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10 Objects Believed To Be Haunted
Friday, September 28, 2012 7:15
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With the popularity of ghost-hunter shows on television, it’s clear that people want to believe. Most people associate hauntings with houses, castles and other things that go bump in the night, but hauntings can include objects, like the oft-mentioned Hope Diamond, tchotchkes available in antique shops, or even items on eBay. In fact, hauntings have gone so mainstream that eBay has a “Guide to Buying Haunted Items.” But are these items really haunted, or just objects imbued with good stories to help make a quick buck?
Crying Boy Painting
Painted by Bruno Amadio, “The Crying Boy” painting isn’t just one painting, but a mass-produced print with numerous alternative versions, all with young boys or girls crying, distributed in the 1950s. The haunting stories began in the 1980s after a fireman in England claimed he kept coming across the paintings in burned houses, except the paintings were remarkably untouched. People who owned the painting found their houses burned down. It reached such a fervor that newspaper The Sun
gave readers a chance to bring in the paintings and destroy them in a bonfire. Psychics claim the painting is haunted by the spirit of the boy or girl it depicts. Supposedly, to lift the curse, you must hang a boy and girl crying together, or like the movie “The Ring,” give the painting to another person. Comedian Steve Punt had another theory: many of the paintings came from one person who never liked the picture and saw a good opportunity to get rid of it
Robert the Doll
Once owned by painter Eugene Otto, the doll is allegedly cursed. Otto got the doll as a gift in 1906 from a servant who was supposedly skilled in black magic. Neighbors reported seeing the doll moving from window to window. Otto would scream at night and claim the doll turned over furniture. When he died in 1974, the doll fell into the hands of a 10-year-old girl who also screamed at night and claimed that the doll tried to kill her. Robert is now in the Fort East Martello Museum and Gardens in
Key West, Fla., where guests can take a picture with him. A word of warning: you must ask nicely, or Robert will curse you. Was this doll the inspiration for Talky Tina from “The Twilight Zone,” perhaps?
Chairs of the Gothic Ballroom of Belcourt Castle
Located in Newport, R.I., the castle was completed after three years of construction and opened in 1895. It now conducts ghost tours and visitors claim that when they are near two chairs in particular, they feel chills. Some, when trying to sit in the chairs, feel resistance and may even find themselves on the floor. Is it possible they were touched by spirits, or just stupidity?
Fascinating stories. The next time you see a crying boy painting… RUN! -Mort
