On this podcast, we explore fantastical thinking, moral panics, conspiracy theories, and urban

legends, examine the forces that shape our culture, and tell the stories that create the

realities we share, and sometimes the realities we don't. I'm your ghost, Chelsea Weber Smith,

and this is American Hiscaria. Yes it is. That's the Annabelle doll.

I'm AT, Land of the Poodoo.

Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy.

Abraham, I sit on his knee, press the changeo, and now he is me.

It was early summer 2014 in San Clemente, California, when eight families contacted the local police.

Each having discovered a mysterious porcelain doll left on their porch.

Far worse than that was the fact that each doll just so happened to resemble a little girl living

in each of the houses. Coming upon this scene, straight out of a pretty little liar's episode,

the children and parents were freaked out, and soon the story went viral with local news stations

all over the state covering the drama as it played out in real time, interviewing the mothers

of the eight girls who found the special sinister surprise.

We're very unsettled and obviously taking this very seriously as it concerns, you know,

our daughters and little girls. It's just odd. It seems very odd.

I'm actually thinking the worst like a someone creepy watching our children.

Here again are two pictures of the dolls released by the orange kids.

As usual, the explanation turned out to be nothing short of cozy.

There was no sensational, sensitive, possibly satanic serial killer in a low black baseball cap,

selecting dolls one by one from the dusty shelves of an antique mall to psych out his prey.

It was just a local kindly old lady who was cleaning out her closet full of dolls and decided to

...