Hello, i saw this story mentioned on the travel channel the other night and it was so terribly interesting that i did some more research and decided to summarize the arciticles here for your reading pleasure. Personally i beilive this kind of phenomenon does exist, and after learning much about thought forms on this site i wonder if it is possible to create a malevolent being as powerful as this. I know its long but give it a chance, its a good story.
Note:Some parts of the story are told differently depending on the source so i did my best to make this as close to the real accouant as possible, there links to some of the articles are posted at the bottom. There are also pictures of Robert on these sites, check them out!
"The structure known now as The Artist House was built in 1898 by Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Otto. By many accounts, they were well-off but abusive toward their servants (slaves purchased from the Bahamas). One serving girl who had been badly mistreated and was apparently versed in the arts of voodoo gave their son, Robert Eugene Otto (called Gene by his friends), a straw doll that resembled Robert and stood about three feet tall with most likely, a soul stone. This type of enchantment in some voodoo practices involves a small crystal being placed into an object, thus imbuing it with power by taking a soul of its own. It was to be his companion and friend for the entirety of his childhood. At the time the doll was given to the boy, his sister had recently died, and he was very impressionable. Eugene immediately took to Robert, and gave him his first name and demanded that he be called Eugene from that day forth.
It is said that his parents often heard him upstairs talking to the doll and answering in an entirely different voice.
Eugene would spend hours alone talking to the doll and rarely left it alone. Eugene would occasionally go into rages when he would rip his room apart but when his parents came to investigate he would be holding Robert in his crisp white sailor suit and proclaiming, "Robert did it." While, to outside eyes, it would be the work of a rambunctious child, close friends of the family agreed that it was in fact the doll who was somehow to blame. Many claimed to hear giggling coming from the doll or to have caught a glimpse of him running up the steps or staring out the turret-room window at them.
Eugene continued to have a close relationship with Robert until he left to study art in Paris. In Paris, he met his future wife, Anne, and they soon were married and moved into his former home in Key West, which is now known as "The Artist House". Eugene was a celebrated artist in the area and well respected. It was when they returned that Anne finally learned about Robert. When his parents died and Gene inherited the house, Robert was rediscovered in the attic. Almost from the moment Gene laid eyes on him, Robert's influence could be felt. Eugene preferred to paint in his room alone, locked away with only Robert to give him company. His wife found the thing unsettling, insisting she'd seen the expression on its face change, but Gene would hear none of it.
When she locked the doll back in the attic, Robert, it seemed, had other plans. Visitors in the house could hear something walking back and forth in the attic, though no one was up there, and several times demonic giggling interrupted the quiet evenings. Soon after Gene flew into a rage, he said Robert was mad at them and demanded that Robert needed a room of his own where he could see the street. It wasn't long before his sanity came into question.
Eugene had craftsmen construct a room scaled to Robert's size built in the third floor turret of his Victorian style home, and even had furniture built, and the ceilings lowered. Eugene refused to allow people inside the house to visit them, and for good reason. Children on their way home from school (and many have been interviewed--always with the same results) claim that they would see Robert move around in the upstairs windows glowering at them even when no one was home, and on some occasions, he would jump from one window, move to the other side, and go into the window on the opposite side of the room.
After some time and many unexplainable events, Gene had enough and decided to put Robert in the attic, where he could do no more harm. Once again it was reported that the doll watched people and mocked school children from the window of the turret room. Gene, who insisted that Robert was in the attic, was quite surprised to find him in the rocking chair by the turret room window. He seized the doll and took it back to the attic, only to find it again in the rocking chair when he came back down.
As Eugene aged, he became increasingly abusive to Anne, and it was discovered that on many occasions, he would lock her in a slanted closet beneath Robert's room under the stairs for several days at a time. He would go into rages only to return to normal like nothing had happen, he would then proceed to blame the incident on Robert. After Eugene's death and burial in the Key West Cemetery, Anne left for her family's home in Boston, and allowed the house to be rented out.
When Anne left, she left Robert locked in his upstairs room, and put in a lease agreement that 'Robert must at all times remain the sole occupant of the attic room', or the contract was void. This remained true up until her death in 1976.
The first new reports were from a plumber working after Anne left. The plumber reported:
"I was doing some work in the larger part of the attic of the house. The people there wanted to make it an additional room so I was running the lines for a new toilet. The doll looked pretty creepy sitting there on the little chair holding its stuffed animal, but I had work to do so I didn't think much about it at first. As my work continued I had to make a few trips to get some parts from the van. Each time I returned I could swear the doll had moved a little bit. Like I said, I had work to do so I ignored it as much as I could, but when I was just about finished with the job and started decending the stairs, I heard a little kid giggling behind me. When I turned around the doll was on the opposite side of the room. The first thing I did was look to see where the kid was, but no one was there. I wasn't really frightened, but it was weird so I just continued down stairs and left. Some of my tools are probably still up there."
Robert waited patiently until another family bought the house. When their little girl, who was only ten years old at the time, found Robert in the attic, she claimed him for her own. She unleashed a chilling hell on herself, claiming that the doll tortured her. Now, more than thirty years later, she steadfastly claims that the doll was alive and wanted to kill her. She is still deeply traumatized.
Future occupants reported hearing noises upstairs including footsteps, laughter, and crashes, and upon inspection, found that Robert had moved position from where they left him. At this time, usually he would only cross his arms, move or cross his legs, or move from chair to chair. The occupants were so disturbed by this that they locked him in a sea chest in his room -- thus staying true to the lease agreement.
After many years, Robert was finally rediscovered in storage at the East Martello Museum, and due to popular demand, was put on display. Many people have speculated that Robert was losing energy when he was locked in the chest for those many years, however, now that he once again has human contact, he is draining energy. Perhaps this accounts for the three pacemakers that have stopped in front of him, the many, many reports of new camera batteries dying in front of him, the many cameras that have stopped working in front of him (the leading authority on Robert spent 6 rolls of the film and got only a handful of shots to develop), and the increased activity of the doll. Museum curators report that Robert often changes position overnight even though he is locked behind glass in a case inside a brick museum with locked three inch wooden doors and bars on every window.
Robert, still dressed in his white sailor's suit and clutching his stuffed lion, has also reportedly pulled pranks aplenty on those who care for him. A museum employee once cleaned Robert and left for the evening, locking the doors behind him and shutting off the lights. When he arrived the next day, several lights, including the one near Robert's case, were on. Also, Robert was placed differently than when the employee last saw him. Stranger still, the bottoms of Robert's shoes were coated in fresh dust as though he'd been walking around the museum. More than once, employees have reported hearing a sound like someone tapping on glass as they pass Robert's case. When they turn to look, they have seen Robert's hand pressed against the glass.
Today, Robert lives quite comfortably, though well guarded, at the Key West Martello Museum. Visitors are welcome to see him, though taking pictures has proven to be difficult. Cameras tend to stop working when pointed at the doll, only to resume normal function outside the museum walls.
Best Times:
Though Robert is available to take visitors year-round, the best time to introduce yourself, a practice recommended and followed by the museum staff, is during the month of October. During that one month, Robert is taken from the Martello Museum and housed in the Historic Custom House a few blocks down. It is during this time of year that he is said to be most active, and the employees always leave a bag of peppermints in his case with him in an attempt to cajole him into behaving. They swear there are always fewer candies the next morning. "
http://www.angelfire.com/rant/shadowstalker/pictures/robert.html
and
http://www.horrorchannel.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=8&
Thanks for posting this! Even if this story is not true, it's worth reading, and I don't know why, but this doll looks really scary.... It reminds me of "Silent Hill" computer game.
Neat. The idea of living dolls has always freaked me out. Maybe I'll go see him some day.
The skeptic in me tells me it could just be people perpetuating the legend themselves through false testimony or by using stage magic to give the illusion of the doll being alive... but still, simple schizophrenia can not be the only answer to this, it must be conspiracy or... sorcery.
hmmm, well i think your not too far off when u say "perpetuating the legend", they say the more you beilive or think of something the more energy it gets, thats why they think the doll is becoming more active.
Ive read some more about ghost seekers who have visited Robert. They say he is an extremly oppressive spirit, hes very mad about something...
Im sure the doll was a result of the original Roberts mental problems, after talking to the doll so much i think he put alot personality in it. Perhaps the doll has ill will because its owner used it as a scape goat, letting it take the balme for all his bad behavior and qualities, like an evil double...
very scary
So why doesn't someone go over and fight or free the doll?
lol- my brother keeps on joking about that
he wanted to make a "free robert" website-
the idea of a demonic doll walking free...oh the possibilities :lol:
I want him to be my friend. He could hurt the bad people that I can't because I would go to jail.
This is weird to read because a month ago I dreamed I was telling someone who made dolls that came to life that my dolls come to life too. I am a doll maker. My dolls are nice thou. I'm not into Voo Doo but many people have said that some of my fairy and elf dolls almost seem alive.
There are cultures that believe in animism: A spirit can be in anything usually something natural.
It's always been really creepy. There is an episode or two of an anime called Vampire Princess Miyu that may be interesting regarding living dolls... mainly for an artistic purpose. The ones like Goosebumps' Night of the Living Dummy (Slappy) are pretty lame though, and I should know, I acted in Goosebumps.
This story reminds me of another doll. It was my friends moms doll. She always had it sitting in a little rocking chair in their house. I always got a bad feeling from the doll, like it was watching and hating. Long after I realized I got a bad vibe from the thing my friend told me about the doll. He confided in me that he got the same feeling from it. He then told me that the doll was his aunts, his moms sister. His aunt was very fond of the doll and died in a car accident holding the doll. Some times it would appear to move. Nothing as major as crossing it's legs or moving around the room. It head though would almost never be in the same place when you looked at it. Sometimes the arms would move slightly and its facial expression was never quite the same when you'd look at it. All in all a very creepy doll.