Do you believe the curse really exists? Or do you believe that a curse can be attached to an object? In the world there are many objects that are believed to be covered with a curse, ranging from dolls that can move on their own, mummies and statues that bring death, to telephone numbers that claim the lives of their owners. Without further ado, here are the seven most cursed objects in the world, according to Zurogato.com:
Key Points:
1. Annabelle Doll
The first cursed item on this list is the Annabelle doll. Yes, that Annabelle, but this is the real one. Being the inspiration for the horror film Annabelle directed by John R. Leonetti, this doll is believed to be inhabited by the spirit of a 7 year old girl named Annabelle who died in a car accident.
The spooky story of the Annabelle doll, a Raggedy Ann Doll, begins in 1970, when this doll was given as a birthday present to its first owner, a nurse named Donna. Since the first day, Donna and her roommate, Angie, experienced many strange incidents. Starting from the position of the doll which often changes by itself, the doll moves from one room to another without anyone moving, enters Donna's tightly locked room, until the appearance of dried blood spots on the doll's hands and chest.
Not only that, after work Donna often found parchment paper with the words "Help Us" or other messages that seemed to have been written by a child with a pencil. This was surprising, since there were no small children there, and Donna, Angie, and Lou (Angie's fiancé who lived in Donna's apartment) had never bought or kept parchment paper.
The scariest incident was probably what Lou experienced. One night Lou wakes up to find the Annabelle doll looking at him sitting on the end of the bed. Startled, Lou tried to get up but his whole body couldn't move. Lou tried to scream for help but no sound came out of his mouth. And it went exactly like a scene in a horror movie, the Annabelle doll started slowly crawling up Lou's body, sitting on his chest, and choking Lou unconscious.
Worried about these increasingly strange and worrying events, Donna decided to hand over the Annabelle doll to Ed and Lorraine Warren, a married couple who are researchers of supernatural objects and paranormal activity, who then kept it in their museum, Ed and Lorraine Warren's Occult Museum.
According to the Warrens, as written in their book, The Demonologist, the Annabelle doll is believed to have resulted in at least one death. A young man was found dead after his motorbike crashed into a tree, three hours after this young man mocked and challenged the Annabelle doll to harm him if it really had supernatural powers. Although convincing, not a few are skeptical and doubt the truth of this story, considering that there is no factual evidence that can connect the young man's death with the Annabelle doll.
2. Basano Vase
The next cursed object is a silver vase dating from the 15th century. It is said that this vase was given to a bride-to-be in Italy as a wedding gift. Unfortunately, the wedding never happened. The bride was found murdered the night before the wedding with a Basano vase clutched tightly in her hand. Since that night, for the next five centuries, death after death has followed this vase wherever it goes.
Passed from one person to another in the bride's family, all Basano vase owners were found dead not long after possessing this vase. After death after death that was unreasonable, finally the bride's family decided to get rid of Basano's vase by burying it in an unknown place to prevent further victims from occurring. This method proved to be correct and the series of mysterious deaths stopped... until five centuries later.
In 1988, a man discovered a Basano vase by accident while digging a hole. Together with the Basano vase this man found a message saying 'Beware... This vase brings death'. Perhaps taking it as a joke, this man ignored this message and sold the Basano vase to the local auction house. At this auction house, the Basano vase was successfully sold for 4 million Lira and the curse of the death of the Basano vase which had fallen asleep for hundreds of years resumed.
The first death happened to the buyer of the Basano vase from the auction house, a local pharmacist, just 3 months after owning this vase. This vase was sold by the pharmacist's family to a 37-year-old doctor who died just a few months later. This vase was resold to an archaeologist who, as you might have guessed, died less than 3 months later from a mysterious illness.
Confused and terrified, the archaeologist's family ended up throwing Basano's vase out the window, literally. Police officers who happened to see this incident tried to return Basano's vase but were refused. Instead, they warned the policeman to throw away Basano's vase as soon as possible if he wanted to live longer.
The police then tried to give Basano vase to several museums, but the reputation of this vase had spread and none of the museums were willing to accept it. Running out of options, and fearing for his own safety, the cop finally put Basano vase in a tin box and buried it. It is not known exactly where this vase was buried, but since then the Basano vase has not been seen again, including the series of deaths associated with it. It's a relieved, and hopefully this time can stay that way forever.
3. Busby's Stoop Chair
At first glance this chair might look like an ordinary chair, but make no mistake, this wooden chair with the nickname Dead Man's Chair will kill anyone who dares to sit on it.
It is said that in 1702 Thomas Busby was sentenced to death after killing his father-in-law. As a final wish Busby asked to be allowed to drink in the pub where he usually spent time. This request was granted, and Busby spent his last moments drinking in the pub sitting in his favorite chair where he used to sit during his visits to this pub. After drinking, Busby stood up and uttered a curse, "May sudden death come to anyone who dares to sit in my chair". Busby was then escorted out of the pub and sentenced to be hanged shortly thereafter.
The Busby curse has come true. Since his death, the Busby's Stoop Chair, the chair where Busby sat in his final moments at the pub, has always claimed the lives of anyone who dared to sit on it. Like the death of two British air force pilots in 1967 shortly after sitting in this chair, or a cleaning service who was found dead after accidentally tripping and falling sitting on it.
The last death believed to be linked to this chair is that of a delivery man. While delivering orders, the courier sat in a Busby chair waiting for the pub owner. An hour later the courier was reported to have died horribly in a car accident.
After the courier's death, the owner of the pub turned over the Busby chair to the local Thirsk Museum, which has been home to the chair from 1978 to the present. To ensure that no one else sits on it, whether on purpose or not, the museum hung Busby's chair on the wall one and a half meters from the floor.
4. The Women from Lemb
Found in Lemb, Cyprus, Women from Lemb is a limestone statue believed to represent the fertility goddess of an ancient, long-lost civilization. If the goddess of fertility is generally synonymous with life, this statue of the goddess of fertility, which is estimated to have originated from 3500 BC, actually brought death to its owner.
Since it was discovered in 1878, at least 4 families have owned and been victims of this statue. The seven members of the family of Lord Elphont, the statue's original owner, all died within 6 years of purchasing the Women from Lemb statue. The second owner, Ivor Menucci and his entire family, died within four years. Tragic events continued and befell Lord Thompson-Noel, whose entire family also died within 4 years. The same fate befell Sir Alan Biverbrook, the last owner of this statue, in which he, his wife and their two daughters died for unknown reasons.
To stop the curse, and not to fall victim to it, Biverbrook's two surviving sons donated this statue to the Royal Scottish Museum in Edinburgh, Scotland. Has the curse stopped? Apparently not. Less than a year, the museum curator who handled this statue also became a victim. The curse only stopped after the museum placed the Women from Lemb statue in a thick glass box so that no one else could touch it.
5. Robert the Doll
Like Annabelle, this cursed thing takes the form of a doll. Known as Robert the Doll, this one-meter-tall cloth doll has a story that may be scarier than the Annabelle doll.
Being the inspiration for the creation of the character Chucky in the legendary horror film Child's Play, and his story was adapted into the film Robert and its four sequels, the story of Robert the Doll begins when this doll was presented to Robert Eugene Otto in 1904. Eugene, then 4 years old, soon become inseparable from this doll. He named the doll after himself, Robert, and their friendship continued until Eugene passed away in 1974.
Since the arrival of this doll, little Eugene and his family have experienced many strange events. The first event was when Eugene's parents were startled by screams for help and the sound of objects being slammed from their son's room. After successfully getting into Eugene's room which, although unlocked, somehow couldn't be opened, Eugene's parents found their child crying in fear in the corner of his room which was ravaged with a Robert doll sitting on the end of the bed. When asked, Eugene said that all of this was the work of Robert's doll.
Even though at first they didn't believe it and thought Eugene was lying, subsequent unreasonable events made Eugene's parents inevitably have to believe that there was something strange about this doll. Like when they heard the voice of Eugene and other voices talking in the room even though after opening there was no one else in the room besides Eugene and his doll, Robert the Doll's facial expressions could change according to the conversations of the people around it, or Robert the Doll who can move around by itself.
It's not just Eugene and his parents who have experienced this doll oddity. When Eugene grew up and married, Robert the Doll was placed in the windowed attic on the top floor of Eugene's house. By Eugene this loft was specially designed for Robert, complete with furniture, toys and teddy bears. At the request of Anne, Eugene's wife, Robert is always placed in a locked box, but somehow this doll always manages to get out and is seen sitting in the attic window. Neighbors and passersby chose to avoid this house, because this doll could suddenly disappear from the window and then reappear while facing the other way, or the doll's head spinning to follow those who passed while staring at them fixedly. That's not all, those who have visited this house claim to have heard footsteps coming from the attic where Robert the Doll lived alone, and that things in this house seem to move on their own.
After Eugene and his wife died, their home was purchased by Myrtle Reuter who then donated the Robert doll to the local museum in 1994. Although not as frequent as before, strange and unexplainable events still haunt Robert the Doll to this day. Starting from the museum lights which suddenly flickered on their own for no apparent reason, the visitors' cameras which were suddenly damaged but strangely able to return to normal after leaving the museum, reports from museum employees and visitors who claimed to have seen this doll's expression change, to reports from museum guards who claimed to hear the sound of a child giggling from the Robert doll case even though the museum was empty.
If interested, you can see this doll in person at the East Martello Museum, Key West, Florida, US. However, it is advised to be polite to this doll during your visit and be sure to ask permission before you take photos.
6. Otzi the Iceman
The next cursed object might not be properly described as an object, because it is a human mummy. Discovered by accident in the Alps after being buried in ice for thousands of years, the mummy known as Otzi the Iceman remains a topic of conversation to this day, due to being the oldest naturally preserved mummy ever found, and the unnatural deaths of those involved in its discovery.
Since its discovery on September 19, 1991, at least seven deaths have been recorded which are believed to be related to this mummy. The first death occurred just a year after Otzi's discovery. Rainer Henn, the head of the forensic team that examined Otzi, as well as the person who put Otzi in the body bag during the evacuation, died in a car accident when he was about to speak at a convention about Otzi.
The second death occurred the following year. Kurt Fritz, the mountaineer who guided the forensic team to the location where Otzi was found, died while leading the group of climbers due to an avalanche. Surprising, considering that Fritz was an experienced climber who knew the area so well, and because Fritz was the only person in the party that was hit by an avalanche.
Not long after Fritz's death, Rainer Hoelzl, Austrian journalist and the only person allowed to document the process of removing Otzi's mummy, died at the age of 47 due to a brain tumor. Hoelzl's death was only a few months after he released a one-hour documentary about Otzi's discovery.
The next victim was Helmut Simon, the person who found Otzi's mummy. Simon was reported missing in the Alps in October 2004, and after eight days of searching his body was found in a pathetic condition after falling from a height of more than 90 meters. Not only that, Dieter Warnecke, head of the rescue team sent to find Simon, died of a heart attack an hour after Simon's funeral.
The following year, the archaeologist who first examined Otzi's body, Konrad Spindler, died of complications from multiple sclerosis. This death occurred not long after Spindler openly ridiculed rumors of Otzi's curse, “It's all media hype. The next thing you're going to say, I'm going to be the next (victim)," Spindler told the media, and that's what happened.
The last victim, Dr. Tom Loy, was a member of the team that carried out DNA analysis on Otzi and was the person who succeeded in proving that Otzi was killed and not due to natural factors as previously thought. This discovery of Otzi's alleged death was groundbreaking, and Loy was close to finishing a book on the subject when he was found dead in his Brisbane home.
Is the death of these seven people really caused by a curse attached to Otzi? Or is everything just a media sensation like Spindler said? No one can answer for sure. But it's not easy not to suspect that, considering that apart from Warnecke, the other six victims were all directly related to the discovery of Otzi the Iceman.
7. Phone number 0888-888-888
Unlike the previous cursed object, the last cursed object on the list of the seven most cursed objects in the world is not physically tangible but in the form of a cellphone number. Released by Mobitel, a mobile service provider from Bulgaria, this number is scary because it is believed to be the cause of loss of life for all who have owned it.
Since its launch in 1995, this telephone number has changed hands three times. Vladimir Grashnov, the first owner and former CEO of Mobitel who ordered the issuance of this number, died of cancer in 2001 at the age of 48. Although they failed to reveal the culprit, the results of the investigation believe that Grashnov's cancer was caused by poisoning with radioactive materials that had been deliberately given by his business rivals. In other words, Grashnov's cause of death is believed to be murder.
The fate of the second owner, Konstantin Dimitrov, a mafia boss, is not much different. Dimitrov, who was then 31 years old, died miserably at the hands of an assassin in 2003 while dining with a model.
The death of the third and last owner of this number, a businessman named Konstantin Dishliev, was as unnatural as the two previous owners. Dishliev lost his life in a shooting case in front of an Indian restaurant in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, in 2005, not long after taking ownership of this number.
Regardless of whether this telephone number is truly cursed or just a coincidence, since the death of the last owner this telephone number has been permanently deactivated by Mobitel for "security" reasons.
