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The Paranormal Project Radio show, Gary, Your hosts Scott Allen and Christina Bowen.

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Hello, good evening, everybody.
Welcome back to The Paranormal Project.

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How are you Christina? Do you
have a good week? Had a great

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week it's been is he? Yeah? Yeah, we have a fun show.

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I don't want to spend a whole
lot of time chatting between you and

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I today because we have a great
guest. I really have been wanting to

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talk to David for quite a while. He is I get to the lack

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of a better word, the handler
for Robert the doll. And for those

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of you who haven't heard about Robert, you've been learning about him tonight and

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all the shenanigans that have been going
on with him. So welcome to the

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show. David Sloan, how are
you great? Thanks so Sarious, I'm

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doing great. Thanks, Thanks,
that's great. Thank you for coming on.

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I greatly appreciate it. How did
you get involved with Robert? I

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kind of feel like the universe kind
of put me around where he was.

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I came to Key West to start
ghost tours in nineteen ninety six, and

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I ended up I found an article
that said Anne Otto was honing the artist

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house, and nobody was talking about
ghosts in town at the time. So

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I knocked on the door and I
said, hey, I'm here to talk

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to you about your ghost. And
the guy said, oh, you want

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to hear about Robert. I said, no, I want to hear about

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Anne. He said, no,
you want to hear and he started telling

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me these stories about a haunted doll
and I thought he was absolutely crazy.

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But then he invited me up to
the attic where Robert the doll used to

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live, and it was still furnished
with Robert's little chairs and tables. Oh

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my gosh. And I've been in
a lot of atticts in my life,

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but I have never felt one like
this. I thought I was going to

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be physically ill. There was something
up there with us. It was insane,

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and I told him, thank you, I've got to go. And

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he told me that Robert was up
at this museum and that he wasn't on

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display, that he had to call
up if you wanted to see him.

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So I called the museum and after
after about a week of trying, there

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was someone who said, okay,
I'll show him to you. Nobody wanted

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to do it, and I went
up there, and I remember she came

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out and she was criddling the doll
and she was talking to him like a

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little kid, and I thought everybody
in this town is insane. She set

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him down so that I could take
photos, and almost immediately I had camera

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problems. Ok. I took some
basic photos, but then I wanted to

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get a picture of the doll with
his hat off. And if anybody hasn't

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seen Robert, he's the size of
a small child. You know, He's

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about four feet tall. He's stuffed
with straw, He's covered and felt,

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and termites have eaten away at his
face, so he looks like a burn

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victim. But when I saw him, I did not feel any presence around

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him. There was nothing. It
was just a plain old doll as far

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as I was concerned. But then
I reached to take his hat off of

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his head, his little sailor hat, and I tell you, the doll

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came alive. The energy of the
room changed, The look in Robert's eyes

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changed, the expression on his face
changed, which sounds really weird for a

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doll like that. And that's when
I tried to take the pictures so I

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could document the change, and the
camera would not function, and so I

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tried. I shot off three pictures. None of them worked. I could

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look at the camera. It shoots
the three pictures off in my direction.

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As I was turning it around to
look at it, and then I try

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another picture. It doesn't do it. I turn around to look. It

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shoots it again in my direction,
and then you could you could almost it

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was almost like you could hear chuckling
or laughter, and the doll had this

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this little laughter look on his face, and then that energy just disappeared,

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just like it had entered there.
And what I think it is, you

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know, the doll moving. I
don't think his facial expression is really changed.

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I think this one of the spirits
is near the doll, and maybe

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what I witnessed was that spirit coming
out of the doll or going into it,

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and it created that illusion of movement, because you could definitely feel the

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change. And I swear the look
in his eyes changed too. Do you

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feel there's more than when you said
spirits? Do you feel there's more than

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one that come and go through him? I believe there's multiple entities. What

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we believe right now is that there's
one main spirit, which is a child,

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a child who died at a young
age. It was the child of

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Emmeline Abbot, who was a nanny
to the Auto family. And we have

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census records that I uncovered that show
that she lost a child between nineteen hundred

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and nineteen ten when she lost.
One of the oldest legends about Robert is

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you know that he was given to
Gene by an angry nanny, and we

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know he was actually created by this
stife company. But Emmeline was the nanny

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for the autos for Eugene, and
I found in nineteen twenty four newspaper legal

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listing where she filed a lawsuit against
the estate of Jane's father, doctor Thomas

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Otto. So she was the angry
nanny without doubt connected to the family and

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the fact that she lost a child
because a lot of people sense that child

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energy an innocent child around Robert.
So then where's the other stuff come in?

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And that's what I grappled with for
years. It's like, wait,

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if this is a little child.
Little children don't follow people home and leave

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dead deer on their yard, or
cut off their toes with lawnmowers or strike

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them with lightning. You know almost
something Robert. Oh yeah, yeah,

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that and much much more. I
mean, he's received close to ten thousand

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apology letters. So it took a
while to make sense of it. And

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then it's done. Man, I'm
like, oh, we're not dealing with

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just one entity. There's others that
don't want that innocent child's story out there,

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and those are the darker ones,
and they thrive on the negativity people

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bring to the museum where Robert is, you know, the people who go

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looking for Chucky, the people who
look for an evil doll. These ones

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thrive on it. And the way
we believe it works. You know,

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they'll say you have to ask permission
to take a picture of Robert. I

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believe it's more. No, you
don't ask permission because that can be dangerous.

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You don't ask any entity for permission. You just be respectful. And

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that's what I find to be the
common theme with people who have misfortune from

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Robert. They've been disrespectful, and
it's that disrespect and then they go home

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or they leave and things happen.
Yeah, it's almost as if the child

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feels hurt. So the child it's
like they tag, they tag that person

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with like a sticky tar that sticks
to them, and then the other.

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The other entities come out of that
portal and latch on, and there's two

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main ones that we've identified. I
mean, they're like eight foot tall creatures

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and they seem to be the main
ones that people see, so they seem

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to latch onto the people and follow
them home. People have seen those around

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their houses after disrespecting Robert. But
there's others in there too, and that

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kind of explains how there can be
dozens or hundreds or even thousands of people

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who are experiencing a curse from Robert
at the same time. Yea, So

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are you frightened? I mean,
do you ever get weirded out or nervous

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or do you think you're in a
good place? You do? Oh yeah?

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And you know, it's it's been
a roller coaster relationship with the doll

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as I learned more and more,
and I'll get cocky a lot of times,

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you know, because I really try
to give the energy to the child

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and nurture the child, and sometimes
I think that I'm protected from the other

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stuff. And there's been three major
times that I've been reminded that that nobody's

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safe. So, you know,
so tell us, is it as bad

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as you hear? About I mean, obviously people getting their their toes run

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over is pretty bad. But yeah, the worst that I had it was

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when I started working on the book
about Robert, because we had uncovered all

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of this factual information about the Auto
family and the dolls origins, so we

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wanted to publish that. And when
I first writing the book, I lost

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four hard drives in the process.
And after the first one, you know,

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I have everything backing up, you
know, we're covered every single way,

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and I lost the fourth hard drive. And when I had all the

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all the data sent to me is
that recorded every keystroke on my computer.

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Everything was there except the book on
Robert the Doll. Oh my god.

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So it's stuff that stuff that I
can't explain away. And at first it

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was little things like with electricity,
uh and and you know, first lights

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going on off the house. And
then I remember I reached into a bowl

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of bike lights. You know,
everybody rides their bikes in Key West,

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and as I reached in to grab
one, the entire bowl turned on every

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light in there. And then it
went to where like I tapped my hand

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against the side of my truck,
you know, listening to music kind of

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hit it a bolt of electricity came
out of my fingers that almost dislocated my

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shoulder. It pushed my arm up
so hard, Oh my god Lord,

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And then the best wagon describe it. It felt like there was like a

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if somebody dropped a pizza dough over
your head. It was like there was

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a gray pizza do that was trying
to get into my brain. And I

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started sleeping behind the church. It
would attack me wherever I was. I

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was walking my dog and there was
a huge palm front you know in Key

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Wesk we're talking. These are like
ten or twelve feet long, and it

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had been raining, so it was
wet and heavy on the ground. This

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thing lifted up several feet in the
air and charged towards us and dropped at

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my feet. The dog ran away, kind of like yelping, you know,

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telescoping leash. I go back with
the dog. It lifted up and

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did the same thing a second time. So there was something very clearly letting

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me know what kind of power it
has and that it didn't like what I

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was doing? So why invite people
to come in and see it? You

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know? I mean, are you
afraid for people? Do you warn them

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when they come in. We warned
them, we get people rules beforehand.

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And I do feel like in my
case, I was under attack because of

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what I was trying to review about
the doll. And at this time I

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didn't understand there were multiple entities.
I couldn't understand why the child spirit didn't

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like that I was sharing that true
story, you know that we had found

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out about a child who was the
true spirit in there. You know.

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Most recently there was a shock doc
on Robert the Doll, and they sent

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a psychic down and she took it
a step further and said, ah,

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yeah, so Emmaline sought out a
voodoo practitioner when her child died because she

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wanted to seek revenge on the father, you know, the doctor, for

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not saving her child. And they
said that this voodoo practitioner opened up a

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portal inside of the doll. So
I was dealing with multiple things there.

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I ended up I put out a
plea on Facebook because I was yanked out

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of my bed. I yanked up
and out of my bed, which sounds

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insane. It sounds absolutely insane.
And so I put out a plea on

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Facebook and I said, I said, I desperately need help. I'm under

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attack from a spirit I can't handle. If you can't help me, do

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not comment. I'm dead serious.
And somebody put me in touch with local

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Santa Rea priest and a couple of
weeks later him and some of his family

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from Miami, they came and did
what they call a mesa, a spiritual

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which is basically a spirit mass.
It's century is an African religion that came

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over with slaves through Cuba and then
mixed with Catholicism to disguise their gods,

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but it's tied to the African religion. And they did a ceremony that lasted

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several hours and removed multiple spirits that
were attacking me. That's frightening. Yeah,

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yeah, it was terrifying, But
I don't feel like most people who

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go into the fort are going to
experience that. You know, I was.

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I was really shaking things up by
digging so deep into this and extracting

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this information because you have to understand
the negative energy. You probably do understand

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the negative energies. They thrive on
negativity, and I was putting that at

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risk. So do you feel like
I mean, you know, we talked

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about when they go into the ford, but what about what about like this.

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You're doing an interview and someone chimes
in and they're disrespectful. Do you

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think being disrespectful here in this forum
is dangerous? I'm not sure what I'm

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going to do that, by the
way, but you know, I'm not

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sure what to think about it.
You know, Robert was featured on the

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Sam and Colby YouTube channel earlier this
year, and they have a huge following

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with a younger demographic, and you
know, they they said, you know,

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we're warning you before we put this
up, don't look into Robert's eyes.

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And I received over the over the
next several weeks, we received calls

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and emails people who were feeling physically
ill and manifesting pro problems after looking at

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the doll. Now, how much
of that was Robert and how much of

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that is a thought that was planted
in their head? I can't answer that,

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but I can tell you that most
of the people who experience a curse

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around him, it's not just from
looking at a picture of him on the

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internet. It's not from anything like
that. It's people who are there in

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person disrespecting him. And that's what
I believe. But you know, his

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more and more people come to see
him. Is that making the spirit stronger?

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That's certainly something to consider. Is
that a thing? Don't look into

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his eyes? Is that a thing? Or is that just something that they

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said? You know, more people
seem to be having issues with it.

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But you know, the rules with
Robert, I think the only rule that

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you can really say is be respectful. You know the one spread about you

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have to ask permission to take a
photo. And I always thought that was

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stupid because come on, how's he
going to say yes or no or tell

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you if he's given you permission?
Right? You know, this one all

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stemmed from he used to drink,
well, he still does. He drains

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batteries, but batteries used to be
in cameras, you know, before everybody

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had their cell phones, so it
was really pacemakers and cameras having problems,

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and more people had cameras than pacemakers. So the story starts going around,

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Oh, Robert messes with cameras all
the time. And so with those stories,

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somebody said, well, we should
probably ask him for permission to take

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his picture of that, And then
that just kind of took on a life

207
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of its own and snowballed. And
it's even it's even written on the on

208
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the wall at the fort. You
know, they've got a sign that says,

209
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remember you must ask Robert for permission. You know, as as someone

210
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involved in the paranormal, I don't
like. I don't think it's good because

211
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it does open up the possibility you're
going to put yourself below them, you

212
00:16:59,440 --> 00:17:02,039
know, Oh, can I do
that? Yeah? Can I do that?

213
00:17:02,440 --> 00:17:06,960
So I think you open yourself up
to inviting them in a little more

214
00:17:07,079 --> 00:17:11,240
when you ask permission. That makes
sense, that makes sense. But being

215
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respectful and you know, I don't
know. I mean my own question is,

216
00:17:15,359 --> 00:17:18,839
you know, if it's something that's
dark anyway, do they really care

217
00:17:18,880 --> 00:17:22,880
about respect I mean, is that
going to appease them if you're respectful or

218
00:17:22,880 --> 00:17:25,880
are they just looking to do harm? You know? It seems to me

219
00:17:26,039 --> 00:17:29,839
like the child is like the gatekeeper
there, and it's if the child's having

220
00:17:29,880 --> 00:17:33,440
issues, then then you know,
then then the other problems happen. So

221
00:17:36,599 --> 00:17:45,319
I think we've upset the hounds from
hell. It's the were wolf. What

222
00:17:45,400 --> 00:17:48,680
kind of dog you have? You
have a pops obviously at least no,

223
00:17:48,839 --> 00:17:52,599
it's that's just one. He's a
hound. Oh I just oh my gosh,

224
00:17:52,680 --> 00:17:55,799
yeah, yeah, yeah, he's
a he's a he's a big old

225
00:17:55,839 --> 00:17:59,799
hand. And that wasn't Robert that
just ran behind you, right, just

226
00:18:00,599 --> 00:18:04,400
you know it very it very well
could have been. It's it's like maybe

227
00:18:04,799 --> 00:18:08,440
maybe maybe when you asked that the
spirits can come through to wherever we are,

228
00:18:10,119 --> 00:18:14,480
maybe maybe they were showing their true
colors. Maybe maybe, Oh my

229
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gosh, I don't know. It's
frightening though. I mean, you know,

230
00:18:18,160 --> 00:18:19,359
when I think of the Annabelle doll, I mean, and I don't

231
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know how much you know about annabel
do you do you do you think of

232
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any similarities and in how they how
they affect people. I think I think

233
00:18:30,640 --> 00:18:36,160
with haunted dolls today, there are
a lot. You know, Robert's really

234
00:18:36,920 --> 00:18:44,400
the original haunted doll. And then
of course you had the the Twilight Zone

235
00:18:44,440 --> 00:18:49,880
episode the Living Dolls where they had
talking Tina and I wonder if if she

236
00:18:49,960 --> 00:18:55,680
helped inspire annabel a little bit.
The mom's name in that episode was was

237
00:18:55,680 --> 00:19:02,319
Annabelle, and you had and that
came out at about four years before the

238
00:19:02,359 --> 00:19:07,079
annabel Does. But you know,
but that name could have you know,

239
00:19:07,119 --> 00:19:11,079
that name could have just come into
that area because of things like that,

240
00:19:11,799 --> 00:19:19,400
right, But but Annabel's fascinating because
there are certainly people who have experienced strange

241
00:19:19,960 --> 00:19:25,640
phenomena around Annabel, but with her
being in the museum, that really has

242
00:19:25,720 --> 00:19:27,759
limited access right now. You know, it's not like anybody can go see

243
00:19:27,799 --> 00:19:32,480
Annabel. People can go see Robert. So you can count on one hand

244
00:19:32,519 --> 00:19:36,480
the number of people who have been
cursed by Annabel, where if you want

245
00:19:36,519 --> 00:19:40,319
to do that with Robert, you're
going to need thousands of hands. Yeah,

246
00:19:40,400 --> 00:19:44,759
so I think so. I think
there are parallels, but but there's

247
00:19:44,799 --> 00:19:49,000
big differences too. Is there an
issue with touching him? Because I thought

248
00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:52,400
I saw a picture and that now
I can't remember if it was you or

249
00:19:52,440 --> 00:19:55,559
not actually holding him? I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've

250
00:19:55,559 --> 00:19:57,359
held him before, you have held
him. Is there an issue with that?

251
00:19:57,440 --> 00:20:03,119
Do you think? I mean,
I didn't find any issues with it,

252
00:20:03,240 --> 00:20:06,640
you know now today the big issue
is he's fragile. He's one hundred

253
00:20:06,680 --> 00:20:11,039
and nineteen years old, of course, so you know, the less he's

254
00:20:11,039 --> 00:20:15,839
handled the better, which is why
he's kept behind the protective glass. And

255
00:20:15,920 --> 00:20:18,279
you know, so that that whole
box that he is in that's alarmed,

256
00:20:18,319 --> 00:20:22,920
and that has the different humidity controls
and all the things necessary to make sure

257
00:20:23,519 --> 00:20:29,240
that he lasts a long time.
And you know, he's traveled a few

258
00:20:29,240 --> 00:20:34,119
times in his life, but he
really doesn't travel anymore just because, of

259
00:20:34,160 --> 00:20:40,759
course with his increased popularity too,
there's there's security issues with that, but

260
00:20:41,599 --> 00:20:45,160
also just moving him, it's every
time you movement, what's the dollar risk?

261
00:20:45,680 --> 00:20:51,960
And because the museum Roberts owned by
the Key West Art and Historical Society,

262
00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:56,039
which is the oldest non profit museum
or organization in Key West, and

263
00:20:56,079 --> 00:21:00,960
they're great. So what they do
though, is they protect as an artifact

264
00:21:00,559 --> 00:21:06,759
and they obviously know about the paranormal
side of things. And I'd been researching

265
00:21:06,839 --> 00:21:10,599
Robert before he was on display and
found out a lot. So I've worked

266
00:21:10,599 --> 00:21:15,240
in conjunction with the Art Historical Society. You know, my business does ghost

267
00:21:15,240 --> 00:21:18,200
tours and things like that, but
so so I do the paranormal side of

268
00:21:18,200 --> 00:21:22,119
things with Robert, and they take
care of him as an artifact, and

269
00:21:22,160 --> 00:21:26,680
they try to make the museum accessible
to everybody who wants to experience the doll.

270
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Do they have other things like that
in their museum or is it just

271
00:21:30,319 --> 00:21:37,160
is he kind of the one paranormal
thing. There's a lot of really incredible

272
00:21:37,200 --> 00:21:41,359
stuff. One of my favorite artifacts
is the is the tombstone of Elena Hoyos,

273
00:21:41,759 --> 00:21:45,839
and she's the one that an X
ray technician in Key West who was

274
00:21:45,920 --> 00:21:49,880
much older, fell in love with. She didn't want to be with him.

275
00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:56,200
She was she had she had consumption. But I think he murdered her.

276
00:21:56,319 --> 00:21:59,519
I think he poisoned her so she'd
die a little quicker, and then

277
00:21:59,559 --> 00:22:02,880
he removed her from the grave,
rebuilt her body, and lived with her

278
00:22:03,079 --> 00:22:08,480
for seven years, so her tombstone. When he was they found him not

279
00:22:08,480 --> 00:22:12,039
guilty, and when he left town, he blew up the tomb that he

280
00:22:12,079 --> 00:22:18,720
had built for her, and the
museum has her original tombstone from there,

281
00:22:18,920 --> 00:22:26,079
which is pretty incredible. But they
also have I mean, it's an old

282
00:22:26,160 --> 00:22:32,960
Civil War for it was built on
a native burial ground. It was it

283
00:22:33,119 --> 00:22:37,599
never saw active battle. It was
a union for it, but it was

284
00:22:37,720 --> 00:22:41,759
used as a yellow fever hospital,
so you had a lot of death from

285
00:22:41,920 --> 00:22:48,079
disease in there, and that's a
large number of the spirits you'll find are

286
00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:56,319
Civil War soldiers. But it's also
a collection of Key West artifacts. It's

287
00:22:56,400 --> 00:23:00,079
the first museum in Key West,
so this is when the locals were donating

288
00:23:00,119 --> 00:23:03,480
their cool stuff. So there's you
know, there's Native American dugout canoes,

289
00:23:03,680 --> 00:23:11,240
there's old Spanish treasure chests, there's
rafts, the refugee rafts from Cuba that

290
00:23:11,319 --> 00:23:15,359
people lost their lives on. So
you have all these fascinating artifacts that have

291
00:23:15,480 --> 00:23:19,880
these energies and we don't know were
those energies there when they arrived or is

292
00:23:19,880 --> 00:23:26,240
it other spirits that fill in around
them. But it's one of USA today,

293
00:23:26,720 --> 00:23:27,720
I think for the last four years
in her own named it one of

294
00:23:27,759 --> 00:23:33,920
the ten most haunted locations in the
United States. Really, Now, do

295
00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:40,400
you investigate the museum or is that
just we do? We do ghost tours

296
00:23:40,400 --> 00:23:44,640
there every night and people can do
the regular guided tour and then if they

297
00:23:44,680 --> 00:23:47,200
want, they can add on an
extra hour where we give them all the

298
00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:51,200
cool ghost honey equipment and they get
to they get to go around and do

299
00:23:51,240 --> 00:23:55,880
their own investigation. Wow, I
bet you. With that kind of energy

300
00:23:55,920 --> 00:23:59,920
in there, though, it must
be incredible. It's it's truly insane,

301
00:24:00,079 --> 00:24:03,519
And you know, I think some
people are tuned into the spirits and some

302
00:24:03,599 --> 00:24:07,319
are not. But it's one of
the most active places that I've been,

303
00:24:07,759 --> 00:24:11,240
and people regularly come out. A
lot of people get the same name,

304
00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:15,279
you know that with the spirit boxes, they we'll get the same name again

305
00:24:15,440 --> 00:24:22,839
and again and again. Something really
interesting. There was a soldier named Charles

306
00:24:22,960 --> 00:24:30,400
Knoll and he was killed in Key
West by friendly fire during the Civil War.

307
00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:36,279
He was collecting seashells on the beach
and he was shot. He was

308
00:24:36,359 --> 00:24:40,680
he was part of the Pennsylvania forty
seventh Regiment Regiment and he was killed by

309
00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:44,160
somebody from the New York ninetieth.
They weren't supposed to have bullets in their

310
00:24:44,160 --> 00:24:48,279
guns and it went off and it
went right through his head. And we

311
00:24:48,319 --> 00:24:52,240
had been getting his name through the
spirit box, and that's why I looked

312
00:24:52,319 --> 00:24:56,400
him up and was able to uncover
the story. But then the strangest thing.

313
00:24:56,720 --> 00:25:00,920
I was with my wife up in
Pittsburgh and I had found on eBay

314
00:25:02,319 --> 00:25:07,839
one of a piece of his history. It was his uniform requisition, and

315
00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:11,960
so I scooped that up on eBay
and I'm like, this is really weird.

316
00:25:12,039 --> 00:25:17,440
And then after it arrived, we
went to get our tarot cards read

317
00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:22,400
and it was in this really cool
shop in Pittsburgh and I was in the

318
00:25:22,440 --> 00:25:26,200
back room getting my cards read and
you know. I think it was a

319
00:25:26,240 --> 00:25:30,279
thirty minute reading, and towards the
end, she said, is there anything

320
00:25:30,279 --> 00:25:33,279
else you want to ask? I
feel like you have a question, and

321
00:25:33,319 --> 00:25:36,880
I'd beget angry for no reason.
And I said, why am I getting

322
00:25:36,920 --> 00:25:41,759
angry? And she pulled out some
cards and then she goes, oh,

323
00:25:41,759 --> 00:25:45,039
my god, you have a spirit
attached to you. And she said that,

324
00:25:45,079 --> 00:25:48,039
and there was a crash in the
main store and she turned around and

325
00:25:48,119 --> 00:25:51,559
I said, I said, you
just scared that spirit out of me.

326
00:25:51,640 --> 00:25:56,359
This is interesting. So we go
my session. She says, well,

327
00:25:56,400 --> 00:26:00,160
there's nothing else I can do for
you now, and so my wife goes

328
00:26:00,160 --> 00:26:06,000
in for her reading. I go
down the block to a little brewpub and

329
00:26:06,119 --> 00:26:08,319
there were only three people in there, and I told them, I said,

330
00:26:08,559 --> 00:26:11,839
I said, I just found out
I've got a spirit attachment. I

331
00:26:11,839 --> 00:26:14,599
said, let's see if we can
get rid of it. The door of

332
00:26:14,680 --> 00:26:18,599
the of the bar opened up.
The side door just opened all the way

333
00:26:18,599 --> 00:26:22,519
one hundred percent, and everybody just
kind of looked over and they're like,

334
00:26:22,559 --> 00:26:26,160
that was weird. And I told
them I was from Key West. The

335
00:26:26,200 --> 00:26:27,759
bartender said, oh my god,
I used to live in Key West.

336
00:26:29,200 --> 00:26:30,440
And then both of the people in
the bar. There were only four of

337
00:26:30,519 --> 00:26:33,279
us. They said, Oh my
god, my parents are in Key West

338
00:26:33,359 --> 00:26:38,240
right now. Wow. So fast
forward. I go back to the to

339
00:26:38,279 --> 00:26:41,839
the place where the reading was,
and I asked the girl to register because

340
00:26:41,839 --> 00:26:45,759
nobody else was in there. I
said, what happened when there was that

341
00:26:45,839 --> 00:26:51,160
crash? She said, it was
the weirdest thing. Your wife wasn't even

342
00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:55,200
standing by any of this stuff,
but these two vials of oil just flew

343
00:26:55,240 --> 00:26:59,599
off the shelf and onto the floor. I said, well, that's I

344
00:26:59,599 --> 00:27:02,480
said, that's really weird. I
said, where did they land? And

345
00:27:02,519 --> 00:27:06,839
she points down the floor there was
a statue. It was like a little

346
00:27:06,880 --> 00:27:12,599
toy doll of a soldier. Really, so I think that this might have

347
00:27:12,680 --> 00:27:21,640
been that spirit of Charles Knolf saying
I'm glad you found my story or something

348
00:27:21,720 --> 00:27:26,240
like that. So I don't know
that's that's that's who, or who knows.

349
00:27:26,279 --> 00:27:27,960
It might have been Robert one of
the other ones. I'm still kind

350
00:27:27,960 --> 00:27:33,480
of processing the entire thing. But
I mean, but yeah, all the

351
00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:37,799
way up to Pittsburgh, you know, yeah, yeah, And I've had

352
00:27:37,839 --> 00:27:42,839
these spirits that follow me from the
fort on a couple of occasions, and

353
00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:47,559
I don't know if it's because they
feel like I can communicate for them or

354
00:27:48,160 --> 00:27:52,319
maybe understand them a little bit.
I'm not sure what it is. You'd

355
00:27:52,359 --> 00:27:55,519
probably know more about that than me. Are you a little are you a

356
00:27:55,559 --> 00:27:59,039
little intuitive? And and do you
have a little bit of that sense where

357
00:27:59,039 --> 00:28:03,039
you feel like you you get stuff
from spending the reason with it. The

358
00:28:03,359 --> 00:28:07,519
reason I say that is I feel
like from my own experience too, is

359
00:28:07,839 --> 00:28:12,200
they know who they can they It's
like your light burns a little different.

360
00:28:12,359 --> 00:28:15,680
They know who you are, and
they know you by name, and they

361
00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:21,400
did. It's they'll they'll make a
racket just to get you to recognize the

362
00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:23,519
fact that they're there. And you
know, that's kind of what happened to

363
00:28:23,599 --> 00:28:27,839
me when all of this started years
ago. But it's it feels like that,

364
00:28:27,960 --> 00:28:33,079
you know, it's they know who
you are and pay attention to me.

365
00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:37,599
I'm trying to get your attention.
Yeah. And I think from spending

366
00:28:37,599 --> 00:28:41,000
so much time with them and putting
so much energy into the fort, I

367
00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:45,759
think they know that. Do you
run the toys yourself? Are the investigations

368
00:28:45,839 --> 00:28:48,119
yourself? You know? I used
to for the first couple of years,

369
00:28:48,119 --> 00:28:52,000
I did all of them and then
I've got I've got another another great guy,

370
00:28:52,400 --> 00:28:59,000
Dan Rodobsky, and he's our lead
investigator. Now, uh, it's

371
00:28:59,039 --> 00:29:03,480
funny. It seems like all of
us are from Pennsylvania and the fort was

372
00:29:03,559 --> 00:29:10,079
under the control of the Pennsylvania forty
seventh Volunteers, so there's this interesting Pennsylvania

373
00:29:10,200 --> 00:29:12,839
energy going through there. So so
he'll do that, and we'll have a

374
00:29:12,839 --> 00:29:17,640
couple of other doll tenders as well, you know, to help out with

375
00:29:17,640 --> 00:29:22,839
a VIPD during busier times. So
we do tours every night, sometimes Dan,

376
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:26,920
sometimes myself. We kind of switch
it around. So if I'm in

377
00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:30,880
Miami and I decided to drive because
I've heard the drip is beautiful, how

378
00:29:30,880 --> 00:29:34,799
long does it take to get from
Miami to keep webs from Miami? It's

379
00:29:34,839 --> 00:29:40,559
about three or four hours, depending
on long Wow. Yeah, yeah,

380
00:29:40,599 --> 00:29:42,160
So you know, we're we're really
out in the middle of the ocean,

381
00:29:44,079 --> 00:29:48,440
two hundred miles from Fort Lauderdale,
and the whole island used to be a

382
00:29:48,519 --> 00:29:52,039
coral reef when you go back far
enough, and you know, then then

383
00:29:52,160 --> 00:29:56,559
that was exposed eventually, and then
with the erosion, and then they built

384
00:29:56,599 --> 00:30:03,240
the railroad, and then they built
the highways. I have a sorry,

385
00:30:03,279 --> 00:30:06,960
go ahead, no, I want
to hear what you said. No,

386
00:30:07,079 --> 00:30:10,319
I was going to say, I
have an event in uh It's it's not

387
00:30:10,640 --> 00:30:17,839
there. It's in Naples in February. But now I'm thinking I should spend

388
00:30:17,839 --> 00:30:21,440
a couple of days and head to
Key West. I know it would be

389
00:30:21,440 --> 00:30:23,839
probably like five hours or six hours
now, I don't know from the yeah,

390
00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:27,960
and you know from Naples. Fort
Myers has a great ferry. They've

391
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:33,400
got the Fort Myers Ferry the Key
West really, so you can actually just

392
00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:37,519
chill on the boat, have a
few beers and and cruise down and get

393
00:30:37,519 --> 00:30:40,920
a way to do it, come
and spend the night. That's a great

394
00:30:41,039 --> 00:30:44,880
That's how I recommend people do it. From the west coast of Florida.

395
00:30:44,920 --> 00:30:47,240
I think I'll do that because I
was going to try to get in there

396
00:30:47,240 --> 00:30:52,000
on a Wednesday, and then I'm
done on you know, I'm done on

397
00:30:52,079 --> 00:30:56,119
Sunday, so I could go right
after that or yeh know whatever. I

398
00:30:56,119 --> 00:31:00,839
think that would be great to have
a couple of days. I've I've always

399
00:31:00,839 --> 00:31:04,279
wanted to go. Everybody says it's
phenomenal. Qy Wes is incredible. It's

400
00:31:04,319 --> 00:31:08,119
not just one of the most vulted
places in the United States. But it's

401
00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:11,880
uh, it's unlike the rest of
Florida. It's more like a Caribbean island

402
00:31:11,880 --> 00:31:15,119
than it is like Florida. Well, you know, I have a ten

403
00:31:15,200 --> 00:31:18,240
year old so these days we can
go to Florida and it involves a mouse

404
00:31:18,880 --> 00:31:23,680
and a few other stuffed characters.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can't

405
00:31:23,720 --> 00:31:26,039
take him to Key West for me. I don't think he's ready for that,

406
00:31:26,079 --> 00:31:33,119
but I think, but I do. It sounds like somebody begs to

407
00:31:33,160 --> 00:31:37,319
different Yeah, yeah, exactly exactly, But well that's sorry today you wanted

408
00:31:37,359 --> 00:31:41,480
to know what viagra was for imagine
trying to have that conversation with it all

409
00:31:41,599 --> 00:31:45,359
at all. So that's why I
have a dog. You have a dog,

410
00:31:45,480 --> 00:31:49,119
Yes, exactly, Oh my god. But you know, so maybe

411
00:31:49,119 --> 00:31:52,240
I'll take it. Maybe I'll do
that, see if I can work that

412
00:31:52,319 --> 00:31:53,559
around. I would love to go
down. I certainly love to see the

413
00:31:53,640 --> 00:31:57,920
fort and see what I can.
I say, I've never been, so

414
00:31:59,160 --> 00:32:01,599
it's been on my list. Yeah, it's an incredible place. I'd love

415
00:32:01,599 --> 00:32:05,799
to show you around. Yeah,
well, you know, I don't know

416
00:32:05,799 --> 00:32:08,200
if you're there at the end of
February. You know, I'm literally there

417
00:32:08,279 --> 00:32:13,279
the last weekend of February, and
so again right after that before I fly

418
00:32:13,359 --> 00:32:15,160
off to New Orleans. But that
would be kind of cool too. Yeah,

419
00:32:15,519 --> 00:32:19,799
And there's some incredible stuff, you
know. We just started doing tours

420
00:32:19,839 --> 00:32:23,799
at the Haunted Firehouse. There's a
firehouse here. It's one of the oldest

421
00:32:23,799 --> 00:32:30,359
fire stations in Florida. It was
built in nineteen oh seven and a lot

422
00:32:30,400 --> 00:32:34,640
of people felt that it was cursed
when it was built. They started construction

423
00:32:35,160 --> 00:32:38,559
when and this is another place,
you know, Key West. The name

424
00:32:38,680 --> 00:32:45,000
comes from Kyle Hueso, which means
island of bones, because the entire island

425
00:32:45,279 --> 00:32:47,720
was covered with bones, and nobody's
quite sure the source of them. They

426
00:32:47,720 --> 00:32:52,759
believe they're native bones. Some people
say they're from a great battle. Some

427
00:32:52,799 --> 00:32:55,680
people say they're from a hurricane.
Some people say it was just a sacred

428
00:32:55,720 --> 00:33:02,640
spot for them. But almost everywhere
you go isil over bones, and with

429
00:33:02,759 --> 00:33:07,519
the firehouses on top of this great
freshwater reservoir. So that would have been

430
00:33:07,559 --> 00:33:13,160
a spot that people sought out a
long time ago. So that's what some

431
00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:15,920
psychics think is that it was built
over some graves perhaps, but they finished

432
00:33:15,920 --> 00:33:20,359
the firehouse. Before the fireman even
moved in, they had a fire in

433
00:33:20,440 --> 00:33:25,759
the engine row, so mysterious fire
does that, Yeah, before anybody was

434
00:33:25,799 --> 00:33:30,799
there. And then when they moved
in, it was barely just a little

435
00:33:30,839 --> 00:33:36,559
over a year and a hurricane came
through and ripped the roof off and took

436
00:33:36,599 --> 00:33:40,160
down one of the walls. And
the interesting thing is, on the night

437
00:33:40,200 --> 00:33:45,559
of that hurricane there were three boys
born in Key West. All three of

438
00:33:45,599 --> 00:33:51,480
them went on to lead the firehouse. That station as easier to either an

439
00:33:51,519 --> 00:33:57,119
assistant fire chief or a fire chief, and it was almost like they were

440
00:33:57,119 --> 00:34:02,039
brought here to change things around.
And there's just this incredible energy throughout the

441
00:34:02,119 --> 00:34:08,159
place, you know, and most
firemen there there they're not you know,

442
00:34:08,199 --> 00:34:14,760
they're not scary, but they've got
attitudes and they're practical jokers. And there's

443
00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:19,719
some really interesting stuff that goes on. And of course that then we have

444
00:34:19,760 --> 00:34:24,119
some I mean, there was one
fire chief and he lost the election and

445
00:34:24,199 --> 00:34:28,320
so he went out and got drunk
and shot a prostitute in the face.

446
00:34:29,920 --> 00:34:35,280
The way the town went, he
was able to be let go. I

447
00:34:35,280 --> 00:34:40,440
mean they let him go. He
never faced prosecution, so yikes. So

448
00:34:40,519 --> 00:34:45,679
there is there's some interesting energy like
that going on too. And are you

449
00:34:45,760 --> 00:34:46,800
from there? I mean, did
you grow up and lived there your whole

450
00:34:46,800 --> 00:34:51,320
life or did you move there?
No, it's interesting, So I moved

451
00:34:51,360 --> 00:34:54,880
there in ninety six. I was
born in Philadelphia, Oh, Okay.

452
00:34:55,440 --> 00:35:00,880
And then only about three years ago, you know, four years ago,

453
00:35:00,880 --> 00:35:04,360
when I really started going into the
Civil War history of the fort, I

454
00:35:04,480 --> 00:35:08,960
found out that my great great great
grandfather's Civil War regiment was in charge of

455
00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:14,199
Key West during the Civil War.
He was Pennsylvania forty seventh. So the

456
00:35:14,760 --> 00:35:20,320
very first David Livingston Sloan he was, he was in Key West and he

457
00:35:20,679 --> 00:35:24,239
might have helped build the fort where
Robert the Dall is. That's good.

458
00:35:24,280 --> 00:35:27,960
There are no coincidences. And we
say this all the time. There's no

459
00:35:28,079 --> 00:35:30,480
question. It's just like you're supposed
to be there, you know, you're

460
00:35:30,480 --> 00:35:34,480
supposed to be doing what you're doing. When I found that out, and

461
00:35:34,519 --> 00:35:36,800
that's that's why in the beginning when
I said, I kind of feel like

462
00:35:36,840 --> 00:35:39,320
the universe kind of like sent me
there, you know, coming to Key

463
00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:44,639
West to start the ghost tours,
Like everything's kind of put me where I

464
00:35:44,679 --> 00:35:50,239
should be at the right time.
When I came to Key West. I

465
00:35:50,320 --> 00:35:55,119
researched looking for ghosts for probably about
ten days, and I was finding nothing.

466
00:35:57,000 --> 00:36:00,320
And I got to where i'd go
into the different bars and I tip

467
00:36:00,400 --> 00:36:04,199
the bartender really well and say,
oh, is this that haunted bar?

468
00:36:04,800 --> 00:36:08,960
And they'd say, nope, not
or anything. So like nobody was talking

469
00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:13,719
about ghosts, and I was.
I had been to the library, of

470
00:36:13,760 --> 00:36:16,800
course, and I was getting ready
to leave town because I found nothing.

471
00:36:17,360 --> 00:36:21,199
And uh, you know, I
used to I used to manage cruise ships

472
00:36:21,199 --> 00:36:23,239
and I'd seen a ghost tour in
Scotland. That's how I got the idea

473
00:36:23,960 --> 00:36:28,199
ghost tours. We were kind of
unheard of in the United States. There

474
00:36:28,239 --> 00:36:34,800
might have been two or three of
them in existence. So uh, when

475
00:36:34,800 --> 00:36:37,480
I was leaving, I got lost
leaving my friend's house and as a small

476
00:36:37,480 --> 00:36:40,159
island and get lost on them,
and getting lost in qs is stupid,

477
00:36:40,679 --> 00:36:46,800
and so I I was drying and
I was just frustrated and I didn't know

478
00:36:46,800 --> 00:36:52,719
where my life was going. And
somebody appeared next to me in my car

479
00:36:52,639 --> 00:36:58,000
and I just remember they're kind of
like like they're grayish, grayish kind of

480
00:36:58,079 --> 00:37:00,360
suit, it seemed like to me. And they said, they said go

481
00:37:00,440 --> 00:37:04,320
back to the library. And I
looked at him. I go, don't

482
00:37:04,360 --> 00:37:07,519
know where the library is. And
I didn't even think that I was yelling

483
00:37:07,519 --> 00:37:10,559
at somebody in my car. And
then they were gone, and I look

484
00:37:10,639 --> 00:37:15,480
up and I see a sign that
says library parking only. And so I

485
00:37:15,639 --> 00:37:20,679
park and I go in. And
this time when I went into the Florida

486
00:37:20,800 --> 00:37:25,599
History Room, the county historian was
there. His name's Tom Hambright. And

487
00:37:27,079 --> 00:37:30,119
Tom Tom looks at me, and
he's a He was a big, imposing

488
00:37:30,199 --> 00:37:35,239
man, and he says he can
I help you with something? And I

489
00:37:35,239 --> 00:37:38,559
said, I'm looking for a book
on ghosts of Key West and he said

490
00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:45,480
there are none, and I said
okay, thank you, and I started

491
00:37:45,480 --> 00:37:50,519
to leave and he said, hey, hey, don't leave yet. I

492
00:37:50,639 --> 00:37:54,039
got no books, but there's ghosts. And he goes into this walk in

493
00:37:54,320 --> 00:37:58,800
vault. You know, they had
built this hurricane proof vault for all the

494
00:37:58,840 --> 00:38:02,719
most important documents of the Florida Keys
history. And he came out with a

495
00:38:02,760 --> 00:38:09,199
folder labeled ghosts and it had newspaper
clippings from the past thirty years, and

496
00:38:09,239 --> 00:38:14,159
it has stories of voodoo and it
had the snippets that have been published around

497
00:38:14,360 --> 00:38:19,480
Halloween, and I started going through
and mapping the haunted houses out and you

498
00:38:19,480 --> 00:38:22,440
know, identifying who the ghosts were. And then I went and knocked on

499
00:38:22,480 --> 00:38:25,480
the doors and I was able to
talk to the people. You know,

500
00:38:25,719 --> 00:38:30,760
nowadays everything's going corporate in Key West, you know, so it's like the

501
00:38:30,760 --> 00:38:35,920
mom and pop places are less and
less and less. But at the time

502
00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:39,239
I arrived, you found people who
had owned the bed and Breakfast for thirty

503
00:38:39,320 --> 00:38:45,400
years, and so I was getting
thirty years worth of ghost stories from them,

504
00:38:45,840 --> 00:38:50,119
and people were so happy to talk
about them. Because ghosts, you

505
00:38:50,119 --> 00:38:55,760
know, it seems like through history, the belief in them increases after times

506
00:38:55,760 --> 00:39:00,039
of suffering or times of war or
times of pandemic and things like that.

507
00:39:00,559 --> 00:39:05,360
But there have been periods of time
when it's just not cool to talk about

508
00:39:05,360 --> 00:39:07,880
the bigs because people think you're a
weirdo. You know, before all the

509
00:39:07,880 --> 00:39:13,280
ghost shows started coming out, there
was a time when people would be like,

510
00:39:13,320 --> 00:39:15,599
oh, I'm not saying anything about
that. They're going to think I'm

511
00:39:15,639 --> 00:39:19,199
strange. I agree you, And
so we were on the tail end of

512
00:39:19,239 --> 00:39:22,000
that. It was just getting to
where people were starting to talk about them

513
00:39:22,039 --> 00:39:25,480
again. Around ninety six, you
know, there were horror movies out people

514
00:39:25,519 --> 00:39:30,000
loved those, but if you have
told somebody so these people just relished talking

515
00:39:30,000 --> 00:39:34,159
to me about the strange things they
had been encountering. And I got some

516
00:39:34,559 --> 00:39:38,559
incredible, incredible stories and was able
to really start documenting the haunted history of

517
00:39:38,599 --> 00:39:43,760
the island. And let's face it, you're in Key West, so there's

518
00:39:43,880 --> 00:39:47,079
enough stuff there that's interesting. Shall
we say that. You know, I

519
00:39:47,119 --> 00:39:50,280
think it can be a little different. I mean, it's not like you're

520
00:39:50,280 --> 00:39:52,960
in Fort Wayne, Indiana, you
know, yeah, kind of like fit

521
00:39:53,119 --> 00:39:57,719
in. I would think they would
embrace anything that's kind of different and odd,

522
00:39:57,800 --> 00:40:00,960
you know. And the whole ghost
thing. It's true though, it's

523
00:40:00,039 --> 00:40:02,360
just a little bit different, you
know, and you just sort of out

524
00:40:02,360 --> 00:40:07,400
there. And I still get that
from people. I still yeah, And

525
00:40:07,079 --> 00:40:09,280
and there's you know, I think
it's interesting because a lot of the most

526
00:40:09,320 --> 00:40:14,400
haunted places in the United States are
the old port towns. So you know,

527
00:40:14,719 --> 00:40:17,599
you look at New Orleans and Charleston
and and uh and Key West and

528
00:40:17,639 --> 00:40:22,239
Savannah and Saint Augustine, all the
old port towns really have seemed to have

529
00:40:22,360 --> 00:40:25,440
so much And I think part of
that's the water. Part of it's the

530
00:40:25,559 --> 00:40:29,719
character and there's some of the you
know, some of the oldest places that

531
00:40:29,760 --> 00:40:35,480
people were going and passing through.
But so I feel very fortunate there's a

532
00:40:35,519 --> 00:40:39,199
lot of a lot of the great
historic structures are still preserved here. So

533
00:40:39,239 --> 00:40:43,679
you've got a lot of a lot
of houses from the from the late eighteen

534
00:40:43,760 --> 00:40:46,880
hundreds. Even with the hurricanes that
come through, I mean, how is

535
00:40:46,920 --> 00:40:51,599
that living down there on that kind
of a I mean, you really,

536
00:40:52,679 --> 00:40:54,599
you don't have anything to block it, really, do you. We have

537
00:40:55,440 --> 00:41:01,199
we have a grotto that protects us
from her hurricanes and it's at the Catholic

538
00:41:01,280 --> 00:41:07,159
church here. And back in the
early nineteen hundreds, there were two back

539
00:41:07,199 --> 00:41:10,960
to back hurricanes that devastated the island, I mean like hit it hard,

540
00:41:12,000 --> 00:41:16,840
hard heart. So there was a
sister there at the church and she built

541
00:41:16,880 --> 00:41:22,800
this grotto and she dedicated it and
said, as long as this grotto stands,

542
00:41:22,320 --> 00:41:28,440
Key West will never suffer the full
brunt of a major hurricane. Really,

543
00:41:28,920 --> 00:41:31,639
and it's been true ever since then. You know, we've had Category

544
00:41:31,679 --> 00:41:37,360
ones passed through here, We've had
Category fours that skirt us and change at

545
00:41:37,360 --> 00:41:42,920
the last minute, and whenever there's
a storm ruined. So many people from

546
00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:45,280
Key West will go down to the
grotto and they'll light the candles, and

547
00:41:45,320 --> 00:41:50,920
they'll say the prayers and they'll make
the offerings. So that's our biggest form

548
00:41:50,920 --> 00:41:53,440
of protection. And that's a bit
of a tourist attraction in itself, I

549
00:41:53,599 --> 00:41:59,960
imagine, because of the powers.
And then you also had shipbuilders who were

550
00:42:00,039 --> 00:42:02,320
building the houses. So you know, a lot of the early houses had

551
00:42:02,639 --> 00:42:07,320
wooden nails, as you know,
as the pegs connecting them, so they

552
00:42:07,320 --> 00:42:10,000
were built strong, and they were
built good in the old Dade County pine,

553
00:42:10,119 --> 00:42:14,079
so a lot of them are equipped
to hold up to a lot.

554
00:42:14,760 --> 00:42:19,320
Oh that's good. Melissa Blackman,
she's been commenting here in the chat.

555
00:42:19,440 --> 00:42:22,079
I guess she's seen you and she's
been to Key West. But you need

556
00:42:22,119 --> 00:42:25,000
to have David send you the photos
you had at the end of your presentation

557
00:42:25,119 --> 00:42:28,559
in Michigan. I didn't get there
this year, so I didn't see you

558
00:42:28,599 --> 00:42:31,880
talk. I was there last year. Hey, Melissa, what were your

559
00:42:31,880 --> 00:42:35,360
photos were they? I mean,
obviously I'm not going to ask you to

560
00:42:35,519 --> 00:42:37,719
get them, but well, I'm
trying to. I'm trying to think which

561
00:42:37,719 --> 00:42:42,199
ones they could have been. I
know we've got somewhere. There's Robert pushing

562
00:42:42,199 --> 00:42:45,480
the ball off of the case.
At the fort. We put a ball

563
00:42:45,519 --> 00:42:49,320
on his case, and because my
back's to him a lot, and I

564
00:42:49,360 --> 00:42:52,159
tell him, I say, listen, if you don't like something going on,

565
00:42:52,960 --> 00:42:55,519
push the ball. And I've had
that ball pushed off of that case

566
00:42:55,559 --> 00:43:01,679
about thirteen times over the course of
four years. And that's people. I

567
00:43:01,719 --> 00:43:06,199
always know what is going to happen
now too, because you can tell when

568
00:43:06,199 --> 00:43:09,639
there's someone who's just bad energy on
the tour. And there was one time

569
00:43:12,159 --> 00:43:15,440
the person who is going to be
in a jerk, he'd usually pushed the

570
00:43:15,440 --> 00:43:17,559
ball where it lands like right by
the person, but the way the seating

571
00:43:17,599 --> 00:43:21,800
configure issue was set up, they
were kind of towards the back, and

572
00:43:22,320 --> 00:43:23,880
so I'm thinking, I'm like,
how's he going to do this? And

573
00:43:23,920 --> 00:43:28,840
then the tour is almost over and
nothing had happened, and then a lady

574
00:43:28,960 --> 00:43:32,719
sitting right right up front by Robert, she crosses her leg, the ball

575
00:43:32,800 --> 00:43:37,559
goes off the case, It hits
her toe and rolls right up to the

576
00:43:37,599 --> 00:43:42,920
feet of the person who was who
was being the Yeah, yeah, yeah,

577
00:43:42,920 --> 00:43:49,000
So there's that. There's some other
We've had almost one hundred people burned

578
00:43:49,320 --> 00:43:52,880
with their religious symbols at the fort. We've had people burn with their crosses

579
00:43:52,880 --> 00:43:59,159
where the cross burns right into them. So we've just wear across. It

580
00:43:59,199 --> 00:44:02,079
is that dangerous wear a cross?
I don't know if it's dangerous. It's

581
00:44:02,119 --> 00:44:06,400
happened close to one hundred times,
which is a lot, but you have

582
00:44:06,440 --> 00:44:09,440
to figure we've probably had five thou
ten thousand crosses come through in that time,

583
00:44:09,760 --> 00:44:16,719
so it's not like everybody with the
cross will have it happen. But

584
00:44:17,079 --> 00:44:22,639
we've had people's glasses fog up for
no reason, you know, like just

585
00:44:22,800 --> 00:44:27,400
like out of the blue. We've
had glasses pulled off of people's heads.

586
00:44:27,440 --> 00:44:31,360
People get their hair touched a lot, you know, there's people have had

587
00:44:31,400 --> 00:44:37,840
things growl in their ear. There
have been a few people who have been

588
00:44:37,880 --> 00:44:42,519
scratched. I was scratched pretty bad. I think that's one of the videos

589
00:44:42,519 --> 00:44:52,559
I showed in Michigan. Yeah,
so what about the religious tattoos? People

590
00:44:52,639 --> 00:44:57,639
with religious tattoos, people with religious
tattoos, And you know it's interesting too.

591
00:44:57,719 --> 00:45:00,880
I've had three people who had like
the uh An Eye of Protection on

592
00:45:00,920 --> 00:45:06,960
them as jewelry, and those have
started heating up. But I see the

593
00:45:07,079 --> 00:45:15,159
lista saying, so there's this there's
this crazy photo. So okay. Children

594
00:45:15,159 --> 00:45:21,199
with autism, they usually don't see
Robert's evil. They usually come in to

595
00:45:21,239 --> 00:45:23,199
see the doll and they're like,
they're like, oh, hi, Robert,

596
00:45:23,239 --> 00:45:25,760
I love you. Robert. Oh, Robert, you're my friend.

597
00:45:27,800 --> 00:45:31,679
And they end up sending him birthday
cards and pictures of them. And we

598
00:45:31,760 --> 00:45:37,039
had there was a woman came in
and her she had a child with autism.

599
00:45:37,239 --> 00:45:40,599
They he had been wanting to see
the doll for a long, long

600
00:45:40,599 --> 00:45:45,679
long time. Museum's getting ready to
close, and so they go in and

601
00:45:45,280 --> 00:45:49,679
uh so they get up there,
they go see the doll. They come

602
00:45:49,760 --> 00:45:52,400
back out and he says, mom, we forgot to get a picture with

603
00:45:52,480 --> 00:45:59,440
Robert. So his mom knocks back
on the door and the girl opens and

604
00:45:59,760 --> 00:46:01,159
she's like, can we please just
go back for a photo? And the

605
00:46:01,159 --> 00:46:06,440
girls, of course you can,
And so they're the only ones in the

606
00:46:06,599 --> 00:46:08,800
entire fort. They get back out
to the car and they look at their

607
00:46:08,800 --> 00:46:15,920
photograph. Behind Robert, you can
very clearly see the silhouette of a little

608
00:46:15,920 --> 00:46:20,440
girl and she's got her hair and
braids, and we think that that may

609
00:46:20,480 --> 00:46:23,440
be the daughter of Emilyine Abbott,
the Angry Nanny. So we think that

610
00:46:23,719 --> 00:46:31,559
Robert's actually it's actually a little behaming
a American girl. Wow, Melissa says,

611
00:46:31,639 --> 00:46:35,840
I guess the picture you showed was
a young adult standing at the side

612
00:46:35,880 --> 00:46:38,840
of Robert's display case. Then off
the left there's a child spirit and reflection,

613
00:46:38,960 --> 00:46:42,639
but no child was there. Yeah, yep, that's the one.

614
00:46:42,800 --> 00:46:46,679
Thanks for reminding me of that,
Melissa. Crazy, it's crazy, it's

615
00:46:46,760 --> 00:46:52,079
it's insanity. I mean, I
think it's absolutely fascinating, but you know,

616
00:46:52,159 --> 00:46:58,880
I'm also a little chicken that kind
of whether you believe it or not,

617
00:46:59,039 --> 00:47:01,599
I'm just going to be safe about
it. I went. My husband

618
00:47:01,719 --> 00:47:07,400
was he's a non believer. He
always referred to the paranormal as more of

619
00:47:07,440 --> 00:47:13,480
my ghosty stuff. But I drug
him through because I had to see Robert.

620
00:47:14,199 --> 00:47:17,239
And it took, and I was
using an actual camera, not just

621
00:47:17,280 --> 00:47:22,039
my cell phone. But it took
like seven or eight times before I was

622
00:47:22,159 --> 00:47:29,920
actually able to get the picture.
I had the shutter froze, the batteries

623
00:47:30,119 --> 00:47:35,559
just locked, the battery door locked, the SD card was full, just

624
00:47:35,599 --> 00:47:38,480
a lot of craziness before I could
actually get the photo. But I did

625
00:47:38,480 --> 00:47:44,960
finally get one. I went in
today. They've got these, They've got

626
00:47:44,960 --> 00:47:49,840
these great Robert Christmas dolls because a
lot of people want to take a little

627
00:47:49,840 --> 00:47:52,360
piece of Robert home. So they've
got the many Robert dolls, and they've

628
00:47:52,400 --> 00:47:54,760
got the many Robert Christmas dolls.
And so I went in. I was

629
00:47:54,800 --> 00:48:00,480
taking a bunch of pictures of them
around the fort, and I probably took

630
00:48:00,480 --> 00:48:02,760
thirty pictures. I got out and
I looked at them. They were like

631
00:48:02,880 --> 00:48:06,880
fifteen of them. And look,
I was looking at these pictures when I

632
00:48:06,920 --> 00:48:09,840
took them, they were fine.
When I looked at them, about fifteen

633
00:48:09,840 --> 00:48:14,880
of them, there was they were
blurred. There was nothing there. And

634
00:48:15,079 --> 00:48:17,519
listen one or two. Okay,
maybe I missed it, but to have

635
00:48:17,599 --> 00:48:22,400
that many happen. So, yeah, the camera stuff continues and continues to

636
00:48:22,480 --> 00:48:29,480
happen, Melissa. I'm just reading
some of the comments that the people have

637
00:48:29,480 --> 00:48:31,440
started to comment. And then Melissa
says there was a girlfriend who wasiah with

638
00:48:31,719 --> 00:48:36,800
was so terrified she made her leave
her phone in the car for fear she

639
00:48:36,880 --> 00:48:38,760
might try to take a picture.
Thrilled to be in the same room with

640
00:48:38,840 --> 00:48:44,000
them. Yeah, but you say
that the photos aren't necessarily the problem.

641
00:48:44,039 --> 00:48:46,840
It's it's the disrespect. Yeah,
And I think with the sign up on

642
00:48:46,880 --> 00:48:50,639
the wall, you know, the
sign says remember you have to ask permission

643
00:48:50,679 --> 00:48:53,039
to take photos. So if some
people read that and think that's the rule

644
00:48:53,199 --> 00:48:57,519
and say I'm not going to do
it, well, that's disrespectful, right,

645
00:48:58,199 --> 00:49:01,079
So I think I think it can
get in to that. And you

646
00:49:01,119 --> 00:49:07,440
know, you see people who who
delete their photos afterwards. There's a lot

647
00:49:07,480 --> 00:49:10,440
of people who don't like seeing a
picture of Robert even going through across through

648
00:49:10,480 --> 00:49:15,840
their social media without warning. Yeah, I get it. And I remember

649
00:49:15,840 --> 00:49:21,480
seeing Annabelle in the Warren Paracon a
couple of years ago and the woman I

650
00:49:21,559 --> 00:49:23,280
was with said, delete that from
your phone, do not take that pick,

651
00:49:23,400 --> 00:49:27,079
do not take them with you in
your phone. So people have different

652
00:49:27,119 --> 00:49:30,280
thoughts and beliefs, you know.
Yeah, So we have a few minutes

653
00:49:30,360 --> 00:49:34,400
that Robert, I'd really like to
let people know how they can find you

654
00:49:34,480 --> 00:49:37,239
if they're in Key West and and
buy people, I mean me, but

655
00:49:37,360 --> 00:49:42,519
I want to I can't find you
while we get there. Where are your

656
00:49:42,519 --> 00:49:45,440
ghost towards? And I know there's
some books too on rock. Yeah,

657
00:49:45,880 --> 00:49:49,760
so there there are tons of ghost
tours in Key West and most of them

658
00:49:49,760 --> 00:49:52,519
are really good. If you want
to find the one that goes to Robert

659
00:49:52,559 --> 00:49:54,119
the Dalt, we're the only one
that does that, you can go to

660
00:49:54,199 --> 00:50:00,400
ghost key West dot com so ghost
q West on co. And that's this

661
00:50:00,679 --> 00:50:04,280
for the official Robert tours. And
then if you want other haunted stuff,

662
00:50:04,280 --> 00:50:07,800
because there's so much cool stuff in
town, I set up a free website

663
00:50:07,840 --> 00:50:13,840
that's like a paranormal vacation guide,
and that lists haunted hotels, haunted restaurants,

664
00:50:13,880 --> 00:50:16,480
haunted bars, haunted museums. It
lists some of the other great ghost

665
00:50:16,559 --> 00:50:19,880
tours in town. If you're like, hey, Robert's too much for me,

666
00:50:19,960 --> 00:50:22,599
I want to go see I just
want a regular walking tour. We

667
00:50:22,719 --> 00:50:27,239
recommend the companies that do good with
that. You know, friends of mine

668
00:50:27,280 --> 00:50:30,880
and people who are reputable. So
haniqus dot com is a ton of that

669
00:50:30,039 --> 00:50:35,159
that's got information on it Somewhere.
There's an entire set of Robert links that

670
00:50:35,599 --> 00:50:38,719
you know, people can buys merch
online and that all benefits the museum.

671
00:50:39,760 --> 00:50:45,400
So it all benefits the nonprofit organization. And uh, there's links to my

672
00:50:45,440 --> 00:50:50,039
books and stuff on there. You
can buy them through the museum, and

673
00:50:50,039 --> 00:50:52,920
that benefits the museum too, so
well, but they're they're on Amazon all

674
00:50:53,039 --> 00:50:58,800
all the good places. Well,
David, I hope people check it out.

675
00:50:58,840 --> 00:51:00,559
I know I'm going to do my
best, let you know if I'm

676
00:51:00,559 --> 00:51:01,800
going to be able to make it
in February. But I want to thank

677
00:51:01,840 --> 00:51:05,960
you for coming on. It has
been an absolute pleasure for having you,

678
00:51:06,039 --> 00:51:09,400
and you know, I'm just so
glad we're able to work it out next

679
00:51:09,440 --> 00:51:13,880
week. Everybody, I'm gready to
be here. I really appreciate it.

680
00:51:13,920 --> 00:51:16,440
Next week we're going to be talking
to a gentleman who has been abducted by

681
00:51:16,519 --> 00:51:21,599
aliens since he was a child.
That continues to happen two or three times

682
00:51:21,679 --> 00:51:24,559
every month to this day. And
he's now and probably his mid fifties.

683
00:51:24,599 --> 00:51:30,840
So we're going to be talking to
him next week. And I am done

684
00:51:30,880 --> 00:51:35,639
with my announcement. So David,
thank you again. I greatly appreciate you

685
00:51:36,199 --> 00:51:38,360
and it's been a real pleasure.
I hope you'll hang on after the show

686
00:51:38,400 --> 00:51:42,320
wraps. I just want to chat
with you for one second. Thank you

687
00:51:42,400 --> 00:51:45,639
to everyone who's been here today and
joined us on the show, and thank

688
00:51:45,679 --> 00:51:49,760
you for Christina. We've been having
some audio trouble since we come on.

689
00:51:49,880 --> 00:51:52,559
So that's why she's sitting here muted
and you can't hear her. Most of

690
00:51:52,599 --> 00:51:57,199
the time she wants to say anything. So here we are. Anyway,

691
00:51:57,480 --> 00:52:00,599
next week we will see you.
Thank you David, thank you Christina,

692
00:52:00,639 --> 00:52:02,199
and we'll see you next week right
here on the Paranormal Project. Have a

693
00:52:02,199 --> 00:52:07,400
great day, everybody. Thanks.
Everyone's been listening to The Paranormal Project radio

694
00:52:07,480 --> 00:52:19,320
show with Scott Allen and Christina Boet. Be sure to subscribe so you don't

695
00:52:19,320 --> 00:52:22,800
miss the next episode. While you're
there, leave us a rating and review.

696
00:52:22,360 --> 00:52:25,760
We'll be back next week with more
exciting guests. Now, go out

697
00:52:25,760 --> 00:52:28,800
there and explore the paranormal