July in New Orleans is beyond hot, like walking through a bowl of soup that never cools down. My two teenaged children and I join a ghost tour in the French Quarter in front of another dingy bar. Also known as the Vieux Carré, The oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. It was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville,, it is the oldest and most-visited neighborhood. Past the wild partiers on Bourbon Street, we see wrought-iron balconies on Spanish-inspired buildings, inhale the spicy significance of Creole cooking mixed with sweat and the lingering odor of stale beer.
The story that stays with me is that of the LaLaurie Mansion, or 1140 Royal Street which is rumored to be cursed and the centerpiece of a season on American Horror Story. The back story of the haunted house is fascinating. The matriarch was a woman named Delphine who had several husbands, one who mysteriously died on a trip to Spain. Losing her third husband drove Delphine mad. Rumors spread that she was harming her slaves, and an incident in 1833 when a young slave within the household, Leia, fell to her death in the courtyard turned all eyes on Marie Delphine Macarty LaLaurie.
On the morning of April 10, 1834, a fire broke out at the luxurious house owned by Delphine LaLaurie. The fire not only destroyed part of the house, it also brought to light seven slaves who were starved, tortured and chained in the upper part of the building. Madame LaLaurie managed to escape the fray, but was reviled as a "monster," a "demon in the shape of a woman" and "fury itself escaped from hell." Many of the stories that are told about the LaLaurie Mansion involve slaves found after the fire and had medical experiments conducted on them. One slave was said to have had a hole drilled into his head, with a wooden spoon sticking out--an attempt to stir its brains. Another was found with its skin peeled back so sinew, bone and muscle was visible.
The three of us stand in front of the house, flesh crawling from the stories of torture, as we imagine the darkness within the house that caused its haunting. The tour continues and about halfway through the heat overtakes us and we head back to the airconditioned hotel room, and their addiction to the TV show Friends.
