Possessed Possessions : Robert The Doll

  Have you ever felt as if an inanimate object in your house is watching you? Thanks to Robert, who is nothing but a doll, this feeling has been a reality for many in Key West, Florida. Visibly homemade with a cloth face that has worn with time, Robert the Doll seems to be a simple, pleasant toy at first. With eyes made of hard beads of black and a cute sailor suit that is clean and well-ironed, he looks like an extremely innocent doll.

 Locals say that the straw doll is 116-year-old and it is haunted by a malevolent spirit to this day. According to the local legends, even now, the doll brings misfortune to those who insult him. From allegedly breaking bones to causing car accidents, Robert the doll had been an appalling figure for everyone who encountered him.

Terrorising the Ottos

 The tale of Robert the doll dates back to the early 1900s when a young boy named Eugene Robert Otto got a unique hand-crafted doll gifted to him by a maid of his house. Eugene grew fond of his new toy and gave him his very own name "Robert".

 Although he seemed to look like a usual fabric doll, it wasn’t long before Robert was found in the middle of abnormal and extremely terrifying occasions. The earliest hint of unnatural happenings occurred one night when Gene, who was a ten-year-old then, awoke to find Robert the doll sitting on the edge of his bed looking at him. Moments later his mom woke up because of his screams for assistance and the sounds of furniture being moved in her son’s bedroom. Gene cried for help, begging his mother to rescue him. When she broke into the room with the help of a wrench, she saw a petrified Gene curled up in a corner of his mattress, his disfigured room and Robert the doll sitting on the foot of the bed. “Robert did it,” was the only phrase Gene could get out.

 No one knows for certain why or how this plaything wreaked havoc on a boy’s bedroom, after all, it was only a toy, right? But the bizarre and inexplicable didn’t just stop. Gene’s dad and mom would frequently hear their son upstairs talking to the doll and get a response again in a completely different voice which sounded demonic. They confirmed seeing the doll talk and witnessing his expression change. Giggling and sightings of Robert strolling up and down the stairs or staring out the upstairs window have also been noted. Passersby also claimed to see him moving from window to window. When Gene left the house for his further pursuits, Robert ended up in the attic. After Gene’s mother and father died, he inherited his family's house and moved back along with his wife, Anne. Gene decided that the doll wanted his own room and placed him in the upstairs room that had a window overlooking the street. He also placed a few other dolls in the room claiming that Robert would play with them.

 Anne felt anxious with Robert within the house and even though she couldn’t put her finger on it, she asked Gene to lock the doll up in the attic where he would not cause any damage. Gene obliged which made Robert unhappy. After this event, guests who came to the house reported hearing footsteps in the attic, the sounds of someone running back and forth with devilish laughter. Neighbourhood kids said seeing Robert looking at them from the window in the upstairs bedroom. He apparently mocked them as they walked to school. Even older people reported that Robert would disappear and appear again. They also claimed that, his eyes would follow them as they walked.

 While Gene heard this, he proceeded to investigate, knowing that he had locked Robert inside the attic and there was no chance of him sitting by the window of the upstairs bedroom. However, when he opened the bedroom door, there sat Robert on the rocking chair near the window. Gene locked Robert again up within the attic on numerous instances but, on every occasion discovered him on the same rocking chair near the window again.

 Anne despite being hale and healthy, died two years later mysteriously. Many rumours surfaced, some saying that Anne died from “insanity” after locking Robert in the attic, while others report that Gene died because of Robert himself.

A New Friend

 Gene Otto died in 1974 and when a new proprietor moved into the residence, their 10-year-old daughter was overjoyed to find Robert inside the attic. But her happiness ended quickly as she claimed that Robert was alive and that the doll wanted to hurt her. She woke up frequently in the middle of the night screaming in fear and informed her parents that Robert had moved about within the room.

Robert’s Backstory

 Many believe that the origin of Robert’s possession lies in the one who at first gave him to Gene Otto – the servant who served gene’s mother and father. She was apparently mistreated by her bosses and to punish them it's said that she cursed the doll with voodoo and black magic. Although that could provide an explanation for the various mysterious and horrifying experiences people have had with Robert the doll, the answer for why the doll still remains haunted even after the death of its owners remains a mystery.

Current Status

 Robert now resides in a glass box at the Fort East Martello Museum in Key West, Florida. But, it hasn't stopped Robert from injecting fear and anxiousness into the museum staff and visitors, as Robert's current favoured mischievous acts include casting curses on his visitors especially those who take photographs of him. Many have claimed that their cameras stopped working when they tried to take his picture, only to work normally again once they left the museum. To date, the walls close to his glass case are covered in letters from visitors who visited him earlier and naysayers, begging for Robert's forgiveness and asking him to put off any curse he has cast. The museum staff also report seeing Robert move inside the box, change his facial expressions, hear him giggle demonically, and also put his hand on the glass at times.