St. Petersburg, Fla. - (UPI) -- Members of a Boy Scout troop that agreed to help clean a historic cemetery in St. Petersburg, Fla., found three voodoo dolls hanging from a tree.

The dolls, which were hung in a vertical line on the tree's bark, had rusty pins stuck in their faceless heads, arms and legs.

"They were kind of like ugly creatures that would eat you alive," said 10-year-old Kevin McDonough, a Webelos Cub Scout.

The Greenwood Cemetery, where the dolls were found, has buried on its grounds dozens of Civil War veterans, Union and Confederate, buried on opposite sides of the grounds.

University of South Florida religion Professor Mozella Mitchell, who studies Caribbean faiths, said the dolls are associated with many African-derived religions. They're common among people of Haitian, Cuban and Caribbean descent, she said.

Believers often use the dolls as sacred objects to connect with the supernatural, not typically for evil purposes, Mitchell said.
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Evil purposes is right. I used it before. The beating the small people. I've stopped using it cause mother said its evil.

They're not evil themselves, I have one that's purpose is to protect from harm. Yeah it looks freaky, but I think it's a cool little doll.

The only way a voodoo doll is evil is if the person who made it did so to harm the person it's for. if you used one to harm, it wasn't the doll that was evil, it was you.

They were found in a very old burial ground so I'm going with the supernatural theory..We used to kid about putting pins in these dolls if we didn't like someone, just kid's thoughts, nothing evil...

This reminds me of the time a friend of mine hung three pigeons from they're little feet on the eaves of the back of my roof, to send a "message" to the other pigeons. I was not happy. Never asked if they were Voodoo Pigeons, though.

I wouldn't know what to say if I discovered those in a local cemetery.