Chambers of the Occult - EP# 22 Deadly Bunkers and Cursed Playthings: The Keller Family Murders and Robert the Doll

Episode Date: November 20, 2024

In the first half of this episode, Kai delves into the harrowing and meticulously planned crimes of Peter Keller, a man whose descent into darkness culminated in unimaginable tragedy. In April 2012, Keller murdered his wife, Lynettee, and their 18-year-old daughter, Kaylene, before setting their home ablaze. But this was no crime of passion—Keller had spent eight years constructing a hidden bunker deep in the Rattlesnake Ridge area, where he fled after the murders. This fortified, multi-level hideout was stocked with weapons, supplies, and survival gear, a grim testament to his apocalyptic mindset.Authorities tracked Keller to his concealed lair using photographs and tips from hikers, leading to a tense 22-hour standoff. Ultimately, Keller took his own life, leaving behind a chilling legacy of obsession and devastation. Kai explores the twisted psyche of a man who prepared for survival but ensured destruction, unraveling the layers of planning, paranoia, and heartbreak in this chilling case.Next, J takes us to Key West, Florida, to meet Robert the Doll, a toy with a reputation as infamous as Keller’s bunker was hidden. Once the prized possession of Robert Eugene Otto in the early 1900s, Robert the Doll has become a notorious figure in paranormal lore. Stories of misfortune and eerie happenings follow this pint-sized terror, with museum visitors claiming to feel his eyes following them or experiencing mysterious accidents after disrespecting him.Now housed in a glass case, Robert continues to inspire both fear and fascination, as skeptics and believers alike grapple with his unsettling legacy. J unpacks the origins, the tales of terror, and the psychological impact of this cursed plaything, leaving listeners to decide: Is Robert truly haunted, or does his legend hold the power to haunt minds?From the shadows of a deadly bunker to the unsettling gaze of a cursed doll, this episode of Chambers of the Occult will send chills down your spine.Send us a text

Chambers of the Occult may contain content that might not be suitable for all listeners. Listener discretion is advised. Episode 22 of Chambers of the Occult. I'm Jay. I'm Guy. And who's that? This is Jasper. Hi Jasper. He's our special guest for today.

We've got Loki down over here. Quite quiet. Can't see him. Yeah, how are you folks doing? Yeah, how are you folks doing? What pets do you have watching with you right now? Comment down below. Is there a what? We have Twitter, right? Yeah, we have Twitter. Is there a what? We have Twitter right? Yeah, we've Twitter Yeah, if you guys want to send us pictures of your pet watching or listening to chambers of the occult with you

Like on Twitter or something like reply to a post we would love that. That would be that'd be cool That would actually be really cute. Yeah, or I mean just like send us a DM on like Instagram or something or anything Honestly or anything. Yeah anywhere you can send us a picture I guess Yeah, yeah, we are swamped with things so we might take a while to reply We're doing our best um busy seasons right now just like busy Towards the end of the year, right? Oh, I was like, yeah. Events and all that. Honestly, but good though. It keeps us busy.

Good busy, yeah. Not like a bad busy year. It's not busy from just like work or like one category. It's multiple things keeping us busy, which is nice. Yeah. Now, Kai, what do you have to keep our listeners busy for the next half an hour to an hour or so? I have a story.

Ooh. Is it a scary story? I have a true crime story. So I mean, Real life is quite scary. Yeah, you might find it scary, honestly. I don't know if I really find it that scary. Like, it's kind of terrible, you know? As most true crime cases are. That's the reason they're true crime. Anyway, I'm rambling at this point.

You're good. I mean, it's good to just get all the nerves out of the way, you know. Give the listeners an update. What would the enough to which I think we did. I haven't done this in a while. So I'm gonna start my case with a question. For you and for our listeners. Are you sure you have it? Did you start the last one with a question? If I did ignore that Fair um

Okay, have you ever seen the show Doomsday preppers I Have not I've seen clips very few clips, it's not like It shows up on my feed every other while. It's very rarely when I see Doomsday Preppers. Got it. Yeah.

And I probably have seen some of the older ones, but why? You'll find out. No, I'm scared. But also listeners, yeah, let us know if you've seen Doomsday Preppers. Yeah, if you keep up with it or like... Yeah, I don't know.

The last time I watched it was like a long time ago. I mean, I used to watch it growing up, you know? Got it. No, I think- With my brother or whatever. Yeah, rather than like Doomsday Preppers, we would watch Storage Wars. Yeah, rather than like doomsday preppers. We would watch storage wars Oh

Tornado chasers. Yeah, the two of them. Yeah, that combo the three shows. Uh-huh. Good anyway, um If you don't know what doomsday preppers is It basically follows like different people around the country or the US mainly, it was the US, that are all prepping for the end of the world in some capacity, right? As the name implies. Exactly, as it's in the title. Stockpiling food, creating weapon armories, all that jazz.

Um, a lot of them do even have like underground bunkers that they like stock with this stuff and like... That's the things that the Clips have seen. Yeah, sometimes they're just like below their house. It's like a little wine cellar or I don't know, sometimes it's like a bit more elaborate. Yeah. I feel like it would be cool being down. It like a like a bunker or like, what are they like? Like tornado shelter or whatever, like down under.

I don't know. Fun fact, I don't know if I've told you this. My high school was built with like bomb shelters underneath There they were never used obviously and now they only use the storage Okay, but like there's part of the campus like the main campus that you can walk by and you just see this big blocks of concrete with windows and Like it kind of indicates that you're like above like your area that's crazy what i mean i i guess it's good you had i mean logically like it wasn't deep enough to do anything but like the intention was there this is fair. Luckily like it was never used It's now storage, but I always want to go like down under to like see what's down there

Okay, anyway, yeah like underground bunkers stuff like that Survivalists as many of them call themselves. Yeah, like survivalism It's you know community of people who are prepping for the worst, essentially. But a lot of them definitely can be quite the character, right? Like they're, they're eccentric or they're goofy or downright like kind of unhinged. A lot of them are. And and honestly that's putting it lightly yeah they have their range like in everything they really do they really really do um but i mean who knows i guess maybe they're the smart ones right for prepping when the world crumbles into chaos

and violence yeah um hopefully that never, but they're the ones that are prepared for it. It's like a, yeah, yeah, I was going to compare it to car insurance. It's like, cause I'm like, you don't get car insurance expecting you're going to get in a car accident, but you get it just in case. So I feel like that's maybe what they're doing. But like I said, there's the range. I guess so. Yeah. Well, anyway, what if, though, that underground bunker

was the site of something far darker? More people. What? Sorry. What? What did you say? I said mole people What? I don't know Underground

That is true They like they burrowed themselves No, no, no, like like mole people isn't Not that it's actually what happened Okay, yeah, yeah Okay, anyway themselves no no like like more people isn't not actually what happened okay yeah yeah okay anyway it's so it's April 21st 2012 in North Bend Washington the state of Washington everything is normal fine Peter and Lynette Keller and Their daughter Kaylene are going about their lives as normal honestly nothing out of the ordinary Working going to school whatnot

But what they didn't know was that the end of the world was dawning in the coming days There what year, at least. It was 2012. Got it, that explains it. So it's April 22nd, 2012 in North Bend, Washington. Lynette and Kayleen are found dead in their home. Both dead from gunshot wounds to the head. Supposedly self-inflicted.

The firefighters that responded to a fire at the home were the ones to discover the bodies. So there was, they were dead and there was also a fire going on at the same time? Exactly. Got it. Yeah. Okay.

So the firefighters did respond quick though. Thankfully, the home wasn't damaged too much. A neighbor nearby quickly called. The firefighters got there really fast. The home wasn't actually damaged all too much. Horrifyingly, of course, they found the bodies. But what they also found were seven intact gasoline cans placed throughout the house. Oh, so they got there in time.

Set in place. Exactly. So they were set in place to only make things worse. Thankfully, they didn't because the firefighters got there in time. So this is a setup. It was or wasn't, who knows. What the firefighters didn't find, any guesses? The gun. The gun, yeah. There's a big one though.

A big one that they didn't find. I don't know. Peter. The husband. Oh, I was going to ask if there was a husband involved. And there usually is. Okay. So it was Peter and Lynette.

Those were the parents. Their daughter was Kayleen. So Kayleen and Lynette were found. was Peter and Lynette. Those were the parents their daughter was Kayleen So Kayleen and Lynette were found Kayleen and Lynette were found Lynette was 41 and Kayleen was only 18. So she was pretty young. Yeah Yeah, the the father wasn't found There were a dead mother a dead daughter in this home. So of course the King County Sheriff's Office, where it was located, they immediately were set into action, right? You know, they set up the crime scene, they got pulled to the home,

they started their investigation. What happened to these girls? Where was Peter? You know, they needed to find him? Where was Peter? You know, they needed to find him. He was the prime suspect after all at this point because he was gone. The husband's always the prime suspect. Exactly, right? Like it's the first person you investigate. So that's exactly what they did. And in doing so, the King County Sheriff's Office, they tore through the killer house.

You know, taking it apart, trying to find any piece of evidence that could point them in the right direction Yeah, like where he went Exactly. Yeah, so You know the murder weapon No Was there a motive? Nothing that they could find Was it just a single shot?

Single shot to the head. Okay. Yep. No murder weapon, no motive. No letter. No real evidence. No letter. Okay. Nothing.

His twisted mindset though, his location. Bingo. The bunker. They had something. It's April 23rd, 2012 in North Bend, Washington. And the search is on. It's OK. But what did they find? Right. What did they find while they were going through this house, tearing through it, going through what had barely remained after that fire. Or remember how I started all of this? Right? Yeah.

Homestay preppers. Yeah. Survivalists. Is that what they found? Throughout the home? That's what they found. Yeah. Oh! Peter, the husband, the father, he was one of them. He was a pretty

Dedicated survivalist, I would say, you know, he had a collection of things he was putting together I mean his family, I think His family like I don't think they were fully in tune with what exactly was going on with him But I'm sure they noticed something of how he liked to collect and whatnot. Okay. So they found a lot of this, you know, the police they scoured through computer data and hard drives that had information and photos on there. Information and photos on there

All of this intended to be burned by that fire that never even had a chance to spread Yeah, the fire didn't even spread past really the kitchen of the house. So relatively small. Yeah but of course there were those gas cans planted around that were made to You know blow everything up. Thank fire fighters responded. Yeah, so I mentioned photos. Yeah. Photos, digital photos, sketches even, that were determined to have been drawn by Peter himself. Of what?

Wooded areas. Oh, like foresty areas? Foresty areas, um, wooded areas with certain power lines in them. And they were drawn? Some of them were, those were photos that were found on the computer, sort of a location. What was drawn, what was sketched out, were the early makings of an underground bunker. Oh, like the early, early blueprints.

Exactly, like the early blueprints of it. Okay. Which is what they found. So they knew, of course, he was now probably hiding out. Wait, okay, because in my mind, where was the house located? Like, was it like a, not like, I'm assuming it's not like in the city... I'm assuming it's not in the city. I'm assuming it's in the outskirts. I think it was just in a regular suburb. So not in the outskirts of the city, but it wasn't super populated either.

So the bunker wasn't in the house? No. That's what I thought. Okay. Yeah. So pictures of heavily wooded areas There were certain power lines that helped narrow down the search just a little bit Um, the police started canvassing so much of the area the king county sheriff's office

Did so much work. They Reached out to people in the area residents of there And they got lots of reports that they had seen Peter's truck at times in sections of the woods. That helped them narrow down the search even more. At this point, the officers, they had enough to approach a judge. This judge set out an arrest warrant for two counts of first degree murder and first degree arson

from here for Peter Kellum. And after days of searching, six days to be exact. I mean, the woods are pretty big, not gonna lie. Exactly. So yeah, did they find like the truck? They found the bunker itself. They found the whole itself. The whole bunker which was kind of a crazy discovery. Yeah. Because what they found was... Wait, was he there? What they found... I'll get into that in a sec. Okay, okay, yeah, yeah, that's fine. That's fine. What they found was a two-level bunker underground.

Oh. That was built about 20 feet down into the hillside. So it was underground. It was camouflaged. So super well. This wasn't like a last-minute thing. Like he had been doing it for a while. He had been working on this for the past eight years. He had been creating this bunker for eight years stockpiling it with food, weapons. That means that he started this when his daughter was 10. Yep. Yeah. So they learned all of this

about him. The police they reached out to Lynette's family, who told them that he always was just kind of stuck up to himself. You know, he had a very deep distrust of authorities and he always had this survivalist mindset. So they should expect a fight or they should expect something. Wait, so who told them that? Lynette's family. So the okay got it was killed there because they had met him. They're like you should be aware of okay Wait, that's I feel like that's hard though Because you're going into a bunker that I mean, I guess they had the little layout like the blueprint

But even how much of that is actually? There exactly like it was way different. It was so much bigger at this point. Small correction, I mentioned it took them six days to find the bunker, it took them five days, still long, but whatever. So it was on a hillside, it was close to what was called Rattlesnake Ridge Trail, near the city of North Bend.

And it wasn't exactly deep into the wilderness, like it wasn't in the back country. Was it by like a hiking trail or something like that? Yes, a hiking trail, yeah. So it wasn't super far out, but it wasn't like super close to the trail either. Yeah, I mean someone wandering off the trail could have bumped into it.

Likely, yeah. Okay. And it was camouflaged super well though, of course leaves and everything scattered on top of it. So they found him, they learned that he was this survivalist, this loner who had been stockpiling food, supplies, money for years. And so they really started looking into what they found. Of course, the deputies, they were careful. They stumbled upon this bunker. They didn't know who or what was inside, if anything. It could be filled with explosives as far as they know, right? So they were super careful.

They were able to like look inside using cameras in a way. Smart. And eventually, of course, they got like, you know, SWAT teams ready from the King County Sheriff's Office as well as from the Seattle Police Department. Okay. Worked together. They blew the top off of this bunker. Oh, they're not, they're not being discreet about it.

They're like, we found you. No, they're not messing around. They are ready to take this guy down. Yeah. He was in there. Right? I'm sure he was armed. He knew he was in there.

He was armed. They knew he was in there. He was armed. They knew he was ready to put up a fight. And so what proceeded next was. A 22 hour long standoff between Peter and the authorities and the SWAT teams. Why? Every news article was covering this. Every media place was watching.

Everybody knew. Everyone was kind of upset that they weren't just going in and like taking this dude out. But of course, you know, the deputies, they had to be mindful of their own safety as well. Yeah, they don't want to have any casualties. Of course, because they're going into this bunker with a guy that's heavily armed while they're outside. I mean, I'm sure that their primary goal was not to take him out, but to restrain him. Yeah.

They knew this could be dangerous, you know, so they set up an inner perimeter, they set up an outer perimeter as well to keep people out. This was 2012, right? But those sketches that I mentioned earlier, you know, lots of them were from 2003, you know, nine years prior. Yeah. And about what it wanted to be, it was going to be... There was... Like, it was going to be a whole, like, lab,

like to study viruses and things like that. Okay, this man went from, like, I am legend type of thing. He wants a full bunker with everything. Was he even, what did he, like, do for work? I don't think he was a scientist. I actually wasn't able to find that out because there's not much backstory. Yeah because I'm pretty sure that... interesting. Anyway yeah there was there was details like that. There was other details that showed how he ran PVC pipes into the bunker that would transport water. So he could get water from the nearby streams and such.

And so, of course, they were prepared for the worst. Like, Peter was prepared for the worst, the deputies were prepared for whatever that they would get into. There was that 22 hour long standoff. Of course, no cooperation. Eventually, what authorities did, what the police did, is they used tear gas, right? I assume it would end up being some sort of gas to like get him to come out. Was he ready for that too? Yes he was.

They shot a round of tear gas into there. They flooded the bunker. Nothing. Nothing. He's a students A prepper. He has a gas mask. He's prepared for this Nothing happened hours go by

They try again. They pump more tear gas and more tear gas into this bunker And and he's surviving he's staying in there for way longer than than anyone ever expected. Yeah And so, he eventually, they eventually get him out of there. I don't know if it's a combination of, of the tear gas as well as Depedia sort of actually raiding it and finally going in there. But they do.

So they, they get him out of this bunker. They, of course, arrest him. That's all done with. They finally took this guy down 22 hours after a standoff. Now it's six days after the murder of his wife and his daughter um but prior to this there wasn't any directly connecting evidence right that he actually killed them yeah that he was like you said like a suspect he was like someone to go off and like they had to locate him yeah Yeah So they needed something right they got out they immediately raided this bunker to try to find what they would Eventually they were able to find bullet casings that did match what got used to

to murder his wife and daughter yeah, so they found all of that. They found that it was a pistol with a suppressor that he had used so he did shoot both of them. He started this fire to you know burn the bodies in a way but also to burn all of that evidence that unfortunately was not or that fortunately was actually. Unfortunate for him. Unfortunately for actually. Yeah, unfortunate for him. Unfortunately for him. Yeah. Exactly.

Yeah. So they find this. On top of this, let me pull up the exact list of like, some of the things that they found. That's fine. I just think that, I don't know, this man is... A standoff never ends well. No it doesn't.

Um... Oh my gosh. No. Is it longer than you remembered? No, no, no, no, no. I just completely misremembered. They didn't get him out of the bunker. He shot himself.

So they got a body out. Wait, did he like shoot himself to like injure herself or to like take himself out? It was the end for him and he knew it. Oh, it was suicide. Okay. Wow. It was suicide. He knew that's how he wanted to go out and so they never got a little bit more into that in just a bit Yeah Yeah, I definitely do want to pull that up. I have a couple tabs up and I'm not sure where it went. That's fine

Meanwhile listeners if you know anyone with a bunker, let us know. Let your authorities know. Actually, um, Documented somewhere. So they can investigate it. Yeah. So inside, um, the bunker, there were 13 guns. Um,

Not surprised. Lots of shelves filled with stacks of ammunition, um, a working stove, water jugs, sealed plastic containers, you know, for storage filled with food, bags of concrete, PVC pipes, like I mentioned, you know, helping water running through. Yeah. There was a small trailer that was found inside that was described. A small trailer? A small trailer.

Yeah, like, it was that spacious. It was that big of a bunker. This man had, I mean he had eight years to do this, but at the same time... That's... okay. Some like cans of, uh, gas cans, buckets, there was a whole ventilation system. Yeah. Inside there. So nobody knew it was this scale. Like I mentioned, um, Kayleen, the daughter, and Lynette, like, they knew some of his shenanigans,

but like, they didn't know it was gonna, like, they couldn't have known it was gonna be this huge, right? Yeah. If anything, they're like, it's his hobby, like, let him do his thing. Exactly. Um, there's some note from Kayleen's boyfriend boyfriend that said that the daughter Kayleon had told her boyfriend that, you know, his father, her father, oh, like he just gathered supplies in a, he was prepping for like the end of the world or something like that.

So probably... So the wife and the daughter never really took him serious. They're like, just let him do his thing. Some men work in cars, other ones in bunkers. Exactly. Yeah. Got it. Okay. So... They...

Right, they are trying to get him out. They hear the gunshot, they find it go in. They see his body, pistol, pool of blood, all of that. And so they research a little bit more. They find some other things inside of that bunker. And one of the things that they found was essentially like, like the storage, like the hard drive of a camera. What did he have pitched out?

And they check it out. And it's a video diary. It's a video diary. Oh. He would vlog himself. Yeah. In ways of his preparation. When he was getting up to his preparations, things like that. And so he had a YouTube channel. Did he? That he would post on in a way. And so actually there is still the roughly about 10 minute clip of his final message essentially.

Wait, did he record a diary before he shot himself? Not exactly before he shot himself. It was recorded, it seems probably right after he killed Lynette and Kayleen or just sometime in those few days like when the authorities were searching them. Likely it was right after though. The video is kind of a crazy thing to watch. He's so like calm and normal about it. He's he like restarts the vlog like three different times because he's like he's like, oh you know today you know this is gonna be my last one.

But he's like no that's not good. And it cuts to him restarting. He's like today's. Sir what do you think is gonna happen? Mm-hmm. He's like, today, this might, this is gonna be probably my last video ever before I, you know, cut ties with the world and drop off. And he talks about, he's like, yeah, you ago, I used to sit here and think, you know, this whole thing is crazy. The more I thought about it, the more I understand it.

I don't really feel bad about it. It's just the way it is. I won't have to worry about Lynette or Kayleen. Everything will just be taken care of. It will just be me. Referring to, I mean, obviously after, or just as he was about to, you know, a couple of days before, one or the other.

Well, he's out in the woods in this video. So it almost 100% likely was after he had murdered them. But in this like video of himself, he doesn't actually ever, like, directly, like, admit or acknowledge that he killed them. It's more of a, oh, this happened. Or after this. He's like, you know, it's probably gonna be two weeks now

after all this happens that I'm gonna be, you know, going off the grid. And he's like, well, that's unless they find me, you know, which case then it'll be the end. But that's fine because I can just kill myself. You know, I can just shoot myself. Yeah. He said that on the. I guess that's pretty much how he says in the video. Let me find the egg.

The mentality of this man. No, it's insane. I will send you that video. Yeah. And so you can watch it for yourself. So I can be like, hi, what do you put yourself through this? No, yeah, it's it's kind of crazy. Like, he's just so calm.

He's out in the woods. He's just pointing this like camcorder at himself. Yeah. When. Yeah. When you covered the Issei Sagawa case, did you see the interview that they did with him? I saw clips of it but I didn't see the... Okay, no he's just also once again very calm talking about the situation. Right. Yeah, so I feel like this man is at the same time, like he knows what he did, he's like it is what is. And just very calm about the situation, not caring. So, of course, he's, you know, talking into the camera, at one point, he says, like, I realize I have to finally do what I have to do, get it out of the way. At this point, I don't know what's going to happen. I may get caught right away. Basically, if I get caught, I'm just gonna shoot myself. I could be dead in two weeks or three weeks. I don't know.

I don't think anyone knows where I'm at, but if they put it together, at this point, I have to take that chance. I do have my escape and that's death. I can always shoot myself and I'm okay with that. God, no. So that's the Zodiac quotes from the video that he recorded. When you put the whole picture together that's very dark. Because in his mind he expected to, you know, either be caught right away or have a couple weeks before he gets caught. He never, it doesn't seem like he had the mentality that he was getting away with it.

He said like he could try, you know, but... Like he could try and he was going to but he knew they probably were already gonna find him and if they did you know he came to the acceptance that killing himself was the way out right? Yeah that's what it sounds like. There's another quote from the video he says, I'm getting to the point where just trying to live and pay bills and live as a civilian and go to work, That just freaks me out. It's actually more comfortable for me to think about living out here.

Robbing banks and pharmacies, just taking what I want for as long as I can. At least it will be exciting. It won't be boring. And I don't have to worry about Lynette or Kayleen. And everything will be taken care of. It will be, it would just be boring. And I don't have to worry about Lynette or Kayleen and everything will be taken care of. It will be, it would just be me. I mean, obviously this man did it, but there was no clear confession. He doesn't actually say that he does.

Yeah. Which is crazy. I wonder if it's to like make himself feel better. Like if I don't say it, I didn't actually do it type of thing. Right right like he doesn't acknowledge it like in his own head Yeah, or something like he's still in like internal denial about what happened because that's the difference with like Ise Sagawa He he talked about it openly quite often and this man even though it's himself just recording himself like he can't Come to say it. Yeah

himself like he can't come to say it. Yeah. Yeah, he can't and as much as he talked about it, he didn't directly say what he did. No. He didn't say why he did it either. To this day, there's still no motive. That's what I was going to say because did he expect something big to happen? Did he think he was just, I don't know, taking care of his wife and daughter would be better if they didn't have to deal with it?

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. And I think I do want to like explore maybe a couple of theories right now about it. Yeah, go for it That's what you do here so the the one that like comes to my mind first is like he had such a twisted sense of like Self preservation in a way when he says like, you know It's more comfortable for me to think about living out here, blah blah blah, not have to worry about Lynette or Kayleen. Um, the most, I guess, plausible, quote unquote, in a way, is like, well, he, he was going to move out here, right? But he didn't want to have to take care of anyone, or he didn't want to burden Lynette, Kayleen, or whatever

it may have been, so he kills them to get them out of the way so that he can start to live his new life on his own. Yeah. Which at first is does sound like a good theory right like he gets them out of the way he doesn't have to take care of them blah blah blah but like why did he have to kill them he could have just ran away yeah that's what I'm thinking like it doesn't make sense because unless you know like I mean Kayleen was like 10 years old when he started the bunker unless he started taking her with her like they don't know where the location is either they don't know where he goes I don't know I mean of course he could have perhaps maybe shared it with them

Maybe they know their location and maybe he's like I don't want them coming here It's just so weird because it's like It It almost seems That like He killed them out of a place of, like, care. Or love. He's trying to make it sound like that, yeah. Right?

Like, instead of leaving them alone, instead of having them fend for themselves while he disappears, like, he just kills them so they don't have to worry about anything. I feel, yeah, it's definitely that saver complex of like, I'm saving them from like the apocalypse type of thing. Yeah. And the way he like killed them as well, just like a single gunshot wound to the head with a suppressed weapon, that feels like an execution, right? That's why you also asked if it was just like a single shot.

Yeah, because there was like, it doesn't seem like there was like malicious intent behind it. I mean, obviously like he killed his wife and daughter, but compared to other cases, there's not like multiple wounds. It's very, like you said, execution style. It doesn't seem like a crime of like hatred or something like that, right and I think that's what's so interesting to me of Why did he do this? I don't know. No, I don't know if Eunice because obviously part of the house was burned

The bodies were found in the kitchen area where they found like in other areas um, I The bodies were found in the kitchen area or were they found like in other areas? Um... I think they were in like the living room. Okay, I'm trying to figure out if they were found together or in different locations. Um... I think they were together. Yeah, that's also what's concerning. Because if they were found together, that means that...

One of them got shot before the other one. So the other one knew what was coming. And they were watching it happen? Yeah. I don't know. I also wonder, like... Like... So this case, I tried to find like a collective set of information, but there's

literally like nothing. I'm just piecing this together from like so many news articles. I was gonna say, I'm sure that the only thing you could, I mean, the majority of things you could find were like what the news covered. Exactly. Because it was such a big story. Like lots of cases have like a, like a murderpedia page or like a Wikipedia page or something where you can pull info from. This doesn't. Literally everything is all from news articles that I'm learning and like the video that he posted.

Yeah, that he found. So there's not actually all too many details like that. And so that also makes me wonder, like, how did he, like, subdue them in a way? Were they subdued at all? Like, were they running away or were they, like, just sitting down asleep? Were they sitting down on the couch watching a show? That's what I was trying to figure out. Because if they were both, like, together, like the bodies found together, then that means that either they knew what was coming and, they were either like restrained in some way or like uh you know

like maybe he executed them separately and then dragged them to a room but if there's no like blood trail i don't know how you could i don't believe they were dragged there was yeah um There was, yeah. Um, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm not entirely sure. Um, let me see. Um, I don't know. No, that's fine. I'm just looking through like quotes of His videos. Of his videos of the King County Sheriff, his name.

And was that the only video that he recorded? Cause I'm sure they found a collection, but was that the only one where he talked about his daughter and wife? Yes, it was that video. That was the only one that he really mentioned them. There were some other videos they found of him just like giving like a tour of his bunker and like things around, right? But it yeah, that was like the end video that he recorded

yeah, the the sheriff of the times name was Steve Strachan and One of the quotes that he said he he said the video was, quote, breathtaking in its evil. And I kind of agree with that. It was terrible. I see that. Yeah. The sheriff, he said, quote, it is a little bit chilling because it makes you very aware of the fact that he planned to go into the bunker weeks, months, probably years ahead of time, and also indicates that he planned to commit the double homicide years ahead of time. Which means it was always in the back of his head,

like, is today the day? Which is honestly scary thinking about. Mm-hmm. Like, yeah. Especially, it's scary nonetheless, but I think if there was a survivor, like the mother or the wife or the daughter, I think it would just be scary knowing that you lived with a man that always had that in the back of their mind.

It's today the day I killed him. Yeah, like it's today that I'm gonna die type of thing. Yeah. type of thing like yeah so yeah they never really knew but that also begs the question of like like what made him do it why he decided that now was the time mm-hmm you know and I'm just I'm just trying to think through what I've read which isn't very much as much as I want much as I want. Yeah, yeah. Is what it is. It's a lot of the same, but it doesn't go in depth. I don't like, no, I don't know what his motive,

what his reason was, why he chose what it was. Yeah. There are quotes from some of his co-workers that he said on the week of like April 18th, the week before, he said he was going to go on like a little, like he's he's gonna be gone and he apparently said that that might be the last time that they see him. Okay, what did he do for work? I mean his I mean the co-workers I don't know if it states or not but um let's see. Um... Yeah, it doesn't say what he actually did.

He just described as a survivalist, right? Yeah. Um... Yeah, no, there's really not much that actually is described. But- Is there anything else from the family? Like the in-laws? Not really that either. To lose?

And I think like it's... This case really like, not gets under my skin, but I'm just like, why? Why did he do this? It makes zero sense whatsoever. It makes absolutely zero sense. Especially when he didn't leave any sort of records of why he was doing it. It was also crypted in that last video. I don't know.

Like even going through Reddit and looking through like different theories out there and stuff like that as well. Somebody was like, why? Like most people build bunkers and then take their family there in order to survive. Yeah, and it's, I mean, Why do you take this out for so long? A two-floor bunker. Like it seems like you would be able to like fit three people there

And he put so much work into it So I said like what's the point in worrying about the end of the world and building a bunker if you're just gonna shoot your Family and then kill yourself like yeah Yeah, I don't know. I don't understand it. And that's why I hate this case and that's why I covet it. Fair. No, it makes sense to some extent and then that just stopped making sense completely. It does.

But other than that, there's really not much else for me to talk about. That is the Rattlesnake Ridge murderer, Peter Keller. Is that what he's called? It's been described as like the Rattlesnake Ridge murders. Because it was in that area off that trail. Okay, fair. Wow. Bam.

I'll send you that video and then. I can put that link for the video on our website as well if people wanna watch it. Yeah. I mean it's. I mean once again, it's the link. People, if people wanna watch it, they just click on it.

It's publicly out there. Yeah. right? Yeah, it's publicly out there So yeah, anyway What do you have for us? Well, I would say hopefully something not as dark But I don't think that's for me to choose I Mean I think that's for people to decide. Definitely not your typical. I mean, it's a well-known haunting, I would say. Maybe. But it's not like a typical haunting? It's a like generational haunting. Kind of generational. Maybe not. Okay, let me just get into it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, because for this case, we're going to the East Coast. We're going to Florida, and we're going to cover one of the quote-unquote most haunted artifacts. Okay. I know the word most haunted is thrown out there a lot. It really is, yeah. So that's why I'm like one of the most, you know, like not the most, just one of the most. I think that that is a good way to describe it maybe. Now as I start telling the story, feel free to stop me at any time and let me know your theories of what you think this haunted artifact might be.

Because I'll give you some like back backgrounds and backstory and then you might have a couple theories and then I'll tell you what the artifact is. Okay, sounds good. But before we head to Florida, because that's where everything takes place. Let's go back a little bit further and let me tell you, let's go back in time a little further

and let me tell you of who is responsible for the story we have today. If not, I wouldn't have a case. I'd have a case, just not this one. But there's not this one. It would be some other case out there. Yeah, yeah. So who is responsible for the creation of this most haunted artifact? So the story takes place in Florida. We're going to make a quick stop in South Germany. So I want you. What? Yeah, I know. I I want you. What?

Yeah, I know. I know. Okay. No, it's fine. Yeah. It might make sense. Hopefully. Yeah, get into it.

Oh yeah, definitely. I'll... Yeah. So I want to introduce you to Margaret Stief. Stief. Margaret Stief. Okay. Stief. Margaret Stief, okay. Stief. She was born on June 24th of 19- sorry, 1847.

So quite a bit back. And Margaret was born in- ooh, I learned how to say this but now I don't. It's in German. Geigen and Bres. Okay. Okay. And at the age of... So it's in the south, south of Germany. And at the age of 18 months, she suffered from polio. Okay. So Margaret, Margaret herself, she was a survivor. She overcame polio as a child and quickly she built a thriving business against all odds.

It would be in 1877 that Margaret founded her felt clothing shop and she successfully made garments and household articles and she was soon able to employ a number of seamstress. and she was soon able to employ a number of seamstress. Okay. So she had a whole like business going. Yeah. Okay. That's cool. So far, any ideas as to what this haunted artifact might be? A dress.

No. So- A pair of socks. That'd be fun. That'd be funny Actually, yeah, that'd be funny I'm trying to think if there's any like haunted piece of like clothing out there Okay, but in 1880 The official found funding was the official founding date of this Stief manufacturing. So that's when Margaret sees a pattern for a

small fabric elephant in a fashion journal and she shows the elefante and according to this pattern the felt elephant at the time was intended to be a pin cushion, but pretty soon became a popular children's toy because they were like, oh, it's cute. It's cute. Little elephant. Yeah, exactly. So the first Stife catalog is soon published and it shows not only elephants, but also monkeys, donkeys, horses, camels, pigs, mice,els pigs mice dogs cats rabbits and giraffes

Goddamn, yeah the whole zoo. Yeah. Yeah, basically and I'll talk more about in just a minute But any ideas what the haunted artifact might be? No might be? No, I don't know. Fair. No, I gave you a lot. We went from clothing to stuffed animals. Yeah. So in 1902, we have the birth or like slash creation of the first teddy bear. Oh, makes sense I'm dumb. No you're fine. Just to let you know that teddy bears not the haunted artifact. Fuck. But the teddy bear was created in 1902 like before 1902 there was no stuffed teddy bear which is a little crazy to think about. So Margaret's favorite nephew Richard Stife he designed the the

the bear 55 PB the world first plush bear I think that's what the PB stands for I don't know what the 55 stands for. Yeah. With movable arms and legs. The original. And then Richard is allowed to present his teddy bear at the, another German name, Liebzing. Toy Fair. Definitely German name. Yeah. And it immediately conquers the world. The breakthrough comes when an American dealer discovers the bear and he orders 3,000 of them. And then the bear becomes a successful sale in the US. Now, part of the reason, this is just a fun fact I'm throwing out there, that the teddy bear became so popular was because American President Theodore Roosevelt, also known as Teddy, he helped make the Stife bear famous because he refused to shoot a tied-up

bear during a hunting trip. And then the newspapers had little like drawings of Theodore Roosevelt just walking away from a bear in the back. It's kind of cute, I guess. It is kind of cute. You know, it's because Teddy wrote, that's when they called, you know, Teddy Roosevelt. And that contributes to the- That's how we got Teddy from, okay. Yeah. No, that's fine.

They know this before either. Got it, got it, got it, got it, got it. And then in 1907, they produced close to a million teddy bears. Holy shit. Yeah. That is a lot, especially for back then. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, definitely. And then at the age of 61, Margaret Stife died on, wait, yeah, at the age of 61, Margaret Stife died on May 9th, 1909. She died in the presence of her family and the death was because of pneumonia. Now after her death, the company continues to grow. It continues to be run by her nephew.

And that's where we stop this history lesson. Okay, very briefly. Yeah, I mean, she died. I'm like, okay, this is the woman who is responsible for the haunted artifact we'll be talking about. Just wanted to give you a little bit of... Knowledge on that? Margaret Stife. Stife? Yeah. There we go. Now fun fact, when you set the whole zoo, I'm glad you brought that up,

because they have the world's largest petting zoo. And I just sent you the link to it. It's in Germany, of course. Let me check it out. Yeah, go for it. Check it out. Oh, wow. And they're like huge stuffed animals.

They're like, your kid can ride on them type of thing. Okay. We gotta send this like too. Oh yeah, for sure. Post or something. Something a little fun. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Now that that's out of the way, let's...

Do you have any theories about that haunted artifact might be? Raggedy Inn! Close! You're not far off. So this is the case. You're literally just like maybe like one degree away from it. No, what? This is the case of Robert the doll. So it is a doll.

Super similar. Like, yeah. Okay. Have you ever heard of Robert the doll? I don't think so. Okay, well he's quite popular nowadays. Quite popular a few years back. I might have heard of him.

But I'm not gonna... Just tell me the story. Okay. Feel free to... You know, like if it's the one you're thinking of, feel free to be like, yeah, I have heard of him or something. Okay. Now, Robert the doll was part of a 1904 Stife catalog and because it's a type of like, it's a unique doll, it was likely a one of a kind commission. And it was intended to be a window display.

Because also this doll was quite large it was okay it's 40 inches tall yeah three feet four inches three feet yeah yeah three feet inches and it has human-like features that were not typically found in children's toys at the time. So once again, this is why they think that it was a commission for like a window display. Now, there's multiple theories of where the doll came from, but the most popular is the Stife Company. That's why it went into the history of it.

The doll was also made from fabrics stuffed with wood wool, which was a popular material in the early 20th century toy making. Now there is a little bit of talk of how Robert the doll came from Germany to Key West, because that's where we're going. It's not very well documented. It's widely believed that it was purchased or a gift to the Odo family. That is the family we'll be talking about. Oto. Yeah. And the Oto family was very prominent and affluent in Key West, Florida. So let's talk about who makes up the Oto

family. So we have the parents, obviously, the head of the household. The head of the family was Thomas Otto, and he was a local physician. And then we also have his wife, Minnie Otto, which is a nice name. We don't hear that often. Now Minnie came from a wealthy background, and she had a strong interest in social events and local society. And the family lived in a Victorian style home in Key West. The house is still standing today and it's known as the Artist House. Okay. And they had...

It is. I'll talk more about why it's called that later. Just keep that name in mind. They had four kids. Very controversial that the person we're talking about was an only child. They're kids. I went to findmygrave.com and I was able to find parents and they're listed there. And if you're like, that's not right. Look at Tombstone for Minnie. Minnie, it says, mother of blank blank blank blank. Her four kids. So they had four kids. The first child was named, here we go again, Mizpa. M-I-Z-P-A. Mizpa. Okay. Yeah. She was born on June 18th, 1892. The second child was Joseph. He was born on December 3rd 1895 and the third child was named Thomas jr. Born on April 26

1897 Honestly, you can forget about those three kids because I'll never bring them up again Cool. I was gonna ask about the fourth kid. Yes the fourth kid the youngest child is the one that we're going to be focusing on. His name was Robert Eugene Otto. And he was born on October 25th, 19... 1900. 1900, okay. Yes, just 1900, which I think is kind of cool.

Yeah. You don't see that often. And he was also known as Gene, you know, nickname for Eugene. OK, yeah. And he's going to be central to the story. He was also reportedly a very sensitive and artistic boy who had a vivid imagination. Now, the Otto family employed several servants during the late 19th and early 20th century.

There is very few records of the servants, so there is not really a documented amount of servants that they hired. The historical records just indicate that they had at least two notable staff members, which we'll be talking about. And the autos, unfortunately, were also known to be stern with their servants and sometimes even mistreating them. Well, that sucks. Yeah.

So, yeah, I'm pretty sure that you'll want to repeat that in the future. OK, sounds good. I'll keep that in mind. Yeah, so there's Emily Abbott. Okay. Emily served as a nanny to Robert. And then there was also her husband, William Abbott, who was originally a drug porter. Drug porter, which I had no idea what that was. Yeah, what is a

drug porter? It's someone that just works for like- I know, but you know, maybe the listeners don't know. Yes, listeners in case you don't know. I'll totally know. It's someone that works for like pharmaceuticals or like things like that. So, okay. Yeah, not necessarily like a pharmacist, but someone that works with pharmaceuticals. Okay. Yeah. And that's what he did for a job until he was employed by the Otto family as well. As just like a servant, I guess? I guess so. I couldn't really find information as to what his job was on property, which

once again, like there's very few records. And of course, if you mistreat your servants, you're not going to keep records. Now with that out of the way, let's talk more about Eugene. Now it all started when Robert Eugene Otto, don't worry, I won't call him that the whole tires Okay, he was four years old The year was 1904 four years after of course he was born and for some reason his nanny Emeline she was fired Because supposedly Mini saw her doing some black magic in the yard

Fuck okay Minnie saw her doing some black magic in the yard. What the fuck? Okay. Yeah, so... Was there a description of this black magic or was it just... No. Black magic. It just says that Emmeline saw her doing some, performing some black magic in the backyard. What is considered black magic? Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Now, because of this, Minnie was just like, hey, pack your bags or fired. Damn. Which in my case, if I saw my employees performing black magic, I ain't saying anything. You can stay, you want to raise? No, you bring up a good point. Like if they're doing black magic, like they could curse me with some shit Exactly, I fire them. You don't want to miss with me

Hey, um, you can practice black magic. Just like don't do it here. Yeah, don't do it out in the open Yeah, and like don't make me a part of it Exactly, yeah, yeah Here's your bonus So before Emmaline left after she got fired, she gave Robert a lifelike doll, which stood at 40 inches, like I said, three feet, three inches tall. Who had button eyes. And some say that he had human hair believed to be Robert's hair.

And he was filled with straw. So this is Robert the doll. So not Robert the person. Yeah yeah so Emeline gave Robert, Robert the doll. So she gave Robert a doll kind of like of himself and it's some of its hair was Robert's actual hair Yeah, like she got locks of hair from him and like made it into the dog this four-year-old I'll put it into the doll sounds good. So again, this is one of those theories. We don't actually know what his hair now Some say that the doll was given as a gift, you know to par base others have the doll was given as a gift, you know, to Parvase. Others have theories that it was perhaps a gift as retaliation for wrongdoing. At least that's what some locals believe as we get into the story.

Because during the... they said that, you know, Emeline was... she didn't take the firing very well. So there is a 1924 legal notice in the my news that reports Emily Abbot, Abbot that sued the estate, um, of Jean's father, Dr. Thomas Otto. Um, so of course she, she's like, I'm going to sue you because you fired me because of black magic. What is that? Nowadays you could probably sue them because of that back in that day. Yeah, I Mean, I guess that kind of proves that she wasn't actually doing black magic because if she was doing black magic she could have just like Killed her or like cursed her.

Fair, fair. She had a she didn't know how to do it. So she turned to legal proceedings. Yeah. There's also another thing that I'll get towards the end of the story of why she gave Robert the doll, but we'll get into that later. So Robert Eugene became very affectionate with this new doll. A four year old, he's like, oh my god, a doll that's almost as tall as me. He ended up naming-

Yeah, he ended up naming- so the doll didn't have a name at the time that she got the- she gave him a doll. It was like, here's a doll, goodbye. So Robert Eugene ended up loving the doll so much that he ended up naming it after himself. That's crazy. Narcissist alert. Yeah, so it's a little creepy, you know, so that's when the doll gained the name Robert. Something else that was a little bit creepy that started to happen is that he started

to dress the doll with his own clothes that no longer fit him. I mean, I guess that's normal. He's still like a little kid. that he started to dress the doll with his own clothes that no longer fit him. I mean, I guess that's normal. He's still like a little kid. Yeah, and the doll was tall enough, you know, three feet, three inches. Basically, they ended up becoming like a twin but with a doll. It gets creepier when Robert, the kid, he tells people to not call him Robert anymore to call him Jean his middle name because Robert was the dolls name dolls name not his okay that's weird yeah once again a four-year-old so I'm

just like I might let it slide, but I mean if he's like you don't look into it too much because like it's just a little kid being a little kid But still it's like yeah, okay bud Also, it's important to bring up that he didn't actually live in a block other kids like there was no kids his age Oh, so this was his friend like this was his friend Yeah, like he grew so attached to the doll so he was probably just a weird little four-year-old. Yeah, I mean you don't have kids to socialize. Yeah And at some point Robert was also in a little stuffed dog to hold and the name of the stuffed dog was Leo Okay, don't know when the dog came in don't know if there was a dog with him the whole time But there's a dog with the doll as well. Okay, that's cute. Don't know when the dog came in. Don't know if there was a dog with him the whole time But there's a dog with the doll as well

Okay, cool. So from now on i'm going to be referring to the human child as gene And to the doll as robert as robert, okay So we have gene and robert and Gene as a four-year-old he would have robert join the family for meals He would have robert the family for meals. He would have Robert sit with them at the table. He would pretend to feed him food. He would even tuck him into bed at night.

Like we said, basically treating him like a real boy. And once again, you know, four-year-old, whatever, but like... But it's still kind of weird. is kind of weird and I mean what can you do so at first Minnie thought that it was just Gene playing with his doll you know just kids being kids like we said but pretty sure she was unable to tell because if she was walking by his room and his door was close, apparently she said that she could hear the voice of not only Gene, but Gene talking to Robert and Robert responding back to Gene.

It's just him changing two different voices. See? And that made sense. Well, she said that she realized that the voice was too low for a four-year-old to make Okay, that's creepy as fuck yeah And pretty soon Gene's behavior would change he would start to get irritated easily And when his mom would ask Gene what was wrong? Gene just said that he got in a fight with Robert

My god, yeah, they're like they're beefing now. Oh definitely. Yeah And I'm gonna send you a picture of Robert the dog possibly get in a fight With like four and especially with a doll what? So no, that's the thing. It's like it's a four-year-old getting a fight with a doll. So what exactly is happening? So I'm gonna send you a picture of Robert now so you can take a look at it And you can see that it's not your typical doll. It's not it's like a Creepier version I would say of Raggedy Ann I would say. Okay. And you can see that it's still wearing that sailor uniform. That sailor uniform is jeans. If I look at this doll am I gonna get

like haunted or some shit? Like am I gonna'm gonna get do you want to wait till then? No, you won't So is it the kids you thought it was I Don't think so. Okay. I don't know feel free to take a look at the doll To all that is holy Protect me it's in Florida, Kai. Last time I checked, at least. Oh, it's this doll.

Yeah, so you have seen it. I've seen it, but I don't I haven't like known anything about it. Okay. So this is Robert the doll. Okay. Yeah. So eventually Gene, as I said, he became a little bit irrational. He also became angry. There's lots of stories surrounding Gene and what happened after he received the doll. One story describes that Gene would actually start to terrorize the servants at

home. He would push them into a closet and he would hold the door closed so they couldn't escape. Yeah. Crazy, okay. And then when they would confront Gene with the abuse, Gene always blamed his toy Robert the doll. It's like it wasn't me, it was Robert. Now one day Minnie walked into Gene's room to find that Gene was sitting in a corner just like shaking with fear and Robert was like perched on a chair just staring at him. Just on the chair? Just like standing on it? Just staring? Okay. So eventually things began to be thrown across the room. You would hear giggling coming from empty rooms.

And Gene's toys would get destroyed. Like his toys would be broken. And whenever they would like confront him, like, why are you breaking your toys? There is a story that one of his favorite toys was broken. And he's like, it didn't break them. It was Robert. Like, this is my favorite toy toy I would never break it. So once again.

They should have just I would have thrown Robert away at this point like get rid of him. Sorry Robert love you don't kill me I'm not trying to insult you. He's like saying what you would do in that situation. So as mischief grew more and more servants ended up leaving. There was like a high turnover rate for the servants once they got hired. Because either weird things would happen at home or Gene would start torturing them. Now the Otto's relatives felt that there was something, that it was time to do something with the recommendation of his great aunt uh Jean's parents removed Robert from like Jean's like possession and they placed him in a box in

the attic they're like now this is where Robert stayed for many years there's another story that says that it was Robert's great aunt who took the ball from him and put it in the attic and that the aunt mysteriously died a few days later. Oh, okay. Yeah. Now, after locking Robert up in the attic, Gene seemed to have a regular life growing up. Like for a while there was still giggling and noises here and there, but it all kind of died down and Gene grew up as a regular boy. Gene grew up, he moved away from Key West to pursue a career in arts, and then Gene ended up studying art in the Art Institute of Chicago, and then he later continued his education in Paris.

Where he just, yeah. This kid just grew up to be like, stellar. What? Exactly. Like as soon as the doll was removed, he was able to grow up without, I don't know, being tortured or like without that trauma. Wow. And so there was no like, at least documented, there was no like, like turmoil that he experienced or like, did he miss Robert or anything?

Or was it just like, oh, he's gone? There was times where the parents did originally want to take Robert from Gene and Gene would say no. And I think it was only just when the aunt step in that they were finally able to take Robert away. Don't know if he put up a fight or for how long he grieved, but he grew up to have a regular life. Or did he?

Wow. Or did he? So like I said, he ended up moving to Chicago to study and then Paris. And then his time in Europe just allowed him to hone his skills with painting and just developing his artistic voice. His style was heavily influenced by surrealism.

Wow. Surrealism? Surrealism, thank you. And expressionism. Expressionist. Wow, movements. And then he gained a modest recognition for his work. So he was starting to be... That actually. Yeah. And then while in Paris, it's when Jean got to by the way, after Robert

was pulled away, like put away, he would still go by Jean, he never took his name back. So he was just Jean permanently now. He's just Gene at this point. Yep. But it would pair is that Gene would meet his future wife, Annie Parker. Now Annie was a woman from Boston. And she had interest in art and culture. So she was drawn to Gene's creativity, his charm, and the two of them began dating. And then they got married on May 3rd

1930 Wait, so when do they meet? They met I don't know the year that they met but they got married in 1930. Okay 1930 They got married at this point. Gene was 30 years old. He was born in 1900 And they got married in Paris because that's where they were both were at the time. Yeah. So Annie came from a well-known family, and she shared Gene's appreciation for finer things in life. But she was also like pragmatic and grounded. She was initially completely unaware of Gene's past with the attachment he had to Robert as a child.

Of course, like why would she know about that? Yeah, and how would you as a four-year-old remember that? Or like bring that up? I was like, oh yeah, when I was four, I had this doll. The couple eventually lived in New York for a little time where Gene tried to like establish himself as an artist. He exhibited his paintings in several galleries, but he struggled to achieve the success that he wanted. So because of financial pressure, yeah, it does. Especially when you're like doing so well, like in Europe and then like you come back and it's like, oh.

Like no. So financial pressures eventually got to Gene. And then he was just nostalgic missing Key West. And it led him to like talk to Annie, and they considered relocating back to Florida. Now, Gene just spoke very fondly of his childhood home. He just emphasized how spacious it was, and that it had a lot of potential

as both a residence and a studio. and that it had a lot of potential as both a residence and a studio. Okay. So it would be Jean's father passed away that Jean inherited the auto family Victorian mansion, which is 534 Eden Street. It's still open for tours. So if people want to visit the couple, that's when they move back to Key West with the opportunity for a fresh start. And Gene was ready to just get back into his art. Took it, right? Yeah.

So while settling into the house, Gene would rediscover something. Care to guess? Robert. Yep. So, you know, Gene, it's like a horror movie. Like, four years old gets tortured, he grows up, comes back into the family household, here's the doll again. Gene rediscovered Robert the doll in the attic and almost immediately his childhood attachment to the doll was reignited. Wow, weird.

He insisted on bringing Robert back into his daily life. So Gene gave Robert his own room. What? Yep. His room was in the turret where the doll actually sat overlooking the street. That's creepy. And he started to treat Robert as more than a toy. Often he would speak to him and just involve him into his day to day activities. And Annie, you know, initially she was amused by like Jeans, you know, quirkiness

But of course she became increasingly disturbed by his fixation on this doll Eventually she started to feel like a sinister presence in the house and she suspected that rubber was the cause of it the center of it That's crazy. Like actually being able to like feel something wrong. Like it's not good, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And despite any of his efforts to like

lock Robert back into the attic, either it was through Gene or the doll itself, it always just seemed to return to its spot in the church room. Now, there's also stories of school kids that would often go home. Yeah, I was gonna say that. Like, imagine walking down the street, you look up and there's just this fucking creepy ass doll staring down at you. Oh yeah, oh yeah. Kids start taking different routes to get home

to avoid walking by that house. I would too. Yeah. Because the kids also found the doll creepy. And this kids don't live in the house there. When kids find the doll creepy, that's how you know it's bad. Yeah. So, unfortunately, because Robert just became part of like their day to day life,

their marriage started to have issues. Because also Robert became, Gene became more obsessed with Robert and friends, neighbors, they all started to notice that Gene had like odd behavior. And of course, Annie was just growing, you know, more upset that she wasn't happy about the situation. You get married to like this man. I mean, that's, I would too. So, yeah. I think any of us would. We're like, we're married.

Why are you obsessed with this doll? Like you married me, not this doll. Yeah, exactly. Especially when there's been no mention of the doll until he you get back into that house It's just like you move back in and then you like your boyfriend comes down from the attic with like this So he's like, hey, look at this doll. Like oh, that's creepy and they're like, no like but like this doll was so like a part Of my childhood. Yeah, like his name is Robert. It's awesome.

At that point, I'd be like, OK, cool. It was part of your childhood. I was like, leave it in a corner. Be like kind of weird, but like, OK, dude, like. Yeah, it's weird. So Annie also gets concerned because she starts to hear unexplained noises. She hears laughter. They don't have kids. Gene and Annie never

had a child so they start hearing laughter throughout the house. And then Robert the doll, you know, he starts appearing in different parts of the house. And this just led to Annie isolating herself from like Jean because Jean would not do anything. Good. Jean just focused on Robert the doll and painting, but he never achieved the fame that he wanted and his artistic output just declined as consumed more and more by Robert. So, over a slow period of time. That one left. So, over a slow period of time.

1930s. What is she supposed to do? This is true. Yeah. And unfortunately, that's when Annie's mental health started to deteriorate. Some records suggest that she descended into like paranoia or insanity. Yeah, I believe that.

I mean, you're hearing all this noises. You see your husband act in a way he never did until he moved into this house. And you're like, it's the doll. It's the only thing that can explain it. So that's when Annie became really unease with Robert, you know, genes fixation, and she just in full distress throughout the house. Some speculate that the eerie atmosphere in the house and her interactions with Robert played a role to like her mental deterioration. Now, they just lived together with this doll until Gene would pass away.

He passed away on June 24th, 1974 at the age of 73. He passed away in the house under unclear circumstances and Almost oh no. No, it's it's always creepy when they're like, why did he die? We don't know Annie She decided to as soon as her husband passed away. She moved out Good. She relocated to Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts. OK. And she lived there until she passed away on January 9, 1979.

She passed away at the age of 86, once again, under mysterious circumstances. So she lived for like five more years after her after Jean died. Yeah, five more years. Now after she well when she moved out in 1974, the house was sold. The house was sold to Myrtle, Myrtle Ruther. And the story goes that when Anne moved out, the only thing that she left behind was Robert the doll Good, that's yeah

However, I probably would have just left everything behind I'm not gonna lie, but they're well me Yeah, but if you know that like the Roberts the only thing that's keeping you like insane Yeah, but like what you Robert like infected everything or something like that, you know what I mean? Okay. Are we having a zombie ghost now? Yes, we are So the house was sold to Myrtle Ruther and When she discovered Robert the doll She decided to keep him bruh

Yep, you buy a house The only thing in there is a creepy ass doll. You're like, yeah, let me keep it That's crazy goes in the trash But yeah, so she became Robert's new companion and she kept him. And when she moved to, eventually Myrtle moved to Finster Street six years later in 1994. That's 20 years after she lived with Robert.

And then she eventually donated Robert the doll to the Margaret Stife Museum. No. Oh, wait. It's not in Germany. It's in Florida. So Robert the doll. Are you good? Yeah, no, I'm just I'm waiting for you to say but I'm also thinking I'm like how does Margaret Stife tie in? Well, because her company was the one that made Robert the doll Okay, but like other than that it's not like No, other than that there's no known about I don't bring Stife Company again Okay

Good theory though Anyway, yeah, okay, Anyway, she donated it to She donated it to um, four east martella museum In key west florida And Shortly after she donated well She donated it and she claimed that the doll would move around her house on his own and that it was haunted So she let this museum know it's's like, hey, here's an old doll that belonged to the Stife Company or like that was manufactured by

Stife Company. It's one of a kind. Also, it's haunted. Now Myrtle died a few months later after the donation of the doll. Some say that say that the people in the museum as soon as they found that it was haunted that they wanted to return it to her, but because she had passed away, they're like, oh, we're stuck with it. Yeah. Now Robert was donated and he wasn't actually intended to be on display at all.

He they just kept him like stored away, yeah. Until you know rumors started to spread about Robert and like the Otto family and visitors spread the word about his new residence at this museum. So sometimes people would come to the museum and they would be like, hey can we take a look at Robert? And they would take him out of storage to show them Robert. God. Eventually, the demand was too much to keep up, so they had to give him a, what do you call it? A display case, yeah.

They put him on exhibit. And this is when we start coming more into modern day. Okay. Because you can go visit Robert the doll, but cameras and electronics are some malfunction in his presence. And pretty soon letters began arriving addressed to the doll offering apologies for being disrespectful towards the doll. Now letters continue to arrive daily.

The museum staff say that even nowadays they receive one to three letters per day for Robert. Wow. Oh, yeah. That's a lot. Yeah, so ghost hunters, TV shows, psychics, skeptics, and like believers, all sorts of people visit Robert the doll on like a regular basis just to like witness firsthand like the strange stories that they've heard from Robert. Now, like I said, you can visit Robert in Key West Florida at this museum but there is eventually they had to put up guidelines. Like be nice. Yeah basically basically be respectful and ask permission to take

his photo. Now many don't like the warning. They believe it to be like a stupid rule or that it just doesn't apply to them. So those people that don't seek his permission often have trouble after they leave. And some say that, like Robert, like curses them because they were like disrespectful or they took pictures without his consent. So apology letters just flood the museum like apologizing to Robert. Someone said that at some point they thought that Robert liked candy so they started sending the apology letters with candy attached to it because apparently Robert likes candy.

So in addition, many people that go see Robert claim that they have seen him move in the case, sometimes even change his facial features to look like angry or like displeased. And some, yeah, and some visitors that will go like they're like at the exhibit, they're watching Robert the doll. And as they walk away, they hear on the case and when you turn around you see like the the hand on the glass like as if it was tapping on the case No way! Yeah, yeah. So people that insult Robert, that muck him, that are not respectful

they all have it's a series of unfortunate events that they go through. Because people have been diagnosed with rare exotic illnesses, they lose their jobs, or they even get in car accidents after being rude to Robert. So there is one story that a biker who went to see Robert, he of course didn't follow the guidelines, he just mocked Robert, said like, oh, what are you going to do? Like you're stuck behind a case, blah, blah, blah. And he died after visiting the Robert after visiting the museum. So something interesting as well is that the workers are not allowed to close the museum by themselves.

And that's because when they first did, they would close the museum by themselves. And that's because when they first did, they would close the museum by themselves. Either the lights would turn back on or the worker would get locked inside. Oh god. And I think there's nothing more horrifying that you get stuck inside your workplace. Yeah, I mean I'm just saying. Fair. So that's when they start implementing two of the workers to close the museum down because when the lights would turn on, they would turn on after the worker would leave and when the morning staff arrived they're like hey you guys didn't close like you left the lights on and they would get in trouble. So it's more of like two people to like vouch for each other. Can't handle combined requests.

Try creating a scene or making separate requests. Who is that? That's my Siri. Hey Siri. Anyway, there I have some letters for you that I'm going to read to you from people that have mailed them to Robert. Okay. So this one says, Dear Robert, I accidentally took footage of you. I am sorry. I should have asked for permission. I will delete the video ASAP. I hope you can forgive me. Gavin. Another one says, I don't know if my visit upset you as it was never meant to be.

Since my visit to Key West, I have experienced some very horrible events. I just hope that they are not connected in any way to my visit, but if they are, please accept my humblest apologies for anything that may have offended you during my time there. Tracy S. So there is a ton of letters and like I said they keep getting mailed. You know, daily. Yeah. I am sending them to their actual website and you can see that how many letters they actually have in there.

Let me see. see that how many letters they actually have in there. Because like I said, they get one, two, three apology letters per day. Wow. And as you, yeah, as you scroll down there's just more and more handwritten the whole shebang. That's crazy. Mm-hmm. That's crazy. So here's the theory of why Robert is haunted. So in 1900, there was a census and Emeline, the nanny, was said to have no children. Yeah. In 1900, she didn't have any children.

But by 1910, the records show that she had lost a child sometime in the previous decade. There's no details of the child's death, it just remains unknown, but one theory suggests that Emmeline, the nanny, she took her dying child to Dr. Otto's home because maybe he could help. Tragically the child passed away in his office near the front of the house. However, when the kid passed away he wasn't alone. Robert the dog was also in the room. So some believe the child spirit entered the doll. Now, Eugene Otto, you know, the way at the time he was also said to be present when the boy passed

away. And far from being just like a child playing with a doll, Eugene could like allegedly see the ghost and that's why he treated him like as a real kid. Because he could like see that it was a real kid. Yeah, it was the ghost of a kid. Yeah. Yeah. And that's why like as Eugene grew old, like, yeah, Eugene, Gene grew older, he would continue to care for the doll because it was like a bond. Like a real kid that used bondage. Now, psychics speculate that Emeline blamed Dr. Otto

for her child's death. And another theory is that she sought revenge by working with a local voodoo practitioner and together they allowed like, exactly practitioner and together they allowed like exactly and together they allowed like venal spirits to inhabit the doll and then she gave the doll to auto to auto to Jean as in order to like punish the family for firing her unfairly and for also letting her son die. Okay, yeah. Yeah, now back to the theories. No, like, it makes sense. We have the full story out, laid out.

But now in 2024, Robert the doll is permanently displayed at the Four East Martello Museum in Key West Florida. He has been on display since 1994. That's crazy. I think he's been on display before that, but in 1994 is when he was placed under the supervision of Key West Art and historical society for safekeeping. Good. I mean, now if you want to visit the doll nowadays, which maybe if I'm in Florida, I would be down. Just be respectful. Don't take pictures, but I'll just maybe sort of skeptic-ish in a way, but like, I don't know if I want to mess with that.

I mean, I'm not going to say anything. I'm just going to walk in, you know, don't take pictures and then walk out very respectfully. Now, as of November... Is there a haunted doll in your room? I technically have two. I really haven't had any experiences with them other than like my niece. One time I showed them to her and she was like, Stabby. And I'm like, what? And then she and I was like, did you say Stabby? And she's like, no, I was like, what did you say? She's like, no, like she just didn't like

them. Oh, nothing's happened to be honest. Yeah, I hope to keep it uneventful. I hope you do too. Thank you. I will blame you if it doesn't uneventful. Do not blame me. I will blame myself because I'm the one that purchased them. Now as of November of 2024, general admission to the museum, it's $15.50. admission to the museum it's $15.50. So really affordable. Now they also offer night tours for $45. Now I would be so tempted to try this but I don't know. It depends on how I feel when I get there. I don't know. So the $45 for the night tour include a 30 minute guided ghost through Fort East Mortello, and then a 30 minute seated lockdown with Robert the doll.

No. No, I'm good. No. No. I'm good. Okay. They also offer a VIP ticket for $85. Which includes those two things, but it also includes a

one hour ghost hunting. You know. And then also a free next day admission to the museum as well. I'm good. You'll pass on the free next day admission to the museum as well. I'm good. You'll pass on the 30 minute session with Robert. I'll pass on the back shot, yes. Fair. But yeah, that is Robert the doll.

The most, one of the most haunted artifacts known to humans. Okay. So I didn't, I completely blanked on like the name but looking at the picture I was like okay yeah I recognize this doll I don't know anything about it though. Fair so you've like seen the doll you just didn't know anything about it. Yeah. Fair. Yeah. And Jay's gone for some reason. I'm all alone guys. I'm scared. I'm scared. Um, how do I make conversation with myself? I don't know.

Would you guys, would you guys go see Robert the doll? Would you do the like, the Sit down with him in a locked room for half an hour. Oh not like no offense Robert the doll. Um But I just I you know, you're a great guy and all But I think I think I'm good, you know, I don't know if I want to Take a trip out to Florida for that. So... Hi, Fro. Welcome back. Hi, thank you. Can you hear me?

Yes. Okay. I'm pretty sure I froze at some point. You did. We were literally talking and you just like disappeared Yeah, everything on my side just froze and I was like crazy, please don't please don't we're so close Okay, yeah, that's Robert the doll that's Robert the doll And that is all I have for y'all Thank you. So you wouldn't visit Robert the Tall? No.

Got it. I was feeling some of the the time when you were gone and I was just saying like how I would not want to. Got it. I'm okay. Um, Yeah, I'm good on that. Oh, yeah. a fun story. Yeah. This is as fun as it can get. I know, I usually have a little bit more of a fun, quirky one. As fun as haunted, like, murderous dolls, I guess. Yeah, I mean, no one was ever, at least on record, possessed or anything like that thrown across the room. This is true. This is true. It's more like- He never actually got physical or anything except for like the like abuse I guess.

Yeah. Toward Gene when they were- when he was a kid. But yeah. Robert the doll y'all. Would you visit it listeners? Yeah. Have you visited? Did you know about Robert the doll? Have you ever been disrespectful towards Robert the doll and there's lots of like series out there is That like if you look at the picture of Robert the doll you should apologize as well because you looked at it without permission

But people that look at the picture don't really have any issues with it Robert. I'm sorry. I also apologize just to be safe. Okay, but now I'm like, do I go back onto the site and look at him and apologize while I'm looking at the picture? I don't know. Some videos have had like a black line over their eyes just for like safety. I'm sorry for violating your privacy without your consent, Robert. You had no knowledge. I didn't mean to do so. I'm so sorry.

I mean that. It's okay. I also don't like pictures just like being taken of me and shared and people looking at them. So like I get it. Fair. You're like, I can relate Fair. You're like I can relate Robert. Yeah, I can relate. I'm sorry. Robert's just trying to live his life. In a glass case. In a glass case.

There is a picture of like Robert the doll in the case and then like because it's a transparent case like in the back you can see just a bunch of letters on the wall. So. When we post for like this are you gonna put a picture of Robert the doll do you not want me to well cuz it's just gonna like show up on people's feet and they'll have like no choice but to look at Robert the dog but this isn't like the ring. It's now like... This is true. I mean, I guess, you know...

Just apologize after, listeners. For the people that are like hardcore believers and all that on Robert, I will post the picture that has Robert with the black line over his eyes. That's a good compromise. There we go. Just, yeah. Yeah, I will not... And I will put a black line over his eyes and all the pictures If you want to look him up that's up to you

But yeah, and I'm also I think when you saw the link with the letters There's no picture of Robert in that link So I'll put that link on the website as well so people can read the letters and be like, oh Sounds good But yeah, that is all for tonight, at least for me. Yeah. I mean, I think we're, I think we're. I think we're done.

Yeah. Episode 22, 22, 22. Let us know what you thought, what you thunk. We're almost at two dozen. Wow. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Time flies. Really does. We're almost at the end of the year. That is true. We started this at the start of the year. We did. Which means we're

almost at our year anniversary. We'll have to figure out what to do for that. I mean, should we do a special year anniversary or should we do a 13 month anniversary episode? I don't see why we can't do both. This is true. This is true. I'm just gonna put a questionnaire out there for the listeners. What you guys want us to do, what cases you think we might cover, what you know. Or what you want us to do, what cases you think we might cover, or what you want us to do. Do you want us

to celebrate with funny hats on or I don't know? Festive cases. Should we get cake or something? A cake with Jeff the mongoose on it like or like case with like a cake with like Mothman and they're like I think that'd be cool I'm pretty sure we could find some I know a bigger she was a baker or I know a baker she was on the you know that like baking show like on the food channel the The great British baker? I don't think it was the British one. Probably not the British one. Yeah she was on the Halloween one. She was on like the...

That's cool. The holiday one. Yeah I still I think I follow her on Instagram so like if y'all want us to do like a paranormal cake like or like a murder cake like let us know let us know let us know ahead of time like please like now you know this video has popped into your head as you're listening to this do it like yeah i don't know because we need time for planning yes we do we also need time to sleep, I think. Yeah, we are recording kind of late tonight. And we got work tomorrow. Good night, y'all.

Thanks for being here. Episode 22 of Chambers of the Occult. That was kind of cool. Do you want to wrap this up? Yeah. Stay curious. Stay safe. And what's the key word?

The magic word? Do you want to wrap this up? Yeah. Stay curious, stay safe. And what's the key word? The magic word? Smurfs! Ahhhhh! Goodbye! Bye! Thanks for listening to

Chambers of the Occult. For photos, sources, and anything else mentioned during the episode, check out our website at chambersoftheoccult.com. You'll find everything you need there if you do find yourself wanting more. You can also follow us on all of our socials at Chambers of the Occult and on Twitter at COTOPodcast. If you have any questions, comments, recommendations, personal anecdotes, or concerns, let us know. Fill

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