The Real Annabelle Doll
As discussed in my previous post, Ed and Lorraine Warren are two of the most well know paranormal investigators to have lived. They have investigated all sorts of paranormal cases, mostly involving the demonic, and as a result have definitely made their mark in paranormal history. One of their most famous cases is that of the Annabelle doll. I have not seen any films from the conjuring franchise and so will not be discussing how faithful of adaptations they, or the related Annabelle films, are. This post will discuss the real Annabelle story, how the Warren's acquired it, and all of the unfortunate events surrounding the doll. At the end of the post I will discuss my thoughts on the doll, including how legitimate I think this phenomena is.
Sources I will be using:
2. The Line Up
The Annabelle Case:
In 1970 a mum bought her daughter an antique Raggedy Ann doll from a hobby store as a birthday present. The daughter, Donna, was about 28 years old at the time and was preparing to graduate from college with a nursing degree. She lived in a tiny apartment with her roommate, Angie. Within days of owning the doll, both Donna and Angie noticed the doll moving when being left untouched. At first it was small and barely noticeable things such as slight changes in how it was positioned from how they had left it, but then it became far greater as they would find it in a completely different room from the one they had left it in. It 'would be found with its legs crossed, arms folded, other times it would be found upright, standing on its feet'. Sometimes Donna left the doll on a chair before leaving for work, but then would come home to it being in her room on the bed with the door closed.
As time passed, the activity around the doll only increased. Donna and Angie would find handwritten notes, written in small handwriting as though done by a child, around the apartment. They notes would say 'help us' and 'help Lou', and they were written on parchment paper which neither Donna or Angie had in the apartment. Eventually it ramped up so much that the two decided to contact a psychic. The event which caused this revelation was that Donna had come home and found the doll on her bed, but this time she felt far more frightened than usual. When she looked at the doll she noticed what looked like drops of blood on the back of the dolls hand and on its chest. It was a liquid red substance which had appeared from seeming nowhere, and this really frightened Donna.
The two went to an expert and held a seance with the doll. The psychic told the girls that the spirit connected to the doll was that of Annabelle Higgins, a young girl that lived on the land before the apartment was built. She also told the girls that Annabelle was only seven years old when her body was found in the field that was there before the apartment. Plus, the psychic said the spirit felt comfort with both Donna and Angie, and that she wanted to stay and to be loved. Donna felt sorry for the young girl and so gave permission for the spirit to enhabit the doll and to stay with them.
Lou's experience with Annabelle:
The seance was not the end of it. Lou was friends with Donna and Angie and really wasn't fond of the doll. He warned Donna that it was evil and that she should get rid of it. He was prone to having a particular reoccurring nightmare, but one day his nightmare was different from usual as it was as though he was awake but paralysed. In the dream, he looked to his feet and saw the doll. It moved up his leg and stopped on his chest. It then began to strangle him until he passed out. He woke up the next morning and didn't believe his experience to be just a dream.
Lou's next experience occured while he and Angie were preparing to go on a road trip. They heard rustling coming from Donna's room, and as it was empty Lou's thought was that someone had broken in. He went to investigate but when he switched on the light everything seemed fine. He saw the doll in the floor in the corner of the room, as though it had been tossed there. Lou wasn't sure what could have done that as he saw no signs of a break in, but as he approached the doll he felt as though someone was behind him. He turned to face them, and there was no one there. While he still had his back to the doll, he suddenly grabbed his chest in pain as he was suddenly cut by something he couldn't see and was bleeding because of it. There were seven distinct claw marks, three vertical, and four horizontal. All were like burns and his shirt was stained with blood. The scratches healed almost immediately as they were half gone the following day and completely gone the day after.
The Warren's get involved:
This was the point the girls realised the spirit attached to the doll was not that of a young girl, but rather something far more sinister. Donna contacted an Episcopal priest called Father Hegan. Hegan felt that it was a spiritual matter and so needed to contact a higher authority, which led to him contacting Father Cooke. Cooke then contacted the Warren's who took immediate interest in the case and contacted Donna about it. Once the Warren's had spoken with Donna, Angie, and Lou, they concluded that the doll was not possessed, but rather just being manipulated by an inhuman presence. At this point in N.E.S.P.R.s account of the case, they cite that 'spirits do not possess inanimate objects like houses or toys, they possess people. An inhuman spirit can attach itself to a place or object and this is what occured in the Annabelle case'.
The doll looked to possess a human spirit and so got recognition by manipulating the doll 'by means of teleportation' and then communicated with the girls through the medium. This act preyed on their emotional vulnerabilities by pretending to be a harmless young girl, and Donna fell for it. Her response to this manipulation was exactly what the spirit wanted as she gave the spirit permission to stay and haunt the apartment. N.E.S.P.R. suspects that if it had been left for two or three weeks longer then a full possession would have occured, or the occupants of the flat would either have been seriously harmed or even killed.
The Warren's felt it appropriate for a recitation of an exorcism blessing to be performed by Father Cooke in order to cleanse the apartment. Ed has said 'the Episcopal blessing of the home is a wordy, seven page document that is distinctly positive in nature. Rather than specifically expelling evil entities from the dwelling, the emphasis is instead directed towards filling the home with the power of the positive and of God'. Father Cooke was uncomfortable with his role as an exorcist but agreed to do it. Donna asked for the Warren's to take the doll as an extra precaution, and they agreed.
On the way back to their home, the Warren's had the Annabelle doll on the back seat of their car and as they travelled all sorts of things were going wrong. The breaks kept failing on them as they drove, and it seemed like a collision was imminent, and so Ed stopped the car and doused the doll in some holy water he kept with him. He also made the sign of the cross over it, and the disturbances stopped immediately.
Once the Warren's arrived back home, they placed the doll in a chair and to begin with it would levitate. It then became mostly still, and then started moving around the house just as it had with Donna and Angie. It showed a particular hatred of the clergymen who visited.
Father Jason Bradford:
A priest called Father Jason Bradford visited the Warren's one day and asked to see the Annabelle doll. Ed agreed, and warned the priest against touching anything, but the priest did not listen. He picked up the doll and said 'you're just a ragdoll Annabelle, you can't hurt anyone'. He then tossed the doll back onto the chair. Ed responded by saying 'that's one thing you better not say', and an hour later Jason left the Warren's home with Lorraine pleading with him to drive carefully. A few hours later Jason called Lorraine and said his brakes had failed and that he was involved in a near fatal accident that destroyed his car. It was 'just one of the many such events that occured over the next few years'. Eventually the Warren's built a case for the doll due to how dangerous it was, and to this day it still lives in a case within their occult museum.
Since being moved to a case, there haven't been any reports of the doll moving on its own, but it may have killed someone who challenged it. A guy visited the Warren's museum, and after hearing Ed talk about the doll, he went up and banged on the case saying that if the doll can scratch people then he also wants to be scratched. Ed wasn't happy with this and responded by saying 'son, you need to leave'. He then took the guy outside. The doll possibly did more than just scratch him. While he was on his motorbike with his girlfriend, the man lost control of the bike and crashed head on into a tree. He was killed instantly, but his girlfriend survived and was in hospital for over a year. When interviewed, she said the last thing she remembered was him and her laughing and joking about the doll.
Tony Spera discussing the doll:
Tony Spera is Ed and Lorraine Warren's son in law, and he is the current codirector of N.E.S.P.R and curator or the Warren's occult museum. You can see him pictured in the image above with the Annabelle doll. While showing Elton, Corey, along with other members of the OVERNIGHT youtube channel around the museum before they began investigating, he tells them the stories behind many artifacts in the museum. I've transcribed his discussion about the Annabelle doll from that video which OVERNIGHT uploaded, and I've included what he says below:
'This is a long story, but I'm going to tell it to you because if you want the real story on what happened here... *points to the case* that's a handwritten sign by Ed: 'positively do not open'. He wrote that years and years ago. I think he wrote it probably in '77, '78. People ask me why the devil tarot card is here, Ed put it there so we leave it there. It's a different case, but we put it there. This item here is probably the most dangerous item, that's why it's in a case. I'm not going to touch it, I never touch it, not with bare hands. People say 'well, you know, didn't you bring it to Las Vegas?' I did bring it to Las Vegas, but I know how to protect myself and I'll tell you how I know: Ed showed me. He said 'if you ever have to move the doll, the way to do it is this' but when you handle the doll you don't handle with your bare hands. Ed told me 'wear a pair of, like, heavy welding gloves. Make sure your hands were drenched in holy water first before you even put the gloves on, and envision yourself in a white light, and ask God for protection from anything evil that might be attached to Annabelle' but it's rare that we move it. We try not to move it very often. There are times though when we have to move it, like when we have to repair the case which you're going to have, we would have to do. We'd have to repair this case and move the doll. What he does, Dan Rivera, my lead investigator, he made this case, what he does is he gets stain, he gets water, he brings it to the priest, and he has the priest bless it. Then, when he built this case, he stains it with the Holy water and oil combination with a stain infused in it.
Behind the doll, behind the felt, he has a prayer written in there; be our father. On the sides, if you want to catch that with the camera, he cut out crosses on both sides, put a cross here *touches the front of the case* and he has two plaques: the saint Michael the archangel prayer. We consider that a protection, not total protection because you never know, that's why we don't touch it with our bare hands, that's why it's glass.
So, the story of Annabelle, you ready for this? Lorraine and Ed got a call from two nurses. They said 'we have this item and we think it's causing a lot of problems with us, can you come over?' So they went over to the house, Ed and Lorraine, they visited these two girls. One of their names was Donna, she's the one who received the doll from her mother as a birthday gift. Now, Donna was about 28 years old at the time, but she liked dolls, a lot of girls like dolls, I don't blame them, you know, it's nice, because it'd be like model cars. Nothing's wrong with the doll that they can see, everything's fine, they even put a little gold bracelet on the doll's wrist there, you can see later. She would carry the doll all over the house.
One day, while they're at the breakfast nook, I know it's gonna sound illogical and crazy, they're sitting at the breakfast nook and the doll is next to them; her and her roommate who's a nurse also. All of a sudden those two flimsy rag hands levitated onto a table like this *makes action with his hands*, together like this *repeated action*, and landed there. Now, the girls look at each other, I don't know about you, I'd be a little panicky right? They didn't, they're more intrigued like, the, the other nurse says to Donna she goes 'hey, the doll must be trying to tell us something' and Donna says 'yeah, look, look maybe, I mean...' and the other one goes back and says 'well, I know a psychic. Why don't we call her in? We'll have a , we'll have, like, a seance or something and see if we could find out what she wants'. That's what they did, and that was their first mistake, was giving it recognition like that. So, they did, they had a friend come in that night around the table and do a seance. Here's what the psychic says: 'I'm picking up the spirit of a young girl who was killed in a car accident outside your apartment complex. She's about seven years old and her name is Annabelle. She's in your doll'. That's what she says to the girls. The girls bought it hook, line, and sinker. Now, the psychic didn't know what the hell she was talking about because God does not allow a human spirit to enter inanimate objects. Like, in other words, when you go home tonight, your grandmother's not in your living room chair; a demonic entity could be attached. Now, they're intrigued and they're saying 'wow, there's a human spirit in our doll' and they decided to really treat it with more reverence, you know, more like, like it's human.
Donna had the doll on the edge of a couch, in the open, and Lou, who's Donna's fiancee, was sitting on, laying on, the other end of the couch sleeping. He wakes up with a start, he's sweating, he's, like, heart pumping, he's holding his chest, he's like 'man, I just had the worst nightmare' and Donna's like 'what happened? What happened?' He pointed at the doll, he says 'I just had a dream that that doll there was crawling up my leg and it got to my neck and it started to strangle me'. That was his dream, nightmare, what's he do? He grabs the doll off the couch because he's, he's angry and he's nervous. Grabs the doll, he picks it up, he throws it all across the room, on the carpet, he says 'that's just a Raggedy Ann doll, can't hurt anybody'. When he said that, seven psychic wounds appeared on his chest and on his stomach. Four this way *moves hand horizontally*, and three this way *moves his hand virtically*. They come through his T-shirt like somebody's took a scalpel and now you can see the blood coming through the T-shirt. Now they're freaked out. Now Donna and their girlfriend and Lou are like 'wait a minute, that can't be a seven year old girl inside that doll, somethings wrong here'. They called the high Episcopal candidate in Hartford. He didn't know what to do, he said 'you know, I'm not versed in this kind of stuff, why don't you call the Warren's, they know all about this stuff?' Ed and Lorraine get there, they had a priest come with and did an exorcism of the house and the girl said 'well, what are you gonna do with the doll? Ed, we don't want that doll, can you take it?' *mutters something too inaudible to transcribe* 'bring it back to my museum'.
So he took it back to the museum and his car, he had like an old Chevy, as on the way home the car's jerking, stopping, stalling, never did that before, get trouble controlling it, bouncing off the curbs. Finally he stops the car, he had Holy water, he always kept it in his pocket in a little plastic bottle, he sprinkled Holy water on her, he said, he did the sign of the cross, and he said the our father. He said they were able to make it home. When he did, he put it in a chair, like this chair right here, put it in a corner over here, you could just reach over and grab it, but he put a little yellow tape, said 'danger, do not touch'. So, that was fine for a while, right?
A priest, Father Bill, he comes over in the daytime, has lunch with Ed and Lorraine upstairs. After they're eating lunch and having tea, he says to Ed 'hey Ed, can I see that doll I heard so much about that put slashes on people?' That's how he said it. Ed says 'come down Father, I'll show it to you'. Gets to the doll, starts to talk about the doll that's in the corner, and he starts to talk, he gets to the part with the slash marks with Lou, and the priest like, doesn't want to know. Priest goes 'what?' He reaches over the tape, grabs the doll, that's the guy, he grabs it, you know what he does? He grabs it, almost like Lou, throws it across the museum, and says 'God is more powerful than any devil or demon'. Ed says 'Father, why'd you do that? I told you not to touch anything'. Priest says 'I don't care, God is more powerful'. Ed says 'you know what Father, you're right, God is more powerful than any devil or demon, but no human being is, no priest, you shouldn't have touched it'. Priest didn't want to hear it. They go back upstairs, Ed's not too happy with the priest by the way, they say their goodbyes. The priest gets in his brand new car and leaves. Priest never made it to his diocese that night because the car went out of control, almost head out into a tractor trailer; destroyed the car, and injured the priest. It didn't kill him, but it injured him. Two days later the priest calls up crying to, crying on the phone to Ed. He tells him about the accident. He says 'you know what Ed? This is the last thing I can recall, was looking in the rear view mirror, and I saw an image of that doll and I lost control of the car'. Ed's like 'fella, I don't know what to tell you, but yeah, I told you not to touch the doll'.
Ed used to give these little tours of the museum. He used to charge like five or ten dollars, or twelve dollars if you have a group of college kids, would call up and say 'oh you get ten kids I'll give you an hour and a half tour' and one of the kids came on a motorcycle with his girlfriend. Gets to the doll, now at this time the doll is in a case, because after all these incidents Ed said 'I'm going to have that case built', which was that case there. That is the original case. That's where, that's the original case right there and that's where we're gonna put it when we transfer the doll for repairs, temporarily, but put her back right there. That was the case that the young man ran up to.
Ed's talking about the doll, he gets, again, to the, I guess a slash mark's like a trigger, he talks about the slash marks appearing, the psychic wounds, the young man breaks the crowd, breaks from the crowd, runs up to the glass, starts banging on the glass with his fingers, says 'this is a load of bull. If that doll can put slashes on somebody, do it to me'. What'd he do? He challenged. He challenged it out, Ed's like 'hey you, you and your girlfriend, you got to get out of here. I can't have it. I just got to telling you people don't disrespect the doll, don't challenge. Get out'. Kid's mocking it on the way out, laughing with his girlfriend. He never made it home. Three hours later we find out that he was killed on that motorcycle when he went head on into a tree. Now how do we know what happened? The girl didn't die, she was in a hospital for many months though and she said, when interviewed, the last thing she recalled was laughing and joking about the doll with him before he lost control of the bike. I've looked at that doll many times, I've never challenged it, I've never said I want something to happen, I never said I want to see the doll move, I never said if you can do something to me do it, no, that's ridic, that's stupid. It's like going to Mike Tyson 'go ahead hit me, okay you think you can hit me, you think you're tough?' Why would you challenge?'
The Line Up's comments:
'It wasn’t until 1968 that the Warrens had their first major case—one that has become, thanks to The Conjuring and its sequels, every bit as famous as any of their others. A student nurse was given a Raggedy Ann doll as a gift—the real doll that inspired the infamous Annabelle doll of the movies. Like its cinematic namesake, this real (albeit less spooky-looking) Annabelle doll really did occupy a glass case in the Warrens’ home, emblazoned with a placard reading 'Positively do not open.' '
The N.E.S.S.'s comments:
'Ed claimed that the most dangerous item in the house, however, was a Raggedy-Ann doll that was said to still be possessed by a demonic entity. He keeps this enclosed in a glass case for safety, and chillingly relates the tale of the man who ignored his warnings and taunted the doll, only to die hours later in a tragic motorcycle accident.'
Thought Catelog's comments:
'The haunted Annabelle doll that the couple is famous for is certainly an extremely creepy story. That’s probably why the whole story first appeared as an episode of The Twilight Zone which aired 7 years before the Warrens ever met the Annabelle doll. The episode, titled Living Doll was part of the show’s fifth season.'
The Twilight Zone:
Thought Catelog pointed out an excellent, and surprising, detail about the Annabelle story. I have never seen The Twilight Zone, and above you can see the image of the doll from the episode 'Living Doll'. I've looked up a brief overview of the episode on Wikipedia and I can't deny that there are blatant similarities between the episode and the Annabelle story involving Lou. In the episode the doll was called Talky Tina, but the mum was actually called Annabelle. Her daughter was called Christie, and Annabelles partner was called Erich. Another difference the doll in the episode has from the Raggedy Ann doll, aside name, is that it is a wind up talking one, hence the name Talky Tina. During the episode the doll says 'I don't like you' to Erich and so he tries to get rid of the doll. He throws it away only to get a call from what sounds like the doll, and it says over the phone that it is going to kill him. He goes back to the bin he threw it in and finds that it is now empty. He finds the doll somehow with Christie. Later that night Erich is woken up by muffled noises outside his room, and thinking someone has broken in he goes to investigate. He trips over Tina on the stairs and falls to his death.
Living Doll and Lou's experience comparison:
As you can see, there are clear similarities to that episode of the Living Doll episode and Lous own experience. Above you can see an image of the Annabelle doll used in the Conjuring films, and it doesn't help that this doll has a striking resemblance to Talky Tina. The similar details between the tv episode and Lou's experience are as follows:
1. The name 'Annabelle' appears in both
2. The victim is fiancee to a girl involved
3. The victims both think there is an intruder upon hearing noises from another room
4. The dolls seemingly teleport
5. The dolls seemingly only dislike the fiancee
Now, not every story in connection to the doll has a link to that episode, just the most serious one which the girls and Lou experienced which made them get rid of the doll. The episode aired in 1963, which was around seven years before the Annabelle case as that has been cited as being either 1968, or 1970 depending where you look.
My thoughts:
My first thought when discussing this case is that Tony Spera either needs to correct his website, or get this story straight when discussing the doll. On the surface, the stories are all consistent. There is a story about a man who dreams about the doll strangling him, and is slashed by the doll. Then there is a story about a priest who is injured in a car crash. Finally there is a story about a man who is killed on a motorbike, and his girlfriend is seriously injured in this event. Dodgy details:
1. 1968 or 1970?
2. Did Lou throw the doll or not before being scratched?
3. Was Lou scratched after waking up from his nightmare?
4. Was it the blood on the doll, or the arms on the table that caused the girls to contact the psychic?
5. Was Lou a friend, a fiancee, did he live with the girls?
6. Was 'Annabelle Higgins' killed in a car crash, or was her body found in a field?
7. Is the doll possessed, or is a demon attached?
8. Father Jason or Father Bill?
These are all the iffy details I could spot, and the funny thing is these conflicting bits of information are from the same source. Tony's N.E.S.P.R. website says different details from what Tony himself tells the OVERNIGHT team. Now, benefit of the doubt could be that Tony has misremembered a name, or a date, or maybe merged some stories together. Its a common thing for people to do, and there are many cases he will know about, so it is bound to happen... but some of these details seem a bit too iffy. For instance, how do you go from the girls called a psychic because there was potential blood on the doll to they called the psychic because its arms flopped onto the table? Or going from the little girls body being in a field to her being killed in a car crash?
Regarding the similarities between the doll and the twilight zone episode, it doesn't look good regardless of how I think of it. Either the girls had seen that episode and sold the Warren's a tale, which they wrongly believed, or the Warren's themselves have placed that story to the doll. The similarities are far too similar to ignore. The best case scenario for the legitimacy of this case is that the psychic made up the name 'Annabelle' due to it being a Raggedy 'Ann' doll. Either way, someone has fibbed somewhere, wether that be the psychic, the girls, Lou, or the Warren's. It also doesn't help that Tony has taken the doll to Las Vegas, and that he takes it to various public events. If these stories are all true, and all it takes is for someone to tell the doll to do something for it to kill them, then why risk taking it out in public? Why did Ed Warren keep showing it to people after the priest, wether he be called Jason or Bill, was seriously injured? I understand the potential educational reasoning behind it, but surely you would just show pictures instead? To ferry the doll around and parade it in front of the public, if it is legitimate, is the equivilant to bringing a serial killer to a lecture about crime and handing him a loaded gun. You just shouldn't do it if you know there is risk there.
The thing that really baffles me is that Ed and Tony know the risk. They built a case. They wear welding gloves drenched in holy water to move it while reciting prayers. A seven page exorcism was performed of the apartment, and the Warren's were nearly in multiple collisions while transporting the doll. Why risk transporting it to show it at public events? As I mentioned in my post about the Warren's, if you want to see the doll at such an event, it can cost $35 for general admission, but to see the doll it can cost an additional $64. That is $99 to see this doll. Per person. $99. You could argue the price is to put people off due to the danger, but then why risk showing it to the people willing to pay that price?
I really didn't want to reach this conclusion, or be so negative about the doll, but when you look into it, it doesn't look good. I would still like to think there is some legitimacy to the doll somewhere, but I'm just not seeing it. At best the Warren's have taken unnecessary risks regarding the safety of others, at worst the doll isn't haunted and the Warren's either knew this or didn't. If they didn't know that it was fake, then that puts their reputation as paranormal investigators, and Lorraines reputation as a psychic into question. If they knew it was fake then that is even worse as it makes them frauds regarding that item, but then puts all other items they've collected, their whole museum, into question. The striking similarity between the film version of the Annabelle doll and Talky Tina also doesn't help matters. Lorraine Warren was a consultant on the films. Either the film design was coincidence, or someone had seen that episode of the twilight zone and decided to make the doll look similar. I don't know why you would do that when the stories are so similar, unless it was a bizarre inside joke, or someone subtly trying to out the Warren's as frauds.
I really hope you enjoyed this blog post. If you have any comments whether that be about the blog, experiences of your own, or even places you would like for me to investigate, then you can comment and follow on here, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or Reddit, and you can email thetrueparanormal1@gmail.com for a quick response to any questions.
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