Stacy Conradt
The Quick Seven: Seven Haunted Objects
by Stacy Conradt - October 22, 2009 - 4:32 PM

q10

As promised, we’re back to our Halloween-related posts here on the Q10. Haunted objects have long been the subject of many a horror tale – haunted vehicles (Christine, of course), haunted dolls (the dreaded Chucky, among others) and haunted clowns (that creepy toy in Poltergeist, ugh). But haunted objects exist in real life, too – at least, they do if you believe these seven stories. Here are a few inanimate objects that might just be a little more animated than we think.

robert1. Robert the Doll. I personally find all dolls to be more than a little bit creepy, but Robert is certainly spookier than most. Robert has been around since at least 1896 and belonged to a little boy (who grew up to be famous artist Robert Eugene Otto) in Key West. The two of them were as thick as thieves and the little boy often chatted with his doll – but, servants and family members said, Robert the Doll often talked back. Neighbors claimed they saw Robert move to different windows of the house when they knew no one was inside; entire rooms were trashed and the little boy, seemingly terrified, would claim that Robert had done it. The boy eventually inherited his parents’ house, and in 1972, he died and another family bought it. The family had a little girl who discovered Robert in the attic and was terrified of it, claiming even 30 years later that the doll was alive and wanted to kill her. These days Robert resides at the Martello Gallery-Key West Art and Historical Museum. If you want a picture of him, you have to ask – a slight tilt of his head means yes. If you don’t get the tilt and take a picture anyway, beware – Robert will curse you. I haven’t been there to verify this, but supposedly there are letters in the Museum from people apologizing for taking pictures of Robert or for not believing in his powers. Has anyone seen Robert in person?

2. The Haunted Mirror at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Even though Marilyn Monroe has been dead for nearly 50 years, you can still see her at the Hollywood Roosevelt… at least, if you believe the stories. Marilyn lived at the Roosevelt a couple of different times during her life, and especially loved Suite 1200. At some point the mirror from Suite 1200 moved to the manager’s office, and when a housekeeper was cleaning it one day, she got quite a fright – a beautiful blonde woman was staring right back at her. Not one to shy away from publicity, the Roosevelt moved the mirror to a public area so guests could experience Miss Monroe as well. And supposedly they have – lots of people have reported seeing her image. But that makes sense – the Roosevelt has cleverly decided to hang a portrait right next to it.

3. The Haunted Mirror at the Myrtles Plantation. Our own Miss Cellania wrote about the Myrtles earlier this week. If you’re looking for a spooky read, you should definitely click on over.

anna4. Annabelle the Haunted Doll. I’ve always thought Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls looked particularly evil, and here’s my proof. Raggedy Ann was given to a little girl named Donna in the ‘70s, and she and her family immediately began to notice strange things. The doll would seemingly repose itself when no one was looking, and once it was even found in a kneeling position. When Donna tried to replicate the pose with the doll, she couldn’t – it was too soft to stay in that position and would just fall over. Childish writing began to appear on the walls and the family got scared. They found a medium and held a séance, where they found out that a little girl named Annabelle had once lived there, long before the apartment building was there, and wanted to play with them. Even worse things began to happen afterward – Donna’s father received inexplicable burn marks on his chest and everyone in the house began having nightmares. You can read a really detailed account of the whole thing here, but suffice it to say, Donna and her family got rid of Annabelle the Doll. It’s now in an occult museum; she apparently makes new “friends” every day.

5. Haunted Wedding Dress. At the historic Baker Mansion in Altoona, Pa., there lives a wedding dress that sits in a display case and moves all by itself. The story goes something like this: In the mid-1800s, Anna Baker got engaged to one of her father’s employees. She bought her wedding dress and was secretly making preparations when her father caught on, fired the man and had him sent away. She never married and the dress went unused. When the Blair County Historical Society bought the mansion, they found the dress displayed it under glass. Apparently Anna thought she would finally get some use out of the dress, because ever since then, it’s been moving and swaying of its own accord from behind the glass. The Historical Society pooh-poohed it, saying that some of the floorboards under the display case were loose, so when people came near the case would be slightly disturbed, making the gown appear to move. But at least one story says that the Society caught it moving on its security cameras when no one else was in the room, and that’s why it’s no longer on display at the Baker Mansion.

belcourt6. Haunted Chairs. Not just one, but two haunted chairs furnish the Gothic Ballroom of Belcourt Castle in Newport, R.I. The Castle is open to tours, and people who have come to view this gorgeous mansion have reported feeling chills and a strange energy when they get near two chairs in particular. The word is that if you’re daring enough to actually try sitting in one of the chairs, you’ll get a definite feeling of resistance and may even end up on your butt on the floor. There’s supposedly a documented case of just that happening, but I sure can’t find it. If you live nearby, you should check out the current ghost tour at Belcourt and let us know if the hype is true. (That’s the Ballroom in the picture.)

hands7. Haunted Painting. I’ve purposely avoided mentioning “haunted” items on eBay, because anyone can throw something out there and claim it’s haunted. But this one seems to have garnered a lot of press, so I’m going to include it. Artist Bill Stoneham painted “Hands Resist Him” in 1972 and then lost track of it after a gallery show (it had been purchased by actor John Marley, who played the dude that found the horse’s head in his bed in The Godfather). Fast forward many years, where a family found the painting abandoned at a dumpster behind a brewery and wondered why anyone would throw out such cool art. They took it home, and shortly thereafter, the four-year-old daughter of the family announced to her mom and dad that the children in the painting were fighting. They then recorded the painting over a period of several nights and thought the figures were, in fact, moving, and decided that they didn’t really need the painting in their house anymore. They sold it on eBay, accompanied by their story, for $1025.00. Bill Stoneham later surfaced and said that he remembered that the owner of the gallery that originally showed the painting died shortly after the show, as did a Los Angeles Times critic who reviewed it.

There are plenty of other “haunted” items out there, but when it comes to things like, “Haunted Barney Doll” or “Haunted Grilled Cheese” I have to draw the line. But do you know of any other famously haunted objects that I missed?

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Comments (26)

  1. I don’t know about famous, but I had an alarm clock that freaked me out. It would spontaneously emit static whenever it wanted.

    I put it on Freecycle, and nobody wanted it.

    Then I disassembled it to throw it away, and it cut my finger. That was about three years ago? Every once in a while, the cut aches, and I am reminded of Hell Clock!

    posted by Dianne on 10-22-2009 at 4:45 pm

  2. That was a good read.. It gae me the willies…

    Especially Robert the Doll… 2nd place goes to the painting.

    Could the Recaptcha possibly be telling me the kids in the pictures names:
    Wendi Brooklyn

    posted by Chrystani on 10-22-2009 at 5:26 pm

  3. Ugh, just looking at Robert the Doll is scary enough! It reminds me of this doll my mom has. It’s as big a kid, its hair is half chopped off and in all directions, and old makeup stains make its face look like the Joker. But the worst part are its eyes. They look insanely real. When I was little, it resided in my room and I went to bed staring at it. Good times…

    posted by Carli on 10-22-2009 at 6:08 pm

  4. Several years ago I saw the Haunted Wedding Dress from Baker Mansion. At that time it was displayed in a case in a small hallway between two upstairs rooms. There were three of us there and we found the floorboard that would move the dress. We took turns rocking across the board and making the dress tremble. Never heard that it was taken off of display or why until now.

    posted by Larry on 10-22-2009 at 7:14 pm

  5. When I got to the painting I couldn’t look at it completely it freaked me out. So I couldn’t read what going on with it.

    posted by Kari on 10-22-2009 at 10:05 pm

  6. I went on one of those touristy haunted walking tours one time… I want to say in San Francisco, but I can’t remember now. Anyway, at one point the guide showed us a key that he claimed was haunted– a woman had been trying to escape a pursuer by unlocking her front door to hide inside, but he had caught up with her and killed her before she could get inside. Allegedly, if one held the key in their open palm, it would replicate the woman’s last attempted action: turning the key. I ended up as the volunteer, and when I held the key in my palm, it was still a moment, then very slowly turned over. To this day I can’t say how, so maybe the story was true after all…

    posted by Hailey on 10-23-2009 at 12:58 am

  7. I’m so happy Robert was on this list! I lived near Key West for a while and heard all about him. You might be interested to know why Robert is haunted. The story says that the little boys parents known to mistreat their servants. One particular servant practiced voodoo and made Robert as a “gift” for little Gene as a way to get back at the parents. Also, the little boy went as Robert until he received the doll. From then on he insisted on being called Gene because Robert was the DOLL’s name. I was always curious to see him, but way to chicken to actually lay eyes on him.

    posted by Nikki on 10-23-2009 at 8:08 am

  8. Apparently there’s a sequel to the painting “Hands Resist Him.” It’s called “Resistance at the Threshold,” and depicts the same characters 40 years later. And it’s just as unnerving.

    posted by Ruth on 10-23-2009 at 9:20 am

  9. Uuuuuuuuuuuuhhh, is Robert’s head titled in the correct manner or are we all now cursed from reading your article?

    posted by Zane on 10-23-2009 at 9:44 am

  10. Is it just me or does the boy in the painting look like a “real” Bart Simpson?

    posted by Zane on 10-23-2009 at 9:48 am

  11. Uh, Hailey, I hate to break the spell, but the ‘Haunted Key’ is a well-known commercial magic trick.

    posted by airship on 10-23-2009 at 11:07 am

  12. Stacy, I live in Providence, RI. I’ll try to get to the mansion soon and let you know!

    posted by Heather on 10-23-2009 at 11:39 am

  13. @zane – I was thinking the little girl looked like a giant china doll. It looks like her elbow and knee are hinged with that typical baby doll expression on her face.

    Stacy, I know you said you draw the line at haunted barneys and such, but I will swear I had a possessed furby. My friends were playing with it tickling it. As programed, it kept telling them “no more.” Well of course they kept playing with it. Then it blinked and said very clearly “BEWARE.” I locked that thing in a cupboard and didn’t take it out again except to throw it away years later.

    recaptcha: glared spiegel (maybe spiegel is haunted too?)

    posted by Hastings on 10-23-2009 at 11:58 am

  14. I will be in Newport next week, might try to get to that mansion, Breakers is on the definite list. We are doing a Ghost Wlak on Thursday night, so they might mention it.

    posted by Mary on 10-23-2009 at 11:58 am

  15. My mom had this doll that was about 4\ big. It had red matted hair and an old tattered yellow flowered dress. The story goes that when she was little she hated this thing, she threw it in the trash, buried it, even threw it out a car window, in a different city, and somehow it always came back to her a few months later ( at the bottom of a toy box, or in a closet ) Now even as an adult it still doing the same thing. 2 years ago she sold it on EBay. 3 months ago it came back, it was laying in the gutter of her grocery store next to her car….. Freaky. Today I have pocession of it in a locked trunk 350 miles away from her.

    posted by Brandi on 10-23-2009 at 12:05 pm

  16. OK So it’s not a haunted Barney, but just as bad- I did have a haunted Teddy Ruxpin doll. I got it as a present for my who-knows-which birthday, but never really liked it. It had a battery pack in it, and when you squeezed him somewhere (wrist?) it would speak to you. “I’m Teddy Ruxpin.” “I would like to play with you.” Creepy stuff like that. So it wound up on the top of my bookshelf where it sat for several years. Once or twice I got freaked out by it looking at me, so I wound up putting my Babar in front of it.
    I swear to God- many years later (I believe I was mid-way through high school), I was falling asleep one night and the damn thing said “I would like to play with you.” I nearly fell out of my bunk bed. That thing wound up in the trash that night. OOOOOOHOoooooohhooooo

    posted by Molly on 10-23-2009 at 12:29 pm

  17. @Zane: He does look like a “real” Bart Simpson!

    I always enjoy your posts, Stacy!

    posted by Leslie on 10-23-2009 at 1:06 pm

  18. In my own house we have the ghost of an abused teenager that commited suicide on the front stoop. Occasionally, odd things will happen in the house. And frequestly the cat (and sometimes the dog) will sit in the hallway playing with “someone”. The cat is more noticible because he lifts his butt in the air like someone was stratching him. I found a picture of a previous owner (original owner) in the army in the rafters in the eves – i believe this to be our ghost’s father. I made the mistake of moving it while cleaning and the supernatural activity indreased – sinks would turn on, lights on, doors slamming, items going missing. I replaced the picture and everything calmed down again. We had an addition put onto the house and i insisted that the picture be kept in the attic area then placed under the floorboards of the second story.

    Recaptcha: morning covens (spooky!!)

    posted by jen on 10-23-2009 at 1:10 pm

  19. I remember watching some TV program, when I was about eight, about haunted things and that Raggedy Anne doll was on it. I was so freaked out that to this day I cannot stand those dolls.

    posted by nihil on 10-23-2009 at 1:29 pm

  20. I have seen Robert in person and took his picture. They say that his hair was blond when it was first made. It is now turning white. The owner of the museum said they think the soul which is in him is dying?!?

    posted by Laura on 10-23-2009 at 1:32 pm

  21. My dad told me a story from when he was a teenager about a haunted table. I’m not sure of the details about where it was located in Louisiana, but apparently it was in a back woods bar. He said that he and his friends were about 17 or 18 and they had heard stories about it and finally went to see it. Dad said that he and three other friends sat around the table which would move to answer your questions. He said that it would tap its leg once for yes and twice for no. He thought that his friends were lifting up the table and they were having fun, but then, they asked the table to dance and turned on some music. Dad said that it started dancing so wildy that they all jumped up and backed against the walls as the table would jump into the air and spin. He said it was like fear swept through the room and he was very disturbed by this. They left and never went back. I’ll see if I can get details from him regarding where this was/is.

    posted by chad on 10-23-2009 at 1:39 pm

  22. I’ve been to Belcourt! My family went on a Halloween-y tour of the Newport Mansions, and this bit was included (I recognized the room instantly, even though I was maybe 10 when we went?). I think my mom sat in the chair, but I don’t remember if she felt anything. I was probably too terrified to really ask-I still get freaked out by the paranormal.

    I thought my stereo was haunted one time when I was in high school because it kept turning itself on and off, but then I realized the Power button was partially pushed.

    The candle in my bedroom that one time decided to start burning again (brightly, suddenly) three hours after I put it out one night, however, was very real. Possibly related to the footsteps my mom hears upstairs when she’s the only one home.

    posted by Kate on 10-23-2009 at 2:38 pm

  23. My friends and I had a furby experience that was definately frightening. We kept messing with it and it was getting aggrivated at us, so my friend turned it off… well, then it started speaking, with the switch off, so we took the batteries out… and I swear, it started talking again… so we put it in the freezer and went to sleep… and the next morning it was sitting right outside of her door. LOL.

    posted by heather on 10-23-2009 at 9:23 pm

  24. The Hands Resist Him is a hoax. The painting is no more haunted than the footage in The Fourth Kind is real.

    posted by Kirk Gipson on 11-5-2009 at 6:29 pm

  25. I read the full story for the rag doll (I can’t even type out the name)… the-doll-who-must-not-be-named, and I am TOTALLY freaked out! Holy crap!

    Spoiler Alert:
    Is this where they got the idea for Paranormal Activity?

    posted by AAAKnight on 11-11-2009 at 4:52 pm

  26. holy poop. holy poop. aaaaaah! oh my god *ahem* he who shall not be named freaked me out soo bad I think i will have nightmares…and I have read this post before.

    posted by Rebecca on 11-18-2010 at 8:09 pm

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