1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:05,120 Speaker 1: Hello, it's Richard MacLean Smith here, not the impostor you've 2 00:00:05,160 --> 00:00:09,400 Speaker 1: been listening to on the podcasts the real One. Join 3 00:00:09,480 --> 00:00:14,360 Speaker 1: me for Unexplained TV at YouTube dot com forward Slash 4 00:00:14,800 --> 00:00:29,880 Speaker 1: Unexplained Pod. Human beings tend to see the world as 5 00:00:29,880 --> 00:00:33,519 Speaker 1: a reflection of ourselves. We have a habit of finding 6 00:00:33,840 --> 00:00:38,239 Speaker 1: or even projecting our own characteristics and values onto the 7 00:00:38,360 --> 00:00:42,680 Speaker 1: non human. Take a cursory glance at folk tales from 8 00:00:42,800 --> 00:00:47,320 Speaker 1: prehistory to Hollywood, and you'll see how often we transform 9 00:00:47,479 --> 00:00:52,600 Speaker 1: other animals, plant life, and even inanimate objects into vessels 10 00:00:52,600 --> 00:00:57,080 Speaker 1: for human behavior. Just think of the chatty furniture in 11 00:00:57,200 --> 00:01:02,760 Speaker 1: Disney's The Beauty and the Beast. It's our inescapable, narcissistic 12 00:01:02,880 --> 00:01:07,039 Speaker 1: way of making sense of the world. Maybe we can 13 00:01:07,080 --> 00:01:12,839 Speaker 1: only truly empathize with beings and bodies if we anthropomorphize them, 14 00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:16,679 Speaker 1: which is to say, perhaps we're only comfortable with things 15 00:01:16,880 --> 00:01:20,160 Speaker 1: that look nothing like us as long as they act 16 00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:25,319 Speaker 1: like us. But what about the opposite, What about things 17 00:01:25,360 --> 00:01:30,120 Speaker 1: that look human that share our general physical contourts, but 18 00:01:30,240 --> 00:01:34,280 Speaker 1: who are not like us at all. Such off kilter 19 00:01:34,400 --> 00:01:42,119 Speaker 1: reflections can evoke unease, anxiety, even fear. In the nineteen seventies, 20 00:01:42,440 --> 00:01:48,440 Speaker 1: a Japanese robotics expert named Massa hero Maurri examined this phenomenon. 21 00:01:49,320 --> 00:01:53,480 Speaker 1: He suggested that in general, the closer something resembles a 22 00:01:53,560 --> 00:01:57,520 Speaker 1: realistic human being, the more positive our response to it. 23 00:01:58,240 --> 00:02:02,160 Speaker 1: For instance, if a human or robot followed our basic 24 00:02:02,240 --> 00:02:06,800 Speaker 1: physical template and possessed an artificial intelligence with which we 25 00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:10,560 Speaker 1: could communicate, we'd have much more natural affinity for it 26 00:02:10,960 --> 00:02:13,720 Speaker 1: than we would for a pile of loose hard drives 27 00:02:13,720 --> 00:02:19,120 Speaker 1: and wires sitting on a desk. However, Murray also noted 28 00:02:19,240 --> 00:02:24,040 Speaker 1: an anomaly in this hypothesis. There is, he believed, a 29 00:02:24,120 --> 00:02:30,040 Speaker 1: point just before something becomes completely indistinguishable from a real 30 00:02:30,160 --> 00:02:33,800 Speaker 1: human in which we begin to fixate on the last 31 00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:39,639 Speaker 1: small degrees of difference and they horrify us. It turns 32 00:02:39,680 --> 00:02:45,200 Speaker 1: out we would rather something be explicitly signposted as recognizably 33 00:02:45,320 --> 00:02:49,919 Speaker 1: other than be almost but not quite us. This is 34 00:02:49,960 --> 00:02:54,040 Speaker 1: a concept known as the uncanny valley, so named for 35 00:02:54,080 --> 00:02:57,600 Speaker 1: the sharp drop in our positive response when plotted on 36 00:02:57,639 --> 00:03:01,280 Speaker 1: a graph. It's a term that's become more and more 37 00:03:01,320 --> 00:03:05,720 Speaker 1: relevant with the rise of sophisticated technology that can create 38 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:11,960 Speaker 1: human like figures, whether they are lifelike robots, photorealistic animations 39 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:16,920 Speaker 1: and video game characters, or those strange, deaged actors now 40 00:03:16,960 --> 00:03:21,919 Speaker 1: common in movies. Get these depictions marginally wrong, as Robert 41 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:25,960 Speaker 1: Zemachus famously did in his two thousand and four animation 42 00:03:26,360 --> 00:03:30,280 Speaker 1: The Polar Express, and you'll send many kids and some 43 00:03:30,480 --> 00:03:35,119 Speaker 1: adults home from the cinema with a profound sense of unease. 44 00:03:36,200 --> 00:03:40,520 Speaker 1: Zemachus's movie is full of dead, glassy eyes and facial 45 00:03:40,560 --> 00:03:45,600 Speaker 1: expressions that reach for but do not quite convey human emotion. 46 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:50,000 Speaker 1: For those with young children. You might have found something 47 00:03:50,120 --> 00:03:55,480 Speaker 1: similar in the indefatigable series of cartoons known as Cocoamelon. 48 00:03:56,920 --> 00:04:01,040 Speaker 1: And that creepy aspect of the Uncanny Valley goes much 49 00:04:01,080 --> 00:04:05,400 Speaker 1: further back than cinema. It seems to be heart baked 50 00:04:05,640 --> 00:04:11,920 Speaker 1: into our instincts. You're listening to Unexplained, and I'm Richard 51 00:04:12,080 --> 00:04:24,119 Speaker 1: mac lean Smith. One intriguing and alarming idea is that 52 00:04:24,200 --> 00:04:28,640 Speaker 1: our aversion to the uncanny is a defense mechanism, a 53 00:04:28,680 --> 00:04:32,440 Speaker 1: trace memory of a time when humanity perhaps came into 54 00:04:32,480 --> 00:04:36,600 Speaker 1: contact with a mysterious predator that either looked like us 55 00:04:37,120 --> 00:04:39,960 Speaker 1: or was able to pretend well enough in order to 56 00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:45,560 Speaker 1: draw close and then hurt us. More recently, the widespread 57 00:04:45,600 --> 00:04:49,159 Speaker 1: fear of clowns has been attributed to the uncanny Valley, 58 00:04:49,640 --> 00:04:53,599 Speaker 1: specifically the gulf between what a clown's face seems to 59 00:04:53,680 --> 00:04:58,360 Speaker 1: indicate and their contrasting behavior. We just can't read them, 60 00:04:58,800 --> 00:05:03,560 Speaker 1: and that leaves us us wrong footed and afraid. Other 61 00:05:03,640 --> 00:05:07,000 Speaker 1: theories suggest that our fear of the almost but not 62 00:05:07,200 --> 00:05:11,640 Speaker 1: quite human is actually just one more manifestation of our 63 00:05:11,720 --> 00:05:16,279 Speaker 1: fear of death. A corpse, after all, is a human 64 00:05:16,360 --> 00:05:20,440 Speaker 1: being with the spark gone from the eyes and a slack, 65 00:05:20,600 --> 00:05:25,240 Speaker 1: passive face. That's impossible to interpret. But there is one 66 00:05:25,360 --> 00:05:29,479 Speaker 1: version of human imitation that we treat more positively on 67 00:05:29,600 --> 00:05:33,599 Speaker 1: the whole. Though it is as inscrutable as a clown 68 00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:37,640 Speaker 1: or a corpse, it appears across cultures and throughout time, 69 00:05:38,400 --> 00:05:42,320 Speaker 1: a samilocrum that seems to have always been by our side, 70 00:05:43,040 --> 00:05:47,440 Speaker 1: into which we invest profound emotion and from which we 71 00:05:47,520 --> 00:05:53,480 Speaker 1: take great comfort. What happens though, when that comfort turns 72 00:05:53,520 --> 00:05:59,560 Speaker 1: to terror. Jeane Otto first met Robert in nineteen o four, 73 00:06:00,040 --> 00:06:05,000 Speaker 1: when Jean was four years old. The two quickly became inseparable. 74 00:06:05,520 --> 00:06:09,560 Speaker 1: A pair of twin shadows flitting around Jean's family home 75 00:06:09,839 --> 00:06:13,560 Speaker 1: at five hundred and thirty four Eaton Street in Florida's 76 00:06:13,680 --> 00:06:18,479 Speaker 1: Key West. The pair would play together and eat together 77 00:06:18,680 --> 00:06:22,560 Speaker 1: at the dinner table. Robert even sat at the side 78 00:06:22,560 --> 00:06:26,600 Speaker 1: of the tub while Jean bathed, and then they would 79 00:06:26,600 --> 00:06:30,240 Speaker 1: be tucked in to sleep side by side in Jean's 80 00:06:30,279 --> 00:06:34,480 Speaker 1: small bed. It should have been a consolation for Minnie 81 00:06:34,480 --> 00:06:39,880 Speaker 1: and Thomas Otto that Jean, their imaginative, sensitive child, had 82 00:06:39,960 --> 00:06:43,839 Speaker 1: such a close companion. But Robert was not a school 83 00:06:43,920 --> 00:06:48,240 Speaker 1: friend or a boy from the neighborhood. Robert was a 84 00:06:48,360 --> 00:06:53,080 Speaker 1: three foot tall cloth doll stuffed with straw and wool. 85 00:06:54,279 --> 00:06:57,520 Speaker 1: There is some uncertainty as to how Robert first came 86 00:06:57,600 --> 00:07:02,560 Speaker 1: into the Otto family's possession. One origin story begins with 87 00:07:02,720 --> 00:07:06,680 Speaker 1: Jean's grandfather bringing the doll home as a birthday gift 88 00:07:06,880 --> 00:07:10,080 Speaker 1: from a trip to Germany. That's where the doll was 89 00:07:10,160 --> 00:07:14,000 Speaker 1: manufactured in the town of Gingen by the Stife Company, 90 00:07:14,440 --> 00:07:18,160 Speaker 1: celebrated toy makers, who are credited with making the first 91 00:07:18,200 --> 00:07:21,560 Speaker 1: ever teddy bear in nineteen o two in honor of 92 00:07:21,640 --> 00:07:28,320 Speaker 1: then U S President Theodore Roosevelt. Another darker legend claims 93 00:07:28,320 --> 00:07:31,800 Speaker 1: that Robert was gifted to Jean by a servant of 94 00:07:31,840 --> 00:07:34,679 Speaker 1: the Ottos who was very close to the young boy. 95 00:07:35,720 --> 00:07:39,440 Speaker 1: As the story goes, when she was unfairly fired by 96 00:07:39,520 --> 00:07:44,680 Speaker 1: Jean's father, the servant, who hailed from the Bahamas, resorted 97 00:07:44,760 --> 00:07:49,160 Speaker 1: to voodoo practices for her revenge, infusing the doll with 98 00:07:49,360 --> 00:07:55,600 Speaker 1: strange powers and unnatural properties. Neither story has been verified, 99 00:07:55,920 --> 00:08:00,960 Speaker 1: though research certainly gives the former more weight. Robert was 100 00:08:01,000 --> 00:08:04,720 Speaker 1: indeed a Stife product, although it seems he was not 101 00:08:04,920 --> 00:08:10,000 Speaker 1: designed as a doll at all. Rather, the oversized, unfinished 102 00:08:10,040 --> 00:08:13,720 Speaker 1: model was intended only as part of a clown display 103 00:08:14,120 --> 00:08:28,320 Speaker 1: for a shop window. Robert the doll's face is unpainted 104 00:08:28,600 --> 00:08:34,240 Speaker 1: and strangely expressionless, slightly simion in shape. It's completed by 105 00:08:34,280 --> 00:08:38,360 Speaker 1: a pair of beaded eyes and an unnerving shallow mouth, 106 00:08:38,840 --> 00:08:44,560 Speaker 1: half carved in an unsettling jestures smile. At some point, 107 00:08:44,880 --> 00:08:48,480 Speaker 1: Jean's mother, Minnie, thought it fitting to dress the doll 108 00:08:48,760 --> 00:08:52,480 Speaker 1: in a blue and white sailor's costume made from sackcloth. 109 00:08:53,080 --> 00:08:56,120 Speaker 1: She'd originally bought it for her son, but he'd since 110 00:08:56,200 --> 00:09:00,600 Speaker 1: outgrown it. She thought it amusing how cute Robert looked 111 00:09:00,600 --> 00:09:04,960 Speaker 1: in it. Then Jean thought it only right that Robert 112 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:08,760 Speaker 1: had his own stuffed toy, a ragged dog like bundle 113 00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:12,960 Speaker 1: that Gene arranged to fit neatly under Robert's arm, as 114 00:09:12,960 --> 00:09:18,280 Speaker 1: if he were deliberately carrying it around. As for Robert's name, 115 00:09:18,760 --> 00:09:21,679 Speaker 1: it was Jane who chose it, or rather gave it 116 00:09:21,720 --> 00:09:27,240 Speaker 1: to him. Quite literally. Jean had been christened Robert Eugene Otto, 117 00:09:27,880 --> 00:09:31,040 Speaker 1: but in an act of friendship, Jeane decided to give 118 00:09:31,120 --> 00:09:35,000 Speaker 1: the name Robert to his new friend and instead took 119 00:09:35,040 --> 00:09:38,920 Speaker 1: the shortened version of his middle name for himself. He 120 00:09:38,960 --> 00:09:42,600 Speaker 1: would go by Jane for the rest of his life, 121 00:09:43,080 --> 00:09:46,320 Speaker 1: both in name and appearance. The lines began to blur 122 00:09:46,480 --> 00:09:51,600 Speaker 1: early between the boy and his doll. The pair were inseparable, 123 00:09:52,040 --> 00:09:55,600 Speaker 1: with Jeane often seen lugging him from room to room, 124 00:09:56,240 --> 00:10:00,720 Speaker 1: the doll cumbersome and unwieldy in the little boy his arms. 125 00:10:01,840 --> 00:10:06,360 Speaker 1: At times, Jean's parents, Minnie and Robert, would hear talking 126 00:10:06,720 --> 00:10:09,840 Speaker 1: coming from a distant room of the house, only to 127 00:10:09,920 --> 00:10:15,479 Speaker 1: find Jean and Robert sitting cozily together as Jeane whispered 128 00:10:15,559 --> 00:10:21,199 Speaker 1: conspiratorially into the ear of his fabric playmate. One day, 129 00:10:21,720 --> 00:10:25,360 Speaker 1: Minnie found another stuffed toy of Jean's on the floor 130 00:10:25,400 --> 00:10:30,040 Speaker 1: of his room, ripped apart, with its inners strewn across 131 00:10:30,120 --> 00:10:35,440 Speaker 1: the floorboards. It wasn't me, said Jeane innocently when she 132 00:10:35,559 --> 00:10:41,760 Speaker 1: confronted him about it later. It was Robert. Other times 133 00:10:42,080 --> 00:10:46,520 Speaker 1: furniture was found overturned, books in heaps at the bottom 134 00:10:46,559 --> 00:10:51,800 Speaker 1: of shells, dishes broken, and every time it was the same, 135 00:10:52,880 --> 00:10:58,880 Speaker 1: It was Robert. Jean would plead, Robert did it? Such 136 00:10:58,960 --> 00:11:03,960 Speaker 1: deferred responsible ability is standard childlike behavior, as is the 137 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:10,000 Speaker 1: investment of personality in a dull or imaginary friend. Psychologists 138 00:11:10,240 --> 00:11:16,600 Speaker 1: call such things transitional objects, inanimate items that children imbue 139 00:11:16,679 --> 00:11:20,720 Speaker 1: with personal meaning that provide comfort and help bridge the 140 00:11:20,800 --> 00:11:26,520 Speaker 1: gap between dependence and independence. But the era's nascent chance. 141 00:11:26,600 --> 00:11:31,800 Speaker 1: Psychology could not explain what Jean's parents later heard coming 142 00:11:31,840 --> 00:11:36,880 Speaker 1: from their son's room. It was Thomas's father who heard 143 00:11:36,880 --> 00:11:42,440 Speaker 1: it first, that same conspiratorial whisper from his son, but 144 00:11:42,640 --> 00:11:48,560 Speaker 1: this type accompanied by a completely different voice. Minnie and 145 00:11:48,679 --> 00:11:52,680 Speaker 1: Thomas would often listen at Jean's bedroom door to the 146 00:11:52,760 --> 00:11:58,239 Speaker 1: strange chatter coming from within. The pair of distinct voices 147 00:11:58,600 --> 00:12:03,760 Speaker 1: ricocheting back and forth. One spoke in the high, lilting 148 00:12:03,880 --> 00:12:08,400 Speaker 1: tenor of a child, but the other was deep, rough 149 00:12:08,720 --> 00:12:15,280 Speaker 1: and demanding, often shading into anger. But what was most disconcerting, 150 00:12:15,600 --> 00:12:20,800 Speaker 1: according to Minnie, was that the two voices often overlapped 151 00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:32,960 Speaker 1: they were speaking at the same time. On one occasion, 152 00:12:33,360 --> 00:12:37,320 Speaker 1: Minnie became so unnerved by the voices she heard coming 153 00:12:37,360 --> 00:12:41,280 Speaker 1: from Jean's bedroom that she couldn't help herself from bursting 154 00:12:41,320 --> 00:12:44,520 Speaker 1: in to try and bring an end to it. What 155 00:12:44,640 --> 00:12:49,880 Speaker 1: she found shocked her deeply. There huddled in the corner 156 00:12:49,920 --> 00:12:53,800 Speaker 1: of the room was Jeane, while Robert the doll was 157 00:12:53,880 --> 00:12:58,320 Speaker 1: sat upright in a hard backed chair, his inscrutable gaze 158 00:12:58,640 --> 00:13:02,280 Speaker 1: seemingly pinned on the frightened boy, who appeared to be 159 00:13:02,320 --> 00:13:06,600 Speaker 1: doing all he could to hide from him. It was 160 00:13:06,640 --> 00:13:10,200 Speaker 1: some time later, when Jean was ten years old, that 161 00:13:10,320 --> 00:13:14,720 Speaker 1: Minnie and Thomas were woken by screams for help coming 162 00:13:14,760 --> 00:13:18,959 Speaker 1: from their son's room. They rushed to his door, only 163 00:13:19,000 --> 00:13:25,080 Speaker 1: to find it inexplicably jammed shut. Together, they wrestled desperately 164 00:13:25,120 --> 00:13:28,360 Speaker 1: with the handle as their son continued to shriek for 165 00:13:28,480 --> 00:13:33,360 Speaker 1: help from inside, until finally they wrenched the door open. 166 00:13:34,559 --> 00:13:37,719 Speaker 1: They found Jean carying in fear at the back of 167 00:13:37,760 --> 00:13:41,520 Speaker 1: the room. The contents of which were in complete disarray, 168 00:13:42,160 --> 00:13:47,240 Speaker 1: with toys and furniture strewn all about. Through hitching breaths, 169 00:13:47,600 --> 00:13:51,200 Speaker 1: Jean told them that he had awoken to find Robert 170 00:13:51,480 --> 00:13:54,960 Speaker 1: sitting at the foot of his bed. When he cried out, 171 00:13:55,400 --> 00:13:58,720 Speaker 1: the doll had become enraged and reached havoc in the 172 00:13:58,840 --> 00:14:04,040 Speaker 1: room before locking the door. In shock, A pale faced 173 00:14:04,120 --> 00:14:09,280 Speaker 1: Minnie scanned the room. Even pieces of furniture far too 174 00:14:09,280 --> 00:14:12,360 Speaker 1: heavy for Jean to have moved on his own, had 175 00:14:12,400 --> 00:14:19,240 Speaker 1: been completely tipped over. Whatever strange dynamic had developed between 176 00:14:19,320 --> 00:14:22,800 Speaker 1: Jean and Robert, it soon began to spread to the 177 00:14:22,840 --> 00:14:27,600 Speaker 1: rest of the house. One afternoon, according to one maid, 178 00:14:28,200 --> 00:14:32,520 Speaker 1: giggles were heard coming from somewhere in the house. When 179 00:14:32,520 --> 00:14:34,880 Speaker 1: they followed them, they were led to a room that 180 00:14:35,160 --> 00:14:39,800 Speaker 1: was completely unoccupied save for Robert the Doll, who seemed 181 00:14:39,800 --> 00:14:44,440 Speaker 1: to appear there as if from nowhere. Another maid claimed 182 00:14:44,720 --> 00:14:47,720 Speaker 1: when they were cleaning the house one morning, she caught 183 00:14:47,760 --> 00:14:51,080 Speaker 1: a movement out of the corner of her eye. When 184 00:14:51,120 --> 00:14:54,520 Speaker 1: she looked up, she was certain she saw the legs 185 00:14:54,560 --> 00:14:58,440 Speaker 1: of Robert the Doll's sailor suit disappearing around a bend 186 00:14:58,520 --> 00:15:01,800 Speaker 1: in the staircase. When no one else was at home. 187 00:15:03,480 --> 00:15:08,160 Speaker 1: Visitors to the Otto household showed a distinct aversion to Robert. 188 00:15:08,760 --> 00:15:14,000 Speaker 1: Several reported seeing the doll's blank expression subtly shift, or 189 00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:19,840 Speaker 1: his lidless eyes blink. Others also heard giggles from rooms 190 00:15:20,040 --> 00:15:25,920 Speaker 1: occupied only by the doll. All impossibilities, it seems. But 191 00:15:26,000 --> 00:15:29,480 Speaker 1: as the strange events around the doll began to escalate, 192 00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:34,920 Speaker 1: staff began to quit and Jean's friends called less frequently. 193 00:15:36,440 --> 00:15:40,240 Speaker 1: At some point, an aunt of Thomas Otto's came to visit. 194 00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:44,360 Speaker 1: She was so unsettled by Robert and his influence over 195 00:15:44,480 --> 00:15:47,680 Speaker 1: Jean that she demanded the doll be cast out at 196 00:15:47,720 --> 00:15:52,160 Speaker 1: the house. Immediately aware of how deeply his son cared 197 00:15:52,200 --> 00:15:55,000 Speaker 1: for the eerie toy, even if he did seem so 198 00:15:55,160 --> 00:16:00,000 Speaker 1: often afraid of it, Thomas instead compromised by removing Roberts 199 00:16:00,160 --> 00:16:03,760 Speaker 1: to the attic. He promised he would remain there for 200 00:16:03,880 --> 00:16:08,560 Speaker 1: the rest of his aunt's visit. The following morning, Thomas's 201 00:16:08,600 --> 00:16:12,680 Speaker 1: aunt failed to show for breakfast. When a maid was 202 00:16:12,720 --> 00:16:17,480 Speaker 1: sent for her, they discovered a horrifying scene. The aunt 203 00:16:17,960 --> 00:16:22,760 Speaker 1: lay dead in her bed. The coroner recorded the death 204 00:16:22,960 --> 00:16:27,480 Speaker 1: as a severe stroke, but when the Otto's later retrieved 205 00:16:27,560 --> 00:16:31,640 Speaker 1: Robert from the attic and Jean's insistence. They did so 206 00:16:32,200 --> 00:16:36,640 Speaker 1: with a renewed and heightened nervousness. For the rest of 207 00:16:36,720 --> 00:16:48,040 Speaker 1: Jean's childhood, the doll would not leave his side. Over time, 208 00:16:48,440 --> 00:16:51,520 Speaker 1: Jean would eventually grow up and be forced to leave 209 00:16:51,640 --> 00:16:57,200 Speaker 1: Robert behind. He studied art at Chicago's Academy of Fine Arts, 210 00:16:57,520 --> 00:17:02,000 Speaker 1: then joined the Art Students League in u He traveled 211 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:05,560 Speaker 1: through Spain and Italy before studying in Paris at the 212 00:17:05,600 --> 00:17:10,200 Speaker 1: Academy Julianne, following in the footsteps of his famous countrymen 213 00:17:10,600 --> 00:17:15,480 Speaker 1: James McNeil, Whistler and John Singer Sargeant. It was in 214 00:17:15,560 --> 00:17:19,000 Speaker 1: Paris that he met Annette Parker, a young woman from 215 00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:22,840 Speaker 1: Boston who'd moved to the city to study music. On 216 00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:28,160 Speaker 1: May third, nineteen thirty the two were married. Initially, they 217 00:17:28,240 --> 00:17:31,720 Speaker 1: moved back to New York City, where Annette or Anne 218 00:17:31,720 --> 00:17:34,639 Speaker 1: as she was known, performed as a pianist at the 219 00:17:34,680 --> 00:17:40,399 Speaker 1: revered Rainbow Rooms in the Rockefeller Centre. Jean continued to paint, 220 00:17:40,920 --> 00:17:43,919 Speaker 1: honing the skills that would make him an artist of 221 00:17:43,960 --> 00:17:48,879 Speaker 1: some latter renown. In nineteen thirty four, the young couple 222 00:17:49,080 --> 00:17:52,920 Speaker 1: decided to move to key West into Jean's family home, 223 00:17:53,280 --> 00:17:58,000 Speaker 1: which he renamed the Artist's House. Though five hundred thirty 224 00:17:58,040 --> 00:18:02,280 Speaker 1: four Eaton Street looked just as he remembered, in truth, 225 00:18:02,800 --> 00:18:07,480 Speaker 1: much had changed. His father, Thomas, had died in nineteen 226 00:18:07,560 --> 00:18:12,679 Speaker 1: seventeen at only fifty two years old. His mother, Minnie 227 00:18:12,760 --> 00:18:16,760 Speaker 1: was still living, though she suffered from mental decline during 228 00:18:16,800 --> 00:18:20,639 Speaker 1: her widowhood. By then, she had vacated the house and 229 00:18:20,760 --> 00:18:24,480 Speaker 1: lingered on as a frail facsimile of the woman she'd 230 00:18:24,520 --> 00:18:30,119 Speaker 1: been until her own death in nineteen forty five. Robert, though, 231 00:18:30,760 --> 00:18:35,240 Speaker 1: was very much still there, and when Jean returned home, 232 00:18:35,720 --> 00:18:40,760 Speaker 1: he quickly resumed his attachment to the doll. At dinner times, 233 00:18:41,200 --> 00:18:44,399 Speaker 1: Robert was afforded his own seat at the table, and 234 00:18:44,600 --> 00:18:48,160 Speaker 1: was even brought into the marital bed to lie beside 235 00:18:48,320 --> 00:18:52,800 Speaker 1: Jean and Anne. During the day, Jean propped Robert up 236 00:18:52,840 --> 00:18:57,000 Speaker 1: in an upstairs window facing the street. It wasn't long 237 00:18:57,080 --> 00:19:01,440 Speaker 1: before passing school children began to spread rumors about the dolls, 238 00:19:01,640 --> 00:19:07,840 Speaker 1: supposedly changing expressions and blinking eyes. Some even reported that 239 00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:11,760 Speaker 1: Robert would duck out of sight, only to reappear again 240 00:19:12,119 --> 00:19:18,119 Speaker 1: moments later. Anne quickly and understandably took a dislike to 241 00:19:18,160 --> 00:19:22,639 Speaker 1: the doll, and eventually Robert was dispatched back to the attic. 242 00:19:24,040 --> 00:19:28,080 Speaker 1: One day, when walking home, Anne looked up to see 243 00:19:28,119 --> 00:19:31,679 Speaker 1: the infernal doll staring at her from out of the 244 00:19:31,720 --> 00:19:36,679 Speaker 1: attic window. When she asked Jeane about it, he explained 245 00:19:36,760 --> 00:19:40,240 Speaker 1: simply that Robert had requested that if he were to 246 00:19:40,280 --> 00:19:43,000 Speaker 1: stay in the attic, did he at least have a 247 00:19:43,080 --> 00:19:56,720 Speaker 1: view of the street. Quite what the ensuing decades of 248 00:19:56,880 --> 00:20:00,920 Speaker 1: Jean and Anne Otto's married life was like is hard 249 00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:06,240 Speaker 1: to say. Stories persisted for years, such as Robert appearing 250 00:20:06,359 --> 00:20:11,120 Speaker 1: suddenly downstairs despite having seemingly been left in the attic. 251 00:20:12,320 --> 00:20:15,840 Speaker 1: Anne and Jean were also said to regularly find him 252 00:20:15,960 --> 00:20:18,760 Speaker 1: sitting in a rocking chair by a window on the 253 00:20:18,840 --> 00:20:24,400 Speaker 1: second floor. Despite it all, Jean never rid himself of Robert, 254 00:20:25,119 --> 00:20:28,680 Speaker 1: and until his death in nineteen seventy four, he would 255 00:20:28,680 --> 00:20:32,359 Speaker 1: often visit him in his attic room, even staying up 256 00:20:32,400 --> 00:20:36,200 Speaker 1: there to paint with him from time to time. When 257 00:20:36,280 --> 00:20:40,639 Speaker 1: Jean died, Anne quickly left the so called artist's house 258 00:20:40,920 --> 00:20:44,800 Speaker 1: and moved back to France and then Connecticut, where she 259 00:20:44,880 --> 00:20:49,360 Speaker 1: died in nineteen seventy nine. She did not take Robert 260 00:20:49,440 --> 00:20:54,479 Speaker 1: with her. After that, the aspirational former home of the 261 00:20:54,520 --> 00:20:59,160 Speaker 1: Ottos remained empty for a few years before it and 262 00:20:59,320 --> 00:21:03,280 Speaker 1: Robert were bought by a woman named Myrtle Reuters, who 263 00:21:03,320 --> 00:21:07,680 Speaker 1: rented it out to tenants. But according to local word, 264 00:21:08,320 --> 00:21:12,639 Speaker 1: Robert did not go quietly into the night after Jeanne's death. 265 00:21:13,880 --> 00:21:17,680 Speaker 1: One afternoon, a plumber working in the same room as 266 00:21:17,800 --> 00:21:21,800 Speaker 1: Robert claimed he heard giggling and turned to find the 267 00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:25,639 Speaker 1: doll had suddenly moved to the complete other side of 268 00:21:25,680 --> 00:21:30,440 Speaker 1: the room. Tenants regularly claimed to hear what they took 269 00:21:30,720 --> 00:21:35,160 Speaker 1: to be the sound of tiny, frustrated footsteps pounding down 270 00:21:35,240 --> 00:21:40,720 Speaker 1: from the attic. If anything, Robert's abandonment and as some 271 00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:46,359 Speaker 1: might say, his grief, seemed to have made him more malicious. 272 00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:51,160 Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy nine, Malcolm Ross, a reporter from Florida's 273 00:21:51,359 --> 00:21:56,360 Speaker 1: Lara's Hill newspaper, visited the artist's house to investigate all 274 00:21:56,400 --> 00:22:01,400 Speaker 1: the peculiar rumors. Accompanied by a friend, Ross ventured up 275 00:22:01,440 --> 00:22:03,840 Speaker 1: to the attic room at the top of the property 276 00:22:04,200 --> 00:22:07,960 Speaker 1: to pay Robert a visit, where he reported being riveted 277 00:22:08,160 --> 00:22:12,760 Speaker 1: by the doll's black marble eyes when we walked through 278 00:22:12,800 --> 00:22:16,760 Speaker 1: the door. Ross later wrote the look on Robert's face 279 00:22:17,160 --> 00:22:20,520 Speaker 1: was like a little boy being punished. It was as 280 00:22:20,560 --> 00:22:23,439 Speaker 1: if he was asking himself, who were these people in 281 00:22:23,520 --> 00:22:26,040 Speaker 1: my room? And what are they going to do to me? 282 00:22:27,240 --> 00:22:30,959 Speaker 1: Ross's friend then pointed to the well furnished room and 283 00:22:31,040 --> 00:22:35,320 Speaker 1: mocked what he saw as Jeane Otto's childish pandering to 284 00:22:35,400 --> 00:22:40,280 Speaker 1: the doll. Just then, the journalist looked back at Robert, 285 00:22:40,760 --> 00:22:45,040 Speaker 1: whose face, it seemed to him, had changed to exhibit 286 00:22:45,160 --> 00:22:49,680 Speaker 1: a very clear sense of disgust. There was some kind 287 00:22:49,760 --> 00:23:00,560 Speaker 1: of intelligence there. Ross wrote that doll was listening to us. 288 00:23:02,760 --> 00:23:05,960 Speaker 1: When Myrtle Reuter's moved out of the artist's house in 289 00:23:06,119 --> 00:23:11,040 Speaker 1: nineteen eighty, she took Robert with her. In nineteen ninety, four, 290 00:23:11,480 --> 00:23:14,960 Speaker 1: months before her death, she donated him to the local 291 00:23:15,280 --> 00:23:20,160 Speaker 1: Fort East Martello Museum known as the Fort for Robert. 292 00:23:20,480 --> 00:23:23,440 Speaker 1: This is a certain kind of homecoming, as it was 293 00:23:23,600 --> 00:23:27,800 Speaker 1: Jeane Otto who designed the museum's art gallery shortly after 294 00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:31,639 Speaker 1: his return to Key West. Many of his oil paintings 295 00:23:31,680 --> 00:23:37,040 Speaker 1: still hang there. But rather than calming the story surrounding Robert, 296 00:23:37,480 --> 00:23:41,560 Speaker 1: the move prompted a whole new evolution in his legend. 297 00:23:42,520 --> 00:23:46,960 Speaker 1: At first, the museum didn't put Robert on display, but 298 00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:51,400 Speaker 1: soon word got around about what they had, and after 299 00:23:51,520 --> 00:23:55,240 Speaker 1: frequent requests to see him, it was agreed that he 300 00:23:55,280 --> 00:23:59,520 Speaker 1: would be placed in a glass case for public viewings. 301 00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:04,000 Speaker 1: It's there now, on a miniature stool, his sailor outfit 302 00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:08,600 Speaker 1: now slightly yellowed, and his trusty Teddy Bear still in 303 00:24:08,640 --> 00:24:12,879 Speaker 1: the crook of his arm. Behind him. Written in chalk 304 00:24:12,960 --> 00:24:18,840 Speaker 1: on a blackboard are three simple rules. Anyone visiting Robert 305 00:24:19,080 --> 00:24:23,960 Speaker 1: must first greet and introduce themselves. They must never take 306 00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:29,119 Speaker 1: photographs of him without first asking permission, and before leaving, 307 00:24:29,800 --> 00:24:34,240 Speaker 1: they must say a form more goodbye. The rules are 308 00:24:34,320 --> 00:24:37,680 Speaker 1: enforced as best they can be by the museum staff. 309 00:24:38,280 --> 00:24:41,480 Speaker 1: Not for them, they say, but for the safety of 310 00:24:41,560 --> 00:24:46,520 Speaker 1: the museum's guests. To ignore or break them, some say, 311 00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:49,719 Speaker 1: risks what has come to be known as the Curse 312 00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:54,760 Speaker 1: of Robert, the doll misfortune that can follow the discourteous 313 00:24:54,880 --> 00:24:58,440 Speaker 1: guest home, no matter how far away that may be. 314 00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:03,320 Speaker 1: At first hearing, it sounds like a great marketing ploy, 315 00:25:04,040 --> 00:25:08,240 Speaker 1: the kind of story attached to macabre displays throughout history 316 00:25:08,640 --> 00:25:12,440 Speaker 1: as a way of selling tickets. But the museum also 317 00:25:12,520 --> 00:25:16,639 Speaker 1: displays the letters they've received from visitors over the past 318 00:25:16,760 --> 00:25:21,640 Speaker 1: three decades. Dozens are pinned to the wall of Robert's display. 319 00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:27,920 Speaker 1: Hundreds more are stored electronically, almost all of them offering 320 00:25:27,960 --> 00:25:33,520 Speaker 1: apologies and beg Robert for his forgiveness for their indiscretions. 321 00:25:34,400 --> 00:25:38,480 Speaker 1: One signed only with the name Lori Anne, relates how 322 00:25:38,520 --> 00:25:42,080 Speaker 1: the writer flouted the rules and tried to take photographs 323 00:25:42,119 --> 00:25:46,160 Speaker 1: of Robert without his permission. Each time she tried, a 324 00:25:46,160 --> 00:25:50,000 Speaker 1: brand new camera failed to capture the image, But when 325 00:25:50,080 --> 00:25:53,160 Speaker 1: Lori Anne turned to test the camera on the display 326 00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:58,280 Speaker 1: case opposite Robert, it apparently worked without a hitch. Only 327 00:25:58,720 --> 00:26:02,600 Speaker 1: when she got home, Lori Anne uploaded the photos and 328 00:26:02,720 --> 00:26:07,600 Speaker 1: saw that Robert's reflection was captured in the glass. From there, 329 00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:12,520 Speaker 1: lor Anne writes, it all went wrong. Her computer was 330 00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:17,080 Speaker 1: immediately infected with a devastating virus. She was hurt at 331 00:26:17,160 --> 00:26:20,520 Speaker 1: work and lost her job. Then she lost her new 332 00:26:20,600 --> 00:26:26,480 Speaker 1: truck and finally her home. The letter ends, I didn't 333 00:26:26,480 --> 00:26:31,200 Speaker 1: believe it before, but now I do. I apologize if 334 00:26:31,240 --> 00:26:42,400 Speaker 1: I upset you. Staff at the Fort Museum are equally 335 00:26:42,440 --> 00:26:46,800 Speaker 1: respectful and wary of Robert. There are still reports of 336 00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:51,840 Speaker 1: giggles emanating from empty rooms, and how Robert can sometimes 337 00:26:51,880 --> 00:26:56,600 Speaker 1: be found in different positions inside his glass case, without 338 00:26:56,600 --> 00:27:02,440 Speaker 1: the alarm ever being triggered. Goodelia Estevez, who worked as 339 00:27:02,440 --> 00:27:06,119 Speaker 1: a docent at the museum in the early two thousands, 340 00:27:06,119 --> 00:27:10,119 Speaker 1: told a PBS reporter how every morning she would open 341 00:27:10,160 --> 00:27:13,600 Speaker 1: the museum and make her presence known, as if she 342 00:27:13,640 --> 00:27:19,320 Speaker 1: were dealing with a potentially dangerous animal. However, Estevez said 343 00:27:19,359 --> 00:27:22,480 Speaker 1: that the atmosphere in the fort was at its strangest 344 00:27:22,520 --> 00:27:28,400 Speaker 1: and most chaotic when Robert was moved elsewhere. Every October 345 00:27:28,680 --> 00:27:32,640 Speaker 1: he would be temporarily relocated to the Key West Museum 346 00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:36,159 Speaker 1: of Art and History at the Customs House, and in 347 00:27:36,280 --> 00:27:42,480 Speaker 1: his absence things would escalate. The museum's cat would howl incessantly. 348 00:27:43,280 --> 00:27:49,520 Speaker 1: Staff reported physical pushes from assailants they couldn't see. Some years, 349 00:27:49,880 --> 00:27:53,680 Speaker 1: Robert had to be recalled early to settle things down. 350 00:27:54,880 --> 00:27:58,320 Speaker 1: It was as if he were happier there, Estevez said, 351 00:27:59,680 --> 00:28:03,119 Speaker 1: And he may be able to make some bittersweet sense 352 00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:06,919 Speaker 1: of that. Some morning, she says, she would open up 353 00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:10,920 Speaker 1: the museum and find an empty wooden chair in front 354 00:28:10,960 --> 00:28:14,679 Speaker 1: of Robert's case, as if someone had come to visit 355 00:28:15,200 --> 00:28:20,639 Speaker 1: His old friend. Jean Otto never quite matched the fame 356 00:28:20,720 --> 00:28:25,000 Speaker 1: of whistler or sergeant. Search his name now, and any 357 00:28:25,080 --> 00:28:29,040 Speaker 1: mention of his art is buried between a hundred references 358 00:28:29,240 --> 00:28:33,879 Speaker 1: to his infamous door. But Jean did have some remarkable success. 359 00:28:34,680 --> 00:28:38,000 Speaker 1: He returned from europe An artist already worthy of note, 360 00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:42,640 Speaker 1: and cemented his regional reputation as someone who could find 361 00:28:42,680 --> 00:28:46,600 Speaker 1: the essence of the Florida Keys in oil and canvas. 362 00:28:47,720 --> 00:28:51,520 Speaker 1: To possess one of his landscapes, said one nineteen fifty 363 00:28:51,520 --> 00:28:54,920 Speaker 1: four review, is to have an ever more beloved window 364 00:28:55,240 --> 00:29:00,280 Speaker 1: into mystical light flooded Key West. Jean was not just 365 00:29:00,320 --> 00:29:04,520 Speaker 1: a painter of landscapes, though, once he moved back to Florida, 366 00:29:04,800 --> 00:29:08,240 Speaker 1: he increasingly turned his hand to the art of still 367 00:29:08,360 --> 00:29:13,280 Speaker 1: life paintings. In December nineteen fifty three, the Key West 368 00:29:13,280 --> 00:29:17,880 Speaker 1: Tribune ran a feature on gene noting the ringing brilliance 369 00:29:18,200 --> 00:29:21,840 Speaker 1: of his depictions of porcelain and metal objects and the 370 00:29:21,960 --> 00:29:27,520 Speaker 1: highlighted realism of his fruits, fabric and flowers. Gene Otto, 371 00:29:27,880 --> 00:29:32,160 Speaker 1: the critic asserts, is not limited by narrowness of concept. 372 00:29:32,840 --> 00:29:37,520 Speaker 1: He finds loveliness and inspiration in the familiar and commonplace, 373 00:29:38,200 --> 00:29:43,040 Speaker 1: but translates it through his genius into a supreme experience. 374 00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:49,040 Speaker 1: Yet for all of that's skill and encompassing inspiration, there 375 00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:54,880 Speaker 1: is one thing that Gene never seems to have painted Robert. 376 00:29:56,560 --> 00:30:00,400 Speaker 1: Despite all the years they spent together, with Gene often 377 00:30:00,440 --> 00:30:03,680 Speaker 1: painting in the very attic room that he had fitted 378 00:30:03,720 --> 00:30:07,720 Speaker 1: out for his doll, not once did he take Robert 379 00:30:07,760 --> 00:30:12,120 Speaker 1: as his subject. Now that Gene is gone, no one 380 00:30:12,280 --> 00:30:16,720 Speaker 1: will ever know. Why was it the strange expression that 381 00:30:16,840 --> 00:30:22,080 Speaker 1: eluded him, the inscrutable, uncanny valley of the doll's face, 382 00:30:22,800 --> 00:30:27,160 Speaker 1: so reminiscent of but so far from human? Or was 383 00:30:27,200 --> 00:30:40,040 Speaker 1: it simply because Robert had never allowed it? This episode 384 00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:44,040 Speaker 1: was written by Neil McRobert and produced by me Richard 385 00:30:44,160 --> 00:30:48,120 Speaker 1: mclin Smith. Neil is the creator and host of his 386 00:30:48,200 --> 00:30:53,000 Speaker 1: own brilliant podcast called Talking Scared, in which he discusses 387 00:30:53,080 --> 00:30:56,920 Speaker 1: the craft of horror, writing with everyone from Tennanerieve Do 388 00:30:57,520 --> 00:31:01,400 Speaker 1: to the God of horror himself, Stephen King. I can't 389 00:31:01,400 --> 00:31:06,000 Speaker 1: recommend it highly enough. Unexplained as an AV Club Productions 390 00:31:06,040 --> 00:31:10,600 Speaker 1: podcast created by Richard McClain Smith. All other elements of 391 00:31:10,640 --> 00:31:14,040 Speaker 1: the podcast, including the music, are also produced by me. 392 00:31:14,320 --> 00:31:19,000 Speaker 1: Richard McClain Smith. Unexplained The book and audiobook is now 393 00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:23,440 Speaker 1: available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon, Barnes 394 00:31:23,480 --> 00:31:28,120 Speaker 1: and Noble, Waterstones, and other bookstores. Please subscribe to and 395 00:31:28,240 --> 00:31:31,520 Speaker 1: rate the show wherever you get your podcasts, and feel 396 00:31:31,560 --> 00:31:34,120 Speaker 1: free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas 397 00:31:34,480 --> 00:31:37,480 Speaker 1: regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you 398 00:31:37,520 --> 00:31:39,880 Speaker 1: have an explanation of your own you'd like to share. 399 00:31:40,520 --> 00:31:44,000 Speaker 1: You can find out more at Unexplained podcast dot com 400 00:31:44,040 --> 00:31:47,760 Speaker 1: and reach us online through Twitter at Unexplained Pod and 401 00:31:47,920 --> 00:32:21,160 Speaker 1: Facebook at Facebook dot com. Forward Slash Unexplained Podcast