PLEASE READ THIS WHOLE STORY! IT IS VERY IMPORTANT IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN THIS DOLL.
Author Anne Rice is one collector of such magnificent dolls and they can be seen on display at her Doll Museum in New Orleans . Once the site of the St. Elizabeth’s Orphanage, the building now houses Rice’s vast collection and other artistic works. It is interesting to note, however, that Rice once stated that she moved her doll collection to the centralized museum location because it basically bothered her to have them around her house. Prior to the opening of the museum, when she and husband Stan Rice were making one last walk-through, Rice is quoted as having said she “wouldn’t like to be locked in here all night with all of them [the dolls].” Not only are most of the dolls allegedly haunted, they are now housed in a verifiably haunted location.
For reasons unknown, dolls seem to attract spirits. More troubling, dolls seem to become easily imbued with the spirit of the child to whom it most closely connected. And there is ample evidence to at least provoke suspicion that some dolls stay connected via this childhood link for years, even generations after their childhood playmate has grown to adulthood or succumbed to early death.
There are a number of stories about the nanny, obviously the pivotal figure in this doll drama. Many say that, although she dearly loved young Marlene, she was mistreated and abused by her parents on a regular basis. Some versions of the tale have the nanny practicing the dark Voodoo arts and giving the doll to Marlene out of revenge for her ill treatment, but there is nothing to support this being the case. Evidently, Marlene received the doll, said to be a replica of her, as a gift of love. She promptly named it Adell.
To say that Adell stayed by Marlene's side is an understatement, for Marlene was never without the little plaything. She even dressed it in her own clothes and spent hours on end playing in her nursery with only the doll as company. It is said that she was often heard talking to the doll and answering herself in an entirely different voice. Marlene slept, ate and traveled with Adell by her side.
Within months after the arrival of the doll in the Otto household, strange things began to occur. Objects would go missing and turn up broken, Marlene took to the unhealthy habit of sneaking out of her window and wandering the grounds at night, and her parents began to suspect her of all kinds of mischief. If she was caught in the act, Marlene would always hold out Adell and say, “Adell did it!”
Although some dismissed the unusual events as the product of an overactive child, others close to the family began to whisper that somehow the doll was to blame.
Soon the doll apparently became bolder. It no longer seemed to require Marlene’s company to move about the house. In the still hours of the night, the servants would often wake to the sound of hollow, pattering footsteps. Too frightened to inspect the cause, they would usually cower in their beds until dawn. Weird humming and singing was heard to come from the nursery if Marlene inadvertently left Adell there alone. None of the servants was eager to clean Marlene’s rooms; nobody liked to turn their back on the doll.
As time went by, the Ottos grew older and each, in turn, died, leaving the adult Marlene – and Adell – to live in the house. They spent several years there alone until Marlene ultimately met and married a local socialite and took him home to live.
From the moment he arrived, the creepy doll disturbed Marlene's husband and eventually he prevailed upon his wife to put it away. Adell was relegated to rooms in the attic, where she was to remain – mostly – for the rest of Marlene Otto’s life.
“Mostly,” because, according to the stories, Adell often left the attic on her own. There are several accounts by the servants and Mrs. Otto herself of Adell being seen darting up and down the attic stairs. Mrs. Otto was often troubled by the sound of the doll’s dancing feet tapping the attic floor above her, and one time was alarmed to hear the doll’s voice singing in the old nursery. Upon entering, she found the doll sitting in one of Marlene’s old rocking chairs.
It was widely believed that the death of Marlene Otto in 1972 would put an end to the ghostly activity of the haunted doll. It was quickly learned, however, that true evil never dies, and while the house stood empty reports of the doll still continued. Many people would hear the sound of singing coming from the house at night and on more than one occasion the gruesome doll is said to have frightened school children by peering out the window in the attic turret and making faces at them.
Eventually, a new family purchased the old house and Adell the Doll was discovered in his attic home and was promptly presented to the family’s youngest daughter, then aged 10, as a housewarming gift.
From the moment she received the doll the child was plagued by horrible nightmares. More than once, she claims, she awoke to find the doll sitting on her face, attempting, she believed, to suffocate her. It seemed that Adell intensely disliked being left behind by Marlene and had no love for her new “owner.” It was also painfully obvious that she did not like little girls because she is blamed for having torn up and mutilated most of the young girl’s other dolls. When the family pet became mysteriously entwined in the cord of the nursery Venetian blinds, Adell was once again consigned to the attic.
When the family finally moved they left Adell in the attic, where MY mother found her. AND ADELL IS LIVING IN MY HOME. I HAVE NOT EXPERIENCED ANY NEGATIVE VIBES FROM ADELL, BUT I HAVE SEEN HER EYES MOVE ACROSS THE ROOM, AND SHE SEEMS TO MOVE FROM THE PLACES THAT I PUT HER.
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