Robert

Robert the Doll also known as the ghost doll or the enchanted doll, is a life-size rag doll, resembling an early 20th century American naval officer, that belonged to Robert Eugene Otto, a Key West painter and author. According to legend, the doll is possessed by evil spirits.

## History

in 1906, when a little boy named Robert Eugene Ott (Eugene Ott) received the doll as a gift from one of the servants in his house. He names the toy after himself - Robert. It is said that the boy's parents treated their servants very badly. Low wages and long hours of grueling work. One of the maids was from the Bahamas and supposedly practiced voodoo. It was she who gave the doll to the boy. Some claim that the doll was made of rags soaked in human blood and even that it was made of real human hair. The boy quickly became attached to Robert and took him everywhere with him. It even slept with him and "fed" him at the table. Several times his parents heard him speak in a low voice to the doll when they passed his room. Before long, strange things began to happen in the house. Lamps fell and broke for no apparent reason. Plates and glasses flew off the table. In rooms where no one lived, they found clothes and beds messy. Whenever something like this happened, the parents turned to the boy, but he justified himself - "It wasn't me! It was Robert!". And each time the parents punished the boy. Over the years, the boy and the doll became closer and closer, and when Eugene's parents died, they were left alone in the house. There was a high turnover of servants because of the oppressive atmosphere. They heard giggling with no one in the room but the doll. Heard footsteps and voices. The grown-up Eugene married, but before long his wife was genuinely frightened not only by his abnormal attachment to the doll, but also by the continued mysterious activity. She sensed the evil in Robert and told her husband that if he wanted to keep this toy, he should leave it in the basement. He did so. Before long, neighbor children and pedestrians passing by the family's house began to notice movement behind the basement windows. It was as if Robert followed them from end to end. Eugene's health began to decline and he neglected his wife and took Robert into his bedroom again. In 1974 Eugene died. His wife again threw Robert into the basement and sold the house. The new owners had a 10-year-old daughter who found Robert in the basement sitting on a small chair and wrapped in a blanket. She moved him to her own room. However, one night she started screaming and when her parents came, she said that the doll was moving around the room and even tried to kill it. They decided to give the toy away and seeing that it was quite old they donated it to the East Martello Museum. It seems the museum people have researched (or made up) its history. Robert is currently kept in a glass case. Museum workers regularly claim to have seen him move. Strange noises and giggling are often heard at night. Some visitors also tell of paranormal activity. People who have photographed it without permission sometimes see that nothing at all has come out in the picture, or that the doll is in a different pose than the one it was in front of them. Also, people who photographed Robert without permission or laughed in disbelief at the story often had bad luck after leaving the museum. On the walls in the room where the doll is displayed, there are many letters from people asking Robert for forgiveness.