It is believed that a
Romanian Gypsy made this doll by hand for his son, named Letta. This boy often
told his father that the doll, “talked to him.”
Sadly, this boy drowned while
playing with this doll. Afterward, it was believed his spirit then became
trapped in this toy.
In recent years the doll has
been dubbed “Letta Me Out” because of this belief.
People have stated
while they held this doll or even stood close by it caused them to feel
irrational grief. Others report they cried without apparent reason.
This doll has an odd, distorted
face. It is made of wood, with human hair, and glass eyes. The nails in its
shoes date back over 200 years.
Kerry Walton, an Australian,
has owned Letta for forty years. When he first brought the doll home, his
children woke up one night crying hysterically. They told their father the doll
talked to them and moved its head.
There are many
documented cases of people seeing this creepy doll move.
Letta the haunted doll.
Even dogs sense there is
something unusual about Letta. People have had to hold their pets back as they
try to attack and bite this doll.
Walton, who often travels
with the doll around Australia—to display it—claims that every time he
takes “Letta out’’ it rains.
I have shared other stories
about haunted dolls in other posts.
This doll created in 1740 was
used as a “plaything” in order to distract spirits while two men performed
exorcisms.
After these rituals were
performed many felt various spirits must have attached themselves to this this
doll during these rituals.
The reason for this belief is it changes its facial expressions.
Click to enlarge.
In 1888, this doll was given
to Cedric Argyle Brown in London. He and a friend, the Rev. Thomas Blythe used it while performing exorcisms, around the UK, at stately homes that were
haunted by ghosts.
The reverend was the first to
notice something odd. He felt it followed him with its eyes and
he noticed that it changed its expressions.
A friend of the two men
photographed the doll twice—the second picture taken twenty minutes after the
first. When he developed these plates he became spooked for the expression of
the doll in the second picture had changed. It was now smiling.
All the people who viewed
these two photos were amazed by the difference in the expressions on its face—the facial features had definitively changed.
Rumors began that the some of
the spirits that had been exorcized must possess the doll. It appeared they
were trapped—so it was now considered to be haunted.
In the late 1950s, Mr.
Brown’s grandson sold the doll to a dime store in America.
While it was displayed
here—old photos taken of the doll were displayed around it. A red line of tape
was placed on the floor.
Thousands of visitors stood
behind this tape and took photos of the “possessed doll.” In most instances its' expression changed in each picture taken.
Mouth is now open.
Click to enlarge.
Sometimes the doll looked
like a boy and in other photos it looked like a girl. It sometimes was smiling
and in other photos it appeared to be sad.
The doll made its way back to
the UK and was exhibited at the Museum of
Curios in Cornwall for 7 years—until 2007.
It again was photographed
thousands of times. It became the most popular exhibit at this museum. This doll is made of cloth
with glass eyes. It is nine inches long and because of its age it is in
delicate condition.
The word Pupa is Latin for
doll. Pupa is considered haunted, she was made to look like her future
owner in the 1920s. This was a common practice during this period. Pupa even
has hair that was taken from the little Italian girl who was to own her.
This trend is still done
today—minus using the owner’s hair—the American Doll line called Just Like You makes dolls to look like
their owners.
Pupal is 14 inches
tall and her head, arms and legs are all made of felt. She still wears her
original blue suit and has a large blue bow attached to her hair.
Here is the owner her baby
brother and her doll in
1928.
The little girl that was to
become this doll’s owner cherished Pupa so much she kept her close her entire
life. She eventually moved from Trieste, Italy to America.
The owner told her
grandchildren that her doll “had a mind of her own.” She confided that the doll
talked to her and that at one point Pupa even saved her life. The details of
this story have not been shared.
In 2005 when the doll’s owner
died, her family placed Pupa in a glass display case in order to preserve her.
However, the family reports this doll does not like her new home.
Shortly after being placed in
this case the family found it steamed up with a thick fog. They noticed what
appeared to be a child’s fingertip pressed into the glass and the words, “Pupa
hate” written on the glass.
They have observed that if
items Pupa does not like are placed to close to her she pushes them away.
The family states that this doll has
moved on several occasions. They have heard what sounds like tapping on the case
only to find Pupa’s hand pressed against the glass.
Pupa
At other times they have
found the doll’s legs crossed when she was not left in this position. They also
state her facial features change expression.
This is similar to two other
haunted dolls: Mandy and Robert which stories are told here and here.
Creepiest of all, was one
member of the family watched as Pupa got up and walked around the glass case.
He videotaped this but when he went to upload this video—it was masked in a thick white fog and the words, “Pupa no” appeared.
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.
Can a single object be haunted or is it just places that are haunted? This is a question that is yet to be answered. The story that follows was told to me several years ago during a chance meeting I had at a professional conference I was attending. Let me preface this story with this statement--I believed the person who told me this story was sincere.
I first encountered a haunted object when a life size doll was given to one of my older sisters. This sister was very ill with scarlet fever and literally missed an entire year of school. My father, who traveled a lot for his work brought a special doll home and presented it to my sister to cheer her up. He explained it was a beloved doll of a friends’ daughter who had outgrown it.
My father was quite the storyteller and one of his favorite stories, at this time, was that late one evening when he visited my sister he forgot that the doll he had given her always sat in the window seat facing the room. He spotted it as he entered the room and was startled for a moment forgetting that it was a doll. He retold this story several times to family and friends reliving the moment when he thought an unknown child was in my sisters’ room.
This doll was literally the same height as myself. It was so large that it didn’t lend itself to be handled or played with so it was just displayed. Hence during the short time my sister had it in her room it sat on the window seat and was not moved. Typical to dolls at that time this doll’s stiff plastic arms moved up and down, and you could twist its head from side to side.
I was a young child but I was not timid or easily frightened. I first observed that this doll appeared to be changing positions when I would visit my sisters’ bedside before I went to school and then when I returned home. It was subtle things at first. The head would be turned or one arm would be down when both were usually outstretched. When I mentioned this to my sister she shrugged and said the doll probably had been bumped.
My bedroom was across the hall from my sisters and several nights in a row I was woken up by the sounds of something stumbling around in my sisters’ room. Finally wondering why my sister was out of bed when she wasn’t supposed to be I entered her room on the third night to find my sister asleep and the doll face down on the floor. Scared, the next morning I told what I had heard and seen to my mother and sister but they laughed and stated that the doll most likely had just fallen. It was several weeks later when my mother also started to show concern when the doll started to shift to the other side of the window seat and back. It was shortly after this that the doll was no longer in my sisters’ bedroom; in fact, I never saw the doll again.
As the years past, my parents never mentioned the doll. As a teenager I brought up the subject of the doll one day to my mother, she hesitated and then replied that at that age I must have had an overactive imagination. This was a curious response since I still remember the day before the doll disappeared the worry I saw on her face when she admitted to my sister and I that the doll appeared to be moving…
