Latest / Boozy Banter with Friends / Looking For A Haunted Doll?

Transcript

Looking For A Haunted Doll? · Boozy Banter with Friends

• 0:18
  Leyla Zmeskal: Hello and welcome to boozy banter with friends.
• 0:21
  Leyla Zmeskal: I'm Leyla.
• 0:22
  Leyla Zmeskal: I'm Trisha.
• 0:23
  Leyla Zmeskal: I'm Diane.
• 0:24
  Leyla Zmeskal: Grab your favorite spirit and join us because shits about to get real.
• 0:37
  Leyla Zmeskal: Hello.
• 0:38
  Trisha Smith: Hi.
• 0:38
  Diane Black: Hi.
• 0:40
  Trisha Smith: How are you?
• 0:41
  Leyla Zmeskal: I'm okay. Well kind of mostly okay. Things are pretty helps,
• 0:45
  Diane Black: You're sounding sexy.
• 0:46
  Leyla Zmeskal: Why thank you.
• 0:50
  Diane Black: I like it.
• 0:51
  Leyla Zmeskal: Thanks.
• 0:52
  Trisha Smith: Yeah,
• 0:53
  Leyla Zmeskal: I should be at the end of a bar with a cigarette and a bourbon talking to some hot young man. Hey sonny, looking kinda cute down there, why don't you come buy me a drink.
• 1:09
  Diane Black: I don't Yeah,
• 1:10
  Trisha Smith: Is that what you're gonna call him to you, be like Sonny?
• 1:15
  Diane Black: Like you're an 85 year old woman or something.
• 1:17
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yes the voice is like indicates like a very elderly smoky drinking,
• 1:25
  Diane Black: No it doesn't, no it's a sultry kind of,
• 1:28
  Leyla Zmeskal: Sultry kind of rasp.
• 1:29
  Diane Black: Like sexy,
• 1:31
  Leyla Zmeskal: Well buckle up because you're gonna listen to it for all this show.
• 1:35
  Leyla Zmeskal: So Diane.
• 1:41
  Diane Black: Yeah,
• 1:41
  Leyla Zmeskal: Whatcha drinking?
• 1:52
  Diane Black: I you know, I feel like I should just have this recorded and then kind of like little edited and then because,
• 2:03
  Leyla Zmeskal: Interpretation.
• 2:04
  Diane Black: Right. Because I, I know for like the last several episodes I start out with City Gates, City Gate, but they I so today Yes, I am drinking.
• 2:21
  Trisha Smith: What?
• 2:21
  Diane Black: City Gate.
• 2:22
  Leyla Zmeskal: No,
• 2:24
  Diane Black: Shocker.
• 2:26
  Diane Black: Tropical Rum with Prosecco.
• 2:30
  Leyla Zmeskal: Whoo. That's your, that's your jam right there.
• 2:32
  Diane Black: It's I you know, City Gates. Every time I'm, I think of trying some new, Explorer something. And I just ended up being disappointed usually. So I decided today, I just want to enjoy my drink thoroughly. And I knew my go to that's not going to let me down is City Gates, Tropical Rum.
• 2:57
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah,
• 2:58
  Diane Black: Yeah. I know, right.
• 3:00
  Leyla Zmeskal: I don't mean it in like a negative way.
• 3:02
  Diane Black: No, I know, you can relate.
• 3:04
  Leyla Zmeskal: I can relate.
• 3:05
  Diane Black: What are you drinking?
• 3:06
  Diane Black: Well, funny you should ask, me hat I'm drinking because I'm actually drinking something brand new from City Gate their grapefruit vodka.
• 3:18
  Diane Black: Whoa, and?
• 3:20
  Leyla Zmeskal: It's actually really good. I like it.
• 3:22
  Diane Black: Do you?
• 3:22
  Leyla Zmeskal: The Grapefruit Vodka and I paired it with the lemon lime soda from Publix.
• 3:29
  Diane Black: Oh, see two things and never disappoint?
• 3:32
  Trisha Smith: Yeah,
• 3:32
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah. I mean, you know, I think grapefruit vodka for a lot of people can be kind of really hit or miss.
• 3:40
  Diane Black: Right.
• 3:40
  Leyla Zmeskal: But what I really liked about City Gates is their flavors. They do not have a chemically chemical flavor. It's very, it's got a very natural smooth flavor. And I tried this just as a shot. And I tell you what, no one likes to shoot vodka out of shot glass because it's like but got a shot glass.
• 4:03
  Diane Black: Speak for yourself.
• 4:05
  Leyla Zmeskal: It was super, super damn smooth.
• 4:07
  Trisha Smith: It dosen't tastes like vodka.
• 4:09
  Leyla Zmeskal: No, it was ridiculously, it was so good.
• 4:12
  Diane Black: Yeah,
• 4:13
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 4:13
  Leyla Zmeskal: So that's what I'm having, Tricia what about you?
• 4:17
  Diane Black: We're gonna be three for three.
• 4:19
  Trisha Smith: We are.
• 4:21
  Diane Black: Trifecta.
• 4:22
  Trisha Smith: Yes. I had a hard time deciding today. So I just went with, you know, a standby, which is City Gates their Smoked Maple Whiskey.
• 4:34
  Leyla Zmeskal: It's good stuff.
• 4:34
  Leyla Zmeskal: It's good.
• 4:34
  Trisha Smith: It's so good with ginger ale, like maple and ginger in a glass. I mean, and the wind is blowing out there
• 4:39
  Diane Black: Yeah, and it's kind of sunny and it does feel like drinking this makes you feel it makes it feel like fall.
• 4:50
  Trisha Smith: Yeah.
• 4:50
  Leyla Zmeskal: Really good.
• 4:51
  Trisha Smith: Yeah, I guess we're all,
• 4:53
  Leyla Zmeskal: City Gate listen to us, we're taking your shit.
• 4:57
  Leyla Zmeskal: But we just, what it was something really, really cool is that we entered one of their giveaways for city gates and we won a bottle.
• 5:07
  Diane Black: Yay.
• 5:07
  Trisha Smith: We did.
• 5:10
  Leyla Zmeskal: We won one of their new bottles. They had two new flavors come out they had a grapefruit vodka, which is what I'm having today and they had a coconut rum,
• 5:19
  Trisha Smith: Which is very, very good.
• 5:22
  Diane Black: Because we've already had it.
• 5:25
  Leyla Zmeskal: Which that's gonna be our free bottle is the coconut rum.
• 5:30
  Trisha Smith: So we're very excited we're gonna have to of course go all the way to St.
• 5:32
  Trisha Smith: Augustine and pick it up.
• 5:36
  Diane Black: Oh darn,
• 5:36
  Leyla Zmeskal: Today we're gonna take a little trip down to the keys and we're gonna start talking about, something that's in the keys but we're also going to kind of elaborate on a little more than that. A couple weeks ago I had mentioned something about, Robert the doll, that's been down and that is actually in St. Augustine,
• 6:01
  Diane Black: No.
• 6:01
  Trisha Smith: Key West.
• 6:02
  Leyla Zmeskal: St. Key West.
• 6:04
  Diane Black: No, it's not St.
• 6:04
  Diane Black: Key West.
• 6:06
  Leyla Zmeskal: St Key West.
• 6:08
  Trisha Smith: That's her story and she's sticking with it.
• 6:14
  Leyla Zmeskal: Damn you City Gates, Gity Gates.
• 6:18
  Trisha Smith: Impairing speech every day.
• 6:23
  Leyla Zmeskal: You are correct.
• 6:23
  Leyla Zmeskal: So we're gonna talk about Robert The Doll.
• 6:31
  Trisha Smith: Yeah,
• 6:32
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's a creepy little story there.
• 6:34
  Trisha Smith: It is.
• 6:35
  Leyla Zmeskal: Has anybody seen what really I guess got me on the, the subject of it. I was watching the something, Haunted Possessions or with Zach Breggen, Bagan
• 6:50
  Trisha Smith: What's his name?
• 6:51
  Leyla Zmeskal: Zack Bagan?
• 6:53
  Diane Black: No,
• 6:53
  Leyla Zmeskal: You know the tactical ghost gear guy.
• 6:56
  Trisha Smith: Yes, tactical ghost gear guy, yes.
• 7:00
  Leyla Zmeskal: Well he actually had like a Haunted Possessions
• 7:03
  Trisha Smith: Did he asked permission?
• 7:03
  Trisha Smith: or something like that or I don't know the show, but he actually had, Robert The Doll, come to him at his little, like museum, haunted museum that he has and sat on his lap and so I was
• 7:19
  Leyla Zmeskal: Absolutely asked permission because that apparently is a thing.
• 7:25
  Trisha Smith: I knew it was for like pictures but you know for holding it or sitting it on your lap.
• 7:33
  Leyla Zmeskal: He added, he had asked permission to, for Robert The Doll, to sit on his lap and he also asked permission again.
• 7:40
  Leyla Zmeskal: You know if he could have a picture taken with, Robert The Doll, sitting on his lap.
• 7:44
  Trisha Smith: What about all the filming to the ask permission to I don't know, I think, I would hope so.
• 7:48
  Trisha Smith: film the whole show prior to, He's so dramatic. Alright, so tell us a little bit about like, the folklory part of it.
• 8:02
  Leyla Zmeskal: This story was a depending on what you read a couple different things. There was this kid that lived in Key West with his family or a prominent family and Key West and the kid was kind of an oddball from what I think I'm gathering. His name was Robert Eugene Otto. So, depending on what you read, either the aunt sent this doll to Robert Eugene, as a friend or it could have been the mother purchased this doll for her son or there's more stories of the grandfather actually purchasing this doll for his grandson.
• 8:46
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 8:46
  Leyla Zmeskal: Now the doll was purchased in Germany, and it was from some company the,
• 8:52
  Trisha Smith: Steiff.
• 8:53
  Leyla Zmeskal: The Steiff company.
• 8:54
  Trisha Smith: They're a teddy bear. They make Teddy Bears.
• 8:57
  Diane Black: They made the first teddy bear for President Theodore Roosevelt.
• 9:01
  Leyla Zmeskal: Did they really?
• 9:02
  Trisha Smith: Yeah,
• 9:02
  Leyla Zmeskal: And the doll was, different than normal dolls. It was like 40 inches tall. So it was a little taller than,
• 9:09
  Trisha Smith: It was big. It was life size.
• 9:12
  Leyla Zmeskal: It was like bigger and the doll was supposedly, in reference to the child or something.
• 9:18
  Trisha Smith: Right, and they like gave him, they tried to mimic,
• 9:20
  Diane Black: Dress him in his clothes,
• 9:22
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like a little sailor outfit, yeah.
• 9:24
  Trisha Smith: Right. Well, it said that he gave the doll to his grandson as a gift. And then the sailor suit was actually an outfit that belonged to the little boy.
• 9:37
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh, I didn't know that.
• 9:38
  Trisha Smith: That they put on him. So, and I had read that some people say that it was given to him by a maid, or like a worker in a servant in the home,
• 9:50
  Leyla Zmeskal: Okay,
• 9:51
  Trisha Smith: And it was stuffed with straw.
• 9:54
  Leyla Zmeskal: It was stuffed with some kind of wood, wool, wooded wool. Or something like that there's a name for what the doll was stuffed with.
• 10:04
  Trisha Smith: To keep it shape.
• 10:04
  Trisha Smith: So yeah,
• 10:07
  Leyla Zmeskal: And the doll was actually given the name Robert, by the kid and the kid instead of going by Robert switched to going by his middle name, Eugene, or just, Gene. So as you know, an awkward kid growing up in Keywest, not having a lot of friends, the doll became his best friend,
• 10:29
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 10:30
  Leyla Zmeskal: And then, like weird things started happening, you know, like he would be, you know, stuff would break or things would be torn apart. And Gene would always blame Robert the doll,
• 10:44
  Trisha Smith: Robert did it.
• 10:45
  Leyla Zmeskal: Robert did it, Robert did. I think, you know, if you're an awkward kind of kid, you know, that kind of makes, some kind of sense that you would blame the doll for the bad deeds that you've done.
• 10:56
  Trisha Smith: So I read that he, he blamed the doll for so many things that eventually his family put it in the attic, and they locked it up in the attic.
• 11:04
  Trisha Smith: And then I read, and this was more fact than fiction that, the doll remained stored in the attic while he left to go study art in New York and Paris. And while he was away, he married Annette Parker in Paris in 1930.
• 11:26
  Trisha Smith: And when they returned back to the family home, he inherited the house in Key West when his parents passed away, and they move back to the home and that was when he finally brought the doll down. Now the folklore story is that he inherited the, the house and that he moved the doll back into his room and he worked in the house as an artist and spent his days alone with Robert until he married which that doesn't match. You know, the fact that he married in Paris, so I think that being, its Key West is like Savannah or St. Augustine. You know, the stories they have they're kind of get built upon and they get elaborate, and but no, he did not just hang out in his house with this doll until he got married, so.
• 12:24
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah.
• 12:26
  Trisha Smith: But yeah,
• 12:27
  Leyla Zmeskal: He did hang out with the doll quite a lot thoug. Even after his wife moved in o the house. It was, it was ve y awkward how he treated the dol, and almost obsessed with the doll up until his death until 1974.
• 12:45
  Trisha Smith: Yeah.
• 12:46
  Leyla Zmeskal: And I said, I guess the doll stayed in the house, and then the new owners bought the doll or they bought the house the doll was still in the house.
• 12:56
  Trisha Smith: So, some of the stories say that the wife didn't like the doll and she tried to,
• 13:02
  Leyla Zmeskal: No doubt.
• 13:02
  Trisha Smith: Yeah, she tried to lock it in the attic, and it eventually drove her insane. So you know, believe what you want.
• 13:12
  Trisha Smith: But she didn't die until two years after Jean Otto died. So maybe she tried to lock it up after he died. I don't know. But it wasn't a contributing factor to her, to her death. But they do try to make it sound like it was.
• 13:30
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, to the death.
• 13:31
  Trisha Smith: Right. Right. So after they died, or after she died in 1976, the house was sold to Myrtle Rooter, who owned it for 20 years and then it was sold again to the current owners. They opened a bed and breakfast in the house called the, Artists House.
• 13:53
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah,
• 13:53
  Trisha Smith: Which is kind of cool considering he's an artist, but in 1994, the doll was donated to the, East Martello Museum in Key West and it became a popular tourist attraction, and Leyla actually found,
• 14:12
  Leyla Zmeskal: I did.
• 14:13
  Trisha Smith: Yeah, they you know, we were joking about you know, asking it permission but there have been people have said that they've gone in to see the doll and when they took pictures or whatever without asking first that things have happened to them, and they've written asking for forgiveness from the doll, and there's like a whole wall, right, that you didn't say a whole wall.
• 14:37
  Leyla Zmeskal: There's it, well there's a, according to the keeper, there's a whole cabinet of letters that she has received from people. You know, asking Roberts forgiveness and going into the exhibit. There is a warning that says don't photograph there are so many letters. Dear Robert, I visit you a little over a month ago and I've never asked if I could take your picture and let me tell you, you definitely made me regret that day. After I returned home from Florida a little less than a week after I visit you, I got my first speeding ticket, which ended up taking a month to get paid, because who supposedly lost the ticket, and then I've been having problems, after problem with my car. It's gotten to the point where it's not really even logical to keep fixing it. So basically, what I'm trying to say is that I am sincerely sorry for not asking before I took your picture, and it was very rude of me. And you definitely made me learn my lesson. I hope to visit you again soon, and trust me, I will for sure ask before taking your picture. PS, I'm so sorry.
• 15:52
  Trisha Smith: It makes me wonder, do you remember we talked a little bit about the syndrome that people can get when they see something,
• 16:00
  Leyla Zmeskal: Bodham Manheim?
• 16:01
  Trisha Smith: Yes, you see something all the sudden, it's like, you see it everywhere. So it makes me wonder if they didn't go and they knew, if you took his picture without asking permission, then all of a sudden, they're you know, you're gonna have bad luck. And then they're noticing all these things that are happening that have probably happened in past that they've never associated to any one thing and now they're keeping track of it.
• 16:25
  Leyla Zmeskal: On the, the Zack Bagan episode that I watched that had you know the the caretaker take Robert to him.
• 16:34
  Leyla Zmeskal: There was also a lady that said that she, her life is basically like was ruined because of Robert the Doll, and then when they left the museum, they got in a car accident. Later on that day, they gotten another car accident. I guess she lives on a boat near the you know, one of the keys and she fell down the stairs of her boat breaking her back and she just said she wants her life back. And I mean that's, I mean, but there's, maybe it's the Bodham Manheim thing, but also a lot of, like two car accidents in one day,
• 17:09
  Trisha Smith: Right?
• 17:10
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's odd to me.
• 17:11
  Trisha Smith: It is.
• 17:12
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah.
• 17:13
  Trisha Smith: Unless she was down there drinking, Key West.
• 17:19
  Leyla Zmeskal: But there's a couple strange things about that doll. It says that the face like will change expressions.
• 17:25
  Trisha Smith: I've read that too.
• 17:25
  Leyla Zmeskal: That, that the eyes give you like a weird feeling. And the lady that's the current caretaker, well the
• 17:31
  Trisha Smith: What's the deal with this caretaker?
• 17:31
  Trisha Smith: caretaker that I saw on that show.
• 17:37
  Leyla Zmeskal: She was talking to the doll like, Good job, buddy. Like when she picked him off of his lap. She said Good job, buddy. She takes him out of the case and like holds him. She goes not every day, but I do take him out of the case and hold him.
• 17:50
  Trisha Smith: Was she hired by the museum.
• 17:52
  Leyla Zmeskal: She's the curator of the museum.
• 17:55
  Trisha Smith: And she just decided she'd be like,
• 17:57
  Leyla Zmeskal: His caretaker.
• 17:58
  Trisha Smith: That is so weird.
• 18:00
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's a little weird. I don't know.
• 18:01
  Trisha Smith: Yeah,
• 18:02
  Leyla Zmeskal: I don't know.
• 18:03
  Trisha Smith: Did he tell her,
• 18:05
  Leyla Zmeskal: That it's okay.
• 18:07
  Trisha Smith: That she had to be his caretaker.
• 18:09
  Leyla Zmeskal: I guess he accepted her as his caretaker.
• 18:12
  Trisha Smith: It reminds me of that movie, The Boy, I think I mentioned that before.
• 18:17
  Leyla Zmeskal: You did.
• 18:17
  Trisha Smith: About the lady that takes a job as a nanny, and she gets to the, this huge mansion, and the parents are like, okay, here's your list of rules. And you can't do this.
• 18:31
  Trisha Smith: And you have to do this and all this stuff. And she's like, Okay, well, when do I get to meet them and they take her in and it's this doll. But then when she doesn't do all the things like bad things happen, but the parents like as soon as she took the job they were out of there. They're like, we're done. We're done taking care of this doll, which it was supposedly their dead son had like, inhabited this doll.
• 18:56
  Leyla Zmeskal: The doll.
• 18:57
  Trisha Smith: I was a weird movie, it wasn't very good, but it was weird movie, but it reminds me a lot of this.
• 19:05
  Leyla Zmeskal: Robert The Doll.
• 19:05
  Trisha Smith: Yeah, for sure.
• 19:07
  Leyla Zmeskal: So they had hree movies.
• 19:09
  Trisha Smith: I know.
• 19:10
  Leyla Zmeskal: About Robert the Doll.
• 19:11
  Trisha Smith: Diane said she's trying,
• 19:13
  Leyla Zmeskal: Did you watch?
• 19:14
  Diane Black: So I was not familiar with, Robert the Doll, other than what you shared because I just can't read or watch stuff like that. It just kind of fills me with uncomfortable feelings. So to prepare for this our episode today. I did watch, Robert the Doll, the the one on Prime. It took me three or four days to get through it. And I was left very complex, because then I did do some Google research further on that and of course, like you've already said, there's conflicting stories. In the movie, the one that I watched, they showed that the doll was gifted from the woman that, she was kind of like a house caretaker, and she was fired by the mom, or the mom and dad let her go because she was becoming forgetful. And before she left, she begifted to Gene this doll.
• 20:17
  Diane Black: And so that was the take that they showed. And then I think that particular movie was a mix of
• 20:23
  Leyla Zmeskal: The lore and truth.
• 20:25
  Diane Black: Yeah, I was so disturbed by that movie, because like in the movie, the doll was actually murdering people. And so I'm like, what is real? What is not it was very unsettling to me. And then it showed when the mom got rid of the doll locked it up. So this is a little bit of the truth that came in, locked it up, put it away in the attic, but then the spirit inhabited Gene., and then Gene ended up getting the knife and killing his dad. And so I'm like, what is, what is the real, what is I don't get it.
• 21:00
  Leyla Zmeskal: I think that it was part of the movie,
• 21:02
  Trisha Smith: Right?
• 21:03
  Diane Black: But it was given to him by the caretaker, then I would read where it was given to him by the grandfather. And then the mom was the artist, so the mom was the artist. And in the house, they had a whole art studio. And Robert the doll ended up going in and destroying, like all of her artworks. And so it was very, after watching that, and then doing research, I left very confused about the doll. But my question is, whatever is real, whatever is lore, whatever is egend. Why is this doll still n existence? Why hasn't this oll been destroyed? If you're elling me that this doll makes ad things happen? Excuse me?
• 21:49
  Diane Black: hy is it still around? Why do ou have it in a museum? And if eople are still sending letters aying, Yes, Robert made this appen? Why the fuck is this oll still around and not estroyed? That's my burning uestion.
• 22:10
  Leyla Zmeskal: Well, I think, you know, there's lots of dolls that are around that are haunted and still in existence. I think maybe it's safer.
• 22:17
  Diane Black: Why?
• 22:18
  Leyla Zmeskal: I think maybe it's safer to have it in a contained area. I mean, we know of another very famous doll that still around.
• 22:25
  Trisha Smith: in the movies, it's because you can't destroy it, but I believe that this doll. I think some crazy lady at the museum got to hold this doll and made it haunted because now it has its own exhibit in the museum. It wasn't donated until 1994. The lady that owned the house for 20 years,
• 22:50
  Leyla Zmeskal: Kept the doll,
• 22:50
  Trisha Smith: Kept the doll and never said it was haunted or reported any hauntings or anything like that. So I believe that it's just you know, somebody made it up. That's what I think. I mean,
• 23:04
  Diane Black: That makes more sense to me. Then if you have this doll, and you knowingly have this doll, who is responsible for influencing death and murder and mayhem and in the movie that I saw on Prime, like the mom had mental health she was like bipolar? I think they didn't they didn't ever say it because it was like you know mental health It was a taboo back then you don't talk about, she would say my illness, it made me so angry because the husband was like okay, yes, your illness, but you know what the housekeeper she's forgetful, we need to get rid of her. Anyway, I'm off on a tangent because there was mental health issues that were not being addressed.
• 23:50
  Diane Black: And then they let this lady go.
• 23:53
  Trisha Smith: Like probably the most B rated on Amazon Prime.
• 23:58
  Diane Black: It was well done, actually. Except, I just didn't like like how it anyway,
• 24:08
  Leyla Zmeskal: There's also another thing on Amazon Prime called, Lore, and it also I think it was the first episode of Lore or one of the episodes of Lore that also had like a Robert The Doll thing on there.
• 24:22
  Trisha Smith: I just think that it's, it's a story.
• 24:25
  Diane Black: I agree.
• 24:26
  Trisha Smith: I think it capitalized or twisted to make as opposed to another famous doll named, Annabel.
• 24:35
  Leyla Zmeskal: Annabel, which has had many movies about her.
• 24:40
  Trisha Smith: You know there is actually, they call it, The Conjuring Universe, becaus they've had so many offshoot for this you know, so man sequels to this movie, and i has a backstory and it spawne the Annabell movies. It's pa t of The Conjuring like you now, Marvel Universe now Conjuri g as its own universe, but and even that, you know, fac from fiction, when you wat h the movies, it looks lik this creepy ass doll and i real life, it's a Raggedy Ann
• 25:09
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh, is it really?
• 25:10
  Trisha Smith: Yeah, like, I mean, I had a Raggedy Ann Doll.
• 25:15
  Diane Black: Me too.
• 25:15
  Leyla Zmeskal: I had a Raggedy Ann Doll.
• 25:17
  Trisha Smith: Yeah,
• 25:17
  Diane Black: And Raggedy Andy.
• 25:18
  Trisha Smith: And Raggedy Andy.
• 25:18
  Trisha Smith: I was Raggedy Ann for Halloween one year. I was little. Scarier than my Raggedy Ann doll, was the silly Holly Hobby Doll. Do you remember that?
• 25:35
  Diane Black: I do.
• 25:36
  Trisha Smith: I was like this stuffed doll. But it was like prairie themed.
• 25:41
  Diane Black: Yeah,
• 25:41
  Trisha Smith: It was Holly Hobby, and once, you know, her face was printed on cloth and she was all sewn together. She was creepy as hell.
• 25:50
  Diane Black: Yeah,
• 25:51
  Leyla Zmeskal: I mean, dolls itself are to me.
• 25:53
  Trisha Smith: Yeah,
• 25:54
  Leyla Zmeskal: Lends, a little creep factor to it.
• 25:56
  Trisha Smith: True.
• 25:57
  Leyla Zmeskal: You know, we just did our another discussion episode on, BuzzFeed Unsolved, Supernatural, and one of the stories that we were talking about was, Doll Island,
• 26:09
  Diane Black: Um hmm.
• 26:09
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 26:09
  Leyla Zmeskal: They visited too, so and that was creepy in itself. It was an island of just dolls.
• 26:15
  Trisha Smith: Right well, when especially when they age, like you know the porcelain dolls or the dolls that are molded as they get older and they get a little smudge of dirt or their eyeballs cave in, whatever their hair gets all ratty they are scary looking.
• 26:36
  Leyla Zmeskal: Now if anybody knows somebody that has this kind of doll I'm, I'm sorry, i'm not making fun of you in either way shape or form but it's creepy. Have you seen those like lifelike baby dolls? Like
• 26:49
  Trisha Smith: Yeah,
• 26:51
  Diane Black: Yes,
• 26:51
  Trisha Smith: There was like a whole series on people who actually baby them.
• 26:57
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like that. And they have a multiple like, of those dolls.
• 27:02
  Trisha Smith: Yeah, in a not so obsessive avenue. There's those American Girl dolls that you can get that has like the same color hair as your child and the same color eyes and I think that's weird as shit.
• 27:18
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's a little, but that to me is not as weird as the people that you know,
• 27:22
  Trisha Smith: Lifelike baby.
• 27:23
  Leyla Zmeskal: Lifelike baby dolls and they have like birthings
• 27:27
  Trisha Smith: Ew,
• 27:28
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like it's it shows it like in a sack and it shows like this doctor opening the sack of this baby, I swear to God is so weird. And I like shows it like trying to suck out the nose and the things. I mean, it's like it's and these babies are ugly, I'm sorry, why would you want an ugly newborn?
• 27:55
  Diane Black: Most of them are not very pretty. They're always pretty to the parents but most newborns are like
• 28:00
  Trisha Smith: My babies were beautiful.
• 28:03
  Diane Black: So were mine.
• 28:04
  Trisha Smith: They were susteren babies. So they had perfectly rounded head their little faces weren't all squished up because I pushed out of a 10 inch hole.
• 28:10
  Trisha Smith: Their like perfectly like, you know just plucked from the womb.
• 28:19
  Leyla Zmeskal: Plucked from the womb.
• 28:23
  Trisha Smith: Those were my babies.
• 28:25
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh shit.
• 28:28
  Leyla Zmeskal: So weird,
• 28:28
  Trisha Smith: Now speaking of weird shit, talking about baby And we went and it was busy. Their were a lot of birthings. We went to, my friend and I a few years ago, we went to Helen Georgia, had a really nice weekend. On our way out of town. We swung by the, Babyland General Hospital. We're all the cabbage patch dolls are born.
• 28:48
  Trisha Smith: It's still up and running. It's like a little museum now but you can still buy Cabbage Patch dolls, but it's a legit baby doll hospital, like you go in and they have viewing windows just like you'd see at a hospital. They have little bassinet and all the dolls are laying in the bassinet, and it's the lady that works in there.
• 29:13
  Trisha Smith: You know, rearranging the dolls is wearing like a nurse's uniform. It is weird.
• 29:33
  Trisha Smith: people there checking out the Cabbage Patch Dolls, and you know,
• 29:36
  Leyla Zmeskal: Can you imagine if that's your husband, like, Hey, babe, I want to go check out this Cabbage Patch.
• 29:43
  Trisha Smith: They were with us! Our husbands were with us they had to drive our asses over there and they're like,
• 29:48
  Leyla Zmeskal: What the fuck.
• 29:49
  Trisha Smith: We're gonna sit here and wait for you two psychos to get done.
• 29:56
  Diane Black: Wow.
• 29:57
  Trisha Smith: Yeah, it was was weird that there were so and I you know, the thing is they were all like women my age who were taking like their kids and their grandkids to see, do you remember in the 80s when it was like the Elmo of the 80s.
• 30:14
  Leyla Zmeskal: Cabbage Patch was the rage.
• 30:14
  Trisha Smith: Yes,
• 30:16
  Diane Black: Yes,
• 30:17
  Trisha Smith: Yeah, nobody could get one and you finally got one, it was a knock off. Do you remember when they had they came
• 30:20
  Leyla Zmeskal: Lived so close to China.
• 30:22
  Leyla Zmeskal: out with the ones the plastic faces instead of the stitched faces? And then you're like, that's not real it's from China.
• 30:29
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, everything I had came from China because we live so close.
• 30:38
  Trisha Smith: But yeah, it's still around, go visit, the creepy ass Babyland General, so there are other dolls. Like when I went online, I looked at haunted dolls. And then I got sucked into the rabbit hole of all the haunted dolls on eBay.
• 30:54
  Trisha Smith: Like that's the thing. Like you can go on eBay and,
• 30:58
  Diane Black: Who knew I did not know that.
• 31:00
  Leyla Zmeskal: Who Knew you could buy a haunted doll on eBay.
• 31:02
  Trisha Smith: I did not know that. And so okay, I googled it.
• 31:06
  Trisha Smith: I googled the eBay's and there are so many. And they all have names, Amanda Gunner, Gloria, and they all say the same thing.
• 31:17
  Trisha Smith: Active paranormal, and they just look like ordinary dolls.
• 31:22
  Leyla Zmeskal: Now, are they really haunted?
• 31:24
  Trisha Smith: Right? Is there a test, like show me proof, that they're haunted before I buy it?
• 31:30
  Diane Black: But why, again, like with Robert, my question is, why would you want a haunted doll?
• 31:38
  Trisha Smith: I don't know. I don't know. Oh, negative succubus spirit. Why would you want to buy anything that says negative?
• 31:48
  Leyla Zmeskal: Succubus.
• 31:50
  Trisha Smith: No, thank you. But there are so many and I'm looking at these dolls. And I'm like, I think I bought some of these dolls for my kids, like my girls, growing up.
• 32:01
  Leyla Zmeskal: But were they haunted?
• 32:03
  Trisha Smith: They might have been, like this one, old creepy baby doll Gothic oddity. Baby doll zombie, it's like missing a foot. So they're just like taking garbage dolls and saying their haunted.
• 32:17
  Leyla Zmeskal: In season one, I did a doll about a haunted doll in an episode, Haunted Elsa Doll.
• 32:23
  Trisha Smith: Oh that's right.
• 32:23
  Trisha Smith: Yes see, okay, so look at this, this is haunted dolls active spirits follows for rivals and investigations. Look what they used, they used one of those
• 32:35
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh, one of those x r x,
• 32:38
  Trisha Smith: SOS Readers on your phone. And that says please,
• 32:39
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yes, SLS.
• 32:42
  Leyla Zmeskal: read this is not a doll for sale, if you find yourself viewing our page, seeing our dolls on eBay and are not ready to buy one, this is for you. We started a new Tic Tock due to our old one getting banned. We plan on showing you investigations, updates on spirits, funny videos, SLS camera. I mean, these people are just like trying to suck you into their, Tic Tocs, with the r creepy doll pictur Sucked you into their Tiktoks with the creepy doll pictures.
• 33:15
  Trisha Smith: And then there's like, oh, Lord, there's some that look really really bad. But oh here, Diane, you'd like that they set it up on a Ouija Board.
• 33:26
  Diane Black: Good Lord, Jesus, Joseph and Mary.
• 33:31
  Trisha Smith: These haunt, this haunted doll just wants a forever friend.
• 33:36
  Leyla Zmeskal: No, thank you.
• 33:37
  Trisha Smith: And it's got a name, its name is Maureen. And then she died and inhabited a doll, I don't understand haunted dolls.
• 33:46
  Leyla Zmeskal: Nope. Don't, don't get that either.
• 33:48
  Diane Black: How much is she?
• 33:48
  Trisha Smith: You want to know?
• 33:49
  Diane Black: Yeah, I do.
• 33:50
  Trisha Smith: Okay,
• 33:50
  Leyla Zmeskal: S29.99
• 33:50
  Trisha Smith: $65.
• 33:53
  Leyla Zmeskal: Damn!
• 33:57
  Trisha Smith: I have doll or two that I could say,
• 34:00
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's haunted?
• 34:01
  Diane Black: Say, yeah.
• 34:02
  Trisha Smith: Right. I mean, some people just have normal looking dolls, that they're like this doll is haunted. And then some people are like, yep that's not good enough, we have to scare that shit out of.
• 34:16
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh Lord, that's ugly. Oh, good, Lord.
• 34:20
  Trisha Smith: It gets better.
• 34:20
  Trisha Smith: There are so many.
• 34:23
  Leyla Zmeskal: If you have an afternoon, look on eBay and look for haunted dolls and just scroll to your heart's content.
• 34:30
  Trisha Smith: There are so many It's so weird and creepy and it makes you wonder. Okay, out of the literally hundreds of dolls they have on eBay that say they're haunted. Do you think any of them really are?
• 34:42
  Diane Black: Maybe a handful?
• 34:43
  Trisha Smith: Do you think somebody's like I have this haunted doll and I'm sick of it being in my house and I put it on eBay, because they can't burn it Diane evidently.
• 34:51
  Diane Black: Yeah. You know, I have a niece that I love. I love her dearly. And her name is Annabel and she is quite an incredible young little girl she's 6, and from the time she was. I don't know two she took an extreme liking to a doll that my sister in law found in the house of the woman that she used to care for in her attic and Annabel my little niece saw this doll and was extremely immediately attracted to it. And the doll has no eyes. And she's very like I saw it when my sister in law showed me the picture. Annabel cause her no eyes, Baby No Eyes, and I saw the picture and I was Did you Sage the stall Did you cleanses doll because you have no idea what is attached this doll it had been up in the attic for like 80 years it's a very very old doll. And Annabel has been very attached to, Baby No Eyes, from the time she was about two, I think and again now she's going to she's six now she's going to be seven, like it went everywhere with her, and I met the doll, as a sensitive, that I consider myself to be, like I picked up very comfortable energy vibes from her. And I was concerned about Annabel spending so much time with this, Baby No Eyes and Annabel is such a smart, young beautiful girl and she's very old soul. But she has developed quite interest in the mccobb. I don't know if it's because of the doll or if it's just her personality. But she loves like you know, Jack and what's the what's,
• 36:59
  Trisha Smith: Sally,
• 37:00
  Diane Black: Sally. She's obsessed with all of that mccobb and I often question does it have something to do with the doll with, Baby No Eyes.
• 37:12
  Leyla Zmeskal: Did you sage the doll for her?
• 37:15
  Leyla Zmeskal: I did. Yes. And I've given Annabel a little tiny what I call it chamber it's a little glass bottle with crystals in it and she keeps it in a room and she keeps it with her I don't know though I worry because I look at that doll and I just see and feel nothing good from it which my sister in law knows all this as well as Annabel's mama and my nephew knows like I'm like she is so connected with this, Baby No Eye, doll that it concerns me a little bit. It does it, really does. You know it does it concerns me. So I don't know about the factual like can dolls really be possessed? Can they have energy,
• 38:05
  Trisha Smith: I've read a lot about haunted dolls, like there are a bunch of different stories out there. But this one in particular caught my attention because it's a little bit different. And so I'm gonna share it real quick and then we'll wrap this up, but it's a doll named Okiku. It's located i Hokkaido, Japan. According to c ntemporary Japanese myth, in 1 18, a teen named, Eikichi S zuki, bought a large doll from okkaido province for his ounger sister, Okiku, and the wo became inseparable, the girl in her doll and it was a larger size doll and she named it after herself. So it was wearing a Komodo and it had raven black hair that was trimmed to roughly shoulder length, with bangs, it's called the Okappa hairstyle in Japan. And she had dark eyes and there was just something mesmerizing, they said about thi doll. So a couple of years later, Okiku died, and her family came to believe that the ghost was occupying the doll, the thing would move around and even more disturbing, its hair started growing.
• 39:29
  Leyla Zmeskal: What!
• 39:30
  Trisha Smith: So now the doll is still around, it resides in a special shrine in the Mannenji Temple in Hokkaido and the priests of the temple regularly cut Okiku still growing hair.
• 39:48
  Leyla Zmeskal: Okay, what?
• 39:50
  Trisha Smith: I know! So see, I mean, there are a lot of like haunted doll stories, but to have one that actually does something is kind of creepy. And that one freaked me out a little bit.
• 40:01
  Diane Black: That is, yeah.
• 40:01
  Leyla Zmeskal: I mean, it's been around since 1918.
• 40:05
  Diane Black: How do you explain that?
• 40:07
  Trisha Smith: I don't know.
• 40:07
  Leyla Zmeskal: How do you explain the growing hair?
• 40:09
  Trisha Smith: Exactly, and there is not like some ladies like, oh, yeah, look, I cut its hair.
• 40:12
  Trisha Smith: Priests are cutting its hair, you know, because it's so I mean, it's not like it's just some schmo who's like, oh, yeah, I totally do that. It's, so, I you know, there are a lot of stories, but you every now and then I come across one which is like, it's a little hard to deny.
• 40:35
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's a little strange to me.
• 40:36
  Diane Black: Yeah, that's hard to,
• 40:39
  Trisha Smith: Explain.
• 40:40
  Diane Black: Yeah.
• 40:40
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 40:41
  Leyla Zmeskal: I wonder if any of our listeners has a creepy doll story?
• 40:44
  Trisha Smith: Oh, I would love to hear it, because I have so many dolls, like those creepy ass porcelain dolls. I have them. I bought them for my girls. I love them. And you know what? When I'm an old lady, and they're stored up in the attic, my kids are gonna go up there and be like, why does Mom have all these haunted dolls?
• 41:03
  Leyla Zmeskal: Alright,
• 41:04
  Diane Black: Yeah, post us your picture of your creepy ass doll.
• 41:04
  Trisha Smith: So if you do have a creepy ass doll story, go to our Instagram boozy banter with friends and let us know about it. So, Yeah, I want to see a picture.
• 41:18
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, post a pictue of your creepy doll.
• 41:21
  Trisha Smith: I think the next time we record at my house, I set out all my creepy ass dolls for Diane.
• 41:25
  Diane Black: Don't do that. I've been through your entire house.
• 41:28
  Trisha Smith: You've seen them, there's more, Like, yeah, you don't need to do that.
• 41:33
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh my goodness.
• 41:34
  Trisha Smith: On that note, I'm ready for another cocktail.
• 41:37
  Leyla Zmeskal: I am too.
• 41:37
  Diane Black: Yeah.
• 41:38
  Trisha Smith: All right.
• 41:39
  Trisha Smith: All right.
• 41:39
  Diane Black: All right.
• 41:40
  Trisha Smith: Cheers
• 41:40
  Leyla Zmeskal: Cheers.
• 41:41
  Diane Black: Cheers.
• 41:41
  Leyla Zmeskal: Hey, like what you hear.
• 41:43
  Diane Black: Check us out on Instagram.
• 41:44
  Trisha Smith: Or send us a message at Boozy Banter With Friends dot com.
• 41:48
  Leyla Zmeskal: Thanks for listening.
• 41:49
  Trisha Smith: Until next time.
• 41:50
  Diane Black: Late-a.