Ralph: I can remember every toy I had as a kid.
Gabriel: And they remember you, Ralph.
I've always hated dolls. My first doll was a monstrosity called Baby Beans, which I continuously rejected by "losing" it on outings, tossing it under my bed to whatever ghoulies lurked there after goodnight kisses were exchanged, and repeatedly placing it in the kitchen garbage can. Much to my dismay, I'd discover it, sitting on my bed the following day. It was unnerving to say the least. Of the very few photographs in existence of myself as a child, there is one, wonderful black and white shot of me chocking that doll. To this day, I consider it to be the best photograph of me ever taken.
Like most little girls, (although, I was certainly not at all like "most little girls" ), I, too had a Raggedy Anne doll, like the one pictured in Lorainne Warren's arms. Annabelle was a gift to one of two nurses who resided together. According to the women the doll began to move on its own. First, arms and legs would change position, soon after, it could be found in different places all together. It even began leaving them notes, written in pencil, in handwriting that looked like a young child's. This was even more odd, as the women claimed there were no pencils in the house or the type of parchment paper the notes were composed on.
”It sounds like someone had a key to your apartment and was playing a sick joke on you,” Ed Warren concluded. “That’s exactly what we thought,” said Donna. “So we did little things like put marks on the windows and doors or arrange the rugs so that anyone who came in here would leave a trace that we could see. But never once did it turn out that there was a real outside intruder.”
Then one night they returned home to find the doll sitting on a bed with what appeared to be blood on the back of it's hand and on it's chest.
A psychic was called in, who told the women that the spirit of a little girl named Annabelle, who used to live where their apartment now stood, was the one moving the doll. Annabelle liked the women and wanted to know if she could stay with them and "move into the doll."
The nurses said yes. From then on they called the doll, Annabelle.
One night, Lou, a friend of the ladies, was with Angie, (one of the two nurses), at the apartment." It was about ten or eleven o’clock at night, and we were reading over maps because I was going off on a trip the next day. Everything was quiet at the time. Suddenly, we both heard sounds in Donna’s room that made us think that someone had broken into the apartment. I quietly got up and tip-toed to the bedroom door, which was closed. I waited until the noises stopped, then I carefully opened the door and reached in and switched on the light. Nobody was in there! Except, the Annabelle doll was tossed on the floor in a corner. I went in alone and walked over to the thing to see if anything unusual had happened. But as I got close to the doll, I got the distinct impression that somebody was behind me. I swung around instantly and, well….”
“He won’t talk about that part,” Angie said. “When Lou turned around there wasn’t anybody there, but he suddenly yelled and grabbed for his chest. He was doubled over, cut and bleeding when I got to him. Blood was all over his shirt. Lou was shaking and scared and we went back out into the living room. We then opened his shirt and there on his chest was what looked to be sort a of claw mark!”
Annabelle's story continues to get stranger. You can read more about this case on the Warren's site:
http://edandlorrainewarren.com/?p=6
EVP specialists, Mark and Debby Constantino have caught some interesting EVPs from haunted dolls. You can hear the EVPs, and some of the history behind the dolls right here on Altered States Para Radio -
http://www.tomyd.com/as_ep203_web.mp3
Sweet dreams, gentle readers.
