A bloke who collects ‘haunted dolls’ has revealed footage of them moving, falling over and one 300-year-old voodoo doll leaving his fiancé ‘covered in scratches’. Cole James says he and his partner Andrew James, 30, have amassed a £20,000 collection that they live with, turning their home into an ‘orphanage for haunted dolls’ that they ‘foster’.
The duo are like a modern day Ed and Lorraine Warren, two paranormal investigators who collected haunted items and were the subject of the hit horror movie The Conjuring and its subsequent Annabelle spin-offs. Cole, 20, had been using devices to test for electromagnetic energy around some of the collection in their home last month when Andrew began to feel a burning sensation on his back.
And after lifting up his partner’s top, Cole was left horrified to find red scratches in a line at the top of Andrew’s back. As the pair were surrounded by their collection of haunted dolls at the time, Cole said at first it was hard to pinpoint the culprit of the marks.
But after using their devices to monitor the activity in the room, he claims he heard the word ‘sacrifice’ muttered, leading him to believe the offender was their reportedly 300-year-old voodoo doll. Shocking photos show a trio of red scratches drawn in a line on Andrew’s back as the pair express their shock while surrounded by their creepy collection.
Another clip shows a different blond-haired doll stood upright before suddenly appearing to be knocked backwards and falling off the cabinet. A third video shows a doll with two bells dangling from its feet – one is perfectly still while the other appears to be swinging back and forth on its own.
Coles James and his partner, Andrew James, have amassed a £20,000 collection that they live with
(Image: KennedyNews/Paranormal Uncovered)
Cole says the pair started their collection four years ago and now have more than 150 figures, which they mostly keep in the spare room of their house. He says most of the dolls have been donated by ‘scared’ owners trying to get rid of them but says they have also spent £20,000 buying in some of their figures.
As well as the scratches that appeared on Andrew’s back, Cole says every time he enters this room he feels like someone is watching him and other strange occurrences have taken place over the years. Cole, from Doncaster in South Yorkshire, said: “It all started because a lady contacted us about three years ago about a doll she had that was haunted and we took it in.
“We started to work around this doll and that’s when we decided we wanted more dolls and items to work with. Now because we have 150 we are running out of places to put them and we are looking to get a building somewhere to make a museum.
“At the moment they are in the loft, the spare room and the downstairs cupboard. Every time the family comes round they get freaked out. The majority of the dolls are donated by our followers who watch us.
“We have bought a few too and in the last few years have spent about £20,000 on them. These dolls that we like to collect are the really old-fashioned ones that tell a story and have history behind them and they’re not cheap.
“The majority of doll’s that we get sent, we always get sent a message first saying that they have a doll and their children or family don’t like it and ask for us to take it. They then send the doll to us with a note of their story and how it has affected their family. We’re like an orphanage for haunted dolls.
“A couple of weeks ago we went into our spare room to do a livestream and my partner Andrew got scratched. You could see the scratch marks forming on his back in the recording and then 10 minutes later they were gone. Because there are over 150 dolls in the room, we had no idea who did this.
“We then started to use our devices to ask what happened and which doll it was the attention was being driven toward the voodoo doll that was locked away in a cabinet. We heard words such as ‘sacrifice’ which resonated with the voodoo doll.
“We opened the cabinet up and let her out and our devices were all going off so we thought it was the voodoo doll. It is one of the most haunted dolls we have.”
Cole and Andrew were sent the voodoo doll by an American historian who follows their ghost hunting page on Facebook, which has nearly a quarter of a million followers. The duo work on the project full-time, running ghost hunts each week, operating a YouTube channel and Andrew being a psychic medium.
When it arrived, Cole claims he was told by the owner the doll had been present at witch trials and sacrifices throughout history but remains nameless as it won’t reveal its identity. As well as their voodoo doll, the ghost hunting duo also have a doll which they claim was once owned by someone who boarded the Titanic and claim a figure called Billy often moves on its own in their home.
Cole said: “The voodoo doll is nameless, even when working with the doll the ‘ghost’ will not give us a name. It is believed that the spirit attached has a hatred towards anyone or anything that tries to make contact.
“Every time we have tried working with the doll it’s always been negative dark responses. The Titanic doll was sent to us by a radio station in London. The doll wasn’t on the Titanic but it belonged to someone who was on the Titanic. It is said that the ghost or the spirit attached to the doll is a pick pocketer. When we worked with this doll on a live stream, we had things going missing off the table. This doll is now locked away in a cabinet.
“The 300-year-old voodoo doll is also locked away in a cupboard. I have another doll called Billy and we’ve had him since 2020. He has some bells attached to his feet. I was setting up for a livestream the other day and out the corner of my eye I saw the bells swinging. I filmed it and it stopped and then started again.”
Cole says their first interaction with one of their dolls was back in 2021 when he claims a doll fell off a table during a livestream. Shocking footage shows a wax figurine falling off a table with no apparent explanation while others next to it sit perfectly still.
Cole said when they started out three years ago the ‘activity’ in the spare room used to scare him but now he expects it. The pair now want to open up a haunted museum so they can show off their dolls and artefacts to the general public.
Cole said: “Every single time I go into that room I feel like something is watching me. I used to be scared but now it seems normal and I just expect it. I feel like if something happened outside of the room I might be scared as I would fear it was taking control of the house.
“We’re always on the hunt for people to donate dolls. Our dream is to open up a museum for haunted artefacts and dolls and we can hopefully host events there. Every time we get a doll, they are always unique to the others. It is just a fascinating hobby.”