In the hearts of all mankind resides a beast that is to willing to come forth and wreak havoc on our fellow man. My grandmother who was huge influence on my life once said to me, “Boy, in all of us lives a white wolf and a black wolf. The white wolf seeks to do good deeds but the black wolf desires to do evil and harm you must chose which wolf runs your life.” My grandmother had a curious knack for explaining things to us kids in a way we could understand while imparting some serious wisdom. Down through the ages there have lived people who have possessed the means the to do great good however they decided to let the ugly black wolf reign supreme and Louisiana’s Madame Delphine Lalaurie was one such person. Her home still stands today as a reminder to the residents of the French Quarter of the life of the woman who was one sick twisted super bitch.
In 1832, Doctor Louis Lalaurie and his new bride the beautiful Delphine moved into the grand Creole mansion in the hip fashionable French Quarter and Madame Lalaurie, as she was known by all who loved her, took 19th century New Orleans by storm. Delphine, threw lavish parties for the gentry of New Orleans society and spared no expense treating her guests like the aristocracy they all thought they were. At the beginning of all her famous parties soirees guests were struck by her immense opulence and wealth as she descended the stairs wearing the finest silk dresses and greeted all her guests individually by name. However what they didn’t realize was that Delphine was the most evil and despicaple person to ever to ever hit the New Orleans’ scene. Some may even say a genocidal madwoman.
The proverbial cat was let out of the bag at one of Delphine’s parties when a guest wandered away from the party and got lost while searching for the bathroom. Instead of finding the bathroom the guest the kitchen and discovered a most horrible sight, chained to the stove was the malnourished half naked form of a male slave cooking the food that the guests feed to their faces. Disgusted by what she saw the guest fled from the kitchen leaving the party never saying good night to her gracious host.
Virtually overnight bizarre tales of cruelty visited upon the madame’s slaves by her hand spread throughout the city of New Orleans like wildfire. At first they were thought were of as just mere rumors and folks did not take them seriously until an episode occurred that confirmed those rumors is a most awful manner.
One afternoon as a neighbor was lounging on his backporch he was torn from his reverie when a loud anguished scream came from the roof of the Lalaurie mansion. The neighbor looked up and watched as the Madame chased a young female slave probably twelve years old across the roof cracking a wip over head. The young girl was screaming for mercy as Delphine was yelling words that was unthinkable for a lady to be yelling. The neighbor was then shocked as he watched as the young girl came to the edge of the roof and Delphine pushed the girl to her death in the courtyard below. The neighbor was horrified by the almost demonic look on the Madame’s face.
When the authorities were notified of the slave girl’s death they immediately responded to the Lalaurie house and confiscated all her slaves. Although this was the time of slavery and slaves were considered property they were still considered human and treating them cruelly was a crime. Losing her slaves would not stop the Madame, she gave her relatives some money and had them buy the slaves back at auction to her they were her property and no one would take them away from her. The slaves that once lived in the hell of the Lalaurie house thought they had escaped the depredations of the mad woman however they were horrified when they learned they were being sent back to the madame in chans.
By this time the madame was considered a social pariah by those who once enjoyed her company and her parties. When an invitation was sent to their home they sent the invite back with an excuse that was an apparent lie. No one would have anything to do with the cruelest woman in New Orleans. As strange as it may seem some did stick by her the same folks who shared her same distaste for slaves. F-ing nazis.
By the Spring of 1834, Madame Delphine Lalaurie had completely fallen out of fashion with New Orleans’ society then something odd happened. On a hot may night an alarm of fire was shouted and the fire brigade was sent for an inferno raged at the Lalaurie mansion. By the time the fire brigade arrived hundreds of citizens surrounded the mansionwatching it burn to the ground. No one was sure if the lady of the house was home and wondered whether or not she escaped the inferno.
After putting the inferno out the fire fighters discovered several scenes in the home that could only be described as absolutely horrific. In the kitchen where the blaze started they discovered the charred naked body of a male chained to the stove they believed this man was the one who stated the fire. However they could not possibly be prepared for what awaited them in the attic.
On the top level of the house the fire men discovered a set of stairs behind a bookcase that led up to a door. When they busted through the door they discovered a scene straight out of a horror movie. On tables they discovered what looked like the bodies of male and female slaves who had died after being subjected to primitive attempts at sex change operations. Female slaves were chained to the walls with their breasts sliced off and stuffed in their mouths as well as male slaves with their genitalia cut off and stuffed down their throats. Those who were still alive but horribly disfigured begged for death and small children were trapped in cages like veal cows with their legs broken. When news of the horrific scene filtered out of the house a cry went up for the head of Madame Delphine LaLaurie to swing for her wicked crimes but the Madame was no where to be found some believe she may have been hiding in the house and when the smoke and crowds cleared fled into the night catching a ship that sailed to her native Paris, France. However, the legacy of Madame Delphine has been felt over the years a legacy of the ghostly variety.
For the first seventy years the mansion stood empty and was home for the transients who would dare to spend the night in the building the locals knew was home to some pretty frightening apparitions. When the building was rebuilt and became everything from a boarding school to luxury condos all who have lived there over the last century have reported the same ghostly going ons. The epidode of the madame chasing the young slave girl has been seen enacted on the roof many times ending with the young girl vanishing as she falls to her death. Many have witnessed a swirling black mass turning into a large half naked African American man carrying a wip that is said to chase children down the hall and dissappears before he catches up to them. Those brave enough to venture up to what used to be the attic have come down with stories of hearing screams of anguish and pleas for mercy and witnessing black shadows playing on the walls. One young mother was forced to flee her apartment in terror when she heard her her infant crying and walked into the room to see a black mass leaning over the crib attempting to pick the baby up.
Should it really be any wonder that the former home of Madame Delphine Lalaurie is Haunted. The abject terror that was visited upon those poor people so long ago should come as no surprise that their spirits are a more than a little pissed off. To them they can not rest they do not know what became of their tormentor they are forever stuck in the terror of the 1830s.
Rick E. Hale
t_seeker@hotmail.com
myspace.com/bldrdsun
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