People are filing into New Orleans for Mardi Gras and the Super Bowl, and as they frolic and wander about the streets so merrily I wonder if they know just what atrocities have occurred here.
New Orleans is full of haunting stories but none is more horrifying than the story of the Lalaurie Mansion. This grand three-story home sits on a cheery corner in the French Quarter but some 180 years ago was the site of abominable violence.
Delphine Lalaurie was the belle of the town during the early 1830s. She threw lavish parties and decorated her home with riches from around the world. By this point she was on her third husband, a young local doctor named Louis. But the Madame was a monster. She kept her cook chained up in the kitchen and reportedly treated all her slaves terribly. Neighbors began to suspect something was wrong. One day a neighbor saw Madame Lalaurie chase a servant girl with a whip onto the roof. The girl jumped to her death. Authorities investigated and sure enough found the servant girl buried in a shallow grave in the yard. For breaking a law that prohibited excessively cruel treatment of slaves, Madame Lalaurie’s slaves were impounded. But with her many connections across the town she soon got them back.
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In April 1834 a fire broke out in the kitchen, reportedly started by the cook who was chained to the stove. Apparently, she started the fire on purpose, in order to alert the authorities to the horrors occurring in the house. Firefighters put out the blaze. In searching the house they discovered a hidden door in the attic. Inside were more than a dozen mutilated slaves. They were chained to walls and strapped down on makeshift operating tables. Some had been shoved into cages. Buckets on the floor were filled with human organs and heads.
One woman’s stomach had been sliced open, her intestines were wrapped around her waist like a belt. Another woman had her mouth stuffed with animal excrement then her lips sewn shut. One man in shackles had a hole drilled through the top of his head, a stick had been used to stir his brains. Another man had his hands cut off then sewn to other parts of his body. There was a woman who had all her joints broken so that she could be stuffed into a cage. Once inside her joints had been reset at odd angles. This woman was actually still alive.
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Word of the horrors soon spread and a mob gathered outside the home, equipped with hanging ropes. But a carriage exploded out of the gates and disappeared into the night. Madame Lalaurie was never seen again in New Orleans. Many believe she escaped to Paris. The house and its horrors remained. In 1837, the home was purchased by a man who later complained of hearing horrible screams in the night. He soon fled the place. After the Civil War the house briefly became a high school for girls. Then, a music and dancing conservatory moved in. Sons and daughters of the wealthiest New Orleans families happily attended the school until a high-profile scandal involving a teacher and a student shuttered the place.
During the late 1880s a wealthy socialite named Jules Vignie secretly moved into the house. He was found dead some years later on a filthy sofa. During the 1890s the mansion became a boarding house. Several tenants reportedly saw naked black men in chains roaming the halls. Children reported being attacked by ghostly figures wielding whips. Nothing that moved into the home lasted. The mansion was a furniture store and even a saloon but the frightening ghost sightings continued. In April 2007, the actor Nicholas Cage reportedly paid $3,450,000 for the mansion. But Cage went broke and an Alabama-based bank repossessed his home. Apparently, he did not spend a single night in the home.
Don’t take my word for it. If you’re headed to New Orleans for the Super Bowl or Mardi Gras, make sure to take one of the city’s excellent ghost tours, and find out for yourself!
