Hi!

I have had an interest in Robert the doll for a while. Definitely creepy. If you have Discovery or TLC, every so often he is featured on a Would You Believe It show. That is how I first heard of him.

You might have already gotten this, but this is what I know. I don't think the doll was plantation era. He was given to Eugene Robert Otto by the housekeeper (who was into Voodoo or something similar). It did not mention a curse. The boy was inseparable from his doll, which was made to look like young Eugene. He called the doll Robert and carried him everywhere. Anytime something was amiss in the house, he told his parents "Robert did it."

Otto grew up and became an artist. You can find out some more info if you look up the Artist House in Key West. He married and lived in a great house. Well, he still had Robert. Otto's wife hated the spooky doll and requested that he be placed somewhere out of sight. Otto put him in the attic, but the couple were treated to nights of all kinds of racket coming from there. And evidently, Robert would show up downstairs again.

Otto gave Robert his own room, the turret room in the fabulous house. The wife never went in there. There is a story of a repair man fixing something in the room w/ Robert and fleeing in terror. He wouldn't say what had happened. Neighborhood children reported seeing Robert's face in the turret room windows, moving about and giggling at them. Granted, these are kids who might have made that up, but it adds a nice flavor to the story.

Otto and his wife eventually died (I think relatively recently, in the past 40-50 years). I don't recall who first. The story goes that for some horrible reason, the wife haunts the turret room. The house was sold and the next tenets found the spooky doll in the attic. They did not want him and gave him to a museum.

I don't know if Robert has been in a couple of museums or just one. On Discovery, they show him sitting in a small rocker in the kitchen of this historic home museum. I have since heard of him being in the museum where he has a glass case. Apparently, museum goers report seeing his facial expression change from the sublime doll-face to something really evil looking. Caretakers report that the doll is getting older, so to speak. His red hair is fading to white. Psychics report that his spirit is dying. Don't know.

I have heard stories of how Robert changes position in his glass case. I have read that during a renovation at the museum, workers came in to see little footprints leading to and from his case in the dust. Giggles have been heard and all the great spooky stuff scary dolls do.

Hope this isn't stuff you already knew.

Iza


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