Chilling history behind the haunted Annabelle doll as its tour across the US sparks frenzied panic

Daily Mail​

28-05-2025

Most people have heard of the haunted Annabelle doll from the wildly popular horror flick The Conjuring.
And while a tale of a possessed doll wreaking havoc on an innocent family seems like one that was cooked up for the big screen, it's actually said to be based off of true events.
In fact, the Annabelle doll has its own long and twisted history... from claims that it 'physically attacked' someone to rumors that a man died in a horrific motorcycle crash after he taunted it.
Famous paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren came into possession of the doll in the 1970s after two young nurses reached out begging for help.
They claimed the doll, which had been a birthday gift, was wreaking havoc on their lives, placing handwritten eerie messages around their home, moving on its own, and even leaving horrific scratch marks on one of their boyfriends.
The Warrens took it off their hands, and upon investigating, the couple became convinced that a 'demonic' force was possessing the doll.
According to a biographer who studied their case files, the Warrens claimed to have witnessed frightening and even life-threatening mishaps whenever it was around.
Eventually, they deemed it so dangerous that they built a special case to store it in, and warned that it should never be opened again.
In the years since then, it has sat behind glass in the Warrens museum, but some horror fans who traveled just to get a glimpse of the infamous doll have claimed that weird stuff started to happen to them afterwards.
Now, the allegedly paranormal doll is in the midst of a tour across the globe... and it may be coming to your city soon.
That's right, the doll was recently removed from its sacred case - despite previous warnings from the Warrens - and will be making its way around the country, and the news has launched massive panic online.
To make matters worse, rumors recently erupted that the doll went 'missing,' and some have pointed out that bad stuff happened in the towns she visited - like a fire breaking out and inmates escaping from a local prison.
It's certainly up to you whether or not you believe the stories that surround the child's toy... but amidst the tour, we figured it would be best if you were informed on the Annabelle doll's dark past.
Here's everything we know about the supposedly haunted toy.
Two nurses claimed the doll wreaked havoc on their lives in the 1970s before turning to the Warrens for help
According to biographer Gerald Brittle's book The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren, the Warrens first came across Annabelle in 1970 after a priest called and asked for their assistance.
They were told that two young nurses believed a human spirit was possessing their doll and were desperate for help.
During a taped meeting with the Warrens, one of the nurses, named Deirdre, explained that the doll was gifted to her for her 28th birthday by her mother, per Gerald's book.
She told the couple that it started 'moving around their apartment by itself' soon after, and leaving eerie, handwritten notes that said 'help me.'
'She moves. She acts alive,' Deirdre said. 'When we'd come home from work it would never be quite where we left it.'
Her roommate, Lara's boyfriend, Cal, even alleged that he had been 'physically attacked' by the toy.
He said during a taped interview with the Warrens, 'As I got close to the doll, I got the distinct impression that somebody was behind me. I swung around...'
Lara interjected, 'When Cal turned around there wasn't anybody there, but he suddenly yelled and grabbed for his chest.
'He was doubled over, cut, and bleeding when I got to him. Blood was all over his shirt.
'Cal was shaking and scared and we went back out into the living room. We then opened up his shirt and there on his chest was what looked to be a sort of claw mark.'
The women said they had hired a medium who told them that a little girl named Annabelle had died on their property years prior.
They came to believe she was possessing the doll, but after investigating, Ed said they had been 'duped' and that there was no Annabelle.
He believed the doll was 'taken over by something inhuman' and 'demonic' instead.
According to the book, Ed and Lorraine brought in a priest who performed an exorcism, and they took the doll to their house to investigate further.
Terrifying near-death experience led to the Warrens locking Annabelle up for good in a sealed case... warning that it should never be opened again
But the hauntings allegedly didn't stop there, as they claimed that their car continuously 'stalled' and the steering and breaks 'failed' on the drive home, per Gerald's book.
They said they had to throw 'holy water' onto the doll in order to get home safely.
They also alleged that they called in a man named Father Daniel to help, but that he nearly lost his life after he didn't take the doll seriously.
He reportedly 'picked up the doll' and said, 'You're just a rag doll, Annabelle, you can't hurt anything,' before he 'tossed it back on the chair,' according to the Warrens' biography.
That night, he is said to have called Lorraine and told her, 'The brake system failed [on my car on the way home]. I was almost killed in a traffic accident. My car is a wreck.'
Ed also claimed the doll levitated in front of him and constantly moved around their home before they decided to lock it up indefinitely.
They had a special wooden and glass case constructed specially for the doll, and stored it away in their Occult Museum in Monroe, warning that it should never be opened.
Visitor who 'taunted the doll' while visiting the Warrens' museum allegedly died in a horrific crash on the way home
It wasn't until decades later when The Conjuring was released in 2013 that the world's fascination with the doll erupted.
The creepy toy was featured heavily in the horror flick, and it was so successful, it ultimately inspired the spinoff Annabelle series that contained three more films.
Immediately, the public became fiercely intrigued by the doll and its history - and some would even travel far and wide to get a chance to see it at the Warrens' museum.
But according to a family member of the Warrens, tragedy struck when one visitor didn't treat the doll with respect.
It's been said that the guest knocked on the glass case and taunted the doll before he was thrown out of the museum.
But on his way home, he got into a fatal motorcycle accident, per the Warrens' son-in-law Tony Spera.
'It's probably the most dangerous artifact we have here in the museum. It's responsible for we believe the death of a young man who came on a motorcycle and challenged that doll to do its worst and it did,' Tony told WTNH in 2016.
The name of the alleged crash victim was never shared so we weren't able to verify Tony's claims.
One horror buff wrote in an essay in 2019 that her life turned into a 'nightmare' after she met the doll and 'mocked it' in her head.
'It was surreal to be standing next to her. At this point, I was on cloud nine at the idea of being in the same room with such an infamous object,' she wrote on the site WickedHorror.com.
'But somehow, my mind slipped into a dark place and I mocked her. In my mind, I thought about how hideous she looked inside her box.
'However, it never occurred to me that I could bring something home with me. And for the next year and a half, I was stuck in a living nightmare.'
She claimed that for months afterwards, she had a string of bad incidents plague her life and that she would wake up with unexplainable pain in her stomach most nights.
'I heard constant creaking. I was regularly sick. I heard noises coming from inside my walls. My eyes played tricks on me in the dark,' she continued.
'How can one person have this much bad luck? The only thing I could think of to explain my string of misfortune was Annabelle. It had to be her.'
She warned, 'Tread lightly, and whatever you do – don't mock her.'
Panic erupted as Annabelle 'headed out on a tour' across the US, with some claiming a fire broke out and inmates escaped from prison after she visited the city
Due to her popularity, the Annabelle doll was recently removed from the secured case she was displayed in for years so she could be included as part of the travelling US exhibition Devils on the Run.
The tour kicked off earlier this month, but things to a dark turn when visitors at a recent stop on the tour claimed the three-foot-tall doll wasn't anywhere to be found, sparking a panic and fear online.
Terror grew when a fire broke out the historic Nottoway Resort in White Castle, Louisana, and 10 inmates escaped from a prison in New Orleans just days after Annabelle was displayed in the state.
However, after countless rumors and terrified fans, New England Society for Psychic Research's lead investigator Dan Rivera came forward to debunk the theories in a TikTok video earlier this week.
'I'm here at the museum right now, and I just wanna show you guys that Annabelle is in the Warrens' Occult Museum. Let's go inside and let's check,' he began the video.
As he weaved his way through he exhibits, he approached the doll sitting in her secured wooden case.
'Annabelle is not missing. She is not in Chicago. She has never been missing,' he added.
The tour is still underway as he ended the video by reminding horror fans that they would get the chance to see the 'possessed' toy at the Rock Island Roadhouse Esoteric Expo in Illinois on October 4.
She will also be on display in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, from July 11-13.