Gina Laniers' Top Ten Most Haunted List

To live in New Orleans is to live with ghosts!

New Orleans is the Ghost capital of America. Paranormal events occur here more then in most of the cities in America Put together. Or so they say. Paranormal investigators and part-time ghost hunters alike dream haunted hot spot is usually the Cresent City.

From tales of Zombies, Vampires, Devil Babies and the Grunch (a cajun Chupacabra), the Loup Garou and the hosts of ghosts that haunt this mystical place it's hard to come up with the definitive best top ten by any means.

1. The Lauarie House

" THE HAUNTED HOUSE 1140 Royal Street New Orleans, Louisiana." Listed on the National Register of Historic Places Lalaurie House still stands. In Americas' most haunted city, the tortured ghost hold many secrets within the walls of this great haunted mansion.

 

"In the Rue Royale stands this quaint, old-fashioned house about which so much has been written, and around which cluster so many wild and weird stories, that even in its philosophic day, few in the old faubourg care to pass the place after nightfall, or, doing so, shudder and hurry on with bated breath, as though midnight ghouls and ghosts hovered near, ready to exercise a mystic spell over all who dare invade its uncanny precincts."
Marie Puents, The Daily Picayune, March 13, 1892

The three-story building at the southeast corner of Royal and Governor Nichols street, to some the most famous private residence in old New Orleans, gained its eerie title, ‘The Haunted House,’ from an oft-repeated tale in which spirits of tortured slaves clank their chains during the midnight hours in remembrance of awful punishment meted out to them by their mistress – a high-bred lady of old New Orleans who had been charged with finding an uncanny delight in dealing inhumanly with her slaves.

Like all such tales, the story has grown in ferocity through its countless retellings and the probabilities are that even the original story of over a century ago was a gross exaggeration. It now appears that the mistress of this home was the first victim of yellow journalism in this country and that she was far from being the ‘fiend’ tradition has labeled, or should we say, libeled her. The facts of this ‘strange true story’ are as follows:

The traditional tales of the Vieux Carre have it that this house was built in 1780 by two brothers, Jean and Henri de Remarie, and that such guests as Marshal Michel Ney, Napoleon’s famous commander; the duc d’Orleans, later, Louis Philippe, king of France; and the Marquis de Lafayette have slept in this mansion. But we are compelled to make the pertinent observations that Marshal Ney never came to Louisiana, that Louis Philippe was here in 1798, and that Lafayette visited New Orleans in 1825 – yet the ‘Haunted House’ was not built until 1832!

There are those who denounce historical accuracy when it destroys fallacious tradition … those who claim that a good story must never be sacrificed and crucified on the cross of truth. Much as one admires the colorful tradition of old New Orleans, our mission is to give a factual history of the landmarks of the Vieux Carre. So, to stick to fact, we must point out that the lots upon which the ‘Haunted House’ stands were purchased by Mme Louis Lalaurie, September 12, 1831, from Edmond Soniat du Fossat, and the house then built was not ready for occupancy until the spring of 1832. As it was part of the tract given the Ursuline nuns, this was the first, and only, house built on this particular site.

Mme Lalaurie was one of five children born to Louis Barthelemy Chevalier de Macarty and Marie Jeanne Lovable, two who stood high in the social life of old New Orleans. One of their daughters was christened Marie Delphine Macarty. She first married, on June 11, 1800, Don Ramon de Lopez y Angula, the ceremony being performed at the St. Louis Cathedral by Luis de Penalver y Cardenas, the first bishop of the diocese of Louisiana, and the marriage certificate was signed by the celebrated Fray Antonio de Sedella. The husband was described in this document as Caballero de la Royal de Carlos, Intendent of the Provinces, a native of the community of Regno,Galicia, Spain, and the legitimate son of his Lordship Don Jose Antonio de Lopez y Angula and Dona Ana Fernande de Angule, daughter of Dona Francisca Borja Endecis.

Shortly after the Louisiana Purchase, on March 26, 1804, Delphine Macarty’s husband was recalled to the court of Spain, the letter carrying this royal command stating that the young Spanish officer was ‘to take his place at court as befitting his new position.’ At this time Don Ramon was consul general for Spain in this new American territory. While in Havana, en route to Madrid, Don Ramon suddenly died and a few days later his daughter was born in the Cuban city. This infant was baptized Marie Delphine Borja Lopez y Angula de Candelaria, but she became best known in later years as ‘Borquita,’ meaning ‘little Borja,’ from the fact that she was named after her father’s grandmother.

Left a widow, Delphine Macarty and her baby daughter returned to New Orleans. Four years later, in 1808, she again married, choosing for her husband a prominent banker, merchant, lawyer, and legislator named Jean Blanque, a native of Bearn who had come to Louisiana with Prefect Laussat in 1803. At the time of his marriage, June 16, 1808, Blanque purchased the residence at 409 Royal Street and in this home Delphine became the mother of four other children: Marie Louise Pauline, Louise Marie Laure, Marie Louise Jeanne, and Jean Pierre Paulin Blanque. In that stylish Royal Street home or in the ‘Villa Blanque,’ a charming country place fronting the Mississippi River just below the city limits, Delphine Macarty Blanque divided her time, both places frequented by the socially elect.

Jean Blanque died in 1816, and Delphine Macarty remained a widow until June 12, 1825, when she again married. Her third husband was Dr. Leonard Louis Nicolas Lalaurie, a native of Villeneuse-sur-Lot, France, who came to New Orleans to establish a practice. Borquita, the daughter by her mother’s first marriage, became the wife of Placide Forstall, member of a distinguished Louisiana family, and Jeanne Blanque married Charles Auguste de Lassus, only child of Don Carle de Lassus, former governor of Upper Louisiana, and later governor of the Baton Rouge post of West Florida when they were under Spanish rule.

The Lalaurie mansion was erected in 1832 and for the next two years was the scene of many fashionable affairs, for the Lalauries entertained on an elaborate plan. On the afternoon of April 10, 1834, an aged cook set fire to the house during the absence of her mistress. When neighbors rushed into the mansion to fight the fire and try to save the furniture and other valuables, slaves were found chained in their quarters. Although the fire was extinguished, the indignation of those who found the helpless slaves blazed high and a newspaper editor, Jerome Bayon of the Bee, published a heated account of the happening and quoted those who had investigated the Lalaurie slave quarters. This newspaper account roused public indignation to such a pitch that on April 15 a mob, led by irresponsibles, charged the house and began to wreck it. The rowdies were finally dispersed by a company of United States regulars who had been called out by a helpless sheriff.

During the excitement Madame Lalaurie and her husband took to their carriage and, with their faithful Creole black coachman Bastien on the box, swept through the howling, cursing rabble and, with the horses lashed to a the full gallop, made her way out of the city. It is supposed the carriage reached Bayou St. John where a lake craft was secured, for on April 21, 1834, the Lalauries were in Mandeville, across Lake Pontchartrain, at the home of Louis Coquillon. There Madame Lalaurie signed a power-of-attorney placing her son-in-law Placide Forstall in charge of her affairs, while her husband signed a similar document in favor of his wife’s other son-in-law, Auguste de Lassus. From Mandeville the Lalauries made their way to Mobile, where a ship took them to France.

Neither Delphine nor her husband ever returned to New Orleans. She remained in Paris, living there honored and respected in spite of the lurid tales that lived after her in New Orleans. Following her death on December 7, 1842, her body was secretly returned to New Orleans and buried in St. Louis No. 1 Cemetery.

The Lalaurie mansion was sold to various owners but the tale that it was ‘haunted’ and the midnight rendezvous for ghosts grew in the telling as only such stories can grow. The principal ‘ghost’ is, according to the most frequently quoted tale, that of a little girl slave who, to escape the whip of her mistress, climbed to the roof and jumped to her death into the courtyard below. Another tale, equally untrue, was that the mistress of the mansion buried all her victims in the courtyard well. The general impression that the place was haunted was sufficient to keep superstitious blacks from passing the house after nightfall.

In the days of Reconstruction following the Civil War, the old Lalaurie mansion became the Lower Girls’ School. During the government of the carpetbaggers, whites and blacks were taught in the same rooms until the formation of ‘The White League’ in 1874, when the white element marched on the house and expelled the black pupils. In the 1880’s the mansion became a conservatory of music. No matter who has lived in it since, or the manner of business that was carried on in the ground-floor stores, the name ‘haunted’ has clung to it in spite of the testimony of those inhabiting the place that ghosts have never disturbed their slumbers.

Tradition has it that the handsome entrance door ‘was hammered out of iron by the slaves Madame Lalaurie kept shackled to the anvil.’ This must be taken with several generous pinches of salt, for the doors is not of iron but wood and the decorations on it were not cared but put on by appliqué, a sort of plastic wood applied and formed as a sculptor would lay on modeling clay. These ornamentations show, in the lower oblong panel, Phoebus in his chariot, lashing his griffins. Scattered over the door are urns, flowers, trumpet-blowing angels, a beribboned lyre, an American eagle bearing on its breast the shield of the Union, leaves, scrolls, and whatnots – a marvelous example of some unknown craftsman’s art. To save the door from the knives of souvenir-hunters, one owner painted it a dingy brown-black.

George W. Cable’s Strange Stories of Louisiana, and Judge Henry C. Castellanos’ New Orleans As It Was, contain full accounts of the Lalaurie episode. My account, differing in many respects from those of these earlier writers, is based on recently found documents, notarial acts, and family documents.”

Delphine LaLaurie and her third husband, Leonard LaLaurie, took up residence in the house at 1140 Royal Street sometime in the 1830's. The pair immediately became the darlings of the gay New Orleans social scene that at the time was experiencing the birth of ragtime, the slave dances and rituals of Congo Square, the reign of the Mighty Marie Laveau, and the advent of the bittersweet Creole Balls. Madame LaLaurie hosted fantastic events in her beautiful home that were talked about months afterward. She was described as sweet and endearing in her ways, and her husband was nothing if not highly respected within the community.

At the same time, it is said, Madame’s friendship with infamous Voodoo Queen, Marie Laveau, began to grow. Laveau lived not far from LaLaurie’s Royal Street home and the two women became acquainted when Laveau did Madame’s hair occasionally. It is said that under Laveau’s tutelage, Madame LaLaurie began to act upon her latent interest in the occult, learning the secrets of voodoo and witchcraft at the hands of a might mistress of the craft.

There are reported incidents of people seeing, feeling and hearing the ghosts of tormented slaves in the LaLaurie home, and there are even reports of the Madame herself being seen there. The docile house servants who entreated the assistance of outsiders when the house was about to burn to the ground are said to often return to their task - running and slamming doors and shouts are heard repeatedly. Nor are the spirits of the restless dead quiet: the reports of moans and weeping outnumber all others. Furniture moves about by itself, people feel the touch of unseen hands, and there are several who have seen the ghostly faces of the dead peering from the upper windows and the chamber of horrors that became the crucible of their miserable lives.

New Orleans is one of the oldest and most multi-faceted cities in the United States, and there are other tales, similar to those of the LaLaurie home that, sadly, have made their way into our history. But the gruesome horror of this particular event was so ghastly that it stains the city's memory to this very day.

 

2.Voodoo Cemetery Gates Of Guinee

3. St. Louis Cemetery Number 1.

Considered by locals visitors and paranormal investigators world wide as actually the most haunted cemetery No. # 1 haunted Cemetery in all the United States.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Some of the more interesting tombs in St. Louis Number One are a huge tomb that holds the remains of some of the participants in the Battle of New Orleans; chess champion Paul Morphy; New Orleans' first black mayor, Ernest N. "Dutch" Morial. But the most famous and interesting tomb here is said to be where Voodoo Queen Marie Leveaux is buried. People still visit her tomb to light candles, perform various religious acts and leave offerings. New Orleans' first black mayor, Ernest N. "Dutch" Morial is buried right next to her.

Across the street, with its front facing N. Rampart St., is Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, which originally was the mortuary chapel built to handle the funerals and last rites of victims of yellow fever in 1826. It is the oldest surviving church in the city.

Vault burial was introduced in New Orleans during the Spanish regime, and our oldest cemetery -- St. Louis No. 1 (1789) -- has society tombs built by the French Society, the Portuguese Benevolent Association, the Cervantes Mutual Benefit Society, the Italian Society, and the Orleans Battalion of Artillery.

This New Orleans graveyard is said to be haunted by the ghost of the world famous Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, Marie Laveau. Her spirit has been reported inside of the cemetery, walking between the tombs wearing a red and white turban with seven knots in it, and mumbling a original New Orleans Santeria Voodoo curse to Cemetery trespassers. Her Voodoo curse is loud and very audible, heard often by passerby's on nearby Rampart Street. Locals say this has started in recent years for she is alarmed by the many vandals and state of the cemetery.

Voudon Believers and Tourist and locals still come to Marie Laveaus tomb daily to leave many, many Voodoo offerings. (candles, flowers, the monkey and the cock wish statue, Mardi Gras beads and parade Krewe dabloons, Gris Gris bags, Money, Voodoo dolls and food) All in hopes of being blessed by her supernatural powers from beyond the grave. Many make a wish at her tomb marking three X's. while others say they have her Ghost on film emerging undead from her tomb.

Voodoos of the New Orleans Secret Society say her soul appears here as a shiny large black Voodoo cat, with fire red eyes. If you see this Were cat run! One New Orleans Voodoo Manbo suggest upon seeing this Devil cat, cross your self three times and back away. One should never let the cat see your back. If Marie's spirit, or Devil cat sees it... you will be cursed for ever to do her bidding.

Others say Marie laveaus familiar, her large snake that she called Zombi, (or spelled Zombie, or Zomby) is buried in the tomb with her body. One voodooist says he was placed in the coffin alive with Marie's dead body by her daughter Marie Laveau II . A story or two have been told over the years of people seeing a large black boa constrictor, or black anaconda over 12 feet long slithering amongst and between or through the tombs tight small allies. Always close to Marie Laveaus' tomb is Zombi, guarding it night and day. local New Orleans Voodooist say this is a great ghost snake spirit, not a real snake. A few young teenaged boys on a recent Haunted cemetery tour tried to catch Zombi, they said they chased him down a tight alley and Zombi just disappeared. Zombi's ghost has been said to be seen high atop Marie Laveaus' tomb basking in the noon day Sun. He protects her tomb from those that mock her says many of the Voodooist of Marie Laveaus secret Society. One tale of this ghost snake tells that Zombi followed a recent New Orleans visitor back to her hotel room. He appeared and began to wrap his coils around her as she slept, Zombi frightened her out of her wits. The reason, she spit on Marie Laveaus grave.

Often stories or told of Ghostly nude Voodoo Probationers in an eternal dark secret Ritual. Always after midnight and well into the early morning hours. With Marie laveaus' ghost dressed in white presiding over the ritual. Nude Voodoo Ghost dancers, male and female can be seen and heard in an orgy of spiritual Voodoo calling dow the power.

Many times fine china plates and cups and saucers and ornate silverware or found through out St Louis No.1 graveyard. Paranormal Investigators say this is part of the ancient wiccan practice of the occult. It is called the" Dumb Supper". This is a old ritual, a mock table setting of a meal. An two empty plates filled with invisible ghostly food. It is usually a setting for the ghost and the a setting for the person who questions the ghost. This is to call the dead to answer your most sought after questions. Sometimes wine glasses or even bottles of rum and or wine, cigars or packs of cigarettes, bags of chips, or candy or even many times a loaf of french bread. All this can be found placed before many of it's tombs. Visitors think it's litter, but if you look at how it is placed you then realize it is a special ghost offering to the spirits of the cemetery.

Other know and un known ghost haunt this cemetery, there is a ghost called by some Henry. This haunted Cemetery Ghost story tells that he gave his tomb to the lady who owned a boarding house to keep the papers for him if he died. Local workers for the cemetery say she sold the tomb when he was away at sea. When he returned he died and was buried in potters field. Every day his ghost is said to walk up to someone visiting the cemetery asking if they know the where about's of the Vignes' tomb. Many a tour guide has related the tale of Henry and have said how he appears ragged and lost. And his blue eyes will look right into yours. The tall white shirt dressed man seems very real. Until he walk away into thin air. Sometimes he will tap you on the shoulder, or lead you to a lone tight alley between tombs asking " Do you Know anything about this Tomb here?" Then he disappears. Henry has also been known to have walked up to people at burials and asked if they think there's room in the tomb for him! His voice often appears on EVP's saying I "I need to rest!" And in ghost Photos he appears in a Dark suit with no shirt.

Another well known ghost of St. Louis No.1 is that of Alphonse he is a lonely young man and will take you by the hand telling you his name and asking can you help him find his way home. He is also known by some to be seen carrying flowers and vases from other tombs and placing them on his own. Those who have seen him say he is afraid of a tomb with the name Pinead on it and is said to warn visitors to stay away from it. He always has a smile on his face but is said to start crying then just disappear. Alphonse has been Known to turn up in many of a ghost Photo.

Ghost cats and dogs are said to prowl the cemetery daily. Very near the great walls of oven tombs. None of these ghost animals have ever shown signs of meanness. Several Tour guides say these are the animals of an 1800's cemetery keepers guard dogs and pets. Often they lurk the cemetery waiting for their owner who was buried in St. Louis No.2 to return to feed and care for them.

Etienne Bore, pioneer in sugar development; and, Paul Morphy, world famous chess champion and many more are buried here.

"Easy Rider" featured Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda tripping out at St. Louis Cemetery No. 1,

Orbs, ghost photos, EVP"S, strange paranormal phenomena and ghost activity, Voodoo rituals, witchcraft, and haunting's to many to mention all happen in this the most haunted Cemetery in America

4. Lafayette Cemetery No. 1

Lafayette No. 1 is the cemetery most often used in films made in New Orleans, and is across the street from the famed Commander's Palace Restaurant in the Garden Distict. It was the burial grounds for what was once the City Of Lafayette. You will find a number of prominent New Orleanians buried here. Designated a city burial site in 1833, Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 is placed on the National Register of Historic Places by virtue of its significant history, location, and architectural importance.

"Interview with a Vampire" starred Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Kirsten Dunst. It was filmed throughout the French Quarter and Lafayette Cemetery No. 1,Dracula 2000", starring Johnny Miller and Omar Epps, .

4. Metairie Lakelawn Cemetery

You can tour the grounds without worrying about the crime associated with the downtown graveyards.

A gleaming white Egyptian pyramid with a sphinx keeping watch at the door; the row of ornate Italian- American society tombs, nicknamed "mob row"; and the grave of Louis Prima, topped with a trumpet-playing angel and engraved with lyrics from "Just a Gigolo."

5. Chalmette Battlefield and National Cemetery

Established in May 1864 as a final resting place for Union soldiers who died in Louisiana during the Civil War, the cemetery also contains the remains of veterans of the Spanish- American War, World Wars I and II, and Vietnam. Four Americans who fought in the War of 1812 are buried here, but only one of them took part in the Battle of New Orleans.

Six miles southeast of New Orleans is the Chalmette Battlefield, which preserves the site of the January 8, 1815, Battle of New Orleans, a decisive American victory over the British at the end of the War of 1812. Facilities include a tour road, visitor center, and the Malus-Beauregard House (c.1833). Adjacent is the Chalmette National Cemetery. Located on St. Bernard Highway in Chalmette. The Battlefield is open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Adjacent to the battlefield, is the United States Civil War Chalmette National Cemetery, honoring Civil War soldiers who died on both sides. Those buried there include members of the famous Buffalo Soldiers. The cemetery sits on a tract of land which is approximately where the British artillery was located during the Battle of New Orleans. Both of these sites are maintained by the National Park Service, and are open to the public.

The Chalmette National Cemetery web site has searchable databases, listing the soldiers who are buried at this location, The Union Army and the Confederate Army. Chalmette National Cemetery
Confederate Database www.cwc.lsu.edu/cwc/projects/dbases/chalm.la.csa.htm

Also located on the Chalmette Battlefield grounds, and serving as a museum and visitor center, is the Beauregard House. Beauregard House was never used as a plantation, and was built in 1830. It is named for René Beauregard, its last owner, the son of the Civil War Confederate General, P. G. T. Beauregard (whose monument is at the entrance to City Park, at the north end of Esplanade Avenue). While many visitors arrive by automobile, many also arrive by riverboat, the Chalmette Battlefield being part of the tour.

Additional artifacts of the Civil War can be seen at the Confederate Civil War Museum, located in downtown New Orleans, 929 Camp Street, just one block from Lee Circle

6. Marie Laveaus' House

Laveau House Legend has it that MarieLaveau lived in a house at 1020 St. Ann Street. best known and most revered practitioner of voodoo in the city, and some say the "founder" of New Orleans voodoo, was Marie Laveau, a free woman of color born in 1794 in Haiti. Laveau was also a devout Catholic; it was this unique blending of Voodoo rituals and Catholicism that would differentiate New Orleans voodoo from other forms of the practice.

About 1875 the original Marie Laveau I, bereft of her youth and memory, became confined to her home on Rue St. Ann and did not leave until claimed by death some six years later. "It was then," reports Tallant (1946, 73), "that the strangest part of the entire Laveau mystery became most noticeable. For Marie Laveau still walked the streets of New Orleans, a new Marie Laveau II , who also lived in the St. Ann Street Cottage."

The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits asserts: "One popular legend holds that Marie I never died, but changed herself into a huge black crow which still flies over the cemetery." Indeed, "Both Maries are said to haunt New Orleans in various human and animal forms" (Guiley 2000). Note the anonymity inherent in such phrases as "popular legend" and the passive-voice construction "are said to." In addition to her tomb, Marie also allegedly haunts other sites. For example, according to Hauck (1996), "Laveau has also been seen walking down St. Ann Street wearing a long white dress." Providing a touch of what literary critics call verisimilitude (an appearance of truth), Hauck adds, "The phantom is that of the original Marie, because it wears her unique tignon, a seven-knotted handkerchief, around her neck." But Hauck has erred: Marie in fact "wore a large white headwrap called a tignon tied around her head," says her biographer Gandolfo (1992, 19), which had "seven points folded into it to represent a crown." Gandolfo, who is also an artist, has painted a striking portrait of Marie Laveau wearing her tignon, which is displayed in the gift shop of his New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum (and reproduced in Gandolfo 1992, 1).

With a bit of literary detective work we can track the legend-making process in one instance of Laveau ghostlore. In his Haunted Places: The National Directory, Hauck (1996) writes of Marie: "Her ghost and those of her followers are said to practice wild voodoo rituals in her old house. . . ." But are said to by whom? His list of sources for the entry on Marie Laveau includes Susy Smith's Prominent American Ghosts (1967), his earliest-dated citation. Smith merely says of Marie, "Her home at 1020 St. Ann Street was the scene of weird secret rites involving various primitive groups," and she asks, "May not the wild dancing and pagan practices still continue, invisible, but frantic as ever?" Apparently this purely rhetorical question about imaginary ghosts has been transformed into an "are-said-to"-sourced assertion about supposedly real ones. In fact, the house at 1020 St. Ann Street was never even occupied by Marie Laveau; it only marks the approximate site of the home she lived in until her death (then numbered 152 Rue St. Ann, as shown by her death certificate). That cottage, which bore a red-tile roof and was flanked by banana trees and an herb garden, was demolished in 1903 (Gandolfo 1992, 14-15, 34).

Many of the tales of Marie Laveau's ghost, if not actually invented by tour guides, may be uncritically promulgated by them. According to Frommer's New Orleans 2001, "We enjoy a good nighttime ghost tour of the Quarter as much as anyone, but we also have to admit that what's available is really hit-or-miss in presentation (it depends on who conducts your particular tour) and more miss than hit with regard to facts" (Herczog 2000). Even the author of New Orleans Ghosts II-hardly a knee-jerk debunker-speaks of the "hyperbolic balderdash" which sometimes "spews forth from the black garbed tour guides who are more interested in money and sensationalism than accurate historical research" (Klein 1999).

One alleged Laveau ghost sighting stands out. Tallant (1946, 130-131) relates the story of an African-American named Elmore Lee Banks, who had an experience near St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. As Banks recalled, one day in the mid-1930s "an old woman" came into the drugstore where he was a customer. For some reason she frightened the proprietor, who "ran like a fool into the back of the store." Laughing, the woman asked, "Don't you know me?" She became angry when Banks replied, "No, ma'am," and slapped him. Banks continued: "Then she jump[ed] up in the air and went whizzing out the door and over the top of the telephone wires. She passed right over the graveyard wall and disappeared. Then I passed out cold." He awakened to whiskey being poured down his throat by the proprietor who told him, "That was Marie Laveau."

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:Sg2_VqBumI4J:www.csicop.org/sb/2001-12/i-files.html+1020+St.+Ann+Street&hl=en

Some believe Laveau materializes annually to lead the faithful in worship on St. John's Eve. The ghost is always recognizable, they say, thanks to the knotted handkerchief she wears around her neck. A man once claimed to have been slapped by her while walking past her tomb. It is also said that Laveau’s former home at 1020 St. Ann Street is also among the French Quarter’s many haunted locales. Believers claim to have seen her spirit, accompanied by those of her followers, engaged in Voodoo ceremonies there.

7. Hotel Monteleone

Built in 1886, this grand Cresent city haunted hotel has documented more than a dozen earthbound entities. A team from the International Society of Paranormal Research (ISPR) identified such creatures as “Red”, the faithful engineer; William Wildemer, a guest who most likely died in the hotel; a ten-year-old boy who often plays hide-and-seek with another young spirit; a star-crossed lover and others. The Hotel says all of their ghosts are friendly.

The Hotel Monteleone was one of America’s few family- owned. Historic Haunted hotel located in the New Orleans French Quarter.

A home away from home to some countless movie stars, dignitaries, royalty and political kingpins. Traditional European style guest rooms are carefully detailed and comfortable.

Numerous spirits are said to haunt this spectacular hotel. And it's large Grandfather clock, located in the hotel lobby. It is said that the ghost of it's maker is seen working on it at different times of the day and night.

From days gone by to recent new sightings, of ghost walking the halls and the main entrance. One recent guest told the tale of a man appearing in their room over the past New Orleans Mardi Gras Season, wearing only a feathered mask. This totally naked ghost, they said he turned and disappeared before their eyes.

Other Ghost stories from guest and hotel staff tell of this New Orleans Hotel. Often tell of the spirits of a Jazz singer in a room wailing in the middle of the night, A lost child who ask for help takes your hand then looks up into your eyes and disappears. And the spirit of who they say is that of the hotels original owner.

The strange happenings at the haunted Hotel Monteleone will be featured October 28 and 30, 2004, on the Travel Channel’s “Weird Travels” program. “Spirits of the South” profiles the entities living in the 118-year old French Quarter hotel that were documented and “caught on tape” by investigators with the International Society for Paranormal Research in 2003. The show will debut at 7:00 p.m., and air again at 10:00 p.m. on October 28. It will also have a Halloween day showing on October 31, at 1:00 p.m.

“The staff and hotel occupants have come to live with and even welcome the ghosts, so we welcome the opportunity to share our experiences with those not familiar with the stories,” explained Andrea Thornton, director of sales of marketing for Hotel Monteleone. “The nationwide audience and even New Orleans area viewers are in for a real treat to see who and what lie behind the doors of the Quarter’s oldest hotel.”

“Spirits of the South” begins in Memphis, Tennessee, where an ancient Egyptian curse still casts a spell on the city, and a modern-day pyramid marks a portal into the paranormal. Next, it’s off to the hills of western North Carolina to the Graystone Cabins, where creatures from another world still lurk around every tree, and a sordid love triangle leaves a ghost wandering the forests. Then, it’s down to the Big Easy for a stop at Brennan's restaurant, a visit at the Hotel Monteleone and a quick tour of an old-fashioned steamboat, whose captain was murdered. The special ends in Savannah, Georgia where the night sky hums with the echoes of the dead from the famed St. Bonaventure Cemetery and the 1790 Inn.

The Travel Channel (www.discover.com) is the only television network devoted exclusively to travel entertainment. Capturing the fascination, freedom and fun of travel, Travel Channel delivers insightful stories from the world's most popular destinations and inspiring diversions. It is available in more than 70 million homes and is a service of Discovery Networks, U.S., a unit of Discovery Communications, Inc..

About Hotel Monteleone

Since 1886, the Hotel Monteleone (www.hotelmonteleone.com) has proudly stood as one of the first landmarks in the famous French Quarter. The hotel is the Quarter’s largest full-service hotel, featuring 600 comfortable, luxurious guestrooms and suites. Hotel Monteleone is within walking-distance of some of New Orleans most famous attractions, and is conveniently located 11 miles from the Louis Armstrong International Airport. Hotel Monteleone is a two-time, AAA Four Diamond award-winner, and has won the J.D. Power and Associates Upscale Hotel Award for “An Outstanding Guest Experience” for the past three years.

Follow the links below to learn more about the spirits of Hotel Monteleone.

View a video on paranormal activity at the Monteleone

Official Hotel Monteleone Web site http://www.hotelmonteleone.com/

8. La Pavilion Hotel

A paranormal research team identified four ghosts at LePavillon including a 19th century teenage girl, a young aristocratic couple from the 1920’s, and a dapper gentleman from the same era who likes to play pranks on the cleaning staff.

"Imagination governs the world"- Napoleon Bonaparte

With a history stretching back to the Gilded Age and impeccable French décor throughout, Le Pavillon Hotel of New Orleans piques the imagination in a way that even the Emperor himself would applaud.

Located in the heart of downtown New Orleans, Historic Le Pavillon Hotel is adjacent to the French Quarter, only five short blocks to the celebrated music clubs of Bourbon Street and the famous restaurants and antique shops of Royal Street. Within a five-minute walk, you can find yourself at the Louisiana Superdome for a NFL Saints home game or at the New Orleans Arena for a world-class concert or NBA Hornet's game.

If your travel to New Orleans is conference related, you will be pleased to know that Le Pavillon is only eight blocks to the Morial Convention Center, the largest convention center in Louisiana. During Carnival season, Le Pavillon Hotel offers an ideal location; as Mardi Gras parades roll only two blocks away from the grand entrance of this classic New Orleans hotel.

Opened in 1907, Le Pavillon Hotel New Orleans is a member of Historic Hotels of America and maintains membership in the exclusive Preferred Hotels and Resorts Worldwide. Le Pavillon Hotel of New Orleans has been the proud recipient of AAA's four-diamond award since 1996. Out of hundreds of eligible New Orleans Hotels, Le Pavillon Hotel was named to the "Gold List" by Condé Nast.

In a world of steel-and-glass skyscrapers and cookie-cutter design, the age of grand hotels seems long gone. A rare exception: Le Pavillon Hotel of New Orleans is where guests can instantly conjure the days of genteel luxury, romantic evenings and glittering nights.

Offical Le Pavilion Hotel web site

Often called "The Belle of New Orleans." Le Pavillion offers turn-of-the-century charm in the heart of downtown New Orleans. Twenty foot Italian statues representing Peace and Prosperity greet you at the Poydras Street front door. Inside this spectacular grand hotel you'll find crystal chandeliers, historic antiques and several lively ghost.

Noteworthy, among the hotel's impressive collection of historic antiques, are a distinctive portrait of a lady of the French Court that hangs in the Crystal Room. Two stipulations to the hotel's purchase of the painting were that it would never leave New Orleans and that it be the only painting of a woman in the room where it was to be hung.

The hotel also boasts the largest gas lantern in the United States, which hangs burning at the front porch.

Proudly sitting in our Castle Suite, is a magnificent hand carved marble bathtub, which was a gift from Napoleon to a wealthy Louisiana plantation owner. A similar tub that had belonged to Napoleon is housed in the Louvre.

Marble Bathtub,
Palace Suite 730
This extremely rare marble bathtub is purported to have been owned by Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France. It is hand carved from one single large block of white carrera marble. It is said that the Louisiana Purchase was signed by Napoleon in a marble tub. It is one of only three known to exist in the world today. One of them is proudly displayed in The Louvre Museum in Paris, France, while the other is in a private collection.

This Haunted New Orleans hotel makes guests feel at home by providing homelike touches like complimentary evening peanut butter finger sandwiches.

At one point a few years ago the hotel management hired paranormal investigators, who identified several ghosts in the hotel. one group found four another say they documented over 100.

Strange noises in the night apparitions of figures standing at the foot of different beds. Bed sheets being tugged into the air after midnight, and disappearing items only to turn up in odd places. One guest visiting for a large medical convention held in New Orleans last year gave an account of a old gray haired woman sitting on the side of his bed, he said he felt the weight of her body on the bed and her cold hands stroking his head and saying "I will never let you go." he turned on the light and she faded away. And Yes, He checked out within the hour.

Paranormal investigators And visitors have deemed this Number 1 one of the most haunted hotels in New Orleans.

BEWARE! Hidden by the luxurious décor are many tales of eerie occurrences and ghostly happenings. It is said that the entire cleaning staff refuses to go on a certain floor. There have been sightings of more ghosts at this hotel then any other in the haunted Bigh Easy.

On June 24, 1991 Le Pavillon was placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Le Pavilions' sister hotel the Driskill, in Austin, Texas is also reported to be very haunted also.

Offical Le Pavilion Hotel web site www.lepavillon.com

9. St. Roch Cemetery

10. Brennan’s Restaurant

Located at 417 Royal Street in the heart of the French Quarter, Brennan's Restaurant has been a culinary phenomenon in New Orleans since it opened its doors in 1946. The Brennan's menu is known and highly regarded throughout the world and most visitors do not want to miss an opportunity to have a meal at this famous location while visiting the Crescent City.

The Royal Street location that Brennan's now occupies was maintained as a private residence throughout the 19th century and into the 20th century, until Edward Brennan founded his famous restaurant. Most of the paranormal activity that has been identified at Brennan's is attributed to the families who owned and occupied this former New Orleans town house in the early years of the 19th century. The location passed through several owners and so the identity of the ghostly spectres cannot be verifiably traced, however, their presence is undeniable.

Members of the Brennan family who currently own and operate the restaurant readily admit that there are ghosts at the location. Once famous haunting there involves the infamous spectre of the second-storey Red Room. Said to be the spirit of a former owner who lost everything in financial ruin and who committed suicide after murdering his family, the ghostly atmosphere of the Red Room is usually all anyone needs to convince them that the place is haunted. Staff and employees, however, often have to go to the room for linens or tables and additional chairs, and there have been reports of a mysterious misty figure who literally haunts their steps the entire time they are working upstairs. Patrons who have rented the room for special events have reported the ghostly image of a man dressed in 18th century clothing seen peering in disapprovingly at the festivities. Some have encountered simply a feeling of his presence, an anger and foreboding, just outside the main door to the Red Room.

Another active spectre is said to the be ghost of the late Chef Paul Blange who created many of Brennan's signature dishes and helped build the reputation of the esteemed eatery.

European Chef Paul Blange, who worked for decades at the famous eatery and was so devoted to the restaurant that when he died the restaurant’s menu, a knife and fork were placed across his chest of his dead body as he lay in the coffin. "No one ever thought Chef Blange would leave Brennan’s, and apparently, he never did," says Jimmy Brennan, an owner of the establishment.

The Chef is said to lurk in the kitchen, his natural location in life, and many of the chef staff have reported the feeling of being watched, and even of something touching them while they are preparing meals. Late at night, when the guests have gone and staff are locking up, Chef Paul will bang doors and pots in the empty kitchen. And this is where the ghost is most often sighted.

Another former employee is said to haunt and be sighted in the wine cellar that he made famous. Herman Funk, a wine master whom Brennan's employed to build their fabulous cache of famous and renowned wines and spirits, is said to be still attached to his job even in the afterlife. Most employees don't like going to the wine racks alone, although they brave their way through it. For every clink of a bottle the employee makes, it is said, there is a mimicking "clink" of another bottle just out of reach. This, they say, is Herman Funk making his suggestion for a wine selection. Employees who have been there awhile admit that they will usually go with Funk's selection, in addition to what the guest might request, bringing patrons a choice "just to keep Herman happy."

For a haunting in the most sumptuous surroundings, Brennan's, the famous French Quarter restaurant, offers it's red dining room. Tucked away upstairs and lit by gas chandeliers, the room was the scene of a murder-suicide during the Civil War when the owner of the house killed his wife and son then hanged himself from the elaborate brass chandelier.

"I've seen the ghost there myself," says a waiter at Brennan's for10 years. "The cleaning crew won't go in there at night, but a lot of people request that room for dinner. They hope to see the ghost.

Visit Gina Lanier's offcial web site here:

The World's 100 Most Haunted Places

Real Haunted Cities in America

New Orleans, Louisiana
Galveston, Texas
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Key West, Florida
Savannah, Georgia
Charleston, South Carolina
San Francisco, California
Chicago, Illinois
Miami, Florida
Salem, Massachusetts
San Antonio, Texas
New York city
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St Augustine, Florida
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Santa Fe, NM
Jonesbourgh, TN
Hollywood, California
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Key West, FLorida
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Mountain Home, Tennessee
Sacremento, California
Salt Lake City, Utah
Albuquerque, New Mexico
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Tombstone, Arizona
Memphis, TN
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Redlands, Ca.
Georgetown, SC
Portland, Oregon
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