The Low Budget Ghost Squad Presents... Very Scary Stories....and a Few Urban Legends That Still Scare Me to This Day

Things That Go Bump in the Night - In this week's collection of tales, hear about a possessed doll, a cursed bridge and what a babysitter saw that had her freaking out.  The Low Budget Ghost Squad is excited to share these and all of the spooky tales this Halloween season.  We are hard at work on Season Two from the Lord Baltimore Hotel - it's going to be fun!  Warning:  Some stories may be a little intense.  Trigger Warning:  Reference to suicide in one story

Check out videos and photos from our trips to haunted hotels and our Scary Stories!
Instagram: @LowBudgetGhostSquad
YouTube: @LowBudgetGhostSquad
Facebook: Low.Budget.Ghost.Squad

Transcript

We’re all afraid of things that go bump in the night.

And it seems like, doesn’t it, that everything seems a little louder in the dark.

You know, you’re lying in bed and you’re thinking about, I don’t know possessed dolls, creepy clowns.  Maybe you will be after this week’s episode.  Welcome to The Low Budget Ghost Squad Presents:  Very Scary Stories and a Few Urban Legends that still scare me to this day.  

I’m Natalie

I’m Alison

And I’m Ethan.  During October we’ve been bringing you a different set of tales every single Monday.

Today is our final one for the Halloween season and we’ve saved some of our favorites for you.

I want to warn you that some of these stories are little intense, and I’ll just say it a little scary.  It doesn’t take much to scare me though.  I just wanted to give everybody a warning because here we go.

Nat:  ethan, I think we need to start with Robert the doll.

Ethan: I love this story.  An 8 year old kid named Robert eugene otto, that was his real name but he went by gene… he was given this doll that he named Robert.  This was in the early 1900’s in key west florida. There are different stories about this doll.  But one says his grandfather got it from a German company.  

Alison:  another story says – the family’s housekeeper allegedly practiced voodoo magic and got fired for it.  But she before she left she gave gene Robert the doll – as kind of a punishment against the family.

Nat:  so Robert the doll wears a sailor suit – that was supposedly gene’s.  he…or I should say it… is about three feet tall.  So if you think about it he’s kind of big for a doll. And I read this one description about Robert – he’s holding a toy dog, covered in small marks that seem to appear a little too like scars, with small beady eyes and a smirk on his face.

Ethan:  here are some the stories about Robert – gene’s family would hear him talking to Robert –– but this deep strange voice would be heard talking back to him. Gene’s parents would sometimes wake up hearing gene scream and they would find him huddle in the corner with all the furniture turned over.  And all there was Robert would sit there at the foot of his bed, just staring, as if he was listening to him.

Alison: other toys would be torn up and weird things happen – but gene would always say – Robert did it.

Ethan: people that would walk by would claim to see a doll moving from one window to the other.

Nat: I don’t know if I would walk by that house anymore. But ok - so from what we can tell, the family never tried to get rid of Robert…like I would have.  Instead they moved him to the attic. And he was up there for years.  Strange noises like footsteps would be heard from parts of the house that should have been empty. and the servants that they had would start quitting left and right.

Alison: and they would hear giggling from upstairs in the attic in the middle of the night.  So we’re not saying there.

Ethan: but I want to

Alison: no

Nat:  I should tell you that the house is now a B&B FYI

Ethan:  gene’s family eventually died.

Alison: I don’t think it was anything sinister – I think they were just 90.  

Nat:  but there was an evil doll involved….so…… I don’t know.

Ethan: so gene eventually inherited the house, not sure how old he was, but he was a grown man and he brought Robert the doll back downstairs and put him in his bedroom on the second floor.  I think it was his old bedroom, not sure.

Ethan: he kept the doll propped up in the window and kids would be scared to walk by because they claimed they saw the doll just disappear and then suddenly reappear.

Alison: then at some point he got married.

Ethan: and I don’t really think the wife liked Robert the doll that much.

Alison: would you?

Nat:  and the doll got sent back to the attic…again, how about we just get rid of it.

Ethan:  you’ve seen that movie – that won’t work.  He’ll just come back. Like chuckie.

Alison:  he’d be dressed in his sailor suit with his tiny dog toy and not overalls.

Nat: some reports allege that gene spent the rest of his days in his room.  Painting. With Robert the doll by his side.

Alison: and allegedly his wife died a few years later – again, I’m assuming she was still living in that house with Robert the doll.

Ethan: so after both of them are gone and I think someone else was living there, but they starting hearing footsteps in the attic.

Nat: and there’s one version out there that one day there was a plumber in the house and he claimed he heard giggling and turned around …. What did he see?  That doll had moved across the room by itself.   No thank you.

Ethan: one guy said he was in front of Robert and his buddy was telling him the story of the doll…and he claims that robert’s expression changed, as if he was following his conversation.  One of the guys criticized gene and then robert’s expression looked mad.

Alison:  one of the men said - There was some kind of intelligence there. The doll was listening to them.

ethan: so then in 1974 – the house gets sold and the new owner claimed Robert would be in different places than where she last left him.

nat: I don’t know why she’s keeping him there, but allegedly…and I stress allegedly because it’s just this lore that’s out there.  they’d see a different expression on his face, so she donated it to a museum – where Robert lives today. 

Alison: but you know it doesn’t end there.

Ethan: according to several sites – some people who have worked at the museum said they’ve heard footsteps at night – when it couldn’t have been any else because it’s at night and it’s closed.  Cameras and other devices will sometimes malfunction around him.

Alison:  and you’re supposed to ask permission to take a picture of him.  not from museum staff, but from Robert – the himself.

Nat:  and you’re supposed to speak to him politely…or else.

Ethan:  people that don’t claim they have freaky car accidents after they leave, they lose their job…maybe get a divorce.. stuff like that.

Alison:  I don’t know if we can blame all that on Robert. That could be a you problem.

Nat:  ahhh, ok so we told them about the curse, now we have to tell them about the letters.  people send letters to Robert – but they’re apology letters.

Ethan:  they tell him they’re sorry for being so rude around him…. and they hope he’ll lift the curse that he once put on them.

Nat: if you want to see Robert the doll for yourself…. It’s at the fort east Martello museum – and you can see some of those apology letters too because they’re posted up in his little glass display.  I guess he can read them.

Ethan:  but remember – be nice to him…or else.

Let’s go to Mississippi – and the ghost of deer island.   These two fishermen were on the island when they heard something coming from the bushes.

Ethan: They thought it was just a couple of wild hogs…

Alison: which would be scary enough if it had been hogs.

Ethan:  but that sounds started growing louder.

Nat: so they went over there…not saying I would have done that, but there they go to check things out.

Alison: and there. was. A. headless. Skellington. 

Nat: skeleton.

Ethan: did you say Skellington?

Alison: skeleton – I love the Nightmare Before Christmas, my bad y’all.  Yes a headliess skeleton.

Ethan: and it was just standing there

Nat: I mean what else is it going to do, I guess now these two guys took off running…which I can’t blame them and there was this skeleton, headless, running after them.

Ethan: they got away, but the story is based on an old pirate story.

Nat: so the captain of a pirate ship went to Biloxi bay to bury a bunch of gold – and he took two of his fellow pirates with him. – now for some reason he killed one of them and left the body behind so he could guard the treasure.  

Alison: Now, how was he going to guard the treasure?  He’s dead.  But apparently it worked because now there’s some headless skeleton running around.

Nat: Other people claim to back this story up. if you’ve seen a headless skeleton running around in the Biloxi area you let me know.

Nat: also in Biloxi…maybe you’ve seen the firewater ghost.  It’s a blue light that moves over Biloxi bay…

Ethan: now one of the people who talked about seeing a headless skeleton also claims he’s seen the firewater ghost.  That was in the 1890s.  they claim they were rowing in a boat at 2 in the morning for some reason…and there was the blue light.

Nat: supposedly that light is a sentry who patrolled the bay using a lantern to light his way…. I can see that..  So the same goes as for the headless skeleton, if you see the blue light, the firewater ghost – let us know!  That was from the site ExploreSouthernHistory.com – quite fitting.

So many ghost stories seem to be centered around some weird bridge in the middle of nowhere – I don’t know why.  But we do know of one story that we want to share of a bridge in Asheville nc – called helen’s bridge.

It was built around 1909…something like that.

And it connects this big mansion to the rest of the city.

Now this mansion was called Zealandia – I believe I’m saying that correctly because the guy who built it had spent years in new zealand and came back home to Asheville.

This is on top of beaucatcher mountain.  I just love saying that. 

So eventually he died…and somebody got this big ol house.

We have seen three versions of this story – and I just want to warn you that overall this is really kind of a sad story that doesn’t have a good ending. But it is an interesting ghost story.  So just a fair warning before we start.

You have helen who moved to Asheville with her baby daughter.  Helen is cooking something, there’s a fire and she rushed into the baby’s room to get her, but then helen couldn’t get out.  firefighters finally reached helen and saved her – but they couldn’t save her daughter.  And when she learned about that…she was devastated, was depressed and one day she was walking on beaucatcher mountain – now she ended up dying there at the bridge.  Now we’re not going to go into what she did here in this podcast. 

Another version says – she was at Zealandia when a fire broke out there.  you see some man who was at the mansion (not going to speculate who that was)…but he had invited her to a party…but she was hesitate to go because she had her daughter.  The guy says – bring her.  she can sleep in one of the rooms.  Well, fire breaks out and helen can’t save her daughter.  Like the last version, Same deal…. 

And then I read this version - – heads up – it’s a little racier.

Helen was living at Zealandia, and was having an affair with somebody. Don’t know who that was.  But low and behold she was pregnant.  And that guy – didn’t want to have anything to do with her.  at the time, this would have been super scandalous.  And she was so distraught about it, you know what happened.

But with all those versions of events – the one constant is that she died on that bridge.

And some have said – she could still be there.  they’ve heard screams.  Others have claimed to have seen her.  searching for her baby – then, she’s gone.

One story I read said she’s actually talked to some people.

Others have seen a shadow figure.  Let’s just hope it’s Helen and not some weirdo. Anyway, we were told – you have to go to the bridge.  Turn off your car and yell for her – helen!  We heard just once was enough, but another web site says you have to do it three times.

Maybe you’ll see her, maybe not.  But supposedly many a person has had car trouble after that.  Their car batteries are dead (or maybe they just have my car battery that’s always a problem.)

We tried to find helen’s bridge.  What were we going to do there.  I don’t know.  

We drove up beaucatcher mountain… skinny little roads with these dramatic drop-offs on the side where you look straight down the mountain.

And we kept going… and going.

it was on our navigation map – but we never did see it.  

And we kept looking and looking.

There were write ups about people walking there so I’m assuming it still exists.  maybe it’s nestled somewhere where the road doesn’t go anymore.  

Maybe we have no sense of direction which is highly likely.

We were ready to call her – once twice three times – didn’t matter.  But I was for sure if helen had answered… my car would have died, and maybe me too.

I think this next story is one of our favorites that we found when we were researching all these crazy stories.  So here we go.

this 16 year old girl had this babysitting job.  And you know nothing good can come out of these when you’re telling scary stories.  She gets to the house where she’s going to be babysitting and meets the family.  Two kids seem sweet.  So are Mom and dad.  But it gets weird because the parents say – hey, after the kids go to sleep we’d really prefer you to watch tv in our bedroom because the kids have been waking up screaming lately and so if you’re up there – you’ll be close by. 

Right from the get-go I would have thought that was weird.

 but no one ever realizes there actually in a horror movie until it’s too late.   I go on…. The kids go to sleep.  Everything seems ok, until one of them says right before they’re about to fall asleep– please don’t let that clown get us tonight.

and she didn’t leave right then and there.

no she didn’t leave… she puts them to bed and then goes into the parents’ bedroom and wants to watch television.

again, strange.

Alison:  yes…so she’s in there and notices this bizarro clown statue in the corner of their bedroom.  It’s the creepiest thing you’ve ever seen.  And she feels like it’s staring at her.  but stupidly she doesn’t do anything about it.

like leave.

 I will say, she at least throws a blanket over it so it isn’t looking at her at least.  Her cell phone rang at that moment. She answers it.  It’s the parents – you know, checking on things.  She says everything is ok…but I do have to say that that clown statue – it’s been freaking me out so I covered it up with a blanket.  I hope you don’t mind.

And there was silence on the other end.  

And the girl heard the mom say – uhhh, we don’t have a clown statue.

Gasp.

She slowly turns around…. And there was a blanket…on the floor.  But where was the clown?

Oh my god. Oh my god.

Ok so this entire time I’ve been picturing Kyle’s clown.

Kyle is our neighbor and he has this, I don’t know, this scary clown statue that he puts up every Halloween and it’s funny because some years he’ll move it around every night so it’s always in a different place and you think that thing’s moving around…and you know what… it kind of looks like he’s looking at you.

And if you want to see a picture of kyle’s clown go to our Instagram and facebook pages - At the low budget ghost squad and you can follow our youtube channel with the same name.

We hope you have enjoyed the collection of tales we put together for you this Halloween season – especially this week’s things that go bump in the night. We are hard at work to bring you season two – our latest adventure at a haunted hotel.  this time it’s at the lord Baltimore hotel.  Beautiful old hotel…with a few ghosts who don’t want to leave.  But at least spirit there wanted us to get out– here’s a preview of Ethan’s reaction to what happened in the ballroom. And this is an actual recording taken outside that room taken in the hotel.

So come here…how do you feel about what just happened in there?  I do actually believe that there is an angry spirit in there that is really mad at us because every single time we’ve been in there it’s been freakishly cold we’ve always got answers like ‘get out” and don’t come back. Like I said it’s gotten freakishly cold.  I don’t like it in there.

You know what’s funny, as I’m listening to it to put together this podcast I hear something that I don’t remember hearing when we were there.  and we’ll talk more about that in season two. 

We’re hoping to have that ready for you for next month, but be sure to follow us wherever you get your podcasts so you can be among the first to hear what happened at the lord Baltimore hotel.

Oh course the Low Budget Ghost Squad is part of Spellbound Productions.  Mom did the writing, editing, directing, producing and telling us what to do.  Thank you to Lucinda Peterson for art work for the show.  And thank you to Alison and Ethan for teaching us… if you have a scary doll in your house – just get rid of it.