At the heart of New Orleans’ haunted history stands the LaLaurie Mansion, a grand Greek Revival-style structure that has been the subject of countless ghost stories and urban legends. The mansion’s chilling past can be traced back to the early 1800s, when it was owned by the infamous Delphine MacCarthy Lalaurie and her husband, Dr. Leonard Louis Nicolas LaLaurie.
The couple was known for hosting lavish parties, but beneath the veneer of their social standing lay a dark secret. In 1834, a fire broke out in the mansion, and when firefighters entered the building to extinguish the flames, they discovered a horrifying sight – the attic was filled with the tortured remains of Lalaurie’s slaves, many of whom had been subjected to unspeakable acts of cruelty and experimentation. The public outrage was swift and severe, with a mob descending on the mansion and ransacking it, forcing the Lalauries to flee to Paris.
