Haunted Doll: Annabelle

This past summer the film The Conjuring highlighted at the very beginning a case Ed and Lorraine Warren helped with in the early 1970s. 

This case involved a very scary demonic doll that was given as an innocent gift from a loving mother to a daughter who she was very proud of. The Warrens first told this story in their book entitled, The Demonologist.

This case is considered the strangest incidence of a possessed object ever recorded. A mother finding a large antique Raggedy Ann doll bought it for her daughter.

 Donna was a college senior who was preparing to graduate. She lived with her roommate Angie in a small apartment near campus. She was grateful for her mother’s gift but being busy she propped the doll on her bed as a decoration and promptly forgot about it.

She didn't ignore it for long, within a few short days both women noticed that there was something odd about the doll. It seemed to move ever so slightly. They at first put this off to their imagination. But when the doll started to change positions they became curious. 

Donna was startled one day to discover the doll was standing upright with its legs crossed against a chair. The two students were now officially freaked out.

The doll started to move from room to room. One afternoon as Donna returned home from school she found the doll in her bedroom but she had left the soft doll that morning in the apartments’ living room. Now the two young women were downright scared. 

Notes started to appear. They were written in pencil in what appeared to be a childish hand. The paper was old-fashioned parchment paper, which neither roommate had in the apartment.

The notes read, “Help us” and “Help Lou.” Donna had the awful thought that maybe the doll had written them.

Things quickly went from bad to worse when Donna found once more that the doll had changed rooms but this time when she picked it up she found something that caused her nightmares. The doll was covered on its chest and back in a red liquid that appeared to be blood. 

The students now knew that they needed help. They called in a medium.

This medium held a séance in their apartment. She told them that a spirit of a little girl had taken up residence in the doll. She said her name was Annabelle Higgins and that she had been murdered. Her body had been found in the area were their apartment building now stood. 

The medium told them that this spirit expressed a wish to stay. Donna now feeling sorry stated that she could stay. Later she found that this was a big mistake.

Soon afterwards this entity started to show its true nature. Lou a male friend of Donna’s and Angie’s felt that something was not right with the doll. Later, he and the women told the Warrens what happened next. 

Lou staying over one night in the apartment was awakened from a bad dream. He was confused for he found he could not move. Looking toward his feet he saw something that terrified him.

“The doll slowly began to glide up his leg, it moved across his chest and then stopped.” Within seconds the doll was choking him. Still unable to move he gasped for breath and then blacked out. 

He awoke the next morning with the terrible realization that what he had experienced was not a dream. He became determined to convince Donna that they must get rid of the doll.

She agreed, but before he could do this he had one final encounter. He and Angie were planning a road trip to celebrate their graduation when they heard strange noises coming from Donna’s empty bedroom. 

Feeling that it might be an intruder Lou quietly headed to the room. As he entered he flipped on the light, everything seemed to be in its place. He spotted the doll on the floor in the corner of the bedroom.

As he approached the doll he felt someone come up behind him. The next thing he knew he was doubled over holding his chest in pain. Blood was seeping from his shirt. He and Angie opened it to discover seven claw marks on his skin, three going down, two going across. These scratches disappeared the next day.

Donna now knowing that this spirit was not docile called in a priest. He referred her to the Warrens. 

They explained to the three students that the doll itself was not possessed. But rather was being manipulated by an inhuman--demonic presence. They went on to explain that demons can attach to a place or object---a more benign spirit cannot possess inanimate objects. 

The demon had used the doll and the medium to emotionally manipulate the females pretending to be harmless.

The Warrens also told them if this demon had been allowed to continue that it most likely would have completely possessed or even killed one or more of them. An exorcism was performed on this doll and the Warrens then took it home and placed it in their collection so it could do no further damage. 

Ed has passed but Lorraine states that even today this Raggedy Ann doll still occasionally moves and makes growling noises. It is kept locked in a glass cabinet.