I read up on this story (was linked to that "The Conjuring" movie
~ANNABELLE~
THE CURSE OF THE DEVIL DOLL
HOUSED IN THE WARRENS OCCULT MUSEUM
In
1970 a mother purchased an antique Raggedy Ann Doll from a hobby store.
The doll was a present for her daughter Donna on her birthday. Donna,
at the time, was a student in college, preparing to graduate with her
nursing degree and resided in a tiny apartment with her room mate Anngie
(a nurse as well). Pleased with the doll Donna placed it on her bed as a
decoration and didn't give it a second thought until a few days later.
With in that time both Donna and Angie noticed that there appeared to be
something very strange and creepy about the doll. The doll apparently
moved on its own, relatively unnoticeable movements at first, like a
change in position, but as time passed the movement became more
noticeable. Donna and Angie would come home to find the doll in a
completely different room from which they had left it . Sometimes the
doll would be found crossed legged on the couch with its arms folded ,
other times it was found upright, standing on its feet, leaning against a
chair in the dining room. Several times Donna, placing the doll on the
couch before leaving for work, would return home to find the doll back
in her room on the bed with the door closed.
The Messages
Annabelle
the doll not only moved but could write too. About a month into their
experiences Donna and Angie began to find penciled messages on parchment
paper that read "Help Us" and "Help Lou". The hand writing looked to
belong to that of a small child. The creepy part about the messages was
not the wording but the way they were written. At the time Donna had
never kept parchment paper, on which the notes were written, in the
house, so where did it come from?
The Medium
One
night Donna came home to find the doll had moved again, this time it
was on her bed. Donna had come to find that this was typical of the doll
but some how she knew this time it was different, something wasn't
right. A sense of fear came over her when she inspected the doll and saw
what looked like blood drops on the back of its hands and its chest.
Seemingly, from no where, a liquidy red substance had appeared on the
doll. Scared and desperate Donna and Angie decide it was time to seek
expert advice.
Not
knowing where to turn they contacted a medium and a seance was held.
Donna was then introduced to the spirit of Annabelle Higgins. The medium
related the story of Annabelle to both Donna and Angie. Annabelle was a
young girl that resided on the property before the apartments were
built, they were "happy times". She was a young girl of only seven years
old when her lifeless body was found in the field upon which the
apartment complex now stands.
The
spirit related to the medium that she felt comfort with Donna and Angie
and wanted to stay with them and be loved. Feeling compassion for
Annabell and her story Donna gave her permission to inhibit the doll and
stay with them. They were to soon find out however, that Annabelle was
not what she
appeared to be. This was no ordinary case and definitely no ordinary doll.
Lou's Account
Lou
was friends with Donna and Angie and had been with them since the day
the doll arrived. Lou had never been fond of the doll and on several
occasions warned Donna that it was evil and to get rid it of it. Donna
had a compassionate tie to the doll and not giving much credence to
Lou's' feelings kept it. Donnas' decision, it turns out, was a terrible
mistake.
Lou
awoke one night from a deep sleep and in panic. Once again he had a
reoccurring bad dream. Only this time somehow, something seemed
different. It was as though he was awake but couldn't move. He looked
around the room but couldn't discern anything out of the ordinary and
then it happened. Looking down toward his feet he saw the doll,
Annabelle. It began to slowly glide up his leg, moved over his chest and
then stopped. Within seconds the doll was strangling him. Paralyzed and
gasping for breath Lou, at the point of asphyxiation, blacked out. Lou
awoke the next morning, certain it wasn't a dream, Lou was determined to
rid himself of that doll and the spirit that possessed it. Lou,
however, would have one more terrifying experience with Annabelle.
Preparing
for a road trip the next day Lou and Angie were reading over maps alone
in her apartment. The apartment seemed eerily quiet. Suddenly, rustling
sounds coming from Donnas room aroused fear that someone had possibly
broken into the apartment. Lou determined to figure out who or what it
was quietly made his way to the bedroom door. He waited for the noises
to stop before entering and turning on the light. The room was empty
except for Annabelle whom was tossed on the floor in the corner.
Lou
scoured the room for forced entry but nothing was out of place. But as
he got close to the doll he got the distinct impression that somebody
was behind him. Spinning around he was quick to realize that nobody else
was there. Then in flash he found himself grabbing for his chest,
doubled over, cut and bleeding. His shirt was stained with blood and
upon opening his shirt there on his chest was what looked to be 7
distinct claw marks, three vertically and four horizontally, all were
hot like burns. These scratches healed almost immediately, half gone the
next day, fully gone by day two.
Paranormal Investigation: The Warrens
Donna
finally was willing to believe the spirit in the house was not that of a
young girl but inhuman and demonic in nature. After Lou's' experiences
Donna felt it was time to seek real expert advice and contacted an
Episcopal priest named Father Hegan. Father Hegan felt it was a
spiritual matter and felt he needed to contact a higher authority in the
church, so he contacted Father Cooke who immediately contacted the
Warrens.
Ed
and Lorraine Warren immediately took interest in the case and contacted
Donna concerning the doll. The Warrens, after speaking with Donna,
Angie, and Lou came to the immediate conclusion that the doll itself was
not in fact possessed but manipulated by an inhuman presence. Spirits
do not Possess inanimate objects like houses or toys, they posses
people. An inhuman spirit can attach itself to a place or object and
this is what occurred in the Annabelle case. This spirit manipulated the
doll and created the illusion of it being alive in order to get
recognition. Truly, the spirit was not looking to stay attached to the
doll, it was looking to posses a human host.
The
spirit or in this case an inhuman demonic spirit, was essentially in
the infestation stage of the phenomenon. It first began moving the doll
around the apartment by means of teleportation to arouse the occupants
curiosity in hopes that they would give it recognition.Then predictably
the mistake of bringing a medium into the apartment to communicate with
it. The inhuman spirit now able to communicate through the medium,
preyed on the girls emotional vulnerabilities by pretending to be a
rather harmless, lost young girl with which during the seance, was
allowed permission from Donna to haunt the apartment. Insofar as demonic
is a negative spirit, it then set about causing patently negative
phenomena to occur; it aroused fear through the weird movements of that
doll, it brought about the materialization of disturbing handwritten
notes, the symbolic drops of blood on the doll, and ultimately it even
attacked Lou leaving behind the symbolic mark of the beast. The next
stage of the infestation phenomenon would have been complete human
possession. Had these experiences lasted another 2 or 3 more weeks the
spirit would have completely possessed, if not harmed or killed one or
all of the occupants in the house.
At
the conclusion of the investigation the Warrens felt it appropriate to
have a recitation of an exorcism blessing by Father Cooke to cleanse the
apartment. "The Episcopal blessing of the home is a wordy, seven page
document that is distinctly positive in nature. Rather than specifically
expelling evil entities from the dwelling, the emphasis is instead
directed toward filling the home with the power of the positive and of
God." (Ed Warren). At Donna’s request, and as a further precaution
against the phenomena ever occurring in the home again, the Warrens took
the big rag doll along with them when they left.
The Conclusion
Father
Cooke although uncomfortable with his role as an exorcist agreed to
perform the seven page rite of exorcism a doctrine he receited
throughout the apartment at which point the Warrens were confident the
entity would no longer reside there. They agreed to take the rag doll
back home with them. Upon leaving Ed placed the doll in the back seat
and agreed he would not take the interstate in the event the inhuman
spirit still resided with the doll.
His
suspicions were all to correct in no time the Warrens felt themselves
as a the object of a vicious hatred. Then at each dangerous curve the
car swerved and stalled with every corner causing the power steering and
brakes to fail. Repeatedly the car verged on collision. Ed reached into
the back seat into his black bag and took out a vial of holy water and
doused the doll making the sign of the cross over it. The disturbances
stopped immediately and the Warren's arrived safely home.
After
the Warrens arrived home, Ed sat the doll in a chair next to his desk.
The doll levitated a number of times in the beginning, then it seemed to
fall inert. During the ensuing weeks, however, it began showing up in
various rooms of the house. When the Warrens were away and had the doll
locked up in the outer office building, they would often return to find
it sitting comfortably upstairs in Ed’s easy chair when they opened the
main front door. The doll also showed a hatred for clergymen who came to
the house.
In
one instance FatherJason Bradford a catholic exorcist came to the
house. Upon seeing the doll seated in the chair he picked it up and said
" Your just a ragdoll Annabelle, you can't hurt anyone", and tossed the
doll back in the chair at which point Ed exclaimed "That's one thing
you better not say." Upon leaving an hour later Lorraine pleaded to the
priest to please be careful driving and to call her when he arrived
home. Lorraine discerned tragedy for this young priest but he had to go
his way. A few hours later Father Jason called Lorraine and explained
that his brakes had failed as he entered a busy intersection. He was a
involved in a near fatal accident destroying his vehicle. This was just
one of many such events that occurred over the next few years.
The
Warrens had a special case built for Annabelle inside the Occult
Museum, where she resides to this day. Since the case was built
Annabelle no longer appeared to move but she is thought to be
responsible for the death of a young man who came to the museum on
motorcycle with his girlfriend. The young man after hearing Ed's account
of the doll, defiantly went up and began to bang on the case insisting
that if the doll can put scratches on people then he wanted to also be
scratched, Ed said to the young man "Son you need to leave" and put him
out of the building
On
the way home the young man and his girlfriend were laughing and making
fun of the doll when he lost control of his motorcycle and went head on
into a tree, the young man was killed instantly but his girlfriend
survived and was hospitalized for over a year. When asked what happened
the young woman explained that they were laughing about the doll when
they lost control of the motorcycle. Ed warns you do not challenge evil,
that no man is more powerful than Satan.