Monday, April 14, 2014

Hauntings: LaLaurie House


LaLaurie House (New Orleans, Louisiana)

In 1832, Dr. Louis Lalaurie and his wife, Delphine, moved into a mansion in the French Quarter of New Orleans.  Madame LaLaurie and her husband became renowned for holding lavish parties in their ostentatious house.

However, there were dark secrets behind the fine façade.

On April 10, 1834, the house caught fire. When the fireman arrived, they discovered a secret attic where dozens of slaves were chained to walls or in cages. Madame Lalaurie had been experimenting on them, mutilating them, and removing body parts. When the police came to arrest her, she escaped and was never caught.

Since that time, many have reported supernatural experiences in and around the house, such as:
~  A slave girl who Madam Lalaurie once chased onto the roof with a horse whip, leaped off the roof to her death.  For years after, neighbors reported seeing the girl’s ghost screaming and repeating her death leap every night.
~  In the early 1900s, an Italian immigrant living in the house was attacked by a black man wearing chains.  When the Italian shouted for help, the man vanished before his eyes.
~  At one time, the house was remodeled into a furniture store, but the owner kept finding his merchandise covered with a foul-smelling liquid.  Even when the man stayed late at night, waiting for the vandal, he never saw anyone, but the nasty fluid kept showing up on his furniture.  He sold the business.
~  Madam Lalaurie’s ghost was once seen standing over the cradle of a resident’s child, and she was also seen chasing ghostly children with a whip.  Once, a black servant reported being chased through the house by her spirit. The story goes that when she caught him, she tried to strangle him.




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46 comments:

Anonymous said...

And the award for creepiest haunted story goes to *wait, it''s not over yet, it could get creepier* I should probably stop reading these before bed, just to be safe:)

WriterlySam
Echoes of Olympus
A to Z #TeamDamyanti


Sophie Duncan said...

What a horrible, horrible person - why is it always the horrible ones who leave their terrible mark? Very, very creepy!
Sophie
Sophie's Thoughts & Fumbles - A to Z Ghosts
Fantasy Boys XXX - A to Z Drabblerotic

SK Anthony said...

Slaves! No wonder its haunted...that Madame Lalaurie was not very nice :(

Unknown said...

I remember reading about this place a while back. So awful!

Dr. Theda said...

Love your "Hauntings" posts for "A to Z".... we are doing thec "A to Z' at our "Crypt" (b though we did Not sign up)....
A great week to you dear Lady Lexa.....

Natalie Aguirre said...

Madam Lalaurie needed worse than to be haunted. What a terrible person.

JeffO said...

What a terrible story (not your post, the LaLauries). There are sick people out there.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

What a twisted place and even more twisted people.
I wonder what the building is used for now?

Alex Hurst said...

:( Very disturbing... I can't even imagine what kinds of experiments she was trying to do. How awful.

Alex Hurst, fantasy author in Japan, participating in Blogging A-Z April Challenge.

Luanne G. Smith said...

WTH??? It always freaks me out when you learn some average looking house has been hiding secrets like this. Like those poor women in Ohio who were held captive. They did the right thing tearing that house down.

S.A. Larsenッ said...

OMgosh. Wow! Now this is a story with meat. It's amazing how people can wear a public facade and yet their true selves are so totally different.

Julie Flanders said...

Wow this is the creepiest story yet! I hope that Madame LaLaurie eventually met a bad end herself.

Al Diaz said...

Thos is the first ghost in your posts that has tried to kill people. Nast nasty lady. No wonder why she can't rest in peace.

Mina Menon said...

To imagine the secrets a house can have

messymimi said...

Such an awful legacy to leave!

Shah Wharton said...

Madam LaLaurie is one evil bee-atch! Loved this spooky tale, Lexa!

shahwharton.com

Keebles said...

I've never been able to handle the energy levels in New Orleans, even before Katrina. But this has always been one of my favorite ghost stories from the area!

stephen Hayes said...

It's depressing the depravity some people will wallow in. Why was she experimenting on these poor slaves? Just for fun?

Mere Joyce said...

Wow, that's a great (awful) story about the life before the haunting!

Jennifer Hawes said...

Truth is stranger than fiction! Creepy place and wicked lady. I adore old houses but not haunted ones;-)

Unknown said...

That woman was terribly cruel! How awful what she did to those people. I love the supernatural and truly believe in spirits and apparitions but this is one place I wouldn't even want to pass by on the street. Where there is negative energy, there are evil spirits and Madame LaLaurie was one wicked soul!

Unknown said...

Oh my goodness, what a horrible person! :(

cleemckenzie said...

This one is chilling! Reminds me of Devil in the White City.

Beverly Stowe McClure said...

Slaves in the attic. Tortured. How awful. There are evil people in the world, in the past and present. I'd stay as far away from that house as possible. Poor ghosts; they need to find rest. Perhaps I can send Erik and the twins to help them. :)

Andrew Leon said...

I'm not sure if it's quite fair to pick one house out of N.O. The whole city is pretty much haunted, after all.

e.a.s. demers said...

Ahhh, apparently we're soul-mates across the A-Z sphere... Delphine LaLaurie was my "L" as well :-)

Crystal Collier said...

Yikes! Okay, that's not a place I need to visit. Just a little too sadistic for me.

True Heroes from A to Z

Kelly Steel said...

I would love to visit a haunted city! Sounds thrilling!

J.L. Campbell said...

A house like that would definitely be haunted.

Denise Covey said...

This is all kinds of creepy, Lexa. No wonder those poor souls can't rest.

Jocelyn Rish said...

The latest season (3) of American Horror Story featured Delphine as one of the main characters, so I ended up reading a bit about her to see how the real wretched woman compared to the TV version. They were both vile human beings. That much evil is bound to leave a ghostly mark.

Kate Larkindale said...

Gah! That's horrible. But I've always had a feeling the whole of New Orleans is haunted. Such a weird city... But in the coolest possible way.

Unknown said...

Oh, wow, that's horrific -- and so New Orleans creepy. I love that city. I would totally be living there now if not for the fact that my mother heavily vetoed the idea of me going to college there. Which is ridiculous because she lived in New Orleans in her early twenties.

But I think this would be an interesting place to visit. It doesn't surprise me that lady turned out to be evil. There tends to be something wrong with someone named Delphine always.

S. L. Hennessy said...

She was such a creepy lady. She really terrifies me.

Yolanda Renée said...

Her horrors were highlighted and then exaggerated on American Horror Story last season - very hard to watch.

Kate @ Another Clean Slate said...

I'm totally creeped out now- but fascinated!

KM Nalle said...

Okay, that was totally creepy. People can be just as creepy as the ghosts they leave behind.

Starting Over, Accepting Changes - Maybe said...

I don' know which is more horrific, the lady of the house or the hauntings.

Door2Lore said...

I knew I loved New Orleans! We stayed in the hotel La Pavillon and supposedly there are ghosts there. I enjoyed reading your blog posts. I better check out the other ones - I'm hooked:)

Unknown said...

Thanks, Sue! I'd love to go to your blog and return comment, but your link goes to Google+ and there's no blog address there...

Claire Gillian said...

Ooh...*shudder*...I got the chills reading this. I did the ghost tour of New Orleans a few months before Katrina hit and I think I remember them talking about this house. Great theme!

Leslie S. Rose said...

I love this theme. Yummy creepy. My mother in law's name is Delphine. EEEEEK. New follower *waves*

Anonymous said...

I visited New Orleans once, but didn't have time to go on a ghost tour. The place is so amazing and historic. There were also some creepy places.

Valerie Storey said...

Truly horrible--and fascinating. I've only been to New Orleans once, and found it had a very heavy, mysterious vibe all round. This would make the basis for a good novel.

Melancholy and Menace said...

What horrible people they were, she's very, very sick indeed.

This one made me shudder.

Keep them coming :)

Misha Gerrick said...

Oh yes I heard about this place. NOT a place I'd want to raise children in.

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