Robert the Doll | Ep. 62

Welcome to another episode of Believing the Bizarre.

This week, we tackle one of the most haunted dolls in the world – Robert the Doll. We discuss his origin story with Gene (and others, including family drama!), what happened with Myrtle Reuter, and what has transpired at the Key West museum the last 25 years. Spoiler alert – a lot of apology letters!

Also, Tyler personally met Robert back in 2017 and had a bit of bad luck himself.

Listen below!

What’s up Bizarros?  Child’s Play was a movie that brought sleepless nights for those that saw it.  But it’s just a movie.  Right?  Dolls can’t hurt us….or can they?

This week we dive into the story of Robert the Doll.

Robert is a 4 foot tall, 6 pound doll in a sailors suit, sitting back in a rocking chair, with a little toy dog on his lap.

He’s over 117 years old with tiny, black, beady eyes.

Robert’s hair is not human hair but most likely mohair, he is stuffed with a strawlike material and covered with felt.

While he seemed like just an innocent child’s toy, Rober the Doll was much more than, and he was anything but innocent. 

In 1904, Robert Eugene Otto got a life changing gift for his fourth birthday. 

It was created by the Steiff factor which is best known for creating what we know as the teddy bear.

Robert fell in love with the toy and even gave it his name, thereafter going by Gene.

He also gave the doll one of his own personal outfits – the infamous sailor outfit that Robert still wears to this day.

Gene treated his new doll like a best friend or brother. 

However, like most children Gene didn’t want to take responsibility for poor decisions, so when something went missing or would get broken in the house, Gene’s go-to phrase was, “Robert did it.”

Apparently, the first paranormal event of note that occurred with Robert happened early in Gene’s childhood.

He had set Robert in a chair before sleep, yet woke up to find him sitting on the end of his bed, staring directly at him.

Just a few moments later, the rest of the house was woken by loud crashes. Furniture was being thrown all around Gene’s room.

When Gene’s mother, Minnie, came in terrified, she saw the chaos and mess. However, Gene wasn’t throwing the furniture. He wasn’t even out of bed.

He had the blankets over him with Robert still sitting quietly at the end of the bed.

Instead of developing a healthy, and well deserved, fear of the doll, Gene became even more enamored with it.

He started talking to it. Which as a kid is pretty normal.  What isn’t normal is that his parents, Minnie and Thomas, could swear they heard it responding back to their son. 

Upon hearing the distinct different voice, they would open the door and find Gene on the floor speaking directly to Robert.

Sometimes they would hear Gene screaming at night and find Robert holding Gene down on the bed.

Similar to the furniture, they claimed that objects would fly across the room. Many of Gene’s other toys would often show up broken and severely mutilated.

When they would confront Gene he would tell them, “I didn’t do it – Robert did it.”

They also claimed to see the doll’s expression actually change. Eyes seemed to narrow. If he was ignored his face seemed to twist into anger ever so slightly.

The voices and objects moving persisted for years until eventually, Gene went off to art school. 

Gene eventually moved back to Key West, taking over his childhood home after his parents passed away, and became a well-known and respected artist in the community.

Gene decided to take the doll upstairs to the attic and prop him against the upstairs window.

Kids walking to school in the area started to take notice of Robert in the window of the home. They would get weird feelings and start saying that they saw the doll move.

When word got back to Gene, he decided to go up in the attic and see what was going on.

Weirdly enough, as he had left Robert propped against the window, he found him in a rocking chair instead.

Gene soon married, and his wife, Anne, wasn’t a big fan of Robert. As you can imagine, he actually really freaked her out.

While she was happy that Gene kept Robert up in the attic, it seemed it wasn’t quite far enough away for complete peace of mind.

She claimed that she would hear movement, footsteps, loud clashes, and even sinister giggling coming from upstairs.

Instead of acknowledging Anne’s fear and discomfort, he actually picked up right where he left off before he went to college and became closer to Robert.

Gene started furnishing the attic for Robert, creating and buy child-size furniture and toys. 

To make the attic even more appealing for Gene, he turned it into his studio – so he could continue his passion for painting with Robert sitting right by his side.

The obsessive nature got so intense that he even reverted back to his old mantra.

When Gene would say or do something that hurt Anne’s feelings or their relationship, he would simply say, “It wasn’t me. Robert did it.

This behavior continued until Gene’s passing in 1974.

After Anne’s passing in 1976 the home was bought by Myrtle Retuer, who’s daughter actually like Rober the Doll.

Eventually, Myrtle sold the house and moved around 1980, and things started taking a turn for the worse.

It became a common occurrence that Myrtle’s daughter would scream at night – waking Myrtle in terror.

Her daughter was convinced that Robert was trying to hurt her. She also told Myrtle that Robert would wander around the room at night.

Her breaking point came when she clearly caught him moving on his own. None of the renters nor had her daughter been around – and Robert was in a completely different location then where she had left him.

At this point, she decided to lock Robert in a room and was 100% certain he was haunted.

Naturally, she wanted to get rid of him and filled out the paperwork to officially donate him in 1994.

Less than three months after she donated him to the museum, Myrtle Reuter died.

After Robert arrived at the museum, paranormal activity increased at the museum.

The staff started noticing peculiar traits about Robert. He seemed to stare at them in a very unchildlike – non doll-like way.

Like he was very aware and conscious.

They were so convinced that Robert was moving the chair they placed in him that they made a mark near one of the chair’s legs to see if it would get any closer or further.

For a couple of years, Robert was kept in storage and could only be seen by appointment.

Apparently, museum employees were so freaked out by Robert that they would plead with customers to come back to see Robert on a day they weren’t working so they wouldn’t have to retrieve him.

Now, of course, Robert is a major tourist attraction for visitors in Key West.

What do you think Bizarro’s?  Is Robert the Doll possessed?  What could be possessing the doll? What does it want?

What do you think?