Ep. 22: A Crop Circle of Virgin Mary's: Annabelle the Doll

Speaker A: Mhm. Hello. Hey, and welcome to this podcast Doesn't Exist, live from my mother's closet. Who are you? Oh, I'm Emma. Why do I always forget to introduce myself?
Speaker B: And I'm Shannon. I'm the glue holding this together, obviously. Oh, um, my gosh stickler for protocol and procedure.
Speaker A: Yes. No, I know I'm not good at keeping up with that, but I will do my very best. Sorry. I got distracted by a, uh, cashmere sweater in my mother's closet.
Speaker B: Focus, fox. Emma. Focus.
Speaker A: Beautiful. And I really like it. Anyway, yes, I'm in my mother's closet for sound quality. No particular other reason. Keeps all of the animals out. Although one of them snuck in here earlier and scared the crap out of me. She scared me so bad. It was my mom's cat, Little. She just decided that now is the time that I am going to go and, uh, scare the crap out of Emma. Sounds like a fun time. I didn't hear the door open because she's tiny, so she could slip through the crack. And I'm just sitting here facing the wall, and she appears next to me and scared me so badly, I looked over and went, Whoa. And she looked up and went, Ow.
Speaker B: I paid her extra.
Speaker A: You must have.
Speaker B: I ventmode her.
Speaker A: Well, it was good preparation for, uh, this topic.
Speaker B: Um, I'm already not happy.
Speaker A: I know. And I'm so sorry you're going to hate me, but I'm really excited about it. It's been a couple of episodes since we had our spooky. Spooky? Robert the doll.
Speaker B: It's been, like, one episode that you've done?
Speaker A: No, I've done two. I did mothman and I did, uh, tom shoot. So been a couple of episodes.
Speaker B: Mhm.
Speaker A: And we've got another doll. Shannon is so mad.
Speaker B: Am I not a good friend to you?
Speaker A: I'm so sorry. I just got so interested. Are you already crying?
Speaker B: I'm priming the system.
Speaker A: I'm so sorry.
Speaker B: You say that, and then you continue to do these things.
Speaker A: Do you want me to stop?
Speaker B: No.
Speaker A: Are you ready? I would really like if you would strap into whatever you feel the safest.
Speaker B: Hold on. Let me go get an emotional support pillow.
Speaker A: Uh oh. That's fair. You do need something to hold on to because we are zooming this episode. Uh, we are not in our normal little positions on our futon couch, so we don't have the ability to cuddle underneath our blankets and hold our pillows and pull our sweatshirts over our heads whenever we get freaked out. So poor Shannon, sitting in her dust chair, clutching a pillow, trying not to cry. And I haven't even started. You don't even know which doll this is.
Speaker B: Oh, I'm not crying right now. In this moment. I did the second, but now I'm just angry.
Speaker A: I know. I'm so sorry. You're going to hate me. I love you.
Speaker B: You better be glad it's afternoon that we're not recording 900 at night.
Speaker A: Yes, I will try my very best never to do that to you again. Because that was very mean.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: I'm so sorry. I know we have another doll.
Speaker B: Well, before we get into it, Emma, I'll say while it's not on the bingo card I'm so sorry. Should be. And you can download the bingo card from the link in our Instagram bio at this podcast doesn't exist. Play along. It's a fun time. Um, I think me crying might be one of the bingo squares. So, uh, stay tuned for that.
Speaker A: It's going to be in Plethora in this episode.
Speaker B: If you get bingo, take a screenshot and tag us. We'd love to see it. Alright, Emma, tell um, me what horrors await us.
Speaker A: All right, well, this one is going to get it's going to make you really upset real quick. So I'm just going to barrel through it as much as I can. You're not going to get an hour and a half episode like you did last week, um, because this research is not as National Geographic extensive as Shannon's was, which, um, is a great episode. If you haven't listened to that, please go back and listen. If you feel like, um, getting spooked out in the middle of the night, listen to mine. So we're going to talk about Annabelle, the doll already. Shannon's. Done. So did someone pull a prank that got out of hand? Was it wishful thinking that the supernatural had been contacted? Or is this doll really possessed by a demon?
Speaker B: These microphones make me feel like a newscaster.
Speaker A: Yeah, because you have to, like, get in.
Speaker B: Begging news.
Speaker A: Yeah, you'd be very good at that. That was really good.
Speaker B: Thanks.
Speaker A: So, um, this doll, she's about 4ft tall. So a bit like Robert in the sense that she's like the size of a toddler. But she's also a Raggedy Anne doll. So like the red yarn hair and like the triangular, like, scarecrow nose and features black button eyes, very, um, flat. So, um, it's not unusual that she's this large. That's usually the size of regular raggedy and all. Um, so that's what she looks like. You can all picture, um, her that way. So, um, let's talk about her beginnings. So the majority of the story that I'm about to tell you is coming from a book called The Demonologist the Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren by Gerald Brittle. This, um, book is labeled in two different places as either nonfiction and biography or fiction, which are two very different things. But they are, um, reprints of the same book just in different years. So I don't know what happened. I don't know what that's about. But I also tried to substantiate some of the storyline with other instances of the story being told elsewhere from the, um, Warren's son in law who worked really closely with them. The website that a lot of this stuff is on try to substantiate a lot of this stuff. So there were a couple of names that were different in the book that they are in real life. And so I'm taking this story with a grain of salt because it seems that this author tried to do a biography but added his own flair. So we're going to take this with the greatest thought like we do with most of the conspiracy theories, haunted stuff that we do on this podcast. Believe at your own risk. So put that on the merch. Yeah. So in 1970, for either her 25th or her 28th birthday those were conflicting. To a girl named Donna, who was a student nurse in Connecticut, was gifted this Raggedy Ann doll from her mother from her birthday. Like, people could have their likes and all and you could be interested in certain stuff. I'm not going to say like, that's so weird, but if my mother gave me a four foot Raggedy Ann doll for my 28th birthday now I would not know what to do. I would not know what to do. I'd be like, mom, are you okay? Do you need to talk about something? Because you no, no.
Speaker B: I know you like shopping, Kim, but what's happening?
Speaker A: Exactly? What are you doing? Okay, this 28 year old now has this giant Raggedy Ann doll in her house. Uh, alright. Donna loved this doll. She thought it was awesome. She claimed her mother probably gave it to her as a decoration for her room because she was a student nurse. And so she like, didn't have all that much in her apartment with her roommate, so she was like her mom gave it to her as a decoration. I don't know how it's all as a decoration, but okay.
Speaker B: Do you live in a cracker barrel, right?
Speaker A: I don't know.
Speaker B: Or do you own a bed and breakfast? Uh, that's very like a cracker bear.
Speaker A: A bed and breakfast filled with dolls.
Speaker B: You were staring in a space and I was like, what is in your closet right now?
Speaker A: That was creepy.
Speaker B: I did not like that at all.
Speaker A: Mhm.
Speaker B: No.
Speaker A: I'm so sorry. I was just thinking about a bed and breakfast filled with dolls. One would be the Raggedy Anns and one would be filled with porcelain, all that kind of crap.
Speaker B: I'm talking, uh, making jokes and you'll look like this.
Speaker A: I look like the cat.
Speaker B: Terrifying. Yes. Oh my goodness.
Speaker A: Um, I'm so sorry. I'll try, um, not to do that. That's just me thinking. I'm so sorry. Anyway, Donna would leave this doll on her bed after she would make it when she left the house. So she'd just leave the doll sitting on her bed. Very quickly after receiving this doll, donna, um, and her roommate Angie would find the doll in a different position than what it had been left in. Like within a week of this doll being in their house. So Donna reported that she would find a doll on the bed sitting with its legs or its arms crossed or laying on its side when she distinctly remembered leaving it sitting upright against her pillows, uh, arms at its side and legs outstretched, like you would a normal like, if you had a doll on your bed when you were a kid, you just sit it there. You don't, like, maneuver it or manipulate it. And she would come back, and the little arms would be crossed, or the little legs would be crossed, or it would be, like, in a fetal position. Terrifying.
Speaker B: Not like it had just, like, flopped over.
Speaker A: No, like it was, like, curled up. Yeah. At one point, Donna decided, I'm going to cross its arms and legs before I leave the house and see what happens. And she came back with the limbs all at the sides. So arms down, legs out. So obviously something's moving. Creepy. Angie reported that one day, the two women came home to find the doll at the front door kneeling, which is worse than anything I could have imagined. This doll is kneeling at the front door. So, like, with its feet underneath it leaning back on its feet. Right. Terrifying. They obviously hadn't left it there when they went out, so they were super spooked. And when they tried to put the doll into that position, it couldn't stay up because it was too top heavy, and it has no structure on the inside because it's just a rag doll, so it won't stay in that position. So they didn't understand how it even got into that posture in the first place. Like, how was it possible for it to sit like that in order for us to see it and pick it up and move it? At this point, this is within, like, two weeks of having this doll in this house. At this point, I would have been like, mom, what the hell did you give me? I am throwing this away, or I'm burning it. Although be careful. Friends. Friends and family, fans, people we don't know, people that hate us. I don't care who you are. Don't burn things that you think are haunted. Please don't.
Speaker B: Oh, no.
Speaker A: Please, no. Because the possibility, if you really believe in that, the possibility of releasing something rather than destroying it is higher.
Speaker B: Uh, so in my mind, I'm like, fire destroys things, purifies things. But I guess it, like, opens the door to hell or whatever.
Speaker A: It can release stuff. So if something is attached to something, if you burn it, the attachment is destroyed.
Speaker B: Rather than put it in a box, um, with some salt and bury it.
Speaker A: Yes. Like the dynamic box.
Speaker B: Like Robert right on the box. Do not open it.
Speaker A: Haunted doll. I'm so sorry. All right. So soon, the roommates started to find notes around the house. These notes were written on parchment paper in what they call the kids scribble and would be found on the floor around the apartment. They would say, help me. Help us or help Lou. Lou was a friend of the roommates, so they initially thought that it was him pranking them because he was, like, a really good friend of theirs. He had a key to their apartment because he would take care of the house if they were out. Or they thought that he was pranking them and moving stuff around. And they were like, oh, that must be the explanation as to why it's still creepy. Please stop. But that must be it. So both Angie and Donna adamantly claimed that they had no parchment paper in the house and had no clue where it could have come up come from. So when I think parchment paper, I think with my book stuff, it's, like, really thick kind of paper. A little bit more, um, on the cream colored side, like, not as floppy as regular paper. It's a little bit resume paper.
Speaker B: Like fancier?
Speaker A: Yeah, a little bit more like that, but even so, like, even thicker than that, almost. But I'm also thinking, um, of, like, the parchment paper that you use for baking. So I'm not sure which of those it was. In any case, those were my two thoughts. I couldn't get any kind of clarification on that. And the notes don't exist anymore, I guess. Although, honestly, if it were me, I would have been, like, crumple up trash. Forget it ever happened. The roommate's first inclination was that someone was coming in lou someone else they knew playing a prank on them. They decided to set up little traps to try and catch whoever was coming in. So they would, like, mark the windows to put down either, uh, something that you would get on your person if you, like, went through a window and out again, or, like, came through a doorway and out again. Like, you would mess with it or end up with it on you kind of thing. Or they would move rug, um, so that would make it evident that someone had been through to Donna's room to mess with the dog or walk around the house. So they'd, like, bunch up a rug in the corner of the rug or the edge of the rug so that if you stepped on it, it would flatten, that kind of thing. But no matter what tactics they tried, the traps were always undisturbed and the doll was still moving, so they were freaked out. The worst incident to them was when they came home one night and found the doll on Donna's bed with a red substance on the back of its hand and three drops on its chest. And they had no clue what to make of it. And remember, these are student nurses, so the possibility of them having blood on them is not necessarily high, but it's probable.
Speaker B: But they don't wear their scrub.
Speaker A: Exactly. That was my next thought. Because if someone posited, they were like, well, they're student nurses. Like, blood isn't unusual, but they don't have it in their house. Scared, the women made an appointment with a medium about a month after the doll appeared. Um, which is hella quick. It's within a month that all of this stuff is happening. That is a lot of paranormal activity happening. And it happened almost immediately upon the doll arriving at the house. So that's a lot. So the medium claimed that she was channeling the spirit of a seven year old girl named Annabelle Higgins, who had become interested in the doll. The girl had died on the property long ago, saying that she used to play in the fields the apartment building now stood on, and she felt she couldn't relate to anybody since they were all adults. But she really loved the doll. That's why she had started moving it, because she was trying to communicate with the women that she really liked the doll. She wanted to stay with it, like, she wanted to stay with the doll. So Annabelle asked Angie and Donna if she could move into the doll so that she could stay with them and feel as loved as she felt the doll did. Mhm. Now, when a spirit asks you something like that and you give it permission, that's your own damn fault. Don't give anything like that any kind of permission. You're just not like I understand it in the concept of, like, this is a little girl spirit. Like, we're nurses, we have compassion. Like, we want we want her to feel safe and happy and loved and all of that. No.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: No.
Speaker B: Okay, I'm going to take that clip of you saying all that and play it back to you. If you ever find a box that says, Ponded Doll, do not open. And you're like, But I want to open it, I'll just be like, Roll the tape, Mark. Roll the tape.
Speaker A: Oh, poor Mark. He's got to deal with so much stuff. Anyway. All right, let's move on, because I did write this in here because I wanted to ask you, if this were us, what would have happened? Would you have even gone to the medium with me? If I were like, this is what I feel like needs to happen, would you even come? Or would you be like, no, I'm moving out, and we are not friends until you get rid of it?
Speaker B: No, I probably would go to the medium because I'm fairly skeptical of mediums, so I feel like I'd want to be there to be like unless she was playing you.
Speaker A: Yeah, I'm really gullible also, it would.
Speaker B: Be good content for the podcast. So we signed this medium release or this medium release. Medium release.
Speaker A: Wow.
Speaker B: I didn't even mean to make that pun.
Speaker A: That was good, though. That's really good. Uh, all right. So Donna and Angie agreed during the seance to let Annabelle inhabit the doll because they dumped Dumb. From then on, they called the doll, Annabelle, so they're encouraging this great fun. Glad for glad for that. Good job, guys. They felt it was no longer the doll, but the little girl that they were engaging with. Mhm as nurses, they felt kind of compassion. They didn't really know what to do with the doll now, though, since it wasn't just really a doll in their eyes anymore. It was a vessel for this little spirit that wanted companionship, so it claimed. So they were just gonna go about living their lives with Annabelle in the house. At first it was fine, but then one day, a boot shaped chocolate appeared on a shelf, which I was thinking about, that it was only described as a bootshaped chocolate. So I was like, this is a 3D thing. But then I remembered in the Whitman Samplers, there's always like, that one that is a rectangle. It's like a postage stamp almost, that's at the top. It's like only milk chocolate or whatever. And there's Christmas ones that they have that are just little, like, stockings. So maybe it was like a boot shape or something like that, I don't know.
Speaker B: Okay.
Speaker A: Anyway, another day, a statue flew from where it sat, flipped in the air, and then crashed to the ground when the women were sitting on the opposite side of the room. But the moment that they knew that it was a bit more than they could handle was when Lou came over. So now Lou came over often. He was a friend. He had initially taken much stock in the women's stories about the doll. At first, he figured it was either a prank they were pulling on him, like they initially thought that he was pulling a prank on them, but obviously he wasn't. Or that they were just overworked nursing students who kept forgetting where the doll was when they left. Like, you guys don't remember, you're too tired, like you're working really hard. But very quickly, he got a bad vibe from the doll and said that he didn't like her and she didn't like him. Good, I'm glad you feel that. But how, um about we stay away from it? No. So what happened to Lou was really the last straw for the roommates. It was either that Lou had come over and taken a nap on the couch, or that he was in his own bed at home, sleeping. But either way, he had a dream. He said it didn't feel like a dream, though. He watched himself wake up, look around the room and then down at his feet and saw the doll sitting there. He watched helplessly as the doll slowly made its way up his body, stopping at his chest, stretched out his hands on both sides of his neck and pressed. And Lou described that pushing against the doll is like pushing against the wall. It was completely immovable. And he was watching himself being strangled to death and couldn't do anything about it. Sorry, I got through that as quickly as I possibly could. Shannon is screaming into a pillow. Um.
Speaker B: No.
Speaker A: Uh, I'm so sorry.
Speaker B: You better be glad this isn't a drinking game because all of our listeners would be passed out every time you.
Speaker A: Say I mean.
Speaker B: Live.
Speaker A: Um, they can make a drinking game out of it if they feel like.
Speaker B: Well, if you're having a real rough week, friends, happy Friday.
Speaker A: Happy Friday. So the other instance was an actual physical attack that he described happening in the girl's apartment. It's okay, was it ten or eleven at night? And it was only he and Angie in the apartment looking over maps in the living room because they were going on a trip the next day. And it's the paper. Maps are still a thing because it took me a minute and I was like, why are they looking at maps? I am such a millennial. Like, MapQuest was the closest I got to a real map. I was in the car with Mark's grandmother. We're in England and she's driving and she's a wonderful person, but she's a good driver. But when you are on what feels like the opposite side of the car than what you're used to and you don't know what's happening and a giant bus is coming down this tiny road and you get pushed into the reads in this car, it was terrifying. But she was trying to get me to read this map and be like, so how far do you think we are from this place? And I was like, I don't even know where we are on the map. And she goes, oh, we're like, Right. Not even looking. She was like, we're here. I was like, my God, I feel so stupid.
Speaker B: We would have to brush up on our map skills if we ever were to go on The Amazing Race.
Speaker A: Yes, we would. There's no way I would be helpful in that situation. Absolutely no way.
Speaker B: Alright, so you have to learn to drive stick and all learn how to read a map.
Speaker A: Perfect. I already kind of know how to drive stick, so that'll be fine.
Speaker B: Great.
Speaker A: Perfect. All right. So this evening that they're looking over these maps is really quiet, but it was suddenly broken with crashing sounds coming from Donna's bedroom. They both said it sounded like someone had broken into the apartment from Donna's window, so they're expecting an intruder. Liu got up to investigate, stopping at the closed bedroom door because he doesn't have a weapon or anything. So he's like, I'm not going to just barge in and the unsuspecting victim of this person who's come to steal stuff from our house or from this house because it's not his. But he stopped at the closed bedroom door and he waited until, um, the sound from inside ceased and then carefully opened the door and switched on the light. He saw the Annabelle doll tossed to the floor in the corner of the room, just laying there and nothing else had been disturbed. There was no one in the room that he saw. So he walked over to get a closer look at the doll. When he felt the distinct feeling that there was someone behind him, he swung around, expecting an mhm intruder. But instead he saw nothing. He felt a severe pain in his chest and screamed. His screams brought Angie running into the room where she found Lou doubled over and bleeding from his chest. When she pulled down his shirt to see what happened, going into full nurse mode, she saw seven claw marks three vertical, four horizontal. Lou said that they burned, not like he been clawed at, but rather he'd been seared by something. The marks cleared up within 48 hours and were completely gone by the end of the second day, even though they had led proof usually. So after the second incident shannon is not talking.
Speaker B: I don't know what you want me to say.
Speaker A: I know you're just mad. All right, so after the second incident, the roommates, in lieu, decided to call up a local priest that they knew, Father Cook. They told him the whole story and he believed them. Not wanting to speculate on what happened to the three. Father Cook said that he would write to a priest higher up in the church named, uh whoops I messed up names. This initial priest's name was Father Kevin that they contacted and it was Father Cook who Father Kevin contacted. Sorry about that. There's, uh, a lot of fathers in this. You'll see, they called, um, father Cook. He called Father Cook to consult on the matter. And Father Cook, in turn, contacted Ed and Lorraine Warren, who were a well known couple in the paranormal community. Ed was a demonologist and Lorraine was a medium. So the couple, also living in Connecticut, drove in their brand new car to the apartment. Within a week of the incident that he got scratched to conduct their own interview with the three witnesses, um, recording it on tape and taking notes along the way. When Ed had asked towards the end of the interview if they had anything else happen to them in the apartment before Annabelle arrived, they said no, but they were moving out to get away from the spirit. But the spirit was now attached and Ed was convinced that the spirit was not of a little girl at all. He explains it basically like this. The doll was being moved around by a spirit trying to get the women's attention. It spooked them to the point that they took it to a seance. There the spirit convinced them to give it permission to be around them and stay in their home. By pretending to be a little girl, preying on their caring sensibilities. By granting the spirit permission, the women unwillingly allowed or unwittingly willingly but unwittingly allowed a demon to enter their home and do whatever it pleased. The doll was not possessed, but being acted upon by a demon with the ability and desire to possess a human being. Ed claimed that the physical incident that Lou experienced was bound to happen sooner or later, and that they and that had they just let it be, it could have been so much worse. Either someone would be possessed, someone would have been killed. It would have been a really bad situation, because what the demon is hoping for is a moment of weakness where they can possess a, um, human being. Terrifying. So, although the doll was not possessed, the demon was using it as a link to the women and their home, as it had been given permission to do so, which is why I say don't give anything permission. Please and thank you.
Speaker B: Yeah, I know.
Speaker A: Yeah. So Father Cook arrived at the home just as the Warrens were packing up from their interview. Ed, um, and Lorraine, who were Catholics, like, deep Catholics, which I find this interesting, and I might talk about this a little bit more later, but Lorraine was a very devout Catholic at their house. Eventually, later on, there was a priest that had retired from the church, um, but was still a priest. Like, he just didn't have a diocese to be a part of anymore. And he moved on to their property after Ed passed away. And she would have him perform math every single morning. She was completely devout Catholic. I found it so fascinating.
Speaker B: Okay. But there is some stuff. If you read the Bible. Like a literal situation. There is some.
Speaker A: Um. Casting out of spirits in what and that is why I think that it's meaningful that they're Catholics. That they have a very strong belief in God. Because otherwise they wouldn't believe as strongly as they do in devils and demons and angels and all this stuff that they go into for their entire lives. And there was a moment I was watching a couple of videos of Lorraine speaking, because later on in life, she would go to all of these, like, paranormal conferences or stuff like that and talk, because she's fairly, um, famous in that community. And there was a moment where she said, in connection with either this dog or something else that they were doing, that she had an out of body experience, and that she was, like, watching her body from far away. And she said, I hope that everyone has this experience, because it is proof to me that we are bodies with a soul, that we have a soul, that we are not just physical entities that live and decompose. And that's the end of it. Like, that there is something other than just our bodies. So I found it fascinating.
Speaker B: I just love the idea that these Catholic priests have, like.
Speaker A: Edges.
Speaker B: Yes. You're having, uh, a demon problem. Uh, let me call Ed, my number two guy.
Speaker A: Yeah. So. Ed and Lorraine were actually pretty good friends with Father Cook. They knew him pretty well. But Ed and Lorraine were very eager to, um, have this house blessed and cleansed, and they wanted to remove the doll from the house, and Donna wanted this, too. At this point, Donna is no longer like, oh, I love the doll. Thanks, mom. Now she's like, Get rid of this thing, please.
Speaker B: She had, like, a week to love it before it started being weird, right?
Speaker A: Like, so she wanted it out of the house, too. Uh, so Lorraine apparently sensed while they were speaking that the spirit was with them. And she almost immediately upon Father Cook coming into the house. She was like, bless every single room in this house. Like, do an exorcism in every single room in this house. And so he did. And he's an Episcopal priest, too. He's not a Catholic priest, but he is an Episcopal priest. And he had a seven, um, page exorcism script that he had to read in every single room of the house. So it took a little bit, but he finally did it. And when he finished, he blessed everyone in the house as well. So he blessed the warrants. He blessed the three that had been experiencing it just to cleanse everybody. And at that point, Lorraine said, the spirit is settled. Not that it's gone, but it's settled. And when he finished, the Warrens left with Annabelle sitting in their back seat, like, just sitting in the backseat like a little human being. Like, put that thing in the trunk. Put it in the trunk. No, thank you.
Speaker B: I feel like when it comes to spirits, there's, like, a fine line where you kind of want to be respectful so that it doesn't get more mad.
Speaker A: Yeah, that's a good point. That's probably honestly what he was thinking of. Like, if I put this thing in the trunk, or if I put it in a box, or if I try to put it somewhere that isn't, like, where a person would be, things will be worse. I don't know. But Ed had decided not to go on the interstate on their way back home, which turned out to be a really good decision, because their brand new car stalled three separate times, once while taking a very dangerous curve and almost got them into wrecking their car, because whenever a car stalls, the steering and the brakes just stop working. So you're helpless. You're basically not able to do anything. By the time it stalled the third time, ed pulled over, grabbed a vial of holy water out of his bag, and sprinkled some over Annabelle and made the sign of the cross, and the rest of the ride home was blessedly uneventful. That was all he had to do.
Speaker B: Why didn't you get the priest to do that at the.
Speaker A: I don't know. I, uh don't know. I would have done it. I would have been like, hi, can you bless this thing? Like, four times?
Speaker B: Fill the bathtub up with holy water. Just like dunk the dolly.
Speaker A: Dunk it.
Speaker B: Dunkin Dollies, my new metal band.
Speaker A: Oh, that's a good one. I like that. All right. I know I can't. Annabelle's Oddness didn't stop with removing her from the apartment or sprinkling her, uh, with holy water. Annabelle was placed in Ed's office. I don't know why. And for the first few days after her arrival, she levitated every day. Just levitated, just fancy. But eventually she stopped because apparently she wasn't getting enough attention from it. So she tried different tactics. She would appear in other rooms around the house, just like, teleport to other rooms in the house, including when they left the house. And they locked her in the outside office with separate building from their main house. And she would end up in Ed's easy chair in the main house when they came back home. So they'd open the door and there was Annabelle sitting in the easy chair like, yo, what's up? Welcome home.
Speaker B: She's smoking a cigarette. She just like, sit in the armchair.
Speaker A: Right. So, according to the Warrens, annabelle, uh, also came with a quote, friend.
Speaker B: No.
Speaker A: It'S okay, it's short. A black cat would materialize next to the doll, take a walk around the room inspecting items and books, and then end up back next to the doll and dematerialized from the head down until it was gone.
Speaker B: I don't mind that.
Speaker A: Yeah, see, I knew you wouldn't. I did start. It really creepy. It's not that bad. It only happened a few times, too. It never really became a thing, but it happened a couple of times. Um, Annabelle also really hated men of the cloth. She hated all of the priests and all of the clergymen hated them. Father Cook called the house a few times in a row to ask about the Warren's follow up info on the case. So he called twice. Obviously, their answering machine didn't have enough room for him. The first time we were, uh, cut off or whatever. I don't know how answering machines back then work, other than that they were on tapes. That's about it. Anyway, he called twice back to back and they weren't home. So when they came home, Lorraine opened the door and heard a really deep growling from somewhere in the house. And she couldn't place it. And she saw that there was a message on the phone, so she played the message. And in between the two recordings of Father Cook calling were, uh, deep growls recorded on the actual recording, which is weird because it wouldn't come from outside of the call in. It would had to have been on the other line. So the fact that it was being manipulated in that way is terrifying. So there's that. Another priest, Father Jason Bradford, was a friend of the Warrens and came to speak with Ed when he mentioned the new addition to Ed's office. Like, he was like, what's with the doll? Ed, what's with the doll? She was sitting in her own chair next to this desk. And Ed told the father about the case and actually asked for thoughts about it. Like, you know, do you think, like, an exorcism would be something? Father Bradford was a catholic exorcist. That was mostly his job. He worked closely with all of that kind of stuff, which is why he knew the Warrens really well. So he was actually interested in this case. But he dismissed Annabelle. Um, and he picked her up and told her she couldn't hurt anything. She was just a doll. And Ed was like, you shouldn't have done that. And he was right. Father Bradford put the doll back in her chair, went to go say goodbye to Lorraine. Lorraine warned him to be very careful with his car. And later that day, when he got back to the rectory, he called the warrants and reported that he very nearly died from a freak car accident on his way home because his brake system had failed and his car was completely destroyed. Remember, too, this is still the 70s. These cars are massive, massive pieces of metal. So the fact that he's not dead is incredible. But, yeah, so there's that. And then there was another incident during a gathering at the Warren's house when Father Bradford and Lorraine went to go talk in the den where Annabelle had been moved that day. So she was moved out of the main portion of the house while the gathering was going on. I think Ed was like, I don't really want to talk about her or deal with her. Let's just go put her away. But they went into this room to talk, and the father saw the a wall hanging move somewhere in the room. And then the 24 inch long boarstooth necklace, apparently, that they had hanging on the wall that was right behind them exploded, just shattered into pieces. And it brought the other guests into the room because it was that loud. And one of these guests had the foresight to snap a photo. Could not find this photo, but reportedly in the photo were father Bradford, Lorraine, and Annabelle in the corner. Everything else was normal in the photo, except for the fact that there were two beams of light coming from Annabelle directed right at Father Bradford. So she really hates him. Both a police detective and a carpenter visiting the house on business had been made believers in Annabelle from simply being in the same room as her. And one of Lorraine's favorite sayings, which I find this hilarious, was, I've never met an atheist in a haunted house. Which I really like. I think it's really sweet because it's mhm like, yeah, you automatically are like, something keep me safe. Something saved me in a haunted house. Because you're like, terrified. She's like, yeah, never met an atheist in a haunted house. So funny. Alright. You're doing really well, by the way.
Speaker B: Thanks.
Speaker A: Guys. Shannon is so mad at me. She so mad at me. All right, so eventually, Annabelle became the featured haunted item in the Warren's occult museum. So this museum was founded initially as the New England center for psychic research in Connecticut in years before Annabelle was a thing. But later it became the space for all of the haunted items the Warrens had collected over the, um, years. And this was on their own property in Connecticut. So this wasn't like a separate space, this was on their property. It became a place for fans of the supernatural to frequent, but, um, to keep people safe from what Lorraine called the most evil item in the house, annabelle was placed in a glass case with a sign that read, warning positively do not open. And inscribed on the inside of the case was the lord's prayer. She was really not in. She didn't even like touching Annabelle. She was not into that at all.
Speaker B: A smart lady.
Speaker A: Yeah. She also claimed to have the ability to see auras, um, to be able to see you and know, um, what kind of person you were based on the color of your aura or the way that it felt. And she said that the doll had an aura, as most supernatural touched things do. And that when somebody touches the doll, they're bridging the gap between their auras and then they have the ability to feed from that, which I was like, that's terrifying great. Never touching anything ever again. All right. So the glass case, unfortunately, could not keep Annabelle from hurting people. A young man and his girlfriend arrived at the museum, laughing through the whole place as they went. When they stopped Annabelle's case, the man defied her and told her that if she was real, she would scratch him up like she had scratched up loo. When it didn't happen immediately, he laughed and he and his girlfriend left on his motorcycle. Ed actually had told him that they had to leave after they tried to, like, instigate things with Annabelle. He was like, you need to leave. Because I think in his mind he was like, one, I don't want to be around for what happens, and two, I don't want you to get hurt because you're making things really bad for yourself. Fortunately, that didn't keep him safe. On the way home, he was killed in a horrific accident that left his girlfriend alive but hospitalized for over a year. When asked what happened, she said that they were laughing about the doll when he lost control of his bike and crashed into a tree. So even if you don't believe in it, don't go messing with things you don't know. Please and thank you. So regardless of the fear of Annabelle, people still frequented the property, which was the actual home of Ed and Lorraine. To see the items that they had collected, but mostly to see the doll. She's the most famous item in this museum. Most of the other items I tried to not look into, but I was looking at pictures, trying to see if I recognized anything. Not a thing. Didn't recognize anything except for amber. So this is really the thing that brought a lot of people to their museum. Included in these interested parties was our very favorite ghost hunter, Zack Bigger. Aren't you surprised?
Speaker B: Um, literally not at all. Not a one. I was wondering when he was going to show up. Yeah, I'm surprised he wasn't trying to make Annabelle and Robert get ghost married or something.
Speaker A: Can you imagine?
Speaker B: He plans them a wedding. He makes them have it in Vegas because he has to go to other people.
Speaker A: Actually, down the street from his museum is the Little White Chapel of Las Vegas. So he could definitely have them married in, uh, Las Vegas. Holly that's terrifying to think about. I went to the website, zack Megan's haunted museum website. And dude, I honestly think he believes that he is like the haunted version of the greatest showman. You should see this website. There is a picture of this man in a top hat and his hand outstretched, like, come on by. And I'm like, oh my mhm gosh.
Speaker B: Let me guess. It costs like $57 a ticket or something.
Speaker A: It costs $53. And if you want the VIP All Access, which is called Rip All Access, because why not? It is $76. I have no clue what it, um, entails. I didn't look further into it because I was laughing so hard.
Speaker B: There better be a Tshirt, at least.
Speaker A: I think you do get a t shirt. I think you get like a t shirt and like a special tour or something. I don't remember. But it's like it was just I could not stop. I almost screenshotted it and sent it to you. But then I was like, then she knows I'm doing something haunted or whatever. Although I knew you would end up knowing anyway. But I'll send you the link to the website. It was just so silly. It's just silly. Like nowhere close to spooky or funny. It's just silly. I don't know. Anyway, so Zac Bagans goes to this museum. He goes to the occult museum. And he apparently tried to provoke Annabelle. Because, of course, in front of the curator of the museum, who is also the son in law of the Warrens. His name is Tony Sparrow. He worked really closely, um, with the Warrens. But Tony said it was like it was an act. It was really put on because he was like, I feel like a really close energy to Annabelle. Like, I'm really feeling this and it worries me, but I'm really feeling I kind of want to open this. Annabelle, if you feel my energy too, why don't you scratch me? Please, go ahead. I dear that kind of stuff.
Speaker B: I can't unhear the comparison to Mark Patterson. I can't.
Speaker A: I know I can't. Although Mark Patterson is a hell of a lot more pure than Zach Bacon says in terms of just the way the way that he functions is so funny. Anyway. So Tony Sparrow says, the devils and demons don't work on your command. They're not going to do what you ask them to as soon as you ask them to. They're not trying to prove themselves to you. They don't have to. They act when they want to. So something could happen to you a year from when you provoked them. And you wouldn't attribute it to the time that you told Annabelle to scratch you or anything like that. So also Zach has tried to acquire Annabelle for himself and his own museum. But Tony has adamantly refused any advances on Annabelle. He wants to keep the Warren's collection as intact as possible because neither of them are here now. Ed died in 2006 and Lorraine died in 2019. Uh, but he wants to keep their collection as intact, uh, as possible because neither of them are here to do so. Um, and he really, really does not like Zack. Really does not like Zack. So Zack Baggins, you're never going to get Annabelle the doll. Sorry, man, deal with it. So currently, this occult museum is closed permanently, quote, unquote, but not because of COVID, but rather because of zoning issues. So this is the actual former home of the Warrens, turned into this museum after they're passing. So it's hard to allow people to come and visit the house with just the way that it's set up as a neighborhood. Like, there's no real place for people to go park or anything like that. It's not a place of business in that capacity. Also, people just end up showing up on their own, whether or not they've been invited, um, or whether or not they've bought a ticket to come and see the museum. And they just wander around the property, which is a really big issue for neighbors because, um, they don't know who these people are. And that's just a safety issue on everyone's account. So currently they're looking to see if they can move to another location. So they've closed the museum permanently. All of the stuff is still in the house. Like, um, nothing has moved from the house. They're just looking for a different location to move everything to. But Annabelle might have moved on her own. Just decided to upchuck it. So in August of 2020, because 2020 wasn't bad enough, a tweet started a claim that Annabelle had escaped the museum and was just on the loose. Like that nobody had seen her. She was just out of her box, escaped on the loose.
Speaker B: Time to cancel the state of Connecticut, right?
Speaker A: So the tweet went viral. Like, for two days. It was going crazy until Tony Sparrow, the soninlaw of the warrens, as well as the curator of this museum, took a video of himself in front of Annabelle's box with her inside of it, saying, she's still here. And we have cameras everywhere. So I would know if she had left. He also said if Annabelle had left to go like a loop with her boyfriend or something, I would know. And I was like, who's her boyfriend?
Speaker B: The doll.
Speaker A: Robert Hurt. Oh, that's right. So, of course, an item like Annabelle couldn't stay out of Hollywood forever because it's just built into all of this. Of course, Annabelle is the inspiration for the movie The Conjuring, but also for the Annabelle franchise. There's now three movies called Annabelle whatever. None of these I will say I've never seen the Conjuring, never seen Annabelle. Never gonna can't convince, um, me otherwise. The movie doll and the movie plot are drastically different from the real thing. Like an insane amount. Like, there's a whole Satanic thing with the Annabelle doll in the movies and someone's pregnant and gets it at an antique store. Crazy. I'm not posting this photo on our Instagram because this doll is the creepiest thing. If you want to go and look at, just type in Annabelle the doll. And pictures of this Hollywood doll show up as well as the actual Annabelle. It's so creepy. Like, there's no reason to make it look like that. And yet they did. But, uh, very different from the real Annabelle. The main reason the doll looks so different is actually because of the copyright issues with the Raggedy Ann dolls, which I get. Like, it would be really hard to be like, this is going to be really bad publicity. It already is. But it would be even worse publicity if they were like, this raggedy and doll is haunted. Like, just make another doll. So they did, and they made it look so gimmicky and stupid. But it's also super creepy. So this Hollywood doll, this Hollywood prop doll has appeared in a couple of other movies rather than her own. She's both in Aquaman and in Shazam. And it may become a Hollywood thing to have her cameo in the background of certain movies, which I find hilarious. So she's like, on a shelf in Shazam when the police officers coming to a crime scene and she's on a shelf in a store or whatever. And you can, um, see her very clearly. I have no clue where she is in Aquaman because I haven't seen it. But the fact that she's just like a traveling prop, um, that people keep trying to stick into movies is very funny to me. I kind of hope that they continue doing it just as a gimmick because it would be great. Bizarre, but great. And I love it. So let's end with our theories. Did Ed and Lorraine Warren make this up? Possibility is there. It's not necessarily extremely probable because they have a hell of a lot of other stuff. They were the head investigators, paranormal investigators, not the real investigators of, um, the amino horror house and all of that. That might be one that I end up, uh, doing, so sorry. Um, but lots of murders, but with the possibility of there being demons involved, um, all of that. So that was a really big thing earlier in their career. And then annabelle came along. Um, they're really popular in the paranormal community. I don't see a reason for them to make up any of this, except for maybe it was, like, something to put in this museum or whatever that they were creating. I don't know. Maybe because all of this is from ed and lorraine's own records, so they have their own case files, and they do have recordings of interviews and stuff, but obviously no hard evidence. I don't, uh, know where that photo is of annabelle shooting beams of light at the father. So it's a possibility that ed and lorraine fabricated the, um story and had people help them. But I don't know. Another theory was that annabelle was, um, a joke played by the two roommates. And ed and lorraine fell into it like they were full on believers. And this joke was played on lou, and he freaked out and made them go through all these hoops. But I don't really understand why that would happen either. It seems a bit far fetched. If it were me and I had been pranking somebody, I would have been, uh, like, yeah, so it was me. So sorry, man. I'll never do it again. Perpetuate it once.
Speaker B: You have to like, how does it work? Do you pay a priest to come to an exorcism of your house?
Speaker A: Very good question.
Speaker B: I have an offering in the plate when it goes around.
Speaker A: I have no clue how that works. Never had an exorcism.
Speaker B: That's good.
Speaker A: Yes. I hope it's good. It might be that there is a demon, but low level demon.
Speaker B: Low of a demon. Great. We love that. The first single, um, off, uh, your new album's, closet, live from my mom's closet. My mother's closet.
Speaker A: Yeah, I like that. All right, so, of course, our last theory is that annabelle is possessed or manipulated by a demon or an evil entity and just is having a hell of a time, uh, just destroying people's lives. So my thought, um, is that she's a demon. End of story. What about you? How are you feeling, first of all?
Speaker B: I'm okay.
Speaker A: Good.
Speaker B: I'm so glad, I think, because you don't have as many specific examples.
Speaker A: Yeah, there aren't as many.
Speaker B: The dream really freaks out.
Speaker A: Yeah, I remember from the divock box episode how freaked out that moment made you. And I was like, this is why I need to get through this, because I can't freak her out, because there's other stuff coming that I need to make sure.
Speaker B: Honestly, what's just been going through my head since you first started. Is that one TikTok I sent you?
Speaker A: Yes.
Speaker B: Of the woman. She's like, at her in law's house and she's like, Raggedy Ann. And it's everything, guys. I'll try and find it and post it on the Instagram.
Speaker A: I almost tried to find it and send it to you in between.
Speaker B: It's like they've got every size. They've got furniture, they've got dishes, they've got clothes that have Raggedy Ann. And then there's a giant raggedy Ann. And of course she's in a basement and she's alone. And then the giant Raggedy Ann doll, like, the head, like, moves. I threw my phone across my bed.
Speaker A: I was so not prepared. I knew something was going to happen. But I was also like, this is very weird. Like, why would you have this much stuff of one thing. What is it? Like, there was this SNL skit of like the moms all have an animal that they claim is like theirs. There's an SNL skit and they have t shirts or button ups that have their animal on them. And there's this new mom and she goes to the school meeting or whatever. And these moms are like, so what's your animal? That's what it makes me think of. Like, what's your thing? What is the one thing that everyone can get you for Christmas? Kind of thing. Whereas, uh, everyone gets me books no matter what.
Speaker B: My cousin Dana collects different editions of Monopoly in uno.
Speaker A: That's adorable.
Speaker B: An acceptable thing to collect.
Speaker A: That's not nice. Yeah. So I really hope that I never have to encounter a Raggedy and all in person. I never had one as a kid. Um, I think my mom did, but I never had one.
Speaker B: No.
Speaker A: So my dad had a ventilaquist on me, but that was the end of that.
Speaker B: I explained so much.
Speaker A: I know. I need to find that photo that I told you about. Yeah. So that's Annabelle Vidal. Would you like to see her?
Speaker B: Yeah. I feel like I have to. I mean, I'm going to have to when? Um, I post her on the Instagram anyway.
Speaker A: Yeah. So I'm, uh, going to show you the picture of Lorraine taking her out of the house for the first time.
Speaker B: Every time you say her name, all I think of is keysh.
Speaker A: Like quiche. Um, Lorraine?
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: You disabled screen sharing.
Speaker B: Oh, I did?
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: No. I gave you permission.
Speaker A: Um, I can't screen share. It's just post disabled participants. Okay. Share screen. Oh, golly. I have to go and, like, grant access in my own computer.
Speaker B: I don't know.
Speaker A: It really doesn't want me to show you. Annabelle.
Speaker B: No, annabelle is not feeling it.
Speaker A: Obviously not. I can't show you until I would have to close out of Zoom and then, um, log back in. It's okay. I'm not going to text these to you because if I text them to you, then they are on your phone. And I know you don't want that. She's just a regular raggedy end doll.
Speaker B: They're going to end up on my phone when I put them on instagram anyway.
Speaker A: That's true.
Speaker B: That's fine. I saved that as a special surprise.
Speaker A: So sorry. I also have pictures of the paranormalogy, um, research center that they have next to their house. So that's weird. There's a couple of pictures being ad.
Speaker B: In lorraines next to our neighbor. Just imagine for a second, um, that's the SNL sketch I want where you're like jed they're at it again. They're out there in the shed. I don't know what they're doing.
Speaker A: They put up a sign. The sign says paranormal. What's paranormal? Is it the paranormal? Judder demons.
Speaker B: In our characters. That's not what people from connecticut sound like.
Speaker A: No, not at all. Yet for some reason, they all sound like they're from Kentucky.
Speaker B: And I love that. Jed is my go to husband name. I think it's because he's the president on the west wing. And I'm like, he's a respectable man.
Speaker A: Dead bartlett so if you would like to see these photos that I am not able to show shannon currently, but will eventually show her, and she'll freak out before she posts them onto our, um, instagram. You can go to our instagram at this podcast doesn't exist. All the photos will be there. Check into our stories as well to see if shannon and I can find um, that tik tok with all the raggedy and dolls. And you'll be able to watch it too, and be horrified. So there are, uh, a lot of sources too. So check the source notes for this. There's one website that I looked into in particular that is called tonyspara, um.com, which is their son in law. But it's for the new england paranormal society, whatever that they created. Um, and it has uh, like videos of the warrants talking about all of their different cases. It has case files for each of the um, cases, which aren't really case files. They're just little summaries of each of the cases that they do. But it is interesting. It's very interesting to just look through it all. There's also some photos, um, that I'm not putting on the instagram, but they're in the show notes of the museum when it was open. So, um, people were taking photos of the other items in the museum. There's a crap ton, um, of dolls. There's mannequins, there's like mirrors. And it's very creepy. The main reason I think that lorraine and ed wanted to have all this stuff in their house was because they felt that um. Because they were catholics and they were very deep believers in god. That they felt it was safer to have these haunted items in their own home because they felt that they were safe from them and it was keeping other people safe from these items. So I find that interesting. Lorraine is fascinating to me. Hearing her speak. It's very clear to me how genuinely she. Believes in all of this. So the idea that they made this up is not really something I believe. But I say go check out those videos. Go decide for yourself. Also, if you feel like watching something that's a little silly, feel free to check out Mysteries at the Museum because they tell the story with undertones of plinky piano music. Um and I love mysteries at the museum. It's another one of those, like, History Channel, Travel Channel things that is just like, it's not science. It's not facts. It's just fun. So feel free to go look at those.
Speaker B: Put that on the merch. Not science, not facts. Just fun. This podcast doesn't exist.
Speaker A: Not National Treasure.
Speaker B: Oh, man. Now I want to go watch National Treasure.
Speaker A: You can. You have Disney Plus.
Speaker B: It's true.
Speaker A: You have nothing else to do today. That's true. You only had to talk to me today.
Speaker B: That's not true.
Speaker A: Okay, never mind.
Speaker B: Yeah, no, life goes on. Um, but thank you for taking the, uh, time to make me even more hesitant about inanimate objects that attempt to look like people.
Speaker A: You're welcome. And I'm sorry. Uh, and I know that sorry to you doesn't sound genuine, but I need you to know it very much is. And also be very happy that you're not in this house that has a hell of a lot of dolls in it. True. I'm currently looking at two giant Virgin Mary statues in my mother's closet. These are two, uh, of about 50 in this house. Just going to let that sink in for everybody. Mom calls them her Goodwill Ladies, because every time she goes into a Goodwill, she can't leave a Virgin Mary. If there's a Virgin Mary statue anywhere, she has to buy it in her mind. That's just one of her superstitions. So there are a hell of a lot of Virgin Marys in this house. So blessed.
Speaker B: Just, like, line them up outside the house. Like a crop circle of Virgin Mary.
Speaker A: Oh, my gosh.
Speaker B: It's like a protection circle. It's fine.
Speaker A: Crop circle of Virgin Mary's. Oh, my gosh. All right, thank you for listening, everybody. If you have any spooky stories of your own, if you have any collections like The Raggedy and Dolls that were so Freaky. If you know of anything or anyone that does that, I find that fascinating. It's not a hoarding situation. It's more of like a fascination situation for those people. I feel like this sounded really fascination situation, but please send those stories to us and any other story you can think of. Your diner order, your belief in aliens, any kind of paranormal activity you've experienced. Haven't you had an out of body experience or experienced sleep paralysis that you can watch yourself get sprinkled by a doll, let us know. Send us all of these things and more at our Gmail at. This podcast doesn't exist@gmail.com. How many times did I say add about five.
Speaker B: I don't know okay. I was just letting you rock and roll with it.
Speaker A: Thanks, man.
Speaker B: You got your radar.
Speaker A: Thank you for listening.
Speaker B: It's all good.
Speaker A: I do. Thank you so much for listening, Shannon. I'm sorry. I'm very proud of you. Though you didn't necessarily cry. You just screamed into a pillow a couple of times.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: I'm really proud of you.
Speaker B: Personal growth.
Speaker A: Yeah, I'm really proud of you. And remember, this podcast doesn't why do I screen it?
Speaker B: I don't know.
Speaker A: Alright, bye everybody.
Speaker B: Bye.