dolls.
Right. Not that it's funny that they're kept in cages, but it's that while they are kept in cages, they get to watch TV.
But all they get to watch is Access Hollywood?
Could you imagine that?
No, I cannot.
That's a great movie.
It's a cult classic, basically.
Not my favorite Chucky movie, but after that one, it was Curse of Chucky, right?
Again, not the greatest.
Chucky film.
Yeah. Yeah, and that one, they just totally changed its face.
It's too much.
Too much.
And then the next one, Cult of Chucky, definitely losing steam at that point.
Yeah. For sure.
And then I think the latest one is a remake, 2019 remake of the original 88 Child's Play.
Right. Just horrible, horrible film.
Definitely. So question.
Question it up.
Now, if you were to put the Chucky movies side by side with the Halloween movies, which ones would you say, in your professional opinion, are worse?
Ooh, man.
Well... For me, personally, okay, first of all, I was never a fan of the Halloween movies.
They just never gave me that scare factor that I enjoyed, which were like the paranormal movies, doll movies, shit like that, which are still my preference for scary films on the very rare occasion that I ever get to watch movies.
Secondly, there are 13 Halloween movies, each one twice as bad as the one before it.
So, yeah, that's my answer, I guess.
That's totally fair, and I...
I think I'd have to actually go the opposite way for me.
Really? I believe Chucky.
Worse, in my opinion.
I just never got behind it.
But that's just me.
Don't let that change your opinion of who I am.
We are no longer friends.
Harsh. Happens every time.
It comes down, man.
Friendships break when it comes down to which movie is better.
Definitely. Halloween or Chucky.
Ladies and gentlemen, tell us what's better.
Halloween or Chucky?
Email us.
Write us in.
Twitter it.
Voice your opinions.
What's a better movie?
I say Chucky.
Scott says Halloween.
But bringing it back to Robert the Doll.
Here's something stupid I found during the research for this episode.
Former disgraced ex-president George W. Bush and war criminal wrote a letter to the doll while he was in office.
And most likely while he was railing fat lines of blow on the Oval Office desk.
But he wrote a letter asking Robert the Doll.
Well, this is what he wrote.
Dear Robert.
Ever since I was just a little bush baby boy, I had dreamt of being a little bush baby girl.
I was often taken over by emotion.
By the beauty of my mother's dresses, she would walk over me, and I'd look up and be overcome with shock and awe.
Whoa! Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Oops, oops.
That's the wrong quote.
That was to a different Robert who he was criminally affiliated with.
Oh, yeah, right.
Sorry. Okay, here's the quote I was looking for.
Please. No shenanigans while I'm in the Oval Office.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, that definitely sounds like him.
That's definitely a recording of Push.
Yeah, dude.
Well, let's close this out.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all so very much for tuning in, and hopefully this was somewhat entertaining for you, or at least a good waste of time.
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Wasn't that your preschool nickname?
Indeed it was, Coop.
Good memory, it was.
So dear listeners of ours, all you beautiful people with your beautiful scars and mistakes that make you you, help us get the podcast name out there any way you can.
Here's an example.
Dirty yourself up a bit.
Lay a bit of cardboard outside somewhere where there's fairly heavy foot traffic.
Put out your hat or cup or whatever.
Just wait for people to come up to you, give you some coin.
When they reach down to drop said coin into your collection device of choice, quickly reach out and gently, gently now.
Grab their wrist, which will frighten them a little bit, but that's to be expected, so you just have to get over that initial shock.
Once you're gripped on and they're unsure of what to do, you suddenly kick your head back with your best Clint Eastwood face, fully flared, and then simply break the awkward silence by saying, Hey, listen to the Paranautica podcast.
It'll add lives to your ears.
I mean...
It'll add years to your life.
Exactly. Look at us.
Youthful as ever.
Oh, yeah.
I've never been healthier.
All right, everyone.
Thank you so much.
Hopefully, we'll have you back for another episode next week.
Until then, keep a close eye on your dog collection, because it's keeping a close eye on you.
