New Orleans Ghosts, New Orleans Haunted History, Haunted New Orleans !
Haunted
New Orleans
New Orleans has been called the most haunted city in the United States.
It has been said by many that the actual history of New Orleans is far stranger
than anything fictional writers can create.
Legend tells us that this vast swamp, which became New
Orleans, was once used by Indians as a sacred burial place. The location
was appealing for its geographical position on the Mississippi River. The French
believed it would be extremely profitable for trading.
Therefore, in 1718, New Orleans was founded. Being a swamp, New Orleans
did not appeal to the taste of wealthy Parisians.
It was during this time that the prisons in Paris were extremely over
populated. The King of France
decided to relieve this problem by sending over laborers from the prisons to
build the city.
Murderers, thieves, rapists, and common criminals were among the first to
populate the area. Living
conditions were deplorable. Harsh
elements, quick sand, alligators, venomous snakes, mosquitoes and disease were
rampant. The murder rate was high. Add
a couple of major fires that devoured the city, (as well as many of its
inhabitants), numerous hurricanes, wars, and yellow fever epidemics over the
next hundred years created excellent conditions for ghosts and hauntings.
The
Haunted Mansion
In 1834, a crime occurred that shocked our city beyond belief.
A crime that eventually became known...as the blemish of our city.
A woman by the name of Delphine LaLaurie became a common name in New
Orleans’ dark history.
Delphine McCarty LaLaurie was a
socialite. In 1831, she and her
physician husband, Dr.
Louis LaLaurie bought a beautiful mansion at 1140 Royal St. It majestically set on
the
corner of Governor Nicholls St. and Royal St.
Delphine reveled in maintaining position
in the center of the social circles in New Orleans.
She enjoyed throwing lavish soirees, entertaining the most prominent
people in the city. In addition to
being so renown for her
parties, she was best noted for her well-behaved slaves.
In the spring of 1833, Delphine was had planned what was to be the finest soiree
to
impress the upper echelon of the city. She
had catered the finest cuisine known to the
city. Her slaves had made sure that
all of the china and silver were cleaned and polished
to perfection. She had the most beautiful gown that she had purchased in Paris.
Everything had been planned for what she expected to be her most elaborate
celebration
to date.
As party guests arrived, Delphine remained in her boudoir preparing herself for
her
entrance. It was customary for her to make her appearance well after the guests
had
arrived. It seemed being
fashionably late gave her the opportunity to make the biggest
impression and receive the most attention. Madame LaLaurie had long black hair
that her
slaves would strategically style on top of her head. It was a tedious process.
Delphine LaLaurie’s
hair was being combed by Leah, a 12-year-old slave girl. As Leah
combed the Madame’s long tresses, she accidentally hit a snag, pulling Madame
LaLaurie’s hair. In a fit of rage, the angry Madame reached into a drawer and
pulled out a bullwhip. She began to chase Leah around the room in an attempt to
beat her.
Leah ran out into the hall and through a door that led to a small balcony that
hovered over
the carriageway. Madame LaLaurie
continued to chase the girl, screaming at her in
French. In an attempt to flee the
angry Madame, Leah climbed onto the balcony railing.
She lost her footing and plunged to the courtyard below. Her limp body hit the
ground
just as Madame LaLaurie’s cousin was stepping out of his carriage.
Unable to conceal the crime,
charges of abuse were brought upon Delphine LaLaurie.
This was one of several charges that had been placed upon her for abusing
slaves. The
court charged Madame LaLaurie a fine of only $300.00, a mere slap on the wrist
for a
woman of her wealth. Her slaves
however, were taken away from her and sold at public
auction. Delphine LaLaurie convinced a relative to purchase the slaves and
return them to
her.
Soon the incident was set aside and life returned to normal in the LaLaurie
household.
On April 10, 1934, Delphine
LaLaurie had yet another incident, taking place during a
party. A fire broke out in the
kitchen of the home. The large gray
mansion was typical
of Spanish architecture at the time. The kitchen was separate from home, over
the
carriageway building across the courtyard.
The fire brigade entered the building through
the courtyard. Much to their surprise there were two slaves chained to the stove
in the
kitchen. It was apparent that these
slaves started the fire in the hopes of bringing
attention to the activities inside the house.
The slaves directed the
fire brigade to small attic crawlspace located directly off of the
balcony. The door was bolted and
locked from the outside, yet screams and cries could
be heard within. The fire brigade used a battering ram to knock down the door of
the room. As the door flung open, seasoned firemen who had no doubt been exposed
to death
before, literally fell to their vomiting at the stench of death that permeated
from the room.
Once composed, they
entered the room. There inside were at least a dozen slaves that had
been the obvious victims of very crude medical experimentations.
They were chained to
the walls, maimed and disfigured.
Their faces had been disfigured, making
look them more like gargoyles than humans.
One man looked as if he had been the victim of some crude sex change operation.
One
poor soul, a woman, had managed to break free from her shackles.
Instead of being
relieved that someone had come to rescue her, she
ran in fear of further torture. She made
it past the rescuers, in through the house, then jumped through a window. She
fell to her
death on the balcony below.
The window remains sealed to this day.
Another victim had
er arms amputated and her skin peeled off in a
circular pattern, making her look like a
human caterpillar.
Yet another, had been locked in a cage that the newspaper described
as barely large enough to accommodate a medium size dog.
Breaking the cage open, the
escuers found that the LaLaurie’s had broken all
of her joints resetting them at odd
angles so she resembled a human crab.
Body parts were in jars on shelves in the room.
As the survivor’s were being removed
from the residence a mob of the party guests
assembled outside, outraged at what had obviously
been going on within this house.
They had no idea what kind of monsters the LaLaurie’s were.
Before the angry crowd
could ransack the house and find the LaLaurie’s, the family
slipped out through the
carriageway and disappeared at the river’s edge.
Many believed that the LaLaurie’s
perhaps went back to Paris. But
later evidence points
to them possibly settling on the northshore of New
Orleans near Mandeville.
Immediately following the episode, the building
became known as the “Haunted House”.
Neighbors swore they could hear screams and cries coming from within.
Superstitious
New Orleaneans refused to walk on the same side of the street.
Many avoided the block
completely. The house was
vacant for forty years.
Forty years later, the area was home
to Italian immigrants. There are stories from the
families who lived in the house at that time of seeing a large male covered in
chains and blood walking the balcony.
The children reported seeing a woman screaming in French
chasing them with a whip. One woman, a mother of
twin babies, awoke in the middle of the night to find that a sock had been
shoved into the mouth of one of the babies. Animals
were found decapitated in the courtyard.
Another resident of the house, reported seeing a
man wandering around the courtyard holding his head
in his hands. Before long these
people vacated the home. Again, the house was vacant for several years.
It later was used a furniture store.
Shortly after the store had opened for business, the
owner entered the shop one morning to find that the
entire inventory had been covered in
urine, feces and blood.
Believing he had been vandalized, he had the mess cleaned up
and ordered a new inventory. When
he experienced the same thing a second time, he
decided to wait in the building with a shotgun. In
the morning, the inventory had been
destroyed again, but no vandals had entered the
building. He soon moved the business.
One individual tried to open what was
to be “The Haunted Saloon” but locals refused to
patron the place.
Again, it sat vacant.
Eventually the house was renovated into apartments as it is today.
Much of the house
was in serious disrepair. When floor boards were
replaced in the 3rd floor slave quarters,
the bodies of seventy five people were found who
had been buried alive! The screams
and cries heard in the early weeks after the fire were real.
Thinking these cries to be
ghosts, no one even attempted to save these poor
souls. The remains were removed from
the property. To this day, this house is considered
to be the most haunted in the city. It
is
said that on dark, stormy nights, one can still
hear the scream of a young girl echoing
down into the courtyard.
The
Singing Rain
On November 23, 1762, in the Treaty
of Fontainebleau, the King of France, Louis XV
gave Louisiana to his cousin, King Charles III, of
Spain. The treaty was kept secret
for a
number of years to all except the Spanish. On March
5, 1766, the first Spanish Governor,
Don Antonio de Ulloa arrived in New Orleans.
No doubt France failed to alert the
settlers in New Orleans of this change in command.
This was a very early time for New Orleans. The French Parisians still wanting
no part in
colonizing this swamp city. The new Governor and his army arrived unannounced
and
proceeded to replace the French flag flying in the Place D’ Arms with that of
Spain.
Needless to say, the French
population of the city feared the worse. It would appear to
The French Creole colonists wanted no part of
Spanish rule. Having not been
informed
of this change, they of course believed that they
were being invaded by Spain. They did
what seemed to be the only natural thing to do, defend their city. They
organized an army
led by six Creole gentlemen and fought the first
revolution in North America. They
literally overtook the soldiers and expelled the Spaniards from the colony.
The Creole
colonist fought and won the first revolution in
this country. The Spanish Governor and
his army retreated to Cuba.
Spain was slow to respond. In 1769, another
governor, Don Alejandro O’Reilly, an Irish
ex-patriot who joined Spain during the Spanish
Inquisition, entered New Orleans. He
brought with him a new priest for the church and an
entire Spanish army consisting of 24
ships. The ships appeared to float into the port of New Orleans.
Governor O’Reilly and
his army seized the Place D’ Arms and raised
their Spanish flag. They set up camp in the
newly appointed Plaza de Armas.
The governor’s first matter of business was to
capture the six men who led the
revolution. One by one they were captured and shot
for treason without a trial.
One by one their bullet torn bodies were laid out in the sand in front of the
church.
Governor O’Reilly set forth a proclamation to the city of New Orleans and its
French
residents. It
stated the bodies would be removed from the church entrance for no reason.
The rotting corpses were to remain where they lie
to rot, fester and decompose for the
entire city to see.
The priest, of the church, at that time was a
beloved Capuchin Monk, named Pere
Dagobert. He was outraged by this act of terror.
“What Catholic could possibly do this to
nother Catholic,” he wondered.
In an attempt to correct this blasphemy and give the
men a proper funeral, he visited Governor O’Reilly.
He tried to reason with him.
Governor O’Reilly very rudely sent the priest
away, forbidding him to defy his actions.
Several days later, Pere Dagobert made another attempt to reason with the
Governor.
This time begging and beseeching him to have mercy on the souls of these poor
men.
Again, the Governor sent him away. The Governor warned Pere Dagobert that if
defied
him or even attempted to visit him again, he too would join the others in front
of the
church.
Finally, in an act of desperation to give these men
a proper Catholic funeral, Pere
Dagobert bravely did what anyone would have done. He took matters into his own
hands.
He waited until a stormy night and he gathered the families of the men. Pine
boxes were
constructed to be coffins for what was left of the remains. In the middle of a
torrential
rainstorm, he and the families gathered the remains into the boxes. Pere
Dagobert
proceeded to perform the funeral mass in the storm.
Pere Dagobert was best recognized in New Orleans for his beautiful tenor voice.
As he
sang the Kyrie his voice echoed out against the sound of the pounding rain and
crashing
thunder. He continued singing throughout the rain, as he led the
funeral procession down
Pere Antion’s alley (ironically
named for his predecessor), down Orleans Avenue to what
was then St. Peter’s cemetery. The men were given their funeral in spite of
the threats of
Governor O’Reilly.
Not one Spanish soldier attempted to abandon their tent to disrupt
the funeral.
Pere Dagobert was eventually replaced
in the church by the first Spanish priest Father
Antonio DeSadilla, referred to by the French as
Pere Antion. Pere Dagobert
continued
out his life in New Orleans and was eventually
buried under the altar in the Cathedral.
But the impression of Pere Dagobert however intense, was not left in the Place
D’ Arms,now Jackson Square. Nor was it left in the Cathedral. For it is not
the ghost of Pere
Dagobert that haunts this city.
His impression was left in the rain. On rainy summer
nights, his haunting voice can still be heard
echoing throughout the alleys. Still singing
the Kyrie. The closer to dawn the louder the singing. His beautiful tenor voice
still
singing the funeral mass, down the alley, and throughout Orleans Avenue.
The
Sultan’s Massacre
One of the most mysterious ghosts in
the French Quarter is that of the “Sultan”.
He
reportedly roams the halls of the four-story house
at 716 Dauphine St., on the corner of
Dauphine and Orleans Ave.
A Times-Picayune article written on February 11, 1979,
recounts the Sultan’s tale. There
are discrepancies as to dates of the actual incident as
well as when the house was even built.
New Orleans was one of the first cities to be taken
over and occupied by the Union
during the Civil War.
This was a time in our history when even the wealthiest of Creoles
were losing their fortunes. Often,
those who owned large mansions would sell their
properties for smaller homes or even rent out the homes to several families.
Businesses
were dying and Confederate money was no longer good.
A man by the named of LePrete
owned the large mansion at 716 Dauphine Avenue.
The LaPrete family owned a
plantation in Plaquemines Parish but used the
spacious home in the French Quarter during the winter months, which was opera
season in New Orleans. In fear of losing his
plantation, he planned to rent or sell his second home. He was visiting New
Orleans and discussing his financial concerns with some associates in a local
pub. Overhearing his conversation, a man wearing a turban approached Mr. LePrete
and introduced himself as an emissary of a Turkish sultan who had recently
arrived in New Orleans. He explained
to Mr. LePrete that the Sultan had quite a large family and was in dire need of
a large
home to rent. Mr. LaPrete was delighted to hear that the Royal family was
interested in
his home. The man offered for Mr. LaPrete to check his references that were
banks across
the city where the Sultan had deposited rather large sums of money.
The following morning Mr. LePrete checked with the banks and indeed, the Sultan
was
quite wealthy. Mr. LePrete met again with the mysterious man in a turban and
orchestrated the transaction. Immediately, the Sultan moved in with his family.
His family consisted of many, many wives. There were woman of every shape, size
and
color among them. He had many children from these
wives. The Sultan had a harem of
not only women but also young boys. Over the two years he occupied the house in
the
city, it is said that he was known to kidnap women, girls and boys off the
street and
torture them into submission. He had an entire army of eunuchs to protect his
family and
harem. The guards would march the balconies and galleries of the
house with scimitars.
He had bars put over the doors and
windows of the house making it look for like a
fortress.
For two years, his parties were the talk of the
city. Loud music and laughter rang
through
the building all hours of the day and night. The
smell of opium and incense reeked
through the doors and windows.
Two years after the sultan moved into the home, a
woman who lived at a neighboring
house was strolling by early one morning.
As she passed the corner, she noticed that for
the first time in two years, the home was quiet, no laughter, and no music.
She stood for a
few seconds on the corner, straining to hear any
sign of life. She then became aware that
there was a drip coming down off of the gallery.
Looking up, she realized that it was
blood. Running around to the front door, she observed blood pooling
from underneath.
She reported the situation to police
who had to enter the property by way of a battering
ram.
As the doors
collapsed in, the police saw pools of blood trailing down the halls. As they
wallowed through the congealed blood they saw that there were body parts strewn
throughout the house. Legs, arms, heads, torsos, every member of the household
had
been cut into pieces. The woman, children and eunuchs alike, butchered into
unrecognizable parts.
They had to count heads in order to get an accurate count of the
bodies.
The
Sultan’s body was the only one that had not been cut up. His body was found in
a
shallow grave, one hand reaching through the freshly dug dirt. When they
retrieved his
body, there was so much soil shoved into his throat and esophagus, it can only
be
assumed that he was buried alive. The murder of the Sultan and his entourage is
the
biggest mass murder mystery in the city’s history. No one knows who committed
the
murders.
For years, the city blamed pirates for the crime.
It was assumed that possibly they
intended to rob him and ultimately murdered everyone. This story doesn’t carry
a lot
weight however. Pirates generally used pistols. Also, the largest trade for
pirates was
white slavery. It would have been far more profitable to kidnap the woman and
children,
even the eunuchs and sell them as slaves in the Caribbean.
A much more sinister explanation has since been
derived. It is now suspected that
this
man, Prince Suleyman, was not a Sultan at all, but
the brother of a Sultan. Up until the
late 1800’s, it was customary that when a son was crowned Sultan, he would
order his
brothers and their families executed.
With many wives and many children, it meant
many heirs. Older brothers who gained the crown
would insure that one of their own children would
be heir to the thrown rather than a brother.
It is now believed that the
prince was hiding in New Orleans with his family to
avoid execution from his older
brother, the real Sultan. Professional assassins from Turkey located him and
were ordered
to execute the entire household. The prince was probably drugged or knocked
unconscious the buried alive. This is substantiated by the way the body was
dressed in
traditional Muslim funeral attire and dressing.
In the newspaper article of 1979,
called “Life with an Exotic Ghost,” tales of the sultan’s
ghost was recounted. Two residents of the home who had lived there during
different
periods, claim to have had encounters with the
sultan. Both women claim to
have seen
the ghost of the sultan. One woman moved out of the
home after hearing shrieking
screams and gurgling sounds inside the house.
A previous owner of the house, claimed
she was visited nightly by the Sultan. She would
awaken to a presence hovering over her.
When she would look up, she could see his face peering down at her, with his
turban still
on his head. When she would scream or turn on a
light, the apparition would vanish. A
twisted tree grows in the courtyard in the site where the sultan was buried. Other
residents throughout the years have claim to have
heard the sounds of body parts hitting
the wood floors at night.
While others have merely seen the robe of the Sultan whip
around a corner.
TAKE A
NEW ORLEANS GHOST TOUR!
copyright 1997, Kalila Katherina
Smith
excerpts from "Journey Into
Darkness...Ghosts & Vampires of New Orleans."
Vampires
witchcraft
Voodoo