HELL HOUSE OF NEW ORLEANS

"I'm just a ghost in this house
I'm shadow upon these walls,
As quietly as a mouse
I haunt these halls."
- Allison Krauss, Ghost in This House

Delphine Macarty LaLaurie was the daughter of an aristocratic Irish officer in the French service. Delphine Lalaurie and husband Dr. Louis Lalaurie bought the house at 1140 Royal St. from Edmond Soniat du Fossat in 1832. The three story mansion was somewhat plain on the exterior but the inside was another matter. Delphine LaLaurie was the ultimate social "Creole Lady". She had wealth, social standing, and was regarded as one of the social elite of New Orleans society.

Her mansion was furnished with lavish furniture imported form europe. With cut crystal chandeliers and the finest silks covering her lavish furnishings it wasn't long before her mansion was one of the nicest in New Orleans. Her girls were among ,if not the finest, dressed girls in all of New Orleans. Delphine LaLaurie rose to the highest status of New Orleans society in no time.

She threw lavish dinners with the most elegent suroundings and her slaves attended her guests every need. Delphine's invitations for dinner and parties soon became quite coveted. Her demeanor was that of a refined lady with inpecable manners and the social graces that only came with the finest breeding. At least that is what appearances were. Delphine's slaves however must have cringed at the attitudes of Delphines highly respected guests, For they knew a very different Delphine LaLaurie.

Rumors have it that Delphine kept her cook chained to the fireplace in the kitchen...and many of Delphines slaves dissappeared without explanation. House slaves came and went...and so did stable boys. In 1833 A neighbor wittnessed Delphine chasing a house slave girl on the upper balcony with a whip in hand. The slave girl was screaming and running from Delphine, no doubt she knew the wrath of her Madame. She jumped to her death rather than face that wrath. An investigation insued and Delphine was fined and her slaves were confiscated and sold at auction for mistreatment....but Delphine badgered one of her realitives into buying back the slaves at auction and soon they were returned to Delphine.

After the rumors of her harsh treatment of her slaves Delphines dinner and party invitations were polietly declined by many of New Orleans polite society...But the rumors would turn into pure horror on the night of April 10 1834. A fire broke out in the kitchen of LaLaurie MaMaison. Some say it was the cook herself who set the fire to avoid any more of the unbearable torture. The slaves of the house tried to extinguish the fire themselves but finally had to call the fire department. When the firemen arived and started going through the house ...what they found would horrify New Orleans to their very roots!

In the attic were slaves chained to the walls...some had been mutilated. Many were dead. Some were in cages like dogs, some had missing limbs, some had no limbs. There was a female who had her mouth sewn shut. Some had their eyes poked out...some had metal spikes through their heads There was another whose bones were broken and re-set in odd diections. The gruesome discovery was to horrible to imagine.

The gruesome tales spread quickly and a lynch mob soon gathered outside the LaLaurie House. They were demanding the hanging of Delphine and Her husband. Delphine and her husband fled in the middle of the night in their carriage and boarded a boat for unknown parts. There are many rumors that they lived in Europe and other places...I don't think that anyone knows for sure what happened to them.

The house sat empty for about 60 years...and then was re-built after the Civil War. But rumors of horrible apparations and unspeakable screams and noises haunted every owner since. It has had numerous uses and owners...but the one constant factor about the LaLaurie House is that "It is Haunted to this Day!! Just recently the new owner while remodeling discovered skeletons of humans under the floorboards in the back of the House...Could this be what happened to all Delphine's missing slaves? I think we will be hearing tales from the LaLaurie House for quite some time to come!