Dashboard Chats - The Florida Keys: from Hemmingway's House to Robert the Doll

The Talegate Podcast

Indiana Jones, Polydactyl cats, Robert the Doll, and sweet sweet Key Lime Pie. If you thought the things you’ve heard about Florida were strange before, buckle up. Things about about to get all the more stranger still.
Beneath the peninsula state of Florida are the Florida Keys, a coral cay archipelago and popular tourist designation for beach lovers, foodies, bibliophiles, and horror fans alike. While first charted by Ponce de Leon in 1513, the Florida Keys were home to the Tequesta and Calusa tribes long before--the latter of which is who mortally wounded Ponce, ironically enough (and can't say we blame them--good instincts, Calusa!). Key West, popularized today by Jimmy Buffet, was actually the largest town in Florida for a good stretch of time in it's earliest post-colonial history.
Known for it's delicious Key Lime Pies and margaritas served on breathtaking beach fronts, Key West's East Martello Museum houses a demonic item in the form of an adorable doll dressed as a junior sailor. His name is Robert the Doll, named by his owner: a young boy named Gene Robert. What Gene would soon find out is that Robert was anything but a child's play thing. In fact, Robert is often considered, even over Annabelle, as being the more haunted doll in existence. It comes to no surprise that this terrifying toy would later become the inspiration for Chucky, the possessed doll and main antagonist in the horror franchise, Child's Play.
Also a popular place in the Keys is Hemmingway's house, which is the stomping grounds of some rather unusual felines. While we here at The Talegate Podcast are familiar with some unusual felines (see out Cat Síth and Halloween Episodes), these cats are polydactyl, meaning that they are born with an abnormally large amount of toes on each paw.
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