The Conjuring and the True Story of the Annabelle the Doll

I watched the Conjuring last night.  I really enjoyed the movie.  The Warrens and their work have always fascinated me and I've written about them before on this blog.   The movie was primarily about the work they did with the Perron family.  They aided in ridding the Perron house in Rhode Island of the ghost of a witch name Bathsheba.   However, the movie begins with Annabelle the Doll.  I have written about Annabelle a couple of times before and although I loved to see her story in the movie, it wasn't completely accurate.   First of all, the movie doll was a creepy glass doll and the real Annabelle was just a Raggedy Ann doll.   Here is the real story of Annabelle

 Annabelle was a gift given to a young nurse named Donna by her mother. It wasn't long after Annabelle was given to Donna that Donna began to notice Annabelle moved about the apartment on her own. Donna and her roommate, Angie, began to notice that they would leave for work and when they came home the doll would be laying on the bed in a different position. The women started arranging the doll purposely in one position and they would find it with its arms crossed or legs moved. This went on for some time and after a while the doll became more active. It would change rooms. Once, they even found the doll kneeling. This is a position that is impossible for a raggedy anne doll on its own.

Over time the doll began to leave messages. The messages were left in pencil on parchment paper. The women had never owned parchment paper so its origin was as mysterious as the messages themselves. The notes usually said "help us" or "help lou". The women began rigging the apartment to check for intruders. They thought that maybe someone was tricking them, but there was no evidence of break ins. One night they came home to find blood on the doll's hand.

Finally, the women contacted a medium to talk to the doll. The doll said that she was a little girl who had died on the property who was lonely. After this, the women contacted paranormal experts Ed and Lorraine Warren. The Warrens believed the story about the little girl was trickery to gain sympathy and that Annabelle was really possessed by a demon. This belief was confirmed when Angie's boyfriend was attacked physically by some unseen spirit in the apartment. The attack left a series of deep marks on Lou's chest.

After this, a priest was called in to do an exorcism. The exorcism seemed to work and the Warren's offered to take Annabelle home with them. On the way home, Annabelle caused the car to veer off the road almost killing the Warrens. The Warrens dosed the doll in Holly Water and the activity stopped for a time. Soon after, Annabelle began to be active in the Warrens' home and they had to move her to their Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut. They keep a website that documents their experiences with Annabelle at http://www.edandlorrainwarren.com/. The doll has remained active since its placement in the museum and is even thought to be responsible for some deaths since that time.  Below you'll see the real Annabelle as compared to the demented looking doll they used in the movie.

Annabelle, The Cursed Doll

Dolls scare the hell out of me so this story gave me nightmares. I'm not entirely sure why, but cursed dolls are particularly scary to me.  This is the story of an over sized Raggedy Ann doll named Annabelle. Annabelle was a gift given to a young nurse named Donna by her mother. It wasn't long after Annabelle was given to Donna that Donna began to notice Annabelle moved about the apartment on her own. Donna and her roommate, Angie, began to notice that they would leave for work and when they came home the doll would be laying on the bed in a different position. The women started arranging the doll purposely in one position and they would find it with its arms crossed or legs moved. This went on for some time and after a while the doll became more active. It would change rooms. Once, they even found the doll kneeling. This is a position that is impossible for a raggedy anne doll on its own.

Over time the doll began to leave messages. The messages were left in pencil on parchment paper. The women had never owned parchment paper so its origin was as mysterious as the messages themselves. The notes usually said "help us" or "help lou". The women began rigging the apartment to check for intruders. They thought that maybe someone was tricking them, but there was no evidence of break ins. One night they came home to find blood on the doll's hand.

Finally, the women contacted a medium to talk to the doll. The doll said that she was a little girl who had died on the property who was lonely. After this, the women contacted paranormal experts Ed and Lorraine Warren. The Warrens believed the story about the little girl was trickery to gain sympathy and that Annabelle was really possessed by a demon. This belief was confirmed when Angie's boyfriend was attacked physically by some unseen spirit in the apartment. The attack left a series of deep marks on Lou's chest.

After this, a priest was called in to do an exorcism. The exorcism seemed to work and the Warren's offered to take Annabelle home with them. On the way home, Annabelle caused the car to veer off the road almost killing the Warrens. The Warrens dosed the doll in Holly Water and the activity stopped for a time. Soon after, Annabelle began to be active in the Warrens' home and they had to move her to their Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut. They keep a website that documents their experiences with Annabelle at http://www.edandlorrainwarren.com/. The doll has remained active since its placement in the museum and is even thought to be responsible for some deaths since that time.

Robert, The Cursed Doll

My recent post about the evil doll, Annabelle got me thinking about dolls.  It seems I am not the only one who is afraid of dolls and it also seems like there is a good reason.   The association between dolls or poppets and witchcraft and evil goes back as long as there have been dolls.  During the Salem witch trials,  mere possession of one of these diabolical items was enough to earn you the title of witch.  Dolls, throughout history, have been used in magic as symbolic ties to real people or supernatural entities.   It is not surprising that books are filled with stories of cursed and evil dolls.

The most famous and diabolical of the cursed dolls is a doll named Robert.  Robert was a gift to a young boy named Gene Otto.  The doll was made of straw and was given to him by a maid.  If the legend is true,  the maid was angry at the Gene's family for dismissing her and the doll was actually a voodoo doll designed specifically to hurt Gene and is family.  After the doll was given to Gene,  the family began to notice that Gene had an unnatural attachment to the doll.  Gene took it everywhere with him and spent many hours in his room alone conversing with the doll.   Witnesses say that when they listened in on Gene they heard two voices speaking when Gene was alone in the room with his doll.

Time past and Robert's malevolence grew.   Witnesses began to report seeing the doll moving from window to window.   The Otto's claimed that they saw the doll move and heard him giggle.   Often things in the house would turn up broken and when the Otto's confronted Gene about the incidences he would say, "Robert did it."  Gene began having nightmares.  One night the parents ran into his room and found Gene screaming.   All of the furniture was overturned and Robert was standing over Gene.  The doll collapsed when the Ottos walked in.

Time didn't seem to tarnish Gene's attachment to the doll and even as an adult he kept the doll with him.   Gene remained in his family home with his doll after his parents died.  Gene got married and Robert became a source of difficulties in the marriage and it ended.  Finally,  Gene tried to lock the doll in the attic, which is where Robert was found after Gene's death.  Today, Robert lives in a Key West museum where he is reported to have continued his wicked works.

The Demon Doll

I have fallen behind on my blogging this week and my last post was a pitiful summation of bizarre events  that occured while I was staying in my old family house.  My computer stopped working so I had to post from my iphone.  My pictures were blurred and everything went haywire.  My grandmother died yesterday before we made it back to see her and the only thing that's gone really well this week is my reading, which has gone at breakneck speed.   In the spirit of my flight of fancy,  I will tell a story I found in my favorite new book, There's Something Under the Bed.

Dolls scare the hell out of me so this story gave me nightmares.  This is the story of an over sized Raggedy Ann doll named Annabelle.   Annabelle was a gift given to a young nurse named Donna by her mother.   It wasn't long after Annabelle was given to Donna that Donna began to notice Annabelle moved about the apartment on her own.  Donna and her roommate, Angie, began to notice that they would leave for work and when they came home the doll would be laying on the bed in a different position.   The women started arranging the doll purposely in one position and they would find it with its arms crossed or legs moved.  This went on for some time and after a while the doll became more active.  It would change rooms.   Once, they even found the doll kneeling.  This is a position that is impossible for a raggedy anne doll on its own.

Over time the doll began to leave messages.  The messages were left in pencil on parchment paper.   The women had never owned parchment paper so its origin was as mysterious as the messages themselves.  The notes usually said "help us" or  "help lou".  The women began rigging the apartment to check for intruders.   They thought that maybe someone was tricking them, but there was no evidence of break ins.    One night they came home to find blood on the doll's hand.

Finally, the women contacted a medium to talk to the doll.  The doll said that she was a little girl who had died on the property who was lonely.  After this, the women contacted paranormal experts Ed and Lorraine Warren.  The Warrens believed the story about the little girl was trickery to gain sympathy and that Annabelle was really possessed by a demon.  This belief was confirmed when Angie's boyfriend was attacked physically by some unseen spirit in the apartment.  The attack left a series of deep marks on Lou's chest.

After this,  a priest was called in to do an exorcism.  The exorcism seemed to work and the Warren's offered to take Annabelle home with them.   On the way home,   Annabelle caused the car to veer off the road almost killing the Warrens.  The Warrens dosed the doll in Holly Water and the activity stopped for a time.  Soon after,  Annabelle began to be active in the Warrens' home and they had to move her to their Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut.  They keep a website that documents their experiences with Annabelle at http://www.edandlorrainwarren.com/.  The doll has remained active since its placement in the museum and is even thought to be responsible for some deaths since that time.