November 8, 2023 • 52 mins
Our guest this week is David Sloan. David is the author of Ghosts of Key West, Haunted Key West, and The Biography of Robert the Doll, so it's no surprise, he has created a ghostly gathering at the East Martello Museum dedicated to Robert the Doll.According to legend, Robert The Doll has supernatural abilities that allow it to move, change its facial expressions, and make giggling sounds. According to local folklore, the doll has caused "car accidents, broken bones, job loss, divorce and a cornucopia of other misfortunes", and museum visitors supposedly experience "post-visit misfortunes" for "failing to respect Robert.\"
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(00:00):
The Paranormal Project radio show. Garare your hosts Scott Allen and Christina Bowen.
(00:42):
Hello, good evening everybody, Welcomeback to The Paranormal Project. How
are you Christina? Do you havea good week? Had a great week?
It's been busy. Yeah, yeah, we have a fun show.
I don't want to spend a wholelot of time chatting between you and I
today because we have a great guest. I really uh been wanting to talk
to David for quite a while.He is, I guess, for lack
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of a better word, the handlerfor Robert the Doll. And for those
of you who haven't heard about Robert, you've been learning about him tonight and
all the shenanigans that have been goingon with him. So welcome to the
show. David Sloan, how areyou great? Thanks so many mysterious.
I'm doing great. Thanks, thanks, and that's great. Thank you for
coming on. I greatly appreciate it. How did you get involved with Robert?
(01:30):
I kind of feel like the universekind of put me around where he
was. I came to Key Westto start ghost tours in nineteen ninety six,
and I ended up I found anarticle that said Anne Otto was haunting
the artist house, and nobody wastalking about ghosts in town at the time.
So I knocked on the door andI said, hey, I'm here
to talk to you about your ghost. And the guy said, oh,
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you want to hear about Robert.I said, no, I want to
hear about Anne. He said,no, you want to hear and he
started telling me these stories about ahaunted doll, and I thought he was
absolutely crazy. But then he invitedme up to the attic where Robert the
doll used to live, and itwas still furnished with Robert's little chairs and
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tables. Oh my gosh. AndI've been in a lot of atticts in
my life, but I have neverfelt one like this. I thought I
was going to be physically ill.There was something up there with us.
It was insane, and I toldhim, thank you, I've got to
go. And he told me thatRobert was up at this museum and that
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he wasn't on display, that hehad to call up if you wanted to
see him. So I called themuseum and after about a week of trying,
there was someone who said, okay, I'll show him to you.
Nobody wanted to do it, andI went up there, and I remember
she came out and she was criddlingthe doll and she was talking to him
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like a little kid, and Ithought everybody in this town is insane.
She set him down so that Icould take photos, and almost immediately I
had camera problems. Ok. Itook some basic photos, but then I
wanted to get a picture of thedoll with his hat off. And if
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anybody hasn't seen Robert, he's thesize of a small child, you know.
He's about four feet tall. He'sstuffed with straw, He's covered and
felt, and termites have eaten awayat his face, so he looks like
a burn victim. But when Isaw him, I did not feel any
presence around him. There was nothing. It was just a plain old doll
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as far as I was concerned.But then I reached to take his hat
off of his head, his littlesailor hat, and I tell you,
the doll came alive. The energyof the room changed. The look in
Robert's eyes changed, expression on hisface changed, which sounds really weird for
a doll like that. And that'swhen I tried to take the pictures so
(04:09):
I could document the change, andthe camera would not function, and so
I tried. I shot off threepictures. None of them worked. I
could look at the camera. Itshoots the three pictures off in my direction.
As I was turning it around tolook at it, and then I
try another picture. It doesn't doit. I turn around to look.
It shoots it again in my direction, and then you could you could almost
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it was almost like you could hearchuckling or laughter, and the doll had
this this little laughter look on hisface. And then that energy just disappeared,
just like it had entered there.And what I think it is,
you know, the doll moving.I don't think his facial expression has really
changed. I think this one ofthe spirits is near the doll, and
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maybe what I witnessed was that spiritcoming out of the doll or going into
it, and it created that illusionof movement, because you could definitely feel
the change. And I swear thelook in his eyes changed to do you
feel there's more than one? Yousaid, spirits? Do you feel there's
more than one that come and gothrough him? I believe there's multiple entities.
(05:17):
What we believe right now is thatthere's one main spirit, which is
a child. A child who diedat a young age. It was the
child of Emmeline Abbot, who wasa nanny to the Otto family. And
we have census records that I uncoveredthat show that she lost a child between
nineteen hundred and nineteen ten when shelost One of the oldest legends about Robert
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is that he was given to Geneby an angry nanny, and we know
he was actually created by this stifecompany. But Emmeline was the nanny for
the autos for Eugene and I foundin nineteen twenty four news paper legal listing
where she filed a lawsuit against theestate of Jean's father, doctor Thomas Otto.
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So she was the angry nanny withoutdoubt connected to the family and the
fact that she lost a child becausea lot of people sense that child energy
an innocent child around Robert. Sothen where's the other stuff come in?
And that's what I grappled with foryears. It's like, wait, if
this is a little child. Littlechildren don't follow people home and leave dead
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deer on their yard, or cutoff their toes with lawnmowers or strike them
with lightning, you know something erOh yeah, yeah, that and much
much more I mean, he's receivedclose to ten thousand apology letters, so
it took a while to make senseof it. And then it's suddenly done.
Men, I'm like, oh,we're not dealing with just one entity.
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There's others that don't want that innocentchild's story out there, and those
are the darker one, and theythrive on the negativity people bring to the
museum where Robert is, you know, the people who go looking for Chucky,
the people who look for an evildoll. These ones thrive on it.
And the way we believe it works. You know, they'll say you
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have to ask permission to take apicture of Robert. I believe it's more.
No, you don't ask permission becausethat can be dangerous. You don't
ask any entity for permission. Youjust be respectful. And that's what I
find to be the common theme withpeople who have misfortune from Robert. They've
been disrespectful, and it's that disrespectand then they go home or they leave
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and things happen. Yeah, it'salmost as if the child feels hurt.
So the child it's like they tag, they tag that person with like a
sticky tar that sticks to them,and then the other entities come out of
that portal and latch on, Andthere's two main ones that we've identified.
I mean, they're like eight foottall creatures and they seem to be the
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main ones that people see, sothey seem to latch onto the people and
follow them home. People have seenthose around their houses after disrespecting Robert.
But there's others in there too,and that kind of explains how there can
be dozens or hundreds or even thousandsof people who are experiencing a curse from
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Robert at the same time. Soare you frightened? I mean, do
you ever get weirded out or nervousor do you think you're in a good
place? Do you do? Oh? Yeah? And you know, it's
it's been a roller coaster relationship withthe doll as I learn more and more,
and I'll get cocky a lot oftimes, you know, because I
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really try to give the energy tothe child and nurture the child, and
sometimes I think that I'm protected fromthe other stuff. And there's been three
major times that I've been really mindedthat, uh, that nobody's safe.
So you know, so tell us, is it as bad as you hear
(09:13):
about? I mean, obviously peoplegetting their their toes run overs pretty bad.
But yeah, the worst that Ihad it was when I started working
on the book about Robert because wehad uncovered all of this factual information about
the Auto family and the dolls origins, so we wanted to publish that.
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And when I first writing the book, I lost four hard drives in the
process. And after the first one, you know, I have everything backing
up, you know, were coveredevery single way, and I lost the
fourth hard drive. And when Ihad all the all the data sent to
me is that recorded every key strokeon my computer. Everything was there except
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the book on the Doll. Ohmy god. So it's stuff that I
can't explain away. And at firstit was little things like with electricity and
you know, first lights going onoff the house, and then I remember
I reached into a bowl of bikelights. You know, everybody rides their
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bikes in Key West, and asI reached in to grab one, the
entire bowl turned on every light inthere. And then it went to where
like I tapped my hand against theside of my truck, you know,
listening to music, can I hitit? A volt of electricity came out
of my fingers that almost dislocated myshoulder. It pushed my arm up so
hard. Oh my good lord,and then the best wagon describe it.
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It felt like there was like aif somebody dropped a pizza dough over your
head. It was like there wasa gray pizza dough that was trying to
get into my brain. And Istarted sleeping behind the church. It would
attack me wherever I was. Iwas walking my dog and there was a
huge palm front you know, andkey wesk we're talking. These are like
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ten or twelve feet long, andit had been raining, so it was
wet and heavy on the ground.This thing lifted up several feet in the
air and charged towards us and droppedat my feet. The dog ran away
kind of like yelping, you know, telescoping leash. I go back with
the dog. It lifted up anddid the same thing a second time.
So there was something very clearly lettingme know what kind of power it has
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and that it didn't like what Iwas doing. So why invite people to
come in and see it? What'syou know? I mean? Are you
afraid for people? Do you warnthem when they come in? We warned
them. We get people rules beforehand. And I do feel like in my
case, I was under attack becauseof what I was trying to reveal about
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the dog. And at this timeI didn't understand there were multiple entities.
I couldn't understand why the child spiritdidn't like that I was sharing that true
stories, you know, that wehad found out about a child who was
the true spirit in there. Youknow. Most recently, there was a
shock doc on Robert the Doll andthey sent a psychic down and she took
it a step further and said,ah, yeah, so Emmaline sought out
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a voodoo practitioner when her child diedbecause she wanted to seek revenge on the
father, you know, the doctor, for not saving her child. And
they said that this voodoo practitioner openedup a portal inside of the doll.
So I was dealing with multiple thingsthere. I ended up I put out
a plea on Facebook because I wasI was yanked out of my bed.
I yanked up and out of mybed, which sounds insane, It sounds
(12:37):
absolutely insane. And so I putout a plea on Facebook and I said,
I said, I desperately need help. I'm under attack from a spirit.
I can't handle. If you can'thelp me, do not comment.
I'm dead serious. And somebody putme in touch with local Santa Rea priest
and a couple of weeks later himand some of his family from Miami,
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they came and did what they calla mesa, a spiritual which is basically
a spirit mess. It's century isan African religion that came over with slaves
through Cuba and then mixed with Catholicismto disguise their gods, but it's tied
to the African religion. And theydid a ceremony that lasted several hours and
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removed multiple spirits that were attacking me. That's frightening. Yeah, yeah,
it was terrifying, But I don'tfeel like most people who go into the
fort are going to experience that.You know, I was really shaking things
up by digging so deep into thisand extracting this information because you have to
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understand the negative energy. You probablydo understand the negative energies. They thrive
on negativity, and I was puttingthat at risk. Do you feel like
I mean, you know, wetalked about when they go into the ford,
but what about what about like this, You're doing an interview and someone
chimes in and they're disrespectful. Doyou think being disrespectful here in this forum
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is dangerous? I'm not sure I'mgoing to do that, by the way,
but you know, I'm not surewhat to think about it. You
know, Robert was featured on theSam and Colby YouTube channel earlier this year,
and they have a huge following witha younger demographic, and you know,
they they said, you know,we're warning you before we put this
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up, don't look into Robert's eyes. And I received over the over the
next several weeks, we received callsand emails people who were feeling physically ill
and manifesting problems after looking at thedoll. Now, how much of that
was Robert and how much of thatis a thought that was planted in their
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head? I can't answer that,but I can tell you that most of
the people who experience a curse aroundhim, it's not just from looking at
a picture him on the internet.It's not from anything like that. It's
people who are there in person disrespectinghim. And that's what I believe.
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But you know, his more andmore people come to see him, is
that making the spirit stronger? That'scertainly something to consider. Is that a
thing? Don't look into his eyes? Is that a thing? Or is
that just something that they said.You know, more people seem to be
having issues with it. But youknow, the rules with Robert, I
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think the only rule that you canreally say is be respectful. You know
the one spread about you have toask permission to take a photo. And
I always thought that was stupid,because come on, how's he going to
say yes or no or tell youif he's given you permission. You know,
this one also stemmed from he usedto drink, well he still does.
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He drains batteries, but batteries usedto be in cameras, you know,
before everybody had their cell phones,so it was really pacemakers and cameras
having problems, and more people hadcameras than pacemakers. So the story starts
going around, Oh, Robert messeswith cameras all the time. And so
with those stories, somebody said,well we should probably ask him for permission
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to take his picture that and thenthat just kind of took on a life
of its own and snowballed. Andit's even it's even written on the on
the wall at the fort. Youknow, they've got a sign that says,
remember you must ask Robert for permission, you know, as someone involved
in the paranormal. I don't likeit. I don't think it's good because
it does open up the possibility you'regoing to put yourself below them, you
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know, Oh can I do that? Yeah? Can I do that?
So I think you open yourself upto inviting them in a little more when
you ask permission. That makes sense, That makes sense. But being respectful,
and you know, I don't know. I mean my own question is,
you know, if it's something that'sdark anyway, do they really care
about respect I mean, is thatgoing to appease them if you're respectful or
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are they just looking to do harm? You know? It seems to me
like the child is like the gatekeeperthere, and it's if the child's having
issues, then then you know,then then the other problems happen. So
I think we've upset the hounds fromhell. It's the wearable. What kind
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of dog you have? You have? A pops obviously at least, no,
it's that's just one. He's ahound. Oh I just oh my
gosh, yeah, yeah, yeah, he's a he's a he's a big
old hand and that was that justran behind you? Right? Just you
know it very it very well couldhave been. It's it's like maybe maybe
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maybe when you ask that the spiritscan come through to wherever we are,
maybe maybe they were their true colors. Maybe maybe, Oh my gosh,
I don't know. It's frightening though. I mean, you know, when
I think of the Annabel doll,I mean, and I don't know how
much you know about Annabel? Doyou do? You do you think of
any similarities and in how they howthey affect people. I think I think
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with haunted dolls today, there area lot. You know, Robert's really
the original haunted doll. And thenof course you had the the Twilight Zone
episode the Living Dolls where they hadtalking Tina and I wonder if if she
helped inspire Annabel a little bit.The mom's name in that episode was was
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Annabel and you had and that cameout about about four years before the Annabel
doll. But you know, butthat name could have you know, that
name could have just come into thatarea because of things like that. Right,
But Annabel's fascinating because there are certainlypeople who have experienced strange phenomena around
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Annabel, but with her being inthe museum that really has limited access right
now. You know, it's notlike anybody can go see Annabel. People
can go see Robert. So youcan count on one hand the number of
people who have been cursed by Annabel, where if you want to do that
with Robert, you're going to needthousands of hands. Yeah, so I
think so. I think there areparallels, but there's big differences too.
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Is there an issue with touching him? Because I thought I saw a picture
and that now I can't remember ifit was you or not actually holding him.
I mean, yeah, yeah,yeah, I've told him before you
have held him. Is there anissue with that? Do you think?
I mean, I didn't find anyissues with it, you know now today
the big issue is he's fragile.He's one hundred and nineteen years old,
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of course, so you know,the less he's handled the better, which
is why he's kept behind the protectiveglass. And you know, so that
that whole box that he is inthat's alarmed, and that has the different
humidity controls and all the things necessaryto make sure that he lasts a long
time. And you know, he'straveled a few times in his life,
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but he really doesn't travel anymore justbecause of course with his increased popularity too
there's there's security issues with that Idon't know, but also just moving him,
it's every time you movement, what'sthe dollar risk? And because the
museum Robert's owned by the Key WestArt and Historical Society, which is the
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oldest nonprofit museum or organization in KeyWest and they're great. So what they
do though, is they protect Robertas an artifact and they obviously know about
the paranormal side of things. AndI've been researching Robert before he was on
display and found out a lot.So I've worked in conjunction with the Art
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Historical Society. You know, mybusiness does ghost tours and things like that,
but so so I do the paranormalside of things with Robert, and
they take care of him as anartifact and they try to make the museum
accessible to everybody who wants to experiencethe doll. Do they have other things
like that in their museum or isit just is he kind of the one
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paranormal thing. There's a lot ofreally incredible stuff. One of my favorite
artifacts is the is the tombstone ofElena Hoyos, and she's the one that
an X ray technician in Key Westwho was much older, fell in love
with. She didn't want to bewith him. She was she had she
had consumption. But I think hemurdered her. I think he poisoned her
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so she'd die a little quicker,and then he removed her from the grave,
rebuilt her body, and lived withher for seven years, so her
tombstone. When he was they foundhim not guilty, and when he left
town, he blew up the tombthat he had built for her, And
the museum has her original tombstone fromthere, which is pretty incredible. But
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they also have I mean, it'san old Civil War for it was built
on a native burial ground. Itwas it never saw active battle. It
was a Union for it, butit was used as a yellow fever hospital,
so you had a lot of deathfrom disease in there. And that's
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a large number of the spirits you'llfind are Civil War soldiers. But it's
also a collection of Key West artifacts. It's the first museum in Key West,
so this is when the locals weredonating their cool stuff. So there's
you know, there's Native American dugoutcanoes, there's old Spanish treasure chests,
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there's rafts that refugee rafts from Cubathat people lost their lives on. So
you have all these fascinating artifacts thathave these energies, and we don't know
were those energies there when they arrivedor is it other spirits that fill in
around them. But it's one ofUSA today, I think for the last
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four years in her own named itone of the ten most haunted locations in
the United States. Really, now, do you investigate the muse am or
is that just we do? Wedo ghost tours there every night and people
can do the regular guided tour andthen if they want, they can add
on an extra hour where we givethem all the cool ghost honey equipment and
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they get to go around and dotheir own investigation. Wow, I bet
you. With that kind of energyin there though, it must be incredible.
It's it's truly insane, And youknow, I think some people are
tuned into the spirits and some arenot. But it's one of the most
active places that I've been, andpeople regularly come out. A lot of
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people get the same name. Youknow that with the spirit boxes, they
we'll get the same name again andagain and again. Something really interesting.
There was a soldier named Charles Knolland he was killed in Key West by
friendly fire during the Civil War.He was collecting seashells on the beach and
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he was shot. He was hewas part of the Pennsylvania forty seventh Regiment
Regiment and he was killed by somebodyfrom the New York ninetieth. They weren't
supposed to have bullets in their gunsand it went off and it went right
through his head. And we hadbeen getting his name through the spirit box,
and that's why I looked him upand was able to uncover this story.
But then the strangest thing. Iwas with my wife up in Pittsburgh
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and I had found on eBay oneof a piece of his history. It
was his uniform requisition, and soI scooped that up on EVA and I'm
like, this is really weird.And then after it arrived, we went
to get our tarot cards read andit was in this really cool shop in
(25:10):
Pittsburgh and I was in the backroom getting my cards read, and you
know, I think it was athirty minute reading, and towards the end
she said is there anything else youwant to ask? I feel like you
have a question, and I'd beget angry for no reason. And I
said, why am I getting angry? And she pulled out some cards and
then she goes, oh my god, you have a spirit attached to you.
(25:33):
And she said that, and therewas a crash in the main store
and she turned around and I said, I said, you just scared that
spirit out of me. This isinteresting. So we go my session.
She says, well, there's nothingelse I can do for you now,
and so my wife goes in forher reading. I go down the block
to a little brewpub and there wereonly three people in there, and I
(25:57):
told them, I said, Ijust found out I've got a spirit attachment.
I said, let's see if wecan get rid of it. The
door of the of the bar openedup. The side door just opened all
the way one hundred percent, andeverybody just kind of looked over and they're
like, that was weird. AndI told them I was from Key West.
The bartender said, oh my god, I used to live in Key
(26:18):
West. And then both of thepeople in the bar, there were only
four of us, they said,oh my god, my parents are in
Key west right now. Wow,So fast forward. I go back to
the to the place where the readingwas and I asked the girl to register
because nobody else was in there.I said, what happened when there was
that crash? She said, itwas the weirdest thing. Your wife wasn't
(26:41):
even standing by any of this stuff, but these two vials of oil just
flew off the shelf and onto thefloor. I said, well that's I
said, well, that's really weird. I said, where did they land?
And she points down the floor therewas a statue. It was like
a little toy doll of a soldier. Really, so I think that this
(27:03):
might have been that spirit of CharlesKnolf saying I'm glad you found my story
or something like that. So Idon't know that's that's that's who, or
who knows. It might have beenRobert one of the other ones. I'm
still kind of processing the entire thing. But I mean, but yeah,
all the way up in Pittsburgh,you know, yeah, yeah. And
(27:27):
I've had these spirits that follow mefrom the fort on a couple of occasions,
and I don't know if it's becausethey feel like I can communicate for
them or maybe understand them a littlebit. I'm not sure what it is.
You'd probably know more about that thanme. Are you a little are
you a little intuitive? And anddo you have a little bit of that
(27:48):
sense where you feel like you getstuff from spending reason with it. The
reason I say that is I feellike from my own experience too, is
they know who they can. It'slike your light burns a little different.
They know who you are, andthey know you by name, and they
did It's they'll they'll make a racketjust to get you to recognize the fact
(28:11):
that they're there. And you know, that's kind of what happened to me
when all of this started years ago. But it's it feels like that,
you know, it's they know whoyou are, and it's pay attention to
me. I'm trying to get yourattention. Yeah. I think from spending
so much time with them and puttingso much energy into the fort, I
think they know that. Do yourun the toys yourself? Are the investigations
(28:36):
yourself? You know? I usedto. For the first couple of years,
I did all of them, andthen I've I've got an another great
guy, Dan Radovsky, and he'sour lead investigator now. It's funny.
It seems like all of us arefrom Pennsylvania and the fort was under the
control of the Pennsylvania forty seventh Volunteers, So there's this interesting pencil any energy
(29:00):
going through there. So so he'lldo that, and we'll have a couple
of other doll tenders as well,you know, to help out with the
vipd oring busier times. So wedo tours every night, sometimes Dan,
sometimes myself. We kind of switchit around. So if I'm in Miami
and I decided to drive because I'veheard the drip is beautiful, how long
(29:22):
does it take to get from Miamito keep webs from Miami? It's about
three or four hours, depending onthat long. Wow. Yeah, yeah,
So you know we're we're really outin the middle of the ocean,
two hundred miles from Fort Lauderdale,and the whole island used to be a
coral reef when you go back farenough, and you know, then then
(29:42):
that was exposed eventually, and thenwith the erosion, and then they built
the railroad and then they built thehighways. Sorry, go ahead, no,
I want to hear what you said. No, I was going to
say, I have an event inUh, it's it's not there. It's
in Naples in February. But nowI'm thinking I should spend a couple of
(30:07):
days and head to Key West.I know it'd be probably like five hours
or six hours now, I don'tknow from yeah, and you know,
from Naples. Fort Myers has agreat ferry. They've got the Fort Myers
Ferry that the Key West is reallyso you can actually just chill on the
boat, have a few beers andand cruise down and get a way to
(30:29):
do it, come and spend thenight. That's a great That's how I
recommend people do it from the westcoast of Florida. I think I'll do
that because I was going to tryto get in there on a Wednesday,
and then I'm done on you know, I'm done on Sunday, so I
could go right after that or yeah, whatever. I think that would be
great to have a couple of days. I've never been. I've always wanted
(30:51):
to go. Everybody says it's phenomenal. Qy Wes is incredible. It's not
just one of the most vaulted placesin the United States, but it's uh,
it's unlike the rest of Florida it'smore like a Caribbean island than it
is like Florida. Well, youknow, I have a ten year old,
so these days we go to Floridaand it involves a mouse and a
few other stuffed characters. Yeah,yeah, yeah, I can't take him
(31:15):
to Key West with me. Idon't think he's ready for that, but
I think, but I do.It sounds like somebody different. Yeah,
yeah, exactly exactly, But wellthat's all right. Today I wanted to
know what viagra was for. Imaginetrying to have that conversation with you roll
at all. So that's why Ihave a you have a dog, Yes
(31:37):
exactly, Oh my god. Butyou know, so maybe I'll take it.
Maybe I'll do that, see ifI can work that around. I
would love to go down. Icertainly love to see the fort and and
see what I'll I say, I'venever been, so it's been on my
list. Yeah, it's an incredibleplace. I'd love to show you around.
Yeah, well, you know,I don't know. I don't know
if you're there at the end ofFebruary. You know, I'm literally there
(31:59):
the last weekend in February, andso again right after that before I fly
off to New Orleans, but thatwould be kind of cool. And there's
some incredible stuff, you know.We just started doing tours at the Haunted
Firehouse. There's a firehouse here.It's one of the oldest fire stations in
Florida. It was built in nineteenoh seven and a lot of people felt
(32:21):
that it was cursed when it wasbuilt. They started construction when and this
is another place, you know,Key West. The name comes from Kyle
Hueso, which means island of bones, because the entire island was covered with
bones and nobody's quite sure the sourceof them. They believe they're native bones.
Some people say they're from a greatbattle. Some people say they're from
(32:44):
a hurricane. Some people say itwas just a sacred spot for them.
But almost everywhere you go is builtover bones, and with the firehouses on
top of this great freshwater reservoir.So that would have been a spot that
people sought out a long time ago. So that's what some psychics think is
(33:04):
that it was built over some gravesperhaps, But they finished the firehouse before
the fireman even moved in. Theyhad a fire in the engine row,
So mysterious fire does that? Yeah, before anybody was there, and then
when they moved in, it wasbarely just a little over a year and
a hurricane came through and ripped theroof off and took down one of the
(33:27):
walls. And the interesting thing is, on the night of that hurricane there
were three boys born in Key West. All three of them went on to
lead the firehouse that station as he'seither an assistant fire chief or a fire
chief, and it was almost likethey were brought here to change things around.
(33:50):
And there's just this incredible energy throughoutthe place, you know, and
most firemen they're not you know,they're not scared, but they've got attitudes
and they're practical jokers. And there'ssome really interesting stuff that goes on.
And of course that then we havesome I mean, there was one fire
(34:10):
chief and he lost the election andso he went out and got drunk and
shot a prostitute in the face.The way the town went, he was
able to be let go. Imean, they let him go. He
never faced prosecution, so yikes.So there is there's some interesting energy like
(34:32):
that going on too. Are youfrom there, I mean, did you
grow up and lived there your wholelife or did you move there? No,
it's interesting. So I moved therein ninety six. I was born
in Philadelphia, oh Okay. Andthen only about three years ago, four
years ago, when I really startedgoing into the Civil War history of the
(34:52):
fort, I found out that mygreat great great grandfather's Civil War regiment was
in tru Key West during the CivilWar. He was Pennsylvania forty seventh.
So the very first David Livingston Sloanhe was, he was in Key West
and he might have helped build thefort where Robert the Dall is. That's
(35:15):
good. There are no coincidences,and we say this all the time.
There's no question. It's just likeyou're supposed to be there. You know,
you're supposed to be doing what you'redoing. When I found that out,
and that's that's why in the beginningwhen I said, I kind of
feel like the universe kind of likesent me there, you know, coming
to Key West to start the ghostTooris, like everything's kind of put me
where I should be at the righttime. When I came to Key West,
(35:39):
I researched looking for ghosts for probablyabout ten days, and I was
finding nothing. And I got towhere i'd go into the different bars and
I tipped the bartender really well andsay, oh, is this that haunted
bar And they'd say, Nope,not heard anything. So like nobody was
(35:59):
taught about ghosts, and I was. I had been to the library,
of course, and I was gettingready to leave town because I found nothing.
And uh, you know, Iused I used to manage cruise ships
and I'd seen a ghost tour inScotland. That's how I got the idea
ghost tours. We were kind ofunheard of in the United States. There
might have been two or three ofthem in existence. So uh, when
(36:24):
I was leaving, I got lostleaving my friend's house and as a small
island and get lost on of me. Getting lost in keys is stupid.
And so I was drying and Iwas just frustrated and I didn't know where
my life was going. And somebodyappeared next to me in my car and
(36:44):
I just remember they're kind of likelike they're grayish, grayish kind of suit,
it seemed like to me. Andthey said, they said go back
to the library, and I lookedat him. I don't know where the
library is. And I didn't eventhink that I was yelling at somebody in
my car and then they were gone, and I look up and I see
a sign this is library parking only, and so I park and I go
(37:07):
in. And this time when Iwent into the Florida History Room, the
county historian was there. His name'sTom Hambright. And Tom looks at me,
and he was a big, imposingman, and he says, can
I help you with something? AndI said, I'm looking for a book
on ghosts of Key West and hesaid there are none, and I said,
(37:32):
okay, thank you, and Istarted to leave and he said,
hey, hey, don't leave yet. I've got no books, but there's
ghosts. And he goes into thiswalk in vault. You know, they
had built this hurricane proof vault forall the most important documents of the Florida
Keys history. And he came outwith a folder labeled Ghosts and it had
(37:57):
newspaper clippings from the past thirty years, and it has stories of voodoo,
and it had the snippets that havebeen published around Halloween. And I started
going through and mapping the haunted housesout and you know, identifying who the
ghosts were. And then I wentand knocked on the doors and I was
able to talk to the people youknow, and nowadays everything's going corporate in
(38:19):
Key West, you know, soit's like the mom and pop places are
less and less and less. Butat the time I arrived, you found
people who had owned the bed andbreakfast for thirty years, and so I
was getting thirty years worth of ghoststories from them, and people were so
happy to talk about them. Becauseghosts, you know, it seems like
(38:42):
through history, the belief in themincreases after times of suffering or times of
war, or times of pandemics andthings like that. But there have been
periods of time when it's just notcool to talk about them because people think
you're a weirdo. You know,before all the ghosts shows start coming out,
there was a time when people wouldbe like, oh, I'm not
(39:04):
saying anything about that. They're goingto think I'm strange. I agree you,
And so we were on the tailend of that. It was just
getting to where people were starting totalk about them again. Around ninety six,
you know, there were horror moviesout. People loved those. But
if you have told somebody so,these people just relished talking to me about
the strange things they had been encountering. And I got some incredible incredible stories
(39:27):
and was able to really start documentingthe haunted history of the island. And
let's face it, you're in KeyWest, so there's enough stuff there that's
interesting. Shall we say that.You know, I think you can be
a little different. I mean,it's not like you're in Fort Wayne,
Indiana, you know, yeah,kind of like fit in. I would
think they would embrace anything that's kindof different and odd, you know,
(39:47):
and the whole ghost thing. It'strue though, it's just a little bit
different. You know, you justsort of out there. And I still
get that from people. I stillyeah, and there's you know, I
think it's interesting because a lo alot of the most haunted places in the
United States are the old port towns. So you know, you look at
New Orleans and Charleston and in KeyWest and Savannah and Saint Augustine, all
(40:10):
the old port towns really have seemedto have so much And I think part
of that's the water, part ofit's the character, and there's some of
the you know, some of theoldest places that people were going and passing
through. But so I feel veryfortunate there's a lot of a lot of
the great historic structures are still preservedhere. So you've got a lot of
(40:30):
a lot of houses from the fromthe late eighteen hundreds. Even with the
hurricanes that come through. I mean, how is that living down there on
that kind of a I mean,you really you don't have anything to block
it, really, do you.We have? We have a grotto that
protects us from hurricanes, and it'sat the Catholic Church here. And back
(40:53):
in the early nineteen hundreds, therewere two back to back hurricanes that devastated
the island, I mean like hitit hard, hard heart. So there
was a sister there at the churchand she built this grotto and she dedicated
it and said, as long asthis grotto stands, key West will never
(41:14):
suffer the full brunt of a majorhurricane. Really, and it's been true
ever since then. You know,we've had Category ones passed through here,
We've had Category fours that skirt usand change at the last minute. And
whenever there's a storm ruined, somany people from Key West will go down
to the grotto and they'll light thecandles and they'll say the prayers and they'll
(41:37):
may the offerings. So that's ourbiggest form of protection, and that's a
bit of a tourist attraction in itself, I imagine because of the powers.
And then you also had shipbuilders whowere building the houses. So you know,
a lot of the early houses hadhad wooden nails as you know,
as the pegs connecting them. Sothey were built strong, and they were
(41:58):
built good, and they'll Dade CountyPine, so a lot of them are
equipped to hold up to a lot. Oh that's good. Melissa Black,
when she's been commenting here in thechat, I guess she's seen you and
she's been to Key West, butshe said, you need to have David
send you the photos you had atthe end of your presentation in Michigan.
I didn't get there this year,so I didn't see you talk. I
(42:19):
was there last year. Hey,Melissa, what were your photos? Were
they? I mean, obviously I'mnot going to ask you to go get
them, but well, I'm I'mtrying to think which ones they could have
been. I know we've got somewhere. There's Robert pushing the ball off of
the case at the Fort. Weput a ball on his case and because
my back's to him a lot,and I tell him, I say,
listen, if you don't like somethinggoing on, push the ball. And
(42:44):
I've had that ball pushed off ofthat case about thirteen times over the course
of four years. And that's people. I always know what is going to
happen now too, because you cantell when there's someone who's just bad energy
on the tour. And there wasone time the person who was going to
be in a jerk, he'd usuallypushed the ball where it lands like right
(43:06):
by the person, but the waythe seating configure issue was set up,
they were kind of towards the back, and so I'm thinking, I'm like,
how's he going to do this?And then the tours almost over and
nothing had happened, and then alady sitting right right front by Robert,
she crosses her leg, the ballgoes off the case, it hits her
toe and rolls right up to thefeet of the person who was being the
(43:30):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, Sothere's that. There's some other We've had
almost one hundred people burned with theirreligious symbols at the fort. We've had
people with their crosses where the crossburns right into them. So we've just
wear a cross. It is thatdangerous to wear a cross. I don't
(43:51):
know if it's dangerous. It's happenedclose to one hundred times, which is
a lot, but you have tofigure we've probably had five ten thousand crosses
come round that time, so it'snot like everybody with the cross will have
it happen. But we've had people'sglasses fog up for no reason, you
(44:13):
know, like just like out ofthe blue. We've had glasses pulled off
of people's heads. People get theirhair touched a lot, you know.
There's people have had things growl intheir ear. There have been a few
people who have been scratched. Iwas scratched pretty bad. I think that's
one of the videos I showed inMichigan. Yeah, so what about the
(44:40):
religious tattoos? People with religious tattoos, people with religious tattoos, and you
know, it's it's interesting too.I've had three people who had like the
Eye of Protection on them as jewelry, and those have started heating up.
But I see the lissas saying,so there's this, there's this crazy photo.
(45:02):
So okay. Children with autism,they usually don't see Robert's evil.
They usually come in to see thedoll and they're like they're like, oh,
hi, Robert, I love you, Robert. Oh, Robert,
you're my friend. And they endup sending him birthday cards and pictures of
them and we had there was awoman came in and her she had a
(45:27):
child with autism. He had beenwanting to see the doll for a long,
long long time. Museum's getting readyto close, and so they go
in and uh so they get upthere, they go see the doll.
They come back out and he says, mom, we forgot to get a
picture with Robert. So his momknocks back on the door and the girl
(45:47):
opens and she's like, can weplease just go back for a photo?
And the girl says, yeah,of course you can't. And so they're
the only ones in the entire fort. They get back out to the car
and they look at their photograph.Behind Robert, you can very clearly see
the silhouette of a little girl andshe's got her hair and braids, and
(46:08):
we think that that may be thedaughter of Emily Abbott, the Angry Nanny.
So we think that Robert's actually isactually a little behaming a American girl.
Wow, Melissa says, I guessthe picture you showed was a young
adult standing at the side of Robert'sdisplay case. You know. Then off
the left there's a child spirit andreflection, but no child was here.
(46:30):
Yeah, yep, that's the one. Thanks for reminding me of that,
Melissa crazy. It's crazy, it'sit's it's insanity. I mean, I
think it's absolutely fascinating, but youknow, I'm also a little chicken that
kind of whether you believe it ornot, I'm just going to be safe
(46:50):
about it. Well, my husbandwas. He's a non believer. He
always referred to the paranormal as moreof my ghosty stuff. But I drug
him through because I had to seeRobert. And it took and I was
using an actual camera, not justmy cell phone, but it took like
seven or eight times before I wasactually able to get the picture. I
(47:15):
had the shutter froze, the batteriesjust locked, the battery door locked,
the SD card was full, justa lot of craziness before I could actually
get the photo. But I didfinally get one. I went in today.
They've got these They've got these greatRobert Christmas dolls because a lot of
(47:38):
people want to take a little pieceof Robert home. So they've got the
many Robert dolls and they've got themany Robert Christmas dolls, and so I
went in. I was taking abunch of pictures of them around the fort,
and I probably took thirty pictures.I got out and I looked at
them. They were like fifteen ofthem. And look, I was looking
at these pictures when I took them, they were fine. When I looked
(48:00):
to them, about fifteen of them, there was they were blurred. There
was nothing there. And listen oneor two. Okay, maybe I missed
it. But to have that manyhappen, so yeah, that the camera
start continues and continues to happen,Melissa. I'm just reading some of the
comments that people have started to comment. And then Melissa says there was a
(48:21):
girlfriend who was theah was so terrifiedshe made her leave her phone in the
car for fear she might ready totake a picture. Thrilled to be in
the same room with them. Yeah, but you say that the photos aren't
necessarily the problem. It's it's thedisrespect. Yeah, And I think with
the sign up on the wall,you know, the sign says, remember
you have to ask permission to takephotos. So if some people read that
(48:43):
and think that's the rule and sayI'm not going to do it. Well,
that's disrespectful, right, So Ithink I think it can get into
that. And you know, yousee people who who delete their photos afterwards.
There's a lot of people who don'tlike seeing a picture of Robert and
going through a cross through their socialmedia without warning. Yeah, I get
(49:05):
it. And I remember seeing Annabellein the Warren Paracon a couple of years
ago and the woman I was withsaid, delete that from your phone,
do not take that pick, donot take them with you in your phone.
So people have different thoughts and beliefs, you know. Yeah, So
we have a few minutes that Robert. I'd really like to let people know
how they can find you if they'rein Key West and and buy people,
(49:27):
I mean me, but I wantI can't find you while we get there.
Where are your ghost tours? AndI know there's some books too.
Yeah, so there there are tonsof ghost tours in Key West and most
of them are really good. Ifyou want to find the one that goes
to Robert the Dalt, we're theonly one that does that. You can
go to ghost key West dot com. So ghost qs dot com. That's
(49:50):
this for the official Robert tours,and then if you want other haunted stuff,
because there's so much cool stuff intown. I set up a free
website that's like a paranormal vacation guide, and that list haunted hotels, haunted
restaurants, haunted bars, haunted museums. It lists some of the other great
ghost tours in town. If you'relike, hey, Robert's too much for
me, I want to go seeI just want a regularly walking tour.
(50:13):
We recommend the companies that do goodwith that, you know, friends of
mine and people who are reputable.So puniqus dot com has a ton of
that that's got information on it Somewhere. There's an entire set of Robert links
that you know, people can buysmerch online and that all benefits the museum.
So it all benefits the nonprofit organization. And uh, there's links to
(50:36):
my books and stuff on there.You can buy them through the museum and
that benefits the museum too, sowell, but they're they're on Amazon all
all the good places. Well,David, I hope people check it out.
I know I'm going to do mybest. I'll let you know if
I'm going to be able to makeit in February, but I want to
thank you for coming on. Ithas been an absolute pleasure of having you,
and you know, I'm just soglad we're able to work it out
(51:00):
next week. Everybody so greaty tobe here. I really appreciate it.
Next week we're going to be talkingto a gentleman who has been abducted by
aliens since he was a child.That continues to happen two or three times
every month to this day. Andhe's now and probably his mid fifties.
So we're going to be talking tohim next week. And I am done
(51:22):
with my announcement, So David,thank you again. I greatly appreciate you,
and it's been a real pleasure.I hope you'll hang on after the
show wraps. I just want tochat with you for one second. Thank
you to everyone who's been here todayand joined us on the show, and
thank you for Christina. We've beenhaving some audio trouble since we come on,
so that's why she's sitting here mutedand you can't hear her most of
(51:42):
the time. She wants to sayanything, So here we are. Anyway,
next week, we will see you. Thank you, David, thank
you Christina, and We'll see younext week right here on the Paranormal Project.
Have a great day, everybody.Thanks everyone been listening to The Paranormal
Project radio show with Scott All andChristina Bowen. Be sure to subscribe so
(52:08):
you don't miss the next episode.While you're there, leave us a rating
and review. We'll be back nextweek with more exciting guests. Now,
go out there and explore the paranormal
The Paranormal Project radio show. Garare your hosts Scott Allen and Christina Bowen.
(00:42):
Hello, good evening everybody, Welcomeback to The Paranormal Project. How
are you Christina? Do you havea good week? Had a great week?
It's been busy. Yeah, yeah, we have a fun show.
I don't want to spend a wholelot of time chatting between you and I
today because we have a great guest. I really uh been wanting to talk
to David for quite a while.He is, I guess, for lack
(01:04):
of a better word, the handlerfor Robert the Doll. And for those
of you who haven't heard about Robert, you've been learning about him tonight and
all the shenanigans that have been goingon with him. So welcome to the
show. David Sloan, how areyou great? Thanks so many mysterious.
I'm doing great. Thanks, thanks, and that's great. Thank you for
coming on. I greatly appreciate it. How did you get involved with Robert?
(01:30):
I kind of feel like the universekind of put me around where he
was. I came to Key Westto start ghost tours in nineteen ninety six,
and I ended up I found anarticle that said Anne Otto was haunting
the artist house, and nobody wastalking about ghosts in town at the time.
So I knocked on the door andI said, hey, I'm here
to talk to you about your ghost. And the guy said, oh,
(01:51):
you want to hear about Robert.I said, no, I want to
hear about Anne. He said,no, you want to hear and he
started telling me these stories about ahaunted doll, and I thought he was
absolutely crazy. But then he invitedme up to the attic where Robert the
doll used to live, and itwas still furnished with Robert's little chairs and
(02:15):
tables. Oh my gosh. AndI've been in a lot of atticts in
my life, but I have neverfelt one like this. I thought I
was going to be physically ill.There was something up there with us.
It was insane, and I toldhim, thank you, I've got to
go. And he told me thatRobert was up at this museum and that
(02:36):
he wasn't on display, that hehad to call up if you wanted to
see him. So I called themuseum and after about a week of trying,
there was someone who said, okay, I'll show him to you.
Nobody wanted to do it, andI went up there, and I remember
she came out and she was criddlingthe doll and she was talking to him
(02:58):
like a little kid, and Ithought everybody in this town is insane.
She set him down so that Icould take photos, and almost immediately I
had camera problems. Ok. Itook some basic photos, but then I
wanted to get a picture of thedoll with his hat off. And if
(03:20):
anybody hasn't seen Robert, he's thesize of a small child, you know.
He's about four feet tall. He'sstuffed with straw, He's covered and
felt, and termites have eaten awayat his face, so he looks like
a burn victim. But when Isaw him, I did not feel any
presence around him. There was nothing. It was just a plain old doll
(03:44):
as far as I was concerned.But then I reached to take his hat
off of his head, his littlesailor hat, and I tell you,
the doll came alive. The energyof the room changed. The look in
Robert's eyes changed, expression on hisface changed, which sounds really weird for
a doll like that. And that'swhen I tried to take the pictures so
(04:09):
I could document the change, andthe camera would not function, and so
I tried. I shot off threepictures. None of them worked. I
could look at the camera. Itshoots the three pictures off in my direction.
As I was turning it around tolook at it, and then I
try another picture. It doesn't doit. I turn around to look.
It shoots it again in my direction, and then you could you could almost
(04:30):
it was almost like you could hearchuckling or laughter, and the doll had
this this little laughter look on hisface. And then that energy just disappeared,
just like it had entered there.And what I think it is,
you know, the doll moving.I don't think his facial expression has really
changed. I think this one ofthe spirits is near the doll, and
(04:56):
maybe what I witnessed was that spiritcoming out of the doll or going into
it, and it created that illusionof movement, because you could definitely feel
the change. And I swear thelook in his eyes changed to do you
feel there's more than one? Yousaid, spirits? Do you feel there's
more than one that come and gothrough him? I believe there's multiple entities.
(05:17):
What we believe right now is thatthere's one main spirit, which is
a child. A child who diedat a young age. It was the
child of Emmeline Abbot, who wasa nanny to the Otto family. And
we have census records that I uncoveredthat show that she lost a child between
nineteen hundred and nineteen ten when shelost One of the oldest legends about Robert
(05:43):
is that he was given to Geneby an angry nanny, and we know
he was actually created by this stifecompany. But Emmeline was the nanny for
the autos for Eugene and I foundin nineteen twenty four news paper legal listing
where she filed a lawsuit against theestate of Jean's father, doctor Thomas Otto.
(06:06):
So she was the angry nanny withoutdoubt connected to the family and the
fact that she lost a child becausea lot of people sense that child energy
an innocent child around Robert. Sothen where's the other stuff come in?
And that's what I grappled with foryears. It's like, wait, if
this is a little child. Littlechildren don't follow people home and leave dead
(06:29):
deer on their yard, or cutoff their toes with lawnmowers or strike them
with lightning, you know something erOh yeah, yeah, that and much
much more I mean, he's receivedclose to ten thousand apology letters, so
it took a while to make senseof it. And then it's suddenly done.
Men, I'm like, oh,we're not dealing with just one entity.
(06:54):
There's others that don't want that innocentchild's story out there, and those
are the darker one, and theythrive on the negativity people bring to the
museum where Robert is, you know, the people who go looking for Chucky,
the people who look for an evildoll. These ones thrive on it.
And the way we believe it works. You know, they'll say you
(07:15):
have to ask permission to take apicture of Robert. I believe it's more.
No, you don't ask permission becausethat can be dangerous. You don't
ask any entity for permission. Youjust be respectful. And that's what I
find to be the common theme withpeople who have misfortune from Robert. They've
been disrespectful, and it's that disrespectand then they go home or they leave
(07:43):
and things happen. Yeah, it'salmost as if the child feels hurt.
So the child it's like they tag, they tag that person with like a
sticky tar that sticks to them,and then the other entities come out of
that portal and latch on, Andthere's two main ones that we've identified.
I mean, they're like eight foottall creatures and they seem to be the
(08:03):
main ones that people see, sothey seem to latch onto the people and
follow them home. People have seenthose around their houses after disrespecting Robert.
But there's others in there too,and that kind of explains how there can
be dozens or hundreds or even thousandsof people who are experiencing a curse from
(08:24):
Robert at the same time. Soare you frightened? I mean, do
you ever get weirded out or nervousor do you think you're in a good
place? Do you do? Oh? Yeah? And you know, it's
it's been a roller coaster relationship withthe doll as I learn more and more,
and I'll get cocky a lot oftimes, you know, because I
(08:46):
really try to give the energy tothe child and nurture the child, and
sometimes I think that I'm protected fromthe other stuff. And there's been three
major times that I've been really mindedthat, uh, that nobody's safe.
So you know, so tell us, is it as bad as you hear
(09:13):
about? I mean, obviously peoplegetting their their toes run overs pretty bad.
But yeah, the worst that Ihad it was when I started working
on the book about Robert because wehad uncovered all of this factual information about
the Auto family and the dolls origins, so we wanted to publish that.
(09:35):
And when I first writing the book, I lost four hard drives in the
process. And after the first one, you know, I have everything backing
up, you know, were coveredevery single way, and I lost the
fourth hard drive. And when Ihad all the all the data sent to
me is that recorded every key strokeon my computer. Everything was there except
(09:58):
the book on the Doll. Ohmy god. So it's stuff that I
can't explain away. And at firstit was little things like with electricity and
you know, first lights going onoff the house, and then I remember
I reached into a bowl of bikelights. You know, everybody rides their
(10:18):
bikes in Key West, and asI reached in to grab one, the
entire bowl turned on every light inthere. And then it went to where
like I tapped my hand against theside of my truck, you know,
listening to music, can I hitit? A volt of electricity came out
of my fingers that almost dislocated myshoulder. It pushed my arm up so
hard. Oh my good lord,and then the best wagon describe it.
(10:43):
It felt like there was like aif somebody dropped a pizza dough over your
head. It was like there wasa gray pizza dough that was trying to
get into my brain. And Istarted sleeping behind the church. It would
attack me wherever I was. Iwas walking my dog and there was a
huge palm front you know, andkey wesk we're talking. These are like
(11:03):
ten or twelve feet long, andit had been raining, so it was
wet and heavy on the ground.This thing lifted up several feet in the
air and charged towards us and droppedat my feet. The dog ran away
kind of like yelping, you know, telescoping leash. I go back with
the dog. It lifted up anddid the same thing a second time.
So there was something very clearly lettingme know what kind of power it has
(11:28):
and that it didn't like what Iwas doing. So why invite people to
come in and see it? What'syou know? I mean? Are you
afraid for people? Do you warnthem when they come in? We warned
them. We get people rules beforehand. And I do feel like in my
case, I was under attack becauseof what I was trying to reveal about
(11:50):
the dog. And at this timeI didn't understand there were multiple entities.
I couldn't understand why the child spiritdidn't like that I was sharing that true
stories, you know, that wehad found out about a child who was
the true spirit in there. Youknow. Most recently, there was a
shock doc on Robert the Doll andthey sent a psychic down and she took
it a step further and said,ah, yeah, so Emmaline sought out
(12:13):
a voodoo practitioner when her child diedbecause she wanted to seek revenge on the
father, you know, the doctor, for not saving her child. And
they said that this voodoo practitioner openedup a portal inside of the doll.
So I was dealing with multiple thingsthere. I ended up I put out
a plea on Facebook because I wasI was yanked out of my bed.
I yanked up and out of mybed, which sounds insane, It sounds
(12:37):
absolutely insane. And so I putout a plea on Facebook and I said,
I said, I desperately need help. I'm under attack from a spirit.
I can't handle. If you can'thelp me, do not comment.
I'm dead serious. And somebody putme in touch with local Santa Rea priest
and a couple of weeks later himand some of his family from Miami,
(13:01):
they came and did what they calla mesa, a spiritual which is basically
a spirit mess. It's century isan African religion that came over with slaves
through Cuba and then mixed with Catholicismto disguise their gods, but it's tied
to the African religion. And theydid a ceremony that lasted several hours and
(13:26):
removed multiple spirits that were attacking me. That's frightening. Yeah, yeah,
it was terrifying, But I don'tfeel like most people who go into the
fort are going to experience that.You know, I was really shaking things
up by digging so deep into thisand extracting this information because you have to
(13:48):
understand the negative energy. You probablydo understand the negative energies. They thrive
on negativity, and I was puttingthat at risk. Do you feel like
I mean, you know, wetalked about when they go into the ford,
but what about what about like this, You're doing an interview and someone
chimes in and they're disrespectful. Doyou think being disrespectful here in this forum
(14:13):
is dangerous? I'm not sure I'mgoing to do that, by the way,
but you know, I'm not surewhat to think about it. You
know, Robert was featured on theSam and Colby YouTube channel earlier this year,
and they have a huge following witha younger demographic, and you know,
they they said, you know,we're warning you before we put this
(14:37):
up, don't look into Robert's eyes. And I received over the over the
next several weeks, we received callsand emails people who were feeling physically ill
and manifesting problems after looking at thedoll. Now, how much of that
was Robert and how much of thatis a thought that was planted in their
(14:58):
head? I can't answer that,but I can tell you that most of
the people who experience a curse aroundhim, it's not just from looking at
a picture him on the internet.It's not from anything like that. It's
people who are there in person disrespectinghim. And that's what I believe.
(15:18):
But you know, his more andmore people come to see him, is
that making the spirit stronger? That'scertainly something to consider. Is that a
thing? Don't look into his eyes? Is that a thing? Or is
that just something that they said.You know, more people seem to be
having issues with it. But youknow, the rules with Robert, I
(15:41):
think the only rule that you canreally say is be respectful. You know
the one spread about you have toask permission to take a photo. And
I always thought that was stupid,because come on, how's he going to
say yes or no or tell youif he's given you permission. You know,
this one also stemmed from he usedto drink, well he still does.
(16:03):
He drains batteries, but batteries usedto be in cameras, you know,
before everybody had their cell phones,so it was really pacemakers and cameras
having problems, and more people hadcameras than pacemakers. So the story starts
going around, Oh, Robert messeswith cameras all the time. And so
with those stories, somebody said,well we should probably ask him for permission
(16:25):
to take his picture that and thenthat just kind of took on a life
of its own and snowballed. Andit's even it's even written on the on
the wall at the fort. Youknow, they've got a sign that says,
remember you must ask Robert for permission, you know, as someone involved
in the paranormal. I don't likeit. I don't think it's good because
it does open up the possibility you'regoing to put yourself below them, you
(16:48):
know, Oh can I do that? Yeah? Can I do that?
So I think you open yourself upto inviting them in a little more when
you ask permission. That makes sense, That makes sense. But being respectful,
and you know, I don't know. I mean my own question is,
you know, if it's something that'sdark anyway, do they really care
about respect I mean, is thatgoing to appease them if you're respectful or
(17:12):
are they just looking to do harm? You know? It seems to me
like the child is like the gatekeeperthere, and it's if the child's having
issues, then then you know,then then the other problems happen. So
I think we've upset the hounds fromhell. It's the wearable. What kind
(17:34):
of dog you have? You have? A pops obviously at least, no,
it's that's just one. He's ahound. Oh I just oh my
gosh, yeah, yeah, yeah, he's a he's a he's a big
old hand and that was that justran behind you? Right? Just you
know it very it very well couldhave been. It's it's like maybe maybe
(17:56):
maybe when you ask that the spiritscan come through to wherever we are,
maybe maybe they were their true colors. Maybe maybe, Oh my gosh,
I don't know. It's frightening though. I mean, you know, when
I think of the Annabel doll,I mean, and I don't know how
much you know about Annabel? Doyou do? You do you think of
any similarities and in how they howthey affect people. I think I think
(18:21):
with haunted dolls today, there area lot. You know, Robert's really
the original haunted doll. And thenof course you had the the Twilight Zone
episode the Living Dolls where they hadtalking Tina and I wonder if if she
helped inspire Annabel a little bit.The mom's name in that episode was was
(18:45):
Annabel and you had and that cameout about about four years before the Annabel
doll. But you know, butthat name could have you know, that
name could have just come into thatarea because of things like that. Right,
But Annabel's fascinating because there are certainlypeople who have experienced strange phenomena around
(19:11):
Annabel, but with her being inthe museum that really has limited access right
now. You know, it's notlike anybody can go see Annabel. People
can go see Robert. So youcan count on one hand the number of
people who have been cursed by Annabel, where if you want to do that
with Robert, you're going to needthousands of hands. Yeah, so I
think so. I think there areparallels, but there's big differences too.
(19:37):
Is there an issue with touching him? Because I thought I saw a picture
and that now I can't remember ifit was you or not actually holding him.
I mean, yeah, yeah,yeah, I've told him before you
have held him. Is there anissue with that? Do you think?
I mean, I didn't find anyissues with it, you know now today
the big issue is he's fragile.He's one hundred and nineteen years old,
(19:57):
of course, so you know,the less he's handled the better, which
is why he's kept behind the protectiveglass. And you know, so that
that whole box that he is inthat's alarmed, and that has the different
humidity controls and all the things necessaryto make sure that he lasts a long
time. And you know, he'straveled a few times in his life,
(20:21):
but he really doesn't travel anymore justbecause of course with his increased popularity too
there's there's security issues with that Idon't know, but also just moving him,
it's every time you movement, what'sthe dollar risk? And because the
museum Robert's owned by the Key WestArt and Historical Society, which is the
(20:41):
oldest nonprofit museum or organization in KeyWest and they're great. So what they
do though, is they protect Robertas an artifact and they obviously know about
the paranormal side of things. AndI've been researching Robert before he was on
display and found out a lot.So I've worked in conjunction with the Art
(21:02):
Historical Society. You know, mybusiness does ghost tours and things like that,
but so so I do the paranormalside of things with Robert, and
they take care of him as anartifact and they try to make the museum
accessible to everybody who wants to experiencethe doll. Do they have other things
like that in their museum or isit just is he kind of the one
(21:23):
paranormal thing. There's a lot ofreally incredible stuff. One of my favorite
artifacts is the is the tombstone ofElena Hoyos, and she's the one that
an X ray technician in Key Westwho was much older, fell in love
with. She didn't want to bewith him. She was she had she
had consumption. But I think hemurdered her. I think he poisoned her
(21:47):
so she'd die a little quicker,and then he removed her from the grave,
rebuilt her body, and lived withher for seven years, so her
tombstone. When he was they foundhim not guilty, and when he left
town, he blew up the tombthat he had built for her, And
the museum has her original tombstone fromthere, which is pretty incredible. But
(22:12):
they also have I mean, it'san old Civil War for it was built
on a native burial ground. Itwas it never saw active battle. It
was a Union for it, butit was used as a yellow fever hospital,
so you had a lot of deathfrom disease in there. And that's
(22:37):
a large number of the spirits you'llfind are Civil War soldiers. But it's
also a collection of Key West artifacts. It's the first museum in Key West,
so this is when the locals weredonating their cool stuff. So there's
you know, there's Native American dugoutcanoes, there's old Spanish treasure chests,
(22:57):
there's rafts that refugee rafts from Cubathat people lost their lives on. So
you have all these fascinating artifacts thathave these energies, and we don't know
were those energies there when they arrivedor is it other spirits that fill in
around them. But it's one ofUSA today, I think for the last
(23:17):
four years in her own named itone of the ten most haunted locations in
the United States. Really, now, do you investigate the muse am or
is that just we do? Wedo ghost tours there every night and people
can do the regular guided tour andthen if they want, they can add
on an extra hour where we givethem all the cool ghost honey equipment and
(23:38):
they get to go around and dotheir own investigation. Wow, I bet
you. With that kind of energyin there though, it must be incredible.
It's it's truly insane, And youknow, I think some people are
tuned into the spirits and some arenot. But it's one of the most
active places that I've been, andpeople regularly come out. A lot of
(24:00):
people get the same name. Youknow that with the spirit boxes, they
we'll get the same name again andagain and again. Something really interesting.
There was a soldier named Charles Knolland he was killed in Key West by
friendly fire during the Civil War.He was collecting seashells on the beach and
(24:25):
he was shot. He was hewas part of the Pennsylvania forty seventh Regiment
Regiment and he was killed by somebodyfrom the New York ninetieth. They weren't
supposed to have bullets in their gunsand it went off and it went right
through his head. And we hadbeen getting his name through the spirit box,
and that's why I looked him upand was able to uncover this story.
But then the strangest thing. Iwas with my wife up in Pittsburgh
(24:49):
and I had found on eBay oneof a piece of his history. It
was his uniform requisition, and soI scooped that up on EVA and I'm
like, this is really weird.And then after it arrived, we went
to get our tarot cards read andit was in this really cool shop in
(25:10):
Pittsburgh and I was in the backroom getting my cards read, and you
know, I think it was athirty minute reading, and towards the end
she said is there anything else youwant to ask? I feel like you
have a question, and I'd beget angry for no reason. And I
said, why am I getting angry? And she pulled out some cards and
then she goes, oh my god, you have a spirit attached to you.
(25:33):
And she said that, and therewas a crash in the main store
and she turned around and I said, I said, you just scared that
spirit out of me. This isinteresting. So we go my session.
She says, well, there's nothingelse I can do for you now,
and so my wife goes in forher reading. I go down the block
to a little brewpub and there wereonly three people in there, and I
(25:57):
told them, I said, Ijust found out I've got a spirit attachment.
I said, let's see if wecan get rid of it. The
door of the of the bar openedup. The side door just opened all
the way one hundred percent, andeverybody just kind of looked over and they're
like, that was weird. AndI told them I was from Key West.
The bartender said, oh my god, I used to live in Key
(26:18):
West. And then both of thepeople in the bar, there were only
four of us, they said,oh my god, my parents are in
Key west right now. Wow,So fast forward. I go back to
the to the place where the readingwas and I asked the girl to register
because nobody else was in there.I said, what happened when there was
that crash? She said, itwas the weirdest thing. Your wife wasn't
(26:41):
even standing by any of this stuff, but these two vials of oil just
flew off the shelf and onto thefloor. I said, well that's I
said, well, that's really weird. I said, where did they land?
And she points down the floor therewas a statue. It was like
a little toy doll of a soldier. Really, so I think that this
(27:03):
might have been that spirit of CharlesKnolf saying I'm glad you found my story
or something like that. So Idon't know that's that's that's who, or
who knows. It might have beenRobert one of the other ones. I'm
still kind of processing the entire thing. But I mean, but yeah,
all the way up in Pittsburgh,you know, yeah, yeah. And
(27:27):
I've had these spirits that follow mefrom the fort on a couple of occasions,
and I don't know if it's becausethey feel like I can communicate for
them or maybe understand them a littlebit. I'm not sure what it is.
You'd probably know more about that thanme. Are you a little are
you a little intuitive? And anddo you have a little bit of that
(27:48):
sense where you feel like you getstuff from spending reason with it. The
reason I say that is I feellike from my own experience too, is
they know who they can. It'slike your light burns a little different.
They know who you are, andthey know you by name, and they
did It's they'll they'll make a racketjust to get you to recognize the fact
(28:11):
that they're there. And you know, that's kind of what happened to me
when all of this started years ago. But it's it feels like that,
you know, it's they know whoyou are, and it's pay attention to
me. I'm trying to get yourattention. Yeah. I think from spending
so much time with them and puttingso much energy into the fort, I
think they know that. Do yourun the toys yourself? Are the investigations
(28:36):
yourself? You know? I usedto. For the first couple of years,
I did all of them, andthen I've I've got an another great
guy, Dan Radovsky, and he'sour lead investigator now. It's funny.
It seems like all of us arefrom Pennsylvania and the fort was under the
control of the Pennsylvania forty seventh Volunteers, So there's this interesting pencil any energy
(29:00):
going through there. So so he'lldo that, and we'll have a couple
of other doll tenders as well,you know, to help out with the
vipd oring busier times. So wedo tours every night, sometimes Dan,
sometimes myself. We kind of switchit around. So if I'm in Miami
and I decided to drive because I'veheard the drip is beautiful, how long
(29:22):
does it take to get from Miamito keep webs from Miami? It's about
three or four hours, depending onthat long. Wow. Yeah, yeah,
So you know we're we're really outin the middle of the ocean,
two hundred miles from Fort Lauderdale,and the whole island used to be a
coral reef when you go back farenough, and you know, then then
(29:42):
that was exposed eventually, and thenwith the erosion, and then they built
the railroad and then they built thehighways. Sorry, go ahead, no,
I want to hear what you said. No, I was going to
say, I have an event inUh, it's it's not there. It's
in Naples in February. But nowI'm thinking I should spend a couple of
(30:07):
days and head to Key West.I know it'd be probably like five hours
or six hours now, I don'tknow from yeah, and you know,
from Naples. Fort Myers has agreat ferry. They've got the Fort Myers
Ferry that the Key West is reallyso you can actually just chill on the
boat, have a few beers andand cruise down and get a way to
(30:29):
do it, come and spend thenight. That's a great That's how I
recommend people do it from the westcoast of Florida. I think I'll do
that because I was going to tryto get in there on a Wednesday,
and then I'm done on you know, I'm done on Sunday, so I
could go right after that or yeah, whatever. I think that would be
great to have a couple of days. I've never been. I've always wanted
(30:51):
to go. Everybody says it's phenomenal. Qy Wes is incredible. It's not
just one of the most vaulted placesin the United States, but it's uh,
it's unlike the rest of Florida it'smore like a Caribbean island than it
is like Florida. Well, youknow, I have a ten year old,
so these days we go to Floridaand it involves a mouse and a
few other stuffed characters. Yeah,yeah, yeah, I can't take him
(31:15):
to Key West with me. Idon't think he's ready for that, but
I think, but I do.It sounds like somebody different. Yeah,
yeah, exactly exactly, But wellthat's all right. Today I wanted to
know what viagra was for. Imaginetrying to have that conversation with you roll
at all. So that's why Ihave a you have a dog, Yes
(31:37):
exactly, Oh my god. Butyou know, so maybe I'll take it.
Maybe I'll do that, see ifI can work that around. I
would love to go down. Icertainly love to see the fort and and
see what I'll I say, I'venever been, so it's been on my
list. Yeah, it's an incredibleplace. I'd love to show you around.
Yeah, well, you know,I don't know. I don't know
if you're there at the end ofFebruary. You know, I'm literally there
(31:59):
the last weekend in February, andso again right after that before I fly
off to New Orleans, but thatwould be kind of cool. And there's
some incredible stuff, you know.We just started doing tours at the Haunted
Firehouse. There's a firehouse here.It's one of the oldest fire stations in
Florida. It was built in nineteenoh seven and a lot of people felt
(32:21):
that it was cursed when it wasbuilt. They started construction when and this
is another place, you know,Key West. The name comes from Kyle
Hueso, which means island of bones, because the entire island was covered with
bones and nobody's quite sure the sourceof them. They believe they're native bones.
Some people say they're from a greatbattle. Some people say they're from
(32:44):
a hurricane. Some people say itwas just a sacred spot for them.
But almost everywhere you go is builtover bones, and with the firehouses on
top of this great freshwater reservoir.So that would have been a spot that
people sought out a long time ago. So that's what some psychics think is
(33:04):
that it was built over some gravesperhaps, But they finished the firehouse before
the fireman even moved in. Theyhad a fire in the engine row,
So mysterious fire does that? Yeah, before anybody was there, and then
when they moved in, it wasbarely just a little over a year and
a hurricane came through and ripped theroof off and took down one of the
(33:27):
walls. And the interesting thing is, on the night of that hurricane there
were three boys born in Key West. All three of them went on to
lead the firehouse that station as he'seither an assistant fire chief or a fire
chief, and it was almost likethey were brought here to change things around.
(33:50):
And there's just this incredible energy throughoutthe place, you know, and
most firemen they're not you know,they're not scared, but they've got attitudes
and they're practical jokers. And there'ssome really interesting stuff that goes on.
And of course that then we havesome I mean, there was one fire
(34:10):
chief and he lost the election andso he went out and got drunk and
shot a prostitute in the face.The way the town went, he was
able to be let go. Imean, they let him go. He
never faced prosecution, so yikes.So there is there's some interesting energy like
(34:32):
that going on too. Are youfrom there, I mean, did you
grow up and lived there your wholelife or did you move there? No,
it's interesting. So I moved therein ninety six. I was born
in Philadelphia, oh Okay. Andthen only about three years ago, four
years ago, when I really startedgoing into the Civil War history of the
(34:52):
fort, I found out that mygreat great great grandfather's Civil War regiment was
in tru Key West during the CivilWar. He was Pennsylvania forty seventh.
So the very first David Livingston Sloanhe was, he was in Key West
and he might have helped build thefort where Robert the Dall is. That's
(35:15):
good. There are no coincidences,and we say this all the time.
There's no question. It's just likeyou're supposed to be there. You know,
you're supposed to be doing what you'redoing. When I found that out,
and that's that's why in the beginningwhen I said, I kind of
feel like the universe kind of likesent me there, you know, coming
to Key West to start the ghostTooris, like everything's kind of put me
where I should be at the righttime. When I came to Key West,
(35:39):
I researched looking for ghosts for probablyabout ten days, and I was
finding nothing. And I got towhere i'd go into the different bars and
I tipped the bartender really well andsay, oh, is this that haunted
bar And they'd say, Nope,not heard anything. So like nobody was
(35:59):
taught about ghosts, and I was. I had been to the library,
of course, and I was gettingready to leave town because I found nothing.
And uh, you know, Iused I used to manage cruise ships
and I'd seen a ghost tour inScotland. That's how I got the idea
ghost tours. We were kind ofunheard of in the United States. There
might have been two or three ofthem in existence. So uh, when
(36:24):
I was leaving, I got lostleaving my friend's house and as a small
island and get lost on of me. Getting lost in keys is stupid.
And so I was drying and Iwas just frustrated and I didn't know where
my life was going. And somebodyappeared next to me in my car and
(36:44):
I just remember they're kind of likelike they're grayish, grayish kind of suit,
it seemed like to me. Andthey said, they said go back
to the library, and I lookedat him. I don't know where the
library is. And I didn't eventhink that I was yelling at somebody in
my car and then they were gone, and I look up and I see
a sign this is library parking only, and so I park and I go
(37:07):
in. And this time when Iwent into the Florida History Room, the
county historian was there. His name'sTom Hambright. And Tom looks at me,
and he was a big, imposingman, and he says, can
I help you with something? AndI said, I'm looking for a book
on ghosts of Key West and hesaid there are none, and I said,
(37:32):
okay, thank you, and Istarted to leave and he said,
hey, hey, don't leave yet. I've got no books, but there's
ghosts. And he goes into thiswalk in vault. You know, they
had built this hurricane proof vault forall the most important documents of the Florida
Keys history. And he came outwith a folder labeled Ghosts and it had
(37:57):
newspaper clippings from the past thirty years, and it has stories of voodoo,
and it had the snippets that havebeen published around Halloween. And I started
going through and mapping the haunted housesout and you know, identifying who the
ghosts were. And then I wentand knocked on the doors and I was
able to talk to the people youknow, and nowadays everything's going corporate in
(38:19):
Key West, you know, soit's like the mom and pop places are
less and less and less. Butat the time I arrived, you found
people who had owned the bed andbreakfast for thirty years, and so I
was getting thirty years worth of ghoststories from them, and people were so
happy to talk about them. Becauseghosts, you know, it seems like
(38:42):
through history, the belief in themincreases after times of suffering or times of
war, or times of pandemics andthings like that. But there have been
periods of time when it's just notcool to talk about them because people think
you're a weirdo. You know,before all the ghosts shows start coming out,
there was a time when people wouldbe like, oh, I'm not
(39:04):
saying anything about that. They're goingto think I'm strange. I agree you,
And so we were on the tailend of that. It was just
getting to where people were starting totalk about them again. Around ninety six,
you know, there were horror moviesout. People loved those. But
if you have told somebody so,these people just relished talking to me about
the strange things they had been encountering. And I got some incredible incredible stories
(39:27):
and was able to really start documentingthe haunted history of the island. And
let's face it, you're in KeyWest, so there's enough stuff there that's
interesting. Shall we say that.You know, I think you can be
a little different. I mean,it's not like you're in Fort Wayne,
Indiana, you know, yeah,kind of like fit in. I would
think they would embrace anything that's kindof different and odd, you know,
(39:47):
and the whole ghost thing. It'strue though, it's just a little bit
different. You know, you justsort of out there. And I still
get that from people. I stillyeah, and there's you know, I
think it's interesting because a lo alot of the most haunted places in the
United States are the old port towns. So you know, you look at
New Orleans and Charleston and in KeyWest and Savannah and Saint Augustine, all
(40:10):
the old port towns really have seemedto have so much And I think part
of that's the water, part ofit's the character, and there's some of
the you know, some of theoldest places that people were going and passing
through. But so I feel veryfortunate there's a lot of a lot of
the great historic structures are still preservedhere. So you've got a lot of
(40:30):
a lot of houses from the fromthe late eighteen hundreds. Even with the
hurricanes that come through. I mean, how is that living down there on
that kind of a I mean,you really you don't have anything to block
it, really, do you.We have? We have a grotto that
protects us from hurricanes, and it'sat the Catholic Church here. And back
(40:53):
in the early nineteen hundreds, therewere two back to back hurricanes that devastated
the island, I mean like hitit hard, hard heart. So there
was a sister there at the churchand she built this grotto and she dedicated
it and said, as long asthis grotto stands, key West will never
(41:14):
suffer the full brunt of a majorhurricane. Really, and it's been true
ever since then. You know,we've had Category ones passed through here,
We've had Category fours that skirt usand change at the last minute. And
whenever there's a storm ruined, somany people from Key West will go down
to the grotto and they'll light thecandles and they'll say the prayers and they'll
(41:37):
may the offerings. So that's ourbiggest form of protection, and that's a
bit of a tourist attraction in itself, I imagine because of the powers.
And then you also had shipbuilders whowere building the houses. So you know,
a lot of the early houses hadhad wooden nails as you know,
as the pegs connecting them. Sothey were built strong, and they were
(41:58):
built good, and they'll Dade CountyPine, so a lot of them are
equipped to hold up to a lot. Oh that's good. Melissa Black,
when she's been commenting here in thechat, I guess she's seen you and
she's been to Key West, butshe said, you need to have David
send you the photos you had atthe end of your presentation in Michigan.
I didn't get there this year,so I didn't see you talk. I
(42:19):
was there last year. Hey,Melissa, what were your photos? Were
they? I mean, obviously I'mnot going to ask you to go get
them, but well, I'm I'mtrying to think which ones they could have
been. I know we've got somewhere. There's Robert pushing the ball off of
the case at the Fort. Weput a ball on his case and because
my back's to him a lot,and I tell him, I say,
listen, if you don't like somethinggoing on, push the ball. And
(42:44):
I've had that ball pushed off ofthat case about thirteen times over the course
of four years. And that's people. I always know what is going to
happen now too, because you cantell when there's someone who's just bad energy
on the tour. And there wasone time the person who was going to
be in a jerk, he'd usuallypushed the ball where it lands like right
(43:06):
by the person, but the waythe seating configure issue was set up,
they were kind of towards the back, and so I'm thinking, I'm like,
how's he going to do this?And then the tours almost over and
nothing had happened, and then alady sitting right right front by Robert,
she crosses her leg, the ballgoes off the case, it hits her
toe and rolls right up to thefeet of the person who was being the
(43:30):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, Sothere's that. There's some other We've had
almost one hundred people burned with theirreligious symbols at the fort. We've had
people with their crosses where the crossburns right into them. So we've just
wear a cross. It is thatdangerous to wear a cross. I don't
(43:51):
know if it's dangerous. It's happenedclose to one hundred times, which is
a lot, but you have tofigure we've probably had five ten thousand crosses
come round that time, so it'snot like everybody with the cross will have
it happen. But we've had people'sglasses fog up for no reason, you
(44:13):
know, like just like out ofthe blue. We've had glasses pulled off
of people's heads. People get theirhair touched a lot, you know.
There's people have had things growl intheir ear. There have been a few
people who have been scratched. Iwas scratched pretty bad. I think that's
one of the videos I showed inMichigan. Yeah, so what about the
(44:40):
religious tattoos? People with religious tattoos, people with religious tattoos, and you
know, it's it's interesting too.I've had three people who had like the
Eye of Protection on them as jewelry, and those have started heating up.
But I see the lissas saying,so there's this, there's this crazy photo.
(45:02):
So okay. Children with autism,they usually don't see Robert's evil.
They usually come in to see thedoll and they're like they're like, oh,
hi, Robert, I love you, Robert. Oh, Robert,
you're my friend. And they endup sending him birthday cards and pictures of
them and we had there was awoman came in and her she had a
(45:27):
child with autism. He had beenwanting to see the doll for a long,
long long time. Museum's getting readyto close, and so they go
in and uh so they get upthere, they go see the doll.
They come back out and he says, mom, we forgot to get a
picture with Robert. So his momknocks back on the door and the girl
(45:47):
opens and she's like, can weplease just go back for a photo?
And the girl says, yeah,of course you can't. And so they're
the only ones in the entire fort. They get back out to the car
and they look at their photograph.Behind Robert, you can very clearly see
the silhouette of a little girl andshe's got her hair and braids, and
(46:08):
we think that that may be thedaughter of Emily Abbott, the Angry Nanny.
So we think that Robert's actually isactually a little behaming a American girl.
Wow, Melissa says, I guessthe picture you showed was a young
adult standing at the side of Robert'sdisplay case. You know. Then off
the left there's a child spirit andreflection, but no child was here.
(46:30):
Yeah, yep, that's the one. Thanks for reminding me of that,
Melissa crazy. It's crazy, it'sit's it's insanity. I mean, I
think it's absolutely fascinating, but youknow, I'm also a little chicken that
kind of whether you believe it ornot, I'm just going to be safe
(46:50):
about it. Well, my husbandwas. He's a non believer. He
always referred to the paranormal as moreof my ghosty stuff. But I drug
him through because I had to seeRobert. And it took and I was
using an actual camera, not justmy cell phone, but it took like
seven or eight times before I wasactually able to get the picture. I
(47:15):
had the shutter froze, the batteriesjust locked, the battery door locked,
the SD card was full, justa lot of craziness before I could actually
get the photo. But I didfinally get one. I went in today.
They've got these They've got these greatRobert Christmas dolls because a lot of
(47:38):
people want to take a little pieceof Robert home. So they've got the
many Robert dolls and they've got themany Robert Christmas dolls, and so I
went in. I was taking abunch of pictures of them around the fort,
and I probably took thirty pictures.I got out and I looked at
them. They were like fifteen ofthem. And look, I was looking
at these pictures when I took them, they were fine. When I looked
(48:00):
to them, about fifteen of them, there was they were blurred. There
was nothing there. And listen oneor two. Okay, maybe I missed
it. But to have that manyhappen, so yeah, that the camera
start continues and continues to happen,Melissa. I'm just reading some of the
comments that people have started to comment. And then Melissa says there was a
(48:21):
girlfriend who was theah was so terrifiedshe made her leave her phone in the
car for fear she might ready totake a picture. Thrilled to be in
the same room with them. Yeah, but you say that the photos aren't
necessarily the problem. It's it's thedisrespect. Yeah, And I think with
the sign up on the wall,you know, the sign says, remember
you have to ask permission to takephotos. So if some people read that
(48:43):
and think that's the rule and sayI'm not going to do it. Well,
that's disrespectful, right, So Ithink I think it can get into
that. And you know, yousee people who who delete their photos afterwards.
There's a lot of people who don'tlike seeing a picture of Robert and
going through a cross through their socialmedia without warning. Yeah, I get
(49:05):
it. And I remember seeing Annabellein the Warren Paracon a couple of years
ago and the woman I was withsaid, delete that from your phone,
do not take that pick, donot take them with you in your phone.
So people have different thoughts and beliefs, you know. Yeah, So
we have a few minutes that Robert. I'd really like to let people know
how they can find you if they'rein Key West and and buy people,
(49:27):
I mean me, but I wantI can't find you while we get there.
Where are your ghost tours? AndI know there's some books too.
Yeah, so there there are tonsof ghost tours in Key West and most
of them are really good. Ifyou want to find the one that goes
to Robert the Dalt, we're theonly one that does that. You can
go to ghost key West dot com. So ghost qs dot com. That's
(49:50):
this for the official Robert tours,and then if you want other haunted stuff,
because there's so much cool stuff intown. I set up a free
website that's like a paranormal vacation guide, and that list haunted hotels, haunted
restaurants, haunted bars, haunted museums. It lists some of the other great
ghost tours in town. If you'relike, hey, Robert's too much for
me, I want to go seeI just want a regularly walking tour.
(50:13):
We recommend the companies that do goodwith that, you know, friends of
mine and people who are reputable.So puniqus dot com has a ton of
that that's got information on it Somewhere. There's an entire set of Robert links
that you know, people can buysmerch online and that all benefits the museum.
So it all benefits the nonprofit organization. And uh, there's links to
(50:36):
my books and stuff on there.You can buy them through the museum and
that benefits the museum too, sowell, but they're they're on Amazon all
all the good places. Well,David, I hope people check it out.
I know I'm going to do mybest. I'll let you know if
I'm going to be able to makeit in February, but I want to
thank you for coming on. Ithas been an absolute pleasure of having you,
and you know, I'm just soglad we're able to work it out
(51:00):
next week. Everybody so greaty tobe here. I really appreciate it.
Next week we're going to be talkingto a gentleman who has been abducted by
aliens since he was a child.That continues to happen two or three times
every month to this day. Andhe's now and probably his mid fifties.
So we're going to be talking tohim next week. And I am done
(51:22):
with my announcement, So David,thank you again. I greatly appreciate you,
and it's been a real pleasure.I hope you'll hang on after the
show wraps. I just want tochat with you for one second. Thank
you to everyone who's been here todayand joined us on the show, and
thank you for Christina. We've beenhaving some audio trouble since we come on,
so that's why she's sitting here mutedand you can't hear her most of
(51:42):
the time. She wants to sayanything, So here we are. Anyway,
next week, we will see you. Thank you, David, thank
you Christina, and We'll see younext week right here on the Paranormal Project.
Have a great day, everybody.Thanks everyone been listening to The Paranormal
Project radio show with Scott All andChristina Bowen. Be sure to subscribe so
(52:08):
you don't miss the next episode.While you're there, leave us a rating
and review. We'll be back nextweek with more exciting guests. Now,
go out there and explore the paranormal
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