I snapped a photo of Robert The Doll before reading that he puts curses on anyone who takes his photograph. Uh oh. Surely it’s just a myth, I thought. Curious, I began reading about the doll’s history. In 1903, Robert was given to four-year old Gene Otto, who lived in Key West. As Gene grew up he blamed everything bad that happened on the doll. By the time Gene was married, Robert had taken the blame for a lifetime of lies, misdeeds, and mischief.
Some say Robert’s face had begun to change by the time Gene died in 1974, that his eyes grew more expressive. People insisted that the doll moved around and could be heard giggling behind their backs. Many who came in contact with Robert experienced bad luck, as if the doll was getting even for all the years he had been made a scapegoat. The curse of Robert The Doll grew into such a well-known legend in Key West that whenever things went wrong, locals would simply shrug and say, “Blame it on Robert.” But Robert’s real fame came when the “Chucky” horror film series (Child’s Play, Child’s Play 2, Child’s Play 3, Bride of Chucky, Seed of Chucky, etc.) came out, as they were said to have been modeled on the real-life story of Robert the Doll.
There are many theories about why Robert behaves the way he does. Some believe it is an ancient curse. Others say it is voodoo. Still others insist that Gene Otto’s ghost has returned to the doll whom he loved so much. The museum cats seem to believe in Robert’s dark powers – they keep their distance when staring up at the glass case in East Martello Museum where Robert is enthroned. People, on the other hand, tend to doubt the legend, and have suffered the consequences. Letters scattered at Robert’s feet and tacked up on an adjacent wall are testimonials from dozens of unbelievers who were cursed by Robert The Doll, such as this one:
Since our visit to the museum, we’ve been under a dark cloud.
I began to develop a rather severe toothache. Two days later, Hurricane Charly cut our vacation short and we joined the parade of evacuees leaving the islands. We were evacuated from our vacation spot three days early with my mouth in tremendous pain. My sister-in-law was also having female health issues. We were all forced to make alternate travel arrangements on the run.
My sister-in-law lives in Clearwater. After a problem laden and horrendous trip, she finally got home, only to be evacuated from there too. She packed up her two cats and headed for her parents house in Winter Haven and ended up in the middle of the storm there. They lost power for two days.
When we arrived in Miami for our flight back to Indianapolis, the plane broke and they had to “find” a different one for us. The following day, back in Indiana, I went to the dentist to learn that my tooth had abscessed and I had to have a root canal.
Last night we had a huge thunderstorm. Our house was hit by lightning – not once, but TWICE! We were unplugging things, but not fast enough. We lost three TV’s and a large satellite dish. The first hit, which sounded like a gunshot in the house, took one large TV and the satellite dish, and the second hit got two more TV’s. Again, the sound was horribly frightening.
Please do me a favor and tell Robert that we did not mean to anger or offend him and we’re sorry if we did. His photo did turn out good, so he sat very nicely for me. Would he like it back?
Yours sincerely,
Cindy Lyons
Battle Ground, Indiana
As for me, well, Robert and I were introduced several days ago and so far I’ve suffered no ill effects. But then, I’m not taking any chances. Like the cats, I choose to believe.
Dear Robert I’m so sorry for not asking permission before researching you and watching videos. Please forgive me, I did not know until now.
Dear Robert, I am sorry I searched you up without your permission I didn’t know.
Dear Robert I am sorry for looking at your picture without your permission. Please forgive me
Dear Robert
Sorry for looking you up without your permission I apologise
Im not taking any chances. lol I’m following. Im about to get married lol.
Dear Robert. I’m so sorry for researching you and looking at your pictures without your permission. I’m sorry.
Apologies… I stumbled across your web site.. I meant no disrespect.
Please forgive me Robert for having researched this website about you without your permission, I only stumbled upon knowing about you watching the show Lore, I was curious and felt scared researching you and this is the only website I have looked at but I have not tried to look at pictures of you or videos but if I have stumbled upon a picture or two please forgive me and for having researched on only this website, I would’nt want to upset you.
Dear Robert,
Please forgive me for looking at your photo and reasearching you after I watched about your story in Lore. I hope you will accept this apology and give me peace. I will not do it again.
Dear Robert
I am sorry for researching you without your permission.
Dear Robert,
I’m very sorry I looked at a picture of you and watched a video about you without your permission. I’m also sorry for researching about you. I stumbled upon you accidentally and I didn’t intend to find about you. Please accept my deepest apologies and don’t bring any harm to me and my family. We don’t have the best of luck at the times, we have good days and bad days but life can be tough. You have my upmost respect, I would never insult you.
Thank you
Dead Robert,
I apologize for watching a video about you. It was tempting. I sincerely regret it. Please forgive me.
Katie.
Dear Robert,
I am sorry to have looked at your pictures and read your story without your permission. I saw a post about you and wanted to know more about your story. I didn’t mean to disrespect you at all. Please forgive me, I was just very curious. I apologize once again.
Dear Robert, me and my friends are very sorry for looking at your pictures without your permission. we were not aware that we needed to ask for permission. Please forgive us.
Dear Robert,
Please forgive me for viewing your pictures without permission. I was just courious and find you interesting.
Sincerely, Kira
Dear Robert,
Sorry for searching you up and reading about you and looking at pictures.
I’m sorry and I hope I have not offended you. I find your story interesting and do not mean any disrespect. Please forgive me.
Dear Robert,
I am really sorry to see your pictures , videos and read articles on the Internet without your permission.Please forgive me .
Please forgive me for looking at your picture by accident and then looking for information about you.
I’m so sorry
Dear Robert,
I had a strange dream last night and you were in it. Not sure if you were paying me a visit or not, but I apologize for looking up your picture again, I just felt like I was drawn to look it up again. It’s been a long time since I have met you, but I still appreciate the good luck you gave my family and I that day. Thank you for reading and I hope you aren’t mad at me, the last thing I would want would be to trouble you. 🙂
So sorry for reading and looking at your photos. I stumbled upon many articles cos I was researching about dolls.. Recently watched a film and I was kind of wondering “how to get rid of haunted dolls” if ever I had any.? didn’t want to get into trouble so anyway, I just wanted to say sorry if ever I disrespected you in any means.
Dear Robert
Please forgive me for looking at your picture by accident and then looking for information about you.
I’m so sorry
I’m really sorry. Please forgive me. I beg you please.
Dear Robert. I’m very sorry that I keep looking at videos, images and articles about you without your premission. Curiosity got the best of me. I just wanted to know more about you. Please accept my Apology and forgive me.
Sincerely,
Tilen
dear Robert
you are pretty creepy but reallyHampson
dear Robert
you are ugly
*sigh* come on people. He or it can’t tell your looking at him from over the enternet. You got to be right by him. Also if your jokeing around not believing your a jurk. He will hont you only if you find him and see him in person.
First, learn to spell proper English words.
Second, people can believe what they want. Yeah I think he’s super real but others might not. You can’t change opinions.
Third, don’t use *’s when you aren’t even online roleplaying, it’s cringy.
Fourth, Robert sees all.