Previously: The Zanetti Ghost Train.
Type: LD (Living Doll).
Period/location of origin: Subject, known as “Letta the Haunted Doll” — “Letta” being short for “Letta Me Out” — is believed to have been created in the mid-to-late 18th century in Eastern Europe. However, subject’s current life as a public figure saw its start in the early 1970s in the city of Wagga Wagga in New South Wales, Australia. For more information about subject’s personal timeline and history, see: Additional notes.
Appearance: Subject appears to be a handcrafted wooden doll with large, brown eyes and brown hair. Its eyes are glass; its hair is human. The hair is long and typically worn in a braid.
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Subject’s facial design features elaborately arched eyebrows, a prominent nose, and a mouth quirked in a slight smile with the teeth just visible. The carving of the face is quite detailed, as is the carving of subject’s hands, legs, and feet.
Subject is dressed in a dark green suit with knee-length breeches and a white shirt with frills at the neck and wrists. The bare, painted legs are visible below the hem of the breeches. Subject’s shoes are not separate from subject, but part of the carving; they are painted dark brown or black and have square toes and a slight heel.
The clothing subject currently wears is not original to subject; according to subject’s long-term carer (see: Containment; additional notes), subject’s original clothing disintegrated into dust around the time of subject’s rediscovery in the 1970s.
The paint on subject’s face, hands, legs, and feet is worn and peeling, although not so much so that it appears to be actively flaking.
Subject is typically depicted seated in a small, white rocking chair.
Reports that subject’s head contains a human brain remain unsubstantiated.
Modus operandi: Subject does not seem to have any sort of agenda; nor does it target individuals. Subject’s modus operandi generally has to do with how it makes witnesses who observe it feel, rather than anything subject actually does to them.
Subject tends to instill a feeling of unease in witnesses; as subject’s carer, Kerry Walton (see: Containment; additional notes), has noted, “not many people like [Letta].” Dogs and other animals react strongly to subject, as well, barking at or attempting to attack subject on sight.
Witnesses have claimed to observe all of the following, either in subject itself or in the environment when subject is present:
- The doll’s facial expression changing;
- The doll’s eyes altering their color;
- The doll moving or “wriggling” on its own;
- Items around the doll moving — for example, pictures falling from walls;
- Items around the doll suffering spontaneous destruction — for example, lightbulbs blowing;
- And rain beginning anytime the doll is inside a moving vehicle.
Additionally, the following have been observed specifically in those witnesses particularly affected by subject’s presence:
- Screaming;
- Passing out;
- And vomiting.
However, at least one psychic who has spent considerable time with subject over many years has noted that subject isn’t “a bad doll,” but rather, “a sad doll” — that is, subject is not evil, but upset. This psychic believes that subject’s negative affects on witnesses is due not to malevolence, but due to subject’s feelings about various circumstances: Subject, she says, “didn’t like being there. He didn’t like being made an exhibition of.”
Furthermore, subject’s discoverer and longtime primary carer (see: Containment; additional notes) began to feel over time that subject may have actually contributed to his and his family’s fortunes turning around — that is, the doll may, in fact, actually be a good luck charm of sorts.
Containment: Subject has been under the care and keeping of Kerry Walton in Brisbane, Australia since the early 1970s. Walton, along with his wife, Evelyn, and his granddaughter, Hayleigh, have maintained subject, as well as occasionally brought subject out for show. Subject travels with the Waltons periodically, as well, where it presented to the public — sometimes secured within a transparent display case — and made available for photo ops.
Additional notes: Subject was not widely known about until it was discovered beneath a house in Wagga Wagga in the 1970s by Kerry Walton, then in his early 20s.
(Walton’s precise age at the time of the discover is not known, as sources conflict. He may have been 21, according to some reports, but also possibly 23 or 24, according to others; yet another report states that he may have been as old as 29.)
The house under which subject was unearthed was, according to a 1981 episode of the television program State Affair on which Walton appeared with subject, believed by local children to be haunted; stories associated with the house included that of an “old man lurching about the place dragging a sack of human heads.”
Walton had grown up with these stories, and although as an adult, he had moved away to the Brisbane area, he still recalled them on a trip back to his hometown in the early 1970s. Curious as to what had become of the place, he took it upon himself at the time to conduct an exploration of the abandoned and supposedly haunted house.
Taking a flashlight into the cellar beneath the house, he discovered what he at first thought might have been the remains of a human child, but which, upon closer examination, he realized was a child-sized, wooden doll — that is, subject itself. Perhaps against common wisdom, he then proceeded to take the doll home with him.
Subject’s name arose from a somewhat humorous incident that occurred not too long after subject was recovered, Walton recounted the 1981 State Affair episode. Walton and his brother were, at the time of the incident, driving at night, with subject secured in a bag in the vehicle. At various points, both Waltons observed that the bag appeared to be moving, although Kerry Walton acknowledges that this movement may have been an illusion — a trick of the light. Walton’s brother then joked that the doll inside the bag was attempting to escape, putting words in the doll’s mouth: “Letta me out! Letta me out!” The name, as Walton said, stuck, and the doll became known as “Letta” (or, alternatively, “Ledda,” as it is sometimes rendered).
Subject has, in fact, made several appearances on similar television programs over the years, of which the 1981 State Affair episode was the first. Indeed, subject, with Walton’s help, has become something of a celebrity over the years, gaining fame first through these various television appearances between the years 1994 and 2002, as well as in print articles published in a variety of magazines, and later on the internet. Subject even has a social media presence, with accounts on Facebook and Instagram informing followers of its activities. (These accounts are, naturally, run by subject’s carers, not subject itself.)
Scans of the print articles may be found on both of these social media accounts, although the scans on the Facebook profile are both easier to read and more complete than those on the Instagram profile. They are, however, not dated, so it is not easily discernible when they were each published.
Although Walton has long since accepted his role as subject’s carer and guardian, he did once attempt to sell subject — not out of fear, but because his family needed the money. However, despite securing a buyer and coming so close to closing the deal that Walton actually drove to the buyer’s home with the doll in tow to finalize the sale, he was unable to go through with it. Something, he has said in several different reports and interviews, held him back; he felt he couldn’t even get out of the car. Accordingly, the sale fell through and Walton opted to keep subject in his own possession.
Sometime prior to a 1994 television appearance on The Extraordinary, Walton took subject to the Australian Museum in Sydney to have the doll properly dated. The nails on the undersides of subject’s shoes proved to be essential for this purpose; it was those nails which enabled the museum’s team of experts to date subject. Subject was, at the time, believed to have been at least 200 years old, putting its period of initial creation in the mid-to-late 18th century. It is further believed to have originated in an Eastern European community.
The previously-mentioned psychic who is known to have spent time with subject over the course of its life as a public figure has said that she believes subject to have been made by a craftsman mourning the death of his young child. The psychic believes this child to have drowned. Whether subject is housing the spirit of this child has not been determined.
It is also worth noting that there is no documentation or other evidence supporting this theory of the circumstances of subject’s creation.
It is also not known what subject’s path may have been between its creation — whether that creation is as the psychic believes it to have been, or not — and its rediscovery by Kerry Walton in the 1970s. Subject had clearly been in the cellar of the house in which it had been found for some time — decades, perhaps — but it is not known how or when it may have first been brought to the house at all, let alone deposited in the cellar.
Earlier in its public life, subject was frequently referred to with the use of a slur in its name. This report shall refrain from using this slur. It should also be noted that, more recently the slur seems to have been dropped from its moniker, or at least is no longer actively used on Letta Me Out Facebook and Instagram posts dated after 2018. This is, this researcher believes, an improvement. (Please note, however, that the slur may still be encountered from time to time, particularly in news coverage of subject dated 2018 and earlier, so read, watch, or listen to subject’s historical documentation with care.)
In addition to Kerry Walton, subject’s team of carers also long included Walton’s wife, Evelyn. In recent years, Walton’s granddaughter, Hayleigh, has also come aboard the team of subject’s carers; Hayleigh seems to be the primary operator of Letta’s social media accounts currently.
Sadly, Evelyn Walton passed away in March of 2023. Subject remains under the guardianship of its two surviving carers.
Recommendation: Subject may be safely seen under controlled circumstances.
Note, though, that if subject does not wish to be on display at the time of your viewing, you may experience adverse effects. They are not overly harmful, although as previously described, they may be unpleasant. (See: Modus operandi.)
In the event that this occurs, be polite and sympathetic.
After all, you wouldn’t like to be gawked at like a live exhibition, now, would you?
A little kindness goes a long way.
Resources:
“Mystery Surrounds 200-Year-Old ‘Haunted Doll From Hell’” at the Courier Mail.
“World’s Most Haunted Doll Lives In Warwick” at the Courier Mail.
Archival print media about subject viewable via the Letta Me Out Facebook page.
State Affair episode from 1981 featuring subject on YouTube.
Additional archival television segments featuring subject viewable via the Letta Me Out YouTube page.
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[Photo via screenshot/YouTube]
