Beyond the Veil Magazine

Robert the Doll

Issue #26: February 1981

In the East Martello Museum in Key West, Florida, a sailor doll sits in a glass case. He is approximately forty inches tall, dressed in a white sailor suit, holding a small stuffed lion. His face is painted cloth, his button eyes stare blankly at visitors.

But visitors do not stare back for long. Robert the Doll has a reputation that precedes him, and those who show him disrespect often come to regret it.

The Otto Family

Robert was given to Robert Eugene Otto in 1906, when the boy was four years old. The doll was a gift from a Bahamian servant girl who worked for the Otto family. Local legend holds that the servant, angered by mistreatment, had cursed the doll before giving it to young Robert.

The boy named the doll after himself, insisting that the toy be called Robert while he would be called Gene. He carried Robert everywhere, spoke to him constantly, and demanded that Robert have his own place at the dinner table.

His parents were unsettled by their son’s attachment to the doll. More disturbing still were the sounds they heard from Gene’s room: conversations in which two distinct voices participated, though only their son was present.

Strange Occurrences

Objects in the Otto house began moving on their own. Furniture was overturned. Silverware was scattered. The servants blamed the doll, though the family dismissed such superstitions.

But then the family heard giggling from rooms where no one should be. They saw the doll’s expression change. One night, Mrs Otto discovered Robert sitting in a rocking chair that was moving of its own accord.

Gene blamed Robert for any mischief in the house. “Robert did it,” he would insist, and his parents eventually came to wonder if he was telling the truth.

Gene Otto’s Life

Gene Otto grew up to become an artist. He never fully separated from Robert. When he inherited the family home, he installed the doll in a turret room with its own furniture and window overlooking the street.

Passersby reported seeing the doll move from window to window. Children claimed Robert’s expression changed when they looked at him. Local parents warned their offspring to stay away from the Otto house.

Gene Otto died in 1974. His widow, Anne, remains in the house with Robert. She has told visitors that the doll has made her life difficult, that strange occurrences continue, and that she cannot bring herself to destroy him or give him away.

The Current Situation

Anne Otto still lives in the house on Eaton Street, and Robert still occupies his turret room. Those who visit Key West and pass the house report seeing the doll at the window, though Anne insists she has not moved him.

Local residents give the house a wide berth. Children still avoid the property. And those who have met Anne describe a woman burdened by an inheritance she cannot escape.

The phenomena continue. Anne has reported objects moving, sounds from empty rooms, and the persistent sense that Robert watches everything that happens in the house. She has considered selling the property, but who would buy a house with such a tenant?

For now, Robert remains where he has always been: in the turret room, holding his stuffed lion, staring out at a world that has learned to fear him.

What Is Robert?

Several theories attempt to explain Robert’s malevolent reputation.

Some believe the Bahamian servant truly did curse the doll, binding a spirit to it through voodoo or similar practice. The Caribbean has a long tradition of such magic, and Key West’s history intertwines with the islands to its south.

Others suggest that Gene Otto’s intense attachment to the doll somehow imbued it with psychic energy. The belief that objects can absorb human emotion is ancient and widespread. Robert may carry within him the fears, guilts, and obsessions of a troubled man.

Sceptics propose that Robert’s reputation is self-perpetuating: visitors who believe in his curse interpret ordinary misfortunes as supernatural punishment. The power lies not in the doll but in the believers’ minds.

But scepticism is difficult to maintain in Robert’s presence. There is something about his painted face, his button eyes, his small stuffed lion, that disturbs on a level deeper than reason.

A British Perspective

Haunted dolls are not unique to America. Britain has its own examples: the mannequin of Belton House, the Frozen Charlotte dolls said to bring bad luck, the numerous Victorian toys rumoured to be possessed.

Perhaps there is something about dolls that makes them susceptible to supernatural attachment. They are made in human image but are not human. They watch without seeing. They remain while we grow old and die.

Robert the Doll represents this uncanny quality taken to an extreme. He has outlived his owner, his owner’s wife, and generations of visitors. He sits in his museum case, waiting, watching, perhaps judging.

Those who visit him are advised to be polite.

Readers with experiences of haunted dolls or toys are invited to write to our research department.