New Orleans, Louisiana
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Located on Royal Street in New Orleans’ french quarter, the three-story Lalaurie Mansion is adorned with artfully crafted iron rails and intricately carved entry doors. The view from its third floor was once described as “from the cupola on the roof one may look out over the Vieux Carré and see the Mississippi in its crescent before Jackson Square”. When presented with such a grandiose facade, you could forgive a passerby for being ignorant of its violent history having been the site of countless unspeakable acts of torture and murder.
Marie Delphine Macarty, was born into a prominent New Orleanian family where through the connections of her parents and the sum of three marriages she established herself as quite a prominent figure in the local European Creole community. As with most accommodations of position at the time, the wealthy enlisted the help of slaves and this was no different for Madam Lalaurie. However, as Lalaurie’s notoriety grew, so did her reputation for her treatment of slaves. Though these accounts were broadly overlooked mostly due to her position, it wouldn’t be long before the community was to discover what type of vile human being their famous socialite really was.
On April 10, 1834, a fire erupted in the kitchen of Lalaurie Mansion. When police and fire officials made it on the scene, they encountered the full brutality of Madam Lalaurie. They first discovered the cook, a woman in her 70s, chained to the stove. She admitted setting the fire in a suicide attempt to avoid Lalaurie’s punishment claiming that slaves “in need of punishment” are taken to the uppermost room and never come back.
During the initial commotion, bystanders responding to the fire, attempted to obtain a key from Lalaurie in order to evacuate the slaves’ quarters, though after being denied they resorted to kicking down the door and subsequently discovered some seven slaves terribly mutilated as a result of what could only be described as every and all form of torture.
When LaLaurie’s husband was questioned about the gruesome find he responded that “some people had better stay at home rather than come to others’ houses to dictate laws and meddle with other people’s business.”
Almost immediately accounts of what had been found in the mansion, and the LaLauries’ cavalier reactions became public, spurring a mob of locals to commence upon the property destroying anything that they could get their hands on.
During the violence, LaLaurie found a moment to escape by coach to the waterfront where she is believed to have taken a schooner to Mobile, Alabama before escaping to Paris.
Visit
Today the Lalaurie Mansion is recognized as one of the most haunted sites in all of New Orleans, inspiring portions of American Horror Story, and becoming a popular stop for paranormal researchers and enthusiasts.
Although you can’t actually go in the mansion, it will surely be a theatrical stop on just about any ghost tour you take.
To schedule a ghost tour: New Orleans Tours / Ghost City Tours
Lalaurie Mansion, 1140, Royal Street, French Quarter, New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, 70116
Sources:
wikipedia
ghostcitytours.com
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