In New Orleans, there is a story about an evil child, who was said to have been the son of Marie Laveau , a famous voodoo priestess, and whose godmother was said to have been the ominously famous Mrs. LaLaurie . This baby is said to have lived in the French Quarter for a few years, and rumor has it that he still roams there, at least in spirit, haunting the narrow alleys of the old town.
In the previous century, there were many representations of this child, the oldest of which were cut from dried gourds. These primitive dolls were often hung from the windows of Creole huts in the hope of scaring away the real evil baby who was supposed to lie in wait for his victims in the dark. Sometimes elaborately carved evil dolls, with horns and braided jute tails, adorned the steps of those who feared voodoo reprisals. It is said that Marie Laveau disliked these depictions, which highlighted her true evil child, and that she frowned when she saw them.
Nowadays, these old representations of the demonic baby of Marie Laveau are extremely rare and it is difficult to estimate how many remain in circulation because few boast of owning them.
However, in the early 20th century, new versions of the doll began to appear in New Orleans. These interpretations looked like real dolls, they were able to stand on their own, their limbs were movable and they were dressed in real children's clothes. Nevertheless, the Devil's baby's face still remained the same, with its glassy eyes and small protruding horns on its forehead. These dolls really looked like evil babies, and because of this, some cared for them like children. They were the first dolls to truly have a haunting reputation. They were sold on the black market, in the old town, and to obtain one, it was necessary to be part of the voodoo community. As bad luck seemed to follow her dolls, some claimed that a curse had been placed on them by Marie Laveau herself. Unfortunately, none of these dolls seem to have survived this period and only a few remains can testify to their existence.
Recently, various articles about Marie Laveau's diabolical baby and its different representations appeared on the Internet, inspiring Richardo Pustanio, a local artist, who managed to obtain the remains of the famous doll. From these relics, he recreated the original doll, trying to best reflect its look and style. But, very quickly, these new replicas of the diabolical baby, similar in all respects to those sold on the black market in the last century, were the target of rumours. Apparently something was wrong with these dolls.
The hands of these demonic children seemed to have a life of their own, and their eyes seemed to follow you as you moved around the room they were in. If several were gathered in one place, then whispers and murmurs rose from their inert bodies. Rumors of supernatural phenomena surrounding his creations then began to intrigue the artist, who came to wonder if the same manifestations would continue to recur if the dolls were to be separated.
Richardo Pustanio then managed to convince a few of his friends, unmotivated by the idea, to each take a doll home and keep it for a while, but it wasn't long before some began to complain. Apparently, even separated, the dolls retained something evil in them and everyone was eager to return them to him.
animals, no children, and, according to them, there could be no other explanation for these strange phenomena which had begun with the arrival of the Devil's baby. Another doll had been entrusted to Reese, a famous medium, who kept it in his house in Lakeview. Reese, who was a collector of rare dolls, immediately hated the evil baby but he agreed to keep it nonetheless. For the next two weeks, every night he was constantly awakened by the crying of a baby. At the end of the second week, Hurricane Katrina swept through the area, flooding her home with 2 meters of murky water. When Reese returned to his property,
Sylvia Croix, a paranormal investigator specializing in possessed objects, purchased her version of the evil baby directly from Pustanio's website. She thought it would be an interesting addition to her collection of creepy dolls, but she didn't know the doll was actually haunted. Soon after, she noticed changes in the positions of the doll, which seemed to move between morning and evening. Then cries and sniffles began to rise from the baby, which her two cats stubbornly refused to approach. The cats even refused to stay in the same room as her. Sylvia claims that: For lack of a better term, some things have a sinister soul when they are born. One of those things, in my opinion, is the Devil's Baby. If you look in his eyes, you can almost make out the flicker of a trapped, unhappy soul. "
Others believe that the gleam that dances in her eyes is instilled by the devil himself, who would thus signal that each of these dolls is his. The medium, who had also purchased a Voodoo Queen doll from the same artist, claimed that the latter was also haunted. Pustanio then made a statement, explaining that only his talent was behind the dolls, and that nothing magical or ghostly went into their creation. Nevertheless, many people still think that these dolls are driven by something inexplicable and it is interesting to point out that the paintings and sculptures of the artist also know rumors of haunting.
Besides his online store, Ricardo Pustanio recently allowed his evil dolls to be auctioned on eBay, and one of them seems to have already changed hands several times. Asked about the possibility of his works being haunted, he would shrug his shoulders and reply: "I've heard about haunted dolls since I was young. We had several in our family, which have come down to us. However, I had no idea that my dolls would be haunted. Either way, requests for Ricardo Pustanio's evil doll, haunted or not, are steadily increasing.